The Immortal Mist

Ch. 5

Vira awoke with a start, bolting upright to look around the room. She didn't recall falling asleep.
Was everything that happened just a dream?
She shook her head, dismissing the thought. Surely she would have woken up at the first jump.

Swinging her legs over the side of the bed, she glanced out the window, seeing that it was around the middle of the day.

She jumped out of bed, dressing quickly and running down the stairs.

The minute she stepped down, she felt two pairs of long arms wrap around her as she was pulled into a tight embrace.

"Thank the gods, I thought you'd never wake up!"
Mana exclaimed, his voice muffled against her hair.

Vira sighed, looking up to meet Mana's gaze when he pulled away.
She then noticed Erin behind them, sitting with her father and the innkeeper.

Once she had made sure Mana was in good condition, she walked over to the two, glancing at her father before looking Erin over.

The hunter was covered in bandages and bruises, and his left leg and right wrist were broken, wrapped in thick gauze.

"I can't believe you two survived that."                                                                                                                        Vira murmured, astonished.                                                                                                                                              "Especially you, Mana, how did you get out of there without a scrape on you?"

"Trust me."
Mana smirked, and tapped his chest.
"My exoskeleton is stronger than you think."

"Do moths even have exoskeletons?"
Erin wondered aloud, looking down.

"Of course we do."
Mana waved him off with a shrug.

Apollo cleared his throat, standing up quickly.
"Vira, I wanted to talk to you about yesterday."
He stated, looking nervous.

"I- Look, I don't know what that was either. It was really weird, I know, but- I think it could be good? It obviously scared that thing away, didn't it?"
Vira rambled, tail lashing nervously.

"Woah-Slow down. I wasn't about to scold you for it- I actually, I might know why this is happening."
Apollo sighed, placing a paw on her shoulder.
"Let's go upstairs to talk about this, yeah?"
He offered.

"Y-yeah."
Vira agreed with a nod.

Out of the corner of her eye, she swore she saw Mana's antennae twitch out of irritation, but she chalked it up to nerves and exhaustion.

When they had arrived in Vira's room, and had the door shut, Apollo sighed, running a paw down his face.

"Look- This is hard for me to...explain, but, I'll try my best."
He sat down next to her on the bed, looking her in the eyes.
"It comes from your mother. Your real mother. I know that for a fact."

Vira sucked in a sharp breath, digging her claws lightly into the bedsheets at the mention of her mother.

"Cal was...A very special woman. She could do things that you could never imagine an ordinary Vivari doing. And her beauty was...otherworldly. First you inherited her looks, and then developed her personality, and now...you're getting her...gifts."

Vira blinked. She had heard many amazing things about her mother. But...what had happened with the fox monster. That was from her mom?
"Gifts..?"
She mumbled, rolling her shoulders in attempts to ease away the tension building up.

"Vira, your mother was one with the night. An extraordinary pairing of light and darkness. You're...a lot more like her than I originally thought."
Apollo laughed under his breath, eyes blurry as his mind went elsewhere.
"It will all make sense in due time. Just know that...I feel like you're going to play a part in something huge."
He sighed, getting up and walking to the door.
"I love you, Vira."
He added before leaving, shutting the door quietly.

Vira stared at the door for a moment, burying her face in her paws.

•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•~•  

"You shouldn't let me slow down your training."
Erin sighed, resting his head in his hands. 
"I'm sure Mana knows at least something, why don't you two go? You can borrow my sword, too."

Mana glanced away, shrugging.
"I know a bit, but I'm really rusty."

"It's fine. Come on, show me what you got."
Vira offered, grabbing his arm to pull him up from the seat.

"Uh- okay."

Vira dragged Mana out to the field, bouncing on her heels eagerly.
"Alright. Do your worst."
Vira smirked, flipping her blade around in her paw for a moment while Mana got used to the weight of the sword.

"Go easy on me, yeah? I haven't done this in a while."
Mana questioned, smiling nervously.

"No promises."
Vira laughed, before rushing forward to make the first move.

She gasped as she felt Mana's leg sweep her feet, before two of his four arms grabbed her by the arm and flipped her over his shoulder.
She wheezed out a breath, choking when Mana stepped on her chest, wrenching her blade from her grip and pointing it and his own at her throat.

Vira stared up at him in shock, jaw slack.
"You call that rusty?!"
She exclaimed, eyes wide.

"I mean...well, yeah...no?"
Mana glanced around for a moment, before stepping off of Vira, and dropping the blades to the ground.

"You have seriously got to teach me that!"
Vira grinned, eyes shining.

"It was more of a reflex than anything, really..."
Mana reached up to rub the nape of his neck, chuckling nervously.

"Well, it was amazing! Erin's never been able to do anything like that! You need to teach me. I can't wait to see the look on his face-!"
Vira jumped to her feet, her tail beating the air.

"I...I guess I could try...?"

"No- You need to focus less on force and more on using my weight to your advantage. You're too...small, to do everything by force!"
Mana groaned, picking Vira back up off of the ground.

"Here, just..."
He nudged Vira gently, guiding her into a better position directly infront of him.
"Now, when I'm coming at you, don't try and throw me. Just...I'm much heavier than you, so try and use the momentum and my weight to guide me along...if that makes sense."

He backed up slowly, before charging at the Vivari.
Panicked, she grabbed him by the arms, twisting her body around sharply.

Mana gasped, falling forward onto the ground, pulling her down ontop of him.
"That was- better, but try to let go of me next time?"
He laughed, lightly pushing her off and rolling over onto his back. 

"I panicked!"
Vira defended herself, throwing her hands in the air.

"Yeah, well, maybe don't?"
Mana suggested, playfully nudging her.

"Yeah...okay." She sighed.

"It's getting late. How about we practice more tomorrow?"

"Got it."
Vira pushed herself off of the ground, stretching her arms over her head.