Tales of Legendia - A New Generation

Chapter 4 - Lesson 2: Crystal Eren

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Shiela twiddled with the Quail Quill and glared at it. The quill was a silky brown in color with a sharp black tip, but it wasn't sharp enough to stab something. "Mom, this is a feather is hardly a weapon!" she complained to her mother, Shirley.

Shirley smiled warmly. "It's not used as a weapon, sweetie," she explained. "It's used for magic... Like a wand, perhaps?"

Shiela looked at the quill again and grimaced. She wasn't very fond of magic and thinks that it was very old-fashioned and boring. "I don't like it," her voice shows no emotions, but all the same, it hurts Shirley's feelings.

"Oh, Shiela, I don't feel very good after you said that," Shirley confessed. "I know you don't like magic or all that but can you at least try?"

Shiela immediately felt guilty. The voice, the face and the eyes of her mother felt like she had done something very wrong. She sighed and looked at her boots. "Yes mom, I'll try..." she says, then added secretly, "... again."

The problem with Shiela, is that she couldn't draw a Teriques. Unlike Shirley, she couldn't believe in these magical butterfly tattoos, and shrugged them off as if it was some kind of religion. Her brother keeps telling her that it was real (he even dared to tell her that he saw one himself!), but Shiela just snapped at him.

"Remember, Shiela, just concentrate on your Ere, and pretend that you're drawing a butterfly on a piece of paper." instructed Shirley. Although Shirley already knew that her daughter possesed Iron Ere, it wouldn't hurt to see if she could be a mix, right? But it's very rare for people to have both Crystal and Iron Ere, thought Shirley. She just shook the thought away and watch.

Shiela was already concentrating on her fingers and they were glowing a bright magenta. She looked around if there was anything to aim, but found nothing. Ah, that's right. She remembered. I'm only going to draw on air. Pfft, if I could ever do that. She waved the quill around and tried to draw a picture of her Teriques. A nice pink butterfly with sequins and ribbons would be nice.

But nothing happened.

"MOMMY!!"

"Calm down, Shiela." Shirley replied. "Just close your eyes and pour out all your feeling to it. Pretend you're painting, like your big brother!"

Like my big brother, Shiela thought, But he's a sissy! And I don't like painting!

She tried again.

And again.

And again.

By the fourth time, she was growing impatient and threw down the feather with rage. "I don't get it mom!" Shiela screamed at Shirley,"Why can't I draw my Teriques!? It isn't FAIR!!" She dropped to the soft grassy ground and started to sob, while Shirley ran up to her to comfort her little baby girl.

"Hush, Shiela." she whispered. "It's okay, you're new at this, alright?"

A few minutes passed.. When someone else came.

"You do it like this, my little sister."

Shiela and Shirley looked up and saw, a person no other than..

"Juni?" asked the shocked mother. "I thought that you were training with daddy?"

Juni looked down at her and shook his head. "I give up on kinves, mother." she said. "But, I'm willing to take up on this." He picked up the soft quill, which was not yet damaged from Shiela's tantrum. "It's very simple, Shiela," he whispered to his little sister. "You just have to put all your feelings to it."

Shiela looked up, tears were flooding in her eyes, staining her black eye-liner. She didn't reply because she felt so ashamed of herself. The secret both of them kept. The truth about their Eren.. She thought that she was the best and all, but it turned out she was not. She was as equal as her big brother.

Juni stood beside his mom and smiled. "Watch me, mother." he chirped.

He closed his eyes and held out his hand, which was holding the Quail Quill. His fingers glowed this very soft baby blue. It was like Juni was holding a piece of the sky in his little fingers. Then slowly, he tilted his arm to the left.

Shirley gasped.

A deep dark purple ink stained the air, as if there was a big sheet of transparent paper in front of Juni. It was like a child using concentrated grape juice as a paint. Juni continued to paint on this invisible surface, with his eyes closed. The painting he made was shaped as a butterfly with a pair big, elegant wings on the front and another pair of long, slender wings at the back, making that four wings in total. The pattern on the butterfly was beautiful. The pattern was like a picture of a vineyard of grapes and the color was a rich purple wine. Shiela and Shirley were caught, shocked with disbelief.

When Juni lifted the quill off the painting, the butterfly came to life and it circled around him. While it was doing so, light purple sparkles and dark violet droplets fell to the ground and stained the grass. He smiled at it, as if they were old buddies. Then he looked at the two girls. "What do you think?" he asked.

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Jay and Shirley had to cope with the whole truth. What they expected was wrong and everything went vice versa. It seemed that Juni had the power of Crystal Eres while Shiela was bathed in Iron Eres. Although they were disappointed that their dreams didn't came true, they were happy to see that their children enjoyed their lessons more. Juni learned more about using a Quail from his mother, Shirley. Shiela learned the secret techniques of her father's knife handling.

Now that the siblings were in the right track, there was no more complaint between the two. Except..

Twoing!

"You Baka! I want my Red Bean Bun back!"

"I-I'm sorry, my little sister!"

"Apologies NOT accepted! Come back here!"

"Uwaaa!!"