Apatite, just does a double check of me before she sits down by my side.
"Okay, you'll be fine, but let's stop it there."
As she says that she looks ver to me and I continue to look into the darkness in front of me.
"Can you even see straight right now, Lazi?"
I turn my head to her as her aura isn't returned to her body yet, making me only see her body. Her ashen skin and her cowl that has the hoodie dropped behind her.
"Not really sure...? I mean, right now I can't see your Soul Energy."
I huff for air:
"Like it just disappeared completely off of you."
"What, Why is that..?"
"Don't know. First time this has happened to me."
"Okay, do you know if it'll come back?"
She asks me again.
That sends my brain into a fit.
"Will it really come back?!"
Before I begin to panic, the orange hue off of Apatite appears. It's light, but definitely there.
"I'm sure it'll come back Lazi, let's just give it..."
"It's not gone... Thank God."
I say happy.
Even though the Soul Eye was a hassle to have, because it cut my vision in half, it's still a very important part of me now, Something that hurt me, but has helped me. Way more than one time.
"I'll be fine."
Apatite smiles at me.
"Good to know."
"So...? What do you want to talk about?"
I ask Apatite as she sits there staring at my green eye.
"Maybe...?"
She taps at her chin:
"I guess we could talk about your family and stuff. Maybe, hows the bow shooting going?"
I chuckle.
"Apatite, every time we come together to train, and we end up exhausted you always end up talking about me."
Pausing, I summarize everything for Apatite:
"Marci, My sister, I getting along way more with Wes and Elsa, mostly with Elsa, since they are both girls. Wes has been getting many times better at swordplay, being able to nearly feint and counterattack against his father but still failing..."
"Who's Wes and Elsa again?"
"Wes is Rez's son and Elsa's younger brother. Elsa is Rez's daughter and Wes' older sister. And almost forgot. Elsa is best friends with Marcilene."
"And your sister is an elf?"
Apatite ask.
I nod my head:
"Yes, and I'll protect her, no matter what."
I say with determination in my voice.
"Oh, okay."
"Now back to my summary."
I say then pause to retrace my words.
" Elsa and Marcilene, have begun there very happy and seemingly endless entertainment of clothing."
"How?"
"I think they are trying there hand at like weaving, and then they'll eventually do more, or i'm not really sure..? Maybe?"
"Okay."
Apatite says, making me have to retrace my words again.
"I've been with you a lot so you already know about my life and that, you're helping me to learn Soul Displacement."
I shrug my shoulders.
"Guess it'll have to be your turn fro you to be able to talk today."
She sucks air through her teeth, then looks up at the sky.
"Guess the sun is getting really low."
As she says that, I look up and see that the sun is indeed getting low, but as of right now, it's still pretty bright out.
"Guess we'll talk tomorrow."
"What!?"
I say flabbergasted.
"The sun is still high in the sky. Plus you don't even have a bedtime, just talk to me about your day, that's all nothing super crazy."
She tilts her head and when I tell her that, like her home isn't good for her, but I've seen her parents before, not in three years, but i've still seen them.
"I don't feel like talking about home."
She tells me and for some reason a small part of me wants to egg her on, but the way she told me that: She doesn't wanna talk about home.
It reels me back and stops me from doing so.
"Okay then... I guess we'll just talk about you..."
I ask, looking at her ashen colored face and seeing the orange hue around her.
"How's your magical Soul Energy journey going."
She lights up when I ask that.
"Okay, so..."
Her sentences are long and exciting. She talks with more than just pride in her voice.
A whole lot of happiness. She talks about how she has noticed slight ways that her Soul Energy has grew, compared to before. using examples like.
"Before I was even able to you the teleportation spell an myself. I had to keep moving a small bug from place to place... That was difficult."
She laughed thinking back to it.
"But my Soul Energy potential has grew so many times bigger."
"What do you mean?"
"Well first of all, when we did the teleportation. I could only manage to teleport us once, making that a breakthrough for me. Plus even my mom said that it took her about a full year to even grow enough to move with teleportation."
"Meaning you'll surpass your mom? Cool."
"Yeah..!"
Her words came out loud and exciting, but then quickly switched to a more sullen tone.
"Hey, Apa. You okay?"
I ask her wanting her to feel safe, I scoot closer, then put my hand on her shoulder.
She was looking out into the distance and then slowly turned to me when she felt my hand on her shoulder.
"My mom.."
Her eyes, began to water. Her body was slightly shivering.
"She's not doing well. Lazuli..."
Her tears fall softly.
"She been getting worse, meaning dad has to stay home and that means we have less food, because it's become harder for me to be able to hunt, and with me being your tutor since we were younger, It's been difficult."
Her tears continue to fall.
She then wraps her arms around me and grips tightly.
"I don't know what to do anymore, Lazuli. You're my only friend and I want to try and be able to help you, but if i can't you'll stop being my friend."
She cries tears as some soaks into my shirt.
"I won't stop being your friend if you stop helping me."
As I hug her back, she pulls away.
Not to get away but to look at me and... I hold back a laugh, a line of snot from her face to my shirt, is just funny. I hold in my laughter.
"Really?"
Once she says that, then wipes her nose. Every ounce of laughter leaves my body.
"Yeah. I don't plan to leave you because you aren't any help for me."
She sniffles and wipes her nose again.
"You don't plan to leave?"
"No. And if you want, I carry this bow around everywhere. I could always help you when it comes to hunting for food."
When I see that a small smile appears on her face, one that just looks better on her, like her more happy face is just better.
"You wouldn't mind?"
I shake my head and smile at her softly.
"Absolutely not, I mean I'm your friend, since forever, I don't mind helping you."
She smiles up at me and her face is just lit up with happiness and I'm happy for her, as our arms are wrapped against... each other....
My arm is still around her neck.
I pull back. My hands flying into the air.
Apatite sees it too and jumps away as well, her hands flying up as well.
"I'm sorry..."
I say.
"You don't have to be sorry, you were just hugging me because I was crying."
"No, but I should have made sure that it was okay for me to hug you."
"It was okay..."
She wipes her face and the moment passes slowly, the sun passes just the same.
The sun reaches a half point between the horizon and it's peak.
We sit there staring at the sky for a second, before Apatite speaks.
"Is tomorrow fine for us to hunt?"
Apatite asks with a needing tone.
I nod at her as i turn to face her.
"I can do tomorrow."
She jumps up and smiles down at me.
"Yes. Now we can be able to learn at the same time as putting it into practice!"
She yells with excitement.
"Well we should ge home we have an early morning tomorrow."
As she says that she waves to me and hops away.
"Wait!"
I call out to her to stop her.
"What do you mean?"
"We have to hunt early if we want to get any food, since the majority will be asleep and we'll be able to have an eaiser time like that."
"But, in the morning I have to continue with my early training with Sply."
"Oh?"
SHe nods.
"Okay, after that we'll meet here. Or actually, let's just meet at the same time as usual."
She says making it the same easy schedule that I've always been using.
Then she continues her wave ad hopping away.
~~~
Steel heads back toward the village, his feet, just hitting to dirt path of the outer edges of the place, and the sign to show that their entering or exiting the place is within an eyeshot.
He gets stopped by Sply.
"Steel, we need to talk."
She says, even those words, don't sound very urgent with her natural tone of voice, being the exact same as always.
Steel stops to turn toward Steel.
"What happened?"
He asks her with concern in his voice.
She pauses with her mouth open for a second then speaks again.
"I'm going to take Lazuli."