Story: Middle Part 14
[[Continuity Note: We had a 'touching' moment with Alf and Jessica, and now it's back to the story.]]
Alf was practicing controlling his ability to make objects levitate with a rather large block of metal that Aliana would gradually make bigger or smaller. Alf's task was to maintain it at the same height, preferably with his eyes closed. It was taking a great deal of concentration, and, seemingly confused about what to do, his body appeared to be sweating instead of some sort of magical perspiration.
"Aliana," Alf asked cautiously. She was known to increase the size of the object while he was occupied asking a question. "What's the equi-" he paused in his speech to compensate for the twenty kilos the thing had just gained "the equivalent of-" suddenly the thing shrank and he had to concentrate on keeping it from shooting to the ceiling... or worse. "of magical perspiration?"
He wasn't looking at her, so he didn't see her curious expression. "Sweat," she responded, then flicked a finger to make the object slightly larger. Alf dealt with it quite well. "Magic keeps to itself quite well. It doesn't exude out to balance you out. It just is. The body feels like it has to do something-" here she shrank the object again. "So it sweats."
She was trying to explain to Alf, much like Yoda and Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back (Alf's inner geek analogised), that the size of the object doesn't matter when applying magic to it. It's not about how big it is, it just matters that it is. So far, Alf hadn't quite been able to grasp that, causing him to spend too much of his brain and magical power focusing on the size and physical weight of it.
"Mum!" a voice called, breaking Alf's concentration and causing him to lose control of the object, as Aliana increased its size. It hurtled toward him strangely, and Alf did not duck in time. But instead of visibly scarring him for life, it simply bounced off him as though it weighed nothing. Alf looked at it, confused.
"Rock, I've told you not to interrupt me while I'm with a student," Aliana reprimanded.
Rock? Alf looked toward the door where his high school nemesis was looking at him with a similar expression.
"I didn't know. I didn't realise you were tutoring Sprout," Rock said, letting the distaste slip through his words.
Aliana gave her son a stern glare, reminding Alf that he would not like to have that woman as his mother. "If you'd come home for dinner more often you would know."
"Can I talk to you?" Rock asked, the most polite Alf had ever seen him.
"I'm busy at the moment," Aliana huffed. "You can't make demands upon people's time when you don't give them anything in return."
Alf had the uncomfortable feeling that he'd walked into something quite huge, and it definitely wasn't somewhere he wanted to be.
"It's important," Rock stated, looking at Alf as though wishing he would go away. Alf was wishing he could go away. The only thing keeping him there was Aliana's death glare that promised fates worse than death were he to leave.
"And so is Alf's training."
Rock looked upon Alf with the worst look Alf had ever seen on his face. One of total heartbroken despair. And Alf wondered what it was that had led the family members to that point. He turned on his heel immediately, and quickly strode away.
"Now where were we?" Aliana asked, though she wasn't expecting a reply. Someone may even have called it a rhetorical question.
Alf's mind was no longer on it. Dimly remembering that he was meant to be lifting the object, he hoisted it up, remembering that it was actually lighter than a feather.
Aliana looked at Alf's face. "I think that's enough of that." She then pulled a bowling ball from somewhere, she picked it up, then threw it at Alf. "Catch."
Automatically, Alf felt his hands lift, but they were restrained by some unseen force. He didn't have time to ponder that, though because there was a bowling ball headed for his face.
And then there wasn't a bowling ball headed for his face. He had managed to stop it in mid flight, despite its velocity and apparent mass.
"Lesson learned," Aliana smiled triumphantly, and let go of Alf's wrists. "You can go for today."
Alf only nodded gladly and walked off.
[[End scene.]]
posted by Cedric @ 4:36 pm
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