The compendium turned out to be an old, musty, enormous book. Bound in leather with thick parchment pages, the book looked like it might need a four-man crew just to re-shelve it. Fortunately, Eyrick avoided that complication by levitating the book to a table and then drawing up a plush armchair. The tableau was completed when Jared settled down on a rug in front of the armchair, quiet and domesticated, as his curious younger sibling tried to get a look at the unusual symbols and runes contained on the pages of the huge book.
When Eyrick desired to advance the pages, a tap with his wand turned each page with very little fuss. As he read, he muttered and mumbled every so often, although Kevin was at a loss to explain what interested the strange teenager.
Meanwhile, Jared worried about what had surfaced. In some ways, it was a relief that Kevin already knew that he might have an interest in guys, but he also worried about what browsing history his younger brother might have accessed. He also ruminated about the circumstances that had landed him in canine form on an expensive antique rug in the library of an castle invisible to the rest of the town's citizens. Most of the baseball team hadn't taken to Eyrick, who was a recent immigrant to the country, or so that was the story he had given out. Jared wondered now if he could even depend on the accuracy of that revelation.
Eyrick's accent, perhaps something Eastern European, along with his pale complexion, green eyes and lustrous and untamed locks of dark hair that cascaded about his shoulders and framed his handsome features, worked a sort of magic on Jared. He found himself seeking out opportunities to engage in small talk with Eyrick, which had led to other social interactions, including the missed weight training session that had alerted the young wizard that something was amiss.
Before that missed appointment, there had been Jared's previous visit to the castle. Eyrick had asked if he would like to see his home, Jared had agreed, and a moment later they had both been standing in a great hall of an imposing stone castle and Eyrick had been telling him that he was a wizard.
At least, he had been telling the story until Jared called him out. "That's a load of..." Jared started, still feeling a bit shaky from being transported from the high school to the strange castle.
"I can prove it," Eyrick had said, and conjured some convincing but minor spells to dazzle the All-American teenager.
They had gotten lost in conversation, until Jared realized it was probably very late. "I should go," he had said suddenly.
If you must," Eyrick said.
"It's just that it must be late, and my parents..."
"Well, we can see each other again, right?"
"Sure," Jared agreed quickly. So far, in his own mind, he had identified as bi-curious and that was as far as he was willing to go.
"When?" Eyrick had pressed.
"Uh, I'm not sure," Jared stalled. "We can discuss it at school. I will..."
He hadn't finished whatever excuse he had been about to give, because Eyrick leaned close to him and clamped his own open mouth over Jared's lips. With a little tongue action, and a mischievous tap of the wand, he had made certain that the unexpected instant left an impression on Jared. When Jared pushed away from him, the bulge of a hard-on in his jeans had been unmistakable.
"I'm sorry," Jared had said awkwardly.
"Don't be."
"I'll just be going," he said.
"You can't just go," Eyrick said with a little shrug. "Castle. Magic."
So, Eyrick against teleported them from the castle back to the high school. The wizard gave the mortal youth one last kiss and sent him on his way. Jared remembered the long walk home, unable to get Eyrick off his mind. In the end, though, he lied and evaded, and prompted Eyrick's "lesson" in the form of the prank with the medallion that had gone awry and trapped Jared in canine form.
He had been so lost in thought that he missed the moment when Eyrick leapt from the chair and stabbed a finger onto the pages of the compendium. "This might do it!"
He explained...