Naga Chronicles: Jeremy and the Staff of Reckoning

16-20

Chapter 16

Omah gets bigger, I get angrier

With magic training came an aggravation I have never known. Using my hands for magic was so much harder than magic with crystals. Imi made it sound easy enough. I would just focus on what I wanted to happen and feed that thought with the energy from my sigil. All I got done was my hands getting warm again. I don't think I'm cut out for magic. Imi starts to agree, but still has some faith in me.

Another week goes by and I realize that Omah is a month old. I also realize that he is as tall as me and longer than me if I lay flat on the ground. So he is about the same size as Spyro. I can almost ride him. If I wanted to. Omah tries to help me with my magic sometimes. I can see him screw his face up like he's concentrating really hard, but all it does is make me laugh. And laughing is what I need, because my anger at not being able to do magic is getting worse. I've gotten so mad a couple of times that I kicked some trees. Imi made one hit me back. That did not help my mood, at all.

We continue practicing day after day, but still, all I'm getting is warm hands.

"Can't I just use a wand or something?" I ask Imi as I begin to throw a fit.

"You do seem to do better if you have something to concentrate your magic into. Like the crystals. I have an idea," she answers. "Stay right here" she orders. I don't move. I'm sitting on the ground leaned against Omah who is napping. "Must be nice," I say aloud. He groans and rolls over. I fall backwards, and I just stay there. I have given up.

When Imi returns she has a long stick with gnarly looking branches at the end.

"We don't have wands," she tells me, "but we do have the ability to create a staff."

"A staff? What's the difference between that and a wand?" I ask her.

"A wand has to have magical elements to it. A staff, however, can be connected to a crystal or a group of crystals and magic can be used through it. Which is what we are going to do for you" she answers.

My jaw drops, "That is fantastic! Where do we get the crystals?" I ask her.

"That is the tricky part," she tells me. "We have to go get them from the mountain's southern side, in Whaestan."

"Ok, let's go get them," I say, starting to pack up my things.

"It's not that easy," she says. "We have to be careful on that side of the mountain. Whaestan belongs to the Evil Prince, Roegadyn. He's the one who sent Agnes after your dragon egg and if he knows you are on his land, he will hunt you and Omah down. He wants Omah for his own."

I felt completely dumbstruck. All I could do is stare at her, for at least a good minute, with my mouth gaped open. I had no idea the trouble we ran into with that old witch and her mangy cat went any further than that.

"This is probably a dumb question, but why does he want Omahtan for himself? Does he not have a dragon of his own?" I asked her.

"No, he doesn't. Only certain people get dragons. People who are deemed worthy of a dragon" she began, but I interrupted her.

"Who deems people worthy? Because I just ended up with an egg in my backpack and it hatched. I didn't search for him or anything."

Holding her hand up to stop me from asking more questions she finishes, "People are deemed worthy by the dragon inside the egg. You don't have to search them out, they find you. That is why Roegadyn wants one so bad. He has searched for a dragon egg his entire life and each one he's found has never hatched for him. He currently has 4 dragon eggs in his castle. He had five, but when you showed up here Omah's egg disappeared from his stash and now you have him."