Seril carried a tired and asleep Emmia up the stairs to her room.
"Haah," Seril let out a soft sigh, as her ears twitched from underneath her hair. 'She's been pushing herself....'
Seril adjusted her grip slightly and slowly laid Emmia onto her bed. Draping a blanket over Emmia, she felt a slew of complicated emotions flow through her.
'She's grown...' Seril gazed at Emmia's sleeping face which exuded a sense of peace washing over Seril too.
While she was recovering, a couple of more memories resurfaced, slowly merging with Seril, creating a feeling of disassociation from who she truly was. Was she the current Seril or the one shown in her memories?
Seril's crimson-red eyes flashed with sadness as she remembered her feelings associated with the memories. A bone-crushing sense of regret welled up inside Seril, almost choking her. The same failure repeated itself in her head. Unable to save the one she was to protect, and losing them forever, unable to protect her master, her weakness coiling around her neck, and powerlessness sinking into-
"...Mmm Seril," Emmia murmured in her sleep, pulling the blanket to one side.
Snapping out of her thoughts, Seril felt a cold sweat trace its way down from her neck to her back.
'Not good...that was almost bad...' Seril thought to herself as she leaned against the wall for some support. Her thoughts had almost dragged her into a negative spiral and into a place that even Seril shuddered to think about.
'Haah, Mia's saved me once again...' Seril felt a wry smile surface on her face as she thought of her sleeping sister. After a few seconds, Seril's smile disappeared while a sense of resolve started to settle in.
'I need to do my part too then,' Seril thought to herself as she left the room and went downstairs. The fight with the infected had almost led to her dying if not for the timely interference of Morin Esten.
'I can't fight the Doctor regularly....' Seril scratched her head as she thought of ways to deal with the Depraved. It was clear from her last fight that the Doctor would not hesitate to detonate an infected body if she found Seril had let down her guard.
'As I thought I need to be able to use 'Disruption' then,' Seril narrowed her eyes as she sat down on the ground.
'But for that....' Seril closed her eyes. 'I need to merge with more of my lost memories....'
Universal energy started to swirl and envelop Seril as she rested in a meditating posture. The universal energy started turning murky as it slowly turned opaque, encasing Seril in a black barrier of universal energy as she started to become one with her lost self once more.
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Icarth lay on the ground, the grass wrapping around his hands and legs. He faced the sky, thoughts adrift just like the clouds in the sky.
'What does master even want me to do....'
'Jade has been with me for the past week, but I don't feel any change.....'
'Should I go see master?'
'Will she even let me see her?'
'Hahhhh.....'
'I don't know what to do...'
A pit had been growing in his stomach, causing Icarth to feel uneasy and restless.
'The city is weird.....' Icarth raised his hand to block the sun peeking out from behind the clouds. His instincts had been telling him that something was wrong for the past few days. Icarth couldn't put it into words, but he knew that something was transpiring in the shadows.
'What do I do....' Icarth repeated to himself, unable to think of anything else.
At that moment, Jade poked Icarth's forehead with a stick.
Lowering his hands over his eyes, Icarth tried to ignore it. Yet, Jade kept on poking at Icarth's head repeatedly, unrelenting in his actions.
"Hey..stop that," Icarth said after a while, too annoyed to ignore it. The poking stopped, giving Icarth some respite.
'Finally,' Icarth thought to himself right before Jade swung the stick, and with a loud *SMACK* it landed on Icarth's forehead again.
"YOU!" Icarth growled as he sat up, swiveling around to catch Jade. At that moment, Jade threw the stick at Icarth's face, darting away.
Catching the stick, Icarth snapped it with one hand and got to his feet. Springing forward, he started to chase Jade through the forest. Past the barrier they went, deeper and deeper into the forest.
'That little shit is too fast,' Icarth narrowed his eyes as he realised that Jade was using its gift.
'Well then, the gloves are off then,' Icarth activated his partial beast transformation and shot forward as strength flowed into his legs.
Barrelling past trees, Icarth chased Jade, ducking below branches, jumping over bushes, curving around trees, and avoiding the extra beasts that tried to get in the way along the way.
Unbeknownst to Icarth, a smile crept onto his face as the wind rushed past his hair.
'I'm catching up...' Icarth grinned, the thrill of the hunt was taking over him. A fox-like creature jumped out, causing Icarth to grab its skull and use it as a jumping board, slamming it into the ground and propelling himself forward. Rushing by a tree, Icarth almost lopped off his head while running straight towards a razor-sharp web. Ducking just in time, Icarth rolled forward maintaining his momentum. The owner of the web, alerted to Icarth's mad chase, opened its mouth, and spat out a sharp spray of the web to try to capture him. Pushing off the ground, he soared into the air grabbing a branch overhead and using it propelling himself forward while avoiding the spray of the web behind him. Icarth's senses were tuned to the max at this moment. Every scent, sound, sight, and feeling entered his brain as it worked overdrive to process everything and how to get to Jade the fastest while avoiding all the obstacles.
Swinging to the next tree, Icarth's hands landed on the rough bark, causing it to dig into his hands. Suddenly a vibration, other than his own, travelled through the tree and into Icarth's hands. Processing it instantly, or not even processing it at all, Icarth let go and dropped just in time for a snake, almost double his length, to snap at his previous location.
Hitting the ground with a roll, Icarth gripped a tree to the side and pushed himself forward to regain some momentum.
Like this, Icarth continued to chase Jade through the forest, the trees along the sides thinning out.
'I got you now!' Icarth gathered the last bit of his energy in his legs and jumped with all his might. For a moment, Icarth matched the acceleration of Jade himself, almost landing right on it, right before Jade shot forward in a blur.
'Wha-' Icarth's eyes widened. His outstretched hands tried to change positions to break his fall. The key word here is tried. Failing, Icarth hit the ground with a crack as his jaw smacked against the ground, almost causing him to bite off his tongue. Skidding for the rest of the way, he finally slid to a stop in a clearing.
"Phwo!," Icarth spat out some blood as his jaw throbbed in pain. His hands, legs, and body burned from skidding at that speed, as his whole body gave sharp pains everywhere. Tiredness swept through Icarth, as he didn't bother to get up. Turning over, he faced the sky, holding his jaw to alleviate the pain a little.
"Hah....shit...," Icarth sluggishly moved his mouth before breathing out heavily.
Icarth squinted at the late afternoon sunlight, eventually closing his eyes to enjoy the warmth of the sun.
"Haaah," Icarth breathed out, feeling the sunlight soak into his body, its energy spreading to the pain in his body, covering it with its gentle light.
A gentle breeze swept through the clearing causing Icarth to open his eyes.
"Master..." Icarth murmured, sitting up slowly despite the pain. Unknowingly, he had chased Jade all the way to the clearing where he always met his master.
Icarth gazed at the tree which his master occupied, the blue pearl sitting snugly inside the hollow of the tree.
A silence engulfed the two as Icarth just stared at Acacia, not knowing what to do or say.
'I want to ask what to do.....'
'But I just don't know how to ask...' Icarth felt uneasy as an uncomfortable feeling gnawed at him from the inside.
"....My pupil," Acacia's gravelly voice came out gentle to Icarth's surprise. If anything, he was expecting some sort of scolding for seeking out his master when he hadn't fulfilled the target that his master had set.
"...Come here," Acacia commanded softly. Icarth dragged himself over to his master's tree sitting down right in front of it.
"You too," Acacia's branches swayed, commanding Jade to do the same. Icarth stared at Jade as it made its way towards him. His red eyes dug into Jade as it finally reached the same spot.
"Close your eyes," Acacia ordered as universal energy started to gather under her command. Icarth did as he was told, letting his master's universal energy envelop him.
A warm energy started to wash through him, spreading a cleansing feeling through his bones, muscles, and blood. Icarth could feel it, this was universal energy, life energy, that flowed through everything.
Icarth scanned himself as the universal energy washed through him like gentle waves on a lake. The universal energy spread through his body, seeping into the wounds, both internal and external, filling them with life energy and stimulating them to close. While this happened, Icarth's muscles and bones soaked in the universal energy, absorbing it, getting strength slowly but surely.
'It's red...a warm red....' Icarth thought to himself as he felt that the color of universal energy deeply suited what it was.
'So this is master's universal energy....'
Icarth could feel his mind relaxing as the universal energy warmed up his body, his anxiety, and uneasy feelings slowly dissipating.
'I feel....sleepy....' Icarth's concentration slowly wavered as the pleasant feeling slowly started to lull him into sleep.
'Yea.... let....just...' Icarth slumped down, being caught by a bed of soft grass, weeds, and vines that slowly lowered him into the ground. Beside him, Jade lay asleep and both of them drifted off into the land of slumber.
------------
Icarth woke up slowly, his red eyes fluttering catching the evening sunlight that spread through the clearing.
'It's evening?' Icarth thought to himself as he faced the red sky. Shifting slowly, he felt the grass beneath him tickle as he slowly sat up. Stretching his neck, he caught sight of Jade sleeping peacefully next to him, its small chest rising and falling rhythmically.
'Next time..' Icarth thought to himself as he thought of how he failed to catch Jade.
"My pupil," Acacia's gravelly voice filled the clearing, catching Icarth attention and causing him to face the tree.
"What is on your mind?"
'A lot of things...' Icarth thought to himself. 'But what I want to know the most right now is...'
"Why did you heal me master?" Icarth asked, his red eyes focused on the blue pearl.
"Because you've started to understand each other's hearts. Or at least you have started trying,' Acacia's gravelly voice answered Icarth's question.
Icarth tilted his head, his thoughts racing.
'What? But I don't feel anything different....what does master mean....'
'Did I start to understand Jade?' Icarth furrowed his brows and turned his gaze down at Jade. Returning his gaze, Jade stared back up at him, fully awake.
Its beady eyes reflected an intelligence that a rabbit shouldn't possess, Jade twitched his ears and then ... snorted.
Flipping his head, Jade looked away, leaving Icarth dumbfounded.
'Did it just....look down on me?' Icarth's eyes twitched at the thought.
"My pupil, tell me this," Acacia started again, snapping Icarth away from Jade. "How do you feel now?"
"....I feel calm," Icarth answered after a moment of introspection.
"I feel," Icarth took a deep breath. "Free....."
"How were you feeling before?" Acacia asked another question.
Icarth fell silent, his mind wandering to before he entered the clearing.
'How was I feeling?'
'What does that have anything to do with this?'
'Why is Master asking such a question....'
'There has to be a reason....'
'I agree that I feel much better now....'
'But how does that relate to understanding Jade...'
'Wait....did Jade taunt me into chasing it into the clearing?....all because I was feeling uneasy....?' Icarth glanced down at Jade once more only to find it munching on some grass that had grown to form Icarth's bed.
'That can't be.....or is it.....' Icarth closed his mind and thought of any other possibilities and reasons that could be true.
'I can't think of anything else.....so...'
Icarth opened his eyes to see Jade suddenly sitting in front of him with expectant eyes.
'When did it get here... never mind,' Icarth felt a lot of emotions, a lot of which he couldn't even put into words. But he knew that he had to express at least one of them right now.
"....thanks," Icarth muttered, his eyes downcast. In his line of vision, Jade appeared once again, its ears twitching vigorously as if saying, 'I didn't hear that properly, could you say that again?'
Icarth felt his neck and face heat up, as he shut his eyes, "Thanks!" He said a little louder.
'I feel ridiculous.....' Icarth thought to himself as he heard a series of clicks. Opening his eyes, he saw Jade clicking its teeth together in some form of....laughter?
Wrinkling his nose, Icarth decided not to pay attention to Jade anymore as he turned back to his master. Upon looking up, Icarth could no longer see the blue pearl, as the tree returned back to the husk of what it usually was when Acacia was not usually using it. But unlike before, Icarth wasn't distressed or uneasy.
'I guess I found the way to go...' Icarth picked up Jade, who was still 'laughing' and started to walk back in the evening sunlight.
Along the way, Icarth had another thought, 'Wait a second...Jade has helped me once before as well right....it was when Master had kicked me out right....'
----
Watching Icarth and Jade make their way through the forest, Acacia's blue pearl glimmered in the red sunlight.
'My pupil, you have just started to open up your heart...I pray that nothing happens,' Acacia's thoughts turned to when Icarth was chasing Jade through the forest. And on his face was the biggest grin that she had seen Icarth wearing.