The Beast Within

CHAPTER FORTY-THREE

Adrik watched on in fascination, Auris did not seem different after more of her body got revealed to the sunlight, perhaps all this would be a waste of their time.

A noisy ripping sound startled him out of his reverie, making him glance sharply at Auris who held up the lower part of her dress with equal parts shock and excitement.

"I might have pulled a little too hard." She muttered sheepishly, glancing down at her legs.

Her skirt was shorter than the length she had been going for but it would have to do.

She tossed the torn fabric over her shoulder and jumped around a bit, her cheeks a bright red from exertion.

"Do you feel different?" Adrik asked, helping her with her cloak.

Auris shrugged. "Not particularly but then again, I just ripped off my skirt..." she trailed off, looking deep in thought. "Why don't we try racing down to the bank of the river?" She suggested with an ecstatic expression.

Adrik was thrown aback by this, freezing up with the cloak held in his hand. "What?"

It took a while to process her words because she had not even suggested that they continued their journey but perhaps at a faster pace but had gone all out with asking to race, against him no less.

"What is the worst that could happen?" Auris prodded, noting Adrik's hesitation.

Adrik levelled her a stern look. "That you would faint." He replied bluntly, he was not against having to carry her all the way to the river bank, if they kept up at this pace, he might just have to.

Instead, what he was paranoid about was having to explain to Ceraun why he was coming with an unconscious Auris, the annoying bastard would never let him hear the end of it.

"You just watched me as I ripped my dress in half." She argued, eager to try out the possibility that she might be physically stronger.

"That does not guarantee that it would extend to running."

Auris huffed out an exasperated breath. "Then you would just have to catch me to stop me." She muttered stubbornly, reaching up behind her to tie up her long hair to keep it out of her eyes.

"What do you mean by... Auris!" Adrik yelled when she suddenly took off, a flash of slender limbs.

"By the Pillars." Adrik cursed under his breath as he took off after her, more shocked at her abrupt actions than the fact that she was actually running over the rocky terrain, lithely scaling boulders and flipping over rocks.

Then it started to dawn on him that he could not quite catch up, just how fast was she running?

She had gotten a head start but Adrik should have still been able to catch up to her, preferably to keep an eye on her, if Auris missed a step while running that fast, she could get terribly hurt.

But he could not even get close enough to be of any help, she was in his line of vision but he could not close the distance between them, no matter how fast he ran.

It was starting to irk Adrik, he was not about to use magic while racing with Auris because she was not exactly using her magic, it was much like Haneul when his Wind Magic provided him with the ability to move faster and lighter.

Bundling up the cloak in his arms to shove the swirl of fabric underneath his arm, Adrik ran even faster, closing much of the distance between Auris and him.

She was still out of his reach.

Auris however easily forgot that she was even running from someone, running felt so freeing, it made her feel more alive than she had ever been all her life that it made her eyes tear up, little droplets of tears splashing.

She was also smiling too, so widely her cheeks were beginning to hurt.

Her hair started to come undone when she scaled a particularly high boulder, her white locks draping around her.

She looked back at this point to see Adrik a little ways from her and it dawned on her then that she was able to run faster than him for so long.

It put a spur in her steps and she ran ever faster, the wind in her hair, looking back so often that she didn't realize that she had gotten to the river bank and nearly ran into Ceraun.

Ceraun's shock was palpable, stopping the running girl before she smacked into him.

His surprise increased further when he glanced behind her and saw Adrik running over, clutching something in his arms and looking both out of breath and upset.

He stepped away from Auris after she had regained her balance, Haneul coming over at the same moment.

"Wait..." Ceraun's eyes widened in surprise as he made quick calculations in his head.

Perhaps finding out what happened to make Auris capable of running so fast was more important but Ceraun needed to know this first.

"Did you both race?" He asked with a short burst of laughter.

Adrik was already turning a fine shade of angry red.

Auris laughed sheepishly, twisting her hands. "Not really, Adrik would not allow me to, it was more of a chase..."

"Unbelievable!" Ceraun cut her off. "You outran him?"

"Shut yer foul mouth, Feyrer." Adrik gritted out at him.

"Indeed, I should like to find out how this was possible..." Haneul spoke up.

"No, no, we will surely get to that, I would like an answer to my question first." Ceraun insisted cruelly.

"Ceraun I don't think you should push..."

"I have it on good word that she did, I very well saw it with my own two eyes and she did not even look out of breath while you look like you are downright asphyxiating."Ceraun exaggerated, ignoring Adrik’s murderous looks.

"I thought you were supposed to be her teacher?"

Adrik snapped at this point, going after Ceraun who turned tail and ran, laughing as he did so.

Adrik was already frustrated with the turn of events and transferred it to rage with which he used to catch up to Ceraun in no time, tackling the other Mage to the ground.