The Gifted

Mimic's Identity

A shiver ran up my spine as the footsteps got closer. This was no coincidence that the rider was here. I was surprised when I was nudged by a booted foot, then Flame was too she sat bolt upright as her hands sparked into fireballs almost setting the blankets alight.

"Easy girl" said a familiar voice "you have nothing to fear."

In one fluid movement I stood, drew my blade and pressed it to the man's exposed throat.

"Prove it." I said quietly.

"I am alone and unarmed, if I wanted you dead I would be and I would've slit your throats as you slept." He replied, remarkably calm despite his predicament.

"Very well, but who are you?" Flame asked, hands still flaming.

"I am known by many names, which would you like young one?" He said conversationally.

Young one is a strange thing to say, he looks barely thirty.

"Whichever you so choose." She said coldly.

"Well, Glacien knows who I am, so ask him." He responded as he gestured to me.

"I recognise your voice but cannot place a title to it." I said carefully since I had sheathed my blade.

"Shame." He said with a false frown. "Very well, the name I currently go by is Mimic."

So his prediction had come true.

After he had explained his purpose was to assist us, we all sat down and the other two warmed themselves by the fire.

Finally I asked my most pressing question. "How were you in the inn's attic room?"

"Ah yes, our little chat the other night." He replied, looking troubled. "Well to explain it simply, my name is Mimic because I can imitate powers after I have experienced them. However there is a catch, I can only use one power at a time and none of my abilities are to the same power level as the one I am imitating. So to answer your question, my mind was attacked by a telepath fairly recently so I can now utilise telepathy to enter and communicate with minds." As he concluded Flame looked intrigued.

When the others slept I couldn't, I was perfectly comfortable, Flame wrapped warmly around me and there was minimal light to prevent sleep. Mimic's snores were a low rumble as the dawn broke.

The forest loomed over us as we walked, Flame and Mimic chatted as we went along, I only chimed in when I was directly involved by Flame. The deeper we walked, the darker it seemed to get, however the trees became more bare and dead looking.

As we made camp on the second night, Mimic volunteered to go and collect wood for the fire, when he was out of sight Flame spoke quickly.

"Do you trust him?" Glancing around as she said it.

"No..." I replied slowly "but he does seem sincere about helping us."

"Don't you find him odd though? Like when he called me 'young one' as if he was decades old?" She said, eyes darting around in the darkness.

"That did strike me as odd yes." I responded "you do realise he is probably inside our heads right now? Listening in."

"That I am Glacien." Sounded Mimic's voice. "I'll explain everything when I get back, I've just had a small incident with some murklings."

"Oh no!" Exclaimed Flame "but aren't murklings meant to be extinct?"

"They were supposed to be, yes." I said quietly glancing around, I was beginning to feel edgy again.

Mimic's footsteps crunched closer as e emerged into our clearing, one arm full of sticks, the other carrying a dark slimy mass. He dropped the sticks down in the small hole we had dug for the fire, the mass was dropped next to them.

"You couldn't just freeze his wrists together could you Glacien?" Mimic said as he pulled up the murkling's hands.

I reached out and did as he asked. Mimic then drove a large stick into the ground and attached a rope around the creature's neck to the stick.

As Flame looked over at what he was doing he said "probably best to not have the little sod escaping until we have questioned him."

It was only as he turned his back that I noticed he had around five very small daggers protruding from his back, Flame had noticed too and went pale at the sight.

"Mimic, you have several daggers in your back." I said cautiously gripping the hilt of my blade.

"Do I?" He replied casually. "I guess it's better than the time I was speared and pinned to a tree." He gave a small chuckle at this. "Would you mind pulling them out Flame?" He said as he removed his faded jacket and blood stained shirt.

"Sure." Flame said shaking as she stood up.

She reached and pulled out the first and jumped back horrified as the wound sealed itself without even a scar.

"What on earth are you?!" She said scared.

"Can you pull them out first then ask?" He inquired half jokingly.

With both hands she grasped the remaining daggers and yanked them out. All of the wounds sealed, just like the first had.

"So? What are you?" She said as she dropped the daggers.

"Very well, I cannot hide it from you any longer, around seventy decades ago, I was John Mcday, I joined with the ranks of the king's army, I knew of my power to copy abilities because a seer had foreseen it when I was a child but I had always aged a lot slower than normal people so, one season around sixty decades later, I was still in the king's army, we were sent out to a village to the south to deal with a pair of natural mages, they had killed some knights who were enlisting men there. The king sent me, a company of nearly a hundred men, two Teleporters and an Arc thrower to kill or arrest them. Not many of us survived, I wouldn't have if a healer hadn't found me and dragged me into her home. She was a mage with the power to heal herself and other living things. As she pressed her hands to the area of my chest that had been crushed by my buckled armour, she used her power to mend the ribs and repair the damaged organs, as she did this I took on a portion of this ability for myself and by the time she was finished with my chest I was unconscious with the pain, but the rest of my body had healed. When I awoke she was pulling a chunk of bent steel from my side, the gaping gash it left healed within minutes. She was very confused but I explained my abilities to her. A side effect to this healing ability is that my body repairs itself always, even from the natural ageing process. There's no turning it off. We were both in our second decade and we fell for one another, but it was not to be, she grew old while I stayed young, she died four decades later, a week after this I tied a rope round my neck and to a large rock at the edge of a cliff, I pushed the rock over the edge. I awoke in the crashing waves a little while later. I have been cursed with agelessness forever, watching those I love die around me."

"Oh my gosh!" Said Flame as a tear rolled down her cheek.

"That's terrible." I said quietly.

"One of the joys of being me." He continued emptily.