I Don't Believe in Ghosts {Remington Leith}

23

Remington couldn't believe how lucky he actually was. Here was this girl, scratch that- this full grown woman- who has seen suffering and is suffering, dedicating so much time and effort to him and his advancement. But he also couldn't believe how incredibly selfish she was. Kristen was here, pushing her feelings aside for the sole purpose to bettering her friends, which was selfish to herself. She was too focused on her friends, instead of what Remington thought was more important: herself.

"Remington, are you listening to me?"
"Huh, what?" His eyes cleared and his head lurched up to look into her eyes sheepishly. "No, sorry." He rubbed the back of his neck briefly. Kristen popped her hip and placed her hand on her waist, the other one hanging limply by her thigh.
"Do you want to tell me what's so captivating that you couldn't at least pretend what I was saying was worth listening to?" She sassed, eyebrows popping up as she wordlessly dared Remington to talk back. In this moment, she was the wall between him and death, and all Kristen wanted to do was protect him from death.

"Uh, no I'm good." Remington cleared his throat, flushing from the embarrassment of being caught zoning out. "Please, continue. Or start over." Kristen rolled her eyes and started again, talking about how he needed to have an image in mind to draw power off of, something inspiring and vast. She said her personal favorite was a flat opening in a snow covered forest, untouched by life and pure. Silently, Remington decided his image would be her: laying by him, surrounded by a fluffy comforter and smiling to the ceiling with her cheeks dusted pink.

"So, what I want you to do is take the dove, name him, then make a shadow of him. A spirit shadow, extract his essence and make a see through copy of him." Kristen said, demonstrating for Remington. "It won't hurt him." The dove on Remingtons shoulder cocked it's head, and an tinted pink exact copy of the animal appeared on Kristen's shoulder. She petted it's head, revealing it to be a solid form. With a closer examination, it looked like a gem. Clear, tinted, and solid but still glimmering.

"So this isn't contingent on my skill set? Like, it's universal, so Emerson and Sebastian could do it?" Remington asked as he took the dove on his shoulder and holding it in his hands. "How you doing Juno?" He whispered, the feeling his breath making the dove readjust it's wings.
"Every novice should be able to do this. It's called Impression. The only difference between you and your brothers will be the size and accuracy of your impressions, and the color. His name is Juno?" Kristen sidetracked.

"Yea, he just feels like a Juno." Remington smiles, the way he was holding the bird would make it look like he was staring at it, but he was really staring at Kristen. He noticed her eyes lit up when she looked at the bird, and it made him think she liked animals, she find joy in their presence.
Kristen smiles, using two fingers to pet down Judo's neck and between his wings. "We can call him Bastard for short. Little guy kept pecking me earlier, almost snapped his neck so you could fix him today, and I could get some frustration out."

Remington looked at her warily, but breathed out a chuckle nonetheless. "You're a little.. aggressive today." His smile widened as she rolled her eyes at his teasing.
"Got a lot on my mind." She sighed, a ghost of a smile tugging on her features. She rubbed her forehead, and looked like she was about to vent, but stopped herself suddenly. Her eyes twitched up to look at Remingtons smug smile, narrowing. "Hey! You distracted me!" Kristen accused.
"You're always distracting me, gorgeous." Remington returned with a wink. He found special joy in her speechless expression. It was obvious that she wasn't used to that kind of attention, that or he caught her unawares.

"S-stop. Be serious." She chokes out, face turning apple red as she fidgeted with her fingers. Remington wished he could make her stop, she would make herself bleed if she kept scratching, but he had to hold Juno with both hands like a responsible pet owner.
"You get flustered so easily, it's adorable."
"Okay, okay. Leave me alone, you're confusing me."

This brought many questions to Remingtons mind, such as "confused? What about?" And other things along those lines. How was she confused? Maybe it was about her feelings towards him. Or her interpretation of him. Maybe he was just being arrogant and presumptuous to think she was confused over him.
"Alriiiight. So, I just-" Remington made a motion like taking two parts of a while and separating them so half laid in each hand, and a black tinted reflection of the bird in front of him appeared in his empty hand. "-like that?" He looked at Kristen, who had so much pride and happiness in her eyes, it just barely overshadowed her stress.

"Exactly like that." Kristen clapped, jumping up a little in excitement. "Nice!" She gasped as she got an idea, then smirked mischievously. "Now let's try a dragon!!"
Remington blinked, birds in his hands. "A what?"