On and off, On and off.
That's what's she's been making me do, to try and get a better grip on my Soul Energy.
On and off, On and off.
My head began to spin wildly after an hour of doing this, but, for some reason, I could feel the numbness fading from my arms everytime I did it, but the feeling of numbness fading was very weak. I could only feel it because of the fact that I was hyper aware of my surroundings.
And again. On and off, On and off.
The sun began to go low and meet the sky, turning it into it's beautiful orange hue.
"That's enough for today."
"Thank goodness."
I say as she finishes her sentence.
"Well, not my fault someone doesn't know how to fully control his emotions well enough, so we had to do that basics."
"Well to be fair, you are suppose to teach me how to control it."
"And me making you release Soul Energy into arm, then stop you from doing that wasn't me helping you?"
She asks, almost adding a 'hmm', at the end.
"Yeah, you're right. I apologize, and I thank you."
She looks at me stunned for a second, before her cheeks turn slightly red from what I've said.
She smiles at me, or at what I've said, regardless she smiles.
"I'm thankful you found my lessons helpful."
She says as she stands, me following right after her, my bow slung unto my shoulder.
"Oh, but I do wanna ask. Is my Soul Energy. Supposed to make my arms feel numb?"
Apatite nods:
"Yes, my dad said it took him a while to get over the numbness feeling. But he said that if you try hard enough and mange your Soul Energy well, that you'll get over the feeling of being numb."
Apatite tells me in a very good teacher fashion:
"Though, it will be a while before you fully manage to stop the feeling of numbness, but still, learning how to manage the release of your Soul Energy will be the greatest part of doing all of this."
My face grows a smile, not big, but just enough to show happiness.
"Thank you Apatite."
Her cheeks blush even more.
"Okay, let's get home."
"Okay."
Apatite turns and begins to walk towards her house.
I turn around for a second as well and stare into the darkness around me.
Apatite makes her clicking sound, and before being devoured by the darkness she turns to me.
"You don't know how to get back?"
I turn as well:
"No… please help."
She huffs.
And she walk back to me.
"Please learn the way here."
She says.
"I'll try."
It takes us, a shorter amount of time to get back to the edge of Warren Forest, than it did to get to the clearing inside of it.
Apatite made a clicking sound and stopped every few minutes until we eventually got to the sweet bliss of sun light that peeled through from the sky.
Apatite stops, just out of touch of the sunlight and waited.
"I'll see you tomorrow again?"
Apatite asks.
"Yes."
Stepping into the sunlight my body felt a very slight bit of a pain, not because everything, hurt, don't get me wrong tomorrow everything will undoubtedly hurt, but from the workout that my brain had to endure today.
"Bye Apatite."
I say waving before the sun, takes over my body completely.
She doesn't say anything back as I continue forward.
Stopping just outside of the edge of Warren Forest. I lift my eye patch and stare into the void, my eyes slowly adjust to the sun, and catch Apatit's silhouette waving back to me, before she runs away.
Putting down my eye patch, I turn and:
"BOO!"
Jumping back, I land on my ass. Nearly dropping my bow to the ground, but grabbing it before it does hit the ground, or me.
Elsa, snuck up behind me and scaring me. Wes was in tow, behind her, but he never yelled at me to frighten me, he was just there.
Elsa laughs and Wes just looks at her.
"I got you, you even fell onto your butt."
She continued to laugh.
Wes stepped forward and held his hand out. Looking at Elsa like a maniac.
"I told you we shouldn't sacred him, he might just cancel inviting us to the party."
I squint my eye as I grabbed Wes' hand and he pulled me up.
"What party?"
I ask.
Wes lets go of my hand and I stumble up.
'Guess I'm still a little tired from Soul Energy training.'
I think.
Both Wes and Elsa look between each other and look a tad bit concerned, Elsa even stops getting in her little laugh.
"Oh, no, it was a surprise party wasn't it?"
Wes asks Elsa.
Elsa shushes Wes, and they look at me.
"Nothing."
"Wait, come one, I don't mind knowing."
They shake their head.
"It's okay, we don't know anything anyways."
"Liars."
I pause slightly, before I stepped closer to them:
"Come on guys, I wanna know about the party, what is it about?"
They both look away feigning innocence.
"We don't know anything."
They both say at the same time.
"Liars."
They begin to take small steps backwards and before I could grab at them, they turn and break into a sprint. Wes like always lags slightly behind Elsa, this time, just a tad bit faster than last time.
I want to break into a sprint, but it'll be a hassle, plus, I'm starting to feel the muscles in my thighs and calfs tighten a little.
So instead of running, I just walking taking my time to go home, but still desperately wanting to go and lay down, either on the couch or the bed, if I'm feeling up to walk up those stairs.
It takes me the same amount of time to get to the house as before, but this time, my mind not paying attention on anything besides the fact that both Wes and Elsa taking about a party that I'm going to cancel them coming to.
I stop at the gate and look at the front door, the sun, now nearly on the other side of the earth, giving very little sun light.
The door is slightly a jar.
'They don't keep it open like that.'
I unsling my bow and begin to move past the gate and begin to walk up to the front door, moving slowly up as the distance between the two of us shrink.
Grabbing the corner of the door and swinging it open.
Small fireworks out of both Marcilene and Rez's wife hands pop out.
"Happy birthday!"
When those words are yell at me, I nearly drop my bow once more, instead I manage to hold it, then resling it over my shoulder.
A lot of people say as the fire gets lit, Marcilene, Rez, Elsa, Wes, Rez's wife and Steel, who's currently lighting up the place with the fire place.
"Happy birthday."
Marcilene says once more before she hugs me loosely.
Shes not wearing her head covering.
Catching that immediately, I look around the room, nobody says anything about Marcilene's ears.
"Is it okay for them to see your ears?"
Marcilene pulls back slightly and looks at me with a smile:
"I told them myself, that I was an elf."
She says.
"Really?"
"Well, I was there when I thought of telling them, but in the end Steel told them."
"Okay."
I say with a chuckle.
"But Nevermind about me, today is your birthday Lazi!"
Rez's wife closes the door from behind me as Marcilene lets me go.
"Happy birthday."
She says as she leans over me and smiles as she hugs me and gives me a small kiss on my head.
"Happy fifth birthday, little one."
"Thank you."
I say with a smile on my face and returning her hug.
Wes and Elsa both look at me, before they look away.
"So, it was a surprise party. And you both almost ruined it?"
I say to them, with a sigh, but I give them a smile.
They both look at me with dismay:
"We're sorr…"
"I'm kidding, I'm thankful that you both came here anyway."
They look at me with a sigh of relief and happiness.
"Happy birthday. Lazuli."
Elsa says.
"Yeah… umm happy birthday."
Wes says after Elsa, looking behind me, as if there's something fascinating there.
Turning my head all I see is Marcilene.
"You okay?"
I ask Wes as I turn back to look at him.
Wes immediately switched his vision to me.
"Yeah… it's just surprising to me."
"What is?"
"Your sister."
He points, I follow it to her, and she now talking to their mom.
"What's wrong with… it better not be because she's an elf."
I tell him.
Wes shakes his head, then he tilts it side to side:
"Well…"
Elsa slaps the back of his head:
"That's your friend."
"That we've known for about a week, I'm sorry, I just want to be cautious, never know if she could, you know…?"
Elsa slaps the back of his head again.
"Would you stop that."
I chuckle slightly, but not because of what he said but because of Elsa.
"What did elves do that were so bad anyway?"
I ask Wes and Elsa.
They look between each other and then away.
"They.."
Wes speaks but Elsa slaps the back of his head again.
"STOP."
He raises his voice slightly.
Elsa looks at him and raises her eyebrows:
"Don't think that, now that dad's training you, that you'll be better or stronger than me."
Elsa says.
And that makes my brain switch topics.
"Oh, yeah, how is your training going?"
As I say that Elsa groans and walks away from us.
"Bye."
She says, but I don't nor does Wes pay attention to what she said.
"Well, it just started for me. So I'm not fully sure if it'll be going good, yet atleast."
"But you are still going to continue doing it right?"
"Yeah, I'm not going to stop after one day, afterall I'm going to end up a knight, maybe the best knight."
Wes says with pride in his tone.
"So, we'll end up sparring each other eventually?"
Wes looks at me with his eyes turning into slits.
"Why?"
"Well we have to see which one is stronger, or do you not want that?"
"No. Why would we spar we are friends, we should just… you know, help each other and stuff."
'Wow… I should have tried better at making friends in my last life.'
I think to myself.
He smiles at me softly:
"But if we ever need to have a test of strength, we could always tug of war."
"Yeah…"
I smile softly as he says that.
"…I won't ever mind doing that."
Wes nods.
"How's sword fighting?"
"I really like it, my father started doing it during the war, and I guess it'll be something that I'll be learning. Plus, my dad gave me like this long taking about sword fighting, and the constant need to prepare myself in case of the situation where I would have to end up fighting…"
Wes says and I just listen to him.
"That's a hassle."
"Yeah, but from what you seem to be doing, it's a walk in the streets of Sqeau."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean I saw what you had to do, you woke up at whatever time and went for a run with that short lady."
"Oh, yeah with Sply."
I sigh, remembering the hardships and the pain I'm going to feel tomorrow when I wake up:
"I woke up before dawn even broke through and got ready. It sucked."
"At least you'll be able to serve your purpose."
I nod at him.
"Yeah at least I'll be sure to do that."
"I need a purpose, well, that's what my dad says, but I only want to join the knights and become a Kight of Reight. When I told him that, he got serious, it was scary, I've never really seen him very serious…"
My mouth quivers at the corners.
"Really..? I guess I could say the same for Steel. When I was first going to train under him, he released Soul Energy and messed with my eye."
Wes tilts his head:
"What do you mean?"
"Elsa didn't tell you? My eye can see Soul Energy."
"What? That's so cool."
He says, his voice actually genuine.
"Yeah, it sounds cool, but every time I've tried to use it, my eye has either bleed really bad, I've fainted, or it stings to much to think clearly. So it's really just a bad addition to my body."
"Oh, that sucks."
"Yup."
We look around as the conversation goes into an awkward silence. We look around the room.
It takes a moment, but something breaks it.
"Okay guys, we have supper ready."
Rez's wife says and before anyone can even get there both me and Wes are there practically at the table.
"Hungry?"
I look at Wes as he sits right beside me.
He nods heavily:
"My dad has been training me from morning till lunch, so I'm stuffing my face any chance I get."
"It's been the same for me, I've been training from before dawn till just before I got here."
"Really?"
I nod my head as Rex's wife gives me a bowl of stew.
"Thank you."
I say, as she gives another bowl to Wes.
Everyone else slowly beginning to fill the table.
"Your welcome."
"Thanks mom."
Wes says.
"Your welcome, my boy."
Both of us dig into our food, everyone else now at the table sitting down and getting their food as well.
Steel and Rez sit next to each other and Marci with Elsa, everyone talks about their day, more or less.
As they slowly eat. The only exception being us two.
Rez's wife sits beside the girls and hops into their conversation from time to time, laughing along with them.
As I take a bite, of my food, it slowly crosses my mind that I don't know her name.
"What's your mom's name?"
I whisper to Wes so that no one else hears.
"Her name?"
I nod:
"Yeah."
"Oh, her name is Glee… she said it has a meaning behind it, but I can never remember what it is."
'Probably happiness.'
I think to myself. As I begin to eat my food.
After eating the night turns into a blur as we all mingle together at the dining table everyone conversation hoping between everyone.
As the stew in the bowls begin to harden as the time passes, eventually the sun fully fades and Glee takes the bowls from right under our noses.
Rez kissing his wife as she does that.
Marcilene sees that and helps, along with Elsa.
Seeing them, I want to thank them, but Steel calls to me.
Sitting beside me.
"Lazuli, tell him."
Steel has a cup of some delicious smelling drink inside his cup.
"Tell him what?"
I ask.
"About you killing a Soul Bear."
"Yes?"
"Tell him how you did it."
"It was really just luck, and nearly going blind I think."
Rez looks at Steel.
"You almost blinded your boy to say that you have a son that took out a Soul Bear..?"
"No. I didn't make him get hurt… it was that stupid…"
Steel stops himself before he continues, but I can hear it in his voice, there's still anger, and I know how it's targeted to.
Wes turns to me:
"So you actually did kill a Soul Bear."
Wes says, not a question but a statement.
"Yup…"
"Soon, I'll be able to do that too."
He says, not with animosity towards me, but with hope for the future.
"I'll hold you to that."
I say, with a smirk.
"I won't mind that."
He holds out his hand for a fist bump and I reciprocated it.
Soon, Glee comes up to me with a cake, that has six candles on it, singing a song, that I've never heard before, since before all of this life, I've never had a chance to get something like this.
"Happy birthday to you… Happy birthday to you…"
Everyone joins in singing the tone, all trying to keep the same tone, my heart clinches in my chest and my tears slowly well up, but I wipe them away, holding them back to not ruin the moment of happiness.
'This is what I real family is like…? I love it.'
My heart beats in a way that make me feel sad and happy at the same time.
'Thank you god.'
~~~
Outside of the house, just outside of the gate.
Sply stands there. Watching through the window.
"Happy birthday…"
She looks up to the sky.
"His probably would have been around this time of the year as well…"
She says as she walks off in the direction of the square.
She takes one more glance back.
"He better rest before tomorrow comes."