Pulling coins

Skeena waited for his old friend and mentor to adjust to the speed of time at mythic pace. Of course Alex Santiago was not new to the diversity of magic he was only out of practice. By the clock it was going on ten in the morning. The sky was red, and if one looked up out from a cozy bed it would be difficult to tell whether it was sunrise or sunset.

"Ahhmm," Alex moaned stretching his long body the way he did when we woke. Without hands it was tough to feel his way into the moment or rub his eyes with gestures of coming to.

"Morning," Skeena knelt at Alex's long limbs, and was busy rubbing something on the older man's ankles.

"And what young Skeena is that?" Alex could feel the mushy stickiness on his ankles. If he had hands he'd have been scratching an itch where his feet should of been.

"Banana skin or banana peel. I'm rubbing the inside of the skin onto this rash at the back of your ankles. '"Below the thick yellow jacket that covers melting sweetness, inside the lining, is a layer, pale brown and potent, that can carry your burdens, take up your scars...Banana Peel is the scavenger that cleans up the damage, that scours the residue, chews up the no longer needed. Banana says leave it behind, cast it off, time to move on." 

"So is that what you've been learning ... slid banana into your magic, moved on from pulling coins and freshly laid eggs from of thin air?" In spite of his urge to change position, Alex Santiago could not move. Skeena kept rubbing the insides of banana skin first to Alex's right ankle. "Banana Skin has been very very good to me and Shine. Banana Skin and Ginger are very potent magic Alex a very earthy kind of medicine."

"You sound like your mother, the Border Witch had a feel for earthy magic," Alex missed his friend Pale. More than any thing it was her decency he missed most. "Your mother had an innocence about her, never arrogant of her own potency it was those stories she wrote that held the potency." Where was this coming from, a feeling he hadn't allowed himself ... longing for old friends and the company of heart-based adventures.

Skeena nodded and smiled. " I miss her soup. She does figure into things and would have loved knowing about the power of banana skins. The wisdom of the skins comes from the writing of another brown-skinned witch, also a storyteller. Goes by the name of Aurora." Skeena kept on rubbing, moving from the right to the left ankle, gentle and careful to let the one ankle ease down before starting on the left. The old mender, and former welder relaxed as his thoughts and observation skills pointed out the details of his current surroundings.

His part of the bench had transformed into a couch long enough to accommodate Alex's length. The hard though smooth wooden surface was instead padded and covered in corduroy, wide wale, the same deep blue of Camilia's robe with the generous hood. "You in charge of this Mystery?" Alex asked. His curiosity was piqued and in equal measure Alex asked the question knowing the answer already.

"We are never in charge of the Mystery. You know that. You taught me that ... Ravens don't forget," now both men were laughing and with each echoed chuckle Alex felt the pins and needles of awakening, he noticed he could wiggle his toes. "You have become very good at your magic. Now all I really want is a slice of that banana pie you enticed me with."

"Ah, first you will need a hand to hold a fork, or both hands to bring the slice to your hungry mouth. What was it the tiny mouse said you would need to do before crossing the beaded curtain of dangling bones?" Setting down his mentor's newly anointed left foot Alex Santiago recognized he was in his old welding shop. "The Resident Mouse said I would need to sacrifice something of my old self."

"And so what will it be?" Skeena was now his fully Raven self. "In exchange for these two new feet that can take you places before you are given hands to be of service, again, what will you leave behind master mender? What do you no longer need?"


What about Camilia?