Magic Madness™️

Chapter Ten: Flower Power

Word Count: 1,933
Trigger/Content warning: mention of injury/blood, let me know if I missed anything

"It's kinda ironic," Alex said absentmindedly, "how we were training with superpowers and stuff and he gets hurt by falling from a tree."
"Don't jinx it." Joan sighed, looking around, squinting.
Alex would have said something back, if he didn't know that anything he said right now would get Joan agitated.
Joan made a motion for Alex to stop walking. They both glanced around, Joan looking for something, and Alex confused as to why they were standing in the middle of a small circle of trees. He wondered why and how there were so many conveniently placed clearings in the forest. Joan's face lit up as he seemed to have found what he was looking for. He walked over to the tree with horizontal bark, knocking on it with an oddly intricate pattern that had Alex even more confused.
"Joan?" a voice called from the foliage of the trees.
"Yeah! It's me! Come down!" Joan called back with a grin.
"Joan!" the voice exclaimed happily.
Alex moved out of the way as quickly as he could when a whoosh of feathered wings flapped around in front of his face. All he could do was stare dumbly as the winged...person(?) landed gracefully in front of Joan.
"It is you!" they exclaimed excitedly, jumping up to hug Joan. Joan, to Alex's surprise, smiled wide and hugged back.
"So...Joan...is this your...girlf...boyfr...no...yes...? I don't know, you know what I mean," Alejandro babbled awkwardly, trying his very best not to be offensive. The faces of disgust on both Joan and the other person's faces were enough to tell Alejandro that he was terribly wrong.
"First of all...I'm not capable of feeling romantic attraction. I wasn't programed with a love interest," Joan said, still grimacing slightly, setting the person down slowly, "And secondly, this is my sibling."
"You have a...and...but-...but..." Alejandro struggled to find the right words.
"But I was designed with dark brown skin and they've got paler skin than Elijah? We're aware." Joan shrugged.
"Yeah. In this world, things work differently. Skin tone is chosen by the game designers. It has nothing to do with what part of the realm you're from, or anything like that." the other person told Alex, and it wasn't hard to tell that they had given this talk, before.
"Well, yeah, okay, there's that, but also..." Alex trailed off.
"Oh, yeah, the fact that I'm a five-foot-ten 'human' and they're a three-foot-nothing fairy? We're aware of that, too." Joan acknowledged, "Now, can we move on, please? I think we've got more important things to get to, right now."
"Oh! Yeah! Right. Of course." Alejandro snapped back to reality (if he wanted to call it that), setting Elijah down gently on the ground.

+50 EXP

"Let's have a look," the person knelt in front of Elijah.
"So...what are you gonna do, Ms...?" Alex trailed off, fighting the urge to cringe when the person gave him an odd look.
"Mr...?" Alex tried again, and the person rolled their eyes.
"My name is Hiamrizuh Waeswraek." They said, tired of seeing Alex flail for the right pronouns. Alex couldn't stop himself from making A Face.
"It's not my fault the game designers gave me a stupid name! They were lazy and used an elf name generator, there's nothing I can do about it. Joan just calls me 'Emery.' " Emery said defensively, finally just looking down at Elijah and trying to find out what was wrong with him.

After Alex and Joan explained what they knew of what happened, Emery took a long look at Elijah, and then tilted their head up toward the trees.
"Robin!" They yelled.
"Coming!" came the reply, and then there was another whoosh of feathered wings as another fairy flew down from the trees.
"Robin Goodfellow, at your service," said the supposed Robin, bowing briefly. His eyes flicked to the others he didn't recognize.
"I see we have guests?" He raised an eyebrow.
"Yes. Can you wake him up, please?" Emery asked, gesturing vaguely to Elijah. Robin nodded, taking a flower from the flower crown resting on his head and kneeling beside Elijah with the flower in his hands. He ran two fingers over one of the petals, and spread the sparkly-looking nectar he had collected on Elijah's eyelids. He woke up immediately, eyes wide, completely tense.
"Wh-"
"We're visiting Joan's...sibling, and a few of their friends," Alex answered before Elijah could get the question out. Elijah looked up at everybody, propping himself up on his elbows.
"I'm Robin Goodfellow," Robin bowed again.
"I'm Emery. You took quite a fall, Eliijah. Joan took you here for me to heal you, but I need to take your...bandage off, first. Can I do that?" they asked. Elijah looked skeptical, but Alex and Joan were both nodding for him to say yes, so he agreed. Emery unwrapped the bloodied shirt from Elijah's leg, rolling his pant leg up to his knee as gently as they could. Everyone but Emery looked away in disgust. So gingerly that Elijah almost didn't feel it, Emery placed both of their small hands on either side of the punctured skin, mumbling something under their breath. Elijah watched the blood just disappear-it didn't evaporate, it didn't go anywhere, it just vanished. The punctured skin around his injury healed normally, just in very 'fast motion.' By the time Emery was done, Elijah was no longer in pain. There was no more blood, his bones were no longer fractured, and all that remained was a very light, nearly unnoticeable scar.
"I feel like I should be surprised, but I've been surprised more times in the last few days than I have been in my entire life, and at this point, I think I'm getting used to it." Elijah said, eyes wide as he stared down at his perfectly healthy and not-broken leg. He sat up and circled his foot around a bit. He could move it without any pain. Shakily, he stood up and took a few steps. He laughed breathlessly.
"That's really cool. Thank you," Elijah said to Emery, who smiled proudly and nodded their acknowledgement.
"Well, it was nice to see you. We'd better be on our way," Joan said reluctantly, patting Emery on the shoulder.
"Alright. I'll see you next time someone decides to go one a side quest," Emery chuckled, giving everyone a wave before flying back up into the trees.
"I've also got places to be. I suppose it was nice to meet you," Robin said vaguely, moving his hand in a motion too lazy to be an actual wave as he followed Emery.
"I know I said we couldn't teleport, but we don't have the time to walk," Joan said, giving Elijah and Alejandro absolutely no time for any kind of response before grabbing their hands.
Suddenly, they were in Joan's house.

A few more days went by of the new normal routine, with Elijah's leg healed and himself more willing. Elijah and Alejandro got up early every morning, trained with Joan, and tried to learn more about the game. Despite the fact that Elijah hadn't found his offensive power, yet, he was getting better at turning invisible on command. He was even getting faster with reaction times, though he could never seem to beat Alex at it. Even with the disappointment and fear of not having an offensive power weighing on Elijah, he was getting exponentially stronger, and better at fighting. The strength bar that would appear above Elijah's head, when he fought and trained, would be more and more full every day, even if the game prevented Elijah from physically gaining any actual muscle.

"I know you can do it. I know you can beat me in a fight, I know you can access some sort of offensive power. Are you ready?" Joan asked, standing with his feet firmly planted and his hands curled into fists at his sides.
"Ready as I'll ever be," Eli said, trying to copy Joan's stance.
Joan counted down from three, and then they were both running. There was no pause to see who would make the first move: punches were being thrown and kicks were being narrowly missed. Elijah fought as skillfully as he could, trying his best to strike back instead of just avoiding things and hoping he didn't get hurt.
Things were going relatively well for Elijah, until Joan pulled the exact same move he pulled just before Elijah wandered off and broke his leg; Joan had, once again, maneuvered himself to be behind Elijah, strapping his arms around Elijah's chest, trapping any further movement on Eli's behalf. Elijah's arms were trapped between his chest and Joan's arms, and all he could do was try to worm his way out. It didn't work. Despite the fact that Eli had restricted arm movement, though, he could grab Joan's arm with his hands. So he did. He pushed as hard as he could, but Joan hardly budged. Elijah pushed harder, unaware of how tight his grip was on Joan's arms. His heart was pounding in his ears, and his face was scrunched up in concentration.
Very suddenly, Joan let Elijah go with a soft "ow." Elijah turned around, arms up defensively, not sure if this meant the end of the fight or not.

+100 EXP

"You're fine, you're fine, I'm not going to attack you," Joan said absently, reaching for his arm where Eli had been gripping him. There was something stuck there. Like a splinter, Joan pulled it out from where it had been sticking out of his skin. Well...it sort of was a splinter. At least, that's what it looked like.
Joan did the same thing to the other arm, examining the little spikes carefully. His eyes widened when he realized what they actually were, a second later.
"These are thorns. Like rosebush thorns. Or tree thorns. Elijah, did you have thorns in your hands? Were you trying to cheat?" Joan asked, as if he wanted to be upset, but he didn't want to jump to conclusions.
"What? No! Let me see that," Elijah replied insistently, snatching the thorns from Joan's hands and looking at them carefully. They definitely looked like rosebush thorns.
"Joan, I don't know where these came from, I swear," Elijah said truthfully, backing up slowly. The angry look on Joan's face was unsettling.
Alejandro, who had been sitting at the edge of the field, not paying attention, finally looked up.
"Listen, I promise I wasn't trying to cheat-" Elijah continued, backing up quicker, now. As soon as he saw Joan take the first quick step toward him, Elijah just closed his eyes and stuck his hands straight out in front of him, arms all the way extended as if that would protect him from anything. Silence followed, and Elijah felt an underwhelming lack of Joan attacking him.
"Elijah, you can open your eyes."
Joan's voice was so empty, Elijah couldn't tell if he was still mad or not.
"I'm not mad at you, Elijah. I was just trying to test my theory. And I think it worked."
Slowly, Elijah opened one eye and then the next, lowering his arms. He didn't know what to make of the sight in front of him. He shook his head in denial, wide eyes glued to Joan's feet and legs.
Thick, ropey vines were keeping both of Joan's legs held firmly to the ground.

+100 EXP

"I think we found your offensive power," Joan grinned.