"The more the merrier! So meet me here at dawn, bring some comfortable clothes, towel and smiles. Now I guess you should be off now." Mrs. Dabney said as she waved her hand in the air then pulled out a set of keys.
"I will wait for you here." Ariana said as she looked at Edlyn. "No need. I was just delivering you to her so have a good day." Mrs. Dabney said as she opened the door. Ariana looked at Edlyn and she shrugged. "She did me a fa-vour." Ariana smiled. "I think you have been learning too much from me." Edlyn smiled as she grabbed Ariana’s hand. "Who knows."
"Oh Edlyn, we are meeting again here tomorrow for yoga." Ariana said as Rahul landed on Edlyn’s hair while Thor watched him curiously from Edlyn’s one arm embrace. "Sure, sou-nds fun... but Ariana what is yo-ga?" Ariand let go of Edlyn’s hand and looked back at the infirmary’s closed door.
"Ariana?" Edlyn said as her concerned eyes watched her carefully. "No it’s nothing... it’s just a very relaxing way to exerciser." Edlyn cuddled Thor closer to her chest and continued to watch Ariana. "If your going I’m going." She said seriously. Ariana beamed. "It’ll be fun, I promise. Well I guess we should go back to our mentors." Ariana said awkwardly and started to take a few steps forward. "Mmmh." Edlyn replied as she followed Ariana and her parade of Lumas.
....
"No, no, no, NO! Try again!" Vera shouted as Ariana plopped to the ground, her face was dripping with sweat and her Lumas just floated above her. "I think I’m hitting a wall." Ariana said as she tried to catch her breath. "You think?!" Vera shouted as she tossed her arms into the air. "People will be challanging you left and right now. You just had to come find me with your small army of familiars!"
Ariana wiped sweat off her forehead with the back of her hand and looked at Vera with a dull expression. "Well what I was supposed to do? I had to go find you, besides it wasn’t that bad. I mean you got me out of there pretty fast." Ariana said with a shrug as she remembered how she was surrounded by a crowd of students all wondering how she managed to get so many familiars.
"You’re infuriating! Of course I needed to get you out of there! You know nothing! They would have eaten you alive! Now I have to drill in the basics before the challenging starts." Vera said as she passed Ariana a towel.
"No big deal, I mean I did beat you. No offense." Ariana said as she wiped herself down. Vera rolled her eyes. "None taken but you only beat me by luck... Look I will admit that I am not the strongest, I’m just one of the smartest and how you fought with me will not work on anyone else... Okay let’s do this again. What are the fundamentals of familiars."
"Not again Vera. Please, it’s been two hours... Can we just not call it a day or even have a break?" Ariana whined. "This is a break!" Vera snarled. "Fine..." Ariana said as she fixed her sitting posture. "A familiar is an extension of one’s magical essence." Vera started to pace around Ariana as she stared her down.
"Go on." Vera said.
"To know your essence you must look at your familiar. They reveal what your core magic is and from there you can magnify your magic ten folds. The only way you can borrow their magic is to bond with your familiar with tasks. No one can tell you what these tasks are not even the familiar, the only way you can discover this is by doing literally everything to unlock your potential. Trust, obedience and understanding can unlock many paths. Infusions, animal character adaptability, prolonged life and in human boosts but they all come with a price. Your bond is what determines that price." Ariana continued.
"Correct just like my familiar’s primary element is earth, my core magic is earth. However you have 5 elements summoned, in theory you should be an all around trades person. Someone who is completely useless, someone who can’t specialize in something and has her magic divided. Well in theory but what I think is you are not useless, in fact I think this could mean you have great potential. Think about it, someone with 5 elements! The possibility to specialize in each element, not just the basic four but even a branch of an even rarer element is amazing... but you have to put the work into it! I will not let you just coast by just because your slightly strong."
Ariana groaned. "I can not connect with them like you want me too!" Vera stopped pacing and looked Ariana in the eyes. "You have 6 familiars... the pink one, Vasu is a precious heirloom. He is not one that you had summoned but one that was passed down to you.... do you know what this means?" Vera said in a low menacing tone that it caused Ariana to sober up from her exhaustion. "What are you trying to get at?" She asked and Vera’s eyes flashed with something sinister. "It means that you can be challenged for ownership."
Ariana shot up from the ground. She was more serious then before. "No one is going to take Vasu away from me!" Vera nodded her head and her gaze softened. "Like I said be prepared now, if anyone was paying attention to Arizona chances are they figured out Vasu’s element." Vera finished saying and she saw that Ariana’s face paled dramatically.
"I swear I will never tell! But... our battle was watched by so many people. I have hidden Arizona just in case and telling people she is recovering but you need to be careful." Ariana could feel her eyes starting to sting. "Vera I need you to be tougher on me!" She shouted as a few tears escaped. "That’s what I want to hear."
It was night fall before Ariana was able to drag her body back to her dorm room. "Where have you been?" Edlyn asked as she was busy tucking Thor into his bed. "With Vera." Ariana groaned. ’Miss Vera is very worried about our Master’ Aroha said as she lead all the other Lumas into the room.
’So worried that I believe Master will be unable to meet Mrs. Dabney for the yoga.’ Davita proclaimed proudly as if Ariana’s hard work was her personal achievement. ’That Vera is a true warrior! She knows how to condition the body perfectly! Master you must train hard so not to lose to those rats they call students.’ Rahul said as he jumped onto Ariana’s back causing her to topple over instantly.