The Madness of Magic

The Dark

It had been days, no weeks I'm not gonna lie I lost track. Although today was different I could hear Dad and Brooks talking but it was muffled. I heard brooks he sounded scared "The potions aren't working." I could tell we were outside, it was hot. The vines were moving it was slow but I could tell. Eventually, a bright light shined on my face, the vines are opening up. The first thing I saw was dad and Brooks standing over me in tears. "S-Sil," Dad said pushing through the tears "when did you grow that scruffy beard?" They both chuckled. We found out later that when I was in the vines they had aged me two years. "I'm sixteen," I mumbled to myself. We went back inside and I took a shower after I got out and got some clothes on Brooks walked up to me. "You got taller," he said patting my head. Brooks grabbed my arm "those roses gave you some muscle too." He looked like he was questioning what other effects the roses had on me. "Well umm... could I be left alone for a bit please, I need some sleep." I yawned and brooks looked at me confused "you've been asleep for weeks." I'm extremely drowsy, I felt as if I could fall flat on my face any minute. "I've been awake for two weeks." I was clearly agitated. "Sil...buddy take it easy." he was trying to calm me down. "Do you understand how worried your dad and I were, we thought you.." he got choked up a bit. "we thought you died."  I grabbed my left arm with my right and looked down "I-I'm sorry." brooks lifted my chin up "silver, bud It's okay you can't control your roses yet." he hesitated for a bit then pulled me into a hug. "Brooks the thorns!" I tried pulling away but he held on tight. "I'm fine, I'm just happy you're alive. Last I saw you was 9 years ago, I don't want to lose you again." He let go and there was a hand full of thorns and gashes in his arms.

"if you need to sleep, sleep on the couch, please." I could tell he was worried so I walked into the living room. Dad was sitting on the recliner, Brooks walked over to him to tell him about the conversation. I crashed on the couch and Brooks went back into the bathroom to patch up his wounds. I didn't notice it earlier but being in the roses for so long must have dehydrated me because when I laid down I mumbled to myself "water". Dad looked over and asked "what did ya need? As he asked the question a vine from my roses was slowly moving up the side of my body. Dad saw it heading to my mouth and jumped up "Silver your roses!" Brooks then bolted out after hearing dad mention my roses but the vine was resting on my cheek acting as a straw giving me water. Both looked at me in confusion and let out a sigh. Dad put his hand on my head "you need to warn us next time okay?" Brooks sat down next to my head "nearly gave me a heart attack." I tried but I couldn't sleep I was probably just exhausted "okay I can't sleep." Brooks pulled out a potion "well I could always.." he took one look at my fear-stricken face and put it away. "Sorry bud."  Dad walked over to me and crouched down to my eye level "wanna summon your weapon?" I let out a sigh "sure." Dad then got up and looked at Brooks, from the way they were acting I could tell they were up to something. They both dragged me off the couch I groaned and got up "I just have one rule" I looked over to Brooks "no potions." he sighed and opened the door  "Let's go outside, this could get ugly" we went into the forest in Brooks' back yeard past his garden. We stopped in a clearing, Dad opened the book "okay son remember what I taught you when we got here about how to summon your fire?" I nodded "Could I try to manipulate my roses?" They both looked at each other concerned and back to me. "Listen bud, after what happened I don't really know if we should..."   I didn't really care, I just wanted to learn how to control my magic. "So you know I use earth magic but you've never seen my weapon." He popped his knuckles and slammed his hands into one another. The ground started to shake, I lost my balance and fell on my butt. The ground started to seemingly throw its self at Dad but he stood his ground and they formed into forearm blades. After, water started to flow up from underground and rushed towards Brooks and formed a ring around him, once he grabbed it, all the water gathered into a trident. "Your turn sil." Brooks pointed his spear at me. I started to concentrate, I could feel my roses moving but I knew what I was doing. I reached for my roses and pulled out a bow. As I moved my hand to the string flames swirled out of the palm of my hand and formed a flaming arrow.