Leo and Heidi

Sternenberg, Switzerland

“I don’t know? Human?” Leo answered, watching his trembling hands, not believing his own words. The past few days had taken their toll on him as he started to doubt who he even was. He remembered himself as the scrawny kid fighting for his future and employment options to secure a good life. A life that would bring him comfort and security. Now he had none.

He raised his gaze and looked at Heidi, who stared at him and the Alpha’s son before speaking, “Aurel, you should leave. Go and check on your brother.” He looked at her for a second and nodded, “You know that we will not keep quiet about this. Father will hear. And do hope that my brother is alright.” He finished and turned to leave.

“Do not forget that it was you who breached the pacts, wolf,” Heidi said and went over to where Leo stood, still shaking slightly. The werewolf turned around, giving Heidi a sharp glare but said nothing and left.

“Well, that was fun,” Leo stated and flopped on the ground, laughing nervously. Heidi looked at him for a second and sat down next to him, evaluating his reactions.

“Yes, fun indeed. No doubt Fadri will run back to his father like a little bitch to whine all about it. So what happened with this Lis?” she asked unexpectedly.

Leo froze for a second, looking ahead and he turned to her, “What do you mean? I guess nothing happened…? I do not know. Why do you ask?”

It was Heidi’s turn to frown and she said, “Common, it was obvious last night. She was eying you the whole night for some reason and you acted weird. Evan mentioned in the morning that you did not come back to your room last night. So I assumed…” She trailed off and looked ahead to the forest, deep in thought.

A thought came to Leo but he chose not to voice it, being smarter for once. How did he not see it before? The concern she displayed at him. Obviously, there was something more to her interest than a helping hand, trying to offer aid for him to adjust to the new magical world.

“Heidi, honestly, I do not know what happened last night. The whole thing was hazy after we got our drinks. You know it was crazy last night. Maybe I drank too much and that is why I do not remember anything,” he proposed.

“Yea, like there is a chance of that. More like someone spiked your drink and had her way,” Heidi said, watching Leo carefully. He turned to her and said, “Common on, that is not true. Who would anyone want to tangle with me? A simple mud, as you like to call me,” he said, his anxiousness turning to slight anger.

Heidi did not answer for a moment. Then she said, “Well I do not know. Sorry for assuming, I guess. Not your fault anyway.”

Leo turned back to watch the forest and said, “Sure, no problem. Though I am more interested in what happened just now. I never practiced any magic like that. I could form a gust of wind barely before, now I felt like an endless well exploded out of me.”

Heidi put her hand on his shoulder and concentrated, trying to feel the power inside of him. While hard, it was not impossible to roughly estimate the level of the core a mage held, especially for air mages. In less than a second after her hand landed on his shoulder, she jolted and pulled it back, shocked by the amount of power flooding him.

“What is wrong?” he asked.

“Wow, did not expect that,” she said, shaking her arm. “The amount of mana you carry is crazy. It is like an endless… I do not know, river?” She said thoughtfully, recognizing that the power was not really his. More like something he had access to, but he had not made his.

“What do you mean? Is it again as bad as before? Damn…,” he said in a panicky voice.

“No, Leo. Calm down. That is not what I meant,” Heidi clarified quickly. “It is something that I have never encountered. Maybe we should go and see Seb about this?” She proposed ready to get up but then remembered and asked, “No, before we do that - can you check you, what did you call it? Core space?”

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Leo stared at her and said, “Right, how did I not think of that?” Then he closed his eyes and concentrated. In a moment he was back in the void deep inside him and saw his core sitting where it was, as before. The only oddity he saw was the mixed black and white within the mass of green. But then he noticed a white cord, thrumming with power, stretching out of his core. Observing closer he saw that the cord was transferring mana at an alarming rate. Leo wondered what effect it would have on him after opening his mana channels fully but decided against trying, instead choosing to go back to reality and consult on his findings.

Opening his eyes, he saw Heidi’s green eyes fixated on him and he said, “Yea, I see something has changed. The colors are all messed up inside the core now, something black and white added to the mass of green. And there is this weird cable-looking thing that is transferring mana, concentrated mana to my core. I have no idea what it is. Though it somehow reminds me of my dream…”

“What dream?” she asked.

“I had a weird dream when we were driving here. Something about the sky? No, about the cosmos. There was this raging river? And I saw my core and funnel in the dream. I do not know, it was very metaphorical, though it seemed so real,” Leo said, not being able to remember more details from the dream.

Heidi looked at him puzzled and stated, “Well, whatever it is I hope that Seb can help us out. Or back to the recording crystals.”

Leo sighed in defeat, not missing the recorded lessons from Alea at all. While interesting and bizarre, her approach to teaching left a bad taste in his mouth. “Hey, but what about those practical applications? I mean, I learned more by trying to form something from mana, rather than listening about it from a recording,” he said.

Heidi smiled at him and said, “Yes, but you did not knock people or more precisely werewolf tens of meters through the forest with a thought before, did you? Something is wrong and I think we need to learn more about it. At least before you hurt yourself or someone else. Like me?” She asked and looked at him expectantly.

Leo nodded and got up, offering her a hand to stand, which she gladly accepted. He noted that her palm was warm and smooth to the touch. He almost blushed but managed to keep appearances.

“So where could Seb be?” he asked, releasing her hand and turning around, to leave back to the way the brothers went. Heidi chuckled at his reaction, her bad mood having been eased up, and said, “I do not know. Will need to search for him. Last I saw, he was with the other workers on the farm. Putting Evan to work.”

They went through the forest, back to the barn full of cows and Leo asked, “What? Put Evan to work? Doing what? Chopping wood?”

Heidi laughed and answered, “No, you dumbass. Have you not noticed what type of business they run here?”

Then Leo mentally face-palmed himself and said, “Animals. Right.” He laughed and went out of the thick forest, walking toward the cowshed nearby. The thought of Evan moving manure seemed funny to Leo, as he could not imagine his best friend dressed as a farmer with a fork, given how Evan carried himself back home.

In no time they came by the barn and saw that the wolf brothers had already made it there and found their father and Seb on the spot. True to his imagination, Evan was shifting manure in some sort of crate a few paces from the group, while the rat-looking one was yelling in Seb’s face waving with his hands. Seb did not look like he enjoyed it, and judging by his grimace, Leo saw from a distance, Seb barely had the patience to listen to the boy.

“... I told you they have breached the pacts! Look at me!” Shadri said, and waved at his torn clothes, Leo heard as they walked closer. Then he turned to his left and saw the approaching Leo and said, “Here, there he is father! He attacked me!”

Leo walked over with Heidi and stood five meters from the group. Then Heidi said, “No, Fadri, he defended himself. It was you and your brother who came to find us in the clearing, throwing some accusations.”

“What accusations?” Peter asked with a rumble, while Seb narrowed his eyes at Leo.

Both brothers looked uncomfortable and did not answer. The father asked again in a more serious tone, “Well?”

“That he had spoiled our Lis’s honor, father,” Auriel responded calmly. Peter’s gaze snapped at Leo and his eyes changed color to yellow, returning to normal in a second. He breathed out calmly and said, “Well, I would know, first of all. Second, she is a grown woman and would not decide to mingle with one such as him.”

“Yea, a freak, that is what he is,” Fadri threw in his five cents again. Peter breathed the air next to Leo and caught the scent of mana in the air. It was so concentrated and pure that he raised his eyebrows and muttered, “Damn…”

“What is it, Peter?” Seb asked.

“Can you feel the power?” Peter answered, stepping closer to the boy. “He was not like this yesterday when you came here,” he commented absently, recognizing that he smelled like the mages of old. Raw, untapped power leaking out of him.

Seb snatched Leo’s hand and frowned, then, same as Heidi, pulled his hand away as if jolted and said, “Well, shit. Now that is bad.”