Worlds Apart

Connections

The next morning I rise to hear water being dumped into the tub as Eadric must have risen first. "Shit." I mutter, rising and dressing in all of my clothes before throwing my hair into a loose braid behind me and running out of the house down the latter. I shiver as my feet contact the ground, but then slowly realize the crunch I hear instead of the squish of damp grass. It is only when I actually turn to face the royal district of the village when I realize the ground has been dusted in a gentle pearlescent layer of snow.

"Oh my god," I mutter, gasping at the scene before me, "snow."

"Aurora!" My friends call, running towards me, and I find myself doing the same, colliding into them at the middle of the square for all the Grounders to see.

I ignore their taken aback expression as we take in the scene before us, and I cannot help but laugh as Brian wraps his arms around Alice and me, holding us close to either side of him as he calls out loudly, "That's the ground for you, bitches!" Carter laughs before looking to Jackie nervously as she smiles widely to him. Ignoring his nervous manner, she leaps into his arms where he immediately wraps his arms tightly around her waist, holding her close and spinning her around as they take in the magic of the ground together.

I smile at that, then turn, still laughing until I suddenly notice Eadric among the Grounders who have chosen to stop and watch us curiously. His hair is not even damp. Did he hear me leave then? After a moment, I look to see Eerika is next to him, smiling as she watches in amusement before her eyes meet mine, and she suddenly jogs up to join us. As she does so, however, I cannot help but notice Apache next to Eadric, his expression disapproving but with some underlying unease as he mutters things into Eadric's ear. Huh, I wonder what that is about?

Surprisingly enough, I find the corners of my mouth tilting upward as Eerika stops in front of me, grinning herself as she says, "Pretty cool, huh?"

"We sure as hell think so." I inform her, which causes us both to laugh. She glances around naturally, but I notice her eyes halt at a certain point for only a second before she looks back to me, swallowing as she does so. I follow her glance only to see Lakote looking towards us, and wave to him, a huge, ridiculously exaggerated smile on my face as he nods to me just in time for my hand to get smacked down by Eerika.

"What are you doing?" She gets out in a panic.

I ignore her protests as I raise my other arm to beckon Lakote over. His expression remains neutral as he comes to join us, and after a minute of tension as Carter, Alice and Jackie look over him, unsure, Brian somehow dissipates the uncertainty as he calls out, "Lakote, my man of little words! Nice to see you're still willing to be seen with us even after witnessing my god awful spear throwing techniques!"

The group laughs at that, and even Lakote manages a low grin. His eyes quickly glance towards Eerika I notice, though, before his gaze is finally set on mine. "Is everything okay, Your Majesty?"

"Listen, I've been focusing mostly on my combat training lately and now that Winter is here, I'm going to need to spend more time at the clinic to help Kiche prepare for flu season. While I'm absent from the training, however, I was wondering if you could spend some time with Eerika in order to help her further plan my training regime? I need to find a way to take the weekend off combat to work at the clinic all while not harming my progress with my spending less time there now. Does that make sense?"

"Of course, Miss Aurora. I'll be sure to get on making a plan designed for your schedule immediately. Perhaps we could focus more on weapons training now that you've nearly mastered hand to hand combat?"

"That would be great. I'd urge you not to forget that no one knows my skill level and fighting style better than Eerika. I ask that you work with her to develop this plan."