Magic from Here, Magic from There

-Gray-

When I awoke, the first thing I did was not to open my eyes, but to shudder and writhe preemptively. My body expected a chill of icy cold to travel down my spine. My body expected my lungs to spasm and retch fluids. My heart expected to throb unrhythmically. My brain expected to pound in my skull. My nails dug into the bed beneath me, threatening to tear the sheets apart if I still had the strength.

Instead, there was no chill. My gasping lungs easily took in air. My heart beat steadily and my brain slowly began to awake properly. My nails tore the bed beneath me, gouging into the soft material, and causing my eyes to finally shoot open, finding dirt and grass beneath me instead of the bed I had known for years.

I was not in my bedroom, surrounded by life-preserving machines. I was not at home, surrounded by familiar faces. I was in a clearing, surrounded by bright green trees and waving grass and mossy rocks.

“Wha-?” For a moment, I thought I slept outside, but that was impossible, right? I could barely walk anymore, let alone make it all the way to the forest.

I started with pushing myself up, shakily rising to my legs, nearly losing my balance once or twice. I stumbled over to a tree for balance, taking deep breaths as I tried to process what happened.

The last thing I remembered was going to sleep… I was feeling particularly bad last night. And now here I am, feeling like… like a million bucks!

Well, minus the fact I had to remember how to walk unaided. I had been sick for way too long! I missed the feeling of grass under my feet, of wind in my hair, of fresh air in my lungs.

So, without a care in the world, I frolicked in the small clearing, occasionally letting out whoops of joy in between tumbles and falls and failed flips. Grass and dirt smeared on my kraken-themed pajamas, the dirtiest they had been in a long time. And I didn’t care.

“Mom?! Dad?! Uncles?! Are you here?” I called out, wondering if they found some miraculous cure for me, and left me… alone… on the grass. Without even my phone…

“Ugh…” I groaned, shoulders sagging as my mind runs through much more likely scenarios. There was a nearby river I washed my face with, and observed my namesake, the gray eyes, and the moon silver of my hair. “Did I really get transported somewhere?”

If there was a gap in my memories, I had no idea. They were already pretty spotty lately.

All I knew was that it didn’t hurt to exist, I wasn’t strapped to bulky machines, and I was going to make the most of it!

And when I heard a high-pitched scream in the distance, I decided that was the best place to start.

So I shambled through trees and large roots, slowly building back up strength in my legs as I followed the screams.

And I wasn’t disappointed. Two children, a boy and a girl, were running away from a giant mossy stone golem. The children looked raggled, clothes dirty and torn and singed, skin bruised and scratched and burnt, and it was clear they had very little left to give. They huddled together on the ground, sobbing loudly. The girl’s ankle looked twisted, and the boy’s arms looked limp and bruised.

The golem was made of countless gray and green stones of different shapes and sizes, moving together as one, without any gaps between the moving pieces.

If I didn’t act, the kids would have been turned to paste. How could I have chosen any different?

The kids were pulled backwards at the last possible moment, my arms each holding one by the scruff, as I dropped them back on the ground behind me, and approached the golem. “Why don’t you back off, pal? These are just kids. They don’t deserve to be turned two-dimensional, no matter what they might have done.”

I had hoped I could converse with the golem, but if it understood me, it didn’t show it, instead taking a heavy step forward to swipe at me with its larger right arm.

I had hoped it was sentient. But I had hoped more it wasn’t. I was a bit rusty, so I was more than ready to shake off the rust with a fight like this.

“Alright then, have it your way. Just don’t go running when you find I’m more than your match, you overgrown driveway!” After stumbling backwards, out of the golem’s range, I took a lower stance, and clenched my fists, feeling power flowing through my veins.

When I opened my fists, red lights glowed in my palms, vibrating in a spherical motion above my hands. A ‘whir’ could be heard as the magic charged up, the spells defining themselves in the universe.

A grin grew on my face, and I adjusted my left foot to be further behind me, ready to burst forward as soon as the golem took a step closer.

“Let's see how you handle my magic.”

My body still wasn’t responding the way I wanted it to, so when the golem took a step forward to slam an arm down vertically on me, I didn’t feel like I reasonably could have jumped out of the way in time.

So, I met their attack with my own.

It was definitely risky. I didn’t know how well my magic would work, but I found myself not caring about that. I met the golem’s arm with an open palm from my right arm, bracing my legs as I attacked with a wave of sound.

When it comes to creatures of stone, I was taught to use sonic attacks. Maybe grass or water would have been more effective in some situations, but here, this was the best option.

Some may have kept their distance and fired blasts of sound, and hoped that would cause the golem to disassemble, but sound travels better if pumped straight into the body.

So, I struck, and felt the condensed wave of sound disperse from my palm into the large rock that made up the golem’s fist. The fist shook, rattling and smaller pebbles breaking off, but still held strong.

“Nrgh, I need to make it a little stronger.” Time felt slow as I was getting pushed down. My attack must have reduced the force, but the golem was now pushing directly against my palm, trying to dig me into the dirt.

And in terms of strength, the golem was definitely stronger than me. Nothing I could really do about that. So before I was smushed, I refocused my magic into my left hand, and struck the hand, this time with enough magic to shatter the fist into dust with a loud ‘bang!’ like a grenade.

The golem lost its balance, its form trying to readjust with missing such a large rock, so I was quick to strike at one of the elongated rocks making up the golem’s lower right leg, but despite using the same amount of force as my previous strike, I only got the rock to crack, not shatter.

Taking advantage of my own surprise, the golem thwacked me quickly with a side swipe from its hand-less arm, launching pebbles at me at the same time. The arm got smaller with every bit of its construction removed as I got trapped against a tree I hit.

And getting hit by the pebbles was like getting hit by dozens of tiny sharp BB pellets. My pajamas got torn up, and I could feel my blood dripping out of countless cuts, but I waited. I waited until the golem stopped attacking, and while I caught my breath, the golem took a few steps towards me, putting pressure on its bad leg.

“Now!” When the golem had all of its weight on the fractured stone, my right palm flashed with lightning, ready to blast apart the leg. Only to realize that the children were still too close to the battle. They’d be caught right in the shrapnel. “Tch.”

Instead, I clumsily dove forward, changing the magic in my hands to an icy chill. When I froze the cracked leg, it shattered, and the golem lost its balance once more, this time, properly falling, right on my own leg too.

No matter, I was in the perfect position, and the pain of having a leg trapped under a rockslide was nothing compared to what I’ve been through the past several years. Focusing back on my sound spell was a breeze, and all I had to do was slam my hands into the golem’s ‘pelvis’ and rupture it again.

And then I did it again, and again, and again. I freed my mangled leg, and demolished every large stone left. The smaller stones tried reassembling themselves, trying to reform the golem, but without the bigger stones, the golem was only getting weaker and weaker.

But there seemed to be no core. Even when I smashed the head and the chest, there was no magical core, no device keeping it moving. The golem just kept trying to reform and move. Every single pebble that it consisted of was able to move, except for the ones it fired at me.

Even when it was nothing but gravel, it reformed. I could only wonder if the dust clinging to me and sticking to my blood was trying to do the same.

By the time I thought to use a disintegration spell, the rocks were so fine, I could only turn whatever I could scoop into my hands into ash.

Could I wash it down the nearby river, let erosion take care of it? Or perhaps just bury it under dirt, let it sort itself out for a few years. If nothing else, I should at least gather it up.

My hands glowed orange, and the assorted pebbles and rock dust gathered on the grass began to float up, surrounded by the same orange glow. It seemingly helped the golem with its reforming efforts, but in its current state, it couldn’t possibly escape my magic.

Once I gathered it all up, along with bits of unwanted dirt and grass, I was about to remove the dust clinging to me, when I heard movement rushing towards this location.

I dropped the dust, and refocused back on the two children, who were still injured and holding each other, but seemed more amazed than terrified. Whatever was approaching, wasn’t as large as this golem, but was moving a lot faster, and my leg was still busted.

Since I didn’t have the time to move over to the kids, I charged up a spear of ice in my palm, ready to fire the moment the unknown presence so much as tried to attack the children.

To my surprise, it was an armored woman, who stopped just past the trees, observing the situation. She was wearing silvery armor with blue trimmings, and deep purple underclothes. Most of her skin was covered, except for her lower face, her neck, her arms from her shoulders to just above her elbows, and about half her thighs, which showed beautifully pale skin. Thigh-high armored boots covered her legs, with a surprising amount of heel, and armored gloves covered her arms.

Instead of a blade, she held a long thin staff in her left hand. It was a pure white, wrapped in a purple cloth, with a head of a perfectly spherical diamond crowned by a halo of white.

Her helmet was a smooth half-sphere, covering her face down to below her nose, and going over her head to protect the back of her head, but leaving her hip-length long blonde hair free. Her eyes were hidden behind the helmet, peering through thin horizontal lines, while her lips were pursed, clearly taking in the situation.

Instead of attacking either the children or me, she raised her staff towards the partially reformed golem behind me, and uttered a prayer. “Oh Goddess, please rend the magic from my opponent, and leave them vacant once more.”

The diamond tip of the staff glowed brighter with each word, until a holy white sigil made of light appeared beneath the golem’s dust, sending sparkles of magic upwards, and collapsing the golem’s form into a finer dust than I managed.

Even the dust clinging to me finally fell to the ground, leaving only the stones it pelted me with intact.

“Huh…” I mumbled, not familiar with that kind of magic. Who prays to a goddess for magic? And it applies the magic at a distance? Very strange.

“Princess!” The two children cried out, and tripped over themselves running to the new girl. Tears were flowing from the kids, arms extended and joyous smiles shining. The girl only took one more look around before tossing off her helmet, and kneeling before the children. “You’re here! You’re really alright! They- the bad man said that they were going to… to…” The brother choked out as he hugged the girl, following his sister’s example.

The girl merely smiled. “It’ll take more than a demon to stop me! The Goddess herself looks after me.” For such a bragging statement, I half expected her to do some kind of gesture. But she just stayed smiling.

Well, the kids seem to be in good hands, so I finally let myself fall to my butt, and let the adrenaline fade. I hadn’t fought in years, hadn’t practiced magic in forever. Yet I felt good. I could see why my uncle talked about fighting like that. Fighting for your survival, barely squeaking by a victory.

I never felt so alive. I wanted to experience that again. I wanted to feel even more alive! I want to fight stronger opponents, and I want to pull through by the skin of my teeth!

But first, I had to make sure I survived til the next fight.

My hands were scraped raw, my control of magic must have been subpar, if the spells tore at my palms. Sticky black fluid smeared around, and I quickly shook my head to dispel the bad thoughts, looking back to see red blood on my hands instead.

I wanted to heal, but there were a few rocks stuck in me, so I began digging them out with my fingers. Which wasn’t very effective. My healing spell would have just grew the skin and muscles over the rocks, and I’d have to cut myself open to remove them.

“Here, let me.” The voice of the girl, an angelic sound, made me jump in surprise. She had kneeled in front of me, her staff’s head resting an inch from the top of my head, releasing a spell before I even had time to rub the top of my bonked head.

But the rocks began to pop out of healing flesh, skin began regrowing, and even my leg, twisted and pulped as it was, began to crack back into shape, and fix itself, something even my magic wouldn’t be able to do without resetting the bone first.

“Wow…” I clenched my fists, noticing the new skin didn’t even look baby-fresh, but instead as natural as ever. Rather different from my own healing spell. “Thanks!” When she offered a hand to stand, I took it, testing my weight on my leg, finding it perfectly fine.

The girl stood there for a moment, seemingly watching me walking in a circle, and hopping a few times. It was only when I heard her giggle, did I turn to face her, a little self-conscious all of a sudden. “What?” I put my hands on my hips. “You got a problem with me making sure I was a hundred percent?”

She was hiding her soft smile behind her hand. “No, no, I’m sorry. It’s just, I’ve never seen anyone hop around like a bunny before, right after getting healed.” With her helmet off, I could clearly see the golden eyes she had, a radiant color that drew my eyes and made her whole appearance shine like the sun. I was thankful for the white headband that kept her hair out of those eyes.

I scoffed, and crossed my arms, turning away slightly. “Well, it’s perfectly natural back where I’m from.”

The girl’s smile faded, and she seemed more serious now, though her eyes never lost that kind glimmer. “I apologize if I offended you. I didn’t see you in Chartreuse Town this morning…” It was clear she was fishing for information, but wasn’t quite sure how to ask for it.

Trying to keep a straight face at the silly town name, I decided to keep it vague. “No, I’m a traveler. But I’m afraid I got my gear stolen and it was only by… providence that I encountered these two children in time to save them.”

The girl turned her head, and looked at the two kids again. She gave them a smile and a brief wave. “Well, I thank you for your assistance, Sir-”

“Gray. And you?”

“Aurelia, Crown Princess of our Goddess’ Kingdom of Aureaton.” She even planted her staff bottom first in the grass by her side, posing dramatically as she declared herself.

A gust of wind blew by, catching her armor and her hair, making her look even more heroic. I wondered if she was using magic for that.

The moment was ruined when my stomach growled loudly. The wind didn’t cut out when the princess stopped her pose, but you could tell she was prepared for that, since she kept her bangs back with a headband under her helmet.

“Oof, I forgot that magic makes me hungry…” Generating the energy needed to cast spells requires fuel, after all.

The princess seemed surprised by that. “You’re blessed by the gods too?”

“Huh? No, I was born with magic. Mother’s side.” A partial truth, but suitable enough.

“Ah, a descendent of the divine, then?” She nodded sagely. “Rare are those that aren’t of a royal line.”

I just let her draw her own conclusions. Easier than correcting her. “Yeah, something like that.” My stomach growled again. “Anyways, you said there was a village nearby, right? Can you point the way?”

She let out a brief laugh. “Point the way? I have to bring these children back to their parents. I’m sure they will be most relieved. You may follow me, if you wish. No, I request that you accompany me. I have many questions, and I could use someone capable enough to fight off a golem in verifying the town’s safety after the earlier attack.”

“Erh, I dunno…” My body was definitely feeling everything. Not sure I really wanted to fight at the moment.

“I’ll see to it that a feast is prepared in celebration of our victory!”

“Just point the way, Your Highness.” I said with a small bow, earning an eyeroll and a smile.

I don’t think I can be blamed, for maybe developing a bit of a crush on the pretty warrior princess.