Chapter 5 – Magic
“This is so bizarre! I made it vanish! I actually made that thing disappear!” She giggled. Her gaze fell upon her husband. “What about you? If I can do this, what do you think you can do?”
“I have been asking myself that very question over and over. The problem is, I haven’t noticed anything else happening that might explain what I might be able to do.”
“Mmm, good point. I haven’t noticed anything else that’s odd, either.”
“What did you do when you had that jorii last night? Maybe I should start working with it.”
Sarah fished the small sphere out of her purse and handed it to her husband.
“The only thing I did was mentally focus on this thing and try to invoke something to happen. Of course, it didn’t work as far as I could tell. I tried for hours last night. It might take even longer for something to happen that one of us notices. That’s all we can do.”
“I’m willing to try. Hell, I want a magical ability, too! How cool would that be? You have one. I want one!”
“Jeez, honey!” Sarah laughed. “How old are you again?”
Steve snorted. He took the jorii from Sarah and willed something to happen. Naturally, nothing did. He gripped the warm sphere tightly, concentrating furiously. He didn’t know what to expect, only that something should happen. The jorii, however, refused to accommodate him.
Sarah stifled a smile. He looked so cute when he was frustrated. His brow was furrowed, eyes closed, mumbling feverishly to himself.
“Hon, I worked with it for hours, and even then nothing happened. With me, my emotions are the trigger. Apparently the stronger the emotion, the stronger the ability. Maybe you should try that.”
Steve let out the breath he didn’t realize he had been holding and unclenched his hands. Maybe she was right. Maybe he was going about this the wrong way. He had to relax. Letting his mind go blank, he tried to pretend he was scared, tried to believe he was being chased by that asshole thief. He felt himself grow angry as soon as he brought up a mental picture of their captor.
No, I don’t want anger, Steve thought, and pushed it aside. I need to feel scared, terrified. So what am I scared of?
A Tyrannosaurus Rex. The thought popped into his head before he could even take a breath.
A dinosaur? A damn dinosaur?? What was he, five years old? Watching Jurassic Park did not cause nightmares, thank you very much. He knew they didn’t exist here, and he knew that no matter how hard he tried, he wasn’t going to be able to pretend there was a seven ton reptile chasing the two of them through the forest.
A small, timid voice spoke up in his head. Maybe they do exist here.
Steve snorted. Unless one shows up and starts chasing us, I’m not gonna believe one it. Dragons maybe. Dragons! Was he scared of dragons?
No, not really, the voice said. You think they’re cool, not scary.
True, Steve agreed. Although if I ever do meet one face-to-face, I’ll probably think otherwise.
Steve squared his shoulders and took a deep breath. It can’t be this difficult. Think of something scary. Doesn’t have to be realistic. Think! Concentrate! I can do this!
Sarah took his hands in hers, and gently pulled the jorii from him and put it back in her purse.
“Look, we just escaped from that cellar. We might run into that robber again on this trail. Let’s get out of here, find the right trail and get as far away as possible. Then you can relax properly and I’ll help you work on this, okay?”
Not really wanting to quit now, but wanting his wife’s help even more, Steve nodded.
“You’re right. We can work on this later. First and foremost, let’s get the hell outta here and find that road.”
Picking up the pack, they continued north.
Holding Sarah’s hand and swinging it back and forth the way a couple of love-struck teenagers would, Steve was happy. They had been mugged and had been able to foil their mugger. They had been imprisoned and had managed to escape. Now here they were, on an alien world, making their way towards an enchanted path to find their way to the king and queen. This was the stuff of legend! Most people only dreamed about doing something like this, yet here they were, with magical powers even!
Steve smiled. His wife could make things disappear! Vanish completely! Not only that, she could bring them back! Did that mean the trapdoor had returned? It would have to be! That mugger was in for a major shock. He’ll find the trapdoor closed and his prey missing. Wait. Sarah had pushed the locking bracket back out of the way, so it’ll appear as though someone had deliberately set them free. He laughed quietly to himself. He would love to see the look on his face.
Steve looked at his wife. Sarah, inexplicably, could always tell when he was looking her way, so she met his look and smiled. Nothing was spoken. Nothing needed to be.
Content to walk silently with her husband, Sarah started checking out the local flora.
I wonder what the extent of her powers are, Steve mused to himself. What are her limits? Could she make something larger than a door disappear? And where did the door go to, exactly? She obviously moved it from one place to the other and then back again, so…
Moved it? That’s it! It has to be! She teleported the jorii first, then the door! She simply chose to move those items from their starting positions to, um, to…
Steve shook his head. He really didn’t have a clue as to where she sent those things. Clearly, though, Sarah was able to pull the items out of wherever she put them and return them to the starting point. If she could focus her energies and be able to direct where she was moving those things to, then that would be a formidable defense mechanism here in Lentari!
He thought about asking Sarah to continue to work on perfecting her newly acquired skills, but thought better of it. If she is willing to help him with his, then he can give her a hand with hers. We’ll practice tonight, Steve promised himself.
Meanwhile, Sarah was trying to absorb as much as she could about the local plant life. How many opportunities would she get to check out what life was like on another world? Small, impossibly vivid purple flowers splashed with soft yellow streaks were the most abundant. They were growing on squat, green bushes that clumped together in groups of three or four.
A maroon cat-sized animal darted from tree to tree, chittering away raucously while watching the two bipedal creatures below. The two foreign beings weren’t its prey, so it focused its attention elsewhere. It blended into the foliage and disappeared.
After a couple of hours of steady walking they came upon a clearing with a large pond. Or a really small lake.
“Do you remember passing this on the way in?” Steve asked his wife.
“Ummm, no, I don’t,” Sarah confessed, “but then again I wasn’t really paying attention to any details. Too scared.”
“True.” Steve looked at the small path that skirted the edges of the lake. “Let’s take a quick breather.”
Sarah stretched her back, and then paused. She was hearing the soft, gurgling sounds of a brook. Maybe feeding the lake? She started exploring the immediate surroundings and found the small stream of clear water. A closer inspection confirmed that it was indeed flowing west, towards the lake.
“I found a small stream. Water looks good. I’m gonna take a drink.”
“Say what? You don’t know what might be in that water. Might have some foreign bacteria in it or something.” Steve shook his head. “I’d rather you didn’t.”
“I’m hot, thirsty, sore, and willing to take the risk.”
“Fine. But at least let me drink first so that…”
Sarah had already scooped up some water in her hand and drank. The water was cold, clear, and utterly refreshing. She felt the cool water flow all the way down her throat and well into her stomach. She must have been dehydrated, she thought. This was some goo
d water! Eagerly she scooped more into her mouth.
About to protest until he saw Sarah take another drink, Steve abandoned all doubts, dropped to his knees, and started scooping out water for himself.
Finally sated, Sarah stood back up, water dripping from her chin. She wiped her mouth with the back of her arm. “Didn’t realize how thirsty I was until I took a drink of that.”
Steve straightened back up as well. After wiping his mouth, he nodded his head. “Wish I had a canteen of some sort. Oh, well.”
Farther behind them, but gaining rapidly, their former captor, exploring a realm of anger he hadn’t realized existed, was making good speed. He had taken a route that had led southeast from his lodge, when much to his surprise, had encountered acquaintances of his slaver contact. They had confirmed that the ship he was looking for was presently docked at a pier not half a days walk along the Wanlu River. Not known for his patience, he had immediately reversed course back to his home to retrieve his prizes, only to discover his birds had flown the coop.
So who had helped them to escape? Clearly someone had come onto his land. Somebody entered his house, found the hidden trapdoor, and opened it. Whoever it was will pay, of that he was certain. Maybe he’ll just add the Good Samaritan to his growing collection of prizes to be sold into slavery.
With that reassuring thought in mind, he grabbed his only bow and a quiver full of arrows and tracked the couple to the small lake he frequented often. Ah! There they were! Did they actually think they could lose him? In his forest??
He crouched in silence and watched, hidden amongst the greenery. He watched as the stupid male open their pack, pull out one of the strips of dried meat and hand it to the female. The female tore the strip in two and handed half back to the male. It was so sickeningly sweet it made him nauseous.
The male out massed him, by more than twice, he reasoned. He’s bound to cause trouble, perhaps even physically defeat him in a fight if it came to it. Did he really need the male? He could easily fetch a handsome price for the female. She was fetching, showing signs of fire and spunk. The male, he decided, had just become expendable.
He reached behind him to pull out his longbow. He fit an arrow to the string and pulled back as far as he was able. A typical longbow could fire an arrow well over three hundred meters. However, that was if the bow was pulled to full extension, and it took steady arms and constant strength. A pull of one hundred fifty to two hundred pounds was typical of a weapon of this type. The mugger, though, lacked the musculature in his arms to use the bow to its full capabilities. With shaking arms, he took aim at the man.
Hold up, they were embracing. He couldn’t eliminate the male without harming the female. Oh, thank the gods! His arms could no longer maintain the strength required by his weapon. He released the tension and stretched his arms. He hadn’t used his bow in a while. Making a mental note to practice more, he waited patiently.
Ah! The male has moved off! Here’s his opportunity! He knocked an arrow to the bow and once again took aim at the male. The strain on his arms was unimaginable. They started to shake, and to his horror, he realized it was throwing him off balance. He took a step back. The twig he stepped on snapped loudly, breaking the silence in the glen.
Sarah’s head jerked up, along with Steve’s. She saw their former captor before he did, saw the imminent danger, and screamed. Long and loud. The thief, startled, swung his aim over to her, and without realizing it, released the arrow.
Time slowed to a crawl. Steve watched in horror as the arrow was released. He knew that Sarah was too far away for him to try and block it, but what could he do? He bunched his legs and leapt in Sarah’s direction, hoping his futile, last ditch effort might somehow protect Sarah from the imminent death that had begun to streak towards her.
The concussion knocked both Steve and Sarah well into the lake. The flash of searing fire and heat instantly vaporized the arrow in mid-flight, reducing it to ash where it floated away in the breeze. Their former captor, now wearing nothing but a light dusting of ash in front, while the clothing covering his now retreating backside still remained intact, turned tail and ran for all he was worth. With nothing to keep the clothes in place, they caught on little bits of shrubbery, or flapped away in the breeze, and generally fell off. The bare-assed thief disappeared into the woods, stringing curses behind him as he ran. No prize was worth this.
Coughing and spluttering, Steve and Sarah surfaced.
“What the hell was that?” Steve coughed up water. Being thrown into the water unexpectedly was akin to getting a healthy dose of water up your nose and in your mouth. “Are you okay?”
Sarah coughed. “He blew us up? How’d he do that? What happened to the arrow? I saw him shoot an arrow at us!”
“Yeah, me, too. Better question is, what happened to him? I don’t see him anywhere.”
They stumbled out of the water and collapsed onto the shore. Steve rolled onto his back, continuing to cough up water while Sarah, also struggling to remove all the fluid from her lungs, scanned the shore, looking for some signs of their pursuer. Her gaze fell onto their pack and her purse, still sitting where she dropped it by the brook. Then she noticed that the trees and plant life in the “blast zone” (as she called it in her head) had all been deeply singed. The trees all bore black scorches, but only on their eastern sides. Nothing on the west, from the direction of their assailant. If the pack, which was on the ground, was still there, that could only mean that whatever detonated did so in the air, not on the ground. But to have the vegetation burned on their side, the east? But that could only mean…
“I think the blast came from our direction, and it happened in mid-air.”
Steve looked behind him. “From the water? Why did it blow us into it then?”
Sarah’s mouth closed with an audible snap. “Good one. Well, if it came from this direction, yet didn’t come from behind us, then that would suggest that it came from us!”
“You mean you did something to protect yourself from that guy?” Steve was both proud and jealous at the same time. “That’s awesome!!”
“Hon, I don’t think it’s me. I think it’s you!”
“Me? I didn’t do anything! Why do you say that?”
“Well, the only thing I did was scream. Nothing remarkable there. Can you remember if you did anything?”
Steve thought a moment. “It all happened so fast. I had actually stopped worrying about that guy. I let my guard down. I’m so sorry.” Steve held his wife’s hand. “I heard a snapping noise; I looked up to see what it was. I heard you scream, and I saw that guy point his bow at you instead of me. My heart stopped dead. I just knew I had to get in front of you to somehow block the arrow, but deep down I knew it just wasn’t possible. You were too far away. I think I threw up my hands and the next thing I knew I was inhaling water.”
“You gestured with your hands?”
“I wouldn’t call it gesturing. More like helplessly flailing my arms.”
“No you didn’t. I remember now. You put up both arms as if to brace for some type of impact. Remember?”
Steve thought a moment. He did, in fact, remember putting his arms up in a defensive position, as if he’d be able to prevent the arrow from reaching its intended target.
“Well, maybe…”
“That’s got to be it! You generated some type of blast that knocked us into the lake, out of harm’s way. And,” she eyed the vegetation, “it was a rather intense blast at that. It must have burned that arrow up completely!”
“Did it incinerate the thief, too? That’s who I’d like to take out,” Steve muttered.
Sarah walked around the clearing, noticing bits of fabric here and there. She bent to retrieve a fluttering piece of cloth and held it close to her face for inspection. Her eyes opened wide. The giggles started bubbling out of her until she was laughing so hard she had te
ars running down her face.
Steve, baffled at his wife’s behavior, came up next to her and just stared at her.
“What’s so funny? What are you holding?”
Sarah handed him the fabric. “This. This is a piece of his clothing. You can see it was once part of his trousers. The back side, if I’m not mistaken.” She chortled again. “This leads me to conclude that the front half of his clothes were flash-burned. Look, you can see the singed edges here. This half of his clothes were burnt off him, and the rest just fell off. That means he’s now running around buck naked!”
Steve held the fabric close to his face. Yes, he could see the burnt edges. He could even smell the burnt fibers. This piece of fabric had been burned recently, and it did match what the robber had been wearing. So that meant that he was indeed running around in the buff.
Whenever he started to heartily laugh, and then made some attempt to hold it in, Sarah had always told him that his laugh sounded more like a donkey’s bray. That’s what came out of him now as he pictured their former captor high-tailing it back to his place.
“That’s too good to be true! Serves his ass right,” Steve muttered, his mood quickly turning dark again. “Punk. I just wish I could have burned something else off besides his clothes.”
“It was better than that,” Sarah pointed out. “Do you really think he’ll bother us now? He probably wouldn’t touch us with a ten foot pole!”
Steve chuckled. “True. If that blast truly came from me, then I need to figure out what triggers it and how to bring it back and control it. That would be invaluable here.”
They started putting their belongings back into their pack. Sarah repacked her purse (properly) and stowed it in the knapsack. Steve checked their food stores and with a shout, pulled out a large leather pouch he hadn’t noticed before.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say that this is a bouda bag.”
“A what?”
“A bouda bag. It’s a leather bag used for holding water, I’m sure of it. At any rate, I’m going to fill it up at that spring.”
“Is there any water already in it?”
Steve pulled the stopper out of the bag and squeezed. A small jet of water whooshed out of the bag and splashed him squarely in the face.
Sarah laughed. “Yep! Now that you’ve emptied it, maybe we should fill it back up again.”
Steve ran his hand down his face, pushing the water off of him. Well, it did feel good. He hadn’t realized he was this hot. Probably tasted good, too. He took a long drink and offered the bag to Sarah. She drank deeply as well and passed the bag back to Steve, who proceeded to fill it from the spring.
As Steve was placing the leather canteen back into the pack, Sarah, who had been standing off to the side, walked up to him and ran her hands down his back, feeling his clothes.
“Hon, you’re dry! Completely! Even your hair is dry!”
“What?” Steve felt his shirt, pants, and then his hair. His clothes were dry already? How’d that happen so quickly?
Sarah extended her arms, palms facing Steve. “Do you feel how much heat you’re generating right now? No wonder you’re dry!”
“You always tell me that I’m warm. No big surprise there.”
“Enough to dry clothes? A body generates heat, yes, and given enough time, will dry your clothes, but not in five minutes!” She stared at her husband. “What are you thinking? Right now?”
“Honestly? That I could go for a double bacon cheeseburger.”
“Okay, before that. What were you thinking? Was it about that creep?”
“Yeah, I just wish I could have inflicted some pain to him for all that he’s done to us. He tried to kill you. That sort of thing is hard to forget.”
“So you were thinking about him, probably getting angry, right?”
Steve nodded. “What’s your point?”
Sarah smiled. “We found your trigger. Anger. You get angry, you get hot. You get angry and protective, God forbid, and you blow away the surrounding vegetation.”
“Anger? You think my trigger is anger?”
“Yes, I do. And the same the-stronger-the-emotion-the-stronger-the-magic bit is probably in place for you, too. The angrier you are, the more your jhorun will manifest itself.”
Steve laughed as he thought about that. “Just so long as I don’t turn green.”
Sarah giggled.
“Do you mind if I test this? I’d like to think that I can control my anger. If I can find out what works and what doesn’t, it’ll make me feel a lot better.”
Sarah looked at the nearby lake. “Test away. Better here where there’s water than out in the middle of a forest where there isn’t any.”
“Oh, ha ha ha. Think I’m gonna burn down the forest, do you?”
Sarah turned and looked at the burnt trees.
“Okay, bad example.”
He sat down on an overturned tree and started thinking. How do I start this, he thought. Anger. If I explode every time I get mad, then that isn’t gonna work. I’m going to have to be able to rein in my emotions so I don’t hurt anyone. Well, anyone that matters, that is. What can I start with?
His eyes started roaming the ground in front of him and alighted on a small branch that had broken off from one of the tree branches far above. He picked it up. Okay, this’ll work. Let’s start imagining that I know that the mugger is coming back. He obviously wants to harm us. Am I going to let him?
Steve gripped the branch tightly in his right hand, his left balling into a fist.
More than likely, that creep wanted to kill him because he probably would cause problems during the attempt at apprehending them again. Probably wanted Sarah for himself.
Wisps of smoke started to appear.
Standing quietly by the safety of the water’s edge, Sarah said nothing. She was too far away to see the tiny tendrils of smoke appearing over Steve’s hand.
The robber wanted to kill him and take his wife away, to make her a slave, to make her subservient to whoever “purchased” her. It was intolerable. Unthinkable! Not while he breathed! Not while he was able to fight, able to protect her, able to-
Now Sarah noticed the smoke. Where there’s smoke, there’s bound to be fire! Concern for her husband had her reaching for the lake water. She scooped up some water and paused.
“Steve! Whatever you’re doing, stop! Snap out of it!” Sarah flung a double-handful of water in his direction. The few drops of water that made it to him hissed when they landed. Her husband didn’t react. Oh, boy. More dire action was needed. Reaching into the pack she grabbed the bouda bag, uncorked it and gave a mighty squeeze angled in Steve’s direction. The spray of water nailed him square in the face.
Steve jerked, looking over at Sarah. “Wha’? What happened? Why did you do that?” Wiping the water out of his eyes, Steve looked at the branch. No flames. “Something wrong?”
“I see smoke! Something is smoking over there!”
Steve looked at the branch in his right hand. No smoke there. He looked at his left. Smoke was indeed emanating from his clenched fist, which had turned a dark, mottled red.
“Well, would you get a load of that!” Steve opened his hand. More smoke was billowing from his hand. A detached part of his brain thought maybe he should be in pain, but nothing registered.
His hand was tingling, as though it fell asleep. Still no pain. Was his hand going to literally start combusting, right before his eyes? He eyed it, waiting. Luckily, no flames appeared. However, his skin was still an angry red.
“Okay, now what? How do I make it stop?” Sarah shrugged. She didn’t know. Now what? Not really wanting his hand to burn, he rushed over to the lake and thrust it in. Steam hissed up from the water, coalescing around his face. After a minute or two, the clouds of vapor drifted away, and he pulled his hand out.
Sarah rushed up to him. “Are
you hurt? Are you in pain? Let me see your hand.”
Steve held up his left hand. It was back to being a healthy pink. He wiggled his fingers. No discomfort anywhere.
“Everything in good working order. But we have a problem. Scratch that. Lets back up a bit. First off, I’m thrilled that we know the nature of my jhorun. And I’m ecstatic that I was able to prevent that arrow from reaching you. However, what happens if there isn’t water around? Why wouldn’t it shut off by itself?”
“Well, maybe you didn’t give it enough time. It might have reverted back to normal after a few minutes.”
“I’d like to say that I didn’t panic, but in my defense, for all I knew, it did look as though my hand was gonna catch fire.”
“When your hand was all red like that, did it hurt? Could you have gone longer with your hand that hot?”
Steve thought back. “It didn’t hurt at all. In fact, it felt all tingly, like when your hand goes to sleep. Something like that. But no pain, and I certainly couldn’t feel any heat whatsoever.”
With their gear all stowed back into the pack, Steve refilled their canteen (again) and proceeded on, heading northwest along the path. Sarah walked quickly in front, with Steve bringing up the rear. Since their adversary had caught them unaware for a second time, especially when he had vowed not let that happen again, Steve was now on high alert, constantly listening for any sounds of pursuit. The only thing he could hear, however, were he and Sarah’s labored sound of breathing.
This was so cool! Talk about being straight out of the comic books! Now that he knew the nature of his jhorun, he wanted to do what any kid would want to do with a new toy: keep playing! He wanted to experiment! How strong did his anger have to be in order for it to manifest itself? Did he have to focus on a specific item? Was it only pertaining to anger? Could he summon the heat if he concentrated hard enough?
He had generated a flash of heat so intense that it burned trees and completely incinerated an arrow that was shot at them. The level of heat that was necessary to flash burn a speeding arrow was unimaginable to him. Scorch marks on the trees… Wouldn’t that suggest fire as well? Where there’s heat, there’s fire, right? Did he generate fire? Could he actually summon fire?
That, Steve thought, was critical, need-to-know information! Wouldn’t it be fantastic if, at just a whim, he could conjure a fireball out of thin air and hurl it at a bad guy? Think of the ways he could protect Sarah in this strange world! God forbid he encountered any other muggers now!
That was something he was going to practice until he had all the specifics down pat, Steve vowed to himself. How to activate, how to control the intensity, how to target different objects, and most importantly, how to turn his ability off. Without water present, he needed to be certain he wasn’t going to harm Sarah in any way. That was critical.
So while the two of them tried to retrace their route back to the enchanted road, Steve mentally practiced summoning his jhorun. He focused his mental anger at passing rocks and twigs. He even picked up a small branch while Sarah was walking in front of him, but was unsuccessful in generating so much as one joule of heat out of himself.
Wait a minute. If he couldn’t detect any heat coming from his hand, would he be able to tell if he was heating up? If his power was heat and/or fire, wouldn’t he be immune to its effects? Wouldn’t make much sense generating the heat if he couldn’t handle it, would it? Wait a minute, what about his clothes? They weren’t going to be able to insulate him against the heat, so they were liable to burn off.
Got it. No getting mad at himself. Wouldn’t want to be running around out here in the buff, either.
But what is the key to activating this? How could he tap into his magic just a little bit without igniting everything in a fifty foot radius? He needed to be able to focus his energy, thus focusing the intensity of heat emanating from him. Once he had the intensity down, then he would work on his aim.
Clenching the twig tightly, Steve focused all his mental energy on the small piece of wood. He could clearly imagine it bursting into flame, rapidly reducing to ash. Only, he didn’t want ash, he wanted the thing to burst into flames. Not scorching heat that would hurt anyone, just a little flame.
He looked over at Sarah, still walking along the path ahead of him. His mood instantly softened. There was his one true love, his soul mate. The bond that he shared with Sarah couldn’t be described with just mere words. He would do anything for her, and that included dying, if the need arose. She was his inspiration. He needed to master this skill. Since they needed to find a suitable place to camp for the night, he needed to master it quickly. He eyed the twig and ordered it to ignite.
Much to his amazement, the small twig burst into flame. He stopped dead in his tracks and watched the twig burn.
Sarah, alerted to Steve’s absence, looked behind her. She saw her husband holding a burning twig. He was just staring at it, holding it this way and that, admiring it from different angles.
“What happened? Did you just make that fire appear?”
Steve nodded. “I essentially ordered it to burn. And it burned.”
Sarah clapped her hands. “Good job! Did you focus your anger on it?”
“No, I didn’t. Hon, I don’t think anger is my trigger.”
“Really? Why do you say that? What is it, then?”
“I tried getting angry,” Steve explained, “only that wasn’t working. Wanna know what I did?”
“Absolutely!”
“For a lack of a better word, its chivalry, or a sense of protection. I think about you, protecting you, making certain you’re safe, and I can sense this, uh, presence, if you will. Like something is about to happen. I think at that time my jhorun is ready to emerge, and I just have to tell it what to do.”
Sarah blinked. Was this her husband? Since when did he become so damn good at interpreting his emotions? They only had just taken their “swim” in the lake about an hour ago. How could he have figured out so much in so little time? Was he right about his magic?
“I’m impressed! How did you figure it out? Are you sure you’re right?”
“I can try to do it again, to see if I’m right.”
Sarah looked at the (still) burning branch. The flickering flames had just about worked its way down to his hand.
“You’re about to get burned.”
Steve nodded. “I know. I want to know if fire will burn me here.”
“And you’re willing to risk a burn?”
“Ordinarily, no. But since I can’t feel any heat whatsoever, I figured it was worth a shot.”
“No heat? Nothing? It doesn’t hurt?”
Steve watched as the flames completely engulfed the twig, and consequently, his hand. The fire danced between his fingers, tickling his skin. This was the coolest thing ever! The flames didn’t have any effect on him at all! No heat and no pain!
“Nothing.” He twisted his arm around so he could watch the flames from all angles. “I can’t feel a thing.”
“Can you turn it off?”
Steve looked at the burning stick. He imagined that the fire was there to do his bidding. The stick burned, it caught fire, mission accomplished. Sarah could be in danger if that fire isn’t extinguished. Time to put it out.
The flames snuffed out, leaving the branch smoldering in his hand.
Sarah’s jaw dropped. Holy cow! He did it! He put the fire out! Unbelievable! Her husband was now left holding a smoldering twig. Immense pride swelled within her.
“That’s awesome! Way to go! I’m so impressed!!”
Steve was beaming. That had worked much better than he thought it would. He looked at the smoking stick. A nagging thought just occurred. Was he responsible for putting it out or did a gust of wind do the job for him? Better see if he can ignite it again. He concentrated, conjuring up his protective feelings for his wife once mor
e. He eyed the stick again, ordering it to flame up. The smoldering stick ignited instantly, blazing brightly in his hand.
Sarah, in the process of reaching out to touch Steve’s hand, jerked back. “What happened? Did you do that?”
“Yeah, sorry, I just needed to know if I could do it again. I thought maybe a breeze might have blown it out the first time, so I need to be certain it was me who put it out.”
“Put it out, would you?”
Once the flames had been extinguished, Sarah gingerly touched her husband’s hand. His skin was warm to the touch, but not overly hot. She felt his forehead. Again, warm to the touch, but nothing alarming.
“Anything feel warmer than it should?” Steve asked.
“Your skin’s a little warm, like you’ve been in the sun for a couple of hours, but other than that, no.”
Steve dropped the burnt stick and rubbed it out on the ground. Only when he had ground it thoroughly in the dirt did he move on. Taking Sarah’s hand, they continued north.
“You didn’t answer my question.” Sarah pointed out. “How did you figure it out so quickly?”
Steve reached out and moved a low-lying branch out of the way for his wife. “Well, I was thinking about it, trying to use my anger, focusing it on anything. And I wasn’t getting the slightest response. At that moment, I looked up and saw you. I started thinking that I really needed to master this skill of mine, ‘cause we’re gonna have to find a place to camp for the night, and I wanted to be able to use this ability to be able to protect you from anything that might happen. And that’s when it happened.”
“What? What happened?”
“As soon as I thought about protecting you, I started to feel a warm sensation spreading all throughout my body. My hand started to tingle, the one holding the stick. And somehow I knew, just knew, that something was about to happen. Like something was waiting to happen. Since the tingling wasn’t unpleasant, and it only appeared when I thought of you, I figured it might be my jhorun. So, since I wanted to practice on the twig, I ordered it to burn. And what do you know? It started to burn.”
Sarah was silent as she absorbed this latest bit of information. Her love for her husband, and his love for her, is causing this sense of protection? His sense of chivalry is what triggers his magic? She didn’t know how to react to that, other than to feel flattered beyond all belief.
“Um, I’m speechless, honey, I really am. Your feelings for me, your desire to make sure I’m safe, that’s the trigger?”
“Yes,” Steve said. “I’m positive.”
Sarah flung her arms around her husband and hugged him hard. “That’s so sweet! I love you.”
“Right back at you. As I live and breathe, no one is gonna touch you.”
Still embracing Steve, she sighed against his chest. “Thank you.”
Gently pushing her away, Steve started looking around. “Come on, let’s find a place to camp for the night.”
He took Sarah’s hand and explored around the trail. About thirty paces east they discovered another one of the massive trees had fallen. Actually, it looked like it had been pushed over, completely uprooted from the ground. Steve didn’t want to know what it took to push one of those huge trees over. Whoever was responsible for maintenance on these trails apparently had their hands full.
Taking off his pack, he set it down, leaning it against the trunk. While Sarah rooted around in the pack for some more dried meat, Steve set about making a camp fire. Fortunately, there were quite a few stones scattered here and there that were suitable for making a decent hearth. Moving about a dozen stones over to the trees, and arranging them in a ring, Steve scouted around looking for firewood.
After a suitable pile of wood had been collected, Steve fished through it, looking for smaller pieces to be used as kindling. The larger pieces would be put on later, once the fire was going.
“What are you doing? What’s wrong with those pieces of wood?” Sarah was gesturing at the thicker pieces.
“Well, I need kindling to get it going,” Steve explained. “May not have been the best Boy Scout in the world, but I do know at least that.”
Sarah snorted, trying not to laugh. “This coming from the person that can probably make rocks burn.”
Steve froze. She was right. What did he need with kindling? He could make the largest pieces of wood burn, regardless of type, size, or dryness. He laughed, and dropped the small sticks he had been holding.
“Got me on that one.” He placed the sticks inside his ring of rocks. “Ready?”
Sarah was backing up a little. “Go easy on it. Start small.”
“Think small, think small…” Steve thought of Sarah and her need to be warm and safe tonight. He looked at the wood pile and imagined the central log in the hearth burning. Wisps of smoke appeared. Heat waves shimmered over the hearth. He thought of Sarah again, warming herself next to the fire. He glared at the log, daring it to not burn.
The log instantly burst into flames. The fire crackled merrily as it spread from log to log. In just seconds, the fire was burning steadily, casting warmth and light amongst the darkening surroundings.
“I can get used to this! Good job, hon!” Sarah gave him a hug. “You’re not even warm. You’re getting much better at this!”
“I still need practice. It should have lit the first time.”
“The first time? What do you mean?”
“I tried to ignite it once, and I saw smoke appear. Just a little. Then I thought of you again and concentrated a little harder, and I pretty much dared it to not work. And it worked!”
Sarah looked at their steadily burning fire. Could he put out a fire that large? Should she have him try? She really hoped they would never be in a situation where they would need to know that, but better safe than sorry, right?
“Honey, put this fire out. Right now. Pretend it’s an emergency.”
Steve glanced up from rummaging through the pack. “Serious?”
“Yes, do it now. Quickly. I’ll tell you why in just a sec.”
“Ummm, okay.” Steve looked at the fire. He didn’t know why Sarah wanted the fire extinguished, but she definitely had a reason. Not questioning her logic (for now), he brought up his feelings of protectiveness and extended them to the fire. Extinguish yourself.
As a candle poofs out when someone blows on it, so did their campfire. With a soft whoosh, the fire went out.
Steve was concerned. “Alright, why did I just do that? Did you hear something?”
Sarah took gently took his hand and patted it reassuringly. “I’m sorry. I just needed to know if we had to leave here quickly whether you could put out a fire larger than the branch you had lit earlier. And you could. Thank you. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
Steve exhaled, loudly. “Well, you did. Damn. Whew, don’t do that again!” He took several deep breaths to try and calm his nerves. His heart was racing! Expecting the worst, he had called up his jhorun again, and it was standing by, ready to lend him aid. Instead of quelling the sensation, he directed his energy towards the hearth again and ordered the fire to reappear. The smoldering campfire was instantly blazing merrily once again.
“Wow, did I do that to you?”
Steve nodded.
Sarah looked contrite. She was definitely going to have to be more careful. She had watched Steve give just the merest glance at the hearth and the fire was roaring once more.
“Hon, I think…”
“Sweetie, we need to work…”
Again, neither one heard what the other said.
Sarah smiled. “You first.”
“Sorry. I was just saying, I really need to work on controlling this. I don’t want to lose control and ignite something that shouldn’t be ignited. Know what I mean?”
Sarah laughed. “I was just going to say the same thing. Actually, I think we should both practice. You’re much m
ore in tune with your jhorun than I am with mine.”
“I’d be more than happy to help out. Not sure how I can help though, but I’m willing to try.”
They set about making themselves a comfortable place to sleep for the night. Sarah found several large plant (fern, maybe?) fronds and put those down for ground cover. Taking several of the larger ones, she held it up, feeling the texture and thickness. This might work to keep them warm at night.
“Whatcha doin’?” Steve had come up behind her and was peering over her shoulder.
“I’m thinking we might be able to get a few more of these things to snuggle up under tonight.”
Steve looked at the frond. It was about four feet long by three feet wide with curved green and black stripes running the length of the frond, much like zebra stripes. It also had a light aromatic fragrance emanating from it. Steve held it up to his nose and sniffed lightly. Almost like citrus. Odd. Citrus and pine. Great. He’ll dream about dusting furniture tonight.
Settling down near the fire, they said nothing for a few moments. After all, it had been a day for some incredible firsts, the most important was learning that the two of them had developed magical abilities while they were here. Apparently Kornal’s record remained unbroken, namely every person he had ever met had some type of jhorun simply because jhorun was a part of every human here, whether native or not. So –
Sarah sat bolt upright. The fire in the hearth flared up suddenly, as if feeding on an unknown source of pure oxygen. She reached out to put a comforting hand on her husband’s shoulder. “Sorry, relax. I just thought of something.”
The fire settled back down to its normal intensity.
“What’s up?” Steve asked.
“Your grandparents!”
“What about them?”
“They came here, too, right? Just like us.”
“I would say that’s a given.”
“What do you suppose was the nature of their jhorun?”
Steve bit into one of the fruitcake-looking things Nilhanu had packed for them and chewed thoughtfully.
“Never thought of that. Maybe they had really powerful jhoruns, and liked using them so much they kept coming back here. Hey, it’s a possibility, right?”
Steve broke off part of his fruitcake and held it out for his wife. Sarah reluctantly accepted the offering and took a tentative bite. “It’s not bad. I could totally make this better.”
Sarah loved to cook and experiment with recipes, a skill her husband thoroughly enjoyed.
“I don’t think I’ll ever look at fruitcake the same way again, though.” She picked the husk of some type of berry out of her teeth.
Steve, mouth full of cake, said, “I wonder what they were. Wonder if they were strong. Do you think ours are considered strong?”
“I don’t have any idea. It’s hard to say what’s considered important here. On one hand, one might consider being able to find a hard-to-see fish in the river unimportant. But as I said earlier, it enabled Kornal to provide food for both he and his wife. How do you classify that? Weak or important?”
Steve took a drink from the bouda bag. “I would think it’d be considered weak.”
“Why? Because he can only find fish in the water?”
“Well, yeah. Don’t you think?”
“No, I don’t. It might be considered useless, and Kornal found a way to make it useful. Just like Nilhanu discovered she could enhance plant-life. Minor to everyone else, but major to them.”
“Okay, I get it. So what we consider lame, they might consider important. So how do we know?”
Sarah sighed. “Until we find someone else we can talk to, we don’t.”
Steve threw another couple of logs on the fire. He didn’t want it going out anytime soon. He paused. Could he make a fire burn when there wasn’t anything to burn? Best to experiment with that notion at another time.
“Tired?”
Sarah stirred against his side. “Not in the slightest. You?”
“Nope. I should be, but I have too many things running through my head at the moment.”
“Me, too. Care to help me work on my jhorun?”
“Sure. What can I do?”
“We need something I can experiment on. Let me see.” She grabbed her purse and rifled through it. What could she use? Her lip balm again? Maybe her keys? Just about everything in her purse would suffice.
Steve reached over her to grab a small, smooth stone from the ground. He presented it to her. “Here, use this.”
Sarah took the rock and studied it.
“Think you can make this vanish? It doesn’t belong to us and it’s about as insignificant as it gets. What do you think?”
Sarah concentrated, invoking her jhorun. Now that the surrounding environment had settled down for the night, the only sounds to be heard were soft chirps of what she believed to be nocturnal insects. The stars had come out, and without the ambience of city lights to impede the sky, they were out in force. Countless thousands of twinkles of light peeked down from above, imbuing Sarah with a sense of calm she had seldom felt before. Delving inside herself, she searched for any signs of foreign sensations. Steve had likened the feeling to having an arm or a leg fall asleep and starting to awaken. Is that what she should be looking for?
Try as she might, she just couldn’t remember if she had felt any types of tingly sensations before. But one thing she could do was vividly recall the feelings of pursuit, of being locked in that cellar. Well, it was a place to start.
Reliving the past experiences with their former captor, Sarah once again slipped into the role of her past self, imagining with relative ease the disturbing feelings of being pursued, of being helpless. She began to recollect that miserable night locked in the cellar when she paused.
What was that? Something felt different. Her pulse rate had increased, her breathing becoming shallow. What was happening? Was this her jhorun? No, she decided, just nerves. Then again, her fingers had started to tingle. Just a little bit. More curious than concerned, she waited, wanting to see if it was nerves or her imagination.
The tingling spread slowly from her fingertips, through her hands, and up her arms. She hesitated. Would it spread any farther? Hmm, doesn’t feel like it. Just her arms and hands then.
She opened her eyes and looked at her husband. “I think I’m ready.”
Steve, scouring the area for more items to experiment on, hurried back to her side. “You sure? Can you feel anything?”
“Yeah, it feels like my arms have goosebumps on them, yet I’m not cold, and I clearly don’t have any goosebumps anywhere.” She sat down on the nearest log and tentatively stretched her arms, not wanting to disturb the new sensations she was experiencing. Fortunately, the tingles were there to stay. At least for now, she mused.
“You have the tingly feelings, too?”
“Yes, I do. It feels really weird. But I see what you mean, it feels like there’s another presence in the area. Like something is about to happen. Is that what it felt like for you?”
“Almost exactly the same. Okay, let’s experiment. Try the stone.”
Sarah looked at the worn stone in her hand, willing it to disappear. The stone abruptly vanished. Elation coursed through her, and then slowly abated. Something didn’t feel right this time. What she just did only felt half right. What was missing?
“What’s the matter? Why are you frowning? It worked! The stone vanished.”
“Something isn’t right. It doesn’t feel right.”
“What doesn’t feel right? The way you did it?”
“Kinda, like I’m missing a step. I just don’t know like what.”
“So you feel unsettled?”
Sarah nodded.
“Bring it back. See if you feel better when it’s back.”
The stone blinked back into existence in Sarah’s outstretched hand.
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Steve looked at his wife. She was smiling now. “Feeling better?”
“Yes, much. That was it. I must be doing something wrong or else I’m always going to feel like something is off every time I make an object disappear.”
Steve considered. “Hon, what if you’re just not doing it right?”
Sarah shot him a dark look. “You handle the fires, and I’ll handle the, uh, teleportation of…” She smacked her forehead. “That’s it!”
“Okay, I’m lost. What’s it?”
“Teleportation! I think that’s what I’m doing! I’m moving something from one place to the other!”
Steve mulled that over for a moment or two. Slowly he nodded his head.
“I can agree with that. Okay, if you move something from point A to point B, where are you moving it to?”
Sarah thought a moment then jumped up into his arms, hugging him tightly. “That’s it! I swear that’s it!”
“Alright, you keep saying that. What’s it? What are you talking about?”
“This feeling of doing this wrong. I think I know what I where I messed up.”
“Really? What, then?”
“When I made that stone disappear, I ordered it to disappear, like I gave it a mental command to vanish. Going under the assumption that I am moving stuff around, then I would need to tell it where to go, right?”
“You mean like a destination?”
“Exactly! I think that’s why I’m feeling unsettled.”
“Ok, try it. Try to move something and then specify where you want it moved to.”
Sarah looked down at the smooth stone in her hand. She then started looking around for a suitable place to move the rock to. Her eyes lit on her husband.
“Hon, hold out your hand.”
Steve stretched out his right arm, hand open, palm facing up. Sarah glanced down at the rock and gave it a command: I want you to move from here, and she glanced up to Steve’s hand, to there.
The rock obligingly vanished from Sarah’s hand only to reappear moments later in Steve’s. He was so surprised that he dropped the rock on the ground.
“Holy shit!”
Sarah was shocked as well. She hadn’t expected it to work that easily and that quickly. The stone had literally vanished from her hand only to appear moments later in Steve’s! That was a serious thrill! What else could she experiment on? She cast her gaze around their makeshift campsite, looking for suitable objects. There, a small stick on the ground. Sarah’s brow furrowed as she ordered the stick to move over next to the hearth. However, it remained in place. Confused, she again ordered the stick to move. Again, the stick refused to cooperate. What’s wrong? Why isn’t it working? Wait, did she really have an exact location in mind when she ordered the stick to move? She looked over to the hearth and chose a spot next to Steve’s collection of firewood. There will do.
Just like that, the stick vanished and reappeared right next to the pile of firewood.
“Just learned something important,” Sarah said.
“What? Did something happen?”
“You could say that. I just tried to move a small stick over to the hearth.”
Steve glanced at the hearth. “Okay, so what happened? It didn’t work?”
“Not at first. It didn’t work until I chose a destination point. No, wait,” Sarah said. “That’s not right. It didn’t work until I knew exactly where it would end up. I had to be able to visualize exactly where it was going to go.”
“So unless you could visualize in your head where you wanted it to go, it won’t work? Wait, that can’t be right. You made those other things disappear.”
“Good point. Maybe since I’m specifically trying to move it from one place to another I have to have a destination in mind so that I know exactly where it’s going, what it looks like, etc.”
Steve pulled Sarah back over to the fire and they both sat down.
“So you’re saying if your intent is to teleport it then you need to know exactly where you’re sending it to. No guessing, is that it?”
Sarah nodded. “I think so. If I’m just trying to make it vanish, then I can do that, but if my intent is otherwise, then it won’t work.”
Steve smiled and pulled Sarah close. “Think you can get a handle on it? Work out the nuances?”
“I sure am going to try. I’d like to get to the point where if I see an arrow speeding towards us, that I can make it vanish, or maybe put it right in the path of the archer firing at us.”
“Hey, there’s a thought! That’d be cool!”
“Me being responsible for someone dying is cool?”
“That’s not what I meant. Sorry. I mean that if it comes to that, you’d be able to protect yourself and me as well.”
“Protect…” Sarah mumbled. “I wonder.”
“What? You wonder what?”
“I think my trigger is protection as well.”
“I thought it was fear.”
“Yeah, so did I, only the more I think about it, the more it makes sense. Think about it.” She took Steve’s hands in hers. “When we were threatened by the mugger, I wanted to prevent our stuff, namely the jorii, from falling into his hands. That wasn’t fear. It was self preservation. I didn’t want anything to happen to us, and that included all of our possessions.”
“Can your trigger and mine be the same?”
“Clearly it can. There are probably a significant amount of people here, and you know as well as I do that there aren’t that many individual emotions.”
“True.” Steve sighed deeply, stretching out on the soft grass. Moments later Sarah joined him. “Damn, it’s pretty out.” He looked up at the stars, trying to guess what constellations existed in this sky. “We need to get some sleep. I have a feeling that we are both gonna be feeling this tomorrow.”
“Feeling what?”
“Sore. I don’t know how people managed to get around before cars were invented.”
Sarah giggled. “People have been managing to get around long before they domesticated animals or invented cars, so I’m sure we’ll manage. Think anything will try to bother us tonight?”
Steve snuggled up next to Sarah. He threw a few of the large plant stems over the two of them, more to camouflage themselves than for warmth.
“I’m sure we’ll be fine. At any rate, if something tries anything, we’re a lot more prepared to defend ourselves now. Besides,” Steve murmured, becoming groggier by the second, “I’ll personally fricassee anyone’s sorry ass if they get too close.”
One of the burning logs split open. The sap inside started hissing and crackling, sending up erratic bursts of light that lit up their campsite for brief moments.
For once in her life, Sarah knew she wasn’t going to be cold tonight. Not snuggled up next to this six foot three furnace. Wow, was he putting off the heat! Better than any electric blanket, that’s for sure!
The pair fell asleep instantly. Whether it was Steve’s final threat of the night, or just some much-needed good luck, they were undisturbed for the entire night.