After a couple of seconds, the room lit up once more. Instead of neon lights and spotlights, this time the torches that lined the walls simply lit aflame. …Perhaps still a tad odd, but at least it had the decency of being restrained. They still were in the same room as before, but all the stage props had disappeared as quickly as they had appeared. Roc was the only sudden appearance that was still around, and still giving his most overeager smile at the pair.
"That’s all! If you’ll allow me a moment to tally your scores…” Roc pantomimed the use of an abacus. Reece, who’d once familiarized himself with abacuses out of boredom, was unamused to notice that Roc looked like he was simply adding and subtracting one repeatedly. “Alright, done! Based on your performance in all the trials up to this point, I must acknowledge the strength of the friendship you two share, and as my solemn charge, award you your due reward." Roc pulled his tail around to his frontside and plucked from it a single large feather. Holding it in his wing
[1]
Er, paw?
, soundless words escaped his lips. For a moment, Reece and Tress felt as if they lost their sense of confidence in the universe, as if gravity could just as easily begin pulling them to the east as it does down, but the feeling soon passed. Or perhaps returned?
“Now, I realize I said that was the last trial, but there is one more thing to ask: Which of you are getting the feather?”
“Tress,” Reece stated without a second thought. He really didn't need any magic items.
“Me!” Tress followed up, putting in equal amounts of thought.
"Huh, easier than I expected. Aaaand here you go," Roc said, as he offered the feather to Tress, "as you already know, this is Roc’s Feather! Well, my feather. If that, wasn’t obvious from watching me prepare it just now. This is the prize that was decided to be given out to the pair which helped me prove myself."
Tress took the feather and looked it over. It looked quite nice, predominantly a fanciful orange with a blue trim. There was even a bit of shine to it that she noticed as she held it up to the light. Perhaps understated for he tastes, but she could overlook aesthetics for something as practical as a magic item. She wished she had a had to stick it in.
Reece, meanwhile, was curious about what Roc had said. “Prove yourself in what way?”
"Oh, no need to worry about that, just some political stuff.” This had the exact opposite of the intended effect on Reece’s interest, but Roc kept talking “By the way, the one you saw in that display earlier was just an illusion, by the way. I had a lot of time to really polish the setup’s wording, so I think it’s gotten pretty convincing. Admittedly, illusions aren’t intended to be my magical specialty, but I doubt anyone’s going to nag me about that. Plus, I’ve found it’s a useful hobby to have picked up over the centuries. Anyway, I've enchanted this feather with a simple bit of magic: when you go to jump while holding this feather, then you will safely jump seven times as high as you would without it. This symbolizes my faith that your friendship will grow with leaps and bounds over time, as it is now blessed by an object associated with the Mage of Friendship. …Honestly, I tried to argue the reward should have a thematically stronger enchantment, but I hope you find it useful anyway you two."
Tress tried giving a quick short hop and found herself easily rising a couple feet into the air, before coming to a firm but more manageable than expected landing. "Woah, you really are the real deal, huh?" Tress mused as she spun the feather in her finger.
Reece blinked a few times as he processed what just happened. Roc had just enchanted a magic item right in front of him! Tress had been right, on at least some level, somehow. His mind started racing, trying to get straight what questions this answered and which questions he still needed to ask.
Tress, however, was quicker on the draw, and knew exactly what to ask. “So, I know this might sound weird, but could you enchant–”
"Hup-up-up!" Roc said, hushing Tress as he raised his fingers and counted down from three. "Ah, there we go," Roc instantly slumped his posture, and a massive exhaustion infested his voice "now that my sacred duty is over and done with, I can leave, and I need a vacation, so,” Roc moved to reach for something in his pouch, but stopped himself “…no, actually, I can’t let myself act like this was nothing and move on, so one last thing, since I can finally speak my mind: I know I basically insisted you two pretend to be friends, but you two really didn’t do that bad. It was passably believable! But really, a ‘passable’ friendship shouldn’t have passed. This was supposed to be an exclusive honor! And while you can thank me for the creative interpretation of your results, but I am still the Mage of Friendship, so I can’t just let this farce go without correction."
Reece and Tress exchanged a sideways glance in confusion. Reece opened his mouth to ask for an explanation, but Roc cut him off before he could say anything, "Don’t worry, I’m not going to just create some trouble to throw onto you or punish you or anything. In fact, consider this an extra reward! It’s just, fudging the results was painful, and I want to at least be preemptively right, so…” Reece visibly grimaced as the tall, feathered kangaroo leaned down close to Reece's face. "Ooh, there’s a good grimace! Good start! I could tell you were having some trouble expressing yourself earlier, so it’s nice to see that you can manage some expression. Maybe I don’t need to do this after all, but I might as well… Wait, I’m not that scary, am I?" Roc turned to Tress as if polling for a response.
[2]
Tress gestured a response of “yeah, a bit,” but Roc didn’t look at her long enough to see it.Reece tried to stammer out any kind of response to this. “What do you mean by, no I guess I can guess but what are you going to, uh,”
Roc patted Reece’s shoulders in a way that was meant to be calming but just made Reece slink further back. "Woah hey, settle down, I’m just going to give you a gift too, something I think will help." Roc said calmly. "Admittedly, the rules said I’d only give out one, but to be honest that always felt weird given it’s a team of two... and no restrictions against doing some magic of my own now, so let’s see… Well, no other receptacle…" Roc pressed a finger into Reece's safety goggles, squishing them into his face. Reece's head was built for being squished to a point
[3]
One of the many benefits of being part slime (wait, how is having your face smushed a benefit?), but his eyes were still sensitive. As the goggles pressed into his face, all of his eyes shut in reflex, and the same disorienting feeling washed over him for a second before he felt Roc retract his touch. "Done! There, that should help you. Now as I was… Tootles!"
Tress, realizing her chance to get even a word in edgewise was quickly depleting, began to shout "Wait, before you go, I need you to–" but she didn't get the chance to finish. Roc reached once more into his pouch and pulled a different device out, and the next moment Reece and Tress were the only ones left in the room. Roc was gone.