Mother of Monsters (Camp NaNoWriMo 2015)

Chapter VIII

Training with Areus was almost as bad as getting to Dianae. He mainly focused on psychic magic, which pissed me off because no matter what I did I couldn't do it. I tried everything exactly as Areus said, but it would never work. "Don't hurt yourself over it. It's said some of the best psychic users couldn't grasp it at first." I ignored this. I don't care if it means I'll be good later, I want to be good now.

These exercises really helped Milea though. With every piece of advice and with every movement I could see her getting better. I didn't know how I felt about this, but I did know some part of me wished that hopes she'll fuck up the next thing Areus shows us so then I wouldn't be the only one who's magically retarted.

Elios and Diokles are basically best friends now. Every now and then I'll see the both of them enter the house with their big swords in hand. Elios always sounds like he ran a marathon up and down the mountain. He tells us he's fine, it's just fighting up on the mountain is different than fighting in other places.

We started this in the afternoon, now the sun is setting and I've never felt more frustrated. "You can do anything you put your mind to with psychic magic." That's what my dad said about a few years ago. But if that were true I would have lifted up this fruit hours ago. What type of fruit is this? I've never seen something like this. But I don't care. I just want to lift it up with nothing but magic.

Areus must have given up on me, because he and Milea went into a separate room and they're doing who-knows-what. So I'm still sitting here, with a small, strange, exotic fruit sitting in front of me, trying to bring it to me using telekinesis.

Elios and Diokles stopped sparring once the sun went down. They put their weapons away in some room and Diokles started cooking. Elios lied down next to me, trying to catch his breath again. He also thinks it'll be fine to "coach" me while I trying to do this. "Elios would you just go away? I'm trying to actually do some magic here and you're breaking my concentration."

Someone could see his pout from a mile away. "Just let me help Raella. I know you know I know some things about magic. Like you need mana to perform magic. And you need to stop over thinking things and let intuition take over." He screamed that last sentence in my face.

I shoved his face away from mine. "You do realize you have to do some thinking, right? Like that round thing isn't going to come towards me if I just hold out my hand." I hold up my hand to prove my point.

"Well it may not be coming towards you, but you are doing something." Elios points to the fruit. So the damn thing chooses now out of all times to float. When I turn my attention back to it, it stops hovering above the ground and drops to the floor. "Almost had it." He of all people taunting me? He can't even do basic magic skills.

I stand up and grab the fruit with my hands. "I'm done with magic." I scream as I break the fruit's skin. I sniff it to find out which parts I can and can't eat. "I'll fight Ezenta and the royal guards without magic." I put my thumb in the center of the fruit's insides and it splits in half. Pre-sliced fruit? Is this something Areus made? The first magical fruit outside Strago?

Elios burst into laughter. He lied down on the floor and half-way curled into a fetus position. "Good one." He managed to say when he could breathe again. "You couldn't hold yourself against four drunk swimmers at the river last week. And you expect to fight hundreds of professionally trained guards, Ezenta, and most likely both of her daughters. Nice try."

He did make a good point. I groaned and buried my face in my hands. "What am I going to do? My options are either let the world go to shit or die trying to save it."

Dio must have thought this was his time to enter the conversation. "So what if you can't use telekinesis to make a mandarin come to you? Areus told me many stories of great powerful Stragonians who lack in certain areas with magic." He backed up from the stove. "Light this." He pointed to it.