4.2 A Loser and a Step in the Right Direction
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“What did you do just now?” Melody insisted, pressing towards me over the magic circle. I bent back away from her trying to tear my eyes away from her chest.

    “Well, I, um…” I stuttered, not really knowing how to respond. I don’t know what I did just now. Nothing I was thinking about and nothing I felt seemed like it was particularly magical. I suppose I became a bit frustrated for a second. This is just an assumption but wouldn't magic feel like something? I imagined that magic would be some sort of electricity or some sort of indescribable force. That fire just then seemed like it came out of nowhere. I didn’t even realize my hand was still on the carving. I looked back at the ceiling. 

    Awesome, seriously awesome! I couldn’t stop myself from smiling. I immediately wanted to try again but the dragon was getting in the way. That was seriously magic, I can do real magic. Even with the dragon, the other dragon, and all the other crap that had happened this was actually magic. 

    “C-can I try again?” I said, excitedly looking at Melody’s face.

    “You may…” She said, backing away from me again. It looked like she was studying my actions this time, specifically focusing on me and what I was doing. This time, though, the embarrassment that I was experiencing previously didn’t come up. This was too awesome to be scared of what she thinks now. 

    I placed my hand back on the magic circle and tried to replicate the feeling that I got when the fireball shot out. Nothing happened, predictably, I wasn't feeling anything when it worked, but I closed my eyes and tried harder. I’m going to do this again. Yet, even with that determination the fire wouldn’t shoot out. Is it really tied to frustration? Maybe it’s just a strong emotional response. Still, I’m feeling pretty strongly about a few things right now even with my hand on the ground. 

    “Hmm…” The dragon sat there in front of me, judging me.

"I need some time to figure it out on my own, I think." Which was probably true. At least it would be an excuse. These aren't the circumstances that I would prefer.

"Ah, yes, I see. You're probably right." She said while getting up and walking a distance away from me. With that, she transformed back into her large dragon form. She gestured to me unexpectedly. 

"Get on." She said while bending her neck down to the floor. I looked at her confused by I listened anyway. As I settled down on her back and got a decent foot hold the dragon moved up and out of the cave. Tilting over to the side, she slid me off. 

Melody hesitated for a moment as she turned away from me. Without a word she crawled back into the cave. 

Wait, I'm free? Unencumbered, clothed, and now without supervision? 

I stood back from myself in awe. A light breeze blew around a scattered dusting of dead leaves. It rustled the shivering shadows at my feet as the trees above me shivered in the cold. This is the same sort of feeling I got when I was first dropped into this world. I shivered. A well of laughter tried to escape out of my throat but I held it back. This was so stupid. I was free just like that through no real effort or coercion of my own. Out of her eyes, I was finally, peacefully, alone. 

It was cold so I crossed up my arms. At least now the bottom part of me was covered. Somehow, it had been much warmer down in the cave. That was either the dragon's doing or just the nature of the cave itself, I expect. Though, from what I know, caves aren't usually all that warm. That's just the logic of earth seeping through. 

I'm almost in denial. I looked back over my shoulder at the cave, expecting to see a looming back figure spitting fire while clawing her way out of the ground. I can't believe it.  She's really not there. I looked at my watch and saw that it was 1pm. The sun above me was beaming down harshly in the mid-day light and yet somehow the air was still chilly. It must be winter here, or something. 

So, without anything else to do, I started to walk along the bank of the river again. I walked for a good while thinking of nearly nothing but my freedom. If I go in this direction will I encounter humans? It’s the way I came from, it’ll take days for me to reach any destination no matter which way I walk. I should have, at the very least, asked Melody where humans live. I don't even know if there even are any people around this silent forest area. That is my goal anyway, if it wasn't obvious. I want to find people. Ever since I got to this world I've wanted to find people. I continued to walk on.

I wonder… What

 sort of society exists in a place like this? Are they technologically advanced? I hope they're not modern or semi-modern, that takes the fun out of it. There's magic here. This place should be like a renaissance festival. At the very least, I'll settle for medieval times or maybe the industrial revolution. Actually, wouldn't a futuristic society be cool too? I would be nervous in a sci-fi, to be honest. A sci-fi hero needs to be some sort of leader, martyr, or activist who's making an impact on social things. I can't fill that role. Well, I can’t fill the fantasy hero role very well either but that’s besides the point.

What am I even thinking about, that's silly. I just have to look at the pant's I'm wearing to realize this is the past not the future. These things are definitely not something from a sci fi utopia or dystopia. Actually…

As I walked along the river side looking down into the basin of the foaming depths. Not that it has much to do is what type of society humans have in this world that water is still there. Same as it was, it's still foaming away with little white monsters. It's just like the stuff coming off the dragon. 

Wait… it's like the stuff coming off the dragon, wasn't it? I stopped in my tracks and faced the river. I kicked a rock into the water pensively. 

What happened here?

I sat down, trying to collect my thoughts. That dragon and this water, what could be the connection between these things? I look back down the bank to the direction I’d come from. Over there in the short distance still sat the cave opening, of course, still unoccupied at it’s top and still outside of Melody’s eyes. She’s got to know something about all of that.

Looking around behind me I found a stick that looked like it would work. In the light layer of sand lining the high rocky shore of the river I scratched the magic circle for the fireball into the ground. 

“Fireball!” With my hand on the edge of the drawing I said this with my closest approximation to any forced emotion I could muster. Predictably, nothing happened yet again. So, I guess I’m not exactly ready to go anywhere. If any monster that’s not as reasonable as the dragon I’ve been living with for a week shows up I’m not at all prepared for the consequences. Ah, wait, that is an idea though. I took a leaf off a bush and pressed the magic circle drawing into that too. I held it up and pointed it into the river. But, I stopped.

Even if that works it’s not going to work. If I can’t make the magic come out of the ground on command why would it come out of a leaf? The concept probably isn’t flawed but the execution will be. I just suck. I can’t even do magic in a fantasy world. It’s impossible after all.

Tossing the leaf in the river, I turned back to the cave and started to walk away. The water fizzed around the leaf as it dissolved into nothing. I grabbed another leaf. Suddenly, I came up with an idea. 

In the short distance in front of me there was a small pool in the bank of the river. While the water flowed by quickly to the side of it it was pooling in that area and not cycling out quite as fast. I walked over to it, looking down to the rocky bottom through the glass-clear water. I threw a leaf in. Like before, the white creatures seemed to appear from nowhere and eat the leaf to nothing. 

“Transcendent light heal.” With my hand out I cast the magic at the water. Fizzing slight, a white film formed on the top of the pool, swirling around in the middle with the flow of the water. 

I threw another leaf into the pool, right into the center of the mess I’d made. Nothing happened. The leaf was left untouched. 

I… I healed it to death?

For one, I was right. That dragon was reacting weirdly when I accidently used the healing spell on it. It might be accurate to say that it had been enraged when I did that, but I definitely did some damage as well. Well, maybe not to the dragon, but to whatever these things are that were coming out of it. I was right! I might be a little too proud of solving that one. Was that too obvious? Am I an idiot for not realizing it initially?

Whether or not I’m stupid is irrelevant. I took my pocket watch from my pocket and looked at the time. I snapped it closed. It’s almost a quarter to two. I looked around the forest and the riverbank absentmindedly wondering if I should go back. I should probably tell Melody what’s wrong with her brother and how she can help him. I want to help her as well. She’ll probably just let me leave after that, that was the deal she made, after all. I’ll go back. 

First, though, I have something I want to get before I do that.

 

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