After spending the night together, Lana needed to return home. Sil tried to convince her to stay but he also understood he was being selfish in doing so. She had more than just him and the children depending on her. She promised they'd spend more time together the next time she came. She did inform him it would be about three weeks or so when she came to train Fiza and Mandy.
"I'll keep an eye out for them for you. Make sure they don't get bullied."
Lana smiled and kissed the man she loved tenderly. "I wish you could call but they block out that feature. You could ask Quinn to call from his office though if you want or need to talk. The sooner you find that ability, the sooner you can come home."
Sil nodded and kissed her again then she shooed him out the door. Chucky was already waiting for him out in the hall. She needed to get the kids ready so they could head home. It didn't take long and they were heading through the teleporter and then back through their own.
She was feeling overwhelmed after seeing Sil wasn't getting any better. She thought he just needed to know he was loved and safe and he'd slowly come out of his shell. She was beginning to wonder if she was enough. Where would her position with her husband be once Raten and Vorden had their own bodies? The doubts were flooding into her mind.
Lana knew this was a destructive thing and decided to head to breakfast since Qi class was over. Soon she would busy herself in the training hall knowing the nanny-cats would make sure the kids stayed safe. It would be getting tricky soon because Olivia was now crawling and Owen was working on figuring it out.
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Back in the school, Mandy and Fiza had an almost identical schedule so that included lunch. Mandy noticed a group of boys following a girl. They decided to follow the group of boys. Soon they realized the girl wasn't the target.
Ian was exiting the library with his nose stuck in a book. He wasn't paying attention and soon the girl stuck her foot out and tripped him. He fell into the waiting fist of one of the boys the girls were following. They sent out roots to hold three boys. They left the girl and boy who had physical contact with Ian alone.
Those two were going to get personal attention.
"Left!" Mandy called out as she headed to the one on the left which was the boy. Fiza went after the girl. Both girls put on stage-1 then stage-2 armor as they headed toward their opponent. Their qi was nowhere near as strong as Lana's but they both noticed their opponents didn't have much at all and probably didn't know how to use it. That didn't stop any abilities, however.
Just as Mandy thought it, an earth pillar was shot toward her. It was a strong one, too. It was about 3 feet wide and 4 feet long making it harder to dodge. She dropped to the ground and allowed it to go over head then sprang to her feet. She threw out her whip and closed in as another earth spear of the same size came at her again, this time lower.
Mandy waited for it to get closer then leapt up, placing her hands on the top and flipped herself so she could summersault down the length which left her no closer but no further away either.
"You ant!" the boy screamed.
Mandy smirked, "but a cute one."
Seeing his predictable tactic, Mandy used her flips that Lana taught her. She was still learning and hadn't perfected every move she used but it was good enough against her current foe. He threw out another earth pillar just as she was getting close. She didn't move out of the way fast enough. The pillar hit her shoulder as she was moving to the side. It hurt but she rolled with the pain as she was finally in range.
Mandy threw her whip out and it wrapped around the boy's legs. She pulled hard and the boy toppled over backward. Rather than release the whip, she simply dropped it and created another aiming it straight toward the boy's chest. She didn't catch it as it came out this time, making it a ranged attack. The boy was already on the way to the ground and the vine attack just inflicted a small bit of internal damage. She didn't want to kill the boy, after all.
The boy had been in the middle of another earth attack and his concentration was broken. "One trick, pony huh," Mandy knelt to his side and struck him in the head with a small bit of qi to knock him out.
Meanwhile Fiza was a bit busy. She had been in training less time than Mandy and had nowhere near the mastery in acrobatics. She simply wasn't as nimble as Mandy was. What she did have was coordination. She had watched Lana and had practiced every chance she had.
As Fiza closed the distance, she created two whips. A wall of water was heading her way. She swung both whips and broke the wall and the water disintegrated into a powerless puddle on the ground. Fiza was then upon her foe. She swung one whip expecting to wrap around a leg but it ended up wrapped around a sai instead. One made of water.
The amount of control one must have to harden water enough to have that happen was enormous. Fiza knew now she was against a high-level water user. Suddenly the sai went though her vine whip and came out the other side and hardened again to fend off the other whip. Fiza knew she needed to concentrate. She withered one whip to focus her attacks with just one.
The two were caught in a dodge/swing melee with one using a water weapon, the other using a vine. Fiza didn't know if there was an end to the girl's MC as she seemed to be able to keep moving between liquid water and hardened water. Suddenly, from behind, Mandy shot a vine directly at her head and she fell to the ground.
Mandy ran over to Ian and looked him over. He was hurt but she was able to help him. After getting him back on his feet, she wrapped her arm around his. "I was wondering where you were! And here you are."
"Have you eaten lunch yet, Ian? We only have about 30 minutes left," Fiza said checking her watch.
He shook his head, "I was planning on grabbing some fruit or something then heading to class."
Mandy pointed, "there's a tree over here, let's stop there."
As they got settled, both girls quickly grew food that could be consumed without cooking so they could get full. Ian watched them.
"What would I need to do to get an ability like that?" Ian asked.
"Simple, pledge loyalty to our family leader."
"We are both fairly new at this. I was her first apprentice and it's still been less than a year. We have long way to go still toward mastery.'
Ian nodded. "it's a really cool ability."
Mandy smiled. "You should see what our leader can do. Let's eat so we won't be late to class."
They all three tucked in and quickly ate, leftovers going in their bags for later.
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