42 Lera - Part 2

"Since we have been working hard this past week, I thought we could go on a camping trip."

Jev brought the idea up. The main reason behind his reasoning was that training was taking its toll on them, mentally due to Lera's strange magic removing their exhaustion, and Lera herself. She was and still is a handful. Paroppe had been taking most of the burden, recently Ayanni has been helping out, but Jev has been avoiding her if they were alone.

Her magic never seemed to end when they really tried pushing her, some of the things she did were too weird, and the main bit was her state of mind. Jev noted that she was like a child, well the others did too, but she was overly happy and that creeped him out. Back to the magic. Paroppe had told them how Lera had done something to their father. So they tried it on a dummy, nothing happened. Then they had Lera do it to Ayanni. He volunteered, but it didn't stop Jev from worrying. So they watched as Ayanni just stood there still, like he was frozen. So they tried asking Ayanni what he felt or what was happening, but he never responded. So it wasn't the standard paralysis. Then once they asked Lera to stop it, they found out the scary part, or at least the part that scared Jev.

"Did she do it yet?"

Ayanni has asked that, but it have been over five minutes. It was like time stopped and just for him. The others weren't sure what to make of it. Ayanni stopped himself from asking more questions, so that stopped his inquiry, and Paroppe thought it would be useful against anyone if they left the city to adventure out in the world. Jev's issue was what if she used that on them or everyone. With Lera's seemingly inexhaustible magic, she could even use it on the city or the world. If she fell in the wrong hands, it would be very dangerous.

They were at peace with neighboring countries. It had been like that for a while. It was good for everyone, but Ayanni had mentioned that since Suul was starting to accept demons as individuals, allowing them to stay in the state like beast-kin, other places didn't take that well. So it was worrying. If they did get into a war, and Lera was not on their side… Jev didn't like their odds.

At least she had imprinted on his sister. When they asked Lera to use magic on his sister, like a water whip, which she either purposely missed or outright didn't do anything.

---

"What do you think I should bring? I know Jev and Ayanni are making a cold pasta salad, but what should I make Lera?" Paroppe watched as she bounced up and down next to her. "Yes, yes. I know you are hungry too, but since we are leaving tomorrow morning, I have to plan ahead." Lera just nodded a lot before playing with a few toys that their parents had given the siblings when they were younger. "Something warm then…"

---

"The sun is so bright!"

"Don't stare at it Paroppe."

"Thank you for that amazing advice Ayanni!"

"I didn't mean it like that."

"It's fine. I wish we had something that let us see. I mean we have to walk this way… Huh? Lera, What's this?" She grabbed some black pair glasses and put them on. "Oh wow it looks like the sun is setting from how dark it is. Where did you get these from Lera?"

"Paroppe, she never had them before now."

"That's a good point Jev. Can you store items Lera?" Lera nodded in response. "Oh, you can? Can you store our food as well?"

"Don't ask her to do that sis and take those off."

"Why?" She wanted to know why she had to carry the food and had to take off the dark glasses.

"What if our food falls apart wherever she puts it? Also the light can still hurt your eyes, so don't stare at the sun! Remember she isn't a tool."

"Seriously! I'll carry the food, but I'm keeping these on. I didn't ask her for these, she just gave them to me."

Ayanni looked at those dark glasses. "Lera, did you get those dark glasses from somewhere?" Lera put on a confused face. "Paroppe, are those magical?"

"Now that I look, they aren't. There isn't the normal rainbow like sheen on them."

"Then why do they fit your face perfectly?"

They all turned towards Lera. She had a huge smile like she did a good job. Waiting to be praised again. Paroppe was the first to ask.

"Did you make these Lera?"

She nodded letting them know that she didn't buy them, she made them. All the questions that Ayanni wanted to spit out were stopped due to Jev's hand on his shoulder. That helped him calm down to focus on clearing his mind.

"Let's just get going before it gets any later." Jev wanted to know more, but he needed to give Ayanni a distraction to help him out. He didn't want anything bad to happen, by antagonizing Lera.

---

"That over there is the Heroes' Academy. See the statue over there? That's where my mother works. Why are you crying Lera?"

She watched as Lera shook her head and walked faster ahead of the others towards the gate.

"What happened?" Paroppe was confused.

"For now let's catch up to her."

Jev wasn't sure, but he could guess that it was from the Academy.

---

It was about an hour past mid day. Everyone had walked out of the city to the east and walked up and along the hills. The most difficult part of the trip was climbing the steep, large hill. There was a path, but the uphill climb in full gear and holding on their supplies didn't help. The worst part was that one of the gang didn't help carry anything. Though that was on the other three as that one person couldn't be trusted to play with the stuff, magically store it, or just throw it on the ground when it got too heavy.

"Paroppe and I will set the tents up. Ayanni keep a watch on her," Jev pointed towards Lera, "and set up our lunch. After that we will head further up so we can go to the overlook."

"Let's do this!" Paroppe shouted with an excited voice. She wouldn't have to carry the food any more.

"Lera, come help me set this up."

Lera walked over to Ayanni. She was hungry and since food was about to be ready she was happy. She liked food. Food was good. She liked good.

She also liked being with everyone. They were nice. She got to watch them train and fight each other. Everyone was smiling, so she did too. Of course she didn't like seeing everyone hurt. Hurting people was bad. Being hurt was bad. She didn't like bad things.

Then at one time Paroppe asked to feel better. She wanted to help her feel better, so she made her body happy. No pain! Even Ayanni wanted to feel better. That made her happy. She didn't know why Jev didn't, but seeing him smiling was good enough.

On their way out of the city, Paroppe asked for sunglasses. So she made a pair and gave it to her. They were helpful and safe. Staring at the sun hurt, so she knew she did a good job. Of course she wanted to wear a pair for herself, but she forgot. She was happy enough that Paroppe was happy.

Then Paroppe showed her a statue of her family, the ones she hurt. She didn't like that. It was sad. Sad was bad. Lera didn't like bad.

---

Off the path, in a clearing meant for camping, everyone was just finishing up their lunch. Jev stood up, as did the others, so he began to speak.

"Lera and I will clean up here. You both ok to set up the alarms?"

Ayanni and Paroppe nodded as they put on their gear.

"Take care brother. Lera make sure to help Jev and listen to him."

They rolled the blanked, packed the eating utensils, and washed their hands with some water magic. As they waited for the others to finish, Jev looked over towards Lera to watch her playing with the sticks.

"You're such a handful, you know?"

He watched as she put on a bright smile and waved at him. He was only two meters away from her, but she acted like he was far away.

"Why are you like that? What happened to you? Are you even thirty-five? Your magic and those glasses… Everything about you is a mystery. Do you even understand what I'm saying?"

---

Lera heard his words. She remembered that was her age. At least when she last said it and that wasn't too long ago. Maybe she was older, she didn't know. Her magic? It was magic. She just copied the magic of this world. Sun-glasses? They protect the eyes. Paroppe's eyes need to be safe. She didn't really understand anything else. So she continued to smile and wave at Jev. Once she saw the other two, she waved at them too.

---

"I remember this place being shorter. I regret picking this spot already."

"Dad carried you at that time Jev, that's why the climb feels this way. Cheer up! The pay off is amazing and you know it."

"True."

"I haven't been up here before actually."

"Oh good, Lera won't be the only one. You can see the whole city and surrounding area. It's a wonderful sight."

---

"It's beautiful!"

"Ayanni, wait until the stars appear. It changes everything about the view. Take a nap and when you awake the change will be apparent."

"I could go for one."

"Me too."

"Seriously? Fine, go ahead Jev."

Paroppe leans in to whisper to Lera.

"Do you want to take a nap too?" Lera shook her head. "Alright well, while they sleep, we have to keep a watch out for anything. If you see anything just shake me, ok?" Lera nodded.

---

The last bits of light ran away for the day. Ayanni and Jev were laying in the grass. Ayanni had his arms behind his head, while Jev was on his side snoring. Paroppe was starting to nod off to sleep herself, but thankfully Lera's energetic nature kept her awake. She spoke up to Lera, still whispering.

"You know Lera, I wish I had one of those tech pads. Ayanni said they could keep memories, this is one I want to keep forever. All of us here on top of the hill relaxed, happy, and the amazing view."

Paroppe saw that had nodded at what she said. Then she looked at Paroppe like she wanted to be praised again. It was confusing to her, but she just reached out her arm to pat Lera's head. It made put a smile on Paroppe's face too. Then she saw there was something other than her bracers on her wrist.

"Huh, what is… Wait, this is… Seriously? Lera did you… Did you give me this? How? How did it get on my wrist?" Paroppe was barely able to grasp what was happening, that she forgot to whisper, but looking at the two sleeping, neither had woken up. She looked for Lera for answers. She kept nodding like she knew she did a good job and was happy for it.

"Ayanni asked if you knew about them and earlier we asked if you made those dark glasses, did you make this too?" Lera's head was going to fly off from her nodding. "So you made it?" Same response. "Like made it, made it?" Confused nodding. "Do you have more?" Lera shook her head, but Paroppe just thought a moment before asking another question. "Could you make more?" Without healing magic, Lera would have died from how she was nodding. Though that was just a small thought that popped in Paroppe's mind.

"Umm… Okay. Well do you know how to use this?" A quick nod from Lera. "Could you show me how to keep this memory?" Lera was confused by that, so she stopped nodding. "Hrm… Ayanni said something… What was it? Pictures? Video? Oh you know that? Okay, teach me what a 'pictures' is!"

---

"His face is so cute when he's sleeping. I got like forty pictures of his face." Paroppe was giggling like crazy. She had the power to take pictures and video. Lera and her spent a bunch of time taking pictures of the surroundings and then themselves. She explored a bit of how taking videos work, but once she saw her brother and Ayanni sleeping, she had a plan. Take as many pictures of them before she has to wake them up.

She was like a child… Lera with a toy. She knew it, but didn't care. She had the thing that got Ayanni so worked up. Paroppe would play with it as much as she could. She asked Lera if it could get full, from the amount of pictures she had taken, but Lera shook her head, so she took more and more pictures.

Well it was time for her to wake them up. She figured out how to remove the tech pad from her arms and hid it in her bag. It wouldn't be good to show that in front of the boys. Ayanni would be unable to control himself and her brother was wary of Lera, so he wouldn't like her having a tech pad that Ayanni has repeatedly said only the Counsel had.

"Ayanni take a look now!" She lightly patted him on his chest.

"Oh my…" Ayanni, quite literally, had his breath taken away as he forgot to breath.

Paroppe woke her brother up next, but he didn't sit up like Ayanni. He just opened his eyes and rolled on his back.

It was chilly so she pulled Lera closer to keep warm.

"Memories like this are worth keeping forever."