Care Bear Magi: C3

Chapter 3: Electrifying

Five years had passed since Love Heart began his training, and despite his protests to how dull it was, he had kept up the mana building exercises all that time.  Sage Heart was very proud at his son's efforts, and moreover was amazed at how fast he seemed to be building up his mana reserves.  Now that Love Heart was ten years old, Sage Heart decided to see if he was ready for the next step.

At noon one day, while they had just finished eating their lunch, Sage Heart asked, "So Love Heart, how long can you keep generating Mana now?"

"Well, I really don't know," Love Heart said, "I started at noon yesterday and I Was getting tired by the time the sun went down, but I could have kept going."

Sage Heart whistled in amazement, "Over eight hours after only five years, it took me over seven years to get as far as your did and I wasn't able to even start until I was eight.  Well then, since that's the case we should move onto the next step, your element."

"Cool!" Love Heart was clearly excited, "What element are you going to teach me, fire? earth?"

"Patience," Sage Heart said, reaching down to a small pouch he had at his side and produced an orb about the size of a softball that appeared to be made of glass with a small silver ball floating in the center, "this is an elemental sensor orb, it will show you what element you're best suited too," he tossed the orb to Love Heart who caught it.

"You mean I can't decide?" Love Heart asked, a little disappointed.

"Well, yes you could decide, but unless you start with the element best attuned to you then it will be harder and take much longer," Sage Heart explained, "now hold the orb in both hands and concentrate on it, conjure mana inside of it and the mana will take on a form that shows what element you're best suited for."

Love Heart nodded, "All right," he said, deciding to just go along with his father's idea and conjured his mana inside the orb.  A moment passed then the orb suddenly became alight with electricity emanating from the small silver ball at the center.  Love Heart stared in awe at the orb in his hands.

"Well I see that your element is lightning and electricity," Sage Heart said, sanding up and taking the orb from Love Heart.

The ten year old green bear was by no means disappointed, electricity was an element he liked, "All right!" he said, jumping for joy, "So how do I begin."

"Well, first," Sage Heart said as he stowed the orb away again, "You need to be able to generate lightning on your own.  We'd better do this inside so there's less of a risk of you being seen."  Sage Heart grabbed his pouch and led his ten-year-old son inside the cave where they lived.  Once inside Sage Heart began to instruct Love Heart on how to conjure lightning and Love Heart soon found that channeling mana and actually changing it into a different form were vastly different.

It took the lime green bear about two hours to conjure a tiny thin pale blue bolt of lightning, which danced between his hands weakly.  Love Heart was mentally exhausted from the effort, "That was harder than I thought," he commented, breathing hard as he maintained the tiny bolt of lightning.

"Creating an element is hard, but like with conjuring mana it just takes practice," Sage Heart assured him, "You'll need to keep it up but also you'll have to experiment."

"Experiment?  What do you mean?" Love Heart asked, curious.

"Well just conjuring your element isn't enough," Sage Heart held up his hand a formed his own mana into earth, creating a small rock in his hand, "you need to do things with it, hurl it at a target," he flung his arm out and the rock struck the cave wall, "or in some cases even use the element as it exists in the world around you by discharging mana into it in order to make it more malleable," as he said this he aimed his hand at the cave wall and after a moment, pulled a small chunk of earth out of it, "though for you the margin for error you'd need to absorb natural lightning it too slim and I wouldn't risk it, even I haven't tried to do that, you might be able to control electricity from electronic devices if you try hard enough."

"OK, I understand," Love Heart said, nodding, while still straining to keep the lightning bolt conjured.

"Don't exhaust yourself, Love Heart," Sage Heart cautioned, "You've progressed fast but you still need to take your time or you might not be able to learn this properly."

Love Heart nodded and finally let the small bolt he had conjured dissipate and sat down, exhausted.  Sage Heart smiled and ruffled his headfur, "You'll get better, trust me son."

"If you say so dad," Love Heart said, yawning.  Sage Heart just smiled and helped Love Heart into bed.

To his credit, Love Heart kept up his practice quite well, getting better with his electrical magic each day until finally he was able to create bolts of lightning.  However after he almost started several forest fires, that Sage Heart thankfully snuffed quickly, it was obvious that Love Heart was having trouble with aim.  After one particularly hazardous training session, the younger bear asked his father why he was having such difficulty with his element, which Sage Heart explained.

"You see, Love Heart, the reason you are having such trouble is because your element is one of control.  You exhibit remarkable self control and skill, as well as decisiveness, it's those qualities that make lightning your element, as it is the element of quick decisiveness, but without control it is random and chaotic."

Sage Heart held up a hand to forestall the question he knew was coming and continued unabated, "Lightning always follows the path of least resistance, the air that hinders it less than any other so its trajectory is random and erratic, as is evidenced by its jagged shape.  To truly master lightning you must be able to control and force the electricity where you want it to go, not where it wants to go."

"How do I do that?" Love Heart asked, curious and eager.

"Through your willpower, here let me show you," Sage Heart too up and faced the target that Love Heart had yet to strike deliberately with his magic.  It was a stone with an archer's target rings on it.  Sage Heart held his right hand out and concentrated, generating a small pulse of lightning in his hand and explained, "You need to picture your target clearly in your mind, and focus on it.  Sense the charge of the air around you."  Love Heart closed his eyes as Sage Heart spoke and began to reach out, using a sense he had gained with his developing magic to feel the positive and negative charges int eh air around him as Sage Heart continued to speak, "You will not be able to force the lightning to fly straight at the target, it will always try to follow the path of least resistance, but you need to force it to go where you want it, force it to follow a path of greater resistance, or, if you can, change the path you want it to follow into the path of least resistance but changing the charge in the air.  Once you feel you have the control, release!" Sage Heart shot the bolt of lightning he had been holding, which flew in its jagged shape but still struck the target in the center, leaving a black burn mark.

Love Heart opened his eyes just in time to see the bolt and was amazed, "Wow, you can guide lightning!" he said.  "Can I try?"

"Of course, but be careful and take your time," Sage Heart cautioned as Love Heart stood up to try it himself while Sage Heart sat down to observe, and prepare to put out any fire Love Heart might accidentally start.  The lime green bear drew he arm back and carefully began charging a bolt of lightning.  He closed his eyes, picturing the target in his mind and concentrating on guiding the bolt he was forming.  After about ten seconds he shot his arm forwards, releasing the yellow bolt of lightning.  It streaked on an erratic path compared to Sage Heart's bolt but struck the target, not in the middle but on the edge.  Love Heart opened his eyes and saw the scorch mark, smiling triumphantly.

"Well done," Sage Heart said, "A bit off, but you'll get it in time."  The iridescent blue bear stood up from where he had been sitting and stretched, "I think that's enough training for the day.  What do you say we go into town and just relax for the rest of the day?"

"Sounds good to me!" Love Heart said, enthusiastically, "I could use a day off."

The two bears headed into town, both enjoying their day off.  Both of them were still well known in town, as they still got all their supplies and food from there.  The first place they went was the Arcade, a place that Love Heart loved to spend his time and that Sage Heart was discovering he found fun as well, albeit he preferred the games that were less about reflex testing and more about careful execution, however few and far between those games were.  Once he had his tokens, Love Heart found one of the scrolling shooter games he loved so much, plugged a couple tokens into the slot and started playing.  His father smiled at him and went over to a trivia game, the only one he'd ever seen in an arcade, and began to play.  He hadn't played the game enough to know all the answers and he still found it fun, he'd move on to one of the complex careful aiming target games later but for now, trivia.

An hour later, Sage Heart had gotten tired of the few games he enjoyed and had gone to sit down and read at one of the benches near the door.  Love Heart was still playing his games, now having switched to a rail shooter he enjoyed.

Eventually Love Heart ran out of tokens but was now wound up from the game, he was still only tend years old and he didn't have much of an outlet for his physical energy, especially now that he wasn't getting so tired form using magic, so he dashed out the open door of the arcade, not even bothering to check with Sage Heart, to find something to do.  Sage Heart sensed his son leaving, and looked up, sighing and getting up to follow him.

Love Heart was in a tizzy, too excited and wound up to figure out where he was going, as a result he ended up running down an alley and slammed into something, knocking him onto his back.  The lime green bear shook his head, a bit stunned and looked up to see that he had run into a large, teenage boy who looked rough and mean, and was flanked by three other boys about his age and build.  The one that Love Heart had run into sneered down at the bear and said, in a voice that showed complete contempt and disdain.

"Well lookie here, one of those walking stuffed animals that these people are so gaga for, and he just knocked right into me without even saying sorry."

"Yeah, should we teach him a lesson?" one of the men asked, pulling out a switchblade and moving menacingly towards Love Heart.  Stuck without anything else to do, Love Heart began to concentrate, beginning to charge a bolt of lightning in his right hand, ready to launch it as soon as he could.

"I would advise against that," the voice came from Sage Heart Bear, who was standing at the entrance to the alley and facing down the gang.  While he was telling the gang to not hurt his son, Love Heart also recognized that he was telling him not to use magic.  Sage Heart had told him to be careful using magic around humans because they often feared things they didn't understand, and while they could handle the two of them looking like walking stuffed animals, since apparently it was "cute", the ability to create and throw lightning around would probably cause a panic.

One of the other gang members pulled out a chain and asked, with an irritable smugness, "Oh really, old man, what are you gonna do about it?"

"I'm going to teach you a lesson," Sage Heart said, walking towards them and picking up a moderately long and thin wooden board, about the length of a short broom handle that was leaning against the alley wall and holding it like a sword.

"Are you serious man?" the last gang member asked, wielding a bit of pipe in his hand, "You're going down!" he charged at Sage Heart and swung at his head. but Sage Heart swung upwards and, to the surprise of everyone, struck the pipe with his board and sent the pipe flying into the wall while the board wasn't even dented.  The man who previously had been holding the pipe backed off while the man with the switch blade leapt forwards, trying to stab Sage Heart, but Sage Heart merely blocked the knife blade, which pinged off as though it were striking metal instead of sticking, before striking the boy in the gut, causing him to keel over in pain.

Sage Heart stepped back, allowing him to keel forwards, before asking in a somewhat bemused voice, "Is there anything else you'd like to try now?"

The four boys took off without a second glance, too freaked out to even shout in retreat.  Sage Heart just shook his head and rolled his eyes, "Hopefully they won't try that again, are you alright Love Heart?" he asked, tossing the board aside and helping his son to his feet.

Love Heart finally snapped out of the stunned stupor he'd been in since Sage Heart struck the pipe with his board and asked, in disbelief, "How did you do that?  That was just a flimsy piece of wood, why didn't it break?  Was it magic?"

Sage Heart smiled, "Yes, it was magic, I'll explain while we go find something to eat."  The older bear took his son's hand and led him out of the alley then towards a fast food restaurant that he felt they could afford to eat at for once as he continued.  "AS I've said before, magic is divided into different types, some call them aspects others refer to them as just types.  I personally prefer to call them elements.  The element I just employed was a fairly esoteric one."

"Esoteric?" Love Heart asked, confused as he had never heard that word before.

"Esoteric, it means something that is fairly obscure or known only by a small number of people," Sage Heart explained before going back to the original topic, "The element I used was strength.  It is unlike other elements because it does not involve manifesting and using the element in any overt fashion, no, strength magic involves reinforcing or weakening yourself or other objects by manipulating their basic forms.  What I did a moment ago was to use strength magic to increase the durability and rigidity of that piece of wood to the same as a piece of metal.  Strength magic is mainly used by people to make themselves stronger or more durable, but more advanced mages can make other objects stronger or weaker to aid them in combat."

"Umm OK," Love Heart wasn't quite sure he understood but then again, magic was confusing at times.

Sage Heart just smiled as they entered the fast food restaurant, "Don't worry, you'll understand it all someday, just give it time, Love Heart."

The two bears ordered, got their food, and sat down to eat.  It wasn't healthy by any stretch of the word, burgers with what might have been meat and fries that were so deep fried they might as well as just been grease sticks, but it was tasty and they almost never ate this stuff so it was alright for now.

"So, Love Heart," Sage Heart said, "I saw you were about to use magic on that man, I know he was dangerous but you need to be careful about that."

"I know, you said if anyone saw me using magic they probably wouldn't trust me," Love Heart said, in a tone that showed he'd heard this before, "but what am I supposed to do if I have to fight when you're not around and I need to fight someone?"

"Well, I don't think you should resort to violence, but…" Sage Heart thought about this for a moment then said, "Well, I do know some forms of non-magical combat, I could teach you how to fight if you want."

"Really?" Love Heart was excited by this idea.

"Of course, why wouldn't I," Sage Heart smiled before taking a drink from his pop cup, "We can start tomorrow, and you can decide what kind of combat you want to learn."  Love Heart nodded eagerly and wolfed down the rest of his food.  Sage Heart just rolled his eyes and finished fast enough so that his son wouldn't get impatient.

Later, back at their cave home, Sage Heart sat down and asked Love Heart what kind of weapon he'd like to learn to use.

Love Heart's response was immediate, "A sword!"

"I should have guessed, well I can't get you a real one right now, buy we can practice with a couple heavy sticks, go and find one that feels right for you and meet me back here shortly."

"Yes dad!" Love Heart took off to find a heavy stick he could use.  Sage Heart smiled and shook his head before going off to look for his own practice sword.

Love Heart searched around for a while, trying out several pieces of wood.  Each one was either: too light, too heavy, or too flimsy for him to use properly.  Eventually he found a rather long branch that he had some difficulty in hefting in one hand, mainly because of it's length, but with both hands he found he could wield it quite well.  Satisfied he carried the branch on his shoulder back to his home.

Sage Heart was waiting for Love Heart when he returned, having used his magic to shape the branch he found into something that he could use easily.

"Dad, here!" Love Heart called as he dashed up, Sage Heart nodded and smiled as Love Heart presented the branch to him.

"It's a little big, want me to pair it down for you?" he asked.

Love Heart shook his head, "No, I want to use it how it is."

"If you insist," Sage Heart said, "Just a moment," he rubbed his hands along the base of the branch, using his magic to make a handle Love Heart would have an easier time getting a grip on, then handed it back to Love Heart, "There, now you'll be able to hang onto it more easily."

Love Heart took a few swings with the branch, losing his balance and falling over before picking himself up, "Thanks," he said, smiling despite his fall.

"You're welcome," Sage Heart picked up his branch, "Now then, let's begin your sword-fighting lessons."  Love Heart nodded as they began.