Chapter 123: Chapter 123 – Intermezzo

Kelser Roja rubbed his eyes as the first light of dawn appeared over the horizon. He’d fallen asleep outside. He yawned and scratched his head. His feet dragged across the ground and he flinched. He lifted his foot up, smacked his face with his hand, and groaned. He peered through his fingers at the floor, then closed his eyes again.

It took him a while to accept that he’d ruined the thing he’d been working on all night with one lazy movement of his feet. In retrospect, he should have seen this coming, falling asleep next to his charcoal markings, but he felt annoyed, nonetheless.

He decided to deal with the situation later. For now, he picked himself up and went out to the washing area. There was nobody else at the washing area, probably because they were all already out for the day. He’d woken up so late he was definitely going to get an earful from his mother.

There was a large artificial well here that Cas had helped make. The tribesmen filled it up with river water once every few days and then heated the whole thing with fire magic for some reason. Cas said it made the water safer to use, but Kelser wasn’t sure why that would matter if he was just going to use it to wash up.

Speaking of washing up, Kelser liked soap. Specifically, he liked the spring soap he was using today. One of the tribesmen had gotten really good at making soap, having found a bunch of different sweet smelling plants and flowers to put inside it. The soap during winter had been bland and plain-smelling. But now that spring had come back, Kelser took a little longer washing up than he usually would.

His aunt was manning the campfire. She caught a glimpse of the red-haired boy and gave him a stern look. Kelser scratched his chin and greeted her. She shook her head. Asked him why he’d gotten up so late. And before he could answer, she poured him some warm meat stew and tapped his shoulder with her spoon.

“Get going,” she said, “Teacher Cas was looking for you.”

Kelser clicked his tongue. He downed his food and ran off back to the place where he’d fallen asleep. Along the way, he bumped into his father, who was about to head out on a hunting trip. His father laughed and ruffled his hair, but Kelser was in a rush. He was about to dash away when he saw the spear in his father’s hands.

Kelser stopped running. He turned around and walked back to his father, and hugged his side. His father, caught off-guard talking to someone else, turned his head and looked down. A gentle smile appeared on his face. He hugged his son right back and stood still for a good moment.

Eventually, Kelser let go, wished his father luck on his trip, and ran off. He also thought of his mother, who was probably out foraging right now. He even thought of his siblings and cousins. In fact, he could see their characteristic red hair bobbing up and down in the distance. They were learning magic out on a field.

Kelser arrived at the edge of the encampment where the remains of his small private campfire were still warm. The log that he’d fallen asleep on was there too, although Kelser could not believe he’d managed to fall asleep on something so stiff and uncomfortable.

He bent down and stared at the ground with the charcoal marks. He still couldn’t believe he’d messed up the assignment Cas had given him and that he’d spent all night on. He sighed, grabbed a piece of charcoal, and started fixing the squiggles.

“What was it again?” he asked himself, squinting his eyes. Right. This one. He kept drawing. No, Cas had called it something else. Writing. He kept writing.

It took him a while to get things right. He knew there were still some mistakes in the shapes but it would have to be good enough. Kelser looked from side to side, saw that nobody was looking, and pressed his palm against the charcoal markings. He made sure the shapes had been imprinted on his hand, before running his feet over the markings and running off.

He was supposed to meet Cas outside the elf’s own home. Along the way, Kelser said hi to a bunch of his friends. Some of them were from the Roja tribe, others were kids he’d made friends with during solstices and at the encampment. But most of them were adults and teenagers who he’d gotten to know during advanced magic classes. Most of them greeted him respectfully, which made the red-haired boy feel very nice. He was always proud of his magic skills. He’d worked hard to earn them, after all.

“Kelser!” came a shout.

Kelser stopped in his tracks. He looked to the side and his eyes went wide. He was about to run away, but decided it was too dangerous. He had to stay put!

His mother came over with a bag full of food and flowers. Her foraging party must have returned already. Kelser tried to say hi but his mother cut him off and began to scold him for not coming to meet her in the morning. Kelser could only stare at his feet and endure the scolding. When she was done, he apologized, waited for his mother’s conciliatory hug, which was followed by a bunch of kisses and expressions of worry. He groaned but didn’t push away like he usually did.

Eventually, she let him go, and Kelser said he had to run. He had a special lesson with Cas, today. His mother didn’t stop him, but she told him to be careful once again. Kelser rolled his eyes and went off. He came to the elf’s home and let out a shout. Cas was nowhere to be seen. Frowning, Kelser checked the surrounding area. Nothing.

Kelser frowned. Maybe it was a test. Cas had been testing Kelser’s magic recently, putting him in strange scenarios that required creative thinking to solve. Maybe Cas was using light magic to become invisible and Kelser had to try and find him?

Kelser took a deep breath, gathered his energy, and used reflection magic to wash the surrounding areas with light. He closed his eyes and only opened them once the spell was over. He heard a cry from the distance. Kelser looked towards the cry with a smile, but ended up frowning in the end. A tribesmen was holding his eyes and rubbing them rapidly. He must have been looking over when Kelser cast the spell.

Kelser ran his hand through his hair. Cas wasn’t invisible. Maybe he was somewhere else? Kelser had been late, after all. Maybe Cas had gotten tired of waiting and went off. Still, that wasn’t like Cas. Cas was usually the one who was late to their meetings, not Kelser. In fact, the reason Kelser had not been in a rush was because he was sure he’d just end up waiting for Cas in the end.

Wait. What was that?

Kelser furrowed his brows.

There was no way.

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Kelser stepped up to the little hut that Cas had built for himself. The hut was one of the best decorated and clearly the best built in the whole encampment. Kelser stopped admiring the shelter and followed his ears. The sound was coming from inside. Kelser stepped inside and flinched. The sound had stopped.

Kelser’s eyes widened and he jumped back. He tried preparing a spell but before he could, someone grabbed his hand, roughly, and jerked it back. His body fell back as something flashed in the corner of his eye. Kelser screamed as the blade stopped right next to his neck.

“Oh, it’s you,” came a voice. The blade fell back. Cas let go of Kelser’s hand.

“What was that for?” said Kelser, rubbing his bruised hand. Why was this pretty-faced elf’s grip so strong?

“You triggered my motion detection magic,” said Cas as he dropped his weapon and yawned. “I always cast it all around me before going to sleep.”

“You were asleep?” said Kelser, his eyes twitching.

Cas nodded. Kelser sighed. Whatever. It was time for his lesson. He followed Cas out to the little field where they’d had their previous lesson.

The field was surrounded by wildflowers and tall grass. Kelser sneezed. He’d gotten some pollen in his nose. He settled down next to a large stone slab. Cas sat down next to him.

“Did you do your homework?” asked Cas.

“Yes,” said Kelser.

“Then show me,” said Cas as he passed Kelser a small stone slab and a piece of charcoal.

Kelser coughed and put the slab in his lap. He picked up the piece of charcoal with his right hand and used his left hand to keep the stone slab in place. He looked at Cas from the corner of his eye and shifted around a little, as if he was trying to get comfortable. Kelser lifted the bottom of his left palm a little and began drawing on the stone slab with his right.

“Wait,” said Cas.

Kelser’s heart dropped.

How did he find out so quickly, Kelser asked himself. He shouldn’t be able to see it from that angle!

“You’ve made a mistake,” said Cas as he leaned closer. “A pretty big one.”

Kelser laughed nervously. “Really? What is it?”

“You’ve written it in reverse,” said Cas.

“What?” said Kelser.

“Your name,” said Cas as he picked up a piece of charcoal and sat next to Kelser. “You’re supposed to spell it like this.” Cas wrote some letters on the stone slab.

“Ah, I must have messed up while practicing last night,” said Kelser.

“Or…” said Cas as he grabbed Kelser’s left hand. “You didn’t think your little cheating plan through.”

Kelser had to write his own name a hundred times on the stone slab that day.