“Oh, he has fangs and claws but he’s adorable!” Eira called out in a soft whistle and shortly after, a brown bear came out of the trees.
Tyler looked at the bear. A juvenile. Thankfully, not an adult. But still a bear. He looked cute though. Like a giant ambulatory teddy bear with real fangs and claws.
“Oh, don’t be such a scaredy cat. He won’t hurt you. You won’t, won’t you? Such a cute little bear!”
The bear had reached them and Eira was scratching him behind the ears. Then followed several girlish unintelligible coaxing sounds from her. The bear enjoyed the attention and opened its mouth in appreciation. Tyler could see its fangs.
What is it with girls and teddy bears? And pets? And furry things? Wow, look at those fangs! Sharp, pointy, biigggg fangs. She looks absolutely beautiful though, playing with the bear. And those adorable sounds she’s making!
Finally, Eira turned to him.
“This is Brovi. He’s a young bear. Friendly too. He agreed to be your guide. Please take care of him. He’s young and active. I worry he may become too active and hurt himself.”
Hurt himself? That’s a bear! Young but still bigger than me! I'm pretty sure he's only a few years short of adulthood! And how the hell am I supposed to control him if he starts getting too frisky? Tickle him? Say please?”
“I just follow him?”
“Of course. He knows the way. You can talk to him if you like but he only understands a few words. I taught him,” Eira said proudly. “Oh, and don’t forget some food for the trek.”
A small sack materialized in Eira’s hand. She gave it to Tyler.
“Thanks! I’ll give the big guy a shot. Lead the way, Brovi. Don’t run and leave me behind.”
The bear turned and walked away. Tyler followed after giving Eira a quick wave. Good, he understood me, thought Tyler, I think. After some distance into the forest, Tyler realized he didn’t ask how far was the next campsite. Freak me for an amateur, he chided himself.
The bear was considerate enough to moderate his speed and choose a route best suited for Tyler’s two legs. They did take a break when Brovi took a drink from a stream. Tyler took the opportunity to have a quick bite. They proceeded deeper into the forest until fatigue caught up with him.
“Brovi, stop. I need a rest.”
The bear stopped, looked at him, and proceeded to a shaded area under a large tree. Reaching it, he settled down and immediately closed his eyes.
A bear after my own heart, thought Tyler as he did the same under another tree.
A quick nap for both of them and they continued the hike. Actually, Brovi woke him up by nuzzling his cold nose against Tyler’s face.
Another first, thought Tyler, a wake-up call by a bear.
The trek continued for several more hours, with the two following the same routine. Though Tyler made sure he was awake before Brovi woke him up. One wakeup call with Brovi’s cold nose was enough for him.
By late afternoon, they reached the camping site. Brovi stopped and again, went under the shade of a tree. It was a small clearing, with a small stream flowing by. With no shelter in place, Tyler picked out the largest tree he could find at the edge of the clearing and sat down against its massive trunk.
I should have brought my pack, he thought to himself, the tent and other gear would have been very convenient. I should be able to take care of myself for basic things like shelter and starting a campfire. But who would have thought the jotnar and the dokkalfr would be such inhospitable neighbors.
Tired, Tyler took a fitful nap.
He woke up to Eira’s voice waking him up. She was standing in front of him. Looking beyond her, he saw that the campsite was already prepared. The bear was still lying down where he last saw him.
“Hi Eira,” greeted Tyler as he stood up.
“Good evening, Tyler. I trust the journey was uneventful?”
“Thankfully, yes. Work done?”
“The cave is hidden already. I have started fixing the damage from last night’s battle. But I have to prepare more defenses for tonight. Fossegrim has to be ready. I just dropped by to check on you.”
“Oh, you won’t be staying for dinner?”
“Unfortunately, no. Rush, rush, rush. That’s me. Goodbye Tyler. Food is ready. Brovi will also be staying for a while. I think he likes you.”
“Uuuhhh, bye.” Eira again disappeared.
Somehow, Tyler felt disappointed. He looked at the bear. Eira left some food for it and the bear was attacking it. Ugh. Have to remind myself not to look at a bear during his meal.
Dinner was a lonely affair. After all the meals with Eira, it wasn’t the same without her.
“Shit. People are after my neck. I’m a noob at defending myself, a lucky noob, but a still a noob. I am still lost on another world. Heck, I don’t even know my way around this forest. I have a bear in camp with me. Their gods pop up to screw with me. Creepy-crawlies hunt me. And here I am, acting like a lovesick puppy. Got to get my head in the game!”
Tyler looked at the night sky. The three moons were up and the strange stars of a different universe gazed back. He guessed it must be around early evening. Time to practice. The non-offensive ones tonight, he thought, concerned about hitting something innocent in the dark. Or the bear. More than a hundred pounds of angry fangs and claws would not be good. Nope, not good at all. He’d rather face one of those misty monsters.
He stayed near the circle of light thrown by the lamp left on the stone table. For now, he decided to focus on improving the speed of casting and the strength of his shield defense. He started with the basic frontal barrier. After several casts, he found that if he had preset shield parameters in his mind, he could cast it faster. Then he could strengthen it after materialization. He decided to stick with the frontal barrier as the template for a basic SHIELD! cast. Moving it around when formed was easy.
Experimenting with other barrier forms, he did the prow shaped shield, a rectangular box-type shield covering the top, front and sides of the body, a full body shield as well as the tested boxing barrier used on the monsters. But casting other types of barriers proved to be difficult, except for the prow shield. Creating a four or even three-sided shield around him demanded more concentration. It delayed formation of the needed barriers. It was faster to create a frontal shield and then bend or form it to the required shape. If he did it that way, then he would be afforded some degree of protection while shaping it.
When he finished barrier practice, he realized a few hours had passed. It was close to midnight by his reckoning. Even the bear was asleep, though the animal was watching him when he started. He could see that Brovi was mystified by the sight of the human strangely waving his hands in the air and dancing around all by himself. Satisfied by his progress with the basic spell, Tyler went to bed.
Morning found him alone with his breakfast. The meal was set up but Eira was still not around. Brovi was walking around the clearing but he was hesitant to be friendly with the bear. His mind couldn’t get over the fangs and claws issue. In his opinion, fangs and claws always trumps any intentional display of friendliness.
He decided to focus on the BLADES! spell. Though in a limited format. He decided against practicing with the FIREBALL! spell due to possible damage issues. There was no way he could predict the splash area of effect of the spell even in a restricted form. A single magical ember catching on a tree will be disastrous as he didn’t even know how to put out the effects of the spell.
For the BLADES! spell, he decided on the ideal of three blades, with the ground as his target. Speed of casting and increased force will be his goals for the day. His speed did increase after a score or so of spells. The amplified strength of the spell was obvious from the deep gouges and eruptions of soil whenever his blades hit the ground. He had to stop when he finally noticed how cratered was the area in front of him. Small deep craters. It looked like a colony of large hyperactive mutant groundhogs invaded the field.
Better not forget t
o apologize to the lady, thought Tyler to himself, surveying his destructive handiwork.
Then an idea struck him. If he can infuse a form with light, can he infuse it with fire? Motivated, he created one blade, a bit bigger than usual, and then created fire within it. He was watching the blade carefully, keeping it a good six feet away. The shape held the dangerous energy. He then threw it to the ground, around fifteen feet from him. Too late, he remembered why he didn’t practice with his fireball spells.
“DUMB! DUMB!” He shouted to himself as the projectile was flying straight into the ground. It exploded in a small fireball. Unlike the silent simple blades, the fireball-in-a-blade exploded in a fiery roar.
Shaken by the sound disturbing the forest quiet, Tyler quickly looked around. Birds were flying away from treetops and the bear was ambling towards the cover of a bigger tree. FREAK ME!
Then the success of his experiment said hello to his worried mind. His jaw dropped. YES! AND THE CROWD ROARED! He was exhilarated and did the cha-cha in a circle, doing fist pumps all the time. YES! YES! YEESSSSS! He stopped when he saw the bear watching him.
“Oh, hi, Brovi.” He waved his hand, “Nothing to watch here boy.”
Now I am embarrassed by a bear. Will wonders never stop?
Thinking back to what he had done, how he wished for a bigger practice area. A barren field. He wanted to try bigger and bigger blades! He wanted to see the biggest blade he could fire! He was his own artillery battalion! Too excited to sit down, he paced around his shelter, thinking about the possibilities and uses of other fire-infused forms.
Blade forms can be targeted projectiles, he mused. In addition to its armor-piercing abilities, now I can have a delayed fireball to go with it. It may work against magical barriers. Against magical armor?
Then he had a brainstorm.
Orbs! Multiple fireball orbs! Launched like howitzer shells! And smaller ones, utilized like grenades! A flat, wide and sharp blade form! Like an elongated ax head! Infused with fire when flung towards an on-rushing enemy, then detonated when it gets further into the attacking mass! A broadsword form, used in combat! No, bad idea. The explosion will get me too.
His brain was racing, going through his repertoire of spells, trying to think of possible useful combinations. But his mind was otherwise occupied with his new discovery, rendering futile his brain’s voyage of discovery. He did grasp that his limited number of spells also restricted his capacity to experiment.
He named the new derivative spells FIREBALL BLADES, FIREBALL ORBS, and FIREBALL GRENADE. Again, lame names but simple and easy to remember. He grinned. Three new spells in one morning! But if he ever gets the biggest single fireball blade spell to work, he resolved to name it The Big Kaboom. Thinking about the process by which he came up with the new abilities, he realized that exposure to modern technology did help. His new ideas were derived from historical developments in gunpowder technology. It appeared that knowing what could be done is half the battle in creating new and innovative magical spells.
Feeling hungry, he realized it was way past lunch. He went to the table and did a quick meal from the leftovers of breakfast. Eira must be really busy, he thought. That means the threat to the forest must also be serious. He did notice that his stamina during spell casting had improved. Tremendously.
With his stomach full, he tried to think about his journey to Scarburg the following day. He would be alone. No one to watch his back. He wondered if it would be possible to maintain a four-sided barrier around him all the time, not too strong, enough to deflect arrows. Thinking about it, he revised his idea to a triangle shaped shield, one less side to maintain. He just needed to position it about a foot away at the barrier’s closest point to him. When resting or sleeping, he merely had to change the shape of the shield. At the very least, the barrier will protect him from surprise physical attacks.
When he started practicing again that afternoon, he had the three-sided barrier around him all the time. He wanted to determine how long he could keep it up and if such continued use will strain his body in any way. While the shield was up, he experimented with forming intricate three-dimensional energy shapes. He hoped the exercise will help advance his focusing and precision skills. Before long he had progressed from simple geometric shapes to forming animal structures. He tried to form a sculpture of Brovi but the bear moved too much. Especially when he saw Tyler staring at him. At one point, the bear hid behind a tree. After his practice antics plus the staring, Tyler believed the bear thought him abnormal, even for a human.
One thing did bother Tyler. His magical effects were not coursed through runic channels. He remembered the water jug with its purification rune. Do his magical manifestations, such as the lamp, have a limit to how long it can maintain such a form? The water purification rune merely needed to be charged. But in the kind of magic he was using, no such physical element anchored the magical effect. He realized he had to test the duration of some of the spells in his repertoire but time and circumstances made that impossible for now.
During dinner, as Tyler was going to start again with left-overs, Eira showed up. She looked tired but gave him a smile as she joined him. She waved away the left-overs and conjured up a new meal.
“You look tired, Eira. Bad day?”
“Busy, rather. Jotnar are increasing on the north and west sides of the forest. No dokkalfr yet. But these jotnar are testing our defenses. Though somebody is trying to make it appear as if the attacks are random and not organized. I don’t know if they intend to bypass Maljen and take the forest instead. That would give them free passage to the eastern part of Skaney and take the port of Agder through the town of Grimmsdalr. If successful, then the plains of Vestfold will be open to them. Maljen they can isolate. But Fossegrim cannot be ignored by them if they do intend to take Maljen before moving east.”
“Sounds bad, Eira. I wish I can do something to help.”
“The forest will stand, Tyler. Unless Ymir himself comes forth, Fossegrim will stand. Now that we know they intend to move against the forest, they will not pass. Worry about your journey instead. And don’t forget my request. Scarburg awaits you and I try to help you when and if I can. But I believe you can be whatever you want to be. There is a quest in your fate, Tyler. I can see it in your eyes. You will succeed.”
“Thanks? I guess?” stammered Tyler. With that unnerving speech, his spirits went down a notch. He didn’t mind the occasional pep talk but the talk of fate and destiny only reminded him of what awaited him outside the forest. He remembered that on Earth, most heroes become heroes only after they die, usually in a violent way. Then the speeches come and the statues erected. Nobody remembers how badly the hero died. Shit.
He knew he wasn’t a coward. But he was no fool either. He took the hard way out of the problem not because he wanted to be a hero but because it afforded him the best way to survive. With idiosyncratic and crazy powerful entities around, that was the only way he could be assured of surviving and remaining himself. At the end of the day, he was but a mortal within a chaotic and dangerous world stage.
The hints that he got about more powerful, violent and nuttier beings not yet known to him made Tyler more eager to reach what Hal wanted him to achieve. From what he could read between the lines, a lot of malevolent beings would love to do to him worse things than the prodding and dissections done by rumored alien abductions back on Earth. Even worse than he could ever imagine. The thought left a momentary chill in his bones.
As the meal progressed, Tyler gathered that Eira might not be around to see him off tomorrow. With that, he finally concluded that things are a lot more serious than the forest guardian let on. Small battles must be going on right now on the two sides of the forest. Whether these are preludes to a bigger struggle, only the next few days will tell. Brovi was to be his guide to the edge of the forest. Then Tyler remembered his field of craters.
“Uhhh, Eira, I have to confess something. I really hope you won’t get mad.”
The Accidental Archmage: Book One - Ragnarok Rising (MOBI EDITION) Page 22