177 Waking Up (2/2)

”Are you sure you both don't want to see him yet?” Vivi asked before stepping into the car.

”Yeah. It's better like this for now. He can't get distracted with something like a relationship right now. He needs to keep growing,” Kennedy responded.

”If you say so.”

”Besides, it's not like we can't feel him. Although the connection is faint, this marking is like a pulse that allows me to feel him and know where he is. Even if we are far away. He might not feel it, but we do. And that's enough. At least for now...” Kennedy said back, moving her hand over he chest in the place the mark was.

”Alright. Well, then I am off. We'll chat again soon?”

”Sure thing!”

”Love you little sis.”

As the car drove away, Malene and Kennedy both let out a sigh at the same time. Hearing each other, their eyes met and they both started laughing.

”It's hard, isn't it?” Malene asked.

”I don't know why either. Why did this happen? Why are we connected to him? After all, it was just a thing that happened a while ago now. These types of things happen all the time to other people. So why did we become this closely connected just like that?” Kennedy voiced the questions both girls had. It wasn't that they didn't care about Laz or worry about him. But they did wonder why it was that they felt so connected to him, even after having gone their separate ways over the years. In any other normal person, time would make their hearts drift apart and it wasn't as though they had fallen madly in love with him during those few months they were together. As such, these types of feelings felt strange. Good, but strange.

”What's done is done I guess,” Kennedy just sighed and turned around, draping an arm over Malene's shoulders as the girls headed back inside.

In the sky, unknown to them, a beautiful pair of eyes had been watching their every movement, seemingly surprised as they had focused on the blood moon symbol on their bodies. After they disappeared from sight, the eyes disappeared as well, simply closing and vanishing.

...

The rune fire had all gone out a while ago, leaving the cave with a simple glow from the various crystals that lined the walls and ceilings. A gentle drip sound was heard as condensed vapor from the pool hit the strange lamp and filtered out, causing the energy rich air to continue to spread throughout the cavern.

On a few laid out sleeping bags on the ground of the cavern, three bodies laid intermingled as the two outside bodies snuggled in close to the slightly larger pale one in the middle. Strangely, on top of the pale, while figure was a tiny spider who had crawled over at some point and fallen asleep on top of it.

Suddenly, the pale white figured opened it's eyes and looked towards the ceiling for no real reason. Having just experienced A'ruya's anger, Laz couldn't help but laugh a little on the inside as he checked his surroundings. Sure enough, the girls, Ruby and Leona had snuggled in close to him. Although the cave wasn't too cold and their bodies were quite a bit stronger than others, they still felt the need to get in and be close to Laz.

He wondered if this was just a strange instinct with women. Either way, he didn't mind in the least.

Moving his head, he gave each girl a gentle kiss on their foreheads before struggling to get his captured arms freed without waking them. Just as he succeeded and was about to get up, he noticed that the small spider was still sitting there while looking at him.

”What is it little guy?” Laz asked, having been used to just talking to these types of creatures since he was used to dealing with Vivi. Although he wasn't expecting an answer, he noticed that the spider shook it's head as though saying nothing but getting up when it saw Laz wanted to. As Laz sat up, the spider move from the middle of of his chest and up to his shoulder where it once again got comfortable, using it's little hairs to cling on to Laz with Laz barely being able to feel it.

”So what's this? You want to come with me now?” Laz asked, seeing it's actions. Once again, the little spider responded and shook it's head, this time indicating yes.

”Well, that's interesting,” Laz commented out loud before reaching for his storage bag and pulling out a blanket which he then covered Leona and Ruby in before getting up all of the way.

As he stood up, Laz couldn't help but stretch his body, loosing up the stiff joints that came from not stretching enough before the hard exercise from the previous day. He could feel the amazing amounts of power within his body do to the various power sharing he had done with Leona and Ruby. He wasn't sure exactly, but he felt like that perk was something related to the Infinity technique he was using. To know for sure though, he would have to try it out more and practice it. He was looking forward to that.

Looking over his body, he could couldn't help but trace around the tattoo like marking on his chest. Although it was hard to see and mostly looked like it had gone back to normal, he could tell that the branches of the blackened, dead tree were now longer than they were before, as though they had spread out further and possibly gotten stronger. He had no idea how though.

Sniffing himself, Laz couldn't help but smell the remnants of Ruby and Leona all over himself and although he wasn't opposed to smelling this way, he decided to get some soap from his bag and clean himself off in the pool.

To other people, this might be some sort of treasure with which to strengthen their bodies, but to Laz right now... it was his bath.