Divinitas

035 - The Chimera\'s Gift

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The scene Aether returned to was... strange. His conversation with Casi had caused both of them to miss the announcements made by the instructor concerning the Equestrian Skills exam, and most of the other groups had already left. Indeed, only Casi\'s and his own group were left.
the the strangeness was caused by his own. Chima and Phoenix were both laughing so hard they had trouble staying upon their horses. Draco too was having a very hard time trying not to join the other two in laughing his ass off. As for Ari... Ari was smirking most satisfied with himself.

Gryps, however, looked ready to murder everyone.

One look at what was tied between Gryps\' behind and the seat of his saddle explained the reason for everyone\'s current occupation.

\"Really, Ari, couldn\'t you have been more considerate of your brother?\" Aether commented as he untied Shiro Tsuki\'s reins and looped them over her neck. He mounted his mare in a fluid movement, settling himself gracefully into the saddle. \"Obviously you have no idea how painful it is to ride a horse when that particular part of your body is sore.\"

\"Oh, I was considerate, Aether... I offered to play uke. He rejected me, so now he\'s simply paying the price,\" Ari answered, directing his smirk at the younger twin.

\"Just shut up, Ari... I am perfectly happy with my pillow.\"



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Anyone who has been on a trail ride for more than two or three hours will tell you that if you\'re not an experienced rider and fit, you\'re going to be sore for the next few days. And even if you\'re a fit and experienced rider, which all of these boys were, having undertaken Equestrian Skills for almost a full semester, riding for a full day isn\'t going to do anyone\'s behind any favors.

\"I can\'t move my legs,\" Phoenix said incredulously, staring at his legs crumpled underneath him. They had just sort of... given out as soon has he had dismounted from Solar Flare.

At this point, Gryps would have smirked and said \'Look who\'s laughing now!\' but he was in quite a bit of pain too. For one thing, his pillow was never going to be the same, having been sat on for a whole day.

Out of the group, only Chima and Yuki seemed unaffected by the long day\'s ride. The boy and the wolf were prancing around their camping group, which Chima had chosen when asked by Aether to pick a spot for them to rest for the night. Even Aether, who always carried with him an air of elegance and grace, was leaning heavily on his seemingly white mare.

\"Phoenix, I would act your devoted boyfriend and pick you up, but I\'m finding it hard to move myself,\" Aether spoke up, violet eye closed and cheek pressed up against the hot coat of his mare.

\"Nuuggghh...\" was all Phoenix managed to reply with.

It was quite a while before anyone got it into their heads to take care of the horses and to set up camp. Of course, Draco at once stressed over how they were going to keep the horses from wandering away in the night but Chima just laughed and said they wouldn\'t because he had already asked them to stay. Draco was about to argue at how illogical that sounded, but Aether just handed him a tent and told him to put it up and leave the horses to the younger boy.

The sky had fully darkened by the time the company sat down around the embers of their fire to watch it slowly roast their dinner of baked potatoes and chicken. Chima was happily poking at the ashes with a s, th, the only one aside from Yuki who looked like they had any life in them.

\"This has got to be the worse exam ever devised...\" Phoenix muttered finally to break the silence that had befallen the whole group.

\"One thing we agree on, Incendium,\" Gryps said dryly. His long braid was loose and strands of his silver hair fell messily down his back.

\"After this... I think I\'m almost glad to be taking written exams for the other subjects next week...\" the usually fiery boy continued to mope.

\"Really?\" Chima spoke up, looking up from the red embers and fixing his bright green eyes on the exhausted red eyed boy. \"I prefer this over written exams any day! Written exams are boring, and you have to study for them, and then you get yelled at if you get a crappy mark... But with this, you get to spend three days out of that stuffy castle!\"

\"Don\'t you like the Castle of Genesis, Chimaera?\" Aether asked, his amethyst eye fixed up on the Heavens rather that looking at the younger boy.

The emerald eyes locked on Aether, a second of silence falling over the young boy before it was broken by his pearls of laughter. \"Of course I do!\" he answered cheerfully. \"I just find it confusing... It makes my head spin every time I try to talk to it, so I\'m just glad to be outside!\"

The strange context of his words sparked the interest of the deflated party.

\"Talk to the castle?\" Phoenix wondered out loud.

Chima nodded enthusiastically.

\"No, seriously, I\'ve been meaning to ask you for ages now… What\'s your relation with other things?\" Phoenix demanded, pointing to Yuki with a glare as an example. The fiery boy and the wolf had never gotten along well with each other… Since after their first meeting, Phoenix had denied Yuki the pleasure of chewing on his hair.

Chima blinked. \"Don\'t you know?\" he wondered innocently. \"Oops. I think I forgot to tell anyone when I came here!\" he laughed. Yuki yelped and jumped up into the boy\'s arms, demanding a hug. \"I can talk to any living thing. Plants, animals, and Genesis \'cause its alive too, isn\'t that right, Yuki?\" The wolf gave a sharp yelp in affirmation. The boy beamed at the young wolf.

The group was silent in the wake of Chima\'s words.

\"Really?\" Phoenix asked disbelieving at last.

\"Actually, it\'s quite obvious Terra is telling the truth, Incendium,\" Gryps spoke up, giving Phoenix a \'you\'re so bloody thick\' look. \"Or don\'t you recall the time when we had to dress up like clowns and parade in front of the whole school? Everyone knew it was your fault because they had found out from Terra that you had gone prancing up to the Child of Soul\'s room in only your boxers. If it was not the wolf who had followed you into the Child of Soul\'s room, who could have told Terra, who told Lympha, and in turn was over heard by the everyone else?\"

\"The one time you decide to open your pretty little mouth and spew forth useless words is the one time where it would have been better had you kept it shut,\" Phoenix growled back, glaring at the silver haired boy tagged \'I am Gryps\'.

Gryps glared back, his eyes particularly cold and icy. There was an urge to kill present in the deadly gaze, hidden only under the veil of darkness.

Draco coughed politely. \"Have you always had this gift, Chima?\" the raven haired boy asked, directing the conversation back on track.

\"For as long as I can remember!\" the young boy answered cheerfully with a grin. \"Ne, you see, I\'m from the country. Like, country-country. I lived on a huge property that backed onto a nature reserve. So ever since I could walk I played out in the wilderness every chance I got. I never got lost or anything, and nothing every tried to hurt me. I had heaps of animal friends, and the trees often told me stories and stuff. I can\'t remember learning how to talk to them… I just always could…\"

\"And… your family knew about this?\" Draco questioned, looking deep in thought.

\"Well… Yes. I told them, but they didn\'t believe me. They just said, \'Awww, how cute!\' and hugged me then ushered me out to play,\" Chima answered, sticking his tongue out at his imaginary parents. \"But my best friend believed me! She and I were the same age and we got along heaps well! Everyone said we were \'two peas in a pod\'… whatever that meant…\"

\"You sounded really happy there,\" Phoenix observed, watching the happiness shinning from Chima as he remembered his childhood.

\"I was. Very, very happy. I loved everyone and everything there.\" Just a touch of melancholy coloured his voice.

\"Then why did you come here, Chimaera?\" Aether asked quietly, voicing the question that had formed in both Phoenix\'s and Draco\'s mind with hearing the boy\'s words.

A strange kind of smile spread over Chima\'s lips. \"Because Genesis asked me to. Because all the living things around me told me I should go.\" The words left unspoken echoed in Chima\'s mind. \'Because if I did not, something bad would happen to the people I loved… And I would have come out of necessity… To run away from the pain.\'

\"The Chimera\'s Gift,\" Ari spoke up, the words rolling simply and smoothly off his tongue, a slight smirk disfiguring his features.

\"From the Legend of Genesis,\" Gryps clarified when Chima stared blankly at Ari, uncomprehending. \"The Professor didn\'t say in class, but from the text he gave us, it said that one of the powers the Gf Eaf Earth possessed was the alibility to talk to all living entities.\"

\"Oh! Wow! I get what you\'re saying!\" the emerald eyed boy exclaimed. \"That I might be the reincarnated soul of the God of Earth! Ne, ne? Am I right? The True Child of Earth?\" he asked, grinning from ear to ear, eyes bright in the darkness.

Aether lowered his gaze from the Heavens and smiled at the boy. \"Yes, if you believe in legends, Chimaera.\" The golden haired youth picked up a stick and turned over the ashes, digging up the food that had been cooking within. \"You intend to become the Child of Earth for Metamorphosis, do you not? Then, if you really have the Chimera\'s Gift, the title was meant for you, wouldn\'t you say?\"

Chima, however, was already too busy trying to not burn his fingers unwrapping the freshly baked potatoes to listen to Aether\'s words.

\"I don\'t intend to become the Child of Fire.\"

Both Gryps and Aether locked their gazes on the fiery boy as he stood abruptly, an alien look in his blood coloured eyes.

\"I don\'t want to be connected to the God of Fire. I do not want to be associated with even a Legend that says the God of Fire was able to spew forth fire from his hands.\"

A heavy silence followed Phoenix\'s proclamation.

The haunted look faded from the boy\'s eyes, and a pale smile flickered over his lips. \"But… I\'ll still try out. So Ares won\'t say I didn\'t try at least. I don\'t want another ure ure from him. He talks at like a hundred miles and hour and it makes my ears hurt… Anyway! Let\'s eat! Our… dinner of ash sprinkled chicken and potato…\" He made a face but took the paper plate offer to him by Chima nevertheless.

\"You look thoughtful…\" Ari commented quietly to his twin as the group unwillingly picked at their so-called dinner.

\"If Phoenix does not become the Child of Fire, he will not receive the his weapon. To then awaken the Beast of Fire will be near impossible,\" was Gryps concise examination of their situation.

The older twin smirked. \"Don\'t you even think about trying that yourself, Gryps. And if you think Aether will let Phoenix purposely loose, then you are just as naïve as he is.\"

A better part of an hour passed before the group gave up on trying to down their food. Indeed, only Chima and Yuki had finished their portions and were actually full. Yuki had the delightful job (in his opinion) of eatihe lhe leftovers.

Once the group had cleaned and washed up in the nearby stream, Draco built up the fire agand pnd produced from somewhere a bag of marshmallows.

\"Why are you impaling the marshmallow on a stick?\" Phoenix asked, staring at Draco as if he had suddenly gone insane.

The older boy smiled at the innocent question. \"To toast it,\" he returned simply, and handed the long stick to Phoenix who took it whilst eyeing it suspiciously. \"People call it \'roasting marshmallows.\' It\'s a camping activity. I didn\'t know about it either until we went camping the year I took off from school to travel with my family.\"

\"Waaa! Thankyou Draco!\" Chima said joyfully when the older boy handed him a stick with three marshmallow\'s stuck on the end. The chestnut haired boy immediately stuck it into the heart of the fire, where the confectionary promptly melted and started to sizzle and burn black onto the stick itself. The stick then caught fire, and Chima pulled it out, waving it around to put out the flames. Of course, that only made everything burn faster.

Draco laughed softly whilst Phoenix just eyed the blackened stump wearily. \"The trick is to let the heat off the flames toast it… Not the flames itself.\"

Chima looked ready to cry until Draco handed him another stick.

\"This is peaceful, isn\'t it?\" the raven haired boy asked after having handed everyone their fire-sideert.ert. He easily rotated his stick in a near professional manner, roasting his marshmallows evenly on all sides until it was a golden brown.

\"Talk for yourself…\" Phoenix seethed, picking at the gooey substance stuck to his stick.

Draco just smiled again. This was peaceful for him. It brought back pleasant memories. Just himself, his Mother, his Father. Camping in some remote forest in a distant part of the world. There had been frost every morning and night, but also the clearestes ses studded with millions of stars.

Dark sapphire eyes closed as the boy tilted his head back, letting the light night breeze ruffle his long fringe. The duration of that year had been the happiest of his life. And the end of it had changed everything.

The older boy opened his eyes again when he felt Chima poking him with his marshmallow-sticky finger. \"Draco is reminiscing!\" he announced with a grin. \"Ne, ne, tell us about your past? We don\'t know anything about it!\"

Draco smiled softly, long slender fingers deftly pulling his perfectly toasted marshmallow off the stick and popping it in his mouth. \"My past?\" he mused once the sweet had dissolved. \"Do you really want to know?\"

Chima nodded enthusiastically, making Yuki nod his head as well.

\"Chima… Sometimes people don\'t like to talk about their past…\" Phoenix spoke up quietly. The hesitance and discomfort Draco had displayed in reference to his past when they first met had not faded from Phoenix\'s memories. This, at least, he could relate to. Pasts that did not wish to be voiced.

\"It\'s alright, Phoenix. You\'re my friends now. So I feel I can tell you.\"

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