The Magic Within; Shadows of Two Worlds

Chapter 73 ~ Ella

    I woke up early, before anyone else the next day. I went to the training room and got to work. I darted around and impaled several dummies with my trident. I even practiced using the trident to attack one dummy and a dagger on another at the same time. About thirty minutes passed and I was dripping with sweat. I sat down and chugged the water I had brought with me. I was about to continue when Jamie walked in. "I guess we had the same idea. How long have you been here?" I smiled. "Only half an hour." She grabbed her sword. "Show me what you have been working on." I nodded then did so. "Impressive. Still, the trick is being vigilant. Always expect blitz attacks." I rolled my eyes. In my "distraction," Jamie tried to sweep out my legs. I dodged and countered her attack. I watched in amusement as she toppled to the floor. "Thanks for the wise words of wisdom, Jamie," I said with a smirk. She looked mischievous. I raised an eyebrow. "Don't get too cocky, Ella." With that, her arm darted out. Still, her words had given me warning. I stepped out of the way right before she could grab my ankle to pull me down. Jamie groaned. I helped her to her feet. "The trick is to not warn your opponent about an attack," I said. "Oh, whatever," she said. We continued to work both separately and together for a couple hours. Ryoko came in. "Amelia and Lilly awake now. Want br-" Ryoko squinted with concentration. "Breakfast?" She then continued in Draconic. I presumed that she was asking how she had done with the English. We followed Ryoko. Throughout breakfast, several dragons were attempting English. Most of them did well. "Dragons learn fastly," Ryoko said. Amelia, Lilly, Jamie, and I shared a glance. Close enough, I mouthed. Afterwards, the four of us continued to train. I sighed as we walked in. "I vehemently agree that we should avoid violence if possible. If, however, a fight breaks out, we can't hesitate to protect ourselves. We can't hesitate to kill." The others nodded resolutely. They knew the words I stopped myself from saying. Jake won't hesitate to kill. I let out a shaky breath. "Let's get to work." Amelia started to go through the supplies again. She smiled widely when she found a spear. It was the perfect size for her. She set up a dummy far away from the rest of us. She started practicing throwing it. Before long, she was throwing it with deadly accuracy. Lilly was practicing shooting targets with her bow. Jamie and I continued to spar. We were pretty evenly matched. We were taking a break to get water when Jamie looked at her watch. "Shit! The English lesson was supposed to start five minutes ago." She told us this while running full speed out the door. "Do you want to swim again?" I asked. They both nodded. As I put on my bathing suit, I thought of Thomas. It was the one I had worn the day Chris had buried us in the sand together. Tears threatened to fall. I pushed them back. I looked at myself in the mirror to give myself a pep talk. "You will have fun with your friends. You will work hard, but relax too. You will not think about Thomas." It didn't help at all, but I left the room anyway. I jumped into the water and let my tail appear. As always, the bathing suit changed with my body. Suddenly, grief nearly overwhelmed me. I let myself sink to the bottom of the creek. It was rocky, but somehow still comfortable. I'm not sure how long I stayed there, taking deep breaths and trying to see the good in my life. Eventually Amelia and Lilly got out there too. I pushed up to the surface. I pasted on a smile. They clearly knew that something was up, but they didn't say anything. After about an hour, Jamie came out. "Hey! Wanna eat lunch then help me with something?" I looked at her suspiciously. "Depends on what you need." She laughed. "It's nothing bad I promise. I'll explain in a minute. We dried off then went inside for lunch. When we sat down, Jamie told us what she was planning. "I want to make a sort of Draconic to English dictionary. It will take a while, but will make this so much easier in the long run. Ryoko told me that she found a dictionary. We can use that for reference. She gave me a ton of paper and pencils." Amelia nodded. "I will be glad to help. I don't know how I can, though." Lilly and I nodded in agreement. "For one, my handwriting is awful." Lilly perked up. "I have wonderful handwriting." I smiled. "Mine is too. We can alternate writing. Jamie nodded. "Great. Amelia, can you read off the words as we go?" Amelia chuckled. "I'm going to need a lot of water." We finished up eating then got to work on the dictionary.