by D. S. Craig
Eventually, she managed to push her feelings back inside their prison. But as she continued to work, she found herself occasionally glancing up, looking for any sign of the group. The sun drifted lower and lower in the sky as more time passed, but no matter how often she looked for them, they were never there.
“I guess they finally gave up. Looks like I won’t have to chase them off myself,” Rose muttered to herself. Rather than feeling relieved, the same emotions that she had been pushing down before came floating to the surface once more. This time, they overwhelmed her.
“I guess nothing’s going to change after all.” As the words left her mouth, an intense sense of despair swept over her, threatening to completely crush her spirit. Her limbs suddenly felt heavy, and the world around her seemed far darker than before. Then, just as it felt like that despair would swallow her up entirely, she heard hushed voices from nearby.
Rose’s head snapped up, and she scanned the area looking for the source. Then she saw it—the briefest flash of bright red hair and green eyes ducked behind the corner of the dorm as she looked in that direction. Suddenly, the heaviness left her limbs, and the world grew just a bit brighter.
Rose
After parting ways with Malkael, I met up with the others and tried to help Aurelia with her training. But my mind wasn’t in the right state after hearing his story, and I couldn’t focus. After about an hour, Lesti got mad at me and suggested that we go outside so Aurelia and Fang could do some combat training.
We went over to the training grounds since they would be empty until the afternoon. Lesti read one of the tomes she had borrowed from the library while I watched Aurelia and Fang, letting my mind wander. Despite my messed up mental state, I still observed quite a bit of their training.
It seemed like the focus was to help Fang learn how to move around Aurelia as they fought without tripping her up. The technique reminded me of shadowboxing. Aurelia exchanged blows with an invisible enemy, her daggers flitting through the air with impressive agility. Meanwhile, she used her mental connection with Fang to direct him on how to move.
The pup had taken to it almost instantly, darting around her, growling and snapping at the invisible target they fought. The way they moved about the field together was almost like an intricate dance. One mistake and they would be stumbling over each other. Yet that never happened, which was impressive to see, since learning this kind of coordination usually took years to develop.
The pair were just finishing up their latest mock battle when a familiar voice called out to Lesti and me from behind. “That’s some impressive coordination those two have going on, huh?” Turning, I found Elliot approaching us with a wooden spear on his shoulder. He watched the pair, and they continued to flit about the training ground. “Still, don’t you think you two should be helping them out? This sort of training will only get them so far when it comes to a real battle.”
Lesti pulled her nose out of her book and turned to face Elliot. “Astria isn’t feeling well, and I’m not much help when it comes to combat training, so this is all they can do for now. Anyway, what brings you here, Elliot? Skipping lunch?”
“Yeah, I thought I would come get some practice in. Your fight with Alex yesterday has me all worked up.” Elliot narrowed his eyes as he recalled yesterday’s battle. “I knew his enhancement magic was strong from our previous fights, but I’d never seen him use magic like that Earth Wave spell before. Made me feel like he had been holding back on me, you know?”
“I doubt that’s the case. He probably just thought that melee combat was the best way to beat you.” Lesti shrugged her shoulders. “He doesn’t seem like the type to hold back on anyone, after all.”
Elliot, rather than being encouraged, slumped his shoulders. “Yeah. That’s true. Still, that just means he can beat me at my own specialty and doesn’t need anything else.” His disappointment didn’t last long. He quickly recovered, shooting Lesti a teasing grin. “I guess it’s still better than getting trounced like you did, huh?”
Lesti snapped her book shut and stood. Wheeling around, she glared up at Elliot, who was quite a bit taller than her. “He didn’t trounce me! I just underestimated him a little bit. Next time, I’m going to win, just you wait!”
“Oh, and how are you going to do that?” Elliot crossed his arms as he looked down at her. “You’re terrible at melee combat, and your magic isn’t good enough to hold him at bay.”
“I know all that!” Lesti took a swing at Elliot with the book in her hand. He easily stepped back, avoiding the blow. “I’m doing all the research I can to come up with countermeasures, but it’s hard. He just has so much magical energy that it’s absurd.”
The teasing look fell off of Elliot’s face, and he stared at Lesti as she continued to fume. “Wait, you’re serious? You haven’t come up with any ideas?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Lesti took another swing with the book, but this time Elliot caught it with his free hand instead of dodging. “It’s only been a day, you know!”
“Isn’t the answer obvious, though?” Elliot continued to stare at Lesti as though she were missing the point entirely. “The best way for you to be able to beat him is to get better at melee combat.”
Lesti’s face formed a scowl so fierce it might have made Fang whimper. “That’s absurd! I’ll never get anywhere as strong as Alex by the tournament. Why would I waste my time on that?”
“Actually, I think it’s a good idea.” I looked up at Lesti, who was now staring at me dumbfounded. “It’s not like you have to be as good as Alex at melee combat. You don’t need to learn how to use a sword or anything like that either. All that you need to do is be able to avoid getting defeated long enough to regain your distance, right, Elliot?”
I turned and looked at Elliot, who nodded at me with a smile. “As expected, you catch on quick. She’s right.” He turned his gaze back to Lesti, his expression growing serious once more. “You need to focus on learning and perfecting spells that you can use in close range combat. When I heard that you were skipping class, I thought that must be what you were doing, but here I find out that you’re just wasting time shoving your nose in a book. I’m a bit upset that I lost my number two spot to you.”
“Oh, is that so?” Lesti took a step back and pointed her finger at Elliot. “You act all high and mighty, but you’ve never beaten Alex either, have you?”
“Alright, you’ve got me there.” Elliot held his hands up in defeat. “Anyway, that’s actually what I wanted to talk to you both about. I was thinking about skipping Malkael’s classes as well and having Astria train me instead.” He turned his gaze to me. “What do you say?”
I cocked my head to the side. “Why me? I’m no combat expert, you know.”
“Well, I heard from Aurelia the other day that she was doing special training with you.” He scratched the back of his head and looked over at the pair still going through their training routine. “So, I thought you might be able to do something like that for me. You know, teach me some secret skill that would let me get an edge on him.”
I sat, pondering the idea for a moment. I was only able to give Aurelia special training because of how unique her magic flow was. On the other hand, Elliot was perfectly normal, so I didn’t have anything to work off of. In fact, I would usually have dismissed his request on the spot, but I thought he might be able to help me with Lesti’s combat training.
“Alright, I’ll do it, but there are two conditions. First, I don’t have anything I can train you on just yet. So, you’ll have to wait until I can figure something out.”
Elliot nodded. “That seems reasonable enough. I kind of sprung this on you after all. What’s the second condition?”
My tail flicked about wildly. “You have to help all of us with our combat training until it’s time for the tournament.”
“All of you?!” He stared at me, mouth agape. Clearly, he hadn’t expected me to ask for him to train all four of us. “When am I going to
have time for my own training then?”
I shrugged. “We’ll figure out the details later. It’s not as though we’ll be doing combat training all the time, anyway. Lesti has her research, and Aurelia has her special training with me, so I’m sure you’ll have time.”
“Alright.” Elliot let out a heavy sigh. “I still think you’re asking for a bit much, but you’ve got yourself a deal.”
“Great. Then, we’ll start tomorrow, after you get permission to skip class from Malkael.”
“Sounds good.”
“Looking forward to working with you, Elliot.” Lesti smiled up at him with her usual bright cheer. Despite her complaints, she seemed rather excited about having someone to teach her close-quarters combat. It was good to see her smiling again. Between my sour mood and her frustration at not finding any leads on beating Alex, she had been grumpy all morning.
With everything settled, Elliot decided to go and get some lunch after all. It seemed our negotiations had made him hungry. Meanwhile, Aurelia and Fang finished their combat training, so we decided to grab some food and head to our usual study spot. Thankfully, the dark cloud that had been looming over me was finally gone. I didn’t have time to worry about that now that I had two students to train.
* * *
“There she is.” I peeked around the corner of the girls’ dorm along with Lesti, Aurelia, and Fang. It had been a week since we had initially made our plans to contact the pink-haired girl, and nothing had gone to plan. At first, Lesti had tried approaching her normally, but she had quickly brushed us off and made her escape. After that, Lesti had gotten more and more aggressive in trying to chase her down.
However, that seemed to have the opposite effect as she had just tried even harder to get us to leave her alone. So, today, we were going with a different plan. I had told Lesti and Aurelia that the girl appeared to be afraid of Fang and me. She also seemed to be very sensitive about what her classmates thought of her, always getting flustered whenever we tried talking to her in front of them. Based on that, Lesti and Aurelia were going to approach her without us here at her garden and see if that made any difference.
“I-is she really infusing the earth with magical energy?” Lesti watched the girl with a skeptical look on her face. “It looks like she’s just gardening like any normal person would.”
I closed my eyes and checked once more to make sure last time hadn’t been a fluke. “Yeah. I can still see her magic flowing into the ground, just like last time.”
“Alright.” Lesti looked over at Aurelia. “It looks like we’re up, then. Let’s go, Auri.”
Aurelia gave her a quick nod before looking down at Fang with a stern expression. “Mm. Fang, you stay with Astria and guard her, okay?”
The pup laid down and looked up at her with big, sad eyes, but she simply ignored him. Lesti was the only one that trick would work on. Seeing that he wasn’t going to get his way, he let out a slight whimper. But even though he was being a brat about it, Fang never once made to move from my side as the pair walked toward the girl.
As they approached, she looked up from her work, eyeing them cautiously. Lesti waved at the girl with her usual bright cheerfulness and called out to her. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hear what they were saying at that distance, but it wasn’t like I was unprepared. I had thought that this exact problem might come up and had a plan.
“Come on, Fang. We’re going to get closer.”
Hearing that we weren’t going to be stuck watching from afar, Fang’s tail started wagging wildly. He just looked at me, confused, however, when I walked off in the opposite direction. Even so, his master had told him to stay with me, so he did just that.
Walking around to the front of the building, I quickly transformed into my tiger form and picked Fang up by his scruff, causing him to let out a startled yip. I felt a little bad for surprising him, but time was of the essence. Every second we wasted here was a second where we couldn’t hear their conversation.
With Fang secured, I leapt onto the roof of the building and set him down before transforming back into my usual form. “Alright, let’s-”
I started to head toward the peak of the roof but suddenly found myself being crowded by Fang. I looked back at him, getting ready to scold him, only to find him shaking like a leaf as he glanced nervously down at the ground. “Wait, are you scared of heights?”
The only response I got was a slight whimper and Fang scooting even closer to me. “I’m sorry, but we can’t turn back now.” I felt bad for the little guy, but getting over this fear would be good for him in the long run. You never knew where a fight could break out, after all. “Just stay close to me and don’t look down. It’ll be fine, I promise.”
While he clearly wasn’t happy about it, Fang gave a quick nod. I turned and made my way up to the peak of the roof. Looking over, I could see Aurelia and Lesti talking to the girl below, but I still couldn’t hear them. So, I flattened my body out and crawled on my belly as quietly as I could down toward them. Fang, seeing what I was doing, followed suit. As we slowly made our way down the slope of the roof, the girls’ conversation started to become clearer.
“So, you’re a first-year, Rose?”
“Y-yes, that’s right, Ms. Vilia.”
“Oh, just call me Lesti. Ms. Vilia is way too stiff.”
“Oh, no. I could never…”
Due to how close they were standing to the building and how low I was keeping myself, I couldn’t see the girls, but at least I could hear their conversation. I decided this was close enough. However, as soon as I relaxed, I realized that something was wrong. Fang, who had been sticking to me like glue, wasn’t behind me. Turning, I found him frozen in place about halfway up the slope with shaky legs.
“Fang, what are you doing? Come on, it’s okay.” Seeing how stressed he was, I tried my best to calm the pup down. “You can do it. Just make your way down toward me. One step at a time.”
Fang let out a little whimper as he shuffled back and forth, seemingly unsure where to place his feet. Then, finally coaxed forward by my encouragement, he took a hesitant step forward, followed by another. “That’s it. Good boy. See? You can do it.”
Growing bolder, he began to take larger strides. Then, it all went wrong as his foot slipped, and he tumbled down the roof toward me. I had twisted my own body into an awkward position to try and help Fang while keeping my own balance, leaving me unable to react properly. A ball of fluff plowed into me, sending us both flying over the edge of the roof toward the ground below.
The drop wasn’t lethal, but it could result in broken bones, so I tried my best to break our fall. Grabbing hold of Fang’s body and pulling him close, I cast Air Blast. Rather than shooting the air toward the ground, I reversed the direction by specifying Fang as the target. I also adjusted the power, reducing it to just be enough to slow us down.
Just before we hit the ground, the blast of air exploded upward, sending dirt and dust flying everywhere. It collided with Fang and me as we fell from above and killed most of our momentum, causing us to land gently in the small garden with a little puff of dirt. I immediately checked Fang to make sure he was okay, and thankfully he was just fine, if a little shaken. The garden we had landed in wasn’t quite as lucky.
The earth was loose from being tilled recently, and my spell had contained enough force that it had blown the soil everywhere, undoing much of Rose’s hard work. The girls were standing right by where we had fallen covered in dirt, staring at us with confused looks. Lesti’s confused look turned to one of exasperation as soon as she realized it was Fang and me that had crash-landed in the garden. Meanwhile, Rose let out a squeak and hid behind Aurelia, who seemed unsure of what to do with the younger girl clinging to her.
“Astria, just what are you doing?” Lesti motioned to the garden around her. “You were supposed to wait for us back at the corner, so why are you crashing down from the sky and ruining Rose’s garden?”
“A-Astria?” Rose peeked out from behi
nd Aurelia to look at Fang and me. “Oh, it’s just your familiars?”
Oddly, she seemed to be a little relieved upon seeing that it was us. Then again, I guess I would have been worried too if something had just come crashing down on me from above without warning.
“Ah, yeah. I’m really sorry they messed up your garden, Rose. I promise we’ll help you get it put back in order.”
“Mm. Yeah.” Aurelia looked over at Fang and me with the commanding presence she usually reserved for Fang’s training. “Isn’t that right, you two?”
“Y-yes, of course.” I swallowed at the sheer weight of Aurelia’s presence. It was the first time she had ever used that tone with me, and it was surprisingly effective, despite me being a former human. “I’m really sorry about this. We just didn’t want to scare you, so we tried to stay out of sight, but we couldn’t hear. So, I figured if we got up on the roof, then it wouldn’t be a problem, you know?”
Rose stared at me from behind Aurelia for a long moment, her eyes wide. “She really can talk. That’s amazing.”
Her reaction was one that I had gotten quite a bit since I had arrived in this world. It was odd to be called amazing just for having the ability to talk. Thankfully, it seemed like that might prove to be useful in this case. Apparently, hearing me talk had caused Rose to become slightly less fearful of me—though that also seemed rather odd.
“Yes. Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Astria, Lesti’s familiar.” I raised my paw as if waving at her, quickly lowering it again as soon as I realized how awkward it felt. “Anyway, I’m really sorry about your garden. I promise I’ll help you fix it, but I’m curious. Why did you run away from me the other day when I tried to talk to you?”
“Well, that’s because…” She looked over at me, but as soon as her eyes met mine, she winced and turned her gaze away. “I’m sorry. It’s just a bit much for me.”