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story:chapter_4 [2023/02/25 00:45] – davenportstory:chapter_4 [2025/06/09 22:56] (current) – davenport
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-====Second Jump====+====Chapter 4: Second Jump====
 //The girl and Earth// //The girl and Earth//
  
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 "Don't push yourself, Will. These skills take lots of work. Even on Geb there aren't many Chrono-magi. Even my teacher was a 1 in 100 individual. It's a rare talent." Hiram said as he relaxed on a large moss covered stone. "Don't push yourself, Will. These skills take lots of work. Even on Geb there aren't many Chrono-magi. Even my teacher was a 1 in 100 individual. It's a rare talent." Hiram said as he relaxed on a large moss covered stone.
  
 +"So if slowing down is an option, what about speeding up?" Will asked, looking at the mossy stone. "Does time work both ways?"
  
 +"Of course it can speed things up. It's just not as useful as you think," he'd already guessed what was on Will's mind.
 +
 +"You mean like this rock?" Hiram said standing up, "actually, It's easier to just blast it apart than age it to cracking point. Though if you pin-point it that isn't so tricky."
 +
 +Hiram cupped both his hands around a portion of the rock and concentrated on accelerated time's pace. Will noticed that there were stray splinters and fissures growing around Hiram's hands.
 +
 +Hiram took his hands away and pulled out a rock. It has been selectively aged and fractured in a shape that only out-lined his hands. Will noticed that Hiram was also breathing harder.
 +
 +"I guess it'd be useful if you were an artist or trying to do precision work. But otherwise it isn't reliable."
 +
 +Will, however, was rather impressed. To crush walls was one thing, but the rock cut out was as if it had been nearly scooped out of the larger rock itself. it was delicate dark; something WIll appreciated...
 +
 +Several more days passed as Will and Hiram discussed all the different aspects of their worlds. Will could tell that Hiram wanted to go back to Ged at times. He missed his home. Mist, the living moon, was nice but Hiram clearly missed his family. There was a sorrow in his grey eyes, like a sad stone stuck forever on the side of a mountain; just out of reach from what it could see.
 +
 +That night, a face appeared in his dreams. It was eerily familiar. It was a young woman's face, but she looked like someone he knew or someone he'd met; maybe a person he'd passed by randomly in his old life. But he couldn't recall anyone exactly like that on Myrah.
 +
 +Yet it wasn't her looks... it was something in her eyes, her nose, her hair... no... it was something else he couldn't explain. Can feel deja vu looking at a total stranger? How does that work? Will was sure he'd never seen her before.
 +
 +The stone was moving on it's own in his pocket. It was a strange stone. He'd shown it to Hiram, but he couldn't sense anything unusual about it. How is it he jumped from Myrah to a distant moon, anyway?
 +
 +The next day, Will decided he would try to make another jump. "Leaving so soon?" Hiram knew that Will was being drawn away, but he was still disappointed.
 +
 +"Can I help at all?" Hiram asked.
 +
 +"I don't really know how I did it the first time," Will closed his eyes, trying to step through the details of the first experience. Will held the stone in his right hand and his staff in the left. He walked through the lightning incantation, but the power did not flow. He felt nothing: no pull, no draw, none of that 'warm swimming'. The spell just blinked and faded like a snuffed candle.
 +
 +"Is there any higher ground overlooking the forest? I was closer to the sky last time."
 +
 +Hiram led Will for most of the day to a lonely, grassy hill much farther away than he'd expected. Dusk was coming as Will stood on the highest point of the hill and looked down.
 +
 +It was hard to leave this all behind. While this was somewhat like a prison for Hiram, this was a paradise for Will. The past several days had been some of the best in his memory. The entire moon seemed to happy and it seemed to welcome Will with a curiosity to match his own. It was a wonderful change from the apathetic grey that physically and emotionally existed on his own world.
 +
 +At the very least, he knew he wasn't going back to Myrrah. No, he didn't want to be anywhere near //that// place again.
 +
 +"Do you think this is high enough, WIll?" For being such a gentle rise, the hill felt more like a giant green mound. It overlooked the sea of trees and felt almost like a bold island of turf.
 +
 +Still, it had a nice feel to it. The stone seemed to think so at least. It has started moving on it's own again.
 +
 +Remembering what Hiram had told him about the time flow and focusing his mind and body on feeling out the flow of time, Will could sense a greater pull of direction from the stone.
 +
 +"Fair thee well, far friend, Will," Hiram said as Will started to levitate off the ground. The stone was pulling him skyward just like before.
 +
 +Will closed his eyes and let the pull lead him away. This time, he was more aware how it was moving his body. His mind was more lucid and he could make more sense of the eddies and whirles of magical energies.
 +
 +Will said the lightning word and he's again pulled, pushed, and transfigured to the distant and sparkling tangent of space between the fabrics of worlds.
 +
 +//Continue to [[chapter_5]]...//