Forced Magic

by Jerod Lollar

  “It was nice to meet you, Brittney,” said Johnathen. “I think you should go back over to your parents now."

  Brittney looked at Fetch. She was disappointed that she had to leave. With a sigh she gave him another hug and a kiss and gave one to me and Michelle. She turned to Johnathen and whispered.

  “Is this when I pretend not to see you?”

  Johnathen nodded 'yes'. With another sigh and a sad wave, Brittney turned and went over to her parents. I sat there watching her for a while as she tried to pretend that she didn’t see us. But she would look over at us and smile and give us a wave when she thought no one was looking. Her parents would smile and shake their heads. I had a feeling she saw many different things at times and her parents had dismissed them as imaginary friends. I hoped she would learn to not tell people about what she saw.

  “What was that Johnathen, the glowing thing you put in her hands?”

  “It was a spark of magic. She will pass it to her brother and the rest of her family. It will keep them safe from anyone who might realize that she can see into the magic world. When she is older and ready, I will come see her again, and teach her some magic if she wants. She has elf and gnome blood in her. That makes her very special. Her brother is the same and I have a feeling that is why the goblin attacked. You were right to be suspicious, Jack. There are forces in the magic world that seems to be getting ready for something, and I think that the same ones who sent the goblins to attack you are the ones who kidnaped that baby last night. We need to find a way to stop them, Jack, or more children will be kidnaped. These things happen from time to time, but it is too much of a coincidence that they took a child with such strong magic potential for this to be random. I didn’t like to manipulate her parents that way, but I had to talk to her without them around. The spark will help her, if they get too worried about her telling them about the things she sees as she gets older. If her brother sees things too, it will also protect him."

  “What do we do then?” I asked. “How can we stop it?”

  “It might take some time, Jack. You have to be patient. I am trying to discover who our mystery enemy is. I have been able to cast a spell of concealment, so that I won’t be detected for a while, but I can’t do it forever. For now, Jack and Fetch, I think it is time for me to see what you can do."

  We went back to our rooms. I realized that Johnathen wanted us to go to meet them by the pool, to show us what he did for Brittany. It was strange to me that he felt he had to do that. Before going back to our rooms, we had discussed going out to the desert and showing our abilities. Fetch seemed eager to show off, and, even though I didn’t want to admit it, so was I. This was more than for Fetch and me though. Michelle would be given a chance to show what she could do as well.

  I changed into a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt. I gave myself a good look in the mirror and rubbed my head. My hair was coming in nicely. It was much lighter that it was before, in fact, I began to wonder if I might end up being blond when it grew out. My goatee had red in it as well as some brown and a little grey. I kept it trimmed and wondered if I would eventually have to shave it when more of my hair grew in as it didn’t seem to match the hair on my head. Fetch smacked me in the head with his tail. He was right. I was spending too much time looking in the mirror. We left the room and met Johnathen and Michelle out front. This time they had a jeep and Michelle drove. It seemed to me that Johnathen had a problem with any kind of technology; even how to drive a car seemed hard for him to grasp.

  Chapter 21

  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 frus
tration 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.

  ”Let me go!" she was saying.

  Fetch had his tail wrapped around her waist. I guess when he had started to heal me, he had kept her from running over to Johnathen. She didn’t look too happy about this, but I felt, just as Fetch must have felt, that it was best not to rush over to Johnathen until we could be sure it was safe.

  I heard a groan coming from Johnathen as he sat up. He had a hand on his forehead. Michelle grabbed for Fetch's tail and frantically tried to pull him off of her. I put a hand on Fetch's side. He looked over at me and I nodded. I could tell he wasn’t happy with the idea, but he let her go. She ran over to Johnathen and knelt next to him. I got to my feet, and, with Fetch at my side, went to join her.

  Johnathen had a confused look on his face. At first I didn’t know if he knew where he was, but when Michelle grabbed his hands, he looked at her and realization came slowly in his eyes. He looked around the desert near him, seeing the destruction his elemental magic had caused. He put his head in his hands and began to cry. Through his hands he began to apologize over and over again. I could see his hands shaking. Michelle took his hands and gently pulled them away from his face. He looked at me, wracked with guilt. All I could do was look at him. I wanted to tell him it was all right. No one was hurt. But, after such an impressive display of power, all I could manage to say was “Wow, Dude, wow.”