Chapter 50 The High
Ten minutes later, Evernya came to lying on her back in the grass. She jumped to her feet and full of energy with brightly glowing eyes.
“How are you feeling?” Asked Meira, glancing up from her half dismembered Blue Serpent.
Evernya spun to spot the talking person. “Amazing! Is there another one? I want another one!” Evernya giggled.
“Evernya, calm down. There isn’t another one, but I’m sure the rest of this snake will taste good tonight. Why don’t you practice with the balls while I cut up the snake?” Meira suggested.
“Ok! I like playing with balls!” proclaimed the hyper girl before sprinting away to collect the weighted balls.
Meira recorded her kitten’s adventures while high, while using her magic to skin the snake. She watched her kitten’s mounting frustration as she struggled to control even one ball. After spending fifteen minutes failing at orbiting one ball, the mana high girl rage quited.
Suddenly, Evernya stared off into the distance with ears perked up, listening to something only she could hear. Evernya darted off across the yard too fast for the camera to follow, forcing Meira to switch to the high-speed mode. As if hallucinating, Evernya stopped in the middle of the yard and weaved around something only seen by her.
A half-hour of ducking and weaving later, Evernya froze. She scanned her surroundings with confusion before trotting back to Meira and the serpent. “Sorry about that. I don’t know what came over me. I saw the orb and lost control.” Evernya apologized, mortified by what little she remembered the last hour.
Meira turned her attention to her embarrassed kitten with a smile. “It’s ok, I was going to give the core to you anyway. I would avoid absorbing mana cores in public in the future. The show you put on would make a great porno. You’re lucky the suit has self-cleaning. At least we found out what happens when you absorb too much mana while in a safe environment.” Meira commented, to embarrass her kitten further.
To Meira’s disappointment, her kitten overcame her embarrassment quickly while grumbling. “I swear I can’t go anywhere without doing something embarrassing, erotic, or both, usually against my will. Oddly, stuff that should embarrass me doesn’t, like orgasming in front of people. Its other stuff like making a fool of myself while high on mana or catnip.”
“Shifters are real free with their bodies. It isn’t rare to find a bunch of shifters walking around naked in a shifter majority neighborhood or having an orgy in someone’s front yard.” Meira inputted with a perverted expression, thinking back to the orgies she joined years ago.
Evernya missed her Elven keeper’s expression as she spoke in a serious tone. “Yeah, I feel that way too. I don’t care if I am naked in front of people. Revealing skintight suits like this doesn’t embarrass me. It’s an odd feeling because, in my old life, I was the opposite.”
Now in better control of her perverted fantasies, Meira continued with the unusual conversation. “Even though you didn’t grow up as a shifter, you still have the instincts. It is impossible to be a prude as a shifter, or an elf for that matter. Humans make up ninety percent of the prude population. Though they’ve improved in recent years. You should have seen women’s fashion from a hundred fifty years ago! I had to wear it because no one would buy enchantments from me otherwise. Sometimes you have to conform to society’s dress codes to survive. Luckily, I spent most of my time hiding away in my house, enchanting as I do here. I am a social elf, but I have limits, and I like my privacy.”
Evernya scowled at unintentionally being called a prude. “I wasn’t a prude in my old life. I just didn’t like to wear revealing clothes. Meanwhile, now I feel uncomfortable if I cover too much skin and when I wear shoes. My viewpoints may change when winter comes, but for now, that’s my stance.” Evernya clarified, defending her previous human views.
“Actually, as a shifter, a thin sweatshirt while circulating your mana should be enough to keep you warm. If it drops below zero, you may need a fall coat, though. Humans, on the other hand, can’t stay warm by circulating mana alone because they lose body heat too fast. Unfortunately, so do elves, so I have to bundle up for the winter. Usually, I stock up on supplies and hide in my warm house all winter. I hate being cold, so if you visit during the winter, expect a very toasty house.” Meira explained, while staring at her kitten’s tiny body with envy.
“I learn something new about my body every day. Maybe in a couple hundred years I’ll know everything.” Evernya commented, missing Meira’s stare as she gathered the nearby weighted balls together with telekinesis.
As Meira finished up her dismembering of the giant blue serpent, she talked. “I’m sure we will be puzzling out your mysterious body for years to come.”
By the time Meira finished, she had the snake parts neatly organized with thick slabs of meat to her right and neatly trimmed sheets of scaled skin to her left with skeleton spread out in front of her. She stored away the meat and skin before she created a powerful gust of wind, sending the skeleton airborne along with the organs dangling from connective tissue into the forest on the west side of her territory, leaving the remaining carcass for the wildlife. Her eyes flicked upward to find darkening clouds prompting her to glide toward her house, followed by Evernya after she grabbed a few weighted balls from her stack.
Meira entered the kitchen, materializing several slabs of Blue Serpent meat on the counter as she searched through her cupboards for seasonings. Evernya plopped herself on a stool at the counter to watch while floating two balls in seemingly random directions.
“I’m glad you like levitating those weighted balls. I thought I would have to force you to practice since shifters aren’t known for their attention spans. Usually, they require incentives to get them to do anything for long.” Meira commented upon turning around to find her kitten performing figure eights with the balls.
“I find this fun and relaxing. As long as I don’t levitate too many of them at once, I can float them around all I want without headaches,” Evernya replied while keeping her concentration on her telekinesis.
“It’s good you find practice enjoyable because you will do a lot of that to improve your control and efficiency.” Meira praised, visibly proud of her kitten’s work ethic.
While sprinkling seasoning over the meat slabs, Meira changed the subject to Evernya’s future magic priorities. “Originally, I wanted to have your combat style focused on your psionics because of your small size is a disadvantage in melee fights. However, with your range limitation known, a psionics heavy medium to long-range style is impossible. Our next idea was a hybrid style of combat based on endurance and speed, with psionics mixed in for defense and support. Since your upper body strength and size are lacking, you could use your telekinesis to block or redirect attacks while you are attacking with a weapon, hand to hand, or more telekinesis. If we go this route, it will require you to be in excellent physical shape. What are your thoughts?” Meira brainstormed with her kitten.
Evernya gently landed the balls on the counter before she replied. “I was thinking of something similar. Since I have a range limitation, I was thinking of using my speed and maybe teleportation to stay within range. Then I planned to use telekinesis to blow them up.”
Meira shook her head as she seasoned the next batch of meat. “Well, that would work for short bursts, but the mana expenditure would be unsustainable. I would suggest limiting your teleportation to sneak attack or misdirection, as it has a high mana cost. As for blowing someone or something up with force, I also considering it as a waste of mana. One of your primary advantages is your giant mana pool it practically guarantees you will outlast your opponent as long as you avoid wasteful usage. It’s much better to use focused applications like how I cut things up with air magic. Otherwise, I agree with the goal of keeping your target within your limited range.”
Evernya remained silent for a few seconds before nodding in agreement. “I think it is a good style to try out. I like blowing things up, but I can see how it may be wasteful. After thinking about my disability, I hate how it limits me, but at the same time, I like the challenge of working around it. Sure, it would be awesome to be a walking weapon of mass destruction, but sniping someone from long-range would get boring after a while.” Evernya added, feeling more at ease with her disability.
A proud smile manifested on Meira’s face. “I agree I’ve tried the whole long-range mass destruction thing many times. It can be a power trip and staying away from the action is safer, but boring. My preferred style of combat is precise air blades at any range instead of dropping tornadoes. Anyone with enough power can blow something up, but not everyone has the control to make deadly, precise attacks. Even with your range disability, I would say you are plenty capable of destruction. Just look at my new lawn ornament. Sure, it’s not over a vast area, but it’s plenty destructive. The problem is you might do three before you are too low on mana to continue while you preform hundreds if not thousands of precision attacks. Well, not exactly like my lawn ornament since you’re not capable of replicating that yet for a while, but you get the point.” Meira inputted to drive her point home.
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“I know I get it! Control and efficiency is a smarter route than big pretty explosions.” Evernya conceded, throwing her hands up in the air, weakened by the fact a smile resided on her face.
“Well, since your telekinesis is invisible, I wouldn’t call it pretty, but big applies. The only reason telekinesis is visible is when it picks up particles in the air. Now, if you had fire or lightning, those can be pretty.” Meira nitpicked to annoy her kitten.
Evernya glared at her Elven keeper. “So what if my magic isn’t as flashy as others it’s still cool! Besides, I like the idea that it is invisible.” Evernya defended, sliding the seasoned stack of meat a meter to the left to prove her point.
Meira nodded her head as she added. “It’s subtlety can come in handy, especially since telekinesis doesn’t require physical motions to control. The main downside of force related magic is it has limited lingering aftereffects. Fire-based magic, for example, can leave burns or at least heat the affected area. Force related abilities can apply force to cause damage, move something, or anything else you can think of, but once you stop applying force, all effects will end.”
The women fell into a comfortable silence as Meira continued to slice hundreds of kilograms of Blue Serpent meat into seasoned, steak sized pieces while seasoning them. Evernya watched with a bit of drool as she practiced her fine telekinetic control.
Abrupt changes in direction are so easy with one or two objects, but I get a headache even thinking about trying with four or more. To make things worse, the faster I move them, the harder it is to control. I can loop them around in any direction at slow speeds, but anything fast I need to do multiple slight changes, otherwise I’ll lose control. Evernya thought, tail and ears flicking in frustration.
Several hours later, Meira finished the last steak with her kitten watching her every move with predator-like focus. Evernya appeared to be ready to pounce at any moment, starving from her hours of light telekinetic training.
With a teasing smile, Meira stored away the meat. “It’s not ready yet. The next step is to grill the meat. I don’t know about you, but I prefer my meat cooked.”
To appease her hungry kitten, Meira grabbed a two-liter reddish smoothie from the fridge. Evernya’s gaze zeroed in on the slightly glowing reddish beverage. Meira floated the smoothie teasingly slow across the counter, only for her hungry kitten to snatch it telekinetically. The starving girl pried the smoothie open the moment it reached her grasp.
Evernya strained her control to take a small and shaky first sip to taste test. However, all control snapped as the delicious mana rich concoction reached her fanged mouth. Within a minute, the entire smoothie disappeared down the petite girl’s throat, followed by a cute little burp.
Sated, Evernya set the empty jug on the counter before turning her attention to the smiling elf standing on the opposite side of the island counter. “What was that? It blew MEL out of the water!”
“As I mentioned earlier, I’ve been talking to a nutritionist about recipe ideas. That smoothie was one of the prototype concoctions. The smoothie consists of MEL blended with an assortment of wild-grown fruits and vegetables. It won’t replace mana rich meat, but the smoothie should provide a healthy snack between meals.” Meira replied, retrieving the empty jug.
“You have my seal of approval. Whatever you mixed in did the trick in taste and fulfillment.” Evernya gushed as she licked her receding fangs for every trace.
Meira perked up at her success. “Good. I will keep that recipe in the rotation. Hopefully, between those smoothies every few hours and meat 2 to 3 times a day, you should have a healthy diet. Now we need to make sure you continue to follow the diet. You have a habit of ignoring your nutritional needs unless it’s right in front of you.”
Meira’s turned vacant for a second before materializing a matte black digital sport wristwatch. “This watch with alarms set for your mealtimes should work for now.”
After setting several alarms, Meira handed the watch to her kitten. “I know it’s a bit worn out, but it will have to do for now until we can get you a new one. Please keep it on at all times I set it to beep and vibrate every two hours during the day. I will have the smoothies in the fridge, but the meat meals you will have to come to me because I need to keep them in my storage ring to ensure freshness. Mana beast meat loses its mana content fast if not kept in stasis like a storage ring.” Meira instructed.
Evernya inspected the featherlight mint condition watch. Worn out? This thing looks practically new and expensive. I remember checking a similar watch out when I was looking for a new GPS running watch on earth, but there was no way I could justify several thousand dollars for a watch with the same functions as a 300 dollar watch.
She directed a questioning stare at her elf. “Why do you keep giving me expensive things? This suit had to have been very expensive, and now you give me a fancy watch. You don’t have to give me so much. I want to earn things myself. I feel guilty enough living in your house for free.” Evernya asserted while gesturing towards her training suit and watch.
Meira’s face became desperate out of nowhere. Her tearful eyes, she looked straight into Evernya’s eyes. “Please let me provide for you, at least until you leave for college. I have so much money saved up that I can afford to spoil my little sister. I refuse to let my little sister be without the best equipment! I had to leave my home with nothing, so I’ll do anything in my power to prevent that for you. All I ask in return is you visit often when you are on your own. I haven’t had a family in over two hundred years. I don’t want to lose contact with you as I did with them.” Meira pleaded as tears rolled down her face.
Evernya’s heart ached at the unintentional anguish she caused the lonely elf. “Don’t worry. You aren’t getting rid of me that easily. I will visit as much as you want. Even if I’m thousands of kilometers away.” Evernya assured, causing a relieved smile on her big sister’s tear-stained face.
With her elf’s mood lightened, Evernya negotiated lightly, careful of setting off her older sister again. “I understand your need to spoil me, but could you dial it back a bit? I feel awkward receiving so many gifts without being able to gift back.”
Unfortunately for Evernya, her lack of greed only increased Meira’s need to spoil her. “Your gift to me is keeping me company out here in the woods. Since I took you home, my life has been much brighter. It is nice to have someone to take care of and keep me company, so don’t worry about the cost of my gifts.” Meira countered, standing firm in her desire to spoil her kitten.
Giving up on negotiating fewer gifts, Evernya focused on her big sister’s lack of social life. “What about Elizabeth and Thomas? You seem close to them?”
“They rarely visit me because of how busy they are. Today was the first time Elizabeth visited my house in ten years. Usually, I go to her. I’m not as close with Thomas, so he rarely visits, but he sometimes joins Elizabeth and me when we get together.” Meira replied with a sad smile.
This time it was Evernya’s turn to feel depressed thinking back on her old life. “I know the feeling. In my old life, I had no friends, only a few family members and my cats. Unlike me, you seem outgoing. I’m sure you could find friends to keep you company.”
Meira smiled at her kitten’s attempt to cheer her up. “You would think, but my reputation as an enchanter and elf interferes with my ability to make friends. It doesn’t help that most humans are too short-lived to be worth getting close to. Elizabeth and Thomas are an exception because we went to school and adventured together. Plus, they are talented enough to have a long life. I don’t have a good of relationship with demihumans because of my ties with humans. Being famous and long-lived is more of a curse.”
Evernya felt like she should stick her foot in her mouth, but she continued anyway. “You aren’t alone anymore. I am here, and I can almost guarantee if you asked Elizabeth she would come over in a heartbeat.”
“Elizabeth is far too busy with her job at DIOM Medical to keep a lonely elf like me company. No need to fix my social life. I am okay with being alone. It allows me to focus on my work. Anyway, enough talking about my sad social life. I need to grill these Blue Serpent steaks if you want them done by dinner.” Meira insisted as she walked toward the sliding door leading to the patio.
Evernya followed Meira outside, weighted balls in tow, happy to escape the conversation. She sat down cross-legged in the grass next to the patio, watching Meira fire up the grill. Not wasting any time, Evernya continued to practice her telekinesis. Unfortunately, a few minutes later, the delicious scent wafting off the grill distracted her.
Unable to focus, the weighted balls dropped to the ground with a dull thud. Evernya became drawn to the large grill manned by Meira. Evernya hovered in a hunger filled daze next to Meira, looking ready to pounce on the cooking meat.
With amusement, Meira swatted her kitten away. “Down kitty, it isn’t ready yet.”
Evernya shook her head, trying to clear her mind. “Sorry, I’m still not used to how I react to food. When will it be ready? The smell is driving me crazy.” Asked Evernya as she fought against her body’s desire to steal the sizzling meat.
“No problem. I find your reactions to food cute. The first batch should be ready in about ten minutes.” Replied Meira.
Evernya trotted over to a chair on the patio and sat down while trying her best to keep control of herself. Unable to focus enough to practice telekinesis, she tried to brainstorm other things she could try to improve herself.
The ten minutes soon passed with Evernya somehow keeping herself under control. Unfortunately, she wasted her time waiting as most of her mental power went to keep herself from pouncing on the grill.
Evernya watched Meira intently as she stacked the Blue Serpent meat steaks on a plate and brought it over to the table next to Evernya’s chair. She materialized another dish and transferred six large steaks onto it before dicing them up into bite-sized pieces with air magic. Meira placed a fork on the dish and stepped back to let her ravenous kitten devour her meal.
Evernya instantly grabbed the fork and shoveled the meat into her mouth. Soon she found the fork inadequate to eat fast enough, so she dropped the fork. Not wanting to use her hands, she used telekinesis instead to shoot pieces of meat into her mouth in quick succession.
After less than five minutes, she devoured all six steaks. Evernya let out a cute little burp and laid back in her chair, hunger sated.
Meira stared at her kitten, impressed and amused. “Wow, I don’t think I have ever seen someone eat with telekinesis. Why didn’t you use your hands? It would have been easier.” Meira asked.
“I don’t like eating with my hands unless its finger food,” Evernya replied as if it’s the most obvious solution.
“Well, it was fast and efficient. I could barely track them. I don’t know how you didn’t miss your mouth or choke on them. You’re a prodigy at telekinesis I’ve never heard of anyone having that kind of control so soon.” Praise Meira as she watched her kitten droop.
“Thank you, I find telekinesis easy and fun to use. I feel tired, I think I am going to go to bed.” Evernya slurred while fighting to keep her eyes open.
“I think that’s for the best. I don’t feel like carrying you to your bed again.” Meira agreed, readying her magic to catch her kitten in case she fell.
Evernya stood up, swaying slightly before her tail automatically moved to balance her. She awkwardly stumbled her way inside the house and up to her room. Her legs became unresponsive as she tripped face-first onto her bed. With no energy remaining to strip off her suit, she gave in to her body’s desire to sleep.