Flammie Tales Book 1: A Wizard's Trials

Chapter 7: The Admittance

The mist began to clear and a figure started to become visible. It was a flammie unlike any other I had ever seen or would ever see again. Fur more white than the purest of snow, almost translucent but at the same time totally solid. Atop his head neatly lay thick hair that seemed to be spun from pure gold. Unlike most flammies, neither his ears nor his wings faded to a color unlike the color of his fur. His claws nearly matched his fur, the only difference being that they were a bit greyer. His pads were so silver they seemed to shine brighter than the very stars themselves. Lastly his eyes were perfectly round with irises like pure sapphire. They shone with confidence and power and benevolence that belittled even the hatred and evil that glared in Mana's eyes.

"I am the White Flammie." He spoke in a gentle tone as if he were speaking to his long lost son who had finally returned home. I was puzzled about who or why these flammies were special, but as if he was reading my mind, the White Flammie quenched my confusion. "I am the guardian of flammies and humans alike, and though I was slain long ago, a terrible turn of events has brought me back to provide advice and protection to this world once again."

"Does this 'White Flammie' have a name?" My question seemed to force him to recall something long forgotten.

"My name was Sirius." He finally reached the memory he was looking for. "I must apologize, my memory has been fading ever since it's started happening." This flammie, whose power was clearly far beyond my own then dipped, his head to me in a bow of respect and turned away. "Now that you've gotten your information, I must take my leave. Farwell and good luck my friend." He started moving away, but stopped. "Oh, and make sure you don't neglect Seryn. She needs you as much as you need her." He walked slowly away and began to disappear along with the rest of my surroundings.

"Good-bye." I said gloomily. His final words echoed in my mind as I woke up. 'Don't neglect Seryn.'

I groggily opened my eyes and scanned the room for Seryn, but she had already left. Any hint of surprise was expelled when I glanced outside and saw that it was after noon. I stifled a small sigh and started slowly meandering to the forest.

I wasn't exactly in a hurry and I was hoping to find Seryn along the way, so I took my time walking to the forest. I figured that if I did run into Seryn along the way, I could try and do something with her, but if I didn't, she would probably know to look for me in the forest. I took a good hour to reach the clearing.

Seryn was snoozing soundly near the usual tree. Curious, I headed over to her to wake her up, but her eyes opened ever so slightly before I reached her. With a small yawn, she got up onto her paws and greeted me cheerfully.

"Hi Skyler! Where have you been all day?"

"Well, I've been sleeping for most of the day. I really wasn't kidding last night when I told you how tired I was." I responded with a slight chuckle.

"Yeah, but I didn't expect you to be so exhausted to spend over half the day asleep. I honestly thought you'd be practicing out here, and when I saw that you weren't, I figured you come out here eventually. I guess I fell asleep while I was waiting for you."

"You call me narcoleptic, but every time you or Rye ended up waiting for me you manage to fall asleep." I teased. "Anyway, sorry to make you wait so long. Honestly I half expected you to off doing something with Rye."

"Well, I actually had a dream last night that made me somewhat guilty that I wasn't making it a priority to get you ready to fight Mana. After all, there's more fun to be had once he's finally defeated."

"Yeah…" I looked down feeling a bit nervous, but Seryn didn't seem to notice. (If I told her about Mana, she might freak out a bit. I really can't risk her starting to be unwilling to help me, or worse.)

"Anyway," Seryn continued. "I decided to help you train yourself and become ready to finally beat Mana. I hope you don't mind. Besides, I really just want to spend the day with you."

"In that case, why don't we spend the day doing something you want to do? I'm sure you can think of something other than just training all day." I wanted to start practicing alone just in case I somehow let the secret about Mana slip while concentrating.

"I thought you liked training."

"I do. It's just that…"

"Besides, it's extremely important that you get conditioned to beat Mana. There will be plenty of time for fun and games later." Seryn was putting up a solid argument. "If you aren't ready when you fight him, he won't hesitate to kill you, and I don't want that to happen."

"I know. I know. But I've been practicing my magic practically constantly since we got here. I just want a small break." I tried to wriggle my way out of the situation with an admittedly crappy excuse.

"Skyler, you're lying." The excuse didn't work. "We spent almost three months training non stop before even coming to Plushtopia, and you enjoyed every minute of it without asking for any kind of break. We've barely be here for a single month. Why is this something so important for you to lie to me?" Feelings of disappointment and hurt were flowing from Seryn.

"Seryn…" Now I was feeling more than just a little guilty. "It's not like that. I just don't want this whole wizard thing to make me start to neglect you and your needs." Though I still wanted to be able to practice alone to keep the secret about Mana, there was some truth in my words.

"But you need to … wait, did you just say that you didn't want to neglect me?"

"Well, yeah. I care about you too much to put your emotional health at risk for something this silly. Is there something wrong with that?"

"No. It just is a bit of a coincidence. In that dream I mentioned a little earlier, we spent weeks just doing our own things and growing farther and farther apart until we were barely friends any more. You even went off to fight Mana by your self. I just wanted to make sure not to neglect you to prevent that from happening."

"It's not your fault, Seryn. I'm the one that kept blowing you off just to practice my stupid magic." I tried to take the blame.

"I realized that if I really wanted to spend time with you, I should be content with doing something that you enjoy. Like yesterday, I could have gone with you to the forest and helped you. Not to mention that you really need to practice. Mana's not exactly going to go easy on you. Or when we were looking for Rye, I could have gathered the courage to go with you. I just gave up too early and easily."

"Look, Rye told me about your fear of the dark. It isn't really surprising when I remember what it was like when I saw you in the void. With how much time you've spent in there, it's no wonder why you would develop such a fear."

Seryn began to send out an embarrassed green feeling. "You must think it's weird for someone like me to have such a simple fear."

I started stroking the fur on her arm to try and comfort her. "Not at all." I said soothingly. "As I said, it'd be a natural reaction for anyone who has spent as much time in complete and hopeless darkness as you have. Besides, everyone has a fear."

The embarrassed green started to fade into a happy yellow. We looked at each other silently, and our eyes locked for a short moment. Seryn quickly began to look quizzical and her mind became clouded by a maroon feeling of fear and doubt. I was about to ask her what was wrong, but she beat me to it.

"Why are you so afraid and doubtful? What's on your mind?" She asked gently.

"Nothing." I tried to sound confident as I realized that the feelings from Seryn were reflecting my own feelings. "What reason could I possibly have for feeling like that?"

"I don't know. That's why I'm asking. Tell me what's wrong." Seryn persisted.

"I … I was just thinking about what would happen if Mana caught us."

"You're lying again." Seryn accused. "Just tell me. Maybe I can help." She continued to try and get me to talk, but I turned in defiance. "Please. Just tell me." She pleaded.

I shook my head and looked down. "I can't." I sighed.

"Why not?" Seryn protested. "Why do you suddenly have some big secret that I can't know about?" She was beginning to get frustrated.

"I'm sorry but …"

"But what?" Seryn cut me off. "What aren't you telling me? Are you homesick?" I shook my head. "Is there someone you miss?" I shook my head again. "Then what? Trust me, I can help if you just tell me what's wrong."

A sudden burst of anger filled my mind. "No, Seryn! You can't!" I shouted without realizing my anger. "This isn't some little thing that you can help with. You think you can fix everything, but you can't! I can't tell what's wrong because I can't take the chance of hurting you." I was staring straight into Seryn's eyes and saw tears beginning to form. I realized then how angry I became. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to regain control of my emotions. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to yell. It's just that I'm afraid that if I told you, you'd stop wanting to fight Mana with me. I'm afraid that maybe you'd even attack me."

Seryn put her arms around me in a hug. "Skyler, there's nothing you could ever say or do that would make me feel that way, so please tell me."

I returned the hug and sighed. "I can't. I don't think it's something you'd want to hear, and I can't risk hurting you."

Seryn let go of me and looked me in the eye. "It's about Mana isn't it?" I looked down guiltily and refused to say anything more. "So it is then." She sighed. "Skyler, I've fought against Mana enough to know how evil he is. He may be my brother, but I've already realized that he must be stopped for good. I've already moved on."

"You're not going to let up until I tell you, are you?" I sighed as Seryn shook her head. "That's what I thought. Fine, but I still don't think you'll be too thrilled." I sighed again before looking Seryn straight in the eyes to express my sincerity. "Mana isn't as evil as you say."

A strong sense of confusion flowed from Seryn. "I've fought Mana many times. If he had any good left in him, I think I would have noticed." She argued.

I shook my head. "No. You wouldn't have. It may be difficult for you to believe, but Mana is totally innocent."

"Are you insane or something? If Mana is innocent, then who is to blame for all the terrible things Mana has done not only to me, but to practically everyone he's come in contact with?"

"The Black Flammie." Seryn's eyes went wide as I mentioned my true adversary.

"How do you know about the Black Flammie?" Seryn gasped.

"Sirius told me. The White Flammie. He's the one who's been visiting me in my dreams and helping me through my studies. He didn't tell me why or how, but the Black Flammie has taken control of Mana."

"So, all this time, we've been fighting because the old legend of the White and Black Flammies. Funny. I always assumed that I was the White Flammie and Mana was the Black Flammie. I mean, every time we were reborn, our lives followed the legend almost exactly."

"I don't actually know the whole legend. Maybe you can tell me it sometime." I tried to change the subject, but to no avail.

"Maybe some day, but now tell me. How is this all bad news? If there's still good left in Mana, couldn't we reach out to that and make it triumph over the Black Flammie's influence?" Seryn sounded hopeful.

I shook my head. "Not likely." I stated. "He's been under the Black Flammie's influence even throughout multiple lives. I doubt that we'd be able to end this nonsense non-violently." There was a bit of an awkward pause. "As much as I'd like to avoid it, I think the best and only thing we can to is to end Mana's life to finally free him."

"I agree." Seryn sighed. "Especially if he's aware of what he's doing, but powerless to stop himself. If he's really innocent as you say, then committing those horrible acts against his own will must be a pain worse than death. I hate to admit it, but unless we can find a way to somehow break his curse, we'll have to kill him."

There was another pause. I suddenly didn't feel like training anymore. My mind was just filled with so many emotions. Some of them were my own, but others I'm not so sure about. I felt sorry for Mana, and sad that we'd probably have to kill him. I felt sympathetic toward Seryn, but mostly, I felt as if we urgently needed to talk to Sirius again. Maybe he'd have the answers I was looking for.

"At any rate," Seryn broke the silence. "You're still going to have to train pretty hard to beat Mana. Can I help you train now, or do you still want me to leave?" Seryn's voice was calmly bitter as if she half-expected me to dismiss her. I was relieved to know that we were still friends.

"Why, I would be delighted to train with you." Seryn perked up at my playfulness. "In all honesty, I just want to spend some time with you."

Seryn smiled. "It's nice to be together." Our eyes locked briefly and I suddenly felt hurt and afraid. I was lying on the ground and awaiting a visit from a familiar presence. Just then, I heard faint footsteps. I opened my eyes and saw the figure of a man standing near me. I was overwhelmed by all the positive emotions this man instilled in me. It was as if he was a long lost friend that had finally come back.

Just as quickly as the vision appeared, I dropped back into reality and was once again with Seryn. My head felt like it was spinning and I struggled to keep my balance. "Wh-What just happened?" I asked Seryn before falling on the ground.

"What do you mean?" Seryn sounded just as confused as I was. "Our eyes locked for a brief moment and now you're dizzy enough to fall over. I should be asking you what happened."

I took a moment to explain the sudden vision that I had just had. It seemed that my explanation had resurfaced some of Seryn's more painful memories.

"I'm sorry Skyler. I didn't mean for you to see that." She sighed and waited for the inevitable question to follow.

"See what? What was that all about?" I asked exactly what she expected.

"That was one of my memories. A particularly painful one at that." With this simple explanation Seryn didn't seem particularly sad but not too thrilled either. It was like the memory was painful to recall, but Seryn had already moved on from the sadness.

"So, it was similar to what happened when I asked how you knew Aridos." I surmised. "The vision I just saw was you sharing your memories with me?"

"Yes," Seryn answered. "But back then I did it on purpose. I don't know why you saw the memory this time." It seemed that the memory had reopened some of Seryn's old wounds, so I decided to change the subject.

"Speaking of back then," I began my sly subject change. "Why were you in that box anyway?"

"What box?" Seryn asked with a puzzled look on her face. "Oh you mean in that first memory. That was back when I was a plushie flammie. I was in the box because Aridos was shipping me to my new owner."

"Really? Who was the lucky guy? Anyone I know?"

"I should hope you know him. After all, we've been living with him for about month now."

"Rye? Really?" I was flabbergasted. "So that's how you two met."

"Well, yeah." Seryn replied rather cheerfully. "Though it was a bit of a rocky start. He was really surprised the first time he saw me move. So surprised in fact that he knocked himself out on his own night stand."

I laughed. It didn't seem like Rye was the kind of person to freak out so much, but I guess I would have freaked out if I was put in a similar situation. "So, when you first met Rye, he was human?" I asked when I finally caught my breath. "I didn't think it was possible to transform a human into plush."

"I loved Rye, but I thought that because I was a Synthetic, Rye wouldn't love me back. I didn't know what to do, so I flew to Aridos for advice. He gave me these magic cotton seeds that could turn Rye into a plushie flammie when he ingested them." Seryn explained.

"Oh. I see. That can't have been very pleasant." I shuddered at the thought of how it would feel to have flesh turn to cloth. "I guess it wouldn't be so bad as long as you were there to see him through it." The moment I finished the sentence I got the vibe that I said something I shouldn't have. My suspicion was confirmed immediately when I felt guilt rush from Seryn.

"I wasn't there." Seryn was guiltily looking down. She sighed. "I know I should have been there. Especially after neglecting to even tell him what was going to happen." She sighed dejectedly. "I guess I was so afraid that he'd be extremely angry with me that he wouldn't want to be with me anymore."

"Was he?" I asked.

"No." She smiled and perked up a bit. "In fact, as soon as I finally came home, he chastised me a bit then proposed."

I stepped forward and gave her a hug. "You learned an important lesson then. You learned that even when you mess up, Rye will always love you. Rye loves you, and so do I. That is a fact that will never change." After struggling with it for too long, I finally admitted not only to Seryn, but to myself my true feelings. She returned the hug.

"I love you too." She whispered happily. We had both admitted it. Both to ourselves and to each other. Unbeknownst to us, Rye was watched the entire scene from behind a nearby tree. He closed his eyes and an artificial tear rolled down his cheek, but his smile never dimmed.

"Good luck, my friend." He whispered. "Don't ever let that love fade."

The sun was already setting. Seryn and I had managed to spend the entire day together and looking back, I enjoyed every moment of it. After a short while embracing each other, Seryn spun me around and wrapped her arms around my torso. She spread her wings and with a few downward strokes we were high in the sky. Everything was so amazing. The wind rushing past my face combined with the greens and browns on the ground and the blues, greens, yellows, oranges and reds of the sky made for an exceptionally exquisite experience. I closed my eyes and started to focus on what I couldn't see. The constant sound of Seryn's wings, the softness of her fur, the cool evening air and the subtle vanilla aroma that commonly followed Seryn was all working in perfected harmony. Seryn's tranquil demeanor spread into my own mind. All the elements of the flight were more than enough to deliver me to the ever caring embrace of slumber.

END OF CHAPTER 7!

Author's Ending Notes: I know what some of you may be thinking, but no, this story isn't going to advance into being too similar to a romance novel. I'm not going to be overplaying it that much, and this is probably as deep into that I'm gonna get. Here's hoping for Chapter 8 before another 6 months.

Look out for:

Chapter 8: The Advancement