Mel and Chris

Mel gave a nod for Chris to continue and waited to be disappointed.

Instead Mel found himself amazed and happily pleased. After he nodded Chris pointed a finger at a leaf on the ground. After a few seconds the leaf began to shake. Suddenly Mel found himself looking at a bunny. He laughed in glee and then froze again. This human could do magic like he could. He wasn’t sure that was a good sign. Did he tell his parents?

"Don’t tell your parents," Christian ordered, as if reading his mind.

"Did you read my mind?" Mel asked suspiciously.

"No. I just know you," Chris squinted for a moment.

"How do you know me?" Mel snipped and Chris rolled his eyes.

"Come on Mel! I can do magic and I don’t tell anyone," Chris gave Mel a look that clearly showed he knew Mel could do magic too.

"So?"

"Besides, the tree told me," Christian shrugged.

"Stupid tree," Mel glared up at the tree.

"Don’t blame the tree. You’re not very nice to him. Besides, I tricked him," Christian gave Mel a haughty look.

"What do you want?" Mel frowned. He didn’t trust this human.

"Well, I thought you could teach me a thing or two," Christian shrugged.

Mel was flattered and gave Chris a measuring look. Grandma seemed to like Chris, so he couldn’t be all bad. He gave a grim smile and nodded at Christian. It was dangerous to teach Chris magic, but Mel was tired of hiding it. Besides, if Chris turned on Mel, Mel could tell that he was doing magic too. Plus, if need be, Mel would just squash Chris like a bug.

For many months the boys would meet behind the school at the biggest tree. They took turns practicing their magic and honing their skills. Soon they were very talented at what they could do. Mel found the Christian wasn’t a Green Man (the kind of faerie that Mel was. They could commune with nature, make things grow or shrivel, and turn themselves and others into animals) after all. He could talk to the tree, and he could do a little with leaves and things but that was all. Mel, on the other hand, could talk to all animals. He could tap into the whole Earth in order to do magic. This made Mel stronger than Chris, which he never let him forget.

One day, as the boys practiced fooling each other with glamour (a magic where they didn’t actually turn things into other things, they just made it look like they did) they came across people in their fort. They had gone for a walk, Mel had forgotten to lock the door. Sitting on their stump chairs they found two small girls.

"Who are you?" Mel demanded, thankful that he and Chris had stopped doing magic long before they got back to the fort. They had been distracted by the snow, and how well it made snowballs.

"We’re going to be your friends," the girls said together.

Mel found that he was confused. Both the girls looked exactly the same. They were about 3 feet tall and were the colour of the sun. The one that had been talking flipped her long brown hair over her shoulder. The other one soon did the same. Mel leaned down, for he was 5’. He peered into their faces and found a difference. One of the girls had eyes the colour of a full moon, silvery and bright. The other one had eyes the colour of an eclipse, black and shadowy.