The Unbidden: A New World (1) (Short Parts)

Part 4

***

We were only four days into our trip toward the next town. Most of the time, God laid in the back, sleeping. The days here were comfortable with gentle breezes blowing away the heat that built up. The air smelled fresh, devoid of all pollution. During night time, the temperature hardly seemed to change. The breeze usually died down, but the heat that stayed felt like you were in a normal room.

The elder gentleman's name I came to find out was Matteas. His wife's name was Leeris, and his son's name was Lawd. When I asked why they had no last name, he looked at me quizzically. I had to come up with a story that I was from a distant kingdom, which, while in truth wasn't a lie, it wasn't the whole truth.

Where I hailed was technically a kingdom in its own right. Matteas educated me on some of the customs of the land. It turned out that first names are given based on what a person's parents believe they're capable of. It was cool in premise, but if you named your kid after a great hero and he turned into a delinquent that contributed nothing, the parents would probably face some backlash for it.

Last names only seemed to be given if someone accomplished a feat of some sort. My last name was Banks, but here that probably wouldn't make any sense. I should give myself a new last name, I thought, however, I ended up resolving to just using my first name when meeting people. Matteas also told me that people are granted titles for great feats, like slaying a formidable beast. Titles usually come with land that could be parsed off or used however the person sought fit. I asked both Matteas and Leeris more about what's beyond that and the general rulings, things that would've been easy to come across back home. They told me they had no clue. Neither of them were actually taught to read, let alone understand how politics worked.

On the fourth night, we had stopped off to the side of the road, trees to one side and a river to the other. Matteas set up a small campfire to provide some light and extra warmth. He said the river would make the surrounding area colder. Every night before this, and including this one, Matteas and his family prayed out loud to God, who actually blessed their food.

They tried offering most of what they were going to eat to her, but She denied their offerings, only taking most of my portion. At first, I didn't say anything, but my stomach was growling fiercely.

"Can't you just accept their offerings instead of taking from mine?" I quipped to Her in a low voice.

"Is the little child hungry?" She whispered back in a snarky tone.

"You're literally a deity ... why don't you just make them food, or me food, even?"

"There is plenty you will never be able to understand, and this one of those things. Just accept this food that I have graciously blessed!"

I felt a bit of annoyance at Her condescending tone. Not too long ago She was sad about punishing someone without many qualms, and now here She was telling me She couldn't even generate food out of nothing.

"At least Jesus could turn water to wine," I muttered aloud.

I was looking just below the campfire, so I didn't immediately feel a glare boring into me. When I looked toward God, She had a face filled with what might have been genuine anger. Oh, did I say that out loud? I thought.

She didn't say a thing, simply staring at me with apparent malice. I felt like my life was in danger for a bit. Eventually She turned away in silence, letting Her long silken hair block the side of Her face from view. The evening passed extremely uneventfully, and I eventually went to sleep.

Over the course of the following week and a half, I practiced using magic during our stops. We usually stopped once every six-ish hours for one hour. I remembered the various different shows I'd seen and tried mimicking similar ways to get my magic to work. At first, I simply made different hand motions, but nothing happened. Then, I tried saying various different words or phrases, however the results were the same. I recalled how I stopped Gregory from killing God, and it finally clicked like a light switch being turned on.

I found a small frog lounging about nearby. When I approached, it jumped away naturally. I held my palm outward, arm outstretched and commanded it to stop.

"Freeze!"

The frog became engulfed in the same red aura as Gregory from days before. I decided to name that spell 'Freeze' to keep it simplistic. After testing the spell a few more times to gauge the parameters for the spell, I let the frog hop away, satisfied with the progress.

I felt excited at the prospects of being able to cast magic. The power to create. The power to physically change the world around me. It was invigorating. However, I figured I wouldn't have had to go through trial and error if I was to be the hero in my own world, which made me only minutely irate.

Makes sense though, I thought. If I knew about all my powers coming into the new world, I would probably be too powerful for most of the enemies I'd fight.

Whilst thinking during a break one day, I looked upward to the overcast sky and came across an idea. After searching around the area for a stick light enough to wield in a single hand, I moved to a secluded spot and gathered a bunch of wood pieces and put them into a pile. Once I was content with my work, I stood back about thirty feet or so. Here goes nothing, I thought.

I withdrew the stick from my robe, and holding it firmly at the base, raised my arm high above my head, and with a single strong swinging motion, brought the stick level with the wood pile in the distance. In conjunction with my movements, I shouted 'Lightning'.

The crack of thunder erupted over my head and as the end of the stick pointed at the pile, a large bolt of lightning struck it. The pile almost completely disintegrated as pieces flew off in every direction at a high speed.

I didn't get hit by any of the debris, but the moment the lightning struck the ground, the shockwave sent me flying onto my rear. My ears rang, completely wiping away my ability to hear for some time, and my head hurt a little; I lied on the ground for a few minutes, recovering.

When the ache subsided, I sat up and surveyed the area. The spot where the loosely tossed together wood used to be was a charred blackness staining the earth. The grass immediately around the spot burned with dying embers. The ringing in my ears had mostly faded when I heard a familiar voice calling to me.

I glanced over to see God jogging toward me. In the distance was Matteas and his family cowering. I clambered to my feet and examined the stick in my hand. The only piece still whole was where I held it. It seemed that material composition mattered when using an object to cast a spell.

"Are you okay?" God asked, a look of mild concern strewn about Her face.

"Yeah, I was just testing something," I replied, plugging my ear with a pinky to try and rid myself of the lingering ringing.

"You must be more cognizant of where you are. Our ride is terrified, in case you also went blind," She scolded, a hand on Her hip.

I turned my attention passed Her toward Matteas and his family. That's right ... Gregory was disgusted when he learned I was a mage, I thought. I sighed outwardly and apologized to God before walking back toward the wagon.