The Familiars

It was a hot day in the city. Lapis and some boys were playing soccer and, as usual, no one was half as good as Lapis.She just made another goal when a whistle echoed.

“Boys, stop playing, we are going to do serious training now.” Said the gym teacher.

The official school team arrived together with some of the ones who already were playing with Lapis.

“What about me?” Asked Lapis.

“Oh, Lapis, I did not see you there. We need to train, you can play later.”

“But I want to be part of the team.”

The teacher sighed, without patience.

“We already had this conversation, you can’t, it's only for boys.”

“But I’m better than all of them!”

“I know, but there are rules, it is not my fault. If you find enough girls, you can make another team.”

“But I don’t want to play with the girls! I want…”

She was too angry to keep this conversation and left, rising stones from the ground with each heavy step she made, arriving at a bench, and looking at the sky.

“Hey, what are you doing?”

Kazen covered her view, putting his head over her. She explained what happened and, even if Kazen could not understand her feelings, he noticed how that was affecting her.

“I see. This world really is unfair, but you know there are things you can do they can’t, like summon your familiar.”

The way he talked was like he would teach her, making her eyes spark.

“Really? Will you teach me?”

The teacher did not seem happy with that, but he agreed.

“After all I helped Fulgor with the first release, nothing fairer. I just have to teach something to Auron later.”

“No! Let’s call them. It would be better if we do it together.”

Happy with the altruism of Lapis, he accepted and soon the trio was with Kazen in a park.

“Ok, I just want you to know this will be the final final thing I will teach you guys.”

They barely cared about those words, too excited to learn about familiars and the way to achieve the second release.

“A little bit of lore for you. There is another world where our familiars live, like an elemental dimension. Each human is connected to one familiar of your element and, with the right training, you can summon them.”

A red smoke cloud appeared on Kazen’s shoulder and, when it was gone, all could see a strange creature. It looked like an imp, a small red humanoid with tiny bat wings, a tail and small horns.

“This is my familiar, Belzebob, but you can call him Bob.”

“Hello, children.”

The creature was creepy and had an ugly smile.

“Don’t worry, most familiars are cute, Bob is an exception.”

“What?”

The little devil went to Kazen’s head and started to pull his hair, until it became a sai. The fire elemental grabbed the weapon trying to maintain his posture.

“Familiars can also turn into weapons, like my sai and the katanas from the Venti. Technically the familiars are elementals just like us, but way weaker, so it is better to use them as weapons in combat scenarios.”

Even Fulgor was paying attention to the class, by his side Auron was taking notes of everything Kazen said.

“And remember to thank Lapis for this lesson, she is the only reason I’m teaching you this.”

“Thank you, Lapis!” Said the two in unison.

“So, now comes the trick for summoning a familiar. You must connect to this creature in another dimension. Later you will do it on a whim, but the first time is really hard, almost impossible to do naturally.

“So how can we…”

The words of Auron were interrupted by Kazen raising a hand and summoning a fireball the size of an elephant.

“When your lives are on the line is the easiest way to summon your familiar, now I advise you to run, because I’m coming to kill.”

The kids started to run but, even in their first releases, Kazen was faster not using any release. The teacher tried his best to put fear on their students while he gave tips about how to connect with their familiars.

At the end of the day the three of them had summoned their familiars. Auron was the first one and his was a turtle with a cyan shell.

“A turtle? That has nothing to do with wind!”

“Well, the familiars can be anything , or did you think all wind familiars have to be birds?”

Fulgor could not stop laughing at the turtle.

“A turtle! I can’t believe it! It is so slow!”

Both Auron and the turtle stared angrily at Fulgor.

“I… have… feelings… you… know. My… name… is… Sigmund.”

The turtle spoke slowly with a voice that seemed like Auron’s but lower, making Fulgor laugh even more.

“Oh my god, that combines perfectly with you.”

Auron picked Sigmund defensively.

“I love my turtle, ok? It is perfect for me, and that is a good thing.”

Fulgor just stopped to laugh when Kazen returned to hunt him and soon his own familiar appeared to protect him.

It was a small monkey with yellow fur.

“Nice to meet you, good sir, my name is Iky.” Said the monkey with a male voice doing a reverence.

“You look so cool, way better than a turtle!”

“You are too kind, Fulgor. I just hope everyone has a good time.”

The personalities of the two were way different. Iky was a gentleman and very well behaved. Auron started to defend his familiar, but Fulgor still thought it was funny. Soon, the last familiar appeared as an armadillo that looked like a rock when he entered his sphere shape, protected Lapis from the attacks of Kazen.

“Hello… My name is Caeneus.” The armadillo said with a timid male voice.

“The pleasure is all mine.” Said Iky extended his hand to him, but Caeneus hid, turning into a sphere.

“He… is… shy…”

Fulgor and Auron tried to interact with Caeneus and the other familiars while Lapis approached Kazen.

“Are all familiar males?”

“What? No, Alis’ familiar is a beautiful female swan, and there are a lot of female ones. Why?”

“Well, Caeneus seems to be male, like Sigmund and Iky. Does this have any meaning?”

Kazen realized this was a delicate subject to Lapis and started to have some ideas.

“Well, I guess any meaning is yours to conclude. Familiars are a strange kind and we don’t even know how or why they exist. I would advise you just to become friends with Caeneus.

The armadillo came rolling to hide behind Lapis as the other children followed and started to ask questions about the second release to Kazen.

“I told you I'm not going to teach you anything more, but I guess I can explain the logic. The second release, in general stronger than the first one, is when you fuse with your familiar. That is why I gain wings and horns.”

The two boys started to make theories on how to do that as Lapis was sitting on the floor holding Caeneus introspective.