Caged Dragon

Chapter 27

Somewhere in the Celestial Spirit world 

(Aries POV) 

"Again," Leo told me, as I pulled my shield up again, blocking his sword, Ras Elased, with my shield, Hamal's Horns, it took the strike with ease. Leo had offered to help me get used to using Hamal again after all it had been in the armory for so long, my skills had gotten a bit rusty. 

"Leo, how are you getting along with the Leo Minors?" I asked as we continued to train.

"They never stopped training with their blades, even after we locked their real ones away," Leo answered to me, he was referring to the Praecipua. They're blades that were forged from the same star as Leo's claws, the star of Regulus. 

"So, you are getting along then," I confirmed, some of the keys that belonged to the Leo Minors also belonged to Celestial Spirit mages in Earthland. I was worried that they might not like it if they had to follow Leo's orders again, when they already had their own mages to worry about. Leo and I continued with our small talk for a few more hours as we continued to spar.

"I think that is enough weapon training," Leo told me, sheathing his sword. 

"What are we working on now?" I asked him very, well, sheepishly. 

"Let's work on our other forms," he told me. He was talking about the forms we got from the experiments that the scientists did. I didn't tell Lucy about my other form, because I was worried that she would feel even worse about what happened. 

"Okay," I agreed, and I started to transform into my other form, a ram. I felt my wool grow to engulf my form, when I opened my eyes and saw that I was standing over Leo, in my giant, pink wool form. I moved around to get used to the horns' weight on my head and moved on four feet. 

After a flash of light, I looked over at Leo, who stood in his own animal form. He was a giant, golden lion that wore stellanium armor. His mane was a golden color with bits of light brown strands running through it. Leo's eyes had turned more golden than his normal hazel. 

"Okay, I am going to keep my claws in, so that I don't hurt you, but if you do get hurt you will go to Ophiuchus or one of the other healers, okay." Leo told me telepathically, another new skill that was given to us, I nodded.  

"You will do the same if you get hurt as well," I told him in reply.

Leo made the first move. He charged forward and raised his front paw to attack me, I blocked it with my horns. I rammed forward, his paw stuck on my horns, trying to knock him onto his back. He planted his back paws down, continuing his attack, using my horns as a brace trying to push me down. I reared up on my hind legs to push him off, but he had dug his claws into my horns and pushed me back down. I changed tactics, rushing forward to hit him in the stomach and I struck with my horns, which Leo returned with a tap on my side with the pads of his paw. 

We had continued to spar like this, him hitting me with his paw or I with my horns, until Crux had come to tell us that we needed to eat. We returned to our original forms and went over to where the food was. 

Our hair was a mess after changing back, so on the way there as we followed Crux, Leo took his claws and combed through my hair with them. I did the same to him with a small brush that Cancer had given me a while back.

"We are here," Crux told us when we arrived at a small restaurant, called The Starry Hound. The restaurant was run by a group of Canis Venatici, a group of Canis Majors that form a group and gain the ability to change into a human shape. Crux lead us into the establishment and then stopped and turned to tell us something.