Avery nodded. “Yeah. I’m pretty good most of the time, and I don’t catch things like normal, but I’m susceptible to fevers. That’s about it, though.” She looked over at him. “Most people don’t get it, though, since they only have the commonplace magicks, not the strong ones like I have. Magic comes easy to me, while some people hardly have enough to even lift a boulder, let alone a whole mountain range. “And it doesn’t help that I haven’t even been officially tested, either. My family just can’t take me down there and I can’t go alone with Corynna, because I’m a little easy to distract. I’ve gotten better about it, but they don’t want me disappearing on her, since she’s always the one watching me, instead of the other way around. I love her for that, but it can get kinda annoying when I’m supposed to be watching her do something, and I just want to take care of what I went to do. “We’re always bickering about magic, and how the words are supposed to be said. She’s always been strict about how I’m supposed to be saying them, and she always gets onto me about my pronunciation, but it’s not like she knows them any better than I do. Both of us were taught them by a neighbor, and we’ve found Sky-Walker books in the strangest places, so we’ve figured out more through translating it ourselves. And that’s about what all we do with it, but I have no clue how she knows more than I do when we worked on translating those books together. Besides, it’s not like she’ll ever really be able to use them, since she can hardly use any sort of magic.” Avery ranted. “Whoa, whoa, whoa,” Coram hushed, holding his hands up in mock surrender. “Hold up. You’ve found Sky-Walker books?” He stared at Avery, who was calming herself down with a steady breath. “How?” Avery nodded. “Yeah. Corynna and I did. We were just wandering around in town when our adoptive dad was selling things at market. He sent us off to look for whatever we wanted, and we happened on a book stall that had a whole bunch of Sky-Walker books. And a guide to translating the runes that the Sky-Walkers used. It’s actually a pretty interesting story, truth be told. We bartered for several books, including the translation one. We spent the whole winter working on translating those books. I still have one that we never finished translating. Copied it down and hid it in my stuff so she wouldn’t find out.” Avery gave Coram a conspiratorial smile, eyes glinting brightly in the afternoon sunlight. “You’re adopted?” “Yup. Found us on their doorstep, and they took us both in. Corynna a little before me, though.” Avery was following along with her given reply in case anyone asked about them and what they were doing with their family. Most asked if they were foundlings, which, on a strange technicality, it was true. More accurately, they randomly came to the family when the Sky kingdom fell to Coraz. “So, more accurately, a foundling?” Gedric asked, coming up on the other side of Avery. He glanced at Avery, who shrugged. Her clothes and hair were still dripping. “I would suggest drying off.” “Eh, I’m fine, for now.” Avery waved a hand in denial. “It’s nice enough out here that I’ll dry out quickly. Besides, I’m not always dry at home. Corynna’s always trying to soak me. Including buckets of water on the top of a door. I let her do it, because she’s a bit older, and she prefers making me soaked over getting soaked as well. I have my own defenses against her, too. So don’t worry. I can dry off without a spell.” Her blue eyes glittered brilliantly as she grinned at them. Her black hair suddenly blew into her eyes when the wind picked up from just behind them. “I lost my ribbon, didn’t I…?” she asked, grabbing for the wild strands. “Oh, well…” “Do you need something to tie back that tangle?” Kadence asked. “I’ll worry about it when we stop for lunch. My hair needs to dry, and I like brushing it out before I tie it back, anyways. Thanks,” Avery added, remembering her manners, “for the offer. I may just take you up on it later on here.”
