CHAPTER 11
TIME
“Phew!”
Lex breathed out, exhilarated from the extraordinary work with magic.
“Y’know…
Lex, we could try and use your Bai Ze and see if my theory about multiple magic
is true…” Anouke asked out of nowhere, unexpected like an ambush. “Well, I can
try, but… I don’t really know how to.” Lex explained and thought for a
second. “That’s a good point. I’m not sure since I literally know nothing about
them, and you being able to become one has me even more confused. So, yeah I
get it. We can leave that.” He said.
Lex
smiled and exhaled the cold, summer air. “I wonder when The Angels Antagonism
will come back out.” Lex asked, mostly to himself, wondrous. “Well,
I’m not sure. But either two of these things could happen. “Either, they target
us in particular since they know who we are, where we are, and we are the enemy
right now – especially you.” Anouke interpreted from what he knew so far.
“Or,
they could leave us be and we will be left for Akuma. That’s probably going to
be it. I don’t know why, I just have a strong feeling of it.” Anouke felt his
heart racing fast. “And I’m nervous right now. We should get back inside.” He
insisted, mostly urging Lex inside instead of offering if he wanted to or not. They sat inside and
Anouke felt comforted by his years of living in this cozy, little home.
Leaves crunched outside, a sound Anouke loved to listen to as the forest creatures wondered. The morning air was humid. With nothing to do, Anouke and Lex mostly chatted until Anouke brought up a question he’d been waiting to ask. “How are you wings looking, Lex?”
Lex
stood up, giving himself room to show off his wings. “I wonder if they’re all
feathers now.” He said to himself but Anouke also wondered the same thing. He
was a little nervous, but the anticipation had him wanting to rush into it. He
took a deep breath in and out. His tail rested on the floor, still. It was a
turquoise grey now, instead of black with faded patches of red.
His wings emerged. The little red scale was gone. His wings shook slightly. Scales started to fall off and break into what looked like ash, before vanishing as if a strong wind had stole them. As each scale fell, firstly at the bottom, a feather sprouted. Both Anouke and Lex watched inquisitively, eyes wide. His hair faded to a light, turquoise-ish grey.
However, Lex’s tail did not disappear. But, that was just part of him. He asked Anouke about it after his wings had finished and his shock had rippled away, and he explained how it was actually a part of his body. For one, he couldn’t make his tail disappear; a reason he never went to the human town if it was unnecessary. The only times he did was to ‘visit’ Akuma.
Yet, a tail was not a characteristic that all Demons had. His father had not had one either. In fact, none of the other Demons Lex had met had tails. He started to question if that was part of the Bai Ze in him. Yet, nobody ever questioned his tail. So instead of being due to his abilities, he concluded it to be just something unusual.
“Lex,
should we practice some more spells and magic? It’s been a few months now, and
you’ve mastered quite a lot. More than I anticipated, but you are Lex so I should have expected as
much. You are very competitive.” He chuckled.
“Sure,
what do you want to practice? There’s quite a few but I think I’ve got them
nailed!” He cheered himself on and smiled.
“Well,
we should see. Let’s have a look to see if you can multitask and use two spells simultaneously.” Anouke
suggested and Lex nodded with a focused expression which made Anouke want to
laugh, but he kept it inside. “We should try a reverse spell and a protection
spell.”
“Okay!” Lex quickly agreed and jogged out into the forest.
Anouke
smiled and shook his head, finding entertainment out of his sudden and
unexpected enthusiasm. “Anouke, come on!” He shouted out from outside and
Anouke came walking out of the door.
“Sure, sure. I’m coming. Why are you so
avid all of a sudden?” He said with a short laugh.
“Hmm,
I don’t know. I just am, so hurry up!” He clenched his fists then opened them
again, ready and preparing.
“Okay,
so… this time, I’m not going to give you time to prepare. I am going to attack
all of a sudden and then you’ll have to use a protection spell or reverse
spell.” He cut himself off then thought. “Actually, you can use whatever spell
you want. See if you know which would be best in this situation.” Anouke
explained. Lex nodded again and pulled his leg back, his other leg in front of
him. He was standing in a fighting stance and had his fingers out straight,
pointing right at Anouke.
“Or
I can do something unexpected.” Lex elucidated. “Or maybe I won’t.”
“Well,
we’ll see. After all, this stance does look unfamiliar to me.”
“C’mon,
let’s get into it.”
“Very
well. As you wish.”
Like a shooting star tumbling down the sky, Anouke ran forwards, span around and skidded behind Lex. Before Lex could turn around, Anouke had flicked his hand to the side and a blade of air sliced towards the tree. Lex, already predicting his move, had flicked his fingers up and then his hand down. A protection spell enveloped the area Anouke fired at and the attack dissolved.
With no praise, the two carried on. Lex didn’t want to be praised though; he just wanted to beat Anouke. He used a treh spell on Anouke – something he learned when at The Angels Antagonism – which caused colours to flash in front of his eyes which only Anouke could see. He paused and watched them pass by like a child fascinated by a fluttering butterfly.
Lex slid through the mud on the floor, getting his clothing dirty, and tripped Anouke up. He stood behind Anouke and used a binding spell to keep him on the floor. Anouke was lying on his back. The colours in his eyes faded as Lex snapped his fingers. His shadow towered over Anouke like a sleep paralysis demon. Anouke felt like he was tied up with rattling chains although there was silence apart from the delicate wind rustling the leaves.
Anouke’s face was blank before he finally came back to reality. He shook his head and looked extremely confused. “What was that..?” He asked Lex, squinting his eyes slightly against the sun. Lex allowed him back up but stepped back, not sure if they were still in their practice fight. “A treh spell.” He revealed.
Lex wasn’t going to let this stop here; he hadn’t had enough fun and didn’t want to be rendered a ‘loser’ if Anouke was just playing games, and hadn’t actually stopped the fight. Lex had squatted down and charged Anouke. At the same time, he used a fregh spell which had him staggering back. Lex threw a punch at Anouke’s abdomen but stopped. Anouke took this as an opportunity to take the crown back.
His used his index finger and balled the other fingers into a fist shape and tapped Lex’s head. The strands of his hear started to lift. It was a reverse spell. Lex’s arm started to retract and he started to run backwards and then stand up where he squatted down before.
Lex used the same spell, casting it the exact same way Anouke did. Anouke blocked it though, expecting it, by forming a protection spell in front of him. He leant against the tree. Lex growled, becoming irritated at his losing streak now. He became reckless, charging Anouke straight on. He barreled forwards, jumped startlingly above Anouke and dropped down. He clicked his fingers and created the treh spell again. Next, he used a fregh spell. One after another, he didn’t stop. He was using up his energy drastically, not giving Anouke even a split second to attack back.
He put up his two arms, blocking the spells and non-stop magic. Anouke began to pant too, the magic Lex was constantly using gave him no time to create his own spell, but he kept trying to form a protection spell which Lex kept breaking. He only used the treh spell once more, knowing the consequences of overuse – it becoming less effective.
Lex used a reverse spell, a fregh spell, a protection spell on himself, an invase spell which had Anouke fall to the floor. Anouke panted, out of breath, and gave up on trying the spells. How did Lex beat me? I was teaching him these, now it’s like he’s teaching me. Anouke thought to himself. Lex stopped, feeling sympathetic. “Ah, sorry.” He said. Anouke’s hair fell over his eyes. Don’t… Don’t start wishing, Anouke. He told himself. If I do, then Lex may get hurt. “Phew, what a rush!” Anouke stated obstreperously.
“Sorry, I don’t know what
came over me.” Lex said with a small frown, cheeks red with the tiredness and
embarrassment of losing control. “I was using Demon spells…” He admitted.
“Yeah, I know. It’s not going to be anything I taught you after all.”
“I’m just kind of used to using those when brawling with
other Demons to become stronger. I don’t usually use spell or magic for real
fights. It’s strange.”
“Let’s take a break for now.” Anouke began to walk back inside and Lex followed, finally allowing the fighting session to come to an end.
Lex dropped onto the couch and it creaked vehemently. Anouke sat down on the chair. After living together for so long, they basically had their own designated places – Anouke had claimed the chair and Lex had reserved the couch for himself.
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