Bryce woke up in a dark cave. He wondered how it had come to this. Life was going so well back at home. He was about to graduate high school, make it into pilot school, and start saving money to become rich one day. Now he was stuck in a cave, hungry, and covered in mud, which smelled none too good. There was no way he should have been taken by some weak goblins, no matter what magic rocks they used. If any one of them came at him in a fair fight, he would beat the crap out of it, and HE would be the one the goblins were scraping to obey. He just needed to get himself a magical power of his own and show that oh-so mighty goblin guy who was really the most powerful. Aden had been able to transform sweet peas into Minecraft objects, and Grant had been able to sense the Goblins coming from far away as soon as they entered the swamp, not to mention finding food for all of them, which Bryce was grateful for. He wouldn’t be surprised if they all had magical powers. It would explain why that goblin guy was so interested in them. He didn’t care as much about the magic as showing that goblin a lesson for dragging them out of their home and making them hide in the dark like weaklings. He was good at this, he could avoid those goblins for as long as he needed to, but he needed a way to fight back. This ate at Bryce. “Is everybody awake?” Bryce asked, “I’m going to take a look outside.” They woke Devin up, and they all agreed to go outside together. They should be out of sight of the Goblins now, provided they didn’t look too closely and weren’t out for too long. They made their way above ground and were shocked by what they saw. The swamp was gone. They had camped just outside it, and where the swamp should be, was just a black, charred piece of earth, covered in ash, roughly 3-5 feet deep. Nothing remained. Not so much as a single leaf from the tree was visible as far as they could see. This was shocking. What could have wielded such power? If it was that goblin, Bryce felt slightly less eager about fighting him. For a while at least. “Aden do you think you could make us Invisibility potions?” Grant asked “I can try” Aden replied. They had packed all the sweet peas they could, although it was tempting not to eat them all. Aden grabbed a sweet pea and focused. At first, it turned into a bow, then wood, then granite, then an invincibility potion, and then finally an invisibility potion. Aden repeated the process 5 more times, continuing to have to cycle through items before arriving at the desired one. They all drank one. Each would last for about 8 minutes. Though they were a few miles away from the fortress already, It wasn’t worth risking someone eventually spotting them while they were jogging away, tired as they were. They started running as fast as they could away from the goblins. They had Aden remaking invisibility potions as they went, and Bryce wondered how far they would need to keep running. They needed to find something, they were out of food and water, and there was little to see. They hadn’t been chased again, so it appeared as though the potions were working. It did seem a little hopeless though. They were stranded far from home, without a friendly face for miles. If only he had a plane, he could get out of this nightmare and hopefully back to somewhere civilized, if it even existed in this place. Even a car would be sublime here. Anything would be better than trudging through this wasteland, and Bryce couldn’t help but wish for some form of transportation. Driving and flying was liberating. He could go where he wanted to go with just focus and concentration, things he excelled at. It was exciting to make a way through space at high speeds but running was just boring. It lacked the excitement and was draining. Bryce had gotten a stress fracture once running and it never held the same appeal again. Part of Bryce still believed that he had just been kidnapped by some roleplaying midgets. The swamp being destroyed was real though, little doubt about that. He just needed to see something other than this rolling packed earth in front of him. Eventually, his wish was granted. Bryce noticed a building up ahead, surrounded by what looked like rice patties. It made sense that the farmers here would grow rice, seeing how much marshland there was. Or used to be. The farm was likely run by goblins, but Bryce could deal with a few goblins. His first thought was to find food. Surely, they would have something. He began to make his way through the patty. The moment he entered the patty, Bryce experienced a weird sensation. It almost felt like he was in space. No, it did feel like he was weightless. It was different than just being in water. Curious, Bryce leaned forward. When he did, his feet came off the ground and he floated in the air. Woah. So, this was his power. He didn’t immediately see how it could be used to fight off goblins, but he would figure something out. Bryce tried to think. Why did he start floating now all of a sudden? The rice maybe? It wouldn’t be the water; they were stuck in a swamp earlier. Bryce noticed that some of the rice plants around him had started to wither. The rice then. To test his theory, he flipped right side up and started to walk outside the patty. The farther he got, the less weightless he felt. Eventually he was back to normal. The other brothers had went ahead and searched the shed, but they had left quickly, signifying that there was likely no food there. That was too bad. Somehow Bryce felt less hungry than he had before. He moved back to the rice. It seemed as if he was absorbing it somehow. He started floating again. He tried focusing the energy that he was feeling rush into him. He was able to gently float in one direction. He tried focusing more of that power into his body, and he started to speed up. Quickly he was zooming over the rice patties. This was just like driving, in a way, this energy that he felt was like gas, and he just had to focus it mentally to move. He navigated his way back to his brothers. They had seen more crazy things than they had cared to the past few days, but they were still amazed. “Woah Bryce! That’s so cool!” Joshua said. “This is awesome!” Bryce screamed, grinning. “I can go as fast as I want! It seems like I’m absorbing energy from the rice.” “That’s way cool!” Joshua said. “Can I try?” “I think you would know if you could.” Bryce responded. “It kind of just happened when I stepped in this field. You have to use the rice.” “Show me” Joshua asked. “I don’t know if it’s that simple. Here, try using this” Bryce zipped over to Joshua and tried extending his energy to him. Sure enough, Joshua began to float. “Now try drawing the energy into your body and focusing on where you want to go.” “Whoa! This feels weird! What energy are you talking about?” “You can’t feel it?” Bryce asked, “It’s all around you.” “Not a thing.” Joshua replied. “It’s like this.” Bryce focused his energy on Joshua and visualized him zipping over the patties. Joshua began zooming over the patties just as Bryce had. The farther Joshua went away though, the more energy Bryce had to send to him. He noticed the rice plants around him start to wither with the amount of energy he had to spend. He brought Joshua back closer, and the energy expended returned to an amount similar to what Bryce had been using before. “I don’t plan on running anymore.” Bryce said.

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