The Beast Within

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Somehow, Auris was not surprised to hear Adrik say that, it seemed exactly like the type of thing that Ceraun would do.

“You should take your cloak off, it would make the journey easier.” Adrik advised after a short spell of silence.

Auris did so with relief, she had not thought to take off the cumbersome clothing apparel.

They started off again, occasionally jumping over small rocks, Adrik went over the bigger ones while Auris preferred to go around them.

This could not happen for everyone of the rocks the came across but she avoided as many as she possibly could, Adrik was patient, he did not hasten her up or made out like he was tired of the snail’s pace they were going at and Auris appreciated the effort.

Meanwhile, over at the river bank where Ceraun and Haneul had long gotten to and had begun their training.

“What do you think they are up to?” Haneul asked curiously, glancing over at the other Mage.

Ceraun shrugged, taking a brief break. “Most likely walking down here.”

Haneul gasped dramatically. “They would never get here at that pace.” He said with confidence.

“Perhaps, Adrik is not the one to give up halfway so you would be better off not expecting them.” He replied, returning to his task.

Back on the way over to the river bank, Adrik was panicking.

Auris had asked him to hold onto her cloak for her, saying that she wanted to try something, he was curious but he had not seen any of this coming.

With a stern expression on her face, she had clutched at the edge of her sleeves and tugged harshly on it, the old fabric easily giving under the slight pressure with a small rip.

Adrik felt his throat close up on him, unconsciously gripping the cloak in his hand tight. “Auris, wh...what are you doing?” He forced himself to ask because just standing there and watching her rip all of her clothes off did not seem like a better choice.

“Huh?” Auris momentarily paused her frenzied actions of trying to tear off the sleeves of her dress.

“What are you doing?” He repeated, this time in a much more controlled tone.

“Oh.” Auris instantly blushed a dark red as realization dawned on her, she had practically been tearing at her clothes without a single explanation.

"I'm sorry." She quickly aplogized in mortification.

Adrik just stared on in confusion, her apology was still not explaining what she aimed to achieve.

"It's fine, what were you doing?" He asked again, unsure if he should have not repeated the question and perhaps they would have just continued their never ending journey.

At the pace that they were moving at they would get to the river bank only to turn around and resume the journey back to town.

Auris looked unsure, looking at everywhere else but him and he was about to tell her to not bother telling him anymore, he was not sure he would not like what she had to say anyway.

But Auris spoke up first. "I… it… it is said that Mages with Light Magic draw energy from the sun." She started to say in her soft voice, twisting the edge of the dress sleeve that she had previously been tugging viciously at.

"And I just realized that I had more or less covered every part of myself from the sun…" she trailed off at this point, losing steam. "I just thought… I-I mean… I felt that perhaps it could work, maybe I will get stronger or maybe not but it would cause no harm to try."

Adrik remained quiet while she stumbled through her short, haphazardly put together speech.

"Do…" he trailed off, gulping. "Do you want me to help you?" He asked carefully.

He was immensely curious, if sunlight truly gave her energy, it would be of great advantage to all of them, Auris mostly because at the pace at which they were going, he was starting to worry if she would be able to make it before the time came to leave.

Auris’ iridescent eyes burned brighter at his suggestion, her unnatural eyes settling on his arms like she was already imagining him ripping the sleeves that were giving her so much of a headache.

"Yes, please." She quickly agreed, nodding to show her agreement. "I would be grateful if you could help.

Adrik handed her cloak back to her so he could freely use his hands and as Auris held out a hand, she wondered why she had not thought of this much earlier.

Briefly, she thought of closing her eyes or turning her head to the side but what would be the use for that?

So she stared wide eyed as Adrik's fist grabbed the edge of her sleeves and tugged sharply, she could not help her surprised and impressed gasp as the sleeve easily came off, ripping cleanly off where it was attached to her shoulders leaving her arms bare.

She did not feel any different when sunlight hit her skin but she was not about to lose hope now, besides a sleeve was already gone, she would be better off ripping the second one.

Quickly, she moved the cloak to her now bare arm to give space for Adrik to help out with the second sleeve.

which he did with the same ease as the first, the sleeve coming off and away.

"Thank you." She said kindly, moving closer to a large boulder to place her cloak and ripped sleeve on, she wanted to try something.

She had also planned to rip the lower part of her dress, it would be fine because she had strips of cotton wrapped all up her shins.

She would only rip it so that it was above her knees, it would also ease up the difficulty of her movements.

She did not feel right about asking Adrik to help her with that, plus he looked mortified enough helping her rip her sleeves.

plus, what other better way to check if sunlight truly gave her energy than to try it out by ripping her dress herself?