“Tag! You're it!” The girl shouted happily, after catching the boy after a long chase.

“Ah, man!” The boy exclaimed, startled at being caught.

“Come on now. Start counting to thirty!” The girl told him before turning and sprinting away to hide somewhere from him.

The boy sighed with a half smile on his face and said, “Alright.” He turned towards a tree and closed his eyes while shouting, “One! Two! Three…!”

The boy’s name was Alexander Degan, and the girl's name was Luna Pistam, and both of them had turned twelve that year. The boy and the girl grew quite a bit over the years, but the boy seemed to have grown more due to him being taller than her. It was also not too long ago that the boy finally discovered which race he belonged to when he finally asked his father about it.

“I'm an Angel?!” He exclaimed to his father upon learning about it.

While he and Luna were growing up, their education was completely taken care of by their mother. Be it mathematics, language, and science, his mother, Sarah, saw to it that they have a proper education, and his father supplied them with the educational material whenever she requested it. It was one of those sessions when Alex discovered about the different races that existed in that world, including angels.

At that time, he ruled out the possibility and thought, “I’m not an angel, am I?”

He was uncertain on that day, and he felt the same way even after being told by his father. Just to be sure that he did not misunderstand, he asked his father in a curious voice.

“You mean those higher beings that are the messengers of God?”

“Yes. Why are you so shocked?” His father, Samuel, asked him with a perplexed look on his face.

“Ah. No. I was just surprised, that's all,” his son quickly replied with a look of embarrassment. “I always thought I was some kind of bird-man, not an actual angel.”

“Bird-man?!” His father exclaimed, bursting into fits of laughter. “You can't be serious!”

His son did not mind his father laughing at his silliness and thought, “Alright. I wasn't expecting to be born to a couple from the higher race! Maybe, the Entity Limitless sent me back to reborn like this as a helping hand in his own way to save this world!”

He was filled with happy thoughts and he rushed out of the room, leaving his father behind looking puzzled.

Now, on that day, the two children were performing light a exercise by playing a game of tag, witnessed by the brilliant sun that just crept over the horizon.

“Twentynine…! Thirty!” Alex shouted, and he opened his eyes while turning around. “Ready or not, here I come!”

He began looking at every little thing that might indicate where the girl had gone to hide. Sometimes, he jumped forward to clear the bushes in the hope of catching her only to find it empty.

“Where the heck is she?” He wondered aloud.

As he did, he felt as though a pair of eyes were watching him silently from somewhere. He did not immediately turn in the direction he sensed the pair of eyes because he had a good idea who that person was. Instead, he pretended to look around wildly aimlessly as he slowly approached them.

Unfortunately, his acting skills must be bad because the pair of eyes suddenly broke away. As they did, he began sprinting in that direction as fast as his long feet could carry him. When it came to height, he was taller than her, and in this case, it gave him an advantage as he ran around the corner of the house and saw her running away.

“I see you!” He yelled triumphantly.

“I won't get caught!” Luna shouted back at him energetically, doing her best to run as fast as she could away from him.

For almost a minute, the two had run twice in circles around the house before he finally caught up to her.

“Gotcha!” He shouted, reaching out and almost touching her back.

That was when she pulled a stunt that totally took him by surprise. At the very last second, she ducked under his arm, and came to a steady stop while he continued running on. By the time he stopped and looked around, she was running away while glancing back and sticking her tongue out at him.

“Why you?!” He exclaimed, feeling very annoyed.

He started to chase after her when he suddenly got a thought that made him immediately stop. He saw that she had run around the other side of the house and knew she might hide at the back of the house. So, he turned around and hurried towards his side of the house towards the back. And as he did, he smiled when he saw her running towards him while glancing behind her to see if he was coming up to her.

Luna turned her attention to the front and widened her eyes in shock to see him running towards her. Without uttering a word, she quickly came to a stop and turned around to start running. However, he was already running at full tilt and easily caught up to her before grabbing her firmly by the back-end of her shirt.

“Gotcha now!” He shouted triumphantly, grinning broadly while releasing a sigh from all the running.

“Hey…! That's not fair!” She complained, breathing quickly from the sheer amount of running she had done to escape from him. “You should be coming behind me.”

“And there was no rule that said you could dodge your catcher,” he replied with a raised eyebrow. “I think we're even in this case.”

She shook her head and said, “Aww…! Well, I'll catch you quick this time!”

“Good luck,” he said, laughing and turning to run away from to hide from her.

Just then, they heard a man's voice calling for them in a loud voice.

Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.

“Al? Luna? Where are you? It's time for your morning lesson.”

“Oh! It's dad,” the boy stated, and the two hurried towards the front of the house.

Standing there waiting for them was Alexander's father, Samuel, with his arms folded. When they appeared from the back, he raised an eyebrow in amusement.

“What have you two been doing?” He asked them curiously.

“Hide and seek,” replied Luna happily. “You told us to do some light exercise before our lesson, so we chose to play hide and seek today.”

“Yeah, dad,” said his son in agreement. “I was the one to catch her before you called us.”

“Oh! Well done, you two!” Samuel said, moving forward and patting them each on their heads. As they smiled appreciatively, he stepped back from them and said, “Okay. Let's start our morning lesson before breakfast.”

“Yeah!” The two kids shouted energetically, ready to begin their classes.

The lesson that Samuel conducted to them in the morning consisted of learning to understand their individual flow of energy and eventually controlling it. To have a better understanding of it, Samuel had told them have a light exercise before the start of the lesson because it would help them focus more easily on their flow of energy and possibly controlling it.

“Okay,” said Samuel, nodding his head in satisfaction. He to Luna and asked, “What did I tell you about energy yesterday, Luna?”

She thought about for a moment before replying, “You said that energy is everywhere, in our surroundings and within us as well. That's the energy that we unconsciously exert without realising.”

“Yes,” agreed Samuel with a smile. “At one point in time, we always thought it was uncontrollable, but over the years, many began tapping into controlling their energy and their teachings were passed down until our entire society began using it in their everyday lives.”

He began explaining their uses by providing examples of their application in their everyday lives.

“For example, take our ignition stove for instance. By supplying our energy into it, the stove ignites the fire. For having bath, channeling your energy through the provided pipes helps also in heating the water to have a nice refreshing bath.”

“Ah! Is that why you or mother take turns filling buckets whenever we want to have a bath?” Luna asked him with a look of wonder on her face. “Is that why it doesn't react to us?”

He nodded and explained, “Yes, because it's dangerous to have an object that can suck your energy out because it can drain you and leave you  very, very weak. Instead, channeling our energy helps us control the amount of output we need to exert. That way, it's in our control, and not it controlling us.”

She nodded in understanding while his son asked him out of curiosity, “What about flight, dad? Is it also something we do by utilising our energy?”

“A very good question, Al!” His father said, praising him with a smile. “Yes. Even for flight, we focus our energies that allow us to take off. Then, we place an energy barrier around us, and we'll be able to fly undisturbed by the wind.”

“Oh…!” His son said, nodded in agreement. “ I get it now.” Then he thought, “Okay. That makes perfect sense why I never felt the wind touch me when mom and dad took me home that very first time.”

From his side, Luna asked, “When can we learn to do that? I mean, fly and create a barrier around us?”

Samuel laughed at her cute way of asking the question and replied, “Eventually, but it will only come when you practice a lot because practice creates control, and control creates action. Okay?”

They nodded their heads in understanding with broad smiles on their faces. They were excited to quickly master their energy and be able to fly, which was the most interesting thing that they felt doing with their control over their energy.

“Okay then. Are you ready to try it?” Samuel asked them with a grin on his face.

For a second, both of them looked shocked before Luna asked nervously, “Really? You mean… you'll teach us to fly?”

“No, no, no!” He replied and laughed as he realised he had caused a misunderstanding. “What I meant was you trying to see if you can feel your energy.”

“Oh…!” Luna said, nodding in understanding.

“You confused us, dad,” complained his son, raising an eyebrow in disapproval.

“Sorry,” replied his father with a sheepish grin on his face. Then he clapped his hands and said, “Alright! Let's do it.”

“Hold on, dad,” interjected his son with a frown on his face. “How exactly are we supposed to feel our energy?”

“Good question, my son,” said Samuel in praise. “Once you become accustomed to feeling your energy, it becomes a second nature to use it. However, tapping into your energy is the difficult part, but I'm confident you can do it since so many have done so before. Watch.”

As a demonstration to make his words believable, he put his hands together with a small gap between them and closed his eyes. The two kids focused on him for a moment before turning their attention to his hands. They were surprised when a small ball of shimmering light appeared inbetween his palms.

“See?” He asked them once he opened his eyes and gestured at his hands. “That's the form one can easily form it into when they have control over their energy.”

“That is so cool…!” Whispered Luna, peering at the glowing ball of light with great interest.

Alex looked at the ball of energy and thought, “Okay. That's one concrete way of discerning whether you have control over your energy or not, but how am I supposed to even feel it in the first place? I guess dad will tell me about it,” and he looked intently at his father.

“Okay. The method to try and feel your energy is like this,” his father said, beginning to give them instructions. “Close your eyes first.” When they did so, he continued by saying, “Now, take a deep breath and hold it until I say so.”

They did as they were told and held their breath in. Samuel paused for a moment before he told them to breathe out slowly. As they did, they felt their rapid beating hearts start to calm down. He did this for a few more times that slowly calmed their racing hearts.

“Now that you're all calmed down and focused, stay like that and try looking into yourself. There must be something you'll be feeling right about… now!”

As soon as he said that, Luna responded with a strange expression on her face as if she could feel it.

“Yes, father. I… can feel something. It's like… um… the wind?” She said hesitantly.

Samuel nodded and said in a soft voice, “Yes. You're feeling it. Your skin is also prickly from feeling it. Am I right?”

“Yes!” She exclaimed, opening her eyes wide and looking at him in surprise. “How did you know?”

“That's the sensation one feels to indicate that they're able to feel their energy and are able to control it given time and practice,” he replied and winked at her.

While she was thrilled to hear it, the kid standing beside her was looking perplexed at the two of them. He certainly felt nothing like she described and his skin was not going through a sensation that his father described either, which he brought to their attention.

“Um, dad,” he began hesitantly, “I don't feel anything, and my skin isn't exactly behaving like you described.”

There was a moment of silence from his father while Luna said, “Maybe you're not focusing enough?”

“Really?” Alex asked, looking uncertain.

“Yes!” She said firmly, nodding her head wisely. “If you failed, then I should've failed, too, but I didn't and that means you can do it, too!”

Her words were convincing, and he honestly thought he was lacking in putting in the necessary effort. However, he could not get the chance to work on it more because, at that moment, his mother's voice rang out of the kitchen window.

“Breakfast is ready!”

“Oh. It's breakfast time,” said Samuel in surprise. He turned to his son and said, “It's okay, my boy. We'll practice more when I get home.”

“If you're not tired from work,” replied Alex in exasperation.

“Oh, come on! Don't be so negative!” Samuel implored him with a hurt look on his face.

Alex laughed at his father's funny behaviour before all of them entered the house to have their breakfast.