Glow

As time went by, the pattern on Dylan's shoulder glowed stronger and brighter. It was so bright that Janine could see the little details of the pattern through Dylan's clothes. The feather symbol with intertwined with a snowflake and the free-flowing wind. It was both beautiful and enchanting.

Unable to suppress her concern as Dylan looked more and more fatigued, Janine decided to call Sherry and ask for her opinion.

"What's up?" Sherry listlessly greeted.

"Sherry, Dylan's being weird right now. He keeps glowing and drinking these weird blue things. I'm scared that something is going wrong but I don't know magic so I can't help." Janine explained, her voice laced with anxiety.

"…Show me." Sherry curtly ordered. Her voice was calm but impatient and also a little intimidating like a captain of the armed forces. Janine quickly complied, sending Sherry and video chat and showing her Dylan.

Opened vials were scattered around him, some still containing drops of the mysterious blue liquid. His shoulder glowed with a bluely green and silver, and his eyes were tightly shut, sweat flowing down his face. Sherry observed the pattern on Dylan's shoulder carefully. She didn't recall him having a tattoo before, or rather she'd never seen it.

This wasn't good. The video didn't have good enough quality and she couldn't sense any mana from it, it was better to directly go see it for herself. "Hang on just a bit, I'll head over to your place."

Before Janine could say anything, Sherry hung up. Back at her place, she rushed out her room, shouting to her parents, "I'm heading over to Janine's place." Then, without waiting for her parents to say anything, Sherry drove off in the car. She sped, just barely obeying within the speed limits and made it to Janine's house in the fastest time possible. Luckily, it was night so there wasn't much cars on the roads.

"How is he?" Sherry asked as soon as she entered the room.

Janine turned to look back at her. "He's been like this the whole time, but he doesn't seem to be getting worse."

Sherry's face paled. She could feel the already thin mana in the air lessen. They were all being absorbed by Dylan at a rather fast rate. The empty mana potions around him have also increased, but the more mana potions one ingested in a period of time, the less effective they were.

Gritting her teeth, Sherry sat in front of Dylan. She held his hands, they stiffened at first but relaxed when she gently intertwined her fingers with his. "I'll transfer my mana to you." Sherry softly whispered. She closed her eyes and concentrated, slowly sending her immense supply of mana to Dylan.

Sherry furrowed her brows, finding that he was absorbing it at a faster rate than she had anticipated. He took large amounts, to the extent that she had to resort to also using mana potions to refill supply. It hurt Sherry to use so much at a time like this since she couldn't restock them anymore, however, Dylan's safety was more important.

Finally, after emptying three potions, Dylan's reckless intake of mana came to an end. He circulated his mana once to make sure nothing was wrong anymore and slowly opened his eyes. Upon doing so, he was greeted by the sight of Sherry. Her eyes were still closed, eyelashes fluttering, cheeks flushed and lips widening into a smile. Sherry opened her eyes, they were filled with tears and curved along with her lips. "Thank god." She muttered.

Dylan stared at her mesmerising expression in a daze. His mind took a while to boot up before he finally noticed that he was holding her hands. Their ten fingers intertwined and hands tightly clutched together. Not to mention to close distance. In a fluster, Dylan let go of her hand, fluttering around awkwardly.

"What, w-why?" He stuttered with a red face.

Sherry tilt her head to the side, her long hair falling with the movement. "You don't remember?"

"You suddenly starting glowing and drinking some weird things while we were talking. I was worried so I called Sherry and then she did some weird things and you woke up." It was Janine who spoke. Dylan smiled apologetically at her, realising that he had forgotten about her for a bit.

"You really made me worry, you know?" Sherry complained, wiping her tears away.

Dylan couldn't say anything in return. His soft gaze locked in on her eyes as he wiped her tears with his finger. "I'm sorry." He muttered. Time seemed to freeze for the two. Sherry's face transformed from daze, to bashfulness and then to annoyance. Dylan chuckled and ruffled her hair.

"So, what happened?" Janine asked, tired of third-wheeling but also concerned.

Dylan held his hand over his shoulder, his face was exposed complicated emotions. "My contracted spirt was trying to wake up."

Janine and Sherry's faces were blank. They took a moment to fully decipher what he meant. "Since when did you have a contract?" Sherry broke the silence and asked.

"Uh, I saved a young chick when I was young and its parents promised that whenever I needed them, all I had to do was whistle. But when I did, unexpectedly, the chick had already fully matured and had grown attached to me. It accompanied me through life and death and so I decided to form a contract with it. However, unfortunately, it was dealt life threatening wounds and had been sleeping in my contract space ever since." Dylan explained, adding in details that no one asked for.

"And its fine now?"

Dylan nodded. "It was trying to absorb a lot of mana just then as a final spurt to recovery. Just that, it exhausted itself doing so and went back to sleep."

"Did, did you encounter a lot of danger?" Sherry's voice was shaking, her eyes staring into his and her expression hardening.

"I'm fine. Don't worry." Dylan snickered and pat her head gently. Sherry pouted and smoothed out her messed up hair.

Janine was a little annoyed now. They were once again ignoring her and doing whatever the hell they wanted to. "Hey, so what's with all the energy drinks?"

She was referring to the mana potions. Well, she wasn't exactly wrong to call them that though, they were blue and did boost your energy in the form of mana.

"Well, there wasn't enough mana around me so I had to make do." Dylan shrugged and explained.

"They're mana potions. There's less mana on Earth, similar to how there is less air up high, so we weren't able to gather enough mana to deal with the rate at which it was being used up." Sherry supplemented.

"Ah, more of your magic mumbo jumbo." Janine complained and sat on the chair next to the bed.

"You're the one who asked!" Sherry retorted. Janine simply stuck her tongue out at her and didn't say anything.

A/N: Attention to all readers, I can't seem to think of a name right now, so I'm giving you the opportunity to make a contribution!!! [Elaborate Fanfare] Cough, anyways, the name will be for Dylan's contracted spirit. It appeared in a previous chapter before, but it was a brief appearance and didn't really matter.

Characteristics: Big bird way bigger than Dylan, white-green feathers, blue eyes, majestic but also cute, Wind and Ice is its specialties.

Well then, I'll be waiting for your comments. Please think of a suitable name!