< < Previously at The Baa-Bar
"Alright now you be quiet you hear? I don't think coming home with a pet would be the best thing to do coming home on the day that was supposed to be my first day at school," Cael spoke at his closed bag.
"I'm not a pet," the bag replied.
"I know that but my mom won’t be able to tell the difference. So just keep quiet until I let you know it's safe, okay?" Cael took the bag's silence as a yes. He took a deep breath as he walked through the front doors of his mother's shop. Lara Xendy was sitting behind the counter next to the door with a needle, thread and a large amount of red and black fabric. "Hello mom, Cael said as he entered."
His mother looked up. "Oh hello Michael!" she said with a smile. "Welcome home. How was your first day at school?"
"It was okay," Cael responded with little enthusiasm. "Rather uneventful I would say."
"Oh well that's too bad. It was your first day. I'm sure all the teachers spent most of their time just introducing you to the class. Did you make any new friends?"
"Just one. He's rather obnoxious though." Cael's messenger bag kicked his leg hard. "Ow!"
"Oh dear, are you ok?" Lara put down her sewing to check on her boy.
"I'm ok," said Cael trying to avoid getting close to his mother, "just tripped on a root at the park on my way home."
"Alright Michael, you just let me know if you need anything."
"I will mom." He continued to the staircase in the back corner of the store to go upstairs to their house. Half way up the stairs his mother shouted after him, "Oh Michael, I almost forgot. Your friend Serenity called."
Cael froze. "Did she say anything?" he called back.
"No, but she asked that I ask you to call her at some point. You will do that won’t you?"
"Yes mom." Cael continued up the stairs trying to push the thought of his old friend out of his mind. Getting up to his house and the up to his bed room, Cael locked the door and released Kero from his shoulder bag.
biggrin LOO40KCICbh9M:https://i250.photobucket.com/albums/gg279/Saiyan_Princess/Card%20Captor%20Sakura/ks28.jpg" style='float:right' />"Finally!" Kero stretched his wings and flew a lap around the bedroom. "You need to punch some holes in that bag or something. But enough of that now. So this is your house huh?" Kero observed the room he was in. A full size bed sat in the middle of the room with the headboard against the wall farthest from the door. In front of it next to the door was a large, flat-panel TV hooked into an XCube and a PC tower. A large library of Games, Movies and software sat in shelves under the wall-mounted TV. To the right of the bead there was a small desk with a lamp and to the left of the bed appeared to be a large walk-in closet. On the slanted ceiling was a large skylight that lead out to the roof of the house and let in daylight. “Not too bad!” he exclaimed. “I like it… as long as your mother bakes cookies.”
Cael smiled. ‘This thing and his cookies,’ he thought. “Yes she does back cookies.” I’ll ask her if she can make some after she closes up shop.”
“Alright! Great, with the snacks out of the way now we can get started on your training.” Kero hovered in mid air while he talked to Cael. “First lesson: Alchemy is the mastery of the elements. More specifically the four Base Elements. Terra, Water, Fire and Air.”
Cael stopped him, “Terra?”
“Yeah, Terra. You know, ground, soil.”
“Earth?”
“Earth?” Kero asked puzzled. He swooped down to Cael’s bag and rummaged through it to pull out the Alchemy Index. Cael had nearly forgotten that it was in there. Kero flipped through the pages until he found one that he liked. He stared at the page as if it had decided to stop being blank, his little eyes scanning back and forth. “Yup, it says here that on your planet, the first element is referred to as Earth.” Kero closed and tossed the book aside haphazardly. “Who knew.”
Cael dove and caught the book. He looked angrily up at Kero from the ground. “Why would you just throw something like this around?! I thought you were supposed to be guarding it?”
“Kid that book has seen wars. One toss to the ground isn’t going to end its existence. Now I think that the best place to practice with the first element will be back at that park where we met.”
“You mean where I caught you?”
Kero glared. “Do you want me to teach you or not?”
“Well why can’t I learn from the book.” Cael opened it and riffled through the pages finding them all to still be blank, including the last page now.
“Can’t read it can you?” Kero asked. “ You will begin to be able to read it gradually as your powers develop. For now, I will tell you all that you need to know.”
Cael closed the book and examined to cover. “Well how about telling me what this design is on the cover and why it rotates.”
Kero wagged a tiny finger slowly at Cael shaking his head. “No, no, no. It’s nowhere near time for that yet. That will come much, much later in your training. For now, we start in the dirt, and that means going outside and getting dirty.
“Alright.” In one motion Cael stood up, grabbed his bag, grabbed Kero and shoved him into the bag, and ran out the door. “To the park we go.”
It had been a few days since that night at the PU, followed quickly by that night at the beach. With Cait. Under the light of the lighthouse. Cael hadn't been able to get it out of his head; he finally had a date. He had even forgotten about Kero's disappearance. Jay didn't even know where he was (and thought he was a cat for some reason). Cael figured that he'd turn up eventually. 
"South Main Street number 88...," Serenity mumbled to herself. "Ah! Here it is, Little Threads. She always uses the same name." The girl walked into the clothing store.