Of Magical Matters

This piece was written for my Creative Writing course. We were provided the first line to start, then told to compose a six page story. This was my result.

            The night seemed filled with new sounds and each of them struck him deeply. Had he known shape shifting would be this profound; he would have been more receptive to his mentor’s initial lectures.

            The earth fell away with every beat of his wide wings, sound fading to silence and the whoosh of the air he moved though. His mentor soared beside him, her eyes gold in the moonlight. He hooted at her. She screeched back.

            Above them, above the clouds and other earthly things, the night stretched on, endless. Purple-black velvet bridged the horizons in an arc, encrusted with millions of little silver pinpricks of light. Smaller particles dusted the spaces in between, creating heavenly clouds unlike those seen below. The moon hung heavy amidst them all, voluptuous in its fullness. He brushed the beauty of it all with his wingtips and was encompassed in the joy in the night.

            Rapid wing beats shattered the stillness. He swiveled his head, eyes piercing the darkness to find the sleek black form of his mentor as she climbed higher. Her glossy feathers shimmered in the moonlight as she angled her body downward and into a shallow dive. He followed.

            Branches clattered against each other as he flopped through the landing. The tree limb he finally settled on groaned on impact, swaying wildly. He clutched the wood in his talons, wind-milling his wings in an effort to keep balance. His mentor squawked cheerfully at him. Clicking his beak irritably, he settled.

            A bright flash of light changed his mentor back into her human shape, all ruffled silver hair and a toothy grin. “Your turn Tex.”

            ‘Tex’ attempted to roll his eyes before squatting as close to his perch as possible. Another flash of light and he was hanging off the branch by a hand, his snow-white owl feathers fluttering in the air about him. His mentor cackled.

            “Oh stop laughing and help me!”

            She snickered, gracefully moving from branch to branch as she traveled to his particular handhold. She gripped the bark tightly as she settled onto his branch, reaching down to him. She caught his free hand.

            “Now let go with your other hand,” she said.

            Tex squeaked. “Kash, are you shitting me?”

            “Let go. I’ve got you.”

            Out of his owl form he couldn’t make out her face in the dark, but he could swear she was grinning like a mad man. Woman. Whatever.

            Taking a deep breath, he gripped her wrist more tightly. One, two, th-

            “Come on Tex. We don’t have all night.”

            He glared in her general direction. “Fuck you.”

            Muted starlight glinted off of her eyes.

            He let go.

            She grunted as she took his weight, body splayed over the branch he had previously occupied. His wrist and shoulder throbbed in protest as she began swinging him slowly back and forth.

            “Kash, what are you doing?”

            “You’re going to catch the branch I swing you at, and pull yourself up.”

            “But you could just ease me down-!”

            “None of the branches below you can support your weight with the downward momentum.” Her glowing gold eyes found his in the darkness. “Trust me Tex.”

            Tex swallowed. How had he ended up with such a crazy mentor? “Okay.”

            “On the count of three then. One-“

            “Two-“

            “Three!” they both crowed as he swung forward. He released his grip on her wrist, blindly groping for a branch. He hit one with his stomach, hands scrabbling over the coarse bark for a purchase. He managed to mount the branch, wheezing hard.

            “That’s gonna bruise.”

            With an awfully effeminate shriek, Tex scampered backwards to the trunk of the tree. He snarled at the woman above him. “How in God’s name do you move so damn fast!?”

            She lightly dropped down to his branch. “It’s a secret.”

            “It’s always as secret with you,” he huffed, brushing his sweaty brown hair out of his face.

            Her silhouette shrugged. “Such is the way of magic in this age. You know that.”

            “Yeah, yeah.” Tex stretched. “So, how’d I do?”

            Kash perched herself opposite her pupil on the branch. She ran a hand through her short hair. “Pretty well, for a first flight. The landing could use some work though. Also, your initial shift wasn’t complete. At a distance, you looked like a barn owl, but if anyone had been able to see you close up, they would’ve seen too many discrepancies. Let me see the mental image you used.” She roughly grabbed his head, pressing her fingers to his temples. He winced but remained quiet.

            It was always an odd feeling, brushing consciousnesses with Kash. Or any other human, for that matter. Kash in particular had an interesting aura, more blues and purples in his mind’s eye than the usual red and gold variations most humans possessed. But auras were complicated things that changed with the people they represented. No one persons’ aura ever stayed the same for long.

            “Ah, that’s why.” Kash’s voice echoed quietly in the wood, drawing him from their blended consciousness. “You had your birds mixed up.”

            Tex snorted, focusing on the connection. Didn’t want any stray –

            Kash snorted. “My, my. Got a thing for your lab partner in Bio, do you?” 

            His face heated as he violently tore his mind from hers, blue eyes glaring through the night. He could almost feel her smile in the dark. “Shut up.”

            She chuckled. “Focus Tex. I won’t see things like that if you focus. Shall we try again?”

            “I thought this was an exercise in shape shifting.”

            “It is, but your focus is why you shift was off.”

            Huffing, Tex closed his eyes. “Fine.”

            “Then find me and find the image I used to shift.”

            He stuck his tongue out before inhaling, pushing all errant thoughts to the side. He focused on the silence of the sky, on the blue-violet of Kash’s consciousness. Gold flickered off in the trees, but he paid it no mind – probably a squirrel or something. Tex exhaled. Gently he probed Kash’s aura, finding a number of closed doors – the visualization she used to block him from her thoughts. He flowed through her mind, finding a door ajar amidst the twilight of his mentor’s mind. He nudged it open.

            The sensory assault was nearly overwhelming. Smells, sounds, sights all slammed him at once, overridden by the need to run and so much pain. Howls echoed through the recesses of his being and he screamed with them, hatred and loss and agony coloring the wordless sounds. Over his head, a hawk circled.

            “Tex!”

            The door slammed shut and Tex came back to himself, the blazing colors of Kash’s aura fading in his normal sight. Her hands were on his face, gold irises flashing as she examined him. He felt the tickle of her consciousness against his.

            “What the hell just happened?” Groaning, he batted his mentor away. “What was that?”

            She rocked back on her heels. “Wrong door.”

            “That’s a hell of a wrong door!”

            “You weren’t supposed to see that,” she muttered.

            Tex scowled. “What was that about focus?”

            “There was something else, someone else –“ She sighed. “Never mind. We’re done for tonight.” Kash stood up on the branch, turning away.

            “Done!? The hell we’re done!” he shouted. “What happened? How the hell did I end up in, in, whatever that was!?”

            “It was a memory. There was someone else who tried to access my mind when you did. I was trying to keep them out.” She glanced over her shoulder at him. “That’s why you found that memory.” Without another word, she dropped from the branch. He could only watch as her shadow swept away through the dark, leaving him to find his own way down and back home.

            “Son of a bitch.”

--------

            His walk home was less than comfortable; his clothes tattered and stained with sap. He could swear he had bark in his boxers too.

            “Damn. These were my good jeans too.” Tex growled, kicking a stone as he walked up the pavement of his driveway. Clambering hand-over-hand up the drainpipe, he slinked across the roof to his window. Popping it open with a whispered spell, he slid into his dark room. And promptly jumped as the light turned on.

            “Tex Jerimiah Smith, where have you been?”

            His father stood in the doorway, a hand on the light switch. The elder Smith’s graying-black hair was tousled from sleep, robe tucked loosely about his thin frame.

Tex swallowed thickly, avoiding his father’s green gaze. “Out in the forest. I went for a walk.”

“At three in the morning?” Mr. Smith nearly yelled. The man crossed his arms. “It was that Kash woman again, wasn’t it?”

“No! I just – “

“Don’t lie to me boy!” Tex’s father drew himself to his full height, towering over his soon. “Your mother saw you with her this afternoon!”

“To work on a project!” The lies flowed easily from Tex’s lips. “She and I were working, but then I left to go on a walk and got lost!”

His father scowled at him. “We’ll talk about this in the morning.” Turning on a slipper-ed heel, the elder man left his room.

Tex sighed heavily. This whole “wizard” thing was getting really difficult. He knew he couldn’t tell his dad, or mom for that matter, but he wished –

A cold, gold-blue consciousness brushed against his, setting off all of his internal alarms. It spoke before he could react.

“That’s a poor idea boy. They wouldn’t believe you!”

He nearly jumped out of his skin, tumbling over his bed to face the now-open window. “Jesus Christ! What is it with people sneaking around today!?”

The woman perched in his windowsill shrugged, her long black hair falling into her face with the movement. Violet eyes glimmered behind her bangs. “It’s something we’re good at.”

“’We’?” Tex raised an eyebrow. “Who’s ‘we’?”

The woman’s grin grew almost feral. “So she hasn’t told you?” Throwing her head back, she cackled. “No wonder you were so surprised!”

            The teen growled. “What are you talking about?”

            “Tell Kash that Sasha’s back in town,” she said, stepping back onto the roof. She smoothed her lacey dress. “And that she’s gotten a new flavor for her to try.”

            “What?”

            But the woman was gone, a crow flapping away into the night. Tex swore, slamming his window shut. “Crazy fucking magic users,” he mumbled, stripping. He threw himself into bed, mind whirling with unanswered questions and doubts. Kash had always been different, but she was good to him. She was a good mentor, and a good friend, even if she was a bit nuts sometimes. Yeah, he didn’t know much about her, but she was his mentor. She helped him handle his power when no one else understood. He trusted Kash. Right?

            Sighing, he rolled over. He’d talk to her about it. He’d get things sorted.

-----

            For most of the day he waited for someone to pick up the blue scarf lying in the street. It gave him something to do while he waited. Leaning against a tree on the edge of the forest, he looked up at the overcast sky, wishing for wings. It would make things so much simpler.

            Kash had disappeared. She had literally fallen off the map. Ever since that shape-shifting lesson, that night where everything had gone sidewise and weird, she had been missing. And then proceeded to leave him a note a week later, out of the blue. Woman was damn crazy.

            Leaves crunched to his right and he stood upright, a spell on his lips. A silver wolf strode out of the forest shadows. He exhaled, examining its aura. Gold eyes watched him cautiously.

            “Kash.”

            With a flash of light, she was standing there – same messy hair, same golden eyes. Only she looked worn, burnt out. She spoke.
            “I don’t have much time. Sasha’s onto me. I’ve got a new teacher coming in from London to finish mentoring you. He’s an old friend and will suit you well, I think.”

            He stepped forward, confused. “Wait, where are you going?”

            “Away. Where she can’t hurt anyone.” Kash began to pace. “I’m sure you’ve gathered by now that I’ve got a history. That woman that visited you? The crow? She’s from my history. The one that caused that memory.”

            Tex shuddered. It was still as clear as day in his mind.

            “We’re not human Tex.” She sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. “We’re not normal.”

            He laughed. “Right. Good. My mentor’s not human. Sure.”

            She glared at him. “I’m not kidding Tex.”

            “Then what are you?” Her pupil snarled at her. “I’ve trusted you thus far, and you haven’t seen it fit to tell me that you’re not human!?”

            Kash frowned, eyes on the sky. “I’m sorry, but you didn’t need to know.” Her gaze dropped back to his. “I’m a changeling Tex. I know you’re angry, but I don’t have time to explain.” Her head snapped to the south, eyes narrowing as her lips pressed into a thin line. “Maybe you can forgive me one day, but I’ve got to go. Take care of yourself Tex.”

            “Fuck you. Don’t come back,” he spat.

            The woman he called mentor, friend, flinched. She shifted forms.

            Tex watched as the silver shadow disappeared into the foliage. Numbly he turned away, trying desperately to ignore the crow cawing overhead as the blue scarf fluttered down the empty street with the wind.