In the Eye of the Beholder [[Mage and Grumman_Goose]]
 

Looking back on it, (figuratively, at least), Karla would have said it started as an average day. Her helper woke her up two hours after daybreak, like usual, and she started her day as she would have any other. Hair tied back, focus rings on her fingers, sunglasses resting on her nose, and her walking stick in her hand; she was good to go. She'd gotten an assignment the day before from her elders about some unusual disturbances in her area, so it was her job to check them out and report back.

The instant she set foot outside of her home, though, she could tell something wasn't quite right. She wasn't sure what, and she wasn't sure where, but she knew it was something. Tapping her walking stick in front of her briefly to check her path, she started off in the direction that felt a little off. One hand disappeared into her shoulder bag to make sure her helper was with her, just in case.

She walked for a little while, not sure entirely how far she was going. Her walking was abruptly stopped, however, when she walked right into someone. She stumbled and fell, her walking stick falling out of her hand and her sunglasses falling off of her face.

"I'm sorry," she murmured as she felt around for her things. Her eyes gazed at nothing as her fingers carefully felt the ground. "I didn't mean to run into you."

Alec woke up before his alarm like he always did. He would have thought that being a collage student he would over sleep it but like he always did he woke up a few minutes before it played that annoying guitar strumming that he hated. He didn't know why he just didn't turn it off altogether but he knew that he would need it so he turned it off and got out of bed. Today was his first day of his summer job, in most cases he wouldn't have even thought about having a job but this year he needed the money so he hunted around town and managed to grab a spot working the till in the towns bookshop. Not the best of jobs but it was quiet and out of the way, so hopefully it would be easy money. He walked out of his room into the quiet hallway, his parents wouldn't be up for a few hours yet so he just acted like he normally did, a bit loudly. He walked into the bathroom and shut the door behind him, he took a quick look in the mirror befor ebrushinghis teeth and doing his hair. He didn't bother with a shower as he had one the night before. He left the bathroom, his feet plodding loudly on the wooden hallway floor echoing in the open space, he yawned as he walked into his room and opend his dresser. He picked out a pair of jeans and a black shirt with a light faded gray print of some band that he crazed about when he was younger.

He walked down stairs just as loudly as he had before and made his way to the door. He wouldn't bother with breakfast, he could just get somthing in town. He grabbed his jacket and made sure he had his phone, his wallet and his keys. "Check, check and check." he said quietly to him self. He opened the front door and stepped out into the cool summer morning. He wouldn't bother with his car, he wouldn't be able to find anywhere to park, he decided the bus would be a better option. He shut the door behind him and walked to the end of the road. As he walked he saw people doing this and that, that would occur at this time of the morning, people jogging, people walking their dogs, people walking their dogs whilst jogging even. But he just looked and said nothing. He reached the end of the road and approached the bus stop, he checked the time table and only had to wait a few minuets before the bus arrived. He was about to check his phone when he felt someone bump into him. "Don't worry it's fine." he said cheerfully so not to possibly seem angered, which he wasn't, accidents happen and this happend to be one. He looked and noticed it was a girl that looked no older then he did yet she seemed to not feel as old as he thought, he placed her at most 2 years younger then him. "Are you okay, you're not hurt are you..." Alec's voice trailed off as he noticed the walking stick. "She's blind? Visually impaired I think would be more sensitive don't you think Alec?" He shock the thought from his head as he helped her up and gather some of her things.

"I'm fine," Karla replied as she tried to find her things. "I didn't mean to run into you, though. Are you alright?" Faintly, she could hear a bit of chittering from inside her bag; the fall must have woken up her little helper. There wasn't anything Karla could do about it at the moment, though, and instead focused on getting back to her feet. "Could you hand me my staff?" she asked cautiously. "I'm not sure where it fell." She paused again, waiting for the inevitable 'what are you, blind?' from the man. And she could tell it was a man she'd run into, a regular human man, but beyond that, she had no idea who he was. Had she been able to see, she would have glanced around warily. Something felt a little off about the whole area, and it was giving her the creeps. She needed to figure out what it was, quickly. "I'm usually more careful than this, I guess I was just distracted today."

Alec fumbled around picking up what he could and helping the girl to her feet. "Uhh, Mirror, staff.. staff? What a strange name for it? I would say stick but whatever." He helped the girl up and gave her possessions back to her he made sure that she wasn't in a position that she would fall back over again. "Don't worry I'm okay, we all have off days from time to time you know? I had one the other day in fact. Nothing went right." He stood awkwardly not sure what he was meant to do. Did he ask her where she was going? Her name? How she was going to get to where she wanted? She wasn't going to walk surely? "Uhh you know that you're by a bus stop? The next one is in about 5 minuets? You are going in to the town aren't you?" He looked at the stranger, almost checking her out, she was a good looking girl, no doubt about that. But he didn't know how to act in front of her? He didn't want to insult her or creep her out.

Karla faced where she heard the man's voice from as she was handed her staff.

"I know where I am," she said, smiling slightly. "But thanks for your concern. And thank you for my staff back." She tapped the end of the stick on the ground gently near her feet, and dust swirled up from the end briefly before settling again. "I'm just not sure where I'm going at the moment." She grinned a bit, sheepishly, and then tensed when the feeling of unease from earlier turned into full-blown paranoia. Something was in the area, and it wasn't good. And it was close. Her grip on her staff tightened, and she could faintly feel her helper in her bag stirring. He sensed it, too, and it was agitating him.

Alec noticed something moving on the floor, but it was only in his peripheral vision, it was probably a leaf moving or something in the wind.

"You could take a walk in the park at the centre of the town if you have nothing to do, it's always nice there." He kept for getting about the girls lack of sight. "What's she going to see there? Idiot!" He scratched the bridge of his nose thinking of what the girl could possibly do. "Uhh.. You could join me where I work if you like? Keep each other company?" He immediately regretted saying that, having someone around to possibly distract him could get him fired and he didn't want that on his first day.

"Maybe another time," Karla replied distractedly. Her grip on her staff tightened and her pulse quickened a bit. Part of her agitation was her blindness; she couldn't see a damn thing around her, and had no idea where the creature causing the disturbance would come from. The greater part, though, was how close she could sense the thing. It seemed like it was right on top of them, so why--

The ground trembled as a low, gravelly rumble rolled through the area. Then it trembled again, and again, at a slow, measured pace. Something was walking towards them, something big and heavy. The gravelly rumble sounded again, and Karla flipped open the top of her bag. She needed to be able to see.

"Teak, quickly!" she said. Her helper shot out of the bag with a high-pitched chitter, his wings sparkling slightly in the light. Quickly, Karla whispered the spell for shared sight and Teak zipped around to see what was making the noise. A large, hulking figure lumbered out from behind a building, and Teak buzzed around to look at it. Karla couldn't suppress a gasp and held onto her staff tightly with both hands.

"A golem," she breathed.

Alec gave a small sigh of relief that she had rejected his offer. He took a jump back as he noticed that some sort of insect flew from her bag. Did she know that it was in there? She must have as she threw it out, well at least he think she did, it was one of those things that happened only moments ago yet you can't even remember what occurred. She mentioned something about a golem. "Isn't that like a mythical creature? Oh god, she does that role playing thing?" Alec turned to see where she was looking, well appeared to be looking and saw only what was on the street. Trees, Houses, Cars and the Bus. Alec turned to the girl who now looked rather petrified at the sight of nothing, well what appeared nothing, what was going on in her head he had no idea. The bus approached the bus stop and he waited for the doors to open. "Well it was nice talking with you. I hope we meet again soon." He flashed her a smile, not that she would see it, but he thought it would be the right thing to do.

Karla would have glanced at him, but Teak was still watching the golem, so she couldn't. She figured he wouldn't be able to see the golem; normal people only typically saw what they wanted to see, and a golem was well outside of the norm. The creature was lumbering slowly closer, and she took a step back involuntarily. Well, now she knew what was causing the problems in the area, at least. But she couldn't, in good conscience, leave it to its own devices. Golems were dim-witted, but they were usually controlled by someone else. Every wizard knew that. And it was just her luck that there was a normal human in the area to look after...

"I apologize for this in advance," she said quickly. She let go of her staff with one hand and flicked her fingers towards him and breathed a spell that would make it so he would see things for what they really were. The spell wasn't actually on him, per se; it acted more like a reverse filter around him and let everything in rather than filtering out the 'mythical' things. It was an easy enough spell to break, and would likely wear off on its own quickly, anyways.

Alec didn't quite catch what the girl said, but he assumed it was a goodbye. He lifted up a leg to get on to the bus but then felt a stinging sensation in his eyes. He clenched his hands and rubbed his eyes, it felt like he'd been cutting onions or something. The driver assumed he wasn't going to get on and drove of leaving him and the girl in a cloud of diesel. He coughed at the smoke slowly dissipating into the air. "Oh fantastic..." He looked around and suddenly saw something out of a movie. Was he dreaming? He swore that he didn't see something their a few minuets ago? He saw it move slowly edging closer. "What the fuck is that!!" He turned to the girl. "You... You.. d..did this, didn't you...?" His voice was trembling like he was 6 years old again. He had no idea what was going on or what he should do. His breathing started to become rapid, sweat formed on his brow and on his back, his clothes started to cling to him. He pinched his arm and nothing happened. It was real, what was unfolding in front of his eyes was real. But what the massive creature was doing here in a town in the middle of nowhere, he couldn't think of any plausible reason for it's very existence. "Wh...Wha..what are you going to do? Are you going to k..kill it?"

"Calm down," Karla said, although she didn't turn to face him. It wouldn't do her any good, since Teak wasn't looking at him, and it would disorient her. The pixie gave a high-pitched chitter to get Karla's attention again, and kept his gaze on the golem. "I know, Teak, I hear you." Karla didn't know what it was like to be able to see as humans did, but she was fairly sure it didn't involve the entire light spectrum. Teak could see everything from infrared to ultraviolet, and it gave the world a sort of color palette that she was fairly certain other people couldn't see.

She raised her staff slightly. "Stand behind me, please," she said to Alec as Teak flitted over to settle on her shoulder. Her vantage changed slightly as he did so, but now it was as if she was able to use her own eyes. Her grip on her staff changed slightly, and a few runes appeared along its length, glowing very faintly green. A golem was earth-based magic, and it took earth-based magic to get rid of.

Alec was still on edge, he thought he was going crazy, he thought about running but what good would it do? He'd look like a mad man running and screaming down the street. He took the girls advice and slowy moved behind her, he didn't dare take his eyes of of it, the only other time that he'd been this scared was when his friend put in front of the game Slender, he hated the experience, it actually caused him to cry a little as well. He didn't sleep for almost a week. He saw something land on her shoulder, it looked like a fairy out of a book. It was actually a bit creepy in his opinion, not that it mattered with everything going on around him. "So...w..what are you going to do? Shoot fire or something?" He knew it was a stupid question but seeing as though there was a massive creature walking about, it added up with the glowing staff that Karla was now holding. He started to feel cold, as though all his blood had drained out of him. "What the hell is going on? Am I being Punk'd or something?"

"Not fire," Karla replied as she focused on the golem. Normally, the creations weren't an issue; easily cast and just as easily dispelled. Something about this one felt different, however. She wanted to dispel it quickly; it was setting her on edge. Quickly, she murmured a spell that made the golem's feet fuse with the ground it was walking on. The golem stopped and looked down, as if confused, before wrenching its feet up again to continue lumbering around. This time, however, it was lumbering towards her. Teak tittered at her. "I know, I can tell that didn't work, thank you, Teak. Master of the obvious." The spell linking Teak's sight with her was straining, so she had to be quick. Her grip on her staff shifted a bit, and the runes changed from green to purple. Almost immediately, she could see the green earth magic being sucked out of the golem and into her staff, although she knew that really it was what Teak could see. Humans couldn't see magic unless it took some sort of physical form, like of fire. As the magic got sucked out of the golem, the creature slowed down more and more until finally it stopped and just sort of crumbled into nothing. The runes on her staff shifted from purple to green until she firmly planted the end of it on the ground. The green magic immediately sank into the ground, and the runes on the staff faded again.

And not a moment too soon, because the tenuous connection to Teak finally waned and broke, leaving Karla sightless again.

Alec obsevered as Karla used her staff on the creature lumbering around in front of them, well until it looked like it had sjoer glue stuck to the bottom of its feet. It started to move again and Alec panicked a little as it was slowly making its way towards them. With out warning the creature stopped and crumbled to the floor. "What did you do? How did that happen?" It looked like it was made of sand slowly disappearing into thin air. He looked at Karla's shoulder and looked at the small pixie. He had heard her call it 'Teak' so he decided to use it as well in case it could be offended. He just went with it after everything that had happened. "So what is Teak? Well not what I mean who, urm I'm still trying to get my head around everything" He felt dizzy but was able to handle it.

"Void magic," Karla replied, leaning on her staff a little bit. Teak stayed settled on her shoulder, hanging on to a lock of her hair. "Void magic is the antithesis of the other seven types of magic. To undo something, you have to use void." She turned towards where she heard Alec's voice, although she couldn't see him. "I'm sorry for upsetting you, but I couldn't let the golem keep wandering around." She hadn't meant to drag him into things, he had just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. At his next stumbling question, though, she grinned a bit. "Teak is my helper. He's a pixie, a fire pixie in particular. He acts as my eyes when I need him to, and he helps me out with everything else that I need sight for."

Alec took in what the girl was saying with a rather blank look to him. He still felt a bit odd and would need a sit down when he got to work. If he ever did. "So uhh... Do you... Do you this 'void' stuff a lot then?" He tried to keep conversation going trying to act as though nothing had ever happened. Although he wouldn't be able to shake the image from his mind for quite a while. He did feel sorry for her, not being able to see and all, but he didn't want to bring it up in case is was a sensitive subject. "So you know that thing you did to me, to let me see that... uhh... thing, Golem!" He shouted his correction with out meaning to and toned his voice down. "Is it uhh, permanent. Like I'm going to see crap like that all the time?"

"The unveiling spell I used should wear off quickly," Karla replied as she winced slightly. "No need to shout, I'm standing right here. But the spell should be almost gone by now, it was only a quick little casting. And all practitioners know how to use void magic, it's a basic lesson." She reached into her bag, looking for her sunglasses. Now that she couldn't see anymore, she would put them on again. No sense in unnerving people with her eyes. When she couldn't find them, she frowned. Had she dropped them somewhere?

Alec gave a slight sigh of relief, he now knew that he wouldn't see massive creatures walking about the place. "So... What happens now? Does everything go back to normal?" He asked inquisitively. He was really interested in this girl. She did a load of crazy stuff that only happens in the movies. He looked over the girl and she was pretty. Attractive would have been a better word for it, and he did feel attracted, but for more then one reason.

"Do you want it to?" Karla ventured after a moment. "The spell was temporary, but it isn't hard to learn how to see things on your own." Of course, she knew what he was really asking; if he would be able to go back to his normal, every-day life. The answer was no, of course, but she didn't have the heart to tell him that. He knew about magic and the 'rest' of the world, now, that wasn't going to go away. He could get pretty close to back to normal, but he couldn't unsee what he'd seen.

Alec looked a little dumbfounded at Karla's statement, of course he wanted everything to go back to normal. He'd look like a wacko if he saw a unicorn or some other magical creature casual minding it's own business and walking about town. He just hoped that he would never have to experience something like that ever again. His phone started to ring in his pocket, he pulled it out and didn't recognise the number. "He..Hello?" Without warning a torrent of aggressive language was expelled from the phone. Alec realised that it was his boss and was wondering where he was. He had forgotten he had to go and was now paying for it. "I'm so so sorry, sir. I just missed the uh.. the bus. So now I've had to walk in. I'm so sorry, this this will never happen again I swear." There was a click on the other end, his boss hanging up. He turned to Karla. "Listen I'm really sorry that I have to go. Urm, I was wondering if you wanted to meet for lunch later on. Idiot! She's gunna think you some sort of pervert." He bowed his head slightly in embarrassment. "Actually, just forget I asked, it was a silly thing to say. It was nice to meet you." He took a step back and heard a loud crunch. He looked down and saw that he had trodden on the girl's sunglasses. His whole body tensed up. "Oh my god, I am so sorry." He picked up the now ruined glasses and examined them. "I'll buy you some new ones, to replace these. I promise."

The invitation to lunch surprised her. She hadn't expected that one at all, but she smiled warmly in his direction all the same.

"Actually, if the offer is still open, I'd love to get some lunch with you," she replied. She winced slightly when she heard the crunch. Well, there were her sunglasses... She shook her head a bit when he started to apologize. "They were cheap, anyways," she said. "I only use them because my eyes make people uncomfortable." At least, so she'd been told; she had been born blind from a combination of cataracts and poor optic nerve connections, and people had told her over and over that her cloudy, pale eyes unnerved them. She gave Alec a bit of a grin. "If you want to replace them, give me a new pair when we meet for lunch, okay? How does the little cafe down on South Main street sound? Queen of Tarts?"

Alec turned his attention back to the girl. She had accepted his invitation to lunch. He wasn't even sure that would happen at all, after the number of times that he'd been shot down before he thought that this would be another strike to add to the tally count. "Urm yeah it is if you want it to be today? The Queen Of Tarts? Yeah that sounds good." He had never heard of it in all his 20 years. He would have to use a computer to find it as he had never been to South Main either. It was like he was in a new town all of a sudden. "As for the sunglasses? Is there any particular style you want? Or do you want a pair that look like these? Alec she can't see, you dumbass!"

"It doesn't have to be today," Karla backpeadaled quickly. "I mean, if you already have other plans, I couldn't possibly interrupt... What day is good for you?" She could go a couple of days without her dark glasses, it was alright with her. It wasn't as if they served their actual purpose, after all. They just hid her eyes. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to assume... It's hard for me to remember sometimes that not everybody has the same unnatural amount of free time that I do. If there's another time that's better for you, please, just say so." Of course, that train of thought led her to the realization that perhaps he had someone waiting for him; a girlfriend, perhaps, or even a boyfriend. The thought made her feel a little guilty, since she would never want to be the cause of a fight between a couple, and taking a stranger out to lunch was definitely cause for a fight.

Alec listened to the girls apologies. He was a bit eager to get going, his boss had already gotten annoyed at him and he didn't want to piss him off further. "No today is fine! Honestly! I have nothing to do, all my friends are still at their collages, they haven't come home yet, if they do that is..." When Alec was in high school he had more friends then you could count on both hands. But when he graduated and went to collage only one of his friends went to the same collage as him. When they got there he ended up acting like a stranger to Alec. He had made new friends in his freshman year, but none of them lived near to where Alec did. So he didn't have anyone to see for the time being. "I'll meet you at the Queen of Tarts at one thirty. How's that?" He was a bit excited really. It was his first date in a long time, he saw this as a date, maybe the girl didn't? "Listen I would love to stay longer but I really have to run, and I mean run, I'm really late for work. But I promise I'll be at the Queen of Tarts." With out thinking he went and hugged the girl. "I'll see ya later." He turned and ran down the street to try and make it to work as quick as he could.

Karla tensed when she was suddenly hugged, and Teak chattered rapidly at Alec for the sudden intrusion into Karla's personal space. The pixie's wings buzzed irritably, but didn't do more than that as Alec left again. Karla gradually relaxed her hold on her staff as Teak chittered at her.

"He didn't mean it," Karla replied, trying to placate the pixie. "Really, I don't think he did." Teak gave a couple more high-pitched squeaks. "He should know better, yes, but he'll learn."

With that, Karla headed back home again. She needed time to settle again before going back out to meet Alec. That, and she needed to report back about the golem. When her nerves were sufficiently settled and her report was sent, Karla changed into something a little less 'magic' and a little more modern-casual. Then she headed out to the little cafe.