Chapter 7: Magic

Magic

 

“What the fuck dude? Why are you laughing at that?” 

 

After calming down for a minute or two, Logan had mostly forgiven the old man.It was made all the more difficult by the constant guffawing coming from Jeremiah. Even the bear was making some sort of panting laugh, adding to Logan's boiling frustration.

 

“Ah, lad, you should have seen yer face! Harharhar, I’ll remember it for the rest of my days.”

 

“I’m glad at least someone enjoyed it.” Logan said sullenly. In response to his bad mood, the bear lifted its bulk from the ground and made its way to Logan’s side. Although its spirit remained passive, it was still hard for Logan not to flinch back when it brought its massive head directly in front of his face. Then, the almost 14 ft. tall, massive bear did something amazing.

 

It started licking him on his face like an overgrown dog. The bear, with jaws easily big enough to fit the majority of Logan’s arm inside the incisors, was instead using its newspaper-sized tongue to slobber all over Logan. And although Logan wasn’t usually a fan of getting licked by dogs, he was going to let it slide this one time, for very obvious reasons. But barely, because it's breath stunk to the high heavens!

 

“That’s just Bennett’s way of making yer acquaintance.” Old Jeremiah’s voice came from somewhere behind the bear, Bennett’s, bulk.

 

When Bennett finally stopped his greetings, and after carefully wiping his dripping face in his shirt’s belly, Logan managed to respond, “Well nice to meet you too, Bennett.”

 

“Now that the two of ye have said your g’days, let’s get down to business. Lad, I want ye to try and make a bond with the Beastie here.

 

Logan just gave the old man a stare. 

 

Now how the hell am I gonna explain why I don’t even know where to start.

“I’ve actually never had the chance to bond before. Can you show me how it’s done, old man?” Although Logan didn’t really feel the sass he put behind his words, he thought sparking Jeremiah’s competitive side would draw attention away from his short-coming. He trusted the old man, but didn’t actually know Jeremiah all too well, and figured holding out on his origin would be for the best, at least until Logan knew more about the circumstances in which he found himself.

 

“Hmmm, alright lad, ye can watch as I draw on the bond. Focus on sensing what I’m doing with my soul, aye?” Thankfully, the old man wasn’t very perceptive of Logan’s tactics.

 

“First, calm and even yer breath, until it fades into the back of yer thoughts. Without focus, ye might be able to use yer spark. Unfortunately, ye won’t be able to control it, and are more likely to injure yerself than any enemy.”

 

Well, guess I better focus up then.

 

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Gathering his thoughts and controlling his breathing, Logan slowly leveled his exhales, and calmed his mind. Eventually, after around 5 minutes of this, Logan felt himself slip into the space between sleep and waking. He could feel his body, but wasn’t able to move without abandoning the mental state. Thankfully, even with his eyes closed he could see the patterns Jeremiah’s soul was weaving.

 

“Good, good, now… focus on the pulse of blood throughout yer body. It should be easier to feel with your head cleared. Ye want to sense the farthest reaches it travels to, and imagine it going even further, extending out of yer fingers, toes, and the top of yer noggin.”

 

It was easy to find his pulse. The trance-like state of meditation he was in made isolating the flow of blood in his system simple. It was with the next bit of instructions that Logan started to struggle.

 

For some reason, even thinking of following the old man’s technique made Logan waver dangerously close to falling out of the meditative trance. After taking a couple of seconds to fully resubmerge his mind, Logan would make a push to try and imagine his pulse flowing farther away from him, only for him to slip back towards consciousness. This cycle continued on for a couple of rotations, until Logan got bored of following instructions.

 

Although he suspected that Jeremiah couldn’t tell, Logan knew for a fact that his soul was intrinsically different to the old man’s. Assuming that was where the disconnect was coming from, he tried the only thing he could think of. 

 

Logan attempted to will his soul tendrils to follow the complex pattern Jeremiah’s spark was weaving. Surprisingly–or maybe not, he considered–the tendrils were much more responsive to his requests in this state than before. They quickly snaked to do his bidding, looping around one another in increasingly sophisticated motions, until the pattern repeated.

 

After another couple rotations of watching Jeremiah, and making sure his soul was following suit appropriately, Logan returned the bulk of his attention to Bennett, all without opening his eyes. It was time to learn magic, or die by being mauled by a massive bear in the attempt.

Thankfully, Logan could understand what he was supposed to do without any more input from Old Jeremiah. After all, the old man’s soul was already demonstrating the completed version of a bond, every rotation of his spark sending a loop through the bear’s core and back to his own. Logan already had the correct circuit. Now he just needed to connect it to the bear-tery.

 

With the patience of a saint, Logan carefully began to expand the rotations of his soul in Bennett’s direction. He was hopeful that even if he spooked the creature Jeremiah could calm it once again, but there was no reason to find out. Hopefully.

 

Inch by spiritual inch, Logan expanded out towards the bear. Eventually, the extended tendrils of his soul came up right next to Bennett. This was it, druid magic or bust. Or Logan thought, until a third option decided to make itself known. 

 

As Logan brought his soul into the bear’s core, his sensations were suddenly jumbled. His emotions instantly boiled up in a mix or confusion, curiosity, and most prevalently, a primal fear that eclipsed any other panic Logan had ever experienced. 

 

Even focusing as intently as Logan was, it still took him multiple moments to identify that the emotions weren’t his, as Bennett’s mind was exuding them as deeply as Logan could conceive. His contact with Bennett had caused a fight-or-flight response within the bear’s slightly-more advanced mind. However, despite towering over the diminutive human, Logan could only grasp a single concept of the bear’s thoughts on him.

 

Predator. The bear’s presence was growing weaker but Logan still felt the connection. As he went to draw on its power, though, Logan felt himself get blocked out completely.

 

Opening his eyes, Logan looked up to find only himself, and an openly shocked Jeremiah. Bennett was nowhere to be seen, but the trampled foliage leading into the Forest revealed what must have happened. For some reason, a bear bigger than any you could find on Earth had fled in fear. Of him.

 

Logan just laughed. Magic was gonna be fun.

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