The spear was soaring through the air at high speed and Jay couldn’t seem to move his feet, it was as if they were glued to the floor.
His eyes grew wide as the spear got nearer. Every time he tried to move, he would just start shaking.
It was just a few ft away. All he could think to do was raise his hands and yell the only thing he could think of,
“Hokvalmia.” He felt himself heat up, he saw a reflection in a silent green leaf of a burning flame, and then his stomach gave a jolt and he felt like he was going to puke.
His vision blurred and his stomach churned in discomfort. In pain. His whole insides felt as if they were being thrown around in a washing machine. Make that a monster washing machine!
A second later his chest felt empty. He swore he was going to die, but then, just before his eyes rolled behind the sockets, a tingling sensation started, and then the last thing he could remember he was falling backwards into the trees - the spring sky rolling across his view.
“Jay, are you alright?” A voice spoke to him and he opened his eyes slowly. The sight revealed a well-lit room with beds that lined the walls and a crowd of people around him.
The blinding light pained his forehead and his eyes, it was like a migraine from hell.
“Where am I?” He groaned miserably, looking from left to right at the people around him. Then one of them answered,
“You’re in the aid room,” spoke a tall girl, which, with Jay’s blurry eyes, looked like Bobby.
“Do you feel dizzy, sick, hot, cold, or just damn right confused?” Spoke a male voice from beside him.
“Con-fused.”
“Well,” started another male’s voice in front of him, “you were late and we’d already started training with swords, shields and, spears.” There was a pause and then he carried on, “Someone threw a spear, and it went the wrong way. It came towards you and, well I think you were too scared to move out of the way and then you did something really awesome, which saved your life. What did it feel like?” he finished, his tone changing from embarrassment to its normal perky self.
“Lochlan, this really isn’t the time,” A girl spoke from the foot of his bed.
“Now we know he’s alright we can leave him to rest, alright everyone back to your dorms. Train hard and you might get a place on the quest. We’ll sort the people out in a week with the chooser.” This voice was definitely Amy’s, the orderly yet friendly echo it had.
Jay heard the scurrying of feet and then the squeaky wheels of a trolley.
“Food?” this voice was someone he knew, he recognised it instantly.
“What is it?”
“Strengthening food. Build you up a bit.”
It was Liam for sure. He ate his food and then fell straight back into a deep sleep.
After two nights in the aid room, Jay was back to his normal self.
He’d spent the days reflecting on his nights at the foster home and doing lots of digesting. He’d spoke to Liam a lot and he’d managed to answer Jay all of his questions and he was really nice to him, he could relate a lot with his situation, although Hollie did say that they’d all been through the same thing. That sort of comforted Jay a bit, it made his settling in a little easier.
That morning he trudged off back to his dorm, through the aid room door and straight into the hallway of the temple - Jay had never bothered to ask where the aid room was, but it must have been some magical door off the hallway as when he exited, he looked back and it was as if he’d just jumped out of the wallpaper!
When he got to the campfire he met Broudie, who asked him if he wanted to try again at the fighting area, which he had avoided on the way to the sheds.
“C’mon I can teach you some proper battling, without the magic, and you won‘t get hit with a spear. Promise, just a sword instead,” he said.
Jay agreed, hoping he was joking, and they walked into the fighting area with just a sword and a shield, which Broudie carried casually, holding his sword which was tucked into some sort of sword holder attached to a belt on his trousers.
“Eh, Broudie,” Jay said, “you know all the creatures and monsters in Greek myths. Like the three headed dog and the hydra. Well are they all really real and alive?”
“Did Hollie tell you about the monsters trapped in Tartarus?”
“Yeah she did, but she said they were escaping or something.”
“That’s it. They’re escaping from Tartarus, the small ones first and the big ones last. Through the gate which the gods closed with their powers millennia’s ago.”
“So what’s the worst creature or monster in the world then?” Jay asked curiously as they entered the fighting area, crossing the place where Jay was skewered.
“Well it depends. The worst creature would be Typhon. He’s like a really massive dragon and used to be trapped in Mount Etna. But then Cronus, Gaea, Nyx and so on are very powerful Gods, and Titans. Except they can be persuaded to do things or not do things,” Broudie answered. “Anyway let’s do some battling,” he added, obviously more interested in battling, a trait which obviously must’ve come to him when he got his ring of war.
Broudie passed Jay a shield and then got himself into a ready position. He then took Jay through a shielding exercise.
“Ok, I’ll move forward.” he put his right foot forward and then in slow motion, swung his sword under his arm and towards Jay’s shield. “Then, I strike, you hold your shield up, and then when the two weapons meet,”
Jay’s hand was securely gripped to the shield but it was quite an effort to keep it from pulling him down never mind actually trying to pull it up in front of him.
Broudie’s sword hit the shield and Jay fell back - quite a lot, ending up on the floor. “you fall back slightly to decrease the force and then, obviously you’d need a sword to do this, you remove your shield and strike at me.” Broudie finished as he pushed his sword into the moist ground.
“Let’s have a go. Ready? One, two, three…” He swung his sword a lot faster than he did the first time and he struck at Jay, who lifted his shield and fell backwards from the force.
The clanging of sword and shield rattled in his head and he fell over onto the ground and then, after a moment of paralysis, he slowly got up, gripping his left arm.
“I am no good at fighting. I hope I’m better at the magic side,” Jay mumbled.
“Yeah let’s hope,” Broudie laughed.
‘Oh,’ Jay thought, ‘you weren’t supposed to agree with me!’
They tested out a few more moves, and after a lot of falling, Jay started to dodge and deflect Broudie’s hits. The only thing was every time he deflected or dodged a strike Broudie would get harder. Then, about an hour later, they stopped their fighting and Broudie decided that now would be a good time to decide on a weapon to have. Something that Jay could actually attack with.
“You need a good weapon. For you, something long, a knife wouldn’t suit you. A spear or a sword, definitely a shield. You could personalise the shield so as it’s got extra things on it,” Broudie suggested as they veered closer to the temple.
“I’ve never been to the weapon cupboard.”
“Well, seems as I have the ring of the god of war, you couldn’t expect me not to follow my senses and walk straight in there on my first day.”
“What’s it like?” Jay asked.
“You’ll find out soon.” They entered the temple, along the hallway and Broudie turned to face a wall. He glanced at Jay and then spoke to the picture on the wall
“Aperium,” Broudie hushed. The same spell Jay had used to get his food, must’ve been something to do with something appearing. ‘Clever Jay, no one would’ve worked that out’ he chuckled to himself.
A crack spread from the bottom of the wall upwards, then across, then back down, as if tracing the outline of a door.
“Wha-” Jay started his sentence but was stopped by the door knob which sprung from the door with a squeak.
“Hear it is.” Broudie
grasped the door handle and turned it. There was a click, followed by a long creak before they both walked into the dark room. Then Jay heard Broudie’s hushed voice again,
“Sparkinum.” A floating orb of light flashed into existence and began to float in midair in front of Jay. It flew upwards and then hit something, which must have been the light bulb. That’s when the room came into sight.
Swords lined the walls with shields above them. Spears lay vertically against a circular block in the centre. Other, slightly unusual, weaponry were dotted around as well. There were two horizontal aisles to his left and one vertical aisle to his right.
“This is amazing,” Jay said as Broudie started to pace around the centre block, admiring the spears.
“Well, let’s find you a weapon.”
“What can I have?” Jay asked, looking around at the swords with their shining blades.
“Anything, as long as you can defend or hit with it,” Broudie replied. You could tell he was in his element in this room.
Jay strolled around the massive cupboard, eyeing up all the nice-looking blades and the most decorative shields.
After a few minutes of searching the walls for weapons, Broudie picked up a sword and handed it to Jay. It was really long, longer than Broudie’s, and the handle was quite plain and boring.
“Try this, give it a swing.”
Jay took the sword, which wasn’t too heavy, and pushed it forward from behind his shoulders. He stumbled forward, Broudie stepping out the way, and, by the look on his face, it wasn’t the sword Jay should have.
“Let’s try a shield.” Broudie turned his back and looked up at the shields. “Any of them you like?” he added.
Jay placed the sword back on the wall and looked up at the many shields above him, shimmering in the lights like rows of giant gold plates.
“Eh, how about that one.” Jay pointed out a shield on the top row and Broudie shook his head.
It was patterned beautifully with gold and bronze markings in circular orientation around a pointed, central piece.
“Not one that you like the look of, one that draws you in like a magnet. Try closing your eyes and walk around, trust your instincts. You have your ring now, the ancient Greek instincts lie within you, the urge to defend and protect, to fight, and it’s all in you now,” Broudie spoke with passion.
Jay replied with a confused expression.
“That ring gives you the power to practice magic and control the elements of which your god is trusted with. But it is from Greek origin so it also influences you in a Greek way and your natural reactions will be more intense, it’s an ancient thing. And when it comes to weapons, the Greeks loved them, like a friend, so they had to have meaning. Look, just trust me. Relax and clear your mind, have a look around and let your subconscious-self guide you. Gods, I’m sounding more like Amy every day!”
So, Jay closed his eyes and walked slowly around the room. He held his arms out in case he bumped into anything, his actual subconscious-self laughing at him.
“That’s it. Now, walk the way you really want to walk, not the way you want to.”
That confused him as well, ‘Walk the way you really want to walk not the way you want to walk? What?’ Jay thought to himself. Forgetting this he walked around the room with his eyes tight shut.
“Ok.” Jay carried on walking. Then he stopped, something was telling him to go right. ‘No, that was just his imagination’ he thought, ‘or was it?’
He kept walking forward until the feeling he had before came back, except it wanted him to turn left. So he turned left and then Broudie’s footsteps came hurrying up to him.
“Did you get a feeling? Where did it take you?”
“Here,” Jay replied looking very confused because what was in front of him was a box of junk.
There was a massive golden box full of wires and bits of scrap metal. There were pieces of steel, bronze, and even gold and some magical, transparent rock.
“Why would you walk up to a box of junk?” Broudie wondered. “Oh wait a minute. That’s why. Hephaestus is the god of the forges, so you came here because you can build things from this junk.” He clapped his hands and then took a closer look at the junk box.
“So then, what you gonna make?”
“What d’you mean, what you gonna make?” Jay questioned.
“Well, Hephaestus, the god of your ring, is the god of the forges,” Broudie said.
“What are the forges?”
“It’s where they make things. I should have known you would have to make your own weapon, its common sense.”
“So, I have to make a sword.”
“Or a shield.”
“But I was rubbish at making things at school,” Jay insisted.
“Well, I bet ya any money you could make a sword in just a few days.”
“I don-” Jay was stopped mid-sentence by Broudie who blurted out,
“Let’s put it to the test then, shall we?”
So Broudie and Jay exited the weapon room, walked out of the temple and trotted back to their dorms. When Jay got into his scorching house of warmth with his new box of junk, he made himself (well the cooker made him) a delicious pie.
After his meal he walked up into his bedroom and emptied the box of junk onto his bed. Where was he supposed to start? The handle? The blade?
“So, where do I begin?” Jay spoke aloud.
‘Book, page thirty seven…’ an echoing voice called from inside Jay’s mind. He was going to react to it but he didn’t, he couldn’t. He couldn’t jump out of his skin and do the typical hide down by the bed thing. He literally couldn’t.
‘Was that page number thirty seven in a book? Maybe it was a book he had. Maybe it was one of Hollie’s.’ Jay thought, his mind calmly going along with the fact some random voice was somehow controlling his state of mind. It felt weird, yet okay. If that makes sense?
He jumped off the bed, rushed down the stairs and raced into the front room. He checked the first book, labelled ‘All of the Gods, Goddesses and Titans that have ever lived’ He found a person called Uranus and some writing about the sky. He thought that had nothing to do with building a weapon, so closed the book and checked the next one. The next one was labelled ‘1000 simple spells for beginners’ He flicked to page thirty seven and found the words ‘the controlling spells’ written in bold.
He held the book in front of him and furrowed his eyebrows. Had he gone mad? He was listening to a voice in his head? That was like psycho behaviour! Maybe it was something to do with his ring guiding him to do what he needed to do?
Then the voice came back. It was deep and intense yet soothing like a fierce monster trying to rock a baby to sleep.
‘Read the page… It shall help, my young ring-bearer…’
It took Jay a few seconds to realise who the voice in his head was…Hephaestus!
An actual God, like Athena, his God had talked to him. He must’ve been watching him to know to talk to him. Mustn’t he? That was a bit weird. Was he watching him like all the time?
Jay turned back to the book and the calmness resided leaving him extremely weak in the knees. Now he knew the real power of the Gods, they could control the way people felt, how they acted, it was amazing! Still a bit freaky though. Jay shook off his daze of pondering and then read the page on controlling spells.
There are two types of controlling spells, the good one and the bad one. The bad one is used to control living things. It is very hard to conjure and very powerful. Usually if someone finds out you have used a controlling spell on someone, then you are hunted down and eventually killed as it is one of the forbidden spells. So, this book only teaches the good one which is used to piece things together and move things.
This sounded right. He was going to build his weapon using this spell. Now, becoming very interested, Jay read on,
The following spell is the spell you put on an object. When you say the spell keep your eyes fixed on the object you want to move. Then the con
trol spell link is in place. Then you move your hand from the object to the place you want it to go and then, keeping your hand on the spot, look at the object. There are various things the object might do to get to the spot but usually they just glide. As you can imagine, as you get better at this spell, you will be able to conjure it without using your hands and for professionals, without the word as well. Now, obviously the bigger and heavier the object, the harder it is to move. That is why we suggest practising on a feather first. Below is the spell and to the right are some videos of people producing the control spell. (Say ‘start’ with your finger on the paper to begin the clip).
Below the writing was a bold printed word which read, ‘Alovium.’ As soon as Jay read that last word he got very excited and ran up the stairs, where he found the bits of junk still lying on the bed.
He rubbed his hands together and narrowed his eyes. He concentrated on one of the slightly smaller pieces, and then he whispered very slowly,
“Alovium.” Nothing happened.
Jay sat down on the bed and got really close to the piece, so close, he could now make out little, tiny gears inside it. Then he repeated the spell,
“Alovium.” He kept his eyes fixed on the junk. Nothing happened again, but Jay was determined to get this spell right. So he kept his eyes in contact and shouted loudly. “ALOVIUM!”
The piece of junk turned over on the bed and Jay knew that this time the spell had worked. He lifted his hand, pointed at the junk piece then swung his hand to point at the other side of the bed. Jay looked back and saw the scrap levitating off the bed, then it started bouncing in the air towards the other side, where it floated lightly down.
He’d made a scrap piece of metal float elegantly across a room…
“Wow,” he squealed with excitement, calming himself down and glancing to the sky in case the God was still watching.
Then he started pointing his hand at different points in the room, and each time he did so, the piece of junk would follow.
But then, after about a minute of pinging from place to place, the piece of junk decided it was worn out and dropped to the bed in between darting from the lamp to the cupboard.
Jay sighed as it tumbled to a stop. Then he started controlling the other pieces of junk, making them fly across the room like fireworks. Smiling immaturely like some mad scientist.
Then, by pure accident, he made two pieces collide, and the shape they took was like the centre of a shield. So that’s when he began his first stage to making his first ever weapon.
Something amazing that everyone at the hideout would look at and say how good it was and how they’d love to have one.
Jay spent the remainder of the week either building his shield, learning spells (just remembering the words because he could never actually perform them, even the ones he had done in the squally ball match for some reason), playing squally ball or discovering the rest of the camp.
By the end of the week he had become rank two in squally ball (there was a chart in the stands that had everyone’s names on with loads of coloured spots next to them. Jordan had told him that the amount of spots you had depended on how good you were at the game. He told him that the actual court recognises different people and adds their name to the sheet plus marking them up with coloured dots. At the moment Jay was rank two, Philippa and Hollie were both at rank twelve, show-offs!).
Shield wise, Jay had completed the actual shape of the shield and had started putting spells on it using his books. The ones in there, like the hardening spell etcetera, he found easy to perfect for some reason. He had had to use the spell: ‘Dublicatius’, because he had been running out of junk, so his spell using knowledge had gone up a lot.
He had started practising spells with Jordan and Philippa because of the quest they were supposed to be doing, but the only thing he could really do was the spell gone wrong spell, or like Jay liked to call it, the call for help spell, as it sent random sparks of light in all directions uncontrollably. Safety was at the bottom of the list.
Then, on a Sunday afternoon, Amy came up to him whilst he was dazing up into the sky and doing his usual ‘what a life I have now’ hour of pondering.
“Tonight at the temple, Ok. Sort of mini feast.”
“Yeah sure, awesome!”
“Oh, and another thing, I heard you were making a shield and I thought this might come in handy,” Amy passed him a small piece of metal.
“What is it?”
“It’s like a two way mirror. It allows you to look through the metal. All you need to do is mould it to the right shape and attach it to the inner side of your shield,” Amy instructed, “I’ve got some of it on my shield, it’s really useful.”
“Thanks,” Jay said greatfully, turning over the tiny piece and noticing that he couldn’t see it, it was like a piece of glass.
One side it was metal, the other side, it was nothing! Genius!
That night he walked to the temple with Philippa, Bobby and Lochlan.
“So, how’s your shield coming on?” Lochlan questioned.
Jay felt really part of the gang ever since he first set foot in the hideout. They’d all welcomed him with open arms and been probably the nicest anyone had ever been to him. It was a nice feeling, it sort of made you feel wanted, for once.
“Great! I’ve got it to the right shape and now I’m just adding things to it and putting spells on it.”
“When do we get to see it?” Philippa asked excitedly.
“Soon,” Jay revealed as they entered the temple, where everybody awaited their arrival.
“Now we are all here we can get started. Anybody not want to go on the quest?” Amy questioned. No one put their hands up so she carried on.
‘This quest must mean a lot to the people here,’ Jay thought, they all seemed so willing to go on this quest even though they knew they could get killed. Then, who was he to talk, he wanted to go too!
Over the week he’d spoke with a few of the fellow ring-bearers and they’d talked a lot about pride of bringing back the jewel. Jay could relate, now he had this new life he wanted to get stuck in and live on the edge, take every chance and opportunity for something new.
“Okay, all the names are in here.” Amy pointed at a large, wooden ring.
“As an introduction for Jay, and the others that have not been told of this thing, this is a chooser. It, well kind of tells you what it does, but for those who are still stood there gaping, it chooses things and people. These choosers are wise, and they always make the right choices. Athena suggested we should use it to decide who should go on the quest. The way it works is someone, in this case I, will write down the nature of the quest on paper, and pop it into the ring.” Amy walked over to a piece of paper which lay lonely on the table.
“Here’s one I wrote earlier,” she paused expecting people to laugh, but most of them were too busy wondering how she was going to put a piece of paper inside the hula-hoop looking object. She walked over to the hoop and threw the paper, and as soon as the sheet passed through, it disappeared.
“Now this is the second time the chooser has been used, so it’s very young. Ok, any questions before we start?” Amy asked.
“What was it used for the first time?” Jay questioned.
“Athena, when she was given the rings by the oracle, a stranger gave her the chooser as a present. She threw the rings in the hoop and the ring of Athena came out first. That would mean the first person she would be finding would b-” Then Liam butted in and finished her sentence.
“Would be Amy.”
“Thank you Liam. Right, let’s get started.”
She walked over to the chooser and whispered something. Then there was a squeaking sound and the plastic, basic-looking hula hoop moulded into the outline of a pair of lips.
“Oo, nice to be used from time to time,” The lips spoke in a weird, high-pitched voice, which was slightly astonishing as Jay was expecting a deep wise voice that spoke power like the Gods.
?
??A quest I see. For five. To find Frederick in France, you think. Easy to find with that very detailed description, Frederick in France, huh? Then to squeeze the whereabouts of the jewel of Barthimia out of him, so as you can find the jewel before your good friends, the mythical monsters, can get it. So, we need a lot of experienced magic, persuaders, common sense people, and some intelligence. I suggest Claire, Broudie, Jay, Jordan and Hollie should go, Chow.”
The chooser squeaked back into the hula hoop shape and then collapsed on the table. Motionless.
There was a moment of silence, pure shock was worn by most of the faces in the room.
“Well that settles it, you know who’s going and there are no changes. All five of you will perfect your weapons and practise every morning in the fighting area. You have six days to get prepared. The rest of us shall carry on persuading the demi-god’s to believe us about the monsters, and hopefully, when you bring back the jewel, they will finally understand.” Amy took a breather then carried on, “There will be no squally ball matches for the next six days to help the five not get distracted. Everyone go back to your dorms, seven ‘o’ clock in the morning you will train and I shall be there to help on occasions. Goodnight.”
She waved her hand, and with lots of grunting and groaning everyone made their way back to the campfire and into their dorms.
The next morning Jay was up and ready, he grabbed his shield and walked out of his house into a chilly morning. He couldn’t believe he was picked for the quest, he’d only been here a matter of a week or two and he had got chosen, he was the least experienced. In a sense, Jay felt quite bad as he knew how much everyone must have wanted to go on the quest and then he’d got it. But Jay took it as a compliment, at least someone thought he was good. Even if it was a talking plastic hula hoop.
It had taken him all night to actually digest the fact that he was going on the quest and he’d only just broke out of his shock this morning, after a restless night of peculiar dreams.
The campfire was dim and there were only three people sat on the logs around it.
He walked to the fire and sat down, eyes alert and alive.
“Everyone ready?” he chirped. There was a moment of silence then someone spoke,
“Still waiting for one more,” Broudie groaned, his face was lit slightly by the fire. He looked really drowsy.
“I got my shield,” Jay said hopefully, trying to lighten the atmosphere. At the word shield, Broudie lifted his head and shot out of his slouched position.
“Let’s have a look.”
“Yeah, show us,” Claire demanded. So Jay pulled his shield from out behind his back and held it out.
“I know it’s not great but I’ve put a lot of effort into it, and I tried some spells on it, like, the strengthening spell,” Jay said uneasily, just in case they weren’t impressed.
“It’s took you how long to make this?” Jordan asked.
“About four or five days,” Jay moaned.
“Four or five days! That’s amazing, your first time as well. And you’ve put spells on it,” Claire squealed in an I-can’t-believe-it tone.
“Well only the strengthening spell and a few minor perk spells because I can’t do the other ones. I don’t know why, I can’t even do the ones that I did in the squally ball match,” he muttered.
“We wouldn’t expect you to do any proper magic out of the squally ball pitch. You do know that squally ball courts are enchanted so as the players can produce spells easily?” Jordan questioned.
“That would explain why I couldn’t do it,” Jay said. “But how did I manage the strengthening spell and the control spell,” he added.
“The control spell?” shouted Broudie in astonishment, “That’s like really hard, how did you…ah, wait a minute. I bet Hephaestus does a lot of controlling and I bet he uses some sort of strengthening spell in his work too, which is why you picked them up so easily.”
“Morning everyone, are we all ready?” Hollie had just appeared from her dorm, bright and breezy, her usual self.
“Oh, finally. Let’s go, c’mon,” Claire groaned.
As they were walking over to the fighting area, everyone was checking out Jay’s shield. They were fascinated by the metal that made the shield see-through and Jay thought that Broudie was quite jealous of it.
When they entered the area Jordan turned to speak,
“Right, we need a leader, someone who will make the final decisions.” he looked around at the group, then added, “Who wants to be the leader?”
“I think Hollie should be the leader, she’s had about two years of experience,” Broudie suggested. Then the rest of the group, including Jay, gave out an applause and Jordan called her to the front. She turned around and Jordan joined the group before Hollie began her speech, which was clearly prepared,
“Ok, fighting with swords wasn’t really what the chooser said we would need to do, so I think we should spend most of our time learning simple, helpful spells. I think we should start by paring up.”
Jay looked around and saw Broudie,
“Can I go with you?”
Broudie agreed and they stood opposite each other in line with Jordan and Claire.
“Ok, we’ll just go through some spells then, any suggestions?” Hollie weaved in and out of everybody like a school teacher which was slightly scary seeming as she was only 15 or 16.
“Sparkinum, it could help us if we end up in a tunnel or a cave,” Jordan suggested.
“Ah, the light spell. Ok, I want everyone to watch me first then you can all have a go,” Hollie instructed, as she lifted one of her hands from behind her back. Her eyes went blue and she spoke in a misty voice,
“Sparkinum.” A small, white ball of light appeared above Hollie’s hand, she closed it and the light was extinguished immediately.
“Now, like all spells you need to practise them with lots of concentration first, then you can make a light shine as simple as Sparkinum.” She clicked her fingers and the light appeared again.
“Okay, your turn.”
Jay raised his hand, just like Hollie did, and then focussed on the tips of his fingers,
“Sparkinum.” there was a little flicker of red light, but as soon as it had appeared, it had gone. He let out a sigh, but then tried again.
“Sparkinum!” This time there was burst of light that erupted from his fingers and a shock of electricity ran up his arms. He closed his fist quickly and then swung his hand down beside him. He opened his hand slightly, just in case it was still there, but it had gone.
“Wow, Jay that was a good start.” Hollie moved into a view. “That was a good light spell, except you need to control it. D’you understand what I’m saying? You’ve got to be more certain that you want some light and that you are the one in charge of it, ok. Have another go. Magic has its own free will, imagine it a pet with a leash, hold the leash short and tight.” she stepped back and Jay raised his hand.
“Right, now say the spell like a strict teacher.”
“Okay,” Jay smiled at Hollie’s teacher skills, “…Sparkinum!” he said the spell not sternly but in that misty tone, like the tone Hollie used, even though he tried to say it strictly. There was a flash of light and there, floating an inch above his hand, was a ball of light.
It flickered and danced on his palm, shining a pure, shimmering flake of warm snow.
“There we go, now when you feel comfortable you can move your hand, and hopefully the light will continue to float near it. Remember, concentration. Hold the leash tight!”
Jay swallowed hard, and looked around the dim lit field at the other three, who were stood watching him. With immense pressure he slowly moved his left leg behind him and then he swiped his right leg back as well, bringing his hands in towards him. The white bulb of light hovered away from his hand, and Jay narrowed his eyebrows, making the light float back to his palm. He gave out a smile and then, feeling quite confident, side stepped quickly. The light flew at the same time with him.
r /> “Great Jay, now try throwing it.”
‘Throwing it!’ Jay thought, ‘Bit of a step up. Suppose I could try,’
Jay pulled back his hand over his head and then asked,
“How?”
“Just throw it like a tennis ball, then pretend it’s close to you and grab it, hopefully it will stop.”
So, he swung his hand back over his head and threw the ball with all his might.
He gave out a grunt and the ball spun into the air, over Hollie’s head and towards the trees.
“Quick try and grab it,” Jordan ordered.
He threw his arm forward and tried to concentrate on the ball of light. He clutched the air between his fingers, hoping it would stop mid-flight, but there was a rustling of trees and the ball was gone.
Taking a plunge.
(Chapter 5)