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It was a peaceful day in the lands of Lanknoria. The cloudless sky was a bright, velvety blue. A slight wind blew over the small town of Kanar.

Yelling was heard in a house on the outskirts of the town.

"Hey! Cocidius!" Yelled a girl’s voice, emminating from a brown earthen house. It’s wooden walls seemed to shake at the sound of her voice. "Get back here and pway my baby!"

A young adult elf, about 6’0", long sandy-brown hair, simple brown eyes, and extraordinarily long, pointed ears (common to all elves), burst out of the home, the door slamming into the wall behind it. He took off running, with a baby bonnet comically tied to his head, and little white, string-knitted shoes stretched onto his feet.

"Aw man! Why do I put up with this crap?" His voice rang out to the world, his feet thundering across the ground. Then, mumbling to himself, "I don’t get paid enough to baby-sit that terror! Dang-it! I need to talk to Mrs. Tennera this!"

A split second later, a stout little girl broke out of her house, her face bright red from anger, nostrils flaring, her lip upturned, and her fists placed angrily on her waist. "You can’t do this to me! Get back here my widdle wove boy!" She yelled at the top of her lungs, her left fist in the air, shaking angrily towards the road that Cocidius had escaped down.

After a moment, he had disappeared from sight. "My how fast he runs! I bet a Bloneduur couldn’t catch up with him!" She said to the wind on the right of her. Then, in a very good ventriloquist voice lower than her own, she said, "This sucks! We should, like, break up with him." Said the ghost-girl.

"We bweak up? I’m sorry, but he’s my boyfwend." And then she looked off in the distance, and saw him down the road, just standing there, looking in her direction.

"HEY!" She screamed. "FINE! WE’RE BWEAKING UP. SO… Pphhhlbbbb!"

In the distance she saw him let out a noticeable sigh, scratched his head, turned around, and started walking casually down the road towards town.

He walked for a while, and a couple then passed him. He noticed they were trying not to laugh. He had forgotten about the baby clothes. However, the denizens of Kanar were pretty used to the weirdoes, but Cocidius assumed that they still got a kick out of the strange people.

"Oh, crap!" He moaned, as he unsuccessfully tried ripping off the baby clothes. He then took a big breath, settled down, and started to untie the strings keeping on the baby clothes.

As soon as he had taken the bonnet and the shoes off, a carriage approached and the driver signaled for him to stop. One of the passengers wished to speak with him.

As they neared, the clopping sound of the horses’ hooves slowed down in rhythm, and soon came to a complete stop. The driver, who was wearing a bright red, crudely made coattail suit, signaled with his thumb to go to the back to the carriage.

Cocidius, wondering who wanted to speak with him, approached one of the wooden crimson-red windows to see who it was.

It was none other than the parents of Myra; the little girl whom he had fled in terror from.

"Why, Cocidius, what are doing here? Has our young Myra made trouble for you again?" Her voice had a snobbish tone. Cocidius had a hard time keeping his temper lower than his boiling point.

"You could say that." Cocidius stated, with annoyance rich in his voice. He handed them Myra’s baby clothes.

Her mother took them and inspected them. She let out a sigh of discontentment, and then thought about what to do. She leaned closer to the window. "Here. Please have your money that I owe you."

As she had leaned closer to the window, he saw her in full view. She was wearing a party dress of some sort. Her seated, slender figure looked shapelier in the sleek red dress. She also had lacy, crimson-red gloves on that went up to her elbow. Her wavy, almost curly hair was pulled back and up into a weird bun. It was through the hair tie once, and came back through again making it stick up into the air. And the rest of her hair rested on her neck. Also, now that he looked at her up close, he saw that her face was a light red color, and he could smell liquor on her breath.

Back behind her, on the other side of the carriage, sat Mr. Tennera, in a strange suit, like the one the driver had on, same quality and style; however, it was a forest green, one among the most often seen colors. He too seemed to look a little tipsy and droopy-eyed.

"Here," Offered Mrs. Tennera. "Here’s your pay." Then she handed him fifteen silver coins.

"Oh my…!" Said Cocidius, shocked by her over-generosity and kindness. "Thanks! However, I’m going to be leaving soon to the capital, Elviresh. I turned 16 just yesterday!"

Mrs. Tennera, now annoyed that she had given him two baby-sits worth in advanced, could do nothing now but laugh nervously. "Oh, um, that’s too bad!" She said with fake seriousness. "Most children don’t leave for a month or so, due to having to tie up loose ends. Why are you leaving so soon?"

"Oh, well, I got that done quite a while ago, in anticipation for these next few coming days. Remember, if you ever need me," His voice now hush-hush, " I can do a really good job at bounty-hunting. That’s what I’m aspiring to be! ‘If there’s a pimple on your face, let me pop it for you!’ That’s what I always say! It’s my motto now!" Explained Cocidius, very proud of his business motto.

Mrs. Tennera’s eyes widened a bit, due to shock of his chosen profession and his bad-analogy of a motto. "Um, that’s so nice, honey…! Um,"

"Don’t you get it?" Cocidius asked. "You know, as if the pimple is someone really annoying you? It’s not like you’d really want to pop it yourself and get your hands dirty! You get someone, a professional, to pop it for you."

She looked feverishly and nervously about for an excuse to leave in haste. "Um, oh, yes! Of course... Um, we’ve got to get back to Myra, so it was nice knowing you Cocidius, heh heh heh…" She said with a wave. "DRIVER! PLEASE RESUME!" She barked, her face red from yelling so loudly. She looked down at Cocidius for the last time, and smiled nervously.

The carriage then shuddered to a crawl, and quickly picked up speed. As they drove away, Cocidius heard Mrs. Tennera say to her husband, "What is god’s name does ‘anticipation’ or ‘aspire’ mean, dear?"

"I haven’t a clue! It’s one of those big words that smart people use!"

"Jeez! We really have to brush up on our vocabulary, since we’re all rich now! Myra will be so pampered now! What are we to do? He he he…" As they pulled away, her voice trailed off.

And then, they left his sight leaving him only with a load of sand and dust in his face, and the fifteen silver.

"What a bunch of tightwads!" Exclaimed Cocidius in disgust from her reaction to over-paying him, and the fact that the only person who could put up with the evils of Myra, was now leaving. He turned and walked home…

* * *

It was late now, the sky a bright yellow in the west where the sun was setting. The sky melded seamlessly from one color to the next, a perfect and beautiful version of the rainbow, in the eastern sky. Cocidius neared his home about forty-five minutes later, in the western-portion of his hometown, Kanar. As he walked up to the door, he heard a slight sound behind him. He stopped for a second, and announced, "Well, Clara? How does it feel to be back?" He then turned around and, sure enough, he saw Clara standing about three feet behind him, with, for some reason, stars glittering in her eyes as she gazed at him.

She stood there, her hands crossed behind her back. Her usual light brown, over-sized bangs (and they shouldn’t even be technically be considered bangs any more, except for the fact that she always has them separated and down on her face) hung down on both sides of her face, stopping right above her chin. It was purposely trained to go out a little bit and then go down, so that it did not hide her face so much. Also, the remainder of her hair had been pulled back in her usual ponytail, and that portion of her hair went down to the base of her neck. Her bright green eyes stared deeply into his, glimmering in the late day’s low light of the sunset. She looked beautiful in this light. The shadows let her darkness shine, while the light hid the any good that might have been left in her. He tried not to think of her looks and personality. Maybe she was a changed person now. However, she had left him without even saying goodbye…

From the look on her face, Cocidius wondered nervously why she was staring at him.

And then his thoughts were suddenly answered.

Out of sheer surprise, and the fact he was lost in his thoughts for a moment, she rushed him, and slammed to the front wall of his wooden house, shaking it. As soon as she made physical contact, she latched onto him. She magically kept them afloat in the air. They were now over two feet off the ground, and rising.

He was trapped in her grip. She had wrapped her legs around his, and her arms around his mid-chest, entrapping his arms.

They were now four feet off the ground, hovering in mid-air. Since she was magically stronger, he couldn’t get out of her grip.

She stared at him, strait in the face. She sniffed, her eyes were teared up and large, and a look of happiness on her face. "Oh, Cocidius! How I’ve missed you so!" She caressed his face with her soft hair and nuzzled with his neck. Cocidius strained to keep away from her touch. Then with one hand, she reached up and stroked his cheek. "Your skin is still baby-bottom soft!" She said happily. "Don’t you shave?" She whispered quietly.

"Hey, hey, hey! Clara! Get off of me! And of course I shave, kinda…" Yelled Cocidius in desperation. His face was bright red from his embarrassment, and annoyance. He then started to glow an odd pink. Light shed off him as bright as a small campfire. Cocidius had been born with a slight oddity to his body chemistry. He could let off colored light, depending on his current emotions. But he could not control it. Luckily, this event only happened when he experienced strong emotions.

"What if someone sees us? They’ll think we’re trying to do something, and someone might call the Patrollers on us! We’ve already had a lot of time together from behind jail-bars," complained Cocidius.

Now stroking his nose accidentally in her blindness, she said, "Oh! What does pink mean? ‘Embarrassment’ maybe…?" And then, his glow became brighter. Now, all she could see was the light. "C’mon! Turn off the brights, Cocidius!" Complained Clara, attempting to shield her eyes. "I think I might accidentally poke your eye or something…!"

‘POINK!’ The sound the eye made as Clara’s finger poked his eye.

"OWWWW! Clara, my eye!" Yelled Cocidius, jumping at the pain. As she backed off an inch to keep from harming him more, he thrust his hands out, caught something he shouldn’t have in the cups of his hands, and pushed, hard, to keep her from hurting him even more.

Clara smoothly, but swiftly, glided back several feet and immediately put her hands over her chest as if to shield herself from anymore assaults. Her mouth hung open, her head down, her eyes showing her shock, and her lips slowly curving up into a smile.

With Clara’s concentration now broken, Cocidius didn’t have a magic floor underneath him in which to stand on. He fell bottom-first to the ground, flailing his arms frantically all the way down, like it would help. Mean while, Clara fell gracefully and softly to the ground and landed on her feet, unlike Cocidius. He landed hard with an audible THUMP!

Cocidius slowly picked himself up, bruised, while Clara was doubled over from laughter.

"Ha ha ha ha haa!" She looked up at him coyly, with a crooked smile slapped on her face. "That’s what you get for breaking my concentration." She taunted him.

"What? How did I break your concen…" And he then stopped in mid sentence, realizing why she had said that.

"Let’s see now?" She asked, putting her pointer finger to her mouth in wonder. "What distracted me? Well, do you remember groping two little somethings that where circular, soft, yet firm and large?" She reminded him, pointlessly refreshing his memory.

"Yes, yes." He replied. "Wait… Large…?" He asked himself, scratching his head, his voice a serious and quiet tone. Meanwhile, he was actually cracking up inside.

"Hey! What did you mean by that?" Demanded Clara, her hands angrily placed on her hips. She then ran up to him, still on the ground, and stuck her chest in his face. She attempted to grab her breast with her hands and tried to sort-of shake them in front of him. Since they really were not that large, her demonstration did nothing but make Cocidius start laughing, despite the control he had shown before. "What do you think these are?" She asked. "Little lumps on my chest for fun?"

He then took then open opportunity to say something, "Some may think that’s what it’s for," He said, barely able to keep his laughter from making him keel over. He then exploded in laughter. Tears forced their way to his eyes, screaming to be let out. Screaming in laughter that is.

She stood up with a sigh, and said, "Well, I really set myself up there." And then she thought, "And you know what, it’s kinda true what you said…"

He settled down, her words sinking in. He was surprised at her honesty, while she was thinking something more along the lines of men admiring her, not using them for "fun". His eyes grew large, still not on the same wavelength she was currently on, and a little line of blood slid out from his nose and down his upper lip. He then started to glow a faint green. She punted him back to the doorsteps to his house in anger. She quickly calmed down, back in the mood to joke around.

He stood up and frowned upon her. He had totally forgotten that he hated her for not at least saying goodbye when she left.

"What?" Asked Clara confused. "It goes, ‘you hit on me, I flirt back with you’, you know! So what’s the big deal"

"Um, heh heh, uhhh…" And he audibly gulped, a large sweat drop appearing on the back of his head.

"Oh, so you can dish it out, but you can’t take it, huh?"

"Um, uh, that’s not it…" He stammered.

"Oh, yes it is!" Cooed Clara. She then ran her fingers down her body and up again. "You want this, don’t you?"

"Wha… Wha? What are you talkin’ about?" Yelled Cocidius, his voice very nasal. He attempted to keep his blood from leaking out of his nose.

Then, Clara pointed to her head. "What about this?"

Blushing heavily, his nose now clear, he turned his head to hide his face. "You know, before you left, you became another person..."

The last year before her family moved to the capitol, Elrinesh, Clara had started to change. At first, Cocidius knew a kind, gentle, petty thief. But a little after her fourteenth birthday (and Cocidius was fifteen then), a man recognized her talents. He offered her the chance to be the greatest thief ever, and he said he would teach her magic crucial to being the best thief, much to Cocidius’s opposition. He knew the differences between petty thievery to survive and making a career out of it.

She started successfully stealing larger items, and she soon built a reputation of being quick, quiet, capable, and serious. And also being cold to those who got in her way, supposedly sometimes even eliminating them. This was a fourteen year-old girl they were talking about. Able to perform something even a brave man had trouble doing. And unfortunately, it was all true.

In order to keep her reputation, her teacher Jonathan Stargs, told her to always act her reputation, and she did, and she was respected, feared, and hated for it. So now, she constantly had to put up this mask.

It even started to take her over. She unconsciously had her mask up, even around Cocidius, her best friend. For a long while, she took down her reputation only around Cocidius, but eventually, she even stopped doing that, too. She herself didn’t even know which person she was. So she took up the more profitable one and rewarding one.

But that meant being a total ass to Cocidius. She constantly gave him lip, and tried to boss him around like she did everyone else. However, Cocidius didn’t buckle down. Her real side already loved him, but now, her darker side also loved him. She was actually a little intimidated by him. He didn’t kneel onto the ground and kiss her toes. She tried to get him to lover her, but he wasn’t interested. She even revealed her true side again, but he didn’t believe her.

So she went into a great depression, and her family decided that the only way to help her was to go to the capitol. To take her away from the source of her pain: Cocidius.

One day, while in the Main City, she mistook a man for Cocidius. She ran up to him, but it wasn’t him. She didn’t know that yet. The man played along, they went on a date, and he tried to rape her. She couldn’t believe that this could be happening, so she accidentally killed the man in self-defense. For almost a year, she knew that she didn’t kill the actual Cocidius, but she still lost it anyway.

Eventually got over it. And life returned to normal, however, she decided to not kill men in cold blood. It would be better to knock them out. To keep her identity sealed, she even donned a small mask. A little bit later, for Cocidius’s birthday, she decided to drop in on him. So that brings them up to now.

However, the thing that hurt Cocidius was that she left without ever saying at least good-bye.

"…And you still basically are; except for your brashness. You’re such a strange person!"

Her anger built and built, and finally, something in Clara clicked.

"What? Cocidius, what are you saying?" She asked, sounding like she was hurt. Her voice was suddenly softer.

"Huh? That tone in your voice… OH! Put off the act Clara! You’re not the person you were before!" Now in hurt tears of mental betrayal, Cocidius started to enter his house. "Just face it! You’ll never be the friend you once were so long ago!" And with that, he went inside and slammed the door.

"But Cocidius! I don’t get this at all? Why do you suddenly hate me?" And then, some thing clicked again. "DAMN FOOL! How dare he reject me! Screw this, man! Dumb idiot."

And then she sat down and pouted, her fists supporting her head, her elbows on her knees.

An old man came across the street quite dexterously for his age, and came up behind her.

"Ma’am? May I ask what is troubling you?"

"NO!" She barked.

At first, he was taken back by her attitude. But then he smiled. He circled around to her front, and squatted down in front of her.

Click.

Clara turned around and said, "I’m sorry sir. I’m just having a bad day."

"I see." Said the old man rubbing his chin. "Well, lets see if I can do anything about that?"

"What do you mean?" Asked Clara.

"I need some help. A job you might say. For you."

Click.

"What kind of job?" Clara asked in all seriousness.

"I want to help you. And in you helping me, I’ll be helping you!" He said, his finger pointing at Cocidius’s house.

She raised one eyebrow. "Really? I’m very interested. What’s your name?"

"My dear Clara, my name is Terequin Spellerd."

"Hey! How did you know my name?"

"I’ll tell you all in good time…"

"No." She interrupted. "Tell me now, or leave."

He looked shocked, but then that dissipated, and he said, "Clara. I’m an Empathist. I can feel people’s feelings. And I can sense the turmoil that churns your heart, and it seeks to destroy you."

"What?" Asked Clara, confused.

"Okay, from the top…" Terquin started to explain.

And they walked back to his quarters in the early night darkness, talking well into the night.

* * *

After his fight with Clara, Cocidius stormed inside his house, pulled a sack from his shirt, and threw it on a table in the middle of the living room. He stormed past his family, and walked towards his room.

"Hey!" Nikki yelled, his sister. She was his only sibling, two years younger than he was. Her long brown hair was lying wildly on the back of the rugged old sofa she lounged on. Oddly, her body language reminded him of Clara’s way of ‘acting’. He put a sour face on.

"<SIGH! > Don’t worry about it Nikki. And don’t you dare get snippy with me today, okay? I’m having a strange, bad day. So leave me alone." Cocidius snapped at her, his tiredness apparent in his voice.

"Okay, okay!" Said Nikki, throwing her hands in the air. "I don’t care about you petty, stupid life anyway!" She then frowned, and she crossed her arms on her chest.

With that, Cocidius dragged himself to his room, slammed his door, and fell softly into his bed.

He got back up and pulled his clothes off. He was so tired, he had almost forgotten. He pulled his cool, soft pillow under his head, and tried to drift away into the calming nothingness of sleep.

His mother, about half an hour later, coming from the kitchen, popped her head into his small, messy, cramped room. She glanced over his dead-like, unmoving body, and heard his faint, gentle breathing. His face was scrunched up in annoyance as the open door cast light into his room.

She tip-toed to his bed, her long brown hair swishing quietly on her back, brushing against her bottom; where her hair stopped. She bent over his bed and put out her hand to gently shake him awake. Before she was able to touch him, he tossed over on his back, and mumbled, "Harmony… Please, don’t leave…. I… like you…."

His mom stood up strait, shocked that he could be dreaming about a girl! It was so unlike her son. And she had no idea who Harmony was.

‘Oh wait, I know who he’s talking about! She moved away a few years ago…’ After a moment of watching him, she then decided to shake him awake.

"Cocidius! Wake up, it’s dinner time." She said softly to his ear.

His eyes shot open, awake, with his dream still illuminated in his eyes; slowly washing out of his head, riding his tears like a decrepit surfer, about to crash into the frigid waters below...

He sat up quickly, and embarrassingly wiped the tears from his face. His pillow had a little dark spot from where the tears had fallen.

"Dinner will be up in a minute. I hope you feel better…" His mom said, concerned. She gave him a reassuring smile, and then turned to leave the room.

"I feel fine." He said to himself. When she was out of hearing range, he moved his hair out his eyes, and wiped the continuing tears onto his hands. "I should go apologize to Clara…" He said to him self.

He got up and walked into his bathroom. He pumped the handle of the water-pump and let the water pour into the porcelain bowl. He grabbed a woolen cloth and doused it with water. He pushed it around his warm face; it’s cool touch soothing. He sat down and threw the cloth back into the bowl, splashing water onto the oak counter, and wiped his face off with a cloth hanging over the sink.

He slowly got up and waltzed slowly and lethargically into the kitchen and sat down softly onto an empty chair.

"Um, Cocidius? What’s wrong? You’re kinda lookin down and sick." Stolin Relarn, his stepfather, asked.

"Oh." Cocidius yawned, then rubbing the tiredness out of his eyes. "I’m just tired, man!" He replied to him.

"Oh, okay." His father managed to spit out. He was still self-conscious about his new son.

Cocidius’s mother placed a big plate of baked rolls and a huge pig roast on the middle of the table. It’s sweaty grease glistened in the low light of their home.

"Just remember," His mom started. "This has to last us for the next week. Luckily, we just got five pounds of salt, so what you don’t eat will be our meals for the next week. Stolin? I’ll need you later to cure that meat."

"Okay." He said.

"I see you got my rolls." Cocidius commented, looking at the plate of rolls that he had thrown on the table, his crude fork clicking on his plate. He couldn’t wait to eat.

"I wish that there was a better way to get food." Said Cocidius’s mom, nodding towards the stolen rolls.

"Yeah," Nikki said with a beaming smile. "Luckily, you have me to take Cocidius’s place!"

At first, Cocidius almost choked on his roll. After he cleared his throat through much tribulation and strength, he commented, "Nikki? You know that the task you’ll have to take on will be more that just stealing…"

"I know, I know," She said, about to start reciting a memorized speech. "When you leave, I’ll have to get a job, and then, skillfully, extort bakery goods for us, while never getting caught. And then, getting enough money to help support our parents, blah blah blah! I know that stuff through and through Cocidius! Don’t ask me to say that again. Anyway, won’t you pull in enough money for all of us? It’s so gay."

"What?" Cocidius and his parents asked in union.

"What does that mean?" Asked Cocidius.

"<SIGH! > It references a situation to the act of being queer. You know, liking the same gender as you, a lude and disgusting thing.

Everybody’s eyes at the table popped out of their heads.

"Uh… um?" Stuttered Stolin. "I see…"

"How do you know these strange things?" Cocidius asked.

"Try reading the papers! Don’t you guys? It’s under the kids section." She looked around at everyone and saw blank looks on their faces. "God! What ever!" Said Nikki, rolling her eyes.

And for the rest of the night, the whole table was quiet.

* * *

"Alright, hold still." Said the crooked toothed old man.

"<SIGH! > Oh man, I hope to god <Click! > FOR YOUR SAKE, IT WORKS!" Clara yelled. "I hate being torn-up emotionally like this, damn it! I hate that goody two-shoe side of me! Cocidius will like us so much better when I’m whole again!"

The crinkles in the old man’s face deepened, and his dried up, leathery mask of a face crinkled into a smile, and he gave a gentle cough. "Oh, don’t worry. It’ll all work out, and it should fix ‘yer problem." He stood up, and started to chant some words.

"<Click! > Oh, I really hope so! I thank you so much for you kindness!"

And then, the sometimes unpredictable powers of magic was unleashed upon her body, flying out from his fingers, and it started to shape her in the old man’s eyes.

Her body split in half, and then filled out, making two complete Claras. The old man turned his attention to one of the Claras and then continued to shift and change her body. After he changed her to the way he wanted, he was finished.

"Whrroww! Hey! What did you do to me?" Demanded the small creature.

The other Clara looked at her self, astonished. "Wow. I don’t feel the other anymore…"

"I gave you each separate bodies. Now, for your end of the bargain…"

"Well, what is it?" Demanded the small voice.

"After your done with what I want you to do," said the old man. "I will fix you two permanently together. Now, my little creature, this is what you have to do…"