Miril

  I was lounging around, wondering how the was going. Ufr I likely wasn’t getting any updates on until near the end or once it was all over. I imagined quite a few were going to have questions about Lux that I'd need to answer when they arose. Ikol I was a bit worried about; some of the challenges or trials he might struggle with. That thought made me shudder a bit. I stretched a bit as I enjoyed the surrounding forest, enjoying the breeze swaying through the branches. Sovereign Hoggdin’s words about being better than Izol’s birth giver kept echoing in my mind; maybe they all had a point about being nicer to Lux. While I was mulling over what to do with Lux, I felt King Ilrymax gently probing for me which was a bit odd. I got up and stretched before using to burst over to the Kniclad Mountains where he was waiting for me just outside of them.

  “How may I help you?” I inquired. Why did he look so concerned? More accurately, King Ilrymax looked like he was questioning reality.

  “When you ran the test lap, how hard did you try?” King Ilrymax asked back. That’s what he was concerned about? Lux was struggling with the lap time?

  “Eh, maybe I went a bit serious to make it harder for her.” I confessed meekly as I looked away.

  “Could you do it faster?” King Ilrymax pressed. Faster? What kind of question was that?

  “Probably.” I replied, still not grasping why he was asking me this.

  “Can you try to see how fast you could make the lap?” King Ilrymax requested. Wait, faster?

  “Did Lux already beat the trial?” I checked while staring directly at King Ilrymax. His expression gave me the answer immediately.

  “Yes.” King Ilrymax confirmed for me.

  “To clarify, she beat the time I gave by enough of a margin that you’re asking how hard I tried?” I verified. How did Lux manage that?

  “That is correct.” King Ilrymax informed me while struggling to make eye contact. Lux didn’t just barely beat that time then by how he was acting.

  “Fine, I will see how fast I can run it.” I agreed as I stretched a bit.

  “She did a test lap, an attempt at a fast lap, and the third lap is the one she set the time.” King Ilrymax explained to me.

  “So, I have to do it in three laps?” I chuckled. King Ilrymax looked at me with an expression that confirmed for me Lux must have defeated the lap I ran for the benchmark by a sizeable margin.

  I bounded over to the long foothold stretch to get started. So, I needed to take this seriously for King Ilrymax’s peace of mind. I stretched back and forth for a bit to ensure that I was ready to destroy this. After making sure I was good to go, I began using , running the first lap a bit more relaxed to make sure I knew the path and order of the stretches of the lap. This was a good test for learning , so it felt odd knowing Lux managed to crush the benchmark time. What feeling was this? It was a peculiar feeling going through me right now, but I buried it as I needed to destroy her time. Now that I was familiar with the terrain, I ran at my full speed , adding in a few tricks I knew Lux hadn’t learned yet to arc around some of the jagged sections before kicking with my back paws to save time. A few of my motions were not the cleanest, but this was only my second lap around the Kniclad Mountains. I completed the lap and absolutely let loose for the third lap to be as fast as I could, making sure each motion and section were done cleanly with no mistakes. Within moments I blitzed around the Kniclad Mountains, landing in front of Ilrymax who had an off expression.

  “What?” I checked, not grasping why he looked like that. What was bugging him?

  “Um. Uh.” King Ilrymax stammered while not looking me in the eyes.

  “Spit it out! Did I not beat it by enough for you?!” I snarled at him.

  “You didn’t beat it.” King Ilrymax answered. What? WHAT?! WHAT?!

  “Impossible!”

  “I do not know what you want me to say, King Miril. You did not beat Lux’s time.” King Ilrymax reiterated. I had to be having a nightmare.

  “Not possible! I am faster!” I insisted. He must have mismeasured the time.

  “When she wakes up from her nap you can see her run it.” King Ilrymax challenged me.

  “Hold on, I’m running it again.” I spat at him.

  With this new information, I jumped back to the starting point and tore down the lap. I did a warmup run and then truly reinforced my body as much as I could, throwing in every trick under sun I knew to speed myself up. My blood was boiling at that thought as I made sure to run even faster. There was no way her time would still be quicker than that. I stopped in front of King Ilrymax, glaring at him; his expression was still off. HOW?! Lux my There’s no way her control is better than mine; she had to figure out how to tilt herself and stabilize her movement with her tails. Lux somehow ran faster than me was the only solution coming to mind with enough speed to overcome the difference in running technique. To my surprise, I had some conflicting feelings on it rather than pure anger and frustration. What was this? This was an odd combination of emotions I was currently trying to figure out what they were.

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  “Where is she?” I asked because I had to know what she did.

  “Napping.” King Ilrymax deflected. Why was he shielding her?

  “I want to see Lux, now.” I demanded. King Ilrymax made a complicated expression while he looked at me.

  “Her beating your time does not warrant her getting bullied because you cannot handle not being the fastest.” King Ilrymax shot back. I took a deep breath to compose myself.

  “I am not going to bully her.” I promised him. He gave me a look that let me know he absolutely did not believe me.

  “King Miril, please do not ruin her accomplishment.” King Ilrymax sighed. He really had no faith in me.

  “That is not going to happen.” I assured King Ilrymax. I took some deep breaths to ensure that I was calm for the upcoming discussion.

  I was a bit surprised I was not angrier about it. Was I proud of Lux? That couldn’t be it. King Ilrymax flew off, and a short while later returned with a groggy looking Lux. Her expression was tense and uneasy as we both awkwardly stood there. I mulled over how to start this conversation because I didn’t want to come across as aggressive or irritated towards Lux. She was shifting awkwardly while yawning from being woken up from her nap; the two of us just looked at each other while neither of us really said anything.

  “Um… uh… thank you for showing me , King Miril.” Lux stated awkwardly.

  “You’re welcome.” I replied as I thought of how to phrase my next thought.

  “Okay.” Lux quipped. We both went silent for a moment.

  “Show me your , the version you ran the third lap with.” I requested, wanting to see just what Lux came up with.

  “Okay.” Lux agreed, sounding a bit skeptical but willing to demonstrate it.

  We ran over to the starting spot, where Lux ran a minor warmup after stretching a bit. After her warmup lap, Lux ran for real. I felt my jaw drop when I noticed just how fast she was running. No wonder King Ilrymax summoned me, how was Lux doing this? Her speed was nothing short of astounding as she blitzed the lap so fast I could see her afterimage. Lux really ran so fast she left an afterimage of herself behind her as she sprinted around the Kniclad Mountains; there even was a bit of a trail of light from her motion until she completed the lap and stopped calmly in front of me. Her afterimages were still faster than I was when I ran the lap. That was a truly stunning display; what did she mix in to create that? Lux undeniably created an improved version of through her efforts that was beyond a shadow of doubt better. When I saw the afterimages her motion was not as clean as mine, but the speed simply compensated and exceeded the time loss from it. Lux looked exhausted and gassed from that demonstration of her variant of , but it was clear she couldn't maintain that level of speed for long durations.

  “What did you add to ? You added in some extra or innovations into that run.” I asked her. Lux seemed stunned when I asked her a question like that.

  “Just some and mixed in.” Lux answered, not grasping my interest. ? It might have had a different name on Phestia, or a similar .

  “Can you show me ?” I requested politely. Lux looked on edge when I made that request.

  “Why?” Lux checked because she didn’t seem to understand why I wanted to see the .

  “You unintentionally innovated on and I want to understand what you did.” I informed her.

  “What?” Lux probed like she didn’t understand what I just said.

  “You made better. I am trying to grasp your innovation.” I clarified for her.

  “I did? What do you mean?” Lux inquired as she seemed to have her mind blown.

  “You were faster than me with whatever you added.” I confessed, trying to keep my voice pleasant. I was surprised my bitterness wasn’t as much as I thought it was going to be.

  “Okay.” Lux replied, smiling widely as she looked mighty pleased with herself.

  Lux all but vanished in front of my eyes as she took on a near fog like appearance. She moved around like that before I sensed her augment her body with . Once that was set up, Lux used where she rocketed forward. From what I sensed with my was she mimicked the surrounding air with her . I mimicked , looking at King Ilrymax to see if I did it correctly. He gave me a nod to confirm I mimicked the correctly and then augmented myself heavily with . Once I fully mimicked Lux’s set up, I used to try the lap again. There was a bit of mental strain as I felt the tunnel needed to make flow through me a bit.

  I felt the immediate difference in how much distance I got off my first bound. In a rapid burst, I was way ahead of my previous demonstration as I attempted to run the lap as fast as I could. It was still now that I was using it, she simply adjusted her body with even more than I did. Lux took my advice to heart and did as many boosts to herself as possible. I did a few of the fancier maneuvers at the higher speed, seeing how well my body arced in the air. I did the next lap, seeing how much distance I was getting, which made the run even faster as I did less kick off adjustments. After my second lap I stopped in front of King Ilrymax and Lux, who both looked at me in awe.

  “You’re faster now.” King Ilrymax confirmed with a relieved expression while Lux looked excited. There were limits to how swiftly one could run that Lux was already bordering.

  “How did you do those maneuvers?!” Lux asked me excitedly.

  “Like this.” I answered while showing how to manipulate my tails that allowed me to arc around solid objects.

  “Be right back!” Lux chimed as she went to try it.

  “That’s enough interaction for now, thank you for telling me about this.” I informed King Ilrymax as I prepared to run back.

  “Wait for her to return.” King Ilrymax suggested to me.

  “Fine.” I sighed as Lux quickly returned.

  “Thank you.” Lux told me.

  “It was nothing.” I replied before we returned to standing around awkwardly.

  “This is awkward.” Lux quipped to try and break the silence.

  “I agree. That’s enough for today.” I agreed as I turned to leave.

  “Agreed.” Lux added on as I left with .