Enchanted Love

Chapter 1: Macosna

Before I could take another step, though, Malice grabbed my arm and pulled me away, ignoring my angered growling as she led me to another tree on the other side of the yard. "You're going to get yourself killed one of these days," she warned as we started climbing the trunk to get to the middle branches. She settled herself on a slightly lower branch and I climbed a few feet higher before picking one for myself.

I'd started taking classes in trees about three years ago, after Nimbus, one of Rovaki's minions, had released a snake behind where I sat. Not just any snake, though; a Matlic Gunver. Also known as one of the deadliest snakes a mortal could encounter. Native to Loor and very abundant. They couldn't climb and rarely let one of their victims live. I had been lucky that Kindred had walked me to school that day and stuck around to chat with the professor. After that I never took another class on the ground and Malice felt bad for me looking weird, so she started to join me.

I opened my bag on the branch and took out my portable writing board, some parchment, my quill and ink pot, and my books. I had perfected the art of balancing the stack of reading material in forks of the branches, and forming a fairly functional place to do my note taking. Malice still struggled a bit with getting things situated, but she never took me up on the offer to join her on the ground for one session so she could have a break from the struggle.

I finished setting up just as the professor walked into the yard and announced today's topic: Grey Mold; effects and remedies. I smiled to myself as I labeled my parchment for notes. Today would be rather useful, indeed.

***

I glared at my note paper in frustration. With Rovaki and his friends laughing for the entire lesson and causing so much chaos with their jokes and shouted disruption, I had only been able to catch a few phrases form the Tutors mouth. And most of them had been him shouting at them to shut their fruit folds...fruit holes. I sighed as I saw a dried puddle of ink that blotted out most of the ingredients to a remedy I was trying to copy down. At some point during the class, Miliko had decided it would be fun to shoot an arrow at my hand. He had missed and hit my ink pot, ruining the majority of the more useful notes I was able to jot down. I grumbled to myself as I stuffed my things into my bag, forcing myself to brush it off so as to not get a lecture from Kindred after my retaliation.

"So, I saw Hintch takin a few glances at you," I commented teasingly as Malice and I climbed out of our tree and slung our bags onto our shoulders.

"What?" her voice got high and squeaky, like it usually did when her crush was mentioned. "No he wasn't." All I had to do was smirk at her before her cheeks flushed pink. She'd been staring at him all lesson, so of course she knew he looked back at her. Even cast her a smile or two.

"When are you going to talk to him?" I asked as we started heading for the edge of the yard, noticing the boy standing by his brother and a group of girls, watching us walk.

"Um..." she glanced at the boy, resulting in a smile coming to his lips. "How about the day after never?"

"Well, not sure you're going to have that much time to prepare what you're gonna say," I commented as he started walking over.

"Shit, hide me, hide me!" she whispered in a panic as she moved behind me and ducked behind my shoulder. Hintch's smile widened as he got closer. He was one of the few Folk who talked to me like an equal, and found Malice's childish avoidances endearing.

"Good morrow, Macosna," he greeted me with a small bow.

"Hey, Hinch," I returned with a smile, feeling Malice stiffen against my back.

"I came over to speak with Malice," he told me, acting as if she wasn't here. "Alas, it appears I have missed her once again."

"Just by a millisecond," I said apologetically.