Bowen

Chapter 6: A Little Odd

Nick suddenly felt tired-
What just happened?

"Woah!" Vida exhaled, "That was sick!"

Nick stumbled slightly over towards Daggeron, reaching out a hand.

"Uhh....are you alright Daggeron?"

His teacher turned around on his back, a taken back look on his face.
"Umm...yeah......what? Have you been going to the gym lately or...?"

An attempt to solve the question of sudden strength and the humor was just a plus.
Nick decided to take the bait after all.

"Hm yeah I supposed." He shrugged almost effortlessly, keeping up the nonchalant attitude he'd set before the match even started. "With all these training sessions I knew I had to at least a little preparing. The fights on huge almost daily don't help that either."

"Oh puah-lease! Like you need to be better at something else!" A playful jab from Chip made Nick question a little...well...that did bring a few things up....even if he was the last to believe in Magic surrounding them, he didn't feel as if anything was ever truly hard. Studying was easy enough, knowing the history and landscapes of the forest from Rootcore to Briewood wasn't impossible by any means, teamwork exercises just took time but was a sinch when on the same page, training- training just felt natural to him, magic too!
Both of those things felt as if they were there his entire life!
Well on the technical side speaking everyone had magic, but not everyone could use it properly to an extent or some not at all.
Take, the magical and human communities: both parties had magic deeply in their cores, but the magical community was surrounded in its culture, with natural ways to bring their power out.
Humans?
Ignorant as can be....but it wasn't entirely their fault....not today's people anyways. Back then the two were divided because humans couldn't use magic as skillfully or as giftedly without lifelong dedication and training.

So comparing his progress to his teammates, to his friends....what made the difference? Why was he different?

Daggeron shook his head, clearly still a little 'frazzled', "Well rangers, it seems that you all have grown much better since our last bound training, as much as I would like to start your.....losers bracket..." Vida and Xander laughed at chip, "...it is growing later than we'd hoped we'd stay out, the forest still lays wake dangerous magical creatures that we'd like to avoid aggravating tonight. Come on!"
He made his way back on the path, his students scrambling to gather what little they brought and fall into line behind him, Uddona still as graceful as ever.

"Aaahhh maaaan! I really wanted a chance to beat Vida!" Chip hung his head childishly. "Not to mention Xander and Maddie! You guys were great!"

Chip bounced around on his heels, the others listening to his infamous rambling absentmindedly as they continued back home.

"I wish I was so much better than what I am now.....hey Daggeron! Maybe after a while we could be as good as Leanbow!"

Three out of the our eight heroes stopped to stand still, about 1/3 of that rather stumbled into it actually, Daggeron, Uddona and Clare turned around in shock(and one rather embarrassed).

The young adults took notice of their behavior, and of the unfamiliar name.

Nick examined the expressions of the group he's come to know over the past months, his other teammates just as confused, before asking what was on their mind.
"Uhhhh......Chip?" He chuckle nervously, taking in account of their paled faces. "Who's....who's Leanbow?"

It took a minute for the question and it's new impact to register in Chip's brain.
"Oh...."
A hand flew up to his mouth, an attempt to stop the process of any more information from leaking out.

Inside the hand came a muffled apology, before a second one was added.