The arms that had held tiny Tara had retracted themselves as she stood in front of Lucy’s face. Both their gazes met one another and locked. Lucy was curious about the power Tara wielded, the Arte, and had a child-like expression of curiosity and glee on her face. Not wishing to do anything but fulfill her new friend’s wishes, her smile grew wider and she nodded towards her, agreeing to do exactly that. The question was what would Lucy want to see and would Tara have the strength to do everything she wished to show her?
“Okay, Lucy! I’d be happy to show you what I can do, but…there are a lot of different things I can do with this power. What, exactly, did you want to see?” Tara was looking into Lucy’s eyes, cocking her head slightly as she asked her that question. There was a lot she could do. She could make energy balls, hover, glide, and a host of other things. She assumed Lucy wanted to see something she’d done in her fight against the Antlion, but wished to ask the girl herself, just to be sure she wasn’t assuming the wrong thing.
“Anything! Everything! You were so amazing back there! Umm…Umm…Do the flying thing! Yeah, do that!” It was incredible that Lucy could maintain her child-like nature at her age. Although she was young adult, she was still an adult. Not many women would be acting giddy and child-ish, like she was. She, however, was a special case, and she was very excited at the moment. Her cheeks were growing red as she awaited Tara’s response and actions, hoping she’d do a lot of amazing things for her in the new few minutes.
Tara couldn’t help but giggle a little at Lucy’s attitude. The girl was like a child. Still, it was nice to be around someone like this. Tara, outside of people who talked to her on the street, had been alone for a long time. She felt a special connection forming between her and this girl. The girl had saved her life, something that she felt eternally grateful for. Were it ever asked, she would do anything for the girl, anything in the world. Of course, this request for the hovering technique would be cakewalk for her.
“Alright, Lucy! Don’t move your hand, okay? This is going to take some concentration and I’m going to hover above your hand if this works!” Tara looked up, waiting for Lucy to show she understood what she meant before continuing onward. Soon enough, Lucy gave her a quick nod. Nodding back towards her, she closed her eyes and began to concentrate. She stood straight up and moved her feet apart from one another. Taking a moment to concentrate, still unsure if she had enough energy recovered to make the casting, she took a few deep breaths. After taking a moment, she quickly clicked her heels together and attempted the spell.
As soon as the boots clicked together, Lucy’s eyes started to widen and her smile grew. A soft, red glow came around the boots for a moment, and Tara’s feet began to slowly move upward, pushing away from the palm in which she stood. Lucy could almost feel a slight amount of tingling air shoving against the middle of her palm as the tiny sorceress was moving up into the air. It was a strange feeling, but she loved every second of it. The tiny sorceress moved upwards about 2 inches and stopped, hovering in the air above Lucy’s palm. Lucy wasn’t saying a word, only taking in the insane amount of coolness and cute that came with Tara’s tiny, hovering form.
“Oh, my gosh…that’s so cool!!!!!” exclaimed Lucy, nearly knocking Tara forward in the air as her hot breath flowed out towards the tiny girl. Tara opened her eyes and started waving her hands around, maintaining her balance. It was very hard to balance oneself when in the air and having, quite literally, no support. She, however, maintained her position and calmed herself, smiling back at Lucy, starting to feel a little giddy at how much praise she was getting at this very moment.
“R-Really? Am I…really that cool?” Tara asked, meekly. She’d never really thought of herself as anything really special. If she’d gotten anything from her mother, it was modesty. Sure, she practiced the Arte, and even saved a few lives in the past, but she’d never thought of herself as special or extraordinary. She was just another woman who happened to know how to channel the basics of the Arte. Right now, however, she was feeling warm and fuzzy inside, every word from Lucy ringing in her ears and shaking her heart, making her feel as if she was liked for all of this.
“You really are, Tara! You’re so adorable and cute and cool and amazing! I could never do things like that!” Lucy’s words were piercing Tara in the body, mind, and heart. Such words had never been said to her, except by one person. When she was a child, her mother used to praise her all the time. She was the only one who ever did. Lucy reminded her of her mother in this way, and that only helped her emotions and feelings towards the girl at this moment grow stronger and stronger. She simply smiled up towards the girl, her face growing a crimson red.
The two girls were staring at each other, taking in each other’s forms and looking at how wonderful their moment was when Tara noticed something very strange about her environment. Her arms and legs started shivering as she hovered in the air. Their gaze was broken as this happened and Tara starting looking at her limbs, confused as to what had happened. Why was she cold? Why was she shivering? She grabbed onto her arms and tried to stop what was happening, but she couldn’t. It was like her body was making itself cold on it’s own.
Her mind was filled with possibilities, but one rang far above the rest: the warmth was gone. That was it. It had to be. Lucy’s body and hand was filled with a radiating heat and had been warming Tara up. Being above her hand and not on it anymore made her feel the effects of room temperature and it was making her cold. As she hovered in place, shivering, Lucy noticed it, too and blinked, asking her what was wrong. “Tara? Tara, dear, you’re shivering. What’s wrong?”
Tara didn’t know what to say. The only thing that was going through her mind was Lucy and her hand. For some reason, it’s all she was thinking about, all that she wanted. She started whispering to herself. “I…I need your hand again…” With that statement, the hovering spell immediately broke and Tara fell down into Lucy’s hand. As she landed, her body hit the palm and the girl’s fingers. As she came down, Lucy was trying to reach for her, worried about what had happened, but Tara was too quick. The girl had clenched onto her fingers, burying the top half of her body into it, still shivering slightly.