So tiring … I could already see the sun rising in the distance while holding my eyes barely open. The two boys had already stopped trying to catch Miss Dove some time ago, and were washing themselves at this time.
Even our magical combat teacher was tired, but she still swung her sword around from time to time, blasting a torrent of wind in the direction she was aiming at.
Lucy on the other hand had it the easiest. She was meditating for a very long time already, and it didn’t look as if she was tired at all.
“Let’s go.” She said all of a sudden and stood up while stretching her legs and arms. They must have felt completely sore because she didn’t move at all during the whole night. A bit confused, I followed her on the way towards the road until I remarked that the camp was in the other direction.
Trying to suppress my laughter, I thus walked towards the camp where we got a fresh set of clothing from our luggage and a few other things. As we couldn’t find Luna in the tent, we chose to wash ourselves without her at a nearby river. Luckily it was the girl’s time to wash, so there weren’t any boys around.
As usual, I completely unclothed myself and dumped water over me using a nearby bucket. I would love to take a dive into the river, but they could be very dangerous if they lead to the ocean. Lucy chose another, weird way and carefully dipped a cloth into the river to wash her face and arms.
“Hey, you are going to stink if you don’t clean yourself properly!” I said jokingly. Her reaction to my words was vastly different than expected though.
“Ehh? No … no, it’s fine! I’m not sweating much anyway.” She stumbled over her words which was very rare to see. Finally, I had found one of her weaknesses. She hated cleaning herself … for whatever reason. And I really wanted to tease her with that, in a friendly way though.
“That’s a cheap excuse. At least wipe your whole body.” I said and crossed my arms in front of my chest.
“I’m … fine.” She mumbled and looked back the way we came.
“No, you are not.” I said and rushed towards her as she tried to run away from the river. She was incredibly slow though and thus, I caught her within seconds by hugging her from behind and lifting her off the ground. “I’m not getting into the same cart with someone who isn’t washed properly.” Obviously, that was just an excuse, but I did want to have my fun with her a little bit. Lucy resisted quite a bit, but somewhere along the line, she stopped doing so and went somewhat silent.
I should have stopped at this point, if not way earlier. But I was way too tired to think straight and I really wanted to tease her. She was finally sitting on the bucket and let me wash her back as she slowly relaxed.
“That’s not a scene I thought I would see in my lifetime.” I heard Luna saying from the right, looking over towards us quite stunned. “You are not going to steal my best friend from me, are you?”
“Definitely not! But I just couldn’t sit in the same cart with her, knowing her to be dirty.” I explained as soon as I finished cleaning her.
“You are … weird.” Luna said the moment Lucy jumped up and started clothing herself.
“And tired.” I said truthfully. More often than not, my eyelids were closing on their own.
“Everything alright, Lucy?” Luna asked as Lucy behaved a bit oddly by remaining mostly silent.
“Hmm…” Lucy mumbled. We waited for Luna to clean herself as well, and then ate our breakfast with the equally tired boys. During that time I could see Lucy and Luna whispering something to each other, probably about the reason we were all so tired.
Shortly afterwards, Lucy climbed onto the cart once more and sat on the left bench together with Luna back to back. They had taken the whole bench for themselves and started reading books before our trip even started.
We were all to tired to argue and as Louis and Schwarz took their usual seats, I simply sat down in the middle of them and drifted off into sleep right away.
I only woke up from loud laughter way later, as the cart had already stopped and the nice smell of food filled my nostrils. As I opened my eyes, I couldn’t see Luna or Lucy in front of me, but felt how Louis rested his head on my shoulder. At first, I was quite shocked, but then I started to enjoy his warmth. Rarely, we were this close before and thus, I enjoyed every second of it.
Thankfully, Schwarz leaned over to the other side, resting his head again a wooden beam instead of me. That would have seriously ruined the moment.
Someone else who could potentially ruin everything was Lucy who came back with a plate filled with food in her hands. At first, she wanted to say something, but then realised that I was already awake and closed her barely open mouth.
She smirked towards me, then turned around on her heels and left to where she came from. Carefully putting my cheek against Louis head, I rested for a few more minutes, enjoying the feeling in my heart to the fullest … at least until Miss Dove came by, completely disregarded the sleeping boys and slapped the cart, waking everyone awake.
“I’m scheduled to watch over camp the first few hours. Do whatever you want, but don’t wander off.” And with that, she left us alone once more. In the beginning, I thought she woke us up because she didn’t care much about my feelings but as we disembarked the cart, I realised that the food was getting rather cold already.
The other two of our group had already eaten and were playing a card game with some other students as we ate our meals in silence.
I really wanted to tell those two to get their act together and work in unison to reach their … my goal of proving Lucy wrong, but what she had said stuck to me.
‘Some lessons cannot be taught’ or something like this. It was true. They wouldn’t take my advice to heart, especially not Schwarz. Louis would probably consider it, but he couldn’t allow Schwarz to win.
‘Some lessons cannot be taught’ … was there anything Miss Dove didn’t want to teach me as well? I did hope not, even though I couldn’t say for sure.
With these thoughts on my mind, I joined the group in playing games while Schwarz and Louis used some training swords to fight each other after Schwarz challenged my best friend. Obviously, they did it close by and I caught both of them glancing in our direction from time to time.
After several hours of being awake, our usual group, including Luna this time followed Miss Dove to a nearby clearing while I carried two training swords.
“There is no water nearby, so don’t get too dirty.” That was her only warning before she evaded Schwarz who was too eager to prove himself once more.
“So … what are we going to do?” I asked Lucy who helped Luna up onto a tree so that she had a better view. She apparently only wanted to see what we were doing at night, not join in. She didn’t know how to fight, so she wouldn’t be of any help anyway.
“Hit me with all you got.” Lucy said and took one training sword from me. She held it in both hands in front of her, steady and without any trembling.
And so, I took my own sword in both hands, lifted it above my head and struck downwards, exerting the most strength I could in the process. She blocked my strike , but grunted and went on her knees in the process. She really wasn’t that strong.
“Okay, now with half your strength.” Once again, I repeated the motion but this time, I held back considerably. Lucy stayed firm underneath my strike and was merely pushed backwards a little. But otherwise, she blocked it without any unnecessary movement.
“Can you stay at that level?” She asked and weighed the wooden sword in her hand carefully.
“I’ll try.” I said, even though I would have my problems with that.
“Okay … defend yourself.” She said and directly dashed forwards. She was painfully slow though, far slower than she should have been considering she just blocked my attack at half my super human strength.
A bit worried this whole time would turn out to be useless, I casually brought my sword in position to defend myself. Before the two swords hit each other though, she suddenly accelerated to the speed I had expected and completely caught me off guard. She also tilted her sword a little and struck me right above my left hand. That would have hurt if she had aimed a little bit lower.
“Lesson one?” She asked and tilted hear head to the side.
“Never underestimate the enemy?” That was apparently not the correct answer as she pursed her lips a little and stepped back from me.
“Hmm … no. Be like those two. Give everything you got, even though it’s not necessary.” She said and readied herself once more.
Well, if I was supposed to give everything from the get go then …
Once more, she went for the same attack, but this time, I didn’t even move, but rather imagined a way to stop the sword in its track.
“Barrier.” An impenetrable shield for most appeared right in the tracks of the sword, stopping it within an instant. Harmlessly, the sword bounced off my glowing yellow shield with nothing reaching me at all.
That was, until she used the rebound of the sword to bring it close to her and dance past me to my unprotected left side.
The thing was, these barriers were always created in relation to me and I couldn’t move them around freely, which meant I had to create a new shield with a diameter of around a metre to protect myself again, which wasn’t exactly feasible because she was way too close already.
I also couldn’t block her sword with mine because … well, I hadn’t moved it so far and wouldn’t be able to react in time. Which meant I had lost a second time to someone who was only half as strong as me.
“Hmm … can you alter these barriers?” She asked while stabbing her sword into the ground.
“It’s hard.” I admitted. Even though I had worked really hard on my barriers in the past, I always struggled with creating different shapes on the fly.
“Try to make one covering a larger area.” She said and stepped back a little to give me more room.
“It’s not as durable then.” I admitted. Theoretically, I could create one forming a bulb around me, but they were impenetrable for everyone, including me. I would sit around like a duck doing nothing in that case.
“I’m sure the other things will come with time.” She said and walked over to Luna who was looking at the scene with great interest.
Apparently, Lucy didn’t intend to give me anything else to work with as she started climbing the tree as well.
Well then, the most I could do was to make some barriers anyway.
So tiring … I could already see the sun rising in the distance while holding my eyes barely open. The two boys had already stopped trying to catch Miss Dove some time ago, and were washing themselves at this time.
Even our magical combat teacher was tired, but she still swung her sword around from time to time, blasting a torrent of wind in the direction she was aiming at.
Lucy on the other hand had it the easiest. She was meditating for a very long time already, and it didn’t look as if she was tired at all.
“Let’s go.” She said all of a sudden and stood up while stretching her legs and arms. They must have felt completely sore because she didn’t move at all during the whole night. A bit confused, I followed her on the way towards the road until I remarked that the camp was in the other direction.
Trying to suppress my laughter, I thus walked towards the camp where we got a fresh set of clothing from our luggage and a few other things. As we couldn’t find Luna in the tent, we chose to wash ourselves without her at a nearby river. Luckily it was the girl’s time to wash, so there weren’t any boys around.
As usual, I completely unclothed myself and dumped water over me using a nearby bucket. I would love to take a dive into the river, but they could be very dangerous if they lead to the ocean. Lucy chose another, weird way and carefully dipped a cloth into the river to wash her face and arms.
“Hey, you are going to stink if you don’t clean yourself properly!” I said jokingly. Her reaction to my words was vastly different than expected though.
“Ehh? No … no, it’s fine! I’m not sweating much anyway.” She stumbled over her words which was very rare to see. Finally, I had found one of her weaknesses. She hated cleaning herself … for whatever reason. And I really wanted to tease her with that, in a friendly way though.
“That’s a cheap excuse. At least wipe your whole body.” I said and crossed my arms in front of my chest.
“I’m … fine.” She mumbled and looked back the way we came.
“No, you are not.” I said and rushed towards her as she tried to run away from the river. She was incredibly slow though and thus, I caught her within seconds by hugging her from behind and lifting her off the ground. “I’m not getting into the same cart with someone who isn’t washed properly.” Obviously, that was just an excuse, but I did want to have my fun with her a little bit. Lucy resisted quite a bit, but somewhere along the line, she stopped doing so and went somewhat silent.
I should have stopped at this point, if not way earlier. But I was way too tired to think straight and I really wanted to tease her. She was finally sitting on the bucket and let me wash her back as she slowly relaxed.
“That’s not a scene I thought I would see in my lifetime.” I heard Luna saying from the right, looking over towards us quite stunned. “You are not going to steal my best friend from me, are you?”
“Definitely not! But I just couldn’t sit in the same cart with her, knowing her to be dirty.” I explained as soon as I finished cleaning her.
“You are … weird.” Luna said the moment Lucy jumped up and started clothing herself.
“And tired.” I said truthfully. More often than not, my eyelids were closing on their own.
“Everything alright, Lucy?” Luna asked as Lucy behaved a bit oddly by remaining mostly silent.
“Hmm…” Lucy mumbled. We waited for Luna to clean herself as well, and then ate our breakfast with the equally tired boys. During that time I could see Lucy and Luna whispering something to each other, probably about the reason we were all so tired.
Shortly afterwards, Lucy climbed onto the cart once more and sat on the left bench together with Luna back to back. They had taken the whole bench for themselves and started reading books before our trip even started.
We were all to tired to argue and as Louis and Schwarz took their usual seats, I simply sat down in the middle of them and drifted off into sleep right away.
I only woke up from loud laughter way later, as the cart had already stopped and the nice smell of food filled my nostrils. As I opened my eyes, I couldn’t see Luna or Lucy in front of me, but felt how Louis rested his head on my shoulder. At first, I was quite shocked, but then I started to enjoy his warmth. Rarely, we were this close before and thus, I enjoyed every second of it.
Thankfully, Schwarz leaned over to the other side, resting his head again a wooden beam instead of me. That would have seriously ruined the moment.
Someone else who could potentially ruin everything was Lucy who came back with a plate filled with food in her hands. At first, she wanted to say something, but then realised that I was already awake and closed her barely open mouth.
She smirked towards me, then turned around on her heels and left to where she came from. Carefully putting my cheek against Louis head, I rested for a few more minutes, enjoying the feeling in my heart to the fullest … at least until Miss Dove came by, completely disregarded the sleeping boys and slapped the cart, waking everyone awake.
“I’m scheduled to watch over camp the first few hours. Do whatever you want, but don’t wander off.” And with that, she left us alone once more. In the beginning, I thought she woke us up because she didn’t care much about my feelings but as we disembarked the cart, I realised that the food was getting rather cold already.
The other two of our group had already eaten and were playing a card game with some other students as we ate our meals in silence.
I really wanted to tell those two to get their act together and work in unison to reach their … my goal of proving Lucy wrong, but what she had said stuck to me.
‘Some lessons cannot be taught’ or something like this. It was true. They wouldn’t take my advice to heart, especially not Schwarz. Louis would probably consider it, but he couldn’t allow Schwarz to win.
‘Some lessons cannot be taught’ … was there anything Miss Dove didn’t want to teach me as well? I did hope not, even though I couldn’t say for sure.
With these thoughts on my mind, I joined the group in playing games while Schwarz and Louis used some training swords to fight each other after Schwarz challenged my best friend. Obviously, they did it close by and I caught both of them glancing in our direction from time to time.
After several hours of being awake, our usual group, including Luna this time followed Miss Dove to a nearby clearing while I carried two training swords.
“There is no water nearby, so don’t get too dirty.” That was her only warning before she evaded Schwarz who was too eager to prove himself once more.
“So … what are we going to do?” I asked Lucy who helped Luna up onto a tree so that she had a better view. She apparently only wanted to see what we were doing at night, not join in. She didn’t know how to fight, so she wouldn’t be of any help anyway.
“Hit me with all you got.” Lucy said and took one training sword from me. She held it in both hands in front of her, steady and without any trembling.
And so, I took my own sword in both hands, lifted it above my head and struck downwards, exerting the most strength I could in the process. She blocked my strike , but grunted and went on her knees in the process. She really wasn’t that strong.
“Okay, now with half your strength.” Once again, I repeated the motion but this time, I held back considerably. Lucy stayed firm underneath my strike and was merely pushed backwards a little. But otherwise, she blocked it without any unnecessary movement.
“Can you stay at that level?” She asked and weighed the wooden sword in her hand carefully.
“I’ll try.” I said, even though I would have my problems with that.
“Okay … defend yourself.” She said and directly dashed forwards. She was painfully slow though, far slower than she should have been considering she just blocked my attack at half my super human strength.
A bit worried this whole time would turn out to be useless, I casually brought my sword in position to defend myself. Before the two swords hit each other though, she suddenly accelerated to the speed I had expected and completely caught me off guard. She also tilted her sword a little and struck me right above my left hand. That would have hurt if she had aimed a little bit lower.
“Lesson one?” She asked and tilted hear head to the side.
“Never underestimate the enemy?” That was apparently not the correct answer as she pursed her lips a little and stepped back from me.
“Hmm … no. Be like those two. Give everything you got, even though it’s not necessary.” She said and readied herself once more.
Well, if I was supposed to give everything from the get go then …
Once more, she went for the same attack, but this time, I didn’t even move, but rather imagined a way to stop the sword in its track.
“Barrier.” An impenetrable shield for most appeared right in the tracks of the sword, stopping it within an instant. Harmlessly, the sword bounced off my glowing yellow shield with nothing reaching me at all.
That was, until she used the rebound of the sword to bring it close to her and dance past me to my unprotected left side.
The thing was, these barriers were always created in relation to me and I couldn’t move them around freely, which meant I had to create a new shield with a diameter of around a metre to protect myself again, which wasn’t exactly feasible because she was way too close already.
I also couldn’t block her sword with mine because … well, I hadn’t moved it so far and wouldn’t be able to react in time. Which meant I had lost a second time to someone who was only half as strong as me.
“Hmm … can you alter these barriers?” She asked while stabbing her sword into the ground.
“It’s hard.” I admitted. Even though I had worked really hard on my barriers in the past, I always struggled with creating different shapes on the fly.
“Try to make one covering a larger area.” She said and stepped back a little to give me more room.
“It’s not as durable then.” I admitted. Theoretically, I could create one forming a bulb around me, but they were impenetrable for everyone, including me. I would sit around like a duck doing nothing in that case.
“I’m sure the other things will come with time.” She said and walked over to Luna who was looking at the scene with great interest.
Apparently, Lucy didn’t intend to give me anything else to work with as she started climbing the tree as well.
Well then, the most I could do was to make some barriers anyway.
