A Little piece of Heaven

After such a shock, nothing is more relaxing than a nice party with your best friends.

A Little Piece of Heaven

Later in the afternoon, Clyde's friends, except of the one with the broken knee of course, went out to buy liquor while the two of us rested along with Furia at her favorite spot. Furia was lying on the ground while I was lying on her back; Clyde was on the ground as well.

-There was something tricky about this morning… besides what we have already talked. -I said.

-What?

-When the others were holding me down and you made mashed meat of my inners, Furia asked me what was going on, she could feel what I was feeling.

-What about that?

-Well… explain it of course. How did she manage to feel what I was feeling?

-That all have to do with your mental link with her, the stronger it is, the stronger you'll both feel each other's senses, feelings, even physical stimulus. Pain included. That ain't motive to worry, but to be proud of; this means your link is strong.

-And magic? Is magic included?

-Yup... Dragons feel their rider's usage of magic because, in a sense, is attempting against their lives. If a rider goes off its limits with magic, it will run out of Vital Energy and die.

-How will I know what amount of magic I am capable of using?

-Practice. Also taking the training slowly. You'll find how, at first, even the smallest use you give to magic will exhaust you at the moment.

-That's why I passed out right after breaking the baton.

-Exactly. And you were lucky; you could have killed yourself if you had gone a little bit further.

-Hear ya…

When the others arrived with the beverages we all met at the house. They also brought coal and meat. After getting everything in the house we went to catch a cow for Furia to join us in the feast. We tied the cow down and rested. Later at nightfall, we set the grill and prepared the meat, everyone with a beer in their hands. As I couldn't do any kind of strength required job, I took care of the grill while the others brought wood for a bonfire. They brought wood like for a whole winter and piled it up. When we started the fire we had to back off several meters away to escape the infernal heat. The party started with Furia performing her kill.

Before reducing my cognitive abilities with alcohol, I felt sad for Oliver missing this. Clyde took it away by saying "Patrick, this is for you! It's your party, not his; there will be others he will attend to. You are the one who shouldn't miss it worrying about nonsenses!". Blood being spilled to the ground, we ate till nourishment and drank till drunkenness, playing jokes on each other, singing songs… Even Furia participated; she roared with the strong points of the songs and also drank. I wondered who in the world would drink all those beer barrels the guys brought.

What the hell is the purpose of drinking this stuff!? I feel all numbed and dizzy! Furia asked me.

I don't know! Don't mind that, it's fun!

You are right!

One by one we were defeated by alcohol; we just couldn't stand anymore and fainted to the ground. Before I did, I tottered towards Furia, who was lying on the ground motionless, only her breathing being heard.

-I friggin love you Furia, you're the best…

That said, I tried to climb onto her, fell to the ground and passed out.

Next morning I woke up and slowly pushed myself up, feeling the nails of hangover in my head. I could barely remember the events of last night. Once I got to a sitting position, I looked around; saw the others still on the ground, Furia as well, the epic pile of wood was reduced to a lot of ashes, lots of bottles of beer scattered all over the place, along with the barrels.

-This was a real party… -I told myself.

Patrick?

I looked back to Furia. I'm over here, how do you feel? I told her.

I'm so f*****g ill… My head hurts a lot… (Furia grunted of pain and slowly raised her head) What happened? I can't remember anything…

Don't worry, that's "hangover" it happens after a night of heavy drinking.

What? This isn't an illness? This is usual?

Yup

You humans have a weird sense of fun…

I laughed slightly, stood up and stretched my whole being. Yeah we do, you had a lot of it too.

The part I remember at least... If it wasn't for this hangover thing…

I got near her and pat her neck. It'll go sooner than you expect, I'm going to take a shower.

I'm going to the lake; I'm so thirsty I could drink it whole.

There's a lake here?

Yeah, I often hunt my prey there, when they are distracted while drinking.

I'll go with you then, it'll feel so well on my ribs. I said while climbing onto her; Furia stretched her whole body before walking.

Bet it will, it isn't large enough for me to swim but at least I can get submerged and relax.

We arrived to the lake. I wonder why Clyde didn't show me this… maybe because of training purposes. I won't bother myself anymore nor will I bother him when he wakes up. I climbed off Furia and took my clothes off, except of my underwear. Furia went ahead into the lake submerging completely, a moment later I saw her head rising from the water. I slowly got in; the water was amazingly cold for a place so hot. Maybe because of the training I didn't notice that nights were very cold as well.

Maaaaaaaaannn… this is the life… (I Chuckled) You look like the Loch Ness Monster.

What's a Loch Ness Monster?

It's a famous legend… I'm having my mind blown up right now.

Furia laughed at me and said… You are all like "Oh geez, after all this time!"

Yeah, I wonder how many other gaps will get closed with you coming into my life.

Stop filling my head with stuff; otherwise you'll worsen my hangover!

Only time takes effect on hangovers, try to relax, that helps too.

We spend a couple of hours there just talking, enjoying the cold water. The sun was at its highest point when Clyde and the others came by. He called us as we got in his sight.

-There you are, Pat!

-Hey guys! Come along! The water's amazing!

They dived in as soon as they got their clothes off, in exception of the underwear. When they got closer to where I was, I asked Clyde…

-How did you find us?

-We followed Furia's footprints.

-… Right.

We kept it the same way, just talking and relaxing in the cold water. Still, I couldn't wait for my ribs to be ok; I wanted so badly to give this lake a swim. We headed back to have lunch after around an hour. We rested at the porch before going to the lake again, while I talked with Clyde.

-I want to reach for my Vital Energy, how do I do it?

-Already you want to mess with that? You aren't in the correct condition.

-I want to try at least a small trick; you said it was easy…

-Well… You must first have clear which hand you are going to use.

-Right one; done.

-Focus on that hand… now try to bring back what you felt the time you saw the smoke on your fist. It will be easier further on, but now it's your first conscious time using magic, this is the only way.

-Ok… - I followed Clyde's instructions. I opened my right hand towards the ceiling, in front of me and closed my eyes to concentrate even more. I revived the whole scene in my mind, every detail, each word. When I got to the smoky part, I felt a twitch on my back.

I opened my eyes and saw this ball of smoke slightly smaller than a baseball ball on my hand. It was the same color as Furia, dark-red wine-like. I smiled and joy laughed to see that. The others were looking at me.

-Holy s**t! Wha… What do I do now?

-Vanish it.

-How?

-Cut the Vital Energy flow. It's something like… just stop thinking about it.

I took my attention away from the smoky ball and thought of something else. It was pretty difficult at first; I just couldn't believe it already. But, when I found where to force my attention to, the smoke dissipated away.

-I did it Clyde!

-Now how do you feel?

-Oddly tired for just sitting around. What other stuff can be done with magic?

-You got to learn well both how to summon and dismiss your magic before going any further.

I didn't press anymore. I called Furia and we all parted to the lake and spend the evening there, just hanging out. I never stopped practicing magic, at least that little I knew. We spent the next 2 weeks like that, just relaxing and not talking anything related to training or work, except for me; I kept creating and dissipating the ball of smoke until I could do both actions as fluently like just snapping my fingers. I also discovered that I could make it more or less solid as I desired; the more solid and heavy it was, the more energy it consumed. Eventually, I managed to upgrade my ability and create easier and heavier balls.