Time To Fight

Chapter 5

Jaden strode to the edge of the water and sat down, letting his legs dangle in the water. “I doubt that. Ariel wouldn’t lie like that. Even if she didn’t really mean it, she made a good point when we first got here. We should leave this place. I say we make break for it tonight while they aren’t paying attention. I don’t care what they have said and you know just as well as I do that their kindness is was too fishy.”

I clasped my hand over my mouth to stifle my giggle. He just had to say ‘fishy,’ didn’t he? “It is…. fishy,” I mumbled, afraid to move my hand and let my mouth betray the words I just said moments ago. “But we have nowhere to run to and at least here we know we have food and a roof over our heads if we stay here. You can call me vain. I don’t care. And who knows? If they really plan on keeping the Fighters away, we have a bigger risk of getting caught running about while the Fighters are searching for me. You know just as well as I do that even if it’s a small detail, they won’t stop searching until they find me.”

He shifted his weight towards his left, turned around and stared me down, but not down at my wet, dripping figure, or down at my almost exposed chest, but stared me straight in the eye with the same determination he would hold in them when we sparred. If I ever had a doubt in the past that he didn’t fight to the fullest against me, those were gone now. “I can’t force you since you are the ones their after, but just know that if things go wrong, I’ll be there to help you. Just be careful.”

The chill of the night was doing so well with keeping my feverish feeling until now. My entire body began to burn, making me glance at my hands to make sure I hadn’t summoned forth fire by accident because this feeling wasn’t just heat; it was a strong, blazing fire.

I let my hair whip around me as I headed towards the hall, my feet slapping against the floor with each stepped I forced myself to take. “But if something happens to you…”

“What was that?” he called.

Stopping in my tracks, I shifted my head to the left. A full turn would be too much for me to handle in this delirious condition. Yes, that would be my excuse. “I know,” I said, keeping my voice as stern as my burning body would allow. “I wouldn’t dream of being careless. I will protect myself and everyone else from what’s to come. I will.”

~<**********>~

By Nature, I almost had it that time.

“Watch it!” he cried. If only my fire slashes were just a few more inches closer together. Then Jaden wouldn’t have been able to dodge them by turning to the side and standing between them.

“Impressive. Only a day and you’ve managed to wield them quite well.” The priestess stood at the training room’s entrance with her two guards.

Pane pushed himself away from his spot against one of the pillars and bowed his head. “Good to see you have returned so quickly Miss Leira.”

“Thank you Pane. Mintos, what have you begun to teach her?”

Mintos moved away from me, and faced his priestess. “I haven’t taught her anything yet. She has been practicing on her own on how to maneuver with the swords. It was only an hour or so ago that she began to attempt using fire in her attacks.”

“I’d say she is past ‘attempting’ by now,” complained Jaden, looking to Ariel for comfort as she sat in one of the red sofas at the back of the room, chairs that weren’t there when we came to the temple yesterday.

“You were the one who said you wanted to see what she could do. Your own fault.” She rose her hands up in protest, squirming around the chair to comfortable.