Chapter 4: Tornado

"right wisp," Lira said, her voice playful and a little bit of authority, "now that you have learned how to gather mana inside you, so now it's time for you to learn some magic."

Andy floated in front of her, his glow brightened more than usual. His confidence was growing or at least a little bit. He hopes it will grow. He had a whole 5 minutes of mana control under his belt. How hard can it be right?

"Just remember," Lira continued, hands on her hips, "you just need to focus on one simple task. You can do it. No, you have to do it."

"and the task would be?" Andy asked, trying to sound more confident than he felt.

"let's start with creating a gust of wind," Lira said gesturing casually with a flick of her hand. "a small one. You are not trying to summon a tornado, just a small breeze.

Andy blinked, that's sound pretty simple, right? How hard can it be to just make a small breeze, when he had this much mana flowing through him? He just needs to summon a simple, small breeze, feel the air, and release it simply.

The problem is, he had absolutely no idea what he was supposed to do to summon a gust of wind. Should he imagine summoning a breeze, or should he need to make a magic circle?

"Okay. Okay. I got this," Andy muttered to himself, he tried to focus. He hovered over a patch of grass and closed his eyes. Trying to imagine his mana is turning into wind.

Lira, sitting on a nearby rock, watching him with an expression that could only be described as amused anticipation.' "come one, wisp. Show me what you got.

Andy took a deep breath again, it is a hard concept for a wisp, but he still believed in himself and managed to stay focused and concentrated. Slowly started to move the mana inside him, and trying to move it outward.

He focused harder.

And then, with a force that even surprised him, he let it go.

A violent WHOOSH filled the air. A whirlwind, that the size of a small house, suddenly erupted in front of him. It sucked up everything that came in its path, leaves, branches, rocks, and even the couple of goblins who are enjoying, their walk together got slung into the air like ragdolls spinning helplessly.

"NO!NONONONOOOOO!" Andy screamed in panic. As he was also being pulled into the tornado. He caught the grass holding onto it so as not to get blown away. He wasn't sure what to do to stop it. Even his simple attempt to send mana to suppress it failed, resulting in it becoming a full-blown tornado.

Lira stood up from her rock, watching everything in amusement as it unfolded. "well, well," she said, jumping back to make the distance between her and the tornado. "I didn't think that you would go this big for your first attempt, wisp. Impressive I can say. You just made yourself a very spirited welcome."

"Help!" Andy screamed as the tornado spun faster, coming towards Andy. " I swear I am trying to stop it! But if won't. And if it wasn't for you jinxing it wouldn't happened."

Lira's eyes gleaned as she tried to control her laughter. "stop it? Nah, this is too good. I am getting a front-row seat for your show. Look how you divided that lovely goblin couple. You are doing great. Really."

"stop laughing!" Andy was frustrated. "and I am NOT doing great!"

He tried to focus again, to stop it but every attempt to control it seems to make it spin even faster. Meanwhile, the goblins have long since abandoned their attempts to maintain dignity as some lost their consciousness, one even trying to cut the tornado with a tree branch.

"Wisp, take a breath," Lira said. "and try thinking instead of panicking."

"I AM THINKING!" Andy screamed, but in his panic, he had forgotten about the most basic things Lira had told him.

"Focus," Lira repeated, this time a little bit more serious. "concentrate on calming it down. You are the one who created it, so you have to be the one to stop it."

Andy took a deep breath, tried to calm down, and thought of ways how to stop the tornado. First, he cut off his mana supply to the tornado, gathered all his remaining mana at a point and pushed it towards the rock which Lira sat before and the rock flew towards the tornado. Disrupting its flow and slowing it down the tornado slowly disappeared.

Finally, the tornado stopped, and all the leaves, rocks, and branches fell, and the goblin who fell ran in a panic. The forest was covered in dust.

Andy sat on the ground, his light dimmed. "I…I did it?"

"Well, yeah," Lira said clapping her hands. "congratulations, you have learned to create a natural disaster."

Andy's glow returned to normal, he let out a relieved sigh. " I am never going to try that again."

Lira crossed her arms and leaned back against a nearby tree, watching him "You will need to try it again. You just need more practice. And you can't expect your self to succeed right from the start. Not everyone will succeed on their first try."

" I almost destroyed the forest," Andy muttered, his glow dimming slightly. "I think I had enough practice for this day, I need some rest."

"Oh, don't be dramatic," Lira said, "you didn't destroy anything. You can't think with that little tornado of yours can destroy a forest. And you just gave everyone a good reason to stay inside for the rest of the day. Besides this is also a learning experience."

"Well, a disastrous experience indeed," Andy grumbled, floating back down to the ground.

"ah, well," Lira said, her tone becoming more serious "You did learn something, didn't you? You learned how the focus is important, and how the magic is not always predictable. And you also learned how to stop a tornado."

Andy looks around at the overturned trees and goblins trying to collect their scattered belongings. "guess so. But.. it didn't go exactly like we planned."

"That's the thing," Lira said, looking at him. "plan goes wrong. Magic goes wrong. But the key is how will you deal with it. You learned how to stop something that could have been a disaster and that's progress."

Andy was quiet for a moment, thinking what she said. Maybe it wasn't a total disaster, but it was still a message.

"so what now? "he asked, looking at her with curiosity.

Lira grinned. "now? You go back to the drawing board. And you will mess up again, again and again. But eventually, you will get it right."

Andy sighed, but there was a bit of determination in him. He doesn't know how long it will take him to achieve it, but he will get the hang of magic…and if not? He will at least have plenty of learning experience to keep him trying.