Lu let out a small groan, moving slowly up the ladder and closing her eyes the moment she sat down.

“You ok?” I asked sitting up next to her

After a moment she leaned into me, resting her head on my shoulder. “My knees hurt… And the wind is really cold this morning…”

‘Blunt and honest as ever…’ “I’m not surprised, you fell pretty far, it couldn’t have been easy on your joints.”

“Yeah…” She muttered. “I know, I shouldn’t have done that…”

I grabbed the other blanket I brought and wrapped it around her shoulders. “I probably shouldn’t say this… But I still don’t see anything wrong with what you did. Sure it looked bad, but I don’t think it was all that dangerous considering how slow it was moving at that point.”

She shuddered, taking a deep breath. “I know why my knees hurt but why is it so cold?”

I pointed out to the bay. “Ocean water is always much colder than the air, so when the wind runs across it it becomes colder.” ‘Or… Something like that.’

She let out another groan. “I can’t figure it out…”

“What, the wind? Yeah… That’s as good as an explanation as I have Sorry…”

She rolled up onto her knees, taking the blanket and leaning over the guard rail, looking out at the sea. “No, I mean what I could have done to be safer. I mean, if I just whacked the bolt from the ground there is a chance I wouldn’t hit it hard enough, and that would have actually made it more dangerous right? Because then the Kraken would have been able to keep fighting back. I guess I could have stayed back and done nothing… But that would have also prolonged the fight, making it more risky for everyone, including me, right?” Letting out a long sigh she slowly slouched down until her head rested on the rail between her arms and closed her eyes again.

Sneaking over, I crawled under the blanket and popped up next to her. “Do you want me to give you the answer? Or do you want to think about it some more?”

“How about giving me some space…” She groaned.

I wrapped my arms around her like she was a big pillow and rested my chin on her shoulder. “Sorry, but I only brought two blankets, so we have to share this one.”

She rolled her eyes. Seeing through my excuse in a heartbeat. The blanket was more than large enough to wrap around both of us without having to be that close together, but she didn’t bother saying anything more on the topic. “Honestly I thought you would have been mad… Oh, wait a minute is that it? If I didn’t do anything you would have finished it off the same way right?”

‘I can’t say I wasn’t thinking about doing the same finishing move… Then I’d be the one Airsidh had to have a talk with…’ “Well, you are getting closer at least. I probably would have, but that wouldn’t have been the best answer either. Why’d you think I’d be mad?”

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“Cuz I stole your kill…” She pouted, back to wistfully looking out over the gentle waves.

‘Well… I was a bit jealous’ I grabbed the blanket and Picked it up more snugly over my shoulders and leaned into the guard rail with her. “To be fair… It was already dead…”

She let out a snort marking the beginnings of a laugh. “Ok, I give, what’s the answer?” She asked, picking her head up and finally coming out of her slump.

“You yell at the commander to do it. He’s actually even stronger than you ya know. That way, we both stay safe, and the guy in charge of defending the fort is the one in the most danger.”

“I can’t give him orders though, how would that even work?”

“Well… I’m not sure he would mind taking all the credit and glory for killing the thing… Even if you told him to do it. If he did refuse for some reason then you just finish it off yourself, but I really don’t think he would have. Besides, it’s less of an order and more like giving him an opportunity.”

She started to rub her eyes as she thought through it. “So…It’s not an order, so much as just pointing out something that he wants to do anyway?”

‘When impressionable children ask yes or no questions it always makes me nervous…’ “Yeah… Something like that.” ‘I don’t think there's a way she can misinterpret this is there?’

She laid back down, forcing me to follow as she rolled over and stretched out her legs with another groan, making a face like a cat that just woke up from a nap before falling limp. “You didn’t bring any pillows did you?”

“We could try rolling up the blanket on the floor.” I grabbed the edge and started rolling until I made it to the hole in the roof, looking down I could see Airsidh giving me a death glare that sent chills down my spine. ‘He’s not mad I found a loophole in his punishment is he? No wait… Her knees hurt, how could he even think of making her walk… Well, I guess she could have ridden her horse, why was she walking in the first place if her knees were hurting?’

I slowly lifted my hand and timidly waved. He just rolled his eyes and started handing me pillows. Within a couple of seconds, I had three or four and rolled the blanket back over the hole. ‘That almost gave me a heart attack… Why can’t he just be normal…’

Lu turned around just in time for me to hand her one with a smile. “Request received, here you go.”

She hesitantly took it, her face taking on a whole assortment of strange shapes as she tried to figure out where they came from before her eyes went wide. “Can your magic do this too?”

‘You know, that’s actually a good question…’ “Uhm, no. I didn’t use magic, I used my older sister powers.”

“So magic…”

‘Is this what I sound like to Airsidh?’ “Air handed them to me through the whole in the roof…”

She looked almost disappointed as she lay down and closed her eyes. “I guess that makes sense. There’s no way someone would make magic illegal if you could use it to make fluffy pillows.”

‘Oh to be young again…’ I rolled my eyes as I lay down next to her. ‘Now I want to figure out how to do it though. Pillows… These are made from cotton I think, so that’s not too different than trees, it would all be under plant magic, so it’s fairly reasonable for me to make something like that. Then for the fabric or the pillowslip, I would have to make it out of some tightly woven soft fabric, which I could also make out of plant fibers… You know… I bet I could actually do this.’ I sighed, closing my eyes and imagining it. ‘It would be reckless to practice before I make magic legal again though, it’s not really a necessary skill....

After several more hours of riding, the Kasesh battlegrounds finally came into view, and the entire plateau was dedicated solely to kids playing war… Although to be fair, that would be what they taught us at the academy. The city took my breath away. Even without magic, they managed to build it in a way that made me feel like I had almost gone back to earth. Brick, stone, and glass, towering buildings that reached towards the heavens standing dozens of stories tall. Two massive towers rose up from the ground and even from afar, I could make out the numerous people walking around the busy streets.

Airisdh Joined Zu, piloting the carriage himself now and we took a sharp turn. “We will go to the city later, but school starts on the battlegrounds. The ride only gets rougher from here.”

As the carriage turned off the main road one of the wheels hit a rock and the axles bent. “You sure that’s not just because you're bad at driving…”

“I’d get serious if I were you… This is what you’ve been training for your whole life.”

I climbed over the guard rail and sat next to him. “It’s like you're trying to make me nervous…”

“Maybe I am.”

‘It’s still just school though, right? I mean… How bad could it be?’