Fantasy Flash Collection - 1. The Forest

Justin was creeping through the woods when he came across a small body lay curled into itself tucked under a little hill. He would have missed it entirely but for his empathy.

The emotion that registered with him was emptiness.

He approached the small bundle cautiously. He increased his scan and found that there was no ill intent coming from the body. It was something young and still alive. He gently searched for thoughts and only found that it was a boy. Teen by the feel, but petite for his age. A quick scan of his surface thoughts revealed the boy’s name, Toby.

“Toby, can you hear me?” he asked very gently.

Very large blue eyes opened and looked at him. They held no reaction. They looked deeply haunted.

“Do you have a place to go?” Justin asked, despite knowing otherwise.

After a long time, he shook his head side to side very slightly.

“I am going to a place that is safe and warm. Would you like to come with me?” Justin asked.

After another very long time, he nodded slowly.

“I’m going to cast a healing spell on you and it will probably feel a little odd. It will help you be able to walk. I have a stew cooking that will get some food in you.”

“Heal…” the boy said in a tortured whisper.

“I’m going to have to touch you. Is that okay?”

It took less time for him to nod this time.

Justin carefully pulled open the rags that served as the boy’s shirt and nearly growled at cuts and bruises on the boy’s torso. It was also clear that he didn’t get enough food. He initiated a powerful healing spell just before his hands came in contact with Toby’s skin. The boy gasped as the power rushed through him. Justin was careful to keep the magic centered on just the boy’s core. He wanted to examine thoroughly what the boy went through so that he could see to his full recovery. The boy slumped unconscious as Justin had expected. He cast a lightening charm and picked the boy up.

It only took him two hours to get back to his cave. From the outside, you would never know that the cave was even there. It was a very carefully planned trick of the light. Once past that there was a small entry cave that hid the real entrance. That entrance was secured with a magical amulet that he wore.

He placed the boy on a soft pallet not far from the fire. He hesitated for a few moments before he sighed and carefully stripped the boy of the rags he was wearing. He covered the boy with a blanket while he went and gathered the necessary materials. It took a quick blast of magic to heat the water in the bucket. He very thoroughly cleaned and examined the young man before him.

By the small trail of hair from his belly button and obvious development elsewhere, his assumption that this was a boy was off. Clearly the young man was seventeen or eighteen like himself, just exceptionally short. He cast another powerful healing spell when he was done to ensure he got everything.

He was quite exhausted by this point, so he set up another pallet nearby and gracefully crashed.

He woke up hours later with hair tickling his nose. He slowly opened his eyes and found that he was spooned very tightly with Toby. His bare chest was tightly pressed against Toby’s naked back. His arms were wrapped tightly around the other boy, and Toby’s hands were holding his in place. The blanket had shifted down which made him shiver slightly. He broke free one arm long enough to pull it back over them.

He made a conscious decision to just enjoy the sleeping companion, and after getting the blanket over them both, he pulled himself tighter to the other boy. Toby wiggled a little and pressed himself into him as much as he could.

The next morning Justin slowly shook away the last of his sleep. He realized that he was still holding the other boy tightly to him. He started to extract one arm when Toby twitched.

“You chose,” the boy said in an accusing tone.

“Yes, I did. But you chose as well. I have to wonder if you knew what you were getting into.”

“You’re mine.”

“Yes. But you’re mine as well.”

“What?”

“I know your kind, Toby. I healed you when I found you because it was the right thing to do. I knew there was a chance that you would do what you’ve done. It was a risk I was willing to take. However, I don’t think you took into account that I’m not an ordinary human. You would have natural control over them. There is no control over me.”