Based on characters from Fablehaven© by Brandon Mull. The original characters and plot details are my property. No copyright infringement intended.
After the long walk, Kendra was tired and still depressed. Distracted she walked up to the cabin and was startled as several rabbits scattered. The sudden movement startled her so she ran to the porch for safety. The house had a warding spell on it and only humans could enter so she knew she was safe on the porch and in the house.
The vegetable garden that Warren and his brother Dale had planted during his stay there had become overgrown. Rabbits, mice and other wildlife had made a home around the cabin. Gnomes and other small vegetable eaters had also taken up harvesting the crop. She looked around the garden, noticed that the earth was freshly turned and some of the crop had been harvested. The garden gnomes had been hard at work tending the crop, though none were around at the moment. When nothing popped out of the high vegetation so she relaxed.
Kendra took note of the work needed to tidy up the porch then opened the screen door. She then opened the heavy wooden front door. She left the big wood door open and walked in. It was stuffy and overly warm inside the small cabin. She knew she would have to open the windows to let in air so she could work without overheating. When she entered, she had assumed the cabin would be empty so the feeling of not being alone surprised her.
Standing at the door, she started to scan the one room cabin. She heard a sigh. She turned toward the noise, her hand on the doorknob ready to slam the big door behind her and flee. She felt the cooler air rush into the room across her feet and heard a relieved sigh this time.
Over the edge of the kitchen table, she saw the head and shoulders of a thin pale young man, with long unruly white blonde hair, sitting on the floor his back against the bed. He was obviously overheated, his skin was sweaty and his hair was wet and sticking to his face and neck. She could see his knees pulled to his chest, his chin resting on his arms which crossed on his knees.
She recognized him immediately. It was Raxtus' in human form. His boyish fairy face and white blonde hair was easily identifiable in the handsome and more mature young man's face. His familiar icy blue eyes stared ahead unfocused. He seemed to be brooding. She was elated that besides being sad and sweaty he seemed to be okay.
"Raxtus is that you?" Kendra exclaimed. She moved closer to get a full view of the young man on the floor. He looked about 16 or 17 and lean but tough, his muscles were well defined. He was bare-chested and his legs were also bare but his former avatar only wore a loincloth so she didn't think anything of it. She saw the garden mud on his arms, hands, legs and feet then suddenly realized he wasn't wearing the loincloth she expected.
She turned her eyes upward quickly when she noticed he was naked.
"Oh my," she muttered blushing. She backed up so the kitchen table blocked her view of the majority of Raxtus.
"Yes it's me," Raxtus slowly mumbled, moving his forehead onto his arms no longer staring ahead.
"Are you okay?" She asked worried that perhaps he was injured. He wasn't moving around and seemed lethargic. She also couldn't understand why he was naked but it was very hot in there.
"I think so," he mumbled.
She turned to open a window, more cool air rushed into the room. Kendra relaxed and the first of thousand questions she had for him poured out.
"Where have you been? What have you been doing? Everyone's been so worried. We needed to tell you so many things and you just disappeared… and… and you're human…" Kendra's words spilled out of her.
"Yah, I guess so," he said still mumbling talking to the floor. He seemed very tired or depressed. "Someone forgot to tell me a lot of things."
"Why did you leave? Where did you go?" she asked. "We couldn't explain everything to you beforehand," Kendra blushed with embarrassment at their duplicity. He hadn't gotten full disclosure, but neither had she – really. "We checked on you, everyday, so we could talk to you but suddenly you were gone.
"Have you been in here all the time?" she asked. As soon as she said the words, she rejected them. He couldn't have gotten into the cabin as a dragon the wards would have prevented that besides the door was too small. She couldn't imagine wandering around naked but she wasn't a dragon or a boy, they did things she would never do. She focused only on his face. It seemed melancholy instead of his usually cheerful self.
"Am I human? I thought I was but… I am, aren't I." Raxtus asked and looked up at her for the first time and as she nodded repeatedly, in reply his expression suddenly changed. His eyes twinkled and he smiled sheepishly. He straightened his arms stretching and started to get up.
"Oh, wait, please, don't get up yet. Um... Here – put this around you," she said hurriedly and grabbed the tablecloth on the table in front of her, wadded it into a ball and tossed it at Raxtus trying not to look directly at him.
"Why?" He remained on the floor and caught the wad of cloth. He looked up at her averted face then looked down at himself.
"Oops, sorry Kendra, I didn't think about clothes," he apologized. His mood seemed to lighten more as he pulled the piece of cloth across him. "I was outside next to the porch and then I came in. I don't know why I chose this place but I'm glad the cabin was here.
"Being human size... and, uh, human… it feels… different. I'm feeling a little overwhelmed with strange emotions. I was lonely and feeling sad. Now you are here and I'm feeling happy," he said.
He smiled and she noticed it lit up his whole face making him even more handsome.
"But I didn't think about my lack of clothing – sorry," he sighed. "I guess I need to carry some clothes with me." He stood up holding the cloth out in front of him.
"Wrap it like this." She pantomimed the way she had wrapped the towel around her waist at the pool.
"Oh, okay." He looked down and moved the cloth around.
She quickly turned away as his awkward fumbling with the cloth threatened to embarrass her again. She walked over to a closed window and opened it. The rush of cooler air felt good in the warm room. The heat was much less than when she had first entered. The sweat that had begun to form on her face quickly dried.
He fought with the cloth for a moment and finally wrapped and tucked the cloth properly as she demonstrated. The wound on his side hurt now, he had almost forgotten about it. He couldn't heal himself so he needed help. He looked up a moment later to see her turned away, standing next to an open window.
"Done," he laughed, the air was much cooler with more windows open. The strange feeling of water running down his body had stopped; the sweat was drying now.
"But – you have dragon magic now – don't you? Doesn't it work the same way?" Kendra questioned him. "Navarog didn't show up naked when he changed into Gavin," she continued, looking over at him again. Pale as a ghost, she could see the blue lines of his veins but the contours of his muscles were perfect like a male model. She noticed the bright red gash on his flawless pale skin. Though the wound wasn't bleeding it the looked painful.
"I don't know! All my magic is gone. I can't feel it anymore. I don't feel any magic at all! Did you know that?" Raxtus asked his happy mood instantly disappeared. He threw his arms into the air gesturing his frustration. He sucked in air with pain and winced as he favored his wounded side and pressed his hand over the wound.
Yes and no, Kendra thought to herself, swallowing uncomfortably.
"How do you know you don't have any magic?" she asked.
"I tried to heal myself," he said gesturing to the gash on his ribs that had started seeping blood. "Nothing happened."
"It looks like it hurts, do you want me to bandage for you?" she asked.
"Would you? Please," he asked. He had never had a wound he couldn't heal and he had no idea how humans dealt with them.
The wound looked several days old and had started healing, but it was a deep cut and his movements had opened it. She knew if he had just invoked his avatar it couldn't be a wound he got recently, it had to be his dragon form that was initially injured.
Kendra went to the pantry and pulled out the first aid kit. She smeared an antiseptic cream on a large gauze pad and cut four strips of tape. She lightly placed the gooey gauze over the wound. She dried his still damp skin with a dishtowel and applied the adhesive tape.
"There all done," she said as she pressed down the last piece of tape to hold the bandage in place. "Well, dragon magic wouldn't heal you, but you are healing faster than a normal human," she said trying to be optimistic. She tried to get him to think positively about the lack of fairy magic. "So the spell removed the fairy magic and all you have now is dragon magic. That would be a good thing, wouldn't it?"
"I suppose," he said doubtfully. He moved his arm pulling against the wound. It was still painful. Wearing a bandage was not as good as being able to heal yourself. He pressed against the bandage and winced at the pain. Okay, don't do that, he said to himself.
He thought about what she said – no fairy magic. If he had any magic at all, it was dragon magic. He didn't know how that felt. He couldn't feel any magic inside him, at least not the way he felt his fairy magic.
"What did you do before? How did you happen to show up wearing a loincloth?" she asked soothingly, trying to be helpful and getting back to the original subject of clothing.
"I didn't think about it, I just had that silly loincloth on," he replied a little less angry but still waving his hands around.
Suddenly his eyes narrowed and he became more contemplative.
"Okay, then just think of a silly loincloth or something and see if you can get something to wear," Kendra suggested hoping that the tablecloth wrapped around his waist wouldn't slip while he gestured vigorously.
"I don't feel the dragon magic at all. It must be so different from fairy magic. I relied on fairy magic all my life but I'll try," he sighed, trying to remember what he had done.
"Well you've gotta have magic of some kind since you invoked your avatar so since you're going to try, try some real clothes. You know, people clothes," Kendra urged.
"Well, I guess I'll try for that." Raxtus closed his eyes. He stood with his hands on his hips thinking, trying to remember. At the moment all he could remember was that his avatar embarrassed him more than what it looked like or how he 'created' it.
Kendra could almost hear the wheels turning in his head. She watched him as he cocked his head from side to side and up and down as he searched his mind for what he was looking for. His muscles flexed as he moved around thinking. She couldn't help but notice how beautiful his slim body was, along with his handsome face. He's an amazing looking young man, she thought evaluating his new avatar.
He wrinkled his forehead. Clothes! he thought. He opened one eye and peered down at himself. Nothing had occurred. He went back to searching his mind. He scrunched his face in a really ugly grimace and grunted – clothes!
"Nope that didn't work either," she giggled slightly embarrassed at her own thoughts.
"Hmm, I wonder," he mused looking over at Kendra. "Close your eyes just in case this doesn't work."
As soon as she closed her eyes, a flash of bright blue light filled the space. Raxtus stood next to the table totally naked, his skin and hair sweat-free. The table cloth and his newly applied bandage were at his feet covered in clumps of dried garden mud that no longer coated his legs and feet.
"Crud," he said and quickly reached down and picked up the tablecloth and wrapped it around him again. "Well I can't do it. I have no magic. How I can invoke my avatar is a mystery," he said disappointed.
He looked over at Kendra with her eyes still closed and said, "You can open your eyes now. I'm decent. I messed up, even the bandage came off."
"What did you try to do?" she asked, as she looked at his sudden mass of dry hair then the mess on the floor.
"I remembered that I always pictured myself wearing that stupid loincloth when I became my avatar and that's what I showed up wearing. It was worth a try but it didn't work. I'm glad I could just re-avatar myself without cycling through the big me. It would have gotten a little tight in here," He said a little sadly looking around the room.
"Well you need some clothes, let's see what there is here. She went to the dresser and opened a drawer. It was empty. She tried the next one.
"Ah ha!" she cried, several of Warren's old t-shirts and a pair of jeans lay neatly folded in the drawer. "The jeans will be too big around but better than a tablecloth. I think we can make a belt out of the rolled gauze and you can tighten it up," she said as she pulled out the jeans and one of the t-shirts and handed them to him.
She returned to the first aid kit and cut a length of gauze keeping her back to him as he dressed. "Here, thread this through the belt loops," she said and dangled the gauze over her shoulder without turning around.
He chuckled but took the gauze from her.
She made another bandage for his ribs while she was standing there. She put the tape on the bandage ahead of time, thinking she would just press it on quickly this time.
A moment later, he announced. "Well, they are on me. I'm dressed.".