-Isaac-
It was early in the morning. I was standing on our hotel balcony in a long-sleeved white shirt and a pair of blue boxers.
The view of the city below was amazing. I couldn’t believe I agreed to this honeymoon thing. The city known as Venice was like stepping into another world.
The water filled canals almost made it look like the city had flooded. I couldn’t help but feel like this trip had been wasted on me. I wasn’t very adventurous. I hadn’t even explored my home town all that much.
The whole thing made me feel nervous. Instead of it feeling like a relaxing vacation the whole thing made me anxious.
I nearly scratched my hair out as I thought about all these nerve racking things. I was unworthy of this. Alice’s parents should have just kept the money instead of funding the trip.
My mind started to race. I now had an obligation to have fun and experience everything the city had to offer. Then report it all back to our family and friends. It sounded so tiring. I wish I could just crawl into bed, but I needed to smile and take lots of pictures. Somehow this vacation had become a chore.
That’s when I felt someone’s arms wrap around my waist from behind. “Morning Izzy.” And just like that my thoughts faded away. My mind consumed by absolute happiness.
Having fun suddenly didn’t seem that hard. “Morning Alice.” I turned around and kissed her.
With my arms around her I easily picked her up causing her to shriek, and laugh. Carrying her back to the bed I laid her down and continued to kiss her. She kept mumbling something about not having brushed her teeth, but I didn't care.
I wanted to stay by her side forever and ever. Our time together was cut short all of a sudden. When I heard the distorted screeching sounds of my demon roaring out from across the void. Piercing through the foggy cloud of my dreams.
-Aku/Isaac-
I woke up again for the fifth time that night. Sitting up my eyes adjusted to the dark room. I was so tired of having my dreams interrupted. I wish I could get my hands on some heroine to erase reality.
That was one way to do it. It was effective that was for sure. I still remember that cold inky dark emptiness that came with the drug. No dreams, no nightmares. Hell, It wasn’t really sleep. It was nothingness. Like vanishing out of reality.
No… that’s what I used to do. I’d rather not go through that again. Getting to my feet I decided to get the day going. It was probably 3 maybe 2 in the morning. That didn’t matter.
Lorie was most likely still in bed. Which meant training wouldn't be until later. Still, just because my teacher wouldn’t be in for another 3-7 hours didn’t meant I couldn’t study independently. I can practice other things. My aura still needs work. Maybe some meditation will help calm my brain.
I was so tired though. My muscles sore from all the training. I took a deep breath and began to craft my apathy aura. I gave it five layers for extra power. Then glanced at the clothes neatly stacked in the corner.
I didn’t want to wear them. I’d cosplayed enough. Wasn’t there any other clothes I could wear? There had to be. People have been coming in and out of this place for years. There had to be some clothes left behind.
Putting on my light-up-sneakers, I left the room and went on a little… adventure. I was pretty good at stealth and with my Qi sight I could keep an eye on everyone. Moving around with them was still challenging since I hadn't adjusted my body to the over stimulating sight. Now was as good a time as any to work on that.
It looked like Zubu was still asleep. The lore keeper was also out cold. Mr. Brutus however. He was nowhere to be seen. He always left in the middle of the night.
During our time together I found out he actually rents a loft somewhere on another world. I could only imagine his landlord trying to charge the big guy rent. Only to be so intimidated that Mr. Brutus lives rent free. Not just in the loft, but their head as well.
Since he can travel back and forth between worlds. I wouldn’t blame him if he wanted to sleep in his own bed. After moving room to room. I finally managed to find what I was looking for.
This room had a bunch of clothes in it. It was mostly kimonos and yukata, but there was a few clothes that looked more modern. Possibly left behind by other worlders after ascension.
The issue was there wasn’t very many clothes in my size. When you ascend you shrink, so it would make sense that any clothes left behind were usually for adults. My thought was, they had to have some clothes for people that turn into children after ascension.
Surely enough I managed to find some clothes that looked like they might fit. I had to continue wearing the pink light up sneakers, but I wasn’t that upset about it.
As an adult I could never pull it off. People would probably call me a creep, but in this body it was a non-issue. I could also tell Aku really liked them and besides, breast cancer was still a thing. Pink light up sneakers were nothing more than a neon breast cancer awareness sign.
I should start collecting donations for the advertisement fee. That could get me so much rent money. Like six and a half months tops.
I ended up wearing some snuggly fitting blue jeans and a green long sleeve shirt. It felt great to finally wear something I could really move around in. By that I meant not worry about flashing my underwear, which I was starting to think happened a lot, but no one ever said anything, so I pretended not to notice.
I shut off the rock lamps by turning a little nob on their side. It turns out the white rocks are called frostlyte. Cosmo said they were mined off a world full of dwarves.
She also said that frostlyte burned when exposed to oxygen. Turning the nob exposed the rock to air causing it to light up. It was pretty cool.
The rocks didn’t even produce heat. In fact they were colder than ice and could still burn you if you touched them. Apparently you need special gloves to hold one. They can also last a few years, depending on their size that is.
I headed back out into the courtyard. The pink trees all seemed to have a ghostly glow in the moonlight. For some childish reason, I felt like a bunch of ninjas were about to pop out of the shadows.
Instead of taking a fighting pose and fighting imaginary ninjas, I ignored my intrusive thoughts and headed off to the middle of the courtyard. That’s where I sat down and started to gather up aspects. This was mostly to see what sort of aspects were in the area.
Just like I thought, the aspects on the mountain were different. For one there was a calming energy through out the courtyard. It almost seemed like life aspects.
Or better yet, It was like life aspects just not the whole thing. This seemed like a tier zero aspect clinging to, not life, but water. The trees themselves gave off so many different aspects. They were why the mountain felt so chill.
I tried not to drain them and only focused on the extra stuff in the air. After a few minutes I’d gathered enough to start, but there was something odd. It looked like I’d come across a new aspect.
I thought I was gathering light aspects from the moon, but it didn't feel like that. The light aspects felt more gentle than the ones I got from fire, or the sun.
It was soft and soothing. Light at a different frequency. Would it be called moonlight aspect or maybe just moon aspect? I wasn’t sure, but I liked it. It was refined light. Pure and gentle. If sunlight was a warm blanket. Then moonlight was a clean and cool bedsheet.
It was time to take the power in, so I got to my feet expanding the aspects I’d gathered into a sea of multi colored stars. The aspects surrounded me on all sides. I gave them a little spin so that they wouldn’t fade into the area.
From there I began to practice the kata Mr. Brutus showed me. As I performed the motions, my body caused the floating essence to mimic my movements. It was as if my body was conducting an orchestra, directing the aspects into a dance.
I didn't force it. Instead I opened myself up to the aspects. With the guidance of my body, they rushed in. Even within my body the kata continued to lead.
The power cycled through my meridians as if it were preprogrammed. The energy refined itself turning into pure Qi. The corruption slowly made its way out of my body, as my exercises guided them out.
Everything was in perfect harmony. Perfect flow. Once I really got into the flow of things my kata began drawing in even more aspects from the surrounding area.
They began to dance around me causing the lose petals to glide and spin in the air as they traveled. It was like I had control over the fundamental forces of the universe.
Mr. Brutus said this kata allowed everything to flow through me. It was like a swimmer moving through water using his arms to cut and push their way through. Instead of water though, it was the aspects that inhabited reality. Both in my body and out.
Moving the aspects outside my body caused the ones inside to be pulled along for the ride. Like getting caught in an underwater current. I was cultivating and purging my body of corruption at the same time. Mr. Brutus said this method was call Flowing River.
My nexus point greedily gobbled up any Qi that came in its path. It had grown brighter ever since I started feeding it. I noticed my Qi recovery rate had also gone up by a tiny bit. The density of my Qi strands had also increased.
Once the density of the essence in the area was low, I cycled my Qi and began working on my level 1 aura. The sun wouldn’t be up for a while, so I had a lot of time to train.
Sunrise
With my eyes closed, I focused on maintaining the spell. Before me was an orange magic circle with a ball of fire floating in the middle.
It wasn’t exactly round and the size kept changing. At some point it started to release black smoke. I don’t understand why it’s so unstable.
Was it the runes? Were they not drawn right? The tree lady said the formation was good. They also looked fine to me. Besides I’d tried several times to change them around. That only made it worse.
I don’t get it. The spell was so unstable. The only thing holding it together was my intent. Maybe I should have kept training with Mr. Brutus. I still had three days to learn everything I could. By the end I bet I could master my aura and maybe even come up with better aspect combinations for new auras.
For example, I figured out that using earth aspects with the intention of defense made my aura harder. Mixing water aspects with it gave it an even better defense. Sure it sounds strange but hear me out.
When it comes to the hardness scale, diamonds are pretty hard, but this also makes them brittle. That's why steel is so good.
Steel is not only hard, it's also resilient. It can absorb energy. Water while it might be flimsy can absorb a lot of energy. I dare you to grab a Hammer and try to break water in a pool. It wont break, it’ll absorb the energy. Then refill the gap you made.
It is the combination of hardness and softness that creates the concept of toughness. This is also why a diamond or obsidian sword wouldn’t work. While both are super hard materials. They are also brittle and are prone to cracks and breaking. A steel sword might bend, but a bent sword is better than a broken sword.
Sure I might have commissioned Cindy to make an obsidian sword, but the materials are actually from the blood of a space god. The sword is in truth a combination of hardened molten glass and fancy space metal.
While on the subject of swords, maybe I should go ask Zubu to help with my sword play? Or maybe not. she hates me. Darn, how could I grow stronger? I’d learned so much already, yet I still wasn’t strong enough. Lorie wasn't up yet so I couldn't bother her.
There had to be a way to grow stronger. I don't get it. Why was this so hard. I might have gotten tougher but it still wasn't enough. I felt for my real body. It was still bleeding out slowly. Like an hourglass ticking down to my death. The echo resonated in the whole as I felt a burning anger inside me grow.
I clenched my fists then punched the nearest tree. “Why! Squirmy and I went through the same ascension! We should be equal, but there’s such a huge gap between us!” I yelled.
Then again… I’ve never been strong. It was always my resourcefulness that let me stand a chance. Even then I still got the shit kicked out of me. That’s why it felt so good the first time I fired a mana bolt.
That’s why I got so excited when I fought Boner’s crew. It just felt like I finally had power. It was a dangerous feeling but it’s not like I killed anyone.
That was wrong too. Even if he was a disgusting asshole, I almost killed Mantis. Though that time was out of anger and had nothing to do with a power trip.
Then there was Zubu. She really didn’t deserve what I did to her. I was so consumed with winning that I forgot to pull my punches. There was a rush there too. At least towards the end. Maybe I should work more on restraint. At least when I'm fighting people I don't want to hurt.
This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.
Right now I needed to work on what made me strong to begin with. If resourcefulness was my strongest quality. Then picking up more skills will give me more options. After all, an artist is nothing without a strong color palette. Which meant magic was my best choice.
I tried pouring more fire aspects into the spell. This brought the flame back to life, but it also increased the smoke. “crap!” I yelled before firing it off. It was nothing more than a ball of dying embers.
“What a strange spell. Was your goal to create a smoke screen? Because all that thing will do is irritate your eyes.” Said the tree lady.
She was standing a few feet away from me. Watching the messy ball of smoke dissipate into the low oxygen atmosphere.
“Oh, good morning Tree lady!” I greeted her cheerfully.
“Where did you get those clothes?” she asked looking me over.
I had a gleeful smile on my lips. Then looked around before motioning her to get closer. She leaned in. I quickly whispered to her in a conspiratorial sort of way. “I stole them.”
She pulled away with very little reaction. Then said, “I know you did.”
That made me a bit nervous so I started to pull my shirt off, but before I could get the shirt passed my belly button — that made no sense because this body was artificially created — the lore keeper stopped me.
“Why are you stripping?” She panicked.
I was confused. “You don’t want your clothes back?” I asked.
“Those were left behind over a 100 years ago. No one really owns them.” She answered.
That made me really happy. Wearing a dress was fun, but not every day. Skirts got annoying over time, and since everyone sees me like a child the clothes I wore were usually decided by whoever wanted to be my care giver that day.
Mr. Brutus only cared if I’d eaten food, so I liked hanging out with him. He knew not to micro manage and only butt in when I asked for help, or advice. That, or when I was about to make a huge mistake.
The lore keeper was like that too. Except she cared about taking baths. As if manifesting it with my thoughts the tree lady asked, “When’s the last time you washed yourself?”
I felt a little nervous as I realized it had been a while. “Well… it was back when Zubu came out there. Also Cosmo used cleanse on me yesterday, so I should be good.” I could see her eyes start to narrow.
“That was… two days ago!” She panicked.
“It wasn’t that long ago it was… oh, it was two days ago. It’s fine I don’t need a bath. I was cleansed yesterday.” I didn’t want to walk all the way to that brick house that looked like it was about to fall apart.
I just wanted to jump into training. It's not like this body was real. It didn't matter how many bellybuttons Cosmo put on it I knew my real body was elsewhere.
“That is not a valid method of cleaning ones self. While it does get rid of dirt, bacteria, and other substances. It dose not leave a pleasant odor. Don't you like smelling nice?” She said
I think I got it. She was talking about the non-odor left behind. Basically cleanse left you without an odor. This meant that the smallest bit of sweat would replace any smell you had. With a flowery shampoo the smell of one’s body could be masked for far longer with something like deodorant, body wash, or simply just the smell of a bar of soap.
I saw no point in fighting it, as my frown grew and my shoulders sagged. The tree lady wrapped her arm around my waist and carried me like a duffle bag full of drugs.
I hung loosely. Along the way I tried to figure out what type of drug I was. It would probably be an upper. Adderall came to mind. To be honest anything with methamphetamines.
Later
I followed the lore keeper through the unstable structure that was the monastery. She still hadn't told me what we were doing, or where we were going.
After she made me wash up, I helped her collect eggs. I even got to hold a Chicken. To my surprise they’re heavier than they look. I had always expected them to be light since they were a bunch of feathers, but there's actual meat under there.
The baby chick’s were so cute. I was afraid of stepping on one. The lore keeper said the chickens are fed until their legs break. Once that happens they’re good for eating.
Apparently they get so fat that their twig like legs snap. It made me a little sad, but it was also kind of cool. Like ripened fruit ready to be plucked.
As if manifesting it through conversation we found a Chicken with one of its legs broken. The lore keeper was quick in cutting it's head off with wind magic. She then used another wind spell to strip it of feathers. The feathers were gathered and put in her cube thingy.
She took a bit of time to remove the organs and drain the blood. Everything was put into a jar. She then dropped it all into her cube thing for latter.
“Why do you guys keep the organs and stuff?” I asked. I remembered seeing Mr. Brutus do the same.
“The organs and blood are full of life aspects. I can use them to heal or to grow crops from my garden. A drop of blood when completely drained of life aspects is enough to grow a whole tomato.” She said.
That was so smart. In that sense. A bone could easily be used as a mana stone for life aspects. Of course that only worked in one direction. I doubted you could inject life aspects into a bone as easy as you could with a mana stone. Then again necromancers were a thing.
After the whole chicken thing we headed to her greenhouse garden. It was warm inside despite the cool air outside. From there she pick a few things from the plant life. With everything she gather she made both me and Zubu some omelets. They were great.
She was now leading me to another part of the monastery. Specifically an area inside the mountain. We were heading down a spiral staircase.
There were a few frostlyte lamps, but the lore keeper insisted on using her light spell. The ball of light made me feel like we were on an adventure through a dangerous dungeon.
Like we were exploring the ancient tomb of some long dead king. Full of treasure and booby-traps. You could say the light was like a fairy helping to guide us through the puzzles. I walked cautiously avoiding suspicious steps and strange parts of the walls that looked like they would active traps.
“Tree lady, is there like a super powerful sword or god trapped at the bottom? Is this where I get my mega super boosted powers to fight Squirmy? I can’t believe you guys were holding out on me!” I speculated.
My heart was racing in excitement. I wanted to push passed her, but she seemed to hold her hand out to prevent me.
“Don’t say such nonsense. The only thing downstairs are books. We are headed to the library.” She said.
“library? Is there like… a grimoire that’ll teach me forbidden magic?” there was no stopping the hype train I was on, as the lore keepers words only fed coal into the engine.
The old young lady sighed. “You know rowdy children get the spoon.”
“Wow, like a magical spoon that let’s the wielder do cool stuff! It’s not a sword but I’ll take it! I’ll use it to… um… scoop Squirmy’s eyes out?” I said.
“No child. I meant a wooden spoon for your butt.” She grumbled.
I shut up right away putting both my hands over my butt. I hadn’t realized how annoying I was being. Gotta work on that.
We finally made it to the bottom. There was only a wooden door here. The lore keeper opened it revealing pure darkness on the other side.
I felt nervous as I was reminded of the basement in my families old home. I wanted to run away. That was until the lore keeper created several light spells and sent them flying through the room.
It was crazy how quickly it lit up the dark. What I saw was a platform with some stairs going down and a vast darkness in the distance. We made our way out and I noticed a bunch of tables on the platform.
The floor was made of shiny amber wood. The room smelled of old moldy books, but I didn’t see any around. “Where are the books?” I asked.
The tree lady smiled then directed one of the fairies to fly over the rails of the platform and out into the darkness.
I immediately understood. Below us was a massive labyrinth of shelves full of tomes. My jaw dropped as the realization that the mountain was hollow came to fruition.
“They’re all down there.” Said the young looking old lady.
I felt nervous again at the thought of having to walk around in that dark maze. What if the books fall on top of me and no one ever finds me?
I sat on the floor and crossed my arms and legs in protest. “I don’t wanna learn magic anymore!” I pouted and decided not to move from this spot until my demands were met.
“Is that so? Well in that case you can organize the books until it’s time to send you home.” She said to my horror.
“What!? Okay, okay! I’ll learn it!” I cried.
“That’s more like it.” Said the tree lady. She then walked over to the wall and a moment latter it dissolved into particles revealing a shelf full of books.
“Wow, how did you do that?!” I asked.
“The shelf is enchanted with illusion magic. It only shows the books when one goes near it. Isn’t that fun?” She said.
“That is pretty cool. So I don’t have to walk around in that monster infested book cemetery?” I asked.
“There’s no monsters down there. It’s not a book cemetery either. Each shelf is enchanted with suspension magic that pauses the passage of time for any item completely within its shelves.” She explained.
“Why books though? Couldn’t you guys go digital and not have to kill so many trees every time a book gets too old? What if someone spills stuff on a book? Is the information lost forever?” I asked.
“The information on the books is actually recorded by the magic. The books are there to display the information. When a book is considered damaged the negentropy enchantment activates, bringing the book back to how it was when it was new.” She said.
“Are they all magic books?” I asked.
“You ask a lot of questions, but I suppose it’s a good thing to be so curious. Most of my disciples accept everything at face value.” She said as she looked through the shelf of books running her slender fingers over each of the spines.
“If you must know. No. The books you see down there are more obscure magic. Some magic theory. Others more scientific approaches to magic. There are also a bunch of lore books, including history for lost worlds. You could also find books on cultivation and other power systems. For the sake of my students though everything you need to learn magic is on this shelf.” She pulled out a green book with a fancy golden border.
“let’s start by learning a few runes.” She said as she put the book down on one of the tables. She then withdrew her metal cube. From it spawn a stack of papers and a pink pencil with bunny rabbits all over it.
I think I finally understood her name. Lore keeper does fit her better than tree lady, considering how many books she kept. Regardless, she needed a new nickname. Maybe… Lorie for short.
I made my way over and sat in one of the chairs. It was cold like a dead body, but hard like that mystery stuff stuck under my sink at home. My eye sight was a bit low, but it wasn’t that bad. Someone like Lorie would probably get mad if I sat on a book for something as silly as extra height.
She turned to a page full of symbols. “Alright child. I want you to start by drawing out these symbols over and over again.” She drew a few of them onto one of the sheets of paper. Four of them to be exact.
The first one was a circle with a smaller circle inside of it. I’d seen it a bunch. It was literally on every spell I’d ever cast.
The second rune looked just like the universal shuffle button symbol for all music players. The third rune was almost the same only this one had a small line through the middle.
The last rune was like the last two, only it didn’t have a line and ended with a loop instead of being open ended. “What do they do?” I asked.
“The first one with the two circles is a containment rune. These are the start to any spell Or enchantment. Not only do they contain the power of the spell. They also allow you to shape the magic. Such as turning fire into a ball or turning ice into a lance.” She said.
So that’s why they were in every spell. Even Mr. Brutus’s life hack had it. So theoretically I could adjust the shape of the fire ball into something else making a whole new spell without changing the runes.
“This rune here is called a connector rune. It allows power from the first rune to go to the next. This also adds stability to a spell. The next rune is the same, except it has a short delay that prevents the next rune from activating right away” She explained.
It almost sounded like Redstone from Minecraft. I like Redstone even if it’s sometimes a bit too overwhelming.
“Delays can be increased by using other types of delay runes including conditional runes, but since you are a beginner we will be sticking to these 4.” She said.
Lorie moved her finger down to the last rune. “This here is an end rune. These are tagged onto the end of a spell. This rune takes the flow of power and sends it back creating a magic circuit. It also helps with spell stability. Now get to drawing. Memorize them as best you can and get them as perfect as you possibly can. You’ve already used these in that fireball spell. Now its time to separate the runes from the spell.” She instructed.
I nodded. “Okay.” I got another look at the runes. She was right, these were present in the fireball spell. I’d memorized the runes as a group and if the way she described these is correct, that also means I’ve been shaping them in the wrong order.
That explains why the spell never activated until all runes were in place since the flow of power was coming from the containment rune not the end connector rune.
I felt like I’d been playing a game wrong this entire time. Like there was a whole game mechanic I was missing that made the game 100 times harder.
I raised my hand. To which Lorie grabbed and lead back down to the table. “Don’t do unnecessary things. What’s the matter?”
“So how does the delay rune work in the fireball spell?” I asked.
“Oh… it’s actually pretty simple. The fireball spell creates a condensed ball of oxygen. For that it needs a second to fully form. That's where the delay rune comes in giving the wind rune time to do its thing, before the heat rune can ignite the wind aspects. ” She explained “Do you understand?”
I nodded. So magic wasn’t all that magical, but why did the runes work in the first place? “How does this work exactly? The runes. Like how do they let anyone change reality like that?”
“The runes were created by Odin. The fool in search of power hung himself in Yggdrasil for 9 days and 9 nights. During this he said he was able to see the fabric of reality. He said it was nothing but numbers. From there he created the runes. Each one holding a set of numbers that bend reality to the casters will.” Said the lore keeper.
That sounded an awful lot like cheat codes. The thought that one could bring themselves so close to death, survive and come back with cheat codes was insane to me. Odin must have been some sort of masochist, or he really needed that power.
Lorie started to leave, but I stopped her. “Hey, Lorie!” I called.
She turned around looking at me questioningly. “Lorie? Clever. What is it child?”
“Zubu won’t talk to me. Can you make her sweep the courtyard as punishment?” I asked.
“You want me to punish her for not speaking with you?” She questioned, raising an eyebrow.
“Please, she’s over reacting.” I begged.
“Child. The only reason I have not thrown you into the cave of absence is because you are on a schedule!” she yelled.
She didn’t understand either. maybe Zubu lied to her about what happened. “It wasn’t that bad.” I tried to argue.
“You put her in upside down. Her blood pooled in her head. She became delirious and hallucinated all the way back to the mountain. The only thing keeping her moving was her aura making her body move how she wanted. Brutus had to help guide her back. She wouldn’t even let him carry her because she thought he was a monster and kept trying to run away from him. The only thing that kept her alive was the flow of Qi and her resilient lower spirit body. I had to cut her legs off and regrow them because the muscles had rotted and turned to poison. That got rid of most of it but a lot of it started to circulate through her body. There was a bunch of clots and Cosmo had to interfere.” she said.
Her words caused a chill to run down my spine. My eyes started to leak again. She must have seen how shook up I was because she continued. “Don’t worry about it. It’s not your fault your minds the way it is.” She patted my head just as I looked away from her and back at the sheets of paper on the table.
It wasn’t as simple as stuffing her in a hole. I’d almost killed her for real and all because my over active imagination turned it into a silly murder mystery game. The only reason I didn’t get in trouble was because they thought I was crazy.
The memory of a padded room flashed before my mind and I nearly broke my pencil. I really don’t want to go back there.
“Will you tell Zubu I’m sorry.” I cried as a big fat tear fell from my face and onto the papers below.
“That is not my job child. You need to talk to her yourself.” She responded.
“But she won’t talk to me!” I panicked.
“You cant force her to forgive you. She has every right to never talk to you again. How about you write her an apology and I’ll deliver it.” Said Lorie.
There really wasn’t much I could do. A well written apology might not be enough to be forgiven, but it might open the path for further conversation. I just want her to know I feel bad and that I was very sorry about what happened.
The Isaac in me knew she would never talk to me again, but Aku seemed to think there was hope for a friendship there. She was a kid so stuff like that made sense to her, but in the adult world people stop talking to you for much less. There was really nothing you could do there.
Still, Aku wanted to apologize, so I let her. She wrote down her feelings onto a piece of paper. She even decorated it with a flowery border and added in crud drawings of rabbits, puppies, kitties, and even an owl with a corkscrew for a neck. Then at the bottom was a picture of Zubu, Aku, Snowball, and even me holding hands. It was so childish. I wasn’t sure if I should add something.
In the end I decided to write “P.S” giving Zubu a little hint that it was actually Aku trying to apologize. That I also felt bad about what happened and that I understood if she never wanted to see us again.
Aku seemed to frown at my contribution but didn’t argue seeing as I made it clear they were my thoughts and not hers.
“Okay, here you go.” I said as I handed the folded paper to the lore keeper.
She took it gingerly into her hands. “I’ll deliver this. You get to work.” She said before leaving.
I turned to the sheets of paper and started to draw the symbols over and over again. The only thing that could get my mind off of Zubu was to throw myself into training.