--->Essence of Lydia<---

Essence of Lydia---> Chapter 24: Atticus' POV

I had no idea why I had decided to kiss her to bring her out of her little world. It was instinct and I regretted when I noticed that she didn’t like it. I knew I shouldn’t have made that face, but I couldn’t help myself. I was a relatively closed off person, and having to trust her with my life felt a little risky to me. She didn’t seem to think that though, when I had seen her expression. A small smile had graced her lips at the thought, as if she were familiar with this training. That smile disappeared and her face became unreadable when she saw my expression though.

Shaking those thoughts from my mind, I focused on stumbling through this forest with Embry. She pushed me into some hole and soon followed, making me curious as to what she was doing. It was that moment that I had to turn on my senses so that I would know when danger was near. She was silent for a while, making me think that she didn’t really have anything to say, but finally she spoke.

“So, I have been through this training before,” She started, making me realize I had been correct before. “so I know what to expect. We don’t have much time to talk about this because we never know when they will start their hunt for us. I was a child the last time I had done this. It had been a game back then, but it’s most likely more serious this time, so we have to be on top our game.” She spoke this firmly, making me admire how she was taking charge of this situation. Suddenly, she tensed and tackled me to the ground just as I felt a whizzing sound pass by my face. How had she noticed that?!

“We’ve run out of time.” She murmured before grabbing my arm and crawling out of the hole. She then took off running. I just realized that we had no weapons… how were we supposed to fight back? As if reading my thoughts, she answered. “Weapons are needed, but during this training, we have to make our own weapons with whatever we find.” She weaved in between trees gracefully and I cursed myself when I noticed that I was just stumbling after her. I winced when branches snapped under my feet, and tried to be quieter. She suddenly stopped and I crashed into her.

“Sorry.” I whispered, but she just whispered for me to stay put while she gathered materials for weapons we could use.

“So, I learned how to make bow and arrows back then. I’m a little rusty now though, so it might take a little longer than usual. You have to keep your senses on high alert so that I can hurry. Are you going to be able to do that?” She had a mocking tone in her voice in the last question and I scowled even though she couldn’t see it.

“Yes, I can handle it.” I muttered, irritated that she had noticed that I wasn’t good at this stuff. She murmured her consent and then I heard shuffling coming from her as she began making our weapons. Ignoring her movements, I tried focusing on my surroundings, knowing that she was secretly counting on me to protect her. I heard shuffling coming from a different direction then.

“Embry…” I whispered, noticing that she had gone silent. Hopefully she didn’t leave me. I cursed when she didn’t respond. I hated not being able to see my surroundings! I huffed and decided that I guess it was up to me to defend us. I felt something whiz passed me again and quickly backtracked until I found a tree. I then hid behind it and dropped to the ground to find some type of weapon. It was degrading knowing that Embry was better at this stuff than me. I was supposed to be better, from when we were on the logs, but she had more experience than I did in this type of training.

I was good at sensing objects coming at me at a close range and was able to dodge them, but when it came to distance, Embry seemed to be more skilled than I. I still had no idea where she was! Maybe she had sensed them and decided to hide while making the weapons and forgot about me. I felt another whizzing object and tried to focus as I dodged it once again.

I then heard a grunt and someone landed behind me. I tensed, waiting for the attack, but instead I heard the soft murmur of Embry’s breathing. I relaxed just a smidge and that was when she pressed up against my back and I froze completely.

“I didn’t have enough time to make two of them, so I guess I’m going to have to protect the both of us.” She whispered and I couldn’t stop the shiver that passed through my body. I knitted my eyebrows together, not liking the fact that I had no weapon to protect us. I heard her small chuckle as she spoke again. “Actually, I made you a small, wooden dagger. It’s not much, but you seem to be a close range fighter anyway, so it should work better for you than a bow and arrow.” She froze in that moment and I felt her body warmth leave mine as she readied her bow and arrow. I then heard a whizzing sound and a grunt not too far away that I recognized as Dev’s.

I heard her faint chuckle when she noticed who it was that she had hit. She was probably thinking that he deserved it from how he was treating her earlier. He didn’t seem to like her all too much and I didn’t exactly know why. It was unusual for him to act rude towards people, especially the girl who is supposed to be my lover.

“Come on, we should probably climb to higher ground. It doesn’t seem like you’ll be able to do much since they’re using long-distant attacks. But I need to be higher to sense the area more accurately.” She said, pulling me over to the closest branch that was on the tree. “Oh, sorry I hadn’t answered earlier, I was busy sensing where they were from up on the tree.” She murmured as I began to climb. It seemed that I didn’t have much to worry about then, since she hadn’t left me purposely. I smiled a little at the thought and began to climb as fast as I could, knowing that she was still on the ground.

I guess this training would be a lot more interesting than I had originally thought it would be.