Magic Madness™️

Chapter Fourteen: Curly Hair and Clouds

Word Count: 1,425

Elijah frowned at himself in the clouded bathroom mirror. It had been a very busy few weeks of training, recently, and everyone was growing tired.
    Elijah made faces at himself. His freckles were darker than usual, due to his days spent outside. His eyes were greener than usual, since he was wearing green. There were a lot of things about Elijah that looked different than before. The most prominent change, much to Elijah's dislike, was his hair.
    Hair shouldn't be as big a deal as it was to Elijah, but it was. His mom used to be a professional hair stylist. He preferred his hair straight, so it wasn't that hard for his mother to give him perms that would keep his hair straight for a long time. Well, the perm had worn off a couple of days ago and, this morning, it was at full-curl. It was fluffy and sticking out in all sorts of ways. Having been cleansed of chemicals for so long, his hair also looked a few shades darker than usual.

    "Whatcha up to?" Alex asked, leaning in the door frame.
    "Oh! Hey. I forgot I left the door open. Um...Nothing, I guess. Preparing for training?" Elijah replied vaguely.
    "Sounds super fun," Alex said sarcastically. He smiled at the state of Eli's hair, unable to help himself from reaching out and messing with his curls. Elijah complained, but didn't make any move to stop him. Silence hung in the air for a few tense moments as they both stared at the mirror. Alex was the first to break the quiet.
    "Joan says we'll be ready soon," Alex said reluctantly, "To finally leave for the Big Quest."
    "I know. I'm not exactly looking forward to it, but I also don't want to stay here forever. We have to do it, at some point. Joan says that, if players take too long to get to the actual quest, the kingdom starts sending out more wolves and guards and stuff to hurry us along. He also said something about glitching, but he was super vague about it," Elijah said, brushing past Alex to walk out of the bathroom.
    "Strong words for someone who has kept us here to train for months now, jeez. Joan didn't tell me about any of that," Alex scoffed. He wondered if Elijah knew what happened whenever the game reset, but he didn't want to dig himself a grave by asking about it.
    "Yeah. Well, Joan says we have a week more of training before we leave, so at least we have that," Elijah replied.

    "Guys come out here!" Evalyn called, panicked, from the front entrance. Elijah and Alejandro didn't have time to ask before Amber was running past them and out the door. They followed.

    "Oh my god, what is he doing?" Alex asked, approaching Joan. Joan was glitching: there was no better way to put it. He went between being a real person and a bunch of purple pixels. His face twitched, like he was in pain. When the glitching stopped, Joan was pixelated and standing completely still. He was back in the purple robes that he hated so much. His mouth moved like he was speaking, but no sound came out. Out of nowhere, a two-dimensional box appeared just below his shoulders. In a pixel font, text began to appear.
    "Quick, the Royal Family will be sending out guards any day now! We must hurry, and begin our Quest! Go back inside the house and grab the backpacks that await you there. We must make haste!" The text instructed, and then disappeared.

    Joan gasped and heaved for air as he glitched back into a real, human, three-dimensional person again.
    "That wasn't supposed to happen for another week. Something is wrong with the programming. We have to get going now. I'm sorry to cut your training short, boys, I hope you're ready," Joan said apologetically.
    "I hope so, too," Alex mumbled.

    "Penny?" Elijah called as he rushed through the front door, stopping abruptly as he tripped on a backpack laying in the middle of the floor. He looked down, finding four identical backpacks on the floor. Penny landed on the backpack on the far left, so Elijah picked it up.

    Holding the bag shut was a beautiful pin; a pastel pink gardenia. It looked exactly like the gardenia that had sprouted out of his palm shortly after he found out he had plant powers.

    "Does yours have a flower, too?" Elijah asked as Alex picked up his own bag.
    "No," Alex said slowly, cautiously. Elijah walked over to Alex and held their bags up next to each-other.
    "A cloud. And it literally has silver lining. I wonder what that's supposed to mean?" Elijah thought aloud.
    "I mean, maybe these bags aren't actually personal? Like maybe they just come with pre-set symbols, no matter who's playing," Alex guessed.
    "Judging by our symbols, I'm gonna take a guess and say you're probably wrong," Amber piped up, eyeing the flame pin on her bag and the snowflake-with-water-droplets pin on Evalyn's.
    "Huh. That's weird," Alex said under his breath, slinging the bag over his shoulder.
    "Maybe you control the weather," Amber teased, putting her own bag on, "Anyway, we should get back to Joan and...start The Quest, I guess."

    Amber and Evalyn went to their room to go and pack some of their things. Elijah went to the guest bedroom to look at it one more time, and Alex was right there with him. It took everyone a couple minutes to collect themselves and walk outside, but they managed to walk up the stairs and out of the house together.

    They didn't get five steps away before Amber heard a sniffle behind her. She turned around, heart melting to see Evalyn silently wiping away tears.
    "Come here," she said softly, wrapping her girlfriend in a hug and kissing her forehead. Evalyn cried into her shoulder, hugging her back.
    "Are you upset because we probably won't be able to visit Joan's house again?" Amber asked gently. Evalyn nodded and sniffled some more. Eli and Alex silently watched, keeping a safe distance. Neither of them were used to seeing Amber so soft and kind. It brought a small smile to Alex's face how easily Evalyn got Amber to let her guard down. They were a lovely couple. In their own heads, Alex and Elijah silently apologized to every kid they had ever called 'gay' as a derogatory term. If being 'gay' meant having what Evalyn and Amber had, neither of the boys could think of a single thing wrong with it.

    "I'm sorry. I really am. I wish I could have given all of you more time to prepare. I'm just glad we managed to find both of your offensive and defensive powers before we hit the road," Joan said, doing his best to smile.
    "Uhhhh about that," Alex countered, taking his backpack off and showing it to Joan, "What is this?"
    "Um...it's a cloud?" Joan said vaguely.
    "I know. I can see that. But Elijah has plant powers and he's got a flower, Amber's got fire powers and she's got a flame, Evalyn has a snowflake with water droplets around the edges, I mean—"
    Alex pointed to the pin keeping his bag shut. Joan stepped closer to examine it, squinting. Alex became very uneasy when Joan's face went hard.

    "I'm sorry," Joan said quietly, "I've failed you."
    "You've...you—how did you fail me? Joan, what's wrong?" Alex asked quickly.
    "We'll figure it out as we go. I can't keep you here any longer than I have. We can train while we travel," Joan said: it was the best he could offer.
    "Figure what out as we go? Why do I need more training?" Alex asked hurriedly.
    "Connect the dots, Alejandro! Earth, fire, water, and—" Joan trailed off, urging Alex to finish his sentence.
    "Wait. You don't mean—"
    "I can't tell you exactly what you're destined for. I don't know if you'll be able to control weather or bend air or what, but you have something that we haven't discovered yet," Joan said helplessly.
    "I might be able to control the weather?! Dios mío! No, this is amazing! Elijah, did you hear that?" Alejandro asked excitedly.
    "Don't get ahead of yourself. We should start walking," Joan mumbled dazedly, already turning around and beginning to walk. Behind him, the group of teens silently celebrated. Might as well celebrate the few things they could.