Jay blinked, then blinked again. The room slowly came into focus a fancy room somewhere. Ouch his everything hurt. Tanking magic levels this far was not ideal. He quickly examined himself mentally using his outline capability. Other than magic loss he seemed fine. Better to cancel his magic for now or he'd pass out again, already sleep was claiming him a little.
How had he even lowered his magic to this level he should have passed out long before he got to this stage. Unless he was dying he should of never been able to push himself this far...
Oh right his anger….
James! Was James okay? Huh an arm was draped around him. James, it was easy enough to realize it was his best friend, they had known each other for years. He instantly recognized the hand that he could see and the body type wrapped around him. Not to mention it was James who seemed to have a slight crush on him. Was that a good or bad thing? Eh he'd deal with it when he woke up later, thinking was too hard on his brain at the moment. He snuggled a little closer against James's body. It was like a cocoon of warmth. Warmth was nice.
Against his back he could feel James's heart beating slowly and rhythmically in his sleep, that was good. Jay felt secure in his arms, he didn't mind staying here, hmm that was also a new feeling, wanting to be held. He liked that James was wrapped around him. So sleepy...… He could always figure out all of the fancy house stuff later...
...….
Ah bright light, too bright.
"Jay! You're awake finally!" Jay heard James's voice. So loud, his head hurt. He glanced at the motel room from before. Huh was the fancy house a dream? Eh didn't matter.
He looked up at James's happy face looking down at him. Oh good, he looked fine. Why did he look so happy in the early morning? He glanced toward the window where the sun was rising... oh wait sunset? When did that happen?
His mind was still fuzzy as James embraced him. "You were asleep for like 5 days! Do you have any idea how worried I was about you? I was about to take you to a hospital except there was nothing physically wrong with you except magic loss."
Five days huh? If he was out that long why did his body still feel like a truck ran over him?
James was hugging him for quite awhile, should he knock him off? Nah, he looked so happy, as long as he was okay Jay was okay.
"The snake's dead right? And what of the cult?" Jay asked finally managing to straighten out his thoughts.
"Snakes dead, Bright and Frost are okay but they also disappeared to I don't know where. Cult's gone as well. In fact lots of the people previously under the snake's influence have started speaking out about their experience. Everything is normal again now that you're up. Gosh though don't sleep that long again on me."
Jay smiled as James continued to ramble for a few minutes. He'd already gotten the information he was concerned about. "I'm skipping school tomorrow" muttered Jay lying back down.
"Tomorrows Saturday, it's currently Friday night." James said. "You can totally sleep all weekend. Oh but you should let your sister know your okay, she's been losing her mind over you. Actually I'll just go get her right now." He disappeared from the room and returned a second later with Kay.
"I'm fine promise" said Jay watching his sister fuss over literally every small detail. It took several minutes before she was finally convinced that he was good. She ended up deciding that he must be hungry even though he wasn't really and hurried off to cook a feast.
Jay couldn't help smiling as he watched her leave. Losing their parents to the Tempest had made her a lot more clingy, but at least they had each other. He also half classified James as a brother even if they weren't related by blood.
Everything was okay again. Then a thought crossed his mind, "did Mr. Liopah end up telling his story?" he asked.
James shook his head, "no he's actually one of the few people missing in action. They are currently investigating if he might have been eaten by the snake."
Hmm Jay didn't like him that was for sure, but he also didn't wish him dead. Being under the control of a snake wasn't something he would hold against a person. Maybe this would make him hate sky users less.
........
[Meanwhile in a cave somewhere]
A small little egg sat by the fire. The fire burned slowly and the edge of the egg suddenly cracked open. A figure to the side came over, "Oh good morning beautiful" the voice whispered. A small red elite snake uncurled itself from its shell and looked at him.
"Ma…ma?" it asked.
"No I am not your mother, however your mother entrusted you to me. I will groom you into the most ferocious beast around so no one can stand up to you."
"Hungry." It stated
"Hmm and what is it you wish to eat my little prince."
"...… food."
"Is there a type you had before within your mom that you want again?"
The little snake seemed to ponder the question for awhile before opening its very tiny jaw again. "Sky" it said.
"Ah a fan of sky magic are you? Let me see if I can find some low level sky meat for you, when you're a bit older you can help me fulfill a dream of mine."
"Dream?"
"Yes it's like a goal. I plan to feed you the rest of sky mages in existence because I don't like them much. I'm sure you'd have no problem eating more sky meat now would you?"
"Sky I like!"
"Then sky you shall have."