Chapter 8

Late afternoon was settling in the woods, but that didn’t stop the training session Holly requested. Natacha stood at attention, towering over the tiny plant girl.

“When fighting anyone, whether it’s Scherzando or Resonators, the most important thing you can be is aware. Not just of what you’re fighting but everything around you. Scherzando especially don’t care about being fair, and neither should you,” Natacha began.

Holly nodded. That tracked with her experience last night. Scherzando were opportunistic predators that would use everything in their arsenals to get their food: her. Perhaps the same thought could be applied to Maestros and their Resonators…

“What do you mean everything around me?” asked Holly. She had an idea but wanted to keep the conversation going.

“Trees, buildings, stuff laying on the ground. You should commit anything that’s around you to memory while you’re fighting. Not only so you don’t trip or lose your balance but they can be a momentary distraction or hiding place from a spell. In a dense forest like this you shouldn’t linger in one spot for long – keep moving. Otherwise, the Scherzando hiding in the trees will get the jump on you,” lectured Natacha.

The bird thrust her wings out, allowing Holly to appreciate just how expansive her wingspan was. “Let’s practice. You’re going to run into the woods, and I’m going to be the Scherzando. If I touch you, you lose,” said the bird.

“Oh, like a game of tag?” The little nature element lit up at the concept.

“Sure.” The grin that graced the bird’s lips was beyond sinister. “A game.” The chuckle that followed didn’t help assuage the bone-chilling fear that suddenly settled in Holly’s heart.

“You have two minutes, and then the ‘game’ will begin. Come at me like a Scherzando – use anything in your arsenal, or I’ll make you regret it.”

Holly gulped but nodded. Her warning imparted, the bird took off into the trees with an impressive beat of her wings. The silent timer started and the zalavan took off into the forest, keeping her eyes peeled for signs of danger. It was quiet, only the crunching of the underbrush beneath her feet kept her company.

The light of the waning sun that poked through the canopy was nice and comforting, but she couldn’t allow herself to get complacent. Scherzando were opportunists, any distraction would-

THWACK!

Against her will, Holly met the ground in a stunning fashion, sliding from the force of an impact she hadn't expected. It wasn’t just the fist that whipped across Holly’s face that hurt, it was joined by an electrical charge that coursed through her body.

The zalavan scrambled to her feet, tears pouring down her cheeks.

“You’re dead!” Natacha called from the canopy, having hit and run.

The speed of the strike was unreal. Holly didn’t even see the woman. All she had was a sore face from the force of the blow.

She wasn’t about to continue this exercise with a headache.

“La Bella Vita, Moderato,” chanted Holly mentally, as three passionfruit seeds eased her ailing face.

Even with the pain gone, her heart refused to still. This wasn’t fair!

That’s why it was effective… Scherzando wouldn’t be fair. They could be on top of her that quick, and would actually kill her.

She shuffled her seeds in her pockets and took three cacaos into her palm.

Holly wasn’t going to get hit again. The nature element kept on the move, keeping her eyes and ears out for any sign of trouble. She crept through the underbrush, trying to minimize the noise she made to not pollute the soundscape with her movements. It was a much more difficult task than she had initially thought, but after testing a few different gaits, she found a balance between speed and sound.

With her own minimized presence, she was able to keep a better ear out for a distinctive wingbeat – Natacha was flying around, that much was obvious. And if Holly focused just right…

…she could hear it! With a mental “preschiverò,” the zalavan let loose the lightning element support spell, dodging out of the way of the bird’s mighty strike utilizing her brief intangibility granted by by the spell. Unfortunately for Holly-

THWACK!

-she once again met the forest floor. This time thanks to a timely kick offered by Natacha right as Holly became tangible again.

“Owie…” Holly whimpered, rubbing her bloody nose.

“You’re dead again.” Natacha was already gone, her voice lingering like a specter.

Another La Bella Vita in Moderato, chased away Holly’s pain, allowing her to breathe from her nose once more. This sucked. This sucked so much. Why was she even doing this?

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Knowledge, of course. She needed to know how to fight. If not just to defend herself, but to sate her lust for learning. That’s just who she was – the pursuit of wisdom was an immutable aspect of her personality.

So, she rose once again. She didn’t want a repeat of the last two engagements. Getting struck hurt and Natacha was making sure to pump whatever lightning skill she had into each blow. It wasn’t a spell like with Holly’s seed craft; it was some other innate trait of her species or maybe her element? Holly couldn’t be sure; she just didn’t know much about other Resonators outside of her own species.

A gap that needed to be filled.

Holly shook her head. Now wasn’t the time to get lost in thought!

The bird of prey swooped down again, Holly only dodging the attempted blow by a mere blade of grass. She rolled into a bush, taking hold of it. “Nature spells! Good enough!” Holly cried out. At the speed of thought, she chanted her next spell – “Rullante di Radice, Fortissimo!”

As Natacha tried to throw another devastating kick into the bush, thorned roots shot out, ensnaring the bird.

“Guh!”

Finally! She did it! Holly caught her!

Or did she? Even through the bindings and piercing thorns, Natacha moved, easily plucking Holly from the bush. The entire time jolts of electricity coursed through the zalavan. Holly didn’t even struggle, she was locked up with fright. The bloody bird glared with killing intent.

“You’re-” Natacha pulled a fist back. Holly closed her eyes – the only movement she could get out of her fear-addled body. “-dead.”

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Holly returned to the waking world and instantly regretted it. Her head pounded fiercely from the multiple blows she had suffered during her “training” earlier.

She didn’t even remember returning to the cabin. Or being set in bed for that matter.

Thankfully Natacha was a gracious enough teacher to let her protege wake up in comfort rather than sprawled out on the forest floor. That one punch must have knocked Holly clean out. The throbbing protest in her skull certainly was evidence enough of the outcome.

Headaches were the one thing Holly truly despised. As she prized her thoughts, she hated it when her thinking machine rebelled against her through physical stimuli.

One, two, three, four, five – she counted off passion fruit seeds. “La Bella Vita, Lento.” It was probably overkill to use the maximum level of the healing spell, but she cared not, that was simply how much she didn’t want to deal with the headache. Her entire body glowed as the full force of healing magic washed over her.

With her head cleared, she could finally take stock of that disastrous performance.

Natacha was cheating.

Yup, that had to be it.

Definitely not any shortcomings on Holly’s part.

The zalavan chuckled hollowly, curling up on herself in the bed. Who was she kidding? She sucked. Plain and simple. Maybe she wasn’t cut out for this world after all. Everyone and everything was out to get her. It was probably best for her to go back home after all…

As she drifted back into the dark, Holly’s mind swirled with doubt. Even leaving Inverna for less than a week she’d experienced more pain and suffering in that minuscule slice of time than she had ever felt in her whole life. She felt…

…alive?

Her eyes snapped open.

Of course she felt alive! Learning to fight was something NEW. It hurt, it was hard, it CHALLENGED her. The smile on her lips, the deep breaths she drew, the giggle fit that took over; she wanted to cry from joy. Weak willpower be damned, the rhythm in her eyes glowed a bright blazing yellow.

Holly wanted to know MORE!

She sprang from the bed, spurned by the rhythm boiling in her little body. It was night, but even so she could think, she could strategize. Her memory was fantastic, and she recalled every spell she currently had access to.

Nature

Electricity

Healing

To a normal Resonator, they could only carry two, maybe three aspects of magic, but for a zalavan, she was only as limited as much as she could physically carry seeds and how fast she could take hold of them. Though… there was one more thing Holly wanted to try.

It was something she could never attempt back home.

It'd promote too many questions.

Draw too much attention.

But Holly was free – her body was hers to do with as she pleased. The only questions she’d field would be “how?”