Chapter 2: Growing and Training
Sage Heart inevitably spent his next few years raising Love Heart and doing what any father would, teaching him to walk, speak, and eventually to read and write. As he did this, Sage Heart began to visit the nearby town slowly allowing the townsfolk to get used to him and even Love Heart, whom initially carried in a baby backpack, then pushed in him in a stroller, then began to let him walk once the young bear was old enough. Eventually the townsfolk accepted the two, getting used to the idea of the two strange bears that lived outside of town and came to buy supplies, even getting to know both of them on a first name basis.
Once day at their cave home, Sage Heart was helping Love Heart get dressed and found that his clothes just didn’t fit. After helping Love Heart remove the clothes he had he said.
“Well that settles it, you need new clothes and this time we need to get ones that are made for your size.”
“Aww dad, do I have to?” the five-year-old Love Heart said, “I don’t mind going without clothes and I don’t really need them do I?” he asked, hopefully.
Sage Heart couldn’t help but chuckle and shake his head, “I see your point, Love Heart, our fur does pretty much conceal anything humans would find inappropriate but not all humans are comfortable with us going bare furred as it were. It’s fine here if you want but you can’t live in the woods forever, now let’s go,” he took Love Heart’s hand, “we need to go shopping for new clothes. Love Heart resisted Sage Heart pulling him along and eventually struggled out of his adopted father’s grip and turned to flee back into the cave. Love Heart barely made it ten steps before Sage Heart turned and with careful hand movement, used a gust of wind to pick Love Heart up and pull him back to his side, dropping him on his back.
Love Heart sat up, astounded, “How did you do that?” he asked, surprised and impressed.
Sage Heart was at first perplexed by the question, until he remembered that for the last five years he had avoided using magic as much as he did when he had been human, instead enjoying and putting to use the regained youthful vigor and strength he had now that he was a “Care Bear” as the Great Wishing Star had put it; this was the first time he had really used magic so overtly in front of Love Heart.
“Well, that was magic, Love Heart, something I’ve been learning and perfecting over several decades,” the older bear explained.
“Wow!” Love Heart was in awe, looking at Sage Heart in a new light as he stood up to look at his dada as close to his face as he could, “Can you teach me how to do that.”
It was then that Sage Heart recalled what the Great Wishing Star had told him. He had been so happy to just live out his life with his son Love Heart that the idea of training him to use magic magic, not to mention training him to fight, so rarely crossed his mind. He smiled and took his son’s hand, “Yes, I can teach you and train you in magic, but I might not be able to teach you that trick, at least not right away, we’ll start tonight as long as you don’t tell anyone in town about it.”
“I promise, cross my heart and hope to die!” Love Heart said enthusiastically, drawing a cross over where he guessed his heart was in his chest.
“Where did you learn that expression?” Sage Heart asked as they began to walk to town.
“I heard it from some kids in the park, last week, when you took me there,” Love Heart replied, hurrying to keep up with his dad’s longer steps, “I heard someone say that when they were making a promise to the other.”
Sage Heart smiled and ruffled his son’s head fur, “Well it’s certainly a nice sentiment, thank you.”
In town, people gave Love Heart a few strange looks, as he was essentially naked. Granted as the two bears had said earlier it wasn’t really a problem as Love Heart’s fur hid anything that would have been objectionable, not to mention that it was a rather hot summer’s day and some of the bystanders commented that they could understand why he would not want to wear clothing if he had fur already.
The clothing store owner was a fairly young man dressed in well-fitting clothes who knew Sage Heart and Love Heart quite well and looked up to greet them when they entered. “Good morning, Sage Heart, and little Love Heart, my you’re growing,” he said, “I guess that’s why you’re here and why you’re not dressed yet.”
“That is correct, Mr. Daniels,” Sage Heart replied, “I think it’s time for Love Heart to start getting fitted for his clothes instead of just getting generic baby and children’s clothes.”
“Well then,” Mr. Daniels stepped out from behind the counter, taking out a tape measure as he did so, “come over here, Love Heart, and I’ll take your measurements.”
Love Heart looked to Sage Heart, who nodded and pushed his son forwards. Mr. Daniels nodded then said, “Now please stay still unless I move your body parts for you, I need to get accurate measurements.” Love Heart froze still as Mr. Daniels measured his waist, legs, arms, and neck, writing down each measurement as he did so. Love Heart tried to stand still but he couldn’t help but laugh when the measure tickled him.
“All right, that just about does it,” Mr. Daniels said, “Now I just need to measure your tail’s circumference, I can put holes in the back of your pants so it will poke through instead of being pressed against you uncomfortably.” The store owner bent down and took the needed measurement; it took all of Love Heart’s self control to keep from squirming away but he managed to hold fast until Mr. Daniels was done at which point he couldn’t contain his laughter anymore.
Mr. Daniels just smiled as ht checked for some clothes that fit Love Heart’s measurements, “Ahh, makes me wish I had kids of my own.”
“I have no doubt that you will someday,” Sage Heart said, “So find anything for my son?”
“Just give me a few minutes and I’ll have some things for him to try on,” the store owner said, “Once we have some clothes you like I’ll have to do some small modifications to give you holes for your tail to poke through.”
A few minutes later Mr. Daniels had returned with a small pile of clothing which he and Sage Heart helped Love Heart try on. Love Heart squirmed and struggled a bit, insisting on dressing himself most of the time, and eventually he managed to pick several sets of clothing he liked.
Mr. Daniels nodded and gathered up the clothing, “All right, just give me an hour or two and I’ll have the pant and undergarments ready, just go have lunch or something and I’ll be done.”
“All right, I know some places that don’t mind if Love Heart is just in fur when he’s eating there,” Sage Heart said, “Come on, Love Heart, let’s go.”
“All right,” Love Heart said, following Sage Heart out of the store.
The outdoor café in question was only a short distance away and once Sage Heart and Love Heart had placed their orders Love Heart asked, eagerly, “When can I learn how to do magic, dad?”
Sage Heart chuckled, “It’s not as simple as you might think, Love Heart, we’ll have to wait until we get back home, most people don’t understand let along trust magic and may think ill of me if I start using it in town so I will have to teach you elsewhere. If you are really ready I’ll start with your first lesson tonight, it will be long and hard, I won’t be able to just show you how to perform feats like the one I showed you earlier, it will take time, years of practice and training,” Sage Heart watched as his son’s face fell, Love Heart was always eager to learn things but often didn’t like the fact that it took a long time to learn the things he really was interested in. However Sage Heart wasn’t about to let him give up, “Cheer up, my son, it will be fun, I promise, and if you stick with it you may even surpass me one day.”
“All right,” Love Heart said sighing, just as their food arrived. As they ate, Sage Heart went over in his mind how he’d go about training Love Heart. He’d have to start with the basics especially since Love Heart was only five years old, a younger age than even Sage Heart had been when he started, back when he was human. Well he’d have to work around that, the Great Wishing Star said that Love Heart would have to know magic for something important so the sooner they started the better.
That night, Sage Heart built a fire pit outside the cave while Love Heart watched a bit confused. When Sage Heart finished, he looked over at Love Heart, who said.
“Dad, what are you doing, I thought you were going to teach me magic,” in a bored and somewhat whiny voice.
“I am, but I can’t just teach you, you have to understand how magic works, and to know that you need to know how life works, and to know life functions I need to start with something similar and easier to understand,” Sage Heart explained. He smiled when he saw Love Heart’s confused look but continued but asking, “So, my son, what do you know about fire?”
“Umm,” Love Heart wasn’t sure what Sage Heart wanted to hear so he just said, “It’s hot and burns you?”
Sage Heart chuckled, “Yes, but I mean how it works.” Without waiting for a reply, Sage Heart continued to explain, “Fire is composed of three interdependent parts, oxygen, fuel, and heat. Oxygen is all around us and so acts as the way for fire to breathe. Fuel is whatever the fire burns on or consumes, in this case the wood here in the fire pit. As for heat,” Sage Heart held up one hand and created a small fireball, “heat can come from any source but it needs to be intense enough to start a fire that burns continuously,” with that last word, he shot he hand down and the fireball hit the pit, instantly starting a small fire. Love Heart sat astounded, trying to absorb all of this new information.
“In order to extinguish fire, you need to remove one of the three components, which causes the fire to be extinguished,” Sage Heart continued, “The fuel usually burns itself out after a while, but the most common method,” at this point he held out the palm of his hand and formed a small sphere of water, “is to remove the heat and oxygen by covering the fire in water,” he tossed the water onto the fire and promptly extinguished it. Love Heart watched as his father used wind magic to dry off the wood then set it alight again. “Do you understand, Love Heart?” the iridescent blue bear asked.
“I think so,” Love Heart said. He had the basic points down and said so aloud, “Fire’s made up of three parts and if even one is taken away the fire goes out.”
“Exactly,” Sage Heart smiled, happy that his adopted son understood so quickly.
“But what does this have to do with magic?” Love Heart asked, confused once again.
Sage Heart smiled, he had anticipated this question, it was the very same thing he had asked so many decades ago when his father and mother had started teaching him magic in exactly the same way. “Quite simply, you need to understand something that is similar to how magic works. You see magic comes from part of life, and like fire life is made up of three parts and cannot persist if even one of those parts is missing.” Sage Heart raised his hands upwards as he explained, “Life consists of three interdependent parts just like fire but in this case the parts are the body, the physical entity that we exist in, the spirit, or soul, which is our thoughts and personality and essentially is who we are and governs how we act and lastly, mana, the mystical energy that is often referred to as life force. Mana is the energy that makes life possible, without it things cannot live and every living thing, plants, animals, and even people posses it, and mana is also the fuel for magic. In order to be able to cast magic you have to build up your personal reserves of mana so you can cast effectively.”
“OK,” again Love Heart had to absorb all the knowledge, it was a lot to take in but he understood, life had three parts like fire and simply faded if one of the three parts was missing. “So how do I get more mana?” the young green bear asked.
“Well you have to exercise it, like any muscle, you need to conjure and deplete the excess mana that you and all sentient beings possess and then when you sleep and eat it will be renewed and increase as you exercise those limits. Now listen to what I say and watch what I do,” Sage Heart held his hands forwards with his palms facing upwards and his elbows at his sides. “Reach down inside and feel the energy within your body, go on try it.”
Love Heart nodded and closed his eyes, feeling within himself. There, he felt it, a potent energy within himself, “I feel it!” he said, excitedly.
“Good, now focus, focus on letting that energy out into the world,” as Sage Heart spoke, he did just that and s shimmering cloud of rainbow colored energy appeared above his hands.
Love Heart followed suit, and a smaller cloud of the same type appeared above his hands. He opened his eyes and marveled at the substance, “It’s incredible,” he said in awe.
“Yes it is,” Sage Heart said, letting his cloud of mana disperse, “Now you need to keep channeling that until you get tired, then you will have used all of your excess mana and you will no doubt feel sleepy, so feel free to go to sleep when you reach that point.”
Love Heart nodded, concentrating on keeping the mana flowing from the palms of his hands. Normally he would be too impatient to keep this up, but it was simple and more importantly it would let him use magic, in time, and that was something he wanted to learn above anything.
About half an hour later, Love Heart could no longer keep up the flow of mana and felt his eyes drooping. He stopped calling forth mana and stood up. He was a little wobbly on his legs and almost fell over, until Sage Heart caught him.
“I’m impressed, son,” the older bear said, “most people can’t keep up the mana conjuration for more than a few minutes but you managed to keep it up for about thirty, and you didn’t back out.” In truth, Sage Heart had expected some complaints or at least a couple words of protest during the mana growing process but Love Heart had done it silently.
“I really want to learn magic,” Love Heart said earnestly, “How long do I have to keep doing the mana exercise thing?” he asked.
“Oh, about seven or eight years,” Sage Heart said, smiling cheerfully
Love Heart’s face turned into mixture of shock and horror, “7 YEARS?!”
