Hmm…wow…it's been a while. Sorry. I really will try to make updates more often. Keep on my case. I forget if you don't!

The Secret Magic: 3: Whisperings

By: Karigan Marie

Chapter 8: Keep Going

She felt the scythe's wooden rod snap her fingers and felt her lungs contract in pain. She dropped her own in reaction and felt herself bite her lower lip so hard it began to bleed. The hollow 'clunk of her scythe hitting the ground was drowned out by Nefarian's words. "Keep going."

Jade clumsily reached down and picked up the rod with fingers that wouldn't cooperate. She'd been stupid to drop the weapon. She'd been through this enough times by now to know Pips did not stop a fight for a couple of bruised fingers; even if they were broken. She brought up the dulled point in a butterfly sweep that Nefarian easily dodged before lunging with the wrong foot. Nefarian took the obvious opening and cracked the metal of the scythe into the back of Jade's legs. She felt her feet leave the ground and her back meet it. The air came crashing out of her lungs so quickly, Jade could hardly move. She forced herself to role. Slow though she was, it was just enough. The harsh metal of the scythe's edge slammed into the ground where Jade's knee would have been.

Nefarian reared back quicker than Jade could stand and slammed the back of Jade's head with the side of the metal blade. The world turned blood red as Jade fell to her knees and immediately vomited, barely managing to miss the mess as she fell forward and to the side. The instant nausea ran its course as her vision, which had doubled, came back into focus.

The smile filled with wickedly sharp teeth came into view and Jade had the sudden urge to lift the scythe and pierce it through Nafarian's jaw and up through her brain. "You didn't have to do that," was all she could manage.

Eyes scrunched in anger. "Who is teaching who?"

Jade breathed in and tried to sit up, wincing at the sharp sting in her hand. "I think you nearly knocked my brains out through my mouth." She felt the back of her head and noticed a rather large bump.

"Not enough force for that," was the even reply. Green membranous wings stretched lazily. "Besides, you needed some sense knocked into you. No one would know I taught you how to fight. You looked like a squawking bird."

"A squawking bird wouldn't have been so ridiculous as to let a Piper teach it how to fight." Jade closed her eyes in frustration when the voice came from a nearby tree. She looked up to see Justice sitting there with a rather unforgiving look. "If you ask me…"

"I do not ask you," Nafarian's voice was dangerously flat. "I do not tell you how to teach your lessons Red Canary. Do not inform me how to conduct mine."

Justice jumped down the twenty or so feet from the tree with relative ease. Jade sighed in envy. She's always been a fantastic tree climber, but that agility was beyond her mere human abilities. Justice snapped her words out. "Two years, Jade. Two incredible years putting up with this…" she flailed her hands at the Piper. "…vicious form of fitting. Don't you think you've had your face bashed in enough?"

Jade rubbed at her fingers, trying to get the swelling to stop. "It's a thought that's crossed my mind on occasion." She wiped at her bloody lip and stood, rolling her shoulders as a solid ache began to throb. "But I think I'm improving."

Justice scoffed. "You're so thick-headed." She turned jumped into the air, quickly shifting into her natural form. She screeched her rage as she flew away, leaving a ringing in Jade's ears. Jade sighed and watched her go.

Nafarian smirked scathingly. "She's too sensitive." Jade sighed and sat on a large log that had recently fallen. Jade signed and inwardly rolled her eyes as the stump, smarting from its recent loss of the majority of its body, let out a series of intolerable comments about her upbringing. Nafarian watched her for a few moments. "You might be able to win a fight against a beginner. But you'd probably come out of it worse for ware."

Jade gave a caustic glare before starting back towards the denser part of the forest where she spent the majority of her time. "I'll see you tomorrow, Nafarian."

Nefarian grinned in a way only Pipers could before snapping her wings open and using them to speed her dash behind some brush. Jade began to trek home with a noticeable limp. She'd be sore for a week after this session. She deftly swooped up some obliging aloe vines to sooth onto her fingers. She rubbed at the leave until the oils spilled out onto her offended digits. She laced some magic into them, making their potent pain relieving chemicals stronger.

She couldn't help the inward smirk at the amount of magic she'd acquired in less than 3 years of residence among the Great Forest. At 13 and a half, she'd leaned the basic control of releasing and reigning in her gift. It was always an effort to reign in the magic. Which just figured. She could release it easily enough with a simple temper tantrum. Getting it back under control after one was an entirely different story. She'd spent the last year working on self-control. Not allowing her feelings to effect her actual actions. The most interesting of actions caused some very unwanted reactions from the flora. An exasperated sigh six months ago at the wrong moment had lead to an orchard of cherry trees to gnarl themselves into unimaginable knots. And while they, the cherry trees, had protested madly about the compromising positions they found themselves in, didn't present an immediate danger, something like that from a mere sigh had been a sign from the Gods that she'd better learn some self-control, immediately.

By the time she reached the trees that housed the enormous nests of firebirds, her fingers had stopped their swelling enough for her to climb up the nearest reachable branch. It took her only five minutes to reach the first nest, occupied by a small female, not that much older that Justice. Her feathers were a deeper red that Justice's, but there were still a number of silver feathers littering her coat. "Wingside," she greeted. The soft chirp was all the comfort Jade needed. She continued up the tree until she reached Challanger's nest. She squatted against the trunk and watched the strong but young male prune himself. His eyes met hers and he asked the unspoken question. "Did you run into a tree?"

Jade smirked and shrugged. "In a matter of speaking."

He continued preening. "Masochist."

A full fledged smile plastered itself against her face. "You're one to speak." That had gotten his attention. "I heard you gave yourself that name. No better way to make sure Hunter picks on you."

He chortled in laughter. "I like to keep him on his claws."

Jade scrunched her eyes. "He'd kill you with a single slash."

The comment didn't even faze him. "For a while still, yes. But not forever."

Jade worried her lip. "So you will challenge him one day."

He ruffled his feathers in a close resemblance of a shrug. "Not for a few decades still." Jade sighed. She pulled her knees up to her chest and winced at the soreness in her body. Challanger spared her a look and gave a large sigh. "Come rest with me tonight. You look like you need a good pillow. And as we've discovered, you like nothing better than a good pillow stuffed with feathers."

The comment always made her smile. She cuddled up to the red raptor and sighed in content. "Challanger?"

"Yes?"

"How will you know it will be time to challenge Hunter? Are you not frightened?"

He sighed deeply and lay in silence for a few moments. Finally he answered softly. "We must all make the decision. Sometimes that decision is forced on us. But it is far more difficult to make the decision for ourselves. But decide we must. Or live our lives in fear and hiding."

Jade sighed. "I figured you'd say something like that."