//------------------------------//
// 20) The Road to Acceptance 
// Story: The Ghost of Cozy Glow the Third Story 
// by SapphireRose87 
//------------------------------//

{Betty}

Within a week, Otis was officially declared the youngest adult in Hell ever! At the age of four, he had his coronation ceremony and was given his crown to show he is now an adult. Dae and I couldn't be more proud, and, of course, it was all over the news in the following week.

There was another family dinner night at the Castle in Canterlot and everyone there was amazed by the fact that Otis wasn't sitting in a high chair anymore. Dae and I had a chair made just for him so he could sit at the dinner table like an adult.

"Don't you think Otis is still a little too small to be sitting in a regular chair?" Norman asked.

"Small?" Otis gasped. "Small? I'm not small! I'm just short, humph!"

Dae and I laughed as Otis crossed his arms and scoffed at Norman. I had tears in my eyes from laughing so hard when Norman's jaw dropped. "Wow, a four-year-old just scoffed at me, like an adult. Now I've seen everything!"

At this point, Dae and I were gasping for air because we were laughing so hard. Finally, we composed ourselves enough to speak.

"Kids," I teased, "they grow up so fast!"

"Too bad my kids don't grow up that fast," said Norman. "Jacob still takes a bottle."

Sunset rolled her eyes. "And I can't wait until he gets old enough to cover the walls with food!"

Otis had a look of disgust on his face.

I raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"To think I actually thought throwing food was fun," Otis said. "What I don't get is why do I have this blue topaz jewel on my forehead? It's weird because when I touch it, it lights up, see?"

Otis tapped the jewel on his forehead and lit up, glowed for a short while, and then turned back to normal. Everyone, including me, gasped when we saw it. 

"Does yours do that too, Junior?" Otis asked. 

"Hmm," said Norman Jr, "let me see."

He tapped his jewel on his forehead, and it did the same thing as Otis's.

"Interesting," I said, "how'd you figure this out, Otis?"

Otis shrugged. "I was looking in the mirror at it one day, touched it, and that happened. I wonder what it means? Oh well, at least I'm not wearing that stupid baby leash from Milda. Once I became an adult, I burned it to celebrate."

Once again, Dae and I went into a fit of laughter, and this time everyone else joined in. Even Otis was laughing about it. After a while, we stopped laughing. Family dinner then went back to normal. When it was finished we said our goodbyes and parted ways.


*	*	*


Two days after family dinner, I was sitting on the bed in my room, smiling as I watched Dae sleep. He was sleeping because he had a long training session earlier and had to go to the Church of Satan to recover. Wow, he's cute when he's sleeping. He's working just as hard as I am to get ready to take down Mr. Giggles the next time we see him.

Dae laughed, his eyes still closed. "If you're going to admire me sleeping, at least lay down next to me and let me hold you."

I smiled and laid down next to him. "You know, I still can't believe Otis can fly, and he doesn't have any wings! I wonder how that happened?"

"Hmm, while that is puzzling, every demon is different," Dae said.

"I guess so." 

"I heard Headcouncilman had a talk with you," said Dae. "What did he talk to you about?"

"The first thing he told me was to not feel bad about getting attacked by Mr. Giggles," I answered. "The second thing was about what the medals I won meant and why I'm a Legend because I won them."

"Oh?" 

I nodded. "Yeah, apparently those medals are rarely handed out; they're called 'What Honors the Gods.' Because of my drive to protect people, I unknowingly protect the universe." 

Dae whistled. "I knew you were special the very moment I laid eyes on you. I had been watching you before we even met."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, I know."

Dae chuckled. "Your personality and strength were what drew me to you. I didn't know how sexy you were until after we got together. When I saw your sexy body, that was a bonus."

I felt my face turn red at that statement. Dae laughed, "You just can't seem to accept compliments, can you? Just like you can't seem to accept the title of Legend."

I replied, "That's another thing Headcouncilman talked to me about. He said the first step to accepting myself is accepting the title of Legend. That's easier said than done." 

Dae snorted. "The Jewel family is a very interesting family, all right. When heroes are born in the family, they won't accept how special they are. When villains in the family are born, they pretty much leave a calling card. Let's see, a hero in the family goes, 'Me? A Hero? No, I'm nothing special' and a villain in the family goes, 'I am evil! Catch me if you can!'" 

It took me a moment to realize Dae was right; when I did, it was a good thing I was on the bed because I would've fallen over, I was laughing so hard. 


*	*	*


"Is this a practical joke, Sawyer?" I asked.

I was surprised because Sawyer and I were on the air obstacle course, hovering like normal and not crossed-legged. I was trying to figure out what we were doing. I decided not to listen in on his thoughts because that would spoil the surprise. I guess the look on my face said it all because Sawyer couldn't contain his laughter.

"What's so funny?" I asked.

"Um, Betty," said Sawyer, "have I ever played a practical joke on you?"

I shook my head and gave him a skeptical glance. "No, not yet."

Sawyer snorted. "I'm not one for practical jokes, like Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. I'm surprised they haven't grown out of that; they are old-timers, after all." 

"At least Pinkie Pie's not trying to throw a party for me every time I see her now."

I could tell Sawyer wanted to laugh, but he didn't. "What we're doing here is part of learning the third step to the Mirror Technique. This step is learning balance, and I must say you broke a record learning the first two steps of the Mirror Technique! Usually, it takes more than two years to learn, and you learned in about a year and a half! So learning this step should be a piece of cake."

"Remember, the goal here isn't to catch all of the arrows but to focus on them only when you see them coming. If you do catch an arrow, that's fine. This step is about balance; depending on how much you have when making an attack, your attack will hit where it's supposed to go every time. If the attack is off-center, it might not hit where you want it to land. But, knowing you, even if your attacks are off-centered, you won't go down without a fight." 

"With that being said, if you see an attack coming, it might be in your best interest when you see an arrow coming towards you to take a different course. However, even though someone has mastered the Mirror Technique, they still have a tendency to copy their opponent’s moves. A lot of times, this doesn't work in their favor. I'm going to assume Mr. Giggles copied your moves thinking it would take you down and make you weaker?"

I laughed, "Yup, he did, and he sure got that one wrong."

Sawyer smiled and nodded. "Okay then, when I turn on the obstacle course, we'll begin."

He went over and turned on the obstacle course. Just as he suspected, my first instinct was to copy his moves, along with catching the arrows. I only managed to copy the first ten moves Sawyer made. After that, he dodged most of my moves effortlessly. I even took a couple of arrows to the chest in the process. Even though I got the wind knocked out of me, I was determined to keep going. After a while, Sawyer ended the training session by landing a kick to my back and sending me flying face-first into the ground. He turned off the obstacle course and helped me to my feet.

"You do realize that you don't have to master this step on the first try, right?" Sawyer asked.

"Yeah, I know," I panted, "I just can't help but think that I need to stop Mr. Giggles before the ten-year deadline is up and he goes back to that cave in the afterlife so he can wait to be summoned and do it all over again."

Sawyer snorted and looked amused, but I didn't think anything about this was funny. "See, what I'd tell you? Although Norman and Dae are focused on saving people, you want to keep people from being needed to be saved in the first place."

I thought about it. "Well, I guess you're right. But isn't that part of the job title?"

Sawyer shook his head. "No, your job title is the Queen of Hell. It's your job to rule over Hell with Dae. The title of Legend is a title you've rightfully earned. You see titles like Legend, War Hero, et cetera, are titles that you earn based on your actions. Even Norman has a job title. He is the Ruler of Equestria, Prince Norman. Of course, he has another title—War Hero—because of his actions during the war with Shadow Mist. He has that title because he earned it." He grinned. "I can tell by the look on your face that you know I'm right." 

I blushed and nodded. "Yes, I know."

"That's the training done for today. You should probably go to the Church of Satan to recover. All I need to do is relax for the rest of the day. Until next time, see you later!" After Sawyer left, I kept thinking about the title of Legend and why people think I deserve it. I kept thinking about it even when I went to the Church of Satan to recover.


*	*	*


Dae and I were sitting in our bedroom the next day when we heard shouting coming from down the hallway. We knew exactly what the shouting was about. The news reporters were at it again, chasing Otis down for an interview. 

"I thought I said, leave. Me. Alone!" Otis roared.

We heard a loud boom, and we went outside to see that some of the news reporters' cameras were broken.  

Otis noticed us staring at him, and he gave a sheepish smile. "Hi Mom, hi Dad, sorry about the news reporters and their cameras, but they won't quit stalking me!"

I can't speak for Dae, but I couldn't keep a serious face even if I wanted to. I looked over to see Dae didn't even bother to hold in his laughter, so I started laughing too. 

Otis still had his sheepish smile. "I take it you're not upset with me?"

"No, Otis, what you did was in self-defense from those stalkers! Good idea! You're one smart cookie, my boy!" Dae said in between his laughter.

I snorted. "Now, why didn't I think of that when the reporters were following me around?"

"Yeah, and being the son of a Legend and the King of Hell doesn't really help matters either," Otis said. "Don't get me wrong, I'm proud to be your son and all, but when are these stupid reporters going to take no for an answer?" 

I cracked up. "Well, at least the news reporters are the only thing you have to worry about right now. Just wait until you get older then you'll have something else to worry about."

Otis had a confused look. "What do you mean?"

Dae couldn't hide his amusement even if he wanted to. He couldn't seem to keep a straight face. "Don't worry, Otis, you'll see, but you're not old enough for that yet."

Otis nodded. "Oh, and Mom?"

"Yes, Otis?" I replied.

"Is there any chance I can watch you train sometime?" Otis asked. "From what I hear, you're an awesome fighter, which makes sense because you're Legend and all."

"I, ah . . ." I could feel my face turn red because I didn't know how to respond.

Dae snorted and then rolled his eyes.

Otis tilted his head. "What, was it something I said?"

Dae snorted again. "Your Mom doesn't know how to take a compliment. She can't accept the title of Legend, either."

Otis's jaw dropped and he gasped, "What?! How can you not accept that title? I mean there's gotta be a good reason you got that title, Mom. Or you wouldn't have it."

Dae went into full-on laughter so hard, I was surprised he could even speak. "Wow, a four-year-old reasoning with his mother! That's something you don't see every day! Otis, I'm going to let you in on a secret."

Otis raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"The key to watching your mom train is to watch her when she doesn't know she's being watched," Dae said. "That's what your Uncle Norman and I do all the time. I'll show you how to do it later, okay?"

Otis smiled and nodded. "Sure."

When Otis was out of earshot, I glared at Dae.

He gave me an amused look. "What?"

"What you did was not funny!" I snapped.

Dae laughed. "Hey, I was only stating the truth. If you ask me, I think Otis looks up to you, just like Ruby and I do."

"Why?" I asked.

Dae rolled his eyes. "Because you're a Legend. Duh!"

I didn't respond because I didn't know what to say.