Chapter Two: One Day.
Hello all, haven't had any reviews yet, but I shall persevere in the hopes that someone may actually enjoy reading this. It would really be awesome to get a review, though, but let's get this show on the road folks.
-------------------------------------
"I'm bored," Janet complained, luxuriously stretched out on a blanket. The kings and queens of Fillory were currently lazing about upon the lush, green fields on the side of the castle. Julia and Eliot were engaged in a semi-serious effort to try and create a lake on the green field, occasionally casting a spell and getting themselves drenched from the water in the air.
"I told you that wouldn't work!" Eliot shouted, flapping his arms around. "Any idiot could have guessed that trying to pull moisture from the air was just going to create a cloud and drench us both!"
"Well, I'm sorry Mr. I-Can't-Think-Of-Anything-Better," Julia argued back, her eyes flashing fiercely. "Where's all that education from Brakebills gone, huh? And I thought that I was supposed to be the amateur here."
Janet hummed to herself, idly locking a piece of hair around her index finger. "I think our favorite little hedge witch argues with Eliot more than I do!" she said smugly. Quentin sighed and stared back up at the sky.
The problem with doing nothing, he thought, is not knowing quite when you're finished. He could lay on this patch of grass for hours, enjoying the twin feeling of the hot sun and cool breeze on his cheek. They had four days until they had to be at the centaur's settlement in Southern Orchard. Truth be told, he was regretting agreeing to go more and more as the days passed.
Stupid horses need to learn to take care of themselves...
He heard a chant and turned his head to stare at Eliot and Julia. They both had their eyes closed and their fingers were moving slowly and deliberately. Finally, a rift in the earth appeared and water slowly seeped in from the bottom, until the whole pool was full.
"Who wants to go skinny dipping?" Janet cried out, exuberantly standing up.
Eliot spoke rapidly to Quentin, "Hey Q, remember that ridiculous-ass stunt you pulled during that freezing game of Welters? You nailed the globe right at the other guy's knee, and then ripped off your cloths and jumped in with Alice over your shoulder."
Julia arched an eyebrow at Quentin and the corner's of her mouth quirked upwards, "Oh? That's a different Quentin than the Quentin I knew in high school."
Quentin shrugged and then smiled slyly at Julia. Julia backed away quickly.
"Not happening, you crazy son-of-a-" Julia was cut off by Quentin bull-charging her and hoisting her up above his shoulder. He quickly sprinted over to the lake while Julia was wriggling on his shoulder crying out, "Let me go you stupid, pigheaded-" Julia paused in her reverie and gasped as Quentin let out a primal yell and dove into the water.
Eliot and Janet watched the scene with mild amusement, content to watch from afar.
"You know, I bet that Q has the hots for Julia," Janet said from the corner of her mouth.
Eliot looked at her and then sighed, lying back and putting his arm around her. "I think it's the other way around."
Janet looked at the scene and watched Julia freeze the water around Quentin.
"Woh! No fair! You didn't say we could use magic," Quentin protested, a chill spreading across is body.
"I didn't throw you in the water."
"Oh come on!" Quentin said pleadingly. The ice was creeping up dangerously close around him and he began to try to escape, only ending up slipping and sliding on the ice. "Look at me, my lips are blue. End the spell Julia, for the love of freaking God."
"I bet your balls are blue, too," she retorted. She made several quick hand motions and spoke quietly. The ice receded and Quentin sighed in relief, making a beeline for the field and rubbing his arms and legs to get the blood moving.
Seeking refuge on the grass, Quentin plopped himself down and removed himself of his shirt. It came off smoothly and both Janet and Eliot were staring at him open-mouthed.
"Your shoulder!" Eliot exclaimed, pointing at Quentin.
"What about it?" Quentin asked.
"It's normal, you twit!" Janet answered. "I remember when Martin Chatwin crushed it, how did you fix it?"
Quentin smiled. "A combination of surgery and magic, my dear friends. I got a surgery to get rid of the puppet shoulder that those stupid centaurs gave me, and then studied up on healing magic. All I needed to do was knit the muscles and bones back together in the right way, once the reconstruction was done in surgery." Quentin smiled smugly, "Couldn't have my shoulder holding me back in Fillory, right?"
"But what about the crushed bone? How did you replace that?" Janet questioned.
"In the end, human bones and animal bones aren't that different, a lot of calcium, you know. It was a tricky bit of math to figure out the exact mass of my shoulder bone – and I screwed up the first time pretty badly, but I finally got it right in the end. So voila, new shoulder á la chicken bones." Quentin rubbed his shoulder slightly self-consciously.
Eliot clapped his hands together and laughed, "Jesus, Q. That's amazing. You still have white hair, though. Hey do you have white hair around your nuts, too?"
Janet moaned in disgust. "Of course Eliot would want to know that," she whispered conspiratorially with Julia. Julia giggled.
"What was that, Janet?" Eliot asked turning towards her, his face slightly red.
Janet grinned and gestured with her hands. "Give me five minutes and a pair of shears and those wings of yours would trouble the rest of the world no longer."
01234567890123456789
"I think we make the worst and most dysfunctional kings and queens ever," Quentin announced to his friends while they were eating dinner. A delectable meal stood in front of them, consisting of roasted chicken breast, potatoes, pork cutlets, roasted asparagus, and a huge platter of salad.
"You know what I can't believe?" Eliot asked his friends, ignoring Quentin's comment.
"What?" Janet asked, rolling her eyes.
"That both Fillory and our world, you know Earth, have the same types of food. You know, chicken, potatoes, lettuce. I think that's an amazing coincidence."
"Well we better stuff up now, because for the next week, we're going to be in the woods, thanks to our lovely resident idiot, Quentin!" Julia exclaimed sarcastically. "We're going to be eating God-knows-what and sleeping God-knows-where, but in return we get to help possibly the most pretentious creatures ever!"
"The centaurs," Janet continued, "Perhaps the most annoying and arrogant creatures on the face of this planet. Thanks Q, now we get to spend multiple days interacting with those narcissistic ninnies."
Quentin had a sneaking suspicion that Janet and Julia had rehearsed that and he glanced at his food. He tried to explain himself and spoke uncomfortably, "We are the kings and queens of Fillory, you know. We are supposed to be doing benevolent stuff, like helping people who have problems."
"Centaurs aren't people, they are horses! They are annoying horses that deserve to have their heads chopped off and served with a nice side of foie gras."
Eliot chuckled. "You couldn't make foie gras if a fairy godmother suddenly appeared and blessed you with the talent of cooking which, by the way, you currently have none of."
"And you're supposed to be that fairy, right, asshole?" Janet asked, her eyes narrowed towards Eliot.
"Hey now, no need to get nasty," Eliot backtracked, cowed by Janet's fearsome verbal attack.
Janet huffed and attacked her food with a new invigoration. Silence filled the dining hall for the rest of the duration of the dinner. Quentin rubbed his eyes, did I say dysfunctional? I meant incompatible...
01234567890123456789
"Canvass tents?" Janet called out, a piece of parchment and a quill held out in front of her.
"Check!" Eliot called out from the other room.
"Sleeping mats?"
"Check!"
"Blankets?"
"Check!"
"Shears?"
"Chec-wait," Eliot looked around the room he was in. He called out to Janet, "We don't have any shears, but why do we need them?"
Janet walked into the room, looking around. "No reason, I suppose," she said finally, her eyes staring slightly behind Eliot.
"I really, really hate you sometimes," Eliot said realization finally dawning upon him; his wings fluttering gently.
012534567890123689
"Hey Q, why didn't you fix your hair color along with your shoulder?" Julia asked.
The moon shone brightly through the nighttime sky, illuminating the grounds that Quentin and Julia were lying on. They were both lying on their backs near the lake that Julia and Eliot had labored to create. A light breeze danced through the field, rustling through the grass, stirring through Julia's hair. A bottle of wine lay completely empty several yards away, along with two wineglasses, a mischievous glint running through the glass.
"Hm?" Quentin replied, his slightly drunken mind not hearing the question.
"You asshole," Julia hiccuped and lightly smacked Quentin's shoulder. He snorted and rolled over on his side to face her. She asked the question again.
"Oh, stuff like that – you really don't try to mess with. Your looks are permanent, unfortunately. I suppose I could figure out a spell to dye it, but I think I've rather gotten used to the white."
"But magic changed your hair, couldn't magic change it back?" Julia questioned.
Quentin waved his hand absentmindedly. "I really don't mind anymore. I used to, but I kinda got over it, I think."
A silence permeated through the air, gently affixing itself to the conversation. Not frosty, but a warm, companionable quiet way of understanding.
"So how did Eliot and Janet ever find you in the first place?" Quentin finally asked.
Julia replied, "There was a fat kid there too, but they didn't really find me, I actually found them."
Quentin snorted, "The would be Josh, and he's a bit sensitive about his weight."
Julia smiled and then continued her story, "I was actually looking for you. I wanted to show you that I had learned magic, albeit in a slightly roundabout fashion. I met this old geezer who stared at my chest all day long – I was his cleaning lady, but one day in his office I saw a certificate of graduation from Brakebills. I remembered that that was the name of the school that I got turned away from, and I knew he must be a wizard. So I begged him to teach me some magic, and I showed that I could do some, and..." Julia trailed off. "I just learned. I wasn't really a fast learner, and I definitely have major holes in my knowledge, but overall for doing it myself, I think I'm okay."
Quentin blinked and stared at her incredulously. "Just okay? Are you joking? Most hedge-witches become barely proficient in mastering other people's spells, but you can make up your own! You're a natural."
Julia beamed and continued, "Anyways, where was I? Oh yeah – I was looking for you, but whenever I cast a locater spell, it always went insane. Eventually I just checked the yellow pages and found an apartment registered to you and I went to go check it out. That's when I saw them – and when they said they had no idea who you were, I kind of flipped out."
By the light, pale moonlight, Quentin could see Julia blush. "I almost attacked them with magic, and they went nuts. Began to cast really big spells that I didn't even know existed and kept on asking me things about Martin Chatwin." Julia rolled her eyes, "I thought they were insane, talking about some book I read when I was a kid... But then we all calmed down a little bit and we started talking and... here we are."
Quentin snorted amusedly, "You attacked them? You could have been murdered, you know Josh has no control of the power he has in his spells? Once he summoned a black hole that ate this big fiery-red fucker that was trying to kill us." Quentin shivered slightly at the memory of the labyrinth.
Julia's blush deepened and silence pervaded the air again.
"I'm glad you turned out okay," Quentin said quietly, his eyelids drooping. "I wanted to throttle the dean of our school after I saw what had happened to you."
"You know, it was really when I saw you that I became more normal again. It kind of horrified me to see what I'd become because of my obsession with magic. You know, Q, we could always..." Julia trailed off as she heard Quentin's light snore.
"You asshole."
01234567890123456789
"Get up, everyone! Time to go into the forest of creepy-crawly nasty things!" Janet called into Eliot and Quentin's bedroom.
Quentin awoke to a throbbing headache, "It is too fucking early Janet," he moaned.
"Ask me later if I care, it's time to go," Janet replied smugly.
Eliot stepped out of bed and his wings fluttered.
Janet stared at his beseechingly and groaned out, "Just a little trim, Eliot, please! You wouldn't feel a thing."
"Not a fucking chance."
Into the forest we go...
012344567890123576856
Hey everyone! Chapter two is up, finally right? Sorry I've been working a super-duper amount lately but now that school is starting, try to expect one to two chapters a week. Please review, to the few people that have read this story so far, I know you exist.
Later.