🎂🎂🎂
WHEN I ask Ethan to teach me, he nods and holds out a piece of salmon jerky! Where did he get that from?!
“I’ll teach you when you figure out where I’ve hidden it, my lady.” The jerky vanishes.
“Again! Do it again!”
“You only get one chance a day, my lady.”
And so, we begin a new routine.
I remain unsuccessful. One morning, after he pulls a handkerchief from somewhere, I place it in my pocket before heading to work.
I spend the morning at my lord husband’s office and finally pass my invitation to the female aide. Then, after lunch, we visit the medical center.
My lord husband knocks on the door, and when it opens, Wendy stands on the threshold.
“Why is Haydn here?” he calls to the back of the room, ignoring her altogether, but no response comes. Wendy is the only one there.
“What’s wrong? Didn’t Little Abby ask to learn healing magic from me the other day?”
Did I? I’m not sure. Conversation is still hard for me.
She then says that the healer on duty is on break and that she’s covering for her colleague.
My lord husband groans. “I asked for a proper healer to be present, not a random user of healing magic.”
“Meanie. Didn’t she just want to see how it’s wielded? I can do that as well as any healer.”
“That’s exactly why you never get any better! You’re slow and your magic is weak! Even the way you harness your magical energy is inefficient!”
“Why does it matter? It’s not as if she can learn the magic just by watching me do it. One has to have the right aptitude for it. Isn’t that right, Little Abby?”
She flashes me a wide grin and I nod in response. I merely want to see how it’s done, even if it’s done badly. Satisfied, she puffs out her chest, still barely restrained by her clothing, and indicates for my lord husband and me to sit on the sofa.
“Hasn’t anyone bought you new clothes yet?” I ask.
“What? I just got this set recently?”
How can it be?! Do chests grow that quickly? I raise a hand to my own, and my lord husband pushes it back into my lap. I understand. I’ll check when I get home.
Wendy starts to explain that healing spells require delicate manipulation of one’s energy as well as a good knowledge of human anatomy and structure. I already know that, and my lord husband says as much, urging her to just summon her magic.
She pouts a little. A few seconds later, magic begins to swirl slowly from the palm of her hand, about the same amount as what the small human possessed. The swirl looks a little lopsided, very unlike my lord husband’s magic, which resembles multiple perfect circles stacked atop one another.
✦ ✦ ✦
“Everlasting spring, imbued with light guiding earth and heavens, enter this body,” she cries.
“That long?!”
My lord husband snorts, and the swirl quickly crumbles and disappears… Probably because I’ve startled her.
“Oh! I’m sorry. I was just surprised,” I hurriedly explain. “My lord’s spells always consist of single words and commands.”
“That’s because it’s battle magic. Recovery magic usually has a long incantation,” she grumbles.
“Just admit you need more training, Haydn.”
“The fact that I can wield it is still special, Gerald.”
“Wendy likes being special,” I confirm. The small human was like that too.
“You’re stronger and bigger than the other monsters, so you’re their king!”
The small human was the reason I came to be known as the Monster King. “The Monster King has great hearing, so it can hear me. I’m its special friend,” he informed the villagers placing gifts at the entrance to the forest, and others. “It’ll heed my requests.”
The Monster King bounced when it sat beside the small human, sharing potatoes and mulberries. I feel bouncy when I’m having fun with my lord husband, so I’m sure the Monster King was enjoying itself too.
When the small human joined it on walks in the forest, it pulled on his arm to guide him away from monsters’ nests. It tugged on his clothes when he built fires by the river, warning him to avoid summoning blooms. The Monster King understood but couldn’t use human speech, so it communicated by touch and waving its numerous arms and legs.
That must be why the small human thought he was special: the Monster King taught him things no one else knew. And he wasn’t wrong. He was a special friend. I understand because I have one myself.
Wendy may not be the small human, yet they share a few traits, such as their magical prowess.
“…But my lord is my special person now,” I finish.
“Why does it feel like I’ve just been rejected?! …Gerald?!”
He has twisted to the side, hiding his face in the crook of his elbow. She reaches for him, and he slaps her hand away, just as he does when he trains with the guards every morning. Amazing.
“Proper healers use much shorter incantations, Abby. Shall we wait for him to come back so he can give an actual demonstration?”
“It’s fine. I’ve already seen what I need! Thank you, Wendy.”
“Oh, I-I see. That’s good?”
After witnessing it up close, I think I can cast healing magic if I want to.
But if I do, I may never be able to return to the forest. Because I will have wielded magic only humans can.