Majic

          A week later the party was camped by the Dald Sea. The tall trees were a change from the open rolling plains they'd been traveling through for almost three months. The rain that had been falling on and off most of the day had finally stopped. Overhead the dual moons sent shafts of light through the damp branches making them sparkle like stars in the night. The wind that had died down tonight made the trees sway gently. Occasionally raindrops would fall from branches sparkling through the air like gems. The low laying fog amid the trees gave the world the appearance of a surreal dreamscape. The crisp night air smelled of moisture with the tang of crushed pine needles as the party moved around the camp.

      When the party had first entered the forest at the eastern edge of the Davstai Us lakes Bisha had been stunned. These trees were taller than the tallest building in Khunduz. Many of them had leaves so broad that Devshi could almost use them as a blanket. Mixed among them were the more familiar evergreen trees that somehow grew just as tall. In the branches of the trees Bisha saw the most colorful birds that he'd ever seen in his life. The forest filled Bisha with awe and for the first time he understood what people felt in temple. It was a feeling that he'd never had before, not even majic had filled him with awe like he was feeling now.

     Bisha looked up from the notebook he'd been writing in after carefully starting the nightly fire. He didn't want a repeat of the explosion that had almost killed Irene. Just above Bisha's right shoulder a small ball of light that hovered. This was the second spell that he'd gotten to work correctly. All around him his friends were accomplishing their nightly assigned tasks. Irene was getting ready to cook a stew for dinner. Nahla was grooming all of the animals while checking on their health. Ten Rabbit and Fulha talking quietly together after having cleaned the small game that Ryah had brought for the evening meal. Irene was finishing setting up the large tent that everyone except Nahla used. The furs that everyone had received from Shildeg, the Great Chieftain of the Oristani, were going to be very useful as the weather continued to get colder as fall turned into winter.

     Bisha had hoped that the rains would decrease if not stop soon, but according to Ten Rabbit that was a faint hope. Apparently this was only the beginning of the rains. Bisha thought that when Ten Rabbit said it you could almost hear the capital letters. Bisha was used to a much drier fall, sure it rained more than normal in the fall and winter in Ashfanabad but this was ridiculous. How could the sky hold so much moisture. He was used to the wind but all this rain was getting depressing. Finding out that this was considered to be light rain in comparison to what was coming was almost to much. At least for tonight the skies were only partly cloudy.

     Bisha wanted to find out why majic wasn't working the same way anymore. Ever since the explosion at the Adikha Yunavarasiti his majic had become, odd. Spells that had worked the same way every time now didn't. Usually they exploded, but Bisha thought he might have figured out why. He had been studying every scrap of majical information he could find from every book and person that he could find. Nothing he had found so far even hinted at the reason that majic had changed. He had however found a plethora of other spells that he really wanted to try. Not the least of which was the spell he wanted to try tonight.

       Bisha looked again at the notes he'd made. If it worked, it the spell would mean that the party could communicate to each other when they were out of sight of each other. If his notes were right, the spell should work perfectly, but he remembered his last two tries and was nervous, but not for long. He knew it would work he just had to convince Nahla to let him try.

      "Nahla," Bisha asked trepidation clear in his voice, as she returned to the campfire. Her nightly task finished. "I have a spell I would like to try."

      Nahla looked at Bisha for a moment. He could feel her eyes, judging him. Clearly wondering if she should allow him to try the spell. Concerned that he was going to wound or worse kill someone if she did. For a long time Bisha was worried that Nahla was going to say no to him. All he could do was look at her with pleading in his eyes as he waited for her answer.

      "What is the spell supposed to do," Nahla asked with a heavy sigh.

      "It's a communication spell. It will allow us to send notes to each other when we can't see each other," Bisha answered. He had to restrain himself from jumping with excitement, that would have been premature, Nahla hadn't said yes yet.

       Another heavy sigh made Nahla almost slump in defeat. Her face said it all, this was going to go very badly. "Fine. Go ahead, but not until after dinner."

       Bisha almost vibrated in place from excitement all during dinner. He could hardly wait until everyone was done. Bisha decided to wait until after the remaining camp chores were done before he stood up to try his spell. Nahla pointed him to a clearing a bit away from where they had set up the tents, as far as they could get from the trees as well.

      "Just in case," Nahla had said when she pointed where she wanted him to try. "No reason to set the whole forest on fire after all."

       At first Bisha's ego was stung by that comment. Then he remembered his last two attempts and realized she might have a point. Also he didn't want to upset the other animals either. Bisha waited while everyone took their places a good ten feet behind and off to the sides of him. When Bisha pulled a smallish rock of majical obsidian Irene moved even further back and decided to watch from behind a tree, but everyone else stayed pretty much the same places although they did take a few more steps back. Bisha then looked at Ryah and asked her to go to the other side of the camp near the tree line, which Ryah did after a long look at Nahla.

      Bisha was almost insulted again, did they really think he would do something that could hurt Ryah. But again, remembering his previous attempts, he decided to not hold it against her. Bisha then lifted the hand with the majical obsidian and focused on it intently. For a long moment nothing seemed to happen. The look of concentration on Bisha's face got more intense as the small pebble of obsidian starts to slowly rock back and forth in his palm. Then gradually the obsidian rock slowly started to rise. When it got to about a foot and a half above his palm it started to slowly move forward, gradually speeding up. When the small rock got about two feet from Bisha it suddenly exploded in a small flash of light and a popping sound.

       At the sight and sound of the tiny but violent explosion everyone in the party, including Bisha, ducked reflexively while Irene actually dove back behind the tree she was already mostly hiding behind. Ryah even barked out loud in surprise when the small rock exploded. Bisha however just stood in place after his initial startle reflex. He was looking at where the majical obsidian had exploded trying to figure out where he'd gone wrong. Meanwhile everyone rushed back over to him, exclaiming out loud and asking Bisha if he was okay. When Devshi reached him she told him to sit down now because he was bleeding.

        That was when Bisha noticed that his face was stinging in more than one place. Abruptly he sat down finally realizing that he'd been hurt during his experiment's misfire. Bisha put his right hand to his face and almost fainted when it came back bloody. He'd never actually been injured during an experiment before, in fact he'd almost never been injured at all. Devshi started to bustle around him giving orders to everyone for this or that thing from her medical bags. For the first time in quite a while Bisha was watching her act in a normal fashion, at least for her. During all of this Bisha heard Irene ask Devshi if she couldn't just heal him the same way she had healed herself. That was when Devshi stopped, tweezers in hand ready to pull yet another fragment of obsidian from his face.

      Bisha watched Devshi's face fall and it was clear to him that she had tried when everyone else was busy. Tried and failed to help heal his face without the items in her medical bag. The shadow in her eyes that had been gone while she was working on his face had returned. Bisha knew that the shadows return was very, very bad for Devshi and wished he could do something to help his friend. He knew though that there wasn't really anything that he could do. He definitely wasn't going to go around hurting himself so she could build confidence, Bisha almost smiled at that thought. It was going to be up to Nahla to help Devshi. He just hoped that Devshi would let her.

     Once all of the shards of majical obsidian was removed from his face, Devshi then dabbed the small wounds with a liquid that made each individual one burn like fire. That was when he decided that he should also research healing spell as well. Anything to keep her from ever sticking that stuff on his face again. At least Devshi had told him while applying the liquid fire that he wasn't hurt badly and would heal without any scars. Yeah, Bisha thought to himself 'now I just have to figure out went wrong'. 'Actually I think I might have a few ideas' he decided as he thought about going back to his notebooks tomorrow to see if he might be right.
     In his preoccupation Bisha never noticed the thoughtful look on Irene's face or the glance she shared with Ten Rabbit as they all went to bed.