A Story Of Magic and Monsters

Magic

They laugh and chatter like mice on their way home, everything seemingly perfect for the time being. Lalna of course was rattling off about machinery, And Nano was nodding her head like she understood, even though she didn't know what he was talking about at all. And somehow, the conversation turned to magic.

"I dabble in it. There's a room in the castle for it, I got a wand, cauldron, all the bits of magical essence." Lalna yawned outwardly. The sun was beginning to go down once again. It was settling behind his castle, making the outline even more stark against the orange sky

"Magic?" Nano perked up, she had never even heard of anyone using magic, much less seen it.

"Yeah, I mostly just use it to make things for machines. Although I'm sure you can do more with it..." He trailed off into his own mind, thinking of ways to better it's usage.

That's when something clicked in Nano's brain.

"Is that what's in that big sphere?" Lalna looked a bit jolted, looking at her incredulously.

"Uh. Yeah, but I'm not sure how you could see it, it's invisible. You need goggles like mine," He motioned to the goggles perched in his blonde hair. "To even see it"

Nano felt like suddenly she was getting a bit more attention from him than usual, but she went on.

"Well, I couldn't see much, just a bit of red lighting and purple mist... it was all very faint though." Lalna still looked at her with a bit of intrigue, like he had found a new toy to play with.

"Hmm, Maybe it was a bit angry with me then..." He trailed off again, thinking of Nano and what he had seen.

"Angry? Is it alive? How can it be angry?" Lalna chuckled and shook his head "It's a node, a concentration of magical energy. Not exactly alive, but it is semi sentient."

Nano then fell silent, feeling much less safe with an angry magical ball above where she is sleeping.

"Don't worry, it's harmless in the sphere. I put it in there so I can recharge my wand without going out. Just don't go near it, it doesn't like being in there much."

Nano didn't realize that they were at the foot of the hill the castle was on until she nearly tripped and fell, Lalna lunged forward to catch her and caught her by the hands.

For a moment their faces were inches apart, and Nano felt her face heat up a moment while Lalna processed what just happened.

And then his cheeks went a little pink.

He released her and they laughed for a moment at each other's flustered expressions before making their way up the hill.

Halfway up it was dark. So dark in fact that Nano was afraid to move forward, in case she fell off the path.

"There's a barrier, you won't fall off Nano." She heard Lalna say, at least, she thought it was Lalna, as she couldn't actually see him.

She trusted him and began to move forward, and then she felt herself hit something soft.

It wasn't Lalna.

She screamed and moved backwards, hearing Lalna roar with laughter.

"And that's the barrier." He said simply as she heard some footsteps a few feet behind her.

She gulped and slowly made her way up the path until she reached where the light of the castle finally reached some of the path. She looked at the barrier and realized that it was see-through.

"And you didn't make it visible why...?" She asked, Annoyance laced in her voice.

"Because, it's more fun watching people fumble around scared." He chuckled at himself and took the lead ahead of her.

He opened the door for her and she walked in, her attention taken by the inside of the sphere being bathed in an eerie glow.

"Should it be glowing...?" Lalna was halfway through the door before he came and stood beside her.

"Yes, that's just excess energy coming off it." He flipped his goggles down and chuckled.

"Don't worry about it Nano, it's perfectly safe." She nodded an started walking towards her tower, before turning around suddenly.

"Actually I needed your help with this heater, could you take a look at it?"

Lalna stared at her for a moment before smiling. "Yeah. Sure."

They made their way down to her room in the tower and Lalna chuckled at the furnishings.

"It looks a lot better than before. Now, what's wrong with the heater?" He walked up to the heater and opened a panel on the side, playing with his facial hair.

"Ah! You've forgotten to prime the wires with redstone." He took some red powder out from his pockets and covered the wires in it.

The heater sputtered and groaned, before spitting out a load of dust and firing up with a roar.

"These old machines sometimes need a boost. Here." He handed her a pouch full of redstone and chuckled.

"A lot of powered machines and wiring use redstone. So do what you want with it." Lalna cleared his throat and started walking towards the door. Turning to speak with Nano before leaving.

"And don't worry about the sphere, it's going to be fine."