Training? What might this mean? (Aly and Kat)

Alyia didn't know why she was where she was and what she was supposed to do there. The night before she had gotten restless after the lack of missions that she had been doing causing for her to go out wandering in any direction. Now? Now she was in a little town that was in the middle of a river. A small sigh escaping her lips the blonde looked around at everything. There were plank sidewalks and everything seemed to be made of wood. She was on the outskirts of the village when she smelled food. Her tummy grumbled. A blush appeared on her cheeks as she looked up. The sun was almost directly above her. It must've been around noon. No wonder she was hungry. Looking back at the town Alyia tried to make the decision to go in and get something to eat or go along the shore and find something herself. With her tummy grumbling once again the blonde hung her head in defeat and sauntered into the village. Walking past different vendors Alyia looked at all of the fish. They were all fresh, this didn't really surprise her, but the whole idea of her getting food in the village was so that she wouldn't have to cook it herself. Looking from vendor a sent wafted through her nostrils. There was fresh fruit near by. Looking in a circle Alyia finally spotted the vendor and made her way to it.

With an apple in one hand and another in her mouth the angel continued her journey through the vendor area to see if she could find more than fruit to eat. There was fresh fish after fresh fish with an occasional vegetable vendor, but so far from what Alyia had seen there was no cooked fish anywhere. Taking in a breath for her sigh of defeat the blonde smelled cooking meat. Her eyes widening and her lips turning up into t grin the angel raced into the direction that she had smelled the smell of cooking meat come from.

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Katherine was following Alyia to the water village, but in part it was to shop for some fresh ingredients for dinner. It was usually better to go to the source of the fresh fish that were free of all preservatives and the fruit picked off the tree. The town had an exquisite odor of fish, fruit, spices and incenses from the market. Still there was little in the way of food that was cooked and it slightly annoyed Katherine. She hadn't eaten in a few hours and although her angel side needed no sustenance, the human side gets cranky and dies on Katherine. It was a bit of an annoyance, but buying a grill with the jewels at hand and several ingredients she needed there was enough for lunch. Katherine then took everything to the outskirts of the city.

The angel started a small fire by cheating slight with her magic and started to grill the fish in the juices of lemon, oranges and limes. She slowly grilled them to perfection as she made small shavings of mangoes to top the slices of salmon and add a contrast for the fishy flavor. It was definitely not her best meal she cooked, but it was not the worse one she made. She had to burn a lot of food in order to make, but there was enough for room of one more. Katherine looked up at Alyia with a plate of salmon in her hands as she said, "You look absolutely famished dear. Has the angelic metabolism finally kicked in? Well in matters not, eat up dear!~"

Alyia followed her nose outside of the city only to find Katherine... with a grill... and fish. It seemed a little peculiar to Alyia but she brushed it off. Who was she to question. She was out in the middle of a place that she didn't know because she just wanted to walk and move around. Looking at the food that was being offered out to her the blonde reached out a hand and gripped the plate of salmon. "Yeah, I guess." In all honesty she had definitely seen it. She had been able to eat whatever she had wanted and not gained a single pound. If anything she was loosing one or two. She also noticed that she was hungry all the time, not just during the main times people would eat, but all of the time. Looking at the salmon in her hands the blonde picked one up in her fingers and took a bite. It was so flavorful. Looking at Katherine with a smile she shoved the rest of the salmon piece in her mouth and chewed.

It took merely minutes before all of the salmon was gone. With her tummy now slightly satisfied she looked down as the pink haired woman. "Thanks Katherine. I don't know why you are here, but thanks." The blonde angel handed the place back to her grandmother. She didn't know if the pinkette had brought it or if she had bought it, but Alyia was going to give it back. "But, speaking of why are you here... ummm, why are you here?" Alyia sounded a little awkward as the question came out of her mouth, but she hoped that the question that she had asked went through to Katherine.

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Katherine smiled simply as she practically gobbled up the food she was given. She then pinched her skin slightly and poked at her bones. Katherine simply said, "As for I am here, well more than anything there is that training that you are supposed to get. I decided to wait until the angelic transformation started to not wear out your body. Give you a couple months for your body and soul to recover, but now it is time." Katherine gave the next fish to Alyia to devour as she kept setting even more fish in the grill. She was going to satisfy her hunger one way or another. Katherine would immediately start her lesson as she cooked more fish, grilling them as close to perfection as possible.

Katherine started, "First off if you lose a good 20 or 30 pounds in the next few months, do not panic. It's just your bones hollowing out and making it lighter to facilitate flying. Eating will never cause you to gain weight ever again, meaning no more need to diet. Eat all the cookies and chocolate all you want, but try to eat healthily enough to keep your human body in good health okay? Also please hold on to this religious symbol, it will make you feel better.~" If Alyia were to hold on the symbol of Eos, she could feel something that her body was abosorbing and actually feeding her soul. It would be quite a pleasant and comforting feeling, one which Katherine would explain. "That hungering feeling was Holy starvation, meaning you were running out of Holy energy. Luckily it is easy to satisfy the hunger as young as you are. Just grab a blessed Holy symbol, walk into a church or stand in a presence of a saint, god or Holy Magic user. Heck you could probably squeeze enough holy energy from Deniel, he is part angel after all.~

Alyia took the next plate of salmon from Katherine and listened carefully to what she had to say about what she was to be going through for the next couple months. Alyia had already seen some of what was going to happen as her weight had dropped tremendously since she had died. She had tried to gain it back but it didn't seem to happen. But it was no surprise to her that she would still have to eat some nutritious food. She nodded along as Katherine told her what was going to happen. So she would not only have to keep her body healthy but also her angelic body as well. Reaching out and grabbing onto the symbol Alyia felt relief running though her body, relaxing it and filling it with energy. With her hand still on the symbol Alyia nodded once again. She didn't know if she felt okay with stealing the holiness from Deniel but she was sure that he wouldn't mind. Alyia was ready for the training that Katherine would put her through she wanted to get better and be able to control her angelic side much more easily.

"Alright." Alyia said handing back the symbol. "When should we start?" By this time the blonde had finished off the entire plate of salmon. Bending down she placed it on the ground. Straightening back up she looked right at her grandmother her crystal blue eyes showing the excitement that she had. "I am ready whenever you are."

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Katherine stopped to think about it before saying, "Well its less consuming holy energies as it is letting wash over you and clean your soul. This world has both good and evil in it and thus it can rub off on us. Thus we feel nourished when we are near such places or people. Either way pack up, I am going to take you somewhere else to train." Katherine packed up her bags and started guiding her grand daughter up a path and into close by mountains. It would take an hour if they didn't stop, but Mary did not feel tired. One advantage of weighing less is that less strain on a human body. They eventually made it to where she wanted, a small natural Hot Spring filled with Holy energy. It was here that they would train, but first things needed to be done.

Katherine opened her bag and pulled out several shampoos, soaps and towels out in the pen. She tossed a single towel to Alyia as she said, "No worries dear, I will make sure to wrap myself around a towel as well. However there is one thing that will be needed before we begin..." Katherine walked up and placed a single finger on Alyia's forehead and pushed her soul out of the body, but made sure to capture the human in the process to lay her down on the ground. Katherine then sat next to Aly's body and let her soul be released. It would be Aly's first time she ever saw Katherine's soul and oddly enough they almost looked like they could be sisters than grandmother and grandchild. Katherine said, "We wouldn't want our human bodies go through too much strain.~" Katherine hummed a single happy tune as she walked to the edge of the woods to get undressed and wrap a towel loosely around her. She would respect Aly's wishes and secretly she would rather keep her modesty while in this form.

Alyia listened with interest as Katherine talked. It interested her what was happening seeing how she had not yet been explained to exactly what she was capable in her angelic body and what she was going to have to do to stay healthy. The blonde followed her grandmother up a path, she didn’t know where she was going but she trusted Katherine with her life, since she did give it back to her in the first place.

They had walked for a long time and eventually reached a small hot spring that looked natural. Alyia could feel relief rushing through her body and a new wave of energy washed through her. This place was filled with an abundance of holy energy. Looking around Alyia did not notice Katherine pulling out several soaps, shampoos, and towels. She turned around only to receive a towel in the face. Pulling away the towel Alyia listened to the pinkette talk. She watched as the older angel walked up to her wondering what she was going to do. So when the pinkette placed a single finger on Alyia’s forehead and pushed her soul out of her body the blonde stood there in awe standing in her angelic form. Standing there for a moment feeling the freedom of not being confined in her human  body rush through her the blonde angel took in a deep breath and let it out. With a sudden realization flooding through her the pink haired angel spun around to look at her human body to find that Katherine had caught it. A small sigh escaped her lips as she watched Katherine lay her down on the ground. The blonde watched her grandmother release her own soul and was amazed. Alyia and Katherine looked just like sisters. Alyia was too entranced by Katherine’s angelic soul that she could only watch as the angel walked away to put their human bodies elsewhere.

A sudden cool breeze brushed across Alyia’s skin and the pinkette blushed and wrapped the towel around herself. “So Katherine, what are you have me do?” Alyia asked as she stepped into the hot springs and felt the warm water rise up and caress her skin.

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Katherine returned with towel wrapped around her body and stepped to the water, setting one foot in to test the heat. Sensing it was hot she settled in slowly as she let the heat warm up to her. She listened to Aly as she stepped in, the Holy nature blessed water. It was getting colder, winter was coming, In some places in Fiore it started to even snow. Katherine sighed at the image of pure white snowflakes falling over the landscape. Still it was time for Aly's training and thus Katherine began her little talk.

"Oh this? This is actually not part of the combat training, just me wanting to bathe and try out a Holy natural Hot Spring before humans find it and rid it of it's holiness. So I brought natural soaps and shampoo to take a bath! I can even get the hard to reach spots in your wings to make them feel nice and fresh. I never really spend time with you and well..."

Before Aly could even protest, Katherine pinched lightly and rubbed a feather, being gentle as she knew how delicate they can be. A tiny amount of dust and dirt collected on Aly's and truthfully Kat's wouldn't be much better. So she got ready a few soaps and shampoos and pulled them to the side with a scrub brush. She hummed gently a tune as she readied Aly, she felt like a mother again in a way.

"...It's time to catch up. Dark Angels never really had the happiest of human lives so I know what it's like. So if you have any questions I will be more than glad to help."

Alyia looked surprisingly at her grandmother. With Alyia never having a family she didn't know what was going on. She didn't know how to talk freely and she didn't know what exactly to say. She could feel Katherine's touches on her wings, cleaning off the dirt. She had used he wings only three times, but she supposed in those few of times that dirt could have collected on the wings. Her hands fidgeted underneath the waters surface as a single question crossed her mind. "Katherine? What it is it like to have a family?" Sure she had had a family for the first six years of her life, but even those years were hazy in her eyes, leaving her with no experiance of her family. She loved Deniel, but she didn't know what to do now with him. Tears started to prick her eyes but thr angel shook her head, he wasn't worth the tears. She should have never gotten close to him. Males were dangerous, they could steal a heart and run away with if before breaking it. The exact reason she had sworn to herself that she would never get close to another male again.

The pinkette dug her finger nails into her palm and tried her best to be angry, but for one reason or another she couldn't find herself to feel the emotion. She didn't know if it was the water and the purity or if it was the angel side of her and her inability to stay mad at someone who hadn't hurt someone that wasn't her.

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Katherine hummed slightly as she told Alyia her opinion of family. It was different opinion than most people had due to an Angels perspective of things. They were the following statements:

"Dear it is quite complicated, but if I have to sum it up in one word. I would have to say responsibility for it is in every action of having a family. It is the responsibility to take care of one another in hopes to take care one another. It is the responsibility of doing good and helping one another so we nurture growth physically, mentally and spiritually. However the power that fuels the bond to one another is love. However love can be such a fickle thing, it is capable of making you happy, angry or sad about someone. However family satisfies loneliness, depression and heals pain when there is enough love and responsibility. There is peace knowing that you grow up to be a strong woman and do a family proud.~"

Katherine finally every wing leaned out and helped clean off the wings, working on every single beautiful feather she had. Alyia was unique in her feather coloring and it stood out. Katherine secretly knew Alyia was not a Dark Angel, but somewhere in between. It was why she could manipulate both sides of the holy spectrum. So she cleaned and scrubbed until Alyia's wings practically glowed in the sunlight. Katherine humming the whole way until she was done and Katherine patted Alyia on the head. Katherine then looked at her own grimmy wings and sighed, it was always awkward to clean them.

"However without the two, it can be one of the worse nightmares in existence. "

Alyia listened to Katherine, everything she had said was true. Love was a fickle thing, it had allowed Alyia to feel warm and fuzzy on the inside when she was around Deniel, but after he had left her, all she felt was pain and sorrow. She didn't want to trust anyone ever again she didn't want to trust her heart to another male ever again. But Katherine was also true family was the solution to the heart break that she felt and the loneliness that she now felt in her heart. Alyia slightly smiled looking away from her grandmother as the pinkette continued to clean the blonde's wings.

When she felt Katherine pull away from her wings the blonde looked backwards to see what the pinkette had done, it she was finished cleaning her wings. Looking back at her wings the blonde looked wide eyed. It was almost like the pair of wings were glowing. But as Alyia looked over to Katherine she saw that Katherine was looking back at her own wings and sighing. The smile on Alyia's face grew as she turned around and to look more comfortably at her grandmother, but her smile slightly fell as she heard the last thing that Katherine had said. What did she mean? Oh, never mind. Alyia knew what Katherine meant. Her smile turned sad, she wanted Katherine to regain all of her emotions back. "I-I see." She stuttered a little bit and then tried to smile happier, "Would you like for me to clean your wings? It seems like it would be very awkward to clean your own wings."

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"I believe though that sometimes to understand what something truly is, one must lose it. Only then do they realize the importance of such a thing. Its just our nature to take things for granted, but then what can we do about it? We are not all seeing creatures now are we?"

Katherine sighed as she turned around to let Alyia clean her black wings. It was much easier to do so like this, but Alyia would need a little bit of practice. The wings were sensitive so she let out a small gasp when she occasionally pulled a bit to hard. However she could feel sadness in Alyia's touch that was beyond simple grief. This was full blooded sadness that welled up in her soul. What happened to the young angel? Why was she like this? Katherine sighed, so much pain and sadness surrounded Katherine so was it affecting Alyia now too? Katherine's mind was interrupted when she gasped again. She had to hold it in though as the cleaning continued, but there was something Katherine would ask when finished. Turning around to hug her granddaughter, she made her inquiry.

"What is the matter dear? You seem sad."

There was a sound of worry in Katherine's voice, emotion that once lost coming back to her in small doses. It was there, locked away out of reach from her until the day came. What was going to be the price when the day actually came though? Alyia would be first to know...

Alyia tried to be careful in cleaning her grandmothers wings, but it was her first time. A couple feathers came out that probably should not have. She would get better with time of course, but right at this moment she could only hope that she was not hurting Katherine too much. She was looking at the feathers with a sad look in her eyes. She pulled on another feather slightly too hard and she heard Katherine gasp. Alyia, startled, stopped and sighed. She looked back at her human body, was she just not good enough for him? A single tear slipped from her eyes. But is soon vanished with a swipe of Alyia’s hand. She was supposed to be strong, a guy like that was no time of hers. But he was a guild mate. He was her family. In the time that she had been thinking she froze. But was jerked out of her thoughts when Katherine turned around and hugged her. Listening to her caring words the older angel was saying Alyia could not hold it back any longer, Katherine seemed worried for the blonde, tears streamed from her eyes.

“Deniel meant so much to me,” Her words came out garbled slightly, “but I wasn’t strong enough! I can’t protect myself from him.” Her tears began to fall even harder. “He blamed himself because I’m not strong enough!” Sobbing wracked the younger girls body as she pressed against her grandmother's body. “A-and now because I couldn’t protect myself… he… he’s gone.” She continued to cry into Katherine. It was the one place that she felt safe. Like nothing could harms her. Where she could be her own age.

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"Ah dear here is the thing, you were never meant to protect Deniel. If you have to protect yourself from a person then he is not the one. Dear despite my jokes about becoming a Great Grandmother, I care for your happiness first and foremost. And although it may hurt now, the pain will go with time. There is always tomorrow and it shall be a better day."

Katherine hugged and squeezed her granddaughter until all the tears were gone. Patting her back she closed her eyes, wishing to remember what it was like to be young. It was nowhere in her mind and she always disliked that. Giving a small sigh she let go when Alyia stopped crying and kissed her granddaughter on the forehead in hopes it would make her feel better. However one thing Aly did say was troubling, she almost died again? That meant the angelic blood was not manifesting quick enough or she was not aware of it. It was odd because Katherine thought it came naturally. So the lessons start now.

"And well it is time to teach you what you can do now. Your body is changing and you still have a few years left until you are done maturing. In the meantime you body is subconsciously adapting to your will. Give it about a month and you may get a hair color change, different tan of skin, grow an inch. The mind and soul are very powerful parts of us. Now Aly I know you feel weak, but I want you to fight me as if you were fighting for your life. You have 5...4...3...2...1..."

Alyia tilted her head at Katherine as she started to talk to her, the comforting arms of her grandmother were no longer comforting, but more strict, like that of a teacher. As she started to speak again the pink haired girl stopped and listened carefully to every word that exited the older woman’s mouth. She was not done changing yet, there was still more? She didn’t know if her human body was going to stay the same age but she supposed that the older angel had been talking about her angelic body. It was already much taller and much more slender than her human body. But how could she expect it to be even taller. She had pink hair and her skin was nearly pale. She supposed that a light tan would do her some good. But as Katherine spoke her last couple words before she started to count Alyia widened her eyes. Fighting for her life? What did she mean?

Her mind was processing things miles a minute and yet none of it seemed to make any sense to her. Then something snapped and the pinkette widened her eyes, bolting up out of the water. She wrapped the towel tighter around her body as the numbers counted down. Upon the older angel hitting one Alyia was out of the spring, refreshed and her wings folded into her back. She had taken a defensive pose, she didn’t know what Katherine was planning, but she needed to prepare, be light on her toes and use her magic wisely. After all Katherine was a rank above her and she needed to be strategic about how she fought her.

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Katherine looked at the form that Alyia was presenting to Katherine, it was fairly good as it showed that she had experience in physical combat. She held up on hand and said, "Okay hold that for a bit dear." Katherine walked up to Alyia and straightened and moved Alyia's ody in a much more relaxed position. People commonly made this mistake, "When you are fighting, do not tighten up. Be free and loose as possible. It makes your attacks much more unpredictable. And if you get hit it lessons the damage. When you strike, you want to tighten up your muscles at the last second. Quick, fast strikes. Also before we continue, would you mind if we put on our clothes again before this slips off?" Katherine quickly got behind a tree and quickly dressed up in her normal attire again. It was to spare her granddaughter embarrassment once again.

Katherine simply continued her speech as the lessons continued, "Also you know the lesson of never let your emotions get to you in combat? That is a very common misnomer, you do not want to have them gone. It removes all purpose and soul of the reason that you fight. Instead sharpen them, narrow them down and make it your focus. It will help ground you when there is a moment of fear. Save you when you despair. Now close your eyes for a bit dear and focus on the most positive emotion you have... Then try to punch me... No worries if you give me a bruise, so please do not hold back.~"

Alyia seemed to freeze as Katherine fixed the position of her body but as she started talking about being relaxed when fighting the blonde let her muscles loosen. Alyia wanted to improve as much as she could so that she would be able to protect herself and people who she cared about. When Katherine backed away Alyia turned to look at the older angel. When she heard her make the comment about clothing the pink haired girl smiled widely. She ran to her clothing, well that of her human body and started to put it on only to find that it was too small for her. “Erm…” Alyia looked around to see if she could find the clothes that she usually wore in her angel form. When she finished dressing she was in her usual angel shorts and the black tank top that she usually wore when she was human seeing how it fit her when she was an angel.
When Katherine had started to talk again about the training that they two would be going through Alyia nodded. She closed her eyes as her grandmother had asked of her she sharpened her emotions. She knew that if she fought with the emotions that the contained now she would not last long. She focused on the happy memories that she had had and the positive feelings that came from them. The first time that she had met Allen, how he was clumsy and had made her laugh. The time with Yukine and the lunch that they had shared, the pranks that the two managed to pull off as well. Then the time that she had spent with her new family at the guild. Warmth surged through her making her feel like a warm summers day. Her eyes flashed open and Alyia swung her fist forwards with all the power that she possessed. She hit Katherine right in the abdomen. She knew that she didn’t want to seriously injure Katherine but she wasn’t going to be holding back either.

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