𓍢ִ໋❀˚ You’re Still The One
Your morning experimentation quickly turns into disaster. Olly’s willing to do anything to change people’s perception of you following such incident.
CONTENTS: demeaning behavior (from others), comfort, fluff, actual event rumored in perfect pair, pre-apprentice
You didn’t want this to happen. You really didn’t.
It was barely sunrise when you headed out in the morning. You decided to finally test out some spells you’d found in your father’s notebook. It’s been on your mind ever since you found it, however you never had the courage to do anything with them.
Perhaps it should’ve stayed that way.
You settled into the forest that was a few walks away from the town. The chilling air bit at your hands as you clutched onto the large notebook.
You leaned against a tree and started flipping through the stack of spells. They didn’t seem all too complicated, but these were never like anything you’ve seen in class.
One caught your eye in particular. By the sigil, it seemed to be a wind spell. It had pulling signs slanted across the ring and a couple of water signs towards the middle. That was all you could recognize.
You swiveled around and rested the spell book on your hip while tearing a piece of paper out of your own notepad. You started copying the spell, using a tree as a writing surface as you copied the reference.
When you closed the ring, nothing happened. The paper you used to cast it disappeared so what did it do?
Clutching the notebook back to your chest, you glance around at the surrounding area. You couldn’t find anything out of the ordinary.
Then you heard a cracking sound. A faint one.
The bark on the tree you casted the spell on started flaking off. You reached over to touch it. It snapped off in an instant.
You decided to brush it off, casting a pyreball to warm up your hands which were already freezing. Maybe you should’ve brought thicker gloves today.
Scouring through the book once more, a harsh wind runs a chill down your spine. It isn’t supposed to be windy today. Is a blizzard coming..?
Standing up, you prepare to head back to town. You tuck your book into your belt and pick up your hand warmer.
As you glance back at your feet, you notice patches of melted snow. The next time you blink, the snow from under your feet melts too.
You try to kick at the water that was left behind. It vanishes too. You slowly turn your head to find within what seems to be a fifty meter radius, all the snow is gone.
You don’t have much time to contemplate what's happening. The wind that was blowing ever so hard simply stopped. You feel your heart almost stop as well.
Your mind is barely processing what’s happening but your body is already on the move, running. Whatever was occurring had no signs of a positive outcome.
The twigs that were hidden underneath the once snow crested floor snap easily under your feet. You nearly trip multiple times from the amount of adrenaline pumping into your body.
As you step over the border of the suspicious area and the normal terrain, a flurry of wind homes in on you, throwing your body across the snow.
You huff out some breaths. When your breathing calms down, you weakly sit up.
Your hand instinctively reaches for your belt. You feel the book and your pen, however your notebook is gone along with your ink.
Looking back at whatever the hell you escaped, you see that the border is now closed off with ribbons of howling wind. If you didn’t know any better, you’d think it was a protection spell of sorts.
Your belongings scattered right in front of it. You hobble over to them.
You try to pick them up, but your fingers freeze on the spot.
In your peripheral vision, you see your practically extinguished pyreball getting swept up into the spell. The whole thing turns a dark orange instantaneously.
Within seconds you can smell and hear signs of burning. The trees inside the barrier fall with a thump. The air carries a heavy scent of soot and ash.
I don’t know any spells that could stop that!
Even if I did know any good water spells, no way they’re penetrating that.
What do I even do with a fire?
We never have fires here.
You’re going to burn down the whole forest! Why would it be good??
Screw the forest, you’re going to burn down the whole village. Find something!
You slam the book down onto the snow. You remember seeing a handful of spells with a water sigil. Any of those would absolutely work.
As soon as you find one, you reach over to recover your fallen materials and quickly cast the spell.
One second you were staring at the whole mess, the next you got pushed under a rush of water. You try to grab onto something, but you end up flailing. It feels like you got swept up into a harsh current.
When you feel like you’re almost out of oxygen, the water subsides. You gasp out for air. After you let yourself recover, you’re happy to see that the forest is no longer on fire.
You lay back in relief — you stay laying on the snow until the crunching of footsteps becomes louder.
“What did you do?” You lift your head up and see a man looming over you. There’s other villagers standing wearily behind him as well.
You use the rest of your strength to push yourself to sit up. “There was a fire, so I put it out…”
“Why in the world would there be a fire? Have you seen this place?” He accuses.
You respond meekly, “It was an accident. I was just practicing and-“
“You shouldn’t be using any magic outside of school,” he says abruptly.
You retaliate, “They said we could.”
“Just because you happen to be friends with Olruggio does not mean you are on any level comparable to him. You cannot do these things without permission.”
You’re stunned at the mention of Olly’s name. “What does he have to do with this?”
“I know what you kids are like.”
“You people stay with those better than you to leech off of them. You imitate them thinking you’ll get better.”
“Do not interrupt me when I am talking. You better get your things together or else you will not have a place here as a witch.”
You stare at him, appalled. He doesn’t know what he’s talking about, he has no power to threaten you, yet he continues to run his mouth. If you were clearheaded, you wouldn’t have let him belittle you.
Before you could respond, you heard Olly yelling.
“[Name]! Are you okay!? I heard what happened!” He jumps at you. His parents trail behind him.
You let him fuss over you for a moment then respond, “Yeah, I’m fine.”
The man turns his attention to your guardians. “Watch over your children. They should not be up and about doing whatever they please.”
Olly’s dad speaks up, “Sorry, I won’t let it happen next time.”
“They very well could’ve destroyed this entire village and that’s all you say?”
“It wouldn’t have done that. The forest isn’t even close enough for that,” he retorts.
“You’re excusing this destructive behavior? I mean, look at this havoc they caused!” The man points at the burnt section of the forest.
“Tell me one time you haven’t made a mistake.”
“This is not a mistake. The fact that you assume something like that is why you let them get away with so much.”
Olly’s mom says harshly, “What is your problem?”
“No one wants a child like that. One who does not listen, one who does not learn, and one that does not know their place. No wonder their parents left them.”
You stopped listening to their conversation after that.
You didn’t notice when you started crying or when Olly had covered your ears with his hands. You hardly even noticed that you were still drenched in water or that you were shivering.
The days following that, you got to stay home — well, it wasn’t really ‘home’ since Olly was off to school. You couldn’t tell if it was because his parents felt bad for you or if it was because you were sick. Probably both.
Yeah, you got hypothermia, but you’re okay! Physically at the very least. After you got back from the hospital, you spent your days in bed, drifting in and out of sleep.
Olly would come home from school and catch you up on the things you missed.
You didn’t really pay attention to what he was saying, you just liked hearing him talk. It felt much warmer than all the blankets you’re buried under.
A week later, you return to school and it was exactly how you expected. People stared, talked, and ignored you.
You’re sitting next to Olly at your usual lunch table as he chats about his classes. A group of four kids walk up to your table chatting loudly. When they notice you, they go quiet.
They glance between each other, deciding what to do. One speaks up, “Hey, wanna join us for lunch?” You can tell they’re referring to Olly by the way they’re all staring at him.
Olruggio pauses his ramble and looks up at them. “No thanks,” he says, continuing whatever he was saying previously.
Another quickly adds, “How ‘bout after school, you free?”
Olly stops himself again. He shakes his head, “No, I have plans, sorry.”
“You’re always busy, c’mon!”
He shrugs in response. The four awkwardly stand there. They subsequently leave without saying goodbye.
You wait until they exit your line of sight. “What was that about?”
He groans, “They’ve been bothering me since last week. I was sitting here,” he points at the table, “-and then they just sat at the table without asking and started being buddy buddy with me.”
“I have class with like two of them but that’s it,” Olly says firmly.
You speculate, “Let me guess, they were asking you about how to become like you?”
He snickers, “Oh no, how ever could you guess?”
“Must’ve been super annoying.”
“You don’t know how bad it is,” Olruggio sighs dramatically. “And they have the audacity to talk about you in my face,” he mutters.
“Just ignore them,” you dismiss.
He looks at you. “I don’t want to. It’s… I don’t like it. They act like they know everything when they only know twisted rumors. I don’t want you to be known as a bad person.”
“Well, what can you do?” You poke at your uneaten food.
“Wouldn’t that hurt your reputation?”
“I don’t care about that. I care about you more than stupid stuff like that,” Olly admits.
You don’t know how to respond to that.
Olruggio kept his promise.
A few days later, the weird looks from others mostly stopped and people started treating you normally again. What did he even do? You had no clue — until now.
You hear someone yell out your name and as you turn around, you’re greeted with two of your classmates.
“Hi, quick question! Are you dating Olruggio?” They ask expectantly.
Yes, you were around him constantly and yes, you did everything together. That was the norm. You never really questioned your relationship.
You answer hesitantly. “No..?”
“Seriously? Aren’t you two like superrrr close?” They point out. “Wait, do you know?”
“Know what?” You question.
“You don’t.” They look thrilled at that. “Okay, so he did this whole thing where he rounded up everyone and told them to tell their parents to yell at that one annoying person since all they do is cause problems, right?” You nod.
“And then when someone said ‘oh why do you care so much, you aren’t even affected,’ he started going on about your whole situation and why you matter to him and that stuff.”
They add on, “Honestly, it kinda sounded like a love confession. So I thought you guys were dating or something.”
You stand there, a bit dumbfounded. “Oh.”
They give you a thumbs up. “Yeah… just wanted to let you know. Good luck!”
“What do I need luck for?”
They give you a smile with no elaboration.
A/N: this is kind of the end of the ‘apprentice and everything before that’ part of the series, I’ll add more fics on them if I get any ideas but I’ll probably focus on them as adults for now <3
also off topic but when I was rereading the manga to remember what ghodrey is like, I only then noticed that utowin’s name is utowin and not utown. 🙂↔️🙂↔️
