Chapter 14 Training Time

Lemmy held onto Ludwig. When Ludwig finally pulled away, they smiled at each other lovingly. Then Lemmy realized how much of a predicament they were in, and his face fell.

"What's the matter?" Ludwig asked.

"Nothing," Lemmy responded. "It's just..." He sighed. "I think it's gonna be hard to defeat the duplighost. I mean, if I can't control your powers, then..."

Ludwig laughed.

"Oh please; you're making a big deal out of nothing. We can fix that easily; all I need to do is teach you some stuff."

"Are you sure that will work?" Lemmy asked.

"Well, I am supposed to be an optimist," Ludwig said. "So yeah, I think it will work!"

Lemmy smiled.

"Okay. So, when do you think would be a good time to train?"

Ludwig returned the smile.

"There's no time like the present!"

...

Lemmy looked up at the moon. It was very bright tonight, making up for when the smoky, volcanic clouds blocked it out the night before. Because of this, artificial lights weren't necessary to see. The air was also really brisk and cool. Lemmy had to pull Ludwig's cloak tighter around himself to preserve body heat.

Speaking of Ludwig, where was he? He had said that he wanted to do something before he came outside. Lemmy started to wonder what exactly he was doing when he came out. He had a silver thermos in his hands.

"What is that?" Lemmy asked.

"It's just coffee," Ludwig responded. Lemmy's eyes brightened.

"May I try?"

Ludwig handed over the thermos. Lemmy took a sip and cringed in disgust.

"Ugh. It's too sweet."

"Yeah, that's one difference between your palette and mine," Ludwig said with a chuckle. "You require at least twenty mountains of sugar before you can taste anything."

Lemmy laughed.

"Well no you know why I put sprinkles on my salad!"

Ludwig shook his head and rolled his eyes. Then he took a deep breath, putting on an authoritative face.

"Okay, what do you want to start with?"

Lemmy thought about this. He didn't think he would make much progress with Ludwig's emotion based powers, as he had trouble getting angry on command. So, he reasoned that he might as well start with the most fun of the four.

"Flying!"

"I had a feeling you'd say that," Ludwig said with a smile. He gestured for Lemmy to follow him. Ludwig brought Lemmy around to the west side of the castle, where there was a small, circular track.

"Oh hey! Iggy uses this to test his vehicles!" Lemmy pointed out.

"Yep." Ludwig took a seat on one of the bleachers, and Lemmy stepped right in front of the starting line. Lemmy took a deep breath and let it out slowly. This caused him to rise about a foot into the air.

"Nice. You're one step ahead of me," Ludwig said proudly. "Okay, lesson one: I'm gonna teach you how to adjust your speed."

Lemmy looked over and saw his brother take a deep breath.

"Okay. In order to adjust your speed, you need to visualize something you can compare yourself to. For example, when I want to go fast I think of myself as a cheetah. When I want to go slow, I think of myself as a snail. It's basic, but it gives you the basic idea."

Lemmy nodded and glanced around the track.

"I want to go at a normal speed," he said.

"Alright. So, what do you think would go at a normal speed?"

Lemmy thought about this. Then a grin appeared on his face.

A butterfly!

With that, Lemmy willed himself to go forward. To his surprise, he found that he was going faster than he wanted to. He needed a new metaphor.

I am a turtle.

Lemmy slowed down significantly. At this speed, flying was actually rather soothing. He looked back at Ludwig with a smile, and Ludwig gave him a thumbs up.

"Do you remember how to steer?" Ludwig called out to him.

Lemmy thought about this. He recalled that when he and Ludwig were flying earlier, Lemmy could change direction by leaning. He decided to put that method to the test again. When he came onto the left hand turn, he leaned in to the left. When he managed to successfully make the turn, Lemmy got so excited that he decided to speed up.

I'm a racecar!

Lemmy went zooming down the track. Now that he felt like he had a decent sense of control, he found that flying at a quicker pace was quite exciting. When he came to a stop right in front of the finish line, Ludwig applauded.

"Whoo!" Lemmy cheered. "Ludwig, that was awesome! That was so much better than running!"

"Yeah. That's why I do it," Ludwig said with a smile. A hint of sadness and longing appeared in his eyes, which made Lemmy feel concerned.

"Shall we move on?"

"Huh?" Ludwig asked, distracted and disoriented. "Oh yeah, sure." He cleared his throat. "Follow me."

Ludwig got off the bleachers with the thermos in hand. Lemmy followed him while levitating about six inches of the ground. It felt so nice that he didn't think he would ever walk again.

"Alright," Ludwig said. He placed the thermos on the ground, and Lemmy landed. "Let's try telekinesis. Now, one there is one very important thing that you have to know; you can't lift sentient beings."

"Sentient beings?" Lemmy asked. He decided to see what Ludwig meant by that. He held out his hand and focused on Ludwig. Ludwig slowly rose into the air.

"Lemmy! Put me down before...!"

That was when Lemmy felt the pain. It started in his hand, but like a bad case of chicken pox, it quickly spread. Lemmy quickly let Ludwig go, the pain still causing his arm to tingle.

"Oww!" Lemmy exclaimed.

"What a coincidence!" Ludwig said with a chuckle. "That's what I said the first time I tried that!"

Lemmy laughed. Then Ludwig directed his attention toward the thermos.

"Needless to say you want to stick with inanimate objects. Now, can you get that thermos into the air?" Ludwig nodded with approval when he saw Lemmy do it with ease. "Okay. Now, when we were fighting the gang earlier, you seemed to treat the boulder like it was separate from you."

"Well, wasn't it?" Lemmy asked.

"Technically yes," Ludwig stated. "However, when you lift an object with telekinesis...it more or less becomes an extra limb, and you have to treat it as such."

Lemmy stared at the thermos. It was hard to think of the coffee-filled container as part of him. Nevertheless, he decided to give it a try. Unfortunately, it proved to be too much of a challenge; he could not get the thing to move.

"Try positive visualization," Ludwig suggested. "That helped me when I was first learning."

"Ooh, I'm good at positive visualization!" Lemmy exclaimed as he beamed. He pictured the thermos moving in his head, and slowly it did just that.

"I did it! I'm doing it!"

Suddenly, the thermos zoomed forward and hit Lemmy in the forehead. Lemmy fell to the ground, and Ludwig gasped in concern.

"Lemmy, are you alright?"

Lemmy giggled as he held his hand to the bump forming on his forehead.

"I'm doing swimmingly!"

Ludwig chuckled.

"Alright, buddy, I think that's enough for now..."

"No!" Lemmy protested. "I want to keep going!"

Ludwig looked a little surprised before giving a smile. A small, proud smile.

"Okay."