Children of a Lesser God 139 Close Enough For Me

While Laz was waiting for Leo's invitation to work, he decided that he couldn't just do nothing, even if he wanted to. Mostly though, it was Vivi who decided he couldn't do nothing.

"Why do we have to do this now?" Laz asked for the tenth time.

*Because you wanted to learn and I wanted to go shopping.* Vivi replied as she made herself more comfortable on the grass.

"I told you, until we make some money, we can't really be buying things that aren't essentials."

*You have no idea what exactly is essential for me, do you? You think it's easy getting this fur cleaned everyday? I have split ends, SPLIT ENDS! And only the organic bars are good for my skin and fur thank you very much. Now get back to it.*

"Fine."

If one were to look at Laz, they would see him writing on the ground in the dirt. In truth, they didn't go off to the mountains today as Laz was expecting a phone call for Leo. As such, he didn't want to be running off into an area with no signal. Therefore, the only thing they could do was for Laz to practice rune drawing in the dirt. They weren't alone as Leona had decided to hang out with them today. She said it was because she had the day off from school and wanted to train more. She was currently running back and forth through the field with a rather large tractor tire attached to her, swearing up and down a storm. The whole point of taking the day off was because she wanted to spend time with Laz and possibly get to know more about him, hence why she had used the excuse that she needed to train. Hearing that though got her tied to a tire and told to run while Laz looked like he was drawing in the dirt with his finger.

'This was not what I had in mind," she said to herself and she completed another pass and turned around.

"There."

*Wrong.*

"What's wrong? Your not even looking."

*I don't need to. What you're trying to draw is Berkana and although it looks like a B, it isn't. Therefore, do it again,* Vivi ordered, ever the rough taskmaster.

"Fine." And Laz tried drawing it again, this time looking at the image in his hand.

*Remember, your practicing it until you get it right, but it's not just the shape that's important. Each mark of the rune needs to be perfect for it to work. Remember, like all old languages, there was power in each stroke. It stroke had to be straight and unyielding to support the power behind it. Hence why, no matter what rune you look at, none of them had curves. They were always straight lines that connected.*

"Like this?" Laz finished.

*Like that. Also remember that you need to have the right state of mind while doing it. Your mind must be as firm as stone and iron, just like the lines of the rune.* Vivi gave him the approval to start using his flame to draw the rune. It wasn't that she was trying to be harsh, but if he couldn't focus and ended up half assing it, the rune could just as well blow up in his face.

Laz knew he was preoccupied with waiting for Leo's call and that's why his mind wasn't focused. Thinking about Vivi's words helped him to calm himself.

'See it. See the rune. Each line is a symbol and expression of power. Draw forth that power with each mark you make,' Laz told himself in his head. Leona, who had been passing by, stopped while watching Laz stand there with his eyes closed. Although she had seen Reggie use runes before, she knew thanks to Laz's description that he was basically made for using them. For Laz, it was going to be a challenge.

'I wonder why it seems like he is talking to Vivi while he is doing this?' The question found a place in her head and stayed there. She thought that she was going to see him practice on his own, but it seemed like he was having a one sided conversation with Vivi at the same time. It seemed strange, but the implications seemed far stranger.

Laz raised his finger into the air and using just a bit of his source essence, made precise slashes lines in the air, almost as it cutting it with a knife. Seeing him use his black fire like this made her gap in awe at the amount of control he had. He wasn't just waving his hand around, but instead was using the fire like an ink while his finger was like a pen. The rune formed in the air quickly as he finished moving his finger and hovered there for a moment before disappearing.

"Well, it didn't explode..."

"It could explode?" Leona asked as she looked on.

*It didn't but your use of energy was far too weak and it couldn't stabilize either. Try again,* Vivi ordered. Neither of them responded to Leona's question.

This time, Laz put forth twice the amount of source essence fed energy and the rune quickly took shape. In stead of dissipating when finished, there was a slight twang sound as though the fire had suddenly become solid.

*Use it before it becomes unstable.... Hurry.* Vivi ordered.

Laz looked around before settling on Leona.

"Sorry about this..."

"What? Hey wait a sec..." The rune shot off like a gun shot and hit Leona, quickly disappearing as though it had been absorbed into her. Suddenly, her eyes became red while her breathing got heavy. Before Laz could ask if it worked, Leona shot after him, looking as though she wanted nothing more than to tear him apart.

*You better start running and hope she comes to soon,* Vivi said, somewhat encouragingly.

"Yeah, yeah..." Laz ran off towards the field at a half hearted pace. Since Leona was still tied to the tire, no matter how fast she was normally, she was no challenge at all for him now. After about 5 minutes, she slowed down and came too while panting heavily.

"What did... you... do... to... me," She asked in between breaths. Laz was just glad he didn't put more power into it, otherwise she would have been chasing him longer.

"Berkana, the rune of challenge. Simply speaking... I basically taunted you. Hence why you spent the last 5 minutes blindly charging after me."

"That's... so useless. Why would you intentionally want someone to hurt you?" Leona said, having calmed down.
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"Well, normally it would seem useless. But let's say I wanted to get someone's attention off of you and on to me. Using something like this would do it, in a way they couldn't prevent," Laz explained, releasing her from the tire before picking it up to walk back.

"So, it's more of a team skill huh?" Leona asked, seemingly catching on.

"Right. Think of it like a game. The tough guy's take the hits while the fast guys do the damage. It's a classic party battle set up," Laz said with a laugh.

"Doesn't that make it more dangerous for you?" Leona asked.

"Much, much more dangerous. But that's the idea."

"How so?"

"Because it means that it would be less dangerous for you." Laz didn't explain anything else as they walked back. This was already a discussion he had had with Vivi. She felt the although this rune was ok, as far as learning go, it was a bit lower on the scale of importance. Despite that, Laz insisted on learning it first. Learning a rune wasn't just as simple as hit or miss. Not only did you have to be focused and skilled enough to complete the rune, but the amount of energy used and the target were also important factors. And this was just based on using one rune without combining it with others. With the smallest amount of energy needed to complete it, It would cause whoever was effected by it to simply turn in Laz's direction, whether they wanted to or not. A little bit more power and they would even subconsciously walk towards Laz. Depending on the person's nature, they would take it to be a challenge and be drawn to him. In Leona's case, Laz had used enough energy for her to attack him and chase him for five minutes. Arguably, if enough power was used, it could cause the target to chase after you for the rest of their life. That's just how dangerous it was. Of course, that sort of power was far out of Laz's or Reggie's abilities. The other hard part for Laz was that Reggie could use and contain runes on his stones whereas Laz had to use his fire which was a lot less stable. If he failed to use it in time, the result could be dangerous.

Walking back to the camper, Vivi was just nodding her head as Laz and Leona walked up.

*You did it!* she said with a bit of a smile. Laz didn't respond back and instead just sat down, grabbing a drink and handing one to Leona with a smile.

"Hey... I was wondering..." Leona finally remembered her original goal. Since she came over with the excuse of working out, she had dressed the part, wearing skin tight black shorts, a white tank top and grey sports bra. Her hair was tied back into a pony tail, giving her a refreshing look, one that seemed far less cold than she usually was. Seeing her stand in the sun and hesitating, Laz finally stopped being anxious about the job and started focusing on the beauty that was before him.

"Hmm? What's up?" Laz asked in encouragement.

"I was wondering if you wanted to go get some coffee this afternoon. If you're free?"

"Oh? Like a date?" Laz asked as he perked up.

"Date? No.. no... just.. a uh, thank you. You've honestly been doing so much for us and we have pretty much done nothing in return.."Leona's words just kind of kept coming out. She really did feel this way, but it was also because she had a lot of questions about him and wanted to get to know him better. Luckily, she stopped before she blurted out that part.

"Close enough for me. I'm in," Laz said without thinking about it. He was actually kind of excited since he hadn't really gone on a normal date before, minus that one time bowling with Kat. Dating someone else would be a fun experience for him.

"You? Wait.. close enough? So? Never mind. Alright, I'll meet you at the coffee shop across from the grocery store at 4. Is that ok?"

"Sure. I will be there!" Laz knew where she was talking about. It wasn't exactly a coffee shop since the town wasn't big enough for something like that. It was actually just a restaurant that served all sorts of coffee based drinks and tried to model themselves as a coffee shop, but sold all types of food. Still, if you wanted to go someplace within walking distance, this was pretty much it.

"Alright. I'm going home to get cleaned up, see you then," Leona smiled as she walked away. The bright smile on her pretty face completely killed Laz's sense of her being cold in the slightest. A cold person just can't smile like that.

Just as Laz turned around, he saw Vivi glaring at him.

"What?"

*What? You ask what? Didn't you pay attention to a word I said last night about getting involved?*

"This isn't..."

*No. This is. I was there for the aftermath of you after what happened with Kat. You really want to go through that again?*

"This won't be anything like that. This is just a friendly thing and nothing more," Laz said with a seriousness in his voice. Hearing him talk like that caused Vivi to soften. She knew that he hadn't forgotten it. But she also knew he couldn't live in the past and expect to be ok. If anything, she should be happy that he was actually going out. She was just worried. But since he felt it was going to be ok, she wasn't going to press anymore. She knew he would never forget Kat, but also knew he needed something like this to help him move on.

*Alright. Fine. But you better bring me back a vanilla latte. No mocha crap this time or else I'm going to vomit it up in your bed,* Vivi warned strongly before heading inside the camper. Left all alone, Laz couldn't help but say,

"But... it's your bed too..."

Chapter end