Bran and I shoveled the last of the coal into the chute in the foundry’s “reception area”, and I straightened up with a groan, my hand on my lower back.
“Wimp,” Bran said, grinning.
“Oh, stuff it,” I said.
“It’s my turn to clean up the finishing area, Lily,” Bran said to me.
“You mean you’re just not man enough to feed Cuddles this time of day,” I said.
“You’ll never hear me admit it,” Bran said. He laughed and walked down to the finishing area.
Making Telruk late for dinner was a capital offense, so I hurried down to the pit to finish the day’s work. Cuddles’ pit glowed brighter as I approached, as if he could sense me somehow. It’s not like he had ears, and he didn’t have a line of sight to anything but the rim of the pit unless he propped himself up. The fire kraken was completely alien in nature to living creatures, yet he had a life of his own, though we couldn’t exactly discuss his circumstances, much less ask him how he could sense me. When I had donned the leather apron and the helm and walked down the ramp to the chamber floor, I had to pass pretty close to the pit. The light within flickered brightly once, then two smaller flickers quickly followed. It seemed familiar somehow, like I’d seen him do that before. As I thought about it, I got to work filling up one more load of coal for Cuddles.
It had been a year or more since we’d come to Kurgh Rhamot, and I was reflecting on how far we’d come in that time while I worked. Bran and I had learned basic Terran military techniques and their way of fighting in both armed and unarmed combat. I‘d learned about smelting alloys of iron and bronze, and they’d even trusted us to work every stage of casting, pouring, and finishing their products. I was a lot stronger both mentally and physically than I was upon arrival, and I’d been thinking that it was due to more than just the exercise. Bran was always taller and more heavily muscled than I was, but I was just as strong or even a little stronger than he was. He noticed it as well, as it became evident when we were pumping the bellows together. I could work the bellows with a little more strength and stamina than he could, despite my being the smaller brother. My bruises seemed to heal faster than Bran’s as well. To my thoughts, it could only have been my Mordonian heritage that was responsible, and I’d bet anything he was thinking the same thing. I’d also started feeling sort of an affinity, or maybe an empathy, with Cuddles. It was hard to explain, but it felt like a kind of familiarity with what he was. Not with who he was on an intellectual level, but with what he was using some form of higher senses. The fire at his core seemed less alien to me somehow.
I was very surprised that the Terrans had no means to speak with Cuddles, considering the way Telruk could coax him to melt and mix metals evenly. In a burst of inspiration, I understood. It was in the flickers of flame. Telruk and the Terrans of the foundry could speak in an earthen language, but Cuddles spoke in a fiery language. The flickers of flame were always the same when I was about to work in the coal room. Cuddles was probably asking for a snack. How did it go? It was one big heat burst then two smaller ones. That must have been his word for coal or food, or something.
I set my shovel aside and wheeled the load of coal into the smelting room. Bracing myself against the heat, I dumped the coal into the ceramic pit. Cuddles’ flames burned brighter once, twice, and a third time, then settled into a steady heat. I wondered if that was the way he said, “thank you.”
If only I could conjure flames myself. I had the distinct feeling that I could do it, though. I could feel the fire magic. Maybe it was just like whooshing magic. Encouraged, I drew in as much of the power from the Source as I could, then I held my hands out, palms up, and visualized fire forming above my hands. Nothing happened. I tried again with the same results. I lowered my hands in frustration, but I knew I could do it. If I could sense a thing like Cuddles’ fiery core, then I could control it somehow. I concentrated on how it felt when Cuddles was moving about the pit and extending a fiery tentacle, and suddenly I had it. All that was needed was to join the magic with something similar to what I was sensing. Trying again with supreme focus, a tongue of flame appeared above my open palm with a small “poof.” It really hurt to do it, though. It felt like I was stabbed in the hand by a small nail.
Cuddles shifted inside his pit, heating the air above abruptly. I held my little flame close to the pit, concentrating intently, and I was able to make the flame much brighter once, then create less bright bursts twice more, just like Cuddles did when I went to get him coal. Without warning, Cuddles erupted from the pit, burning brightly no more than five feet from where I was standing. The sudden heat burned me even through the protective gear I was wearing. In my surprise and fear, I somehow created a shield with a portion of the magic I was holding within me that blocked the heat of Cuddles’ fire. My apron wasn’t burning, and I felt better instantly, but using this magic felt like someone was waving a torch here and there close to my midsection.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
Then I looked up. Cuddles towered over me, with the two darker orange spots that were his eyes regarding me intently from a lofty height. His heat made the stones nearest the pit swell and glow a dull red, and I knew this newfound shield was saving my life. As deadly as the environment outside my shield had suddenly become, I had the feeling that Cuddles meant me no harm. Indeed, his flames were intense, but tightly controlled, with no fiery tentacles waving about in a threatening way. Heartened, I held my hand up again and summoned the little flame. Now that I understood its nature, it popped into existence without more than a little effort and a stabbing pain. I made it flare brightly once, then two times less brightly.
A tentacle of flame extended from Cuddles’ core pointing at the coal room, and it flared with the same pattern. Cuddles shifted his eyes toward the coal room then back to me. My horizons had just broadened in huge ways, not the least of which was that I could now maybe learn something from Cuddles. I smiled and nodded, and Cuddles burned more brightly, sending flames shooting around the cauldron and up the massive chimney.
Concentrating on my shield became easier, but I still stepped back from the pit to give myself a little buffer between us in case I screwed up. As I moved, Cuddles caused fire to brighten and dim along the tentacle in seemingly random ways, then stopped. I shrugged, and he tried again. It was the same pattern, repeated a little slower. He was trying to communicate, but we didn’t have common ground yet. Meanwhile, the ground was literally bubbling at the edges of the pit. Cuddles saw me looking at the melting floor, and he lowered himself into his pit most of the way. The heat receded from my general area, and the flagstones started to dim. I made the flame in my hand burn brightly three times in succession, thinking that may be his word for “thank you.” He grew excited, his flames getting hotter suddenly.
While I was focusing my attention on what Cuddles was doing, I accidentally sent the little mote of fire in my hand streaking at Cuddles inside the pit. It hit him without any effect. His orange eyes seemed to blink once, and he waved a tentacle around excitedly. I sighed in relief and held my hands up in a placating way, hopefully conveying that I didn’t mean to do it. Cuddles didn’t seem to be bothered at all. In fact, he seemed a bit more energetic, if I could name what I was feeling emanating from him. I conjured a flame again, and this time I hurled it at him on purpose. It hit him again, of course. I mean, how could it not hit him? He didn’t reach out to attack me or anything. Maybe I was onto something.
I tried it again and again, making the fire I conjured stronger each time. It hurt like hell, but I was thinking this may save my life one day, and I had to master this new power. Bolstered by my success, I drew in as much power from the Source as I could, and let it blast forth from my hand in a continual burst of fire. I couldn’t honestly tell if it was burning me or not, it hurt so bad, but I was a lot better at ignoring pain now, courtesy of the Terrans. Also, and more importantly, underneath the pain was a feeling of euphoria I’d never felt before. I hadn’t noticed the pleasant part of magic use because of the short bursts I’d always used it in before, which was always accompanied by pain. But with sustained use, I could feel the ecstasy, too. Somehow, this scared me more than the pain did.
I aimed the gout of flame away from Cuddles, but he moved towards it, letting my fire rush around and through him. The whole room brightened considerably. Gauging his reactions, I got the feeling that I was doing something akin to petting an animal. Yeah, it was like I was scratching Bandit’s back. Cuddles seemed to like it very much, or he would surely have tried to swat me with a tentacle or something.
It got to be very strenuous to keep the flames shooting forth. Channeling that much magic was starting to give me an undeniably sharp headache. Summoning fire magic continuously felt like I was being burned by something inside my hands first, but then was being magnified more and more in my head as well. I ended the flow of magic to my fiery attack, but I was careful to keep it going to my shield. I felt a little better, but I knew I had to back off for now.
Though I wasn’t wise enough to check before I used forbidden magic, I looked around to make sure I was alone. I was, thank God. Just for fun, I blasted Cuddles again with my jet of flame, and he acted like I was tickling him, flinging tendrils of fire all around the inside of his pit. I felt drained after this last blast. That was a new feeling. So, I wasn’t the inexhaustible titan of magic that I thought I was. I had limits. I would need to watch out and make sure I didn’t use up whatever reserves I had, whatever they were. Of course, to figure out the boundaries, I would have to test myself, too. Where there was no risk, there was no reward, after all. Of course, I was only saying that to myself because channeling magic created a feeling of ecstasy. Was this what using dreamweed felt like?
By that point, I was panting with both my hands on my knees, and my shield was getting weaker. I retreated to the pool of water in the corner of the room to get a drink and think. I had to remember how I did this. What it felt like. I took off the visor and had a long pull of the cool water. Cuddles was still excited, and he raised himself above the lip of the pit enough that I could see his orange eyes burning in the yellow mass of flame. He raised a tentacle of flame that pulsed in another seemingly random series of bursts. It ended with the three bursts for “thank you,” however. I smiled and waved, not knowing for sure what he was trying to say. He receded back into the pit, burning merrily.
