Powers

Chapter 16: A Mess

I'm sure by now months had passed. Mark and I had established a very stable camp from our spot. There were houses and fires. Guards and fishers. The war still went on. Once in a while I could here screams and loud blasts. There were still prisoners. It was still living in hell.
I had a complex network of these camps. We spread messages between. Word had been spread that Leader had grown ill. Loyalists were losing faith in him as he got sicker. It was the perfect situation for us.
"Chief! We have a message from the north camp" someone had reported in.
"What is it?" I sat. I was in the middle of my watch. No one had come near the camp in such a long time. We had the largest one. Nearly two hundred people living in this area.
"Leader has in fact grown ill. A person on the inside had seen him. He is not doing well. This may be the best time to strike." He advised.
"Of course. Get our military leader over here. He should plan something out" I waved him away. I felt like a mess. These past months had been brutal. Sleepless nights and countless injured ended up here. We saved who we could.
I had grown a disgustingly long beard. It was patchy and bushy. Mark's at least was fully grown in. I haven't had a shirt since everything started. I felt even more uncivilized than before. I was extremely stressed, waiting any moment for the people on watch above the trees to blare their bomb sirens. I hadn't eaten well in the past month. I had lost quite a bit of weight. My ribs were visible.
"Jack, you gotta eat" Mark sat beside me with a platter of fish and vegetables.
"I'm not hungry" I looked away from it.
"Yeah I know, but being this skinny isn't normal. You look horrible. You'll die if you don't eat"
"I can't die anyway. So what's the point" I turned from him.
"Okay, but you get my point. I hate seeing you like this, Jack. I miss the old you. The one who had a little bit of chub, but a lot of muscle. The one who smiled even in the worst situations. I haven't kissed you in months. I just don't get it" Mark sighed. I heard him crunch into some of the food.
"This war happened. I can't stomach the fact I've had to kill more and more people while there are still some trapped. I can't handle the fact of how uncivilized we are here. I hate this beard growing on my face. I don't like yours either. It's so out of place that it grosses me out. I don't like any of it" I felt so out of place.
"Would it cheer you up if I told you that this morning I sent a bunch of people out on a raid? They should be returning soon if nothing went wrong" I perked up.
"You did what?" I asked. My hopes felt a little higher.
"Look, here they come" he pointed in front of us where a huge group of people carrying sacks were approaching. My stiff face curled up into its first smile in months.
"Oh my god it's like Christmas" I laughed. I almost forgot how to. The people passed us, plopping the bags in a huge pile. I ran after it.
"Everyone! In a line please so you can take your pick of stuff!" I felt like I had just died and went to heaven. At this point I didn't even care, and I took first pick. I took fresh clothing, a mirror, scissors, toothbrush, toothpaste, and soap. I moved out of the way before I cracked open the toothpaste and toothbrush. I hadn't used them in months. I invited the minty goo into my mouth like it was the last morsel of food. I scrubbed away for as long as I could. I bounced into my home. I used our make shift taps to swish and rinse the minty gold from my mouth. I grew the mirror into the wall where I used it so I could guide my scissors to cut my beard. The long, gross hairs fell into the bowl. I cut it until it was at its usual. I jumped for joy. I rushed out, running down to the beach. Others had the same idea. We rushed into the water where whatever didn't come off before got washed off. The ocean was turning into a bubble bath with the amount of soap floating around. I was happy for the first time in a long time. I felt refreshed. I felt new hope for this war.
"Jack!" I heard Mark laugh. I looked to see him above the water in his own water bubble. His beard was down again to a perfect length. "CANNON BALL!" Mark yelled before he let himself go. He curled up in a ball, falling into the water. A huge splash got me. I laughed hysterically. My hair was falling into my face, but I didn't care. I was clean. I looked like a human again. I grew a diving board from plants. People were having fun for once. Of course we had people on watch. But no loyalist would be out here right now with their leader being sick.
"Mark! Watch this!" I crawled up the diving board, jumping off of it in a perfect form.
"He's back! The Chief is really back!" Mark shouted with joy. People started cheering and I began blushing. I swam up to Mark. He grabbed my face, pulling it to his. I could taste the salt on his lips as he kissed me. This feeling felt foreign, but I loved it so. I bit at his lips as my hands moved around the back of his head.
"I fucking love you, Sean Mcloughlin." Mark was gasping for air at this point, but it didn't stop him.
"I love you too, Mark"
"Chiefs! We have some news again for you!" I heard someone yell.
"One moment" I raised my hand in the air to signal another minute. Mark and I fell deeper into the water. I loved the feeling of his warm skin against mine. 
"Chiefs!" The voice repeated.
"Okay!" I turned and shouted. Mark and I waded out of the water. We followed the guard that had called us out. He had a clipboard.
"What's the news?" Mark asked as he put on his new shirt.
"We have some new statistics regarding our numbers. As well as the military commander will be here within the hour. He's bringing strategic maps and soldiers from the other camps" he explained. He pulled us into the main eating area.
"What's with the numbers then?" I asked. I sat down beside Mark. He put one of his arms around my waist.
"Since the raid, five couples have reported pregnancy. As well as two children have been born in the north camp, one in the east, as well as three in the peak camp" he was reading off of a paper.
"Five couples?" I repeated. There's no way that many people could be fooling around.
"Yes. Four from this camp alone" he confirmed.
"Who?" I asked.
"Tom and Riley, Betty, but she doesn't know who the father is. Isole and Aukai, and Bridget with Ben. The other camp didn't record the names of the couple." He shook his head. I was just in shock of who's names I just heard. I looked at Mark.
"What about the risks though? You heard about that kid who survived and he's currently in a padded cell" I whispered to Mark.
"We'll just have to hope they have twins"
"Yeah I hope. But Isole and Aukai?! I wouldn't have guessed it! Like there was nothing between the two of them before!" I choked with surprise.
"Maybe a friends with benefits gone wrong" Mark snorted.
"Probably" I laughed.
"Uh, sirs, do you want to hear about the children born?" The guard raised his hand.
"Yeah yeah, go ahead. What factions were they from?" I waved my hand. I was now trying not to burst out laughing.
"We have two mixes of the Nature and flying. Both pairs of children are fine. Fire and water, fine as well, ice and water, fine, wind and water, fine, nature and water, and flying and ice"
"And they're all fine? Parents and children?" I asked.
"All seem okay"
"Good. Then these will be top priority to get off the island. As I understand it the north camp is almost done with the construction of the boat?" I stood. I wanted to go find the people in our camp who were pregnant.
"Yes. It is complete and ready" he nodded.
"Perfect. I want these people over there as soon as possible. If we're going on this raid today, I need everyone who is not needed on that boat. They are priority at this exact moment" I demanded.
"Of course sir" he nodded before running off. As Mark and I exited the tent, Betty walked by.
"Betty!" I called her out. I grew roses in my hand.
"Oh hey, Jack" she blushed.
"I want to congratulate you on the surprise" I handed her the roses.
"Oh thanks. It was a bit of a surprise to me too when I took one of the tests" she seemed ashamed.
"I didn't know you were in a relationship with anyone?" I didn't want to straight up ask her who the father was.
"Yeah, uh about that, I'm not." She blushed even more now. I didn't even think she was going to be that open about it either.
"Oh?"
"I wasn't really supposed to tell the two of you this, but about a month and a half ago, there was this thing. And uh, someone suggested it. We had found some alcohol when someone went on a raid on their own. A group of us got trashed and someone put a beer bottle on the ground and said we'd play spin the bottle. As drunk as we were, everyone agreed. Except he changed the rules and it said who ever it landed on, we had to have, uh, sex with them. We were so drunk and I barely remember it. But some guy span it and it landed on me and off we went. Next morning I woke up in the middle of the bush somewhere covered in leaves and naked." She explained.
"You guys had alcohol and didn't tell us?" I pretended to be offended. It would've been nice to get drunk.
"Betty, you didn't get raped, did you?" Mark got really concerned.
"No I didn't. Not at all. It was a completely consensual thing. I was just drunk and stupid. That's all. And now I'm going to be living with my drunk mistake" she shrugged.
"Alright. But if you ever do think it was rape, let us know and we can bring it to the cops" Mark assured.
"I promise it wasn't."
"Anyway, Betty. We're getting all the pregnant couples off the island as soon as we can, so you're going to be shipped off to our boat. You'll just wait here, please" I asked.
"Oh? Okay" she agreed. As she sat, like we asked.
It didn't take long before we had all the couples rounded off and shipped away. I waved goodbye as they were flown away.
"So now we wait?" Mark asked. I wasn't paying attention. I was paying more attention to the aggressive growling in my stomach. I was still skin and bones and I felt weak. I took some fruit off a tree and munched down on it. I was disappointed, as the thing filled me up. I frowned. I wanted to distract myself with something now. I shrugged, finally being in the mood to go for a walk. I turned to leave.
"Jack wait, where are you going?" Mark caught my shoulder.
"I'm going for a walk" I admitted.
"And you want to go in there? Jack, you need to gain weight before you start climbing around on rocks. You're nowhere near a healthy weight. Look at yourself. I can almost pick you up with one arm. Please just wait. I can get someone in here to help you cause now I know you'd be willing to accept it."
"How exactly am I supposed to grow to a normal weight at this point if we're planning on finishing this war within the next week?" I pointed to my obviously overly skinny arm. I hated that the fact people could see my shoulder bones easily now. I hated that I had really sunken in eyes. I looked like a walking skeleton at this point. And there's no way I should even be standing right now. But for some reason I had to believe it had to do with my magic. Somehow it had to be wanting to keep its host alive.
"Jack I've been trying to tell you for the past month I knew how to fix this. But you never listened to me. Please just let me do what I have to do. I hate seeing you like this" he pleaded. I couldn't say no. I didn't even like the way I looked. After having my little eye opener and refresher.
"How do you fix it, then?" I crossed my arms.
"Magic" he smirked and winked. He grabbed onto my hand.
"How?"
"I met with that family member of the Flying faction. Y'know, the one who brought us here. I was talking to him and he showed me a lot of the healing factors our magic has if used correctly"
"It has healing?" Suddenly all the deaths I've seen said a little differently. If we had known, people could have healed themselves. They could've still been alive.
"Yes. But as far as I'm aware, one has to do it on another. Whatever our magic is, its powerful. It's amazing. Here. I'll help" Mark shook my hand to signal to look down there. I looked. Blue magic from Mark seeped into my hand where they connected. My own magic responded. I watched as my wrist got wider.
"So if this magic heals this, why doesn't the spell we have do so?" I asked. It seemed odd to me.
"I dunno actually. Maybe the spell is only for external wounds. Not for weight loss" Mark shrugged. My face tingled as I felt it puff out more.
"So how does this regulate how much fatter I'm becoming. So far as I can tell, I'm going to my regular size"
"It's in my mind, Jack. Remember, we gotta tell what we want to magic to do otherwise it won't do it" Mark then let go of my hand.
"Right" I nodded. I looked down at my fingers which were no longer just bone. There was some chub around them.
"Sirs, the military commander just showed up!" The guy with the clipboard ran up to us.
"Alright, we'll meet with him immediately" I nodded, following the guy