Chapter 5

Training Part one:

“Five more laps, Rey,” Evara said, waving at me from her chair. She had a nice little umbrella covering her from the burning sun that seemed infatuated with the park this early morning. I stop, for just a second, trying to catch my breath. I looked around the park and saw a few mothers that had decided to wake up extra early to stroll their kids in peace , not expecting a small child, and two teenagers making a ruckus so early in the morning, or so that was how it would look to them if it wasn’t for magic. Evara had casted an invisibility spell on this track I found myself magically in, since I was pretty sure there was no such track field in park.

“Come on, Rey, enough sitting around. RUN! RUN!”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said, running the remaining laps that I needed around the track field that was conveniently in the park.

I could feel my breath shortening with every lap, yet I had to finish it. For training against that stuffed toy named Teddy.

I ran the remaining laps, feeling exhausted.

“Here, have some water.”

I felt a cool breeze brush up against my cheek. I saw Mikki with a glass of water in her hands.

“What did I get myself into,” I jokingly said, taking the glass of water and gulping it down like a man trapped in a desert. I could feel the water running down my throat, washing away any tiredness with it, almost like magic. I looked at the empty glass.

“Special water, I take it,” I said, giving the glass cup back to Mikki.

“Something like that,” she said, there was a serious tone in her voice which meant she was still angry at me for what I had done.

“That’s enough resting. Get back to running. We have to build that stamina up,” Evara said while sitting on her chair and taking in the sun as she relaxed this sunny morning.

“Aye, aye, captain,” I said, teasingly, as I got up from the ground. Getting back to running laps, trying to build up my stamina, as Evara had told me. Remembering the events that had led me to be up at four in the morning running laps around this magical track field.

***

“So, what’s the plan,” Nana said as she cleaned up the mess that the giant talking teddy bear had left.

“Well,” Evara said, reaching for the ground and grabbing the only cookie that somehow managed to be spared from the damage and getting comfortable back at her seat.

“First, we have to train the kid,” she said, taking a bit from her cookie.

“Master!” Nana said, standing up from the floor, and dropping the mess back down, which didn’t seem to bother her at all.

“That’s not a goo—”

Evara stopped her with a simple motion of her hand.

“Am I going to learn magic,” I asked; a jolt of excitement and giddiness ran throughout my body like a kid on Christmas, ready to open some long-awaited gift.

“Rey,” she said, looking at me.

I swallow the batch of saliva lingering in my mouth, eagerly awaiting her answer. Awaiting the invitation to be a part of their world, to no longer being an outsider but an actual witch or warlock. I didn’t care what I was called, as long as I got to use magic. Not only because it looked cool , I mean, what normal person wouldn’t want to shoot beams from his hands, but mostly because I was finally going to be able to protect myself from them, from anyone that was after my mother’s necklace.

“I’m afraid not,” she finally said, her words coming at me like a bolt of electricity, destroying any childhood delight I might have felt.

“Oh?” I said, not realizing that I had gotten up from my seat in my excitement. What did I expect, really? That I was going to learn Magic; that I was going to learn some secret knowledge that only a few had the privilege of.

“Magic is something that you have to be born with, unfortunately.”

“Of course it was,” I thought, if anyone could use magic so easily it will be dangerous. But then again, not being able to use magic was just as dangerous, remembering everything that had happened since Ms. Serpin decided to make a meal out of me.

She looked at me; there was a hint of sadness in her dark eyes. No doubt pitying me. “You can’t use it, but…”

She stooped, taking a few more bites from her cookie, small crumbs falling on her lap, which she didn’t seem to mind. Perhaps she’s going to tell me of a way I can use magic? Perhaps I still have a chance no matter how small it may be. I wanted to use magic. “We can train your body to be a little more sturdy, especially when it comes to magic,” she said, winking at me.

“Like a punching bag,” I blurted out, not meaning to.

“That’s right, like a punching bag,” she said, finishing her cookie.

“Master…” Mikki finally said. She stood up from her seat. She looked at me, her green eyes showing traces of a mother worrying for her child. “I don’t like the idea of Rey being use as some doll for teddy’s amusement.”

Her words cutting straight into my ego. She wasn’t wrong, but still.

“Perhaps I could fight teddy in his spot.”

“Mikki,” I said. She may have been right, but I was conscious of what that meant this time. I was going to let her fight a battle I had instigated, even if she meant well.

“It’s fine, Rey,” Mikki said, smiling at me, yet her eyes looked at me like a frail little kid, which I hated. “You can’t use Magic, and it will be, no offense, a bloodbath if you fight him.”

Her words once again struck me and destroyed whatever was left of my ego, and making me feel even more useless than what I already felt.

“You certainly have a point, Mikki,” Evara said, sitting on the small couch that looked like it was swallowing her. “But unfortunately, this fight is between Rey and Teddy,” she said, her words bringing my mood up again, if it only for a bit. Perhaps I wasn’t as useless as I thought; perhaps Evara believed in me, or perhaps there was nothing she could do but train me to be a punching bag for teddy until he got bored.

“But Master,” Mikki insisted, trying to get her way.

“Have some faith in the boy,” she said, smiling at us. Perhaps she did believe in me, which was nice, I’m not going to lie. “Anyway, I better get going.”

She stood up from the couch, dropping to the floor in a cutesy sort of way.

“Nana,” she said, looking at her.

“Yes, Master?” Nana said, snapping her fingers and making the mess on the ground move by itself, floating away as if it had somewhere else to be.

“I need your assistance with something, come,” Evara said.

“Of course, Master,” Nana said. She turned and looked at us, smiling at us like a mother. “Don’t worry, I’m sure everything will be alright,” she said before disappearing with Evara into a magic circle of sorts.

“Magic sure is nice,” I said, sitting back down on the couch.

“You know,” Mikki said, looking at me. I didn’t need to know magic to be able to tell what was on her mind.

“It’s alright, if anything happens, I always have you to come to my rescue,” I said, touching her hand. It felt soft and warm, bringing me a certain comfort.

“Just promise me you won’t do anything stupid,” she said, looking at me with her green eyes that had a serious expression that I couldn’t denied. She wasn’t wrong to worry about me. Despite teddy being a large stuffed toy, he looked dangerous, after all, he was part of their world. A world that had tried to eat me.

“More stupid than fighting some giant stuffed toy,” I jokingly said.

“Yes, more than that,” she answered, not amused by my joke. I didn’t blame her.

“I promise I won’t,” I said, smiling at her.

“I’ll be careful.”

***

“How is this going to help me against Teddy,” I said, resting on the dirt ground of the track field I found myself this morning.

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“Well,” she said, taking a sip of water from a glass on a table next to her, and looking like someone on vacation. “I’m trying to build your endurance for the fight,” she said, smiling at me, sending a shiver down my spine.

“Here,” Mikki said, as she handed me a glass of sparkling clear water.

“Right,” I said, taking another sip of water from Mikki’s glass. I swallowed it, and once again, I felt its cool body going down my throat smoothly, taking away all my exhaustion with it. Almost as if the water was recharging me. “This water sure is really good. It’s almost magically good,” I said teasingly, raising an eyebrow at them.

“Enough rest, here, wear this and go and run another lap or two. We have to build that endurance up,” Evara said, smiling at me, and making a black vest appear in front of me like magic. Her smile looked more like a grin, a mischievous little grin that had some mischievous plan in her mind.

“Yes, Master,” I said, putting on the vest. It felt quite heavy, but nothing I couldn’t handle.

I dashed back to running my laps around the track field, training this body of mine. I looked at the mothers that were passing by us, unaware of what was going on, on the other side of this invisibility spell. I’m sure if they could see us , they will find it odd to see a young man who was just a few moments ago barely able to stand up now all charged up and running while wearing a black vest on. If only they knew.

I spent all morning running as many laps as Evara needed me to. The heaviness from the vest had combined with me that I no longer felt it, and every time my body felt sluggish, tired, and ready to give up. I had a glass of water, which seemed to do the job. Recharging my body up, almost as if I was some sort of electrical device that just needed a quick recharge to be up and running at full speed.

“Easy on the water. You don’t want to get sick,” Evara said, gesturing at me to slow down, while she took in the sun, she looked like someone getting her tan, which was odd since she still had her long black robe that covered her whole body.

“Sorry,” I said, gulping down the last glass of magical healing water as fast as possible.

The morning was spend with me running laps around the track field, and watching mothers come and go from the park.

“Well, I better get going,” Evara said, standing up from her beach chair. “See you tomorrow first thing in the morning,” she said, waving goodbye at us and disappearing like a leaf being blown away by the wind.

“She sure is a character,” I said,

“Yes, she is,” Mikki said.

“Shall we head out too? I’m starting to feel sore,” I said, stretching my legs.

I looked at Mikki, her blonde hair tied into a ponytail, a first for her, which suited her. Her hair shining brightly as the sun hit it.

“Is the water…”

“Is the water magic?” she added,

“Yeah,” I said.

“It is.”

“I had a hunch,” I said, wiping away the sweat from my forehead.

“Evara said it would help you,” she said, looking up at the sky,

“Well, it definitely helped,” I said.

“Did you guys put a spell on it?” Curious to know, despite Mikki not wanting me to know more about magic, I still wanted to; for some reason, I felt like I needed to know about magic. This feeling went beyond much more than a child’s curiosity.

“No,” she said, looking straight ahead. “We got it straight from the lakes of youth.”

“The lakes of youth,” I said, curious to know where this magical place was. Did earth have magical places that we, normal humans, didn’t know off?

“Where is that?” I asked, not expecting an answer to be honest. Yet, I couldn’t help but try.

“Some faraway place, you could even say it’s in another world.”

“Another world?” I asked, wondering if there were places that only witches were able to go to.

She stopped and looked at me. “You really want to know about magic, don’t you?” she said, her expression serious, as serious as it had been this whole morning.

“Yes,” I said, returning her seriousness.

“I guess I can tell you a thing or two, but Rey,” she said, her green eyes looking at me, grabbing me.

“Knowledge sometimes comes at a price, and I don’t want to tell you more than what I have to,” she stopped and put her hand on my cheek.

Taking me by surprise and making me blush like some middle school kid. She was very beautiful that I didn’t know if it was because of the heat or some side effect of the water, but my body was telling me to reach forward and kiss her. But I stopped myself.

“I don’t want anything to happen to you,” she said, her green eyes had a softness to them that were quite beautiful in that moment.

“I’ll be alright,” I said.

“I promise.”

“I hope,” she said. She took her hand from my sweaty cheek and looked at the sky.

“The lakes of youth is hidden, well, the portal to it anyway, somewhere on earth.”

“A portal!” I said a tingling sensation washing over my body.

“Yes, a portal,” she continued. “A portal to another world, our world.”

“Your world,” I stopped, a million questions began to run through my head.

“You’re not from Earth?”

She looked at me, the light from the sun hit her back, illuminating her like an angel or a visitor from another world.

“Yes and no ,” she said.

We’ll talk more about it later, lets hurry or else were going to be late for school.”

“School,” I though, not caring about it. How could I care about school when she dropped such a revelation on me. There was another world, another world filled with magic and wonder. I wonder how this magical world looked, and if I would ever get the chance to see such a world. A world that is better than this.

***

The school day passed as quickly as it began, nothing of importance happened, Mikki had student council duties for most of the day, so I didn’t get to see her that much, and Esfir kept to herself.

I try to sneak a quick peek at teddy but he just sat there like an inanimate object. Any trace of him being a walking talking stuffed toy gone.

But all I could think of was Mikki’s word about another world, a magical world.

I wanted to ask her, but she ignored me. And back at home, she was busy with school work so she kept to her room for most of the day.

Night came and the day had come and gone, but yet all I could think of was her revelation. I wanted to ask Ms. Hexa or Nana as I was calling her now, but I figured I shouldn’t. I figured that Mikki would tell me more when she was ready.

But yet , I couldn’t fall asleep, not after Mikki told me they were from another world. A million things swam through my head. My mind trying to create this world of theirs, wondering just how different it was from this earth I called home. Wondering If I would ever get the chance to see this world of theirs, if only for a brief moment.

“I have to go to sleep,” I told myself, tossing and turning, trying to find a comfortable spot to rest. I needed to rest, especially after all the running I had done this morning. Not that I needed it, for my body didn’t feel one ounce of exhaustion. But I still felt like I should rest nonetheless. After all, in one week, I was going to fight Teddy. I was going to fight against a giant stuffed toy from another world, which I wasn’t scared of, surprisingly. I was way too excited now that I knew there was another world filled with magic and everything a kid could dream of. After I spend quite a bit on turning and tossing. I got up from my bed and went downstairs as quietly as possible, not wanting to wake anyone up. But it was no use, for someone was already in the kitchen.

“Nana?” I said, looking at Nana sitting down on the kitchen table. There was a cup on the table in front of her.

“Couldn’t sleep, huh,” she said, smiling at me. “Care to join me?” She gestured at the chair across from her.

“Sure,” I said, grabbing a cup for myself and pouring some of the tea she had made.

“Maybe this is a good chance to ask her about this other world, or perhaps about my mother,” I though, as I took a seat across from her.

“So, what’s on your mind?” she asked. She had a certain aura to her that made me feel at ease, as if everything was going to be okay.

“Is it about Teddy?” she asked.

“Yes,” I lied. She looked at me, her brown eyes inspecting me.

“I have a feeling there’s more on your mind than a giant teddy bear,” she said letting gout a chuckle.

Her warm smile embraced me like a blanket on a cold, rainy day.

“You could say that,” I said, my hand fidgeting around like a kid that had something stuck on his tongue, waiting to release it.

“Go on, Rey, you can tell me,” she said, reaching for my hand. Her hand was warm and soft.

“Is about magic,” I said.

“Mikki has told me,” she said, “that you’re quite eager to know about it.”

“I’ll be lying if say I wasn’t excited, after all, we were talking about magic,” I said.

“Something you don’t see every day.”

“She’s scared, you know,” she said, spinning her finger around the cup’s mouth.

“Scared?” I asked, wondering what she was scared of.

“Is scary when a close friend finds a secret that can change everything,” she said,

“Did mom know about your secret,” I asked, curious to know more about Nana’s relationship with my mother.

“She did not, but I have a feeling that there were times she would find out and…”

She stopped, and looked as if she was reminiscent a very painful memory.

“Nana,” I asked,

“Is okay,’ she said, smiling at me,

“Sometimes, the more you know about magic, the more you are thrown into our world and the harder it will be to go back to living a normal life.”

“But I don’t want to live a normal life,” I said, talking like a child not wanting to go to their bedtime. I was embarrassed.

“Sorry,” I said, looking down at my cup.

“It’s alright,” she said, smiling at me. “For I fear that it’s probably too late now.”

She looked at me, though it felt like she was looking through me as if I wasn’t there, which I found odd.

“Nana, is everything alright?” I asked, a feeling a wave of uncertainty washing over me.

“Sorry, Rey,” she said, shaking her head as if being woken from a dream.

“It’s getting late, you should get some rest. Evara would be waiting for you first thing in the morning,” she said, as she got up from her chair and walked toward me. Kissing me on the forehead, something she hadn’t done since I was a kid.

“Goodnight, Rey,” she said, smiling at me.

“Goodnight,” I said back.

***

“For today’s training, we are going to train your reflexes,” Evara said, grinning at me.

She took out a couple of red balls and put them on the ground next to her.

“Dodgeballs,” I said, recalling the gymnasium accident.

“Don’t worry, these are safe,” she said, laughing.

“I think. Anyway, I want you to catch these balls, okay.”

“Sure,” I said, looking at the balls on the ground.

They had a certain glow to them that made me a bit worried if I was honest.

I cleared my throat, preparing myself for what was to come.

“Should be easy? Right ”

“We’ll see about that,” she said, throwing the balls into the air.

“Wow!” I said, looking up at the sky as they disappeared into the clouds.

“Rey!” she yelled.

“DODGE THEM!”

I saw the balls heading toward me at a speed that no normal ball should have. But of course, these were not normal dodgeballs, this were magical dodgeballs.

“Don’t let your guard down!” she said, throwing more balls into the air.

I dashed back and forth, dodging them. Every time they hit the floor, they made a bomb like sound, and I saw a crater underneath them. And the more I dodged them, the more she threw in the air. We did this all morning, my body feeling sore and tired. I wondered if she had brought some of that special water.

“What’s this training for!” I yelled as I kept dodging them. The muscles in my legs were burning up as I dashed back and forth. Moving with a speed that I did not expect from me. Was my body already improving? Was this because of the water? Had it changed something in me, like magic?

“REFLEXES! “she yelled, as she kept throwing more balls into the air for me to evade. They were fast, alright. In fact, they were so fast that no human eye should be able to see them coming at them with such speed, let alone dodge them. But, for some reason, I was able to follow them. Keeping up with their speed, which I couldn’t explain how I was able to. And to my surprise, I didn’t feel as tired as yesterday, almost as if the training from yesterday had really helped my endurance.

“That’s the last one,” I said, dodging the last of the balls coming from the sky like rain fire. The last ball hit the ground, creating a small cloud of smoke.

“I manage to dodge them all, one hundred of them,” I said, hitting the ground, feeling a bit tired, but not by much.

“Very good,” Evara said, snapping her finger and making all the balls disappear. “See you tomorrow, same time,” she said, grinning at me.

“Wait is training over,” I ask, I was sure we were barely getting started.

‘It’s already been three hours,” she said,

“But time does pass by fast when you’re having fun, doesn’t it?”

“Three hours,” I said, flabbergasted. I had been so preoccupied with dodging balls that I didn’t even keep track of the time.

“I hopefully I won’t be too tired for school.”

Not forgetting my duties as a teenage boy.

“You’ll be alright,” she said, chuckling. “See you then,” she said, snapping her fingers and making her body turn into sand that was whisked away by the air.

“I guess school is not that important when it comes to trying to win a fight to the death,” I said, laughing.

Not being able to hold this joy, I felt. Sure it wasn’t magic what I was learning, but my body felt different. Almost supernatural. I felt like I could take on a hundred Teddys’ or whatever magical thing came my way.

I took a whiff of my smell, that, if any smell magic existed, I didn’t know if it did, that my smell should probably be classified as one. I needed a bath badly.

***

“Hey,” I said, waving at Mikki, as I saw her standing by the door, waiting for me.

“How was training?” she asked,

“Smelly,” I said, raising my arms.

“Definitely,” she said, pinching her nose. “Go take a shower, and come eat breakfast.”

“Yes, ma’am,” I said teasingly.

I walked toward the shower and saw my school uniform in the bathroom, no doubt Mikki or Nana had picked them for me. They were truly the best.

“Ah!, I feel refreshed,” I said as I laid on the bathtub. The water felt like it was taking away all my worries and leaving me with nothing but a peaceful feeling. I looked at my body and I could see muscles that weren’t there before. I truly was getting stronger in just a week almost. It was almost magical I thought. After a few minutes of laying on the bathtub and admiring this new body I was beginning to get, as well as washing away all the sweat from by body, feeling like a complete different person, my stomach began to growl, it was time for breakfast.

I came out of the shower feeling like a brand new person and smelling like one too. I walked out of the bathroom and headed toward the delicious smell that was coming from the kitchen.

“It looks really good,” I said, as I was greeted by a buffet of food waiting for me to devour.

“ I figure master was probably giving you quite the workout,” Nana said, smiling at me.

“Thanks, Nana,” I said, smiling at her.

“You’re welcome.”

“So, when it’s the next training session,” Mikki asked, sitting next to me.

“Tomorrow at four in the morning, ” I said, taking a bite out of the sausage on my plate, its body melting in my mouth.

“What about school?” Mikki asked, her student council president’s voice coming out.

“There is no school at four in the morning,” I said, trying to imitate Evara as best I could.

“Well, I guess it’s alright,” Mikki said reluctantly. I could tell she wasn’t too happy about it.

“Besides, we have magic. I can be home in a jiffy and get ready for school.”

“I guess,” Mikki said.

“We do have magic,” Nana said, smiling at us. I stared at her, trying to find that sadness I saw last night, but she was back to normal. “Is everything alright,” Nana said, tilting her head sideways.

“Everything is alright,” I said. None of the sadness was there. Nana was back to her old self, and whatever was present that night was gone.

“Everything’s alright,” I said, smiling. Everything felt alright in this moment.