Bakkian Chronicles, Book I - The Prophecy (16 page)

“
Okay, now what? How do I make it stop?” Sarah shrugged; she didn’t know. Now what? Not really wanting his hand to burn, he rushed over to the lake and thrust it in. Steam hissed up from the water, coalescing around his face. After a minute or two, the clouds of vapor drifted away, and he pulled his hand out.

Sarah rushed up to him. “Are you hurt? Are you in pain? Let me see your hand.”

Steve held up his left hand. It was back to being a healthy pink. He wiggled his fingers. No discomfort anywhere.

“
Everything in good working order. But we have a problem. Scratch that. Lets back up a bit. First off, I’m thrilled that we know the nature of my jhorun. And I’m ecstatic that I was able to prevent that arrow from reaching you. However, what happens if there isn’t water around? Why wouldn’t it shut off by itself?”

“
Well, maybe you didn’t give it enough time. It might have reverted back to normal after a few minutes.”

“
I’d like to say that I didn’t panic, but in my defense, for all I knew, it did look as though my hand was gonna catch fire.”

“
When your hand was all red like that, did it hurt? Could you have gone longer with your hand that hot?”

Steve thought back. “It didn’t hurt at all. In fact, it felt all tingly, like when your hand goes to sleep. Something like that. But no pain, and I certainly couldn’t feel any heat whatsoever.”

With their gear all stowed back into the pack, Steve refilled their canteen (again) and proceeded on, heading northwest along the path. Sarah walked quickly in front, with Steve bringing up the rear. Since their adversary had caught them unaware for a second time, especially when he had vowed not let that happen again, Steve was now on high alert, constantly listening for any sounds of pursuit. The only thing he could hear, however, were he and Sarah’s labored sound of breathing.

This was so
cool
! Talk about being straight out of the comic books! Now that he knew the nature of his jhorun, he wanted to do what any kid would want to do with a new toy: keep playing! He wanted to experiment! How strong did his anger have to be in order for it to manifest itself? Did he have to focus on a specific item? Was it only pertaining to anger? Could he summon the heat if he concentrated hard enough?

He had generated a flash of heat so intense that it burned trees and completely incinerated an arrow that was shot at them. The level of heat that was necessary to flash burn a speeding arrow was unimaginable to him. Scorch marks on the trees… Wouldn’t that suggest fire as well? Where there’s heat, there’s fire, right? Did he generate fire? Could he actually summon fire?

That, Steve thought, was critical, need-to-know information! Wouldn’t it be fantastic if, at just a whim, he could conjure a fireball out of thin air and hurl it at a bad guy? Think of the ways he could protect Sarah in this strange world! God forbid he encountered any other muggers now!

That was something he was going to practice until he had all the specifics down pat, Steve vowed to himself. How to activate, how to control the intensity, how to target different objects, and most importantly, how to turn his ability off. Without water present, he needed to be certain he wasn’t going to harm Sarah in any way. That was critical.

So while the two of them tried to retrace their route back to the enchanted road, Steve mentally practiced summoning his jhorun. He focused his mental anger at passing rocks and twigs. He even picked up a small branch while Sarah was walking in front of him, but was unsuccessful in generating so much as one joule of heat out of himself.

Wait a minute. If he couldn’t detect any heat coming from his hand, would he be able to tell if he was heating up? If his power was heat and/or fire, wouldn’t he be immune to its effects? Wouldn’t make much sense generating the heat if he couldn’t handle it, would it? Wait a minute, what about his clothes? They weren’t going to be able to insulate him against the heat, so they were liable to burn off.

Got it. No getting mad at himself. Wouldn’t want to be running around out here in the buff, either.

But what is the key to activating this? How could he tap into his magic just a little bit without igniting everything in a fifty foot radius? He needed to be able to focus his energy, thus focusing the intensity of heat emanating from him. Once he had the intensity down, then he would work on his aim.

Clenching the twig tightly, Steve focused all his mental energy on the small piece of wood. He could clearly imagine it bursting into flame, rapidly reducing to ash. Only, he didn’t want ash, he wanted the thing to burst into flames. Not scorching heat that would hurt anyone, just a little flame.

He looked over at Sarah, still walking along the path ahead of him. His mood instantly softened. There was his one true love, his soul mate. The bond that he shared with Sarah couldn’t be described with just mere words. He would do anything for her, and that included dying, if the need arose. She was his inspiration. He needed to master this skill. Since they needed to find a suitable place to camp for the night, he needed to master it quickly. He eyed the twig and ordered it to ignite.

Much to his amazement, the small twig burst into flame. He stopped dead in his tracks and watched the twig burn.

Sarah, alerted to Steve’s absence, looked behind her. She saw her husband holding a burning twig. He was just staring at it, holding it this way and that, admiring it from different angles.

“
What happened? Did you just make that fire appear?”

Steve nodded. “I essentially ordered it to burn. And it burned.”

Sarah clapped her hands. “Good job! Did you focus your anger on it?”

“
No, I didn’t. I don’t think anger is my trigger.”

“
Really? Why do you say that? What is it, then?”

“
I tried getting angry,” Steve explained, “only that wasn’t working. Care to know what I did?”

“
Absolutely!”

“
For a lack of a better word, its chivalry, or a sense of protection. I think about you, protecting you, making certain you’re safe, and I can sense this, uh, presence, if you will. Like something is about to happen. I think at that time my jhorun is ready to emerge, and I just have to tell it what to do.”

Sarah blinked. Was this her husband? Since when did he become so damn good at interpreting his emotions? They only had just taken their “swim” in the lake about an hour ago. How could he have figured out so much in so little time? Was he right about his magic?

“
I’m impressed, honey. How did you figure it out? Are you sure you’re right?”

“
I can try to do it again, to see if I’m right.”

Sarah looked at the burning branch. The flickering flames had just about worked its way down to his hand.

“
You’re about to get burned.”

Steve nodded. “I know. I want to know if fire will burn me here.”

“
And you’re willing to risk a burn?”

“
Ordinarily, no. But since I can’t feel any heat whatsoever, I figured it was worth a shot.”

“
No heat? Nothing? It doesn’t hurt?”

Steve watched as the flames completely engulfed the twig, and consequently, his hand. The fire danced between his fingers, tickling his skin. This was the coolest thing ever! The flames didn’t have any effect on him at all! No heat and no pain!

“
Nothing.” He twisted his arm around so he could watch the flames from all angles. “I can’t feel a thing.”

“
Can you turn it off?”

Steve looked at the burning stick. He imagined that the fire was there to do his bidding. The stick burned, it caught fire, mission accomplished. Sarah could be in danger if that fire isn’t extinguished. Time to put it out.

The flames snuffed out, leaving the branch smoldering in his hand.

Sarah’s jaw dropped. Holy cow! He did it! He put the fire out! Unbelievable! Her husband was now left holding a smoldering twig. Immense pride swelled within her.

“
That’s awesome! Way to go, sweetie! I’m so impressed!!”

Steve was beaming. That had worked much better than he thought it would. He looked at the smoking stick. A nagging thought just occurred. Was he responsible for putting it out or did a gust of wind do the job for him? Better see if he can ignite it again. He concentrated, conjuring up his protective feelings for his wife once more. He eyed the stick again, ordering it to flame up. The smoldering stick ignited instantly, blazing brightly in his hand.

Sarah, in the process of reaching out to touch Steve’s hand, jerked back. “What happened? Did you do that?”

“
Yeah, sorry, I just needed to know if I could do it again. I thought maybe a breeze might have blown it out the first time, so I need to be certain it was me who put it out.”

“
Put it out, would you?”

Once the flames had been extinguished, Sarah gingerly touched her husband’s hand. His skin was warm to the touch, but not overly hot. She felt his forehead. Again, warm to the touch, but nothing alarming.

“
Anything feel warmer than it should?” Steve asked.

“
A little warm, like you’ve been in the sun for a couple of hours, but other than that, no.”

Steve dropped the burnt stick and rubbed it out on the ground. Only when he had ground it thoroughly in the dirt did he move on. Taking Sarah’s hand, they continued north.

“
You didn’t answer my question.” Sarah pointed out. “How did you figure it out so quickly?”

Steve reached out and moved a low-lying branch out of the way for his wife. “Well, I was thinking about it, trying to use my anger, focusing it on anything. And I wasn’t getting the slightest response. At that moment, I looked up and saw you. I started thinking that I really needed to master this skill of mine, ‘cause we’re gonna have to find a place to camp for the night, and I wanted to be able to use this ability to be able to protect you from anything that might happen. And that’s when it happened.”

“
What? What happened?”

“
As soon as I thought about protecting you, I started to feel a warm sensation spreading all throughout my body. My hand started to tingle, the one holding the stick. And somehow I knew, just knew, that something was about to happen. Like something was waiting to happen. Since the tingling wasn’t unpleasant, and it only appeared when I thought of you, I figured it might be my jhorun. So, since I wanted to practice on the twig, I ordered it to burn. And what do you know? It started to burn.”

Sarah was silent as she absorbed this latest bit of information. Her love for her husband, and his love for her, is causing this sense of protection? His sense of chivalry is what triggers his magic? She didn’t know how to react to that, other than to feel flattered beyond all belief.

“
Um, I’m speechless, I really am. Your feelings for me, your desire to make sure I’m safe, that’s the trigger?”

“
Yes,” Steve said. “I’m positive.”

Sarah flung her arms around her husband and hugged him hard. “That’s so sweet! I love you.”

“
Right back at you, babe. As I live and breathe, no one is going to lay a finger on you.”

Still embracing Steve, she sighed against his chest. “Thank you.”

Gently pushing her away, Steve started looking around. “Come on, let’s find a place to camp for the night.”

He took Sarah’s hand and explored around the trail. About thirty paces east they discovered another one of the massive trees had fallen. Actually, it looked like it had been pushed over, completely uprooted from the ground. Steve didn’t want to know what it took to push one of those huge trees over. Whoever was responsible for maintenance on these trails apparently had their hands full.

Taking off his pack, he set it down, leaning it against the trunk. While Sarah rooted around in the pack for some more dried meat, Steve set about making a camp fire. Fortunately, there were quite a few stones scattered here and there that were suitable for making a decent hearth. Moving about a dozen stones over to the trees, and arranging them in a ring, Steve scouted around looking for firewood.