War of Djinn and Men Part 1.

I wake back up in my bed. Aoife is sitting in a chair to my left, knitting something. “ Another 2 days of sleeping for you honey. You've made a lot of progress in very little time, The Ki network in your body was impressive when we got you to bed… But it's only been expanding and reinforcing itself. You shouldn't have much issue with magic other than what you can imagine”

Still groggy and trying to wake up.” How do you guys even get me to bed when I do this?”

She lets go of her sewing needles and thread. They keep knitting while her hands comb her hair, and I stare at the needles forgetting the conversation was about magic. “ It's still a task, my boy.But very doable between Timous and I. '' I sit up in my bed, “ Well thank you Aoife. It's hard to know when to stop.” She giggles. “ I know honey, but your body still needs to store and channel the Ki. The more you use, the harder it is on you and the more rest you need. But it will get easier over time. I think it's early morning, The other two should be waking up in a bit. Come give me a hand with breakfast, son.”

As I follow Aoife into the kitchen I can't believe how stiff my joints are. I stop before my exit, yawn and stretch to try to limber up and ease my joints. In doing so I incite a tremor in my body, and force a little Ki to surge through my body. The discharge hurts ever so slightly, but what exited rushes my door into the wall making an audible “BANG”. In a startled state I freeze in place and look at the door in shock, realizing the sensation was a Ki release. Aoife spins around quickly in shock. Noticing my arms still stretched out and me staring at the door. “ Did you just push the door with…?” I drop my arms and look back at her. “I think I did…” She looks at me questioningly, “That's not right…” Timous comes out of their room in his bedware looking around. “ Aoife, Mark what's that noise? What happened?”

Aoife puts her left arm across her chest and rests the right arm on the left to bite her thumb…” Im almost certain he just released Ki by yawning, But don't all creatures need to focus or instinctively use their energy?” He steps by her and puts his hand on her shoulder. “ I thought so, But this is a very odd situation… We'll need to keep an eye on this… Very strange, I’ll start some tea to think this over.” Aoife smiles at him “ We’ll get on breakfast love.”

We walk into the kitchen and I get my orders from Aoife. “ 6 eggs, 3 ham steaks and 3 big potatoes son.” I walk through the pantry and get a small basket to carry it all. I keep replaying the door slamming into the wall. “ Do I need to start focusing on everything I do to not send Ki into my surroundings? What if I sneeze?” I have all the things asked of me and head back into the kitchen. “Hash browns or pan fried potatoes mom?” Aoife looks back and smiles. “Lets pan fry today son.” I hand her the ham steaks, always 7-10 inches around and close to 1 1/2 inches thick. Makes me wonder how these two would hunt for meat. Or buy it in a human market…If humans would sell to them.

As she starts cooking the steaks on the massive cook top on a lower heat, along with the normal duck eggs. I dice the potatoes, season heavily with a few big pinches of salt, pepper and fried garlic. Of which I know Angela made for the entire house, because she loves learning and doing things with her adoptive mother. And I bring them over to her to cook, then I go back across the kitchen and grab the plates and silverware. The plates are more like large hardwood slabs, the silverware are metal ends and hardwood handles. The forks are 2 prong and rather close together, spoons are more normal looking except they are deeper. Angela wakes up as my hands are full and wraps her arms around my waist. “Good Morning uncle Mark!” “ Good morning little lady, are you almost ready for breakfast?” She lets go, looks up with a big smile and proclaims “Yes!”. “Dad started some tea, you want to join him or help mom?” She looks at Aoife who is already staring at her, “Uhm, I'll help mom.” I smile back at her and give her a nod.

A few minutes later we are all in our chairs, Timous and Aoife across each other fireplace separating them. Across from the fireplace and facing it, sit Angela to my left and a side table between us. We eat a lightly seared ham steak with pepper, some golden brown potato cubes and some delicious duck eggs over easy. We all sit and enjoy the tea when we finish. The girls talk about practicing some reading for Angela. But when Aoife tells her to get dressed and brush her teeth. I realize I haven't brushed these things since I've been here.” Oh shit. Are my teeth fucked?” I run my tongue along them, fronts and back. But I don't feel tartar, or anything out of the ordinary. Timous catches me playing with my mouth, and I realize I'm being watched. “Oh, we never made you a sponge.” I look at him more puzzled. “Sponge for teeth?” He stands and walks to the ladder on the bookcase behind Aoife, goes halfway up and pushes himself to his left.

Aoife gets up to get Angela and take her to the bathroom, Timous comments back. “Another thing our fathers did was make dental hygiene routine and formula for your mouth to stop and prevent decay and stink breath. Her father used a sponge from the sea, treated to be dry and usable to scrub teeth and gums. He used a process to make a deep cleaner in castles usable for teeth cleaning. It's called baking soda but it was mixed with water.” I almost stopped him to see if I heard that correctly, but he continued. “ My father used a mix of sea salt, clean water and another plant called arrowroot. My father would use his fingers to spread the past and clean his mouth, following it with a water rinse. Both worked pretty well. But when my father died, I met my Aoife and her father. We added the baking soda to my fathers recipe with some ground mint leaves. And once again, we discovered something even better! Ah, Human Oral Hygiene And Extraction Measures … Let's have a look at that mouth.”

Timous climbs off the ladder and tells me “ Lay down by the fire son, lets see if any damage was done.” I do so and he looks in my mouth. “ What in the… What is this? Aoife come quickly!” Timous runs through his book and Aoife runs in. “ What's the commotion that's got you screaming Timous?” He stops going through the book to look at her. “ His gums. His teeth. Look at it!” She takes a knee and tells me to open up. I do so. “ In all the kingdoms. Timous what is that?” I shut my mouth and sit up. “Guys what the hell is it?” Timous looks at my bare chest and points to me. “It’s the armor… It's in your gums running into your teeth. I never noticed before.”

We take our time and try to come up with why this is the way it is. What it's doing for me. And whether or not I even need to sponge my teeth. With no answers, we decide the safe option is to sponge my teeth regularly. There was no damage seen, Which is odd since I had one filling. But now, I guess it's really possible that Hughs armor fixed everything. I get up in time to see Angela sponge her teeth, looks like the process back on earth for the most part. Timous hands me a sponge on a chopstick handle, and I use the well pump in the bathroom to get it wet. I dip my finger in the tooth paste, put it on the sponge and start scrubbing. At first the taste is bitter and the texture is gritty. The mint is an afterthought in the whole process and it's rather brutal as an experience.

But as I brush Timous returns and starts talking to me. “ So son, I had an idea as we dragged you back to the house this last time… What if we make you a room, in your room that should contain any magic you do. But then you'd also be safe here at home so we wouldn't have to worry about you. Well, What do you think?” I rush to get some water to rinse this shit out of my mouth, When I'm done, I turn to him. “ Yeah, That's not a bad idea. But, how is this gonna contain me?” He leans into the doorway, “ Well just have to adapt and build as we go son.”

We quickly agree on the matter and all four of us head up to the river, the same one we found Angela at. Aoife packed some sandwiches and fruits. The plan is to coach Angela on building her Ki and I get to work on some magic casting. As we clear through the woods to the river, Timous starts coaching me on casting magic. “ So, let's try to remember just because I throw a stone one distance. It doesnt mean youll get the same distance in the end. You could go further or much shorter. And it's gonna be that way for EVERY SPELL. The way I start a spell and the execution is different from everyone else’s, they are rarely the same. You'll have some learning and discovery to do today son. So please, don't get frustrated or sad if you struggle. “I nod “ Yeah, I remember. I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little nervous and excited about this.” Timous gives me that warm welcome smile again “ I know son, let's test that stone of yours.”

We get to the river and Timous starts right away. He reaches his right arm out and hand open. And closes it. He picks his arm up like throwing a ball and tosses 2 palm sized rocks into the river, just about midway. “ All I do son is reach out to the rocks, imagine I grabbed them and imagine a throw. It's your turn, start tossing some rocks my boy!” He walks back towards the girls.

Sure it's just that easy guy… I roll my eyes as he essentially just taught me something and gave me 3 hours of homework to train myself in it. I might as well be back in school. So I reach out and start trying. Fail. Again, I keep my eyes on one small rock and slow every step down. Reach out to the small dark gray one. I mimic grabbing it with my hand, but still keep trying to use my mind. I clamp my hand shut, still imagining I'm doing it with my hand. I raise my fist, wait a minute and look. Nothing. No movement.I put my arm down and take a deep breath to try again, But Angela's voice and it makes me stop. “ Yeah! I'm gonna make my Ki as strong as Uncle Marks!” Timous and Aoife cackle, “ You take your time baby! That kind of Ki will take work.” Aoife responds to her.

“Shit im an absolute moron.” I laugh to myself. Timous is a leprechaun using his mana. I'm a Human with KI. Trying to do magic. “ Pure dumb ass.” I add. I look back at the rock and try to engage some KI, I feel the warmth on my insides, Like standing out in the afternoon sun. I look straight down and pick another all black rock. I reach out with my hand, and imagine I'm grabbing it as I close my hand. I bring my hand to my chest height and open my eyes. Nothing, no movement or change.”Well shit, so much for a bright idea Mark.” I say to myself again. “ Okay, Mark, you're missing something. You need to use KI to use magic. So if just activating KI isn't the key.. Do I send my Ki to the rock?” I pick up a random rock and I focus all over. I charge my Ki and send some to the rock. “ Ok, I'm probably close. Just a little more…” POP! Shards of rock smack me in the face and body as the rock explodes, my armor slams my face shield down on my face as I back off my position and scan the area. Timous starts laughing. “You just exploded a rock my boy!” Aoife hides a smile, Angela calls out “ Are you ok uncle Mark?” Timous looks over to her “ He's ok Sweetheart! Let's get back to focusing…”

My face shield opens back up, And all I can do again is giggle as I am embarrassed as all hell. It takes me a minute to calm down. But now we're getting somewhere. That rock exploded, so let's do this again. I get another rock and focus. This time for good measure I will my face shield back down this time. Add Ki to the rock, and stop before anything can happen. I Imagine the Ki lifts it out of my hand and holds it there. I open my eyes, and there's the rock. Hovering in place inches above my hand.I stare at it for a few seconds in shock. And it falls out of my hand. My eyes follow it to the ground. “Let’s not stop here!” I proudly proclaim to myself.

So now with both hands down and reaching out to my sides only a few feet away. I charge my KI and send it out to the ground and just think “Rocks. Pick up rocks.” This time I feel the energy leave me extending outwards, this time. I feel the energy has gained some weight. I open my eyes and look. 6 rocks to the right and 6 to the left floating off the ground at mid shin height. I keep focus, and lower myself into my weaver stance like I'm shooting a pistol back home. And imagine the rocks get behind me slightly. I open my eyes and look to the river. “NOW!” All twelve fire off at the middle of the river with such force they make a “SWOosh” as they fly. The impacts are loud and forceful enough for 4 stones to skip off the river and hit the rocky river side across the river.

Impressed with myself I repeat the process with new rocks while I stay in my weaver stance. I try to send them harder and they sound like bullets whistling by your head all the way across. One more time, more rocks. “Faster and harder!” I tell myself. Im sending a constant barrage across the river, hitting rocks and woodline drawing the attention of my family. Then I feel my lungs burning and have to stop to breath. I feel like I'm running in the winter, that familiar burning sensation deep in your lungs that aches in a way you hate. Aoife comes running up. “Oh darling go easy! No need to pass out every day!” I look at her as I catch my breath. “What's this feeling?” She looks at me. “ You're expelling your Ki now. Not building a network. It's an exhausting process darling even for us Leprechauns and our mana use.”

“Ok, so as I use magic I get physically exhausted. I need to pace myself and I need to recover… I’ll keep that in mind.” I let her know as I breath through it, She smiles back like she's proud. Timous walks up to us with a bundle of sticks. “ Ok sonny! Now let's try some fire. However you managed to throw the rocks. Now you make a fire that way, with this. And then try to play the flame.

I sit calmly recovering my breath, staring at a bundle of sticks and grass. “How do you light fire with Ki? Do I just send my KI to it and force a fire?” It's all I can think of as I breathe slowly. When I feel like the burn in my lungs has subsided, I hold my right hand to the sticks and start charging my Ki. “Just a little this time, start the fire and let's see if I need to breathe from that…” I start to imagine sending my Ki to the pile, But as I do I see what looks like a refraction out of my palm and stop. I look at my hands, and there is nothing new. “I know I saw that… What the fuck? Was that me?” Still checking my hands, I decide there is only one way to see if it was real or not. I charge my Ki and hold my hand palm out to the bundle to burn. I start telling my Ki what to do, and again I see the refraction of my Ki out of my hand. I still send Ki to the fire bundle but I'm multitasking thinking about why I'm seeing this.

The Ki slowly goes to the bundle and refraction continues radiating out of my hand but it is moving to the pile. “I'll have to ask about this later.” I think to myself. Moments later I try imagining “Fire. Fire. Fire. Start on fire.” And nothing happens as I feel that burning in my lungs. So I give it a rest and reach towards the bundle. “It's warm! So what's missing?” I think to myself and look around the area hoping a new scene will change my thought process. My eyes meet Timous and Aoife’s eyes who are some distance away from me. They look puzzled, but I'm recovered and ready to try some more.”Does the fire need more Ki to start? Am I just transferring my energy to make a fire?”

“Breathe slowly, activate the Ki. More Ki, now send it.Fire.Fire.Fire.” I think to myself as I watch the refraction off my hand and expand from my palm to the pile of sticks. This time as I imagine fire, the refraction grows out of the sticks. A moment later, some light smoke emerges from the sticks, I add a little more Ki and small flames come out from nowhere and turn into a lively fire! I give up on my Ki and start to recover. As I sit and breathe and watch my fire I look back at my little family and see Aoife looking at me perplexed and Timous, hat off and scratching his head looking at me. “I wonder what's up overthere?”

A few extra minutes later than the normal recovery time, I definitely feel like I've been doing something today and I will be sleeping like a baby later. But as I feel like I've recovered enough I decided to keep trying new things. “ Build the Ki, send it to the fire and make a fireball”. I watch the refraction of the Ki more and I see it swirl inside the flames, but there is no ball of fire. Again I stop and think as I'm fascinated by all I'm doing but not flustered at the failure. “ Hmm. So I see the Ki trying to make that fireball but it's not forming. I'm using a good bit of Ki. So… heat, fuel and oxygen. What's missing?” As I ponder on this I feel less energized, more run down like I've already had a long day. I could easily sleep now, and eat. I look over at the Family again, “ Fuel? Does the fire not have fuel when I try to make a fireball? Can my Ki feed and hold it?”

I try again, I send my Ki to the coals of the fire. “ Feed the flame. Make a fireball, keep it fed, and formed…” I continue that instruction mentally. And slowly but surely I make a golf ball sized fireball! I bring it closer and hold it over my hand and just look at it. “It's beautiful! Looks like a screensaver when the river and trees are in the background.” I feel my eyes getting heavier and heavier. I can tell now that I need to work harder to make the same amount of Ki. I give up on the beautiful little thing and stand and stretch. Now I'm cooked and ready for a nap. I kick out the fire, and walk over to the family where Angela is still being instructed how to make a Ki network. But as I approach, I see her Ki at her heat radiating. I stop in my tracks and just look. After a minute or two, As Timous continues telling Angela “Breath slowly in, hold it, exhale slowly. Focus on growing your Ki and send that Ki through your arms.” I kneel and whisper to Aoife'' Can you see her heart from here?” She snaps her head with a very perplexed look on her face.” What's that dear?” She whispers. I answer in a whisper. “ When I was dealing with the fire I could see my Ki leave my body. Now that I'm here, I can see Angelas Ki radiating in her heart.” She looks right at her, and back at me. “I can only sense auras, not see them. You're telling me with just a little work. You are seeing your Ki and hers?” I nod. “ It sounds like Hugh has given you more than just amour my boy. Oh! How did you start that fire?” She smacks my right hand asking me while I look back at her and Timous, who is looking at me and eavesdropping. “He told me to start the fire and play with it…” His jaw drops. “Boy. start the fire like you learned not that long ago. With rocks and sticks! You're moving at an accelerated rate here. That magic you did there took me the better half of a century to do.”

I think to myself. “ Is it all Hugh or is it a little extra knowledge of these things? Like what a fire needs to maintain itself…” I'm far too tired and mildly hangry at this point.” Mom, Can I get some of the food you packed for us?” Angela stops focusing on the Ki exercise, and looks like a child falling asleep where she sits. “ I'm so tired…” She looks like it too. Like a child who was up all new years day and tried to party with the adults for the New Year celebration. Aoife walks up to her and puts her hand on her heart and back. I can tell she's gauging Angeles Ki.” Oh yes, She's gonna be a natural witch alright, she's expanded all her Ki for the size of her body boys, this little lady needs a few days rest.” Timous looks to me, “ This is a more natural reaction to expelling your Ki boy. Let's get home.” I squat and offer Angela a lift back home so she can close her eyes. She droops her arms over my shoulders as I scoop her up. She goes limp after she tucks her face into my neck to block the sunlight.

We all start walking back, except an eerie feeling hits me in the back like I'm being followed or watched. I do an “About Face” like I learned in the army. Trying to catch someone if any one was there. My eyes snap further up the river from the direction of the City where we killed the ghouls. I feel like I'm not being surveilled any more, but thinking that I was being watched made me uneasy through the woods and up to our home. I was constantly looking back and around making sure we were not being stalked. We approach the door and as we all get in and start closing the door, we hear a flute out of tone. We stop and look around, and we see a rider on the road sounding what appears to be a flute. Timous smacks the side of my leg “ They are actually asking for our help…”

The thought that we may have missed a ghoul crosses my mind. It infuriates me. I turn to Aoife, “Please take her, Let’s go get his attention before he goes too far.”