As Elayne and the two girls walked back home, Morpheus stayed behind in the hospital for a bit, floating in midair as he glanced at the sleeping girls with his three skulls. His Dream Magic Powers beginning to act without having been told.
"I'm sorry, but to protect my Master and little Monica… I'll have to do this."
Suddenly, through Dreams, he started extracting the memories of the girls seeing what Monica did. Even if they had apologized and everything, Morpheus, on his loyalty to Elayne, couldn't help but worry they might change their mind at some point.
So he decided to extract those memories as dream bubbles, devour them, and replace them for different memories, deleting Monica from them and replacing them for the shadowy figure of Dorothea instead.
The Dream and Nightmare Spirit knew that Elayne was too nice to ever do such a thing, even if it risked them one day betraying Monica and calling her a monster, which might get her in big trouble.
So he decided to do the "dirty work" that Elayne could never imagine doing herself, nor tell anybody else to do either…
"You're never too safe, as they say…"
The floating scythe quickly disappeared from the scene, going back to Elena's shadow, where Elayne had told to keep on protecting her daughter whenever it was possible.
.
.
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(Elayne's POV)
Once we were back home, we decided to just relax for now. Monica felt much more relieved once everything was said and done, but said she felt sleepy, so she went to take a nap. I told Morpheus to watch over her as we decided to go to the gym early this morning with my daughter.
After all, I had told her that if she wanted to grow stronger and use her abilities properly, she had to get a bit more fit. And you're never too young or too old for that! In fact, the younger she starts doing exercise and a healthier lifestyle, the better.
"Ugh, I can't believe we're going to the gym- Ah, it's filled with so many normies." My daughter seemed to be lamenting her decision as we stepped inside.
"Hey Elayne, how it's going?" One of the instructors greeted me, a tall, muscular guy with short black hair and a handsome face.
"Oh, Clyde, good morning! I brought my daughter today. She said she wanted to exercise, so she'll start coming over. I wanted to subscribe her to the gym." I said.
"Oh, alright!" He was rather happy. "What's your name?"
"Elena…" My daughter sighed with a gloomy expression.
"Hahaha, come on, I know how it feels at first, but you'll get used to this place in no time!" Clyde laughed, as he helped us register my daughter for a yearly subscription.
"All's done, take your card." Clyde said, giving it to Elena.
"Yaay…" She sighed.
"Should I introduce her around?" The young man wondered.
"Nah, I'll show her the place myself, thank you Clyde!" I waved my hand.
"Yeah, if you got any problem you can come to me." He said with a friendly smile.
Elena seemed just as bored as when we got here. Her mood was quite terrible, in fact… But at the very least she wasn't complaining, her expression was just bad.
"Come on dear, cheer up a bit more. Once you start doing stuff here, you'll realize how easy it is, actually!" I told her. "How about we start with some stretching, then we go for some warmup and then for more intense cardio, huh? How about it? You can leave the strengthening of the biceps, gluteus, thighs, and shoulders and arms for later."
"Ugh, mom, I don't understand half the words you just said." Elena sighed. "But fine, just tell me what I should do and I'll try… I hope."
"Alright!"
With that, we began. Stretching wasn't too hard, although my daughter's body was really stiff, so she needed much more than I imagined.
Then we moved to some warmup by letting her walk on the walking machine for a few minutes, and then I slowly increased the speed.
She barely lasted five minutes before collapsing, through the entire run she was gritting her teeth and gasping for air… She had good grades in physical education at school, so I found it a bit weird.
"Yeah but what we do there is really basic, like we just run very slowly for a bit, and then throw balls at each other… Sometimes jumping and that's about it." My daughter explained. "It is not near as intense as this…"
"Oh well, you'll have to get used to it, dear!" I said. "Alright, let's keep going, your body needs to at least get used to warm up, if your muscles don't grow strong, you won't be able to properly use your abilities."
"A-Alright…" Elena was already sweating a lot, drinking some water. "Hahh… L-Let's do it!"
She regained some of the flame of passion in her eyes, as I nodded happily. I continued helping her get as much exercise as possible as she collapsed in exhaustion every five minutes, though it slowly increased to six, then seven, then ten!
After about three hours of all sorts of exercises, we took a warm bath in the showers (they had private ones) and walked back home refreshed.
"Uuughh… My entire body hurts…"
Elena was walking very funnily, as if her entire body was made out of strings, barely trying to hold herself together and stand properly…
"Don't worry, you'll get used to it eventually…" I laughed, giving her a head pat. "Well done, did you drank the potion I gave to you? It's specially made so it can boost your body strength and physique development."
"I did~" She yawned, showing me the empty bottle.
"Well done." I nodded confidently.
"Anyways, mom… So a lot has happened lately." She sighed, looking down.
"Y-Yeah, I guess… It wasn't within my plans at the beginning of the year for our lives to change this much." I sighed.
"Yeah… Honestly, there's so many things happening all the time, that it gets hard to keep up with my sanity…" She seemed exhausted.
"I can't relate enough to that myself…" I laughed.
"You do? But you always seem so fine." She wondered.
"Well, that's because it's my duty to stay calm. If I start to panic, and things go even worse… What else can be do?"
"Huh…"
My daughter stayed silent through halfway of the way back home, and then she spoke again.
"I think you're pretty cool, mom."
"E-Eh?"
That was really out of nowhere!
"R-Really? Even if I am a boring boomer and stuff?" I wondered.
"Yeah, even then." She smiled. "I think if I didn't you as my mom, I would had never been able to handle such a changing world as of now… So thanks for being there for me, really."
"Elena…" I smiled, containing my tears. "My daughter! O-Of course, mommy will always be there for you! No matter what!"
I quickly hugged her in the middle of the streets, some people began to stare a bit.
"Uaagh! S-Stop it! Cut it off, mom! Everyone's watching!"
My daughter tried to free herself from her mother's grasp, but that was something impossible with her weak physique!
