She turns to look at me. “Look, it’s not that it’s a secret or anything, but what happened to Drew, well, he doesn’t like others knowing about it. What I’m trying to say is, if you want to know what happened to him, maybe you should just ask him.”

I suddenly feel the need to explain myself. “I didn’t really mean anything by what I said yesterday. I mean, when I got introduced to magic, I just kinda expected to be able to see things like potions and mystical creatures and all that.”

“I know. Really. We all know. David and Daniel are just being… themselves, I guess. And sorry to disappoint you, but in this world, apart from the Fasurus and magic, there’s nothing else. As for potions? There’s nothing like that. There’s only science. The closest we have to potions are chemicals which have their effects slightly altered by magic.”

“Is there anything that can recover Uua?”

“No.”

I let out a small sigh. “There goes my hopes of having mana… Uua potions.” At that moment, I notice something shoot up from the cliffs in the corner of my vision. I turn and notice a shirtless Drew flying upwards before stopping around a hundred meters above us. He hangs in the air and looks around before noticing me. He gives me a nod before performing a twist in the air and diving downwards, before disappearing below the cliffs.

“He’s flying?” I ask incredulously, turning to Lathia. She doesn’t seem too surprised. “Is that what’s special about the cliffs? It can make someone fly?”

She nods, looking a bit pissed. “Why didn’t you tell me?” I ask. Who on earth doesn’t want to fly? It is a scary, yet exciting prospect.

“I told you, I wanted it to be a surprise. Unfortunately, Drew just ruined it. That idiot.”

“What if I didn’t agree till we left?”

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

She shrugs nonchalantly. “Your loss.” I stare at her silently for some seconds. “What?” she asks.

I shake my head, looking away. “Nothing.”

I begin to move towards the edge of the cliffs and she follows. Some seconds later, I am standing at the edge of the cliff, staring at the crashing waves below us. Standing there, besides the cliffs, I realize I can’t feel anything special about the cliffs that could make anyone fly. I want to be like Drew who is flying below me, but I also don’t want to waste my life by jumping into the ocean without at least knowing how flying works. While I am thinking, Lathia steps off the cliff's edge. I look up in shock, but contrary to my expectations she doesn’t fall. Instead, she steps on empty air as if it is solid ground. She then turns around to face me.

She holds out her hands. “Come.”

I give her hands a dubious look and she rolls her eyes. “Just grab my hands and stand on my feet.” She wiggles her toes as she speaks. The wind blows, pushing her hair back for a moment as I stare at her silently. After a moment of deliberation, I decided to trust her. I stretch out my hands and take hold of hers before stepping on her feet. For a moment I imagine her feet giving way beneath my weight and me falling into the ocean below, but her feet are surprisingly stable. If I couldn’t see the ocean below me, I wouldn’t have believed we were standing mid-air.

“Now close your eyes.” she says.

Since I have already come this far, I might as well follow all she says. I close my eyes. Almost immediately I am made aware of the proximity between our bodies. I can almost feel the heat she is radiating… I shake my head to clear my thought and focus on what she says. “Now,” she says, “you just need to keep one thing in mind. If you want to fly, just imagine it and it’ll happen. Got it?”

I nod.

For a brief moment, her hand tightens around mine. Then she twists rapidly and pushes me away from her. My eyes pop open as I fall towards the ocean below. For a moment I am filled with nothing but shock, but then something clicks in my mind. If I don’t act fast, I will fall into the ocean below. Immediately I begin to imagine stopping midair, praying desperately that it works. Thankfully it does. I stop for a moment, between the sky and the sea and I am filled with an indescribable feeling. Then I spot Lathia flying towards me, a cheeky smile on her face and suddenly the feeling is mixed with anger, creating a confusing, convoluted mess.

“You… aargh!” I shout as I fly towards her, unleashing a large amount of telekinetic energy. I use the energy to scoop up a large amount of seawater and lob it at her. She easily dodges it, laughing as she flies lower. She moves her hands in a strange manner and two streams of water fly out of the ocean, circling her for a brief moment before converging and shooting toward me.

I react quickly, shooting a Roe towards it. The Roe hits the stream and explodes, instantly evaporating most of the stream while scattering the rest into droplets.

“Where do you think you’re going?” I shout at the fleeing Lathia who is flying rapidly away from me before chasing after. I would have loved to use magic to help me catch up to her, but the two things I had just done have drained my already little Uua reserves.

“Catch me if you can!” she shouts back, sending two more streams of water my way. I grin a bit, flying after her. While I am still a bit annoyed, most of my anger has surprisingly gone away.