“I’m impressed, honey. 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 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, sweetie! 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 more. 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.
“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, 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, babe. As I live and breathe, no one is going to lay a finger on 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!” 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 de
finitely 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 her husband 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 more 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?”
“Kind of, 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.
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. “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!”
Bakkian Chronicles, Book I - The Prophecy Page 11