Mutante: Chapter 18
Copyright 2023 Elizabeth Frerichs
Rosie took a shuddering breath. “All right. Bless me.”
The worm drew nearer, one of his hairs inching towards her arm. She tensed as he loomed over her, locking her tail to keep it from throwing her into the worm. As the worm leaned down, she clenched her jaw to keep herself from screaming or running away.
Then a hand took hers and began tracing soothing circles on the back of her hand. “I’m right here,” Robert whispered.
Rosie couldn’t nod, but her shoulders relaxed a fraction. No matter what happened with this blessing, she wasn’t alone.
Pain lanced through her arm as the worm’s hair pierced her upper arm. She bit her tongue, trying not to scream out. Nausea roiled in her stomach as the hair began pumping venom into her system. Wave after wave of venom spread through her body. Then her arm began to throb, heat filling her veins as though she were burning from the inside out. She gasped. The pain grew and grew, spreading to the rest of her body.
Was this what dying felt like? Maybe the worm had lied, and Robert would be killed next. The pain intensified.
No, the worm had seemed truthful. It could have easily killed them before. She just had to hold on. The blessing couldn’t last forever.
“Rosie,” Robert called.
Dimly, she sensed the worm retreating. At least the hair was gone now. Why had she ever wanted a fireworm hair?
Robert shook her, and she moaned as the jostling only spread the pain.
“Be patient, young merman,” the worm said. Then he began to chant.
The pain ebbed and flowed as syllable after syllable rolled through the cave, buffeting her mind. Unintelligible to the human brain, yet almost sounding like something she should know.
Then her eyes began to ache, and she closed them, putting her hands over them as though to shelter them from the pain.
“Rosie, what’s wrong?” Robert asked frantically.
She swallowed, unsure whether she could get any words out. “Hurts,” she whispered. The sound of the fireworm’s chants grew louder and louder and suddenly she could hear other sounds, a nigh-deafening roar that filled the ocean.
“What hurts?” he yelled.
She winced. “Shh. Don’t yell.”
“I’m not yelling,” he boomed confusedly.
The worm’s chant reached a crescendo and then it broke off.
Now there was nothing to distract from the burning as it encompassed every part of her body. Even from behind her closed eyelids, light stabbed at her and Robert’s hand shifted like broken coral against her skin. She whimpered.
Then, as suddenly as it had arrived, the pain left. Rosie took in a shuddering breath, forcing herself to slow down. Not even a residual ache remained. In fact, she felt—better than she had before. Not tired. Not as though she had just spent the night sleeping on sand in a cave. Just good.
Cautiously, she opened her eyes. The cave was now as bright as day. The fireworm sucked in another mouthful of water.
“You have my blessing,” he said.
Rosie clutched Robert’s hand, still afraid of what she would discover about herself.
“Can you, um, loosen your grip?” Robert murmured.
“What?”
He held up their joined hands; his fingers were turning purple. She wasn’t holding him that tightly, was she?
She let go immediately. “Oh, sorry.”
“It’s all right. I just—” He shook out his hand and then held it out to her again. “You’re stronger than you were before, I think.”
The worm laughed. “Indeed. You will find my blessing has changed much, mutante.”
“Your tail!” Robert said, his tone awed.
“What about my tail?” she whispered, too afraid to look.
Robert gestured at the appendage. “It’s all—sparkly.”
“What?” She shifted to look at the offending bit. “Sparkly” was a misnomer. The red had somehow brightened and deepened and when she moved, it threw off tiny sparkles of rainbow light. A wail nearly broke free before she realized the worm might consider her despair to be offensive. They still needed those hairs.
“Why is it sending off those rainbows?” she asked the fireworm.
He chuckled even as Robert made a sound of confusion. “You are seeing it as I do. The blessing made it more distinct, but you had a rainbow-tail before. It is the mark of the Mutante.”
“No wonder I can’t see any rainbow things,” Robert murmured.
She looked around the cave, noting the new brightness and then back at the fireworm, who had an aura around it. “What is all this light?”
“You are seeing things with my vision,” the fireworm repeated. “I see in the dark much more clearly than you do. And I can see magic. You will never have to worry about accidentally giving someone a magical item again, little one.”
Rosie’s eyes grew hot. She could see magic and avoid it? If she had been able to see magic before, Grandma Essie might never have been cursed.
“After all, how else would I have been able to see through your eyes?” the worm asked rhetorically.
Right. The worm would be watching through her eyes. Privacy would be a thing of the past. At least it wasn’t another person or someone she talked to regularly. Her cheeks still grew hot.
The fireworm chuckled. “Do not worry, little one. I do not judge my blessed ones harshly, and I have no interest in watching you day in and day out. The blessing will alert me when something momentous is occurring.”
“Oh, ok,” she said, still not really sure what to make of the statement. Another thought came to her. If the worm could see magic, maybe it would know of something to help Grandma Essie . . . “Mr. fireworm, sir—”
“As my blessed, you may have my name, little one. I am called Farfandal”
“Mr. Farfandal—”
“Just Farfandal. We do not use the same terms of politeness that you do.”
“Yes, er, well, I was wondering about my grandmother. Do you know how to break the curse on her?”
Farfandal swayed in the water as though considering the matter. “A strong enough witch might cast the Remedium Omnes spell.” He peered at her. “Of course, love strengthens everything.”
“The remedium what spell?” Rosie asked, fumbling with her bag and hurriedly pulling out her slate. If she could find a sufficiently powerful witch, she could save her grandmother and aunt Rina!
“The Remedium Omnes. It is found in the Book of the Nereids, and often goes by omnes sanare,” Farfandal said. He drew nearer to her, then seemed to think better of whatever he was going to say and chuckled. “I will enjoy watching you. Wait here, and I will collect my shed hairs for you.”
Rosie gulped. That chuckle had seemed rather ominous. She turned to Robert, who was frozen.
“Do you think he knows how to cure my father?”
She blinked at him. How selfish was she? The question hadn’t even crossed her mind. “Maybe. If your father’s condition is a result of magic.” She laced her fingers with Robert’s. “We’ll ask.”
Robert gave a shallow nod.
After several long moments, Farfandal reappeared, several bristles grasped in his front feet. “As promised,” he said, holding them out.
Rosie hesitated, frantically trying to think where to put them, then she pulled out the potion kit and opened a small box. The bristles settled into it nicely. It looked like he’d given them at least ten.
“Thank you, Farfandal,” she said gratefully. “Do I need to do anything different with the recipe, since you are a magical fireworm?”
Farfandal’s antenna swiveled back and forth for a moment. “Be cautious about whom you use them on. The poison is deadlier and the healing properties are stronger. For your grandmother’s restoration potion, I do not think you need to change the proportions.”
“Thank you. I wouldn’t have known who else to ask.”
One vast antenna went up. “The magic mirror seems knowledgeable.”
“O-of course.” She cleared her throat nervously. “We were also wondering if you knew how to help Robert’s father. He fell into a coma a year and a half ago.”
“They found him just outside the kelp forest,” Robert put in. “No one knows exactly what he was doing that day, though, and the healers can’t find anything wrong with him.”
The worm’s antenna waved again, a mannerism she was beginning to associate with an old merman stroking his beard as he pondered. Rosie nearly laughed at the comparison.
“If you do not know how to wake him, then a restorative potion may assist,” he said finally. “I cannot be certain without examining him.” He turned to Rosie. “You, little one, should be able to see the magic on him if magic is the cause.”
“Oh, I could, couldn’t I?”
Robert turned to her. “Will you come look?”
“Of course I will,” she reassured. “I’ll do whatever I can.” She looked up at Farfandal, whose aura radiated a steady pulse. “When you say ‘restorative potion,’ do you mean the same potion we’re making for Grandma Essie?”
Farfandal’s antenna went up and down, as though he were nodding with them. “Yes.”
“Ok. We can definitely try then.” She gave Robert a small smile. “Your insistence on backups may yet come in handy.”
Robert gaped at her. “You would give up the other half of the ingredients?”
“Of course. Now that I know you’re not just a treasure-hunter—well, you deserve half of them anyway, since you’re taking just as much risk as I am.” She bumped his shoulder playfully.
He blinked at her. “Wow, th-thank you. I—I can’t tell you what this would mean to me, to my family.”
“I think I have some idea,” she said, returning her hand to his.
He grimaced. “I suppose you do.”
The fireworm chuckled again. “Mutante indeed,” he said. “Well, if you do not mind, I would quite like to resume my nap.”
Rosie smiled up at Farfandal. She wouldn’t consider him a friend, per se. But it was nice to have someone else see her red tail as something special, rather than something to be hidden or shunned. “Thank you so much, Farfandal.”
“I did not choose to accept the blessing,” he said. “Goodbye, little one. I do not know if we will meet again, but I am certain I will enjoy all your adventures, regardless.”
Rosie bit her lip. “Right. Well, goodbye.”
“Thank you for your advice, Sir Worm,” Robert added.
Farfandal nodded and then slipped back into his hole.
A/N: I really love that Rosie’s outsides and insides changes. She’s visibly different AND she experiences the world in a new way. Blessings should be like that! Thanks for reading 🙂 I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter!
See you on Tuesday!
