Not What I Thought

Sharing Secrets (and keeping some)

Hello, my lovely little Lightning Bolts! I'm ba-ack! Let's keep the flow going.

(Jimmy POV) 

"Mother?" I squeak as she speeds up towards the water's edge. "Who are we meeting today?" "The king from Rivendell, darling. And his child, I think. If the trade works, you may have a future marriage with his daughter. We need wool and snow, they need slime and prismarine. Everything should be okay, right?" She stoops down to brush some old, dried mud off my face. I smile at her. Of course it would.

 I pull my green hat and cloak tighter, the wind speeding up. "I can already feel them coming." I shiver. My mother laughs, the sound carried by the wind across our kingdom. A pair of people appear out of the haze surrounding the port.

 From far away, I think that the taller man has his daughter beside him. As they get closer, though, I can see that it's actually a boy, shorter than his father, with long teal hair. The closer they get, the more detail I can see.

 It's not just any boy, but a really cute boy. When they finally reach us, the boy searches my face with a carefully masked face. I immediately get flustered by the attention. I can feel the heat spreading across my face as I stick out my hand. 

"I'm Jimmy." I say really fast. "Scott," He returns. "You boys go through the town. I'm sure Jimmy would love to give you a tour, Scott." My mother says politely, gesturing for Scott's dad to follow her to the meeting building. No, Jimmy would love to crawl in the stream and hide with the cod, but the adults are already lost in conversation. 

Scott grabs my hand. His fingers are cold. "Care to show me around, James?" he says casually. "I should know more about your kingdom if we become allies." I lead him through the village, talking all about the houses and such.

 When we reach the riverbank, I let go of his hand. I sit on the edge and trail my fingers through the moss and slime floating on top. Some cod float up to the top and nibble my fingers. I laugh, and Scott sits down next to me, his legs folded underneath him. 

"Hey, can you keep a secret?" I ask him tentatively, still looking at my cod. "Uh, sure, I guess." he responds, shrugging. I pull off my cloak, hanging it on the tree spreading its branches across the river. I untie my boots, pull off my socks, and roll up my sleeves and pant legs. 

I wade in carefully, the cod gathering around me. Then I dive under. I open my eyes under the water, the water warming me up from the cold winds outside. The murkiness makes me feel safe, the mud swirling around me. When I emerge, I hear Scott gasp. Covering my bare arms, legs, neck, and feet are brown and green scales. I turn and look at my cod tail, which leads up my back and attaches to the cod hat on my head. I'm not wearing my green shirt and white pants, but a pair of matching clothes made of moss. 

"I... I haven't told anyone except my older sister. She's part axolotl, I'm part cod. You just seem really trustworthy." I shrug, then walk out of the water. My tail and head disappear, as do my scales and clothes. In place are my bare feet, old clothes, and green cap. I lay back on the rocks beside the riverbank and close my eyes. I open them up when Scott starts talking.

"I'm kind of like you." I turn my head towards him, my interest piquing. "A hybrid, I mean." I laugh. "I was blessed by some fish, how about you?" Scott laughs with me. "A deer, actually. The Rivendell elves had these 2 brothers, Alinar and Cohnal. This was a really long time ago. Anyway, one day the brothers went up to this cave exploring. They got split up and both claimed to have been blessed by some spirit. When they came back, Cohnal started acting differently. He was a bully, and started to burn things, hurting people in the villages. Alinar was different, too; he started to repair things instead of acting indifferent to it. 

Eventually, Alinar banished Cohnal from his kingdom, spreading his followers far and thin. Cohnal came back, though, and the 2 brothers fought. When they were fighting, they exhausted all their energy, and both collapsed. The spirits of the deer gods, Aeor and Exor, appeared over them. What the brothers had said about their trip to the caves had been true. Aeor had been infused into Alinar's blood, and Exor Cohnal's. Eventually, the gods were also exhausted. Aeor finally caught Exor off-guard and flung his spirit to a different realm. Exor was trapped, but that didn't stop him from spreading his corruption to that realm. Now, it's called the Nether. 

Until a year ago, I thought they were gone. Rivendell now worships Aeor for banishing the corruption, but after banishing Exor, Aeor disappeared as well. Until, like I said, a year ago. I was helping my older brother, Xornoth, when he disappeared. I was in a strip mine, but I couldn't find him. And then I found Aeor's spirit." I almost laugh at the absurdity of it all, but then he snaps his fingers. Long golden horns appear on his head, glowing brightly. "Wow." is all I can say. He looks at me. "Yeah, wow. But when I came out of the cave, Xornoth was waiting for me. He told me I'd made a mistake, to go put the horns back. I refused, because I loved how they looked with my hair." He blushes. "He got mad and started yelling. I told him to stop, to mind his own business. He just glared at me and walked away.

I realized I had stepped over some kind of line, and I tried to apologize, but he was gone. I thought about it later and realized that his eyes weren't purple like normal, to match his hair. They were red, like Exor's are in the stories. So... yeah, I guess. I can make the antlers appear and disappear, but they don't come off, only go invisible." he shrugs. "Well, we should go back to the main building." I say, pulling all of my stuff on. The sun is sinking behind some trees. I guess we were there longer than I thought. We trudge down a deserted road. I catch Scott looking at me. "What?" I say, turning to him. "Oh, I was just thinking. Do you get flustered easily? Or only when you meet new people?" Oh no.

Could he tell that I liked him? Crap. "I-what? N-no, 'course not." I stutter out. "So you're not flustered when I do this?" Before I know what he's doing, he grabs my wrist and pins them against the wall of one of the houses near us. My face feels hot. He smiles wryly. "How about now?" he whispers, leaning in closer. My heart is pounding. I can't move, can't breathe, could only stare into his mesmerizing blue eyes. If he moved even 2 inches closer, we'd be kissing. He leaned back. "I guess not," he smirks. He starts walking back to the meeting hall where our parents are. I take a deep breath, then jog to catch up with him. He waits a beat before looking back in my direction. "I was only teasing. But I am gay, you know." He runs ahead, leaving me open mouthed in the middle of the road.