Chapter 23

Change

Grey held his hand. He felt the wound on his skin stop hurting. He touched it. It had healed into a light scab. Grey nodded his head curiously. This was definitely magic right? He picked up a sharper rock from the cave floor and stabbed his arm. It penetrated into flesh. Not deep enough to cause serious injury, but deep enough for him to grit his teeth in pain. He focused his aura, the wound slowly healing. It took fifteen minutes but it formed a light scab where the wound was. Magic. Healing Magic. That required no incantation.

This was...? Grey wasn't sure what this kind of magic was. Priests could heal wounds but when they did so the wounds healed completely. This was more natural process, with the wound having a scab. It was if he had accelerated his natural healing rather than repaired his skin. A new magic? He raised his hand and felt his body. Energy resided in it. He could feel his aura flowing through his veins. It didn't fade, sustained, it remained even if he cancelled his aura. His own magic. He had created his own magical path. His heart felt light.

Grey got up and gathered his things. There was a rising feeling in his gut that there was no longer anything here that could teach him. He took Max's knapsack. He bowed once and twice and clapped his hands in prayer.

"Rest in peace, Max. I'll remember you."

Grey made his way out of the cave. His hands patting down the walls. He walked slowly and out of the gorge. Though Grey didn't know what time it was. He knew that Iris would soon be coming back. He had to wander to a place that was a little more visible. As he stepped out the cave. He felt a sudden warm glow coming from his chest. Iris. He remembered that glowing feeling when she had first demonstrated her magic. She was here! She was calling him back. He focused on that feeling. He released his aura and found it being pulled towards his right. That must be the way out. He walked towards the feeling.

~~~

Hours later, yet another part of the forest, one with willows. The vines lay all over the ground. Their texture a soft mush beneath his hands. The vines would lift up and come crashing down, the scenery changed in a moment. Lifted up, Grey held with all his might as the vine he lay on flew up the air. It connected to a tree branch. He climbed up the tree. His arms touching nothing but air. He paused. Dead End? The branch shook unable to take the excess weight and then fell. Grey felt his body falling.

"Ahh!" yelled Grey, flailing. As he fell, he landed on something soft.

"Omph!" said a voice.

Grey could feel a pain on his back. He scrambled to his feet.

"Ow," said Fritz. He shook his head in confusion. Then saw Grey next to him. "Oya, it's you Grey. Why did you fall on me. Were you trying to fly?"

"Fritz?" whispered Grey.

"Ah, yes its me," said Fritz, rubbing his aching head. Grey's elbow had landed right on his skull as he fell. "I was hiding in a hole for like the last few days. It wasn't very comfortable, but it beats getting eaten."

Grey laughed. "I was in a cave and made some turtle friends. "

"Oh, good thing you had it so easy," laughed Friz. "This large wolf was chasing me. It got a chunk of me, but you know. I beat it's head and it ran off."

Fritz held Grey's hand. He moved him to the stump on his right arm.

"Fritz...you?"

"Yeah, I thought I would die, but you know a little bit of grass tied together can stop blood flowing pretty good. I found a place near lots of flowers, some of them were good for the fever I got afterwards. I ate a lot of them though. So that's probably not good either. Haha."

"I see," murmured Grey, thinking about Max. "Max didn't make it. He got eaten by the earth. Doing something."

"I see," said Fritz, thinking. "Fusion huh? Didn't think he had the talent for it...well that kind of proves it."

"Fusion?" replied Grey, confused. He scratched his head.

Fritz nodded. "Sometimes I forget you didn't take any formal schooling. It's when people try to infuse elements directly into their body. Mostly, warriors do this to increase their strength. Rogues do it as well, but they usually use devices to achieve the same effect. Flash bangs and all sorts of weird things."

"So then Max?"

"He tried and didn't make it," murmured Fritz, shaking his head. "It's good you are here too. I was thinking I might be going crazy. Iris is calling us back right?"

Grey nodded his head. "Yeah, I was going to start to worry how I would get back."

"Haha, don't worry. With us together we should be able to think of a way back. We might even find more people on the way back."

"Hmm. Ok."

~~~

After some hours, Fritz and Grey made their way to another expanse of the forest. Here a long grass meadow lay stretched out before them. Large butterflies, the size of birds, flew about. Their wings beating in the wind.

"So how did your awakening go?" said Fritz. He tied a piece of rope to his waist to Grey's waist. This way Grey could walk behind Fritz without too much effort. Fritz even found a stick for Grey to use as a walking stick.

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"Good, I think I learned some new kind of magic. It just feels different from what I've read."

"Really," smiled Fritz. "I think I have too. It is something pretty weird."

Grey tilted his head curiously. "What did you learn?"

"Ah, okay, but show yours too!" giggled Fritz, shyly. "Hehe. I'm curious. Ah, also you cannot see so you have to use your aura to feel it."

Grey released his aura. A chorus of bells and people hummed in the background. Fritz smiled.

"Good sound. Now my turn."

Fritz released his aura. While Grey's aura gave his surroundings a heavy feeling as if weighed down by something. Fritz's aura gave a strange disorienting feeling. The sounds of chirping birds. Fritz stopped walking and clenched his fist tightly together. A blue fire came out of his fist, enveloping his hand. No heat. It burned everything that touched it. No, it didn't burn them. It was doing something entirely.

"It absorbs my surroundings. I call it Chaos Magic. It eats everything. Even fire itself."

Grey felt his aura getting devoured by the flame. The flame growing larger and larger.  Fritz unclenched his fist and the flame disappeared.

"Best part is I don't have to use incantations. Its all in my head. Voiceless incantations. If this doesn't make me a genius I don't know what will."

Fritz released the fire again, clenching fist, it engulfed his hand once again. The fire made a different sound as it appeared the second time. It sounded exactly like Grey's aura! A chorus of bells and people.

"Using this I can copy anything I can burn. In the future, will they say I'm invincible? Haha."

Fritz looked at Grey.

"So what is the weird thing you found?"

At this Grey suddenly felt his achievements were much lower and sighed. To copy anything you burn. What kind of power was that...compared to his...

"I can heal a bit faster. I don't know exactly what it is yet though."

Fritz frowned. "Really? Just healing?"

Grey sighed. It was really too pitiful. "Yeah, I don't need any incantations either, but the way I heal myself is really too odd. I force my aura back into my body and it seems to improve my natural healing. Also, I feel a slight change in my mana. I can't explain it, but something changes every time I do it."

Fritz thought deeply. Then spoke.

"It's okay even if it is nothing to amazing now. Perhaps, it will become quite scary later. You know how they say how flowers that bloom late are the most beautiful. The fact that you can also do voiceless incantations. Perhaps. Magic theory will change in the future."

"Hmm?" said Grey, pondering. What did that mean?

"I learned a few things. I used to be schooled in a prestigious academy back in the Kingdom of Neft. Back there, they were talking about a new field of study. They called it Science. To study the world without magic! Can you believe it? A world without magic."

Grey tilted his head perplexed. Magic had been around for long and could do many wondrous things. Why would anyone study anything else?

"They even learned quite a few things about how the world works. For example, they were mentioning that they were in the middle of developing a device that would allow you to port to different parts of the world. They are calling it a waypoint. Think about it! It takes years to traverse the whole continent. If you can do that in moments. Can you imagine the state of the world in a few years. Wars. Famine. These all could be solved in an instant."

Grey shuddered. A waypoint! Porting required you to be in a dungeon. Everyone knew this. While no one knew exactly how porting worked. The fact that such a mystery could be harnessed by people...It was crazy. He remembered the feeling he had when the wagon was lifted by the plain winds. Would they learn how to fly as well?

"Science," nodded Fritz, "Now that is a scary thing. And like that thing we too have stumbled upon some mystery no one has yet figured out. A thousand years later will they call us the founders of some new school of magic?"

Fritz took Grey's hand and shook it. "If we become so famous later. Let it be known I shook your hand first and you shook mine. Haha."

Grey smiled.

"So did you think of a name for your magic yet?"

Grey shook his head. "Not yet. Unless you want me to call it the weird healing magic."

"Haha," laughed Fritz. "Weird Healing Magic. It has a nice sound."

"Hey!" said Grey, pouting. He knew it wasn't a cool name, but Friz didn't have to say it like that....

"Haha, I'm just kidding," smiled Fritz, shaking his head. "I'm sure the right name will come to you eventually.  It took me a while to come up with a name for my magic."

Grey nodded. He thought about it more and walked with Fritz out of the meadow. Two bright eyes glared at them from shadows. It sank back into the shadows, a low grumbling in the ground. It followed the two children through the underbrush.