31 Chapter 31 Springtime Of Youth

"Spider Monkey Attack!" a green blur comes from high above.

One step to the side, and… grab.

"Kya!"

"Caught yah," I whispered in my assailant's ear, as she hung on my arm. "What was that spider-monkey? Where do you get these ideas?"

"From you," Sylphy says, still hanging from her stomach on my arm.

"Oh… yeah, that sounds about right."

We're playing tag in the forest. It's safe, we're playing on the edge, where we're still near the tower in case of emergency, and anything in this close has already been exterminated. Now it's just my own little private park.

It's been a literal lifetime since I've done this, but it's quite fun.

"Surprise attacks are all fun, and good, but be careful, how were you going to land if I didn't catch you?"

"But Rudy was going to catch me."

"You're it. I'm literally supposed to run away from you, not catch you."

"But you did."

I pinch her ear, lightly of course, for her back talk.

"Awwwu! I'm soooory!" she squirms under my hold.

I let her go, and let her fall gently to her knees. "That's good. Alright, that's enough of that. Lets keep going, oh, and," leaning down, closer to her ear, I whisper, "No spider monkey attack."

"Mmh… got it," she mumbles through a blush.

"Alright, I lost… I guess, sooo… one, two, three…"

Sylphy starts panicking realizing what's happening, and waving her hands frantically, she summons a wind, and starts leapfrogging several yards away.

Perhaps we should play leapfrog?

"Six, seven, eight…"

Unlike traditional tag, we give each other a ten second head start, seeing as we both have magic at our disposal, and can break the distance with the other in a flash. We've been playing on the outskirts of the forest, where I traditionally do some monster slaying. It's been desolate these days making it a nice playground for games like these. Plenty of trees to bounce off.

Now where is she going?

She's going west, and if I remember correctly, that is… the place we placed our kites. It's far, but I know the location she's going to.

Perhaps ten seconds was too much. Next time let's change it to five. Gotta catch up quickly before she starts gathering the wind.

"Nine, ten. Ready you're not here I come!" Bending my knees, I gather a force of wind, and blast myself in her direction. Her visage becomes clearer, as I make haste, and start nearing her form.

Her eyes widen, and I can feel the mana gathering, as she makes another leap.

Nice jump, Luigi, but everyone knows Mario has better hops.

I think.

That said, she has gathered enough lead that she reachest the kites regardless, and straps herself in, until half a second before I would tag her, she leaps away. A strong wind blasting just before I can touch, and I am now seeing her green form soar into the heavens.

"Well, I did say everythings all is fair in love and war. But two can…" I looked around, confused. "...play at that game?" I am looking for my kite, but can't find it.

I could have sworn I put my kite next to hers. Did she?

Looking at the sky, I see a young girl waving around on her kite… while holding a kite to her chest…

You little spider monkey.

"Bweh!" She turns around sticking her tongue out at me, and waving my kite to my face, before turning and flying a small distance away waiting for me to make chase.

She's taunting me.

"Oh, you want to play. Let's play." I jump, and soar next to her.

Only for her to maneuver out of the way.

Then I do so again, and again she flies a few feet away.

…this is troublesome, she has the highground.

"Ok… let's get creative," I jumped once more, blasting me up to her.

Maneuvering out of the way, she tilts to the side, and lets me fall while she sways gently in the wind.

I'm not done yet though.

Creating an Ice slide, mid fall, I position myself, and slide down then, building momentum, then up and… I blast a wind behind me once more, shooting towards her.

"Eep!" catching her off guard she barely avoids me, but that's only the beginning.

This time in mid air, I create an ice block, and bounce off it, blasting some air as I push once more.

It's funny. Water Ball, Fire Ball, Earth Bullet, all these spells before being shot off, hover for a fraction of a second in the place the caster gathers the mana. Defying all laws of physics, specifically gravity, and floating in place if only for a moment. So despite the laws of physics saying that I shouldn't be able to do something like this. I can jump off something in mid air.

Fuck you Physics!

"Wahh!" She manages to avoid flying to the right.

But I repeat the process.

Another Ice block formed as I zipped past her, and I bounced off it as well, bouncing in her general direction, and…

"Got yah!" I land on Sylphy's back grabbing her kite.

"Kyaah! Rudy?!" Her balance is shaken, and we plummet a little.

It's fine though, I don't plan on being a spidermonkey for too long.

Not wanting to risk the chance of her kite not being able to hold the weight of two people, I quickly roll over her kite, Flipping myself as I fall to face her, before grabbing her wrist, and stealing my kite back. Then, finishing off, I push myself off her grip, and plummet before her.

"R-Rudy?!" she nervously yells, as she reaches forward.

Giving her a wink and a two finger salute I calm her worries. Hopefully.

"You're it!" I yell. Forming a wind blast I slowed my fall, adjusted the kite, and glided to the ground safely.

Whew… that was… more exhilarating than I thought it would be.

Turning to the sky, I see her standing there aghast, her eyes and mouth open wide, as she hovers in place.

"What? Cat got your tongue? How long are you going to float there… slowpoke."

"Mmm!" her ears start twitching as she pouts. "One, two…" she starts counting.

"Ha ha…" I gather a wind, and start flying away. I have just raised the stakes. And I love every-little-thing about it.

"Come and catch me, green fairy!"

Don't blame me. You're the one that brought kites into the equation.

"Seven… eightnineten!"

"That's cheating!" I yell.

She zipped behind me, trying to catch up. Emphasis on try. I am the teacher for a reason.

But… it wouldn't be fun if she didn't stand a little bit of a chance.

I slowed down, allowing her to catch up.

"Mmh… mmh… almost theeeere," she reaches for me, and at the last second, I maneuver just out of her reach. She tries again, and again I maneuver at the last second. "Mmu!" she frowns.

"Hey don't look at me like that. You're the one who brought out the kites. Should have kept it a foot race, now how are you going to-"

"Water ball!" She casts.

Whoosh. I dodge a water ball aimed at my face.

Well, aren't you a regular Kazuma? Who taught you the North god style?!

Well, whatever. This just makes it more fun.

"Blergh!" I stick out my tongue.

Childish? Of course, but who's going to tell on me. Oh no, that seven year old is acting like a seven year old. Ground him!

"That's all you got," I taunted.

"Water ball, Water ball, Water ball…" and I continued to dodge here and there, again and again.

It was an effective strategy, as it is slowing down my flying speed, as I have to take time to dodge the water balls again and again, but it's not enough.

Still fun though.

"Ha ha…" I laugh. My hair is wet from all the splash damage I am taking. "Thanks for cooling me off!"

"Mmh! Ruuudddy, look a dragon!" She hollers.

"Really?" I flipped, turning to her. "Did you really I think I'm going to fall for-"

Splash.

She materialized a waterball behind me. Splashing me from behind. My eyes closed on the impact, and a moment later…

Bop. I was tapped in the forehead. S

In the moment I let my guard down a flying creature came by my front and gave me a love tap on my forehead.

Danger fairies are flying here.

"He he… did I say dragon? I meant Water ball." Sylphy smiled slyly as we hovered in place.

…I can't tell if that was really dumb or really clever. A distraction tactic, with an obvious lie, but attacking me by my blindside. Nice, I approve. I still fell for it though.

All the sparring lessons are having an effect one way or another. Even if she never becomes a swordsman, she can definitely fight them head on.

"Sooo… wanna keep going?" she said as she danced in the wind, floating like a dandelion as she swayed all around me.

"One, two, three…" I counted.

"He he…" she stops her swaying, and flies away.

Give this girl a yard and she takes a mile, that's what I get for going easy on you.

"Fourfivesixeightnine… ten! Ready, you're not, here I come!"

"That's cheating!" she yelled.

"Turnabout is fair play!"

Anything you can do, I do better.

"...I can do anything better than you~" I sang.

"Why are you singing?!"

"It just felt right!"

///

"Hah… hah… hah… Rudy… why aren't you breathing… hard?" Sylphy asked.

Before me, the little trickster, laid sweating, and gathered her breath. We haven't flown extensively since fall, so guess she's forgotten how extensive magic can be, when you're doing it constantly.

"I have better control. So even if we do the same things, I can do them for longer, and more efficiently than you."

"I… see," her chest goes up and down, as she gathers air back into her lungs. It's slowing down in irregularity, so she's finally calming down.

"It's also because I'm amazing."

"..."

That's what you get, you little spidermonkey.

That said…

"Sylphy…"

"Hmm?"

"Here," I created a waterball in mid air, and per a casting before it's sent out, it simply hovers in place. If you concentrate just a little more, you can make the defying gravity effects last longer, but… it's a ridiculous amount of intake to do so. It's a useless party trick.

It's like I just casted a rasengan.

Damn god, won't let me defy gravity for long periods of time.

As such, I now have a Water ball floating on top of my hand. Taking a knee, I knelt down, and offered it to her. "Here, have a drink."

"Mmh…" she drinks from my hand. Nourishing herself, and recuperating. "Puah! That's good. Thanks Rudy." She beams at me, smiling widely. Gathering her bearings she gets up into a sitting position, and stretches her hands out to me.

"Hmm?"

"Ups."

"Hah?"

"Ups. I'm tired, carry me," she continues holding her hands while wiggling her finger slightly.

"Pfft, you sure have grown bold haven't you, but if it's only this much, I suppose I can do it," reaching my hands beneath her, wrapping them under her arms and legs, I carry her, giving her a princess carry, and start carrying her to our tree.

"It's kind of early. Want to go home?" I asked.

She snuggles against my chest, before responding, "no, not yet. Let's rest. I'm tired."

"And comfortable I bet," carrying her under our sparring hill. I wonder what people would think if they saw us at this moment. "If your father was here, he would be throwing a fit."

"He he, probably. How dare Rudy attack me?"

"Who attacked who?"

"Rudy attacked me."

"Language! And we were playing, theirs not a mark on your body. If anything, you attacked me, you shot a spell at me."

"He he, that's true, but daddy probably wouldn't see it that way."

"Well, thank god he's not here."

"Yeah… he isn't," she snuggled her head closer to my chest.

Infinitely bolder…

"You know… no matter how much you do that. You're not going to burrow your way in there."

"We'll see about that~"

"Ha ha," I laugh.

This girl sure is something else. She's becoming more and more unpredictable by the day. The day she was just the shy girl, has come and gone, and although there are still remnants of that girl here and there, she sometimes throws me off.

It's a bit odd. To have someone behaving so differently than what I expected, but the unpredictability of it all keeps life fresh.

"You're awesome Sylphy."

She looked up at me with big eyes, staring at me for a good second, before her face reddened, and immediately turning her head away.

Well… she's still Sylphy.

"Ha ha…"

What you know, so she's not 'that' different from when we started. As I thought, her shy girl core is still intact. It makes it fun teasing her.

To think we've gotten this far.

"We've sure come a long way huh?"

"Rudy?"

"Just thinking… to how we met. Remember, the first time we met you were wearing a hoodie, and hiding your face, and I was… well I was a bit of a jerk. Sorry about that by the way. Talk about messy beginnings right? Now that I think about it," I looked down on her as she's looking up at me, "you used to think I was scary right? A regular monster. Heh~ what happened Sylphy?"

The blush she had hit again, her already rosy appearance becoming a strong crimson. "It couldn't be helped. Rudy is too eccentric for his own good. Theirs not a girl around that wouldn't have been scared around you. And then that 'monster,' picked me up by my collar and started calling me a pervert. You were a bully back then?"

"Ah… I did do something like that, didn't I?" I tilt my neck, "tee hee?"

"...I don't know what that means."

"It's a forbidden technique that means I'm sorry."

"Like puppy dog eyes?"

"Like the puppy dog eyes."

"Well, it doesn't matter. I've forgiven Rudy a long time ago, and besides," she tilts her head looking up at me. "Rudy's not a monster."

"Oh?" I smirked, "are you sure about that. You thought I was taking you to our tree. You fool! I'm taking you to my cave! You're my supper. You have fallen into my net, and now I'm going to eat you up, muahaha…"

"Rudy…"

"Hai?"

"Your acting sucks."

I stumble a little at her retort.

"...you couldn't let me have one could you."

"Nope. Rudy already won enough today. I have to win sometimes too."

"Well, what did you win?"

"I won Rudy!"

"Ha ha, you little devil you."

"Mhuu!" she puffs her cheeks. "I was serious though…" she whispers. Being in my arms I hear it clearly.

Let's ignore it.

During our talk, we've made it to our tree, I can let her down and rest. As I look down, and get ready to let her go, her eyes meet mine and she smirks.

She can do that?

"I-know-something-you-don't-know."

"Hmm, and that is?"

"This," she moves one of her hands away from my neck, and attacks my armpit. She tickled me. "Secret technique, tickle blast."

"S-S-Sylphy ha ha, s-stop t-t-that."

That's not fair. That's cheating. I can't defend myself right now.

"But, this is so much fun~" she wiggles a finger underneath a weak spot of mine.

How does she know this?

"S-S-Sylphy, ha ha, t-that's unfa-airrrr, I-I-I'm going to d-drop youuu."

"It's not unfair. It's… what does Rudy say…" she stops tickling me, giving me a breather. Retreating her finger back to herself she places it under her chin in contemplation.

Geez, give me a break.

"Ah!" her eyes brighten. Leaning up, she reaches my ear and whispers, "it's strategy."

"Strategy?" I questioned.

"Strategy."

Wanting to rest my body… and mind a bit, I bend down under our tree's shade, still holding Sylphy in my arms, and rest.

"Strategy."

"Strategy."

"..."

"..."

We stare at each other for a moment, resting after a long day, before…

"Pfft ha ha ha…"

"Pftt he he he…"

We burst into laughter.

"Sylphy…" I wiped a tear from my eyes.

It's not even that funny. It's just… it's just nice.

"...Hai?"

"Never grow up."

"No! I have to grow up! So do you! We have a promise to keep remember?"

"I guess we do… any chance elves stay the same age for a century?"

Her eyes widen, and she looks down in contemplation. "I… don't think so?"

"I'm just messing with you. That hardly matters. A promise is a promise."

That and the plot says you do. You'll age at half the rate, but you'll live to be two-hundred, approximately.

"You promise. You promise, a promise is a promise, promise?"

Not quite the way you use that phrase, but whatever, it's cute.

"Hmm…" I fake that it's a hard decision.

"Rudy!"

"It's a promise."

"Hai," she raises a fist in the air.

"Here," I hold out my fist towards her, my pinky pointing.

She looks at me confusedly.

"It's a custom from a bygone era. It's to seal a promise. It's called a pinky promise."

"Hmm, like this?" She grabs my pinky and shakes it.

"Ha ha, not quite," with my free hand I part her fingers, and outstretch her pinky, and intermingle them with my own. "With this it's sealed. A pinky promise has been made."

"Really?"

"Really really?"

Are you a parrot?

"Cross my heart, and hope to die."

"No don't die!"

"Ha ha!" I laugh.

The culture gap between worlds is strong, but it does bring a large smile to my face.

"Alright, I won't."

"...I feel like Rudy is laughing at me."

"Nope, just at the world. Just keep being you. Anyways," I look to the sun, it's still quite high up. "We still have some time before I have to take you back home, want to play Life?"

I just finished my version of the Life board game. Honestly, it probably needs some more work, as I just took a guess at what everyday life is for a commoner, but… technically I'm a noble, so my experiences might be a bit skewered.

"I am playing life. This is fun," she leans on me. Still sitting on my lap. "Let's just stay like this a little longer."

"Sure…"

Well… this is nice too.

///

I needed that.

Sylphy makes my life bearable. After all the drama I had to deal with, she's just a general ball of sunshine. A regular…

Huh… I can't think of any famous elves from my past life, that's weird. Um… Lefiya? That sounds like an elf name I remember hearing.

Who was that?

Anyways, If it wasn't for her, my life would be filled with worry and dread, or at best melancholy. Even if things have gotten better. There's still a slight awkwardness here and there, where someone accidentally says a taboo word, like; cheating, coupled, or… Paul, we get over it rather quickly, but it doesn't change the fact that it happens. Only time can heal us now. And as bubbly as the bright ball of blonde beauty that is Zenith, she definitely sees me as a child, so there's always a slight awkward feeling where I know I'm being babied, but… it's what she wants so I play the part if need be. After all, it's only for a moment. And as for Lilia…

Well, enough said.

But with Sylphy theirs none of that. It's just so simple. It's nice having someone in my life where I don't have to walk around eggshells, or think too hard about what I'm going to do next. Just a simple everyday conversation. It's the little things that matter.

And yet…

"What the hell are you doing here?" I questioned.

"Hello to you too Rudy," Paul said.

Trouble has a way of finding me. I couldn't have one nice day could I.

Funny, after leaving Sylphy at home, I was walking home minding my own business, and look and behold who 'coincidentally,' was walking around Law's household around the same time.

I smell conspiracy.

"..."

"Why are you looking at the sky?" Paul asked.

"I'm waiting for god to strike me down."

"Why?"

Because he clearly hates me.

Spidermonkey, where are you? What happened to 'everyone gets one,' come save me?

Maybe he'll go away if I ignore him?

"So, Rudy…"

Guess not. Fine, I'll just deal with it.

"Hah… I wanna go home."

///