Creation 1.6

My house is nestled in one of the few good parts of town that aren't downtown. A small but lucrative shopping center kept it alive when the docks fell, according to my neighbor. The houses were solid, the gangs were held back by the proximity to a hospital and New Wave's infrequent but thorough patrols. The backyard was fairly large, and had a magical forest full of elves in it.

Okay, it was a bamboo stand that took up part of the yard. But when you've been in the hospital for three days, and your little brother is worried sick, your backyard becomes the greatest place on earth.

We roamed through the underbrush, spears in our hands. The elven bandits had been evading us for many moons, and we had been lucky to survive the last ambush they had staged. We were now trying to stage an ambush for them in kind, but were being hampered by two factors; Jordan sucks at whispering, and can barely read, so I was forced to use the text-to-speech app. Which meant every plan was broadcast to the whole forest. Who knew if the magical shadows around us were benign or servants of the elves? What of the squirrels?

Eventually, we managed to find a spot to camp for a while. I felt that we might have to abandon the chase soon. The elves knew the forest so well, we hadn't seen them yet, even when they attacked. Our rations were low, and the Queen would soon grow tired of our quest. Jordan said, in a falsely low voice, "I grow weary of the chase, brother." Then, voice returning to normal, "Can we go play Candy Land?"

I detested Candy Land. Not because the game was bad, but because Jordan was a terrible loser. He threw fits every time he began to lose. So of course I typed, 'Sure.' I wanted to spend the entire afternoon with him anyway, Candy Land would happen at some point.

-Shangri-La-

After a sound defeat at the hands of my brother, it was time for dinner. I was starving, thanks to Amy's 'tune-up', so my family watched bemusedly as I somehow fit thirds of chicken and rice into my tummy. I almost went for fourths, but decided I might need it overnight. I didn't yet know if my lack of sleep was thanks to meds, my powers, or just my usual sleep difficulties, but I hoped to find out tonight.

After dinner, we settled down and watched Toy Story 2 while David went to do homework and Mom cleaned up. Jordan fell asleep near the end, so I dragged him on his blanket to his room, then helped him into bed. I still didn't feel tired, so I stayed up with Mom watching TV. Then she started nodding off, so I got her up and led her to bed. A few minutes later, I heard the familiar sounds overhead of David getting into bed, and checked a clock.

Almost 1. I either don't need sleep, or Amy's thing reduced my need for it.

I have no idea what I'll do for another 6 hours.

I would read, but I don't have any library books around, and I've read most of the stuff around the house. I can't watch TV, too loud. No movies, same problem. Can't play board games alone. My pet doesn't need a walk; fish and cats tend to not do that.

I eventually decided to go back to the backyard. The play earlier had given me some ideas, and besides, I needed to test my powers more.

I sat in the middle of the bamboo stand, legs crossed, arms out, stereotypical meditation pose. I was just listening to the resonance that surrounded me, flowed through me. The earth thumping its slow bass beat, the air, its flowing, slightly discordant melody, the dew in the air in crooning in harmony. I felt something more now, after an hour of listening; there was a harmony like the dew, but while it was everywhere around and under me, it sounded muffled. Like it was behind a wall.

I centered some of the muffled music in my head, then opened my eyes. I was staring at a patch of bamboo.

Oh. I guess that should've been obvious. Plants have water in them, and I can sense and control water.

It hit me a second later. If I can control water… Can I sort of puppet plants?

I reached out, and made some swirling motions, much like the ones I had made in the hospital.

The bamboo shuddered.

I tried again.

I felt the water shift, and the bamboo shuddered less than before.

I made a sharper gesture, somewhat frustrated at the shivering plant.

A section burst as the water pooled inside rushed at me.

The bamboo toppled. I reached over to it, slowly realizing what I'd done. I must have been trying it wrong, because the inside of the section looked like it had exploded already. I must have broken the water channels in the plant. I needed a different set of gestures to move plants, that much was sure.

I wondered if I could move blood, then immediately decided to never try. Even if I could, I'd almost certainly kill whatever I used my power on that way. I had heard too much in the hospital about how lucky I was that my brain hadn't been too injured, and moving blood seemed like a great way to limit the blood reaching the brain, or to form a clotted artery, or something.

I focused on trying to get bamboo to bend. It was tough work, and many a shoot was killed as I accidentally ripped the water from them. I had to keep that in mind as well; if it was half as easy to get water from weeds, I could use that in combat. I needed some source for my elements, other than maybe fire, after all. After another hour and a half of stuff dying intermittently, I had a better set of motions for moving plants. The idea was to draw along the channels of the plant, while nudging them gently towards the desired angle. To fast or too much pressure, and you hurt or kill the plant. More flexible bamboo was much faster to bend, and harder to damage. I would have to ask them for plants to try out on in power testing, see how well it translated from one plant to another.

I went to my other objective for the night; figuring out what the 'push' on my worlds was. I chose the mesa world, figuring it was a safe place to start. I pushed, and watched the world change around me.

As I activated the power, a new sense came to my awareness; a huge circle around me, growing larger inch by inch, second by second; and a smaller circle, representing the part that was becoming mine. I barely tore myself away from the other part in time to stop this from taking my house out.

The other part was the jewels swinging into view.

They were actual worlds.

Each sphere in front of me was a beautiful combination of colors, arranged in a mosaic along its surface. They each shined like the brightest jewel you can imagine, but stayed near the edge of my vision, save one. It was the mesa world, that I knew, but though I wished to look closer, I could not without letting myself be pulled in, and then I wouldn't be all here. I could feel it, though, feel where things were, in general. It had a shining point on its surface, and with a thought, the dot moved, and the area of my power shifted. The etched monoliths sank, the ground shifted to purple-blue grass, and a wall of one of those palatial estates I had seen from atop the mesa rose near the fence.

Wait, why was I still doing this? Someone could see!

I quickly tried pulling back on the world, sighing as they slid back out of view, their shining glory ceasing to cloud my thoughts. The walls and grass receded, and a minute later, there were no signs my power had ever been here., other than my diminutive form, on my knees in the bamboo stand.

I once again felt wronged by my powers. They were so amazing, but it was a Midas touch scenario; beauty can cloud judgement, and power corrupts. My powers were so captivating to me that I could lose myself to them, and my lesser powers were deceptively dangerous in their own right, even though they hadn't tried to take me. If I hadn't thought of the blood thing, would I have accidentally killed someone? What would stop me from sucking the air out of someone's lungs, or burning them with a misplaced burst of flame?

My powers were the greatest thing to happen to me, but at times, I couldn't help but feel like I just wanted to be a kid.

-Shangri-La-

I spent the rest of that morning searching for video or recordings of my voice, only to come up empty. Our family wasn't big on social media, and what little they did post was pictures. Maybe the school had some security cam footage they were willing to let Dragon use. Or the church might still have a recording of last year's Christmas play or something, I don't know.

I finally sighed, walked upstairs, and began turning off the alarms, since everyone was off for the rest of the week. Let them sleep another hour or two. I helped myself to some leftovers and turned on some cartoons, but my heart just wasn't in it. My testing had been worthwhile, but it left me depressed again; ever since the revelation atop that mesa, all my powers seemed to do was remind me of where I was before the window.

I had wanted to escape my reality, to change it to one where people listened. I got the ability to escape, to change, to mold, and lost the ability to be heard in the most literal sense. I no longer wanted to escape, my ability to change was a monkey paw, and my ability to shape the world I had could erase life with a misplaced gesture. I was not old; this power would at the very least define my life; but I couldn't help but wonder if I might not be able to bear their burden.

The TV flashed with light, zany antics and colorful characters dancing across it, as I sat there in the dark.