Rescuing A Friend

A boy walked through a forest, the trees tall and lean, the branches too high up for anyone to climb. Well, at least in human form. The boy had his white tiger/wolf ears perked to her the sounds of the forest, his tail waving around thoughtfully. He stopped by a cave and knocked on one of the rocks. "Hey Naga! You home?"

He looked into the cave. A long green snake tail could be seen slithering around. A boy appeared from the cave, the snake tail replaced his legs. He yawned and opened his red-green eyes. "Yeah, I'm here. Inferno's here with me."

The boy twitched his ear. "She couldn't sleep again?"

Naga nodded and brushed his long silver hair out of his face. "So, what 'cha need Ace?"

"Help."

"With what?"

"Magic."

Naga looked at Ace confused. "But you can't use magic!"

Ace sighed. "I know! But I've got to try."

Naga thought for a moment. "Aetaes?"

"Yeah."

Naga smiled slyly. Ace twitched his tail in confusion. Why is he smiling? He thought. Then it hit him. He facepalmed. "No, it's nothing like that you idiot!"

Naga looked at him. "Then why would you want to learn magic?"

Ace rolled his eyes. "You know she died once, but was reborn right?"

"Yeah."

"Well, she might die again. But she might not be reborn if she does."

Naga rolled his eyes, "That's not likely."

"But possible."

Naga sighed "But why would you come to me for help? I don't know anything about magic!"

A girl stepped out of the cave, her white monkey tail curled in the air, and her short green-tipped black hair brushing lightly against her face. "I can help. I know a bit of magic."

Ace looked at her. "You sure Inferno?"

The girl nodded. "I can teach you what magic I know, but weather you have the ability to learn it is another question entirely."

Ace sighed. "That's a good question. How can I learn magic? I don't even know if I can use it!"

Inferno laid her red-brown eyes on Ace. "You want to protect her, right?"

"Yeah."

"So, magic I shall teach you."

Inferno grabbed Ace's wrist and started dragging him into the forest. Ace struggled for her to let go. "W-wait! Where are we going!?!"

"There's a clearing not far from here. It'll be the perfect place to practice."

Day passed as their magic sessions went on. Naga would come watch them from time to time, to see how it was going. Ace didn't mind, just as long as no one told Aqua he was taking magic lessons. If she found out he was, and his reason behind it, she'd never let go that she thought this meant he "liked" Aetaes. That was never the reason. Everyone else seems to have some sort of power, and Aetaes is too weak to defend herself. He just wanted to help protect her, just like Star and Taern. He still wonders how Taern protects Aetaes, after all she is blind. Then again, she does seem to have holy magic. A lot of holy magic. He shook his head and cleared his thoughts. He had to concentrate. Inferno was teaching him defense magic. He was getting pretty good, but his magic was still weak. She fired a fire ball at him. Ace held out his arms and made a shield. The fire ball hit the shield and projected itself back at Inferno. Inferno simply jumped out of the way, letting it hit the small pool behind her. She nodded. "Very good. You know the basics of defense magic. Now, lets try some combat magic."