The Academy: Come with me if you want to live; part two/conclusion

Wish upon a shooting star;
For dreams and things that never are.

Courage awoke to see Connor sleeping alone. Guessing it to be a dream or the product of her still overactive imagination, the golden mare smiled and stroked along the colt’s red skin before wandering away from him. Upon reaching a stream, her water element stretched its legs and playfully began molding the water like a sculpture. Remembering her dream, her fire element made the golden mare into a small beacon of light as she continued to daydream and the two elements acted off of her imagination. As the small ball of water began to take shape into a furry creature, Courage remembered healing her son near the water’s edge. Glancing over at the bank and seeing nothing, she shook her head. It was the most realistic dream ever concocted in her mind. And so she thought nothing of it. Sighing, her water element finished its work of making the water into an exact replica of the cub she dreamed of last night. Abban, she thought to herself with a smile. A splash interrupted her thoughts, and the manipulation of a bear cub splattered back into the liquid pool. Courage turned her head to see nothing in the water. Taking a few steps downstream to see where she had left her son, it was a hair-raising moment when she saw him still sleeping. Using her Nidor Nex she watched the water. When finally the water’s surface broke again to reveal its disturbance, Courage nearly fell over backwards at the discovery.

’You called me?’ asked the cub in a childish, almost preciously soft voice. Courage’s water element reached out to the young albino cub, splashing him playfully as her fire curiously invaded his privacy and tried to burn him away; of course it was a plan foiled by her water. The cub pawed at both, unafraid of what they might do to him. The golden mare silenced her playful yin and yang elements, turning to the cub. ”Am I still asleep?” asked Courage. The cub glanced up at her with a quizzical gaze, finally pawing at her extended curious nose. When his paw touched her skin, Courage knew it was not a dream and flung herself back immediately into a nearly sitting position on the banks of the river. Glancing beside her, she could see the small traces of blood where she had healed her son. With a gaping mouth, she turned again to the cub. ”You’re my…” she began in a whispering, shocked voice as her thoughts began to inundate her mind to the point of being unable to make sense of them. In her confusion, however, the cub finished her sentence for her. ’Familiar,’ he said in a funny laugh. ’I thought you’d be smarter.’ Courage straightened from examining the blood, feeling a moment of Kratos taking over her body and puffing out her chest as she responded in her head: ”I thought you’d be bigger.” For a moment, the cub regarded her with a glare, but Courage sighed and pressed her nose close to him so they were at the same level. ”You’ll grow,” she said with a smile to the cub. He straightened, pawing her nose with a little less force behind it this time. ’You’ll learn,’ he responded.

And then a rustling of hooves met the two, who turned to see young Connor awake and bounding down the stream towards them. ”What is that, mom?” asked the colt as he ambled closer. Courage smiled to her son as he neared them. Abban straightened and let his eyes wander over the colt, as if sizing him up. ”This is Abban, Connor,” she said through her smile as she looked from Connor to Abban. ”This is my familiar,” she said to Connor’s confused glance. Abban made a sound, coupled with a reply: ’He takes after his mother I see.’ The reply got a glare from Courage, whose water element splashed the cub in the face at an unexpected moment. Connor laughed at the antics of the cub, which of course made Courage laugh as well. Laughter erupted into the forest, and the trio began their journey back to the center of Solira.

AP: C O U R A G E

Water III | Fire III

Nidor Nex

Greek Fire