Time passed quickly for me at the Kite's Klub (TM Pending), and soon there wasn't really anything more for me to learn in this… institute of basic learning, at least not from Lilac Governess. So I spent an increasing amount of time developing new ways to use fox magic. This would keep me from getting bored and keep me out of trouble. With this in mind, I decided I would become a mage, which I believed was possible with a little ingenuity.
And if there is one thing that any self-respecting mage can't do without out, it's the ability to conjure a fireball. I had made some progress on this front. I had gained the ability to heat a material and, if it was combustible, cause it to, well, combust. This however was not a fireball. Causing things to burst into flames was all well and good, but it didn't have the same wow factor as a disconnected orb of plasma. Still, how was one to do this…
So the problem is that air, or more specifically oxygen, is not itself combustible. It is an oxidizing agent and lets other things combust. So a true non-reagent-based fireball was impossible—at least with the means I had available. But perhaps we could make something close enough, the so-called fourth state of matter, plasma.
I started experimenting with moving air channels in opposite directions of each other in an attempt to produce enough friction to cause ionization to occur. It soon occurred to me that, even if this strategy would work, I would need to create very high air speeds. What started as a simple desire to achieve base-level magedom, turned into a several-month grueling project, filled with intense manipulation exercises and numerous experimentations. But after much blood, sweat, and first-degree burns, I had cracked the code!
The final form was an orb of compressed air being rotated in several different directions at once. This would cause the ionization effect and you would essentially have a "fireball"—in reality, a superheated electrically charged sphere. There was just one problem, and that was you couldn't really launch it, as once you stopped creating the sphere, it would dissolve... bummer. What you could do, however, was use a bit of wind magic to shoot the flame out from the orb like a flame thrower, so I had to settle on that consolation.
Still, it probably comes as no surprise that it was demanding to work this "spell"—yes, I'm calling it that—requiring much concentration and sheer energy. I had to wonder if there was a better way.
As previously alluded, there is a concept in many magic systems of reagents. That is some kind of magic catalyst that facilitates a spell. They are usually magical in nature, but there is no rule saying they had to be. Pondering this, was there any reason I couldn't employ a reagent?
No, no there wasn't! And with fire, all I needed was something flammable that could be controlled. And as it turned out, one of the things we had at the Kite's Klub (TM Pending) was flour. Don't ask me what they made it out of, I had no idea. This was the ideal substance, depending on how aerated it was, you could control how much flame was generated, anywhere from a slight flame with low reagent consumption, to an explosion with almost instantaneous consumption. Furthermore, with this, you could form a proper fireball!
Now perhaps I should have been a bit more cautious as I was giddy with joy, playing with my newly acquired fireball technique. Or maybe I should have just been a bit more observant and noticed when my shirt sleeve initially caught fire, and not when I felt the burning sensation. Of course, upon realizing my shirt was on fire, I did the only sensible thing one can do in this situation and—panicked hysterically! I tried to slap it out but only managed to burn my other hand. And then I had the bright idea to blow it out with wind magic. It works on candles, why wouldn't it work on burning textiles? Well, this was a terrible idea, and only caused the flames to spread even faster!
Having spent all my mental capital, I began to run around the room like a harlequin with his hair on fire, which I suppose would have been marginally worse. Luckily for me, Lilac Governess took notice, and sprung into action with the speed and decisiveness that can only come from years of putting out metaphorical fires, and dumped a pail of water on me, putting out an actual fire. She can now add that to her resume.
"Indigo! Are you okay!" Lilac Governess was understandably concerned. I looked at my arm, it looked charred, but I didn't know how much of that was flesh, and how much of that was burnt hair. There was a burning sensation in my arm, but it still moved just fine.
"It's nothing, just singed a bit of hair," I replied as any true man would.
"Just singed a bit of hair!?" I suppose I could understand her elevated emotion at my glib and disregarding assessment. "How did this happen??"
"Well..." I scratched behind my ear. I saw what lying could get you, but if I told her the truth, she would probably put a stop to it, and that would be no fun.
She waited a moment for my response before deciding there were more pressing issues. "We can talk about this later. Right now, you are going to the medics!"
"Well, luckily there will be no long-term damage," The medic in front of me said. "Just some light burns. You can rub this on your arm to help with the pain." He handed me some cream wrapped in a leaf. "Your arm will look weird until the hair grows back, but I guess you should be thankful that that's the only thing you will have to worry about." He didn't at all sound concerned about me. Like I was just another widget on the assembly line.
"Also, Might I ask what foolishness you were doing to ignite your sleeve? You don't seem dumb enough to stick your hand into the fireplace..." So he did have some curiosity. For some reason this made me feel better.
"I was practicing fire magic," I said proudly as I puffed out my chest... Just a little.
He Raised an eyebrow. "...Fire Magic?" He replied with full skepticism on display.
"That's right."
"Sigh... It must have been something really stupid then." He didn't believe me! Well, I could show him!
"I can prove it!" I prepared to perform the spell, which would require a small amount of time. It wasn't exactly simple.
"Don't bother." He dismissed me with a wave of his hand. "I got others to attend to, so you are free to return." Well, that just took all the wind out of my sails. I returned to the Kite's Klub (TM Pending) HQ with a down-turned head, feeling sulky having been shut out, and into the comforting embrace of Lilac Governess... Or thorough reprimanding.
Well, Lilac Governess put the kibosh on reagent-based fire magic. Technically all fire magic, even after I insisted that I had worked out a technique to deal with out-of-control fires, but she couldn’t keep me from my innate ability to use fox magic. Still, I had taken this reagentless fire magic as far as it could go... for now. As for the fire extinguishing technique, all you needed to do was trap the air in place until the fire suffocated, basically, the same principle as placing a lid on a fire pit. If only it had occurred to me at that moment… However, what I needed now was to branch off into other skill trees. And perhaps I also need to take a step back. Fire was actually very complex. There were far simpler things I had completely overlooked, and now that I had acquired the mage's staple, I was free to pursue them.
One thing that could be useful is the ability to cut things. How often do you need to cut things? Well if you are cooking, all the time. Plus there is a reason a knife is the number 1 tool for any survivalist. It's a valuable skill! It's also simple in concept.
However, as I soon learned, cut magic was difficult in execution. Conceptually, you just needed to focus on a small area and apply force. This proved to have a couple of problems. One, narrowing the focus to the degree necessary was not easy. This could be overcome with practice though.
The second problem was more of an issue. When you focus, you concentrate on a particular part of the object. Imagine you are trying to cut a loaf of bread. What would happen if you just tried to push a small sliver of the bread through the rest of it. It would kind of smash it, right? Also, it wasn't a clean-cut. And that was on something soft, on something harder, this approach was mostly unworkable.
How did cutting utensils really work? They forced two pieces apart. That seemed hard to directly emulate with fox magic, was there some other way? Once again, wind magic held the answer. In wind magic we cause movement fields, if we applied this principle to cutting, you could employ two movement fields, pushing out in opposite directions from a central plane. That should theoretically work but would require very minute control and precision.
One more thing, you need to focus on the action itself and not the subject of the action. That is the target wasn't the bread in this hypothetical example, but space itself. Thanks to my work with wind magic, this wasn't too hard of an adjustment to make.
At first, my cuts were large and unsuited to maintaining anything's integrity. It would be like using a wide ax to cut a loaf of bread, it would not come out the way you wanted. Due to my insistence on practicing it at every opportunity, I was temporarily suspended from food prep. But there were plenty of other things to practice on, like the bundles of grasses I brought back from the forest, much to Lilac Governess’s dismay.
Eventually, she allowed me to start preparing meals again, but only if I promised to stop dumping lawn clipping all over the den. In my defense, I tried to clean it up, but it was hard to get all the pieces. By this time, I was confident in my cuts, and the slices were as crisp as any knife. So good in fact, that I might have gotten a bit cocky. While holding a root vegetable and cutting lengthwise, I let loose an absent-minded slash, splitting it down the middle, in perfect form I might add. So perfect in fact, that it wasn't until I saw the red substance dripping to the ground, that I realized I had managed to cut deeply into my own palms. Like a shark smelling blood in the water, Lilac Governess was on me.
"INDIGO! How did this happen!?" She was already wrapping my hands.
"What, this? Just a small nick." I responded as any man with self-respect. She gave me an eye that said, we will talk about this later, before sending me to the medics.
"You again." It was the same medic I had before and who's name happened to be Horizon Healer. I couldn't tell exactly what he meant with that greeting.
"Yes... Sorry to be such a bother," I said in apology.
"Well, children do tend to get into foolish things. Seems you might be extra foolish." I felt like that was unfair. I was pioneering new fields! Breaking new ground! "So what happened this time?" I showed him the bandages on my hands only to find that the blood had soaked through. "... You managed to cut BOTH hands?" He said, somehow sounding both miffed and impressed. "Should I even ask how you managed that?"
"Well, I was using a new application of fox magic to cut vegetables for tonight's supper, and might have acted a bit imprudently..."
I'm sure he had an incredulous look under his mask because that is what it felt like. Perhaps he was thinking back to last time when he didn't believe me. Finally, he sighed, removed my bandages while holding the wound closed with fox magic, and sealed the wounds with some kind of adhesive. "Be careful until the cuts close." He gestured for me to leave. "Oh, and please try to cut back on the foolishness that keeps bringing you here."
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
So Lilac Governess blunted my use of cut magic. Sure, she couldn't stop me from using it, but she could stop me from cooking and bringing back bundles of grass. I told her I could easily prevent future incidents by not cutting things I was holding, but she still gave it the veto (Sad Face). But then again, why was I spending all this effort doing something a simple knife could do? We all know where it's really at!
Flying! You might remember I spoke at length about flying previously, and rest assured, I hadn't been neglecting it. Over the following year, I had been setting aside time to work on skills related to flying, and my newly acquired proficiency with fire and cut magic had sharpened my nuance control considerably. Fire magic in particular greatly increased my PPUS (Remember that's Psionic Power Units per Second), as well as my gas tank overall. With all this, I was ready to give flight an attempt in earnest.
This just meant I needed to get a feel for it. I had the prerequisite skills, but not the experience. Like riding a bike, you might have the prerequisite balance and leg strength, but without the calibration from actually riding a bike, you will quickly find yourself face-first in the dirt. But once you have that calibration down, you never forget. So too is it with flying.
The secret to minimizing the fall damage while learning, is to stay close to the ground, obviously. But that could be as little as a few inches. It was rough going at first, but once I figured out how to move in space, it wasn't long before I was doing aerial acrobatics and everything. I would glide around the den, like some higher-order being, looking down on the lesser creatures... for about a week after I became competent anyway. That was when the novelty decreased to the point where it wasn't worth the effort. As I said before, flying requires a lot of energy. And sure I was at the point where I could hold a hover for around one and a half hours, but that was it; I was done for the day and pretty much useless—only did it that one time.
The one thing this really did was get me notoriety. A kid my age flying was unheard of. Plus it was an ostentatious act—you couldn't miss it. I might have gotten a bit carried away... Seeing as it amused people, I sometimes put on a bit of a show, doing various acrobatics: forward flips, backward flips, crazy spins, crazy spins while flipping... It was while doing one of these theatrics that I overdid it, got dizzy, and lost my orientation. Now this wouldn't have been much of a problem if I hadn't become increasingly comfortable with heights. Needless to say, I fell a considerable distance and hit the ground with all the force of one falling... a considerable distance. Luckily, I was more or less okay, only my arm was in serious pain, and it hurt to breathe.
"Indigo! What did you do this time!? What was that noise!?" Lilac governess was on me like white on rice.
"Just a minor tumble. Pay it no mind," I replied with all the failing intelligence of a real man.
With a facepalm, I could see that she was becoming habitually complacent with these occurrences but still found that her interest in my well-being was just as strong as ever. With no obvious signs of injury this time, she examined me. "OUCH!! That hurts!" She had touched my rib cage and it was quite painful.
"That's it. Off to the medics with you." She shook her head in resignation.
"Umm... Miss Lilac Governess." I said sheepishly.
"Yes, Indigo?"
"I think it will be difficult for me to get up."
"...Just a minor tumble huh?" She said with her hands placed firmly on her hips.
"I'm just as surprised as you are."
"Sigh..."
"Lilac Governess, what brings you here? Oh..." Upon seeing me, Horizon Healer let out a sigh.
"Sorry to trouble you, Horizon Healer, but Indigo has gotten himself injured." Lilac Governess said reluctantly, and with apparent embarrassment.
"Again?"
"I'm afraid so." She bowed her head as a way of apology.
"Alright, let's have a look at him."
"I leave him in your care." Lilac Governess handed me to him. "I need to get back before another incident breaks out." She bowed once more.
"Of course, leave him to me." With that, Lilac Governess hurried off. Then it was just Horizon Healer and me, sitting in his office. I was sure that he was becoming annoyed with me.
"Aren't there other healers besides you?" I asked, only afterward realizing how rude it sounded.
"What, do you have a problem with me?" He didn't seem nearly as taken aback as was warranted.
"No, I would just prefer to spread the ill will over a larger surface area."
"And what makes you think I have ill will towards you?"
"Well, you always seem displeased whenever I show up..."
I could feel the derisive smile form under his mask. "Did it ever occur to you, that perhaps I don't like to see people getting injured?" Oddly, I had never considered that point. I guess I was projecting my own insecurities onto the situation. I felt a little better. He lifted his head up in thought for a moment. "I guess you are still only a very young child, though you don't act it."
He looked at the large bruise on my arm and noticed my labored breathing. "So let me guess, you were trying to smash through a rock by making your body really hard?" Was he mocking me? Well, I supposed that was warranted.
"No... I fell."
"Really? Well, that is pretty conventional. How did you manage that?"
"I got dizzy while flying and performing aerial acrobatics," I said with a kind of pride and then winced from the pain of puffing out my chest.
"...You can fly?" He looked surprised but didn't have that same utter disbelief, though I don't think he was convinced either.
"Yes." This was easy to demonstrate as it didn't require a target or a cast time. I merely hovered off the ground before he could object, and began to perform a mid-air roll, before I felt a stab to my ribs and dropped back down.
"Easy now!" Horizon Healer was shocked, whether because I could fly or perform tricks, who could tell. "That is…quite impressive." As a bonus, his annoyance evaporated once he saw my aerial feats. "Let's get these injuries taken care of.”
He started with the arm. He said he needed to "pierce the veil" and would require me to trust him and relax. I wasn't sure what he meant until he did it. He tried to reach into my body, upon which I was immediately alarmed, and an involuntary reflex forced him out, almost like a tickle response.
"It's alright Indigo, you are safe. Nothing bad is going to happen. I would like you to trust me so I can help you." As he said this, his entire demeanor changed. He was usually a little disconnected and distant. Now, however, he was caring and compassionate, and his thoughts were strangely soothing.
He tried again, and I felt myself flinch, but I was able to relax and let it pass. It was a strange feeling, you could feel something swimming through the flesh of your body, it wasn’t painful, but your natural reaction was apprehension. "Your arm is definitely broken. I'm going to need to reset it before we brace it. I'm telling you now, this is going to hurt a little. Tell me when you are ready." He continued to emit tranquil energy. I gave the nod.
"YIP!" I actually let out a verbal yelp! "I thought you said that would hurt only a little!?" After the bone was set, the ejection reflex kicked back in, and he was out of there.
"Well, it will hurt much less than the next injury I suspect." He was back to his usual self. He proceeded to splint my arm. It was the distal part of my left arm, so it wouldn't be too inconvenient. "Okay, now for the rib." He switched back to the other, soothing, Horizon Healer. "Just relax..."
After the bone setting, It took some additional effort for him to pierce the veil again. Eventually, I calmed myself enough to allow it. "Oh, good news. Your rib is not broken, just knocked out of place, though admittedly badly out of place. After we pop it back into place, you will just have to wait for the bruising to go down." That didn't sound so bad. "I'll give it to you straight this time, this is really going to hurt." If possible, I'm sure the color drained from my face. "Let me know when you are ready." With a swallow, I gave the nod.
I think I might have blacked out there for a moment. How is it less painful to dislocate a rib than to relocate a rib!? Once the lights came back on though, I could breathe again without pain, though I could feel a huge bruise. "Okay, you are all set."
"Thanks, doc." I'm sure that came off as sardonic, but I didn't mean for it to.
"Before you go..." I looked up at him. "How old are you?"
"I just turned 3."
"When did you learn to fly?"
"Umm... Do you mean fly, or just hover?" He paused, clearly, he hadn't thought that much into it.
"Well, both."
"I achieved an unstable hover about six moons after joining the Kite's Klub (TM Pending), so a year and a half." He let out a chuckle. "I only learned to fly well just recently. Maybe a moon ago?"
"You have a strange way of thinking..." He hesitated. "Can you really, you know, create fire?" Bashfully, he shrunk in on himself.
"Oh, ye of little faith?" He just looked at me expectantly. I lamented the cultural divide. I began the process of creating fire: compressing the air and rotating several strata of the condensed atmosphere at 90-degree angles from each other. I continued to add energy as I increased the pressure and rotation speed. The pre-ionization state was itself visible, with a clearly visible distortion and I could already feel Horizon Healer's eyes go wide. After another moment, ionization occurred and the sphere went up in flames.
"..." He was speechless. It takes a lot of effort to create this, so I figured I should get my mileage out of it.
"I can't launch it like a fireball, but I can do this." I used wind magic to launch the flames, taking only marginal concern to avoid flammable objects.
"Woe, easy there!" He in no uncertain terms gestured for me to stop immediately. I think I had done enough, so I stopped the spell, and the flames vanished almost instantly. He just stared for a long while.
"In comparison, cut magic is much less impressive." I began to look for something to demonstrate.
"I don't think I will need proof of that." Apparently, he was convinced. "To say I'm impressed would not do it justice. I've never seen, nor heard of anything like that. Not with fox magic at least." He began to clean up from the bandages he had applied. "I apologize for not believing you. If you are interested, I would be happy to take you on as an apprentice once you get your mask. You don't have to decide now, but give it some thought." Look at me, I already got a job offer and I'm only 3.
I returned to the Kite's Klub (TM Pending) only to find that Lilac Governess had grounded me... bummer.