A Special Mage (Ike x OC)

Chapter 10 - Startling Connections

"Are you seriously still sleeping in there?" Ranulf yelled.

It was the evening on the same day as my first battle. The window in my room was letting in a bright, orange light from the setting sun, which meant that I had 'napped' for a good three or more hours.

"Wake up right now, there isn't much time!" He sounded frantic.

"Hold on!" I immediately righted myself and threw on my torn robes backwards to keep my brand obscured. Then, I clumsily ran to the door, somehow managing to trip over nothing a few feet before finally opening it. "What's going on?" I asked, nervously scanning the cat's smiling face.

"Nothing really, but you can't sleep all day if you wanna stay nimble!" He grinned widely.

My face dropped. "Stay nimble for what? I'm...nimble enough, thank you." So nimble, in fact, that I tripped over nothing on the way to the door. "And besides, aren't you a cat? A cat who sleeps all day?" I teased.

Ranulf shook his head and laughed. "...No! Even cats like me get up and stretch once in a while. C'mon I'll show you some good ones." He pushed past me and let himself into the room, raising his arms up in the air while breathing comically loud. "But seriously, it helps with sore muscles after tough battles. Try this."

He showed me this weird stretch that I didn't think I could pull off, but it was much easier than it looked. And it felt...amazing! But to my dismay, someone began pounding on the door, interrupting my very brief period of zen.

"Come on innnnn!" Ranulf sang.

The door opened, and my entire being jumped. It was, of course, none other than General Ike.

"Hey, Ranulf," he said. He glanced in my direction as well, but he didn't even bother addressing me, which was kind of unsettling.

"Oh hey, Ike. How goes it?" Ranulf wobbled a little as he entered a tree pose. "Care to join us?"

The confused general looked back and forth between Ranulf and I, then he finally said, "is this some kind of weird training routine?"

Upon hearing the general's question, Ranulf froze, then stared at him for a solid ten seconds before dropping his pose and bursting out into a crazed fit of laughter. "Ohhhh that's a good joke, Ike, you really got me there, you know that?" he cackled, wiping away a tear from the corner of his green eye.

"Um," General Ike eyed my closed-off figure, as if I knew what was happening any better than he did. "What did I say that was funny?"

Ranulf nearly lost it again. "Who do you think I am, Ike? You? Hah! Yeah right. I don't train, buddy. Especially not as a two-legger." The cat wagged his tail. "I was just chilling out here, stretching, talking with my favorite girl. You know. To relax and unwind!"

Our general, still dumbfounded, didn't respond. He just stood there and stared at the two of us.

"Right," Ranulf said, breaking the silence. "I forgot. You wouldn't know a thing about relaxing."

Pffffffff. I stifled my laughter and covered my mouth so the general wouldn't see me smiling in response to Ranulf's comment. Though I'm sure he noticed anyway, because my eyes were squinted and my face was very rapidly reddening.

"Well, that's disappointing," General Ike said, looking EXTREMELY unamused. "You should teach me your lazy ways."

Wait, he's playing along? This is so unlike him, I thought, unable to control my laughter any longer.

"Hey, just 'cause I'm not swinging some hunk of metal around, doesn't mean I'm lazy!" Ranulf crossed his arms, closed his eyes, and turned his head away in an effort to look angry. "Quite the opposite actually. I'm exercising my mind. But you wouldn't know about that either. Dummy." He opened his green eye to take a peek at our general's bewildered expression.