Demons of the Past

Chapter 10:

Where We Come From

"Leo? Leo! Let's go play! Leo?" a young Aries called over the fence.

"Aries? My daddy said we can't be friends anymore. Why are you here?" Leo asked.

"I don't care what your daddy said. I like you and I want you to be my friend," Aries said and she smiled.

Leo looked at her and smiled. He soon gave up on his training exercise, hopped the fence and the two of them began a game of tag. At the time, they didn't know Leo's mother had seen them let alone sketched them.

Aries looked at the sketch of a 4-year-old Leo chasing her on all fours. She smiled at it and saw the smile that was perfectly captured in the sketch of Leo. She hadn't told him she had this sketch by his mother. She had taken it from his apartment after he got banished to remember him by.

"Oh, Leo, I wish we could go back to when things were simpler," Aries said and tears began to fall.

She had felt awful when he was banished. Every day felt like the three months he experienced. By the end, she felt like it had been as long as he did. When Leo wrapped his arms around her after she made her contract with Lucy, Aries had broken down into tears. He had comforted her and that was the spark of their romance.

"Be careful, my Gentle Lion, come back to me," she begged and held the sketch to her heart as she fell back on her bed despite it not being night yet.

...Earthland...

After a long magicmobile ride, Natsu was about ready to die as they set up camp for the night. Lisanna smiled at him and reached into her pocket. She took out a box of matches and moved to sit next to her secret boyfriend. She struck a match, provoked Natsu to open his mouth and tossed the lit match in. Slowly, Lisanna lifted his jaw up and down to get him to eat it. He coughed out some smoak before getting his senses back and looking at her.

"Thanks, Lisanna, you always know what I need," Natsu said.

The two smiled at each other and Loke recognized the glint in their eyes. Even if they were trying to hide it, he could tell they were in love. It was the same glint that came to his own eyes when with or thinking of Aries. The Lion climbed on top of a rock, sat down and looked up at the night sky. He smiled when he spotted the Aries constellation and remembered when the Celestial Spirit King rewarded the 12 Golden Zodiac for their efforts in the war with their own constellations. He remembered how Aries had, while they were watching the stars be placed, slyly twined her fingers with his. The two had blushed and sheepishly smiled.

Lucy climbed onto the rock and sat beside him. There was a cool breeze and she zipped up her hoodie even more.

"So... you want to tell me what this whole war thing was about?" she asked him, wrapping her arms around her knees.

Loke sighed and smiled.

"Two Celestial years ago, the Spirits became concerned whether or not to make contact with Earthland. A civil war broke out and my friends and I were caught in the middle of it. When we began to fight to be allowed to cross the worlds, it made a huge difference in the outcome. Some people even think we ended the war singlehandedly," he explained "That was... the last time I saw Claec, that is... my father,"

Lucy saw the sad look in his eyes. She could tell Claec had broken his own son's spirit but Loke seemed to have once held the hope of having a real father/son relationship with him. Obviously, that had never happened since he now openly showed his hatred for Claec. But, what did she know? This was coming from a look in his eyes.

"He wanted me to chase her..."

"What?" Lucy asked, the sudden comment jerking her from her thoughts.

"Aries... Claec wanted me to chase her and imbude her with the fear of the Lion Spirits. He took me on my first hunting trip when I was 4 to teach me how a lion finds food. It was going well and I watched him catch deers and even gazelles! Then... on the third day... we came to a planetary body that looked like a Spring meadow," Loke sighed, messing with the ends of his shoelaces "We saw a little girl with pink hair and wearing a lamb costume sitting under a blossom tree and making a daisy chain... Claec wanted me to hunt her then let her get away so she'd fear our kind for the rest of her life,"

Lucy gasped and put her hand over her mouth in shock.

"He... wanted you, a 4-year-old boy, to traumatize her?" she asked.

"I was reluctant but I went along with it. When I was circling her, I put my hand on a rock and cried out. Aries saw me and ran to my side. She didn't care I was a Lion Spirit and she was a Lamb Spirit, she took me to her herd and her mother bandaged my hand up. Then, Claec jumped from within the trees and scared them all off with a lion roar. That was when I realized how bad things were for me..." Loke looked at Lucy and saw she was close to tears by his story "Aries still wanted to be friends and found the old priary house my family lived in. That's how we first met... my mother was overjoyed I had a friend but my father... he never showed compassion to me again,"

Lucy realized she was staring and averted her eyes but tears were still shed. She didn't even notice until Loke wiped them away with the cuff of his green coat.

"Please... I hate it when people cry for me... The past is the past, that can't be changed, the present is now and it shapes us but the future, the future is what we live for and strive to reach. It's our present that shapes who we are in the future so the past just doesn't better. It's what has been but it shouldn't limit what will be,"

"That was... surprisingly deep. You normally just come out with pick-up lines," Lucy said, looking at him in shock.

"Actually, my mom used to say that," Loke said, looking up at the stars "Elani the Lioness of Light... it's said she was the daughter of the stars themselves..."

"Whoa, seriously? Wait a minute, how do Celestial Spirits have kids anyway?" Lucy asked.

"Oh, just like humans but, well, my friends and I are actually only the second generation. My parents, Capricorn, Old Crux, Veronica, they were all the first generation," he explained "My father was said to be born of a lion's roar and a human women's fear of it,"

"So, your maternal grandparents were the stars and your paternal grandparents was a lion roar and a lady's fear?" Lucy asked and he nodded "That's... kinda messed up,"

"So is the Spirit World..." said Loke "You should get some sleep. I'm gonna go back to the Spirit World so summon me when it's morning,"

Lucy nodded and slid off the rock. She watched as he lay across the rock like a lion would and disappeared in a flash of light.