A True Witch (Part 1)

Light

Luz stepped into a small cave near the edge of the island, hidden by vines. It wasn't perfect, but it'd work for a way to secretly do magic and talk with Belos without anyone catching her.

"Alright, so what are we going to do first?" Luz excitedly asked.

"Well, think of magic like a muscle and doing magic like a workout. You always have to warm up before you do the workout."

"What! But I basically just did a warm up with Eda!" Luz protested, "Come on, let me do some cooler spells!"

"Fine, go on ahead and try doing magic without my advice. Go ahead and do the light spell."

"Okay, easy."

Luz confidently made a spell circle and made a ball of light.

"Now, do a fire spell. You've done it once before, so surely you won't need my help or instruction."

Luz was a bit annoyed at how sarcastic he was being, but just brushed him off.

She took a deep breath and made a small ball of fire that hovered just above her hand.

"Ha! See? I don't need a warm up. I can do perfectly fine on my-"

Luz moved the hand that held the fireball, and it suddenly dropped instantly burning into her hand. She screamed in pain and her mind raced to think of a way to stop it. For a moment she thought of dunking it in the water just off the beach, before remembering the water was boiling and would only make it worse. With no other ideas, Luz drew a spell circle and created a block of ice with a slot to stick her hand inside. The moment her hand was surrounded by the ice, the fire went out and the burning stopped. She took a few deep breaths, letting the cool work around her hand. When she removed her hand from the ice, her palm was streaked with the burn.

Luz felt her breathing froze as she stared at the burn on her hand as she was reminded of her dream, seeing Amity's face scared with fire.

"Luz, breathe. In and out. In and out. In for four, hold for four, out for four. Just breathe."

Luz followed Belos' instructions and, after taking a bit to breathe, sat on the ground. She held her knees to her chest as she stared at her hand. A few tears started to slowly fall down her face.

"This was a mistake. This was a horrible, horrible mistake." Luz whispered, voice shaking.

"And why is that, Little Light?" Belos asked, his calm tone helping soothe Luz.

"Stop saying that you-just, stop calling me that. It was a mistake to not tell Eda about you right away. Magic is way too dangerous for me to try alone."

"But you aren't alone, Luz. The Owl Lady can only teach you so much. As I have said, I too am a human who lived without magic only to gain its power. Nobody else can say that."

"Not even your brother?"

Belos went silent at Luz's comment. She even could have sworn she heard him sadly sigh. A pang of regret hit her. If he was hurt by her comment, he actually has feelings and maybe, maybe he is changing for the better.

Luz felt Belos move from behind her ear, down her neck and arm, and wrap around her hand. He seemed to grow and left a thick green film over the scar as he moved back to his perch behind her ear.

"I shouldn't have let you try to do that spell just because you annoyed me. I'm sorry. If you want to be done for today, that makes sense. However, I know you can do so much, if you'd give me a chance at showing you."

Luz stared at her hand as the green film soaked into her skin. When it was gone, her scar had healed and it looked as if she never got hurt.

"Can we try a different spell? I think we should wait on trying that fire spell again."