To Rhial

9

Brenden

I relaxed my senses, easing my mind and focusing solely on my index finger. The air fell still and my attention locked onto the dull hum of the universe around me. The hum pulsed through my mind into a point of focus. My finger, illuminated and vibrating, gently traced embering lines in the air while I walked.

The book calls magic jzanmah. A word spoken like a breath. A combination of the words for create, jzanas, and destroy, mahkit. Jzanmah is the magic of this world and to harness it, all I need to do is will it to a point on my body and create a shape.

A sensation like resonant static tingled from my brain, down my neck, through my arm, and into my finger until it glowed neon red with heat. The sensation of channeling jzanmah into my body was unexpectedly natural and invigorating. The feeling of energy was like taking caffeine shots on a day where you don't need them. Even though I was already awake and mentally focused, my eyes took sights in more clearly, my ears filtered out background noise, and my mind honed in on that electric feeling.

I was lost in my meditative place, walking blindly when a massive hand grabbed my arm and yanked me backwards. My foot dangled off the edge of a sheer cliff over a shimmering blue lake. When I looked into the water, all I saw was the sky, and I thought about to dive off the cliff and up into the clouds until my mind came back to reality.

"Um, th-thanks." I stumbled backward, grabbing Adam's arm to steady myself.

"How about we save that for later." He awkwardly smiled and closed my book, his cheerful yellow eyes shining like the sun. For being such an imposing figure, there wasn't a shred of intimidation in that man.

Suddenly, Desmond yelled out. "Get your asses off the edge! Behind us!"

Out of nowhere, a pincer slashed through Adam's knee and splashed my lap with blood. He yelled as he turned to face the massive grasshopper creature. It flared its mandibles just as one of Desmond's arrows collided with its exoskeleton.

Shit! Adam can't fight that thing alone. I need to help him.

The moment I drew my sword, another of the insects skittered out from behind the one attacking Adam. It darted up to me on all six legs and snipped at my ankles. I jumped backward at each attack, losing balance each time. It backed me toward the cliff and rose to its hind legs, standing a whole head taller than me. It raised all four of its pincered arms like it was about to launch simultaneous attacks at all of my vital points.

We locked eyes and entered a standoff, each of us waiting for the other to make the first move. The thousands of tiny shimmering lenses on each of its eyes were focused on me alone. Its mandibles dripped viscous saliva as its mouth clicked and chittered. My heart raced and the electric feeling of the jzanmah coursed through me a thousandfold. If I couldn't act, it was going to mercilessly kill me.

The wind calmly blew through, stirring up leaves and debris between us. Suddenly, the creature lunged forward. The top pincers went for my arms, and the lower pincers went for my legs to snip all my limbs in one attack.

I ducked to my right at a speed I wasn't expecting. My mind barely had time to catch up with my body by the time I had switched places with the bug, which whirled around in confusion. Its back was to the cliff. I had that small advantage, so I needed to leverage it. It was then that I noticed a burning sensation in my shoulder. It had cut almost the whole way through the muscle above my collarbone. The book fell from my left hand as I lost grip from the pain. Panic was starting to set in. I was already an arm down and I didn't know how to use a sword.

I slowly backed away from it, toward the forest, praying that it wouldn't lunge like it did before. However, it was already raising its pincers like before. My breath quickened and trembled as I flinched at its every step toward me.