I'm honestly not proud of this chapter at all and may actually rewrite it... (though my heart is screaming at me not to and my logical brain is arguing with it... yea I actually want the storyline to go in the direction of this mess and junk)
"So... we're heading back to Mornamal?" I questioned.
"I guess." Came the reply.
"Are you sure you want to do this?"
He froze for a moment. "Well, I'll have to return home sooner or later. There's no use avoiding that forever." He got Topaz to transform.
"Come along." He took the lead, climbing onto Topaz's back and riding away.
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We stopped outside one of the houses, getting off our Spiritmals.
"We're here." Felix announced.
I looked up at the house. It seemed regal alright, a statue of a lionblitz nearby. Topaz growled slightly, even the lionblitz seemed more distressed than usual.
Felix paused just as his finger was about to press the doorbell.
"You know, we could use other means to find that stone." Star perked up. "You don't have to do this..."
Star stopped talking as the door opened on its own, a familiar looking woman behind it.
Felix seemed to have gotten a scare, nearly tumbling down the steps of his own house.
"Mother, don't scare me like that." He groaned slightly.
The woman raised an eyebrow. "Felix? So it was you I saw at the market earlier. Why'd you run?"
"I... I needed some time." Felix tried to explain his actions.
It was then the woman noticed me. "You... you lied to me didn't you? She pointed a finger at me. You did see him after all."
"I..." I swallowed, unable to answer.
"I'm sure Emily just means well. She doesn't know who you are after all." Felix tried to explain.
"Hmmm..." the women nodded. "Fair enough."
I let out a sigh of relief, calming down a little. Winter and Star calmed down slightly as well.
"You haven't been attending contests of late, have you Felix?"
"No, mother..." Felix answered.
She stayed silent for a while.
"Please, come on in and let's talk more." She finally replied. Felix entered, and I followed him, not knowing what to expect.
Felix's house was huge, but then, I didn't know what else I would expect of a house from a prestige line of races.
Felix's mother invited us to sit down on the couch, tossing Felix a comb and asking that he comb his hair as soon as he was seated. I kept silent, wondering if the scene was funny or serious.
"How did your hair get in such a mess anyways?!" His mother sighed. "Boys..."
Felix kept silent, combing his hair anyways.
His mother sat down on the opposite couch, pouring tea for us all. It reminded me of what I thought a household from Shakespeare's time period would be like.
"So, let's start off with the introductions. I'm Mrs Loinheart, Felix's mother."
"I'm Emily." I introduced myself, still not knowing what to expect. "And this is Winter and Star." I introduced my Spiritmals.
"Surname?" She asked.
"Umm... Hawkins, Emily Hawkins."
"Felix, are you making friends with peasants?" The woman eyed his son.
"No mother..." he countered quickly.
"Really?"
"Emily's a well known professor... you know, the one who's been organizing those spiritmal drives?" Felix was obviously tensing up.
"Really?" The woman asked. "That professor never revealed her name, and your friend here seems a little young..."
"I prefer a bit of privacy..." I replied. "And Felix isn't lying. I really am that professor."
"Hmm..." Ms Loinheart eyed winter, causing her to inch closer to me. "I guess that's believable enough, the news did say that the professor had a Winterwhite wolfabeast."
I could feel myself sweating a little, this conversation seemed to be getting nowhere and I was getting a little uneasy.
"Felix, I would like to talk to your friend for a while. Would you mind giving us some privacy?"
"Of course..." Felix scrammed, running up the nearby staircase. I couldn't blame him, his mom was a little scary.
"Don't run up the staircases! How many times must I tell you?" The mother called after his son. However, he was already out of her line of sight.
The woman sighed, shaking her head slightly before returning to me.
"You're not here to ask if you could date my son right?"
WHAT?! I inwardly screamed, trying not to show it.
"Of course not, I'm here for another reason." I tried to keep calm, brushing away the question.
"Just kidding." The woman chuckled slightly at my expression. "You're here because of your Glowstaride, aren't you?"
"Yes Mdm."
"Sorry if I made you slightly uncomfortable earlier. I wanted to make sure that my son didn't have any bad influences." She switched the topic.
"Bad influences..." I echoed.
"Yep. Bad influences." The women confirmed. "His cousin would be an example, he keeps trying to get him to join contests instead."
"Why? Are contests so terrible?"
The woman fell silent for a moment.
"They're not exactly terrible... but we Loinhearts have been racing for generations. For Felix to to something else, it feels as though he is defying his own responsibilities, no longer honoring the title of a Loinheart." She stops suddenly, walking over to the door and opening it. A male with dark blue hair was behind it, someone I assumed to be Felix's father.
"Who's this?" He nodded his head at me, genuinely curious to see an intruder in his house.
"One of Felix's friends, apparently." Mrs Loinheart replied.
"Felix? He's home? After how he slammed the phone that day... I never thought that he would return so soon."
"He's upstairs." Mrs Loinheart confirmed his thoughts. "I'm having a talk with his friend here. Her name's Emily, and apparently she's the professor that has been going around giving away Spiritmals.
"Hmmm... interesting." He turned to me. "I'm Felix's father, like you probably already suspected. You can call me Mr Loinheart."
"Yes Sir!" I replied as he sat down on the couch.
"So, what were you two talking about?"
"Contests." I replied, wondering if I had made a wrong choice to have said that word. Luckily, Felix's father didn't seem angry about it. Or at least... he didn't look angry.
"Right. Contests." His father replied. "Does he ever talk about those?"
"Seldom."
"I see. I'm sure my wife told you about his interest in contests, didn't she?"
"kind of?" I confirmed. "She said something about his cousin asking him to join contests."
"Hmmm..." his father nodded. "So... You've never heard much about him liking contests? Ever?"
I shook my head. "Not till today. And even so, it was only ever hinted to me."
His father sighed. "It's my fault... I guess I was a little harsh on him..."
"What do you mean by harsh? Contests are a disgrace to the Loinheart family. We're races! Not coordinators!" His wife replied.
"While that part may be true, it was still his dream after all. We shouldn't just take it away from him." His father countered.
"We Loinhearts have a reputation to uphold! We can't just get rid of it like that!"
"I guess you're right..." his father sighed.
Star moved slightly, flying in between the two parents.
"I get your concerns folks!" She spoke up. "And while it is true that you two have a reputation to uphold in the family, you have no right to decide your son's future!"
I mentally cursed. "Star, I really think you shouldn't..."
"I know what I'm doing Em." She focused her attention back on the couple. "As I was saying, you have no right to decide your son's future. I had been his spiritmal once, and while I didn't exactly agree to his methods of training, I could understand why he did them now. He wanted to impress the two of you. He trained hard, making sure that only the best was on his team. Not once saying anything about contests. Everything was purely racing, the occasion battling to help him flare better agains assaults in both races and life. He made sure he kept up an image, sometimes to the point of insulting or dismissing others, be it people or Spiritmals. He closed himself to nearly everyone, only acknowledging my trainer as the two of them got somewhat forced to travel with each other. What more could you expect from him? Do you think he is truly..."
I blocked Star's beak, pulling her backwards. She was practically screaming at this point and I didn't exactly want the extra attention.
"Sorry about that... it's my fault that I couldn't get my spiritmal under control..." I apologized.
Star broke free. "Why are you apologizing? I was the one that said all those stuff! I should take the consequences for my own actions, you don't have to apologize for me." Star lifted her head.
The couple looked at each other, then back at Star.
"Did Felix really insult everyone?" The wife finally asks.
"So far, it was only Emily, but she may not be the only one." Star replied. "And Felix only did that because she was criticizing his training methods. He's trying, trying so hard to forget about his passion and to show as little weaknesses as possible. In fact, I bet he already forgot most of his passion by now."
The couple was silenced by Star.
"Sure, while status may be important in this world of competition, no one truly lives until they are able to follow their dreams. No one could find true happiness, unless they are doing what their mind has set out to do." Star continued.
Silence ruled the next few seconds.
"Emily..." Mrs Loinheart finally spoke up.
"Yes?" I replied, somewhat worried about Star's behavior.
"Do not worry about your spiritmal, for we are grateful that she has managed to knock some sense into us. The books you are looking for could be found in the library, on the second story at the end of floor. The two of you are welcome to stay for lunch, or even dinner. However, I've a feeling that Felix wouldn't be staying for either of those. After you two leave this house, I would recommend that you two head over to the Nightshades. They live next door and may have more information for what you are looking for. Also, can you do us a favor?"
"Sure."
"Convince him to enter a contest for us, will you? It's about time we let him live the life he truly wants to."
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here's an extremely long chapter just because I do not want to cut it up.
And... uh... I know the past few chapters have been confusing... even I'm still trying to sort out the mess of storyline in my head. So... if you've got any questions, feel free to comment or drop me a PM.
And sorry for the late update and the junk... it's late here and I don't think I'm thinking straight...
THIS IS WHY SLEEP IS IMPORTANT FOLKS! Now I better heed my own advice and give up on editing this...
Good night.