Crystal Legacies: Rebirth

Chapter 25

Chapter Twenty-Five:

The Choice

Though there were bitter feelings about having to be out in the summer weather once more, the group had stopped between their last resting point and whatever destination Dante had in his head. He had been short on details about where they were going, much to everyone's annoyance. And though they had gone off road a bit in the truck to camp out for the night, he was still tight lipped about it. Said stingy Commander was left to sort out their sleeping arrangements with Razaria in the forest as Ivy, Mari, and Justin gathered up different sized wood from the surrounding area.

Everyone seemed to be hard at work setting up a rudimentary camp. Until Mari decided to ever so gently wack Ivy's hand with the end of a rather straight stick they found.

"Look, you are getting slow," she teased, holding her stick like it was a baton as she picked up another one.

"Oh, I'll show you slow!" Ivy said as she shook out her hand, quickly looking for a comparable piece of wood that wasn't in the fire pit yet.

The two girls got up and started to play what Razaria could only describe as sword fighting. Ivy lunged towards Mari who perried, doing some sort of twist before going back to attacking the white haired young woman. Ivy blocked it, striking out with a kick. Before they started getting too wild with it, Ivy and Mari's antics had reminded Razaria of some of the play fights she'd done with her own younger sister. As the 'fight' continued on though, it changed from anything that resembled a play fight; she realized she was actually watching them spar off against each other. Including full contact that was sure to leave massive bruises. Even as she winced sympathetically for the girl that got hit, which seemed to be roughly matched up as a back to back tit for tat match, it made her think about all the possible battles they might face in the future.

The last fight hadn't gone well from what she'd gathered. Ivy had been shot almost right out the gate, though thanks to her Gift she apparently had healed before the fight had even finished. Justin had been raked through the coals and smashed through another car's window - they still found glass shards in the truck at random times - and the only reason he'd survived was because he wasn't human. Mari had been hypnotically lured away from her position near Razaria, breaking herself free and electrocuting the person that had done that. Dante had been fighting Silver, a man who could phase through anything as far as Razaria could tell. And the only reason he'd been brought to a halt was because Razaria had been thrown around, then lured out by an imposter, and then man handled by Silver who had used her as leverage against Dante and the others. She couldn't even remember how they'd actually won the fight.

She just knew that if it wasn't for her, Dante wouldn't have had to stop fighting. The group wouldn't have needed to try to surround her, to protect her, if she knew how to protect herself. Compared to them she had been useless - a burden. And from where she stood now, Razaria had a feeling she was going to be a burden during every single one in the future. She only had a few training sessions while they were at The Organization compared to the years of training each one of her companions had. She felt almost guilty, knowing that because of this they had to protect her and put themselves in danger to ensure her safety.

She turned her attention away from her female companions and looked to the males of the group who were busy putting together the best makeshift camping space they could with their limited supplies. She wondered in the back of her mind how long it would take for anyone to actually notice if she left. It would make it so they wouldn't have to protect her anymore, and thus lift a burden from them, possibly saving one of them from dying to protect her. She was broken from her thoughts as Ivy came up to her and pulled her up using her as an almost shield.