My Life was a Game

Chapter 28

The tree looked so enormous in front of her. Its branches covered the canopy with its shadow. It was as amazing as she thought. She got nervous when she remembered her purpose of coming here. Maria and Gorgon couldn't even be certain of the success rate to transfer the magic. How would she transfer it again? Magic this, magic that. This was bad. She couldn't even control the magic, so how would she transfer it?

"How to do this?"

She clasped her hands together, questioning her own rationality. The time was limited, she couldn't make the group wait for long. Even if she got another chance to come here, who knew if she had to go through hell again. No matter what, the magic had to be transferred now! She walked closer to the tree and nervously passed the chain of the restricted area. There was no one around but who knew if she was caught on camera.

April walked through the bulging roots on the ground and reached the base of the tree. It was much more difficult to maneuver through the buttress root as she struggled to find a stable footing. She decided to sit on the root as it got higher for her little feet to climb. Her heart was thumping faster when she got closer to the centre of the tree. She faced the tree directly but wasn't sure of the next step.

"Think, April! Think of something magical. Remember what aunt Maria and Mr. Gorgon taught you", she closed her eyes as she remembered their lesson.

'Imagine the magic! Human imagination is the most magical thing in the whole world. Don't underestimate the human mind, honey', Maria's voice rang inside her mind.

'It only works for strong sorcerers though. Weak one will have a great difficulty to manifest their magic', a slap of reality from Gorgon made her brow flinch.

'Don't crush her hope, idiot! Honey, forget what he said. Just be optimistic and believe in yourself!'

'Nice... Why don't we give her some false hope and make her cry when she failed', Gorgon yawned lazily as April got more depressed. Maria threw a thick book to him but it easily avoided by Gorgon. In the end, April had to stop their bickering and summarized the lesson.

"Focus your mind at one point and imagine what you wanted to do", she repeated the words inside her mind. What she wanted to do was to transfer the magic to the tree, that was also her focus. A few minutes passed but nothing seemed to be happening. She closed her eyes again and concentrated her focus toward the tree.

After another minute passed with silence, April opened her eyes. She felt hot and sweaty. 'Something must have happened!', she looked at her sweaty palms and returned her eyes towards the tree. The atmosphere was getting warmer and tense. Gorgon told her before, in case of some discomfort and sickness occurred, it meant the tree had rejected the magic. She felt it strongly at that moment, the atmosphere was uncomfortable and heavy.

The tree had rejected her magic.

***

The group had been waiting for an hour now but April hadn't called them yet. Everyone was restless, especially Alabaster. He was pacing around nervously with his arm folded. Grail regretted bringing his binoculars. He was able to see April from the distance with it but his boss constantly bugged him about the woman. He got annoyed but complied anyway. She hadn't moved from her seat for an hour now. As his boss kept on asking him, he decided to pass the binoculars to him. As much as the item meant a lot for him, his mental health was more important.

Alabaster quickly looked through the binoculars and saw she sat on the root. He sighed in relief but didn't lower the item in his hands. He wondered why she took so long? As much as he wanted to run over there, he had to learn to control himself and respect her boundaries. He had to endure but for a little bit more.