The Months Pass as both me and Wes have been sparring to make it keep both of us nimble for the time till we end up having to go on our adventures.
Another day comes as we touch markings on trees to make it easier for Wes to know which way to go and which way to not.
Soon we exit the forest once more and enter the clearing, one that both of us will be leaving for good, atleast for a while as we continue towards our own experience of exploration of Reight.
I go to the top of the hill just like before and feel the heaviness of the leather bracers, that Steel had gotten for me when it came up that me and Wes had been sparring to keep each other understandably strong for the future.
I wasn't paying attention and he had gotten me with a nick to my arm, which is more than just a nick and more of a very bad scar. From the beginning of my forearm to my elbow.
Wes was very, very, very apologetic when he saw the amount of blood that was pouring out of it, good thing the doc was able to help us with it, but he still had to do traditional work on the injury, which made it still come out with the scar.
"You ready?"
Just like a repeat of when we first started to spar.
"Yeah."
"We're tied right?"
I ask.
"Yeah. I won the first one."
"And I won the one yesterday."
"Meaning. This is our last."
"Yeup!"
Wes says as his pulls out his sword and coats it in his blue aura.
Holding the sword in front of himself with two hands.
I follow suit in preparing myself, one hand on the grip, feeling the faint push of the aura on the sigil. Another hand on the string, ready to pull it and release an arrow.
"Let's try not to kill each other, yeah?"
Wes says.
"You try not to kill me."
I answer.
Wes moves first, rushing at me as soon as I say that.
His sword stretched to his side as he's ready to swipe left then right.
I run in the opposite direction, pullin away from him as he continues to me.
His foot kicking up dirt every step he takes. I hold the bow by the grip and spin quickly as I pull the string and tap the sigil, an arrow appears and I let the string go.
The arrow flies to Wes and he swings his sword to hit the arrow instead of me.
I skid to a stop, while I spin to turn to him.
He continues to me.
I pull back my bow three time in very quick succession, one after the other letting an arrow fly to Wes, he stops and swings his sword to hit the arrows.
Letting one past him and nearly scratch his face.
He groans then sprints again, this time faster as he holds the sword by one hand in his head first sprint to me.
'God I hate the fact he know I can only fight long ranged.'
His blue aura growing on his sword.
I run to him instead of away, a trick that I've used many times to my advantage is going to be used again.
He smirks and continues to me.
As we get closer Wes skids to stop and he lifts his sword into the air and just as I get into range he swings down to me.
I feel my body muscles tense then, I'm far behind him.
I pull back my bow string and let three go again.
Wes spins immediately, letting the movement from the downward slash of the sword swing him. Out of the way.
I follow his movements with my arrows, but every shot is just delayed and hitting the place he was previously at.
His blue aura grows and I keep missing.
Wes runs right to me again.
I feel my muscles tense I'm at the lower side of the hill, the place that we came from, Wes sees me and skids a to a halt once more.
He lifts his sword into the air and for some reason his aura turns red, and along with the color switch, I see heat being generated from the sword.
I feel a slight sting in my eye as the sword changes.
"Here's a trick I learned."
As he says that I feel stuck, but I know if I don't do something I'll end up swish cheese.
I feel my muscles tense.
I'm in front of Wes and with a very strong and powerful force from my lead leg I kick into his stomach stopping the attack in its place, but at that same moment, Wes lunges at me and pushes me back down the hill, making me tumble down.
As I drop my bow to the ground, the same with Wes as he drops his sword behind him when I kicked him.
He drops to his knee and huffs for air, as I continue to tumble, finally ending when I hit the bottom.
"OWWWWW!"
I groan at the bottom, pulling myself into a sitting position.
"Yeah! How you think I feel!?"
Wes says from the top of the hill.
"You pushed me off a damn hill!"
"You kicked me in my stomach!"
"You were trying to kill me!"
"No!"
"Liar!"
"SHUT UP!"
We both take a break and a deep breathe that feels very much needed.
"Well atleast we know one thing."
Wes starts the conversation again.
"Yup."
I answer.
"I won."
We both say at the same time, after finishing those words we give each other looks of disapproval to each other.
"Dude, you're such a sore loser. I obviously won."
Wes says.
"Is that why you're holding your stomach?"
"Oh, and you're better and the ground and at the bottom?"
He gives an insult for and insult.
His blue aura spiking with every word.
"Yeah."
Then we pause.
And then we laugh.
"For what it matters though. We are going to either end up the worst fighters or become the best."
"Yeah, theres very much an in between for those."
He answers with a matter of factly tone and stands up straight as he comes down, not before grabbing his sword and putting it back into its sheathe.
With his aura slightly dimming now that he isn't fighting, which is a trick I learned since I didn't have an eye patch to use, nor the slight sting in a while.
Coming closer his stubble is now nearly nonexistent, since he most certainly has shaved it. His hair that is usually down in a nice slick back way, is frizzed a bit from today.
His leather armor, the same one from months ago, that he'd wear to ensure his safety, the only thing is that the leather has some wear and tear, from when I'd shoot and when the arrow was bound to hit him, id try to make it dissipate before, but then he gave me this scar so I tried to get him back.
Wes stops in front of me and holds out his arm.
Grabbing my bow I sling it over my shoulder, then I grab his arm, pulling myself up.
His muscles in his forearms tense as he lifts me up.
We both get up and begin back through the forest going through it to the village.
Since I've been doing this for years now, I know the way, but he stays in front using small carvings into the tree to make it easy to follow a path.
We both push through shrubbery and head into the village, people now ignoring that fact two kids are coming out of the elf ridden trees.
Well except for Daisy, who really wants to know about Apatite, but even I haven't seen or heard about her in a while.
"Okay, imma head home man?"
Wes says, turning to me.
"Yeah, okay. Let's call it a day. Sply had me training more than usual to make me "stronger"."
Using are quotations.
"Still couldn't beat me though."
Wes says.
"Once again. You didn't win that. I did."
"Yeah right."
"Believe what you want to."
"I could say the same for you."
We do our handshake and then end up going following each other for a bit before heading to my house and waving at each other and I disappear into the house.
Footsteps are heard upstairs as I drop my bow beside the door, and I walk into the house, turning into the living room and dropping onto the couch, that feels like heaven after falling to my ass.
I reach under my forearms and pull the braver off of them, slowly untying the strings that hold them in place.
I feel the lines that were made from the strings, then slowly slide my fingers on the scar that Wes left on my after a bad training session.
I hear a door open.
"Lazuli?!"
Marcilene calls to me from upstairs.
"Yeah!"
I answer her.
"There's a gift from Tali and Flock!"
"Okay?!"
"Come and get it!"
I put my hands behind my head and lean into my arms.
"Yeah, I'll get it later!"
I say snuggling into the couch more, nearly falling asleep.
"GET YOUR BUTT UP HERE!"
I groan and wobble before throwing my feet off the couch and walking up the stairs to Marci's room, pushing past the door and into the room.
Elsa in the room with her hair in a braids as they are lowering to her back.and her blue aura spiking a delightful tingle as she it flows.
"Hi!"
She says waving excitedly.
I wave back.
"Hi, Elsa."
Then I turn to Marcilene who's messing with a white patch of cloth. As her orange aura wavers softly around her body.
"This is the eye patch that they made for you, but…"
"It doesn't even look like one."
Elsa finishes her sentence.
"Yeah."
Marcilene agrees.
Going to Marcilene who's on the bed just beside Elsa.
I hold out my hand.
"Let me see."
She looks at me for a second.
"Wait."
I look at her confused.
"You called me up? And you don't even wanna give it to me?"
"I said wait."
I groan then look at Elsa, she shrugs, but stifles a laugh at me.
Marcilene continues to mess around with the cloth, to no avail at doing anything to it.
I stand there for a few minutes, but I eventually get to bored to stay any longer.
"Okay, I'm leaving."
"Here! Oh, yeah. It also came with a note."
She for a split second reaches out to give me the cloth, but when she remembers she turns to the pillow reaching under it and giving me a piece of paper too.
It reads: This is the eye patch that Steel asked for me to make for Lazuli. Have fun with this super cool thing, it's a prototype for something, if you ever have a problem with it, just come down to Quadrant 2 of Virvanum.
Signed: Flock.
Ps: Tali said to make this note. HI! (That was Tali.)
"Its a prototype for something."
"You think I didn't read the note?"
Marcilene says in a mix of seriousness and sarcasm.
"Okay. Let me try the eye patch."
Marcilene reaches her out like last time and I take no time to grab the cloth out of her hand and into mine.
"Hey…"
Elsa laughs at our sibling shenanigans. Her aura spiking as it does so.
For a second I open my hand to see a perfectly normal piece of polyester, like a handkerchief or a hand rag with silver studs around the edges.
But soon I see a slight glow to its surface, a multicolored glow on it's surface, even along the studs sliver glow the multicolors are glowing.
"That's weird."
"What is?"
Marcilene asks.
"Well the thing is glowing."
"Like it has Soul Energy?"
I nod.
Then before I know it, the cloth extends itself and turns into an eye patch. But more like a mix of an eye patch and a monocle.
As it has a rectangular shape glass in the point at which the cloth extends to block the vision, making it see through for that part.
And along the top of the polyester the studs are there, no longer just around the edge of the whole thing.
"Wow!"
Elsa says.
"I know."
I say, to her wide mouthed.
"I thought Flock was only a cloth designer?"
I ask Marcilene.
"He is… He must have been had someone help him do that."
Her ears twitching as she looks at the eye patch in my hands.
"Maybe…"
I look through the glass, directly at Marcilene.
Gasping I see that the eye glass that I'm looking through is blocking out the view of Marcilene's orange aura, all the while her body and face is in full view of me.
"What the heck?!"
"What?"
Marlene asks scared as she taps around her body.
"Well, you have no aura around your body at all."
"What? Am I dying?"
"No, like…"
I drop the eye patch.
"It's there."
I lift it again.
"It's not."
Once more.
"It's there."
And last for good measure.
"It's not."
"What the heck?"
Marcilene says surprised.
"Yeah!"
I answer her with a cheery tone.
"I mean what the heck how are you doing that?"
"Me? I don't know?"
I answer Marcilene.
"It's the eye patch?!"
"I think…? Well, it's not an eye patch if it has the glass on it?"
"Then what is it called?"
Elsa asks joining our conversation.
"No clue… but for now, let's just call it an eye patch."
"I guess."
Elsa says shrugging her shoulders.
"Anyway. Try it on."
Marcilene says excitedly.
I do so, pulling the eye patch over my eye and…
"It's too big for me."
"Really?"
"Yeah, it's like it can't fit on my face."
"That sucks…"
Elsa says.
"Yeah, it does."
As I reach to take it off again.
The eye patch tightens around my eye.
Holing the glass in place of my left eye, and for some reason the strap to attach to my other ear instead of going to the ear, it straps below my right eye and then strapping tighter to the back of my head and holding tight above the ear on my left.
My hands move away from the straps.
"Whoa…"
"What?"
Marcilene asks.
"It got tighter."
My shock is evident on my face.
"Do you need help taking it off?"
Elsa asks concerned for my safety.
"Yeah, it's tight enough to not fall and that's it… it's weird."
"Yeah… I mean your other eye patch was just to block your entire eye…."
Marcilene pauses as she gets up and moves closer to me, waving her hand in front of my face and testing the vision on my left eye.
"This looks like something, completely new."
Elsa stands and walk to my side as well.
"Can you really see clearly out of it?"
"Yeah. I mean test me."
"How?"
Elsa asks.
"Hold up your fingers."
"You can still see out of your right eye."
Marcilene says.
"Then I'll block it."
"Okay. Let's try."
I use my hand to block my right eye as Elsa puts her hand up with three fingers.
"Three."
"Okay."
Elsa says.
Two fingers.
"Two."
Three again.
"Three."
Four now.
"Four."
"Dang."
Marcilene says.
Then she whispers something to Elsa.
Both of them pick up both their hands and all their fingers.
"What's that supposed to accomplish?"
"You, see this?"
Elsa says.
"Yeah…"
"How many?"
Marcilene says.
"It's.. what.. Twenty."
I stutter not because I don't know, but I'm just surprised that they even thought I wouldn't be able to see after the great examples I gave.
"He can see out of that."
They both put down their hands.
"Good, atleast you won't have to be put in a disadvantage because you lost the ability to see out of one eye."
"Yeah."
The door slams below us and two voices are heard from below.
"Marci! Lazi!"
Steel voice is heard from below.
"Whys he callling you guys?"
Elsa asks.
"Dunno?"
Marcilene and I both say at the same time.
All three of us exit the room and go down.
Steel turns to us, dropping his gauntlets by the door, and by my bow.
"Oh, the… what the hell is that on your eye?"
"The eye patch."
"Lazuli… that's not an eye patch. And does that even block out the colors you see?"
"It is, and yeah it does…"
"Well, DAMN. Flock outdid himself."
"I don't think he did it by himself."
Marcilene jumps in.
"That's true…"
He pauses tilting his head.
"But that's for… nevermind about that really, any way. Tomorrow you and Sply will be leaving, and I don't know how long that adventure will be. So I want to celebrate your birthday once more before we separate."
'One winter… two… three winters… that's about eight months ago..'
"Steel my birthday does come for another few months at the very least."
I say after counting my birthdays by months.
"Okay then. A going away thing."
"Oh Yeah! I'll invite my family too!"
Steel smiles as Elsa says that.
"Yeah!"
"I don't mind."
Marcilene says.
"I don't either."
"Guess it's a plan."
Steel says:
"Okay, then we will go and get things for the party. And Elsa you go get your family."
"Yay."
Elsa squealed excitedly.
"Okay. See you soon."
"Okay,