I don't own WITCH. Rated T for language.
Of Fairies and Warriors
Will stepped out from a fold in space, and found herself right in the middle of their living room. She collapsed onto the couch, while she tried to catch her breath.
Defeating Phobos was a piece of cake compared to getting everyone back to where they've been before the crisis on Meridian broke out.
In fact, Blunk could easily deliver Irma to the seaside, where the brunette was spending the rest of her summer vacation. And Will herself was able to drop off Taranee somewhere in the Northeast Appalachians. After that it was the dark skinned girl's task to find some sort of populated area in the midst of the wilderness.
So Taranee's cover was safe from being blown: anyone could get lost in the forest. Cornelia, on the other hand, was sitting on a terrace of a café in Paris, only a few corners from the Champs-Élysées, while her mother was in the restroom…
Mom! the thought rushed through Will's head. Shit, she's still in the museum!
The redheaded teenager raised the Heart of Kandrakar, a small, roundish gem, sparkling in a pink light, in order to transport herself to the Museum of Natural History in Heatherfield with its aid, but she had a second thought.
Well yeah… I'd rather sit onto a hedgehog, than spend the rest of the afternoon with mom and her… Don Juan. After all, I can always say I got fed up and went home. Unlike poor Cornelia…
Well, yeah. The blonde girl was kinda in trouble. The closest spot they were able to appear was Lyon, and Cornelia barely had the time to catch a TGV going to the capital of France, which was faster than flying all the way there. They just couldn't get any closer than that, not even with a map and a GPS, which was unfortunately useless in the other world, where they opened the fold to get back to Earth.
But no matter how rapid the French train was, Cornelia would most certainly get grounded. Will was sorry for her, but just for a moment. Then she remembered the endless quarrels with her own mom, the trust issues between Irma and her overprotective father, Taranee's draconian mother and Hay Lin's folks, who tried to teach some sort of Chinese work morale to their daughter.
No, it would be poetic justice if Cornelia would finally receive some punishment from her corny parents, Will thought.
She stole a glance at her watch, and saw that it was five pm. Dean and Will's mother were most certainly still at the museum. Will wouldn't be surprised at all, if the guy would've invited Susan to have some dinner and champagne after leaving that dumb place, and let the woman ramble about how impossible her daughter was.
Will was quite positive her mother would spend the night at Dean's home.
She could imagine the teacher, listening to the tirades of the woman with well-disguised boredom, just because he wanted to get laid.
So, now what? All my friends are preoccupied… But I really wanna hang out with someone! All alone in this stupid apartment for the entire evening… But the only people who's location I'm pretty sure of at the moment are the Knights of Vengeance…
Will came to think about this. Actually, this would've been the perfect opportunity to find out, who was the sorceress controlling the Knights of Vengeance, since the Knights were locked up in the Infinite City.
"Seems you won't be the only one who'd have fun tonight, mother" Will mumbled, and then she said aloud: "Guardian, unite!"
Caleb was quite pissed of, when he'd finally left the prison cell, where the prisoners were questioned. In the tunnel leading to the cell, Caleb's best friend, Aldarn was sitting behind a table. The thin, weird-looking Meridianite glanced at Caleb with honest curiosity in his eyes.
"So? Did it go well?"
"Don't ask." Caleb waved off the question. He picked up a leather flask from the table, and sipped out some of the liquid from it. He nearly spat it out. "What the hell is this?"
"Horse milk" said Aldarn nonchalantly. "I think it might have begun to curdle".
Caleb looked at the flask, and then he shrugged, taking another sip. The littlebit tart flavor wasn't too unpleasant, after all.
The dark haired boy also sat by the table. He took the rye bread out of the bag next to the flask, and ripped a good mouthful of it. He hasn't eaten since morning.
"Wshud evcold tna" he told.
"Uhm, excuse me?"
Caleb swallowed the bit, and he repeated:
"We should've called Tynar. He's certainly more experienced when it comes to interrogating…"
He stopped at the middle of the sentence, given the distant footsteps he heard from the other end of the long tunnel.
A tallish person was approaching them, dressed in some outfit which seemed incredibly weird in a place like this, or more precisely in any place save a fancy-dress party. The sleeves of her otherwise tight, magenta top were so baggy, it prohibited the one wearing it from doing any manual labor, and her turquoise skirt would've been considered ridiculously short if she wasn't wearing long, striped stockings beneath it.
Her hair was flaming red, her face almost unnoticeably freckled, and she wore such a friendly smile it cheered Caleb up a bit. Nevertheless, he was aware that if the girl would open her mouth, there was quite a chance it would ruin the perfect picture.
"Please, don't stop munching, just because I'm here, oh, savior of Meridian" the redhead said sarcastically.
Caleb put away the loaf of bread, and he stood up, with a forced smile on his face. When he met the girl, nearly a year ago, he thought she was a worthless little child with an extraordinarily big mouth.
Since then, he learned to admire Will's qualities, and he began to respect the young Guardian Leader. But her mouth remained mind-boggingly huge, curiously enough only when she talked to him.
Luckily they weren't spending time together too often.
"Oh, hello, Will! I thought you've gone back to Earth with your team. You've gotten lost?"
"Ha-ha. Actually, I've been home, but I had nothing to do" said Will, smirking. "No, I wasn't seeking the incredibly interesting and entertaining company of yours. I thought I could get to know from the Knights about that old hag messing with us".
"It's useless." Caleb waved off the idea. "I'm coming from Raythor, and I couldn't get any relevant information out of him".
"So they refuse to cooperate, ey?" said Will with a frown. The way she put her index finger onto her lip while thinking was quite adorable.
"Well, that's an understatement" told Caleb sternly. "The main problem is that we don't have any means to make them talk. I'm about to consider using force… ".
"Don't you talk like that" said Will quietly, and she placed a gentle yet confident hand onto Caleb's wide, muscular shoulder. For the first time in a while, Caleb realized she was totally serious. "You cannot wish to be similar to them…"
"They'd deserve even the hardest treatment, you know" said an annoyed Caleb. "After all the trouble they caused. All the pain and death…"
"Er… Caleb" said Aldarn, whom they completely forgot about.
The bald Meridianite with ocher skin emerged from the unstable bench.
"I have to change off Vathek… Is it fine if I'll just leave you here?"
"Of course, my friend" nodded Caleb.
"Good. Please, take Raythor back to his cell, when you finished, and don't forget to put the handcuffs on him!" said Aldarn, and he cracked a mischievous grin before he left. "Have fun!"
"Okay, what was that all about?" inquired Will with her arms crossed, as she stared at the back of the Meridianite moving through the tunnel.
"He probably wanted to indicate how useless our efforts are. By the way, I'm not the only one here with particularly odd friends, if you know what I mean" said Caleb, and he shook his head. "No, I think it's quite unjust to call your friends particularly odd, since your whole planet is crowded up with lunatics".
Will began to laugh with chiming, childish laughter.
"Caleb, we are barking mad, both of us!" she said, after the belly laugh which consumed her began to reduce. "Irma!"
"Yes?" asked Caleb, without a single clue what she was talking about.
"You know! Her Jedi-mind-trick-thingy! She could force her will onto the Knights of Vengeance!"
"I don't think I see" said a puzzled Caleb.
"Wait, you… don't know about that power of hers?" asked Will suspiciously.
"Did you know that Phobos has a similar power?" answered Caleb with a question, in a low tone, and the guilt he badly tried to forget about begun to reappear.
"I didn't, but now I don't see what your point is" said Will, and she put her hands onto her hips while she wrinkled her forehead. "You want to ask Phobos to interrogate the Knights for us? And how do you want to make him do that? You wanna bribe him with cookies?"
"No, I just…" Caleb lowered his head, and he slipped into embarrassed silence. Right until…
"What was that? Thunder?" asked Will, and she looked at the ceiling as if she could see right through it and take a look at the sky.
"No, I think it's just my stomach" said Caleb sheepishly. "I barely had seen food today".
"Wait a minute" said Will. "If Phobos has a power to force his will onto others… Doesn't Elyon has that ability too? Maybe it worth a try. I don't really want to kidnap Irma like… again".
"Good idea! Let's go to the palace! Maybe the Queen will give us a meal as well" said Caleb hopefully, trying in vain to silence his belly.
Meridian had become a stunningly beautiful place since Elyon came to power.
Will was not in a hurry; not at all. Though it was late afternoon, which meant it was the middle of the night on Earth, she was quite sure her mother would not arrive home until morning. So she was free to do whatever she wanted.
And now she wanted nothing but to enjoy the bewildering scent of blossoming trees which surrounded the pathway all along to the palace. The air was flooded with sweet melodies by a few dozen kinds of birds Will never even heard of. Nevertheless this was one of the most breathtaking bunches of notes she'd ever experienced in her life.
"You like it, as it seems." She heard Caleb talking.
"Not bad. Better than you trying to sing… don't deny anything, I got witnesses!" said the girl, stealing a glance at the tall boy walking by her side. "You know, it just hit me… I never walked around this land just for fun. I always had something really important to do, you know, like saving the asses of your rebels or just basically this world. I never really had the chance to take a look at what I was trying to save".
"Oh, I never imagined you're interested in learning about Meridian. Anyway, I think I'm in your shoes… well, not exactly, but…"
Will looked at him with a puzzled expression, so Caleb continued.
"I don't think that I will ever see the true beauty of this world. I mean… I still can remember what it was like before. When I look at these fine, straight and healthy trees, I can see the distorted, monstrous things they used to be. I can see the vines full of thorns draining the life from the land whenever I look across the plains. I can see the dark clouds blocking the sunrays…"
"What do you…" Will begun, but then she waved off the thought. "Forget it".
"Oh. Sorry for boring you" said Caleb bitterly, and he turned his head away.
"No. I mean forget about all these things!" said Will, and caressed the nearly-grown-up boy's arm apologetically. "You had done what you had to. You have to let it go now. Don't let your memories take away your own future!"
"Yes, I fulfilled my duties. Except that I nearly ruined everything today".
Caleb suddenly came to a halt. He stopped dead in his tracks in the middle of the path, and his eyes became hollow. Will also stopped, and her wings trembled lightly as nervousness started to overwhelm her.
She moved closer to the sturdy boy, slowly, carefully, like a wild creature. She called out his name softly:
"Caleb…?"
The rebel leader looked at her, and his eyes made her forget all the reassuring crap she had in mind. Caleb's orbs were the eyes of a little boy, who's been caught playing a prank.
"Elyon nearly died. Because of me".
Will almost laughed out loudly hearing such nonsense.
"Caleb, cut it out, will you! It's really not funny…"
"Silence!" Caleb cried out, and he pushed Will in the shoulders, nearly throwing her off balance.
They looked at each other with shocked expressions. Will was on full alert because she thought Caleb was going to hit her. And Caleb felt dismay because of his sudden fury. He turned around and leaped to the forest.
He was so upset he didn't really see where he was going, hence he nearly crashed into a huge tree. Being overtaken by anger, he smashed his fist into it.
It felt good, so he did it again. And again. At the fourth strike blood started the drop from his knuckles.
Then someone tackled him, and pulled him to the ground. The attacker got on top of him skillfully, and tried to immobilize him by pushing his arms at the ground with all her might.
"Stop it, you idiot! You're hurting yourself!" yelled Will, and she slapped the boy across the face.
Thanks to the slap, Caleb regained his consciousness. He stared with disbelief at the slim girl sitting on him, trying to hold him still by clutching his arms and jerking his legs with her feet.
"No, no, don't hit me!" protested Caleb, and tried to lean onto his elbows, when the girl lifted one of her hands to strike him again. "I'm fine!"
Will lowered her palm, and she let go of his arm either. She tried to catch her breath.
"Er, Will… Would you please get off me?"
"Look… I'm sorry".
Will's head has been resting on her knees, but now she looked upon him with sleepy eyes. She was kinda worn out being awake for nearly twelve hours by now, and the warmness of the evening, plus all the moisture in the air was only strenghtening her weariness.
"What?"
"Sorry for… nearly beating you up".
Will wanted to assure him that she was in no danger at all, since he was really no match for her if it would came to a fistfight, but she was way too tired to argue. She sit closer to the boy instead, and put her smaller palm onto his humongous hand.
"You wanna talk about it?"
Caleb broke into a smile, and he also fondled the hand of the girl resting in the asparagus colored grass.
"Phobos caught me, back in the palace. He casted some sort of wicked spell on me. I told him everything. Told him the location of Elyon, who was helpless at the moment".
Will suddenly lay back onto her back. She put her arms under her head, and she sighed deeply, filling her lungs with fresh air, something she hardly ever experienced since she was an urban girl. First, Caleb thought she might have fallen asleep.
"Oh, come on! Now you're gonna convince yourself it was your fault?" she said finally.
Will sat up again, and looked him deep in the eye, but Caleb looked away.
"Is this why you didn't talk to Cornelia? Because you felt guilty?" Will asked all of a sudden.
"Hm?" said Caleb absentmindedly.
"When Elyon got rid of the attackers, you disappeared. You didn't bother even to say 'hello' to Corny. While we were trying to find out if we were in France…"
"Excuse me, where?"
"Never mind. Point is, it took some time, and I had to listen to her whining all along" Will rolled her eyes in annoyance at this point. "I really like her, but that was way too much".
"Oh" said Caleb wisely.
Will sat herself right next to Caleb, and grabbed his hands, while looking into his olive eyes.
"That girl loves you. She totally does. You know that, right?"
"Well, she shows it quite... originally. She was emphasizing how much she loved me when she kissed that boy at the ice rink?" he growled like a bad-mannered dog, and he looked away again.
"Oh, why can't you get over that thing!" said an upset Will. "Seems her plan worked all too well, don't you think?"
"I think I can't keep up".
Will looked at him funny.
"Well, you did become quite jealous... Er, you know she wanted to make you jealous, right?"
Awkward silence. Will had to force back laughter.
"Oh, my gosh… sorry, but... It's just too cute, you being so helpless!"
"You see, that's what I'm fed up with!" said Caleb, and his whole face turned red, even his ears. Will guessed it happened because of anger, instead of embarrassment. "Her little games… Why can't she be honest, and say what she wants right into my face!"
"Morning, Caleb! This is what girls are like".
"You're not like that!" Caleb looked back at Will, with weird flickers of light in his eyes. "You always speak your mind".
"How do you know? You don't even know me" protested Will, and she punched him in the arm playfully, but his mind was in another world.
"I hate that she gets mad at even the smallest things! That she expects me to jump whenever she whistles. I… can't even talk to her! I don't know what to say to her".
"Caleb…"
"It's even worse when she begins to talk. Believe me, she can talk a lot! And about things I don't even care about! I don't even know anything about them. She just talks, talks without an end, and I yawn and nearly fall asleep each time, but she doesn't even realize she's boring…"
"Caleb…!"
"You cannot even imagine, how hard is it, Will! Yeah, she's pretty, that's true but sometimes it's impossi…"
Caleb was unable to finish the sentence, because a mass of red hair smelling like chamomile blocked his view, and a warm and soft thing pressing against his mouth silenced him. He pulled away.
He found himself staring at Will's big, brown puppy-eyes, and now, he was the one to grab Will's shoulder with his right and to put his left onto her nape, and he kissed her.
He let himself being washed over by the moment, and he held her tightly. She began to chuckle, thanks to the rough stubble tickling her smooth face.
When they parted, Caleb looked at her with question in his eyes.
"Well, I had to do something to shut you up. You've been lame" said Will with a bright smile.
Then she put her hand on her mouth, in order to withhold the little squeak, when it came to her what just happened. She jumped up, and reached for the Heart of Kandrakar.
She looked back at Caleb with a serious attempt to say something, but she failed, as she spotted the boy sitting on the ground, rubbing his head nervously.
Will was quite sure if someone would make a photo of the two of them, it would do nicely as an illustration to the term "awkward" on Wikipedia.
"Bettergo! Seeya!" she said quickly, and opened up a fold.
A mere second later Caleb was all alone at the clearing. He lay down at the odorous lawn, and tried to figure out what this was all about. He took a deep breath. This made him feel better… it actually made him feel happy.
He frowned, and ripped out a handful of grass from the soil, and looked at it suspiciously. Then he scented it, and he nearly burst out with laughter.
Joyherb. It was Joyherb. The tea made of this plant was used to uplift ill people, and ease their pain.
He thought he should bring Cornelia to this clearing as well. Maybe they could work out their differences better at this place. However, somewhere deep within, he doubted it would turn out as good as this late afternoon.
Well. All I can say is "I sold out long before you even heard my name", or "I write what I feel, I say what I mean". I dunno which is true, actually.
So, hope you don't mind me writing such silly fluffy crap^^ I would enjoy some reviews, or at least some Scooby Snacks.