Chapter 48 – I Am what I Am... (or not?)

Nima awoke from what could only have been a bad dream. In fact, the worst dream she'd ever had. On an abstract level it was interesting to know that the human body could suffer so much pain after all. The last thing she remembered was the immense hurt of two overwhelming forces pulling on her, trying to break her in two. And yet there had been something different, too. The dream, the dreaming sphere, she had seen it and Raistin had been there. It was, for a moment, as if she had existed in two different places at the same time. And so had he. Now that was gone. Her muscles ached from the strain, but two long breaths convinced her that she was still alive and at least her lungs and lips were still in place. Groaning, she set up, suddenly realizing that she was sprawled on the floor. As she usually did when things like this had happened, she grabbed for her black robes to straighten them. However, there were no black robes. Nor was their golden skin.

Nima stared at her hands and legs in disbelief. Kender legs and kender feet and tiny kender fingers... instantly she was all awake, looking frantically around. No, she was not in the dreamland. She was still in the Inn of Last Home and this was HER tunic and HER shoes and HER arms she threw up in excitement. And Raistin was also there. He was crouched on the floor, just a few meters away, staring at himself in awe. His face mirrored her own expression of disbelief and hope.

Meanwhile she noticed a bunch of people who all lay scattered around the room, each in another state of regaining consciousness. She found familiar faces. Naranja, was there, already on hands and knees, trying to shake of her dissziness. There was Tiomar groaning, and Knoblar, who was helping Tasselhoff to get to his feet. Everybody was there, all her new friends and her old and trusted ones. Gladly Nima succumbed to the joy of the moment.

„YEAAHAAAAAAAAAAA!"

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A long and high-pitched cry broke through the numbing grey that clouded Dalamar's mind, like a ray of sunshine on a rainy day. As soon as his ears conected him to the outside world again, he noticed soft fingers on his forehead and another voice whispering words of concern and reassurance. He blinked. His sight blurred at first, until out of a wild mix of dark and light colors a face appeared. He blinked again. Big, brown eyes shone warmly at him and rosy lips formed a smile. For the blink of a moment he felt like a drowning sailor rescued by a nymph. The impression didn't last for long as the nymph became familiar. It was only the young girl from the herbal shop. What was she doing here? The pounding in his head hadn't lessened as he suffered from a severe drain of power. He knew from experience that only long hours of sleep could solves this problem. While his body cried for rest, he sat up slowly, too weak to push her hands away as she steadied his shoulders. Absently he noticed that his fingers still clenched the Staff of Magius tightly.

„What happened?", he whispered in fear to have missed something important.

„There was magic going around these two", the girl answered softly. "And when we thought, we had lost, you cast a spell, and the last thing I remember is a blinding white light."

He followed her guesture, when she mentioned 'these two'. The Inn of last home was a mess of wrecked tables and chairs and broken dishes. In the center of the destruction his master sat staring first at himself and then at a young kender girl who danced around him in a silly manner repeating, chanting all the time „I got my body back, I got my body back." Meanwhile, everybody had begun sitting up or staggering onto his feet. Unbelieving looks were cast around the room and finally focused on the strange couple of mage and kender in their middle.

Nima was still caught in the midst of her own joyful passion and gave into her impulses freely. As if it was the most natural thing to do, she suddenly jumped at Raistins lap, hugging him tightly.

„We've got our bodys back!" She cried the news into his ear, sharing her happiness with him. „Raistlin, you are yourself again and I am myself again and we all are ourselves again and thats sooo great!"

While she danced around him, Raistlin was close to shaking just from the relief of being his own self again. Still he sat motionless, content to watch her. His mind was still caught in the strange impressions and feelings from what had just happened and his inner censor was not quite active yet. That was the only reasonable explanation for why he didn't prevent her from hopping onto him, clinging to him. It also explained why he couldn't help but answering to her excitement by smiling like an idiot while she babbled something about everybody being everybody again. He even hugged her back when she threw her arms around his neck in utter extasy, until... he realized that she was kissing his cheek. The touch of her lips on his skin made the hair in his neck tingle and his hands shake. It felt close to being hit by a weak magic missile and still different, exciting, and it filled his heart with a strange unknown desire, a longing...

Shocked by the sudden realization about the nature of this longing, he opened his eyes wide. Somehow he must have closed them. He happened to look directly in to his apprentice's eyes. The elf had facevaulted. So had Naranja next to him.

That was what stopped him cold. In an instant he shoved Nima away, pushing her back on her own feet, his expression cold and hard as usual. For a moment Raistlin had forgotten who and where he was but he was not inclined to make this mistake twice. Still, the look on Dalamar's face didn't change, neither did that of the girl or anybody else in the room. They stared at him as if he was a demon from the abbyss. Suddenly, Nima's singing broke off. He turned towards her. The kender watched him with a similar expression of horror, her outstreched finger pointing at him accusingly. Instantly her scream rang through the room.

„You stole my ears!"

Slowly Raistlin raised his hands, touching the sides of his head. He couldn't believe what his fingertips told him and reached frantically for the piece of a broken silver plate that lay close to him. The merciless mirror told him what he didn't want to believe. He reached up, and sure enough, his ears were pointed, though likely the same golden color as the rest of his skin He raised his head to study Nima once more. Here ears were delicate and small, fitting her face. But those were human ears, round and therefore unfitting. One cruel insight crossed his mind.

It had all just begun.

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Congratulations, Dear reader, with this short episode you made it through „How to Hook a Mage, Part One" also known as „Wishful Thinking". Solution of all the amazing trouble and angst will soon follow in Part Two „The Turn of the Screw". Right here in your FFnet story-board.

I'm incredibly sorry that this chapter is so short, but I probably won't be able to continue until Christmas. However, I promise I WILL continue. There are so many interesing things, waiting for us all...('whistles'- love is in the air...) Oh, and by the way, reviews would be great and might motivate me... (hint hint)