Tales of Myths, Magic and Monsters ((for Omuyasha))

Mackenzie's mother smirked slightly seeing the look Nathan's mother gave him, but she was a master at hiding it. "Where I'm from, two hours away is very far away indeed. I'm not sure if that's city travel or country travel. Odessa is pretty far away from here" she said. She smiled and giggled. "Oh why thank you..." she said as she walked into the home. She looked around and stared at the clock. She knew her husband would be getting very rowdy after a while, but he could wait. "You know, my husband really trusts your boy here. He's a very large man, and I think your boy is smart enough not to try anything with our dear Mackenzie...aren't you?" she asked before there was a deep loud howl. This one was different from Mackenzie's. "So tell me...what brings you all the way out to our neck of the woods?" she asked.

"Hello there, yes, we're new to this town actually," she responded with a smile. "My name is Maxine Salem, but you can call me Max."

"Your son was with my daughter today. I thought I'd say hi! Now that I'm not busy with writing reports" she said happily. "Where are you all from?"

"Oh, we're just from Odessa, not too far, just a few hours away." She seemed to glance nervously at Nathan when Mackenzie's mom said something about him being with her daughter. She cast him a look that showed not only nervousness but something else that seemed to make chills run down his spine. A sort of "what did you do?" Kind of feeling. And not the good kind. "Oh, where are my manners? Come in, come in, the living room is just to the left, you can have a seat on the couch, heh."

When she was gone and in the living room, she turn to Nathan and leaned in and started to whisper in a panic. "What does she mean you were with her daughter? What did you two do?!"

"I didn't do anything, I swear! We just hung out for a bit."

"Hung out as in a date??"

"No, hung out as in hung out! We hung out!"

"I swear to god Nathan if you did something with that girl!"

"Mom, trust me, I didn't do anything. Nothing happened, we just hung out and took a walk. We met her mom somewhere along the way and we walked her back to her house and now here we are."

"Fine fine, I won't push you. Let's go and check on our guest, alright?"

"Alright."

"Okay??"

"Okay."

Mackenzie's mother looked to him and waved him off. "Oh, don't you worry...I know how to do small talk" she said as she walked behind him. Once the mother opened the door, she smiled at her. "Good evening! You're new to this neighborhood" she said before she looked to Nathan. "Your son was with my daughter today. I thought I'd say hi! Now that I'm not busy with writing reports" she said happily. "Where are you all from?" she asked.

Unpredictable, eighty percent, it all sounded so complicated. But from what he could gather, she basically advised him to stay on guard. Or that's what he thought as he nodded like he understood. He looked over at his house and saw a pair of eyes disappear behind a curtain.

Either that's a ghost or that's my mom, he thought not sure which was worse. He looked to Mackenzie's mother and whispered to remind her: "Remember, no talking about the supernatural or the occult around my mom. She doesn't even know about my powers." They started to walk up to his house as he said this. "Alright?"

Mackenzie's mother looked off towards the woods and frowned to his question. "I would suppose so...she still retains some of her intelligence" she said hoping that her daughter would stay out of sight as Nathan's mother's eyes peeped through the living room curtain. "Just keep in mind of all those wolf hormones coursing through her body right now...very unpredictable" she muttered before she giggled to herself. "When you've been around them as long as I have, you can maybe get to eighty percent accuracy, but I still get surprised every once in a while" she said.

An overabundance... Starving... When she put it that way, those words seemed to click. They were triggering something in his head, a thought. When he thought about it, he always seemed to be starving, that weird part, that weird side to himself. An overabundance sounded amazing. But it's as if this hunger could never be filled. He thought about it, all of the pieces about his powers, fitting together.

He was about to say something when he heard a howling, causing him to look around as Mackenzie's mother muttered something. "She's listening."

This wasn't the part he was worried about. It was his sudden realization, he finally figured it out, but his thoughts were stopped and forgotten by the howling. He had forgotten what most of what she had just said. The last piece of the puzzle had finally come to his grasp, but just like that he lost hold of it completely. He looked down and gulped, stopping his flow of energy to hide what he was feeling even more so. The boy took a silent breath, getting rid of his anxiety as much as he could and spoke.

"She's listening to us? Do you mean she's watching right now?"

Mackenzie's mother smiled and closed her eyes. "Yes, of course...your powers are merely conductive. My draining powers work most effectively that way as well" she said before she opened her eyes giving a slight chuckle. "Well...based off my experience, there are beings out there with an overabundance of energy. Werewolves are the most notorious when it comes to it. I remember being worried about not having control over my powers, but one way I've coped with it, is not put my body into starvation mode. I'm not 100% sure if your powers are the same nature as mine, but my solution was using my husband to keep my body from starving. It's a hell of a lot easier to manage working around food when you aren't hungry, heh" she said before they approached his house. There was a loud howl coming from the forest, which it sounded big but feminine. "She's listening to us" she muttered.

"That's true I suppose," he responded. Most of what she had said looked to be true. Most of it. He held out his hand in front of himself as they walked.

"But there's one thing that you should take into account as well. If you noticed, then you know that that everything with me is based around touch. The dirt, the leaves, sticks and even the acorn. All of it was through physical contact, by touching it. It's the same when taking energy from someone or something. All I have to do is touch it and concentrate and bam! The energy is going into me. It's a weird feeling though. It's like sucking through a straw, and your hand is the straw."

"I've done it to the point of killing though, accidentally." He looked down at the sidewalk now, barely able to see it in the moonlight. "It... It was terrifying though, the way it looked. It was like a raisin afterwards. A terrible, giant, dried up raisin of a corpse. It was so easy to do it too... Too easy. That's the only real thing I'm afraid of with being her suppressor. That's why I didn't do that with the hellhound back there. I can get hurt, I don't really care about that. I can handle myself. But doing that again is, it's terrifying. But if I can do this, I can learn to control my powers more. Focused mind or not, the real monster is in this." He looked to his hands in front of himself to find that they were shaking now.

Mackenzie's mother looked at him oddly as they walked down the street at a slower pace. "Hmmm? Well, Let's just say that the moon doesn't have to be 100% full to transform a werewolf. If it did, then werewolves would transform once in a blue moon!" she said before she cleared her throat. "I mean that figuratively of course" she muttered just so he would not take it literally. "The truth is the moon has to be at least 90% full for a werewolf to transform. The day before and the day after when the moon is supposed to be its fullest are also nights where a werewolf transforms. I'm sorry to say that these transformations are mandatory. I already tried to get my husband to repress transformations, and it causes some severe adverse side effects...they have to get out their repressed nature out somehow. Like my husband explained to her. It's like a balancing act. If you don't manage it properly, you will always have it bite you in the ass when you transform" she said before she cleared her throat. "She has to hold back all of her instincts. In case you did not know, wolves don't just hunt and eat...they also are compelled to reproduce. She don't have a mate so she has nothing to relieve that. I'm sorry to say but until she has a mate, she's going to keep going into the woods every time she transforms. You can't train with her if her mind isn't focused...right?" she asked.

Her comment about ear plugs and howling made him shudder in response to this. "Why?" Mackenzie asked,

I really don't want to know, Nathan thought in response to her question.

When they got to Mackenzie's house, he saw her father's hulking form once more in clothes that looked too tight, as if they were about to rip from his body at any second. He had a strange glow to his eyes and the energy around him was strange. Calm, then fast, calm, and fast. Almost as if he were gearing for something that Nathan didn't want to know.

The mother spoke to him, letting him know that she'd be back soon because she needed to talk to Nathan's mother. As she walked away, Nathan gave the man an awkward and smile and waved to Mackenzie before following her mother. As they walked, Mackenzie's mother informed him of what would be going on tonight before asking a final question. "Do you have any other questions?"

"Um, yeah," he responded. "I do. You said that this was going to be the second of three nights where werewolves transform. What are the other two? You also described that this is the longest and the shortest of their transformation and to not seek Mackenzie out in these nights, after she's turned. Why shouldn't I? I mean, I know she's feral but wouldn't this be the best time to practice suppressing in the case that she's out with more energy flowing than usual?"

Deep in the back of her mind, she had some plans for her unsuspecting husband, but in the meantime, she was wanting them to leave the forest before any other unwanted guests approach them. "You are a wise boy" she said before she covered her mouth to hide a sinister laugh, which her daughter rolled her eyes at her mother with her dramatic over the top evilness.

"Mom, do you really have to do that?"

She grinned evilly and giggled. "What's wrong? Can't your mother have fun?" she teased.

"Mom! You're embarrassing me!"

"Oh please...you no nothing of embarrassment" she scorned her daughter before she reverted into her human form. "I would have thought that your father being nude would be more of an embarrassment for you..." she said before her daughter interrupted her.

"Mom! Please! Ew! I don't want to even think about it!" she said before her mother laughed at her.

"You better wear some ear plugs tonight then" she said before she looked towards Nathan. "If you hear howling in the neighborhood, don't freak out or anything" she said before her daughter whimpered.

"Why?"

When they got to her house, her father was dressed in a t-shirt that barely fit him ready to burst at the seams with any sudden flex of his bone crushing biceps. He towered over the doorway glancing at his daughter as she scurried back inside turned bright red from her mother poking fun at her, but his concern was averted when he noticed that look in his wife's eyes. It was getting to that time where the full moon would be affecting him, and it was already making his eyes glow. "Husband? Would you hold off changing until I get back. I gotta go chat with his mother some" she said. He raised an eyebrow as she walked away swaying her hips for him.

While they walked, she had to explain to him what the situation was for tonight. "Tonight is the second of three nights where werewolves transform; consequently, this is the longest and strongest of their transformations. Mackenzie might go out again, but she has her own space she goes to. She's not as destructive as her father luckily, but I wouldn't advise seeking her out when she's under the influence of the moon. She's gotta get all her feral instincts out" she told him before she laughed to herself at the feral instincts she was going to have to help alleviate her husband with. "Do you have any other questions?" she asked.

Telepathy? Worm holes? Pocket dimensions?! As he heard all of this, more and more questions popped up in his head, but he figured that he would have to wait to ask them at a later point in for now.

As Mackenzie's mother had asked if they wanted to go home, that made him realize how late it was. He pulled out his phone and looked at the time, 9:17. How did it get to be so late in such a seemingly short amount of time? He remembered what his mother said, she wanted him back home by 10:00 and it was close enough. "I say we go back home, I don't want my mom to get mad at me for being out too late," Nathan said.

Mackenzie's mother looked at him oddly, while her daughter laughed at her. "It's not quite like that...some of the typings don't make sense. Poison should be weak to water not ground, and Steel should be weak against Electricity not Fighting...right mom?" she added.

"Uh, yea...well...I'm going to have to teach you how this all works, but sciences are your best bet into learning mechanics with your telepathy. Even making pocket dimensions and worm holes. That takes a great deal of energy to do by the way" she said plainly before she looked towards her daughter. "So, shall we head back home?"

"Ah." He nodded. "I see. It's like Pokemon, you know, the whole water beats fire, fire beats grass and grass beats water thing. Like Rock Paper Scissors. I understand. And as many questions as I have, which is as of now, only one, I must ask: How is this related to me becoming Mackenzie's suppressor," Nathan asked.

Mackenzie's mother nodded when he repeated elemental weakness. "Yes, since your armor is derived from Fire and Poison, water based attacks are going to be tremendously effective. There's a whole research field that looks into ratios of elemental spells and their weaknesses. Basic and Rudimentary spells have the most weaknesses to exploit. This is a more intermediate level spell, so yea...good job" she said remembering that he was just a kid and he had room to grow. She was not going to beat down on his self-esteem, but she did not want him go thinking that he was the top of the food chain either.

She took back her flame and shook her head. "Even though you can control any element, you can still be beat by an opponent with an affinity to one. Albeit they are vulnerable to other elemental attacks, but like I said before. There's sweet spots where an elemental power can contradictory overwhelm the other" she said before the flame disappeared. "Take water and rock. Normally water flows around rock but increasing the pressure will erode it. Even freezing it will make the rock crumble. Understand?" she asked.

"Aww, really? I was kinda hoping it would look cooler." He picked his head up when he heard about elemental weaknesses.

"Elemental weakness," he asked, the flame now dilating to it's original size in his palm. The smoke started to rise as he stopped the flow of energy, releasing the soot.

"You are going to need a hell of a lot more carbon and energy if you want to make diamond armor! Like the amount of energy a mountain range has."

"Nah, I'm good," he responded. "As cool and useful as diamond armor sounds, I don't necessarily have the want for it. It'll take the glow away from my eyes due to the flames, not to be offensive. I just like the glow in my eyes from the fire. As for elemental weaknesses, I can control any element seeing how I just need to put in some energy, and bam! I got it."

He looked down at his hands and saw the fire again. "Oh right! Here ya go, sorry about that." He then released the flame from his grasp to let it seemingly wander as it pleased, if it had a mind of it's own that is. He still wasn't too sure on that. "Returned it back the way I got it, just like I said."

Mackenzie's mother rolled her eyes at him and shook her head. "You just like to beat it off don't you?" she teased before she laughed at him. "You do recall me saying that it was behind your ear. I planted it there when I did the magic trick" she said with her arms crossed over her chest. She watched him summon his shadow armor, and she waved her hand calling it so-so. "Eh, work on it a little bit. You do know elemental weaknesses don't you?" she asked.

"I think it was good" Mackenzie said lowly.

"You are going to need a hell of a lot more carbon and energy if you want to make diamond armor! Like the amount of energy a mountain range has" she stated.

"Sorry about that, I didn't mean to beat it off, heh heh." He gave her an awkward smile as he said this.

"Did you catch the one behind your ear yet," Mackenzie asked. This made Nathan pause his breathing. "It's been bugging me this whole time!"

He looked at her, confused. "Wait, wha..." He reached behind his ear and felt something, warm and rejuvenating. "Are you serious?!" He could feel it attach to his hand and pulled his hand forward to see a small blue flame resting on his thumb. "Why did you tell me sooner?! How did this..." He paused and looked at the succubus again, slowly turning his head to face her to only see an innocent look on her face. "You... That was awesome!"

He then realized what his original goal was and cleared his throat. "Okay, so back to the opinions. Since I don't have a mirror, I will need you two's opinions on this. Alright?" He looked at both of them. "Alright, here goes." He took a step back and concentrated again, letting his energy flow into the flames. Soon the flames expanded and started to surround him. He reached out and touched the smoke that was swirling around him, calling it to come to him, creating what he called his shadow armor once more with his eyes closed. After a second, he then opened his eyes and looked up at the two women, his eyes seemingly glowing with the blue flames only accenting the blue in his eyes, clearly shown from the shadowy figure that was now Nathan. With the blue flames surrounding him, he smiled at the two women.

"What do ya think?"

Mackenzie's mother gasped. "Hey! Hey! Hey! Easy! You said you were going to catch my flame! Not beat it off!" she huffed while she watched him finally catch the flame. "Well, I will have to say this. You didn't catch my poor flame fair and square, but then again...who said a fight was fair anyway?" she asked rhetorically. She shifted her hip and smirked at him. "What sort of opinion do you want?"

"Did you catch the one behind your ear yet? It's been bugging me this whole time!" Mackenzie shouted.

"Well, when I catch that flame, I'm gonna need you guys' opinions on something." He looked forward again as he heard something.

"It's just an illusion! Don't get distracted by the clones," Mackenzie said through her eating. He didn't respond to this and just smiled. He looked at the flames that circled around him. It seemed so easy to catch them, as if all he had to do was reach out and grab one. But that had two flaws: which one was the real one and if he did find it, would he even be able to catch it?

He then looked down and saw what he needed to use. He crouched down and picked up leaves, rocks, a couple of twigs and some dirt. He then held up his palm and focused. Four leaves shot out from his palm in four directions, each one going straight for a flame. He quickly turned his head to see any difference, and he did. The leaves in front, to his right and at his back had each passed through a flame unharmed, but the one on his left burned as it went through the flame.

As soon as he saw this he ran at it, seeing it swerve in the direction he was going to get away from him. He then focused again and felt the two twigs change in his hand, it felt as if something was folded up tightly so he unclenched his hand slightly and saw a decent length stick poke out from his hand.

He jabbed it forward in one smooth motion towards the flame and saw it drop slightly and move forward faster, away from his reach. He then felt the dirt shift in his hand and unclenched it further, seeing a small thin tendril made up of the dirt flakes wrap itself around the end of the stick and lunge it forward, the tendril connecting from the stick to his hand. It swung the stick downwards and hit the flame, holding it in the flame until it caught fire. He then pulled it towards himself, seeing the a small blue flame at the tip of the stick. He wrapped his hand around the flame and saw the rest of the ball fly away from him.

The feeling of the flame was strange, it felt as if he were... Getting rejuvenated, as if he was getting energy back. Although there was a huge chance that it was just his imagination, he didn't question it as he reached forward, letting his energy flow forth into the flame, maki it expand and lengthen into a tendril protruding from his hand. He aimed it towards the flame that desperately tried to dodge but to no avail this time around, having the tendril brush slightly against its parent, causing Nathan to have control over this as well.

He caught it.

Mackenzie's mother laughed and watched him with a sick and twisted grin making the flame dance across the clearing. "Yea...you go after that flame" she said evilly. She snapped her finger, and the flame split into two. She snapped it again, and those flames split into an additional two. The four flames circled around him and mocked him more. "Just what do you plan on doing to my precious flame when you catch it?" she asked.

Mackenzie watched on happily munching on her meal. "It's just an illusion! Don't get distracted by the clones!" she spoke muffled by the food in her mouth. Her mother shot her a look and hoped that Nate was too enthralled to hear her helpful hint.

He saw the plate appear but once again paid no attention to anything but the flame. He then saw it float away, and somehow form what seemed to be arms. It motions it's arms towards it, as if it was beckoning him to go after it. This furthered his want for it. He then looked at Mackenzie as if pleading for permission to give chase, seeing her eat the plate of food as she said "Go get 'em."

This made him smile and look at the blue flame, the sight of it only filling his determination more. He then hunched down and started to walk towards it slowly, creeping up to it as it kept beckoning him. When he got close enough, he stopped. It was only a small leap away. He casually stood up straight and smiled before jumping at it. He was surprised to see it float down underneath his leaping figure and out the other side. He positioned himself in mid air and landed on his shoulder, rolling upon hitting the ground and getting into a crouched position. He turned around and looked at the blue flame. He could swear that it was taunting him.

He sprinted to it, running as fast as he possibly can towards it, reaching a hand out to touch it before it flew to the side swiftly dodging him again, curving around his body. He saw this and immediately spun in mid run, reaching his other hand out to the side to try and catch it, only for it to drop down underneath his outstretched hand and float in front of him again. He then turned and gave a determined smile to Mackenzie and her mother. "I'll catch it soon enough!"

Mackenzie's mother giggled and crossed her arms over her chest. "Don't worry about it! I can always make more, hun" she said. She sighed happily and cooed. "I don't think he'll eat all of it. I made a lot today" she said as she leaned up against a tree. "You know what?" she muttered before she snapped her finger. Suddenly a huge bowl filled with hamburger helper and shell pasta appeared from a portal. It smelled amazing, and Mackenzie's stomach growled. Far away there was a loud howl as it was clear that her mother has instantly vanished Bigby's dinner.

Mackenzie gulped hearing her father's distress. "Mom, did you?"

"Oh he'll get over it...it's not like he can't fix him up another bowl" her mother said before she moved her finger, and the blue flame zipped across the clearing and hovered at the edge growing arms and beckoned him to catch it.

Mackenzie dug into her meal and with a mouthful waved him off. "Go get 'em"

The boy could understand why she would love it as a kid. And even now, it probably tempted and made him feel giddy more than anyone else, the sight of that blue flame. So seemingly close, yet so far away. He darted his eyes back and forth, trying to get a lock on it. This brought out a noise of frustration from Nathan as he kept trying to look at it. "I want it, I really want this," he said.

"Mom, do you think we should get back to go eat," Mackenzie asked. "Dad's going to eat everything."

Nathan said nothing after this, he was too perplexed and focused on the flame to do anything else, still darting his eyes back and forth.

Mackenzie's mother laughed when he got giddy. "Well we can make a game out of it. How about you try to do whatever you want to do, and I'll play hide and seek keep away from ya?" she said before she clapped her hands and the flame disappeared. She then snapped her fingers and blue sparks came off her fingers. Little did he know she planted a flame behind his ear when she did the stupid magic trick, but Mackenzie knew. She said nothing as the flame reappeared and stayed in his peripheral vision like one of those floaties in your eye. It would move whenever he tried to look at it. Her mother laughed and nudged her daughter. "I remember doing this to you when you were a baby. You used to love it"

"Mom, do you think that we should get back to go eat? Dad's going to eat everything" she said.