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“Qifrey?”
The softly spoken voice is barely audible over the sound of rustling leaves and the barely-contained sniff emanating from the other side of the fire.
“Qifrey, I know you’re still awake.”
The sleeping bag across from Olruggio makes a disgruntled noise and shifts, further proving his point.
“Do you wanna talk about it?”
It takes a few moments until finally the sleeping bag sits upright, revealing a tear-stained white haired witch peeking out from underneath its many folds. Qifrey’s bright blue eye somehow looks duller in the firelight and for a brief moment Olruggio thinks that’s the real reason he hates fire. That is, until the memories of Noz come bubbling back up from deep inside his brain and he has to shove them back down before they can explode all over him. He takes a breath to steady his nerves. Qifrey follows suit.
Oh. He hadn’t been expecting that. Usually getting Qifrey to do anything was like pulling teeth. Maybe he was in a worse place that Olruggio realized. He takes another deep breath, Qifrey follows him again. Eventually he ends up leading them through the whole breathing exercise his dad taught him when he was young and got overwhelmed by the things expected of him. When they’re done, Qifrey’s eye looks a little brighter.
“Feeling better?”
Qifrey nods his head in agreement, but still doesn’t speak. Olruggio lets him sit in silence for a bit. His fingers itch to be able to do something. He ends up settling on remaking the pyreball spell his master set up for them since it was starting to look a little dull and they weren’t even halfway through the night.
While he’s reaching for his palmquire and ink, Qifrey speaks. “I don’t think I like the forest at night.”
His voice sounds so small and unlike him. Olruggio hates it. He hates whatever happened to his best friend to make him sound that way. He wants to fix it… he just doesn’t know how to yet. Instead, he settles on a slight “hmm” and settles down to work on the pyreball spell. He knows Qifrey will open up with enough time.
Sure enough, a few moments later Qifrey continues talking, “They found me in Thristas. It was cold and raining. The first thing I remember seeing behind Master Beldaruit is trees. So sometimes I think they’re nice. Other times though…”
“I understand.” Olruggio responds, and he does. Qifrey looks at him with shock in his eye though, so he continues. “I used to love the snow.” He pauses his drawing for a moment so he can close his eyes and remember how snow used to feel to him. Soft and light and refreshingly cold. A sign of returning winter, a promise of relaxation and fun. Snowball fights, snow sculpture building contests, hot chocolate and the warmth of a fire. A fire that burns so bright that skin starts to melt and a freeze so cold that limbs start to turn blue to match the lips that cry out for- “and then Noz happened.”
Qifrey nods his head in understanding. He doesn’t, not really. Just like how Olruggio will never understand what it feels like to wake up in a coffin under the ground. But it’s close enough. It’s close enough to imagine, and that’s good enough for him. He looks at his best friend’s bright white hair and the orange light it reflects from the fire and he finds himself starting to smile. “But, I think I’ve found a few things to help me remember that not all snow is bad.”
Qifrey’s eye looks curious for a moment, before it retreats again below the folds of his frustrated brows. “I have something that helps me too.”
“Oh?”
Qifrey buries his face in his crossed arms “You’ll think it’s silly.”
“I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.”
Qifrey squints at him as if considering the deal, and that gives Olruggio just enough time to realize what he just blurted out. What was he gonna do? He couldn’t tell Qifrey that his hair reminded him of snow… that was… that was weird, right? It felt… invasive or personal or… something. But he also couldn’t lie to him, especially not outright. This was Qifrey he was talking to, his best friend, the one person he was supposed to not lie to. They had promised, no lies between them. And Olruggio was going to uphold his end of the deal. He’d just have to see how embarrassing Qifrey’s was and hope that they were kinda on the same level.
Qifrey speaks, knocking Olruggio out of his spiral, “You first.” he challenges.
“No, I offered the deal, so you go first.” Olruggio challenges back. This is a game they’ve played a million times over, and will continue to for as long as they stay friends (so, forever, Olruggio hopes).
“There’s no way yours is as embarrassing as mine.”
“Yeah? Well, there’s only one way to find out.”
Qifrey frowns at him and pouts just a little. He knows he’s losing. “Fine.” He eventually says. “Master Beldaruit makes me a dragon smoke sculpture that helps light up the room at night.”
Oh. That was, that was really sweet actually. Olruggio was glad to know that Master Bel was taking enough care of Qifrey to think about giving him something like that. It reminded him of the stuffed bear he still kept from home. Suddenly, Olruggio has an idea.
“Qifrey, do you remember the sign for dragons?”
Qifrey frowns at him, evidently still unsure if this is an elaborate prank or not. Still, he tentatively responds, “Yeah?”
“Awesome!” Olruggio hands him his palmquire and pen. “Draw it in the middle here, but only take up the center part, I need enough space to draw other signs around it.”
“Okay?” Qifrey does as he’s told while Olruggio uses his hand to sketch out his design for the rest of the spell in the dirt next to him. After a few moments Qifrey hands him back his palmquire, “What’s this for?”
Olruggio barely processes the words as he bites his tongue in concentration and copies down the signs he sketched out earlier. “You’ll see.” is his response.
Out of the corner of his eye he can see as Qifrey dramatically flops down across from him. “You force me to dig up my deepest, darkest secrets, have me draw a random symbol for you, and don’t even tell me what it’s for? This is unfair. I’m going back to sleep.”
Olruggio smiles a little, “You weren’t asleep to begin with.”
Qifrey huffs, “Fine. Then I’ll pretend to be asleep until you tell me what it is you’re doing.”
“Works for me.”
Qifrey makes an indignant sound at the same time Olruggio finishes the last symbol.
Olruggio cuts him off before he can even begin to continue complaining, “It’s done.”
Qifrey sits up and stares at where Olruggio has placed his palmquire right next to the pyreball that is currently acting as their only source of light.
“I’m gonna have to take down the pyreball for the spell to work right. Is that okay?”
Qifrey bites his lip in a mixture of fear and consideration, “The light will come back, right?”
“Yep! And it’ll be even better than before.” Olruggio promises.
A pause. Then a hesitant, “Okay.”
With that, Olruggio rips the failing pyreball spell in half. Everything goes dark for a moment and he hears Qifrey’s breath stutter, but before the darkness has a chance to fully seep in, Olruggio closes the circle on the spell that sits in his palmquire and the area in front of them ignites in bright, dancing flames. Qifrey gasps, and Olruggio thinks it might just be the prettiest sound he’s ever heard.
“A dragon!”
Olruggio smiles. “Well, I’m not great with smoke sculptures, but I do know my way around fire. And with your help with the dragon keystone, it was easy! It’s basically just a pyreball spell with a little extra flare.”
He feels a warmth on his arm and looks to see Qifrey’s pale hand touching his arm. He looks up and finds his light blue eye full of brightness and wonder. “I love it. Thank you.”
Olruggio turns back to the dragon-shaped pyreball in front of him to avoid the heat that crawls up his cheeks at those words. “It was nothing. Just a little bit of magic.”
“No, it was your magic, and your magic is so kind. So, thank you for sharing it with me.”
Olruggio is certain he’d look sunburnt from how hot his face is. He sits there trying to calm down and make his brain work again, before he eventually gives up. “Well, we should probably actually try to sleep now. I’m getting tired. I’ll talk to you in the morning, okay?”
Qifrey’s eye is still tracing the dancing flame of the dragon as he responds “Okay. Goodnight Olly.”
Olruggio forces himself to turn away from the prettiest sight he’s seen and closes his eyes.
“Goodnight Qifrey.”
And if Olruggio’s dreams are filled with softly falling snow decorating bright white hair then that’s no one’s problem but his.