Destined: 2 Be Continued

42. Tea

Jeremiah, calmly as can be, got dressed and ready for the day of whatever was going to happen. He stepped into the eating room and was pleased to see that everyone was there. He told them about Vilor, the incessantly talking moth, and gave August the coordinates. That was the end of that. 

He decided to chat with Heather, so five minutes after breakfast was over, he and she were sitting in wicker chairs across from each other, enjoying nice peppermint tea.

"What did you want to talk about?" Heather asked. Immediately, Jeremiah remembered what that abomination(but not one as bad as Muskrel) had told him--the taunt about how foolish and weak Heather was. Heather's knuckles whitened, and she smirked as Jeremiah told her what he thought about it.

"I was considering letting you turn into Beast Form and crush his skull a thousand times over. Based on his boasting, I'm not even sure he knows about that," he said.

"We'll catch him off guard if he doesn't, and I'll get to brutally crush his skull," Heather responded, her eyes full of hunger for battle. Jeremiah smiled at her love for crushing the puny skulls of those who defied her and her strength. 

It was astonishing, though, that Heather wouldn't have been so confident had Jeremiah not failed. If he had let the others fight Locust instead of sacrificing Marionette(who willingly volunteered, mind you), he would have stayed a master of shadow. Certainly each of the battles would have gone differently, especially Muskrel's battle. Without Jeremiah's Light of Hope, Alex wouldn't have been able to protect his teammates and Heather wouldn't have been able to crush Muskrel's face. Not to mention, he wouldn't have known about the Absurdly Violent Explosion in La Armadura, which pretty much saved the others.

"If I wasn't a master of hope that could turn you into a fire-breathing, flying gorilla, what would you have said instead of crushing his skull?" Jeremiah asked.

"I don't know," Heather answered, kind of baffled. "I guess I barely think about it, what with all the reliance we've had on Beast Form. Tree Form is kind of a disappointment, though, I may add. No offense."

"None taken. Don't apologize for the truth."

"What does that remind me of?"

"Don't worry about it. Say, what do you think about Alex and Penny?"

"Oh, I love those kids."

"Me, too, definitely."

"The way that Alex protected us when we fought Muskrel--goodness gracious, that was only yesterday--he was so dutiful and calm about it. Penny was filled with righteous anger in that fight, shooting so many poison arrows at that atrocity. It was a shame he just absorbed its power, but we had no idea about that capabilities of his abilities." Jeremiah knew Heather was right; anything that was a failure wasn't really those kids' fault. Muskrel was tough, and merciless, too. 

"Well, what else do you want to talk about?" Jeremiah asked.

"I don't know. Say, I actually do have a question," Heather answered, but the way she said it made Jeremiah feel uncomfortable.

"Shoot," Jeremiah allowed nonetheless.

"You're not...in love with me, are you?" Jeremiah was flabbergasted. "Heather, those are things that teenagers discuss, who likes who and all that," he spluttered. Heather seemed to notice that he hadn't actually answered her question, but she let him go anyway. Jeremiah stepped out of her room, wiping his forehead. 

It was getting weird between him and Heather.

As Jeremiah stepped into the training room, he saw Alex and Penny seeming to do a little target practice. Alex was flying around the room at high speeds while Penny seemingly shot painting darts at him--like paint balls, but darts, so that they would work on a crossbow.

Alex stopped when he saw Jeremiah walk in. His chest and face were covered in many colors of paint, so Jeremiah made the assumption that Penny was really good at hitting quickly moving objects.

"Anything we can help you with?' Penny asked, making sure Alex didn't fall over from exerting his wind power too much.

"Nothing, actually," Jeremiah answered. "Nothing so far."

"Want to train with us? Actually, that would be a great idea. You know a little about Vilor. What can you tell us about him?" Alex asked. Jeremiah really appreciated that he was directly on top of things. He and the rest of the team hadn't been like that--mostly because the guardians of the pylons sort of forced them to not work as a team. With the insect brothers, they could work together however they wanted, and for good reason, too. Muskrel would have defeated any Destined in a one-on-one scenario. Jeremiah shivered at the thought of it.

"Yeah, sure, I can definitely help you with that," Jeremiah told them. "Let's see...Vilor definitely mentioned hypnosis and mind games, so maybe he has some sort of psychic powers? He also may have said something about magic. We basically would have to hit him as quickly as we possibly can so that he can't start hypnotizing us, but I'm not sure about the mind games."

"What do you mean?" Penny asked.

"Well, the phrase 'mind games' is kind of a loose definition. I don't know how such things would work, or if the moment we even saw him, the world would start twisting...I have no clue. Heather might have something about him in the Book of Necessity, but I don't feel like talking to her right now." Alex seemed a little suspicious at the last sentence, but if Penny shared the feeling, she definitely didn't show it. 

"No problem, Jeremiah! We'll just ask her for help ourselves," she assured him, pulling Alex into Heather's room with her. Jeremiah gave a little salute of appreciation and walked on.

He thought a little about the fight with Vilor. What would happen? What tactics would a moth use? And what in the peafunk was a mind game? Jeremiah needed to figure these things out, and he needed to figure them out quickly.  

Jeremiah walked into his room, determined on trying to figure out what a mind game was. Maybe Vilor would slip up in one of the dreams. No matter what, Jeremiah was going to squash that pretentious moth.