Children of a Lesser God

Chapter 77: The Monster

Both Laz and Aqua looked at Malene, then at each other and then back at Malene again as she sobbed as quietly as she could into her hands. Neither had any idea what caused it, so both just assumed it was because of each other.

"Um... Mistress? He doesn't actually seem that bad. Maybe just a tad bit slow... Oh hey!" Aqua turned to look at Laz.

"Hi human, my name is Aqua." The little blue spirit extended it's hand out as though it wanted to shake hands. Laz, quick to catch on, extended out his finger in return.

"Name's Lazarus, but I go by Laz." One spirit and one young man shook hands while turning their heads to see Malene's reaction.

Although she didn't really know what these two were doing, it was rather funny to watch the little spirit shake Laz's finger. Even though she still had tears in her eyes, she couldn't help but let out a bit of a chuckle at the same time.

"I'm fine," Malene commented while wiping her eyes. She actually did feel a lot better after getting out a few tears. Since Laz could see Aqua, that reassured Malene quite a bit. Even without trying, it seemed the young man had already helped her with some of her problems.

"Anyway, I really want to know something." Malene brought her face up to look at Laz with a curiosity written all over it.

"Yes?" Laz responded.

"How can you see Aqua?"

"How can I not? It's right here in front of me," Laz brought his hands up and gestured at Aqua who was still hovering right in front of him.

"But, no one else can see Aqua," Malene commented back.

"Oh?" Laz just looked at the spirit as the spirit looked right back at him.

"She's right. I should be invisible to everyone else, unless..." The spirit stopped speaking and flew up really quickly to Laz's face. Laz jumped in shock a bit, but relaxed quickly since the spirit just hovered there and looked at his eyes.

"Unless..?" Laz asked, a bit curious.

"Unless you can actually see energy, or chi, or mana, or whatever you want to call it." Aqua was still inspecting Laz's eyes as it reached out and grabbed his eye lid during his search and pulled it up. Aqua then proceeded to poke at Laz's eyeball hard, immediately causing him to shut it quickly as he started to tear up.

"Damn it, what did you do that for?" Laz asked, rubbing his eye.

"I was just wondering if it was fake..." Aqua didn't seem too apologetic.

Laz just gave Aqua a glare as a question formed in his mind.

"What do you call the energy then? Considering it's what you are made up of, you must have a name for it right?"

"Well, I call it source essence as that's the name that just kind of fills my head when I think about it. Energy is too general a term, chi is too narrow and mana has too many different formats based on your culture. Where as source essence covers the different forms of energy that are now present with the return of the Ancient One." Aqua said, shaking his head knowingly.

"The Ancient One?" Laz couldn't help but inquire..

"Uh.... I think you people are calling it the world tree or something along those lines..." Aqua replied after thinking about it for a moment.

"Then why do you call it the Ancient One?"

"I don't know. It's just the name that appears in my head." Aqua shrugged.

Laz turned to Malene to find her back to normal and just watching him and the spirit interact. She quickly noticed him staring at her as though asking her thoughts.

"Aqua just kind of showed up one day. At first, Aqua was just a light with no body or substance that just floated around me that no one could see either. However, one day, when I awoke, that all changed. I was playing with the light in my hand and kind of wished for it to become a little fairy that could grant wishes and poof, there was Aqua." Malene relayed some of her tale and she knew she needed to explain some things to Laz.

"And does he grant wishes?" Laz asked, quite curious.

"It's... hard to explain. And like I said, spirits have no genders," Malene said, reminding him. It was something Aqua had told to Malene when it first manifested.

"Well, I'm going to refer to it as a he since he is an asshole," Laz declared. In his mind, it didn't really matter what it actually was, Laz was just going to go off it's personality since it felt really funny to just call it Aqua all the time.

Aqua didn't say anything, apparently still interested in Laz's eyes. Laz, in turn, asked Malene,

"How does he know how to speak out language and such?" Laz asked, slightly curious.

"Internet and language apps, Aqua is actually really intelligent." Malene replied, somewhat proud. It was the first time she got to talk with someone who could actually see the spirit so, like a mother showing off it's baby, Malene felt pride in every one of Aqua's accomplishments.

"Ok... Let's go with that for now," Laz sighed, not totally believing it.

"Anyway, you said something about a monster?" Laz asked, changing the subject.

"Yeah. It's been around my house for the last couple days and there is no way Aqua and I can beat that thing."

"Have you tried?"

"I can't really fight myself, but Aqua is pretty good at it. So, after we figured out it was out there, he went to go take look. As soon as Aqua got close, the thing attack and tried to eat him. Luckily, Aqua got away." Malene explained.

"So does that mean that it is a Source based creature, like Aqua? It would have to be to be able to see him and try to eat him right?" Laz, putting the pieces he had gotten so far, came up with the question. After all, Aqua was made of the source essence or energy. Laz could touch him since Laz had energy in him, but otherwise he would be totally unable to, just like everyone else Malene tried to talk to about Aqua. It was one of the reasons that no one would believe her. Therefore, for this creature to be able to see him, it would have to have source essence or be a source creature.

Since Laz hadn't heard about other monsters walking around, he felt it was more likely to be a source creature, like a spirit. Malene's next words dispelled his theory.

"No. It can knock down trees and stuff. Actually, since i can share Aqua's vision, I would say it kinda looks like..." Malene was tapping on her chin as though deep in thought while Laz just waited. Aqua had decided Laz wasn't interesting anymore and began to fly around the little apartment.

"I would say it mostly resembles a large bear..."

"A bear... like, bear, bear?" Laz couldn't believe what he was hearing. She was being stalked and/or hunted by a bear?

"Yeah, but it looks all different now. Like, it used to be a bear and still is, but it's not a bear either."

Laz was now more confused and it didn't seem like Malene wanted to clarify anything. He just didn't know if it was because she didn't want to tell him or that she couldn't. Either way, he figured he was going to go check this thing out and see what it was, one way or the other. He could only shake his head at this thought of helping this girl.

"Alright, I guess I'm going to come take a look at this thing," Laz sighed, not sure why he was agreeing.

If he was smart, he would have stayed away. But he got this feeling like maybe he needed to help her? It was kind of difficult to put into words. At the same time, a crash sounded in the bedroom along with a growling noise. Laz, thinking about the little wolf, suddenly bolted up and ran in while Malene followed close behind.

When they got there, Laz saw a strange sight. The little wolf was still laying on the bed while Aqua was arguing with it. At the same time, Laz's lamp had crashed to the floor.

"What do you mean it's my fault? If you didn't scare the life out of me, I wouldn't have hit it."

...

"Not your fault you were here first? You didn't even make a noise when I came in and just watched me fly around. How was I suppose to know you were there?"

...

This whole time, as far as Laz could here, the little wolf didn't make a noise. It just stared at the spirit who was hovering around in a fluster.

"She's right Aqua. You should have been a bit calmer and more observant when you came in," Malene interjected.

Laz then turned to look at Malene who had just spoke while looking at the two of them.

"You can understand it? And you called it a she?" Laz was wondering what the hell was going on while his mind was working over time.

"Of course it's a she. She said I can call her Vivi," Malene responded while walking over and sitting by the wolf. She reached out to pet it but stopped before she actually touched Vivi. The small wolf then proceeded to sniff her hand a bit before stopping and looking at Malene.

"Oh? I don't smell as good as him? What's that about?" Malene questioned Vivi.

"Ah, I see. Why can't he understand you then?" Malene asked as she reached out and gently stroked Vivi's fur.

"Ah, uh... well..."

"What did she say?" Laz couldn't help but ask. There were way to many things happening today that he didn't understand. Adding on one more thing was just starting to drive him nuts.

"Well..." Malene looked at Aqua who had a rather large smile on his face and nodding his head as though he was agreeing with it. He didn't actually say anything though.

"What?" Laz demanded, a bit more forcefully than he wanted. Malene lowered her head took a deep breath.

"She says... You're an idiot."

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