The Elementalists

23.

I watched Christopher leave in confusion. He wasn't usually one to shy away from a chance to beat me up. The door closed behind him and I was left in utter silence.

My steps echoed in the empty Gym as I headed to the exit a while later. I didn't think I was ready for the Trials. I needed more practice. Rhaeya spotted me immediately, and did a sort of double take as I walked in. She left whoever she was instructing and walked towards me.

"What are you doing here?" She asked, irritation in her voice. "I told you to go home and rest."

I turned away from her intense gaze. My voice was soft. I didn't want anyone to hear. "I don't have anywhere to go to."

She didn't say anything for a while. When I looked back at her, I could see worry in her eyes. I tried not to do my own double take as she sighed. "Start warming up. Might as well see how well you can do against me."

My stomach did flips as a small smile grew on my face. "I'm warmed up."

She paused as I said that and turned around with an exasperated look on her face. "Atleast keep your bag somewhere, for heaven's sake."

I didn’t care about my possessions as the moment. Throwing the bag aside, I quickly jogged over to the mat. Stretched a bit more as I impatiently waited for her. She took her time to come over, I could see she didn't feel like doing this, which meant she'd want to finish it off quickly. I'll have to watch out for her jabs and kicks to the side. Those could take me out with a few shots, or leave me in severe pain for the rest of the fight.

I tensed my body and pulled up my guard as she rolled her neck and mirrored my pose. It was a hard spar. She wasn't getting anywhere because I wasn't letting her get anywhere. Finally frustrated, she growled angrily.

"What the hell, Fiera!?" She was scowling. "I'm pretty sure I've taught you more that just defense!"

"I'm practicing defense. If they're going to be stronger than me, I'll have to just tire them out." I replied, not moving from my position.

There was a moment of silence in which neither of us moved an inch. She sighed, straightened up and let her guard go. "Screw this. Go home, Fiera. I'm not fighting you today."

Feeling slightly let down, I dropped my guard as well. But there's one last thing to do. I quickly walked up to her, she twisted partially as she heard me run up. "Can I just ask for another thing?"

She gave an exasperated sigh as if I was pissing her off but she was always like this. She sluggishly turned towards me and shrugged. "What?"

I'm pretty sure the only reason she didn't hurt me when I moved in to hug her was because she wasn't expecting it or because the two of us had a strong bond now. I suspected the latter. She was unresponsive to my arms around her but I knew it wouldn't stay like that for long.

"Thank you." I whispered in her ear before I quickly pulled away for fear of serious hurt. I gave her a sheepish, warm smile and turned to walk away as I ignored the dumbfounded states of my classmates. I'm pretty sure they were as surprised as I was that I'd managed to come out of that unscathed. And without a broken rib.

Having nothing else to do, I waited by Eric's car for the last hour to finish. I would go spend my free time with my friends. I had an hour before I fled off to a shift at Anchor.

My friends were more than happy and surprised to see me. When I told them I'll have to head to Anchor in an hour or so, they suggested that we head there itself.

"Guys!" I protested. "I'm there every other day. Not Anchor, please."

"Fine, fine." Eric laughed, placed an arm around my shoulder to pull me to him. "God, I've missed you."