Pure Magic [Editing]

Hunt for The Witch

Chapter 3

Hunt For The Witch

Grinning, I took a deep breath of fresh mountain air. Up here, the scenery is beautiful. If you look out onto the rest of the mountain, the snow appears as a soft blanket smothering everything from large skyscrapers to cosy cottages. The sun reflected off the snow's shiny surface, presenting a dim glow.

Everyone else was cooking some campfire breakfast: sausages on sticks; warm canned soup; fried eggs and bannana boats. It all tasted divine and soon I forgot all about the mission.

"So what exactly are we supposed to do?" Cyrix asked, nibbling on a sausage.

"We're supposed to carry out a mission directly ordered from the government," George answered, spraying food from his full mouth.

"I know that, but what exactly was the mission?" Cyrix whined.

"What, don't you know?" Jade laughed.

Since last night's conversation Jade's smile hardly left her face. She was more relaxed and somehow, seemed brighter.

"We're supposed to gather any useful information about the opposition and hone our skills to perfection," Jade explained.

"I suppose they're only doing that to make us into soldiers," Lyell sighed, "Probably just going to use us and throw us to some crazy scientists when we've finished our purpose."

"Wow, you're optimistic," Palo muttered, in a sarcastic tone, "Anyway, what should we do first?"

"Maybe we should search for someone powerful who could teach us some more magic skills?" I suggested.

There was a murmur of agreement and heads nodded.

"How about we try and find Kiara?" George proposed, finishing off his egg, "She's a powerful magic user but I don't know what type of magic she has."

"Type of magic? My parents refused to allow me to have anything to do with other magic users or magical knowledge." Lyell asked.

This time I piped up, "There are 3 categories of magic: Mind, Elemental and Life. It seems that you can only learn magic skills if they are the same type as yours."

"Anything else I should know? Like is there a limit to our magic?" he implored.

Palo looked up and answered, "According to scientific studies, there is a limit to using magic. It's like those video games with mana points. Everyone has a set amount of magical energy they have that slowly gets recharged when you rest. When all your magical energy is depleted, you can no longer use magic until you rest. Different magic skills use different amounts of magical energy."

He paused, hesitating before adding more information, "There are also some rumors that some magic users have the skill to block your magical energy output, meaning you can no longer use magic."

Lyell frowned in an attempt to soak up all the new information. After a few silent seconds he nodded, "So, where does this Kiara live?"

"She's nicknamed the Witch of the Lake, so I always remember," George smiled, "She lives on the edge of Kinamon Lake."

Palo stood up and stretched out, "We're all set then, let's go!"

The group stood up and packed away all necessary items like our sleeping bags. Slinging my bag onto my shoulders, I looked up into the sky. Two jet black birds, danced across the pale blue, clouded sky as they tweeted a sweet song.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Jade said.

I snapped around but Jade was far away from where I was standing, admiring the view in the same position as last night.

"It's a mind message," Jade chuckled, "I'll teach you later, if you want. I mean I'm pretty sure we have the same magic type, right?"

I smiled. That's right. Both Jade and I possess Mind Magic. Unlike the Elemental magic and Mind magic, Life magic is not so common.

The magic skills I currently owned were: mind reading (telepathy), my 'imagination creation' power and I also had teleportation. It was a skill that was still unstable, so I tried to never use it unless there was an emergency.

Palo gave a last minute check to ensure that nothing was left and turned back towards us.

"Let's go to Kinamon Lake."

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The journey to the lake technically should have taken 2 hours by foot but Lyell revealed a useful way to get there via his powers that would take less time. He raised a platform of earth that supported all of us and a 'leg' of earth helped the platform move along.

"Why didn't you do this before?" Cyrix muttered.

"Because I don't really do this in my everyday life," Lyell snapped back, "Anyway when we started walking, there were too many people around."

Cyrix pouted and Lyell sighed.

I shivered as I felt George's harsh stare on my back. He was surveying all of us in an unsettling silence.

"So, Lyell, you have Elemental magic of Earth, correct?" he finally spoke.

"Uh, yeah," Lyell confirmed, "Why?"

"Just curious."

"How about the rest of you?" Cyrix smiled, "We all know the magic types now-"

Lyell turned slightly red recalling the morning conversation where he finally learned of the three types of magic.

"-So what type and skills do you have?" Cyrix finished, "I'm a Life type and currently only know how to heal, but pretty advanced healing nonetheless."

"I'm a Mind type and, as you know, I have that weird Imagine power as well as telepathy and teleportation," I smiled.

"Then why didn't you just teleport us to the frickin' lake?" Cyrix sighed, exasperatedly.

"Because, the last time I teleported something it kinda exploded..." I mumbled.

Cyrix blinked and averted his gaze and the others chortled.

"I have Elemental magic and can control rock," Palo informed after the laughter died down.

"I'm another Mind mage and like Fire, I have the power of telepathy as well as telekinesis," Jade grinned.

Everyone turned to George.

"How about you, then?" Palo asked.

George smirked, "I'm yet another Mind magic user but I can only understand the speech of animals and plants."

Five further minutes passed in a peaceful silence. I found it fascinating how fun it was to be moving via an earth platform controlled by magic. I wanted to understand more about magic and how it worked without resorting to inhumane science experiments.

The lake zoomed into view and before long we stood before the sky blue door of a cosy, minute cottage. George carefully knocked and the door squeaked open.

"Hello," a young girl greeted, "I'm Kiara, the Witch of the Lake. How may I help you?"

'Geez, she looks like she's twelve!' we all thought in unison.

"Hey, now. I can hear those thoughts in those tiny little head of yours. Looks can be deceiving, y'know?" the young girl smirked, her voice growing richer as she spoke.

The six of us dropped our jaws in amazement as the petite girl before us transformed into someone with the body of a model.