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Shiny Boots
Camping with her family was one of Juliana’s favorite activities.
All of it was such a drastic change from the asphalt streets, concrete buildings, and people. The fresh smell of the woods. The crisp, mid-May air. The crinkle of her tent in the cold air of wilderness mornings. The warmth of a blazing fire dancing in front of her.
And, of course, her parents.
She loved it all.
Not that she hated being in a city. It was just the idea that she liked. The idea of wandering for miles without coming across another person. Juliana felt that it gave perspective.
A trait inherited from her father, undoubtedly.
Her mother, on the other hand, thought it made a great training center. Darting between trees, jumping over creeks and ditches, and the uneven ground all enhanced Genoa’s usual rhetoric.
For three hours, Juliana fought her own mother. Earth flew between them. Trees were coated in dust and, in some cases, were completely knocked down by the force of her mother’s onslaught.
Juliana tried to avoid mass damage to the woods.
She couldn’t discount the effectiveness of the attacks as she found herself knocked to the ground beneath the full weight of a whole tree.
One wand was completely knocked from her hand. She managed to use one of her ring foci to create a depression in the ground just before she hit. The tree lay on top of the ground, just barely not crushing her.
Juliana scrambled out from underneath the tree. She shifted the earth to speed her out of the hole.
Just in time. Three honed spikes of earth pierced the tree and the surrounding ground. Exactly where she had fallen.
Her mother was getting dangerous. Not all out, Juliana doubted she’d survive for more than a few seconds, but her mother was definitely ramping up the force. Juliana blamed it on the ferrokinetic suit of armor wrapped around her. Her mother saw it and figured hitting harder was fine.
Genoa wasn’t limited to earth magics. She had the good sense to avoid burning down the forest, but she didn’t shy away from water magic.
As their engagement continued, Juliana found her foot frozen into a creek. She launched herself out by pushing up the earth beneath just before pointed icicles jutted out of the water and into her armor. A small ring of ice stuck to her ankle.
All in all, the spar was one of the more grueling sessions she’d ever had. Juliana hadn’t managed to take out her mother, but she survived. That was a win in her book.
Part of her wondered how Zoe would fare against Juliana in a forest rather than on a stage.
She had already resolved herself to not lose against her even once in the summer seminar.
After the battle finished–Genoa simply got hungry–Juliana settled in for some food with her parents. Hot dogs slowly cooked over open flames. One of her favorite camping meals, aside from tin-foil dinners.
Of course, dessert followed dinner.
She could still taste the marshmallow chocolatey goodness of the s’mores. The taste was, unfortunately, turning bitter as the conversation dragged on.
“A demon, Juliana?”
“What did it look like? Did you see it use any magic? How big was it? What color? What did it smell like? Do you have any–”
“Carlos,” Genoa snapped, “this isn’t some magical creature you can study and catalog.” She tossed another log onto the already roaring campfire. “This is a
“Well,” Juliana said, “the riot consisting of half the city’s residents might have helped.”
“This is no laughing matter.”
Juliana was quite sure she was not laughing. She shook her head with a sigh.
They would have found out eventually. Juliana wanted the news to come from her mouth. Her mouth could dampen some of the more problematic events. Deaths of the nuns, Nel’s tale, and the destruction of their dorm room, to name a few.
Her timing in bringing up the subject was, in retrospect, far from ideal. The conversation had drifted towards events at school and flowed naturally into the eviction of the nuns. Mentioning that Juliana had witnessed the fight between the nuns’ leader and the demon was another thing she should have skipped over.
Now they were out in the middle of the Montana wilderness having an argument.
“What kind of school is Zoe running?” Genoa cracked her knuckles into her other hand. Muscles in her arms rippled as they flexed with the action. “I have half a mind to go down there–”
“She’s not running the school, mom. She’s just a professor.”
“The dean then. What did you say her name was? Martini?” Genoa let out an actual, audible growl. “Letting demons run around the school…”
“It wasn’t even a bad demon. It protected students from a nun’s attack.”
“Then it was ordered to protect the students. There’s no such thing as a demon that protects random children out of the
