The Fantasy Games (Final Fantasy Fanfiction)

Chapter Fourteen: Revelations

"You need to loosen up Yuna, don't be so tense, you have to act like the water," Rinoa corrected her stance and poked at her biceps and calf muscles as she advised her fellow tribute. "You have to be flexible yet strong, but most importantly balanced." She demonstrated her technique, muttering a few words before plucking the water from the small river they'd found and twirling it around in the air. Yuna watched her graceful movements with envy, wishing she could be that fluid in her motions when manipulating the water.

"Try to feel the natural push and pull of the water," she continued to explain, swaying her body back and forth along with the water while keeping it twisting and levitating nicely in the air. "It's kind of like the waves from the sea; they push into the shore and then pull back only to push again. The process never ends and neither should your pushing and pulling movements when you're controlling it."

Yuna watched her demonstrate carefully before slowly starting to copy Rinoa's movements, only without the water. She released a deep breath and closed her eyes, relaxing her muscles and letting the movements become familiar to her until they became automatic yet fluid, like the water. Rinoa watched her out of the corner of her eye and gently passed the water over to her, slowly letting her control slip until it was only Yuna who kept it in the air.

A smile crept onto both girls' faces as the summoner continued to keep levitating the water without failure. She twirled the water around her body and over her head, becoming more confident with every second she kept it up. It was kind of like the performance of a sending, you had to be balanced, relaxed yet focused all at the same time. All she had to do was act as though her body was made of liquid.

"See? I knew you could do it!" Rinoa praised her, crossing her arms over her chest and gazing at her newest pupil with pride. Yuna couldn't help how her smile grew wider at her mentor's words and with one swift movement; she snapped her arm outwards, fingers pointing dead straight, and sent the water crashing into the tree on the opposite side of the river where Rinoa had set up a makeshift target.

"Nice finish," Rinoa complimented her.

"Thank you," Yuna replied with a bright smile. "I think I did something like this with fire once," she said lowering her hands and turning to her friend. "It wasn't much but I kind of made it flicker and twirl slightly, nothing offensive like this though."

"That's still good, fire is one of the harder elements to control," Rinoa praised her again with an approving nod of her head. "Do you think you can do it again?"

Yuna nodded once before lifting a hand out in front of her, palm facing upwards as she closed her eyes and muttered a small fire spell. When she felt the heat on her open palm, she opened her eyes and moved her fingers slightly, managing to make the fire crackle. Flicking her wrist in a circular motion she made the fire curl around her wrist before returning to its place.

"Excellent," the sorceress commended her with a huge smile on her features. "You've really improved; I've never seen anyone learn as quickly as you do."

"Well I have a very good teacher," Yuna complimented her with a giggle as both girls sat down beside the river to rest for a minute.

Even though they hadn't been practising for that long, Yuna still felt tired. She wasn't used to controlling magic the way Rinoa did and she had never even touched air or earth magic before. Rinoa had been patient with her even with the easier movements she couldn't get. The sorceress had thought the small stream they had accidently come across was a good place to start training and so she was thrust straight into lessons.

Yuna had been amazed at how much she had to learn when it came to the art of black magic and she had been even more amazed at how much Rinoa seemed to know. Unlike Isaaru, who had been rather cryptic and unclear at times, Rinoa answered all of her questions simply and patiently and rather than just letting the summoner learn off spells from a book as Lulu had done, she explained the words of the spell, what they meant and why they were important. It wasn't that Lulu and Isaaru were bad teachers, far from it; she just found Rinoa's way of teaching more... efficient.