Magic of the Four Elements~Chapter 9

Chapter 9

"What?"

"Will you be willing to fight when the time comes?" Marcus repeated more slowly.

"I-I don't know," Alexandra stuttered. "I've never had to fight before."

"You have to be ready to fight, which means you need to train. Essedaruis already has dibbs on a little bit of your training, so we'll start with the basics once you get something to eat"

"What in the world do you think I've been doing for most of my life? Sewing? Pulling weeds? Doing dishes? Laundry? I would like to have you know I have trained myself quite a bit, with my housemates helping me most of the time, of course. I'm not helpless, you know."

"Of course, because that's what it looked like last night--you had it all under control," Marcus commented sarcastically.

"Well, I would've if you hadn't stepped in when you did!" Alexandra huffed.

"Okay, then," Marcus said, getting up from his rock. "Let's see what you've got."

"What? No, I--"

"Please, I insist! Since you seem very proud of what you've learned and have been taught, let's see what you've accomplished. We'll start with hand-to-hand combat, since we have no practice weapons here. Then once we get back to camp and get something to eat, we'll practice our sword fighting next."

Alexandra sighed and heaved herself up while standing away a few paces from Marcus. As he bent his knees a little and put his fists up to cover the lower half of his face, so did Alexandra.

They circled each other a couple seconds when Marcus said, "Show me what you've got, Alex."

Alexandra smirked. "Don't call me that. Only Edward can call me that."

"Oh, really? And just who is this Edward? Your boyfriend?" He taunted.

Alexandra's face became beet red. "No," she spat. "Just a family friend."

"I see." There was humor in Marcus's eyes. "I bet you'd like to be more than that, though, woudn't you?"

Alexandra lunged at him, but he quickly moved out of the way before she could land a blow. "Of course not! And stop calling me 'Alex'!" She lunged again.

"Oh, I understand how it is, now," Marcus continued, moving out of the way once more. "He doesn't know, does he? Poor Alex." She tried to hit him again, but he dodged it. "Are you afraid that he won't feel the same way about you? Is that why you won't tell him? Or do you think that he's too good for you?" Alexandra swung once more, but like the others, it did no good. She had tried everything physically possible to hit him, but overall it was no use. "Y'know, I think you're right; he is to good for you."

She was completely red in the face and was panting from her strained effort, but she put up her fists again.

"You're seriously going to try to hit me again?" Alexandra's eyes glittered, but Marcus hardly noticed as he stood up straight. "That's completely--"

Buckets and buckets of water poured out of the sky from the swimming hole and onto Marcus until he was more than soaked to the skin. He was dripping wet by the time water stopped falling on him, and all of that force had dragged him to the waterlogged ground on his butt.

"Don't," Alexandra panted, "make me do that...again. Oh...and one more thing...don't call me...Alex."

She turned and headed back to camp when Marcus called her. She turned to face him, but he wasn't there.

"Oh, Alexandra," someone whispered in her ear. She turned and was face to face with Marcus. In less than two seconds he had her pinned to the ground. He was dripping wet, and was getting her wet as well.

Alexandra groaned, mutterng under her breath.

Marcus chuckled. "Don't ever turn your back on an opponent," he advised. "And don't ever let someone's taunting get the better of you or a whole lot worse could happen than just this. You just showed me that you need to start your training from the beginning." Alexandra glared at him, but he just shrugged it off.

She sighed. "Do you want me to fix your neck?" she asked, looking at the small wound that she had inflicted earlier.

Marcus looked puzzled as he sat up. Alexandra sat up as well, pulling her legs out from under him. "I thought your power was to see visions?" he asked.

"Well, it is, but I have a healing ability that's natural for the Water Element. Here, let me fix it. It's the least I can do since I put it there." Alexandra kneeled, placing a hand on the cut. "This may feel a bit strange. You can't move or I might mess up the healing process and it'll heal funny."

Marcus stiffened as she placed her other hand gently on the back of his neck. He could barely feel her fingers wrap around it; the skin tingled whenever she moved one of them. He could feel how close her body was to his, how the electricity between them made him feel, wondering if she could feel it too.

"Are you okay? You're getting kind of hot," Alexandra murmured, concerned. Marcus looked down to see her eyes closed, a dim blue light from her hand relflecting off her face. He raised his hand into his point of view and saw the skin had become a slight shade of red, water slightly evaporating from it. Crap! His face became even hotter, causing even more water to evaporate.

"Y-yeah. I'm fine." Marcus took a deep breath, mentally telling his body to cool while telling himself to calm down. What the hell? I barely even know the girl, and she's got me all fluttery! He kept his body temperature and hormones under control until she finished and removed her hands from his neck.

"Okay, I'm done," she announced. Looking up at his face, she smiled. "Hey, cool. You're pretty much dry. Do you mind?" she asked, pulling her drenched shirt away from her body.

"Sure." Marcus placed one hand on her shoulder, smiling at her as all the water evaporated from her clothes.

"Thanks!" she exclaimed when he was finished.

"Now," he said, "who's up for some breakfast?"