Few and far between came experiences that revealed to Gabriel just how damn good he was at denial. At first, he wrote the odd feeling off as a side-effect from the magickal overexertion he’d done with Anthony, then it was just winter setting in and his body reacting poorly as per usual, but when he reached out to buffer the puppy’s full-tilt slide into the wall and couldn’t feel any connection to the energy normally buzzing under his skin…that was bad. That was really bad. Normally, Nature in all her various threads constantly enveloped him. Air, water, fire, earth, light, spirit — he could feel them. It was just a matter of pulling the right energy at the right times for the right effect, but it was like someone or something had essentially blindfolded him.
The puppy’d just bounced off the wall and continued chasing whatever it was after, disappearing towards Micah’s room sparking a guilty pull deep in his chest. Was this something to bring to Micah? He was already such a pressure on his brother, he hated to put anymore on him. And selfishly, he didn’t want to be confined to the house. Sickness healed. Sure, he might have had a couple of close calls over the years, but he was here. And this wasn’t — ok, admittedly his head was throbbing, and he felt weak, and just off but he wasn’t sick.
Even at his most feverish, he’d never lost connection like this.
Something damn close to fear bubbling in his stomach made up his mind for him and he left Micah a hastily scribbled note about the lake and be right back before taking off with more urgency than he’d felt since Sabine took them in. He felt like a stranger in his own skin. He didn’t even think as he left the house, used to relying on magick to make up for his own shortcomings, like oh, forgetting shoes and a jacket, maybe, but he was too close to the lake to turn back once the pain sank in past his stubborn determination.
Water was his strongest element. The lake had it in abundance, and a supposed history of healing properties, so Gabe didn’t hesitate. Just ran down the pier and threw himself in.
So much colder than he was used to and every part of him resented it, but there, in the farthest stretch of his abilities, he could feel it. He could feel the energy that promised magick, and ok. So at least he wasn’t turned into a human overnight. There was that at least. Now though, he was soaked, and freezing, and no attempt at reaching any kind of fire or warming energy was happening for him. Still, he lingered for as long as he could stand it, desperate for this to fix itself.
He carried hope that if it truly came down to life or death, he’d be able to save himself, but beyond that — he was fucked. And he needed to get back to Micah, now. So naturally as he pulled himself out of the water and headed back towards the cabin, he spotted a figure among the trees. His first instinct was magick, which failed, the second was to run, but his muscles were a little too busy shaking in a desperate bid for warmth to listen much to him, so that left trying to creep by unnoticed. Naturally, his foot snapped every twig, clothes caught on bark and branches, and his balance was being thrown off between dripping water on leaves and the fever (he did not have, thank you). A small whale would have probably made less noise than he did, so he eventually gave up on being sneaky and just hoped he hadn’t misjudged the Enchanter.
“Anthony?” he called finally. “Anthony, something’s wrong.”