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I was flat on my back, staring up at the branches above me.
“How do you feel?” Artie asked.
When I sat up to look at him, I choked on my own hysterical laughter. His hair was blown straight back and stood up on his head. He looked like a cartoon character that survived an explosion.
“Better,” I admitted. The prickly feeling was gone and the headache that threatened to overwhelm me since I woke was gone as well. I felt a little lighter now.
“Good. We have to fix that because you can’t come out here and explode whenever you feel like it. Bad PR.”
“How do we fix it?” I asked.
Artie looked thoughtful and then he stood and turned around. “Hide,” he hissed.
I was about to ask him where he wanted me to go when I realized that he was talking to the duende.
They disappeared as quickly as they appeared.
Artie seemed to gather something, sweeping invisible things in front of him together with his hands, speaking in a foreign language that I couldn’t identify. I wanted to ask him what it was but then it was too late.
He threw his hands out wide and I felt rather than saw a wall he raised.
Then Eli and Dante were there, running straight into it.
Eli stopped but Dante seemed to plow right through it, pushing the wall and Artie back.
The three of them registered each other at the same time and stopped.
“What was that?” Dante asked.
“Was that you?” Eli asked and looked at me.
“How did you do that?” Artie asked Dante.
“Do what?” Dante asked.
“Did you cause that explosion?” Eli asked.
“Is that what that was?” I asked.
“Wait, wait,” Eli said and put his hands up. “Why are you out here? Cee said she left you guys at the house.”
“Well,” Artie started and then paused. He seemed to be searching for the words to explain what happened. “Lou was about to explode.”
"What," Eli said in a flat voice.
“Literally?” Dante asked.
“Yes,” Artie said.
“That sucks,” I muttered.
“I needed to get him away from town, away from people, to a place that could absorb the kind of magic he is carrying,” Artie explained.
“But you were here,” Eli pointed out. He reached out and began to flatten Artie’s hair to his head until Artie batted his hands away and struggled to do it himself.
“And I can absorb that kind of magic,” Artie said testily.
Eli studied him. Artie stared back.
“And if it happens again? Does he have to come back out here again? Does he know where this place is? Does he know how to gauge when he needs to come out here?” Eli asked.
“He is standing right here,” I pointed out.
Eli glared at me. I rolled my eyes and cautiously stepped outside of the circle. When lightning didn’t strike me down, I considered it safe.
“I think he’ll be okay for a few days. That should give me time to look into some different options for helping him keep it even,” Artie said softly as I stepped outside the stone circle.
“You think,” Eli said.
“There hasn’t been anyone like Lou in a thousand years. I have to go by some educated guesses. I can’t teach him like he’s me on steroids,” Artie argued.
I met Dante’s eyes across the small clearing and gestured for him to come over to my side as the two brothers continued to argue.
Dante left them and came to my side. I went to a tree and whispered, “Hello?”
“Dude what are you doing? Why are you talking to trees?” Dante asked.
“Watch,” I said and put my hand against the tree. When my hand met the rough bark, I heard something. It was like rain and windchimes and a breeze all at once.
I immediately snatched my hand back. “Artie?” I asked and turned.
Artie turned from his brother and looked to me.
“Do trees, uh, sing?”
“Yes,” he said before turning back to Eli.
“Huh. Oh! Okay, here they are. Don’t freak out,” I said to Dante.
I put my hand against the tree once more and now that I was prepared for the tree’s song, it was soothing.
One of the duende came out from behind the tree and, using my arm as a bridge, walked to my shoulder. He began to braid my hair and chittered to me. It sounded like gossip, but I was guessing.
“Oh. Oh wow,” Dante whispered. He did not seem too surprised but he grew up reading fantasy novels, so it probably made sense that there were small, green people living in the forest where we grew up.
“I know!” I said and grinned.
“What are they? Do they have names?” Dante said and continued to stare at the duende pulling on my hair.
"Duende. I haven't been formally introduced and I'm not even sure we could pronounce their names but aren't they cool?" I said.
“So cool. Are they- I mean, they aren’t mean to you, but are they mean? In general?” Dante asked. I noticed that a few dozen more were popping up out of nowhere.
"I think as long as you are respectful to the forest, you'll be fine. I think if you piss them off, they'll eat you. And you, buddy, look like you could feed their clan for a year," I said and eyed Dante. He was carrying more muscle now than the last time I saw him, three days earlier.
“I know. Weird, right? I’m super fast too. Strong. Weirdly strong,” he said, his eyes wide.
I poked his bicep. “You should be. Are you bulletproof too? To round out the whole superhero thing you have going on, I mean.”
“Eli?” Dante said and turned to him.
“Yeah?” He looked up from the intense but quiet argument he was having with Artie.
“Am I bulletproof?”
Artie turned around at that question and both brothers made a face.
“Sort of. Depends. It’s not fun, getting shot, so don’t try it without Cee around,” Eli advised.
“That doesn’t sound promising,” I muttered.
Dante looked troubled.
We sat and let the duende pull our hair into complicated braids until Artie and Eli turned around and faced us.
It was the first time since I woke up that I saw Eli. I don’t know what I expected, knowing what I did. Maybe some kind of revelation, maybe for him to be plainer, more ordinary now that I understood the most central fact about him. Instead, he seemed more himself, like he was now able to move freely as he was meant to, comfortable in his own skin. He studied both of us for a long moment before he sighed and looked at Artie.
“It’s the only thing I can think of. And Azolata might have a better idea on how to go forward,” Artie said.
Eli bared his teeth, a move that was so wolflike, I had to choke down my laughter.
When I looked at Dante, he was doing the same thing, trying to mimic the same look of fierce disgust.
I couldn’t stop my laughter at him. He looked like a puppy trying to stare down a much bigger dog.
“Come on. I’ll tell Lou to buy you a donut,” Artie said and patted his older brother.
Eli gave in and we all followed Artie out of the woods. At the last moment, I turned and waved at the duende, who were gathered around the rocks we had been sitting on. They waved back.