[Moving On] pt. 1

<Year 12>

Almost six year ago, Zyrtec had been saved by his brother Jarkko's tracking skills and when he woke up, he had managed to free the other children quietly using Qlome. Even so, for quite a while after the incident he had stayed holed up in the room, quivering in abject terror of just the memories of that green dragon. He vividly remembered that fear and still carried it with him, but had managed to suppress it and had begun to forget. Sitting on the edge of the fountain like usual, Zyrtec was fiddling with a piece of wood and a dagger, carving a shape out carefully. The people passing by would either ignore or greet him, used to seeing him sitting there. Focused on carving, he didn't even notice when one of his siblings snuck up on him.

Pouncing on his back and making him flinch in surprise, Nylotte laughed, "Ha! I found you!"

"I wasn't exactly hiding…"

"I still found you~!"

"Yeah...okay." She hugged him then slid around to sit next to him, looking at the carving curiously.

"What's that?"

"A dragon."

"Why are you making it?"

"I was asked to."

"By who?"

"A friend."

"You have a friend?!" He paused to raise an eyebrow at her shocked face. "Ah--I mean, since when? You're really nice but you don't exactly talk to people either."

"I helped them out a while ago and now I'm stuck with them. They said they would leave me alone if I carved something for them so that's what I'm doing." Nylotte tilted her head at her brother, then smirked at him mischievously. "What?"

"Is it a girl~?"

"No." She pouted instantly, leaving him lost. "What now?"

"That's not fun at all." She looked away and sighed, "Momma wanted you and Qlome, so I came to get you."

"You really should've started with that." He stood up, offering his hand to her. She stared at it, then smiled and held his hand, letting him lead her back to the inn. It felt safer to him to walk alongside someone rather than be alone. Upon entering the building, Aztoria was immediately in front of him, grabbing his free wrist and dragging him back outside without a word. Only letting go when they got closer to the gates, she pulled Qlome over and looked them both up and down.

"Alright. Come on, let's head out for a bit." Making sure they were behind her, she left the town casually, waving to guards as she did and went towards the open areas. Walking up a few hills, the three examined the terrain quietly. Taking a few steps forward and glancing back at the distant town, she said, "We'll start here."

Before Zyrtec could speak, Qlome asked, "Start what, momma?"

She smiled at them. "You will be training. Qlome, it took you way too long back then to catch a single person, while Nylotte eliminated an entire group in the same time. Zyrtec, you let humans catch you and couldn't do anything on your own. You won't always have someone to save you, so you can't count on others."

Zyrtec was a bit lost. "If that's the case, then why didn't we train sooner? It's been six years since then."

Raising a hand, she pointed at them. "You were too young. I had to wait until both your Mana and your power evened out enough and could be utilized properly before putting you through stress."

"Then what are we going to do?" Aztoria tilted her head at Qlome.

"We'll be training in our human form to maximize proficiency. So, first, your job will be to touch me and that's it."

"Touch you?" Qlome was grinning haughtily.

"Yep. Ah, but there will be one obstacle." Still smiling at them, wind started to circulate around her gently before its speed steadily increased and it expanded outward until it became a swirling barricade of wind. The two boys held their arms up in front of their faces, their hands clenched as worry flashed through their eyes and went into their expressions. "Well? What are you two waiting for? Start when you're ready."

Qlome bit his lip, then went closer, the wind tearing at his clothes and hair. 'Momma must really want us to get stronger if she's doing this.' Determined to become what she wanted, he forced his legs to move forward and approached her, slowly activating his own wind magic, just not as powerful as hers. Finally at the barrier itself, he put his hand out and winced when it sliced up his skin easily. Unconsciously, he tried to become a shadow like he usually would but the wind only grabbed on harder and yanked him in before blasting him back onto the hill beside Zyrtec, who was studying the interaction.

Fully aware he didn't have the actual strength yet to overpower her, brains would be needed to help. 'That's probably why Jarkko isn't here, and as for Nylotte, her scream would disrupt the air flow. What do you want us to do, momma?' Thinking it over, he tilted his head then looked at his brother as he got back to his feet. "Qlome, I don't think we can do this alone. We have to work together or she can focus the magic on one point. So we need to charge at the same time."

"I'm just not strong physically though, not as much as you."

"I know that, which is why she is probably trying to make us use what we're good at, and then get better at what we're bad with."

"Discussing your plans where the enemy can head you? Not only that, you're taking far too long and not even looking at the enemy. Not good, that needs to be gotten rid of."

Zyrtec paused and smiled at her. "I know momma." Glancing at Qlome, he thought, 'I want to be able to communicate mentally, to hear another's thoughts at will and send them mine when I wish.' He felt his Mana drain to about half, but not just him, his mother could sense he had done something different. For the past six years, he had spent a considerable amount of his time trying to figure out what 'creation' meant. Since it seemed to give him what he wished to 'create' with a certain price or two, it might be able to be used as long as he has Mana. Some things took more than the rest, so he was limited, but if used correctly it could be a great weapon with terrifying potential. '(Qlome, can you hear me?)'

He jerked and stared at Zyrtec in shock, "What…?" Aztoria narrowed her eyes at them, aware Zyrtec had just done something else strange.

'It worked! (Don't react, don't speak out loud. I'll explain later so just play along with it for now. Understand?)'

'(Yes.)'

'(Great! Then here's what we're going to try to do first…)' After a brief discussion, Zyrtec copied what Qlome had done, touching the barrier carefully, then focusing. The blood dripping from the fresh cuts on his hand started to vibrate, then gathered into a ball above his palm, gaining size as the wind continued to hurt him. He had learned this skill on accident but didn't have great control over it no matter how much he practiced. Channeling energy into the red liquid, he shaped it into a blade painfully slow, then released control over it, allowing the wind to carry it off in random directions. She did what she could to keep the blade away from her, then looked around for Qlome. It was a tactic she had fought before. One distracts somehow and stays within sight, then the sneakier one attacks from behind. Reinforcing the power at her back and round to her sides, she refused to let them do something so simple, close to being angered.

'I thought Zyrtec could think of a way better than this.' Shadows shifted around in front of her and her eyes widened when Qlome showed up directly in front of her with his hand outstretched to touch her. Flinching out of the way, her son stumbled past her and she used wind to push him away again. He disappeared and she waited, worried over the silence. She could've sworn that Zyrtec would've taken the chance when she was busy with Qlome, but now he was nowhere to be seen at all. 'Where is he!? What's he planning to do?' More distracted with locating Zyrtec, her attention towards her other son was lessened significantly. Qlome continued to slip inside through the weak points with great effort, breathing quite heavily as he grew exhausted. One thing she had noticed, was that her wind was harder to move around than it should've been, as if weighed down. 'Is that part of it?' She kept waiting for him to show up, but he didn't, leaving only Qlome and his random attacks. '(Are you wanting me to focus on your brother so you can ambush me? I don't think so).'

Zyrtec was reading her thoughts at random, hoping to keep track of what she was going to do. Keeping him blocked, it was beginning to irritate her that he was nowhere to be seen. 'He doesn't have a stealth skill, so he's hiding in plain sight. But where?'

"Momma!" Qlome swiped his hand at her. "Don't forget I'm still here!" He gritted his teeth as she blew him away again. '(Zyrtec, will this really work?)'

'I'm not sure, she's half right. (Of course. Let her be distracted, it'll help in the long run.)'

Gathering strength, he charged and shouted, "If you say so!" This startled their mother and she frowned at him.

"I didn't say anything. How are you talking with Zyrtec?" Ignoring her question, he continued to charge in, her guard towards him too weak for the barrier to do much. When she growled in frustration and began to cast magic at Qlome, Zyrtec twisted around from his position and flung himself out of the wind barrier, dropping from above. "That's where you were?!" Unable to properly stop her spell or redirect it correctly, she attempted to block with her other hand but had forgotten the rules. Clapping his hand against hers with a smile, Qlome soon after touched her shoulder, having dodged her half-made spell.

In unison, the two said, "We won, momma!"

She looked at them in shock for a moment then sighed, asking, "Zyrtec, what exactly were you doing?"

"Oh, no-one noticed but I never let go of the blade. I made a handle on it then just held on for my life as I got tossed around inside the wind. I went pretty high a few times and feel kinda dizzy right now."

'He did what? Well…' Looking at him now, she could see inumerable cuts all over his body, blood staining his pale skin. Even so, they were visibly closing, although slowly. 'With that appearance, he probably did.' Shaking her head at him, the wind stopped and she hugged both of them, holding them close. "Good job, but that could use some work. In a game where you just have to touch that might work once, but doing it twice is impossible and it'll get you killed in an actual fight."

"I know momma. I made the plan with that in mind."

'To think I was tricked by something so simple. My own wind worked against me and I couldn't see or smell him...I actually thought he might have gotten a stealth skill when I wasn't looking but he was just doing something stupid.'

Qlome lifted his head to look at her curiously. "Momma, what else are we going to do?"

"Well, when your brother finishes healing we're gonna make it harder and harder until we can have an actual fight against one another." They groaned, then began the discussions of what they would do next.