Ever So Lightly- Book 1

14

The next three days went much the same as Zephyr's first day travelling with the Carnival. The only change was that Dalin had begun to wake her a half hour earlier than the rest of the camp would rise, and the two of them would jog or run. Zephyr assumed it was an attempt to build her endurance, and she knew it would only benefit her, but she quickly came to hate mornings, more than she already had.

She noticed that Jasper also ran each morning, though he had yet to join her and Dalin. Zephyr assumed this was a habit that spilled over from his being a soldier. Bennet did not seem to feel the need to rise early enough to join Jasper.

The caravan had been travelling at a steady, if slow, pace. Nakomi had told Zephyr their first day on the road together that they should reach Faron in about two weeks. Despite the fact that they were progressing much slower than Zephyr and her companions would have if they had struck out on their own, the days were passing quickly. Each day was filled with with interesting conversations, lots of riding, fires and dancing and brilliant music each night, more riding, and of course, her training with Nakomi and Dalin after they stopped for lunch. Zephyr knew that she was already getting better, and was somewhat happy with her progress, since she had started out knowing absolutely nothing about fighting of any kind. Zephyr knew it wasn't natural skill that was causing the progress though. Each day Nakomi was pushing her harder and harder, expecting her to show improvement each time they met to practice. During their lessons this irritated Zephyr to no end, and she felt herself fuming each time Nakomi yelled at her to give more or to stop tripping over her own feet. Afterwards though, Zephyr's irritation would wane and deep down she felt immense appreciation for how hard Nakomi pressed her and for the importance the woman placed on what they were doing. Zephyr would just never admit it out loud, at least, not until she was able to land a hit on the woman.

Usually Zephyr was too exhausted after her lessons to practice using her Gift, so she had begun trying to do so each morning as she rode with the others. She started out small, just trying to create tiny breezes that would blow through the mane of her horse. After an entire morning of practicing that, Zephyr found that she could do so on command, without needing to feel frustrated to pull forth her power. She could slightly summon it within her, and each time she did so that now familiar tingling began in her core, working it's way to her extremities. She found that the more power and control she used, the more she could feel that power within her, and she liked the way it made her feel, the strength it bolstered her with.

By the third day of practicing with her Gift Zephyr was able to shoot small bursts of air away from herself. She hadn't mastered the ability to control the direction of the flows, so to practice that she kept trying to hit Bennet in the back of the head with the bursts of air. He was riding directly in front of her and still hadn't noticed what Zephyr was trying to do after ten minutes of her efforts failing. Jasper pulled his horse up next to her own and leaned over so that only she would hear him speak.

"Try making everything else around you go out of focus," he whispered to her, his eyes alight with mischief. Zephyr felt her cheeks flush as she realized she'd been caught, but decided to try Jasper's suggestion. She turned forward to face the back of Bennet's head once more. She stared hard, until her eyes began to prickle and water, until everything else around her was blurry, her only focus those blonde curls. As she stared, Zephyr called upon the power flowing through her and felt that welcome tingle. She released it in a rush and much to her delight, as the burst of air pushed Bennet's hair forward, he jumped in surprise and let out a yelp, looking around him to see what had hit him. As his hand reached up to pat the back of his own head and a mask of confusion settled over his features, Zephyr couldn't contain herself. A laugh escaped her, and she heard Jasper's deep chuckle mix with her own.

Bennet whirled around in his saddle to face the two of them. He looked back and forth, from Zephyr to Jasper and back, several times before realization finally replaced his look of confusion. His eye's widened as his gaze settled on Zephyr.