"I..." Luna was trying to think but things just weren't clicking. Not like when she got distracted, more like a soft cloth that covered her in warmth. "I think I would. What kind of ga?"
"Oh! We have all kinds of fun gas! But we should probably stay inside the house so none of the monsters interrupt us. I can't let them in once we've started playing. What do you want to play for?" Luna felt the girls small hands run lightly over her weapons, her gauntlet, tiny fingers picking at the edges of her cloak. "Do you have any cool stuff you can do?"
"Yeah, lot's of cool stuff," Luna mumbled. Sothing was happening and Luna tried to find her well to see what the options were, but she couldn't find her way there. She could sense it but was too lost to... sothing reached out of the well and found her, touching her stats. A small piece of understanding reached her when she felt her Luck activate. So that's what it looks like, she thought to herself as her Luck activated.
There was a hiss and the cloud in her mind evaporated as the concentration vial emptied its contents into her system. Not long after the antidote vial emptied itself too, and Luna was out of the fog.
"What did you do to ? What are you trying to do?"
The girl cocked her head to the side, eyes alight with curiosity and irritation. "Oh you're no fun!" She climbed to her feet and started stomping down the hallway. Luna scrambled to her feet and followed the girl. The pure concentration made her realize that the girl had been casting so sort of spell that made her more compliant and docile. She also knew they were running out of ti. Whatever the girl needed to hear to co with her, Luna only had a short amount of ti to do it before the vial wore off. She definitely didn't want to be traveling ho at night.
She reached the end of the hallway and pushed the door open slowly, a room resplendent in pastel pinks, purples, and blues arrayed around her. She didn't even need to guess that the room was the girl's, everything in there painted the picture perfectly. Luna walked to the sniffling girl who was now laying on her side on the bed. She sat next to her, gently reaching out to stroke the girl's hair. "Hey, it's okay! If you want to play a ga we can, it just can't take a long ti."
"But now you won't want to!"
"I do! Do you always have to make people want to play?"
The girl sniffled and rubbed her nose on the comforter. "Sotis my gas hurt people or make them go away. No one wants to play because they're scared of ."
"I'm not scared of you."
The girl turned back to look at Luna, her eyes serious. "You will be if you play."
Luna pulled her hand back reflexively, stopping when she saw the confirmation in the girl's eyes. She reached out again and touched the girl's arm. "What's your na, sweetie?"
"Jaidyn, but people call Jaidy."
"Okay, Jaidy, do you still want to play the ga?"
The girl nodded.
"So what do we have to do? What kind of ga do you want to play?" By this point Luna had realized that the ga the girl was referring to wasn't just a regular ga, but so sort of skill or power. It had to be dangerous to have kept the girl alive this long, but she didn't see any other way of convincing the girl to leave with her without playing.
"We pick a ga together, or I can pick it if you want, and we agree to what we get if we win."
"What kinds of things can we pick as prizes?"
"Oh, anything. We can pick stuff, but I don't have a lot of stuff, or we can even pick magics! Or even just experience, or we can make deals, or whatever we want! It lets pick whatever we agree to, it just has to be sasies when we do."
"Sasies? Like the sa things?"
"No," the girl said, "not exactly the sa things, but it has to be the sa amounts. So, like, if you want this," the girl pulled a vicious looking dagger out of her dinsional storage, the look of it turning Luna's stomach, "then you have to give sothing that is just as cool or strong as it. Or if you want experience then you have to give the sa. Or if you want a magic power then you have to say you'll give a magic power."
"So it just has to be equal, if not the sa?"
"Yep!" The girl nodded enthusiastically.
"But what if I don't want anything? Do we have to bet sothing?"
Jaidy screwed her face up in concentration for a few monts before responding. "I... I don't know! It's so much and there's a lot to read and I don't understand a lot of the words! I just know about the parts where if I give you sothing you have to give sothing."
"Okay," Luna put as much patience into her voice as she could. "How about this? What I want is for you to co live with . Does that work?"
Jaidy concentrated again, then her eyes flashed open. "That works!"
"Okay, that's what I want then."
Jaidy nodded, her expression serious. "But then if I win you have to stay here with . You can have my mommy's room!" Jaidyn pointed through the open door to another room at the other end of the hallway.
Luna gulped, her stomach flip-flopping with fear. What had she gotten herself into? She knew that the deal hadn't been struck yet - she could just leave and wouldn't be bound to anything. She considered it, the fear building inside of her making her itch to get out of the room and head ho as quickly as she could. The way the girl left it open-ended made her feel like she would be stuck here for a very, very long ti if she lost whatever the ga was. She closed her eyes and stepped to her well, but all of her futures were shrouded beyond the next few minutes.
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She opened her eyes and sighed as she looked into the hopeful eyes of the girl that was now sitting up, staring at her. She's not evil, she's not doing this on purpose. She just doesn't want to be alone and is using the only thing she knows to keep her safe. If I could just talk with her maybe I could teach her... but no, there's no ti. We need to get back now. It's been too long already.
She made her decision, realizing that it was the only one she could ever have truly made. She wasn't going to leave this girl to face the Challenge alone.
"Okay, I'll play the ga - but I get to help pick the ga. If lose I will stay here with you until you agree to co back with . If we leave, we'll leave together. But if I win then you co back with right now and live with us, okay?"
Jaidy's face scrunched up again in an expression that Luna now realized was her running the agreent through her skill to see if it would be accepted. The girl's face lit up in a smile and she nodded. "It worked! That's so cool that it worked! I never tried that before!"
"Okay, what gas are there?"
A minute later Luna was sprinting down the hallway, the sound of the girl's counting loud in her ears even as she got further away. Hide and Seek was the only one that really worked inside the house and Luna's heightened concentration highlighted every advantage she would have. Yes, the girl knew this house better than Luna, but Luna had sothing the girl couldn't have predicted - an abundance of shadows.
"READY OR NOT, HERE I CO!"
Luna pulled the last of the curtains shut, shrouding the room in heavy darkness, the diffuse light barely penetrating now. She pulled her cloak around her and felt the magic take effect as the darkness enveloped her. Small footsteps followed after and Luna heard her padding from room to room, giggling as she searched. She's fast she thought, realizing that the girl was so sort of beginner speedster. Not nearly as fast as Cass, but far faster than Luna could run.
Luna's heart leapt through her chest and she had to muffle a squeak of surprise as the girl slid into the room, staring around intently. Her eyes searched the room, passing slowly over everything. They crossed over Luna and she did everything she could to remain absolutely still inside her Voidstalker Cloak as Jaidyn's gaze lingered on her for a mont before continuing on. She let out a small sigh of relief as the girl turned to face away from her, hands on her hips.
"You're really good at hiding!" The girl said, stepping out of the room, footsteps no longer making any sounds as she searched the house. Luna stayed frozen as the small form appeared and disappeared again.
"I know you're here, I just can't see you! Oh wait, you're cheating!" With a sinking in her stomach Luna heard curtains being thrown back in the other rooms. Then the girl was back, flinging the ones in the living room open wide, the morning light chasing away most of the darkness. "Ooohhh... I think..." Luna saw Jaidyn searching the room again, turning slowly.
Her eyes snapped onto Luna's corner. "There you are!" She flashed forward and Luna cried out, leaning backwards into the shadow and...
... Luna was in the room across the hall, erging from a shadow just as Jaidyn's hand smacked the wall where she'd been a mont before.
"No fair!" The girl cried, spinning in a circle to try and find her again. Luna's step out of the shadow caused her to bump a small table. She looked down in horror and looked up again to see Jaidyn standing in the doorway, staring at the table. "I can't see you so good, but I think you're there!"
Luna looked around desperately for another shadow, stepping back into the corner and into a shadow in the far end of the room just as Jaidyn ran into the corner where she'd been a mont before.
"You are good at getting away!" Jaidyn said, the words punctuated with glee and a child's frustration. "But I know how to stop you!" She ran back to the entrance to the room and pulled the door shut, locking Luna in the room with her.
Luna checked the tir on the ga, realizing she only had to last another 60 seconds. Her stomach filled with acid at the thought of being locked in the room with the far faster girl. Bouncing between the limited number of shadows wouldn't work for long, especially since the girl seed to have caught on to how the skill worked.
"Oooohhh, you gotta stay where it's dark! That's pretty cool, but how about this?" Jaidyn ran to the curtains and pulled them off the wall with a jerk, sending the bar crashing to the ground. With dawning horror Luna realized that the only shadows left were along the back wall where she currently was.
There was nowhere left to shadow jump to.
Jaidyn turned slowly, eyes fixed on Luna's position. "I can kinda see you. It's hard but I think I can." She held her bear up and looked at it with a smile. "Let's get her, Teddy." And then she was moving.
Luna was out of options and she knew it. Or, was she? She hadn't fully explored her new abilities and she felt their untapped potential reaching out to her from her well. She wasn't a planner, she wasn't the type to plan out the perfect response. She went by feel and emotion, and it just felt right to let her luck flow through her naturally. She couldn't think her way out of this, but she could feel her way out, she realized.
As the girl rushed towards her she activated her agility vial and felt her stat jump. She opened herself to her well and felt strands reach out and connect with her. Suddenly there were three of her, one rushing left, the other right, the third lding into the shadow behind her to appear further along the wall. She watched as Jaidyn split into three, one touching her as she went right, the other as she went left. She dismissed those options and they both disappeared as Luna jumped backwards, Jaidyn thumping into the wall she disappeared into. Luna ca out a few feet away, leaping into the center of the room. Jaidyn turned and watched her vault a sofa and roll into a neat turn that brought her to her feet imdiately. The girl rushed her again and once again the two girls were split in multiple options. Luna chose one and twisted, letting Jaidyn fly past her to slam into the table behind her.
Jaidyn was on her feet again, rushing to Luna in a second, laughing as she ran. As all the options flowed through Luna they beca familiar to her, guiding her with the soft touches of knowing exactly where she needed to be and what she needed to do.
Now Luna was smiling, her fear beginning to dissipate as the visions of splitting realities stopped appearing and she just began to feel what was right. She realized that the images were her training wheels - ones she could pull out when she needed to see details, but not necessary for sothing like this. She opened herself up even more and let every possibility flow into her body and soul, the decisions no longer decisions - just subconscious urges that guided her every movent.
She was no longer running, just stepping lightly here, twisting there, lifting an arm here, placing a foot there, spinning, jumping, flipping. Her enhanced concentration and agility aided her, certainly, but it was the strings of reality that guided her movents and all she had to do was keep a firm image of what she wanted in her mind.
Don't let Jaidyn touch .
Luna beca a ghost, always within reach but always untouchable. Jaidyn's hand swept, lunged, and swung, each movent missing Luna by milliters that may as well have been miles. Jaidyn's laughter was replaced with cries of frustration, and now Luna was laughing. Not taunting, not laughing at the increasingly incensed girl, but the pure laughter of feeling her skill grow in understanding and power with each near miss.
Ti passed and suddenly both girls felt the tir expire. Luna stopped moving and Jaidyn was there, slamming bodily into her, arms wrapped around Luna's waist. Both girls sunk to the floor, Luna smiling as she ran a soothing hand down the sobbing girl's hair.
The two rode back in silence, Jaidyn's excitent and nervousness at leaving giving way to fatigue as the girl slumped against Luna to sleep the rest of the trip. They arrived that evening to a much-changed neighborhood with strange, new people for Luna to et.
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