Curem POV
The day of the tournament is soon approaching. Ava and I walk towards the now open registration area, excited to enter. We stand in line, talking for a while until we're next. "Names?" the person asked with a smile. "Curem Fellhorn." "Ava Drakebane." She finishes writing it down before turning to us, "Alright, here are your pendants! Don't lose them, they're what signify you two are participants." "We won't!" I reply before walking out with Ava.
As we're walking back home, we run into Hunter and Willow. We talk with them, and learn that they, along with Luz and Amity, are entering the tournament as well. That got me pumped. Luz and Amity are an amazing team, so we'll have to try even harder if we wanna win.
Ava and I each get to our homes. I cook myself some dinner and sit down, thinking about the house now that mom's gone. What should I do with all of her stuff? The clothes aren't very important, I can sell those. Keep all the pictures and items that were important to her, put those in the attic. I'll turn her room into a guest room I guess… After boxing up everything, I put all that I plan to sell in the living room. I walk back to my room and go to bed.
Awakened by a knock at my front door, I groggily leave the comfort of my mattress, putting on some clothes. Getting to the front door, I see through the window that it's Ava. Opening the door with a yawn, I let her in. "Hey Cur-" "Hold on, before we talk, let me wake up a bit and make some breakfast."
Letting her in, I walk over to the kitchen, splashing some cold water on my face. After about 15 minutes, I sit down at the table, eating my breakfast. Ava sits across from me, having the extra food that I made for her. We finish our food, and as I sit in the living room, I'm finally fully awake. "Ok, Ava, what were you gonna ask me?"
"I wanted to ask how you were doing. I know what it's like to lose a family member, and I wanted to check up on you." She asks. I hesitate, realizing that I haven't really been thinking about it. "I'm… not sure? I think distracting myself from it is how I'm coping with it… Like the tournament is going to be fun, and so I won't be thinking about it."
She pauses for a moment, before responding. "I guess that's fine, remember that you can ask me if you wanna talk about it… But yeah, the tournament seems like it'll be really fun!" A few moments of silence pass. "Oh, right!" she exclaims, causing me to jump. "I almost forgot, did you know that Hunter and Willow got together?" I pause in surprise before replying. "Took them long enough, I saw how they would look at each other, they were both absolutely smitten."
Ava and I talk for a while before she mentions the boxes. "Was this some of your mom's stuff?" I sigh, "Yeah… I'm planning to sell all this, it's mostly clothes. All the stuff that was important is in a box in the attic." Ava pauses for a moment. "Maybe we can ask Eda to help us set up a stand?" I think about it before responding, "Knowing that Eda is quite the successful businesswoman, I think that's a good idea!"
Making our way to Eda's house, we continue talking. "So, any progress on that woman in your dreams?" Ava asks. "Oh, right." I respond, "Speaking of that, do you wanna train some more after we finish this? Get a little more in before the tournament?" She responds with a 'sure' as we get to Eda's house.
At the door, Hooty stretches out to greet us. We let him do his thing, and Luz opens the door. "Oh, Curem, Ava! What are you guys doing here?" I take a breath before answering. "A few weeks ago we found that my mom had passed away on the Day of Unity… I have some stuff here that I want to sell, and we thought asking Eda to help us set up a spot in the market was a nice idea." Luz grimaces while responding, "Oh… sorry you had to bring that up, that must be hard for you… I lost my dad when I was young, so I get it… But yeah, I'll go get her."
Luz gets Eda from upstairs, and she agrees to help us set up a stall. We made a pretty good haul, earning about 4,000 snails. Ava and I then head to our usual training spot. I keep doing what worked before to activate my powers, and we continue training. After a while, we sit down, both to take a break and to figure out how my powers might work.
"So what happened each time they've activated before?" Ava asks, knowing about the strong feelings but not what caused them. "The first time was during the fallout of the Day of Unity. Did Luz and the others ever talk about what happened during those weeks?" I ask, not sure how much they had told her. "They kind of avoided talking about it, I completely understand why though… That was a terrible time…" She responds. I take a deep breath before recounting what happened right before I blacked out, then what Amity and the others had seen after I blacked out.
"The second time was when I met you again, actually." I begin, not noticing the slight blush on Ava's cheeks. "I saw someone about to be crushed by a palette of bricks, and I needed to be faster, and then I gained that burst of speed and tackled you out of the way." We are both silent for a minute or so before Ava speaks up. "From what you're telling me, it seems like your powers are activated by either strong emotions or a strong desire… When it happened the first time, you were feeling intense grief, and the second time, you had a strong desire to save someone in need." I sit there, thinking for a while before I break the silence. "Hmm… I wonder how this'll go…" I begin focusing on the desire to unlock more of this power.
I feel energy rush through me, opening my eyes to look at Ava. She looks awestruck. Trying to figure out what she was looking at, I look to my sides and see… Wings?
