A Boy, a Dog Girl and a Daughter, Doughnut, Dagger and Dance: Part Three

The puck rocketed across the ice, a slick black circle which smoothly traveled between the sticks held by the boy and the dog girl. Their skates slashed over the surface of the frozen pool in the university’s sports complex. A small crowd had gathered in the stands, cheering the four players on the ice. Two in particular were highly passionate about championing Zack and Honey’s foes.

“Go Hellman! Go Cortz!” Vessria cheered.

“Break their skulls with your clubs!” Isadora cried.

“Sticks! They’re called sticks!” Zack shouted up to the stands.

“A stick is a club!” Isadora roared back.

“Technically she’s right, sweetheart!” Honey said as Hellman swooped in on her, narrowly missing the puck as she flicked it to Zack.

“Do not technically me! You have too much innate goodness to use lawyer logic!” Zack said as he received the puck, twisting sharply to avoid Cortz.

“Brother! The love birds are too finely in tune for normal play!” Hellman called out.

“Indeed! Let us show them the power of the brothers Allheim!” Cortz shouted to him. Both boys eyes began to glow, a deep blue light from Hellman’s right eye and Cortz’s left. They surged as one, each move performed as if from one brain in two bodies, perfectly blocking Zack’s shot at the goal while receiving a pass from the same block. Hellman blocked Zack while Cortz anticipated Honey’s moves without needing to look behind him. His brother’s eyes saw for him.

“Goal!” Cortz shouted as the puck slapped into Zack’s net. The crowd roared in approval at the spectacle, the Allheim brothers raising their fists in triumph while bowing like perfect showmen.

“Truly an incredible display of athletic performance!” Hellman crowed.

“We are as gods on this field of ice!” Cortz preened.

“A dazzling display of masculine might!”

“Like dancing warriors armed with staffs of pure testosterone fueled justice!”

“No net shall be spared our wrath!”

“No puck shall…”

A shimmering veil appeared around the boys heads, floating around them like two bubbles. The Allheim twins clearly did not notice how these magical veils kept their words from piercing them.

“I’ve been working on the silence spell,” Honey said, leaning on her stick.

“Good girl,” Zack said, scratching behind her ear.

“Mmm…sweetheart head scratches…” Honey hummed, closing her eyes.

“Alright! We’ve been here for over an hour!” Blarth called out from the seats, his gruff satyr voice cutting through the chilled air. “The university probably wants their pool back!”

“Do you think they might approve a hockey team?” Zack shouted.

“Could be a fun distraction, especially for non-magic folk! I’ll pass it along and see what I can do, kid! Now hurry up! The ice spell could wear off any…”

The sound of cracking ice echoed through the pool building.

The goals fell into the water as the ice shattered and melted.

The four teens followed them.

“There’s no way Chistos can blame me for this, is there?” Blarth asked Vessria. The woman sighed and shook her head as Isadora shook with laughter.

*

They stood near Twigbert, shivering as Honey conjured a warm glowing orb to hover around them. Vessria and Isadora brought them steaming, fizzing, chocolate like drinks.

“Should be all warm and toasty in ten minutes,” Honey said through chattering teeth.

“Thank you, Honey. We shall need our magic for tonight,” Hellman said.

“Yes! The lovely girls from the library club want to…study,” Cortz agreed.

“Does study mean banging?” Zack asked.

“No.”

“Yes.”

“Possibly.”

“It depends on how much they enjoy the poetry of the great bard, Jullic Xellian.”

“Ah, the words of Xellian!”

“No woman can resist a skilled tongue, brother.”

“And this is about my fill of you guys for today,” Zack said, stepping away quickly. “Honey, keep drying them off. I’m gonna get one last word in with Blarth.”

“We shall take great care of…”

“And no poetry around Honey, you two!” Zack said, jabbing a finger at them.

“Zack. Before you go…” Vessria said, sitting cross legged on a bench, lounging in her luxurious fur coat like a care free model. She beckoned him over with a finger.

“If this is about getting your kids wet…”

“No no, those boys need a good dunking once in a while,” Vessria said with a grin. “I’ve been thinking about the present Honey received from Isadora.”

“The necklace?”

“Yes. The more I thought of it, the more I realized I wanted you to have something too.”

Vessria pulled something from her coat. An ornate dagger in a gold scabbard laid flat in her palms.

“Whoa. Um, this seems like something you should give one of the twins,” Zack said a little sheepishly.

“I love my boys, and they will be great wizards one day. But…” Vessria looked to under the tree where Isadora was sighing heavily as each boy tried to impress an increasingly confused Honey with poetry. “Warriors they are not. You…you are a warrior. This dagger is special. It is the one which I used to stop the sixth magic war from starting. It increases in power with each person who truly cares for its wielder. For a truly beloved hero, it could become stronger than any known weapon.”

“Why me?” Zack said, holding the blade.

“We’re alive because you love Honey,” Vessria said with a wink. “Only seems right.”

Zack looked to his sweetheart, laughing in the snow.

“Maybe it does, lady.”