CHAPTER XI
Luciela cracked her bones as she was stretching her back. She quickly showered and change into her alchemy work outfit. Luciela nodded opening the door to see Leo falling backwards as soon as she opened the door. She quickly moved aside letting him hit the floor. There was no way she could catch him without getting crushed.
"...Ouch..." Leo bemoans holding his head. Luciela offers a hand to him and he gladly took it. She helped him back on to his feet and dusted him off. "Maybe you should not lean on a door next time? I don't need you to lose anymore of the brain cells you have now" Luciela said pushing him out the door and closing it behind themselves. They walked out of the empty temple to the dining hall.
"Good morning!" Luciela said as they walked into the dining hall and everyone was already eating at the long table. Taurus was stuffing his mouth full of eggs and bacon while Aquarius stare at him. Her face twisted in disgust as food particles flew everywhere. Capricorn sat next to her staring at the Gemini twins with a look of distrust. Next to him, Libra was calmly sipping on his cup of Earl Grey tea and in front of him was a plate of strawberry toast. He tried listening to Sagittarius chattering while he had his book open.
Sagittarius was squeezing the bottle of surup over her plate of pancakes as she was talking. Luciela saw Virgo humming while she was frying some scrambled eggs in a skillet. Virgo redirected her full attention from the pan to Luciela. "Good morning Luciela! There is some food for you and Leo at the table. Please take a seat next to Sagittarius."
Luciela nods sitting down at the table and started eating. She stops eating as she saw Sagittarius plate being overflown. "Uh... Sagittarius don't you think that is enough surup?" Luciela questions and Sagittarius grins as she stopped.
"Yes! Yes! But, I still think it needs something else. Like-" Sagittarius said thinking about what else to add. She looks like she was about to drool any moment. Luciela watched as Sagittarius snaps her fingers to summon a bottle of Mayonnaise. "Like this!" She exclaimed pouring half of the bottle over the pancakes. She capped it back up and started digging into the food. She ignored the uncomfortable stares from everyone sitting at the table, especially from the sick looking face of Luciela. She savored the taste of her food as she chomped on it one bite after another.
She took the fork out of her mouth and cut out another piece. "Neh...Taurus do you want some?" Sagittarius said holding out her fork towards him and she smiles cutely making him blush. Taurus started sweating a bit as he debated whether to risk it or not. "...No...I-I'm f-f-full!" Taurus stutters looking away and he also stops eating from his own plate. Sagittarius eyes filled with unshed tears as her bottom lip quivers. Taurus gaze filled with guilt as he looked at how quickly the pregnant female became depressed. "Oh..." Sagittarius whispers sadly pulling her fork back. Her tearful eyes widen suddenly when Libra grabbed on to her hand and eaten the piece off her fork.
His expression was neutral as he was chewing."It taste great" Libra said swallowing it and he leans towards her ear. He whispers something against her ear that no one heard, except for her. Sagittarius shoulders tensed as her cheeks turned a dark red color. Libra leaned back in his chair and went back to his reading with a hidden smirk on his face.
"Sagittarius why is your face so red?" Luciela ask smirking as Sagittarius redden even more. "Oh no I forgotten to set up your training course in the forest near the courtyard! I'll go do that now!" Sagittarius said and she hurriedly got up from her seat waddling very fast out of the doors. Luciela held back from laughing out loud and choose to follow after her. She got up from the table and waved goodbye to the others. "Wait, I'm coming too!" Leo called out and was about to chase after her, however, Capricorn caught the back of his jacket.
"Not on my watch you pedo! I have my eyes on you, so you are already staying with me after the stunt you pulled earlier" Capricorn darkly said as his glare heavily bared down on the shaking lion. Leo whined pathetically asking what he was talking about.
"So mean! I didn't even do anything today-"
"Liar! You slept in Lady Rosemarie bed! How despicable! Violating our poor mistress to your tainted heart content!" Capricorn hissed ranting and his expression grew even more grim. Leo made a choking sound as Capricorn's hold on him pulled back around his neck.
The gemini twins made a sound of amusement. They happily and eagerly watched the drama enfold. They eyes gleamed sadistically as they began giggling. "Drama! Brother look, the lion is asking for help! Should we?" She ask her brother to which he quickly shake his head.
Leo almost felt the life drain out him when he felt the air rush back into his lungs when Capricorn drops him as Aquarius tug on his horns. "I wonder if I could use this as a fishing hook...hmm" Aquarius said rubbing her hand over his horns. Capricorn froze in fear and he began trembling as his face became flustered.
Luciela, help me!!
Capricorn thought feeling weak in his legs. He fell to ground panting and sweating as Aquarius refused to let go.
Luciela!!!!
Luciela blinks as she thought she heard her name being called, but she quickly dismissed it as maybe she was hearing things. So, Luciela closed the temple doors behind herself and focused on her Mana. Luciela used Virgo's magic to turn into her older self and summoned Sagittarius key. Without any hesitation she poured her celestial magic into the key as it shined brighter by every second. Her body was engulfed by the golden light. When the light vanished, she was now wearing Sagittarius star dress.
Luciela moved her bow onto her back. Swiftly, she ran towards where she was meeting Sagittarius. Her footsteps barely touched the dirt as she ran pass the courtyard into the forest and made little to no sounds as she jumped over the tree roots sticking out of the dirt.
As soon as she caught a glimpse of her teacher, Luciela called out to her."Hey! Sagittarius-" Luciela stops talking as she sense something flying in mid-air heading towards herself. Luciela dropped to the ground rolling her body to the side as an arrow flew pass the place she was last standing. Luciela stayed in her crouching form as she observed her surrounding.
A high whistle rang through her ears on cue and Luciela shifts her eyes to see the attack. Upon sight, two arrows this time was sent towards her, Luciela reached for her bow and blocks the pointy sides of the arrows with the blunt ends of each side of her bow. Her heart thumped eradicately in her chest as she was thinking. For a pregnant woman Luciela would have never thought Sagittarius would plan something so wild as this for training. Luciela pursed her lips together as she breaths through her nose deeply.
Luciela forced herself to relax as she focused on finding Sagittarius again. A bumpy shape form of Sagittarius was standing behind another Sagittarius. Why was there two Sagittarius all of the sudden? And when could she do something like this?
Luciela pulled away from her thoughts as she saw dozen of arrows flying her way. Sweat dribbled down from her forehead as she got up quicker than a second running towards the arrows as she remembers reading about in one of Sagittarius books about strategy and tactics. As she recalled the tactic method, Luciela slid forward upon her knees with her back bend over touching the calf of her legs as the arrows whizzed over her body.
She could only thank Leo for training her stamina and speed. It was so easy to dodge Sagittarius number two attacks. Sagittarius observes Luciela as she narrowly avoids all the arrows. "Good job! I see that the lion did his role properly! So then I can increase the difficulty of the training!" Sagittarius said then snaps her fingers and Sagittarius number two followed her silent command stepping back.
Why? What is going on? She-
Luciela did not expect the fist punching her cheek from another Sagittarius. Luciela hissed as her bottom lip sliced open and blood dribbled down from the cut. Another fist slammed against her torso forcing her to be pushed back. Luciela fell onto her back as she hit the ground.
Luciela gasps as the pain shot up and down her body. "That was very dirty Sagittarius! How in the world are there three of you?" Luciela hisses as she stumbled back on to her feet. Sagittarius shrugs her shoulder as she smiles. "Come on, did you actually think that archers in a battlefield works alone. Well, a friend of mine let me use some of her puppet creations, so I decided why not use them for the lesson" Sagittarius said. Luciela grunts quietly as she looked at the two happy go looking expressions on the puppets face. Luciela
"So, this is why you need to be fast with drawing out your arrows, but you also need to be precise with how much you are able to hit your targets" Sagittarius said explaining to her. Luciela grips the bow in her hands as she listened. "You cannot always depend on what the books teach you as even the unexpected changes up what you are being taught. Now, this is where I get into your other lesson about summoning. Summoning in other words is your second pair of eyes as being your backup. Where you fail, they succeed. Understand?"
Luciela nods her head rubbing her sore spot. She stayed silent as she took a deep breath in and goodness did it hurt to do that. Sagittarius snaps her fingers again and the clones of herself shrunk into miniature badge dolls. Sagittarius picks them up and deposited in the bag around her waist.
"Now let's get started with the real training then. I want you to practice hitting all of these targets" Sagittarius said moving behind Luciela, so the girl could see where she place them. Luciela wiped the sweat off her dirty cheek and she was pretty much covered in dirt all over from rolling around in the grass. Luciela raised her bow in front of herself and pulls back the string as she notches up an arrow.
Hours later, she missed half of the targets and hit near the bullseye with some of her arrows. Luciela put her bow on to her back again and cracked her knuckles. Sagittarius ruffles her head affectionately as Luciela looked a little tired. "You almost got it, but it takes time and practice. I know you can do this!" Sagittarius said praising her and Luciela briefly squeezes her hands before drinking the health regeneration elixir in her bag.
She felt better when her Mana began to increase again. "Thank you Sagittarius...I think I am ready to start with the....magic circle thing? Right?"
Luciela questions as she follows her back to the courtyard. Sagittarius nods her head and points at the magic circle. "The magic circle is a thing that every summoner mage uses to get a summoner guide" she said.
"Summoner guide? What is that?"
Sagittarius explained it further,"A summoner guide is basically a spirit pet that help you cultivate Mana and it can eat Mana that becomes corrupted. But, that is a lesson for another day. Come here again by early morning tomorrow, so you can summon one." Sagittarius then left to do her own thing as Luciela went back to her room taking a shower quickly and after she changed out of her outfit, Luciela fell on her bed wondering about the possibility of her summoner guide.
"Luciela?" Leo ask knocking on the door and opening it. He walks in looking like he was up to something naughty. Luciela sits back up furrowing her eyebrows in suspension. "What are planning now? I know it could not be anything good" Luciela said, Leo's expression became down casted. "How mean! I guess you don't want to hear about visiting your family again, even when your brother is finally coming home? So-" Leo fakely pouts as he speaks making Luciela's eyebrows twitch.
"Absolutely not! I am not getting in trouble because of you!" Luciela exclaims cutting his sentence off. "Oh? Are you scared of Sagittarius then?" Leo ask and Luciela rapidly nods her head, "Of course I am scared because I do not want to get punished by Sagittarius and her demonic dolls." They do hit like a full grown man for a female.
"Fine...your no fun anymore" Leo said folding his arms and moved to lay down on her bed. He sighs happily snuggling into her bedroom pillows and burring his face into the fluffiness.
Luciela gave a dumbfounded stare at the snoozing male. Why?!? Luciela pinches the bridge of her nose as she felt herself getting a headache. Why is he in her own bed again? Maybe locking the door would keep him out and out of her bed. Leo whines lazily motioning his hand towards her.
"Luciela! Please turn off the light!"
Whatever....I give up..... Luciela thinks tiredly clicking the lamp light off and lays on the far edge of her bedside.
You're lucky I did not build a pillow wall between us!
Rave: I am so happy I am done with this chapter. While I was writing I kept on having some brain freezes. In the next chapter, she will be meeting some more celestial spirits. Peace out everyone, this girl here is struggling to even think about anything else!