Aida splashed into the lake, the cold seeping through her whole body, forcing the air from her lungs. She kicked her legs futilely until her feet found purchase. Pushing herself up, Aida took deep gasping breaths as she sat in shallow water. Caleb was looking down at her, his muscular arms crossed smugly across his chest.
“Have you learned your lesson?”
“Never,” Aida growled. She pulled a stream of water out from behind her, making it sway behind her like a dancing snake. She climbed to her feet, feeling the water tug at her clothes as she left its sweet embrace.
Caleb backed away, a wary expression on his face. “Maybe we can talk about this?”
“Never!” Aida pointed her wand at the group, sending her stream of water at the boys. Ezra, quicker on the uptake, dodged to the side, while Levi got smacked in the face.
“Girls versus boys!” Lily screamed, sprinting towards Aida. She waved her wand haphazardly around her as she ran, looking like some dancing jumping forest sprite as she pulled various weeds and plants out of the ground. Vanita and Sue followed shortly after, shrieking with laughter.
Caleb, realizing he was in a bad position, Mana Surged back to the picnic blanket, narrowly avoiding the water that slammed down where he was standing just a second ago. He swept up a small wall, still covered in grass, as a defense. Levi jumped over the abandoned picnic, ducking behind Caleb’s wall. Ezra reluctantly followed, though it seemed easy for him to dodge Aida’s and Lily’s (courtesy of the plants she grew in the water) water missiles.
Vanita followed suit, hauling up a small battlement for the girls as Aida hurled ball after ball of water at the boys, preventing them from raising their heads.
Sue yelped, falling forward against Vanita’s wall. She looked behind her. “Levi’s got some plants in the water!” she sent a fireball at the offending water plant that was just beginning to reload its stigma.
“His range is so long!” Lily fumed. She was growing some sort of waterpulting plant. It had a lovely flower head that looked like a lotus flower, except for the fact that the center of the flower opened deep into the water. A large leaf grew from behind it, shaping itself into a ladle as it dipped into the water. When it reached maturity, the leaf flung a glob of water in a tall arc, adding to the chaos.
“Ezra, friend, what are you even here for?” Aida heard Levi yelling.
“I came for a picnic, not a war,” was Ezra’s calm response.
“We’re outnumbered, we could use the help!” Caleb cajoled.
“I’m afraid I don’t have the proper elemental affiliation to assist in this endeavor.”
“Can you cut Lily’s plants down? They’re everywhere!” Levi was getting frustrated.
“I suppose I can do that,” Ezra agreed.
“We’ve got them, girls!” Sue exulted. She kept her eyes on the lake, burning any plant that turned suspiciously towards them to a crisp. “Keep it up!”
“Students. STUDENTS!”
Everyone froze, all eyes turning up the embankment. Professors Lloyd and Gemma were standing there, looking down at them. Lloyd had his hands on his hips, a thunderous expression on his face. Gemma had her arms crossed, looking stern.
“What is going on here?” Lloyd demanded. His eye traced a path from the remains of the picnic, to the three boys huddled behind a grassy wall, to the four girls standing at the lake shore with their own defensive wall. Aida became aware that she still had her wand raised, and quickly tucked it behind her back, making a loud splash as she released the water she had been holding.
“We’re having a picnic, professor,” Sue said innocently, blinking her large eyes.
The wind blew as the two professors glowered at them. Finally, Lloyd exhaled.
“Very well. Just make sure you put the landscape back the way you found it.” Everybody nodded vigorously as one. Gemma nodded back, then recommenced her stroll. Lloyd stayed a little longer, casting a keen eye over the scene. “Carry on.”
As soon as Lloyd turned his back, several things happened at once. The lake shore’s soft sand gave out underneath Aida’s feet, and vines whipped around Aida’s hips, pulling her into the water. The screams on either side of her let her know the same thing had happened to her comrades.
With all the girls utterly drenched, the boys came running down, whooping. Shaking the water out of her face, she couldn’t help but laugh at Lily, Vanita, and her own bedraggled self. Sue looked amazing, like the boys when they were wet. Her wet tresses just looked like they added texture, and her skin glowed with dewiness. She tossed back sparkles as she pulled her head out of the water, doing a model-esque hair flip. Sue joined in Aida’s laughter, and Lily and Vanita reluctantly followed suit.
“You wouldn’t have won if Professor Lloyd had followed Professor Gemma,” Lily groused good-naturedly.
“You have to always be aware of your surroundings, lil’ weed,” Levi said primly.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
“Okay, let’s get warmed up,” Sue said, beginning to shiver. “Lily, Levi, can you please grow some firewood?”
Under Lily and Levi’s directions, Aida drew all the water out of a small patch of earth, while Caleb and Vanita funneled the appropriate composition of earth and soil towards the little growing patch Lily and Levi worked around. Once they grew a pile of dried stems and leaves that Sue deemed large enough, they molded a pit around the pile.
Caleb and Vanita backed away, dusting their hands. Everyone retreated a safe distance up the slope, leaving Sue alone in front of the pit. She cupped her hands together, sparks flickering between her palms. Opening up her hands, she revealed a small flame. She blew on the flame, stoking it until it filled her hands. Then she lobbed it into the pile of plant matter, as if she were scooping water with her hands. The flame clung to a large piece of wood.
Pulling her wand from a dress pocket, Sue coaxed the flame to travel around the pile, leaving bits of itself on every piece of flammable matter. Finally, she had a merry bonfire going. Sue turned towards them with a bright smile, the backdrop of fire outlining her slender shape and lending her a celestial air. “Come and sit!”
Lily and Vanita moved to the fire first, shivering in the sun’s waning light. Although Aida had felt the water’s coldness when Caleb first tossed her in, she didn’t feel it now. Levi, Caleb, and Ezra moved towards the fire as well, all of them finding their own seat. Aida watched the group. Vanita and Lily were sitting on the leftmost side, huddling together. Ezra sat on the rightmost side, noticeably away from everyone else. Caleb sat at the five o’clock position, making a cornerstone around the fire. Levi took the other cornerstone position at seven o’clock, poking fun at Lily and Vanita’s constitutions. Sue, seeing that Ezra was noticeably segregating himself from the group, sat between Ezra and Caleb.
Everyone looked so content, leaning into the warmth of the fire. The dancing flames lit up everyone’s blissful smiles; no worries about what happened after the picnic ended, or the distant future.
Aida’s heart was simultaneously full and melancholy. Things were so simple at this age: worry about school, worry about achieving some base level of competence, worry about having friends. Extremely straightforward endeavors.
Even though she’d only been in this world for three weeks - star cycles - she felt…a kinship with these unlikely characters. Even though she was ignorant of their culture, their lives, and knew them basically by their archetypes, they were so open and honest with who they were that she felt like she had known them for much longer than three star cycles.
Levi turned back towards her. “Aida, what are you doing? Come sit down!”
Aida blinked. Everyone had turned towards her, and was looking at her with welcoming smiles. She couldn’t remember the last time a group of people looked at her with that kind of warmth: not a contrived, practiced smile to coerce a favor out of her, or a strained smile to cover the tacit sense of pity, but a genuine desire for her to join them, just because. She smiled back as she headed towards them, her sandals sinking into the wet earth.
She sat next to Caleb, who had turned back to the fire with a gentle smile on his face. They sat in silence, staring into the flames together. Caleb was leaning towards the fire, elbows on his knees.
“Thanks for coming,” Aida said softly.
“I’m happy to be here,” Caleb replied, equally softly.
“I thought you wouldn’t come,” Aida said hesitantly. “Because I made you uncomfortable the other day.”
Caleb shook his head. “That wasn’t your fault. It was mine. I should be better at controlling myself.”
“I think you’re doing great, for your age.” Aida smiled at him. He returned her smile, before leaning back on his palms.
“To be honest, I did a lot of thinking after you asked me that question. ‘Why would I be so upset by a simple question?’” He inhaled, eyes fixed on the fire, before he exhaled and looked beyond the fire, to the placid lake just beyond. The sun had finally dipped below the horizon, painting the sky a lovely gradient of red hues blending into deep blue. “And the answer is that I’m confused. I’ve never felt this way before, and it’s just a lot of…feelings.”
On the last word, Aida felt the sand she was sitting in quiver slightly, settling her ever-so-slightly deeper into it. She glanced around. No one else seemed bothered.
“It was my fault for triggering you in the first place,” Aida said, contrite. “It was a very nosy question, so I’m sorry I made you feel that way.”
“Don’t apologize,” Caleb said quickly. “It was only a question, and you wouldn’t know how I was feeling anyway…which is why you asked, isn’t it?”
Aida nodded, impressed with his maturity.
“Although, now that we’re talking about it…” Caleb grimaced. “I’d prefer we not talk about stuff like that again. Please.”
Aida nodded eagerly, glad that he was so quick to forgive. “I promise. I won’t bring it up unless you bring it up.”
On the other side of Caleb, Sue and Ezra started tussling, drawing everybody’s attention.
“Are things okay over there? Suelina, Ezra?” Levi called, leaning on his elbow so that his head bunted Aida’s arm. She frowned, pushing his head away.
“Ezra is emotionless!” Sue said, exasperated. She jabbed him in the sides. “I’m trying to get him to react to something.”
Ezra placed his hands on her head, pressing her away from him. Sue’s arms scrabbled at him, unable to surpass his reach.“I am not emotionless. I just don’t let my emotions control me.”
“He’s hopeless!” Sue cried, gesticulating at him. She pushed her head against his hands, trying to get close enough to poke him again. “Is that what it takes to be number one? Not enjoying life?”
Aida giggled. Everyone looked at her, laughing in the face of this serious situation. She giggled harder. Ezra looked like a disgruntled cat, that same deadpan look a cat had reflected in his eyes. Sue looked like an overly exuberant dog, whimpering as she tried to get the cat to play.
“Look at them,” she choked out, pointing first at Ezra’s face, then at Sue’s. “Look. A cat and a dog.” She dissolved into full-on laughter, arms wrapped around her belly.
Levi joined in her laughter, his deep, sonorous laugh belting out. Lily joined in next, her joy tinkling through the night. Vanita followed, her soothing laugh melding Lily’s high notes and Levi’s deep notes together. Caleb joined in last, his tenor rounding out their ensemble. Even Ezra was smiling begrudgingly, the gentle curve of his lips making his expression more cat-like, sending the rest of the group howling.
As they all collapsed in mirth, Aida looked up at the darkened sky, wiping the tears from her eyes. The sun had set so quickly. Tomorrow would be the start of a completely new adventure, with completely different challenges, but tonight she would enjoy the warmth of camaraderie.