The Magic Within You - NaNoWriMo 2018

~5~

**Kitten paws because Charlie's a bean and I'm really proud of myself for making their character**

     The rest of the day was spent exploring. Angie wandered about like a curious puppy, asking questions about everything she saw. Canvas was basically a hub for all Artists to gather; a place outside the Otherworld.

     "Artists' abilities can vary," Brayden explained. "There are Painters and Musicians like you saw in the village, and there are also Dancers and Thespians. Judging from what you've told me, you're both a Painter and a Musician. An Artist can manifest as one or more of those abilities. Artists who manifest as all four are known as Unlimiteds, and they're basically part of the so-called 'higher class'."

     "So," Angie started, "If I'm a Painter like you say I am, why can't I do the..." she mimed the motion the girl with the orbs of paint was doing.

     "Because you haven't been trained yet," Brayden answered simply. "You need a Mentor. Some Artists are born stronger than others, and therefore have easier manifestations, but some need more training to be able to control their power. For example, Conductors are Musicians with stronger powers. They have more authority because of that. They're similar to-"

"A Prefect in a Hogwarts house!" Angie interrupted as if everything had just clicked at that moment.

"...Pardon?"

"Nothing."

     Brayden cleared his throat. "Of course, that isn't to say you can't be trained to be a Conductor. It just takes a longer period of training than it takes to simply be able to hone the ability."

     Angie was interrupted from intently listening when a creature came galloping down the sidewalk. It looked kind of like a horse, with the face of a dragon and wings tucked to its sides. The animal darted wildly down the path, its hooves making frantic clopping noises. Angie whipped around as the creature passed her by. She didn't notice the young person that came running after the horse-dragon until they knocked into her.

"Sorry!" called the teenage Artist that had run into her, before continuing calling the creature: "Tessa! Tessaaaa!"

     On instinct, Angie bolted after the horse-dragon to help wrangle it. She caught up with ease and eventually was side-by-side with the animal. Its scales glistened in the sunlight and its eyes were a bright, icy blue.

"Don't touch her! She might hurt y-"

     Angie had moved to calm the horse-dragon before she heard its owner's warning. She placed a hand on its furry back. But, to the contrary of what they had said, the animal stopped in its tracks. Angie moved to pet it's scaly head and it nuzzled into her hand like a puppy. The astounded owner slowly walked over to Angie, eyes wide with surprise and confusion.

     "She never does that for me," said the stranger, running a skinny hand along the creature's back. They had curly, strawberry-blond hair that sat in a pouf on top of their head. Their voice was fairly deep, that of a female's voice influenced by testosterone. Their eyes were a color that looked like red, green and purple all mixed together. "Hi!" they said when they finally turned to Angie. "I don't think we've met. You can call me Charlie."

"Angie," she smiled, shaking Charlie's extended hand, but still fantasized by the horse-dragon.

"This is my reonla, Tessa," Charlie announced proudly.

"Your...what?"

"Reonla. You're...new here, aren't you?"

     Angie nodded, and it seemed as if everything clicked for Charlie. "Ahh! Gotcha. Welcome to Canvas! Newly manifested?"

     "Well...kind of. I guess I manifested when I was five, but I never really knew what was happening until-" Angie stopped at Charlie's look of disbelief. "What?"

"Five? Five years old?"

Angie nodded.

"Nobody manifests that early."

Huh. Why didn't Brayden mention anything about that?

"I didn't manifest until I was 10," continued Charlie bashfully, their gaze directed toward their purple Vans.

     With an indignant whinny from Tessa, Charlie looked up at their pet. Ther gaze then turned to Angie. "Do you wanna come back to the stable with me? I just need to keep her calm."

     Angie turned back to where Brayden had been, but he was gone. Hesitantly, she turned back to Charlie and nodded. "Why not?"

"Epic!" Charlie beamed, their eyes alight. "And we can become best friends on the way there!"

Angie couldn't help but giggle at Charlie's bright personality. This was gonna be a good day.

     Charlie's stable was gorgeous. It was a huge barn on an even bigger field of grass, secluded and peaceful. Not far from the stable was Charlie's house, a fairly large townhouse with three stories. In the towering trees, birds that looked like a cross between cardinals and tiny unicorns chirped about. These were called Redmanes, Angie learned.

"Sometimes, an Artist ventures into the world of science," explained Charlie while they fed hay to another reonla. "Every so often, they do a little bit of gene-mixing to create animals like these guys." With a bright smile, Charlie pet the muzzle of the reonla they were feeding. This one seemed to like Charlie much more than Tessa did.

Angie nodded. "What's your ability?" she asked as she kicked her feet from the hay bale she was sitting on.

Charlie flashed Angie a smile and waved their hand through the air like a magician. Sparks, as if from a fire, drifted from his palm into the open air and formed a small bird in Charlie's hand. With a wiggle of Charlie's fingers, the bird flew to the ground, its little wings flapping to support its tiny body. The bird morphed into a snarling lion so realistic that Angie backed up. Charlie chuckled as the lion became a small rabbit and then a young kitten, who hopped into Charlie's hand when they kneeled to pick it up. The kitten disappeared in another gentle array of sparkles, leaving Angie in confusion.

"I'm a Thespian," Charlie explained. "We really take the 'suspension of reality' thing to heart."

"Neato," Angie mused, resting her elbows on her knees. "Did you need a Mentor?"

"Every Artist needs a Mentor," they responded casually, resting their elbow against the gate of the reonla's enclosure. "Brayden Myers was mine." something clouded their eyes that said that wasn't all there was to the story.

"He's the one that brought me here!" Angie exclaimed.

Charlie's eyes suddenly lost their glint. "Really?"

"Yeah...why?"

Charlie shook their head with an expression that Angie couldn't pin, but she understood. Something told her not to pry.

But, in her life, she'd been told not to do a lot of things, and that never stopped her before.