Etchings
an excerpt

Eyes

Windy knew as soon as she saw the small boy that he was fully human, with no sort of magical power what-so-ever. How she knew this, she had absolutely no idea - she'd never been able to feel magical ability before - but dismissed it as being an after-effect of gaining the Speculi. Being without magic meant that unless he had a knife hidden on his person somewhere, the boy was utterly defenceless against the wolf that was attacking him - and by the lack of injuries on the wolf, Windy assumed that the boy didn't have a knife.

Something, either the shimmering of Grey's wings or the bright glowing of the Speculi - which had increased when they'd entered the clearing and Windy had actually seen the attack - attracted the attention of the wolf. It paused and looked up at them and Windy felt slightly sickened by the red splatters of blood that stood out starkly among the white and grey hairs of the wolf's muzzle. The wolf let out a low growl and crouched into a pouncing position. Windy grabbed hold of Grey's sleeve and pulled him back as he went to take a step forward.

"This was a great idea, but what now?" Windy muttered to him. He looked at her and Windy gasped. His irises had bled with magic, leaving little white remaining in his eyes and almost no pupil.

He held out his hand to her, "Let me borrow some of your magic," he said quietly. Windy was reminded of the way Alora's voice had sounded when she had been using her magic to align the Speculi, and she carefully placed her hand in his.

Magic arced between their palms in a bright beam of silver and navy blue that Windy stared at in awe. Grey, however, didn't seem to notice the obvious interaction between their magics. He was pointing his free hand at the crouched wolf, his eyes completely focused on the point before them where the wolf and its victim lay.

"Be gone. You do not harm those who are so innocent." A beam of magic raced from his pointed finger and blazed toward the wolf, lighting up the entire clearing and forcing Windy to look away for fear of becoming blinded. The magic beam barely hit the wolf, and certainly didn't do it any damage - at least, not that Windy could see - but nevertheless, the creature yelped and took off racing into the woods, its tail between its legs.

Windy felt the extention of her power before she saw the silver sparkle go by, swirling around first Grey, then her, and then racing across the space between them to swirl around the injured boy. The silver sparkles wrapped around the boy's injured leg and Windy could feel the magic healing the parts of the wound that it could, before it dispersed and the sparkles disappeared into the bare ground.

Grey stumbled then, and Windy automatically put out one hand to help steady him, which he grabbed onto gratefully. "What...?" he asked softly. Windy smiled as she looked over at him, relieved to see that his eyes were back to normal.

"Your magic blossomed. You got rid of the wolf, that's all that matters. Come on, he's hurt, and we have to get back to the cottage and Cat," she said quickly. Grey nodded, still looking a little bit dazed but allowing Windy to lead him over to the boy.

She crouched next to him and, letting go of Grey's hand, offered it to the boy on the ground. "I'm Windy, this is Grey, can you walk?" she asked softly.

The boy extended his hand to grab onto Windy's. "Thankel," he said softly, then nodded. "Ye-yes, I think so. I-if you help me," Thankel replied. Windy nodded and helped him to his feet.

"Good," Windy said. "That's good. We're going to get you home. Where do you live?" Windy asked. Thankel pointed back the way they had come.
"A s-small cottage in the woods. I-I forgot it was the W-wolf R-run tonight," Thankel muttered. Windy smiled kindly at him, not at all able to blame him for being so shaken up.

"Come on, Thankel. Let's go find your cottage."