28 Suns

--- Jon ---

He slid through the forest floor, quickly digging a small pit and slipping in a few of the bits and pieces he’d been working on while he ran before pushing off the ground and running once more.

There was a faint snapping a few meters behind him as his ma set the trap off, hopefully giving him more time than he’d invested into the hastily made trap.

Something slammed into his shoulder blade a moment later causing him to stumble and crash shoulder first into a tree before tumbling across the ground.

“Not bad kid.” His Ma told him as he picked himself up spitting out a bit of grass that had gotten in his mouth during the tumble. “Wasn’t expecting you to start setting traps during a game of tag.”

“If you want to win, stack the deck.” He chuckled, taking this brief respite to catch his breath despite not letting his guard down.

“Still you know what this means right?” His ma smirked in that schadenfreude sort of way she was so fond of.

“You’re going to start setting traps while I’m it.” He sighed, knowing how their escalating games tended to go.

“Yep.” His ma nodded, as he couldn’t help but wonder if (mistakes have been made.)

Scene Consequences

-Gained 1XP to Mobility and Trap Making.

--Currently: Mobility Lv. 6 (5/14) and Trap Making Lv. 8 (13/18)

---

Given how he had agreed to another meeting with Ying the day prior, he decided to go ahead and set up everything needed for them and Pix to have a proper Picnic once they were done with sparring.

Which is what led to him cooking so much more food than he strictly needed to, and since several of the things he’d cooked were a little… experimental, he decided he needed a bit of assistance determining which of the recipes he’d made were best for the picnic.

Pix was, of course, the obvious choice for said assistance.

(Maybe I made a little too much…) He couldn’t help but consider as he watched Pix struggle to take another bite of the food he’d made. (Yeah, I may’ve been overestimating how fast Pix’s stomach can digest things.)

Normally that wasn’t too big of a problem due to the odd fact that -according to Miss Edna- fairies as well as a number of magicals had an accelerated and more efficient digestive that supposedly allowed them to use their magic to convert a fair portion of whatever they consumed into additional Anima. Hence their large appetites and disproportionately large magic reserves given their sizes.

“You know you don’t have to eat everything on your plate, right?” He pointed out with just a touch of concern.

Pix turned an exhausted glare his way before weakly zapping him, and falling short of actually hitting him. Having made her stance on the matter clear, she turned back to the food before promptly dropping her face into the serving bigger than her head.

“Uh, Pix?”He asked, after a moment without any further movement from the little fairy.

Getting no response he gave the little fairy a few gentle nudges as he rolled her over, only to find that she’d passed out into a food coma of sorts.

(Well, that can’t be good.)

Scene Consequences

-Thanks to Pix assist gained 2XP to Cooking.

--Currently: Lv. 9 (3/20)

---

After dropping the excess food he’d made with a few of the homeless people down the street, he made his way to the forest park rather than the city one he and Ying had met at the day prior.

“There you are.” Ying nodded in greeting, having been the first one there this time.

“Sorry. Figured I should get some things for us to eat when we’re done.” He explained setting his backpack on the ground.

“Ah, your cooking, the one part of camp I won’t have to miss.” Ying smiled, her teeth becoming sharper at the idea of food.

“Mm-hm.” He nodded, before giving Ying a once over. “So you said you wanted to spar a bit, right?”

“Right, I haven’t been able to get a proper spar since coming back to Santa Rosa.” Ying explained, doing a few stretches that he matched.

“But wait I thought you practiced that ‘southern dragon kung-fu’ thing?” He frowned. “Shouldn’t you be able to get a spar out of that?”

“Yes and no.” Ying grimaced, before sighing. “Yes, I can find one or two people to spar with but they treat it more like a tradition or sport thing with all of these rules and honor, and… it’s just not the same as our spars, you know?”

Given how he’d only ever sparred with three people in his life, two of whom he’d fought for the first time in the last three months, he really didn’t, but…

“Well, if it helps I’m here anytime you need me.” He promised.

Ying gave him a huff that was half amusement and half fondness. “Careful Jon a girl might misunderstand you if you keep talking like that.”

“Uh, what do you mean?” He blinked with a slight tilt of his head.

“You’ll figure it out eventually.” Ying smirked before taking a lower stance with two clawed hands. “Shall we?”

“Standard rules?” He made sure, even as he took his own stance, with an open hand forward and the other in a fist at an angle that would’ve been best if he had a knife in it.

“Standard rules.” Ying agreed with slit eyes and a fanged grin.

He nodded once before rushing forward at an unspoken start.

From his few spars with Ying he knew she used a form of Southern Dragon Style Kung-Fu, a style that focused on zig-zagging leg work, quick strikes, pins, and locks that had been developed over the styles centuries long life span.

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The style he and his ma used however was a personal bastardized form of Krav Maga, knife fighting -thrown and otherwise-, ambush tactics, and anything else that would offensively even the fight for any non-Deviant, one that his ma and her military buddies had developed back during her time in the service.

Long story short, in a fair fight Ying would probably crush him after the first hit and counter but the style he used believed in everything but a fair fight.

As proven when rather than throwing out a strike he instead tackled her around the waist sending them both crashing to the ground in a tangle of limbs even as she tried to side step him with wide eyes.

“Shit!” Ying cursed just before he slammed a fist into her face as he rolled on top.

The downed martial artist managed to get her arms up and block his second blow, but wasn’t able to keep him from snaking a hand under her guard and around her throat. A point that he pressed down on as he raised a fist to deliver a heavier blow.

Ying’s eyes snapped open, her pupils slit and her irises glowing, as she grabbed onto his shirt with a clawed hand before throwing him off of her in a feat of strength far beyond a typical teenage girl.

“Just go straight for the throat, don’t you, Jon?” Ying chuckled, her feet coming out half a rasp as she staggered to her feet. “Always liked that about you…”

He could feel the change in the air as sparks of electricity jumped around Ying’s throat as she inhaled. Slamming over his ears he kept himself from needing Pix to stitch his shattered eardrums together as the draconic teenager across from him unleashed a primal roar that would trigger an instinctual terror in all who heard it.

(His eyes jumped to the scaled beast staring him down through the rain and the thunder, sparks dancing all along its serpentine body as it inhaled before unleashing an earth shaking scream.)

(Too bad I’ve heard the real beast’s roar.) And as such he was more than ready to dodge when Ying kicked off the ground, exploding the dirt beneath her feet as she rushed him.

Side stepping the first two feral claw swipes were easy as he stepped back towards a nearby tree before ducking under the third and leaving it to the draconic teen’s fingers to get stuck several inches within the wood. Thus leaving her open to a fist to the kidney as well as boot to the back of her knee, and the hand that smashed her face into the rough tree bark.

Noticing the lightning beginning to dance across her skin he hopped backwards to avoid her sparking back hand as she tore herself free from the tree. “Fu~ck yes!”

Ozone filled the air as electricity danced across Ying’s face sealing a number of cuts before racing down her arm as (thunder tore through the air even louder than the lightning tore through the earth, as he just barely managed to roll out of the impact.

The beast roared once more as rain pounded all around them, a storm far stronger than what should be seen so far in land.)

He shook his head clear of the memory as he had every time he and Ying sparred before this, and as he likely would every spar after this. Of course this moment was enough of an opening for Ying to rush him and deliver a number of rib cracking impacts to his chest, launching him across the clearing into a painful roll as he forced himself through the pain like so many times before and reset his stance despite keeping his breaths shallow.

As she always did when giving into her draconic instincts Ying rushed him once more, as his own instincts took over.

(Duck right of blow. Right foot to left ankle. Left hand to left claw. Right hand to back of head. Face to the dirt. Knee on back. Right hand to left shoulder.)

“My win or… your shoulder pops.” He told her, using a playful pause to cover up his pained breathing as he held the raging dragon beneath him.

Ying snarled all fangs as lightning began to dance across her once more.

Rather than releasing her, he pushed down on her shoulder and her back while pulling on her arm and feeling the leverage beginning to give as Ying was forced deeper into the dirt.

The draconic teen shut her eyes before forcibly calming herself as the electricity died down and she forced herself to admit, “Your win.”

He nodded once before climbing off of her and offering his hand.

“Still can’t beat you even with my powers.” Ying sighed, her teeth no longer fanged as she accepted his hand.

“Eh, you’re getting better.” He shrugged, purposely not telling her that she’d cracked half of his rib caged, knowing that’d only make her feel guilty about losing control of her instincts even if for just a moment.

“Pix!” He called the little fairy, who’d been woken up when Ying had roared towards the start of the fight. “You mind patching us up so we can go another round?”

The little fairy gave him a trilling sound before flying circles around both of them, causing a cool warmth feeling spread along his ribs as they mended whatever damage Ying had done to them.

Scene Consequences

-For sparring with Ying gained 2XP to Combat.

--Currently: Lv. 5 (11/12)

---

“Three for three…” Ying groaned as she sat against the tree next to his backpack.

“You were doing pretty good here and there.” He tried to console as he began setting up their picnic. “I mean you’re throwing your lightning around pretty well now.”

“Yay, I burned through half my magical reserves for a ‘pretty good’ loss.” Ying cheered sarcastically, before sighing. “Really doesn’t feel like I’m getting all that better at this.”

“You are!” He assured her. “I mean you’ve been at this for what two, three months and you’re already at this level. That’s pretty good progress by most standards.”

Ying gave him a tired grin, the kind that said she appreciated the sentiment even if she didn’t believe him. “How about you, how much progress have you made at this whole Practitioner thing?”

“I thought I told you about all of that yesterday?” He frowned.

“You did, but you know what they say, ‘show don’t tell’.” Ying told him, while waving a hand through the air and closing her eyes.

“Well I don’t really have anything that’s ‘show off-y’.” He pointed out, as he pulled a few water bottles full of kool-aid from his backpack.

“What about that Contractor thing you did with Pix?” The draconic teen reminded him, not bothering to open her eyes even as Pix sat in her lap mimicking her.

“Oh, um, I guess I do have something there…” He admitted, as he remembered his Contract with Wolf. “In fact I should probably introduce the two of you, now that I’m thinking about it.”

“Introduce us?” Ying asked, opening one eye.

“Yeah, I used this Contracting Catalyst ritual thing to summon and contract a magical wolf.” He tried explaining. “She can make these duplicate wolves if I give her a bit of magic, and I’m trying to figure out how to make a spell from that effect for both of us to work with.”

“Interesting.” Ying said, swiping a sandwich he’d made the moment he set it down. “And you can summon her now, yes?”

“Yeah, just give me a second.” He nodded, before pulling out the last few items of their picnic.

Once he was done with that he walked towards the center of the clearing and began pushing magic into the Contractor’s mark on his back before throwing his hand out and summon Wolf in a burst of light.

Wolf gave the clearing and the destruction around it a once over before turning towards him with a curious if concerned tilt of her head.

“I’m fine.” He assured his canine companion as he scratched the top of her head. “This is just the remnants of a spar with one of my friends.”

Wolf tilted her head once more, but with a stronger sense of curiosity coming from the bond between them.

“Right, let me introduce you. This is over here is Ying.” He told the magical wolf, while gesturing to the draconic teen. “Ying, Wolf.”

Ying who had been watching curiously up to that point blinked. “I’m sorry, did you say, ‘Wolf’?”

“Uh, yeah?” He nodded, even as the other teen pinched the bridge of her nose.

“I should’ve expected as much after you named the pixie, Pix.” Ying told him with no small amount of exasperation.

“It’s… it’s not that bad.” He argued with just a tinge of embarrassment.

Ying gave him a particularly dry look. “If that’s what you want to tell yourself, Human.”

He grimaced, before arguing that, “It’s not like I didn’t ask her if she had a name. It’s just that I couldn’t pronounce her name with a human mouth and vocal chords.”

Wolf nodded from next to him, and he couldn’t help but appreciate the show of solidarity.

He pointedly avoided thinking about how hard she’d been laughing when he’d spent five minutes trying to say her name during their initial meeting.

He also pretended that Pix was laughing at something other than the memory of that particular event.

Ying glanced down at the laughing fairy before giving him an amused look, one that was quickly matched by Wolf’s snickering.

(This is just a day of mistakes for me isn’t it…)

Scene Consequences

-Grown a bit closer to the girls.

-Can now spar with allies. (Different allies have different requirements.)