Author's note: Okay Reviewers I need a little feedback, I'm not sure I'm being a hundred percent true to Yugo's character. So far he's been pretty moody, I based this off of the fact that he is now 18 years old (despite a still prepubescent body) and in the three episode special series he is actually quite a bit moodier than he is in the two seasons. Nevertheless Yugo has always been the bright and innocent one in the group and I feel I've sort of replaced that role with Lucian unintentionally. So what I want to know is: Am I doing okay at portraying him? Is this all a good thing? Or would you guys rather I try to return him to his happier, more innocent vibe?
Chapter 9: Reunion
Yugo's eyes were wide with amazement, in all his life he never thought that he would see something so bizarre, so out of the ordinary. He had seen dragons, defeated power hungry foes, discovered he was the king of an ancient and extraterrestrial race that had existed before humans were even a dream. Yet still he was thrown into shock at the sight before him: Ruel Stroud sitting on a porch Widdling a stick.
The ancient Enutrof never sat still, and certainly did not spend his time on such fruitless efforts. Every moment alive was another moment to be seized for the sake of the almighty kama. Yugo had found him digging, begging, pickpocketing, mining and selling things that probably weren't his in his spare time, but never something so dull and unprofitable.
He couldn't help but laugh, a full body laugh, the kind of laugh that makes you fall on the floor and roll around uncontrollably. He hadn't laughed like this since before Ogrest, and probably wouldn't for some time. Fortunately he had enough control to only double over in laughter rather than fall on the floor.
When he had finally exhausted his breath Ruel spoke "Are you finished with that racket?" he asked angrily "Jeez, you act like you've never seen a man widdling wood before."
Yugo's body wanted to laugh more, but his lungs protested, devoid of air and unable to utter a sound.
"Deep breaths boy," Ruel said "Don't kill yourself now." He muttered something under his breath about mocking the elderly.
Yugo gulped at the air like a fish, finally regaining his breath, only to laugh uncontrollably once more.
"Good greif!" Ruel said turning away and choosing to ignore the boy "It's not that funny."
"What's all this about?" Percedal's voice could be heard asking over the din. The Iop held one eyebrow cocked above the other as he watched him little friend collapse on the floor with laughter, his whole body shaking like it was possessed by some cruel spirit.
"It's Ruel," Yugo said between gasping breaths "The great Enutrof champion who spends every waking moment for another kama," It was actually quite hard to understand thanks to the intermittent laughing and gasping "He's just sitting there widdling a stick!"
Percedal took a moment to process all that and chuckled "That is kinda funny actually," he stated "but not that funny."
"You don't know him like I do." Yugo said finally recovering his breath and pushing the next laughing fit down so he could speak.
"Kids!" Ruel exclaimed "No respect for their Elders!" Ruel stomped off to find a more secluded spot to work on his project.
This caused Yugo to undergo another laughing fit, running out of breath even faster this time, he relaxed finally, laying on his back in the grass breathing heavily. Az poked out from his apron pouch and flitted around, landing on a tree branch nearby. Chirping happily.
"Yugo?" Percedal said when noticed the boy hadn't moved for nearly a minute.
"I'm fine," Yugo said a smile still plastered on his face. "I just don't want the moment to end yet."
Percedal cocked an eyebrow "Well it's not like you stop time," he said "You're not a Xelor." The Iop shook his head and walked away, Yugo heard him exchange words briefly with Amalia, then the sound of approaching footsteps.
The Sadida Princess lay down next to him, her face smiling as well. She was a good three inches taller that Yugo her legs exteng far beyond the bottom of his feet.
"What'cha doin" she asked flirtatiously looking up to the bright blue sky like the boy beside her.
"Enjoying the small things for a change," he asid "Ruel is actually really funny when he wants to be."
"Oh?" Amalia asked "What did he do."
Yugo had to fight laughter again in order to explain it "Imagine this: Ruel Stroud kama collector extraordinaire, horder of all things round and gold, sitting on rock widdling a stick."
Amalia laughed wholeheartedly, It was indeed hard to imagine the old money grubbing goat doing anything unprofitable with his time. She just couldn't see it.
"So that's what all the commotion was about," She said "I like your laugh you know, it's so cute."
Yugo wrinkled his nose a bit "I'm not cute" he said
Amalia laughed "Yes you are." She said chuckling "Especially when you say things like that."
Yugo's had moved away from his body and toughed the Sadida's, she returned the gesture grasping his hand in hers. They just lay for awhile staring up at the sky smiling, not caring about the world around them or the reason they were there in the first place.
Amalia concentrated on the feeling of Yugo's hand in hers, despite it's size and youthfulness she could feel the strength of the muscles there, in fact she could feel the strength in his arm and he lay there too, dormant though it was, it was far greater than anything she could ever hope to achieve. And it was hers, the hero of the world three times over now, the protector of her people and the one who formed the brotherhood, he was hers and she was his, and that's just the way she wanted it.
"Hey Lovebirds," A course voice interrupted their reverie "Lunch is ready."
Yugo tilted his head to see Celophee walk away upside down, he chuckled at that "What's eating her?" he asked
"Girl problems," Amalia responded "Don't worry about it."
"Okay!" Yugo said smiling "Let's go eat."
Amalia laughed, the boy could put away a whole gobbal war chief by himself, sometimes it made her wonder if there was a portal stuck in his stomach.
The boy jumped to his feet and disappeared into a portal he made beside him, reappearing at the picnic blanket. Amalia walked to the blanket and sat down next to him.
Cleophee had gone off to find Ruel, wherever he had run off to, hopefully he was just down by the creek nearby. Surly enough Cleo returned with Ruel in tow. Food came in second to money for Ruel.
The group dug in sharing stories as they enjoyed their respective dishes. Despite common human ancestry the various races had very different food needs as Yugo had recently discovered. Sadida's couldn't eat meat, it wasn;t healthy for them, while his own race, The Eliatropes were omnivores that bordered on carnivores, deriving their nutrition primarily from meats and fats.
Amlaia finished her meal first, she almost always did, Flopin and Elely picked out their vegetables and complained about the sauces. Evangelyne tried to no avail to convince them to eat everything turning to her husband for support, only to discover that he had picked out all of his vegetables too, turns out Iops were pretty carnivorous as well. Eva let out an exasperated sigh and returned to her own meal.
Lucian picked at his food slowly sampling each bite like food judge at a contest before deciding if he liked it or not.
Ruel and Yugo stuffed their faces like bandits would steal away their food any second now.
Otomai was the only one at the table who ate like a proper gentleman, forcing Ogrest to follow the same protocalls. Cleo ate like the men shoving food down her gullet like it was no tomorrow.
Amalia laughed and the whole table stopped for a moment
"What?" Cleo asked.
"It's just," The Sadida princess said "We've haven't done this for a long time, I missed it."
"Me too," Yugo stated.
"I've never done this before," Lucian said innocently
"We weren't talking about you." Amalia said "We used to do this all the time, when we adventured together."
"Oh," Lucian said "Well I'm done.
The various members started stacking their dishes in the middle and Eva took them all inside to wash, amalia went in to help her. Yugo noted that the princess had changed, she was really a full fledged woman now, a few years ago she would have scoffed at the idea of doing dishes at all, but now she simply wanted to help her friend and divide the work fairly, it was truly a dramatic change.
"Hey Yugo," Lucian said excidedly
"Yeah?" Yugo asked
"Can you teach me more wakfu stuff?" The boy's eyes were bright with excitement, it was kinda weird actually sice he was at least an inch taller than Yugo, but he was so much younger.
Yugo looked to his friends, he didn't want to leave the work to them, it was unfair
"Go," Percedal said "He needs the training."
"Are you sure dally" Yugo asked.
"Course I am," he said "Get outta here, I'll handle your part of the cleanup."
"Okay," Yugo said turning to the excited Lucian "Race you to the river!" he yelled summoning a portal and vanishing into it before Lucian could react.
"Hey, No fair!" The younger Eliatrope yelled jumping into his own portal.
Meditation was the key to everything, or so it seemed to Lucian, he spent so much time clearing his mind and meditating on what was around him, trying to master Wakfu sight. According to Yugo Wakfu sight was iatrical to the rest of his abilities. He didn't really understand, he could see fine without it, and Yugo didn't always use it either.
"Alright," Yugo said "Time to stretch a bit."
Finally, they would put his battle skills to the test. He wanted so badly to experiment with those abilities, he wanted to be useful, a full fledged member of the team.
"Okay," Yugo said "We'll start by trying multi portals."
Lucian grimaced, he wasn't good at this one. He wasn't sure how Yugo managed to create more than two, but Yugo repeatedly told him that it had take years of trying and practicing before he figured it out. Lucian didn't have years, he was all too aware, there was a threat out there now, and he was no match for it.
The summoned a portal, then a second one near it, the held ot for a moment bracing himself, he flexed his muscles and tried to open a third. No good, the second disappeared and only two remained.
"Again," Yugo said, Lucian complied, The Eliatrope king was not a harsh taskmaster, but he did know how to force Lucian to push himself. The boy was sleeping easily every night thanks to exhaustion.
Lucian again created two portals near each other and flexed his muscles, he tried something different this time picturing a cross with a portal at each tip. And something happened, for a brief moment a third portal did appear with an odd whirring sound and, after it disappeared a laser like the ones summoned when overlapping two portals shot between the original two scorching a short bush between them.
"How did you do that?" Yugo said "I've never seen that ability before."
He had done something Yugo couldn't do, no just something Yugo had never tried, that was still something.
"I imagined a three pointed cross with a portal at each end." Lucian answered
Yugo summoned two portals and closed his eyes, hi brow furrowed in deep concentration, when he opened them a third portal appeared with a laser shooting out of it towards the other two, the laser disappeared replaced by a thicker one that blasted between the two original portals just like Lucian's.
"huh," Yugo said "Interesting, looks like there's more to Eliatrope power than I was aware. How comfortable are you about doing that again?"
Lucian smiled "I think I can do it, easy." He said
Lucian reached out his hand, he didn't even close his eyes this time, but repeated the move anyway. He smiled, it felt natural.
"Well done," Yugo said "Keep practicing that for awhile."
Lucian complied doing the move over and over again, zapping any trees bushes and bugs unlucky enough to get between his portals.
Yugo watched, Lucian reminded him much of himself when he was training under Adamai. Yugo had been a prodigy as well, though he had been better at other things. After twenty minutes or so Yugo stopped him.
"Alright," Yugo said "Back to meditation, you need to rest for few minutes."
Lucian pursed his lips, he didn't like meditation, he didn't really like standing still much at all, unless he was listening to stories or information, then he could sit still al day. Meditation however was terribly boring. He embraced it anyway, his eyes snapped open and the world was blue. He saw the riveres of energy flowing all around him, he saw Yugo shining like a star, and the other nearby shining as well. It was at this point that he noticed another light, one he did not recognize, he seemed to be watching them from the bushes.
"Yugo," Lucian said suddenly gravely quiet "There is someone watching us."
"Where?" Yugo asked
"About ten meters away in the bushes to my left."
Adamai sat quietly waiting, he watched carefully, despite his thoughts about his brother he couldn't help but feel nostalgic as he watched the Eliatrope train this taller version of himself. At least he had discovered them, Adamai had found out about their existence only days after the battle with Ogrest and the Brotherhood of guardians had done what it could to hide their existence from the world, the world simply wasn't ready.
His brother was a fool, harnessing such power, a power that wasn't even meant to be harnessed by an adult of race let alone a child. He had not only placed the whole world at risk of destruction, bu he had spawned this race of quasi Eliatropes. Despite Adamai's work with them, they still worshiped the foolish eliatrope child as a god and refered to him as 'God-King' something that never ceased to irritate the young dragon.
The quasi-eliatrope sat on the ground and closed his eyes, Adamai knew he should move, the boy would be using wakfu vision to see the world if he was successful. He chose not to, in his experience these quasi-eliatropes did not catch on to their powers all that quickly.
The boy's eyes opened glowing blue, crap Adamai thought this one seems to be catching on quicker than the others. He supposed he shouldn't be surprised, he was being trained by Yugo after all. The Eliatrope king was pretty much a wakfu master just by virtue of being, while Adamai was a dragon, his natural affinity was towards stasis energy, this made it harder for him to use or teach wakfu abilities.
Adamai saw the boy's mouth move and Yugo turn towards the bushes, Yugo's eyes glowed as well and he frowned deeply. Adamai grimaced, he was caught, if he didn't act quickly he would be forced into a corner.
"Whoever you are come out!" Yugo yelled "We know you're there."
The dragon considered his options, one: he could try to run, but Yugo had his portals and would probably catch him easily. Two: Reveal himself, he didn't want to do this actually, he knew his brother would not understand or agree with him, Yugo never got the whole picture before acting. Three: attack from the shadows, also not a good option since Yugo and the quasi-eliatrope coulds use wakfu sense to see where he was.
He ultimately went with two, slowly rising from the bushes and stepping forward into the clearing, Yugo had grown a little, and his face was just noticeably narrower than before, so his body had finally started to age a little, he shouldn't be surprised, his had as well.
"Hello brother." Adamai uttered in a mixture of anger and frustration
Yugo's eyes narrowed and he shifted to a fighting stance "Adamai."