School by Nathaniel Hardman (top reads .TXT) 📕

Please, she thought. Then everything went dark.

Jeff ran from the alien toward the tree, feeling like a coward. He didn’t like leaving that guy to Suzy. But she was probably right that harvesting the wand was the best thing he could do. Then again, he really didn’t want to pick this tree.

At the edge of the dirt ring where the cobbles ended, Jeff paused for a bare second. No time for that, he thought as he heard Suzy shout a spell. He ran the last few steps to the tree, and without giving himself time to reconsider, he shoved his hand down into the dirt near the trunk.

The dirt here was harder than he would have liked, and he had to scoop and dig and claw with his fingers to get his hand below ground level with a reasonably good hold on the root. By that time, he was already feeling an uncomfortable tingling where his knees met the ground. This tree was hungry.

“Shixz er, tshorvuz er,” he began. The root in his hand was warm, and it seemed to pulse slightly. “Oyetu er quth jors, quth bors.”

Pain exploded through Jeff’s hand. If the dirt had not been so firm, he would have ripped his hand away and run. As it was, he gave a strangled cry and stopped himself. He clenched his teeth, gripped the root tighter, and went on. “Shixz in, tshorvuz in, oyetu in my hand, my wand.”

The pain sunk deeper. It passed through his hand, his wrist, and up his arm. “Shixz er, tshorvuz er,” he whispered, writhing. Suzy’s had only taken a minute. He could hold out for that long. “Oyetu...” Her hand had been fine when she was done. She was fine. He would be fine. He gasped, “In my hand, my wand.”

And a voice in his head seemed to answer, NO.

Again, Jeff almost released the root in shock. The pain spiked deeper and harder than ever before, through his shoulder, then down into his chest. All over his body, every injury he had taken that night – the bites on his ankles, the bruises, the cut on his ribs – began to throb and pulse. And in his mind, thoughts and ideas as clear as words boomed, Not in YOUR hand! Not yours. YOU are MINE.

The pain drove like an icepick through his heart, and now he screamed in earnest. Not just pain, but a pull, a feeding, as the tree began to suck the very life from him. “Shixz er,” he tried to say, and had to spit dirt out of his mouth. When had he collapsed? “Tshorvuz er, oyetu er quth jors, quth bors.”

NO. The tree’s answer was like a siren in his ears, blaring silently through his brain. NOT YOURS. MINE!

So strong, Jeff thought. He was feeling fuzzy. The pain had dulled now, frozen in a burning sort of way, like holding an icecube too long on his bare skin. His chest had turned into a block of that ice, and tendrils of cold were spreading down into his belly.

He tried to start again. He couldn’t remember the words. Oh well, he thought. This tree isn’t about to listen to me. Jeff began to drift.

A sound broke through the haze. Something quiet, but wrong. “Please,” someone had said.

Jeff listened. A quiet sort of cough, that made him feel icky. Suzy. His eyes snapped open, and by luck or fortune, Suzy was directly in his line of vision – on the ground, an alien man on top of her, choking her to death.

“No.” Jeff thought or maybe said, and something in his heart began to burn, melting a hole in the ice that had settled there.

Suzy was going to DIE. She NEEDED him. “Roots in, branches in,” he growled. “Alive in my hand, my wand.” The voice in his head began to scream, but Jeff screamed back, “Roots in, branches in, alive in my hand, MY WAND!”

The pain began to fade, but he hardly noticed. A fury like nothing he had ever felt was building in him as he looked at the man choking his sister.

He pushed himself up onto his knees and shook his head to clear it. A red haze seemed to be clouding his vision, and he didn’t know or care if it was his injuries or just the rage on fire in him. He stood, not even realizing until he felt the weight, that he held in his hand a VERY large wand.

Jeff narrowed his eyes and swung it up. He had to hold it with both hands, like a machine gun. “Chaw!” he yelled, the simplest spell he could think of.

A ripple a foot wide exploded out of the wand. When it struck, the alien was blasted off Suzy and went skidding and tumbling a good twenty feet across the cobbles.

Jeff ran forward and yelled it again, then again, blasting the body further over the cobbles. He smiled a savage smile and considered what spell to try on the man next, but then he reined himself in with an effort. The guy wasn’t moving, and Jeff had more urgent business.

He ran to Suzy, pointing the wand. “Juoy!” She didn’t move, didn’t breathe. Half-gentle, half-frantic, he rolled her over and pointed the wand again. “Juoy,” he prayed.

The radius of the healing spell was huge, but it didn’t seem to be smashing her or anything, so he repeated it. He repeated it again. Again. After a half dozen attempts, Suzy gasped and sat up.

While his sister coughed and hacked like a chain smoker, Jeff dropped the wand and wrapped his arms around her in a crushing hug.

“Stop. You’re not helping.” Suzy finally wheezed, pushing Jeff away. She looked around, and her brow furrowed. “Jeez, what happened? Oh, man, my voice is terrible. Did I get choked?”

Suzy rubbed her neck