A/N: Okay, only one of my Betas was able to read this, but she said she thought it was fine, and I've gone so long without posting, I needed to post something, lol. I know it's kinda weak, but I typed it up in like, half an hour (or something). So, while I work on hammering stuff out with Dramatica Pro: Enjoy!

Chapter Thirty-four: Disbelief and Magikk

I woke up early the next morning to find Shean up and stirring up the beginnings of a breakfast fire. Relakk was still asleep.

"What're you doing up so early?" I murmured sleepily, rubbing my eyes blearily.

"I don't know." I climbed out of my sleeping bag (I was so glad Shean had thought to go back and buy a bunch of things we'd need after we had gone back to visit his parents). I was awake now.

"You don't know?"

Shean shrugged. "Well, I woke up early, and I figured I'd get breakfast ready."

"Shean, you haven't cooked anything decent in your life that I know of other than pancakes, waffles, and other things that we don't have the ingredients for right now. Let me see our supplies."

He handed over the bag. I rummaged inside and held up a couple apples. "Want some roasted apples?" I asked sarcastically. Shean shrugged and took the apple from me, poking a stick through the core.

"Sure, I guess." I stared at him as he slowly rotated the apple over the fire. He looked up and saw me giving him a weird look.

"What? I'd rather have apples for breakfast and save all the potatoes for dinner. But seriously, Val, we are in desperate need of finding a town soon or we'll run out of readily available food."

I sighed. "I know, I know! I'll make Relakk let us swing by a town, if we can find one, and pick up some food."

"Good morning."

Shean and I both jumped. Relakk had walked over to join us.

He laughed. "I think you two need to tune your reflexes. Now, what's for breakfast?" He asked, rubbing his hands together.

"Uh… roasted apples," I replied ruefully. He raised an eyebrow.

"Ah. Well, I guess we must make the best of our situation," he sighed resignedly.

"Speaking of that," I cut in, "we need to stop by a town or a farm or a house or something and get some more food or we'll run out soon."

Relakk nodded. "As you know, I've been riding ahead of you two every once in a while as we've been riding and I've found a small group of farms that should be able to take some money off our hands in exchange for food."

"Oh, that's good."

Relakk held up a hand. "But first, I'd like to work with you two on your magikk a bit."

Shean groaned. "Relakk, come on –"

Relakk cut him off before he could get farther. "No, Shean, I've been letting you two get lax in your practice. I'd like to work with you as we ride."

Shean made a face. "Let's get packing, then," he suggested in a falsely cheerful tone.

"Come on, Sheanie, it's not so bad," I replied in an equally false sweet voice, hoping to kid him out of it.

It didn't work.

"Yeah, it is. I totally love fantasy and sci-fi… when it's in books." I was surprised by the vehemence in his voice. "Not when I have to deal with it in real life. Val, I can't take it. It's too much for my little brain. I keep pinching myself to wake me up, and all I've gotten for my efforts are a lot of little red marks," he added, showing me his arm, which did indeed have a few little cuts that looked fingernail shaped. "How can you take it?"

"Shean, I grew up with this. I was born in a fairytale world. Maybe it isn't so perfect, but to prove my point, my mother was one type of Cinderella," I added, stressing the character's name. "It's natural for me to accept this kind of thing. Your magic isn't anything bad. It's just a special gift that God has given us, and all the other mages. You have to accept it and use it for Him."

Shean sighed. "Val, it's not that easy. I… I dunno, I just can't really explain it. Oh, forget it. Let's just get going." He started to gather up our things with angry swipes.

I looked at my feet, then started helping. When Shean got himself worked up, it was the same as when I did: we couldn't be stopped or talked out of it. Even by ourselves.

We were quickly packed, since we didn't have much more than our clothes, our backpacks, our food, our sleeping bags, and our guitars. We quickly mounted up and started riding in a row with Relakk in the middle. There was silence for a minute, then Relakk spoke.

"I think it's about time you two started thinking about what Tool you will use."

We stared at him. "'Tool'?" I asked, puzzled. "Like, a screwdriver, or a hammer, or something?"

"No, a Tool to store your power for times when you need it. You can store power in one type of crystal and spells in another at different places in your Tool."

"Well, what exactly is a 'Tool'?"

"That depends. Some people prefer staffs, like mine-" he indicated the staff that he carried in a holster on his saddle. "-but some people prefer something like a pendant, a charm bracelet, or any number of different things you could choose. It all depends on your personal preference. I just want you to think about what you want when it comes time to have them shaped."

"And what if I refuse?" I stared at Shean, startled. He had already expressed his dislike of his own magic, even before today, but I hadn't had any idea how much he disliked it until now.

Relakk gave him a firm stare. "Then you, sir, will end up with wild magikk. No mage can hold all of their power in themselves and still keep their sanity. You must have a Tool or risk madness."

"But I don't want it." There was desperation in Shean's voice. "Isn't there some way you could get rid of it for me?"

I couldn't help but feel sorry for Shean. It was almost like when I fell into Washington, although he knew a bit more about fantasy than I had about America. But magic, and wizards, and princesses, and all that aren't usually things you think will become everyday things. And when they do, it's a bit hard to take in. But I had confidence that Shean would chill out and accept it… in time.

I started trying to decide what I wanted. I could probably just get a pendant or something like that and get it made in a cool design or something. Or I could get a staff like Relakk and get designs engraved or carved in it. Or…

"What about a sword?"

Shean and Relakk, who were in a heated debate about magikk, stopped and stared at me.

"You have one," Shean replied flatly and turned back to Relakk to continue their discussion.

"No, a sword Tool," I cut in before they could start again.

Relakk looked thoughtful. "I haven't heard of many. Possibly only one. Enchanted swords… magikkally spelled swords… yes. But not many sword Tools."

I smiled. I love being unique. "Then I think that's what I want."

Shean looked kind of thoughtful now, too. "So we can have normal, everyday Tools?" Relakk nodded. "So I could have something like a belt or a bow or something?" Relakk nodded again. "I might do that. But I still don't think it's fair. I should be able to do something to get rid of my magikk."

"Well, you can't. I –"

"Stop." They both turned to look at me. Shean looked more surprised than Relakk. "You two sound like Éra and Sekc. Shean, you have magikk: get over it. Relakk, just ignore him. He gets like this when he's upset, and if you ignore him, he'll just keep talking and you don't have to listen." Shean started to protest, but I didn't let him get started. "But seriously, you guys need to get a grip. We all need to be working together if we're gonna get this Hekhzervon thing and kill Sselth. If you two are at each other's throats the whole way, I'm gonna get mad, too, and no one's going to have anything to do with each other and we'll all be miserable. So make up and let's get going."

I reined in my horse and crossed my arms as I waited for them to do the same. They both apologized as quickly as they could and then kneed their horses into a trot.

I sighed. This was going to be one loooooong trip.

A/N: To those who don't: PLEASE review!

Okay, since I'm assuming that none of you read my blog, I'll post it here, too: I'm going to be focusing on getting Fast Forward outlined, so I'll probably not update again until a couple of weeks after you guys start school. This is partly so I have time to outline it, and partly because either no one seems to have time to read this, or everyone's still on vacation.

Also, if you read the blog (http/solowriting. please make a little comment about it in your review hint, hint. I also posted a link to my first fan art there. (also, I'd love to talk to you guys at the forum: http/fantasyff. going to be working on a short story about Val's mom (not Ella, the one that will be in the publishable version of Fast Forward). If you guys would like to read it and give me feedback on it before I see if I can find any magazines that will take medieval fantasy (anyone know of any? I don't), let me know in your review, 'cause I'm not gonna put it on the Web because then I can't give an editor first publishing rights, so I would email it to you.