Forced Magic (17 page)

We drove out to the spot in the desert, where I had gone
with Fetch to practice. I didn’t bother telling anyone that it was close to my
brother’s house. I had the urge to spy on him a little bit, but thought better
of it. When we got out of the jeep, Fetch, who rode on the top of it the whole
way, jumped into the air, flying in great big loops. He was out of cameo mode.
I wanted to tell him he better not fly too high or someone might see him, but
he looked so happy that I didn’t have the heart to say anything.

He dove toward the ground, scooping something up with his
hands. He landed next to me. 

“What’s that?” I asked.

Fetch showed me what he had in his hands. It was a
tarantula. My stomach dropped to my feet and my face went cold. I was never a
fan of spiders, but ever since my dream in the tunnel, I hadn’t been able to
even look at a spider on TV, let alone one up this close. I backed away from
Fetch. The tarantula was wiggling in his hand trying to get away. Fetch looked
puzzled at me backing away. He shrugged and popped the thing into his mouth and
crunched down on it. He gulped and smacked his lips and looked around for
another. I felt sick. I had never seen Fetch do anything like that before.
Michelle looked a little green. Johnathen seemed the only one, besides Fetch,
who was unfazed by the little snack.

“There are properties of the tarantula that are good for
digestion. Besides, Fetch picked one that was obviously stung by a wasp and was
dying. He did it a favor by eating it instead of letting it suffer. It really
is a balance in nature.”

I shuddered and stood there for a second, trying to get the
image out of my mind.

“Heads up!” shouted Johnathen.

I opened my eyes and caught a sword that Johnathen had
thrown at me. It had a blue fire burning around the edge of the blade.
Johnathen stood about twenty feet away from me, with one that had red flame
surrounding it. Before I could ask what we were doing, Johnathen charged. He
moved so fast that I barely had time to react. He moved twenty feet in
milliseconds, with the sword over his head.  He swung it down toward my head. I
thought he had lost his mind and that I was a goner, but, as the sword came
racking down it made a ringing sound as it struck my sword that I had raised up
to block his blow. Before I could even be surprised, I blocked three more
swings he made at my body.

He smiled,”Good, good, I had a feeling that you would be
able to do this. You see, Jack, even your clumsy attempts in the parking lot
showed that you had gained an ability to sense where a blow would land. The
magic that is now a part of you protected you from harm."

Four more blows came from Johnathen. I managed to block all
of them. Two more and Johnathen managed to hit me in the ribs with the side of
his sword.  I felt a crunch as at least two ribs broke. I crumpled to the
ground as tears of pain blinded my vision.

“Stay where you are, Fetch,” said Johnathen. "You can’t
heal him every time he is hurt. He needs to recognize pain and overcome it
himself. If you come to his rescue all the time, he will remain weak."

These words seemed harsh from Johnathen, harsh and unfair.
He was implying that I had never been hurt before. Even before I got into this
life I now had, I had survived being hit by a truck. How could he say that I
was weak? I looked up at him. He was standing over me leaning on his sword and
was looking down at me with a look of impatience on his face. I heard Michelle
start to say something.

“Stay out of this Michelle."

He swung his sword in an arc over his head. I barely had
time to block it. I was seeing stars from the pain in my ribs, but I was
starting to get mad and I didn’t want to give Johnathen the satisfaction of
knowing how much pain I was in. After scrambling backwards, I got up and waited
for the next blow to come. Johnathen just stood there looking at me. He didn’t
move a muscle, just stared.  Out of the corner of my eye I could see Fetch. He
was swinging his head back and forth between Johnathen and me like it was a
tennis match.  My ribs hurt. It was hard to breathe. Johnathen continued to
stare at me. I had no idea what he was doing. It was like he was waiting for me
to do something, but I didn’t know what it was.

“Do I have to explain it to you?” he said.

There was anger in his voice. I had never seen him like
this. I reminded myself that he was a powerful wizard. He probably could wipe
me out with just one wave of his hand.  A strange shadow seemed to cross over
him and his whole body seemed to glow with power.  I heard Michelle try to say
something again. Johnathen cut her short.

“You insisted in coming out here with us, Michelle, on the condition
you wouldn’t interfere. Stay out of this.”

It was hard to believe this was the same man who was talking
so sweetly with Brittney just a few hours ago.

I crouched low to the ground. My mind was in a whirl over
what was going on. I couldn’t figure it out. Johnathen stood there like a
statue waiting for something. Fetch continued to look back and forth between
us. Why wasn’t he helping me? Johnathen flicked a finger in my direction. I
felt a scratch across my face, not too painful just annoying. He flicked his
finger again and my arm turned red with the scratch. This was starting to make
me angry. Then it dawned on me. Any time before I started the writing, my magic
only surfaced when I was in danger. It seemed like I could only use it when I
was angry or in danger. Johnathen was trying to see my magic, to test it and
see its limits. He didn’t know that I had found a way to use it when I was not
in any danger. He waved his hand at me, knocking me to the ground. I felt like
I had been stung by something and I felt my cheek swell up. My ribs exploded in
pain as I fell backwards. I had to use my magic to get him to stop. I could
feel it building up. Fetch's eyes were on me. He seemed to know what was
happening. He wasn’t helping because he knew I needed this. I needed to learn
to attack and not just defend. I would be knocked down every time in a fight if
I didn’t learn to attack first sometimes. That was what Johnathen was trying to
teach me. I let the magic build as I got to my feet. I could tell the forced
magic affected my ribs, not healing them, but numbing the pain, helping me
focus. I wondered if I would ever be able to heal myself. The itching sensation
continued to build and now my body was buzzing with controlled power. Johnathen
flicked a finger at me again. I could tell where it hit me, but I no longer
felt pain. I waited for another minute. Johnathen's lips were moving and I had
a feeling he was taunting me, but I couldn’t hear him over the roar of my
heartbeat and the strange pulse of the forced magic. I waited another second
and then I charged. I ran so fast that I surprised myself. I was almost upon
Johnathen, and, as I released the magic in front of me, I jumped into the air
and swung the sword down. This time Johnathen barely had time to get his sword
up. He blocked my blow, but he had no time to react to the magic. It hit his
body full force knocking him backwards. I heard a 'wuff' sound come from his
body as he flew backwards. He landed about ten feet away. I sank to my knees as
the magic left me. The pain in my ribs seemed to have tripled and I tasted
blood in my mouth.  I was weak from my attack. I needed to learn to control the
force of the magic when it left me. I was too vulnerable this way.

Johnathen's body twitched.  He wasn’t getting up. I hoped
that I had just knocked him out. I tried to stand up, wanting to walk over to
him and see if he was alright. But, every time I tried to stand up, the pain in
my ribs kept me down. I heard Michelle yell. She was running toward Johnathen.
His body continued to twitch like he was having some sort of seizure. Before
she could get to him, a strange light came out of his body. It looked like
someone had turned on a klieg light. Along with this came a wind storm. It
poured out of Jonathan's chest, picking up dust and debris from the desert. It
hit Mitchell first, lifting her up in the air. Fetch flew up and caught her
before she was flung into some cactus. The wind hit me knocking me backwards. I
managed to stay on the ground by grabbing at the desert floor, digging my
fingers into it to try to keep from being blown away. Fetch and Michelle were
out of sight. I hoped they were safe. Slowly the wind was pushing me away from
Johnathen. It built in intensity and when I felt I couldn’t  hang on any longer
it stopped. It was like someone had turned off a giant fan. The silence
following the sound of the wind was almost painful. I started to stand up. I
was looking around trying to spot Michelle and Fetch. Out of the corner of my
eye I saw Johnathen twitch again. I prepared myself for another wind storm but
it never came. Instead, out of Johnathen's chest grew a troll. It looked like
it was made of rocks and grew about thirty feet tall. It never detached itself
from Johnathen. It roared and beat its massive arms on the ground and thrashed
around like it was throwing a massive tantrum, whipping and flinging itself
around, destroying whatever was too close to it. I was glad that I was too far
away. With my ribs the way they were, I doubted I could dodge those massive
fists for very long. My breath was coming in short spurts. Every gulp of air
was a stab of pain. The troll spotted me and raised its fist above its head and
crashed them down in my direction. I was far enough away that it couldn’t reach
me. The massive arms hit the ground and sent a shock wave that knocked me off
my feet. My ribs exploded in pain and I almost blacked out. I scrambled up
painfully to see the troll flailing its arms around as it slowly shrank back
into Johnathen's chest. As soon as it disappeared, fire shot up from his body.
It formed into a dragon of massive size.  Just like the troll, it stayed
connected to Johnathen, its tail never completely leaving his chest. This beast
had a longer reach and moved toward me with purpose. I knew I was a goner for
sure this time. Fetch came out of nowhere. He roared and shot a red flame
directly at the fire dragon.  He was furious. The flame connected with the red
fire dragon and, in a burst of pure energy, they became one. I couldn’t tell
where Fetch began and the fire dragon ended. The sky lit up and I was grateful
that this was in the middle of the day. If it had been at night, then the fire
would have been seen for miles around. I had a feeling that there would be some
reports of a strange fire ball seen by someone. I figured the gnomes would be
busy wiping the memories of people. Michelle came up and grabbed my shoulder.
Over the roar of the fire, she yelled in my ear.

“We have to see if Johnathen is ok,” she said.

I could see the fear in her eyes. I don’t think she had ever
seen anything like this before and it scared her. I shook my head and turned to
yell at Fetch. I tried to spot him in the flame but all I could see was a big
ball of fire. I was quite sure that Fetch couldn’t be killed by a flame like
that, but I wasn’t positive. Then, just like with the other creature, the fire
dragon disappeared. Fetch was left in the sky circling around. He was mad. This
whole thing had sent him over the edge. Johnathen had almost hurt Michelle and
that was something that he would not put up with. I saw Johnathen's body spasm
again. Air, Earth, Fire, I had a feeling what was going to happen next.

“Fetch!" I yelled. “Get us!”

I had no time to explain but Fetch understood. He swooped
down and grabbed Michelle and me with his back claws. I felt my ribs move,
groaned in pain, and coughed up blood. Michelle reached out to me, realizing
for the first time just how hurt I was. She said something to me but I never
heard it. The last element shot out of Johnathen. It was a stream of water. It
shot out of his chest with the power of a tidal wave. When it reached a height
of about sixty feet, it crashed down toward us like a giant whip. Fetch swerved
and barely missed being hit. The wave of water crashed down on the desert
floor. There was a loud booming sound as the water hit the ground with enough
force to send a shock wave through the desert.

This was power. This was Johnathen's magic.  He came out
here to test my abilities and I ended up learning about his. The water whipped
along the ground as if it was trying to find us. Fetch remained airborne until
the water, like the other apparitions, disappeared back into Johnathen's chest.
Fetch swooped down and gently set us on the ground. I collapsed completely as
the last of my reserves gave out. I kept coughing up blood. As I lay there,
face down in the dirt, I could hear Michelle sobbing and calling my name. Then
I felt the warm healing fire as Fetch began to heal me. With that fire came an
overwhelming feeling of rage, fear, and confusion. At first I thought they were
my emotions. Then slowly, as my ribs snapped back into place and I felt my
strength returning, I realized I was feeling Fetch's emotions. I could feel his
surprise as he realized that he could feel my emotions too. I guess we both
always knew, in a way, that we were doing this, but it took the extreme
outpouring of emotion to kick in the idea that we were reading each other’s
thoughts. It was incredible! The longer Fetch used his healing flame, the more
we felt each other’s thoughts. I felt his loneliness of being the only dragon
around. He felt my frustration and sorrow of losing my brother to the memory
pulse. My thoughts of being sure that Johnathen didn’t mean for this to go as
far as it did calmed Fetch down a bit. I was excited to tell Michelle about
this. I could feel Fetch's reluctance to tell her. Even though he had a great
amount of affection for her, this one thing seemed to be very personal,
something he wanted to keep between just the two of us. It made sense. I
realized then just how much Fetch and I were connected to each other.  I
wondered if he could do this with anybody else. Then Fetch's thoughts faded
away. The healing was complete. Michelle was looking at me with tears in her
eyes. I had been rolled over onto my stomach. I must have passed out for a
second. I heard Michelle talking to Fetch.