Reach Out and Touch Someone

The next morning, Kyle, Abagail, Kari, Fiona, and the band of bandits all prepared their horses to depart. One of the bandits – a dwarf named York – ended up riding on the back of a giant mole. Other than that outlier, the travelling party did not look too dissimilar from one that he’d have seen in a fantasy film.

Kyle sighed as the party took the road out of town towards the hills instead of the forest. They were in it for the long haul, now.

The caravan slowly made its way through the countryside as it began to get hillier, before starting to course through ever steeper hills on a winding road. While Kyle knew that it was occasionally patrolled by men loyal to the Prince’s sheriff, the journey was still not without potential peril. The road was practically passing through a narrow canyon at points, making landslides and falling rocks an ever-lurking threat.

Overhead, Kyle would see Blooby riding a pink sphere of magic. It would dart ahead from time to time, always returning back to Abagail. Every time it did so, she would nod her head but say nothing as they continued onward.

That continued to be the case until past noon and after lunch, when one of Blooby’s circuits got Abagail’s undivided attention.

“Alright,” she called out, “everyone stop!”

The group did as she commanded, coming to a halt just shy of the crest of the hill they were on.

Benny grunted, riding up to Abagail. “What’s the holdup?”

Abagail pointed her wand downhill, to a half-dozen boulders blocking the road where it had gone into another narrow passage.

York smiled, pulling out a pickaxe. “We’ve got tools. We can break ‘em in no time.”

“That’s not the problem,” replied Abagail. “Look.” She pointed to the top of some hills past the fallen boulders, where piles of even more boulders were being built up. Blooby got off the pink orb as it swung to go between the group and the piles, expanding to show them what was in the distance.

A trio of creatures were building up the piles, their moss-covered bodies thick with a layer of fat and their faces sporting large and bulbous noses. Their hair was wild and the color of freshly turned earth.

“Mountain ogres,” explained Abagail.

York seemed to understand the gravity of the situation. “I’ve seen ‘em ‘fore,” said York. “Had a run-in with one a few years back. They don’t make a good firs’ impression.”

Despite their well-known reputation, ogres were not universally morons. Being related to oni, their biology was just as volatile and they could come in any shape and size depending on the environment they spawned in. Mountain ogres were the most closely related of all – apart from the skin color and lack of horn, they were sometimes mistaken for oni themselves.

“Must be having a hard time getting food if they’re trying this,” said Fiona. “Fighting them’s going to be rough. We can’t sneak past and we can’t get up there without them catching wise. What about magic?”

Abagail shot that idea down. “I can’t cast a spell to hit a target that far and expect to hit anything.”

That gave Kyle a really stupid idea. But it was better than nothing, and as long as he could conceptualize it the right way –

His amulet started to glow, sending him off his horse and into convulsions.

Kyle’s antics confused the bandits, who’d never seen the amulet of wisdom torture Kyle’s body like it did. York poked at Kyle with the handle of his pickaxe. “Does he do tha’ often?”

“It’s a whole thing,” sighed Abagail. “Give him a bit.”

When Kyle shot back up, no one expected the first two questions out of his mouth.

“Do we still have any of those copper pipes? And how do I still have my shirt?”

----

The bandits had never seen him work after getting knowledge from the amulet, either. It made for a confusing spectacle as Kyle kept taking bits and pieces from everyone – a pair of glass discs, adhesive, all kinds of knickknacks.

Abagail kneeled beside him as he started using his ring to melt a small pipe onto the end of a larger pipe. “What exactly are you building?”

“You said that you couldn’t cast a spell to go that distance and hit the broad side of a barn.” With some adhesive, he glued a small wooden block towards the back and on the bottom of the pipes. “I’m trying to do just that.”

“Really.” She raised an eyebrow. “You know nothing of how to create a magical focus, let alone a wand. And your magic training’s so basic that you still need that ring of power to cast a simple spell.”

The two glass discs went into a smaller copper pipe, with more adhesive sticking them in place. “Someone very smart taught me that to cast a magic spell, it takes three parts. It requires a person to exert their will.” He attached this small pipe to the rest of his contraption with more adhesive. “That person needs the ability to channel that will and tap into the mana evaporated in the air we breathe.” With a spare bit of copper, he closed off the larger pipe’s remaining end, leaving only the small pipe’s hole open. “And then they need a way to focus that mana channeled by their will into an effective spell.”

Kyle then stared down the scope of the world’s first sniper rifle – or at least, a sniper wand. “If I’ve made this right, a concussive spell will shoot out of the end on my command. It will shoot all the way over there and smack into the ogre’s head, knocking them unconscious.”

As Kyle laid down on the ground and tried to line up his first spell, Abagail looked at this strange device a few times. She’d learned not to doubt the effectiveness of the ideas he got, but still had something to say. “Might want to put some extra oomph into what you’re sending. Ogres are supposed to be thick-headed – literally.”

“Mmm. Wish me luck.”

“I’ll do you better than that.” She kissed him on the cheek.

Fiona and Kari both fell off their horses in shock, before rushing over to lunge at the witch.

Kyle barely noticed the all-out brawl happening behind him, gently moving the wand from ogre to ogre. He’d never shot anything like this in his lives. But with the power of magic he supposed anything was possible.

With a tap of his finger on the wooden block, a purple orb of magic screamed across the sunny sky. After a moment, it slammed into the head of the lead ogre and knocked it right on its back.

The other two ogres stared at the first, dumbfounded at what had just happened. It was not long before the others joined him on their backs, unmoving.

Kyle put down the sniper wand, having broken into a cold sweat from just those three spells. But he did slowly rise to his feet unassisted before being bowled over by the three women fighting over the kiss on the cheek he’d gotten.