"Wake up, You Maggot!" Zephy's voice echoed from the outside of the cave, a bit angrier than usual.
And Louder than ever. It was practically a scream.
Aiden woke up at that scream, feeling irritated.
There were slight eye bags under his eyes. It's cause being his continuous nightmares.
His sleep had been interrupted more than three times in the night, as he woke up at random times, sweating more than when he was training.
Aiden cursed under his breath, having woken up with a sudden jerk, which had him hit his head against the wall of the cave.
"Ouch! ...What happened?" He complained in a slightly irritated tone.
His palm massaged and covered the area on his forehead with a tiny bit of water to lessen the pain.
"What happened, you ask? The Sun's been up for a whole minute now. Splash some water onto your eyes, and come outside for the 'Hell' that I promised you."
Zephy barked, his gruff voice being more gruff than usual.
Aiden figured he was angry at him, not waking him up and inviting him inside the cave. At least, that's what he thought.
"Quick, brat."
The words followed the previous ones without giving him even a moment to respond. Zephy was relentless.
Aiden splashed his face with water and wiped it down with his palm before he groggily walked outside the cave, his steps not in a perfect rhythm.
...He was still not a morning person, but he was giving it his all to become one.
"I'm up." Yawning, while covering his mouth with the back of his palm, Aiden said with his lips not touching together, making his enunciation far off.
"Good. Get going and prepare the morning meal before we start today."
Zephy said, perched on top of two pieces of the meat slabs, already cut and skinned.
It seemed that he wasn't just going let Aiden do all of it himself.
Though he was back in his little form, making Aiden remain on guard at all times.
He would've definitely preferred if he stayed in the ethereal form a little longer, at least till the mealtime was over.
"Can't eat it raw anymore after tasting my cooking, heh."
Aiden chuckled, scraping some of the trunk's bark and dead branches, and lit a fire using the Harbinger of Death as the medium.
After the fight against that bear, he finally learned to use his lightning magic with the scythe - at least he felt so instinctively.
"...Just cook, Kiddo. Don't burn the meat that I have cut."
Zephy tried to play nonchalant and dismissive, but unfortunately for him, he was still a terrible actor.
**********
"So, what's this 'hell' you promised?" Aiden asked, rubbing his palms together and doing some Arm and leg swings to warm up.
Even though he doesn't feel cold at all, training and practicing without any warm-up would be foolish.
He didn't want an injury. He couldn't afford one.
Especially, till he doesn't possess some sort of skill that lets him heal like Zephy.
...Even then, warming up might be beneficial to avoid being slow for the first few minutes.
"No need to rush, Kid. 'Hell' isn't something that can be experienced in a single moment. It's an experience over a course of time." Zephy chirped, sounding ancient and wise. Or at the very least, trying to sound like that.
"Let's talk and test what you have learned from that battle against that Glacial Bear."
"Close your eyes, and repeat what you did last time. Tell me, any difference you notice?"
Aiden, though slightly disheartened that his warm-up was gonna be a waste, sat in the same cross-legged position as the last time.
He repeated the process.
Feeling the gentle rustle of the wind as it played with his hair.
The Whistle of it when it rushed through a cave.
Smell that it carried. The Scent of Bushes, Snow, Dirt, and... Ash.
It's way of gently caressing against his earlobe and skin, it was soothing.
Soothing like a lullaby.
He loved it. Aiden wanted to embrace that feeling forever, but his will refused to give in to its seduction.
Zephy's words whirling in his mind, Aiden looked for something different.
Something that he hadn't felt last time.
At first, Aiden only felt the wind's sensation had been heightened more than the last time.
And it indeed had, however, focusing more...
Focusing more on the path that the Wind was running around in, he realized something.
The Air around him... Something foreign was present in it.
Something that didn't have a scent but that Something...
It had a presence so profound that he was bewildered as to how he had missed it till now.
"Pwaah..." Aiden's lips parted with an audible sound, and a string of saliva connected them.
His brows furrowed as he honed in on his hearing more.
The Wind bounced against that something, changing its path and making an almost negligible yet overtly apparent sound once noticed.
But even after reflecting, it remained calm and serene.
And if he dared to say, it became even more playful and gentle.
It was as if the wind and something were playing a game of tag, inviting him to join in.
"Found something, huh?" Zephy tittered. "Open your eyes gradually, all the while not losing the tracks of the Aether with your ears."
"Ensure not to lose it, got me?" Zephy emphasized, demanding a response from Aiden, to which Aiden subtly nodded.
"Good. Let's see how the world appears to you now."
At those words, Aiden slowly opened his eyes. His ears were keeping tabs on the trail of Wind and Aether's Game of Tag.
"Whoa... That's..." Aiden was speechless at the light golden shimmer, which was present almost everywhere.
Everywhere that had a scent, that had a shape, and even filling the space that was 'empty'.
It was enhancing the beauty, the scent, and the sound of the tiniest of things.
"That's for sure one hell of a reaction, Heh..." Zephy chuckled, his tiny body made entirely out of Mana, contrasted brilliantly in Aiden's eyes with the glamour of Aether in the background.
It was like a priceless painting, considered priceless not because no one would pay their entire treasury for it, but because it would enthrall anyone by its sheer beauty, not even allowing the thought of buying it to enter their mind.
"Would the world always look like this to me now? Do all of the beings who can detect Aether see like this?!" Aether squeaked at the end of his question.
"Of course, in hell not," Zephy grunted, exhaling sharply.
"Oh... So it returns to normal, huh?"
Aiden felt a bit disappointed at those words. He really admired the radiant shine of the Aether.
"Only if it could have been forever..." or so he thought.
Zephy remained perched on Aiden's shoulders, all the while maintaining his silence at Aiden's thoughts, barely hiding the knowing smirk on his beak.
In just the next few minutes, Aiden was annoyed at the Aether's glow.
It was too radiant!!
"I take my words back. This isn't all rainbows!" Aiden complained, his right brow twitching in annoyance.
The Aether's glow covered half of his vision, overshadowing the natural beauty of everything.
It was extremely self-centric... maybe just like himself, which annoyed him greatly.
"Ughh..." Aiden grunted, and looking towards Zephy sitting on his right shoulder with only his eyes without turning his neck, continued.
"Zephy, tell me what to do to revert to my normal vision?" Aiden pleaded politely.
"Pfft-! Your Golden time regarding Aether remained really small, huh? Bwhahahahaha." Zephy couldn't control his laughter anymore and erupted into loud laughter, which, at first, surprised Aiden because he didn't expect him to laugh like that, after always not being honest with his words and reactions in these situations.
But when his guffawing never ceased, even after minutes passed, Aiden felt slightly embarrassed but god, annoyed out of his skin.
"Stop laughing, and help me out!" Aiden protested, his neck turning towards Zephy and his hands grasping the little Ice phoenix... which he failed to do so.
"Hahahahahahahahaha!"
"Just shut up, will you? It's not even that funny!"
"It is... pfft-!... extremely funny, cause it reminded me of something from past days."
"Urghh..! Come here."
Aiden flailed his hands around to grab him, his embarrassment reaching its peak.
"Hahahahahahaha"
However, Zephy only flew around, as Aiden struggled his best to catch the little phoenix within his grasp, all the while, said Phoenix wheezed like a Madman.