Level 2: Love
"You shouldn't eat those."
Tobias stared up at the wizard with a rather untrusting frown. He shouldn't be staring up at the man, and the man definitely should not be eating foreign objects.
"I'm hungry," Sarum returned, as if that made it better. "And these don't look so bad." He stretched from his perch on the thick bough of the tree to reach for one of the peaches that hung above him. Tobias was instinctively suspicious of that which nature had to offer, but Sarum didn't seem to share this common sense. He looked on warily as the man strained for the fruit, just out of reach. It wasn't likely that Sarum's arms were going to grow any, and Tobias didn't think he was going to manage to get this particular treat.
"You can't even reach it," he accused with a glare and arms folded over his chest. "Come on, get down here. I thought you were in a hurry to get to Payon?"
"Well, not a hurry, per say," Sarum absently replied. He was intent on the peach above him. "Anyway, not enough of a hurry to bypass a peach tree. I love peaches." Tobias only rolled his eyes. Flighty, impetuous, and greedy. Could fate have flung a more irritating companion at him? He thought not.
He opened his mouth to complain further, but Sarum suddenly pulled back with a devious look to him. "Hey, kid, come here a little closer."
Tobias frowned to be addressed so casually; they were about the same age, weren't they? That hardly seemed fair. But he moved closer nonetheless. "Why?" he asked suspiciously.
"Just do it." When Sarum judged Tobias to be close enough, he looked back up to the fruit again. He closed one eye and pointed a finger at the fruit. "Make sure you catch it," he warned. "If you miss and it bruises on the ground, I'll kill you."
Death threats, already? This was only day two of their time together. And shouldn't he be the one making the death threats? Tobias' scowl darkened, but he held out his hands to show readiness. He watched as the wizard took careful aim. With a whispered word, a flash of sparks and a few tongues of flame leapt from his finger towards the fruit. It missed the fruit, but that wouldn't be Sarum's target. Roasted fruit tended to lose its charm. Tobias found himself vaguely impressed to see the spell meet its target: the stem. The fruit fell, neatly severed, and Sarum crowed in triumph as Tobias caught it.
But no sooner had the fruit hit his hands then Tobias shouted in pain and dropped it. The thing hit the ground with a hard thud, and Sarum's noise of protest was immediate.
"Oh, come on! You had it!"
"It's as solid as a rock!" Tobias returned, wringing his hands. "That hurt! Get another one if you have to, and try to get one that's ripe this time."
Sarum twisted his painted face into a grimace of displeasure and began to climb higher, searching for another target, while Tobias turned his attention to the fruit at his feet. It didn't look particularly bruised... in fact, it didn't look very much like any peach he'd ever seen before at all. It was... shiny? He leaned down to look closer, and had just time enough to note that its surface was multi-faceted like a gem's before there was another shout from above him.
"Monkey!" Sarum shouted. Tobias looked up again to see the man clinging to the trunk of the tree. "Shit, that thing scared me!"
A small brown animal had appeared on the branch just next to his head. It now bared its teeth at him menacingly, and Sarum returned the look.
"Hey, Sarum, I don't think this is a peach tree..." Tobias started, but the wizard wasn't listening. He'd already aimed his finger-gun at the creature.
"Get out of here," he grumbled, and shot off another sparking fire at it. The thing disappeared with a screech, but a second later a hard pit came flying from the leaves. It hit Sarum's shoulder, who grunted in pain, and Tobias' blue eyes grew wide.
"Sarum, get out of that tree," he said, voice slightly raised in urgency. Hearing that tone of it, the wizard glanced down at the junior magic-user with some amount of surprise. His lips parted to ask 'why', but the word never made it past his throat.
At that moment the branch on which he had been standing twisted violently. At the same time another came in from the side. It caught Sarum's middle and sent him flying out of the tree. He hit the ground with a thump (almost like the noise the rock hard peach had made, Tobias noticed) and lay still. But Tobias' attention wasn't on Sarum. The knots in the tree trunk had rearranged themselves--or perhaps they had always looked like that and Tobias had only just noticed?--into a face. It looked rather like an old man's, although the mouth, open in a scream that was just now beginning to sound, was far wider than any old man's Tobias had yet seen.
Tobias stumbled backwards hastily. All of the branches were thrashing by now, and a few more monkey faces had appeared in the tree branches. A rain of pits fell onto them, and the mage fell quickly to Sarum's side.
"Get up!" he commanded, shaking the man's shoulder, who groaned. "Come on, let's go!"
They were just out of the tree's reach, but as Tobias watched it was tugging its thick roots out of the ground. It seemed pretty intent on thrashing them. Sarum pushed himself up with painfully narrowed eyes.
"Shit," was all he could say, and rubbed his head. Tobias tugged desperately on his cloak with eyes on the tree. That face was so loud. And the monkeys added their own noise to it, which made the situation no better. "I didn' know tha' tree wus alive," Sarum added in a grumbled slur. He struggled to his feet, Tobias pulling on his arm the whole way, and the two made their stumbling way away from the violence of the local flora and fauna.
The tree seemed to forget them when they got far enough away. They were out of range of the monkey's precise aim as well, and as Tobias watched it went to bury its roots back into the ground. Next to him, obviously still dazed, Sarum began to laugh. Tobias tossed a glare over at him, but the man could only giggle and rub his head.
"I love peaches," the wizard said through his gaiety. "I really do."
