The Elven Threat

A bit more magic and the Elven history

A few days later, Mary woke with a start.

     She rolled over and checked the clock. 6:30. It was still dark out, and definitely not time to wake up. She flipped to her stomach in an effort to get more comfortable, but all of her senses seemed to be going off. She tried shoving her head under her pillow, but that only resulted in messing up her hair. A bit more awake now, she noticed that her heart was pounding inside her chest as if she had run a marathon, and she was breathing heavily. She sat up and reached for the water bottle on her desk. She had almost grabbed it when a surge of energy coursed through her and threw off her aim. 

    The bottle began to tip, her hand reached out. She attempted to swipe it in mid air, and her fingers closed into a fist. The water bottle stopped it's descent, but she wasn't touching it.

    Her eyes widened and her breath caught in her throat. Hurriedly, she released her hold and the water bottle clanged noisily to the ground.

    She heard a groan from the other side of the room. "Mary? Is that you?"

    "Yeah, sorry, Mable. I dropped my water bottle, go back to sleep." Her little sister grunted and rolled over in her bed, falling back asleep almost instantly.

    Mary retrieved the water bottle and took a swig. She drew in long, deep breaths hoping to calm her senses. Her heart kept racing.

    As sleep was no longer an option, Mary quietly snuck out of bed and up the stairs. She stopped next to her mother's room and placed her hand on the door knob, then took it off. Mom would wake up in about an hour anyway. She instead found a spot on the living room couch and curled up with her thoughts.

    Is this what happened to Matt? Was this the power and energy he described?

    Taking another deep breath, she felt within herself. There definitely was something there that wasn't before. A round ball of energy, or something like that, seemed to be located right below her heart, sort of on level with her stomach. It felt like a tight knot, like a muscle that has been clenched too long.

    She tried holding out her hand and concentrating on the knotted mass and focus it on her palm the way Matt had. A bubble shivered into existence. First as a tiny droplet, like water, then growing bit by bit until it was like a little shimmering puddle lapped in her palm.

    "That's different than Matt's," She mumbled aloud, but lost her concentration, and the puddle dissolved into thin air. She waved her hand around, used the other hand to touch the spot where the water had been, then stared at her palm for a good long while.

    The light flicked on. "Mary? Are you alright, honey?"

    Mary looked up to see her mother in her pajamas in the doorway to the living room. "Mom, I can do magic!" Mary told her with awe in her voice.

    "Oh!" Mary's mother's eyes widened, "You are at about that age."

    "So it's true!" Mary exclaimed.

    "What's true, dear?" her mother asked.

    "Everything that Matt said his mom told him. He felt a power inside him one day and he made a little ball of light, it was cool, but I didn't think... Well, I didn't know what to think, but it was cool! He told us that his mom told him that he's an elf from another dimension and that he has magic, and, wow.... Does this mean I'm also an elf from this other dimension?" Mary took a deep breath and looked expectantly at her mother who had come to sit next to her on the couch.

    "Yes, darling, all of that is true."

    Mary took another deep breath and sat back on the couch. "Wow."

    "And, that means that you need to learn more about your magic so that you can control it."

    "Right now, it feels like a tight muscle right here," Mary said pointing to her stomach.

    "Yes, and if not properly harnessed, that tight muscle will give you a lot of tummy aches." Her mother patted her on the head. "So, you'll need training."

    "Ooh!" Mary sat up. "Matt never said anything about that!"

    "Probably because we need to keep this secret from the humans that live here. They don't have magic, see, and they wouldn't understand what was happening."

    "Is that why Matt refused to talk about it after yesterday?" Mary said, more to herself than to her mom, "So what about our elven history, or whatever?" she asked.

    "Well, there was another dimension where we used to live. We all have magic. I do, too," her mom said holding up her own hand. A bit of liquid light glowed in her palm.

    "That looks like the magic I just did, but yours is glowing!" Mary pointed out.

    "Yes, the longer and more accustomed you are with your magic, the more powerful it is, which usually means, more light." She extinguished her magic and put her hand down. "There are several types of magic, all of them elemental: air, water, earth, fire. Those are the main ones, but there are several off shoots and mixes, like lightning, ice, you know lots of that." She waved at the air as if shooing away the topic. "But magic is genetic, and that's why you probably have water magic, like me." She pulled up her hand again and showed the liquid that floated there.

    "Okay, but what about our dimension. You said that before. What's it like?"

    "I was just little when I was there last. But I remember it being the most beautiful land that I had ever seen. There were magical creatures, and everything just seemed brighter," she stared off into the distance lost in the happy memories of her childhood. "But it all changed..." she muttered, then caught herself. Turning back to Mary she said, "Never mind that, we can discuss this later when your father is up." She stood and ushered Mary up. "Let's go make some breakfast."

    "Mom! You can't leave it at that!" Mary protested, "I want to know more!"

    Her mother caught her by the sides and tickled till Mary and her mother were giggling fitfully.

    "Stop! Stop!" Mary begged between giggles.

    Her mom laughed with her and Mary knew she wasn't going to get anymore out of her, so she went to help with breakfast.