A/N: Wooo for backlogged chapters. Anywho, nothing much here. Enjoy.

DISCLAIM: Bleh, is 12:12AM. I am not writing this shit.

Chapter 15: Practise

Clang. Mine and Mathew's weapons collided with Robbie's claymore and longsword respectively, before we were both pushed back by him. Landing on my feet, I charged, and brought my sword upwards in a slashing motion. Robbie blocked it with his longsword, before swinging his claymore at me. I danced out of the way, then quickly jumped on the flat of the claymore, embedding it in the dirt and yanking it out of the Warrior's hand. Robbie didn't miss a beat, drawing a second longsword and slashing at me. I blocked, then ducked as Mathew swung his rapier at Robbies back. Robbie was too slow, and dropped his swords as the tip of the rapier dug into his shoulder.

"Oh shit. Sorry Robbie," said Mathew, quickly pulling his rapier out of our friend's shoulder and quickly healing the wound to the best of his abilities.

"Its ok man. I was a bit busy, that's all. Josh here is a nasty bastard with that sword of his," said Robbie, rolling his shoulder and grinning.

"I try," I said, running a hand through my hair.

"Go find Shayna. She's around camp somewhere. I'm not that great at healing, so go and get her to check it," said Mathew. Robbie nodded, collected his weapons and walked away. Me and Mathew looked at each other.

CLANG.

"Wow. Those two are going at it hard," I said, flicking a stray bit of hair off of my face., watching as Josh flicked his sword upwards to block Mathew's rapier, which was about to cut his skull in two

"Yeah. They are always like that, Lizi. Although, I wish they would stop trying to cut off limbs," said Kathryn, standing beside me. We both watched as Josh and Mathew traded blows. Mathew was evidently the better swordsman. His swordsmanship was great, even for a Red Mage. His sword danced, every strike aimed at finishing his opponent. I was even more amazed by the fact that his rapier was about 5 feet long, and that he wielded it as if it was a feather.

So, when I looked at Josh, I was even more surprised by the skill difference. Mathew seemed to outclass Josh, whose own swordmanship seemed to be clunky, almost forced. After watching for a while, as Mathew slowly pushed Josh back onto the defence, I wondered why.

And then Josh started using magic. And suddenly his fighting style became a hell of a lot more effective. Every sword swing was followed by a blast of magic, which Mathew was forced to either block with his own magic or dodge. His own fighting style was not suited for magic use at all, while Josh's was built around using it. Within 2 minutes, Josh had reclaimed the ground that he had lost. Then, with a blast of magic and a sword swing, Josh disarmed Mathew and pointed the tip of his blade at Mathew's throat.

"Yeah! Go Josh!" I called, clapping. Kathryn sighed, and then clapped along with me. Josh looked over at us, a confusing mixture of emotions on his face, before sheathing his magic sword and helping Mathew to his feet.

"Right. Everyone feel better after taking their tempers out on each other?" said Lathen, taking his gloves off and sitting beside Hannah in front of the campfire.

"Yeap. Also learned that Josh has a nature talent for killing things," said Robbie, clapping me on the shoulder.

"Oh shut up. You took me and Mathew on at the same time, and damn near won," I replied, writing words down in the dirt.

"Whatcha doing?" Robbie asked. "Cause I can't read that shit."

"Really? I can read it fine," I said, looking down at what I was writing, then blinked. It wasn't in English at all, but rather in a swilling series of symbols that just screamed "ancient".

"Hmmm... I've heard of this before. It's the language of the Black Mage's. You would be naturally able to read it, I guess," said Lizi, shifting over beside me. "What does it say?"

"I'm not sure..." I lied. It actually was a bit an argument with myself over the pros and cons of one Lizi. Lizi noticed me not looking at her, and smiled slyly.

Later on in the night, as the fire was dying, I was still awake, staring at the stars. Sighing, I sat up and nearly collided with Lizi.

"Um, why are you a) still awake, and b) over here?" I asked.

"Well... I wasn't tired, okay?" she replied, somewhat defensively. I clicked on.

"Something wrong?" I asked.

"Its just... I feel like I'm tagging along... You guys have all this destiny shit, and, well, I'm along for the ride," she said, voice turning sad.

"Hey. Cheer up..." Not knowing what else to do, I dropped the walls around my emotions and spoke the truth. "I'm glad you're here. I... I'm glad I've got someone who gets me." That got a smile out of her. I returned it, then jumped slightly when she wiggled right up close to me and rested her head on my shoulder.

"Ummm..." I wasn't sure how to react, but my suddenly free emotions did, and I found myself putting my arm around her shoulders. Lizi responded by cuddling close to me and sighing contently. Soon, I heard her snoring gently, and found myself falling asleep as well. Just before I fell into the black and sleep, I thought:

Man, this is gonna look bad tomorrow.

A/N: Short, sweet and a little bit of fluff. Not my best, but not my worst.