“Look at her, she looks like a girl but she doesn’t have any magic, and she certainly doesn’t act like a girl. She might as well be a boy!” Snickers followed the whispering and Rimarinic shrugged her shoulders and shook her head as she walked out of the room. Another magic test failed, but she didn’t care, she knew her magic would come sooner or later and in the meantime she’d rather stay in the “guys” class as they were all her friends. She grinned as she strode back into her usual classroom. Master Forgon looked up and arched his eyebrows at her.
“Failed again, Rimarinic?” he asked as if he already knew the answer.
“Yes, sir!” Rimarinic replied cheerfully. “Looks like you’re stuck with me for another week!”
“Way to go Rima!” called a voice from the back of the room and Rima, as her friends called her, winked mischievously at her friend Lorgano. “Back in here with us rejects, huh?”
“Yep, and you should count yourself lucky too! Who else is going to help you figure out this whole magic thing?”
“That’s enough Rimarinic, please take your seat,” said Master Forgon and Rima smirked as she settled into a chair, leaning back and hooking one long leg up over the arm. She leaned her head back to grin at Lorgano but he was busy shuffling through his deck of magic cards.
“Alright class, as I was saying before Rimarinic came back, pair up and duel. I’ll be walking around to check your mastery.”
Rima grinned and unhooked her leg, swiveling as far as she could go to arch her eyebrows at Lorgano. “Care to take me on again? Or are you afraid of being crushed once more?”
“Bring it on, girlie!” he said with a cocky grin. “I got some new magic cards while you were being tested. They’re pretty tough.”
“You don’t scare me, it’s not about the cards, it’s all in the strategy!” Rima tapped her temple lightly and returned the young man’s cocky grin. “Not that you’d know anything about that.”
“Rima, Lorgano, stop baiting each other and start dueling. Remember that this card game isn’t just a game, it’s practice for when you get your real magic. You’ll have to know which attacks counter each other, which defense to use against each type of attack thrown at you,” said Master Forgon, frowning down at the two of them.
“Yes, sir,” said Rima with a smirk and snicker at Lorgano. “Shall we duel then?”
Lorgano nodded and the two of them moved to a duel table. The table had been magicked, meaning that several mages had woven magic into it and tied off the flows so that non-mages could use it. This type of magicked table lasted about two years before it had to be re-magicked. Rima grinned as she sat down to one side of the board. She placed her deck in the holder and watched as the magical table slowly sorted her deck and displayed it for her. She looked across the table where Lorgano’s deck was undergoing the same. What new cards did he get? Would he know how to use them effectively? Rima felt tense energy coursing through her as it always did in one of these mock-battles.
“Ladies first, Rima,” said Lorgano with a sneer.
“Oh, that means you’ll have to start for I’m certainly no lady,” she sneered in return and laughed as he glared at her.
“No, no, I insist, you first,” he said, choosing not to retaliate.
Rima dipped her head and surveyed her deck. She grinned as she laid her finger on a card. “Alright, I begin with Rock’s Defense!”
“What?” cried Lorgano in surprise and Rima just grinned at him, sneaking a glance up at Master Forgon who was nodding his head in approval. Lorgano gritted his teeth as his eyes darted across his cards. “Okay, you’ve put me on the offensive when I wanted to be on defense. So I’ll attack with Water’s Fury and follow it immediately with Lightning Defense! Ha!”
Rima just grinned and watched her points drop. Each player started with two hundred points and Lorgano had only lessened hers by ten with his Water attack. She shook her head as she reached out to touch a series of cards. “You should have put more power into attacking, I only lost ten points to that attack. But now I’ll return with Rock’s Attack, which you cannot counter with your Lightning. And I’ll reinforce my defense with Fire’s Defense!”
Lorgano scowled and bunched his hands into fists as he watched his points drain away. Rima just sat back, a cool confident smile on her face, she knew she’d done a great deal of damage by choosing an attack which Lightning couldn’t defend against and Lorgano would have a great deal of trouble hurting her with her powerful Rock/Fire defense system. But then Lorgano’s eyes lit up and he grinned at her. “Aha! Thank you Rima! You just gave me the perfect combination to use one of my new cards! Black Water Attack!”
“No!” Rima gasped as her Rock/Fire defense was obliterated and her points dropped to only one hundred. She growled and gritted her teeth, scowling at the board. Then she saw a card float to the surface below the Rock and Fire Defense cards that had just faded away. She grinned up at Lorgano and his cocky smile faded to a worried look of curiosity.
“What are you smiling about? I know you don’t have anything that can counter Black Water, there’s only one attack that can counter it and they don’t make those cards anymore,” said Lorgano, gritting his teeth.
“You’re right, they don’t make those cards anymore,” said Rima as she pressed the card in front of her. “Because it’s a genetic attack, your ancestors have to have used it for you to be able to manage it. And I recently merged my great-grandfather’s deck with mine. And look at what he had! White Lightning Attack!”
Rima grinned and cackled evilly as Lorgano’s points were entirely wiped away and the board in front of her cleared of her cards to flash “Battle Won” in bright colors. Her deck was released from the holder and she stood up, still grinning triumphantly as she thrust her hand forward for Lorgano to shake. He grumbled as he stood but he smiled as he shook her hand, shaking his head all the while.
“I’ve got to learn not to challenge you anymore. You’ve always got something up your sleeve.”
Rima smirked and winked at him. “If it makes you feel any better if you’d pulled that card last week I’d have been toast. I only found my great-grandfather’s deck a few days ago and it took me until this morning to convince my mom to let me merge them.”
“Well fought, Rimarinic,” said Master Forgon and Rima grinned. “Though next time I would suggest knowing the contents of your deck better. Every time you add something to your deck you should practice before dueling, just as in magic, when you learn a new attack, or defense, you must practice it before you try pulling it off in battle.”
With that he walked off and Rima scowled at his back. “Practice before dueling, Rima. I won, didn’t I? And it’s just a card game, when I get my real magic I’ll practice.”
“Calm down, Rima,” laughed Lorgano, and Rima’s frown faded into a smile as she turned to look at her friend. “Come on, let’s go get some food.”
The two of them headed to the dining hall Rima finding an empty table and Lorgano and a few other guys who were friends of theirs heading to get the food. Rima sat by herself and folded her arms on the table, leaning her chin on them and staring off at nothing. She didn’t really care that her magic hadn’t come yet, she had much more fun in the “guys” class than she’d have in the magic class, but it made her wonder sometimes. Girls mature faster than guys do, so girls always got their magic first, usually around their fifteenth year. Guys usually didn’t get theirs until around eighteen, some as late as twenty-two. Rima was nineteen years old and had never had so much as a flicker of magical talent, though all her teachers had told her she’d make a spectacular mage some day as she dueled well.
Rima heaved a sigh and laid her head on its side on her arms. She’d always known she was different, preferring to hang out with the guys. She’d had girl friends when she was younger but as soon as they got all giggly, and well, girly, she’d lost touch with them. They started flirting with all her guy friends and all she wanted to do was laugh with the guys about how ridiculously they acted.
Rima sighed again and straightened up, her eyes catching a group of former friends as they walked toward her table. They whispered and giggled and stopped suddenly just as they were about to pass her table. Cryena sneered at Rima and laughed.
“What’s the matter Rima? All your friends abandon you?” Cryena said, more to the group of girls following her than to Rima. “You poor thing, well, it’s no wonder, why would Lorgano want you when he could have a real girl?”
Rima shook her head and looked away, they’d never understand. They all thought she was friends with Lorgano because she was romantically interested in him, they couldn’t understand that she and Lorgano were just friends. She said nothing and before long the girls wandered off, giggling and snickering amongst themselves.
“Rima, guess what?” said Lorgano as he plopped down beside her. “They’ve got honey bread today! You favorite!”
“Thanks,” she replied, picking at the food on the tray he set before her. The other guys sat down as well and they all started talking, none of them noticing that Rima was a bit out of spirits. She ate sparingly and eventually pulled herself into the conversation, faking cheerfulness so no one would ask her why she was out of sorts.
Rima and Lorgano had been friends for years, even though Lorgano was about a year younger than Rima. The two of them were practically inseparable and it was really because they were jealous that the other girls teased Rima. Lorgano was a very attractive young man; he had dark hair and sparkling green-blue eyes that danced mischievously a lot of the time. He was tall and fit, and he had a charisma about him, likely because he was very self-confident. Most of the girls at the school sighed when he looked their way, except Rima. Rima just teased him and bantered with him and seemed completely unaware of his attractiveness, and though he never let on to Rima, this drove Lorgano crazy. The older he got the more interested he became in the opposite sex, and though Rima was like one of the guys he started to find her attractive as well.
Rima was an attractive young woman; she just didn’t do anything with herself in some vain attempt to make herself more so, as many girls did. She had long legs, was of average height for a woman, she had a pleasantly curved figure, and in the hot summer months she dressed simply, not realizing that her simple, skimpy clothes were also somewhat provocative on her lean, muscular form. But Rima was a late bloomer, sure she’d matured physically, but she still hadn’t quite hit that stage in a girl’s life where she finds herself checking out every guy she passes.
“Rima! How about a duel?” called Lorgano one morning when he saw Rima just arriving at school.
“You know we can’t get into the classroom yet, Lorgo,” she replied with a smile of hello for her friend.
“Nah, not a real duel, just a mock one, here in the school yard. Come on, I know I can beat you this time!”
Rima laughed and smirked at him, “Alright, you’re on! We playing standard or modified?”
“Modified! Make things more interesting,” he replied with a grin.
“Modified it is,” she replied pulling her deck out of her bag and settling down in the grass to set herself up. Modified magic cards played like most regular card games. Each player could only have seven cards in their hand at any one time, drawing new cards only after they’d played those in their hand.
Rima got her deck set up as did Lorgano and they began to play. Modified was a difficult way to play because sometimes, though you’d have the card you need in your deck, you often didn’t have a card in your hand to counter an attack, or crush a defense. They played for quite some time, the schoolyard filling up around them, power passing back and forth. Finally, Rima drew a card from her deck and grinned, having drawn the perfect card to wipe out the defense Lorgano had built up, as well as knock him out of the game. But before she could play it Cryena came over and snatched the cards from Rima’s hands.
“Well, well, well, still playing with cards, Rima?” said Cryena with a sneer, her pack of followers snickering behind her.
“Give the cards back, Cryena,” said Rima through clenched teeth.
“Yeah, that’s not funny, Cryena, we were playing here!” said Lorgano.
“Oh, you should be glad I took these from her, Lorgi,” Cryena retorted in a sugary voice, “because she was just about to wipe you out! I saved you from that.”
Lorgano growled as he stood up. “She’s beat me more times than I can count and I didn’t need saving then. If I beat her I want it to be from superior strategy, not interference!”
Cryena scowled and tossed the cards in the air, turning her back on the two. Rima watched as her cards fluttered to the ground, barely able to control this blind fury that welled up inside her. It scared her, but even as it did so, she was unable to control it and she was on her feet so fast it made her head swim.
“That...is...enough,” she said, pronouncing each word individually in a low, growl-like tone. Cryena heard her though and turned around, a smirk on her face until she saw the cold rage behind Rima’s normally soft green eyes. “I challenge you to a duel of magic Cryena!” cried Rima, throwing up an arm to point at the girl. As she did so, the air crackled around her and a ray of light left her hand, shooting straight at Cryena.
Cryena shrieked and threw herself to the ground, the bolt singing her hair, making it stand on end as she did so. Wide-eyed Cryena slowly picked herself from the ground then went racing toward the school building, shrieking and crying the whole way, her long hair standing on end all around her head.
Rima watched her go with an impassive face as the rage slowly drained from her. It left her dizzy and weak and she turned wide, unfocussed eyes to Lorgano just before her legs gave out under her. Lorgano recovered his composure enough to catch her as she fell and Rima looked up into his concern-filled eyes and gasped just before she lost consciousness.
When Rima woke up she was lying on her back in the nurse’s office at her school. She slowly opened her eyes, focussing on the ceiling. For a while she just lay there, letting her mind drift, but it drifted to that scene in the schoolyard and that bothered her, so she pushed the thoughts away and sat up. As soon as she did she regretted it, for her head started pounding. Lorgano was there, sitting in a chair looking worried, but he jumped to his feet as she sat up. Rima put a hand to her temple and winced, for even that small movement caused her head to throb even more.
“Rima?” said Lorgano, his voice choked with concern and Rima’s thoughts flew back to the look she’d seen in his eyes right before she blacked out. She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to block out that memory.
Just then the nurse walked in, a round, somewhat gruff woman called Parla, and laid a tray on the table beside the bed.
“You’ve got a headache right?” asked the nurse, pushing Rima’s hands away from her face and not so gently feeling her skull and temples. “Serves you right using magic without a buffer, and without any training.”
“Is that what I did?” asked Rima softly, loud noises making her head throb even more.
“Ahuh! Yeah, that’s what you did alright,” said the nurse with an incredulous laugh. “I wager they’ll be switching you to the magic class real quick now.”
Rima just groaned and started to lay back down, but Parla pushed her back up into a sitting position and thrust a bowl of soup into her hands.
“You drink all this up now and then I’ll send you on to class.”
“I don’t want anything, I just want to lie here,” said Rima, trying to give the bowl back and lie down, but Parla would have none of it. She pushed the bowl back at Rima and pushed her upright again.
“You’ll drink it, even if I have to shove it down your throat. Now drink up.”
Rima groaned but put the bowl to her lips, slowly drinking the hot liquid. Amazingly her headache cleared as she drank and by the time the soup was gone she felt as if she’d never had one. She looked up at the nurse with wide eyes and Parla laughed, her eyes twinkling with pride.
“Magic's good for more than just battling,” she said with a wink at Rima and a scowl at Lorgano, who was hovering behind her. “Alright, back to class with both of you. I suspect they’ll want miss Rimarinic to check in with the magic teacher, and Lorgano, you need to get to class boy. There’s no need for you to watch over her like this. Get on with you!”
Lorgano glanced once at Rima and dashed off, not wanting to get any further on the nurse’s bad side. Once he was gone Parla turned to raise an eyebrow at Rima.
“He’s got quite a crush, girlie. And my congratulations to you, he’s a fine specimen if I ever saw one.”
Rima just groaned and hopped off the bed, gathering her things, no doubt Lorgano had brought them there for her. Parla looked at Rima in surprise and Rima just shook her head. She didn’t want to think about it. So she left the room, heading down the hall to the magic classroom. She walked through the door and cringed as everyone turned to stare at her.
“Well, Rima, it’s nice to see you’re finally joining us in here, though I do want to talk to you later about how you managed to conceal your powers from us for so long,” said the teacher, Mistress Harlina from the front of the room. “Take a seat for now, I’ll talk to you when the class breaks into groups.”
Rima threaded her way through the class to an empty seat, plopping down in it and looking around her. Her safety net was gone now, these girls hated her and she doubted her guy friends would want anything to do with her now. Lorgano would, but how did one deal with the love of a man one felt nothing but friendship for? Rima shook her head and tried to attend to the lesson, but that thought continued to lurk deep in her mind.
“Concentrate Rimarinic, you’re not focussing,” said Mistress Harlina as she stood over Rima.
“I am!” declared Rima in frustration. “I don’t understand what you want me to do!”
“Focus, call your magic from deep within and use the fire spell to light the candle in front of you.”
“I don’t understand! ‘Call your magic from deep within.’ Deep within where?” Rima scowled at the candle, not understanding anything her teacher was telling her about how to use her magic.
“Listen to me Rimarinic, we’ve been through this before,” Mistress Harlina said, her usually calm voice becoming strained. “Your body stores magic inside it so you always have it at your command. Find the magic and pull it out so you can use it.”
“I don’t know where it is, I don’t feel anything,” said Rima, a touch of whining in her voice.
“It’s there, just keep feeling for it.”
Rima sighed and concentrated, searching back into the depths of her subconscious. She shook her head; there was no magic there. She looked up at Mistress Harlina and shook her head once again. “I can’t find it. It’s not there.”
Mistress Harlina sighed in exasperation and straightened her back from its bent position. “Very well, Rimarinic, you can be stubborn if you want to, but we all know you have magic now, you’ve no chance of being sent back to the boys class.”
With that Mistress Harlina walked off to check on the other students. Rima crossed her arms on the desk and laid her head on them, squeezing her eyes shut. She didn’t understand it anymore than her teacher did, why wouldn’t her magic come to her?
Later on the students were all released for lunch. Rima immediately rushed to the dining hall in search of her friends. Lorgano saw her and waved, mouthing the words “find us a table” from his place in line. She smiled in return and looked around for a place for the group to sit.
Before long Lorgano plopped down across from her, placing a tray of food in front of her. “So how’s magic class going?”
“Terrible!” snapped Rima before she could stop herself and she looked apologetically at Lorgano as soon as the words had left her lips.
“Why is that?” asked Lorgano, concern apparent in his eyes and contained anger evident in his voice as he leaned forward to peer at her. “Those girls aren’t giving you trouble are they?”
“No, no, nothing like that. It’s just,” Rima paused, not sure how to say it, “I don’t think I really have any magic at all.”
“What? Oh, come on, Rima, we all saw that stunt you pulled in the schoolyard! You’ve got a very powerful gift!”
“I know, but I can’t find my magic anywhere! The teacher said to look deep inside myself for the place my body stores it and then pull it forth and use it. But I didn’t do anything like that in the schoolyard, I was furious and it was just there!”
Lorgano’s eyes suddenly widened and his mouth opened into a surprised ‘o’ shape. “Oh!”
“What?” asked Rima, looking at him curiously. “What’s wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong,” said Lorgano, flashing her a grin. “I think I just came into my magic!”
“Oh, that’s just great! Now all the guys are going to follow your example and I’ll be the only one in the school without any magic at her disposal! That’s just typical! I’m always the one left behind aren’t I?” Rima kept talking, ranting about how unfair it all was. The more she spoke the angrier she got, until something opened within her. She gasped as she felt the flow of magic rush through her and in that moment of surprise she lost hold of her anger and the magic left her, sucked back into wherever it had been lurking and she was once again unaware of it’s existence. “Oh my gosh!”
Lorgano wasn’t paying attention though and Rima shook her head, grabbing his sleeve and pulling him to his feet and out of the dining hall. Some of their friends called after them but Rima paid them no heed. She rounded a corner in the hallway and headed straight for Mistress Harlina’s office. She didn’t even knock, walking right through the door without ceremony. Mistress Harlina looked up in surprise, a touch of anger in her gaze until she saw Lorgano’s expression as Rima dragged him in behind her.
“My apologies Mistress Harlina, but as you can see Lorgano has just come into his magic and I’ve figured out why I can’t get mine to come to my bidding.”
Mistress Harlina blinked, giving Rima a blank stare for a moment as she took the information in. But then she was up and pushing Lorgano into a chair. Rima backed away, knowing that Lorgano needed to be attended to first. Mistress Harlina knelt in front of Lorgano’s chair and whispered softly to him, and before long he blinked and shook his head, looking up with a bright grin on his face.
“Never take more magic into you than you plan to use, Lorgano,” said Mistress Harlina as she stood and he nodded, a bit sheepishly. “Now go tell Master Forgon that you’ll be coming to my class after lunch.”
Lorgano grinned again and left the office. Mistress Harlina turned an expectant gaze on Rima and crossed her arms over her chest, leaning back on her desk.
“Well? Let's hear it. Why can’t you do magic, Rimarinic?”
“I figured it out during lunch, Mistress Harlina. Lorgano suddenly came into his magic and that made me angry. I sat there telling myself all the reasons I was angry, which kept making me more and more angry, and then it was there!”
“What was there?”
“My magic!” said Rima, her eyes wide with the memory. “But as soon as I realized it I lost hold of my anger and the magic slipped away from me.”
“So you expect me to believe that the only reason you did magic in the schoolyard is because you were angry and you magic is linked to that emotion?” asked Mistress Harlina, arching a disbelieving eyebrow.
“I’ve read about it in the past. Sometimes magic becomes linked to great emotion and cannot be used without it,” Rima blushed and looked down then, examining her shoes as she said in a soft voice, “it happened to my great-grandmother.”
Rima looked up at her teacher hesitantly and was relieved to see a pensive look on the woman’s face rather than the angry disbelief she’d expected. “Go back to lunch Rimarinic. I’m going to do a little reading and see what I can find.”
“Yes, ma’am,” said Rima, ducking her head as she rushed out of the office. She suddenly wasn’t so sure she wanted to learn her magic at all. It was becoming such a hassle!
A few weeks later Rima was still having difficulty with her magic. She and Lorgano were walking home together after school, Lorgano going on and on about the joys of working magic while Rima merely shuffled along, kicking at stones and examining her feet, her books clasped tightly to her chest.
“It’s so amazing, Rima! You really need to get past that block of yours. Imagine the duo we’d make! With your White Lightning and my Black Water, once I learn it of course. We’d be unstoppable!”
“It’s not that easy,” replied Rima glumly but Lorgano seemed oblivious to her bad mood.
“Just think about it Rima! You’ve got to master this block, you’ll be so powerful once you get past the block.”
“What if I don’t want to get past it!” Rima suddenly yelled, throwing her books to the ground and glaring at Lorgano. He looked at her in surprise for a moment, but then his features softened and he reached one hand out to touch her face.
“I know you’re frustrated, Rima, but it’ll be alright. I’ll help you get past this. I’ll always be there for you, you know that, right?”
Rima shook her head and backed away from his caress. Her eyes widened as if in fear and she continued to shake her head frantically. “No, no, I don’t want to get past it. I just want to get away from here, where everyone knows me as that girl who should have been born a boy. I hate it here, I want to get away!”
“Rima, you don’t mean that. You wouldn’t want to leave me behind would you?” asked Lorgano, tenderness and love in his eyes and his tone. Rima shook her head again, grasping it between her hands.
“Yes, yes, I would. I don’t feel that way for you Lorgano. I just want to get out of here! Get me out of here!” Rima yelled at the top of her lungs. And then she felt it. The magic welled up to answer her request and she was surrounded suddenly by its power. She lost sight of Lorgano, in fact she lost sight of everything but the whirling colors of the magic as it swirled around her.
The colors were so intense that Rima had to squeeze her eyes shut, but she could still see them dancing beyond her eyelids. She felt as if she were suffocating in the colors, unable to draw a breath.
And then, suddenly everything went black. Rima took a large gasping breath and opened her eyes. She found herself lying in soft, hot sand. The sand was so hot it burned her skin where it touched her and even right through what little clothing she’d been wearing. She looked around to see people standing around her. Some of them unlike any she’d ever seen before, indeed some of them didn’t seem to be human at all. She stood quickly; brushing the hot sand from her skin and wincing as the heat penetrated even her thick boots. She continued to look around, taking in her surroundings and it was then that she saw the eggs, and the dragons. The large mottled eggs were rocking steadily, all of them guarded by the most beautiful creatures Rima had ever seen.
Not yet...
Duh! Not yet!
Obviously not yet! :o)
