They regrouped to discuss how it went.
“Lucy, you were supposed to let Justin help you onto your horse. You didn’t need to jump. It didn’t look very graceful,” chastised Gavin.
“Graceful? Who gives a damn about graceful? I proved I can do it. Not very well, or gracefully, but if I’m on the ground, I proved I can get back on a running horse. I have no intention of doing it again. I’d like to see you do it gracefully!”
“You most certainly will do it again,” said Gavin. “We’ll all do this until we get it right.”
“Or die,” muttered Maya under her breath to Lucy.
“No kidding,” she replied rubbing where the saddle horn had hit her.
“Perhaps, let’s do it in stages. First let’s work on helping someone up behind us, then, we’ll work on the rest,” suggested Justin.
The idea seemed to have merit, but it was still a comedy of errors. The first time Lucy tried to help Gavin up onto Ash, he got excited and pulled too hard toppling them both from the horse. Ash snorted in laughter, and Justin had to heal Lucy’s dislocated shoulder. They weren’t worrying about bumps, bruises, or slight sprains right now, but anything that prevented them from continuing the general insanity inflicted on them by Gavin’s excitement needed to be healed. Maya and Lucy got the hang of lifting each other up pretty quickly. Gavin’s second attempt to mount behind Lucy went well. Once Gavin seemed satisfied that they could all handle that part, they moved on to the next.
Switching horses, while both are in motion, and the person in front of you is using the stirrups, is not as easy as it looks. They decided to try having one person on horseback leading the horse that was going to be mounted while the other two rode towards them. Despite Gavin’s earlier criticisms of Lucy’s lack of gracefulness, he didn’t manage to do much better. There wasn’t anything to hold onto or push off of. Lucy had Justin take his foot out of the stirrup while she switched over to see if it helped to use that, but she found it worked better to simply jump and hope. In a vain attempt to avoid more bruises, she tried using magic once, but Gavin informed her it was cheating and doing this was for her own good. She wasn’t sure how he arrived at that conclusion, but she was too sore and covered in dirt to argue.
They had all missed lunch by the time Gavin decided they were proficient enough to take a break. By proficient, Lucy assumed he meant more likely to land on the horse than to fall off it. Or that the injuries were leaning more towards the less fatal side of things, because none of them had managed to master the skill. Lucy thought Gavin oddly enjoyed the challenge though. He succeeded in every physical challenge thought up by an instructor, but he had thought up one that was going to take him some time.
“I am one big bruise,” said Maya, limping out of the stables after unsaddling and brushing down her mare. “I literally hurt everywhere. I hurt in places I didn’t think it was possible to hurt.”
“Is any of is serious?” asked Justin.
“It’s all serious,” complained Maya, “but don’t worry about it right now. I’m going to take a long bubble bath and assess the damage. I might have you heal some of the worse ones after that. Besides, you already said you wouldn’t do anything about muscle soreness, which accounts for half of this. After a bath, I’ll be able to tell you if anything is pulled and you can heal that.”
“Sounds like a plan,” said Justin tiredly. He didn’t look in topnotch shape either.
Gavin came out of the stables looking cheery, and they all resented him just a little for that. After all, good idea or not he was partially to blame for their current pain. Of course, they did participate of their own free will so they couldn’t blame him completely, but none of them were in the mood to feel rational at the moment.
“I was having so much fun, I forgot to notice I was hungry,” he said in some amazement. “I’m going to find some bread and cheese. Are you coming?”
“I’m immersing myself in hot water until dinner time. I’ll see you then,” said Maya and limped off without another word or backwards glance.
Gavin looked at them questioningly.
“I don’t intend to soak until dinner, but I’m definitely in the mood for some therapeutic hot water. Food is the second priority right now,” explained Lucy.
“Normally, I’d join you for food, but I’m showering first,” said Justin.
Gavin shrugged, “Suit yourselves. I’m going to grab some food and eat on the way to my room for a shower,” and he walked off.
“High pain tolerance or not, I can’t help resenting him at the moment,” Lucy said to Justin.
He smiled at her. “How about you?” he asked.
“How about me what?”
“How much pain are you in? Do you need me to heal anything?”
“Oh, I think it’s too soon to tell. I hurt everywhere, but I think I’ll wait until after a bath, and we’ll see where bruises are forming or if anything feels wrong as opposed to sore.”
Justin nodded and off they limped.
“You know, if I’d been watching us today, I would have been rolling on the ground laughing.”
Lucy laughed, and then groaned. “Please don’t make me laugh, it hurts too much. You do have a point. I suppose Eric’s got tears in his eyes by now from laughing so much.”
“Why do you say that?” asked Justin, trying to appear interested rather than overly alert.
“I get the impression that he has a good idea of what goes on around here.”
“That he does. I bet you’re right. He probably hasn’t gotten any work done since the moment you jumped onto Ash that first time.”
They parted at a hallway and limped separately to their prospective rooms. Lucy reached hers and began to strip off her filthy clothing. It was full of dust from all the times she had fallen. She could already see bruises appearing, and the area where her stomach had hit the saddle horn was dark purple. She ran bath water for as hot as she could stand it and slowly sank into the tub. She grabbed her shower gel and washed all the dirt off of her body. She washed her hair and then simply lay there, unmoving, enjoying the hot water. When the water grew tepid, she decided it was time to move. She started to get up, but a sharp pain in her stomach forced her back down. She tried again, and a cry of pain escaped her lips. Something had to be wrong. A bruise shouldn’t hurt this much. She sat there, waiting for the pain to subside.
Lucy considered her options. She could wait a few minutes and try again. She could try to figure out what was wrong, but she didn’t even want to touch the bruise for fear of causing more pain. Not to mention, depending on what was wrong, trying to move might injure it more. The conclusion she came to was that she needed help.
“Justin?” she asked tentatively, trying to keep the pain out of her voiced thoughts.
“Lucy?”
“Are you done showering?”
“Yes, why?”
“Not to sound alarmist, but I think something’s really wrong.”
“What kind of wrong?”
“The, I don’t think I can get out of the bathtub without passing out from pain wrong?”
“I’m on my way. Can you drain the tub?”
“Yes?”
“Ok, do that, turn on the shower if you can and rinse yourself off, I assume you are covered in suds.”
“Ok.”
There was a knock at her door.
“It’s me,” Justin called and entered.
He moved towards the bathroom. He could see the towel rack. He grabbed the largest one and handed it to her. He took a second towel and laid it on the bed. He went back to the bathroom.
“Are you decent?”
“As decent as I’m going to get under the circumstances,” Lucy replied.
Justin turned around, bent down, and lifted her as gently as he could, cradling her against his body. She winced in pain. He laid her on the bed on top of the other towel. Lucy wrapped the towel underneath her around the lower part of her body. Then, she lifted the first towel high enough t
o expose her purple bruise. Justin inhaled sharply and knelt down next to the bed.
“How did that happen?”
“Remember the first time I jumped?”
“Yes.”
“I landed on the saddle horn.”
“Ouch. Why didn’t you say anything then?”
“I thought it was bruised, nothing more.”
“I’m not going to promise this isn’t going to hurt.”
“I’m not going to promise I’m not going to cry.”
Justin started to feel the bruise both with his fingers and his senses. He felt her flinch in pain but kept on. He couldn’t look at her face. He didn’t want to see how much pain she was in. He knew he had to keep his emotions out of it, and seeing her in pain might give him the burning need to beat Gavin into oblivion. It might not be entirely Gavin’s fault, but it was Gavin’s idea and that was enough. Justin told himself to calm down. First, he had to make Lucy better.
“I think you have some internal bleeding.”
“That sounds like fun,” Lucy responded trying to sound like she was in less pain than she was.
“This is going to take a few minutes.”
Justin closed his eyes and concentrated. He searched out what was wrong and fixed it. He’d done this on animals before, but this was the first time he had done it to a person. He hoped he was doing it right. He took his time. Finally, he opened his eyes and watched as the purple bruise turned to green and slowly faded.
“How does that feel?”
“Better,” Lucy replied, sitting up without the blinding pain.
“Lie back down. You’re healed, but that takes a toll on the body too. Let me check over the rest of you to make sure there’s nothing else seriously wrong that’s going to pop up later.”
Lucy lay back down on the bed and closed her eyes as Justin worked. Justin started at her head. He touched her brow and searched, she didn’t have a concussion. That was good to find out. He was thankful that the problem she had had left her able to communicate with him. If she had fallen asleep in the bathtub with a concussion…He shuddered at the thought. He worked his way down her body. She was black and blue all over, and he healed the bruises as well. He moved the towels around to assess as much as he could and still let her maintain some semblance of modesty. When he was done with the front, he asked her to roll over. There he found three pulled back muscles that were sure to have provided her with lots of pain later. Further down he also found a slightly torn right calf muscle. When he finished, he sat back on his heels and sighed.
“Done?”
“I pronounce you less injured than before.”
“Somewhat reassuring,” she said and grinned at him.
“My professional opinion is that you should take a nap and let your body adjust to everything I’ve done. I’ve messed about with it quite a bit and it needs some time to recover. Where are your pajamas?”
She indicated a drawer and he brought them to her.
“I’ll make sure you don’t miss supper.”
“Thank you,” she yawned.
Justin left. Lucy pulled on her pajamas, moving slowly. She wasn’t in pain anymore, but she was still slightly sore and very tired. She got under the covers and fell asleep within seconds.
“You know what’s going on?” Justin called softly while walking down the hallway.
“Yes?”
“Were you watching? Did I fix everything?”
“You did fine. She’ll be ok.”
“Did you know she was hurt?” Justin asked, somewhat accusingly.
“I didn’t know how bad she was until she tried to get out of the bathtub. Then, I could feel her pain. I was on my way down when I heard her call you. You are sufficiently skilled, and she trusts you, so I thought I’d better watch and be ready to help if needed but let you handle it. You did a good job.”
“Are the others ok?”
“Mostly bumps and bruises, nothing too serious. By the way, don’t be too hard on Gavin. He didn’t hurt her on purpose, and it is an interesting idea.”
“You mean it provided you with endless entertainment.”
“That too.”
Justin ended the conversation and continued down the hallway.
Chapter 29
None of the group had any lasting side effects from Gavin’s horse exercise other than an aversion to duplicate the attempt or anything like it any time soon. Any suggestions Gavin had about further training were met with groans from the rest. Mostly they were teasing, but underneath that there was a kernel of seriousness. They made it clear that if Gavin wanted to push his body and skills to ever further limits, that was his prerogative, but he could only make them participate in insanity at their own acquiescence. Secretly, they couldn’t deny the potential possibility of the skill coming in handy some day, but they all hoped they would not end up in a position to need to use it.
In the meantime, Justin kept Lucy busy teaching her or learning with her any skill he could come up with that could be useful. Maya and Gavin usually worked on other skills while they did this because most of what they were working on was much more magically advanced than anything Maya or Gavin had potential for. Justin and Lucy worked on performing illusions of any number, often using the others as guinea pigs. They covered Gavin with snakes, surrounded Maya with flames, made it appear to Gavin that he was missing a hand, and any other number of things that were not designed to hurt, but inspire fear or doubt. They did not want to hurt people accidentally.
Some of the ideas they thought up were good in theory but had the potential for flaws in actuality. In a practice fight, they made Gavin’s sword invisible to him. For the average fighter, this might lead to confusion, especially if they were still at the level where they watched their own weapons. Gavin, on the other hand was completely unbothered as he always knew where his weapons were and had been practicing fighting blindfolded for months. It caused more stress to his opponent who couldn’t respond to an invisible weapon. So, not the idea that Justin originally thought up, but an interesting side idea just the same. A possible advantage to Gavin.
Justin and Lucy worked on more complicated illusions as well. After a couple of days of hard work, Lucy was able to multiply herself into the illusion of six different people. What she had trouble with was trying to make them not all move the same. On one hand it was a thoroughly impressive display of arms to have six people run through a drill at the same speed, timing, and accuracy. On the other hand, she couldn’t surround a person with her illusionary people. The whole effect was rather odd. Justin could make his illusions do different things, and that helped as a distraction technique.
They experimented with different ideas until Lucy found something that was more effective for her. Rather than make many multiples of herself, she only needed one. She could control one illusion and make it do what she wanted. At the same time, she was able to bend light or blend in enough with the background that she was invisible. She worked until it was hard to figure out when she did it. As an exercise, they had her do an experimental spar with Gavin. They started out sparring with swords. When Gavin disarmed her, she rolled away, stood up, and duplicated an image of herself right on top of her solid body. Then, she stepped out of her image while bending the light and disappearing at the same time. She formed a fireball in the hand of her illusion as a threat. Gavin paused at this. He wasn’t sure if Lucy would really throw a fireball at him or not or if the fireball was an illusion. Gavin’s best defense against fireballs was dodging. His physical reflexes were much more honed than his magical abilities. Magically deflecting the fireball was a less reliable option for him than dodging. Thus, he paused. Justin hadn’t told him precisely what Lucy was going to be trying out on him today. His pause gave the real Lucy enough time to slip around behind him and hold a dagger to his throat. At this point, she reappeared and her illusion vanished. Gavin was impressed.
“I did sense you at the very last minute though,” he said. “It’s a subtlety you�
��ll want to work on in time but nothing to worry about at the moment. I could smell you when you got close behind me. The illusion is effective, but illusion cannot duplicate the natural smell of a beautiful woman,” he said with a smile and wink.
Lucy laughed back. Smells and other things they could work on later. Besides, if they were traveling around she doubted she was going to smell good for very long. For now, she hoped, the basic illusions would suffice. It was interesting to think about the competition. Lucy doubted that any other group was training as hard as they were or had reached their level or adeptness at so many different skills. At the same time, Lucy was filled with inadequacy and doubt. She felt she still had so much to learn. There was always more. Lucy was not simply preparing for the competition; she was trying to be as ready as she could be for whatever was in store for her. She felt a sense of urgency from somewhere. She sensed she was needed for something and she did not have as much time to prepare for whatever that was than the average student got. Or even Justin for that matter. How long had he been there? He claimed to be a student, but he knew much more than most students. He was almost as much a teacher to her as her actual teachers. That couldn’t be a common practice.
Speaking of Justin, he was enjoying the weeks leading up to the competition more than he had enjoyed anything else recently. He had been challenging himself in every aspect he could since the age of two. He rarely found peers or playmates he could actually enjoy spending time with. Although Gavin was a godsend when it came to being able to spar with someone, Lucy was the first peer he’d worked with that was up to his level of magic. She learned so quickly and stepped up to every challenge he threw at her. At times, she even challenged him back. His usual sardonic humor was still there, but added to that was a lightheartedness he had not felt since Taren left.
The Eye of Elicion: The Kinowenn Chronicles Vol 1 Page 21