Beyond

Raindrops

  Raindrops

The garden was a courtyard in the center of the old castle, with a class roof to let in light, but not all the rain.  The grass was lush and sweet-smelling, and the trees and flowers seemed more than happy in their current spots.  A girl was in a corner watering a bush, as Seraina walked inside.

  There were many little winding paths made of slices of stone laid in the ground, that led to a big stone center, with grass peeking up from in between the slabs.

  "Good morning, Seraina.  You must be here because Karen wanted you to train."  The girl smiled, her freckled cheeks pushing on her eyes.

  Seraina nodded.

 "I see,"  the girl nodded in sympathy, as if Seraina had said more.  "Well, good luck today!"  She then gathered up the now empty buckets of water, put them in her cart, and wheeled it back inside.

 She left Seraina alone in the center of the courtyard, waiting.

  Seraina wasn't really in the garden, her mind was wandering again as she stood tapping her foot to the rhythm no one could hear but her.

  "HEY!"  Kei called out, brushing his brown bangs away from his face.  He ran into the center, stopping a few feet away from Seraina.

  "Hi."

  "So."  Kei said, leaning back on his heels, his hands in his pants pockets.

  Seraina wasn't baited by his invitation to reply, or continue a conversation.  She gave no sign that she'd been paying attention.

  Then was when Adam came in, followed closely by Karen.

  "Hi!"  Kei said, his voice brightening up the flowers.

  "Hey."  Adam said.

  "Hello."  Karen replied cooly.  "Well, everyone's here.  Time to start."

  With that said, everyone took their positions, with Seraina, Kei, and Adam on one half of the circle, and Karen on the other.

  "I assume you all brought your weapons."  She said, a little round light opening in her palm, blossoming into a spear that was taller than she was.

  The all nodded mutely.  Kei pulled out his kunai, that materialized from yellow lights in his hands.

  Adam pulled a sword out from his shadow, made completely out of black metal, that was shiny like steel, colder, and darker.

  Seraina didn't move.  It didn't seem she had.  Now in her hands there were two identical knives, each with their own identical leather-wrapped handle.

  "Good.  Today, we'll be facing off, practicing.  So I'll fight Kei.  Adam, you partner up with Seraina."  They took their positions, Kei moving to the other side of the circle, his eyes lit up by the idea of a challenge.

  Adam and Seraina shuffled to face each other, both looking like they'd rather eat rocks than have to train together.

"Begin!"  Karen called out.  "Oh, and I'll have you at it all day if you can't do anything over there."  She said eyeing Adam and Seraina, before dodging one of Kei's light kunai.

  "Okay."  The mumbled, and took their stances.

————————————————————————————————————————-

Yay! Longer chapter this time, and guess what- I'll be posting as regularly as I can, on tuesdays and fridays. Look forward to it!

As always, if you enjoyed the chapter please vote. If there's something you have to comment on about my story, please do so! I'm always happy to hear any thoughts or critiques of my story.

Thanks for reading, and hope to see you friday! :)