In Exchange for Magic

My mind whirred at a violent speed.

Was he dead? What should I do? How had I not noticed that the scratches were irritated before? Were imp claws venomous? What kind of poison was in Ez? How bad did it have to be before he started hallucinating?

I placed my hand on his forehead and quickly withdrew it in shock. His forehead was burning, and I was surprised with his temperature. My guess would be around 104 degrees. That would put him on the verge of death.

Great.

"Hey... Hey..." I mumbled in a shaky voice, gently slapping Ez's face. "Hey, Ez, wake up!"
He mumbled something incoherent.
"Oh, shit... Shit, shit, shit..." I whined.

I had to look at the scratches. I had to bandage them... Clean them... I had to do something!

"Ez... Ez... Come on, help me out a bit here!" I grumbled as I tried to lift his shirt up over his head.
He giggled heavily and slapped my hands away.
"I'm not trying to strip you, Ez! For Christ's sake!"

I peeled his shirt off. It was actually a lot harder than I thought it would be. The light fabric had gotten drenched in his sweat, and it clung to him. After I'd tossed the wet heap aside, I was able to examine the cuts up close.

What had been scratches before were now gashes. I guessed that there was some sort of corrosive poison in imp talons. The blood was crusted around the edges of each of the three parallel incisions. He fidgeted and the flakes of silver crumbled away. A green tinge painted the skin around the cuts, and he was bruised like he'd just fallen from a great height.

I gagged slightly and began slapping his face a bit harder.
"Ez, tell me what to do!" I panicked. "How do I fix this?"
He was silent.

I lifted up his left eyelid and was met with the whiteness of his eye.

I cursed again and looked up to the sky.

"What do I do?" I asked the clouds.
The clouds, however, are rather unhelpful.
"You suck!" I informed them. "Send me someone! Send me someone who knows that the hell they're doing!"

"Are you okay?" A voice asked from behind me.
I gasped and whorled around, grabbing at my heart.

A slender girl with skin as pale as the wind stood a few feet away. Her white-blonde hair fell to her waist, and her black eyes glinted like a shiny beetle's shell.

"Or is it normal for you to talk to the sky?" she finished, jokingly inquisitive.
"N-No..." I stuttered. "It's just... My friend..."

I found myself having to speak around a sizable lump in my throat.

The girl caught sight of Ez and nodded gravely.

"I think I can help."

I was about to leap aside and let her at Ez... But I stopped. What if she was here to hurt him? I stood and straightened my shoulders, standing protectively in front of Ez's lifeless form.

He craned her neck to get a good look at my bleeding Half-Breed friend.

"Imp," she said. "I can help."
I shook my head violently. "No! We've had enough trouble... Just leave us be."
She calmly met my eyes and smiled.
"He's dying," she informed me.
"I... I..."

A small bug was buzzing around her head. Without taking her eyes from mine, she reached out and snatched it from mid air. I could hear the buzzing instantly stop as she clenched her fist.

"You're sick!" I cried as she held out her hand to show me the oozing orange goo that used to be the insect.

But she continued to smile and the orange goo began to glow. I crouched down next to Ez and placed my hand on his shoulder, preparing for an explosion. But that didn't happen. Instead, within a matter of seconds spent in the glowing light, the bug reassembled itself and buzzed off.

"I'm a Healer," the girl said in her voice that sounded like running water.

Astonished, I scrambled aside to let her kneel next to Ez.

The strange girl studied Ez's face for a second, confused, and then placed both her hands on his chest. Suddenly, she shrieked and backed away from him. Her eyes widened in fear. Her calm and cool demeanor vanished. She became defensive and on-edge.

"What?" I cried. "Is he dead?"
"No..." she murmured. "He's a Half-Breed."
"No he's not!" I lied, trying to buy some time for my bleeding friend. "Are you insane?"
"No, but you must be! How long have you been dating him? You do know that he's a fugitive, don't you?"
"I... We... I'm not his... We're not dating!"

She squinted at me for a moment. Then, with a decisive step forward, she got up and grabbed my wrist. I guess she meant to give me a stern lecture about hanging around magical "Billy the Kid" types, but, instead, she screamed for a second time.

"You're human!"

She dropped my wrist and I hid my head in my hands.

"Look... I know that me and E-"
"Don't tell me his name!" the girl interrupted. "Do you know how much trouble I'm in just for talking to you? Imagine what they would do to me if I knew the name of a Half-Breed!"
"Fine!" I shouted, impatient. "I know that my friend and I are an unlikely pair, but you've got to look past that!"
She glanced at Ez and hesitated.
"He's dying," I stressed, my voice breaking. "You said it yourself! And if there's any way at all that you can help... Please... I'm begging you..."

She winced and settled down next to Ez, whose nose had began to trickle bright silver blood. She placed her hands upon Ez's bare chest. Relief washed through me as I saw her eyes narrow in concentration. Finally! Someone who knew what the hell they were doing around here!

The deep gashes on Ez's chest glowed with a pure white light. It radiated out from within the blonde girl, and Ez sort of soaked it up. She stayed like that, with her hands on Ez for a few tense minutes.

"The poison has spread," she grunted, still trying to reman concentrated. "I'm going through each vein and removing it..."
My mouth fell open. I could have hugged her.

The girl winced. "These cuts are so deep... That imp must have been nasty..."

After about five more minutes of intense healing, the girl fell on to her backside, panting. Sweat lined her brow, and her eyes had lost a bit of their sparkle.

"That was one of the most gruesome..." she began, but then shook her head. "I'm not a very strong Healer yet... I've just turned eighteen a few months ago."
"So you're an elf then?" I asked.
She looked uneasy at the prospect of me knowing too much about her. She decided to ignore my question.
"Your friend will be okay... I wasn't strong enough to send him through the recovery process, so he's going to have to stay in bed for a few days."

I nodded.

She wiped her forehead and gave me a sharp nod to signal her parting.

"Wait!" I blurted. "Isn't there... Isn't there any way I... We can repay you?"
She thought for a moment. "Yes. You can swear, upon pain of death, that you will never utter a single word of me... Except to your recovering friend over there."
I looked towards Ez.
"I can do that. Thank you."
She took a step towards the forest, but spun around.
"No matter what you do, don't let him get cold," she advised. "If he gets the chills then he'll probably... Well... Just don't let him get the chills, got it?"
"No chills, rest, pain of death... Got it."

Her manner instantly switched back to the one of mystery and coolness that I'd first observed in her. She raised a hand in farewell and glided into the forest.