Chapter 73 - Garden of Flowers

Third Person’s POV (12 yrs. and 8 months old)

The sun was slowly showing on the area where Ken laid, as the barrier slowly lifted, there he was taking a leisure nap as everything around him slowly turned alive, his spell giving vitality to the ground and plants near him.

His scythe slowly floated from his back and up the sky for about 500 feet, pulsed once its silver magic and disappeared.

A flower bed formed at his position along with vines creeping towards him that formed a blanket atop, the vines were harmless to him, but deadly to anyone who would come to try and touch or take him for they would strangle and poison anyone to death.

A countermeasure to anything that may come to disturb him, that’s right, the guy doesn’t want anyone to disturb him when he’s asleep like this, in this type of condition. Let’s not forget a pillow of straws protruding, wrapped in large leaves on his head, and he is now settled to sleep.

Gentle winds blew on his location, occasionally ruffling his hair, mistaking anyone who’d pass by to think of him as a sleeping princess, with such feminine features on his face.

(A.N.: I think if he’d read or heard of the things I talked about him, I bet he’ll throw a temper tantrum.)

(White: You bet he will)

Minutes later his group of friends along with the guardians and the Nature Deer leader arrived at the clearing Ken was laying at, the six -his childhood friends- looked at Ken who was sleeping at the field of flowers, immediately recognized the situation.

Celine smiled and slowly approached the sleeping teen, but the other people thought otherwise, Riyah, Icarus, Flin, Princess Lang, Coralia, Trunk, and Granarados were confused at the side, Wilbert shook his head while sheepishly smiling.

He too walked slowly towards the pair, Celine sat near Ken but avoided the vines and stared fondly at her sleeping friend, Wilbert gently sat beside her as to not rouse the attention of the vines, the two looked at each other and smiled, then returned their gaze on their sleeping friend.

One by one, Glen, Allen, Saber, and Lila each sat with the two as they all observe and wait for their sleeping friend. Allen felt like he missed something.

Not taking the silence clearly, Icarus walked forward briskly in front of the sitting group.

“What are you guys doing?” he asked.

“We-.” before Glen could say anything, the vines who were disturbed by loud footsteps wrapped themselves on Icarus and stood still while still covering Ken.

“What’s this?!” Icarus shouted, struggling to break free, but the vines just tightened their grip. The group cannot help but sigh in distress in silence.

“Sorry, we forgot to warn you, you guys as well.” said Allen, directing the last statement at the others at the back. The others who stayed at the back slowly approached the rest.

“We haven’t really understand this kind of state Ken is in, but we know other things, and that is when he is wrapped in all these vines, and has a pillow of straw wrapped in a big leaf.” He gestured at the work of Ken.

“Is that we cannot do anything but wait for the guy to wake up.” He added.

“Right, the first time he was in this state, we were almost strangled and poisoned to death.” said Wilbert, not really fond of the memory. The others eyes widened in surprise

“Wait, these vines are poisonous?! AUGH!” Icarus writhed in pain as the vines tightened and the poison almost entering his skin, the group was about to pry the vines away.

“Stop struggling.” said Allen in a calm tone, but his voice emitted power stopping the rest in their tracks, but their complexion was still tense, especially Riyah, who worries for her brother.

“First off, you shouldn’t do anything that will startle the vines, like what you did earlier walking harshly and shouting.” said Allen, his old friends nodded softly. “Now to get out of your situation, just stay still and the vines will eventually unwrap themselves from you, along with the poison.”

“What? Are you serious?” asked Icarus.

“I’m serious.” replied Allen.

Icarus nodded stiffly, while the others eventually joined the rest of the group and waited for Ken to wake up, the group conversed in small hushed voices as what was advised by Celine.

Five minutes later and the vines released Icarus and retracted their poison, he was checked by his sister first to see if he sustained any injuries.

“Why are you checking my body sis?” said Icarus, and yanked his arm from Riyah’s hold -but not harshly-.

“I’m trying to check if you have any injuries.” said Riyah.

“By groping my body?” asked Icarus, the others felt laughter bubbling up their system.

“Then how am I supposed to check on you?” said Riyah, a bit irritated she can’t continue searching for injuries.

“I’m fine, and besides, the thorns did not penetrate my clothes or skin that much.” replied Icarus.

“Are you sure?” asked Riyah.

“I’m sure, so stop worrying.” said Icarus, puffing his chest, presenting his body to his sister, after Riyah nodded in confirmation did Icarus stopped presenting his body.

“Okay, okay, you can stop flexing now.” said Riyah, acting all annoyed. Icarus smiled in relief and the two sat along with the group.

“Anyway, are we really going to wait for Ken to wake up?” asked Princess Lang beside Celine.

“Yes, why?” Celine said.

“Well, aren’t we going to search for the demon gate?” Celine’s face lit up in recognition.

“Right.” Celine said. “We should look around for it, Ken already gave us the location, we just have to confirm where it is.”

“No need, I can already tell that the gate is closed, but to how it was closed, is a mystery.” said Granarados with eyes closed, feeling the world around him for any anomaly or disturbance, or to be more precise, the dark energies of the demon gate.

“How can you tell?” asked Coralia.

“There is no more twisted energies in the air, and if you have fought against’ the monsters that spawned from the gate, then you would recognize its energy output easier than before, and I can guarantee, that the air doesn’t contain any of those energies anymore.” explained Granarados.

Coralia nodded and she too felt around the air for the energy, and found nothing unusual. The two girls nodded in understanding and went silent.

“Remind me again how many hours we’ll have to wait for him to wake up?” asked Glen to no one in particular.

“I remember it being an hour.” said Saber.

“Huh? I thought it was two hours.” rebutted Lila. The siblings stared at one another.

“Don’t you guys remember? We have to wait for half an hour for the vines to disappear, and another half-hour dodging his spells.” said Allen, the three nodded, remembering now.

“A total of one hour huh, wait, can you repeat what you last said Allen?” said Flin.

“He dishes out spells after half an hour, why?” replied Allen, Flin tilted his head to the side, his illusion coming off as his white ears twitched.

“Your illusion got dispelled.” pointed out by Allen. Flin shook his head.

“But, how is that possible?” Flin asked.

“I don’t know too, we have asked Ken in the past why are those things happening to him whenever he’s in such a condition, but he too is clueless.” explained Allen, Flin nodded, his tail swinging behind his back, curious as to what would happen half an hour later.

“You’re able to disguise your tails into one?” asked Allen.

“Yes, if I so desire to.” said Flin and unraveled his nine tails and then joined into one, Allen nodded and faced forward. Flin then realized that his tail was out in the open and swinging behind his back, he blushed furiously.

“Are we really going to do nothing but wait here?” asked Icarus minutes later, bored out of his mind.

“Well, what do you want to do?” asked Riyah.

“I don’t know, return and rest for the day, plus, the sun is glaring at us.” replied Icarus, the day was about one-o-clock in the afternoon, just minutes before their last battle that seemed to pass by in a blur. “And you guys, how are you okay with this?”

Even though he sounded angry, he still kept his voice in a low volume.

“Well, we’re his friends, we can’t just leave our friend laying here.” said Celine.

“Right, and there’s no harm in waiting for Ken to wake up, we like to think of these times to be our free time since all we’ve ever done was train and train, all because of this guy.” added Wilbert.

“Huh? What make’s you say that?” asked Flin.

“Well, it’s good that we have this kind of opportunity -as what Ken said- but at the same time it always felt like we don’t have any breaks, just lunch, and every other fortunate break times, but Ken always insists on training.” complained Wilbert.

“But he always reasons out that our every effort will be paid in full in the future, never forget that.” said Celine to Wilbert smiling softly, he nodded un-amused.

“Right, I’ll remember that, but still, how is it possible for him to always think about practice, training, and spells, sometimes, it amazes me on the occasion that he would mention sentimental things with that mindset of his.” said Wilbert.

“*chuckle* Agreed, but still, despite him being like this, he’s still our friend.” said Celine, facing Ken, Wilbert and their old friends smiled, and nodded. The others stared with mixed emotions, either for Ken’s complex personality, or for their companion’s soft smile directed at the sleeping boy.

The adults of the group were not spared of the scene, as they too understood a fraction of what Wilbert and Celine said, it was rare to see such trust from a person directed to another, not to mention, six people.

“If you guys don’t mind me asking, what has Ken done for you guys?” asked Princess Lang, the group eyes widen in shock as they stared at her not because it was her prideful voice, but the genuine curiosity and vulnerability in her voice.

Allen smiled and gazed at Ken.

“There’s so many things this guy has done for us, he’s our lecturer.” said Allen, Wilbert looked at him and back to Princess Lang before settling at Ken.

“Our comfort.” He said. The old companions and friends of Ken all looked at the sleeping boy remembering all those cuddle times.

“Our instructor.” said Glen with a bit of fear in his voice, these were the times were Ken was nothing but a fierce beast ordering them around.

“Our spell influencer as well as sub-creator.” said Lila, grateful for the many pointers Ken had given them on how to create their spells, especially her, for she isn’t really well versed on it.

“Our one side joker, on the other, serious, friend.” said Saber, he still cannot fathom how this person is able to connect with them despite all six of them having different personalities, still Ken adjusts to them.

“Our complex characteristic leader.” said Celine, remembering those many different sides Ken showed to her, one side she loves is that Ken’s very attentive, and another side she looks up to is Ken’s unwavering determination.

“Our savior, in many ways than one.” said Allen, if it weren’t for Ken, he doesn’t where he would be now since continental snakes have a certain condition only unique to their race, and that is going into a rampage at the age of twelve.

Where they will be left isolated in a far away area for a year to calm themselves out of their berserk mode. A process that was both painful, and excruciating for Allen, lucky for him, one month after Ken visited him.

He expected things would turn out badly for them, but he was wrong, for Ken had only revealed himself one time, casted a spell, caressed his magic beast form on the head, and fell asleep. The next day he was back to his humanoid form again.

All six had solemn expressions, and a quiet sense of comfort. The others do not know what to say, the three adults spoke nothing of the matter for they understood that this, was good friendship.

Or at least a form of it. There are still lapses here and there.

Flin was awestruck and curious as to how it feels like to have such a trustworthy friend. Princess Lang is confused as her ideologies where shaken, she frowned to herself.

Icarus and Riyah just looked awkwardly at each other, remembering the discomforts they experienced from so called friends. The four decided in silence to just wait with the rest for Ken to wake up.

Slowly without being noticed, the area they were at had grown more flowers, but this time, the variety differed and in an orderly fashion, different flowers of different colors sprouted in either a spiral on the area, with Ken as the center.

From above the ground, the place looked like it has a center of disordered color of flowers, but at the side, orderly colors of flowers were slowly growing, another after effect of Ken’s spell.

-Inside Ken’s subconscious (while asleep)-

“Open Status Window.” -Ken-

[ Status window.

Name: Ken Rogers

Race: Human

Job: Apprentice/Disciple

Level: 27

Strength: 70

Agility: 75

Intelligence: 150

Defense: 7.5

Luck: 45

Mana Points: 5,000

Health Points: 3,580

AP (attack/magic power): 7,349

Primary Points: 0 ]

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