Sorry for the long delay. :) Life has been busy, what can I say?
Additional disclaimer for this chapter: I don't own Star Wars.
Chapter 10: Preferences
"Would you rather be hairy all over or completely bald?" Seth asked.
"Hairy," Warren said quickly.
"Really?" Bracken asked. "I think I'd prefer to be bald. I could wear a wig on my head and call it good."
"Hairy is more... masculine," Warren explained. "It's like a rite of passage into adulthood. I'd feel like a little boy again if I was bald."
"What about you, Seth?" Bracken asked.
"I'm with Warren on this one. I could always shave if I didn't want hair on me."
"See, when you say 'hairy all over,' I picture that... whatever it was... from the movie we watched last night," Bracken said.
Seth's eyes widened. He and Kendra had introduced Bracken to Star Wars the night before. "Chewbacca?" he bit out. "Never mind, Warren. I wouldn't want to look like a wookie. Bracken's right, we could wear wigs."
Warren shrugged. "Sure, I see how it is. Disagree with your cool cousin who made this little adventure a possibility for you. See if I care."
Seth grinned. Warren had managed to talk not only his grandparents, but also his parents into letting Seth go with him to "do just a little light exploration of the preserve." How he'd managed to do that wasn't quite clear to the teenaged boy, but he was glad nonetheless. Even if the three of them were all thoroughly bundled in winter gear to combat the snow and cold temperature.
"Next question. Would you rather be stuck on an island alone or with someone you hated?" the boy asked.
"I'd go crazy by myself," Warren answered. "I'll take someone I don't get along with or generally can't stand – so long as we're not mortal enemies, I'd appreciate having someone to talk to."
"Or even just knowing someone else is around would be nice," Seth chimed in. They both looked at Bracken.
"I'd rather be alone," he confessed. "Solitary creature and all. If I were stuck with one of you, that'd be alright. Otherwise, I think I'd just rather be by myself."
"You left Kendra out," Seth said. "You'd probably love to be alone on an island with her. Mushy romance and stuff."
Bracken's cheeks tinged slightly pink. "I hope you know I wouldn't do anything... unseemly... to your sister," he responded.
"Sure," Seth answered, shrugging his shoulders unconvincingly.
Warren shook his head. "Seth, your fascination with your sister's love life is strange."
"Not as strange as a guy who leads a girl on for almost two years but hasn't even kissed her yet," Seth retorted.
Genuine surprise flashed over Warren's features. "Are you kidding me?" he asked Bracken, stopping in his tracks. "You really haven't kissed her yet?"
"I don't see why either of you should care about that," the unicorn responded flatly, continuing forward.
Seth and Warren looked at each other quickly before they both scrambled to catch up and the latter male spoke. "Apparently I touched a nerve. I'm sorry," he apologized.
"I did it on purpose," Seth announced unabashedly. "Kendra is planning to go to college next fall. Did she tell you?"
Bracken's expression showed that he was hadn't expected that and that he was perhaps a little bothered by this news, but he quickly wiped it away. "She didn't say anything about that. Can she really go so soon? She's only seventeen. I thought she had another year of high school left."
"Why do you think she's been particularly antisocial over the past several months? She's been doing crazy amounts of studying and homework so she can graduate early. She sent out applications for a few different universities about a month ago."
"If she didn't tell you about it, then she probably was waiting to say anything until she knew where she was going," Warren added.
Bracken remained quiet, seemingly absorbing what his companions were saying.
"It's her decision," he finally said after a minute of silence, aside from the sound of the snow crunching beneath their boots as they all walked. "If this is what she wants to do, then she should do it."
"I didn't say she shouldn't go," Seth said. "I'm trying to tell you that once she leaves, she will meet other people. Make new friends."
The unicorn blinked at Seth with a look on his face that seemed to say, "So what?"
"Male friends," Seth explained with exasperation evident in his voice. "A single girl in a new place with lots and lots of guys around... You know?"
"Again, Kendra can do what she wants," Bracken answered. "I don't think she's the type to party all the time, if that's what you're hinting at."
Seth threw his hands in his face. "Apparently I have to spell everything out for you. She wants you. But if she goes off to school with no commitments in place, she's going to find someone there who will actually call her his girlfriend."
"Did she tell you all of this?"
"Well... no, but she's my sister. I know her better than anyone else does."
"Look, I understand what you're trying to say," Bracken began. "But I also believe that the details of my romantic life aren't for the world to discuss."
"How do you feel about my sister?" Seth asked, gripping Bracken's arm and looking at him in the eyes. "Be honest."
"Guys," Warren interjected, staring pointedly at something ahead of the trio.
Bracken broke eye contact with Seth to glance at what had caught Warren's attention. "It's a leshi," he announced. "We should alter our course to go around its domain."
"Don't change the subject," Seth insisted. "Although I do want to know what a leshi is in just a minute."
"I care deeply for her, and I have very good reasons to refrain from acting upon those feelings right now," the unicorn responded. "Now I'd suggest we move away from the leshi, unless you'd like to be terribly tortured at least and die a painful death otherwise." He looked back up to where it had been standing last, but it was no longer there. "Warren, where did it go?"
Warren squinted to try and see farther. "I can't see it," he said. "I turned away from it for just a moment and now it's gone."
"That isn't good news for us," Bracken commented. "We should leave. This way," he directed, turning sharply to the left and picking up his pace.
Seth didn't know what a leshi was, but judging by his companions' reactions he figured it'd be best to drop the talk about his sister and follow her non-boyfriend's lead for the time being.
The trio walked along quickly in silence, until Bracken suddenly halted and held his arm out to the side to prevent Warren and Seth from moving any farther forward.
Kendra stood about 20 feet ahead of them, wearing appropriate snow gear. She stared intently at Bracken with a smile and asked, "You love me?"
The unicorn grimaced and responded with a quick, "No." Seth's jaw dropped and he almost shouted at his friend, but he refrained. Something was off about this situation.
"I heard you talking back there," Kendra insisted. "I thought you said you loved me."
"He was talking about the real Kendra," Warren chimed in. "Not you."
"I am the real Kendra," she said, an expression of confusion mixed with happiness on her face. "You have no idea how long I've been waiting for Bracken to tell me he loves me. This is fantastic news!"
"Kendra already knows how I feel about her," Bracken responded.
Seth, the unicorn communicated through his coin in the boy's pocket. Do as I say next, and don't act like it's abnormal. That Kendra is actually the leshi... Follow my instructions and we should get away.
"Take off your coats," Bracken mumbled so that both Seth and Warren could hear him. "Turn them inside-out and put them on backwards. Take your boots off and put them on the wrong feet. Turn your hats inside-out and replace them."
Seth did as he was told, but couldn't resist sending a thought message to Bracken through the coin. This has got to be the weirdest escape maneuver ever.
Just do it, Bracken responded with a sense of urgency. I'll explain later.
"What are you doing?" Kendra asked as the men all started undressing and re-dressing themselves. "You're being weird."
"I'm more comfortable now," Warren said once he'd figured out how to zip up his coat from behind his back.
"So are we," Bracken said, pointing to himself and Seth.
"I particularly like the pressure on my toes," Seth said sarcastically, grinning.
Can you try to tone it down a hair? Bracken's voice sounded in Seth's brain.
Kendra eyed them skeptically. "I don't think you really like that," she said slowly. "You look funny."
"You're the one who's not dressed right," Warren insisted.
"I doubt that," she said, sounding unsure of herself. She shook her head and said, "Whatever. I found something really cool over there, come with me and check it out!" She was pointing back the way they came.
"We just came from that direction. Nothing was there," Seth whined. "I don't want to go back there."
"You're being a party pooper, Seth," Kendra frowned.
"Your mom's a party pooper," Seth grumbled.
"My mom...?" Kendra trailed off, obviously not understanding. "Look, you must have missed it – there was an awesome island back that way. It had hair on it." She stopped talking and looked very confused by what she'd just said.
The men didn't speak, although Seth had to physically bite his tongue to keep himself from calling her an idiot and an eavesdropper. That thing had obviously been listening in on their conversation! However, in his experience, insulting magical creatures wasn't ever smart.
After several seconds, Kendra gave them an appraising look. "Do you normally wear your coats like that?" she asked.
"Yes," Warren answered. "We've been wearing them like this the whole time."
She continued to stare at them with her face scrunched up in concentration and asked, "Really? Then why do I look like this? I'm different than you are."
"He did try to tell you that you're dressed incorrectly," Bracken said, gesturing to Warren.
Kendra frowned. "There was something I wanted to show you..." she began, but never finished. "I'm really distracted right now."
"You're probably cold," Warren supplied.
"I guess so," she responded hesitantly.
"There is snow around," Seth said, following along.
Her expression looked surprised. "So there is," she said as though she hadn't noticed it before.
"You probably have a nice, warm blanket at home," Bracken said. "Maybe even a comfortable bed. I bet you're tired."
Kendra yawned. "I really am," she answered.
"You should take a nap," Warren suggested.
"That sounds delightful," Kendra agreed. She started to walk away from them, in the direction she had pointed to earlier. As she walked further away, her shape seemed to transform a little at a time until Seth was watching the retreating figure of what sort of resembled a Sasquatch with really long, matted hair and threadbare clothes.
The three men watched the leshi walk away until Bracken calmly and quietly mentioned that they should leave.
"Would anyone care to explain to me what just happened?" Seth asked as they started to walk away.
"Leshis are easily confused. Turning your clothes around and inside-out is an almost guaranteed way to thwart them," Bracken explained.
"Can I put my boots on the right way now?" Seth asked. "It's hard to walk like this."
"Wait until we're outside of the leshi's boundaries," the unicorn said. "We're nearly there. It caught us at the edge."
"Alright. I've got to ask – what in the world is a leshi? And what would it have done? Eat us?"
"Leshis are woodland shape-shifters that imitate people known to their victims in order to lure them back to their lairs," Warren explained. "It would have tickled us to death."
Seth laughed. "I'm sorry – tickled? As in... ha ha ha? Are you serious?"
"To either death or the point of insanity, yes."
"You've got to be kidding me. The tickle monster is actually real? Not just some thing parents made up to be silly with their kids? And the way to get away from it is to wear your clothes inside-out and backwards? What kind of a joke is that?"
"It does sound ridiculous at first," Bracken agreed. "It's the truth, though. Picture being tickled past the point where you lose the ability to breathe – you'd wind up suffocating."
"You're saying it's actually possible to die laughing?"
Bracken shrugged. "It's happened before."
"Why would anything want to tickle someone to death? Do they eat the dead bodies too or something?"
"Why do naiads drown people? Same thing," Warren answered. "Fleeting amusement, probably."
"You can put everything back on correctly now," Bracken said. "We've passed the boundaries."
Seth didn't ask him how he could tell – Bracken had explained before that he could sense shifts in the surrounding magic which indicated different portions of the preserve. Instead, the boy plopped down next to the unicorn on a nearby rock for stability to switch his boots back around.
...And perhaps to pester said unicorn a little more.
"So you're in love with my sister, huh?" Seth asked, elbowing Bracken in the arm and winking.
"Seth! Cut the man a break!" Warren exclaimed at the same time that Bracken sighed exasperatedly.
"Okay," Seth answered, a satisfied smile on his face. "I approve. Just make sure she knows you two have a 'thing' before she goes off to school. I don't want her to bring Joe Schmoe home from school at Christmas time."
"Joe Schmoe? Who is that?" Bracken asked, looking slightly puzzled.
"Uh... it's a figure of speech. Not a specific person. I guess you've not heard that one before," Seth answered, scratching the back of his head.
"I see what's going on," Warren stated, standing up. "Bracken, our buddy Seth here is trying to tell you that he wants you as his brother-in-law and that he'll be upset if Kendra winds up dating some random guy she picks up at school."
"I definitely don't think Kendra is ready for marriage," Bracken said, his eyes wide. "You really believe she'd run off to university and marry the first man who crosses her path?"
Seth shrugged. "Probably not. But if there's a particular guy hanging around her every day and she isn't tied to someone else already, who knows? I'd imagine it's hard to be in a relationship if you're the only one in it, which is kind of what you two have got going on right now."
"That doesn't sound like her," Bracken disagreed, "but I hear what you're saying. She's still very young – she needs to experience more of life before I do anything about my feelings toward her. If that includes dating other men, then so be it."
"Fine," Seth said, standing up at the same time as Bracken. I'd better not end up with some random guy for a brother-in-law, he thought.
I would fight for her, Bracken replied. Ultimately it is her decision, though. I'm glad to hear that you're on my side; that means a lot to me.
The trio traveled onward in their quest to map a little more of the preserve in relative silence for several minutes until Seth spoke up again.
"So... would you rather always have to wear ear muffs or a nose plug?"
"Ear muffs," Bracken and Warren both said simultaneously.
Not my favorite chapter, but I had fun with the concept. I do not pretend to know everything about leshis – I did minor research online and just thought it'd be fun to write something simple with one in it.
How do you feel about Warren and Vanessa? Do you really, honestly think they'd be able to make it as a couple? I'm inclined to say probably not. Let me know what you think. ;)