Devil Ash Days (Devil Ash Saga) (9 page)

By the time Shiva came back to fetch him, he was on his third tray of food. She pulled the boy away from it and they returned to the yard. Much like their short session before, Shiva told Ash to defend himself from her attacks, and if he could, launch his own attack and try to land at least one hit on her. Ash found it easier to avoid her attacks all together by dodging them, but after a while, Shiva devised a counter-strategy of shooting a fireball at him if he did so. Ash began to think of entirely new ways to avoid her attacks, all the while making an attempt to attack her.

At first, Ash could barely land a hit. Every punch he threw Shiva saw coming and easily countered. She would either grab h
is arm with a preemptive strike and toss him aside or dodge and throw a counterattack his way. As the number of bruises on his body began to rise, Ash quickly learned that Shiva was not holding back or going easy on him.

After a few more hours flew by, the door swung open and another person entered the yard. She was a slender, raven-haired woman wearing a long, black dress. On Earth, Ash might have lumped her into the category of ‘goth’, but in Hell, clothing like that didn’t seem so strange. She was a real treat to look at, the first female beauty Ash had seen since arriving. Shiva laid off for a moment, and the new woman approached them.

“Lady Shiva,” she gave a small curtsy in greeting. “And this must be Ash.”

“This is Yazma Bethilda,” Shiva introduced her. “A teacher.”

“Oh no,” Ash said, somewhat disappointed, “you’re not making me go back to school are you?”

“
You can relax,” Yazma said. “The only subjects I’ll be teaching you today are creating flames and learning to fly.” She smiled cheerfully at him. It felt nice.

Ash was interested
in learning how to make fire like he saw Goddard and Shiva doing. And flying? Who
wouldn’t
want to be able to fly?

“So without further delay,” Shiva
said, “I’m going to sit back and watch what’s sure to be a hilarious afternoon of seeing you fail at several more things!” She smirked and trotted off, plopping down on the grass with her back up against the wall.

“Don’t let Lady Shiva bring you down,” Yazma said. “You’ll do just fine, I’m sure. I’m more accustomed to teaching the children, so it will be nice to be teaching someone a little older!” Yazma seemed excited, and Ash was just happy to have finally met someone friendly. It helped that she was a beautiful woman, too.

“Children, huh?” Ash said. “When do most devils learn to make their flames?”

“Usually when they are ten years old,” Yazma answered him, “but I’ve had some rare cases of even younger children producing flames.” Ash’s mind was filled with images of babies flying around, raining down balls of fire on their parents.
Note to self: Never have a devil baby,
he thought. “Sit down, Ash,” Yazma said. “It’s not necessary to be standing while creating flame, and sitting comfortably will help your concentration.” Ash did as he was told, and sat down on the grass.

“How come the flames don’t hurt?” Ash just had to raise the question, concerned that perhaps he’d burn his hand off in the process if he didn’t learn the proper way to hold the flames.

“The flames come from within us,” Yazma said. “They are just as much a part of us as our bones and blood. Your own flame, because it is a part of you, will never hurt you. Other people’s flames, however, are of
their
own design. Just as your flame will burn them, so too will their flames burn you. There are some exceptions as well, like if you allow your flame to exist apart from you for some time, such as when lighting a candle. Once it leaves you for any amount of time, it will become a free-flame, and may become able to harm you.”

“Close your eyes,”
said Yazma. Ash obeyed. “I want you to imagine a flame. Imagine it as if you are looking at it up close. Think of how it sways in the breeze.” Ash did as she instructed. With closed eyes, he kept his thoughts fixated on the topic of fire. “Give a lot of thought to the color of it. How hot is it? How big is it?”

“Do you actually want me to answer you?” Ash asked, still keeping his eyes closed and thinking about fire.

“No. Concentrate on the image of the flame. Look at the very tip of it, and follow it down the base. Visualize it stemming from your very own hand.”

In Ash’s mind, he could picture it, clear as day: a small flame, no larger than that of a candle’s, rising from his open palm.

“Now hold out your hand and open your eyes!”

Ash did as he was told, stretching out his arm and showing Yazma the contents of his open hand. But it was still empty, with no flame to be found.

“Huh,” Yazma whispered, astonished. “Four out of five times, that works with the children.”

“Great,” Ash said. “I’ve failed to do what four out of five children can do.” He was disappointed, but wouldn’t give up. “Got any other tricks?”

“Do the same thing, but this time keep your eyes open.” Yazma instructed. “You should watch your hand very closely, picturing your flame.”

“Okay,” Ash stared at his hand, “I’m doing it. Where’s the flame?”

“You can’t create fire by simply visualizing it. If that were so, we really wouldn’t need teachers for it, would we?”

“So what else is there to it?” Ash asked.

“You have to feel it, of course.” She stated the concept as though it were common sense, and to her credit, for most devils it probably was. “Usually with the first method we tried, closing your eyes and visualizing the flame is meant to invoke those feelings.”

“I know how hot fire is, but I’ve never stuck my hand inside a fireplace before. So how am I supposed to know how fire feels?” Ash asked, somewhat confused about the whole thing.

“I don’t mean how a fire literally
feels,
” she said. “I meant think of it as an extension of yourself.”

“Like another hand?”

“Like an extension of your hand.”

Ash once again went to staring at his hand, but this time instead of merely seeing the flame coming out of it, he pondered on it as a part of himself. Nothing happened. He continued to stare, concentrating with all his might. He visualized a great inferno tearing down an entire forest, and at the center of it all was himself, flames not just growing from his arms; they
were
his arms.

He felt something. His palm tingled, and in the very center of his hand a tiny spark shot out.

“Oh, you did it…sort of.”

Ash was relieved. He could make fire after all! And with a little (or a lot) of practice he could be throwing fireballs in no time. He smiled triumphantly.

“You’ll have to practice with it, but I’m confident you will be able to create fire just as easily as anyone else.” She smiled, encouraging him. Ash tried again, and this time even more sparks shot out, although there was still not a solid flame to be found.

“Once you get the art of creating flames down, I can show you how to manipulate them.”

“Cool, then I can shoot them at things, right?”

“More than just that, with a lot of dedication and practice, some devils are able to manipulate their flames so well that they can actually change the direction and control them well after the flames have left their hands.”

“Wow, that’d be so cool if I could get
that
good!”

“
Sparks
,” Shiva called out from across the yard. “Maybe that’ll be your new nickname!”

“He’ll need to practice with it for a while, but he
will
improve,” Yazma said.

“That’s right! So don’t get too attached to that nickname. Pretty soon you’ll be calling me ‘
Giant Fire Balls!
” He took a moment to think about the nickname he had just proposed, and immediately changed his mind. “Actually, maybe you should just call me Ash.”

“You’re an idiot,” Shiva replied, walking over to join them. “Let’s get a move-on here. I want to knock him around some more.”

“Then I’ll talk about flight now,” Yazma said, turning to Ash. “Much like forming your flame, bringing out your wings is a similar process.”

“Oh, okay.” Ash said. Without giving it much thought (as he was accustomed to doing most things) Ash’s wings sprout
ed out from his back. Yazma was surprised, but Shiva remained unimpressed.

“Surprising,” Yazma said. “How could you bring out your wings so easily and have a more difficult time with your flame?”

“When Goddard changed me into a devil, they came out before,” Ash said. “I just imagined what it felt like then.”

“I see,” she replied. “I suppose having done it once already would help, wouldn’t it?”

“Good job,” Shiva said. “You’ve accomplished what a three-year old can do.”

“I was wondering though,” Ash said, “why do devils hide their wings?” He stared at the large flaps of skin popping out from his back. He had a lot of things to learn; best to find out as much as he could while he had an actual teacher around.

“Many reasons, but primarily because they are large and cumbersome, making it difficult to fit comfortably inside buildings.”

“Oh,” Ash replied. It was actually pretty easy to figure out. “Could devils always do this, or was it something they evolved?”

“Actually, the ability stems back to ancient times,” Yazma went into teacher-mode, “when God used to send his angels to Earth, he gave them the ability to hide their wings so that they could blend in with the humans. If you ever have a couple of free hours, I could tell you all about the rebellion in Heaven.”

“Cool!”
said Ash. Getting an after-school lesson from a gorgeous woman was a more appealing choice than reading it in the book Goddard gave him.

“Can we get on with this lesson now?” Shiva
said, her patience running out.

“Oh, yeah!” Ash was so distracted at the new information he forgot his next lesson. “So how do I fly?”

“Uh, gee,
I wonder
,” Shiva said. “Try
flapping
them.”

Ash did what she said, and just like moving an arm or a leg, he found he was able to move his wings back and forth. He picked up the pace a little with them, starting a flapping motion. He felt himself being lifted off the ground, so he flapped a little faster, and hopped up. With his feet no longer touching the ground, he was officially flying, though no more than a foot off the ground. It was sort of like doing a pull-up. Ash could tell that moving his wings fast enough to lift his body weight would take some time to learn, and would be a
massive workout. After all, they were muscles that he had never used before. He stopped flapping and dropped back down to the grass, completely psyched to have obtained the gift of flight.

“Well it looks like you won’t be needing me anymore… for the time being, anyway.” Yazma stated, smiling proudly at him.

“Thanks for the help!” Ash said.

“You may send for me any time you need me,” she replied. With another small curtsy, she took her leave from the yard. Ash was disappointed to see her go, as he would have liked to spend more time with her. There was still so much he could learn about the devils and angels, and he preferred her pleasant, friendly teaching style to Shiva’s ‘hands-on’ approach. Speaking of Shiva, she was casting an ominous glare in Ash’s direction, which could only mean one thing.

“We still have an hour of training time to go,” she told him. Ash didn’t really like where this was going. “You can fly and use fire now, and you’d
better
, because I surely will be!”

The next hour was chaos. Shiva, as it turned out,
had
been holding back before. She used to throw an occasional fireball at Ash when he would dodge her, but now she was using them far more often. Ash was constantly dodging attacks now, and rarely got an opportunity to fight back. He went the rest of the evening without landing a single blow on her.

He wanted to quit. Training was painful, and with every blow Shiva struck against him, his confidence dwindled. Unfortunately for him, he couldn’t quit. He had nowhere else to go. All he could do was avoid Shiva’s attacks and try not to die. After a while he began to think of it like a video game, when a character grows stronger through battle.
Just like leveling up
, Ash thought. The idea almost made the training bearable. Almost
.

The high point of the evening came when Ash decided to try something different to evade Shiva’s wild punches. He brought out his wings, leapt as high as he could, and hovered in the air for a small amount of time before falling like a stone back down. While Shiva complimented him on the move, she also warned that many devils refuse to bring out their wings in battle for fear of them being chopped off. Ash didn’t believe Shiva would chop off one of his wings, but kept them hidden from that point on anyway.

With the artificial sun shrinking noticeably in the sky, Shiva decided it was quitting time. She led Ash once again outside of the castle and down into the streets of the city. Goddard had arranged a room for him somewhere, and Shiva was taking him there. Once again, she led with as little chit-chat as possible. It had been a long day for both of them; for Ash it was the hardest he’d ever worked physically, and for Shiva it was the most time she’d ever spent taking care of someone she disliked with such intensity.