Based on characters from Fablehaven© by Brandon Mull. The original characters and plot details are my property. No copyright infringement intended.
In a bright flash, Raxtus transformed from a twelve foot tall, twenty-three foot long silver white dragon to become his embarrassing avatar, a slender foot tall boy with wings. He hovered in the air. His rapidly fluttering metallic butterfly shaped wings glimmered in the bright fairylight and his shoulder length silver white hair looked windblown. He was wearing a plain brown loincloth and nothing else. His boyishly handsome face reflected his eager anticipation and his total embarrassment. Still mischief twinkled in his sharp ice blue eyes as he turned to glare at the giggling garden fairies.
This was the first time Kendra had seen Raxtus' avatar in the light. The only other time she had seen him he was a small shadowy figure, she had called him adorable then. He had let her see him just enough for her to know he wasn't lying about his 'strangeness'. She thought he was cute but that would probably make him even more miserable. Neither dragons nor their avatars were supposed to be 'cute'.
Kendra stood behind the intricately carved table, Bracken beside her. Bracken looked incongruously ready for battle, carrying his two swords. One sheathed on his hip and the longer one strapped across his back.
Looking up at the clock and ignoring the still giggling fairies Raxtus flew across the room to join them.
"Are you ready?" Kendra asked smiling at Raxtus. She got a good look at him and thought he was quite strikingly handsome, and though quite small he was too large to be considered a proper fairy. As he stared up at her she thought his eyes were remarkable, the unique blue of glacial ice.
"Ready as I will ever be. Thanks for doing this," Raxtus said smiling shyly back at them.
Kendra smiled at his small but pleasant voice. It was similar to his dragon voice but lacked the resonance and volume. She turned to face Bracken. She smiled up at him and nervously held out her hands to receive his unicorn horns.
He smiled back and pulled a short sword from the scabbard on his hip. With a mirage-like ripple in the surrounding air it shifted its appearance into a lustrous unicorn horn. This one with the lazy spirals was the horn of his childhood, his first horn, full of powerful rejuvenation magic. He pulled his second much longer sword from the sheath on his back and it too returned to its original shape of a tightly spiraling horn. This deadly looking spike with a thin translucent skin over a luminous pearly core was the horn of his youth, his second horn, full of growth and healing power.
He laid the small light horn in her right hand and the longer heavier horn in her left hand.
As they touched her skin, the horns took on a glow of fairy magic brighter than anything Raxtus had ever seen. They glowed even brighter than Kendra herself did. He winced at the brightness and narrowed his eyes.
She smiled when she saw his eyes narrow; she knew he was seeing something she had never seen – the glow of fairy magic. Oh well, she thought, she could feel the magic. She felt the cool horns warm in her grip.
Bracken's eyes also narrowed against the sudden brightness. Fairies gasped at the powerful visual result of her touch. Kendra's seemingly endless supply of fairy magic surprised even him.
He smiled at Raxtus knowing what was about to happen may become frightening but it was going to be a good thing for him in the end.
Raxtus thought Bracken smiled at him though it was difficult to see him. He was a dim shadowy outline next to Kendra's and the horns' brightness.
Kendra seemed unaffected by the brilliant shine. She claimed that she didn't see her own glow. There's no way she can't see this, he thought.
Raxtus hovered above the table his wings flashing as they reflected the light from the glowing horns in Kendra's grip. The light streaked back and forth across the walls of the room. He was very self-conscious as the watching fairies twittered and giggled as the light flitted past them. He never got used to the humiliation but stoically he knew it would all be behind him shortly. Still he wished that even this part was private. He wouldn't have minded Shiara being here; it was the rest of the silly creatures that bothered him.
"Stand on your feet Raxtus. We need you to be still. Stand in the center," Bracken instructed him pointing at the tabletop.
He obeyed and as his bare feet settled on the table his wings came to a halt. Standing on the tabletop felt strange. He looked down and wiggled his tiny toes and it felt even stranger.
He looked up, scanning the room, at the sudden commotion. The resulting stationary beam of light reflecting off his metallic wings caused fairies to scramble away from the intense glare that had found a home where they had been watching the proceedings.
"Ok, here we go." Kendra took a deep breath and sighed.
She held the blunt tip of the small horn to Raxtus's tiny forehead. "Don't move," she whispered nervously.
He tried to look at the unicorn horn she held against his head but it was too bright. He felt heat enter him and the tingle of fairy magic. He was used to Kendra's magical warmth when she touched him, skin to scale. This was slightly different as it flowed through Bracken's horn but it felt good. She had transferred her warming fairy magic to him many times when he was a dragon but she had never touched him in his avatar form.
No one had ever touched him in his avatar form not even Shiara. Even now she was not touching him the horn separated them. Now no one ever would touch this avatar, soon it would be gone. He reached out with his tiny hand to touch her hand but it was too far away. His arm was too short.
Oh well, he thought, it's all right.
But it wasn't. His avatar self was terribly sad when he should have been happy.
Kendra saw him reach out to her but couldn't respond, her hands were full and the timing had to be right also. She set the base of the second horn against his chest over his heart and the flow of magic out of her increased, surprising her. She thought that she was going to be removing fairy magic from Raxtus not adding to it.
Raxtus felt the flow increase and he began to glow. With the boost of magic he got even warmer. Although it wasn't painful, it was beginning to get uncomfortable, like he was full to bursting with magic. He was glowing brighter than Kendra was and the light was just as intense with his eyes closed as not.
When Raxtus thought he would explode or outshine the sun Bracken reached out, and placed his right hand on horn that pressed against his forehead just in front of Kendra's hand. The intense feeling subsided, the rapid flow of magic stopped and the glow dimmed slightly.
Raxtus sighed with relief, looking over at Bracken's dim outline.
Kendra felt the flow reverse, the magic slowly returning to her through the horn. This was more like what she expected.
Bracken smiled briefly at him then he put his left hand on the other horn. The glow and warmth began to fade rapidly as if he were drawing all of the magic away. His smile faded.
Raxtus began to weaken as if the horn drained both his magic and his life-force away and it frightened him.
"No! Wait! What are you doing? This isn't right. Stop!" Raxtus raised his tiny voice in alarm. He tried to pull away but the magic held him in place. He tried to use his wings to get away, they flashed once as he tried to rise from the ground. His feet felt glued to the tabletop held there by magic also.
"Don't move Raxtus," Kendra pleaded as she concentrated on holding the horns still. She saw more than felt his feeble attempt to get away from her and Bracken. The flow of magic leaving Raxtus increased like a broken dam it flooded out of him. She wondered, is this too fast? It was frightening him, she was concerned but Bracken seemed calm.
"It's alright Raxtus. It is supposed to do this," Bracken said trying to calm him while also concentrating. He did not like what he was feeling as the flow of magic leaving Raxtus increased passing though his horns back into Kendra. This was 'terrible magic' as his mother had told him, and it was proving to be very frightening as well. He tried to remain calm for both Raxtus' and Kendra's sake.
"No! No, stop, I've changed my mind. Please. Kendra. Bracken. Stop," he begged, crying. His wings frantically pulled at the air but he remained unmoved.
He was hurting now not from the warmth but from the lack of it. He reached up to grasp the base of the horn resting on his chest over his heart but found he could not touch it. His small hand was not strong enough to push through the magic.
"Sorry Raxtus, it's too late to stop now," Bracken replied apologetically. Even though the spell's instructions were simple and plain Raxtus' reaction had him hoping that he was doing this correctly.
The light in the horns faded even faster now.
Kendra gasped. She, like Raxtus, was unable to move as she felt the rushing flood of magic leave him.
"No…" Raxtus sobbed his voice dim and weak. He thought he felt his life-force evaporating. His wings bent and shriveled looking like crumpled aluminum foil. His silver white hair turned an ugly gray. He was terrified and in his panic he fainted.
His tiny body hung limply, looking almost pierced by the horns, held by the magic still flowing out of him back into Kendra.
Fairies cried out in fear and started to huddle together around Shiara.
The light winked once and went out. Kendra and Bracken stood holding the now cool lightless unicorn horns. Raxtus' body, released from the magic of the horns, collapsed like a ragdoll to the tabletop.
Kendra stood there stunned. She was afraid she had pulled more than just magic from his body. He looked as if he was dead until she noticed he was still breathing.
Bracken quickly pulled the smaller of the two horns from Kendra's unresponsive hand. He bent over the table and using the horn turned Raxtus' body so he could lay the horn across his tiny chest. He placed a hand on each end of the horn channeling healing and hoping Raxtus could and would revert to his dragon form. Come on you can do it, he thought positively, feeling strength returning to the small body under his care.
His mother told him that in a dire health crisis like this all avatars automatically revert to their natural state, if possible. He, like wizards, was the exception, but Raxtus could revert and he needed to do it now.
Bracken, his horn and Raxtus' tiny body glowed with a brilliant blue light for a moment. Then in a blinding burst of white light Raxtus flashed back into a dragon collapsing the table beneath him, he rotated and hit the ground on his side. Bracken, pulling Kendra with him, jumped out of the way of the much larger form.
Raxtus' usually brilliant and shiny platinum scales were dull and dim. His eyes remained closed. His breathing was steady but otherwise he was motionless. His position pinned one of his wingtips beneath him, the other wing draped across the floor.
"What have we done?" Kendra gasped, appalled at his appearance. She stood back where he had pulled her, trembling, still holding onto the unicorn horn.
"What needed to be done," Bracken replied softly, unhappily. He touched the horn in his hand to the sheath on his side, it transformed back into a sword and effortlessly slid in. "He needs rest. He no longer has fairy magic. He must find the strength from inside now. He must depend on his inner dragon magic."
"How will he know what to do?" Kendra asked, tears streaming from her eyes.
Bracken looked at her, she wasn't in shock but she was upset. He took the other horn from her grip and it shimmered into a sword as he swung it over his head into the sheath across his back.
"Celebrant said he will have a guide, but that first he must rest," Bracken informed her and pulled her into his embrace. She trembled as he held her tightly, her tears continued to flow.
The fairies started to come closer now, concern showing on their faces. Shiara was especially upset.
"No! Stay away from him. Don't re-contaminate him with fairy magic. Let him do this on his own," Bracken warned them. "You must leave now," he said.
He kissed Kendra's forehead then walked across the room to the door. The fairies squealed with vexation but obeyed him and started drifting toward the exit.
Bracken unlatched and opened the door. Some darted out, some flew by slowly giggling at him, most were sad and fluttered close to Shiara.
Shiara was the last to leave. Her distress was apparent on her face.
"He will be okay, Shiara," Bracken reassured her.
She nodded and herded the fairies crowding around the doorway away from the building.