Forced Magic (9 page)

“Pretty crappy huh?” she said.

I laughed a little, "Yeah, I guess that describes it
perfectly.”

We both laughed. We sat there, enduring another award
silence. I wished I was more comfortable talking to girls.

“He can help you,” she said, finally breaking the silence.
“He helped me and he can help you. We both can.”

I could tell she really believed that he could. I wasn’t
sure if anyone could help me.

“I hope so,” I said.

“He can,” she reassured me. “He has helped so many others
who have continued on and now have great lives. I stayed with him to help with
the others he finds, like you, who have had magic destroy their lives. He has
asked me time and time again to leave and go on with a new life but I just
can’t.”

I could tell the way she was talking that she was in love
with him. We sat there for a little while in silence. I looked down at her
tattoo. From up close it looked even more amazing. It looked like multicolored
scales wrapping all around her arm. She looked over and saw me staring at it.

“It’s a dragon.”

She turned her hand over and I could see the end of a spiked
tail tattooed into her palm. She showed me her other arm that ended with a
clawed paw resting on the top of her hand. She pulled her dress over exposing
her shoulder. You could see part of the dragon's mouth and one of its eyes.

"It's beautiful," I said.

"Thanks, but it can’t compare to the real thing."

Fetch wandered over as we sat there looking at the tattoo.
His eyes changed color rapidly. Michelle gasped at this. She was in complete
awe of Fetch. I couldn’t blame her, he was pretty cool. Even though he was a
pain in the butt sometimes, I was beginning to think of Fetch as someone who
had always been there in my life, even though he had only become a part of it
in the last  day.  With all the things that had happened in this short amount
of time, how I had changed, and how my old life had been erased, in a way, he
had always been there. Fetch ducked his head down toward Michelle’s hand and
nudged it gently.  At first Michelle was confused.

“I think you created a monster Michelle. He wants you to
scratch his head.”

Michelle smiled, happy to oblige. Fetch's eyes turned blue
and rolled upward as he sat there really enjoying the attention. I thought of
all the old stories of dragons eating young maidens and wondered of there was
any truth behind them. Looking at Fetch I knew maidens had nothing to fear from
him. 

Michelle made a strange sound. I looked over and saw the
tears flowing from her eyes. She was lost in a fantasy. Her choice of a dragon
tattoo gave me the idea of how much she loved the idea of dragons. Being here
with Fetch must have been a dream come true. I wondered if she had ever seen a
dragon before. She had been living in this fantasy world for a while, surely
there must be other dragons around. Then the thought hit me. What about other
fantasy creatures? I have already met goblins, wizards, dragons, and fairies.
If they exist, then what about unicorns, griffins, dwarves . . . the list went
on and on in my head. The fantasy geek in me was thrilled at the idea of it.

“Michelle, are there unicorns?” I asked.

She laughed, continuing to scratch Fetch's head.

"Anything you have ever read about, Jack, they are
real. Not necessarily the way they are in the books, but they do exist."

“How have they stayed hidden all this time?”

Michelle had a thoughtful look on her face. I could tell
that she had given this a lot of thought.

“Most people just refuse to accept what they are seeing.
There are councils around the world, in all the different magic communities,
that govern the appearance and effects of magic. You have experienced the pulse
and what it does to people's minds when magic is seen."

She stopped for a moment frowning at this.

”Sometimes the magic world leaks through.  A lot of writers
in the past have written what they have learned and seen and that became fantasy
books and novels. It wasn’t always hidden, Jack. There was a time when it not
only wasn’t hidden, but both worlds were one. Something happened that caused
the magic world to separate itself from the non-magic world. I don’t know what
it was. Johnathen does. I wish I could tell you more, Jack, but there is so
much that I don’t know myself. Johnathen has protected me from a lot of the
magic world because, just like you, there are those that want me dead or at
least erased from knowing that magic is real."

She was quiet for a while. I got the impression that she
wasn’t necessarily happy with the idea that so much seemed to be kept from her
by Johnathen. I looked at Fetch. He was listening very intently to what she was
saying. He was new to the world and so much seemed to be unknown to him as
well.

"Have you ever seen another dragon before Fetch?"
I asked this question not just for me but for Fetch as well.

He looked over at me, his eyes turning green for a second.
He seemed grateful to me for asking it. He looked at Michelle while smoke
poured out of his nose in different colors.

“No, Fetch, you are the first dragon I have met,” she said.
“Dragons have been missing in this part of the world for a while now. They have
great power and anyone who can gain control over them has a chance of taking
over everything. It has always seemed obvious to me that it was the fairies
that did this.  From what Johnathen has told me they have always tried to take
over.“

At the mention of fairies, Michelle's face seemed to turn
dark. I thought about the fairy that had tried to kill me. I knew Johnathen
must be right about the fairies, but there was a part of me that wanted to
believe they couldn’t be all bad.

“Do you think that all fey are bad?" I asked Michelle.

She stopped petting Fetch and turned to me, getting right in
my face.

"They're all bad, Jack, don’t ever think anything
different. They tried to kill you and they killed my family. I have seen the
damage that they have caused and the lives they have destroyed. They are a
darkness in this world, Jack, and they must be stopped.”

I looked deep into Michelle’s eyes. I could almost feel the
pain she must have gone through. But I could also see a strength in her.  She
looked away, staring at the limo.

"I will do anything I can to stop them, Jack. Anything!
If you could have seen what they did to my family . . ."

She stopped talking. There was a hitch in her voice and the
tears began to pour out of her eyes. It amazed me that someone could be so
strong and confident one minute, then could begin to cry so quickly the next.
She had to have gone through so much. She sat there with her head in her hands
as Fetch rested a paw in her lap. She looked up at him, then grabbed him
tightly around the neck, and began to sob. At first Fetch had a surprised look
on his face, but slowly closed his eyes and rested his head on her shoulder. He
gently wrapped his front paws around her, returning the hug. I stood there
watching this exchange and I knew, at that moment, that Fetch was innocent. He
was not to blame for all the things that had happened to me. I was reminded
that in his own way Fetch needed answers too. I didn’t want to break up this
touching moment, but, looking around, I started getting nervous that someone
would come into the park and see this exchange between dragon and girl.

I cleared my throat and said, "Looks like you have made
a friend for life, Michelle."

She broke the embrace turning toward me. There were tears in
her eyes and a smile on her face.

“Oh I hope so,” she said, "I hope I have made two
friends, Jack."

She grabbed me and gave me a tight hug. 

"Boy, look at us," I said, "you would think
there is something wrong the way we keep breaking into tears."

Michelle pulled away. Her reaction gave me the idea that it
had come out wrong. I felt my old clumsiness coming out. I felt a thump against
the side of my head as Fetch gave me a smack with his tail. Michelle looked at
both of us and began to laugh. This made me feel better. She did understand
that I was just trying to lighten the mood and not make fun of her. Wanting to
keep the mood light, I thought of a trick I could show Michelle.

"Hey, you want to see something neat?” 

Michelle looked at me suspiciously.

"You are gonna love this."

I jumped up from the bench with a smile. I had no idea if
what I was about to do would even work, but I wanted to show off. I looked
around and saw how light the park had gotten. The sun was starting to rise and
soon the early morning park walkers would start to show up. With another quick
look around the park to make sure no on was there yet I turned to Fetch. I
raised a hand in the air looking and smiling at Fetch. He got what I was going
for right away.  He sent a stream of fire out of his mouth catching my hand on
fire.

"Great job, Fetch," I said.

Just in the short amount of time since last night’s battle,
Fetch's aim had gotten better. I kept my hand up for a while looking at
Michelle and smiling. She sat there with her mouth hanging open.

"Ha!" I laughed, “You should see the look on your
face right now."

I put my hand down, palm up, and looked at it. I had learned
to juggle when I was about seven. It had been a while since I had done it. I
stood there hoping I could do this. The last thing I wanted was to send
fireballs around the park, catching it on fire. I focused on the fire, trying
to picture a fireball in my mind. As I stood there, focusing on the flame, I
started feeling all these different emotions. First curiosity, then pride, a
fondness for Michelle, and humor at a joke that I didn’t seem to truly
understand. It felt very strange, almost alien, like these emotions were not my
own. All that was pushed aside as surprise and delight flooded my mind. I had
formed the fire in my hand into a perfect little ball. I kept my eyes on it as
I heard Michelle’s gasps of delight.  I tried tossing the ball of fire gently
into the air. It landed back in my hand. Picturing an image in my mind, I
lobbed the ball of fire into my other hand. It split in two. I now had two
balls of fire, one in each hand. I tossed one in the air and it split again. I
was juggling three balls of fire. Michelle laughed and Fetch grunted with
appreciation. They were impressed with what I was doing. I was feeling pretty
good about myself.

I heard a shout. It was Johnathen. Remembering my juggling
lessons I had years ago, I turned slowly toward the limo. Keeping my peripheral
vision on the balls, I looked over at Johnathen. He was waving wildly to his
left. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a car pulling into the park. I dropped
the balls at my feet.  They quickly caught the dry grass on fire. I stomped
quickly, putting the small fire out.

Fetch had gone into chameleon mode. Becoming the brown and
green color of the ground, he was soon undetectable. You could only tell that
there was something there if you happened to catch the occasional silver gleam
from his scales. Michelle had stood up and was stomping the ground, helping me
put out the fire. I was embarrassed at how quickly we were almost discovered.

“That was close," said Michelle. "You don’t want
to draw too much attention to yourself."

I remembered my battle from the night before and the people
who had been filming it.

“Huh, talk about drawing attention to us, I think we need to
check your computer to see if there are any videos of Fetch and me fighting the
goblins. There were a lot of people there, and I know I saw someone with a
camera phone taking videos."

Michelle's eyes got really big. “I didn’t even think about
that," she said. We walked a little faster toward the limo.

When we got back to the limo, Johnathen greeted us with a
frown. I looked at him and shrugged my shoulders giving him a nervous
embarrassed little laugh. He chuckled and shook his head. Michelle had gone
back to her laptop.  She was typing a mile a minute, talking to Johnathen the
whole time.

“There is a chance that Jack and Fetch might have been
caught on video. I’m checking right now to see if they have gone viral.”

Johnathen gave her a look of confusion.  Michelle sighed.

"To see if there is a video and if a lot of people have
seen it. Yep, there it is."

We scrambled to gather around the computer.

“What? So fast?" said Johnathen.

He was looking over Michelle’s shoulder keeping his hands
clasped behind his back. It was like he was afraid to touch the computer.
Michelle looked at him rolling her eyes.

“Honestly, Johnathen, you really need to learn how to use
it. We know that magic users can. You just have to take the time to learn how.
I know you would enjoy it."

Johnathen continued to look at it as if he was afraid it
would shock him. I have to admit I was pretty excited to see the battle on
film. Since I had never been in a fight before, I had been impressed by how
well I had done against what I now knew were goblins. We all crowded around the
small computer screen to watch.

There I was in the parking lot. You could see the blue ball
and the goblins running around. The camera jumped around a lot, so it was hard
to get a clear look of what was going on. It finally focused on me. I was
pinned to the ground by Booger. My face began to feel warm as the flush of
embarrassment hit me. I remembered feeling like I had done so well. There I was
though, on film, flaying wildly underneath Booger. I looked like a fish flopping
around on a dock. My hit that I had gotten in was nothing more than a lucky
punch. The most embarrassing thing of all was I had on that stupid red stocking
cap with the fuzzy ball. As I swung my arms around wildly the little fuzzy ball
wiggled up and down. The camera cut away from me as a screech from one of the
other goblins distracted the cameraman. The video went on showing the choppy
story. You could hear the goblins chanting "Booger, Booger" and the
camera focused back on me as I used him like a club. Again, I was fixed on the
stocking cap and the jiggling bouncing fuzzy ball. To my right I heard the
sound of Fetch laughing. I took a guess as to where he was standing and elbowed
him. The way he coughed and choked, I could tell I got him in the throat. I
watched the rest of the video. Both Michelle and Johnathen gasped at me
catching the fire, but went silent as they watched me panic and fling it all
over the parking lot. They gasped again as a strange shimmer that was the pulse
gathering in me, was forced out of my body. There was even a shot of me
climbing awkwardly onto Fetch's back and picking up the duffle bag. There was
one more shot; when I had passed out, I had fallen off of Fetch. He had swooped
down and grabbed me, by the seat of the purple sweats, with his mouth. I could
see me hanging there, as we flew off, mooning the cameraman. Finally it ended.
I looked and saw that thirty thousand people had already seen it.