Green Gemstone

"We're all the reinforcements you are getting."

Lance expected as much, going by how bad a day it had been. There were no academy rules left to guide his actions, no more people to help, and nowhere to hide. He was finally free to act on his own.

He gazed at bunches of brown, straw-like leaves that hung from dead branches overhead. 'I'm pathetic,' he thought. 'How long has it been since I've acted without the rules in mind, as a person with thoughts?'

Slowly, and with pain flaring across his body, he pushed himself up from his slumped position. The tree he had blindly leaned against for support had dug into the orderly fabric of his soggy robe, and ripped pieces away as he stood on his own two feet. With a wave of his hand a magic circle formed, and a column of air swept the frigid swamp water away off his body.