Spellbound

Wondrous Stories

[Continuing from the last part-- we're on the current timeline with Cal and Scrim.]

As the two continued walking, moving further and further away from the town, night eventually fell. Surrounded completely by the forest at this point, Cal suggested they begin a search for a good place to set up camp.

Eventually finding a natural canopy of branches between the trees, providing a good amount of protection from anything or anyone in the forest, the two decided that would be their camp for the night.

"I've never seen the trees intersect their branches like this before in the forest where my village is..."

"Y'know, I'm not sure I have either. D'you suppose the forest felt our presence? They might've made this wee canopy for us!" Cal said, turning towards Scrim with a wondrous aura to them.

Scrim responded earnestly, with a similar amount of wonder to Cal. "Is that really possible??"

Cal looked up at the sky, a look of awe and mystery filling their eyes. The treetops paralleling each other, all pointed towards the stars at a slant. The sight filled Cal's heart with melancholy, and the feeling of deja vu filled their head.

Turning back to Scrim, a searching look took over their features.

"Little one, anything is possible.", they said with a smile.

Scrim's face lit up with child-like wonder.

"Really?!"

They nodded.

"I remember a night similar to this, a long time ago. The trees looked exactly as they do now. Reaching for the sky as if the ground wasn't weighing them down. And somebody was with me... and they showed me that anything was possible."

Scrim smiled at the story, eager to hear more.

"They showed me wonders like I had never seen. The sky, the air, the ice of this realm."

"The ice? So you've seen ice? And snow!! What's it like??"

"It's magical. It's a destructive force of these realms, but under the right circumstances, it melts in an instant. So powerful, yet weak."

In a sudden instant, Cal felt a tingle in their hands, and an idea spark in their head.

"While I cannot make snow or ice... I can show you what it's like in m'own way. Would y'like to see?"

Scrim nodded eagerly, crossing his legs and leaning forward in anticipation.

With a smile and a returning nod, Cal shifted themselves underneath the canopy. Closing their eyes, they lifted their hands in a gentle and balletic way, breathing in deeply. They became one with the forest around them, their ears twitching at every little snap and crunch from their surroundings. Their eyes still closed, they reached out in front of them, gently tapping the ground.

Scrim's eyes widened as the ground became covered in baby blue and white unbloomed flower buds. A little tidal wave of them surrounded him and Cal, completely covering the once dead ground.

With their eyes still closed, Cal took another deep breath, then flung their hand up off the ground and into the air. All of the flower buds followed, flying high up in the air. And as they began to fall, they bloomed, resembling the delicate shapes of snowflakes.

Scrim looked up in wonder, taking in the sight. He stood up walking around in the "snowfall".

Opening their eyes, Cal smiled at Scrim's wonder.

"While it's not cold like snow, this is what it was like. A silent snowfall, full of little snowflakes. And not one snowflake looks like another."

"Not one?! How is that possible??"

Cal chuckled. "It just is!"

Continuing to take in the sight, Scrim eventually turned to Cal.

"I've never met anybody who was able to do anything like this!"

Cal chuckled again. "Thank you little one."

"I want to try doing that!", he said, placing his hands amongst the tiny blooms piling up.

"Haha, it's not as easy as it looks-- in fact I'm not quite sure how I--"

Suddenly a giant flower sprung from the ever growing pile, cutting Cal off. It lifted Scrim off of the ground in a quick movement, surrounded by magic coming from his hands.

Cal stared in shock, not expecting him to have the ability to wield such power.

The flower kept growing, continuing to take Scrim with it.

"Little one! I didn't know you were able t'do such a thing?!", Cal called up to him.

In a panicked voice, Scrim responded. "NEITHER DID I!!"

Running towards the base of the flower, Cal began to scale the ever growing stalk quickly. But, as they touched it, another magical reaction occurred.

A sprout flew out towards Cal, scooping them up in a swift movement, causing them to fly up towards Scrim.

"CAL!!! HELP ME!", he yelled, reaching out towards them.

As they flew closer to him on another sprout, they reached out.

"Don't worry! Just hold on!!"

And suddenly, as they reached Scrim, the sprout threw them up in the air, completely flying above Scrim's head. They continued to reach towards him. As they did, the tingly feeling flew through their fingers, uncontrollably causing magic to sprout from their hand. Reaching out towards them, Scrim felt the identical feeling fly out from his hand.

In the blink of an eye, the magic coming from the both of them released from their hands, causing them to fly in opposite directions.

The sprout dissipated, shrinking back down to the flower bud it once was, and the forest became quiet once more.

Cal and Scrim, on opposite ends of the forest clearing where their little canopy was, gradually sat up. Shaking off the shock of what had just occurred, the two of them looked at their hands in awe and confusion.

"What--", Cal started.

 "--was that?...", Scrim finished.