Knee Deep

Stella resented the curse. There was no doubt about that. It was, after all, the reason why she started travelling— one of them, at least. Eventually, people caught on to her lies, leading to her inevitable alienation from everyone.

She wasn’t desperate for friendship, camaraderie, or the romance of sharing secrets with those who truly see you and try to understand even when they might not relate. It wasn’t that. She did well on her own. And yet, she hated not having the power to choose.

Ultimately, the only person she could truly be honest with was herself. And even though success wasn’t always guaranteed, Stella tried to stay true to herself. There was, however, one thing she was forced to concede once in a while. The blasted curse could be useful.

“Oh, how I’ve missed your kind face, Papa!” It was too easy. The further from the truth the words were, the more effortlessly they slid off her tongue. She lied with the confidence of a king.

Every movement, every shift around Stella came to a sudden halt. There was silence. Wellstone, or should she say, ‘Papa’, was frozen in place, only his eyes left racing in their sockets. He was obviously trying to place her, find some sort of resemblance in her face. Amusement threatened her mouth as she thought how great it would be to hear the man’s thoughts.

She swiftly stole a glance at Runheart, who for the first time had something resembling emotion on his face. A slight frown that might as well have been a squint.

Fortunately, there were no sounds coming from the officers, which meant the magic commands had been interrupted.

“I—uh, don’t—” stuttered Wellstone, not because he had something to say, more so because it seemed expected of him.

Stella didn’t give him the chance to continue however. After gauging the distance between her and the man’s still outstretched arm, she lunged forward, high-kicking the magic token out of his hand. It flew so far she almost lost it for a second.

“My bad, thought you were someone else!” she said, stifling a laugh. That seemed to snap everyone out of their confused stupor.

The ground dweller was especially quick to act, letting go of her and skirting past her to follow the falling token. What made him think it was for him to take?

Stella followed suit, and Wellstone wasn’t far behind either. They were running around like headless chickens, elbowing and shouldering each other. The smallest of the three, Stella got immediately shoved backwards, leaving the other two grunting and jumping up and down.

“Damn it!” she cursed under her breath. The chances of getting her hands on that Silver were practically nil. Then she saw it. Her chance.

“I’ll get it! I’ll get it! I’ll get it!” she pushed back into Shiel and Wellstone, hand up, reaching for the dark sky like the other two.

“Back. Down. Stupid. Child.” croaked Wellstone giving her a hard shove.

She allowed herself to slump backwards, and made no attempt to rejoin them, pouting to hide a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth.

That’s when the small piece of metal shone right above the two pairs of hands.

“GOT IT!” bellowed Wellstone after sending a heavy knee to the ground dweller’s side at the last second.

What a disgusting man. She thought, taking in his smug expression, while Shiel crumpled to the ground.

“Serves. You. Right.” He continued while sending his boot into Shiel’s ribs, over and over again. He was prideful, not letting out a single sob. It was rather honourable.

Luckily, cruelty had made Wellstone lose sight of the bigger picture.

She tossed his leather pouch from hand to hand, grinning like a fool. The clink-clank of the tokens made its owner whip his head around with unnatural speed, eyes bulging out of his head. He was desperately patting his back, as if he couldn’t quite believe it.

“I’ll take good care of these for you, Papa…”, she drawled, gingerly removing a Silver from the small pile, and stuffing the pouch in the pocket of her trousers.

“You dirty th—“, he gargled, but didn’t get to finish.

“INCOMPETENT CRETIN!” exploded Runheart, “I will have your Permit revoked! You’ll never touch magic again!” At that, Wellstone paled and stumbled backwards, hitting the ground as if the other man’s words had actual physical power behind them.

Stella couldn’t quite believe that was the same man as before. His face was swollen and red and about two breathless words away from popping a blood vessel.

“AND YOU!” He followed, now shaking a accusing finger at the officers, “You’d better get your hands on those two before I send you to shovel horseshit! Bunch of good-for-nothings, the lot of you!”

She wanted to tell the man it’d be better not to bottle his emotions that much from now on, but she decided not to push her luck. The uniforms were on the move.

“Unit A, Unit B! Separate!” One of the men was signalling with his hands— the commander, ordering them into some formation.

They were trying to close off their escape routes.

It wasn’t easy since they were surrounded by open forest, but Stella had no doubt the magic was soon to follow.

She wasn’t gonna wait to see.

The token was warm between her index and her thumb. She grinned impishly at it, a flutter in her stomach. Stella loved magic.

She gave it a toss in the air, catching it right back, just as it began gleaming a soft yellow.

“Speed Seven.” She commanded just as a swarm of chains rained down from half a dozen tokens towards her, courtesy of the uniforms.

“The kid can use magic!” Announced a voice matter-of-factly. She did not search for it.

She dashed through the clanking chains, doing her best to control the absurd speed, and grabbed Shiel along the way. He was still curled up in a ball on the ground, clearly having given up. She really couldn’t figure the man out.

Wellstone was quickly crawling through the grass panic-stricken. He was not her problem. Even his ‘buddy’ Runheart abandoned him and strolled off somewhere. Serves him right.

“Wha-what are you doing?” Yelled out Shiel, desperately trying to hold onto her, as she shot towards the tree line. He was a large man, and frankly, the momentum of her magic was the only thing keeping him on her back.

She ignored his question and his subsequent yelps to focus on making it through the two men that were already working on closing a dome-like barrier.

The thin, translucent layer of energy was already reaching higher than the top of her head. No way she could make the jump head-on. She swerved left at the last moment, her feet almost leaving the rest of her behind.

“At-a-boy, come give me a hug!” Sneered the officer, readjusting himself to make sure they collided. “Strength Fou—“ But she didn’t let him finish.

She flung herself at the man, lifting the grass and dirt under her feet, and a second later she was on the man’s shoulder. He was a sturdy fellow so he didn’t buckle much, but he let out a low sound of surprise.

“N-no! No! Wait—no!” The ground dweller was squirming under her arms as she made to send him flying over the closing barrier. Her wrist twisted painfully in the process, but the man was successfully in the air.

“What? Do you not like having someone handle you?” She replied sourly, although she’d doubted he got the irony. He was too busy trying to grasp at something that wasn’t there.

There was no time for her to watch him fall safely on the other side as she felt a large hand wrapping tightly around her ankle.

“Gotcha!” Her ‘perch’ had finally found his footing and was attempting to pull her down from her already precarious position.

Stella clung to the mass of red curls on his head, digging her nails into the man’s scalp. She looked up at the barrier. There was no time.

“Get. Off!” He spun around, desperate to throw her off.

“Don’t just stand there! Restrain her already!” Came another voice from behind them.

She couldn’t see the movement. All she heard was ‘Slash’, didn’t even catch the intensity number. The token hit her from behind, embedding itself into her shoulder blade. She could feel it splitting her skin in two.

She only registered her own screaming a few seconds later, unable to stop herself. Her bones met the ground with a dull thud a moment later but she didn’t feel like any of it. The pain had her curled up in a ball. The barrier was now closed behind her, and four officers were crowding around her. They were saying something but she couldn’t hear them over the ringing in her ears.

Move. Move. Move.

Stella rubbed the Silver token between her fingers. It was hard to approximate how much magic it had left. Nothing flashy could be done with a Silver anyways. Nothing that could send four big men flying the other way. Nothing that could crack the shield behind her. Pulling a Gold one from her pocket required dexterity she didn’t have at that time.

Think. Think. Think.

“Hah, you lose, Stella! All cause of your pathetic shield!” She heard that loud, cocky voice she usually pushed down into the pit of her mind.

“Most common fools raise it like that! You one of them?”

“Bog… Eight…” She’d seen that command being used once. Someone requested a paddy field. They had to use it multiple times to achieve the desired size, but once should be enough for Stella.

Enough for the uniformed men to fall on their backside with a splash, water almost to their knees. Enough for the water to replace the earth under the shield— common fools forget to extend them underground.

Stella took a quick breath and allowed her body to sink below the surface. It was very shallow, so she crawled through the muddy bog, clawing at the dirt of the bed. The cold water helped clear away the fog on her brain enough to keep her aware of her surroundings.

She felt movement behind her. The soldiers scrambling to catch her by the legs. But she was already on the other side.

Once her head broke the surface, she did not dare to look back. She sprinted into the safety of the trees, legs wobbly as a piece of old rope.

Her ears had popped, so she could hear her own laboured breathing louder than usual.

Using her good shoulder, the girl allowed herself to lean onto a thick tree trunk for a moment. The wound was throbbing harder than ever, now that the coolness of the water was gone, and only mud remained.

She hadn’t walked too far. The men’s voices were still there, cutting through the air at different intensities. She had to keep going.

A rustle nearby. She crouched down at the roots, swallowing a scream brought about by the feeling of bark scraping her back.

“Kid? Are you there?” A whisper that could only belong to Shiel, his voice much softer now that he wasn’t threatening someone or another.

She’d almost forgotten about him.

“Why are you still here?!” She whispered back with frustration. He could’ve been far away by now. Runheart’s men were still sniffing around for them, and the thought of having to keep protecting two people in her condition was aggravating everything.

“You saved my life,” she could see him fumbling in the dark, trying to locate her, “it wouldn’t be honourable… to leave you.”

“Hah! You think any of that was honourable?” That’s how Stella could speak best. Letting others make statements for her.

“I’m sorry.” She could see him cowering as he came to stand in front of her. He was favouring his left side, most likely hurt from the beating he took earlier. “There’s no excuse, I really don’t know how it happened, but—“

He didn’t get to finish, a strong white light flashing across nearby trees.

“They’re coming this way, come on!” He hid behind a trunk, motioning his hand in the other direction.

“Are you hurt?” Shiel asked, noticing her struggling to stand.

“I’m fine. You?” They threw each other a quick disapproving glance, but didn’t push it.

She’d have to keep him at an arm’s length. His circumstances were peculiar to say the least.

They sneaked around the forest aimlessly, head ducked, and all tense. She tried not to think about her shoulder. There was no time.

Roots tripped them occasionally, and the glowing eyes of nocturnal animals scared them often. The white light came and went, forcing them to change trajectory. They kept quiet. She could see him peeking at her from time to time, out of the corner of her eye, and it was irritating her.

“What?” She asked curtly.

“You’re bleeding.” He hesitated. “Badly.”

“Do you think we got time to stop?” She wanted to sound exasperated, but it came out meek and pitiful.

“You die if they catch you, you die if we don’t stop the bleeding.” His voice was kind, but the words were blunt. “You die.”

She could feel her skin slick with sweat, and her mouth dry. So dry.

The Silver token was digging its edge into her palm. It was still buzzing with magic. I can squeeze a couple more spells out of it, I can. But not healing magic.

“Never waste magic, Stella. Never.” The voice was back, and she squeezed her eyes shut. Go away.

“Over there!” Shiel pointed at a patch of small trees. Or maybe they were bushes? Stella’s vision was blurry.

She followed him, and they found a spot where the branches weren’t too dense to sit down.

“Here.” He proceeded to tear the sleeve off his shirt. “Take your shirt off, I’ll tie it for you.”

“Wait.” Even in her dazed state, she knew she didn’t want to let him see she was a girl. No way.

Stella lifted the Silver token shakily to her wound. She felt the wetness of the blood coating her fingers. The gash was deep, the bleeding would not stop easily.

“Stitch Six,” she slurred.

‘Stitch’ wasn’t a medical command. It was for patching clothes. Stella never used it on skin before. It ought to be painful. She thought, taking the ripped cloth from Shiel’s hand and stuffing it into her mouth.

“Just who are you, kid?”

She didn’t look up to study his expression.