Chapter 14 - Confusion

Erin left to her own room shortly after and while my legs took me to my room to do some exercise until the pain was too much. After taking a quick shower, my sleep was filled with thoughts of the things Erin told to me.

My eyes opened and my body was in pain, like it has been for a while. My hand clumsily searched for my messenger stone and saw that there were still two hours before class.

This would be the day winter started and that eagle would come...

After freshening up my mind prepared the earth spell and water spell. The idea was to blind the eagle using wet dirt. The only problem was that it wasn't easy to have a spell activate faraway. Because of that, timing it properly might become a little foreboding, especially considering I would have to dodge.

With a heavy heart, I set off to start the day.

As my hand pushed the door, my eyes found Ned, he was yawning and going down the stairs.

"Hey, Ned!"

Ned stopped to turn around.

"Hey, Jay. How was your sleep?"

"Not bad, though it could've been better."

Ned smiled.

"Haha, that is pretty much what I experienced."

My legs hurried after Ned and walked down the stairs with him. Ned started to rub one of his eyes.

"Man, I still don't get how you cast two spells at the same time so easily."

"Oh, I didn't actually cast them at the same time, a constitution mage can hold a spell with their body. I just prepared two spells and cast them both at the same time."

Ned had a look of realization.

"Wow, that is creative! Whenever I tried to cast two spells, my speed slowed significantly."

"Wait so you can actually cast two spells simultaneously?"

"Yeah, but it's not like it has any practical applications anyway."

Ned laughed.

There was nobody other than a few maids as we passed. Ned decided to go to the kitchen and cook something.

Remembering that Alyx was sick last time I decided to check on her. After telling Ned not to cook too much and my way was made to Alyx's room.

My feet landed right outside Erin's room and my knuckle lightly rapped on the door. Hopefully, Alyx was reassured enough to not be sick.

Erin opened the door with a finger to her lips. Alyx was sick again.

There was frustration but my mind shook it off.

After a quick conversation, I went back down to inform Ned. We made a meal and went to school.

...It wasn't snowing. I rechecked my memories and confirmed that it was supposed to snow today.

How did this happen?

I can't imagine any of my actions being able to change the weather. Was it that the world was changing despite me supposedly going back in time?

Ok, let's not rush to a conclusion.

When we got to school everyone except Erin and Alyx was there. Harlow started to explain the basic spells to us and had more elementary spells posted on the walls.

Since the eagle attack had happened once before, my decision was to prepare for that possibility.

Then came the questions and the spells at my disposal. Although Alyx's spell was quite effective, it was too much for me to cast it.

My eyes landed on the spell called "Tunnel". There was a short description, stating that the tunnel would allow one to burrow into the ground.

Would it be fast enough for me to duck under the eagle's attack?

The earth spell was slowly memorized. The day was rather uneventful, other than Reyna trying to avoid us.

The tunnel spell was memorized and, after a test, there was a fresh pain similar to casting two of the basic spells. The casting process itself was quite long and made the spell pretty useless in a life or death scenario.

However, the tunneling speed was quite quick, only a second or so for the entire body to be submerged. That was quite convenient for me.

For the rest of the day, I decided to exercise until it was painful and went to sleep after a quick shower.

After waking up, my heart hoped that the events with the snow and eagle may have been a freak accident, so my eyes peered into the hallway to see if anybody else was there.

After some hesitation, my hand went over to knock on Erin's door.

There was a moment of silence, and just when I thought nobody would answer, Erin slowly opened the door and was having a hard time keeping her eyes open.

It turned out Alyx was still sick, and quite badly and that. Ned met up with me downstairs and he had already prepared some food. After eating we later set off to the school.

My foot was set down outside the palace entrance.

"Wait... How?"

It was snowing. The snow had already started to form a layer on the ground. Ned seemed oblivious to my shock and started to head to school so I followed.

Was winter delayed then? How does that make any sense? The earth and water spell were still being held onto despite me preparing them a while ago. My mind prepared the tunnel spell as well, fearing the worst.

When we got to school everything was similar to how it was before, nobody except Reyna. Ned didn't seem fazed and started to memorize some spells. My eyes landed on the basic fire spell.

While my mind finished memorizing the fire spell, Ned had already finished memorizing the "Firebolt" spell. Excited to test it out, Ned dragged along Reyna and I.

The snow reached our ankles. As Ned started to cast his spell my hand was in my pocket, grasping the messenger stone. As the snow started to dance around Ned, there was a shrill screech.

The eagle was back.

My hands immediately crushed the messenger stone.

"I got the messenger stone, focus on casting Ned!"

Ned seemed to be in shock, but rapidly composed himself and cast the Firebolt into the eagle's wing. When the eagle dived Ned was able to roll away.

After the eagle shook his head, it turned to face me. As it flew up in preparation for a dive I walked back at a steady pace. Ned was already gathering mana for the next spell.

There was a tight grip on my heart as my eyes watched the eagle dive. When it was about two meters away and my mind cast the earth, water, and tunnel spell.

The results of my actions were unknown and my body agonized in the pain the spells brought me.

Suddenly it was black.

My eyes opened to see myself laying in the snow. Although my body was burrowed in the ground, it was sent flying by the indirect impact of the eagle.

My limbs could no longer move, but the eagle was having a really hard time getting the wet dirt out of its eyes. It shook its head violently and started rubbing its wings on its eyes.

During this time Ned had finished casting the spell, he held the ball of flame in his hand and seemed to be waiting for the eagle to make its move. The eagle started to thrash around blindly.

Suddenly, a scream rang out. Blood sprayed into the air. The eagle noticed this and continued thrashing where it heard the scream, it was hitting Reyna.

Ned started to panic and simply threw the firebolt straight at the eagle. It was able to hit the already blackened wing, worsening it. The eagle was quick to charge in Ned's direction, violently flapping the wing that was still fine.

My limbs tried to move and my mind tried to cast a spell, but the pain was too much for me. Ned was caught unprepared, he tried to throw himself to the side where the wing was blackened.

However, to his dismay, the wing he thought was out of commission hit him hard. My heart sank.

"NED"

The scream tore my throat. Ned's condition was a mystery and the eagle had turned to face me.

Anxiety started to creep in my heart.

I watched as it slowly crept over.

Did I really not do enough this time as well? Was I going to die again?

...I had resigned myself to my fate when I saw the eagle right above me.

My eyes closed only open to a thunderclap. My ears painfully rang and the eagle's head had exploded. The body tenaciously kept flapping its wings before gradually slowing down and stopped moving altogether.

I saw... Ela?

She was in the same clothing that was studded with jewels, but she had giant green dragon wings coming out of her body.

Light green scales were covering her skin and she had claws that were painted in blood. Ela was panting hard, she turned to face me. There was blood on her face, making her look quite vicious.

"Are you... alright?"

I nodded with the little strength left in me and anxiously raised my trembling arm to point.

"Ned... he..."

Ela quickly looked over and rushed to Ned. She gingerly held Ned up, he was unconscious and was bleeding. Ela casted a spell and the bleeding stopped. She flew over, cradling Ned with one claw.

"My healing magic is too weak, I will try to find someone to fully heal him. For now, I will take you two back to the palace."

Ela put me on her back and held my arm to steady me. She flew fast, the howling winds were hurting my ears.

"What... is happening?"

Ela kept silent, only flapping her wings. Right when my belief was I wouldn't get an answer, she spoke.

"Don't worry about it, just make sure you stay in the palace."

The rest of the journey was silent. When Ela stepped down at the entrance she started to turn back to normal, her dragonified features receding. As Ela started to bring Ned and me into the palace my head turned around.

My body couldn't stop itself from trembling. There were countless eagles flying high in the sky above the village. There were some people that were casting spells to hold them off, but many eagles were able to rampage unimpeded in the village.

The snow was dyed red and corpses were thrown about.

Why is this all happening?

That was my only thought before it was black.