Verve | Elementals 3

4. Simon

Chapter 4

~Simon~

       Heath laid down on the grass, resting his arms over his eyes. "I need to rest. Give me, like, ten minutes."

       I crouched down beside Heath, gently nudging his side. "Are you still feeling weak from the virus thing?"

       Heath shook his head. "No, no. I'm feeling perfectly fine now. Training in general just stresses me out." He sighed heavily. "I know you keep assuring me that I'm not weak, but I still can't help but think that way. I'm not learning anything. All I can do is throw fireballs and engulf my arm in flames."

       I moved from my crouched position to a sitting one. "Heath, you have to remember that you just found out about being the fire elemental a few months ago. You're still learning."

       Heath removed his arms away from his eyes and looked at me. "I'm learning slower than everyone else. You can all do amazing things even after finding out about being an elemental around the same time as me."

       "You can't compare abilities," I said. "I've told you that. What you can do is different than what everyone else can do, so it's not fair on you to compare."

       Heath sighed and looked up at the sky. "I can't help it. I know you tried telling me that I wasn't the easiest target for the virus, but I can't help but think about it. I mean, why me? Why not anyone else?"

       I laid down beside Heath, knowing that we should get back to me training Heath, but I wanted to make sure he was mentally capable to do so. His current sense of low self esteem definitely wouldn't help him at all. The best thing I can do right now is just listen to his problems and try to help him. "We shouldn't be thinking about why they chose you. We don't know what's going on in their heads. Maybe they decided to target you because they saw you as the biggest threat."

       Heath snorted, but there was a small smile appearing since I appeased to his confident side. "Be for real. Fire balls? So threatening."

       "Fire burns. I'd be scared if you threw fire constantly at me."

       Heath looks at me again, still smiling lightly. "I know you're just trying to make me feel better, but you don't have to lie to make me feel better." He sighed once again. "Sorry for being such a downer after you're taking time out of your day to try to train me."

       "Don't worry about it," I said. "It's something you want help with, so of course I'd be willing to help you." I sat up. "I have an idea. You're really good at creating fire. You're just struggling with any other abilities you can do."

       Heath scowled. "How is that an idea? You're just pointing out the obvious."

       "I didn't finish," I said. "Since you're really good at creating fire, we'll work on that. You can create a flame shield or--"

       Heath didn't even let me finish all the ideas I had. He just said, "I'm in. A flame shield? That sounds badass."

       I stood up, then Heath stood up as well. "Then let's get started on it. So right now, you're good at creating fire and either holding it or throwing it, but the latter makes it fade right away. We're going to try to get you to have it in front of you, if that makes sense."

       Heath nodded. "It does. Just tell me how to do it."

       I had to think for a few moments to figure out the best way to get Heath to learn how he could make a flame shield. Once I thought of it, I told Heath exactly what to do. I had to make sure to talk him through it slowly. From becoming friends with Heath and now dating him, I had come to learn that he wasn't the type of person to be able to accept a bunch of information being thrown at him all at once. He had to work slowly to be able to have to time to process all of it.

       I think that was the whole issue with Heath not learning well when it came to Jared training all of us. Jared was trying to teach us quickly, but that wasn't beneficial for Heath.

       It took some time but soon enough, Heath was able to create a shield made out of flames. He wasn't able to hold it for long, but it was enough of a start for him to keep working on. We got him to work on holding the shield longer and longer before he decided he was done training for now.

       I didn't want to try to get Heath to learn something else since one thing for now was good enough. I was extremely proud that he was able to still push through despite feeling dejected for a bit.

       "You know, you should be the new Guardian for the elementals," Heath said as we walked to his house to hang out for the rest of the day. 

       I furrow my eyebrows. "Huh? Why? We have one."

       "Not a good one," Heath said.

       I shrugged. "I think Jared is doing a good job." Heath was silent, so I looked at him. I could tell that he was thinking about something, so I nudged his side. "What's up?"

       "I just... I don't know," Heath said. "I guess I'm still a bit upset that he's a bit rude whenever I don't train, in his words, properly. But here you are, knowing exactly how to train me. It's almost like Jared isn't even trying for me."

       "I'm not going to argue that he isn't trying," I said. "But you do have to remember that he's trying to train all of us at once. It's okay, though. If you still don't feel like you're progressing with him training you, I'll continue to do it."

       Heath smiled at me. "I mean, I did say you should be the Guardian for a reason. You're doing a really good job at training me. I can already do three things now. Soon enough, I'll be able to do as much as everyone else."

       I smiled back at Heath, feeling happy that he was already feeling a bit more confident in himself.

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just wait until heath finds out he can walk through fire. (don't tell him though, he'd be starting fires just to walk through it lol)

i still love these two so much <3 i'm glad i decided that not all of the bonded pairs will be romantically linked too because that would have been too boring hahaha.