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The sun was starting to set as they waved goodbye to the guard, bundles of magical lavender in their hands. Graecie was tenderly tying the flowers together and putting them into her backpack. Having already done it, Legs turned around and started to wander off towards the village and back to the bridge, which would lead them to the academy.
With a giggle and a ring from her bells, Graecie skipped next to Legs and beamed at him, getting a small smile in return. “Now we have the lavender for the nest," she chimed. “Oh blessed bells, now we have everything!”
“Yea…” Legs fiddled with the belt across his chest, continuing to take steps towards the village. Looking around, the forest beyond the academy was really beautiful; the flowers were blooming and the trees were lush. Truly a beautiful day to take a walk.
As his breath stumbled. Gripping tight onto his belt, he shortened his steps to give his body a chance to breathe a bit easier. The air feels thinner. But something…something just happened.
“Legs?”
Was it just him, or is it getting uncomfortably warm under the sun? He looked up, crossing paths with Graecie's gaze. They were a few steps apart. Did he stop?
“Oh yes, coming,” he called out with a nervous giggle that got stuck in his throat.
They continued moving, Graecie's hand hovering in front of her. “Are you alright? Should we take a break?” When Legs looked at her, she had a frown on her face. With a lot of other people, he would have assumed that that meant that they were upset with him.
But not with the students, not Graecie. She truly was an angel in his eyes. They were all so kind to him whenever his anxiety got the best of him or when he had an episode. He truly considered himself blessed to have such kind peers.
“Maybe…let’s get to the village first and find somewhere to sit, if it’s fine with you?” he shied slightly away. Habits die hard, after all. Letting out another shim with her bells, she gave him a reassuring smile and a big nod. “But of course!”.
Still somewhat hovering around Legs, they made their way in the village without much trouble.
It still didn’t make Legs feel better. The air felt thin, and his limbs wore him down. Is this another episode of him? No, if it is, he would already be down. His condition acts faster than he can react sometimes, and this took a long time.
Since arriving in the lavender flower field, it felt like something was dragging at his bones. Something old, something that he should not have. It was always so fast gone, barely a thought worth it. It felt like his first dragon.
It felt ancient.
“Here, here.” He blinked, and Graecie was touching his arm and shoulder, gently bringing him to sit on a stone step in the middle of the route. He would have felt bad if there were any people actually in the village.
“Thank you,” he mumbled and sat down. Pushing his legs away from his body, he leaned a bit back, looking up at the sky.
The heat didn’t let up, and now sitting down, he didn’t realize how dizzy he actually felt. He took a few deep breaths, trying to clear his vision of the dark spots; it barely helped.
“Is it better now?” Graecie asked, and he turned his head to her. Her face was pulled a bit together, wrinkles under her eyes. If he didn't know it better, he guessed that she would start crying any moment now.
“A bit, yea,” he guessed to soothe her thoughts a bit. Her face pulled in even tighter. "Oh, ehm, well, tell me something,” he added with panic. Leaning a bit more forward to give her his entire attention.
“Tell you something?” She asked, perplexed in her voice. Lifting her finger to her shin, she thought for a moment and then lightened up. “Oh, I have something! Has anybody ever told you about their magic awakening?”.
“Pyro and Scott awakened magic,” he said carefully, trying to take a deeper breath. It became more difficult to breathe. Nothing he is not used to, though.
“Well-” she started, waving her hands in front of her, calmly, not excited as she normally would be. A thought crosses Legs' heavier becoming mind: that she is reining herself in because of him.
“Let me tell you about mine. It was a bit…intimidating to experience it,” she led out in a smaller voice. Turning her head to Legs, she saw his half-lidded eyes, a faint smile gracing his lips. She may not be able to give him the energy he needs right now to make it back to the academy, but she can support her new friend during his moments of need!
“I prayed to the Shepherdess for guidance. At first, nothing happened, but then I couldn’t move my body…” Why was she telling him something sad? She should lighten the moment up! “It felt like something old and ancient was taken hold of me, and when I was able to move and think clearly again, I knew that The Shepherdess gave me one of her wonderful blessings.”
“Since then I could make this beautiful dome where people-”
Taking another breath, she didn’t smell the trees anymore, the newly gathered flowers in her pockets, or even the grass. No, she smelled iron.
“Legs, do you smell- Legs?” Turning back to him, he stared at her. No, not at her, through her. Now that she was paying attention, the air felt heavy. It was filled with tension, as if something pulled at her.
“Legs? Are you okay?!” she asked, while quickly scooting closer. His eyes didn’t follow her, staring into nothingness. Kneading her hands and looking him over, her breath caught. Small skin pieces of Legs’ fingers turned grey and flaked off, being carried by the wind.
She shrieked and scrambled to back away. Clutching her hands tightly to her chest, so tightly that it started to hurt, her gaze turned panicked to their surroundings. Something, anything needs to be there to help them, please!
But the village only filled with Legs' grey skin, turning the air in her lungs even heavier. As if something were physically trying to weigh her down and keep her trapped. Keep everything she is trapped inside.
Eyes slowly brimming with tears, she dedicated her voice to the unresponding man in front of her. “I'- I’ll get the guard! He will know how to help you!”
And with heavy steps, she sprinted down the path, trying to find the lavender-collecting guard.
It was…he couldn’t describe it. It was neither hot, cold, nor anything in between. It was, simply. His vision was more black than seeing. Was he awake? He felt awake. He was talking with Graecie, sitting on the boulders by the road, and felt bad. Did he have a flare up?
He tried, really, really tried to move his outstretched hands just a bit further, just a bit towards her. The air smelled like metal, and something heavy was trying to pull his limbs, his body, his blood down. But he couldn’t move.
He couldn’t breathe!
His lungs, slowly filling with metal, didn’t give him a chance to breathe in Life.
Something was moving inside him, trying to pull him down, down, down to something ancient, something old, to someone walking away, leaving behind three fragments of his ferrous heart.
Iron-filled eyes gazed at his other selves ones, turned away, and walked and walked and walked, meeting the lady’s embrace and escaping grief one final time.
It answered his call, and Legs' hand collided with the rocks below him. Torso followed soon after, as he couldn’t carry his own body weight. Gulping in air, his entire body shook.
Black dots, still making them known in his vision, gave him a hard time to see, and his head landed on his arms.
The air was grey… The air smelled grey. Smelled grey?
Opening his mouth to speak, to call out to the girl he was just with, his throat protested, sending shudders through his coughing body. The young boy pulled in his legs, scraping along the small stones. Hopefully his pants aren’t too ripped up. They should be sturdy. Probably.
A cold wrecked his body. It didn’t let him go.
A distant noise through the fog. Becoming louder, getting nearer. No, he needed to protect himself! He needed to help her!
With his last gathered strength, he pushed himself completely off the ground, standing on shaking legs like grass in the stormy wind.
He didn’t know what to do. The noise, yelling, grew louder. Nearer. His arm fumbled to pull out one of his knives. He couldn’t grab it, his vision still too blurry for him to even recognize which body is his own.
It was in front of him.
What to do. What to do. Please. Help me! Anybody!
Cold air rushed along his arm, ripping through it in the air. He couldn't breathe, but he needed to stay safe. A rush in and a rush out as the air filled with even more grey.
It was swirling around him. Sharp and deadly. Eating endlessly away. The feeling of emptiness, of dread, of panic, and of fear- he couldn’t pay attention. He only saw her. Graecie. Hand bloodied, outstretched towards him.
The dirt on the ground swiveled up as he tried to meet her hand. Terror was in her angel-like face. She was afraid. Was there a wolf? What should he-
Another step and she vanished behind a gray and purple curtain. His body trembled, meeting the ground.
The last rays of sunshine warmed the iron-covered skin as his eyes fell closed. Leaving behind a world of fear and unease.
She was pulled back behind the guard, who took the brunt force of the knives swinging around Legs. She gasped, being pushed further away from the boy who fell towards the ground. “Legs!” she called out, cold alloy ducking into her skin as she vehemently tried to push away the arm.
The guard, who had previously helped her and Legs harvest the magical lavender, took her shoulder and pushed her away, keeping her in place with one hand and signing with the other.
‘We need to wait until his magic stops,' he signed, grip tightening as she tried to wiggle free. “But- what if he is hurting?!” she panted, tears starting to form in her eyes.
'Wait' is the final say. Her lungs burned slightly due to the strain of breathing. Graecie grabbed the hand on her shoulder, as she looked around the guard and peered at Legs. He lay motionless on the ground, one hand outstretched towards their direction. As if he wanted to cast something.
His clothes were covered in tiny greyish scraps. ‘Excessive magic taken form,' Sir Terry explained when she asked why some magic lingered after a spell was finished. “The environment will absorb it and remember it.” She didn’t completely understand what that meant, but the Shepherdess will turn it into something healthy for nature.
The knives, 5 in total, still lightly danced around him, barely even spinning and hovering above the ground anymore. She waited one more moment as the guard turned around. The knives dropped completely, and the hand on her shoulder loosened up. Barely a moment passed and she was sitting besides him, trying to summon up the courage to touch him, but where?
On the other side, the guard knelt down as well and took Legs' hand in his own.
Graecie saw the motion, a soft motion, as if a guard couldn’t harm them. And why would they? The guards of the academy are meant to protect them. She is grateful for their presence.
He took his pulse, and she waited, hand tugging strongly at her bells.
After an eternity he gently laid the hand down on the dirt again and turned his attention to her. ‘His pulse is steady. His awakening was probably too much on his body and mind’. She breathed out and felt her body collapse a bit.
“He is fine, oh blessed bells, he is fine.” Relief filled her heart, and she blinked away the wetness in her eyes. “Bubbles also said she didn’t feel fine but ran away before we could help,” she mumbled.
‘Why does he have so many knives?’ the guard looked around them. Graecie didn’t pay attention to the sharp objects, but now she noticed how she nearly sat on one of them. Pulling out the knife from beneath her, which is lightly covered by her dress, she noticed how it slid open part of the skirt of her dress.
She merely gave it an exhausted smile and started to collect them all. “I don’t know. I think he feels nervous.” Leaning over Legs, she only caught the signs for ‘kind word’ from the guard but didn’t pay further attention to it.
Her body felt heavy, as if something was lulling her bones into a deep sleep. It has been a long day, surely a good sleep will help her feel energized again.
The grey scraps, which littered around them and also on her, she just noticed, finally dissipated completely, and everything was how it was supposed to be again. Well, nearly everything.
“When will he wake up?” she asked, laying the knives inside her pack, delicately so as not to cut the flowers they had gathered, leaving behind small red dots on the handles.
‘I don’t know, but he needs rest. Magnesis is-’ He paused, looking at the unconscious boy. Legs looked peaceful. Like he didn’t just fall to the ground with nobody to catch him. Like he didn’t just awaken his magic and nearly hurt his friend.
He looked like he went to bed after a successful day of work, having dreams of the kind world.
‘-fickle’.
“How will we get him back to the academy?” Graecie asked and looked around. She isn’t strong enough to carry him, but if they have a wagon or similar, she could pull it.
Before she could continue her plan to find something to help, the guard leaned over the boy and turned him over, pulling him slightly upwards. He looked at her, and she smiled, “Got it!”.
She pushed Legs up further, and together they were able to put him on the guard's back. Now, both on their feet, she beamed up at the guard, “Let me lead the way, I know where to go! ”. The guard nodded and away they went.
A young girl, blessed by a god; a guard, dedicated to the students of his school; and a young boy, who is not aware yet of the fate that awaits him. His head rested on the guard's shoulder, face turned towards him. As if the guard could hide him from the world. And perhaps the guard could get close.