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“You two are always in the forest, one of these days it’s not going to let you leave.” Yamaguchi’s mother used to tease him and Tsukki when they would gather their cloaks, put on their boots, fill a basket with food, and embark on a day trip to the forest. A near daily occurrence.
Yamaguchi would just roll his eyes, every time and respond with something like, “if it wanted us so much, it would have taken us already.” Tsukki would give him a look and then the both of them would scurry out into the ocean of green.
Yamaguchi loved his mother, but his mother didn’t know. The reason he and Tsukki always ran to the forest was because that’s where Yamaguchi felt the magic best. When he was little he found he would feel a pull on his stomach, and when he explored that sensation he could make things happen.
A bird with a healed wing, a flower that grew a bit faster than normal, a muddy area turning green. Tsukki had found out by accident one day, of this special thing he could do, the blonde boy had been with Yamaguchi walking the streets of the village when he fell and scraped his hand trying to catch himself.
Yamaguchi in a small panic grabbed Tsukki’s hand and let his emotion flow, power swell, and the scrape was gone. No one was around. No one saw. Except Tsukki was looking at him with wide eyes. Yamaguchi was sure that the other was going to stop being his friend now, who would stay with a freak like him?
Instead, Tsukki grabbed his hand and dragged him to the forest surrounding their village. An angry frown painting his face. Once they got far away from anyone or anything, Tsukki rounded on Yamaguchi and shouted, “What was that?!”
“I-I didn’t mean to!” Yamaguchi felt afraid, like he’d done something bad and now he was going to be in trouble. He would lose Tsukki.
“Tadashi, do you understand what you did? Tadashi, that was
magic
,” Tsukki grabbed his shoulders and shook him a bit despite his voice going soft. Yamaguchi started crying. “If anyone finds out you have magic… I don’t know what they’d do to you…” Tsukki’s voice had gone down to a whisper, he wasn’t shaking Yamaguchi anymore but hugging him.
“What? You’re not mad?” The freckled boy could do no more than to pull away and try to wipe his face from the snot and tears.
“I’m mad that you did it in a public place. Anyone could see! And if the priest finds out… You have to be careful, please.”
“I don’t really know how to control it, I got worried and-and…” Tsukki pulled him back in and hugged him tight.
“We’ll figure it out. We’ll figure it out.” He’d whispered, and Yamaguchi felt his heart warm that Tsukki’s only concern was that he could be caught if he wasn’t careful. Not that he was a freak.
So they went to the forest. They went daily to practice and experiment what made Yamaguchi’s power flow. What made it dampen. Everything they could. Yamaguchi, in the years that followed, learned a lot about himself. About his power. About Tsukki.
And if they shared a kiss or two, that was between them and the trees.
Now they were going to go to the clearing they had found a couple days ago. Yamaguchi had casted a spell on the muddy barren area and wanted to see what the progress of life there would be in the two days they left it to thrive.
However, when they entered the clearing they came face to face with three men they had never seen before. The men had some sort of equipment and were looking at the ground across the clearing from them. They looked like travelers. Maybe gold hunters? Yamaguchi was immediately on high alert, and he felt Tsukki tense next to him.
Despite the men’s bodies turned in their direction, it seems they hadn’t spotted them yet. Tsukki made a motion for them to slowly and quietly go back from where they’d come from. They could check the land later.
As they stepped back, though, Yamaguchi stepped on a muddy spot and slipped, the basket he’d been holding with their evening meal falling to the ground calling the men’s attention to them. Tsukki made to grab him. He steadied Yamaguchi on his feet, and positioned him in a way that would block Yamaguchi’s body with his own from the view of the others.
“Who are you?” One shouted at them, standing from their position on the ground and taking a few steps towards them. Again, Tsukki angled his body to be between Yamaguchi and the other man.
“We are just passing by, collecting herbs and berries for our mothers.” Tsukki lied easily, in a bored tone that did not give away how worried he was, how tense his body held itself.
Another man came towards them, this one held one of the tools in his hand, a hammer maybe? “What do you have there? Anything we can sell?” He pointed to the overturned basket with the item in his hand.
“Food, and a place to place the herbs we found. If you’re interested in the basket you can take it. We have nothing else of value.” Tsukki took a step back as a signal for the man to take the basket if he wanted, his body pushing and forcing Yamaguchi to take a step back, too. Yamaguchi was gripping the back of Tsukki’s cloak in a steel hold. The danger of the situation finally setting in.
The first man spoke again, “you, behind him. Why don’t you come out? What are you hiding? Do you have something? Huh? Keeping something?”
Tsukki took another step back, they were at the edge of the clearing now, Yamaguchi preparing to turn and run at the first opportunity. Again, Tsukki spoke for him, “He’s not hiding anything. He’s just quiet.”
“Come here. I want to make sure you’re not hiding anything valuable.” The man came closer and before Tsukki or Yamaguchi could escape they’d dragged them both to the middle of the clearing. Making them kneel. “The cloaks seem fancy enough. At least 2 coins worth.”
Tsukki held his hands up, “you can take those too, just let us go.” He turned his face slightly to Yamaguchi’s pale scared one, “Tadashi, untie your cloak and give it to them.” He whispered, his voice as calm as possible but a fearful undertone to his voice still audible.
Yamaguchi couldn’t move, his fear freezing him in place. “Well?! Give it!” The third man who had been quiet and still until now grabbed Yamaguchi by the arm and pulled him, he lost his balance on his knees and fell onto the muddy ground. The edge of the cloak getting dirty. “You ruined it!”
The man was angry, and Yamaguchi couldn’t even figure out why, he then felt a pain on his face and realized he’d been struck by the man. Everything happened quickly after that, Tsukki got up from his position and tackled the man to the ground.
The other men were shouting, one grabbed at Yamaguchi and the other at Tsukki to get him off the man he was fighting. Vaguely Yamaguchi couldn’t help but think that now both cloaks were ruined. That is until he heard a shouted cry of pain from the group of men on the floor.
It was Tsukki.
Tsukki with a dagger in his abdomen. Yamaguchi had a perfect view to see the man twist the dagger deeper and pull it out. Blood rushing out of the wound. Yamaguchi screamed. Heat, angry heat, filling him. The man holding him cried out, he pulled his hands back as if burned, to see that his hand was decayed, rotten black flesh where healthy one had been seconds ago.
The man screamed clutching at his hand, his companion, the one without the knife ran to him and gasped at the sight of the man’s hand. He looked at Yamaguchi with fear. Yamaguchi was looking at the man with the knife. Without thinking he casted a spell, one he’d only done once, one that sucked the life out of the yellow flower he’d tested it on.
The man had no time to do anything but scream. One long agonizing scream. And then he was silent. He was on the floor, pale and lifeless as the flower had been that day. Yamaguchi had felt bad for the flower. He felt no pity now. He rounded on the two remaining men. “Take him and leave. Now, unless you want the same fate.”
He didn’t even wait for them to leave, but he knew they would. Instead he ran to Tsukki, on the muddy floor, wet with the blood flowing from him. “Yamaguchi,” was the first thing he said when he got close enough. “Are you ok?”
Yamaguchi nodded frantically, the tears beginning to flow again. “I’m fine, I’m fine.” He patted Tsukki, finding the wound. Despite all his practice with magic, this was the moment Yamaguchi realized he’d never studied human anatomy.
“No, no, no. What did he strike? Tsukki what did he-,” there was so much blood. He didn’t know what areas were vital but his magic could feel the weakening of Tsukki’s body. The rapid beating of his heart to produce more life source. “What did he strike, what can I heal?” He was panicking. He needed to fix this.
“It’s fine, Tadashi, it’s alright.” Tsukki said weakly, and for once, Yamaguchi knew he was being lied to by the one person he thought would never lie to him.
“We could take you to the doctor, the-the, let me take you to the doctor!” He tried to pull Tsukki up, but the weight was too much. Yamaguchi let out a sob, a desperate, hurt, and fearful sob.
“Tadashi.” Yamaguchi stopped to look at Tsukki through blurry tears. “It’s fine, we won’t make it, just stay with me. Please. Just… Please.” Yamaguchi doubled over for a second, a moment of realization that they both knew that Tsukki wouldn’t leave this muddy clearing, and then he straightened, nodding. Tsukki needed him so he hugged his best friend, his lover, close.
“I’ll stay, always. I’ll stay.” His mind kept screaming to do something. So he started to cast a spell, and another, and another. Words softly being chanted, never stopping. Not even when he felt Tsukki take his last struggling breath, and when he felt his body go limp in his hold.
He screamed.
He begged.
He shouted spell after spell at the body in his arms. Every healing spell he knew, every growth spell, life spell. A spell to keep decay away. Anything. Spell after spell after spell. He felt his own body weak to the point of collapse with the amount of energy he was expelling.
It didn’t do anything. He laid Tsukki on the ground, the ground now filled with green mossy grass instead of the slippery muddy one that had surrounded them before. A single flower rested next to his knees. Yamaguchi plucked the flower, a single yellow flower he didn’t know the name of. He placed it on Tsukki’s chest.
“I’m sorry.” He said. He wiped his face as best he could and got up off the ground. He looked at the path he’d taken, the one that led to the village. “I’m sorry.” He whispered once again. This time to his mother, and turned to go, but instead of heading in the direction of his mother’s house, he headed deeper into the forest. No desire to return to a place that now held too many memories. Let the people think the forest kept them both.
Several decades later, the people of the village talk every once in a while of a place in the forest where there lays a body, it looks like a statue. Some kids found it when they traveled too far into the forest one day. The statue lies in the middle of a beautiful clearing, surrounded by flowers of every kind and every color.
The green grass there is brighter and more vibrant than anywhere else in the forest. At the very edge of the clearing lies a basket, tangled into the flowers, making a silly yet breathtaking picture. The statue holds a small yellow flower that must also be made of stone because despite it being plucked it never dies.
No one dares to enter the clearing beyond the basket at the edge, a sense of unease to the few who try, they claim they feel a burning sensation all over their body. Enough to dissuade any from actually attempting to disturb the area. People say the statue was always there. Others say it’s a gift from the forest.
Everyone says things like this, except the old woman who lives alone in town. The one who looks into the trees every once in a while with a spark in her eye, like she’s hoping to see something or someone step out from them. That woman says it’s not a statue, but instead, it’s a young man the forest decided to keep one day.