A Change of Pace

2034 | Post Bear Attack

    Poking her head around the corner, Zya saw Jasper sitting up in one of Master Aurora’s beds, getting any final check-ups done before he could be released. One arm was in a sling while the other one was bandaged up, and his torso was abundantly bound. She hid behind the wall again and set her forehead against it, releasing a breath. Her own arm was in a sling and she could feel the bandage tightly wound around her stomach. Wayra laid around her neck, taking a much deserved nap.

    “Alright,” Master Aurora said, making Zya jump, “looks like you’re good to move about, just don’t go training right away—give it a week or so to give your body some rest, okay?”

    “Yeah, thank you Master Aurora.”

    She heard him grunt in pain as he got off of the bed and head toward the door. Panicked, Zya moved herself flat against the wall, hoping she could easily hide from the light wizard and his spirit. Fuge’s voice was the first thing she heard before they emerged from the doorway.

    “You better do what she says; otherwise I don’t think you’ll recover properly.” The light spirit spotted Zya standing there in a panic. She quickly threw her finger over her lips in a shushing motion. Fuge continued to float alongside Jasper as he slowly nodded his head, looking confused.

    Jasper scratched the back of his head with his free arm as they headed down the hallway, and sighed. “Yeah, guess I’m sticking to my room for a while. Maybe not moving around too much will make it go quicker.”

    She gave them some walking distance before she quietly followed after them, Fuge constantly glancing back at her.

    “Is there anything I can do without moving? Maybe I could practice my spells—”

    “When she said training, I believe she included magic, Jazz.”

    The wizard groaned. “Okay, fine, I’ll just lie in bed and do nothing for a week.”

    “Stop complaining—”

    “But I need to do something!”

    “You could always make some blessings.”

    Jasper froze in his spot and turned around to face the spoken voice that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

    “… Or whatever it is you guys do in the Light Wing.”

    “Goodness, Zya is that you? I’m sorry! I didn’t realize you were there.”

    “She was there the whole time—”

    The wind praetor shot Fuge a panicked look before smacking her hand to her face. “Ah—yeah, I was here. Sorry, I didn’t mean to surprise you. I just…”

    “She was stalking you.”

    “Fuge!” “I wasn’t!” Both wizard and praetor said at the same time.

    Zya stayed quiet for a second, trying to think of how to phrase what she wanted to say, and then sighed. “I… I wanted to apologize about… when we got attacked. I wasn’t helpful at all and you even got hurt—”

    “Oh!” Jasper’s eyebrows shot up into his hair. “No, no, I must apologize I—I froze up and ended up getting us both injured—”

    “No! But I ended up aggravating the bear more—”

    “Would you both stop,” Fuge’s interrupted. The pair of magic users stayed silent at the spirit’s command. “You both did poorly but that’s because you’re inexperienced. There’s nothing wrong with that.”

    A brief pause in silence and the pair awkwardly laughed.

    “He has a point…” the wind praetor said as she tugged at her beanie, making sure to not knock her own spirit off her neck. She thought back over the event again. “We… we didn’t really work together, either. We were so focused on doing our own thing.”

    “Well, we had a bear attacking us—wait, it was a bear attacking us?”

    Zya chuckled. “Yeah, all that smell of death was because the bear was tainted.”

    “Wow…” Jasper reflected over the conversation again.

    Fuge shrugged in response. “Well whatever it ended up being, it was an enemy.” Trying to loop back to the previous discussion, he added: “Nice team work by the way.”

    She dryly laughed. “What team work? I…” She rubbed her bitten arm subconsciously. “I think we were just trying our best to survive…”

    “Exactly,” the light spirit said, crossing his arms. “It would have gone better if you two could have worked together—actually worked together.” Fuge uncrossed his arms and started to guide Jasper away. “Oh well, maybe next time...” He glanced over his shoulder to the wind praetor. “If there is a next time.”

    Jasper didn’t move at Fuge’s cue. “There… could—will be a next time.”

    Zya frowned, but hummed in thought. “There will… Well,” she hesitated. “I think we can work well together—light travels through air, after all, so… It’s just,” she looked up at Jasper and Fuge, “we haven’t really practiced together much, so we’re not sure how to react to the other…?” Zya trailed off and looked away, not sure of herself.

    Jasper tilted his head slightly in thought. “That’s possible; we haven’t really been around each other enough to know what the other plans on doing next. Maybe we should remedy that! Let’s start over!” The light wizard stuck his hand out to the wind praetor. “Hi, my name is Jasper and I’m a light wizard. It’s nice to meet you!”

    The girl’s eyes widened and then she laughed and shook his hand. “It’s nice to meet you, Jasper. My name is Zyanya and I’m a wind praetor. But you can call me Zya!”

    The boy smiled. “Then you can call me Jazz!”

    Zya blushed slightly, not quite used to calling others by nicknames. “Jazz…” she said quietly.

    He chuckled. “Since we need to learn to work together, and since training is off the table, I have a proposition! Would you care to entertain me by reading something?”

    A smile grew on her face. “I’d love to!”