Young Writers Society

Amy stared at him for a moment, her brows drawing together as she tried to understand what he was saying - or rather, why he was saying it. But with his closing comment she tilted her head to the side. He was being serious, wasn't he?

"You mean... you're like, using magic... all over you?" Was it like, some protection spell or something? Those were things, right? She thought she'd heard of something like that in a movie once.

Tasha slips back into their small clearing, a dead rabbit in her hand. "I didn't see anything dangerous, but I got dinner." When she realizes she intruded upon something there's an awkward pause. "Uh...how's Darian doing?"

Amy looked back to Darian, replying awkwardly. "Uhhh... really... out of it. In pain. I wanted to help make him a little more comfortable on my sleeping bag."

"It'll just take time," she supposes as sits down and starts skinning the rabbit.

A horrified look passed on Loki's face when he saw Tasha sitting down nearby. How much of their conversation had she heard, if any of it? Having one person know the truth was a daunting concept to grasp. But two people? That was even worse.

He looked over at Amy and then back at Tasha. Tasha seemed like a good person, right? She seemed like the type of person who was good at keeping a secret. What about how she treated younger people, then? If she found out his real age, would she treat him like a kid? It had been safe with Amy because of her actual age - they weren't that far apart. But he had no idea how old Tasha was.

He took a deep breath. There was no way he was going to avoid this conversation now. "Tasha?" he said, trying to sound like he had the situation under control. Then he explained everything that he had told to Amy moments before, informing her of how he was using magic all over his body.

He turned to Amy after he had finished talking to Tasha and watched her expectantly.

Amy looked from Tasha to Loki, sensing an awkward silence that wasn't actually there (because hardly any pause had occurred yet in actuality). She gave an awkward laugh, having no idea how to explain what Loki said but found herself spilling her summation of what he said.

"So basically, like, magic makes him hot."

Immediately realizing what she had said after the fact her entire face turned a beet red and she plopped down on the ground on her bum and began to laugh again, avoiding eye contact.

"Oh god I mean uh, like, cause like, sweat, heat, uh, like body heat like temperature not like hhgtblrgughh." Her words turned into non-words as she crumbled into a mess of embarrassment.

Blood rushed to his cheeks as what Amy had said registered. He stared down at the ground, not trusting himself to simultaneously meet her eyes while also saying something that sounded like it was vaguely in English. "Bo-both meanings are actually right," he replied, finally finding his voice.

He hesitantly looked up.

"Not that you were trying to say that I look hot!" he hurriedly added. "And, um, I'm not saying that I look hot either! But I could because of my magic, which also makes my body's temperature go up."

He took another deep breath.

"I lied earlier, Amy," he admitted. "I'm nowhere close to being twenty-one."

Amy felt like her face was on fire. It might as well have been. She lowered her eyes to the ground until he said her name, which made her look up.

"...How... how old are you? Then?"

Loki felt horrible.

He had told himself that it would be alright to tell the truth, but, now that he had started to hint at it, guilt cascaded down upon him. To his ears, the words that Amy had just said were fueled by distrust and hatred because of his lie. He didn't know if that was how they were supposed to come across, but he did know that he didn't want to dwell on the possibility that they were.

He got to his feet and walked to the edge of the clearing. He didn't have to deal with the looks that would appear on Amy's face and probably Tasha's if he wasn't so close to them. "I'm a shapeshifter," he said, breaking the silence that had followed Amy's question. "So this isn't what I look like. And Loki's just a...just a..." He struggled to say the words. "Loki's what it sounds like. It's an alias. My real name is Leon."

He snapped his fingers. He did it out of habit - he didn't need it to change his form - but it was pathetic compared to usual. His form suddenly became smaller. His light brown hair became shorter and lighter. His eyes started to shift colors, and even his skin changed its tone. His ears became longer and pointer, but not too much. The shorts became a pair of jeans, and his shirt became a green hoodie. Even his sneakers became smaller. The only thing that stayed the same was the locket hanging around his neck.

"I'm really fourteen," whispered the boy with the short blond hair and bright green eyes.

Amy felt a sudden rush and mix of emotions that she didn't know how to identify, but as she watched the man -no, boy - shapeshift before her very eyes she couldn't help but stare. She felt like her heart stopped for a moment, yet at the same time, her heart hurt in every way. The way he turned away, they way he whispered the answer like it was a shameful thing to be who he really was made her want to cry? Yet at the same time, she was dumbfounded, and irrationally scared despite not wanting to be.

It took her a minute to actually move. She blinked, over wet eyes, releasing the tears down her cheeks. She took in a breath and tried to speak words, but nothing came out at first. The stuttered in silence before she was finally able to give a sheepish reply.

"...Your, uh, I.. I like your hair." Her voice cracked, and she began to blink quickly, clearing her throat. Don't cry? She wish she could figure out something better to say but that was literally the first thing to pop into her brain.

Then the second thing to come to her mouth, even before her mind. "Fourteen is a good age too. It's actually the same years apart as 21, I think. So like, it's just the other way around, right?"

Tasha mutters something in another language under her breath, seeming amused as she guts the rabbit and whittles a stick a bit to make a suitable spit.

"Where are the two of you headed?" she inquires.