Story: Middle Part 39
[[Continuity Note: Jessica and Alf have been sent upstairs to talk to Rock who should be awake after sleeping since his interview with the magi-scientists.]]
Jessica walked into her cousin's room first, followed carefully by Alf. This was the first time he'd been in Rock's bedroom. The older teen was lying in his large four-poster bed that seemed to have been placed there centuries ago by a different person. But since the house wasn't that old, it probably hadn't been placed there so long ago. His bedsheets were dark blue and a small beam of sunlight illuminated a strip of the bed.
Coming up beside the bed, Jessica looked at her cousin and observed his breathing. "I know you're awake, Rock," she stated, then shook his shoulder.
He rolled over, but did not otherwise stir.
"Come on," Jessica complained. "We're not bringing you breakfast in bed. And not just because it's actually lunch time."
Rock made a strange indecipherable noise as he buried himself further into his sheets.
Suddenly Alf noticed something that made him giggle. It was a small stuffed rabbit, sitting on a shelf across from Rock's bed. It was obviously well loved and the mere thought of someone so harsh as Rock carrying any variety of stuffed toy with him made him laugh. Before long, despite the fact that Jessica had no idea what he was laughing about, she soon joined it.
All of a sudden, as though not wanting to be left out, Rock sat up in bed with a slight laugh. "What are you laughing about, Sprout?" he asked.
It was difficult for Alf to get his chuckles under control for even the few seconds required to answer that statement, so he merely pointed. Seeing this, Jessica stopped laughing and Rock launched himself at the smaller teen. He was stopped by an invisible barrier that Alf had subconsciously conjured. He was furious, and this was enough to stop Alf's laughter.
"I'm sorry," Alf apologised. "I just found it dreadfully amusing."
That didn't work much in the way of an apology and Rock seemed prepared to launch himself at Harry again but Jessica spoke, "Well, at least that got you up."
And at once Rock forgot that he'd been trying to kill Alf, and that he'd previously been trying to lounge in his bed for the rest of the day.
"And now that you're up, you can tell us all about what happened yesterday."
"Fine," Rock stated, pleased that the attention was now focused on him and not on anyone else. "But let's go somewhere else."
Alf nodded his agreement and Jessica led the way out of Rock's room. They walked down the corridor, then headed back toward the back of the house. The corridor ended in a set of sliding doors that opened out onto a balcony and that's where Jessica led them. They conjured a rug and the three of them sat there, leaning against the railing, watching to see if people were coming towards them.
"So how was the interview?" Jessica asked Rock.
Despite the fact that he enjoyed having the attention on himself, Rock thought it would be better to turn it over to Alf first. "Shouldn't the Sprout go first, since he had his interview first." The way he said it made him sound like he was a little put out that his wasn't the first house visited.
He then sat back and summoned a bag of chocolate from somewhere.
"I see," Alf said. "You just wanted to eat."
Rock grinned, but made no move to contradict the smaller teen.
"Go on then, Alf," Jessica stated. She'd be sitting on the edge of her seat if she had one.
"Basically they came in and started asking me questions. Asking me about how I realised I'd come into my power. What I could do. Then they asked me to demonstrate. Nothing much really, except that when they wanted to take a magic sample I managed to get it out, but then it wouldn't stop. So Mr Wiley put a binding spell on me and I slept until this morning."
"A binding spell?" Jessica was shocked. "Do you know how dangerous those are?"
Alf shrugged. "I didn't know he was doing it until he did it. And the way he said it, it seemed like the only thing that would stop it all from just leaking out."
"He did that to me, too," Rock added.
"That's really odd, you know," Jessica said. "That your magic just came out. That's not normal. When dad did a magic test on mine because we couldn't work out what my element was I could stop it pretty easily."
"Well, you'd had your magic for longer, surely," Alf suggested. "So it would have been easier for you to control it."
"I don't know," Jessica said. "But the binding spell's off, now, right?"
Alf nodded. "Yeah I used some magic this morning when I was chasing Damien."
"You were chasing Reed?" Rock asked.
"Yeah," Alf nodded. "You know how he came back pretty out of it on Friday. Then he left before you guys had even woken up. He says he doesn't want to ever use magic ever again."
"What a loser," Rock commented. "I wouldn't give this up for the world," he said as he made a fist and caused flames to burst out between his knuckles.
"Yeah, we agree with you. Meaning we're going to have to get him to start using it soon," Jessica stated. "Before he goes asking someone to put a permanent binding spell on him."
"He wouldn't," Alf breathed. Somehow, Jessica managed to make a binding spell seem like the scariest thing in the universe.
Jessica shrugged. "He's going to start using magic subconsciously. If he really wants to stop that he's going to want to make someone stop it permanently."
"He can do magic subconsciously?" Rock asked. "But can't only the most powerful witches do that?"
Jessica nodded.
"No way. You cannot be that powerful and want to get rid of it. That's just not allowed," Rock protested.
"He didn't grow up like we did," Jessica stated.
"I didn't either," Alf interjected. And neither Aldus had a response for that. "Anyway," Alf changed the subject. "What was your interview like?" Alf asked Rock.
Rock grinned, and stretched, obviously settling in for a long round of story telling. "Pretty much exactly the same as yours." Alf and Jessica refrained from hitting him upside the head in tandem.
"What colour's your magic?" Jessica asked.
"This gross mucus green," Alf stated with a grimace.
"Hey," Rock frowned. "Mine's that colour too. Like, sort of yellowy green."
"That means your element's earth, both of you," Jessica informed them.
"Then why do I have such an affinity for fire?" Rock asked, illuminating his face with said element.
Jessica shrugged. "Because you're a troublemaker?" she suggested.
"I resent that," Rock stated, flicking a fireball at her.
Jessica doused it before it came anywhere near her and she fixed him with a glare.
"Oh come on," Alf said. "You know it's true, Rock."
He flicked one at Alf, too, who blew it back with a little gust of wind, singeing Rock's hair slightly as he wasn't paying enough attention to stop the attack.
"You're going down, Sprout."
"Yup," Alf agreed. "Nice seeing you Jessica, but it looks like I'm going to have to cut this visit short."
He stepped off the balcony before Rock could get him with anything worse than a little fireball.
[[End scene... finally.]]
posted by Cedric @ 1:01 pm
<< Home