Way Down We Go

Chapter 7

"Run?"

"Yes. Last time was too haphazard, it was too easy to push you to your limit and then some. So, we're taking it a step back."

"With...running?"

He smirked. "Yes, little one. You're going to learn to keep up with me."

She tried to hide her gulp.

"We'll start slow," he said, reassuringly. "Until you get a feel for tapping into the mana again. From there, it's a matter of understanding how long you can sustain it."

Joy. She couldn't help thinking but took a step closer to him.

"Ready?" he asked. She nodded.

He started them off at a nice jog, a pace she was comfortable with.

"What exactly should I be focusing on?" she asked. He thought for a moment.

"Keeping pace with me. The point is to try to not overexert yourself. We can try just sprinting or running using the mana later, but right now just getting used to the sensation of harnessing it for movement should be enough. It should, eventually, feel effortless, something you can tap into without thinking about it."

Asa started to go a bit faster, and she kept up with him. Rory tried to focus on the feeling of warmth she associated with the mana connecting to her and began to feel it in the necklace, heating up the pendant at the center.

He went faster, and she tried to do what he'd said. Rory kept her attention to wanting to keep pace with him with ease. She imagined flying along beside Asa, but it wasn't working. He was going too fast, and she was falling behind.

She shifted her attention, on just her own pace. She imagined just herself sprinting easily through the meadow, taking Asa out of the equation.

She flew past him, so fast she was a blur.

"Rory, wait!" Asa called, dashing to catch up to her. She let herself back down to a human walk.

"What happened?" he asked. She took a second to catch her breath as they continued to walk in a wide circle around the meadow.

"Focusing on keeping up with you didn't work," she said. "I had to focus on myself, on my own speed, on my own movement. I don't quite get why."

Asa's eyebrows were pushed together, he scratched his nose as he thought.

"Okay, okay. That's fine. It just means we need to rethink the strategy for this particular exercise. You can sprint away, great. But, imagine a chase occurring for a long period of time. You need to be able to ration that energy. Or if you just want to beat one of your friends in a race and make it look believable."

"I wouldn't--"

"I'm just saying," Asa smiled, "That you can't just shoot off like a cannon every time you use mana. Maybe it's better to picture a slow build, or increments. Do you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I do," She nodded. So, if she wanted to keep pace with him, she's start off at human speed, then focus on going a bit faster, and then a bit faster, and then a bit faster....and then flying across the grass like a blur and keep track of how she felt all the while.

"OK. Ready to try again?" he asked.

*

Rory collapsed onto the grass, and he handed her the water bottle.

"Next time, I'm bringing snacks too," she panted, chugging down water.

"You did good," Asa said, sitting down beside her. He'd made her go until she could match his pace, and then challenged her to two races. She'd lost, of course, but he felt better about her ability to pace herself already.

"See, now that's a compliment." She poked his arm. He snorted.

"I think you just like generic ones,"

They sat in silence for a few minutes while she rested, and Asa looked out at the sky. It was a beautiful shade of blue, with a few clouds floating along. He rested back on his elbows, the better to admire it.

"Hey, Asa?"

"Hm?"

"At the risk of your horns showing even more, can I ask a question?"

He suppressed the urge to laugh. "Let me ask you one first. If you were wary of angering a prickly demon, why make the horns comment?"

"Because I know literally nothing about demon kind, so if I make enough jokes about the human view of the supernatural world, maybe I'll eventually stumble upon something true. Or something that will make you laugh."

That was not the answer he'd expected, and he sat up, looking at her. She was sitting cross-legged beside him, squinting at him, a hand over her brow to protect her eyes from the sun. A gentle breeze picked up a few strands from her ponytail, blowing them around her head.

"What do you know about the supernatural world? What creatures do you know of, that humans have legends of?" he asked.

"I don't know. Just the typical ones. Vampires, werewolves, mermaids, sirens, griffins, phoenixes, witches, sorcerers, ghosts, dragons, fairies, pixies, giants, unicorns--"

"Okay, okay," He held up a hand. "I get the picture. What about demons? What have you heard about demons?"

"Oh, well," She thought for a moment, "Not too much. There are different types. Succubae and incubi. Tengu. The ones from hell. There are a lot of interpretations, I guess."

Asa let out a laugh.

"A few, sure. Succubae and incubi, yeah, we do get that. From humans with a flashing memory of the trance, when the demon isn't powerful or is too hungry to do it right. And some humans and demons get off on it. Who am I to judge? Rumors all stem from some fact. Tengu? Now, I've never tried to form wings, and the demon realm isn't that big, but that's not to say that in centuries past others didn't. And as for the rest, well, I guess go talk to a priest. But he'd probably just send you back with holy water." He smiled at her. "Look, I will answer any questions about my kind that you want to ask, and if I don't answer, it's for a good reason. So please, don't put your encyclopedic knowledge of the supernatural on me because it is not going to end well."

She was silent for a second, then said, "So, on that, can I ask my question now?"

"Of course."

"You said, when we first talked about the trance, that I wouldn't feel it. You said I wouldn't remember it. And, just now you said some humans remembered 'flashing memories' if the demon was weak or hungry, but, you're not weak,"

"And I'm not hungry." Asa looked at her, curiously. She was fighting the desire to break eye contact, he could tell. She was twisting her fingers in her lap.

"Yeah. But, I was just..." She took a deep breath. "I remember it. I felt it. So, what does that mean?"