I smiled and turned toward the house, thinking about how to take what I wanted and still pack light. Deep in thought, I walked through the doorway and into the house.
Az
“You know Cory, I may not primp like you do and take three hours to look slightly less like a hag, but I need to shower too, you know,” I called through the bathroom door, trying to be heard over her blaring Voodoo Dolls cd.
“…Spell on your soul, make you so droll…” blasted even louder as her response.
Fine, want to be a hag? Then be a hag. I wiggled my fingers at the door, releasing a small amount of blue mist before going down the stairs.
“Good morning Asril, want some pancakes?” mom asked, turning and eyeing my disheveled hair and a towel in my hand. “I see Corsanna is taking a while again.”
“Yup and yes, please.” I slumped in my chair at the table and sighed. “Can’t we just add another bathroom? Anywhere, give her one and I’ll take the old one.”
Mom chuckled, “I wish it were that easy Asril. We really can’t just conjure one. We would need to hire humans, and they don’t really like working for Madgie. Unfortunately, there are no skilled Madgie, Shifters, or mutants that really ever go into the field of adding something like that. The only non-human construction workers are Ashen, and they don’t have a company close to here. You’ll just need to tolerate it for now.”
I sighed and folded my arms on the table, watching her make pancakes. It grew quiet except for the whisk beating the mixture. Mom poured some into the pan and leaned on the counter.
“So what area are you going to try for in camp?” mom asked.
I lifted a shoulder. “I don’t know. I was thinking maybe elemental or possibly transfiguration. I like-”
A piercing scream filled the house and mom shot out of the room toward the stairs, while I tried to not burst out laughing. I leaned forward in anticipation.
“Not funny Az! Change me back NOW!” Cory yelled while stomping down the stairs. “I do not look like a hag,” she screeched.
She turned the corner and glared at me. Her appearance coupled with the glare gave me chills. Long, stringy and grimy hair framed her narrow face. Bushy caterpillar eyebrows grew over deep-set mossy green eyes. Big black bags hung under them as if she never slept. Her long-hooked nose had penny sized moles and hair growing out of them. Thin lips drawn back away from brown, broken teeth while she snarled at me. The tightness of her face only deepened her pockmarks and pushed her pointy chin bone out so far that it almost looked like it would break through.
“I would have to disagree. You certainly look like one right now,” I forced out as I laughed and held my sides. I was laughing so hard that it was difficult to breathe.
Mom walked in, smoothing out her robe. “Corsanna, you really need to watch where you’re going. You could have really hurt…” Her eyes widened when she finally looked at Cory, mouth dropping open.
“Corsanna, Halloween isn’t for another couple weeks. Maybe work on the costume later,” dad said, walking in from outside. “Very nice detail, though. Just please keep your shoes on. I do not want to see the warts on your toes,” he said, shuddering.
Cory crossed her arms and scrunched her face. “This isn’t my costume. Az did this to me and I can’t get rid of it.” Her voice cracked, and a tear rolled down her cheek, leaving a dark track of crimson.
Dad walked over and lifted her chin, looking closely. He moved her head from side to side. “You did a very accurate spell, Asril. You even got the bloody tears down. Very impressive.”
“This isn’t funny! He turned me into a monster!” Cory wailed. Her hands were clenched so tightly that her claws were digging into her hands. Her tears were dripping off of her pointed chin to make a crimson puddle on the floor.
Mom finally snapped out of her frozen state. “Asril, I think what your father means is while you did get very good details, you need to undo it. Now. And then you will clean up that mess on the floor!”
I finally stopped chuckling and took a deep breath. “Even if I wanted to undo it, I can’t. Cory is the one that holds the undo spell.” I grabbed my towel and clothes from the chair. “All she has to do is apologize and promise to stop acting like a hag.”
Cory screeched and threw an energy ball at me. “Why should I apologize? I didn’t do anything to you.”
The ball hit me as my shield came up, throwing me back against it and sliding down to the floor.
“Corsanna! That is no way to resolve an issue. Let’s sit down and talk through this.” Mom pulled out a couple of chairs and frowned at us while dad helped me to my feet. I slumped in my chair and glared at Cory, who glared back.
“Ok, who wants to start explaining? And nobody is going to interrupt the other. Got it?” Dad said as he crossed his arms, looking between the two of us. His posture said he would not put up with any fighting.
“I think we should hear from Asril first. We should hear the reason he had for doing this to Corsanna,” mom said.
I let out a breath, set my clothes aside, and then finally looked up. “Cory is always inconsiderate when it comes to timeliness or even other smaller things. Like this morning, when she knew we would be leaving and traveling to camp, she still took over an hour in the bathroom. I wanted to take a shower so that I didn’t stink on the train on the way to camp, but as it is, I’ll have to take a cold shower and not really even get clean since cold showers are unbearable. I guess only one of us is going to make a good impression.” I looked around the table at everyone and then looked down.
Cory’s scowl slowly left her face as she listened to my reasons. “I didn’t think you would even care about that. You always look so dirty, so I figured that me taking a long shower wouldn’t matter.”
“I only look dirty to you because I don’t care to look like I stepped out of a magazine all the time.” I slumped back. “Sure, there are times I let my hair stay messy or there're some wrinkles in my clothes, but that doesn’t mean I am always dirty. Those are about the worst things about my looks anyway. Don't forget, I usually wear nice pants and a vest. And I never stink.”
“I know you don’t stink, and ya you do normally wear some decent clothes. Even if they do look like they crawled out of your hamper sometimes. I’m sorry Az. I’ll try to be faster from now on.” Cory said.
She started to get hazy and my baby blue mist covered her before slowly flaking away and disappearing, leaving her looking like her true self, and the puddle of crimson on the floor disappeared. “That’s all I wanted,” I said.
“Asril, I’m glad you had the spell set to come off. But, you know there are other ways you can get people to see where you’re coming from,” mom admonished with a scowl on her face. “That was very rude of you.”
“No, mom. I wouldn’t have listened to him any other way. While it was rude, it made me stop and listen to him,” Cory said, defending me. She glanced at me with understanding in her eyes.
“He still needs to apologize for that. Even if it got the result he wanted, he still should have tried other ways first.” Mom leaned forward, pinning us where we sat. “I think the punishment will have to be a bigger one than normal. No dishes or housework by hand will fix this mistake, Asril.”
Cory straightened. “No, really mom. I forgive him. I was pretty much being a hag, and he pointed it out to me in the last way he could. If the tables were turned, I would have done the same and made him look like a troll.”
Mom shook her head and sighed, “Why can’t you guys figure out a way to communicate properly? You’re going to give me grey hair, and I’m only thirty-two years old.”
Dad chuckled. “Your hair wouldn’t even dream of trying to betray you like that. You’re too bloody stubborn to allow anything to go wrong.”
Throwing up her hands, mom rolled her eyes. “It’s a conspiracy, my own family has ganged up on me. Fine, as long as you two can find a way to get along somehow, then I guess I’ll live with it. Asril, Hurry and go shower then e
at before it’s time to go.”
Az/Cory
AZ
“Don’t forget your jacket, Asril, it might get a little chilly.” Mom held out his blue and white jacket.
Az grumbled, “Mom, it’s March, I don’t think it’s gonna get cold enough.”
“Oh, just take it, Mr. Grump. Your mother knows what she’s talking about,” Dad chided. Az grabbed the jacket and ran out to the car. I was close behind, throwing my light green leather jacket over my black spaghetti strap shirt.
“Bye mom. Love you,” I said over my shoulder.
Dad leaned back in through the door and gave her a kiss before heading to the car.
“Don’t forget to let me know when you guys get there,” Mom called while waving.
“I’ll make sure to call,” I said as I slid in the back and waved before Dad closed the door.
“Have everything you need? Luggage in the trunk? Money for food and fun?” Dad asked before starting the car.
“Yup,” Az and I both agreed.
“Alrighty then, on our way!” He called out the window, waving to mom on the front porch.
◆◆◆
CORY
Pulling into a parking stall, Dad turned the car off and turned towards us. “I’m gonna go get the tickets and make sure you guys get a cabin in the Madgie car. Get your stuff and meet me up there.”
As Dad walked off, we opened the trunk and grabbed our suitcases. Az eyed my surprisingly small luggage, “Um, Cory. Isn’t that a little light for you?”
I rolled my eyes, “I don’t need to pack my entire room to take a month trip, you know. I see your shirt sleeve poking out of yours, no folding again?” Sticking his tongue out, Az closed the trunk and started walking to the entrance, his bag rolling behind him. I pointed at my bag and it floated a couple feet off the ground and I made it follow me.
“Are you sure that’s all you have? No private cabins at all? Alright, I guess we’ll have to take it.” Dad handed his card to the attendant and turned to us. “Well, you guys are gonna have to ride with a couple others in the same cabin. There are no private cabins available. But, at least it’s with a couple other kids around your age.”
“That’s weird, I wonder why there are no more private ones. I just hope these other kids aren’t slobs. I don’t want to deal with that,” I said.
“It’s only going to be about a days’ worth of travel time. If you don’t like them, you can always go to the food car and hang out there,” Az said.
Dad handed us our tickets and some cash. “That’s for dinner and breakfast. You should be getting there in enough time to have lunch at camp. The platform is over here.”
Dad led us through the crowd to get to our train, and we tried to avoid the random tails of other travelers.
“Mommy, those people are making their bags float and slide for them. Why can’t we?” A little girl tugged at her mom’s pants and pointed in our direction.
“Honey, they are Madgie, we’re warriors. We can’t do magic.”
Az was watching the little girl pout and didn’t notice the tall man in front of him. He bumped into the man, scraping his arm on the rough scales.
“Watch where yer goin’ runt,” the man huffed, exhaling acrid smoke in Az’s face. Coughing, Az apologized before catching up with dad and I at the platform.
“What happened to your arm, Asril?” Dad asked.
Az rubbed it. “I didn’t notice an Ashen, and I ran into him. It’ll be fine.” I shook my head and went back to looking at my ticket.
“Ok guys, this is your car. Make sure you don’t get off before Seattle. These have mutants driving them that care more about their schedules than anything else, so they may leave before anyone knows you’re gone.” Dad hugged us both before he started pushing us to the entrance. “Just make sure you have fun and don’t forget to call when you get there.”
We waved at him before giving our tickets to the conductor and slipping inside. I was looking at the doors to the cabins and avoiding people until Az grabbed my arm. “Ok, spill. You didn’t complain once about having to pack light, and your bag is super lightly packed for you. What’s your game here?”
I shrugged his hand off and turned back to look for our cabin. “I’m not playing a game Az, nor do I have an angle. I just figured out a way to pack light and still have everything I need.” I said as I stopped. “Here’s our cabin, hopefully we get a side to ourselves and they didn’t pick the top bunks only.”
I slid the door open and stepped in. Az was close on my heels and we took in our surroundings. We let out a collective breath as we saw one side of the cabin in complete disarray. Clothes tossed everywhere, candy wrappers littered around, and even giant wet spots all over. We turned to look at the other side and found it untouched, almost a perfect line down the middle that seemed like a border between two different countries. I muttered to myself and crossed over. I was about to throw my bag on the top bunk, but I turned around instead. “Do you want the top or bottom?”
Az tore his eyes away from the mess and turned. “You can take the top. I think I’ll be getting up a few times during the night. It’ll be better if I’m on the bottom.”
I shrugged and tossed my bag on the top before heading to the bathroom to touch up my make-up. I shut the door and unzipped my Mac bag. I sighed and looked up in the mirror. Maybe Az is right… Should I try and… Not try? Or at least not so hard?
I looked at my hair and makeup that I had hurriedly put on before leaving home. I tossed the lipstick back in my bag. “Well, Mom doesn’t do make-up, and she looks amazing. I guess the light coating I did is fine.” I zipped up my bag and went back to the cabin. Guessing Az went to eat already. As I reached up to my suitcase on the top bunk, I checked to make sure that I was alone. I unzipped it and reached in.
◆◆◆
AZ
“Here you go sir, was there anything else you’d like?” the waiter asked as he put down the plate in front of me. He was around my height with dark hair and piercing blue eyes.
“No thanks, Dante. And Dante, please call me Az,” I said while I looked up. Dante smiled and moved off to the kitchen. I picked up the fork and started digging into the pasta when Cory sat across from me.
“You could have waited, you know. I was hungry too,” Cory said, eying my plate. “What, no meat?”
I swallowed. “Too expensive. The pasta’s good, though. And why would I wait? You went into the bathroom with your make-up. I wasn’t going to wait for half an hour.”
Cory rolled her eyes. “I was in there for maybe five minutes, and I don’t take that long.”
I snorted and shoveled more food in my mouth while Cory flagged down the waiter. “Hi Dante.” She said, looking at his name tag. “Can I get a berry tea, please? And a chef salad with extra meat, cheese, and ranch please.” Dante headed back to the kitchen again as Cory turned back to me. “So, any ideas on what you’re gonna focus on?”
I had thought about that question a lot before we left. I slowly chewed my food and took a drink before answering. “I was thinking of trying elemental. Being able to do some weather changes would be helpful.”
Cory laughed. “Az, we live in Utah. It’s not like we get hurricanes, tsunamis, or even a lot of tornadoes. You’d be stuck working at mom and dad’s store forever.”
I picked up my drink and took a few aggravated gulps. “Well, it would be nice to keep snow off the roads. The mutants may drive for a living, but not everyone else does. They drive like bloody lunatics, causing accidents cuz they can’t seem to leave a little earlier so they can drive at safe speeds. I’m sure I could find other uses as well, and I could make enough to get me by. What were you thinking of focusing on?”
“I’m going into alchemy. If I can work with any metal, then I can be an architect like Gran was before she retired.”
Dante came back again and set Cory’s order in front of her. “Can I get anything else for you? He turned to me after she said no. “How about for you,
Az? More juice or bread?”
“I’m getting full, but I wouldn’t mind a little more juice.” Dante smiled at me and walked off.
“You know Pappy was pretty good at elemental before he retired and took over the council job. He had a good income from that for a long time, so I think I’ll be good at it. Madgie usually take after their ancestors. I’m sure you’ll be a great architect.”
“Mom didn’t take after either of them at all. She got the transfiguration gene. So, if there’s other things you might want to try, you could be better at something else. If I don’t do well in alchemy, I think I might try divination. Dad said his family line usually did well in that area.”
“So, you guys are going to an assignment camp, huh? You look a little young for that,” Dante said as he set a new drink in front of me. “Unless you guys just look young for being over eighteen.”
“Our parents decided on early enrollment. We graduated high school early anyway, so it was bound to happen. I was hoping for the vacation first, though. I was gonna push for Florida so I could collect a few more goblin artifacts.” Cory sighed and took a drink. “But oh well. Have you gone?”
Dante blushed. “I’m unfortunately just a mutant. We don’t have any camps available for us, so I had to just find a job that my powers would be useful in.”
“Why don’t mutants have a camp,” I asked.
“Well, since we each only have one or two powers, it’s hard to find anyone that can help teach us. So, if we don’t find someone in our villages, we have to go without. The region counselors give us dampening charms so we can train ourselves until they think we have them under control. Sometimes we have to wear the charm for the rest of our lives.”
“That’s just stupid. You guys should be able to go to camp with us too. What are your powers?” I said.
“Az! You don’t just ask someone that.” Cory exclaimed, giving Dante an apologetic look.
Dante laughed. “I don’t mind. Mine aren’t horrible like one of my cousins. He only changes the color of his hair, so he works as a stylist. Mine-“
Stone Cold NV: World of Sin, Book 1 Page 4
