The Reeking Box Incident

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH! ROOOOOOBIIIIIIIIIIN!" Sofia had given up trying to attack the pegasus knights with her fire tome and instead decided to run away as fast as she possibly could.

The Shepherds had recently found a wonderful training ground. It consisted of a huge dip in the earth that with a little work, mud and sun had been mostly flattened out and was surrounded on all sides by near vertical cliffs making it almost like a huge arena. There were a few ways safely up and down the cliffs – more down than up – but the ways up had been blocked to stop any of the dozen or so risen Sofia was up against from escaping and attacking us. Of course the pegasus knights could fly but were highly resistant to magic – Sofia's specialty – and seemed to be having a great deal of fun chasing her down.

Robin was sat with his legs dangling over the cliff edge, resting his chin on his hand and looking to be deep in thought. Virion was stood next to him, glancing worriedly over the edge, a steel bow in hand. Lon'qu was about a third of the way around the arena, also sat and studying but more to gain his breath back his fight with some knights and the subsequent climb up the cliffs.

Sofia carried on running, already knowing that it was useless to start slinging spells as the tome she had on hand did no damage at all. Robin's brows furrowed in concentration as he realized that he'd put Sofia in a very dangerous situation with no quick method of escape and no way to beat her opponents. Finally he sighed and made the call. "Virion, do your thing."

"I'm afraid that with Sofia being so close to the targets and so far away, there is a slight possibility that I could hit her."

Robin's eyes widened and he was filled with fear, "What?" The word tore itself from his throat unbidden.

Lon'qu, having overheard the conversation, checked his sword and prepared to slide down the cliff but was interrupted by another person running towards the battleground from behind him. "Oi, Sofia, catch!" Emma spun and flung the wind tome towards her friend, missing the myrmidon by mere inches, and slowing to a stop just before the cliff edge. He turned to glare at her slightly but once he saw that her focus was on Sofia he simply shuffled away and turned his focus to the fight.

Sofia immediately dropped her fire tome and bent down, picking up the elwind without missing a step. She continued running until she reached the cliff then spun and delivered the most powerful spell she could. With the pegasus knights being both weak to wind spells and bunched so close together she was able take down all but two of her adversary in one fell swoop. Robin's eyes bugged out of his head as the risen exploded into purple gas. The other two began to retreat but Sofia was faster, shooting off two more spells before they'd managed to rise even a few feet.

Letting out a breath, she sat on the ground and tried to get her breath back. The magic wasn't hard – far from it – but the running around had really taken its toll. By the time Robin and Virion had picked their Jaws up from the floor – Lon'qu being too stoic to show more emotion and Emma knowing her friend's abilities already – Sofia had begun the climb up a slightly sloping part of the cliff.

"You seem unsurprised," Lon'qu commented.

Emma shrugged her shoulders, "The outcome was unsurprising. I know what she's capable of. Magic's her specialty and she devotes a lot of time to practicing it, it makes sense that she'd be good." Emma grinned.

"Hn," He simply grunted in reply.

"Hey Emma, since you're here, do you mind if you go next?" Robin yelled across the arena.

"Sure," She replied and turned to take a step away when the ground crumbled beneath her. She let out a brief shout as she fell but was then obscured by dust and other bits of dirt kicked up in the landslide.

"Wha-!" Lon'qu barely had time to register what was happening before he too was tumbling down the cliff. As they weren't actually falling – rather, tumbling and rolling down the slight slope - neither where particularly hurt when they hit the ground, just bruised.

"Emma!"

"Lon'qu!" The shouts were simultaneous, instant reactions coming from different people. The dust cleared and showed them to be fine though slightly embarrassed as Lon'qu, who had fallen a few moments after Emma, had landed on the girl in question and had frozen in fear.

"Er...Lon'qu?" Mostly insensitive as always, Emma was quick to try and bring Lon'qu back to reality. He breathed in sharply and rolled off her, creating as much distance between them as quickly as possible.

"My apologies. I did not intend-" He was swiftly interrupted though.

"It's fine, it was an accident and I'm just glad you're okay more than anything else." A barely visible pink brushed across her cheeks and her voice softened ever so slightly before she blinked hard and went back to her normal self. "We're alright!" She shouted up to her comrades whilst Lon'qu began to once again scale the cliffs.

"You sure?!" Robin shouted back.

"Positive!" Sofia chose not to comment, knowing full well that even if she was in extreme amounts of pain she would be unlikely to reveal it. She smiled at that, they balanced each other well, each caring for the other in their own ways.

Lon'qu hauled himself over the top of the cliff near the three other shepherds, still red in the face and it was all Sofia could do not to laugh. After hearing Emma fangirl over him for so long, it was nice to see that he was, in fact, just as human as the rest of them.