Master’s Training Game of Tag

Rakavia darted through the woods. The little flats on her feet were quickstepping from twig-littered dirt, to the bark of trees. Tup, tup, tup, tup; she hit the different surfaces with the doubled tempo of a second hand on a master clock.

Wild crimson hair met with a billowing tribal robe that covered her small frame. White linens with watery designs were tied together by a large mahogany sash that circumferenced her entire torso. The bow ends flowed behind her like two long fox tails.

She bounded off trees and moss-covered boulders feeling she had the weight of a butterfly with the speed of a lizard. Rakavia wasn’t exactly smiling, the prospect was still too foreign, but she’d never known such fun could exist; she’d never felt such freedom.

It was ever since she’d been broken from her birth-curse: the fate of a Voiceless – a child forced to obey with no free will of their own – but ever since Master Akuji had saved her from a life she didn’t know was so cruel, she had felt no greater joy than her every waking day.

Today was her first day of training under his wing, and she was already surpassing her senior pupil, Zolas.

Zolas was a young elven boy, also saved by Master Akuji, but from the clutches of a burning village ravaged by the foot of war. He was no older than Rakavia, who sailed off in front of him, but she was much smaller than him in size. He found her to be interesting.

Unlike him, she had to start learning of the world from scratch, she needed instruction on how to talk, how to smile, when to smile, how to choose things by herself, even how to want; she had to learn how to give herself goals worth aiming for on her own. She had lost seven years of this common knowledge, so to Zolas, she seemed kind of dumb. An interesting kind of dumb.

However, watching her bound around so effortlessly with so much life despite how little of it she often showed; it was kind of cool. He smiled as he chased her. Not the kind of smile he used against those carefree adults to get what he wanted, but a real smile bearing fun. The kind of fun only children could have.

Tup, tup.

Zolas was airborne, propelled by his own swift feet. He crouched in the breeze as wind whipped around his metallic-blue hair, he drew back on his slingshot, a magic-infused gem in the small pocket, and within the V of his weapon he pinpointed Rakavia who darted out of the bushes. He whispered the unsealing spell into the pinch-held gem, and released it, sending the little pellet of a binding spell whizzing towards her.

Though, there was one thing Rakavia knew how to do without being taught-

She spun around the moment the marble was within range, using some strange sixth sense only she would possess. Then she blew the air in front of Zolas’s attack, stopping the gem mid-flight and sending it to the ground in an explosion of ribbons that grabbed onto whatever it could hold. Her yellow-slitted eyes found Zolas as she stepped to her next tree. Her hand skimmed across the bark and planted a black-coloured seal, almost completely camouflaged into the wood. As Zolas fell towards the same tree, the bark burst out and grew a string of branches that threatened to skewer the boy as he drew near.

She was an Elementalist. She could play with the elements in a way most could not.

Had Zolas not caught sight of her trap being set, his condition might not have fared so well.

In an instant, he turned his slingshot into blades and sliced the branches out of his way. His boots hit the same spot hers had and he bounded into the thicket where she had entered, smiling all the while.

It was a simple training exercise, one reminiscent of tag, where the objective was to catch your opponent and bind them in place. Rakavia had no intention of being restricted ever again.

When she emerged out of that same thicket, it was over a decade later. The tribal outfit she wore now was more fitted for combat, in darker colours made for camouflage. At her sides she wielded two dual-ended daggers. Same small flats, same yellow eyes, same fierce expression, with slightly wilder hair; she landed on a pond’s surface with red leafy petals strewn across its face. Years ago, standing on the small lake was enough to get Zolas off her tail, but not anymore.

A glittering beam of light ripped through the thicket and shredded across the water. Rakavia twirled out of the way like a shawl-faced dancer and pointed her weapons at the source. Zolas teared out of the bush, now with a ponytail’s length of hair. His ears were longer, his face more refined, and a blindfold now covered his eyes. He landed on the water’s surface as well, not by any natural power of his own, but by the magic-infused boots on his feet. They hummed to keep him afloat.

“I thought you a friend, Zolas. Why did you betray master?” shouted Rakavia.

On the opposite end of the water, Zolas stood with a greater elegance than even she possessed. His head was bowed and a bit off to the side for his ears to fully catch her motions. A bow, formed with two taut ribbons that pulled and arced out from the back of his hand and his palm. He pointed at her, as if his finger were enough to be the arrow. It was more than enough.

“Betray him?” said Zolas, a little twitch of irritation snuck into his calm features. “Don’t you see he’s using you?”

“Master saved me!”

“He only saved you for his own selfish desires. He broke your curse because he knew having a slave to follow him by their own volition would be much stronger than one forced into submission.”

“You lie!! You always lie!” Rakavia knelt down and splashed her palms on the water’s surface. A giant, merging seal decorated the waters around her and soon, two massive liquid butterflies emerged from the pond flying above her back, with wings that curved into place.

“When have I lied to you about the stuff that matter?” Zolas swiped his hand across the ribbons that flanked his arm and a large array of apple-sized gems filled with magic emerged from the fabric and hovered around him. “You’ve always had sharper eyes than me so why can’t you see it?! He’s making you kill innocent people-”

“Bad people!”

“They’re Humans! They’ve got barely any magic to defend themselves!”

“Humans tried to take my will. They are bad! They are evil!”

Zolas made a sigh that shook him. A sort of forced calm took over. Then he opened his palm and his ribbony bow drooped down until it was caressing the water below. He lifted his chin and turned to face her.

“Do you know what truly evil people do?” Zolas removed his blindfold, struggled for a moment and then opened his eyes, revealing eyes that were voided of light. Instead of pupils or irises all that filled those holes were a dark-dark purple substance with shimmers of would-be light that flitted across the abyssal darkness every now and then.

He could see nothing out of these eyes, and without the blindfold, the curse made nightmares fill his dreams – awake or asleep.

Zolas continued, “They do stuff like this…” he aimed his eyes towards her, despite seeing nothing, “Master Akuji did this to me and you still obey him.”

“That- that is because you tried to leave his side! You were not good to Master! That is why he punished.”

Zolas nodded in silence and wrapped his blindfold back on. ”...you know, I really thought we were friends too, Kavy. I thought you would have fought for me back then. I thought once you saw Master torture me, you would have joined me by my side, but you stayed and watched. It was the last thing I ever saw out of my eyes. So if anyone was being betrayed, it was me.”

Just like that, one of the orbs that floated by Zolas’s side launched towards Rakavia. She didn’t have much time to react, but managed to get her aquatic butterflies to attack as well. They swept their wings forward, shooting daggers of boiling water towards Zolas, but her heart wasn’t in it.

The water rained into the pond before they could reach Zolas, meanwhile, his attack crashed into her shoulder and exploded. She cried out and fell to her knees, clutching the wound with her head entirely bowed.

Zolas’s other orbs were already launching towards her when he heard her cry, and mysteriously didn’t feel the threat of her attack.

“I wanted to stay with you!” She cried.

He stopped the gems midair and they floated between them.

“But I needed to stay with Master! That kind of choosing- That kind of choice is too painful!” Her butterflies lost their form as if shattered by her voice and the water poured down over her.

Zolas straightened, completely shocked by her words. He opened his mouth but lost his means of speech. What could he have said to that? He was at a loss. He didn’t even want to fight her to begin with but...

All of a sudden he couldn’t sense her presence.

“Kavy?” There was no response. “KAVY!”

Zolas dashed forward to the place she’d last stood and moved his ears around, listening for the tiniest trace of her life – as little as she often showed – and then, in a panic, he realized she might have sunk. He crouched and stretched his hand in the water and crushed a binding spell orb to reach out and catch her. If this was still a training exercise; if this was still a simple children’s game of tag; it was the one match he couldn’t afford to lose.

The ribbons swam down, they sprang and twirled around, until they caught hold of a truly dumb friend.