The morning light was just beginning to filter through the thick canvas of our private, magically created tent. The air was cool and crisp, carrying the faint, distant sound of the waterfall crashing into the lake outside. I was still half-asleep, tangled in the warm blankets of the small camp bed, when I slowly started to regain consciousness.
Before I even opened my eyes, I felt something incredibly soft brushing against my skin. There was a gentle, rhythmic puff of warm breath hitting my collarbone, followed by a very distinct, delicate sensation. I woke up to see Elphyete leaning over me, her silver hair falling around her shoulders, gently sniffing my neck.
My eyes widened in surprise, and my body reacted automatically. I squirmed slightly against the mattress, pulling my shoulders up toward my ears because of the sudden sensation. I looked at her, my face suddenly feeling very warm, and I said that it tickles.
Elphyete instantly pulled back, her own cheeks flushing a deep, brilliant shade of red. She looked down at her hands, clearly embarrassed by her own actions, but she didn't try to deny what she was doing. She took a breath and softly said, "Sorry, I just can't hold myself back cause I've been hiding it for a long time now."
Hearing her confess that so openly made my heart skip a beat. All the confusion and shock from the previous night completely melted away. I reached out, pulled her close, and I hugged Elphyete tightly against my chest. She rested her head against my shoulder, her arms wrapping around me.
"It's alright..." I whispered into the quiet tent, trying to find the right words. My mind was racing, trying to figure out how to navigate this entirely new situation. "Uhm, I don't know what I should say cause this is my first time having a—"
Before I could even finish my sentence or say the word 'girlfriend,' Elphyete shifted her weight. She lifted her head, looked directly into my eyes, and she suddenly kissed me. It was a quick, sweet kiss that completely silenced my nervous rambling.
She pulled back just an inch, a beautiful, genuine smile spreading across her face. She looked at me and said, "Me too, it's my first."
Before I could process the fluttering feeling in my chest, she suddenly stood up from the small camp bed. She smoothed down her clothes, her face still carrying a lingering blush, and she quickly said, "I gotta help Ma'am Cherha to make food. Stay here if you want."
Without waiting for my answer, she turned around and practically bolted. She left the tent in a hurry, the canvas flap dropping shut behind her. I was left completely alone in the quiet space. I slowly rolled onto my back, my heart hammering against my ribs, with me covering my face with both of my hands, feeling an overwhelming mix of happiness and deep embarrassment.
After a while of lying there and trying to calm my racing pulse, I realized my stomach was starting to rumble. I took a deep breath, mentally prepared myself to act completely normal, and I left the tent.
I stepped out into the bright morning sunlight, blinking against the glare reflecting off the lake. I hadn't even taken five steps toward the campfire when two figures suddenly blocked my path. Lucian and Aria were standing right in front of me.
Lucian squinted his eyes at me, leaning forward with a highly suspicious look on his face. He saw me and went straight to me, pointing a finger at the small canvas structure I had just walked out of. He directly asked, "Why are you with Elphyete on a separate tent?"
Aria, standing right next to him, crossed her arms over her chest and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, great question," said by Aria, her eyes narrowing as she studied my completely flushed face.
Panic flared up in my chest. I remembered the terrible excuse Elphyete had come up with last night, and I prayed that it would actually work. I rubbed the back of my neck, trying to look as casual as possible, and stammered out, "Uhm... it's because the other tent is full and we can't fit...."
The two of them stared at me for a long, agonizing second. I braced myself for them to call out my lie, considering the main tent was massively huge. But surprisingly, Lucian just shrugged his shoulders, completely losing interest in the mystery.
"Oh well," Lucian said, turning his attention toward the smell of the cooking meat.
Aria sighed, dropping her arms. "I guess yeah..." said by Aria, seeming to accept the incredibly flimsy logic.
A massive wave of relief washed over me. Not wanting to give them a single second to rethink the situation, I just ran to the table where Ma'am Cherha and Elphyete had set up the morning meal, grabbed a plate, and ate food as fast as I could.
After eating our fill of the delicious breakfast, the group decided that we couldn't leave this beautiful location without getting into the water one last time. So, we all stripped down to our swimming clothes and swam one more time before leaving.
The water was just as refreshing as the day before, but the peaceful atmosphere didn't last long. Lucian had apparently consumed way too much energy during breakfast. Sir Vael was sitting on a floating chair of air near the edge of the water, trying to take a peaceful morning nap in his swimming trunks, completely ignoring the splashing students.
However, Lucian thought it would be a great idea to splash around the teacher. He started running in circles in the shallow water, kicking up massive waves and making a ton of noise. Sir Vael's eyebrow twitched. He tried to ignore it, but Lucian kept running in circles right next to him, laughing loudly.
Sir Vael got incredibly annoyed at Lucian running in circles to him. Without even opening his eyes or saying a single word of warning, Sir Vael lazily raised his right hand and suddenly snapped his fingers.
Instantly, a glowing, magical circle opened up directly beneath Lucian's feet, and a second, identical circle opened up directly in the sky about fifty feet above the lake. Lucian let out a yelp of surprise as he fell through the bottom portal, instantly reappearing out of the top portal, screaming as he plummeted back down, only to fall through the bottom portal again.
Sir Vael had placed Lucian on an infinite falling portal. Lucian kept falling, looping through the air over and over again, screaming at the top of his lungs. He kept falling for ten solid minutes. Sir Vael finally opened his eyes, leaned back in his floating chair, and he laughed at him, highly amused by the dizzying punishment he had created.
But, as he's laughing, things took a sudden, gross turn. Ten minutes of non-stop, looping freefall had completely ruined Lucian's stomach. While plummeting downward from the sky portal, Lucian suddenly vomited.
Because of the perfect angle, the trajectory, and absolute pure bad luck, his vomit flew through the air and perfectly landed on Sir Vael's laughing mouth.
The sound of the teacher's laughter was instantly cut off by a wet, sickening splatter. The entire lake went completely, dead silent. Everyone froze in absolute horror.
Sir Vael's eyes widened in sheer, unadulterated shock. He suddenly stopped the portal magic. The glowing rings vanished, and Lucian crashed into the shallow water with a heavy splash, groaning in pain and dizziness.
Sir Vael frantically wiped his face, gagging loudly. He snapped his fingers to instantly remove the mess from his face and clothes with a quick cleaning spell, but the physical damage was already done. He still remembered the taste. His face turned a sickly shade of green, and he suddenly vomited right onto the grassy floor of the shore, heaving uncontrollably.
Meanwhile, Lucian was sitting in the shallow water, his head spinning wildly. Despite his dizzy state, he was pointing at the teacher and laughing hysterically, with thick traces of vomit still dripping from his own mouth.
Disgusted and furious, Sir Vael snapped his fingers again. A wave of cleansing magic washed over the shore, and the vomit on both of them disappeared completely, leaving the grass clean, but the memory of the horrific event was permanently burned into all of our minds.
After we finally finished swimming and the chaos settled down, we packed up our wet clothes, gathered our bags, and we prepared leaving. We all got into the massive carriage and left the beautiful waterfall lake behind, continuing our journey down the long dirt road.
Inside the spacious carriage, everyone took their seats. The seating arrangement ended up being a bit awkward for my racing heart. Tokine sat right next to me on the couch on the carriage, her ticking pocket watch resting quietly on her lap. Meanwhile, Elphyete took the seat on my other side, sitting directly next to my left shoulder.
Being sandwiched between them made me incredibly hyper-aware of everything. After the massive confession and the kiss last night, I didn't quite know how to act around Elphyete in front of the others. I slowly turned my head, hoping to catch her eye and share a secret smile.
But when I looked at Elphyete, she didn't look back at me. She just looked away, turning her head completely to stare out into the glass window at the passing trees.
My heart instantly dropped into my stomach. I panicked inside my head. Why wasn't she looking at me? Did I do something wrong? Was she regretting what happened in the tent this morning? Did she realize she made a mistake? My thoughts spiraled completely out of control as I thought of every single possible reason of why she did that.
I stared at the back of her silver hair for several long minutes, my brain doing massive acrobatic flips of anxiety. But then, I noticed how calm her breathing was, and how relaxed her shoulders looked as she watched the clouds roll by. I took a deep breath, forcing my panicked brain to calm down. I eventually came at the conclusion that she just likes the view of outside. She was just enjoying the scenery of Fhajin, and I was just severely overthinking everything because it was my first relationship.
The carriage rolled on smoothly. After a few hours of quiet traveling through the wide, open plains, we stopped the horses by the side of the road and ate a quick lunch of travel rations and dried fruits. Once we were full, we all piled back inside and we continued traveling.
The afternoon sun was warm, making the inside of the carriage feel sleepy and peaceful. In the corner of the cabin, Celdrich was sitting quietly, completely absorbed in his studies. He was reading his heavy, leather-bound magic book, pushing his glasses up his nose as he carefully turned the ancient pages. He had been reading it in total silence till Lucian, who had fully recovered from his infinite falling sickness, started getting restless again.
Lucian was running around the confined space of the carriage, playing a game of tag with Aria. As he dodged to the side to avoid Aria's hand, Lucian accidentally bumped into Celdrich's shoulder with a heavy thud.
The impact jerked Celdrich's arm. The heavy book slipped from his grasp, bounced off the wooden windowsill, and his book flew entirely outside the open window, tumbling onto the dirt road behind us as the carriage kept moving forward.
Celdrich gasped, his eyes widening in horror as he watched his precious magical text disappear into the dust.
Without hesitating, I immediately jumped up from my seat, leaned toward the front sliding window, and I shouted at Ma'am Cherha to stop the horses and wait. The massive carriage groaned as the magical brakes engaged, coming to a halt a few dozen yards down the road.
I quickly opened the heavy wooden door, jumped down onto the dirt path, and I went outside to look for the book. I jogged back down the road, scanning the grass and dirt until I saw it resting near a small bush, thankfully completely unharmed. I picked it up, dusted off the leather cover, and headed back to the carriage to give it to him.
When I climbed back inside and handed the heavy tome over, Celdrich looked incredibly relieved. He smiled to me, a rare expression of genuine warmth on his usually serious face, and he thanked me quietly for retrieving his property.
However, the moment he finished thanking me, his warm expression vanished entirely. He slowly turned his head, his glasses catching the light, and he seemed to death stare Lucian with an aura of absolute, terrifying magical intent.
Lucian visibly gulped, terrified by the silent threat radiating from the quietest student in the class. Seeking immediate shelter, Lucian suddenly hid behind my back, gripping the fabric of my travel cloak and peeking out over my shoulder at Celdrich in fear.
Seeing the usually loud and brave Lucian hiding behind me like a scared child was too funny. I just chuckled at the ridiculous situation, shaking my head as everyone settled back down into their seats, and Ma'am Cherha snapped the reins so we continued traveling.
We rode for the rest of the afternoon as the sun slowly began to set, painting the sky in deep shades of orange and purple. After a few hours of travel, Ma'am Cherha announced that it was time to rest. We stopped the carriage and camped in the middle of a dense, quiet forest surrounded by tall pine trees.
Once we all stepped out, Elphyete stepped forward to handle the sleeping arrangements. She used her Creation magic, her hands glowing with bright green light. But instead of making one massive tent for the entire group, she focused her magic into two separate areas. She created two separate tents. One was large enough for the rest of the class, and the other was a smaller, private one just for the two of us.
But this time, she made sure there wouldn't be any late-night interruptions. Our tent was placed incredibly far from the main tent of everyone else, nestled securely behind a thick grove of trees where the others couldn't easily see or hear us.
As we carried our bags toward it, Lucian squinted his eyes, his suspicious nature returning. He walked up to me and tried to ask about it, opening his mouth to question why we were sleeping so far away from the group.
I didn't want to deal with another interrogation. Before he could even form a complete sentence, I quickly reached into my pocket, pulled out a sweet piece of fruit candy I had bought in the capital, and I just gave him a candy, pressing it directly into his hand.
Lucian looked at the candy, looked at me, and instantly, his priorities shifted. He popped the candy into his mouth, smiled happily, and he became completely quiet, happily walking back to the main tent without asking a single question.
We all gathered around the campfire, ate a warm dinner prepared by Ma'am Cherha, and as the forest grew dark and the night air chilled, everyone quickly went to bed in their respective shelters.
Elphyete and I walked back to our own tent hidden in the trees. The moonlight filtered through the canvas, providing just enough light to see. We took off our heavy travel cloaks and laid down on the small, shared camp bed.
I was just starting to close my eyes when I suddenly felt fingers digging into my ribs. Elphyete suddenly tickled me without any warning whatsoever.
I let out a loud, breathless gasp, my eyes flying open. I squirmed wildly on the bed, trying to twist away from her hands, but she was surprisingly fast. I tried to beg her to stop, laughing uncontrollably as she found every ticklish spot on my sides and stomach.
"Stop, stop! Elphyete, please!" I wheezed, my face burning red from the effort of trying to escape her grasp.
But she didn't listen. She just laughed, a bright, musical sound in the dark, and she continued tickling me relentlessly. I was laughing so hard that I could barely breathe. Realizing that I was making way too much noise and might wake up the entire camp despite the distance, she suddenly shifted her weight.
She leaned over me, gently covered my mouth with her soft hand to muffle my laughter, and whispered with a teasing smile, "Fine, I'll stop. I'm sorry."
The sudden closeness, her hand over my mouth, and the lingering sound of my own breathless laughter made my heart pound out of my chest. Out of absolute, overwhelming embarrassment, I just turned over, layed down flat on the mattress, and I grabbed my pillow and completely covered my face with my pillow, hiding in the dark.
I heard the rustle of the blankets shifting behind me. A second later, I felt two arms wrap securely around my waist. Elphyete hugged me tight against her chest, pressing her face against my back.
She kept saying sorry over and over again in a soft, sweet whisper, her breath warm against my shirt.
I slowly pulled the pillow away from my face, a small, genuine smile forming on my lips despite my glowing red cheeks. I reached back, resting my hand over hers, and I softly said it's fine.
The quiet sounds of the forest surrounded us—the rustling of the pine needles in the wind and the distant hoot of an owl. Surrounded by the warmth of her embrace and the comforting silence of our secluded tent, my racing heart finally began to slow down. I closed my eyes, feeling completely safe and happy, and after a while, we fell asleep.