Almost cold.

Yeah! I woke up to see clouds. It is much cooler today. I am happy for it. The heat had been unseasonable.

Since there are fires again I hope that it rains and helps out the firefighters. Those guys can use every drop that the sky will give.

In other news I am done with the first readthrough/edit of my book. I plan to do at least one more before sending it off, maybe two. It's still hard for me to believe that I actually did it, that I actually got one of my stories out of my head and onto paper (sort of :-)).

So here comes the next chapter.

Torn
43

It took Julius a little bit of time to figure out the game. He had never known of things like garden hoses and pressure nozzles, and thus had never participated in a water fight like this.

However, once he figured it out he enjoyed it completely. He also understood why he had been asked to change. His clothes would have been soaked and not only would have been uncomfortable, it would have been extremely difficult to move.

There was another advantage that he saw to the game. Since the object was to soak your opponent while staying dry, it helped in defensive maneuvering. He wished that he had known of this game earlier, and had the tools to play it in his world. Not only was it fun, but it was excellent as a training tool.

Maureen wasn’t as happy. She was having an excellent time, but was still having no luck with controlling water.

She was running, trying to get in another shot at Julius. She slipped on the wet grass. She didn’t fall, but it was a close thing.

Julius saw this. He ran over to check on her, and promptly slipped on the grass himself. He was laughing all the way down.

Maureen was laughing as well. She knelt by Julius, trying to make sure that he was all right. He pulled her down to the grass, and then pulled the hose from her hand.

He got one good shot of water off before she was up and moving to retrieve the hose that he had left behind when he had run over to check on her.

The game was back on.

***

They continued to play for the better of the afternoon.

At some point the rules changed, and both of them started to use magic.

Soon enough the water was being blocked by walls of flame, sucked into swirling vortices, or used in mud attacks.

Julius tried not to directly alter the water until Maureen was able to control the water as well. He decided that everybody would be happier if the terms were even.

Both were pleased with Maureen’s success. She was easily able to defend herself from the water with the other magic that she had learned. At the same time her abilities were growing.

Julius pushed her in the name of fun, and she responded exactly as he wanted. His only wish was that she be able to control water.

He hoped that the ability would present itself by the end of the next day. He worried that if it did not she wouldn’t have enough time to develop it before she had to fight.

Tired, they retreated to the patio for a short break.

“You’re coming along.”

“I still can’t do a thing with water.”

“I know, but I hope that will change soon.”

“Me too.”

Silence. Both were trying to figure out a new approach that would help her learn to control water. Coming up with nothing new, Julius stepped down off of the patio.

Maureen watched as the vampire headed for the hose, picked it up, and shot a stream of water at her.

Her arms were dripping as Julius walked back to sit down again.

“It was worth a try.”

Maureen shook her arms off. “Yeah, I guess.”

“You have any better suggestions?”

Maureen thought about it for a minute. “No.”

“Then I think that we’ll just continue this until you get it.”

“It’s definitely a lot more fun than staring at a glass of water for hours.”

“And you get to work on other skills at the same time.”

“I didn’t even notice that I was doing it for the longest time.”

“That’s exactly what I was hoping to hear.”

“Why?”

“It means that you are starting to react instinctively to attacks. You fight better if you don’t have to think about it.”

Maureen thought about it. “True, but what if the attack is mostly physical? I don’t have those same reactions to physical attacks.”

“Yes you do.”

Maureen raised an eyebrow.

Julius almost didn’t catch the motion, but responded when he did.

“I watched you out there. If you couldn’t use magic to fend off an attack you were usually able to move out of the way. You were also able to turn and use the open space to attack me. If that isn’t a physical reaction I don’t know what is.”

He smiled. She returned the smile.

He walked over to her. “Kyra, you have all the skills. Now it is just a matter of refining them, even the water. You have the ability; you just need to find it.”

“How do I find something that I have spent days looking for?”

“Stop looking.”

Maureen almost glared at him, then reconsidered when she realized that his statement made sense.

“I don’t know if I can,” she said after a moment.

“Like I said earlier, don’t allow the stress to overcome you. Right now you are so worried that you won’t be able to work with water that you are causing your own inability.”

“So what do we do about it?”

Julius paused, how would he force her to forget about working with water and help try to encourage it at the same time?

“Let’s do this again tomorrow, but worry more about strengthening your other skills than developing that of water. You showed promise today in everything else, let’s build on that.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, let’s rule out water a factor. If you get strong enough in everything else you will still have an excellent chance of at least countering whatever Jack might throw at you.”

“And the rest of today?”

“Well I don’t know about you, but I think that it is getting a little too cold to continue playing with water.”