We had stopped briefly outside the village to get our things in order. I had taken the chance to put my armor on properly while the others adjusted our packs and their contents. Everything considered, it hadn't taken all that long. Then we were on our way again. We hadn't planned for this to become a long journey. We just wanted to go exploring for a bit without our parents breathing down our backs. We wouldn't even stray all that far from home. We didn't want to get caught and sent back home early either though. That would be no good.

Mother would be irritated. At least a little bit. She wouldn't be truly mad though. Not as long as we could sell her our little expedition as a success. If we could claim to have improved our skills and our teamwork away from prying eyes and all on our own, she would approve. At least if nothing serious happened to any of us. I was pretty certain in that regard. If we were to return with loot or some hunting trophies, all for the better. In the end, we had concluded, it would be easier to beg for forgiveness than to ask for permission.

We had left the well trodden path connecting our home with the next village over not long after. Instead we now followed a creek. The sun was only now rising and it was a bit chilly, but we were all in high spirits. As far as I was concerned this excursion was already a great success, no matter what else might happen in the days to come. This was so much better than training at home. Seriously, who thought that getting knocked around or beaten up by one of the same handful of people every other day was good training?

Right now I was jumping from rock to rock along and across the little creek. It might sound childish at first and look a little reckless as well, but it was training! We had long since agreed that the fighting style that suited me best would be one focused on agility. For this reason alone this was good training but this was not all there was to it. Kaele had told me to do it while under the influence of the Cat's Grace spell. I needed to adapt to the improved speed and agility the spell provided after all. Otherwise it might prove a distraction in real combat.

In addition I had to recast the spell quite regularly. Preferably without breaking my stride. Well, that was the goal. I wasn't quite there yet. I was getting better though. The breaks I had to take to recast the spell were getting shorter. If I kept at it like that I would have a nice ace up my sleeve upon our return. Take that Agar'zan, you damn prick! In our next match I will beat you up while running circles around you! I earned myself exasperated looks from my companions as I started to snigger and almost missing my next step.

I grinned sheepishly and paused to regain my balance before focusing and continuing once more. It really wasn't easy, as I had to make grand leaps or multiple steps for every one my comrades took, since they just walked along the shoreline. Even considering that I was taller and had longer legs this playful little exercise would wear me out before long. It would certainly wear me out before any of the others would break a sweat. For them this was more like a leisure stroll so far. I paused again to catch my breath and eyed them.

Khuzan kept a watchful eye on our surroundings, a hand always on the hilt of one of his swords. He had brought both of his slightly curved blades. Probably to ease the mind of his mother. She always insisted that he learn and master the family's twin blade style of fighting. He really didn't like that idea but so far he hadn't managed to work up the courage to tell her. Or maybe it wasn't about courage at all. Maybe he just didn't want to hurt her felling. That sounded more like him. He had a weak spot in that regard.

Eldtide, armed with her trusty hunting bow, on the other hand was teaching Kaele some herbal lore. Or so it seemed. I squinted to take a better look at what they were doing. They were picking mushrooms and digging up some roots. Well, it was some kind of herbal lore I guess. Even if it looked like they were picking up ingredients for dinner. I shrugged. We would be having some kind of vegetable stew then. I would have preferred something containing meat, but who was I to complain. As long as it was something warm all would be well.

Hopefully the Gorgon kept a tight watch on the mushrooms my sister picked though. As far as I knew the few poisonous ones growing around here stood out enough that she wouldn't pick them on accident. Not every mushroom that was not outright poisonous was really edible though. Hopefully there would be no inconvenient surprises. I was more curious about the roots they had dug up anyway. To be honest, the only edible root I could identify by its looks alone was ashroot and that had not been it.

Well, I would leave them to it. I had caught my breath. Now it was time to get going again. Thus I kept hopping from stone to stone when I wasn't balancing across fallen trees. Actually this was pretty fun. Maybe I could talk Khuzan into joining me? He probably didn't have to stay alert all the time. These parts of the forest were still pretty close to civilization. Nothing really dangerous tended to stick around here. Not this time of the year anyway. During winter some of the local predators might find their way to outlying farmsteads. Now though they would more likely than not steer clear of us.

Dire boars were just about the only thing we had to be really wary of. All of us would be well aware of their presence long before they could attack though. Those critters were everything but subtle. They would make for a much better meal than some root vegetables though. If they didn't kill us first that is. They were known to be ferocious after all. And just one dire boar would be more meat than we could eat in the next few days. Thus we wouldn't kill one unless we really couldn't avoid it.

Just then I felt the Cat's Grace spell falter and fade once again. I grasped the magical energies that were especially abundant here and started constructing the spell's matrix in my mind, like I had done several times before. By now I didn't even have to say the spell's name aloud anymore. A definitive plus, as doing so in combat would give the spell away. That way you would lose an edge even if said opponent was not able to counter the spell with magic of their own. For a rather inexperienced spellcaster like me it was a gamble though.

Maybe it was too much of a gamble. Maybe I should have paid a little more attention to my spell matrix. Maybe I shouldn't have cast the spell while balancing on the slippery remains of a tree that had fallen across the creek. Either way, I realized something was wrong within the blink of an eye after the spell took hold. It hadn't simply fizzled and failed. Instead I had somehow managed to twist it into something else. And somehow that was worse than the spell simply failing. Much, much worse.

Gone was my supernatural grace. Gone was the slight improvement of my speed. Instead all of a sudden it was as if I was packed into molasses. I just barely managed to throw myself forwards as my foot slipped. Instead of gracefully somersaulting to shore I barreled into Khuzan with all the speed of a snail and the grace of a drunk tortoise. And somehow I still got lucky like that. Landing in a pile with him was better then falling into the creek and hitting my head on some submerged stones after all. Yep. It could have been worse.

Both of us just lay there groaning for a while. As I tried to disentangle myself from him I somehow managed to make things even worse. I blushed and so did he. And then we blushed harder still, as we heard Kaele and Eldtide laugh. “Well, that was bound to happen sooner or later, considering how often you cast that spell.” I could only groan as my sister went on. “What is awesome in its own right though, is how you managed to twist the spell in its exact opposite. You know, grand masters of the arcane arts often spend years trying to achieve that.”

I stopped my futile attempts to disentangle myself from Khuzan and bowed my head in shame. “Awesome? Might be. If only I could remember how exactly I built the spell matrix to achieve this feat.” I was surprised, how even my words were slightly slurred almost as if I were drunk. “If I could remember, I would just have to somehow figure out how to cast the spell on someone else instead of me and I would have another nasty little ace up my sleeve.” Damn it all! That would have been too good to be true.