Marlun and Juhana had been friends for… how long again? Years? She didn’t remember anymore.
She valued the friendship she shared with the centaur. He was her rock, common sense and reason of voice. Which was ironical, as he didn’t have much voice. Her friend had been mute apparently through his whole life, and she had gotten used to it. But even if everyone else seemed to accept Juhana’s silence, he never really accepted it himself.
Recently he had been studying some magical formula a lot. It was given to him by the Grand Witch Ophelie, and the two had shared long conversations. Marlun of course didn’t know about what, as she had given them the privacy. Even if she was super curious.
What ever the formula was, Juhana had been working on it for long, and it seemed like now the centaur needed her help?
She had been chilling by his cozy home as the couch crasher she was, following his preparations. He was mixing some potions, writing down stuff. It was a long spell, and by the amount of ingredients, it seemed to be a difficult spell.
Marlun got up and walked to Juhana. He looked at her briefly, gave a nod as a hello and turned his attention back to his writing. He started gesturing to Marlun with his free hand, and the human was very familiar with their meaning. She sat down in front of him, waiting for instructions.
”You want me to read the spell aloud?” She asked, but he shook his head. Well, that had been a stupid question anyway from her. Even as mute, Juhana had always been better with spells. It was weird.
She looked at his as he started to explain with signing again. He pointed at his head, signaled speaking, and pointed at Marlun. She squinted her eyes.
”’Im sorry..?”
He continued. He was pointing at Marlun’s head, and did some gestures around his own head, and pointed at her again. He was definitely asking something from Marlun, but she was completely clueless.
”I don’t understand, man. Sorry.” She had to apologize. This wasn’t the first time, so he just rolled his eyes and signaled the familiar ”just wait” sign. Allright then!
The centaur added the final ingredient to his potion, and checked the list. Marlun followed his finger as he was going through the instructions one by one, he was so precise. Finally he seemed to be sure he had gotten everything, and poured some of the mixture into two small bowls. Marlun raised her eyebrows as Juhana offered one of the bowls to her.
”..Allright.. I blame you if I turn into a frog or something.” She teased as she looked at the potion. Dark, murky, not looking appetizing at all. Typical magical potion. She looked at Juhana, who was holding three fingers up, and the bowl already close to his lips. Okay, it was a countdown.
Two fingers up, one finger. And then both of them gulped down the potion. Right after that, Juhana started to speak without voice. He was repeating the spell, and without a clear voice the words and their meanings worked. Marlun saw how some of his witch’s markings were faintly glowing, and she felt magic’s presence. She felt it activating in her, the potion she had drinked responding to the spell. Her heartbeat started getting heavier as she waited for what was going to happen.
…. But nothing seemed to happen yet.
She looked at Juhana who had stopped casting the spell. He looked directly at her, and she saw nervousness in him.
”—this—work?”
She had never been more startled as now that she heard an unfamiliar voice out of nowhere. She jumped up and looked around her, trying to find the source of it. There wasn’t supposed to be anyone with them. ”The fuck was that?”
But as she looked at Juhana again, she stopped. He was smiling.
”It did” A simple response again by the voice. It wasn’t a very strong voice, and even the simple words seemed to be troublesome. And as Marlun heard it again, she realized that it wasn’t coming from around them. She heard it in her head.
”You sly fox. Do I gotta teach you how to speak now huh, as I promised?” She couldn’t help but grin as a laugh escaped from her, as she hugged her friend.
A telepathic spell huh? Weird things one can do with the wonders of magic.
