A Beautiful Saviour

Chapter Ten

By the time he had lifted a crab out of the water he had realised that he was still not subtle enough. The crab was crushed, the magic he had used to cocoon it and bring it towards him in a net of sorts was too tight around the crab, too heavy and it had killed the sea creature. He put it back in the place he got it from and tried again feeling around the sea bed for another crab. He had lifted the whole of the sea water that he could see from shore to as far out as the eye can see but he had needed Niklas and six others to contain it. He did not put the water down carefully enough and it crashed back into the sea all at once creating waves too big for him to know how to control.

                They yelled orders at him, telling him to push the waves back down, he tried his best but he was doing no good with his heavy handed magic and in the end he had kicked a stone into the water and yelled that this was a bad idea.

“I can hardly feel my magic! Lifting water is so trivial I cannot feel how heavy it is! I don’t know what is too harsh or too light. I can’t judge it!” He yelled.

“Why do you think we are here? Why do you think I am making you do childish training? Because I know, Joseph, that to you, you need lessons in being graceful and refined and restrained. As a child I had to learn how to be stronger, you need to learn how to be weaker with your power. You are not going to get it in one night, especially since you have refused training all these years. Practice. Do it again.”

                Niklas had no time for Joseph’s moaning or outbursts of temper. A little further up north than they were he had heard tell of a great battle and had decided that it would be the first battle that joseph would go to. They had to prepare him quickly.

“Joseph!” One of the sorcerers called to him when he brought back another dead crab. He looked up, clearly frustrated but trying. “Can do you do press ups?”

“What?” He asked puzzled, “of course I can.”

“Good, get down and do five.”

                He was about to question the order when another sorcerer tutted at his side. Quickly changing his mind about the questioning he laid down on the floor, curled his toes and put his palm on the floor. He pushed up through his hands to his biceps and while remaining horizontal came up, went back down, came up and repeated until he reached five. “Good.” The same sorcerer said again. “Now take you hands and feet off the floor. Float.”

                He had an idea where this was going and wasn’t looking forward to it. Using his power he floated in the air about eight inches off the ground. “Good, now do press ups, hands and feet free.”

“Will you fix my nose when I smash into the floor?”

“After you give me fifty.”

                It was nice to know the old men could have a right laugh at him while he slowly let himself float downwards to an inch from the ground and up again to the original eight inches. The push up was fine, it the relax down that wasn’t The first time he managed it, and it took a lot of effort. The second time he didn’t manage to stop himself as his power got too much a hold over him and he smashed into the floor. Laughter erupted around him but he was determined.

“First rule or learning control.” The old man said. “Hurt yourself before other creatures. I couldn’t bear to see another dead crab. Besides, my father made me do five hundred magic press ups every morning before school. And I had to fix my own nose.”

*

Two weeks went by. Joseph joined no wars. He declined all mental calls requesting for his backup saying he was needed elsewhere and wouldn’t be able to make the battle. Slowly he was becoming an annoyance to his kind. Now he wasn’t doing as they wanted and aiding them as they called, they were getting angry at him and started to ask him with a less than friendly and polite tone. That was too much. He was older than many of them. More skilled than all of them put together, or they would not be asking for his help. A little courtesy and respect was needed but he kept his calm, because now he was getting the hang of his magic he was seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. He was seeing the reason he was doing all this for. Let them get angry at him, it would matte little in the end.