Magi - Mel

Mel was by himself as he was most days. He was looking out of over the vast Vitalus sky trying to figure out how to shape his magic into a shield or animate a couple of rocks. In his mind, he wanted a shield to protect himself and his friends, but something in his bones told him he wouldn’t get his wish. With a sigh, he turned away from the clouds, sun, and floating rocks. 

He had spent months reading books about arcanists. Mel scoured the pages of nearly every book on the topic he could find. It was Eulalia who told him to go out and practice. That was why he was standing back on the oval-shaped rock island where he first discovered his spark. 

At first he concentrated on the air around him, trying to force his lightning into a force field. However, his chaotic magic broke away from his control and bounced around before it fizzled out. Mel took a deep breath to steady himself before he tried to make the shield again, but again, the lightning refused to follow his command and scattered away from him. 

Mel didn’t hear his friend approach until Llyr had spoken, “Why a shield?”

“To protect you and Lia,” Mel grunted as he tried again, but the shield failed to form as the green lightning whipped around them. 

Llyr rolled his eyes, “And did Lia give you that idea?”

“No,” Mel mumbled before he turned to stare at his blue friend, “What’s your issue with her anyway?”

Llyr didn’t answer, he wasn’t really sure how to express his reasoning. Llyr watched as Mel tried several more times to form a shield with his wild magic, but it failed every single time. Llyr knew he was being honest, but whether or not Mel realized, Llyr could see how Eulalia was affecting Mel’s choices. 

“I hate to break it to you-” Llyr started to say, but was cut off by Mel’s snort.

“You think I should just try to animate something, more offensive than defensive.”

Llyr nodded. 

Mel sighed, “Fine, but you have to practice too.”

Llyr mumbled under his breath, and then orbs of water erupted around them. Llyr had conjured them from the moisture in the air abruptly to make the point that he had been practicing. On his own, away from prying eyes. Mel liked to think Llyr was lazy when it came to his magic, but Mel couldn’t have been more wrong. Mel watched as Llyr manipulated the water to form tendrils that circled them in waves, and then, in the next second, they evaporated back into the atmosphere. 

“You’re turn,” Llyr smirked. 

Mel rolled his eyes now but turned his concentration to a small cluster of rocks. He imagined his magic weaving through and around the rocks to create a skeleton. When the rocks started to vibrate and rise, Mel thought he was imagining it, and his shock snapped his magic away. Small bolts scattered away from the pile as the rocks crumbled to the ground. 

“Damn, you’re close.” Llyr bounced from one paw to the other. 

Mel ignored him as he concentrated on the same pile of rocks. This time, the rocks vibrated and rose, and he pushed through. He focused his magic on building up a bird-like shape with the rocks. Before their eyes, the rocks formed a small bird with green and teal lightning crackling between the rocks. 

“I did it,” Mel whispered, trying to maintain his focus. 

“Way to go, dude!” Llyr exclaimed, breaking Mel’s fragile concentration. 

However, when the rocks fell back to the floating island, Mel wasn’t bothered. He and Llyr howled to express their excitement. The pair started to practice again, this time with more vigour. Llyr was already thinking up ridiculous things to do with Mel’s new magic. He only hoped Eulalia wouldn’t appear and ruin their fun. But first, Mel needed to be able to animate much bigger shapes. 

“Try to make something bigger,” Llyr insisted after Mel successfully animated the rock birds a few more times. 

Something bigger. Only one thing entered his mind, and Mel was determined to try to bring it to life. Mel turned to the largest rocks. Some had crystals rippling through them, but Mel hoped that wouldn’t affect his idea. He focused on his magic, trying to use the same process as he had with the stone birds. Mel imagined the tail, head, and feet. He felt his magic strain under his fur, so he closed his eyes to try to ignore the pain. 

From Llyr’s preceptive, lightning crackled around Mel and then bounced along the ground until it reached the large rocks. At first nothing happened, and Llyr had assumed it was too big of a task for Mel. However, a few more seconds passed, and the large rock began to crumble. In the cracks of the rock, Llyr could see Mel’s teal lightning working its way through the rock. Another second passed and the rock pieces of rock formed large claws. These claws were easily the size of Mel’s or Llyr’s head. 

“What are you making?” Llyr whispered, but he was also very excited to see his friend’s power. 

Mel didn’t hear Llyr’s question. He was too focused on forming the stone zataro. In his mind’s eye, the front claws were done, so he moved on to its head. He had only seen a zataro once at this point, and at the time, he was a pup, so his memory was spotty. When he thought it was done, he moved on to the tail. 

It wasn’t long before Mel opened his eyes to see how his magic had progressed, and he was pleasantly surprised. Claws made of rock and crystals floated in the air on either side of a monstrous head. It wasn’t identifiable as zataro, but the pair could tell it was meant to be a head with large teeth. Finally, there were a couple of large boulders creating the body and tail. 

“That’s so cool,” Llyr said, and Mel could only nod, too stunned to speak. 

Llyr didn’t pause. His mind was working a mile a minute, “Do you think you can move it around? Make it fly?”

Mel didn’t question why Llyr was asking these questions because he was curious if he could, too. Mel focused on his stone creature again and imagined it floating in the air, moving around them. It took a few seconds to register, but eventually, the stone creature weaved in the air around them. It looked as terrifying as Llyr had hoped. 

“I have an idea,” Llyr smirked. 

Mel returned to smirk, excited to hear what his friend was thinking. 

[1113]