In Exchange for Magic
13
He reeled backwards, and turned his head away to break the kiss.
"ROSE! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" he bellowed.
I cringed at the force of his anger.
"I'm really sorry, Ez," I told him.
I wrapped my hands around the back of his head and forced myself on him. The second our lips touched, he started to falter. It was as if the cushion of air had turned into a slippery sphere. He stumbled, trying to regain his footing.
I wouldn't give up. I wouldn't back down until I was safe on the forest floor. I continued kissing Ez... Well, if you could call it a kiss.
Put your palms together. Now press them together as hard as you can!
That's sort of how our lips were. Kisses were soft... Kisses were emotion and love. This kiss was necessary. This kiss was not a kiss...
He raised a hand to try to push my face back, but I was too stubborn. We started to decline gradually. Ez sensed that he was losing power, and tried to fight it. His muscles were taught and trembling.
I wrapped strands of his hair around my fingers, getting a better hold on his head. His face was pale and ashen... Sickly looking almost.
It was then when I realized that Ez was an honest to God loony.
He started to ignore my kissing!
He simply stopped being distracted!
I was outraged! No way in hell would I let this plan fail.
I turned up the heat. Ez could ignore the forced kiss... But could he ignore a full on make out session?
I forced his lips apart with my own, and shoved my tongue into his mouth.
His eyes widened in shock, and he sucked in his breath. Surprised, he began flailing on his air pocket... and I knew that this time he wouldn't recover his footing.
I kissed him roughly, not opening my eyes to see the look of astonishment etched into his face. Then, as the closer, I softly bit his bottom lip.
He released some sort of in-human squeak from the back of his throat...
And we plummeted.
-_-_-_-_-
We hit the ground hard.
Ez took the brunt of the fall, as I landed sort of halfway on top of him. My head bounced off the floor, and I instantly saw my vision tunneling.
The mud had prevented us from breaking any bones, but it sure didn't mean that it didn't hurt.
I had just enough time to see Ez cough, lean over, vomit spectacularly, and then flop down -- knocked out cold -- into the mud, before I blacked out.
-_-_-_-_-
I was woken up early the next morning by the soft mist that fell onto my face.
The downpour of last night had morphed into a light drizzle.
Mud was caked onto the right side of my face, and all over my clothes. I got up off of Ez, surveying him tentatively.
He was still out... But sleeping, not in a coma or anything.
He was face up, breathing deeply. Mud had dried all over the back of his head and splattered onto his cheeks. The scratch on the side of his face had reopened after the fall, and crusty silver blood spilled from his brow and into his hair.
The drizzle felt like a misting fan, and it kept the ground soupy and wet. So, naturally, when I got up from my spot on the forest floor, I slipped and body slammed Ez.
He awoke with a start, shoving me off of him and withdrawing a rusty dagger from his belt.
"Ez!" I squeaked. "Calm down! It's just me!"
His defensive face melted into one of recognition.
"Oh. You," he muttered, replacing the weapon in his belt.
He winced and gently felt the back of his head. He must have head a considerable lump...
"Oh!" he said, remembering all the chaos I'd caused last evening. "You!"
He took the dagger back out and thrust it at my face, furrowing his eyebrows and gritting his teeth.
"Do you have any idea what you've done?" he hissed angrily.
"E-Ez," I stuttered. "You were shaking! What was I supposed to do? Let you to try to fly all the way home?"
"You stupid girl!" he cried, throwing the dagger to the ground and advancing towards me with a sort of agile speed that hinted at his immense power.
"I... I was scared!" I protested.
"You stupid, stupid girl!"
"I'm sorry, okay!"
"What did you think you were going to accomplish... Huh?"
His fists were clenched at his sides. He looked as if he was using a considerable amount of will power not to throttle me.
"Did you think you could just kiss me whenever you felt like it? Did you even stop to think for one second what the repercussions would be?"
"I... I don't understa-"
"You made me human, Rose!"
I gasped. No... I couldn't have... Could I?
"A-All human?" I questioned meekly.
Ez could see that he was scaring me, so he backed off a bit.
"No. Not all. But a great big chunk. I'll be a weakling for days."
I sighed and apologized again.
It was then that he caught sight of his reflection in a pool of water that had splashed onto the ground. He gasped.
"My hair..."
"Your what?" I scoffed.
Was the boy seriously going to throw a hissy fit because he was having a bad hair day?
"My hair!" he shouted, running his hands through it and combing out giant clumps of dried mud.
"What?" I demanded. "What's wrong?"
"Look at it!" he roared, quickly becoming angry again.
"I... What's wrong with it?"
"You..." he seethed. "You turned my hair... You changed it..."
I then saw that, instead of the familiar bleach blonde, his hair had become a soft sandy brown color.
"Oh!" I said cheerily. "Looks nice!"
"Nice?" he spat. "Nice? It's a filthy human color!"
"It's not that big of a deal, Ez," I reassured him.
"Yes it is!" he shouted, coming at me with a mad glint in his eye. "I liked my hair the way it was! It was elven! It wasn't human!"
Now I got it. He was angry that I'd made him look like a human...
"Look, Ez, I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do-"
"That's just it!" he cried. "There's absolutely nothing you can do!"
"Well, that's not very-"
"All you can do is ruin shit! You ran away and put us both in danger, you lost my mother's necklace, and you've completely destroyed any chance of us getting home in a timely manner... Due to the fact that I'm too human to fly!"
"Oh... Ez... It was your mother's?"
He ignored me. "And you want to know the worst part, Rose?"
I scooted back up against a tree, hoping that he wouldn't reach into that belt of his...
"The worst part is that I can't get rid of you! There's no way that I can get you to stop bothering me! There's no way!"
"Stop it," I said, biting back the lump in my throat.
Again, he ignored me.
"If I let you off on your own, the Shades will get you, and I'll be in danger. But if you keep pulling stunts like this... Honestly, I think I'm willing to take that risk just to get you out of my sight!"
"Ez-"
"There's nothing I can do!" he shouted to the heavens. "There's no way to rid me of this awful girl!"
"Why don't you just kill me and get it over with?" I screamed at him, my voice breaking. "Huh? Why don't you just chop me into bits, you crazy elf-thing? Huh?"
He straightened, surprised by the force of my outburst.
I tried to hold the tears back, but they came on, full speed ahead. My throat clenched and my eyes prickled with unwanted heat.
I'm not a crier. Sure, I tend to complain when things don't go as planned... But cry? Me?
Never!
I held my head in my hands, trying -- and failing -- to mask my sobs.
All the stress and tension that I'd experienced over the past few days came bursting from my chest, and I felt like I was crying out the world. The little comments Ez had made were just the straw that broke the camel's back... But he seemed to think that he'd done all the work.
"Oh... Rose..." he said, rubbing his forehead with his palm.
I muttered something at him that even I couldn't comprehend. It was a garbled mixture of "Go away" and "I hate you."
The forehead rubbing increased to two palms. He cautiously walked over towards me, slipping and sliding a bit in the mud as he did so.
"Rose, I didn't mean-"
"Shut up."
"I really didn't mean to-"
"Shut up!"
He sighed in defeat and opted to sit next to me instead. The mud squelched beneath him as he plopped down beside me.
"I feel terrible."
Shakily, I wiped my streaming eyes.
"No you don't."
"Honestly, I do."
I dried the last of my tears, determined to make him feel bad for what he'd done.
"Liar."
He struggled for the right words. "I... I feel like... I feel as if there's this great pit right here..."
He pointed to the center of his breast bone.
"And... And... And it's like... It's like I can't... I keep feeling bad for..."
I scowled.
"And, for some strange reason... I really want to hug you."
"That's called guilt, Ez."
"Guilt?"
"Guilt."
He got to his feet, and, reluctantly, I followed after him.
"I think I'm going to hug you now."
I ignored him.
Then, suddenly, he had wrapped his arms around me. He was awkwardly patting my back and being oddly... nice.
"Ez..." I asked, mortified. "What are you doing?"
"I believe I am hugging you."
"Well, stop it."
"Am I forgiven?"
"Am I useless?"
"No... You bring... Uh, charisma to this tag team."
"Charisma? Is that all?" I teased.
"Don't push it."
I laughed. "Ez?"
"Huh?"
"You're forgiven."
"ROSE! WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?" he bellowed.
I cringed at the force of his anger.
"I'm really sorry, Ez," I told him.
I wrapped my hands around the back of his head and forced myself on him. The second our lips touched, he started to falter. It was as if the cushion of air had turned into a slippery sphere. He stumbled, trying to regain his footing.
I wouldn't give up. I wouldn't back down until I was safe on the forest floor. I continued kissing Ez... Well, if you could call it a kiss.
Put your palms together. Now press them together as hard as you can!
That's sort of how our lips were. Kisses were soft... Kisses were emotion and love. This kiss was necessary. This kiss was not a kiss...
He raised a hand to try to push my face back, but I was too stubborn. We started to decline gradually. Ez sensed that he was losing power, and tried to fight it. His muscles were taught and trembling.
I wrapped strands of his hair around my fingers, getting a better hold on his head. His face was pale and ashen... Sickly looking almost.
It was then when I realized that Ez was an honest to God loony.
He started to ignore my kissing!
He simply stopped being distracted!
I was outraged! No way in hell would I let this plan fail.
I turned up the heat. Ez could ignore the forced kiss... But could he ignore a full on make out session?
I forced his lips apart with my own, and shoved my tongue into his mouth.
His eyes widened in shock, and he sucked in his breath. Surprised, he began flailing on his air pocket... and I knew that this time he wouldn't recover his footing.
I kissed him roughly, not opening my eyes to see the look of astonishment etched into his face. Then, as the closer, I softly bit his bottom lip.
He released some sort of in-human squeak from the back of his throat...
And we plummeted.
-_-_-_-_-
We hit the ground hard.
Ez took the brunt of the fall, as I landed sort of halfway on top of him. My head bounced off the floor, and I instantly saw my vision tunneling.
The mud had prevented us from breaking any bones, but it sure didn't mean that it didn't hurt.
I had just enough time to see Ez cough, lean over, vomit spectacularly, and then flop down -- knocked out cold -- into the mud, before I blacked out.
-_-_-_-_-
I was woken up early the next morning by the soft mist that fell onto my face.
The downpour of last night had morphed into a light drizzle.
Mud was caked onto the right side of my face, and all over my clothes. I got up off of Ez, surveying him tentatively.
He was still out... But sleeping, not in a coma or anything.
He was face up, breathing deeply. Mud had dried all over the back of his head and splattered onto his cheeks. The scratch on the side of his face had reopened after the fall, and crusty silver blood spilled from his brow and into his hair.
The drizzle felt like a misting fan, and it kept the ground soupy and wet. So, naturally, when I got up from my spot on the forest floor, I slipped and body slammed Ez.
He awoke with a start, shoving me off of him and withdrawing a rusty dagger from his belt.
"Ez!" I squeaked. "Calm down! It's just me!"
His defensive face melted into one of recognition.
"Oh. You," he muttered, replacing the weapon in his belt.
He winced and gently felt the back of his head. He must have head a considerable lump...
"Oh!" he said, remembering all the chaos I'd caused last evening. "You!"
He took the dagger back out and thrust it at my face, furrowing his eyebrows and gritting his teeth.
"Do you have any idea what you've done?" he hissed angrily.
"E-Ez," I stuttered. "You were shaking! What was I supposed to do? Let you to try to fly all the way home?"
"You stupid girl!" he cried, throwing the dagger to the ground and advancing towards me with a sort of agile speed that hinted at his immense power.
"I... I was scared!" I protested.
"You stupid, stupid girl!"
"I'm sorry, okay!"
"What did you think you were going to accomplish... Huh?"
His fists were clenched at his sides. He looked as if he was using a considerable amount of will power not to throttle me.
"Did you think you could just kiss me whenever you felt like it? Did you even stop to think for one second what the repercussions would be?"
"I... I don't understa-"
"You made me human, Rose!"
I gasped. No... I couldn't have... Could I?
"A-All human?" I questioned meekly.
Ez could see that he was scaring me, so he backed off a bit.
"No. Not all. But a great big chunk. I'll be a weakling for days."
I sighed and apologized again.
It was then that he caught sight of his reflection in a pool of water that had splashed onto the ground. He gasped.
"My hair..."
"Your what?" I scoffed.
Was the boy seriously going to throw a hissy fit because he was having a bad hair day?
"My hair!" he shouted, running his hands through it and combing out giant clumps of dried mud.
"What?" I demanded. "What's wrong?"
"Look at it!" he roared, quickly becoming angry again.
"I... What's wrong with it?"
"You..." he seethed. "You turned my hair... You changed it..."
I then saw that, instead of the familiar bleach blonde, his hair had become a soft sandy brown color.
"Oh!" I said cheerily. "Looks nice!"
"Nice?" he spat. "Nice? It's a filthy human color!"
"It's not that big of a deal, Ez," I reassured him.
"Yes it is!" he shouted, coming at me with a mad glint in his eye. "I liked my hair the way it was! It was elven! It wasn't human!"
Now I got it. He was angry that I'd made him look like a human...
"Look, Ez, I'm sorry, but there's nothing I can do-"
"That's just it!" he cried. "There's absolutely nothing you can do!"
"Well, that's not very-"
"All you can do is ruin shit! You ran away and put us both in danger, you lost my mother's necklace, and you've completely destroyed any chance of us getting home in a timely manner... Due to the fact that I'm too human to fly!"
"Oh... Ez... It was your mother's?"
He ignored me. "And you want to know the worst part, Rose?"
I scooted back up against a tree, hoping that he wouldn't reach into that belt of his...
"The worst part is that I can't get rid of you! There's no way that I can get you to stop bothering me! There's no way!"
"Stop it," I said, biting back the lump in my throat.
Again, he ignored me.
"If I let you off on your own, the Shades will get you, and I'll be in danger. But if you keep pulling stunts like this... Honestly, I think I'm willing to take that risk just to get you out of my sight!"
"Ez-"
"There's nothing I can do!" he shouted to the heavens. "There's no way to rid me of this awful girl!"
"Why don't you just kill me and get it over with?" I screamed at him, my voice breaking. "Huh? Why don't you just chop me into bits, you crazy elf-thing? Huh?"
He straightened, surprised by the force of my outburst.
I tried to hold the tears back, but they came on, full speed ahead. My throat clenched and my eyes prickled with unwanted heat.
I'm not a crier. Sure, I tend to complain when things don't go as planned... But cry? Me?
Never!
I held my head in my hands, trying -- and failing -- to mask my sobs.
All the stress and tension that I'd experienced over the past few days came bursting from my chest, and I felt like I was crying out the world. The little comments Ez had made were just the straw that broke the camel's back... But he seemed to think that he'd done all the work.
"Oh... Rose..." he said, rubbing his forehead with his palm.
I muttered something at him that even I couldn't comprehend. It was a garbled mixture of "Go away" and "I hate you."
The forehead rubbing increased to two palms. He cautiously walked over towards me, slipping and sliding a bit in the mud as he did so.
"Rose, I didn't mean-"
"Shut up."
"I really didn't mean to-"
"Shut up!"
He sighed in defeat and opted to sit next to me instead. The mud squelched beneath him as he plopped down beside me.
"I feel terrible."
Shakily, I wiped my streaming eyes.
"No you don't."
"Honestly, I do."
I dried the last of my tears, determined to make him feel bad for what he'd done.
"Liar."
He struggled for the right words. "I... I feel like... I feel as if there's this great pit right here..."
He pointed to the center of his breast bone.
"And... And... And it's like... It's like I can't... I keep feeling bad for..."
I scowled.
"And, for some strange reason... I really want to hug you."
"That's called guilt, Ez."
"Guilt?"
"Guilt."
He got to his feet, and, reluctantly, I followed after him.
"I think I'm going to hug you now."
I ignored him.
Then, suddenly, he had wrapped his arms around me. He was awkwardly patting my back and being oddly... nice.
"Ez..." I asked, mortified. "What are you doing?"
"I believe I am hugging you."
"Well, stop it."
"Am I forgiven?"
"Am I useless?"
"No... You bring... Uh, charisma to this tag team."
"Charisma? Is that all?" I teased.
"Don't push it."
I laughed. "Ez?"
"Huh?"
"You're forgiven."