Wayward Mages

Chapter 33

Luke

Huh? These guys know each other? How? I look from one to the other and state, "I'm confused."

Kay inhales sharply and smacks her forehead. She looked at Jake. "We're not telling him, are we? Because it's completely over."

He nods. "Yep, I think so too, if that's how you feel, Kaira."

"Yeah, let's put it behind us."

Jake turns to me, and says (Read: says accusingly), "You said you wanted me to meet someone. I didn't think it would be a prisoner!"

I answer him exasperatedly, "You know the freaking prisoner! How does it matter?"

"Oh yeah . . . ," he answers thoughtfully. I roll my eyes at him.

"Kay, how do you know this guy?"

"Uh, summer camp a few years ago."

Oh. I knew Jake came from the normal world, he was a recent discovery - Jonathan found out about him and brought him here around the time Kaira got here, actually . . . so it kinda makes sense.

"Okay, so . . . ," I trail off, unsure of what to say.

"Yeah . . ."

"This is awkward."

Kaira and I nod in agreement. "Wow, way to state the obvious," I say.

"Wanna go head over to the training room to practice? I wanna see your skills." Kay directs this at Jake.

Yeah, sure. Luke, you coming?"

I give him a weird look. "Jake, I think that invite was open to the both of us . . ."

"Oh, right." He squirms slightly, which was really out of character. "So . . . let's go then!" He bounds off towards the door like a little kid. Mood swings much? Kaira and I give each other a glance, shrug, and follow him.

We walk into the training room and it looks pretty much the same as the last time I came here, which was like a couple of days ago. The only difference was that the walls were now repainted - we mages tend to get angry a lot, resulting in us blowing the paint off of the walls.

"Let's start with some target practice," I suggest.

"You're going down," Kaira answers, readying her stance.

I love the way her eyes look when she is determined, the gray goes a shade darker and you can see the gold flecks she has in her eyes more prominently

Her hair now is let loose and is behind her back. I love her silky brown hair and can remember running my fingers through them. She's wearing the prisoner clothes they gave her but she still looks extremely beautiful. She catches me staring at her, and gives me a questioning look but accompanies it with a small smile. I shake my head, mouthing, It's nothing, and smile back in return.

"Grab three knives each, whoever has the most accurate throw, gets to decide the next challenge," I say.

Kaira goes up first. I see that she relaxes the tension in her body. Stands up straighter (than a rod) to ensure a more accurate throw. Then places her right foot forward and her left foot slightly behind it.

She keeps her eye on the target and lets the knife leave her hand, snapping her wrist and flaring it out slightly. It hits right in the center of the target. She looks at me and I give her a thumbs-up.

She's way better than she was the last time we practiced. Her technique and posture have both improved greatly. But, moreover, she seems more . . . confident in her skills overall. Was it the presence of Jake that affected it. If so, I WANTED HIM TO LEAVE. I still liked Kaira, given, maybe not as much as before, but I also still played the role of the overprotective brother.I wasn't gonna let one little (okay, maybe not so little) guy who'd known Kaira longer than I had effect that.

She hits all three knives right in the center of the target. She throws her arms in the air and does a little victory dance, flapping her arms around, and looking like, well, for lack of better words, a maniac.

She chooses their next activity to be sword fighting. She grabs a long sword which we call 'a bastard sword'. This is the perfect sword for Kaira (she loves the name and the reach of it) and she's been training with this sword for a long time.

Jake chooses a similar sword, but his was heavier: the weight of the sword has to balance with the person; and tucks a butterfly knife into each of his boots, and they begin their duel.