Minor Spells: Major Frustration

Not for the first time, Lionel grunted in frustration. "Ugh!!" He tossed the scroll he was holding. 'There is nothing minor about this!' The boy grumbled in his mind. It had been three days of training. He was trying to learn to use spells, and the boy had yet to learn to use a single one.

Lionel had spent the first day learning exactly what spells were. Suffice it to say the boy still couldn't quite wrap his head around Magic spells. Elemental magic in comparison seemed to be a cake walk. Lionel thought back on Drindle's explanation of spells.

"Spells take any one or more elements and bend and combine their energies to perform a certain task." The old man pulled out a scroll from slipspace. "This is a magic scroll. The process and manner a mage has performed a spell is written in the enclosed diagram." Drindle opened the scroll and showed it's contents to Lionel.

That same scroll Drindle had shown Lionel a few days ago, was the same one the boy stooped to pick up again.

'This is ridiculous.. I don't understand it at all.' Lionel opened the scroll and began looking at the diagram again. Drindle had explained the diagram already, but the boy still didn't understand the finer details. He sat down cross legged on the open scrimmage field.

"This diagram is simple" Drindle had said pointing out the characteristics. The figure consisted of a combination of runic characters around a triangle with Lightning, Earth, and Air written at the three points. At the top of the scroll was the title of the spell 'Electric Wall'. "Each of these points show the elements that are used to perform this spell." The old man then pointed to the runic characters written to form a circle. "See this writing?"

Lionel had recognized it as the same writing he had begun translating more than a week prior. "Not those weird symbols again.." he grumbled

"You may as well get used to the 'Planar Tongue', it is used in a great many magical applications" Lionel still remembered how the geezer arched his eyebrows in an irritated manner.

"Well.. At least the old fart gave me this." Lionel pulled out the sheet of paper that made up his Knowledge Tablet. He stared intently at the writing on the scroll and thought of his question. 'What is the translation of the Planar Tongue on this scroll?' Words shimmered into existence on the tablet's surface. He quickly re-read them. It wasn't the first time that the boy had done this.

Drindle had told him bluntly. "Put your tablet to good use and have it translate the language." The old man had turned to leave but left the boy with one final word of advice. "understanding does not lead to performance, performance leads to understanding." Then the old man had left Lionel alone with a multitude of questions. Even his knowledge tablet didn't understand what Drindle had meant.

"I just can't seem to understand.. Ugh.." The boy lay back in the dirt and looked up at the brilliant, crystal blue, beautiful sky. The sun had been up for a few hours by now and it's warmth felt good on Lionel's skin. He closed his eyes and saw its soft orange light behind his lids.

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Lionel's Father Garreth was working in the family's field. Lionel walked towards him carrying a hoe on his shoulder. Garreth wore a wide brimmed hat that shaded his eyes, he turned towards the boy as he noticed his approach.

"Why aren't you helping your mother?" Lionel was startled at the voice he heard from his dad. It wasn't quite the same as he remembered. It was slightly higher and had a noticeable rasp to it.

"I wanted to come help you pop" The boy was quick to move forward and begin hoeing around the stalks of the nearby plants.

"Alright you can work with me, but just know that I will be leaving soon and I won't be back for quite some time." The wide brimmed hat covered Garreth's face from Lionel's view.

It was strange for his father to say he was leaving. Lionel stared at him looking for a reason behind his words. Garreth continued to toil away at the plants in front of him. Lionel decided to speak up. "Where are you going?"

Garreth tilted his head up and Lionel could make out only the details of his lower face. They seemed familiar but unlike his father's. "I have to go on a journey by myself to protect you." The dry raspy voice finally struck a chord with the boy. Garreth lifted his head and instead of Lionel's father's face, Drindle's old appearance stared back at the boy.

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Lionel was startled awake. Seeing Drindle in his dream freaked him out. He was still laying in the dirt of the large training field. He had fallen asleep while taking a break. The last week or so had really worn him out. 'what was that dream all about anyway?' He thought while stretching out. The dream left him with a strange sense of foreboding. The boy shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. 'No sense in worrying about a dream.'

Lionel looked up at the sky. The sun was still up; It appeared to be an hour or so before noon. 'Drindle will be here any minute, I need to master this spell. Or at least look like I am working on it' He felt bad for falling asleep but he knew the rest would do him good. He reached over and grabbed the scroll that lay off to the side.

Lionel may not have understood the magic spell and it's intricacies but he still tried. He used the Knowledge Tablet to translate the Planar Tongue, as Drindle had called it. After having looked at the translation so many times before, he just barely glanced at it while closing closing his eyes. His efforts so far had led to either nothing happening, or his energy draining too quickly. There was a fine line he had to walk to control the three elements in tandem.

The scroll's runes simply stated. "Earth the foundation, Air the projection, Lightening the fortification" Lionel continued to think those words while reaching for the depths of his vervane. He imagined Earth being the center of a wall. He could feel his will embuing his internal energy with that of the earth. He then thought of the air around him. Lionel mentally drew a concentric circle in the air. He thought of the circle being at a 3 meter radius extended out from where he sat.

Lionel felt his focus begin to slip. He redoubled his efforts. His own Vervane was constantly draining now. He could feel his energy shaping reality around him. There was a noticeable tremor in the environment. He didn't dare to open his eyes, for fear of losing his grip on the magic. The boy pushed his mind even further. He began to envision Lightening crackling out from the Earthen wall, he was projecting. He could hear a constant popping noise now. His mind's focus was at its limits, it was nothing more than a tenuous thread now.

Lionel opened his eyes slowly, afraid that any sudden movement would break his intent focus. The air around him glowed blue as a massive wall of dirt blocked his entire view.

He turned his head slowly left and slowly right. He was amazed at his own power. surrounding him was a 4 meter tall wall of dirt. The tan Earthen wall had a constant crackle of electricity flowing through it. Lionel could see little bolts of lightening popping into and out of existence on the walls surface.

"Well call me impressed." a voice suddenly broke the boy's focus. He jerked his head up and looked at Drindle's smiling face.

The old man floated about 2 meters over Lionel's wall and was looking down on the boy with a half smile on his face. "Need to work on your focus though" The geezer spoke while looking at the Earthen wall slowly crumbling.

"I guess teaching you spells so early wasn't as frivolous as I was begining to think" the old man slowly descended to the spot where Lionel sat hunched over breathing heavily.

The spell had drained the boy of alot of energy. Lionel could feel sweat beading on his brow. "How.. how are spe... spells I can barely us... use even going to he... help me in this competition?" The boy stuttered while breathing raggedly.

"You'll see as your training continues." Drindle had a sly smile on his face that made Lionel a little more concerned than he was before. "Alright," The geezer clapped his hands while landing on the ground beside the boy. "let's fix this field so we can get started with weapons training." the old man waved his hands. The remnants of Lionel's spell, was a large mound of earth forming a circle in the open practice field. As Drindle waved his hand, Lionel could feel magic flowing into the mound. The remains of the Earthen wall flowed like water and formed a flat field again.

By this time Lionel had caught his breath he had a slight pain in the back of his head. He stood while rubbing his neck. He turned towards Drindle and held out his left hand, while using his right to rub out the pain. Instead of a weapon like he was expecting, Drindle held out a small glass vial.

"Here, Drink this.." Lionel took the small vial from the old man's out stretched hand. "then we'll get started." Drindle sat in the dirt and picked up the scroll that lay haphazardly on the ground. He rolled it up and placed it in the folds of his robe.

Lionel looked at the vial in his hand. It was just clear glass with a cork stopper. The liquid inside was clear as well. The boy removed the stopper and sniffed the fluid cautiously. He had learned by now to approach anything Drindle gave him with caution.

"It's nothing bad this time, I promise" The old man winked up at Lionel while smiling. That expression didn't put the boy anymore at ease.

Two days prior when Lionel was first studying the magic scroll, Drindle had offered Lionel some food. Lionel had scarfed it down without a second thought. It wasn't until after he was done eating that Drindle asked. "So how does roasted turd taste?" The boy could have sworn that the food was meat there was no funky flavor or weird texture.

All Lionel could say was "What?..."

Drindle had proceeded to tell him it was a magical experiment. He had been trying to turn unusable organic matter into a more... usable form.

Ever since Lionel had been truly suspicious of anything the old man gave him. He stared at the liquid in the vial and swirled it around.

"How many times do I have to tell you, it's nothing bad." The old man had a flabbergasted look on his face. Lionel could tell Drindle was only mocking him.

The boy steeled his nerves and drank the fluid. a warmth spread from his stomach to his extremities and towards his vervane. The dull ache he had been feeling was immediately gone. Surprise lit his face as he turned to look at Drindle.

The old man had his eyebrows arched and a smile on his face. "See just a simple potion to ease your pain." The old man still sat on the ground cross legged and began drawing circles in the dirt. "So, for weapons practice today, I thought we'd try a bow with some magic."