Faithless Memories

Locked Memories

Chapter 6

Kris rolled her eyes again before she turned to him. "I wasn't looking at you in the first place."

He shrugged. "I know, but I was trying to be helpful."

She laughed and shook her head before she turned around again. After another couple of minutes, Zack spoke up. "It's probably because you aren't fighting. You are thinking too much about trying to remember and not letting your muscles do the work."

She chuckled at his explanation but realized he had a point. She tried to focus on what it had been like to fight the gagighandi instead of her missing memories. She smiled with her eyes closed when she heard Zack again. "Alright, so I want you to pretend that I am sitting in front of you. I got gored by a kimara bug or something like that."

She frowned at his start, but nearly burst into laughter when he followed it with loud groaning sounds. "I can't imagine anything when you sound like a dying whale."

"I'm not sure what a whale is, but I'm supposed to sound like I'm dying. That's the point. Now hush and concentrate." Her eyes were still closed when she then heard him stand and walk to the other side of the clearing. "Okay, so I'm dying in front of you, and the bug that attacked me is headed in for another strike. You have to save me from it. What do you do?"

She didn't move at first. When he fell silent, she tried to picture things exactly like he had described them. Her mind shied away from the image of an injured Zack, but she forced it and then imagined a monster running at him from the other side of the clearing. Suddenly she found that her body was moving with very little thought. She took a few running steps before she jumped up and across as if she were leaping over a downed Zack. While she was still mid-air, she twisted and let the staff slide out of her hand a short way before grabbing it tightly closer to the end. That made her reach extend as far as the staff could go. With the distance and her momentum, she could hear the swish of it through the air as she completed the circuit. When she landed, she bent her knees and brought the pole back before springing up and slashing the wood in an upward strike. Had an enemy been there, it would have been a nasty uppercut.

At that, she finally opened her eyes to see a stunned Zack just a few feet away. When their eyes met, his grin exploded, and he nearly tackled her. "That was awesome! You really do know what you're doing!"

She gave him an exasperated look. "You mean to tell me we went through the whole ordeal of talking to your parents and getting these staves, and you weren't sure?"

He clunked his staff against hers with a grin. "Nah, but I wasn't expecting that right off the bat. You must have started training when you were young or something."

Her brow drew down at his words. Something about what he said made a tickle in the back of her brain. She tried to trace it down but wasn't getting anything more than a sense of familiarity. She was drawn out of her thoughts when he waved a hand in front of her face. When she looked at him, he looked slightly concerned. "You okay? You spaced out a little."

She smiled at his concern. "Yeah. I thought I remembered something, but it ended up being nothing." She looked around at that before she stepped away and motioned him to follow. "Why don't we set up some makeshift targets, and then I can pretend they are monsters with less leaping."

"Aww, really?"

She laughed at his disappointed tone. "It isn't like you'll be able to match that right away anyway. If you plan on imitating me, then why don't we start easier. It'll help me too."

He gave her a disgusted look but moved to help her find some downed logs and other things suitable to use. It ended up taking them the rest of the afternoon. Zack glared at the sight of the setting sun, but Kris shoved his shoulder playfully. "The hard part is over now. Tomorrow when we come, we can jump right in, and every day after that."