The Healer ✔

Chapter Four

Elora watched in silence as Nyal trained again. He'd woken up with the sun to do so. He'd accidentally woken her not long beforehand with his movement, but as long as he wasn't too loud, she didn't mind it that much. She needed to get up anyway, they needed to get moving as early as possible. It was too dangerous to stay in the eastern woods much longer.

Ragen and Mikhail had woken up long before she did, according to Nyal. They'd gone off in search of food and would be back soon. She thought back to their conversation the day before. Despite knowing now that her father didn't care much for his creations anymore, the couple still cared about what he thought, for a reason Elora couldn't understand. Since then, they'd both been quiet.

She sighed and stood from her place at the foot of the tree. Nyal stopped what he was doing when he saw her move. "Everything alright?" he asked, his brow crinkling in worry.

"I'm fine," she said and frowned at him. "If you want to train properly, you need to actually fight something."

Nyal shook his head. "I'm not dragging something out from the woods to fight, not when it could attract other," he said.

"That wasn't what I was suggesting."

"What were you suggesting?" Elora felt a smirk pull at her lips as she gathered a tiny bit of her magic. She smacked it into his back and nearly laughed at the confused grunt he let out. She didn't hit him too hard, just hard enough for him to notice. He shook his head again. "No, not happening," he told her, pointing his finger at her.

"Why not?" she asked and hit him with her magic again. "We both need to train. We needn't go too hard on each other. If anyone gets too badly injured, just heal them." She hit him again. "Come on, fight back."

"I'm not-" She hit him in the face then and he glared at her playfully. "Fine." He gathered the water around him and raised his eyebrows at her expectantly.

Their magics clashed together in almost silent. Water fell to the ground in small droplets and was quickly picked back up again by Nyal. Elora made a wall in front of her, stopping any water from passing by. She danced to the side and flicked her wrist in Nyal's direction. Darkness snaked like a thick mist behind him.

It wrapped around his ankle and pulled him to the ground. He grunted and glared at her. She held in a laugh and pulled her magic towards her again. She gasped when water splashed against her chest and sent her stumbling back. Nyal jumped to his feet and turned all his water into ice. He launched it at her and she created another wall.

The ice slammed against the wall. She took a deep breath and sent her wall outwards so that it flew straight into Nyal. He fell to the ground again with another grunt. "This is hardly fair," he said as he stood.

"It is completely fair. You just need to fight back," she replied. He wasn't going to get better if he didn't put up a proper fight. "The Zlohiel are much stronger than I am, Nyal."

"I know," he said.

They danced around each other, their magic flowing around the small space they were in. Darkness and water slammed against the trees and ground as their pair dodged and weaved their way around. Her burned and injured wings screamed in pain as she went flying back into the trunk of a tree, the cold burn of ice against her chest.

Nyal cursed at her reaction and dropped his water into the grass. "I'm sorry! Are you okay?" he asked, panicked.

She said nothing as he rushed towards her and kept a straight face when her magic knocked him to the side. "I'm fine," she said. He glared at her jokingly and stood. He gathered his water around him as she pulled at her magic.