**AETHERIUS**
After Elowen's party, I had a terrible hangover. My drunken father gave me some liquor to drink, and my mother hit him because I wasn't old enough for that yet.
But my mother was also a little tipsy and couldn't stop my father from doing it again, which led to me being drunk as well. Elowen had gone to sleep a few hours after finishing dinner and woke up next to me.
"Good morning, Wen," I greeted her. Seeing that she didn't wake up, I shook her again until she did. She rubbed her eye and greeted me, "Good morning, brother. Judging by your face, I can see last night ended well," she said, looking at my face.
"Haha, that's true. Come on, get up." Elowen and I headed to the bathroom to wash our faces, and then we went to the kitchen, where everyone was—mom, dad, Atheria, and the others—heads down with regretful expressions, and I could see they also had hangovers.
"Feeling hungover?" I said out loud, and they lifted their heads and only raised their hands to greet me.
(Author's Note: Since I'm Mexican, I used the word [cruditos/crudito/crudo], which is used to refer to one or more people who have a hangover after a big drinking session the day before, in a mocking way).
The door opened, and Viola and her parents arrived. "Good morning, everyone. I can see you're all feeling rough," Dominic commented, and the others just laughed.
"Hello, Therius, hello Wen," Viola greeted us. "Good morning, Viola," we both replied.
We went to the dining room, where my mother and Sonia served the food, and we all sat down to eat. "Well, time for breakfast," mom said, and everyone started eating.
****
We took turns using the bathroom and taking showers since we weren't entirely clean after last night.
"Kids, don't forget to pack your things. Tomorrow we head to the capital to arrive early," mom reminded us.
Elowen and I returned to our rooms and packed our bags for tomorrow's departure. "I'll be at the field, mom. Call me if you need anything." I left the house and went to the field, where I sat down and began to meditate, feeling the mana around me. I started absorbing it, continuing to purify my core.
I sensed a disturbance around me. When I opened my eyes to see where it was coming from, I looked toward the forest beside the field, and three bears, similar to the ones my parents fought on the way to the capital, emerged from the trees.
I summoned my weapon. *What are they doing here?* They shouldn't be near these parts, even with these doubts; no one could answer them.
I imagined that the fluctuation of my mana might have caught their attention. One of the bears growled at me, and the other two began to circle me.
I looked at each of the bears, trying to guess which one would attack me first. Getting into a fighting stance, I infused electricity into my weapon and mana into my body.
One of the bears circling me lunged at me with a roar. As it approached, it tried to bite me, and I could feel it aiming for my right leg. Sensing it, I jumped to the left, almost putting myself within range of the other bear that was circling me.
Meanwhile, the largest bear, the one that growled, remained still, making no movements. The bear on my left swung a paw at my back, but I managed to block it with the staff of my weapon.
Retreating to distance myself from the attacking bears, I used the shadows of both attacking bears. From their shadows, two tentacles emerged, starting to wrap around them, leaving them immobile.
Due to the strength of the bears, the still-unperfected shadow tentacles couldn't hold them for long, struggling to restrict their movements.
With mana still coursing through my body and electricity running through my weapon, I repositioned myself and launched at the bear on my left. I quickly spun my weapon, and my blade connected with its fur and skin, slicing deep. Without stopping, I turned to the immobile bear on my right.
With the same momentum from the previous attack, I slashed vertically, cutting off its head and splattering myself with its blood. As the decapitated bear's body fell to the ground, I jumped high to retreat again towards the wounded bear I had left behind.
As I descended, I raised my weapon above my head, spinning it between my hands. Just before I landed, I brought my blade down with force, cutting off the bear's head. When my blade hit the ground, some of the electricity created small bolts of lightning.
I felt a murderous aura behind me. When I turned, the last bear lunged at me, trying to slash me with its sharp claws. I spun as quickly as I could, moving my weapon to block the bear's attack, causing it to back off. The blow made me lose my grip on my weapon.
I was forced to retreat, crashing and falling backward onto the dead bear's body. I channeled mana into my body, converting it into electricity, and jumped backward while still on the ground, rolling over my back.
I tried to immobilize the bear by controlling its shadow, but it was too strong, breaking free of the restraints. Surprised, I channeled the electricity from my body into my palms and created lightning whips in them.
I started moving my legs and arms, launching a strike with the electric whip. One whip struck the bear's skin, causing it to roar. With two more strikes, I managed to paralyze the bear.
When the bear fell to the ground, I channeled the same electricity into my legs. Spinning on them, I performed several flips, creating several white lines where my feet passed, indicating I had charged enough energy before jumping.
As I spun in the air, I straightened myself, and just before my feet pointed towards the bear, I moved my left leg forward and my right leg back, creating an electric arc. With the same momentum from the kick, it was launched at the bear, striking it in the back, causing it to fall to the ground.
As I was about to land, I noticed a point on the ground that was my own shadow. A tentacle emerged from it, grabbing my scythe and tossing it to me.
Grabbing my weapon in mid-air, I channeled more electricity, creating a static charge that turned into visible lightning on my weapon. With the same momentum from the fall, I struck the bear in the back, slicing it in two while it still lay on the ground. A huge lightning bolt created an explosion beside me.
The explosion caused more blood to splatter onto my face and clothes. "Oh my God, of all the places it had to land on me," I grumbled, feeling sticky. After a few seconds, the smell of blood began to hit me from where the corpses of the three bears lay.
Before lowering my guard, I turned around, trying to sense any other presence that might want to attack me. Seeing and sensing nothing, I started walking home.
After a few minutes of walking, I saw Atheria and my father running towards me. It must be because of the explosion I caused again, I thought as I wiped the blood off my face with the still-clean back of my shirt.
My father reached my side. "Son, what happened? This time, the explosion was different," he asked while looking at my clothes and body. "And that blood?" he questioned.
Atheria quickly passed by me. "Hey, Therius, that's a lot of blood. Where did it come from?" I pointed in the direction I had come from, and she quickly headed that way.
Turning back to my father, I replied, "It's okay, Dad, it's not mine. Let's go home first. I want to take a scalding hot bath." He looked at me, wanting to say something, but he couldn't and just nodded with a nervous laugh.
When we got home, my mother looked at me and let out a startled gasp. "Therius, what happened? And that blood?" she fired one question after another.
"I'm fine, mom. The blood isn't mine," I tried to calm her down and responded again, "The blood is from some bears that came out of the forest while I was training." My mother looked at my father.
When my father felt her gaze, he responded, "Atheria was with me, and she went to inspect the area." Turning his gaze back to me, he released me and inspected me.
At that moment, Elowen, Viola, Sara, Valentina, and Fredic entered the house. When they saw me, their eyes widened as far as they could. Knowing the questions, I raised my arms to calm them down.
"Calm down, this blood isn't mine, and please, Mom, can you heat up some water? My body feels sticky, and I'm starting to smell," I said with a guilty smile.
"Go outside while I heat the water," said my mother. The others followed me, bombarding me with questions.
"What happened? Are you hurt? Whose blood is that? Where did it happen?" Each one asked their question, and I just answered.
"What happened was that some bears came out of the forest while you were coming in, and I fought them," I replied to Elowen and Viola, who asked the same question. "I was in the field where I usually go," I responded to Otto. "When I killed the bears, their blood splattered on me, and with the last one, its blood exploded, soaking me in it," I answered Sara and Valentina. "And luckily, I'm not hurt," I finally replied to Fredic.
I saw Atheria arriving. "All good, Therius, there were no more beasts around; those were the only ones," she said as she approached.
My father brought me a wet cloth to clean my face. "Thanks, Dad," I thanked him. "I'll say it again, that was dangerous, Aetherius, though this time I can't be mad at you since you did a good job out there," my father praised me.
"Thank goodness nothing bad happened," my mother said, who was coming out of the house before reaching us. "The bath is ready, son. Please go get rid of that smell," she pleaded.
I headed to the door and thanked her. "Alright, Mom, thanks. I'll be right back." Entering the bathroom, I took off all my clothes and filled a small barrel with hot water. I closed my eyes and poured it over my head. When I opened my eyes, I saw the floor covered in very dark red blood.
After half an hour of scrubbing my body to get the blood off, I dried myself and put on the change of clothes that my father had left for me.
Coming out of the bathroom, I went downstairs and headed to the living room. When I didn't see anyone, I went out to the yard and saw Otto, Aetherius, and my father carrying the bears, laying them on the ground, and I could see they were frozen. Meanwhile, Valentina, Sara, and Mom were holding large, sharp knives next to some big tables. Then, Fredic started cutting the bears' bodies into parts.
I then noticed Viola and Elowen looking disgusted as they passed pieces to my mom and the others, placing more parts of the bears on the tables so they could start removing the bears' furry skin.
I heard a voice behind me. "What are they doing now?" Jumping in surprise, I turned and saw Dominic and Sonia standing behind me, watching the others.
My mother turned in our direction and was surprised. "Oh, Dom, Sonia, it's so good you're here. Help us with the meat. Therius was attacked by some bears, and Atheria went to check the place. When she saw that the bodies were in good condition, she brought Fredic over to freeze them so they wouldn't spoil," my mother explained at length.
Valentina turned to us. "And now we're removing the skin from the meat to roast and eat it," she said while drooling.
I watched as Sara rolled her eyes. "The meat is good and in good condition, so it's edible, and they're not corrupted," she said, giving Valentina a slap on the head to stop her from drooling.
Dominic spoke, "I can see you're fine, Therius, so I'm not worried. I also see you just took a bath, so stay here, and we'll help over there." He ruffled my hair and headed toward my father, while Sonia joined my mother.
"I hope it's a good feast," I said, laughing and shaking my head, sitting on a bench next to Elowen and Viola, who had returned from washing up quickly.
We looked around in different directions as they worked with the bear meat, then looked at each other and started laughing.