It is only when she settles before Nic that Jack feels comfortable climbing back onto her shoulders, watching the other female with gentle curiosity. He did always trust Nic, since the first day he bonded with Elliana. If she peers hard enough, straining those blue eyes, she can almost see the secret written across the sharp cheek bones of her mother’s ward. She hangs a question of her own out for her to see and when Nic replies there is a laugh that blooms on her lips like a flower. It is quiet and calm and flutters just barely on an exhale and her teeth flash white behind her gay gold lips as she looks up behind her dark, innocent lashes. “Oh please, please tell me,” she says with a flutter of childish excitement.
It is only with that addition of that extra special Nic, that Elli saves just for her that it would seem it had tipped the scales. And like a miracle, the one she has known since birth, who has been like an older sister to her since day one, she pulls out the surprise. Elli has never seen a sword in real life, only in her story books, in illustrations. So she stands in awe for a moment, those bright blue satellite dish eyes grow even rounded in anticipation, excitement, gratitude. “Oh, Nic,” she says with a wild exhale of youthful exuberance. When she extends it out towards the little girl she takes it carefully, examining it fully, feeling the weight of it. It feels like adventure, it feels like new explorations.
“Are you going to train me?” Elli asks her with hope blooming on her cheeks like spring flowers. She has heard Nic’s stories, and she can think of no one better for the task. “Yes, yes I want to,” she reassures her, eyes falling back down to the sword and imagining herself in far off places on wild adventures, her sword pointing the way of here they should go.
This is when she leaps back from Nic and holds the sword out in front of her. “I say we start now,” comes the soprano voice, and though her smile be sweet, there is a challenge that starts to flourish.
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