by Corin, G.
Amar on the other hand made sure he understood the lesson completely before moving on; he was a far calmer teacher and more patient. He explained the theoretical application of fighting as well which Ramaeka enjoyed, when to use what attack and why, and other basic strategy. However he was less passionate about fighting, preferring to use it as a defence rather than wanting to continually test and push himself like Stripe.
Ramaeka didn’t mind though, he soaked up everything they taught him with ease. The fact that he knew how to fight albeit in a different form allowed him better understanding and he quickly got to the point where he could spar with both of them without biting the dust too hard. Of course the first thing he had learnt was to fall properly.
He enjoyed the lessons, even Shady got into them, sparring with Ramaeka since he was closer to his level than the other two. He still couldn’t beat any of them though and Stripe and Shady made sure to rub it in his face until he took it upon himself to put a fish in each of their beds, even Amar’s. It was the first time that he had ever seen any real emotion on Amar’s face; it had been worth being made to do four hours of running and arm strengthening exercises.
As they got further into the mountains though it became more difficult for long lessons. The cold became so intense that by the time they had finished travelling for the day all of them save Amar were too exhausted to do anything but eat and sleep. Amar always bullied Ramaeka into at least one lesson each night before allowing him to sleep. He told him that it would build endurance. Ramaeka told him exactly which of the five hells he could go to, which actually brought a small smile to Amar’s face. Unfortunately Ramaeka was too tired to care. The mountains were even colder than his home had been; they were also covered in ice and snow.
On the fourth day of travelling in the snow and ice, an immense storm brewed up faster than any Ramaeka had ever seen. Amar grabbed hold of him as the wind pushed him back, and hauled him forward. He turned slightly and grabbed Stripe’s hand; behind him he could see Stripe grab hold of Shady in the same fashion. Amar lead them surely through the storm and into a sheltered cave. Exhausted they slumped down trying to get their breath back in the thin air. Amar, the only one who had any energy, lit a fire before putting protective wards around the cave. Ramaeka watched him curiously; he hadn’t seen him do these wards before. Amar glanced over at him.
“These will keep the entrance from blocking with snow and ice,” he explained. “While these will keep the cave from collapsing on us and this will stop the fire from going out.”
He stopped and sat down beside Ramaeka, digging into his bag and pulling out food to cook.
“Here,” he offered a small cube to Ramaeka. “This will give you a little energy, its sweet.”
Ramaeka smiled his thanks, took the cube and popped it in his mouth. It was sweet, chewy and tasted like honey and fruit, energy seeped from the sweetness into his very bones. He sat up straight and watched as Amar offered a cube to both Stripe and Shady who took them gratefully.
“That stuff is delicious, what is it?” he asked enthusiastically. Amar smiled at him, making Ramaeka blink in surprise. He tossed him another piece.
“It’s called krisim, it is a sweet made in my home,” he explained.
“I’m going to visit your home someday,” Ramaeka promised feeling much more cheerful.
“If you are feeling better, perhaps we may try a different type of lesson today?” Amar said calmly.
“What kind of lesson?” Ramaeka asked watching as the other boy melted some snow in a pot over the fire.
“I believe you have enough physical discipline to begin to learn the art of magic,” Amar informed him; he turned to the other two. “I will also teach both of you, if you would care to learn.” Shady nodded, Stripe hesitated for a moment then nodded reluctantly.
“Very well,” Amar folded his legs beneath him indicating for them to move forward and do the same.
“First you must learn to meditate.”
Stripe scoffed. “Meditation! What good is that?”
“It clears the mind, and it will also help you to find your core of magic. If you cannot master this then you will not be able to master magic.”
Stripe frowned but did not reply.
“Now close your eyes and concentrate on your breathing, clear your mind of thought and your heart of emotion.”
Ramaeka closed his eyes and immediately sunk into meditation. He already knew how to do this part; it had been part of every dragon’s routine in the fortress. Everything faded away except the beating of his heart and the rush of blood in his veins. He quietened those to background noise and simply enjoyed the peace. He could feel the comforting throb of his magic at the very core of his being. A soft voice interrupted his peace.
“I am going to help you this once to find your core and show you how to draw upon it.”
But I already know he wanted to protest though he stayed quiet. A firm hand drew him down to his core which burned brightly. He bathed in its glow for a moment before the voice interrupted again.
“Now I want you to call it, just a small thread.”
He did so with ease, pulling a thin thread of it out.
“Now weave it up through your body to your eyes,” the voice instructed.
Ramaeka had never done this before. Curious he drew the thread of power through his body until it pressed behind his closed eyes. “Open your eyes now.”
As he did so, Ramaeka flinched. Everything blazed with light. Blinking watery eyes concentrated and looked again. This time the light did not surprise him and he stared around the cave with wonder. The cave itself glowed with a soft white light, as did the few rocks on the ground. The wards that Amar had set were silvery white symbols. Looking at his friends he saw that Shady glowed with a steady gold light. Stripe’s light was much stronger and blazed a very light yellow. Looking down at his own hands Ramaeka noticed a strong brown light encompassing them. Amar’s light however eclipsed them all; he burned the same white as the cave and stones but with an intensity that was almost painful.
“That’s enough now,” commanded the soft voice. Ramaeka blinked letting go of his power. He felt the thread slide down back into place. Opening his eyes again he was almost disappointed to see that everything was just the same again. His friends were rubbing their eyes as if to dispel any lingering images. Amar offered him some water.
“What was that?” Shady murmured sipping on some water.
“What you saw was the life magic of those around you as well as the product of magic that I have cast,” Amar explained.
“You all did extremely well; I assume that you have meditated before now?”
Stripe and Shady exchanged glances.
“We were taught how to do it when we were kids, at a temple in Porkae,” Stripe said gruffly. “It wasn’t for magic or anything, just part of the lessons you had to take if you wanted to learn how to read and write.”
“The lessons were free to us street kids, and being able to read and write put you a step above the rest,” Shady explained. “The priests were sacred so they couldn’t be forced to dob on you, and no one was allowed to take anyone by force from the temple.”
“I understand,” Amar nodded thoughtfully. “And you Ramaeka?”
Ramaeka gulped. “Er, pretty much the same thing, my father made all of us meditate.”
“Just to relax and clear the mind though,” he added quickly.
Amar looked at him intently for a moment before turning back to the other two.
“It is useful that you know this already,” he said. “Teaching you magic will be much easier. But that is more than enough for today, you were meditating for over an hour, something your body is probably not used to.”
Ramaeka stretched in agreement, he was stiff and cramped after sitting in the same position for so long.
“Here let me cook tonight,” Stripe offered taking the pot and food from Amar.
As Stripe cooked and Shady snoozed, Ramaeka sat and watc
hed Amar. The boy sat at the front of the cave staring out into the storm. He was strange thought Ramaeka uneasily, and the colour of his life force had brought several strange suspicions into his mind. But they were so ridiculous he knew they couldn’t be true. As if reading his mind, Amar turned and looked at Ramaeka. He smiled slightly before turning back to the storm. Whoever he really was Ramaeka wasn’t going to question him, he decided.
Standing up he walked over and joined him in the entrance. The landscape outside was completely shut off by raging wind and whirling snow. Ramaeka shivered and pulled his jacket closely around himself. He was so grateful that Stripe had brought him warm clothes back in Talok though he’d scoffed at them at the time.
“Can you see the patterns in the snow?” Amar asked suddenly.
“Sorry?” Ramaeka asked in confusion.
Amar pointed out into the snow.
“If you look into the snow you can make out shapes and patterns,” he explained.
Ramaeka peered out into the white mass. At first he couldn’t make out anything in particular but after awhile he started to pick up shapes as the wind and snow shifted.
“Hey I see what you mean,” he turned and grinned at Amar. Looking out again he pointed to a whirling patch. “That looks like a fish leaping out of water.”
“That’s right,” Amar giving him that small rare smile of his. They sat together staring out into the storm until Stripe called them back for food.
Chapter Six
The storm lasted four long miserable days in which they were trapped in their cave. The most worrying aspect of their enforced stay was their dwindling supplies. With several days of travelling still to go once they were able to leave and unsure of how long they would be caught there, they were forced to ration their food and water.
It was the worst thing to ever happen to him as far as Ramaeka was concerned. While the one meal a day was enough to sustain the other three boys, he was slowly starving. As a dragon he needed far more food than a human. Even if he wasn’t in his greater form, his body seemed to use up any energy from the food twice as fast as the others. He couldn’t complain though, he was smaller than all three of his companions and shouldn’t need as much. So complaining might just make them more suspicious.
He sighed and sat up unable to sleep anymore; his hunger pains were too sharp. Amar was sitting tending to the fire.
“Hello Ramaeka,” he greeted him.
“Hey,” he replied flopping down beside him. The one good thing about being stranded here were the magic lessons which Amar had been giving them. They were completely different from any Ramaeka had ever received from Garain. They had moved on from merely accessing their power to being able to call it up and use it. They also did at least two hours of meditation every day as well.
Stripe walked over and sat down beside Ramaeka greeting both of them.
“Shady’s still snoring in the back,” he told them with a grin.
They all laughed, Shady’s snoring had become almost legendary and was a source of great amusement. At least when they weren’t trying to sleep. Ramaeka smiled to himself, after being stuck in a cave with them for so long Amar was beginning to loosen up and become friendlier. He and Stripe were getting along better too.
“Hey Amar, teach me some more about magic?” he pleaded turning to his newest friend.
“Very well,” Amar replied making himself more comfortable. “Perhaps I could explain a little of the theoretical side of magic so that you may gain a deeper understanding of its uses.”
Stripe groaned and lay back. “Well at least this might put me to sleep.”
Ramaeka ignored him and looked at Amar eagerly. “Go on.”
“You have seen your magical core already,” Amar began calmly ignoring Stripe. “That is your magic in its raw form. To use it you must use your will power to shape it in the way that you wish.”
“So technically you could use it in any way?” Ramaeka asked.
“Yes as long as you have the will power to shape it,” Amar replied.
“Wait on, what about spells and symbols and magic words, aren’t they what shapes magic?” Stripe argued.
“Yes, for most beings that is the easiest way to use their power. They shape their power using words or symbols that have specific meaning, but those words and symbols have meaning only because we give it to them. Every word, every symbol has the potential for great power depending on how it is used.” He stopped and fishing in his bag he pulled out an orange.
“You see that this is an orange yes?” he asked Ramaeka and Stripe who both nodded. “Now if you take a simple word like apple, that word does not really hold much power except to create the image or idea of an apple in your mind. However if I draw upon my power and say the same word again while concentrating on the orange.”
He held the orange up.
“APPLE.”
The orange changed instantly taking on the appearance of an apple. Amar passed it to Stripe who examined it closely before handing it to Ramaeka. He sniffed it; it even smelt like an apple.
“You may eat it if you wish,” Amar told him.
Ramaeka took a bite; it was definitely an apple he thought cheerfully, and a good one. He offered it to Stripe who shook his head.
“You eat it, I believe you.”
He looked back at Amar. “So why do people have complex spells to do that when they could just say the word?”
“It is all about willpower, knowledge, natural talent and versatility of mind. The mages that you see from areas such as Hangor or Caffric have very little natural power. Therefore they use what they have in conjunction with spells which extract power from their surroundings. However people such as us have immense potential for power. The more we use it and exercise it the more our power will grow. On the other hand if we cannot see what we wish to happen in its full complexity then we must turn to spells and words in order to create that which we wish.”
Ramaeka and Stripe both stared at him blankly. Amar sighed. “So if I had not thought about every aspect of the apple, from its skin to its seeds, then the spell would not have worked completely. If I thought only of what it looked like then the skin would have changed but the inside would still be that of an orange. Do you understand?”
Ramaeka nodded slowly. “So you need to know everything about what you want it to change into before you can change it?”
“Exactly. This is why healers need to know what the body looks like and how it functions before they heal somebody.”
Ramaeka chewed on the last of his apple thoughtfully. “So you need to know a lot of stuff to use magic properly.” It was strange he thought, in the magic classes at the fortress they were taught to bring their power forth as fire or ice through their mouths or to chant spells to make things work. No one had ever mentioned that magic could be used so differently.
“Yes, and that is why education is so important,” Amar replied.
“But if you had a really strong mind and a good imagination you could change at least the outward appearance of something? Or capture something and bend it to your will?” Ramaeka asked.
“Yes you would, though that is why most civilisations have a moral code they follow when it comes to magic.”
Ramaeka looked at him confused. “Moral code?”
“Rules about using magic so that you do not use it in a way that is harmful to others. Enslaving a being is one of the worst things that you could do with your magic.”
“But what if it’s not a person but a thing like wind or water?” Ramaeka persisted.
“As long as you do not enslave the element itself then that is permissible, it is enslavement of a sentient being that is wrong,” Amar told him.
“An element?” Stripe asked puzzled, “Isn’t that what water and air are?”
“In a way,” Amar said, “But there is also an Elementai or elemental for everything in existence. These are not sprites; a sprite is attached to one particular plant, tree or stream. One elemental c
an be every tree or the element of all fire.”
“So kind of like having individual gods for everything,” Stripe mused.
“Most of them are extremely wild and roam throughout the worlds in their natural states. There are some who have taken human form however and live amongst us. Fate is one of these; she travels in her human form, giving prophecies and fortunetelling to the humans that she takes a liking to.”
“That’s so strange,” Stripe said shaking his head in disbelief. “And I thought that there was only one world. Where did you learn all this stuff?”
Amar smiled slowly at him. “I had a very good education,” he said, his strange multi-coloured eyes dancing.
“What’s going on?” Shady’s voice asked sleepily from behind them. “Hey the storms died down.”
Turning around Ramaeka saw that it was true, the wind had died away as had the snow leaving only a light drizzle.
By the time the storm had finished clearing they were packed and ready to leave, determined to make up for lost time. The mountains were extremely treacherous. Nothing in all of Ramaeka’s years of living in the mountains prepared him for the constant avalanches and hidden pits. After Shady almost disappeared down one such hidden pit, narrowly avoiding death on the ice and rocks below, Stripe tied them all together.
“Hopefully this way if one of us falls we can haul each other out,” he explained.
“Yep or we at least get to all die together,” Ramaeka grinned at him.
Stripe whacked him lightly over the back of the head.
They spent the next three days like that, resting only for a few hours at a time. On the second day they saw a massive shape flying in the distance.
“Dragon,” Stripe murmured. “Better watch out for a while.”
“Evil things,” Shady grumbled not taking his eyes away from the wheeling shape. Ramaeka’s heart sank at that and he crouched lower to the ground. How was he going to explain the truth to his friends when they hated his kind, he couldn’t hide forever.
“Actually they are not so bad,” Amar interrupted his thoughts.
