Ramaeka (The Ramaeka Series Book 1) (16 page)

“That’s a bit
unfair,” he told Shady.

“No he’s right,”
Stripe interrupted him dejectedly.  “I can’t risk your lives.  I’m going to get
some air.”

He walked
dejectedly out of the building; Shady followed him a moment later.

Ramaeka
suddenly remembered Amar. 

“What are you
going to do?” he asked curious.

Amar smiled
tiredly.

“Follow you.”

“Me?” Ramaeka
asked in surprise.

“Yes, you my
friend.”  He stood up and stretched.  “Come, let us find somewhere to rest.”

 Ramaeka
didn’t think he would be able to sleep that night but as soon as his head hit
the ground he was gone.  He woke abruptly to find Shady standing over him.  As
he sat up Shady passed him his pack.

“We’re leaving
if you still want to travel with us,” he said abruptly before walking away.

Ramaeka leapt
up and followed him to where Amar and Stripe were waiting.  Shady led the way
through the grim rubble of the streets and out of the city.

“Where are we
going?” Ramaeka asked Stripe in a whisper. 

His friend
frowned down at the ground before replying.

“North-west,
up towards the capital.” 

He sped up and
joined Shady at the front.  Ramaeka turned back and took one last look at the
ruined city before following his friends into the night.

Chapter Seven

By nightfall
the fallen city could no longer be seen as the fields gave way to an eerily
enclosing forest.  The dampening effect of the trees was only exacerbated by
the unnerving silence amongst the group.

Usually
Ramaeka and Stripe would be joking around, racing each other or trying to trip
the other up.  Amar would walk gracefully behind or beside them, occasionally
pointing out something of interesting or disappearing for awhile before
returning with some strange plant or fruit for them to try. Shady would be out
in front, scouting and pretending to ignore the rest of them, but dropping back
to make a sarcastic comment or observation every now and then.

Now they
walked single file, Stripe in the lead followed by Shady, Amar and finally
Ramaeka himself.  He wondered when they would stop for the night, they had been
walking all day without break and it was already getting dark.  I’ve done more
walking since I met Stripe and Shady than I’ve done since my father let me live
as a baby, he thought in disgust stopping to adjust one of his boots.  Horrible
human torture devices he thought fiercely, he didn’t care what the others
thought, he was going barefoot from now on.  Tying the offending items to his
pack, he turned to find that the others had disappeared.  He quickly hurried
after them.  The trees were immense in this forest, tall, dark and forbidding. 
Ramaeka rather got the feeling that this was an ancient forest, and one filled
with a lot of wild beasts.  Not that he was worried of course, he was an earth
dragon.  Generally he got along with anything that grew and most beasts would
be scared off by the scent of a dragon, but his friends might not be so lucky.

Climbing a
small hill, following the group’s scent, he looked down into a surprisingly
open glade.  A small stream trickled down through its centre from the forest
covered hills.  His friends were quietly setting up camp beside the stream,
gathering dry sticks and grass for the fire.  He limped down to the water and
flopped down to examine his feet.  Despite his tough hide the horrid boots had
given him blisters.  He dunked them into the cold stream with a sigh of relief
and lay back.  After a few minutes Amar joined him, rolling up his breeches and
putting his feet into the stream as well.  They watched the fading sunlight
playing over the clouds in silence.

“Do you know
what this forest is?” Amar broke the silence.

“No, but if
feels old and grumpy,” Ramaeka replied with a yawn.

“Yes, it is
one of the first forests made when the worlds were created,” Amar said
quietly.  “Sometimes you can even meet some of the Avari still roaming here.”

“The Avari?”
Ramaeka asked genuinely curious now.

Amar flicked a
pebble into the stream.  “The animals, the first of their kind were created
before even Rama existed and are both powerful and dangerous.”

“That can’t be
right,” Ramaeka objected.  “Rama created everything in the beginning.”

“No in the
beginning there was nothing and everything.  Then there was darkness and
light.  There were many beings created before Rama was born, he is the last of
the first.”

Amar stared at
the passing clouds, still illuminated by the faint light of the descending
sun.  Despite his exhaustion, Ramaeka’s thoughts churned, had Rama really
created all nine hundred and seventy-two worlds and their peoples then?  That
was the tale, though only four hundred and twelve worlds had been discovered by
Amarian travellers.

“Come,” Amar
tugged at his arm.  “Tonight I will teach you to shape magic for use in battle.”

Immediately
distracted Ramaeka nodded eagerly and followed him to where Stripe and Shady
were sitting by the small fire they had built.

“Here,” said
Stripe gruffly, passing Ramaeka a small pot.  “Put some of that on your feet,
it’ll help.”

“Thanks,” he
replied with a meek smile.  “Amar said he’d teach me how to use magic in battle
tonight if you want to join us?”

He felt
strangely formal, having to ask Stripe, who usually just leapt in anyway.

“After dinner,
it’s my turn to cook tonight.”

Ramaeka nodded
then sat and opened the pot Stripe had given him.  It smelt almost like mint
and something else that tickled his nose.  Concentrating he tapped his magic. 
It was becoming easier and easier to do so as he learnt how to use and control
it the way Amar did.  He looked at the pot again; there was definitely a glint
of magic in it.  This was probably expensive stuff.

He scooped a
little bit out and dabbed it over his aching feet.  The pain disappeared almost
instantly and he sighed with relief.

“That’s good
stuff,” he told Stripe, watching as the swelling on his feet went down.

“I got it in
the very south of the country from some monk,” Stripe explained as he dropped
several herbs into the cooking pot and stirred.  “Cost a fair amount but it was
worth it.”

Ramaeka hummed
in agreement.

After dinner,
once Ramaeka had cleaned up, Amar gathered them together for their first lesson
in magical combat.

“It is easy to
draw upon your magic, but to create a weapon of pure magic with any real
strength you will need to be able to hold the form at all times, even once you
have thrown it.”

He stopped and
held out his hand palm up; incandescent white magic began to swirl over top of
his palm.  Once it was the size of his fist he stopped.

“You need to
compress it, make sure it is completely solid,” he said concentrating on the
ball of magic which darkened, tightening in on itself.

“The more
compressed it is the more powerful, the more explosive.”

He pulled his
hand down leaving the magic ball floating in midair.

“You see if
you can control your magic, you can send it anywhere.  You can make it dodge
and chase until it impacts with your chosen target.”

The ball of
magic skimmed away from him, twisting around Ramaeka, who squeaked in
surprise.  Amar smiled and with a wave of his hand sent the ball flying into a
moss covered boulder across the clearing.  The ball exploded with an eye
watering flash.  When the smoke cleared Ramaeka saw that the rock had
completely disintegrated.

Stripe let out
a whistle and walked over to examine where the boulder had been.

“You can make
them as small or as big as you wish,” Amar continued blithely.  “But you must
remember your magic is also the force that keeps you alive.  If you use it all,
you will kill yourself.”

He looked them
over; Ramaeka raised his chin, he wasn’t afraid to try this.

“If you are
ready shall we make an attempt?” Amar asked.

“Definitely.”

“Absolutely.”

“I’m ready!”

He smiled at
them.  “Very well, there are three smaller rocks over here.  Line up in front
of one, they will be your targets.”

Eagerly
Ramaeka bound over to stand in front of a rock.  This was going to be simple he
thought smugly, after practicing the same thing with fire magic, throwing pure
magic would be easy.  Technically it was really the same thing.  He held out
his right hand and concentrated on pulling his magic into his palm.  He was
surprised to find that his magic seemed to have grown somewhat.  Amar was
right, the more he used it the more it grew.  He pulled some of it to his palm;
soon he had a lumpy ball the size of a small orange.

“Good,” Amar’s
voice murmured in his ear.  “Now make it solid.”

Ramaeka pushed
down on the wispy ball with his mind.  Immediately power squished out the sides
as if it was a cake filled with cream.  Scowling, he pushed the sides in too. 
Now he had a square of magic, which was still leaking in small strands, he yanked
at one of the escaping strands and pushed it back in.  Several other strands
immediately started floating out.  Struggling he kept pulling them back in
while trying to concentrate on keeping the magic on his palm.  This was much
harder than the fire spell, with that you just released a stream of fire magic,
none of this making a ball nonsense.  A yelp beside him caused him to lose
concentration and he watched in dismay as his square, wispy magic ball
disappeared.  He sighed and turned to see what had happened with the others.

Stripe was
sitting on the ground holding his hand over his cheek.  Amar crouched beside
him and pulled his hand away to check his wound.

“Just a small
scorch mark,” he said calmly.  “Put a dab of that cream of yours on it.  You do
not need to hold it so close to your face.”

Stripe
grumbled as he got to his feet, he looked up and saw Ramaeka grinning at him. 
He smiled sheepishly, and then winced as it stretched the raw burn on his
cheek.  As he dabbed ointment cautiously on his face Ramaeka glanced over at
Shady and sniggered.  Following his gaze Stripe laughed.  Shady’s ball of magic
had somehow grown tentacles which were reaching up towards his face.  He danced
around trying to avoid them before finally dropping it, yanking his hand away
and jumping backwards as it hit the ground with a bang.

Stripe and
Ramaeka howled with laughter, as Shady stared in shock at the small crater in
the soil.  The miserable ball in Ramaeka’s stomach unwound as the tension
between them melted away like snow in the summer sun.

“I didn’t know
you could dance so well,” Stripe choked out.

“Shut up,”
Shady growled.  “Don’t see you doing any better.”

“He is correct,”
Amar said unconcerned, “He is the only one who has managed to disintegrate
anything so far.  Perhaps you two should try again.”

Still
sniggering the two of them turned back to their rocks.  Ramaeka pulled on his
magic again; it seemed to come through even faster.  He tried to squish it into
a ball shape but once again threads of magic kept attempting to drift away. 

Think he told
himself sternly, there’s got to be a way to tighten it up.  You’re a dragon not
a human, the voice in his head informed him; you shouldn’t even be doing this
in your lesser form.  Shut up he growled, scowling at the floating mess in
front of him.  Wait perhaps that’s it he thought suddenly.  I’m an earth
dragon, and earth is compressed, maybe if I treat it like that in my mind.

He closed his
eyes firmly and imagined the ball as a tightly packed ball of earth.

 “Good, now
let us see you move it,” Amar interrupted him.

He opened his
eyes to see a solid ball of magic floating in front of him.  Ok don’t lose it
now he told himself.  Keeping a tight hold of it with his mind he slowly and
painfully floated it towards his rock.  Slowly inch by inch it moved closer
until it hovered above it.  Too tired to hold it any longer, Ramaeka let it
go.  It dropped onto the rock and exploded; he yelped and held up his arm to
cover his face as chips of rock zipped through the air.

“Well, that
was interesting,” Stripe commented.

Peering over
his arm Ramaeka saw that his rock had shattered rather than disintegrated.

“That is why
you need to control the ball until the moment it connects with the target. 
Ramaeka’s ball started to lose its shape and intensity in that last moment
because he dropped it, therefore it caused the rock to explode rather than
disintegrate,” Amar explained.

“How is this
useful in battle though?” asked Stripe serious once again.  “It’s taken us four
hours to make two magic balls each.”

Amar held up
his hand, balls of energy flooded the air around him.  Gently he waved, making
the shimmering lights swirl around him.

“As you get
stronger and learn more, it will become much faster.  Eventually if you keep
training you will be able to control hundreds at the same time, and call them
up in an instant.”

He gestured
deftly drawing the magic back in to his skin.

Ramaeka would
have been more impressed but he felt as if he was the one who had been
shattered, not the rock.  He groaned and walked over to his bed bone tired.

“I think I’ve
had enough training for tonight,” he told them flopping on to his blanket.  His
right arm suddenly cramped with an almost crippling pain.  I’ve really over
done it he thought clutching his arm.  However after a few moments the pain
subsided to his relief.  Shady walked over and joined him, crawling into his
own blankets.

“Just one more
go,” Stripe said firmly.  Ramaeka watched as he drew on his magic.  He had
trouble shaping it struggling to keep magic from escaping out the sides or from
the top.  He probably can’t concentrate properly with everything that has
happened Ramaeka thought, he could certainly understand that.  Finally Amar
told Stripe to stop and get some rest.  The last thing that Ramaeka saw before
he drifted off to sleep was Stripe sitting staring into the fire, shadows
playing on his face.