Yes, he needs to apologise

Chapter 4 - Strange Abilities

He thought for a few minutes about what he would even say. How do you even bring something like that up without making things awkward? But Erin steeled his nerves and walked out into the main tavern area. He was quickly stopped in his tracks as Eli was sat in a chair, staring at him suspiciously.

"What did you do to Hella?" She asked casually.

Erin stood, frozen for a moment before answering.

"Nothing...at least I don't think I did."

"What the hell does that mean?"

"I don't really know how to explain it. I do need to go and check on her though."

And without another word, Erin hurried past Eli and made his way up the stairs to room six. Something seemed a little off. Hella's door hadn't been fully closed. He heard light banging coming from her room. He didn't want to go barging in but was also worried something was wrong. He peered into the crack of the door, trying to catch a glimpse of what was going on. His eyes suddenly widened and he had to catch himself from falling into the door. Hella was laid on her bed at the back of the room. Her back was arched high into the air. Her slightly dirty white dress had ridden up to her waste and her hands were almost desperately rubbing at her crotch. To his surprise, Hella was masturbating.

He couldn't watch. He tried to pull himself away but the longer it continued, the more aroused he got. He felt his own crotch growing tighter as his cock pressed against the inside of his ragged clothing. Hella was now grinding against her own hand, almost rhythmically. Soft moans were escaping her mouth with every new thrust. Her fingers digging into herself with raw intensity. Suddenly Erin's heart almost stopped dead.

"What are you doing?" Eli's voice rang from the end of the hallway.

Erin span around, awkwardly trying to conceal his erect manhood. as he locked eyes with Eli.

"Are you spying on her!" She said, anger beginning to grow behind her eyes.

"No! Not at all." Erin said, hoping he wasn't going to get caught in a lie.

"You clearly were. You were totally creeping on her. You know I was stood here for like thirty seconds right?"

Once again, Erin's heart almost stopped. He had ****, he had to own up to what was going on. He marched at Eli, forcefully pushing her into his own room.

"What the hell do you think you're doing? Let me out of here now!." She yelled.

Erin hoped nobody had heard. He turned to talk to the fiery small girl.

"Listen ok, yes...you caught me watching her but..."

"I knew it! You are a creep. You wait until the others hear about this."

"Hold on, there is more to it than you understand!" Erin tried to reason with her.

"All you're going to do is tell me bullshit excuses. I don't want to hear them."

"Please, just listen. If you don't believe me afterwards then so be it. I won't stop you telling the others."

This seemed to do the trick. Eli calmed down a little. She crossed her arms and stared at Erin.

"Go on then!" She demanded.

"I don't exactly know what happened. We were just training. I had managed to do some magic. Hella then tripped and fell on me. I went to push her off of me but she..."

"She what?"

"She started grinding on my leg."

"Bullshit! Why would she do that?"

"I don't know. It only happened for a moment before she seemed to get al embarrassed and weird. She stood up and said the session was over. We both came back and she went straight upstairs. I wanted to go and apologise to her. I walked up, her door was open and she was..."

"What?" Eli said, now looking a little interested.

"Well...She was touching herself."

"Alright, I have to admit, as far as lies go, that's a pretty good one."

"I swear I'm not lying." Erin said a little louder than he meant to.

"So what, she suddenly gets the urge to go to town on herself all because of you? Yeah right. Wait until the others hear this crap."

Eli began walking out of the room. Erin, out of fear and instinct, went to grab Eli. He put his hand on her shoulder. This was a mistake. She quickly grabbed his fingers and twisted, almost breaking them. Erin fell to a knee as she continued twisting.

"Never...touch...me!" Eli exclaimed. "I don't want a...filthy..." Her cheeks suddenly flushed red. "Pervert...like you..." Her voice trailed off.

Her breathing became ragged and her body began to quiver slightly.

"What...did you do...to me?" She said in between breaths.

"I didn't do anything? What are you talking about?"

Without answering, Eli quickly let go of Erin's fingers and dashed out of his room. Erin stood there in shock. What the hell was going on? Was he doing this to them somehow? But now that Eli had disappeared, it was only a matter of time before she told anyone.

"Erin?" A voice called from outside the door.

This was it. There was no point wasting time. He stood up, ready to face the harsh words from Hella. He opened the door. She smiled at him weakly.

"Is Eli ok? I just saw her come out of your room. She looked a little odd."

"She didn't say anything to you?" Erin asked, stunned in amazement.

"No, she rushed into her room. Is everything alright?"

"Yes, everything is fine. She just wanted to know how the training went." Erin lied.

"I see. Sorry about earlier." She said, another light blush covering her cheeks. "I didn't mean to run off like that. I started to feel a little strange and just had to go and rest. But I'm better now."

"Are you sure?" Erin asked suspiciously. "It's only been a short while."

"I'm not really sure what happened but I swear I'm ok." She finished with a smile.

"Good. What now then?"

"What do you mean?"

"Well, I'm not really sure what to do now. It doesn't seem that late in the day."

"Normally performing magic like that would drain your energy. Are you not tired at all?"

"No more than I was this morning."

"Interesting." Hella said, now looking quizzical. "In terms of what to do now, there isn't much left to do until tomorrow. Rest, relax. Maybe get to know some of the other girls."

Erin nodded though he felt a little lost. He was also dreading Eli still telling everybody about him watching Hella. He decided to hang out in the main tavern for a while.

About twenty minutes later, a door upstairs opened and Eli came shuffling down. She looked a little sweaty and her cheeks were still red. She met Erin's eyes. She looked like she was about to tell him off but instead sat across from him.

"Not a word about what happened in your room, understand?" She said.

Erin a little taken aback spoke up.

"I don't even know what did happen, you just sort of..."

"Shush! Whatever you're about to say happened, didn't happen. You keep quiet about that and I won't blab to the others that you were watching Hella."

"Again, I didn't mea..."

"I don't care. Whatever you were or weren't doing. I don't talk, if you don't talk, got it?"

"Got it." Erin said, relieved but confused why Eli had a sudden change of attitude.

In his twenty minutes alone, Erin had wondered about what happened with the girls. He thought that maybe, somehow, touching the girls seemed to have had an effect on them of some kind. The exact extent of the effect, he wasn't sure.

A moment later, Hella walked in from the kitchen, followed by Ginny.

"Heard you're magically inclined, well done." Ginny said. "That will certainly help once we get to combat training in a few days."

"All I did was move a rock." Erin said, remembering his training session.

"My sister Luxe wasn't could barely move a cup of water a few years ago. Now she can control entire rivers." Hella chimed in.

"I know one guy that has been practicing elemental magic since he was ten. He is forty two now and can still barely move a pebble." Ginny said, laughing.

"It seems your abilities might be quite...strong." Eli said, giving Erin a knowing look.

Ginny walked forward towards Erin and clasped a hand on his shoulder. Eli's eyes went wide and Erin panicked, thinking it was going to happen again. Fortunately, Ginny sat down and was none the wiser. Eli seemed a little confused.

"Everything ok Eli?" Hella asked.

"Wha...oh yeah, great." She said unconvincingly.

Hella, clearly suspicious, walked back into the kitchen. Shortly after she returned with more meats and bread.

"I saved some for the girls later, though I'm not sure what time they will be coming home."

Erin helped himself to some ham and a bit of bread. He wasn't really that hungry. His mind was elsewhere, wondering about this possible strange new ability. Eli could clearly tell what he was thinking about and was shooting daggers at him from across the table.

"So." Erin said, wanting to clear the awkward silence filling the room. "What will we be doing tomorrow?"

"We are going to try and refine your magic." Hella told him. "It's all well and good pulling a rock from the ground without knowing it. What we need you to do, is control that rock. You need to learn to bend the elements to do your bidding. In time you will be able to do quite a lot with this ability."

"And that starts with moving a rock I guess,"

"Indeed it does." Hella said, looking rather happy with herself. "It's going to take time to get good. But, with a few more sessions, we should be able to get you entered into the Royale sooner than we thought."

"IF he can learn combat basics as well." Ginny interrupted. "Wouldn't do you any good going into a fight against somebody strong and fast and only being able to throw stones at them. You need to know how to protect yourself and fight back if that becomes the case."

Hella left the table to clean some dishes. She returned a little while later looking tired.

"I think todays session wore me out a little. I think I'm going to nap if nobody needs me for anything."

"Earlier than usual." Ginny said. "Normally you have to exert yourself a whole lot more before going for your midday nap."

"I guess teaching a new person how to do magic is exhausting."

Erin looked at her feeling a little sorry but understanding exactly. The short days events had already left him feeling weary. Not to mention the lack of sleep he had had. Erin watched as Hella walked upstairs. Not long after, both Ginny and Eli left to deal with other things and Erin was sat alone once more. And once more, the thought of his new ability came crawling back. He was worrying about touching people. If this really was an ability, how would this affect his daily life. He couldn't go around avoiding touching people forever. Feeling a little worried, Erin wondered whether he should mention it to anybody. Well, anybody other than Eli who might kill him if he spoke about it. Hella seemed like the best choice. But would she really understand?