Chapter 2
Lorn groaned as he started waking up, his whole body protesting existence itself. There wasn't a single part of him that didn't feel battered and bruised, but at least he was, somehow, alive. From the feel of the shivering lump under his cloak, still sopping wet from their unexpected swim, Chespar was alive as well. Lorn sighed in relief, then looked around.
He wasn't sure what happened or even where they'd ended up, but somehow Lorn and Chespar were buried under stone slabs. By some stroke of luck, they must have fallen in a way that made the flood wash past Lorn and Chespar. It hadn't stopped all the water, judging by the damp mess Lorn was laying in, but it had kept the worst off of them.
Cursing that will-o-wisp, Lorn sat up, surprised at how much room there was. ''Hey bud,'' he said, gently shaking Chespar until the mouse stirred. ''How are you feeling?''
Chespar let out a soft groan as he crawled into view. ''I'm hungry.''
Lorn chuckled, then winced at the pain in his chest. ''Think you could figure out where we are?'' He pointed at a gap in the stone, too small for Lorn to get through, but it aught to be easy for the field mouse. ''I'm a bit stuck here.'' Chespar nodded and scampered up to the hole, inspecting it for a moment before squeezing through. ''Be careful!'' Lorn called out as the mouse vanished.
Shivering, Lorn pulled off his cloak and wriggled out of his tunic. While there was enough room to sit up, there wasn't really room for much else. Still, he had to get out of his wet clothes. Hopefully, it wouldn't take Chespar long to find something out. For now, Lorn took a closer look at the stone prison he was in. Judging by the light peeking through a number of holes, he'd slept through the night, and the storm had passed over. That didn't change the fact that the stone looked odd. A lot of it was curved, like it had been shaped into place, and it didn't look like normal stone. It looked more like baked clay, except unrefined, as though the efforts of a novice had been used on a large scale.
Curious, Lorn placed a hand against the largest slab, and was surprised to feel an odd energy in the wall. Yanking his hand back as if burned, Lorn saw a ghostly wisp of light stretching out from the wall. It hung in the air for a second before fading like smoke.
An ominous cracking noise made Lorn jump, and the whole structure shifted and groaned before settling down once more. At least Lorn had an idea of what happened. Somehow, the entire structure had been created through magic, the remnants of which were strengthening the entire thing to keep it from collapsing. It didn't seem stable though, if a touch could interfere with the spell.
Except, Chespar had just climbed over it, and nothing had happened. Lorn frowned and looked at his hand, then the wall. He didn't know much about magic beyond the fact that each practitioner used it their own way. Still, one thing that linked every one of them was a source of energy they could tap to do the impossible. That energy plus desire then became what people called magic.
Feeling silly and relieved he was alone all at once, Lorn stretched his arm out to the wall and squeezed his eyes shut. In his mind, he pictured the wall exploding out away from him, willing it to be true. After a moment, he cracked open an eye, saw the wall was still solid, and sighed. Taking a deep breath, he tried again, this time searching inside of himself for some hidden pocket he'd never noticed. Meditation was, he'd been told, a great way to discover the magic inside. The problem was, if there was any magic for Lorn to discover, it apparently needed an expedition team with a map because he didn't find anything.
He was about to give up when something landed on his back and that strange feeling he'd had with the wall struck him. Reflexively, Lorn pulled at it as Chespar started to speak only to let out a squeak and lose his grip on Lorn, falling to the ground dazed and breaking the connection. Lorn shook in place, the unfamiliar energy pooled inside him in a way he couldn't describe.
''Wh-what was that?'' the field mouse said, shaking himself off and making an effort to remove some of the mud he was covered in.
''I-I'm not sure,'' Lorn admitted as Chespar climbed up onto his lap.
''It felt like my stomach was being pulled out.'' Chespar rubbed his gut, shivering.
''It hurt?''
Chespar shook his head. ''No. More like I suddenly got really tired.'' He started running his fingers through his fur, picking more mud out before stopping suddenly. ''Oh yea!'' he chittered happily. ''I almost forgot. We're in the middle of the ravine, but it looks like it exploded.''
''Exploded?'' Lorn asked, confused.
''Yea! There are these spike things all over the place. A lot of them are in pieces though.''
''Did you see anyone?''
''I didn't go far,'' Chespar said, shaking his head. ''Somebody will notice soon though. You can't miss the mess. I wonder what happened?''
''Me too,'' Lorn muttered, too conscious of that energy still thrumming inside him. It had come from Chespar somehow, but what that meant he didn't know. ''You know,'' he said with a bit of a forced chuckle, ''Rondi didn't know what we'd done. She thought I was dodging chores.''
''What? Really?'' Chespar asked, mortified.
''Yup,'' Lorn said, nodding. ''She wasn't interested in you at all. She only came hunting me down because the harvest was due a day early thanks to that storm.''
''I was wondering where everyone went,'' the field mouse muttered.
''Well,'' Lorn said, shrugging, ''so much for your grand manifestation, huh?''
''Maybe they haven't found it?'' Chespar asked hopefully.
''Don't think it matters,'' Lorn said with a sigh. ''The storm probably ruined it all. Where'd you even get that stuff anyway?''
''Ask me no questions, Chespar said, chuckling, ''and I won't tell you about sneaking into Rondi and Satchel's supply sheds.''
Lorn whistled. ''No wonder you snuck away. They'd have killed you.''
''But a multicolored bonfire would have been awesome!''
''Until it all went wrong,'' Lorn said. ''Then we'd have had a real problem.''
''Which is why you'd have been the one to light it, Chespar said cheerfully, his nose twitching.
''Oh sure, give me all the dangerous bits,'' Lorn said, laughing. The movement made him wince, a hand clutching his chest.
Chespar frowned, worried. ''A-are you alright?''
''Y-yea,'' Lorn muttered after a moment. ''Hurt my chest, so it hurts to laugh. I'll be fine once we get out of here and I get a chance to rest up.''
''That's going to be hard,'' Chespar said, looking around at the walls. ''These things are pretty big, and they run into the ground. Gilead and Satchel might be able to do something maybe?''
Lorn was silent for a moment, thinking. ''What about your dad?''
''Well, Chespar began, ''he could do it maybe, but if he just did the harvest, it won't be for a few days.''
''It takes that long to recover his energy?'' Lorn sighed. Tsivar could have made things so much simpler with his magic.
''I guess,'' Chespar said, shrugging. ''He tells me a lot about magic, but most just doesn't make any sense. Like how he has to look inside himself to find his power. How could that make any sense? If you've got power, you'd know, right?''
Lorn considered the energy he felt inside him, and how he was kind of getting used it it now. ''Maybe,'' he admitted. ''But what if you don't know it's there because it's always there? Or it came so slowly you got used to it over time?''
The young field mouse fell silent for a time, thinking. ''Like hot water getting cold in a bath?'' he asked suddenly.
''Uh, I guess?''
''D-do you think I did this?'' Chespar asked slowly, pointing at the wall.
''It's possible,'' Lorn admitted. ''I'm a bit too old to be manifesting, but you aren't.''
''My dad says he's heard of people manifesting after thirty winters. You've barely passed twenty.''
''And you've only seen fifteen,'' Lorn said with a chuckle. ''With parents who both have the gift. I don't have any of that.''
''You don't know that,'' Chespar said, voice squeakier than normal. ''I mean, you just showed up one night. You could be anyone at all!''
''But I don't remember any of it, Lorn said, fighting the urge to groan. It was the start to a conversation he'd had over and over again, and not just with Chespar. ''I wouldn't know where to begin, so why bother thinking about it? Besides,'' he shot the mouse a grin, ''if I were to try and find out, I'd have to leave town. Something tells me I'd be gone for ages only to realize I belong here.''
''Someone's been listening to the bards too much,'' Chespar said, mock groaning as he rolled his eyes.
''But they let me hear about the world without having to actually go looking.'' Lorn chuckled, only to wince again. ''Alright, no more laughing,'' he mutterer, lightly massaging his chest. ''We aught to figure a way out of here anyway. I need to stretch my legs.''
''Should I try and get help?'' Chespar asked, oddly nervous.
''You could, Lorn agreed. ''But maybe try and magic us a solution? If it doesn't work, then go and find somebody?''
Chespar nodded. ''A-alright.'' He turned around and sat with his back against Lorn's stomach, wriggling a bit before shutting his eyes.
''Comfy now?'' Lorn asked wryly, trying to ignore the way the energy in him was responding to the mouse sitting against his skin.
''You're warm,'' Chespar said back. ''Now shush.''
''Alright,'' Lorn said, fighting not to grin. ''You just look like you're taking a nap.''
Chespar opened an eye and turned to glare at Lorn, who mimed sealing his lips. Satisfied, Chespar wriggled a little more, smoothed his own tunic, then settled down. A long, tensely quiet moment passed as Chespar did whatever he was trying to do. Lorn was starting to think it wasn't working when he felt the energy reacting. A minor electric jolt that made him gasp in surprise. Chespar let out a squeak of his own as Lorn absorbed the rest of his energy, then slumped to the side.
Lorn picked the mouse up, worried. ''Chespar, you alright?'' He groaned softly in response, but didn't seem hurt, just exhausted. For his part, Lorn felt more of that energy brimming. The pool felt larger, but not majorly so. Not that he knew what any of it meant, other than it had somehow hurt his friend.
''What happened?'' Chespar asked slowly. ''I feel so... empty.'' With that, the mouse started to snore. Lorn prodded him, and he stirred a bit, but then dozed off once more.
Sighing, confuse and worried, but unable to do anything about it, Lorn looked around. He knew the cage he was in wasn't stable, but he also knew that making it worse could make his situation even worse. Chespar was out, unable to stay awake after they'd tried playing with forces neither of them understood. All Lorn really had now was some sort of living energy inside him.
Focusing on it seemed to make the energy respond, almost rippling in place. Curious, Lorn imagined it becoming a light. Almost immediately, one formed in the air before winking out as Lorn let out a surprised yelp. It had been surprisingly easy, but it also put a noticeable dent in the energy he had. Lorn had seen Tsivar toss lights around somewhat freely, so they couldn't take a lot of effort to create, which meant Lorn didn't have a lot of power. It made sense, if Chespar had made the prison they were in, which almost certainly took a crazy amount of power, then he wouldn't have had recovered much since then.
The more interesting problem was how Lorn had stolen that energy though. He'd never heard of magic being transferable before. It could be stored in objects to enchant them, but then it became specialized for a single effect and couldn't be used for anything else. This he'd taken and used for what he wanted, with no problems at all. Well, besides a specific limit on how much he could do.
The question then was, did he have enough to get out? The walls were unstable, but supported by magic, and they were very thick according to Chespar. Cutting through them would probably be too much, and blasting it all apart might backfire, of he even had enough power to break the walls down.
Lorn frowned, staring at the wall. The only real problem he had wasn't getting the walls down, it was surviving as they fell. So why not spend the power for that instead? It seemed like a better option all around the more he considered it, so Lorn pulled his legs in, shuffling to take as little space as he could. An arm wrapped around Chespar and cradling the lite guy against his chest, Lorn hesitantly reached out to touch the wall with his free hand.
The sense of energy returned as soon as he touched the wall, and, while picturing an impenetrable shield around him, Lorn pulled the energy into himself. It wasn't much, maybe a little more than the light took, but as soon as it was gone, the wall began to groan and crack. Lorn yanked his hand back, then pressed it to another part of the wall, pulling the residual energy from it as well.
At that point, the entire structure began to fall apart. The walls crushing themselves as they lost their integrity, chunks of rock falling onto Lorn and breaking on an invisible shield around him. Then, some critical point reached, everything fell apart and Lorn's barrier was pummeled by fragments of stone and clay.
Eventually, the collapse ended, leaving Lorn surrounded by rocks. With the last of his energy, he flung he barrier out, throwing the rocks away until the sky was finally visible. He remained partly buried in the rubble, but it wasn't too difficult to climb free.
Lorn crawled to stable ground before rolling onto his back, a part of him wincing at his lost tunic, now buried under the rubble. Still, he was free now. A shirt was a small price to pay.
Chespar stirred, stretching and yawning before curling up, contentedly snoring once more and making Lorn shake his head and laugh. Then, wincing at the pain but too happy to care about it, Lorn s up and looked around.
The ravine looked very different now, that odd clay-like stone forming a number if spikes jutting into the air, all centered around where he'd been trapped. Picking up a piece of the rubble, Lorn was surprised to find it extremely brittle. He could crush it with one hand, kind of like those dried dirt clods some insects made. Looking at it now, Lorn could see it was actually a composite of rocks, mud, clay, and even random sticks and leaves. Whatever happened to be around, fused together with magic. Losing that, it had all fallen to pieces.
Lorn shook his head and climbed to Hus feet. His ankle protested, and looked swollen, but it held enough for him to walk. His other aches and bruises were, surprisingly, not that bad, leaving him well enough to walk back to town. Slowly at least. He nudged Chespar awake with some effort, the mouse waking slowly and groggily demanding breakfast before realizing they were free. Lorn shrugged when he asked what happened, sharing what he knew as they walked back to town, Chespar assuming his usual perch on Lorn's shoulders.
Somehow, showing up at town seemed more eventful than everything that had happened since the storm began. Lorn was met limping up to the edge of town by one of the bunnies, he could never remember which was which because they seemed to be constantly changing as new rabbits appeared and other ones left. She took one look at them before sending Lorn to Tsivar's house and vanishing. News spread like wildfire at that point, but Tsivar kept the worst of it at bay. His house was rather cramped by Lorn's standards, but it was big enough for him to get inside as long as he didn't mind crouching pretty much the entire time.
Tsivar looked over Lorn's injuries, then had Chespar fetch some ointments that he claimed would help Lorn heal before demanding to know what happened. Lorn glanced at Chespar, who was busy munching down on a loaf of nut bread. Sensing he attention, he reluctantly began talking. Eventually, Lorn took over describing his encounter with the will-o-wisp and their plunge into the ravine. Tsivar cringed an Lorn mentioned the flood, but the story was interrupted by a pounding on the door.
''Open up,'' Rondi demanded, having finally returned from the search party that had been formed too find the boys, ironically just missing them at the ravine. Lorn sighed as Tsivar jumped up and let Rondi in, the sheepdog looking out of place and annoyed in a house built for someone half her size. ''Why did you bring them here?'' she asked Tsivar grumpily. ''I've got more room at my place. Now, what happened?''
Reluctantly, and with Lorn prodding him on, Chespar started the tale over. When Lorn took over, Rondi took more interest. ''You're sure it was a will-o-wisp?'' she asked when he mentioned it.
''It appeared right in front of me,'' Lorn said, nodding. ''A big, fiery skull.''
''And it didn't occur to you that Chespar didn't have a lantern?''
''Not at first,'' Lorn admitted reluctantly. ''Once I knew what it was though, I stopped heading towards it, so it started guiding me. Then?'' Lorn shrugged. ''It was right beside me. My knife did nothing, and I was falling down the ravine.
''Just before the flood,'' Rondi said, nodding. ''How did you survive?''
Lorn shrugged again. ''I don't know exactly. I remember getting thrown around by the water, then waking up surrounded by this weird stone.'' He glanced at Chespar. ''He was fine, but I got beaten up a bit. Getting out was odd too.''
''I saw the results,'' Rondi said, nodding. ''Was that Chespar's doing?''
''Was what?'' Tsivar asked, nose twitching as he nervously fiddled with his tail.
''It looks like a war happened in the ravine,'' Rondi said. ''The kind made by mages.''
''M-magic?'' Tsivar asked, suddenly excited. ''You manifested Chespar?''
''No,'' the mouse said nervously. ''Lorn did that.''
''Really?'' Rondi asked, surprised. She looked at Lorn. ''You used magic? So you made all that mess then.''
''It's complicated,'' Lorn admitted, feeling oddly nervous. ''I might have, but it was only because. Chespar.''
''I don't understand,'' Tsivar said. Rondi nodded in agreement, motioning Lorn to continue.
''The energy I used to escape?'' Lorn continued. ''I took it from Chespar. I don't know how, but it happened. I think he was about to manifest himself when it happened, and I just kind of absorbed it instead. He passed out when I did it too.''
''That's what happened?'' Chespar asked, piping up. ''So, all that was my power?''
''If true,'' Tsivar pointed out, ''it was likely power built up over a long period, all used up at once.''
''Oh,'' Chespar said softly, slumping in place.
''So, is this something special Chespar can do?'' Rondi asked. ''Or is it something special about Lorn?''
Tsivar looked at Lorn curiously, nose twitching. ''How did you absorb Chespar's magic?''
Lorn shrugged. ''I was touching him, and I sensed the energy. Then it just kind of flowed into me. It was the strongest when he was looking for it, but I could feel it before that.''
''I see,'' Tsivar said, walking over to Lorn and placing a paw on his arm. ''And you can feel my power?''
''N-no,'' Lorn began only to shake his head. ''Wait, I can.'' He was surprised, but he felt Tsivar's energy pulsing. It was different from Chespar's, though it was hard to say quite how. Almost like a different shade, like how the sky was a different kind of blue when compared to a sapphire. Both were blue, but they were different kinds of blue. Tsivar's magic was like that compared to Chespar's.
''I don't feel any different,'' Tsivar muttered, curious. ''You can absorb my power?''
Lorn tried, sipping at the energy only to find it all rushing into him. Tsivar gasped, pulling free and falling to the ground, his energy now pulsing in Lorn, oddly eager.
''Are you alright?'' Rondi asked as Chespar bounced up, but Tsivar waved them off.
''I'm fine,'' he said, sitting back and combing his fur down. ''It surprised me,'' he said after a moment. ''My power gone in a flash.'' He shook his head and looked at Lorn, eager. ''You can use it too?''
Lorn held up his hand, conjuring a light that made everyone wince and cover their eyes before it winked out. ''Sorry,'' he said, embarrassed.
''No, it's alright,'' Tsivar said, excited. ''This is impressive. It comes easily to you? It must, if you're able to push that much power out without trying.'' He nodded to himself. ''Yes, we'll work on your control.''
''We will?'' Lorn asked, surprised.
''Of course!'' Tsivar bounced in place. ''I will teach you along with Chespar.'' He turned to Rondi. ''This works for you?''
''Keeping these two under direct supervision and out of trouble?'' Rondi asked, snorting. ''I see no problem with this. It will be good to put a little discipline in their lives. Maybe none of this would have happened if they had more of it.''
''Y-yes, well,'' Tsivar said nervously. ''We can start tomorrow then. Lorn should rest I think.''
Rondi nodded and made her way to the door. ''Let's have those lessons not be here,'' she said as she left. No room in this damned house.'’
