"Sarah, why exactly did you pick up a dead animal?" asked Alexa. She sat down on the opposite side of the fire from Sarah and curled her lip up. "It stinks, girl."

"No it doesn't," answered Sarah distractedly. She sat down and laid the snake on a patch of dirt in front of her. She used her stick to straighten it out and looked at it. Why couldn't Mrs. Bianchi cover something useful, like types of snakes? Sarah had no idea what kind of snake this was. But maybe even if she knew about snakes she wouldn't be able to tell. This one was sorta patchy, thanks to the ants. And it was probably a lot longer when it was alive. It had a bullet-shaped head, about as big around as her thumb, and the rest stretched out maybe eighteen inches. And it didn't smell.

"Sarah, seriously, this is sorta creepy," said Alexa.

"You said it before, Alexa. I need something that can hold extra light I pull," said Sarah.

"Um, I don't think I said that."

"Ok," said Sarah as she was looking around. She grabbed a few of the sticks that had lost all of their light, setting them next to her.

"Hang on, you tried putting light into me, right? It's not going to work on another animal, it didn't work on me, right?" Alexa said. It was probably pretty easy to guess why Sarah had brought the dead snake over.

"It'll work, just watch," said Sarah.

Sarah didn't answer right away. "Fine," she muttered. "Just be careful. I'd rather not sit by myself for another couple of hours."

"Yeah," said Sarah. She wasn't really listening to Alexa anymore. Instead, she was focusing on the mounting pressure in her head. Although maybe 'pressure' wasn't the right word for it. Expectation, perhaps? Concentration?

With a small shake of her head, Sarah reached out and collected a wisp of blue light. She wasn't sure, but she tried to take the least amount that she possibly could. That tiny spark was enough to make one of the broken branches gleam. It wasn't quite full, but it felt close. She could moderate how much she pulled, that was good. She pulled another tiny wisp to her finger, letting it just sit this time. It felt warm, shining on her fingertip, but it wasn't starting to burn like it had before. Maybe small bits just didn't burn the same way? No, it would still burn her. She could feel the heat increasing, and see the light spreading towards her hand too. It just went slower, that was all. She let the light snap into a second branch. It was smaller than the first had been, but it still took all the light without trouble.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

She smiled and tossed the piece of wood to Alexa. Alexa caught it and looked closely at the wood. Both of them contrasted the way the blue light sat in the stick with the way the green light moved through Alexa's body. The blue light was stable and motionless, and it emphasized the structure of the wood - the light followed the grain and pooled in the knots. The green light flowed, moving from place to place within Alexa's body, without any pattern, so far as Sarah could see. When Alexa had caught the branch the light had separated, brightening her eyes and her hand.

"It doesn't burn when it's got magic, does it break?" asked Sarah.

Alexa looked back at the wood and just squeezed. They could both hear a creak, but nothing else, even as green light drained from Alexa's hand. She pursed her lips and took the branch in both hands. With a sharp inhalation, her green light intensified and the wood snapped cleanly in two.

"Yeah, it's stronger," said Alexa. She reached out and crumbled another branch in her hand, just to try it on an unlit bit of wood. "Way stronger."

Alexa tossed one of the pieces back to Sarah, who tracked it easily as it arced over the fire. The broken wood still glowed blue, but it wasn't as full as before. Sarah reached out and pulled another flicker of blue power to her finger. She used that to top off the branch, and then instead of touching another branch, she touched the snake with the remainder.

Alexa made a gagging noise when Sarah's finger touched the carcass.

Sarah didn't look at Alexa at all, and she certainly didn't suppress a little shudder. Maybe the snake did smell a little bad, after all. The tiny leftover light practically vanished into the snake's body, as if she'd put a single drop of water into a barrel. With a nod to herself, she did it a second time. Just a teeny wisp of light falling into a deep well. The third time she clenched her fist and drew in a little ball of light, still just a sip from the deep pool of fog that filled the meadow. Again the magic snapped into the snake's body. And again, and again.

Sarah smiled with pleasure at the feel of the warm light passing through her hand. But glancing at the dead animal, she realized it would take all night to finish it. Maybe even several nights, at this pace. She reached down and picked up the snake in her right hand, earning another groan from Alexa, but still reached out with her left. This time she didn't really consider the urge to snap up the power, instead she just allowed it to pass into her. Light streamed slowly now, so slowly that Sarah and Alexa could see it flow and move, drifting to Sarah's left hand, and then flowing in a narrow thread to her right and into the snake. Faster, she pulled in more, and more.

Until suddenly the world lurched, and Sarah dropped her hand to keep herself from falling over sideways. The whole meadow was tinged yellow - she couldn't see the edge anymore, the limit where she couldn't reach out and touch her blue magic. Sarah laughed, delighted to find that she'd lost her balance just as though the light she'd been tugging on was tangible.

"Cool," breathed Alexa. Sarah had actually forgotten the girl was sitting there, watching. "Gross, really, really gross. But cool."

The snake had wrapped itself around Sarah's wrist when she'd started to fall, smearing dirty goop on her arm. It still wasn't full of light, but it still glowed brightly with power. "Yeah, I don't suppose you've got any soap in your car?"