Now then, I know what I said, that the next chapter was going to be the last one of Powers That Be, but I found that I couldn't fit everything that I wanted to write into one chapter, it just wasn't going to work, so it's got a reprieve and one more chapter to go. The reason that it's taken so long is because I've been trying to work everything into the chapter and it didn't work. Hopefully I'll have the next (and last) chapter up soon enough.
It has been brought to my attention that the spells have some very weird symbols in them, they weren't meant to so I checked everything out and discovered a problem. I use MS Word to write in and then save it into .txt format when I'm done. Unfortunately the saving process changed vowels with accents in them into weird symbols. I've changed all the .txt files that I have so that they read normally, and I plan to swap the files on the website to reflect this soon. Also, from a suggestion that I got, and in part because of the problems I've compiled a list of all the spells that I have used, with their meanings in English and phonetic spellings, in case you want to try them out for yourself! Check it out at the site! - http://stories.i8.com.
Next order of business - Thank you Sher - For all the help that you've given me, and for the friend that you've been. Tim, where are you! You haven't e-mailed me in at least 3 days, and that's downright worrying! I had to send this up without your stamp of approval on it! (So any mistakes are his fault not mine.) Matt, - haven't heard from you in a while either... Ray - didn't e-mail you, sorry, but congratulations! Same goes to you Jim!
People of the World! I call you forth, not to rebel, but to e- mail me! I want to know what you all think of this story, especially on the eve of its completion! The address is - shiningstar@oceanfree.net. Make sure and e-mail me! I don't care what you have to say, just do it!
Finally - This story is not a reflection or an account of events that took place in real life, it's a work of fiction and not to be taken too seriously. I don't know, nor am I affiliated with any of the celebrity's mentioned, thus I don't know their sexuality's, so once again, their depicted sexuality's in this work of fiction are not accurate. If you're too young to read this according to your own state/countries laws then don't.
Enjoy!
Lance, Joey and Chris rushed into JC's room.
"Justin!" They shouted in unison, delighted to see their friend again. They rushed over to him and all tried to give him a hug at the same time. What actually happened was that they ended up falling on top of him.
"Where's Tom?" Asked Justin.
"Don't know." Said JC. "He went off somewhere to turn back time and I guess he's not back yet."
"He's here. I can feel him." Said Justin, getting up and heading towards the door.
"Justin's right. I feel him close by." Said Lance, frowning. "Let's go look for him, something's not right." They all agreed and let the room; one of the first places they tried was Tom and Justin's bedroom.
"Tom!" Exclaimed Justin, rushing to Tom's side. He looked back at Lance. "What wrong?" He asked.
Lance looked closely at Tom. By physical appearance he just seemed to be sleeping normally, just a bit paler then usual, but anyone with healing ability could see that it was far worse. "He's almost completely drained himself Justin." Lance stepped forward and put a hand on Tom's chest, trying to get a better idea of the damage. "It's not as bad as I thought, there's still some power there, but I don't think it's his. It's keeping him alive."
"Will he get better?!" Asked Justin frantically.
"Yes." Replied Lance softly. "But it's going to take a while, he needs to build up his power again."
"Oh, that's all, it is?" Said Justin, surprising even himself. He pushed Lance's hand off Tom's chest and replaced it with his own. A glowing red nimbus surrounded him and Tom, and within a couple of seconds Tom's eyes opened. He groaned, looked around him, and rolled over, back asleep.
"What did you do Justin?" Asked JC.
"Gave him some of my power. That was ok, wasn't it?" Asked Justin anxiously, looking to Lance, their healer.
"I don't know... I've never heard of it being done before. How did you know what to do?"
"It just seemed like the obvious thing to do so I did it."
"I've heard of this!" Said JC, who snapped his fingers, causing a book to appear in front of him. He started leafing through it. "It's one of the ancient magic's. Here we are." He said, finding his page. "One of the Elders most prized skills was the ability to transfer power to each other, in this way the managed to repel any attacks by giving their power to one person to create extremely powerful spells." He quoted.
"Do you do anything but read those books?" Joked Justin.
"Shut up. What else did they teach you while you were up there?"
"What are you talking about?"
JC sighed. "You died, you were sent to join with the elders, they accepted you. Don't you remember?"
"I don't remember anything after Tom saying that he loved me." Said Justin, smiling as he looked down on Tom. "Y'know, it's gonna sound really really strange, but that was one of the best moments of my life."
"You're right, that does sound really strange." Said Chris.
Justin ignored him and continued talking. "I mean, just hearing those words, 'I love you', brought a smile to my face, even though I was dying. Which reminds me? What are we going to do about those vampires?"
"Well." Said Joey reflectively. "The mage vampires know what an ass kicking they'll get so they'll probably leave. But there's something else - we're going to have to deal with Drayn." Everybody thought about this for a while.
JC was the first to speak, and there was a glimmer in his eyes. He spoke excitedly. "There's something... we might be able... yes..." He shook his head and spoke clearly. "I'm going to have to check this up in the library at the council. I'll be back soon." JC quickly disappeared, teleporting to the mountainside.
"When do you think he'll wake up Lance?" Asked Justin.
"In the morning, he should be fine then, but it's going to take a while before he's back up to full magical strength."
"How long?"
"I don't know, it depends on the person, and of course, I don't know what kind of effect your little bit of magic will have over the long term, he could be completely better tomorrow or in a months time, but I know that us sitting here can't be helping things, how about we leave him?" Said Lance.
"I'm going to stay here with him." Said Justin.
Lance nodded and ushered the others out. Before he went out the door he said one more thing. "I'm so glad that he managed it that I'm not sure what to say. I hope you never go away again, and you might want to talk to your family, they don't know that you're back."
"You're right, thanks Lance." Said Justin gratefully. He took the phone off the bedside table, and, sitting down on the bed beside Tom, running his hand through Tom's hair; he dialed his home number.
I yawned and woke up, feeling more refreshed then I had in quite a while. I felt Justin's arms around me and knew then that it had worked. I snuggled into him and just lay there, wondering in that comfortable haze before fully waking how I'd gotten back to the house. I mentally shrugged my shoulders, figuring that it didn't really matter.
A while later I couldn't lie in bed any longer. I took Justin's arms from around me and stepped onto the floor. I wondered if JC was still mad with me, and what Baram would say next time I saw her. I anticipated it being soon. I looked back at Justin, who was looking up at me, wide-awake.
"I love you." I said, making sure that he knew.
"I know." He laughed. "But it's always nice to hear, and thank you."
"For what?" I asked, confused.
Justin laughed. "For saving my life! For bringing me back."
"Oh. You're welcome."
"How are you feeling?"
"Better then I have in a long time thanks." I said, and I meant it.
"How's you magic? Lance said he didn't know how long it would take you to recover."
I searched myself. "Still low, but I see that there's some of yours in here. I didn't know that you could do that."
"Neither did I, apparently it's something that I learnt from the Elders, but I don't remember, I don't remember any of the time that I spent there!" Said Justin, frustrated with himself.
I put my hand on his shoulder to reassure him. "So what?" I asked. "You're here now, that's all that matters to anyone."
Justin grinned. "I just remembered! The Backstreet Boys should be here by night so you'll get to meet them finally."
I frowned, confused. "I thought that they weren't coming for a while."
"Yeah, but now that we've got to attack Drayn soon they arranged to come early." Justin explained. "Getting him is more important then being at a couple of concerts."
"True." I said. "Are you coming?"
"Where?" Justin asked, looking confused.
"The shower." I answered.
Justin grinned and followed me in.
"Where's JC?" I asked, looking around the room. Lance and Joey were sitting together on one of the sofas, Chris was on the floor, reading a book of fighting magic and Justin was leaning into me as I stood in the doorway.
"Oh, you're up." Said Lance. "JC's gone to the council libraries to look something up. How are you feeling?"
"Fine. A little drained, that's all." I replied.
Lance laughed. "I guess it's to be expected, I'm just surprised that you managed to get back here!"
I wondered about it for a minute. "Didn't one of you bring me back?"
"No." Said Chris, looking up for the book.
The memory of the staff flickered across my mind. "It must have been the staff." I muttered.
"What did you say?" Asked Lance.
"I said, it must have been the staff, it was helping me, I don't think I could have managed to turn back time if I hadn't had it."
"So that's what she sent, a staff." Said Lance, talking to himself. "What was the name of the staff?" He asked.
"Umm" I thought back to last night, well - really a couple of nights from now, I had been in such a rage that I hadn't paid attention to too much. Then I remembered. "It was called 'The Staff of Onanis'."
Joey gasped. "You used that staff? Wow."
"What's wrong with that?" I asked.
"Nothing wrong." Stammered Joey. "It just... it's just that... well..."
Lance spoke. "What Joey is trying to say, is that the staff hasn't let anyone use it for about a millennium, it belonged to Onanis, the last truly powerful time mage.
"Time Mage?" I asked.
"Y'know, someone who controls time so adeptly that they can do almost anything that they want with it, Howie D. is one. Speaking of which, Justin told you that they're coming tonight did he?"
"Yeah he did." I said.
"We're going to have to practice fighting with them, you've got to know their skills, their strengths and their weaknesses. But before that, you've got to build back up your strength; we've all got to be as ready as we can be when we take Drayn on."
The time passed slowly as we waited for the Backstreet Boys to turn up. Lance practiced some meditation with me to help me to build back up my power as quickly as possible. Joey and Chris spend the time learning more fighting and war spells; they were determined to be ready to fight Drayn. Justin split his time between wondering about what he did while with the elders and blazing around the place as a fireball, a new twist to his elemental magic that he hadn't worked out before. By seven o'clock that evening JC still hadn't come back and the Backstreet Boys were expected soon.
"How's the power Tom?" Asked Justin.
I opened my eyes and stretched out a hand. A black film rippled out over it. "I should be back to normal by the morning, thanks to you and Lance."
Justin blushed. "It's not that big a deal really, I only did what you would do."
"Are you kidding? Give up my power for one of this lot? No way! I can think of way better things to do with it then that." I took one look at Justin's shocked expression and cracked up laughing.
Lance opened one eye and glared at the pair of us. "Justin, leave him alone so that he can meditate, or the pair of you can go and leave me alone!"
"I don't think I can sit here for much longer Lance, I guess I'll go. Thanks!" I quickly jumped up from the ground and walked off with Justin leaving Lance shocked that I'd just gone like that. We were about to cross the hallway when a large patch of air shimmered in front of us, and Justin pulled me back.
"Trust me, you don't want to get caught in someone else's teleportation." He said.
Finally the shimmering forms in the air took the shape of the five members of the Backstreet Boys and a lot of luggage. As soon as the spell was complete they let go off each other's hands and turned to face us.
"Well, we're here." Said Kevin.
"No shit. Do you know Tom?" Asked Justin.
"We've met." Said Kevin, uncomfortably.
"Oh! Have you?" Exclaimed Justin. "Where?"
Kevin looked down at the ground. "At your funeral." He eventually said.
There was a moment of awkward silence before I spoke. "I'm sorry, I don't remember meeting you there, I don't think I was really myself..."
Brian clapped a hand on my shoulder. "It's understandable, don't worry."
I gave him a thin smile. "Thanks."
Howie was the next to come up to me. "That was some very impressive time control Tom." He said. "You managed a couple of days backwards. I only wish I was that powerful."
"I only managed it because I was so angry, and I had some help too."
"Really? From who?"
Justin answered the question for me. "Not from who, from what. Onanis's staff helped him!"
Howie blinked. "You used Onanis's staff?" He said jealously. "It let you?"
Brian, who was still standing beside me, must have sensed my embarrassment at being the focus of such intense attention spoke. "Are the others around?"
"Yeah, everyone except JC - he's at the council hall's. Come on." I turned away from the group and felt water splash into the back of my neck. I turned around quickly and everyone was grinning, aside from Nick, who was looking attentively at a picture on the wall.
My eyes narrowed and I glared at him while rubbing the back of my neck. Nick eventually turned to face me.
"What's wrong?" He asked, an air of innocence surrounding him.
"Nicholas Carter." I said. "I happen to know that you are a water elemental so you can desist from your protestations of innocence right now. Unfortunately, at the moment I'm trying to build back up my power after a draining, but just you wait, you're going to be so sorry you did that." He grinned uncomfortably at me and then walked around me, put his arm around Brian's shoulder and started to walk into the sitting room. I made eye contact with Justin, who was standing in front of the two of them and he, almost imperceptibly, nodded to me and then he caught Brian's eye. A second later Brian pulled himself out of Nick's hold and jumped away from him.
I surrounded Nick with a shield and rapidly filled up the space with water. He struggled around for a moment, trying to breathe and then changed shape into that of a fish. I grinned and breathed an icy breath onto the column of water, which chilled and froze with Nick in the centre. The others laughed and then ignored Nick as they proceeded down the hallway and into the sitting room.
As soon as he saw them Lance jumped out of his seat, which must have been awkward because Joey had been sitting on his lap. Joey fell with a thud to the floor. "Guys! I thought you weren't coming until later?" Exclaimed Lance.
Kevin answered him. "We couldn't wait to see you again so we just left as soon as we could." He grinned. "You're not in the middle of something are you?" He asked, looking at Joey, who was nursing a sore ass.
Lance looked down at Joey and put a hand on his shoulder. Joey was surrounded by a green glow and after a couple of seconds of this Joey stopped nursing his ass and got up to sit on the sofa. "Not anymore." Said Lance. "I thought there were five of you? Where's Nick?"
"Nick's... Nick's in the hall... taking care of something." Said Brian, laughing.
Lance looked through the walls into the hall and then joined in laughing.
Just then JC appeared in the room, several books in his arms and a huge smile on his face. He barely glanced at the Backstreet Boys, instead looked from Lance to me, and back again. He spoke to Lance first. "How's Tom's power? When will he be back to normal?" He said.
"He should be fine by the morning. Why?" Asked Lance. "Aren't you going to say hi to your friends?"
JC looked at the others again. "Sorry, hi, it's just that I've spent the last while in the council halls looking up a spell. I've got a plan to deal with Drayn." He announced. A general buzz of excitement followed that announcement. "So, if we can get everyone together then I'll tell you. Where's Nick?" He asked, looking around.
"Check in the hall." Said Lance grinning.
I quickly released the spells hold Nick in the ice and straight away there was the sound of ice shattering and Nick stumbled into the room, shivering and covered in ice. "Very funny." He said through chattering teeth.
I shrugged my shoulders. "Everyone else thought it was."
Nick looked at Justin. "Care to help?" He said.
Justin looked at me and blushed as he went over and placed his hands on Nick's shoulders. Justin started muttering a spell under his breath and gradually Nick stopped shivering and a warm glow came to his cheeks.
"Thanks." He muttered.
JC looked around impatiently. "Where's Chris?" He asked.
"He's getting dinner at the nearest Chinese place JC." Said Lance; he then looked over at the anxious looks on the faces of the Backstreet Boys. "Don't worry, I've already told him that you're here, he's bringing back plenty. Just sit down and wait." He gestured to the empty seats.
Justin and I sat down together on one of the free sofas and Kevin sat down on one side. JC just paced the room impatiently. Howie and Brian sat down beside Lance and Joey and I noticed Nick was very careful to select a seat that wasn't near me. Afraid that I'd get him again?
"I thought you said you weren't at full strength." Nick said to me in an accusatory tone.
"I'm not." I said. "But that doesn't mean that I don't have some power."
"You made me think that you weren't going to do anything." He said.
I grinned. "It's not my fault that that's what you thought." I decided to change the topic. "So, what kind of powers do you all have?" I asked.
Kevin answered first. "I'm a telepath and a telekinesist, same as JC."
"Well, you know what I am." Said Nick. "A water elemental mage and a shapeshifter."
"I'm a time mage, and a healer." Said Howie. "But you probably guessed that from what I said about the staff."
AJ was about to speak when Chris teleported into the room, struggling under a very big pile of Chinese food. "A little help here please." He grunted, before slowly falling to the side. Both Kevin and JC, who were sitting on opposite sides of the room raised hands and Chris was stuck between opposite pushing forces. I stood up and started pulling bags of food away from him and put them on a table. Nick got up to help me. As soon as Nick had gotten up Justin jumped up and started helping too. Between the three of us we soon had everything out of Chris's arms.
"Stop... squeezing... me." He said. Kevin and JC were both still holding him up. They simultaneously let go and Chris collapsed to the ground. "Thanks for nothing." He grumbled.
JC looked around at the assembled group anxiously. "Ok, everyone's here."
Lance sighed. "Go on JC. We know you're dying to tell us how brilliant you've been."
JC ignored what Lance had said. "Ok, the idea is simple enough, but the spell involved is complex and it's going to take at least ten of us to create it."
This time Justin sighed. "Just tell us what you're planning JC"
"We're going to try a binding spell. Put Drayn into an inanimate object. We can't kill him so it's the best thing to do."
"You want to try to bind him? I don't think he's just going to stand around and let us do that." Said Kevin.
"True." Said JC. "That's where you come in Tom. You're the only one in a long time whose had the power to fight Drayn on an almost equal footing. You don't need to kill him, just distract him long enough so that we can create the Binding Spell."
"But like Kevin said, once he sees you doing something like that he's gonna either get out of their as soon as possible, or he's going to try to hurt you all." I looked over at Justin, worried about the effect that my words might have had on him. The memories were still very fresh... but he didn't seem to have been affected.
"I'm hoping that he's still going to be too pissed off about the whole you killing him thing to not to try to get back at you then and there." Explained JC.
"Oh yeah." I said sarcastically. "That's comforting alright. One of the most powerful black mages that there has ever been will be trying to kill me. You should have said." I looked around and the others were avoiding my eye and paying close attention to their feet. "What?" I asked suspiciously. "What haven't you told me?"
"Well, um... you see... that's the thing..." Muttered Lance.
"Oh hell." Said JC. "Drayn isn't one of the really powerful ones. He's just the most prominent. Most of the others mind their own business most of the time."
I sat quietly for a moment while I digested this new knowledge. "Interesting." I finally conceded.
"You've got to understand what we told you originally." Lance said desperately. "Black mages build up their power so much more quickly then us, and there have always been more of them then us. You don't see that because we've all developed our powers, mostly, and you... you're like nothing we've ever seen, you've been developing so quickly. What they can achieve in twenty years takes us fifty. What takes us a couple of hundred they can achieve in seventy."
"So your saying... is that there are these real powerful mages out there and there is no one who can take them on?" I said.
"No! There is a handful of white mages who are almost as powerful as the most powerful, and we've got the elders who lend a hand if the situation is desperate." Said Lance. "And if a white mage lives long enough then he will eventually become more powerful then the black mages, but it takes a long time."
"And you didn't tell me this at the start because...?"
JC answered. "We didn't want to scare you too much."
I frowned at him. "I don't scare easily."
"We know that now! And you're powerful enough to get out of a tight situation with one of them. Otherwise we wouldn't have told you yet."
"Fine..." I sighed. "Any other surprises you want to land on me?"
JC grinned. "Nothing that I can think of at the moment."
"Then lets get back to this binding spell. I've got something that I want to ask." I said. "If we put Drayn into an inanimate object, what happens if we break the object? Does he die or get released or something?"
"Nothing. The object is invulnerable, so it can't be broken; it can't age, can't rust, and can't decay. And someone's going to have to keep an eye on it." Said JC.
"Why?" I asked. "Because, while Drayn can't get out traditionally, if someone gets hold of it then they take on Drayn's characteristics and get his powers, unless they're powerful enough to overcome the magic."
"What were you thinking of using?" Asked Brian.
"A ring." Said JC.
"Makes sense." Said Brian, approvingly. "It's small, easily hidden, and someone can carry it without looking obvious. Good thinking."
"I know." Grinned JC. "Now, how about we learn this spell?"
"How about we eat?" Said Chris. "I mean, it's getting cold."
We all laughed and tucked into dinner. As soon as it was over JC jumped up from the table and insisted that we learn the spell there and then, even me, in case something happened to one of the others while they were casting it, so that I could take over. After three or four hours of sweat pouring down off us we finally could cast the spell, the trouble was that even without distractions it took nearly twenty minutes to cast.
"Come on!" Said AJ, who was almost bouncing around the room with pent up energy. "Let's fight!"
Brian sighed. "We're going to have to. Or he's going to be earthing through us all night."
"What do you mean?" I asked.
"AJ can control the weather and he's got a really unusual affinity with electricity and magnets. Comes in handy though."
"And you? What are you?"
"I'm the group's seer, and I'm a siren, which is another really unusual ability." Said Brian. Then he smacked his hands together. "Right, I'm looking forward to taking you on Tom, I hear that you're pretty good." We both started walking down the hall to the front door, which AJ had already jumped out.
I blushed. "So I've been told." I said. "But I don't know."
"Baram isn't light with her praise Tom." He countered.
"You've been talking to Baram about me?" I asked.
"Earlier, before we came. She's like a second mother to so many of us. She's always looked out for us and done what she can to help. I guess you missed out on that, seeing as you didn't discover your powers until so recently."
"Yeah." I muttered.
"It must be difficult, everything's so new to you and everything."
"Yeah, but I'm learning." I said. We'd reached the front door. "Come on! I said. "Catch me if you can!" I jumped into the air and flew up quickly, exhilarated with the feeling of the wind rushing against my skin. I heard an ear splitting sound and the air beside me rippled. I shuddered and decided that I didn't want to get caught in that piece of magic. I turned around in mid air and flung lightening at Brian, who had his mouth open, preparing another attack on me. As soon as he saw what I was doing he jumped out of the way but he was too slow, the energy hit his foot and he fell. Howie rushed over in a blur and quickly healed Brian, who jumped to his feet again, but by that time my attention was drawn to AJ, who was hurtling towards me with electricity crackling all over his body and his eyes glowed white. When he came close to me his eyes glowed more brightly and a pair of bolts of energy shot towards me.
Without thinking about it, I slowed down time so that I could get out of the way. Even so, I only got out of the way just in time and I felt the energy pour past me. I came back into normal time and flew as quickly as I could away from AJ. I decided to go on the offensive. Looking around for a target, I found Kevin who was buzzing around above the tree line trying to avoid being hit by icicles that Justin was firing out, apparently at random. I looked around the area and saw an extremely well formed cloud hovering around and going far quicker then the wind warranted.
Nick, I thought, and created a strong wind to blow through him and dissipate him. As soon as the wind hit him he funneled down to the ground and reformed in his normal shape, while glaring at me.
I smiled sweetly at him and then, seeing that Justin was going after him with yet more ice I turned my attention to Kevin, who wasn't visible anymore. Sighing, I closed my eyes and tried to find him magically. I marveled at how good he was, all of the others were shining brightly in my mind but there was barely an echo of Kevin. Suddenly power seared across my mind and I instinctively dodged a fireball that had apparently come out of nowhere. But now I had him firmly in my mind. As long as I didn't suddenly lose him again I could feel him near me. I followed him as he dodged low behind trees, flying in and out between them, he obviously knew that I was following him.
/Hang on Tom/ Said Chris telepathically. /I see him too./ Suddenly the trees in Kevin's path stretched out their branches, there was a thud and something heavy fell to the ground and shimmered into sight.
Kevin sat up and groaned, rubbing the back of his head.
I landed gracefully beside him. "Are you ok?" I asked.
He jumped to his feet and twisted around to face me. I could see that he wasn't at all hurt and I jumped back up into the sky a split second before a fireball seared through the area I'd just been in. Bastard tried to trick me! I thought, He's going to pay for that. I stopped my ascent and face back down to the cluster of trees that I'd just come out of.
A split second later Kevin burst out, fighting against branches that we trying to get a grip on him. While he was still looking downwards, trying to get rid of one last branch I concentrated on him. He must have felt my stare, because he looked up at me, but he realised to late what I was doing, because he was caught in a whirlwind that centred I'd on him. An extra malicious idea came to me and I turned the whirlwind red with flame. Over the sound of the howling wind I could barely make out a shout of surprise from Kevin.
A second later AJ banged into me, his body pulsating with electricity, which was now pouring from him into me. He gripped his arms around me and suddenly I was carrying the weight of another person, as well as feeling the power do things to my body, which I knew shouldn't be happening. With a shudder I started falling towards the ground and Kevin was released from his fiery prison. AJ held on to me until we were within a couple of feet of the ground and then he suddenly let go and flew away. I saw the ground rushing up to met me and knew that I didn't have time to stop myself, no time to do anything except - the air thickened around me and I stopped moving. Looking around, I saw that everyone had stopped moving completely, not as if they were standing around, but frozen in time, there was a fireball in mid air between Justin and Nick, AJ and Kevin were in flight, and Howie, I blinked, Howie had started to move again, at first as if in slow motion but he gradually sped up and after looking around he started walking towards me. I realised that I was still hanging in mid air.
"Impressive job." He said.
"What did I do?" I asked.
"You've brought time almost down to the null point, time is almost stopped. By the way, when you bring it back up to normal you're going to be falling just as fast as you were before, just thought you should know." Laughed Howie.
"Funny. So what should I do?"
"Get some wind spells going, soften the earth, use that telekinesis of yours, I don't know, use your imagination." Said Howie, a grin on his face. "I can't help you too much, remember, I'm supposed to be against you here!"
"Ok. This should be interesting." I said, not meaning it in any conventional way. Howie just grinned again. What was I going to do? I decided to go with what Howie had said and started up an incredibly powerful magical wind below me, in the couple of feet that I had to play with, with luck it would keep me from hitting the ground, and if it didn't... then at least it would slow me down a bit. I closed my eyes and braced myself, then moved everything back into normal time.
Well, that's that! Make sure to tune in for the next chapter sometime in the near future, also - in the immediate future I want you to e-mail me about it! I want to know what you have to say, tell me by e-mailing me - shiningstar@oceanfree.net, or by leaving a message in the guestbook at my website - http://stories.i8.com
Tim.