As we run, twigs and branches crack and snap in our wake. We don't stop until we make it to a clearing of trees that's not as dense as the surrounding woods. I trip and roll onto my back. I'm out of breath—we ran for a while.
Marshal's grinning face comes into view. He's tired but doing a good job of hiding it.
"I scared you two didn't I," he says, with a cheeky wink.
"We didn't chase you because we wanted to, we—unfortunately—are stuck with you as a teammate," Kate says, catching up.
"Aw—don't be so cold—we were going into the forest anyway, so why not leave an impression," he says. Kate looks unimpressed with his logic.
"There's no point in making an impression if it's not a good one—"
Kate starts but my stomach decides to interrupt—growling loudly. Marshal and Kate look down at me. Marshal laughs. "Let's get Benji some food before he keels over," he says, reaching out a hand. I take it gratefully and he hauls me up.
"Lucky for us we woke up the entire forest with all that noise," Marshal says, getting into stance, and before I know it we're all back to back. I didn't notice before but I could now see the pair of eyes stalking us.
Marshal releases a small stream of water and morphs it into a short sword. I reach under my shirt into its shadow and grab my dagger. Marshal considers my blade for a moment but then refocuses on the enemy in front of us.
Once it's realized we're all focused on it, it steps into the faint moonlight. It's a big cat-like monster. Its body is rippling with muscle, and its long whisker-like eyebrows wave in the gentle breeze. It bares its fangs at us. Marshal taunts it by doing the same.
I start the fight running toward the beast. Marshal only hesitates for a moment, before following. I run-up to its side as it twists trying to bite me, but Marshal has me covered—slashing at it from its other side. Taking the opportunity, I leap onto it, embedding my blade in its side. It roars out in agony as pull myself up onto its back.
Marshal is running circles around it, weaving in and out of the trees slashing as he goes. I raise my blade high over my head and drive it down. I bring it down time after time, but even with Marshal's help, the beast isn't slowing down.
I leave my dagger lodged and call upon the shadows from within. I wrap them around the dagger, as they solidify and lengthen. This cuts the beast deep, but it still isn't slowing down.
'The hell—what's up with this thing?' Sure it's big, but it isn't that big. 'It should be death by a thousand cuts by now.' I try to rip my blade free to try again, but it's resisting. Confused, I study the wound more closely. It looks like the muscle and tissue are trying to knit themselves back together around my blade. 'Regeneration?' I look around my perch on its back but the other dagger wounds are still present.
'It must be using magic to heal these wounds.' I realize.
Beast drew their magic, from within, similar to enhanced humans. Which explains why its regeneration is so selective. Natural regeneration would heal all wounds. 'It must be trying to conserve what it's got left to keep us from doing any real damage.'
I'm about to relay my discovery to everyone when I hear an odd crackling sound. The hairs on my neck stand up. Marshal, seeing something I couldn't, jumps away shouting, "Watch out!"
I feel slight tingling but overall I'm fine. The beast beneath me buckles and falls. I go for my blade and rip it out without the resistance from before. After I hop off, I try to shake off the weird tingly feeling. Marshal is walking back.
"Holy shit, I can't say I'm surprised, but you fight like a fire mage," Marshal says, staring at the beast.
"How else am I supposed to fight," Kate mumbles.
"I don't know—just thought it'd be different—are we sure this thing is dead," he says, kicking it lightly.
"I noticed it used magic to regenerate, so it was hard to do anything lethal," I explain.
"I see, that's what took you so long," he muses.
"Welp, better safe than sorry," Marshal says, stabbing the beast in the neck with his water blade.
After he's sure it's dead he turns to us. "Well, we didn't do bad for our first fight together, but we should talk about formations later," he says, before shooting Kate an accusatory look, "Especially if you're going to be shooting your weird magic directly at a teammate."
Kate looks flustered and retorts, "I would never—I didn't—It wouldn't have hit him. I know my magic."
Marshal considers her response. "It looked untamed from where I stood," he says, dropping it.
"Anywho, let's get started on dinner," he says, changing the subject.
He crouches down in front of the beast and examines it for a moment.
"I can handle the butchering. Can you start a fire with your magic," he asks looking at Kate.
"No, I don't think I can," she says, tilting her head, "Why do you ask."
He looks at her hard for a moment. "Well, the place you hit this thing is charred, and I was hoping you could make starting the fire easier," he says—gesturing.
Kate shoots me a concerned look like I'm a ghost of a memory.
"It's never done that before—" she says.
Marshal sighs standing up, "I won't scold you, maybe you've discovered something new about your magic," he offers. He walks over to her,b"Tell me more about your affinity."
As they talk I recognize some of the questions he asks. Though it's more general, the questions he's asking aren't too dissimilar to questions asked to children who have trouble taming their affinity.
"What did it feel like."
"What do you imagine when you cast."
"What was the change between this time and—"
But their conversation pauses for a second as Marshal meets my eyes for a moment and mouths the word "Wood". He nods toward the forest behind me with a meaningful look. I want to refuse but I had no real reason to. It doesn't help that I'm also being rude. In a way, I'm basically eavesdropping. So I nod in response—sidling away.
As I walk, I feel a surprising wave of jealousy toward Marshal. I immediately try to shake it off but it's sticky. I knew he's only trying to help her, but I could only think of how much better he is at talking to her. He was smooth like water. Which made me feel so—
'I'm so—'
But I don't even finish my thought before horrible streaks of pain go through my face—it subsides quickly.
'I shouldn't be feeling sorry for my poor social skills—I should be thanking him for helping her in the first place.'
I continue to stew in silence, and let my thoughts wander as I collect twigs and branches.
'Now that I think about it. Having a unique affinity might not be all it's cracked up to be.' I think, my mind wandering to the times I'd tried to praise Kate's affinity and her apparent distaste toward her own affinity. Though I sensed a deeper reason, if I thought about it from the surface it kind of made sense. Kate is quite literally one of a kind. No one could teach her about that part of her nor could anyone truly understand it. It probably feels—I think back to my younger self standing alone on a cliff—lonely. I feel like an even bigger jerk after I realize all of this, and let out a dejected laugh.
'Why am I so—bad at this.'
After some more walking, I'm back at the small clearing. Kate and Marshal are sitting on the ground chatting.
"Hey," I say, making my presence known.
Kate is the first to look up, and Marshal says, "Hey man, you can just dump some of it in the fire pit."
He points to the nearby hole he dug. I nod slightly and walk over to it. As I'm setting down the wood, Marshal stands up. "Welp, I'm going to go prepare the meat," he says, looking over to Kate.
"Do you think you can handle making the fire now," he asks Kate.
She wavers—making eye contact with me—she takes something from my eyes and says surely, "Yes."
I watch intently from afar—Kate thought it safer this way—as she prepares to light the fire. She held some tinder in her left hand and had electricity coursing through her right. To be specific she had it coursing through her thumb and forefinger. She looks nervous taking a deep breath composing herself, then she looks like she's focusing intensely.
The thick rope of electricity between her fingers starts to wane, splitting into two thin channels. She smiles, her face still slightly illuminated by the energy between her fingers. She looks up at me for a moment, then goes back to concentrating.
She gingerly brings her hand up to the tender. After a moment it ignites, she looks surprised. She then looks increasingly panicked as the tiny flame comes to life. She drops it into the fire pit backing away quickly, but her smile has vanished. Her eyes are far, and she looks scared, which concerns me. I rush over to her.
I start to reach my hand over to her shoulder, but she swats my hand away. I feel a bit hurt but now isn't the time. Her far eyes seem to snap out of their trance.
"Oh Benji I-I'm sorry," she says, her voice shaking.
I couldn't think of one word that could comfort her so I did the only thing I could think of. Before I totally decide, my arms pull her into a hug—she's shaking. It broke my heart that I didn't really know how to help.
After a few minutes, she seems to calm down.
"I'm okay now Benji," she whispers into me.
"Are you sure," I ask. She doesn't say anything. "I'll hold you as long as you need," I say the words flowing. She leans into me a little more, but after a moment she says, "Thank you Benji—I'm okay—really."
At this we release each other—she wipes her face looking away. Not wanting me to see her cry. We sit in solace, and I look over to her, she's staring at the flickering flames. I want so badly to know what she's thinking, but I just didn't know enough. The only thing I do know is, this must have to do with something in her past.
I want to ask, but I know how closely the past can be held—happy or otherwise. Even my own mother held her past close to her heart, and I knew it's not one filled with happiness. The path of the Elite wouldn't allow it.
'She'll tell me when she's ready. Till then I need to do what I can to comfort her.'
Kate stares into the warm fire. Her eyes look far again but not like before.
"The fire is nice and warm, isn't it," I try.
She doesn't respond—I'm not sure if she heard me—her eyes still on the fire.
"The light—it's nice," she says.
I nod, but I couldn't think of anything else to say so I let the silence settle in.
After a while I can hear Marshal walking back, he's whistling a cheery tune. I only had to get up to feed the fire once since he left. Kate and I are still sitting a few paces away from it.
"Not bad, Regneil, not bad at all," Marshal says musing at Kate's fire as he emerges from the thicket.
He's holding three long sticks and gently guiding a medium-sized ball of water that holds some butchered chunks of meat that float around inside.
He gives me a nod signaling me to help. I stand up, taking the sticks from him.
"Sorry for the wait," he says.
He guides the ball in front of me. I stab each stick through one of the hunks of meat. The sticks are sharpened and carved into rough prongs. He releases the water once I've secured the meat. I angle the meat around the fire while Marshal helps me anchor the sticks into the ground.
Once we're done I head back over to sit by Kate. Marshal looks at us curiously for a moment.
"Why so shy of the fire," he asks.
Though we aren't that far from the fire we're noticeably distant. I'm about to explain when I catch Kate's expression. She looks embarrassed and the look she's giving me is definitely saying to not say anything.
I'm guessing she's afraid of Marshal teasing her. I didn't think he'd go that far, but regardless I give Marshal a shrug.
"The warmth is fine from here. You're imagining it," I say.
Marshal shrugs accepting my answer, before coming over to sit with Kate and me.
"I can't wait to sink my teeth into that meat," he says.
"Same here. I wish we could've eaten earlier, though I don't mind this being our first meal at the academy," I say.
Marshal grins. "And as a team," he adds.
I smile.
As we chat away, Marshal tends to the food. I keep a close eye on Kate. She seems to be okay now, but I can't tell if it's just a brave face. While I admire her cool, and composed air—it made her hard to read.
After what felt like hours, Marshal deems the meat cooked. I almost jump up to grab one of the sticks. Instead, I refrain and stand up like a normal person. I pick up two of the sticks walking back to our spot. I give Kate a smile as I hand her share to her. She looks a little tired now but smiles back. As I sit down, I notice Marshal is watching us as he walks back, gnawing on his meat.
By now he seems to understand there's something going on between Kate and me. I hope he wouldn't get the wrong idea trying to fill in any more gaps.
"How is it," Marshal asks as he sits down.
I finish chewing then respond, "It's tough, but chewy and has a nice smoky meaty taste."
He beams. "And what about you, princess, how is it," he asks.
Kate—who made a lot of progress on her meat—looks over to Marshal with sleepy eyes. "Ish plane needsh shalt," she says between bites.
Marshal laughs. "I'll make sure to bring some the next time we're out camping," he says, "At least Benji can appreciate the simple flavor."
I nod in earnest. Kate lets out a long and wide yawn. Surprised, I realize she's finished her food. 'That was fast.' She lays down where she sits—right next to me—curling into a slight ball. A few minutes later her breathing is easy, and she's fast asleep.
I finish mine after a while and stare at the stars. A beautiful swirling starscape—Marshal tosses his stick into the fire and lets out a yawn.
"I'm still a little tired. Can you take first watch," he asks.
I nod my head. 'First watch.' Just those words alone made me feel like a real adventurer. I fist pump the air.
'Tomorrow's dawn awaits.'