... .:chapter 2:...

Caitlyn yawned when someone knocked on her door. And whoever was doing it, it was loud. She climbed out of bed, grabbed a robe from somewhere and opened the door. Her face showed a mix of anger and exhaustion.
"Colin. I could have known that it was you." she said and groaned. Colin looked energized as always, and grinned.
"Good morning. Why do you always wake up this late?" he asked innocently.
"You'd still wake me up like this." Caitlyn said and stared blankly at his grinning face. He ran a hand through his red hair and sighed.
"Come on. Anya made breakfast, and Rosalie and Benjamin are back." he said. Caitlyn perked up. "They're back?" she yelled, running back into her room. She loved those two so much, they were like a mother and father to her! She grabbed her red-pink assist outfit, boots and stick and put her hair in two ponytails. Then she dashed past Colin, and down the stairs. Out of breath, she arrived in the living room, where everyone stopped and turned to her.

"Don't run down the stairs, I don't want to have to resurrect you!" a low voice said, and Caitlyn grinned. Everyone laughed.
"Caitlyn. It's been so long! How are you doing, dear?" a feminine voice said. She turned to look at the ringmaster in her deep brown robes. She felt tears well up in her eyes and Rosalie opened her arms. Caitlyn hugged her tightly.
"Rosalie, where have you been this long?" she sobbed, trying to recall the last time that they had been in down. Rosalie ran a gloved hand through her long, white-blond hair and smiled sadly. "It's been tough training and working for the Guild..." she said, patting Caitlyn's shoulders. Benjamin smiled at them.

"Yes, it's been the same for me." he said, running a hand through his dark brown hair. He had a scar on his tanned skin that she hadn't seen before. She frowned, but decided to not ask about it. Rosalie observed her.
"You've grown so much... You seem like you're close to level thirty-five already.." she said, smiling. Caitlyn blushed slightly.
"Yeah. We've been training a lot the last few weeks." she said sheepishly. Samuel nodded as well. He was already close to the 40's. But he was the hardest worker of them all, it seemed.

'I could work harder if Colin gave me a chance to heal him, though.." she thought, sighing.
"What does everyone plan on doing today? It looks like it's going to rain..." Anya said, wrinkling her nose. Caitlyn followed her gaze to the window. Dark gray clouds were coming closer.
"I guess we'll still need to train, though." she said, pouting. Colin groaned and buried his head in a pillow that was resting on the sofa he was sitting on. Samuel sighed, barely audible.

"It would be easier if an Elementor could get rid of the rain, though..." Benjamin muttered. Caitlyn felt a strange sensation go through her at the mentioning of an Elementor. She stared out the window and recalled her meeting with Nathan last evening. It all felt so unreal. He seemed like the type who could appear and disappear anywhere at will...
Then she realized that she felt like talking him again, and that she should have watched her words last night better.
'I hate having to think this much about things...' she thought, running a hand through her dark blonde hair. Then, Colin stood up. His green eyes seemed like they were sparkling when he grabbed her hand, and Samuel's hand, and pulled them outside. Protesting, she tried to get loose, but his hands were trained from the sword training, and he grinned.
"We couldn't stick in there forever!" he said, letting them go on a safe distance from the house. Samuel sighed, and pulled his hat a bit move over his eyes. The next moment rain poured down on them. She was soaked immediately and cursed inwardly.
"COLIN!" she yelled, dashing after him when he took off.

"Caity, stay with Sam today, okay? I'm off to the arena!" he said, and he was gone. She was left there, and smiled at Sam.
"We got dumped, didn't we..." Sam said and sighed. His black hair looked like the hair of a wet cat, and Caitlyn giggled. Samuel glared at her.
"Okay, we'll have to fly for a bit, though." he said, smiling. A few minutes later they were at Cardpuppets. Caitlyn was absolutely creeped out by these things. Samuel attempted to calm her.
"Come on, I won't let them touch you." he said, grinning. Somehow he felt amused again.
Caitlyn was pressed to the nearest tree now, and one of the dolls came closer to her, and she yelled in fear. Samuel sighed. Then he took out his wand and burned the doll to a pile of ashes. Caitlyn blinked, and looked at his smiling face. Then she sighed, defeated.
"Okay, let's start." she said, taking out her staff.

Healing Samuel was the easiest thing she had ever done. He barely took damage, and seemed like a completely different person while he teleported from monster to monster, laughing when the fire assaulted the wooden dolls. He looked... Evil. And Caitlyn really liked this side of him for some reason. She found herself laughing evilly for some reason because of that, and Sam laughed with her. A mercenary and his partner stared at them with raised eyebrows, and they both burst out in laughing again.
"We're really weird, aren't we." Samuel said, his voice still cracking with laughter. Caitlyn nodded. "Correction, you're the strange one here. You look evil!" she said, rolling over in the grass. Samuel chuckled. "Do I? Can't I have fun roasting monsters?"
"No, really, you had an evil grin on your face, it looked amazing!" she said, wiping tears out of her eyes. They continued to train like this, until the sun peeked out from behind the clothes, and they realized how cold it actually was. They sat down in the damp grass, and Samuel made a little fire that floated in the air with a flick of his wand. Slowly their clothes dried again. Caitlyn sighed.
"What level do you think I am now?" she asked after a while, a bit sleepy. Samuel stared at her for a bit. "Mm, I think about thirty-eight." he said, smiling. Caitlyn grinned.

"Cool." she said, yawning.
"Mm... Is it okay if I head out for town a bit? I need to restock on potions..." he said, opening his backpack and only seeing three of the small bottles of blue energy drink. Caitlyn nodded.
"Don't head out too far into the field, okay?" he said, and then flew off, looking back a few times to make sure that she stayed put. She giggled.