A black cat yawned at the top of a tree.
"Hmmmph…"
The elf was finally getting more bold. Watching these two was definitely getting rid of the boredom it had felt for several decades now.
In the past it had interfered more freely with the mortals' lives, but they always seemed to disappoint it in the end.
These two were so pure as their mana began slowly mixing with each other over time. The human girl held a blood blessing hardly seen in these times.
He could tell it smelled strongly of a water spirit. It also seemed another water spirit had given a smaller, almost unnoticeable blessing beside it.
Still, it was enough to awaken the inner pathways through which mana circulated. The elf that traveled with this human was just as interesting.
At first he thought it was an elf unfortunate enough to have imprinted upon a human, but there was more here than what one could see at first glance.
He could tell the spirits around them could feel it too. So, the cat gave the elf a blessing and, as a bonus, gave him a way to resist the imprinting.
He wondered when the elf would finally notice, but it seemed the imprint was just hiding the deeper feelings the elf had inside of himself.
"A very interesting experiment indeed."
************
Eva's arms felt like lead as she blocked another slash of Lucas' sword. The blow felt so heavy, she was forced to take a step back.
Gritting her teeth she pushed back with all her strength. The pressure of the sword was suddenly lifted as she fell forward in surprise.
The practice sword in her hand was thrust from her hands and her fall was stopped by a warm, soft…
'Stop!'
She forced her mind to stop her thinking process as she removed herself from the place she was trying not to think about.
Turning away from Lucas, she caught her breath. They had traveled far away from the hot plain, but this forest was still warm enough to make it uncomfortable while training.
She pulled at the collar of her shirt and lifted the hair that was sticking to the back of her neck.
'I should have just braided it.'
She fanned her face with her gloved hands. It was seriously frustrating. Not once had she been able to best Lucas in sparring.
It also seemed that accidents, like falling into his chest, were happening more often. She couldn't help but feel like she was the subject of some joke.
It was better than falling on the ground, but this was just embarrassing! Again, she was glad that her face had its usual slightly pink flush when she exerted herself.
When she had woken up she felt embarrassed as well. The day before she had given in to her feelings, if only slightly.
However, Lucas just treated the day like any other and handed her breakfast with his usual smile. Was she the only one affected by being that close to him?
'What do I have to do to elicit a reaction? Ki--iss him?'
She shook her head and sat down where she stood. All thoughts of continuing training escaped from her mind.
Lucas, on the other hand, was buzzing from the activities of the night before. It felt like he had finally gotten through a part of her mental armor.
Eva was doing well with her sword training. As he swung his sword for her to practice the next block, he was worried she wouldn't be able to handle more intense training, but as he continued to swing his sword it seemed he had worried for nothing.
He knocked the sword from her hand and realized he also needed to fix the bad habits that often made her stumble like this, but she was progressing well.
'I might need to return to hand to hand combat soon to help her with her footwork,' he thought as supported her in keeping her feet.
Part of the problem was that Lucas liked catching her when she stumbled. The closeness. Her smell. Her small body pressed up against his.
'No, I need to focus on her training.'
Eva pushed away from him then and turned around quickly to hide her face. He could tell she was thinking about falling into his arms again and that made him happy.
'Maybe I will just let her take a small break.'
His attention was caught by Eva lifting the hair from the back of her neck and he could see where she had pulled her collar down.
He doubted she realized the view she was showing him. Lucas could just make out her collar bone, and the pale skin of her neck made his eyes widen.
As she fanned her face he picked up her scent mixed with sweat. Her cheeks were rosy from the earlier activity.
The world seemed to speed up and stay still at the same time. At the same time, Lucas felt an urge deep within him.
'I want to hold her.'
Lots of different things came to mind, but the strongest was he wanted the freedom to hold her whenever he wanted.
The knowledge of knowing she wasn't completely his, made his heart feel like it was slowly being crushed. His hand tightened around the practice sword.
Slowly he backed away from her so that he would not act upon the darker of his thoughts. He was snapped out of his dark expression when Eva fixed her shirt and settled down onto the grass to rest.
'What was that?'
Lucas' new feelings confused him. When did he start wanting more than just to be by her side?
It must be because he knew what it felt like to hold her tightly, and because he had given her medicine in that way. He realized he had let himself hold on to her too tightly.
Lucas could feel the way she felt about him. Each time he caught her staring at him, made his heart fill with hope.
Now, it was not enough. He wanted to be closer to her. Lucas grabbed the waterskin and headed back to where Eva was sitting.
"Thank you."
Her smile shone brightly in front of him. It felt like it was washing away the dark colors of the new emotions clouding his heart.
Lucas knelt down beside Eva and cupped the side of her cheek. His eyes searched for the emotions he wanted to see there.
"Uh…"
A noise came out of Eva's throat. Her face was turning a dark shade of red. Lucas sighed and pulled his hand away.
He needed to calm down. Rising back to his feet he looked down at the frozen look on Eva's face.
"I will hunt today. Wash up while I am gone."
He turned away from her, picked up his bow and quiver and disappeared into the forest.
'I pushed it too far. I hope she can forgive me.'
******
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