The Year of the Lumin (10 page)

Noir let his body relax and allowed himself to lay on the ground.  He spread his legs and arms out beside him.  Ratt made it to his bed before collapsing.  Noir said from the floor in a jokingly exhausted manner, “I knew this wouldn’t be easy, but….”

Fafnir let out a loud, gravely laugh.  “You just wait.  There is plenty more to come.”

Chapter 14

Trial by fire

Fafnir trained the two boys much the same for a few days.  She instructed them on battle techniques, weapon stances, parries, attacks, and many other fighting concepts.  Noir got more and more comfortable with embracing the lux within him and using it to create light barriers.  In that time, Fafnir had also taught Noir how to create light using lux.  He could create bright lights that would cast sharp shadows about the cave that had no visible source.  However, now that Noir was more comfortable with the use of his vigor, Fafnir knew it was time for him to learn one of the most important skills for a Luxin.

Noir stood outside the cave, dismissed by Fafnir.  She and Ratt were inside doing something, though she wouldn't tell him what before he left.  Noir looked out at the trees and hills before him.  He wondered about Steven and Aimee and missed them greatly.  He knew he was spending a lot of time at Fafnir's lair, but he felt it was necessary.  He felt he had to continue training with lux.  But why?  All he had cared about until recently was finding his family and getting home.

As he struggled inwardly, he heard Fafnir's voice rise from inside her lair.  “Noir, come.  We are ready for you.”  Noir put his thoughts aside for the moment and went back to his training.

He limped inside and into the large main chamber.  Fafnir was resting in her large stool as usual, and Ratt stood before her, looking at the cave floor.

“Come forward.  We are going to spar like before.  Ratt, raise your weapon.  You know what to do.”  She turned toward Noir.  “I want you to only protect yourself this time.  I will put up the light barriers to protect Ratt.  Do you understand?”

“Yes, Fafnir,” replied Noir.

Noir got into one of the sword stances that Fafnir had taught him.  Ratt got into his own stance, but something was different about him.  He seemed nervous.

The two boys went at each other, trading blows as normal.  The blades ricocheted off of weapons and invisible barriers as always.  Noir saw Fafnir's use of lux going into the barriers protecting his friend.

Noir blocked an axe strike from Ratt with his sword, then turned the hilt and brought up a side blow toward his arm.  As his blade approached Ratt's arm, he noticed the light barrier that Fafnir put up.  It was different than normal.  It was at an angle that would not rebound his sword backwards the way it came.  It was tilted to divert the blow's full power away, but the tip of the sword was still going to strike Ratt's arm.

By the time Noir comprehended all of this, the blade had made a long red mark diagonally along Ratt's bicep.  Ratt cried out in pain and dropped his axe to the floor with a low clang.  He put his other hand on the wound and held it.

Noir immediately dropped his own weapon and limped to his friend.  “Ratt!  I'm so sorry, Ratt!”  He looked at Fafnir while holding Ratt's shoulder in his hand and shouted, “What happened?  What did you do?”

Fafnir spoke quickly, “Noir!  It is time for you to learn one of the most important abilities of a Luxin.  You must learn to heal the body's wounds.  Piece back together severed or crushed flesh.”

Noir said, “Buy why like this?  I never wanted...”

Fafnir interrupted him with a louder tone, “Ratt agreed to it.  It is the only way, boy.  Now do as I say or your friend will needlessly suffer longer.”

Noir turned toward Ratt who was now sitting on the ground cradling his injured arm.  Noir knelt by his friend.

“Embrace a small amount of lux and send it into the wound, probing it.  The lux is your eyes where eyes may not go.”

Noir did as he was told.  He brought out a small amount of lux and focused through Ratt's fingers on the cut.  Lux filled the gash and probed inward into the wound.  Noir felt and saw through the lux, though he could not explain how.  He saw the flesh and understood where and how it was cut.  The muscle underneath was badly cut along with the long, open gash on his skin.

Ratt let out a grunt and whimper of pain as Fafnir spoke again.  “Lux has the ability to heal that which is damaged in the body.  Once you understand the damage, weave lux into it, patching together the damaged tissue.”

Noir tried to do as she said.  Through the lux, he willed the damaged flesh to mend itself.  What was torn pieced itself back together cell by cell.  He felt the muscle slowly repairing and soon the cut tissue was mended.  He then pieced back together the layers of flesh and skin that surrounded the muscle.  Though Noir had never done this before, it somehow came easily and naturally for him.

Ratt's eyes were wide and looked into the air blankly.  His mouth was open though no sound came out.  The red cut closed up as though it were a zipper slowly being pulled shut.  Blood showed on Ratt's arm, but the wound from which it came had disappeared except for a faint scar.

When it was finally completely closed, Noir released his control of lux.  He stood up and took a step backwards to take a look at Ratt's arm, but stumbled from exhaustion.  The healing had taken more out of Noir than he had realized.

Coming out of his trance, Ratt looked down at his arm in disbelief.

“Noir,” said Fafnir.  “You have a very strong talent in healing.  This will serve you well on your journeys.”

Noir marveled at what he had just done.  He knew it had just happened, but believing it was another thing entirely.

After the lesson was over and Ratt had said many times that he was alright, Noir asked Fafnir a question that had been on his mind since he had first learned about lux.  “If lux can fix small wounds,” he paused a long time as if fearing the answer to his question, “could it heal my bad leg?”

Fafnir shifted in her large table-like chair.  “That wound runs deep.  It is old and already healed over.  It is not possible to heal old wounds and scars.  I am sorry, Noir, but that will be with you for the rest of your life.”

“Not even you, Fafnir?  You couldn’t do it?”

“No.  I am sorry, child.”  Noir felt his heart sink.  Although he had known it was a long shot, he still had been greatly hopeful to be rid of his cumbersome limp.

~~~

              Noir laid in bed listening to the breathing of the two others in the room.  He laughed silently at the thought of actually being
accustomed
to the sound of a dragon's breathing.  The dull pain in his bad leg was preventing him from sleeping.  He had been using it a lot in the last few days which always caused it to hurt.

              His mind went over what had happened that day.  Fafnir seemed very proud after he healed Ratt's wound.  She had said that most Luxins took many weeks to get it right.

              Noir shifted over onto his side.  As he did, his leg pulsed with a new throb of pain in it.  “There has to be a way to fix this darned thing.  There has to.”

Despite Fafnir’s teachings, Noir embraced a small amount of lux.  He focused on his bad leg, probing it as he had Ratt's arm.  He manipulated the energy around inside to get a mental picture of his leg.  His knee seemed to be held together at odd angles.  He could sense old scar tissue where there should be strong muscle.  He focused some lux into his good leg and then compared the two.  He didn't see what was wrong with the bad leg; it was more like he felt and understood what was wrong.  The bottom of his femur was crushed but healed over and did not connect correctly with his knee joint.  The knee was also twisted and fit together in a different way than his other leg.  He also felt chunks of metal that the surgeons had put in place to hold the knee together.

              With determination, Noir went to work.  He started manipulating the bones and flesh.  As he started, he realized why Ratt had made such an odd face while he was being healed.  The feeling was very strange and uncomfortable.  It felt as though tiny warm fingers pushed and pulled at the insides of his body.  He focused first on the pieces of metal.  Though the thought was gruesome, he knew they had to be removed in order to fix his knee.  He slowly parted the flesh that held the metal and worked it out.  Fearing what the process would look like, Noir stared at the ceiling until he felt all of the metal pieces fall to his bed.

              Next, he worked on molding the bottom part of his mangled femur to match his good leg.  It took a large amount of lux to get it started, but the bone shifting and bending inside of him felt like nothing he had felt before.  He found himself gritting his teeth not from pain, but from the strange and intense sensation.

              Once he had rejuvenated the bone, he focused on the knee socket.  He rotated and moved bone and flesh until it matched his other knee.  Then with a strain and pull on his body, he fit the newly grown bone into the socket.  He compared his work to his undamaged leg.  It seemed to match, so he released the lux.

              After some initial discomfort, his leg began to feel better.  The pain that he was sensing before was now gone.  He bent his leg, testing it.  It bent correctly like it had before the accident at the cave.  A surge of absolute glee ran through him as he comprehended what he had done.  Fafnir had been wrong!

              Noir tossed aside the blanket and put his feet on the rock floor.  He slowly stood up on his two legs.  Both supported him correctly.  He took a step with his previously bad leg.  It was working wonderfully.  Noir took the first normal steps that he had taken in over a year.  He walked for a moment, then broke into a jog, then to a run.  He ran from one side of the large cavern to the other.

              Fafnir raised her head as though she were never asleep.  “Well done, my student!  You are talented in healing, indeed.”  A smile curled on her lips as she watched Noir running about the chamber.  “Well done.  I figured it would not be long before you tried it, despite my lecture.  However, I did not think you would be successful on your first try.”

              Ratt had woken up from the sound of Fafnir's voice and had come over to see what was going on.  Noir ran up to Ratt and grabbed his shoulders.  “Ratt!  Do you see?  I can run again!  I haven't run in a year!”

              Ratt replied as Noir shook his shoulders in excitement, “Wow!  You healed your leg?”

              Noir stood back from his friend and started doing jumping jacks.  “Dude!  I can do jumping jacks!”

              Ratt laughed, then stretched and yawned.  “I'm not sure why you'd be happy to be able to do
that,
whatever that is.”  He was smiling sleepily.  “But good for you.  Now, I don't know about you,” he joked, “but I got stabbed today.  I'm going back to bed.”  He stretched again, scratched his belly, and walked back to his bed.

              Fafnir spoke to Noir, “Ignore his disinterest.  Healing and being healed drains the body substantially.  I'm surprised you aren't more tired than you are.”

              Noir stretched his legs and Fafnir continued, “You have done very well, Noir.  I did not tell you how to do this feat because I wanted you to experiment on your own.  Part of your training is teaching you to teach yourself.  You need to constantly try new things and experiment with lux in order to become a better Luxin.”  She paused and then said, “Noir, you have progressed faster than just about any student I have ever had.  Your training is quickly coming to a close.  Soon you will have to discover new ways to use lux on your own.”  She curled her large dragon lips into a smile.  “Get some rest, child.  You have done very well today.”

Noir walked a couple more laps around the room and then went back to his bed.  He sat on the edge and bent his leg over and over.  He thought for a long while about everything that had happened.  Eventually, his drooping eyelids encouraged Noir to lay his head down on the pillow and drift off to sleep.

~~~

              Aimee flung din attacks furiously at the targets that someone manipulated to pop up on the training grounds.  She was exhausted at the repeated training and felt like she could do no more.  She flung one more fire attack that wilted before it hit its target, then she inadvertently fell to one knee, drained by the continued use of her chakra.

              Her teacher came forward applauding her efforts.  “Ninety seven targets destroyed.  Very impressive, Aimee.  The best I've seen in quite a while from a novice.”

              Aimee struggled to remain conscious as he came forward.  “Yeah, whatever.  Is it good enough?”

              The dark robed man chuckled.  “You know the number to beat was twenty.  You surpassed our expectations by far as usual.  There is only one more step to you becoming a true Din Mage”

              Aimee looked up at him with hatred and hope and said, “Then you will tell me how to get home?”

              Aimee's teacher closed his eyes and reached for something behind his back.  “No, I'm sorry my child.  I'm afraid you are worth too much to us here.”

              Aimee's heart filled with violent rage as she saw the collar come from behind his back.  At the same time, the red light of din came from his hands and ice hardened around her wrists fastening her to the ground.  “No!” she screamed at him.  “You liar!  You promised I could go home!”

              “I am sorry, my dear,” said the man as he brought the collar to Aimee's neck.

              Aimee tried to grasp din, but it slipped through her fingers.  She now knew she had walked into his trap perfectly.  Hatred fumed inside her as her teacher brought the collar around her neck.