"Breathe in. And Breathe out." Elizabeth softly instructed Lucas as they sat cross-legged on the grass, bathing in the morning sun.
It had been a full week since the incident, and for the most part, it has been interesting for Lucas. For starters, Amay has snuck into his room for the past few days, scaring the holy crap out of him and then sleeping in his bed while he went to the bathroom. After the 5th one, Lucas gave up and brought a second cover and pillow so that she could sleep in there, and he didn't fully have to leave. Only sliding over and wrapping up in her own cover like a burrito. He then found out she is a wild sleeper, so he would find himself with her wildly spread out with an arm or leg hitting him or even her just barely pushing him off of his own bed.
The next thing she does was wear his shirts at random times. Even with her own massive wardrobe, she would find a way to get her hands on his shirts. Lucas would not have a problem with it if she asked him. However, she randomly does it, so he couldn't recognize it until it's fully too late. Always giving him a smug smile.
The last this is she and Martha randomly start arguments over the stupidest of things. It could be over makeup, candy, soda, one looking at the other sideways, how one looks, or just someone making sly comments. For the most part, Amay has been the one causing the arguments while Martha usually ends them. Either with Martha leaving Amay speechless, frustrated enough that she storms away, or tells her to "piss off you dumb dog." Yet, she still picks an argument with her over something. It got to the point Elizabeth had to step in and put her foot down on both of them, which works nearly 100 percent of the time. Ironically they do settle their differences on different food ideas like sweets or so. Martha has gone out of her way to share her candy stash with Amay at times.
For the most part, Lucas did consider her like the house cat, always getting into things and always curious about stuff. He still gets a kick out of explaining certain things he considers common sense to someone who has never used it before. So far, he's explaining video games, TV, the "how do these things work" questions on random objects, and the internet. He thinks she's adjusting well to it, but he wondered if it would be overwhelming the first few times, yet she seems fine for the most part.
So far, on his side of things, Elizabeth did start his training today. Unfortunately, she couldn't do it any of last week because of their conflicting schedules, but she was able to take off to teach him the very basics, which leads us into the present time.
As Lucas did what he was instructed, he couldn't help but feel weird about this whole meditating thing. He hated the idea of getting up early, and the morning dew made the back of his pants wet. Along with awkward silents that followed, it made this even weirder.
"Uh, mom," Lucas asked, nervously speaking up.
"Yes, my lovely son?" Elizabeth asked with her eyes closed while feeling the sun on her back.
"I don't understand. Why are we doing this again." Lucas confessed, wanting a better understanding of why they sat on the grass.
"It's quite simple. Before we start anything else, you have to be able to harness your own magical energy. Once you harness it, you then have to channel it out in a way that does cause damage to yourself or exhaust you. Which it will since we are starting with the bare minimum." Elizabeth said, still controlling her breath as she focused. "Once you channel it properly, you will be able to train and test which way you want to use your powers yourself. But it all starts with this."
"Oh. But why?" Lucas asked, still trying to figure it out.
"Because all magical energy begins at one point. We, humans, have to rely on the earth to allow us to use magic. It's all around us and ever-flowing. So we are just trying to channel it into us, and there are several ways to tap into it. I find meditation the easiest way to access it for new beginners." Elizabeth explained to him as she could feel her own energy began to radiate out.
"Wait, what do you mean? Why does it have to be from the earth exactly? Could it be gathered in other ways or used?" Lucas continued to ask, wanting to understand more about this. Finally, he stopped his medicating to look at his mom, wearing her striped tank top with pajama pants.
Elizabeth let out a sigh as she stopped medicating to look at her son. She forgot she would need to break it down further for him.
"Okay. In its purest form, magic is just a way to boost your regular human abilities. Running, jumping, reflexes, durability, even some people use it to extend their own lives. Earth's magic refers to uses with magic given from the earth, like water, rock, sand, fire, lighting, etc. Anything that belongs or can happen on earth can be used as a power for us humans. There are a few exceptions with someone being born with a rare or unnatural magical ability. Like myself with light magic. " Elizabeth said while pointing her finger at herself.
"What we are trying to do is get you used to it and being able to tap into your magical energy as if it was second nature. Once we achieve that, Martha and I will train you to control it better and toughen you up along the way. Think of it like we are training you spiritually before we move on to physically. Physical training will help out with increasing your basic skills but adding to them. Plus, it helps with endurance, reflexes, and durability." Elizabeth said before crossing her arms. "Just because you use magic doesn't mean it won't take a toll on your physical body. It's like working out."
"Oh, okay. I think I'm starting to understand. " Lucas said, still trying to work it out in his mind.
"Don't push yourself to understand it all at once; I plan to teach it all to you during our training," She said before standing fully up and flicking her son on the head.
"Wait, could you learn multiple spells and whatnot. Can we do spells? Can we also learn other elements" Lucas asked, rubbing his forehead a little. He knows his mom does this to be playful to him. But, the gears in his head began to turn as he started to think more, and the nerd side of him began to think of different animes he's seen.
"That's depending as well. For instance, most may consider the little branch off of their power to be their spells. While higher-level mages can learn multiple magical abilities that could be considered their spells as well, and then there are actual spells themselves." Elizabeth said, putting one finger on her chin as she thought about it more.
"Whoa," Lucas said, honestly surprised to hear that. "This is cool."
"Yeah. You learn fast that while it all comes from one source, there are many different interpretations of it. One person from Japan may have nearly the same powers as someone in Africa, but how they used it or how they were taught differs. It's like its own language, honestly." Elizabeth said as she watched the gears in her son start to turn. A soft smile and giggle left her mouth as she felt a sense of nostalgia. The look in his eye when she wanted to learn about every magic in their world. "That's why it pays to have and live a long life." She chuckled a little.
"Yeah. I guess." He chuckled. He then thought about her comment for a moment, and weird thought came to his mind. "Mom, how old are you?"
"Huh?" Elizabeth asked, quite puzzled.
"I'm sorry if that's rude, but you are my mom. Yet, you don't look like it at times. You also look like you're in your early 30's and could even pass for your late 20's as well. Yet you have a very vast knowledge of a lot of this. Amay was your partner also. " Lucas said as he could see his mother's face looking patiently at him to finish. "So, how old are you? If you don't mind me asking."
"Well. I have been around for the majority of events and most of history." Elizabeth started to answer while thinking about it for a moment. "But if I tell you my age, I will have to kill you," Elizabeth said, flicking her hair out of her face while staring at her son.
"You're joking, right?" Lucas nervously laughed before realizing his mom had a dead-set face. He took a big gulp as her silence became unsettling. "Momma?"
Elizabeth burst into laughter at how worried her son was.
"I'm joking, sweetheart. I'm just not gonna tell you." She snorted before bopping him on the head with her fingers. "Now, do you have any more questions?"
"Well. Amay did tell me something about her clan's culture being the inspiration for Japanese folklore, while they....also inspired their culture as well. I think." Lucas said, trying to remember his and Amay conversations from last week.
"Oh, that. How the Demi-Human realm and our realm works are that they reflect each other. First, you have to understand Demi-Humans a little more. Demi-Humans are creatures that we, humans, have seen throughout history. Some of them are myths, legends, folklore, bedtime stories, etc. Basically, they are creatures that people would think are supernatural. Or hear someone claim they saw. Hell, some of them were worship as gods depending on the time frame. Yet you have to keep in mind that not every story you hear is real or so. Humans have heavily influenced some to make themselves seem bigger." Elizabeth said, leaning forward a little.
"Now how this work is that some humans had experiences with them either good or bad and wrote about them. On the flip side, some Demi-Humans' culture was influenced by the area they were located. For example, Amay is an Oni whose culture was influenced by Japan and other Asian cultures. Yet, their Realm has its own way of doing things. Their magic is vastly different from ours." Elizabeth explained while feeling around her pockets to pull out a coin.
"Think of our realm and their realm like a coin. The head is different from the tails, but they are always connected. That's why a good majority of magical users are hired to help keep the peace between the two realms. We hunt down Rouge Demi-Humans and Magical users and put them back in their places. Either back into their realm, jail or worse." Elizabeth said, taking a breath.
"That's kinda the short version of it. There's so much history on how we got to the point we are now. That it's just a lot." Elizabeth said, letting out a sigh as she leaned back a little to stretch. Her mind began to remember many of the issues that she had to be there to report on or work as a diplomat for some situations. It was enough to make her sigh.
"Oh. Okay. I'm guessing it's another one of those things that I will learn as I go, correct?" Lucas realizing there's a lot more to this than he originally thought. This made him happy slightly and was gonna make his quest for more knowledge even more fun.
"Mhmm," Elizabeth said, giving him a slight nod.
"I guess my last question, for now, is if there's a spell to make me taller?" Lucas said as his dream wish was to be a little taller. Not too much, but at least 6ft would be great.
"Well, that all depends on the author's answer (check author's thoughts)?" Elizabeth said off handily as she was actually having a good time. Although they had a long road ahead of them, she was looking forward to teaching Lucas what he needed to know. Then, of course, she taugh Martha everything she needed to know, but she had to keep in mind that they were two completely different people.
Before they could do anything, Martha and Amay came out of the house holding something as they were almost in a tough of war.
"Let it go, you muscular brute," Amay said as she pulled the object closer to her.
"This is not yours to began with, you short goblin." Martha retorted back as she nearly yanked the object out of Amay's hands.
"I'm not a goblin. I'm an Oni, you damn mutt." Amay spoke back as she was giving Martha a run for her money on pulling the object away.
There was a loud ripping sound as both Martha and Amay pulled so hard that they ripped the object in two. They were both sent back, with Amay being knocked off the porch, and Martha fell back onto the door.
"Look at what you did!" Both of them yelled back at each other in sync.
"What I did!? This is your fault!" Both of them said. The tense was so high that both of them were about to launch at each other's throats.
"What the hell happened this time," Elizabeth said, stumping over to the two as they had interrupted her time with trying to train Lucas. Lucas followed behind to wonder what had happened as well.
Both girls began to yell over each other, telling their side of the story, but Elizabeth and Lucas had no clue who was saying what. Elizabeth rubbed her temples for a moment before looking down at the object.
"Shut the hell up, both of you!" Elizabeth suddenly yelled over both of them as a wave of her energy exhaled and caused the two to go quiet. Her energy faded as she took a moment to exhale.
"Both of you are acting like goddamn children," Elizabeth spoke as she glared at both of them. She looked at Martha, who was wearing training shorts and a sports bra as they were going to train after her work with Lucas. At the same time, Amay was in a regular shirt and jeans with her hair up in a now messy ponytail. "So we are going to do this like we used to handle all our issues."
"Amay and Martha, y'all are going to fight and then make up for this. So go change into fighting clothes and do not speak to one other until y'all are back out here. Do I make myself clear?" Elizabeth said in a calm voice while putting her foot down. She wanted to hear both of them say they understood her before she let them leave.
"Yes, ma'am," Martha said in an angry but respectful tone.
"Just like the old times," Amay said with a smirk. "But yes. I understand." She said, moving her hair out of her face.
Elizabeth took a deep breath and exhaled as she grabbed her brow for a moment. "Now. Get out of my sight and be back here in 5 minutes." She said without looking at the girls leaving.
Lucas looked down at the ground as they left to see that it was one of his shirts. "Ah, man. That one was cool. So what about my training?" Lucas asked his mom as she let out another sigh.
"This will be a part of it. You're going to watch their fight." Elizabeth said as she walked to have a seat on the porch in one of her chairs. "Their fight will show you the different uses of magical powers and give you a glimpse of what's to come."