Trios

Not all things that come in groups of three are bad.

Dan and his younger twin brothers, Pat and Simon, live in a fairly ordinary Yorkshire village and enjoy a mostly quiet life. The only unusual thing about them is their strong affinity for water, which has something to do with the special cottage in which they grow up. The cottage just so happens to sit over a natural source of magic that saturates the three brothers and primes them to reach their true potential. All they need is a magical makeover and they'll have a chance to make a difference in the endless conflict between good and evil.

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Trios
by Terry Volkirch

Chapter 4: School of Dreams

The boys practiced their new skills and managed to shrug off any lingering stress from their battle with the serpent. The stress quickly returned though when Jenna found out.

The girl's spirit found a way to communicate with the boys through shared lucid dreams. Using her spiritual energy, she was able to link herself and all three brothers. She explored all manner of contact to speed up their lessons. They had so much to learn and so little time.

'You did what?!' the girl mentally shouted.

Simon felt as though she rattled his teeth — impossible, he knew, but he let Dan do all the talking rather than have any of her anger directed at him.

'We stayed at the lake and practiced, against your advice. I guess I got a little... err... cocky. I wanted to tease the geese so I created a large splash in the center of the lake. It wasn't nearly as large as the splash in the pool, but I guess it was large enough to attract a rather vicious looking serpent.'

'You guess?!' Jenna shouted, then quickly calmed herself. 'You're right, of course. I blame myself though, for not telling you. I wanted to tell you more but I couldn't stay. I can't stray far or long from the remains of my body.'

'Why?' Dan asked. He had so many questions — too many. 'I mean, no offense, but wouldn't it make more sense to have a living teacher?'

'I've been thinking about that,' she told him. 'I told you that we needed to be secretive and what better way than having us girls teach? We're much harder to detect and spy on than the living.'

'Is it really that important?'

Everything, the mission, the teaching, everything was so important, but she knew what he meant. 'You really need to keep a low profile. Like I told you at the lake, you're much too vulnerable. You need to learn a lot more before you can adequately defend yourselves.'

'We took care of that serpent easily enough,' he said with a little wounded pride.

'Trust me. You got lucky. What if you had five serpents attacking at once? What about ten? Not only that, there are many worse things out there than serpents.'

'There are more than just serpents?'

'Haven't you three ever played any fantasy role-playing games?'

'A little,' Dan spoke for himself and his brothers.

'Serpents, wyverns, dragons, they're all out there, mostly on other planes of existence, but there, ready to cross over to our plane if they detect magic. It's not the smartest thing to go looking for witches but serpents aren't the brightest creatures.'

'What about dragons?' Pat asked.

'Dragons are powerful enough that they can often dominate a single magic user, and they can save themselves some effort and mostly use your magic to cross over. Magic use tends to temporarily weaken the boundary between planes.'

'Isn't there any way to block them?' Dan asked. 'What happens after a big magic battle? What prevents a dozen dragons from crossing over and kicking everyone's weakened arses?'

Jenna mentally wrinkled her nose at Dan's choice of words. 'You're right of course. There is a slight danger after a magic battle. But most of the weaker creatures are scared off when the magic gets too powerful. And forget about a group of dragons working together. That doesn't happen. They're mostly solitary creatures and they're smart enough not to interfere with powerful magic users. You might have one or two creatures show up that are either mostly harmless or at least easily stopped.'

Dan paused, trying to decide which question to ask next. He just started to ask more about their mission and Jenna interrupted him.

'Please. No more questions. I have limited time I can spend here and we need to cover more spells. You, Dan, have a lot more to learn than your brothers so I'll be visiting nearly every night to teach you. Kate and Emma can't seem to master lucid dreaming so it'll be just me for our dream sessions, and tonight I think I'll start with a lesson on control.'

'Control?' the eldest boy asked.

'Control. You have a lot more to learn about control.'

'Wait a minute. Just one more question. It's important.'

'Okay.'

Dan paused again, more out of embarrassment than anything else. 'What happened to the hair on my arms and legs? Does magic remove hair or something?'

'What? Oh... that. I wouldn't worry about that.'

'But it's weird!'

'I'm sure you'll be okay with a little less hair,' she told him. 'Most adults complain about having too much hair. You should feel lucky.'

'Why do I get the feeling there's something you're not telling me?'

'Because I'm new at this. Because we're on a tight schedule. Because you need to shut up and let me teach you control.'

'Oy!' Pat said.

'Just shut up, Pat,' Dan said, then added. 'Fine. Teach me control then. I'm ready.'

Jenna repeated her lesson about incrementally increasing the strength of a spell to get a feel for how much power to add for a desired effect, adding that it should be done for every new spell he learns. Spell casting didn't work like it did in role-playing games, where the strength of a spell increased with artificial experience levels. In Dan's newly expanded reality, the strength of the spell increased proportionately to the amount of magic gathered to cast the spell.

Dan couldn't actually cast spells in his dreams, but his teacher still had plenty she could teach him, including more thought forms for additional spells. If he could remember the thought form, or spell template, he could cast the spell, even if he didn't collect any raw magic. With little raw magic, a spell would just have very little effect. The boy went over all of his lessons in his mind. The next day would be a good test of his memory as well as his control.

The girl reached the end of her class time and left the three boys with some homework. She had them look up the more common creatures from fantasy role-playing games. Playing the game wouldn't teach them much but learning about creatures of legend would translate nicely to their past as well as future experience. Their battle with the serpent was just one of many that they'd likely have over the next few years, assuming they lived long enough.

~o~O~o~

Friday morning started with three very hungry brothers having a full English breakfast. Magic and certain other changes in their bodies worked up a good appetite and cold cereal wouldn't satisfy them. They started out trying to make breakfast themselves but their mother soon put a stop to that and took over for them. She didn't get angry about it. She knew they meant well by trying to save her some effort.

The brothers sat together at the dining room table with Pat reading a couple different creature guides from his roleplaying game collection. He took Jenna's advice seriously. He wanted to make sure he was ready for anything.

Sue passed by behind Pat as she served the food. She saw a drawing of a wyvern in the book and wrinkled her nose in distaste, but she didn't say anything.

Boys will be boys.

After they finished eating, the three brothers rushed back to their rooms, did some light cleaning since that's all their rooms needed, and shot out the door, leaving their bemused mother to wonder about the changing moods of teenagers.

The rain held off in spite of low clouds and high humidity, though the boys didn't mind. Plenty of moisture hung in the air for magic practice. The three of them ended up in a large hilly area near their house. The land back there consisted of a few ponds and open areas surrounded by trees where they could practice without too much chance of being seen, as long as they were careful.

Simon got over his nerves and soon had large spheres of elemental air magic blowing across a field. They looked like soap bubbles and even Pat and Dan stopped to watch for a few minutes.

"I didn't know you could access air magic," Dan said.

"I didn't either," the youngest said. "I could detect it but I didn't know I could gather it... until now."

"Cool," Pat said and then went back to his specialty. Following on his twin's success, he soon had a miniature tornado of elemental air magic spinning in the dirt. With just a little effort, he pulled elemental earth magic from the dirt and mixed it in with the air magic.

"Nice," Simon commented. "I was thinking of mixing water and earth but I didn't want to make a muddy mess."

"Elemental magic seems easy to learn," Dan said.

"And it's powerful," Pat added.

"Lucky for us," Simon finished.

The ambient elemental water magic in the moist air supplied enough magic for Dan so he didn't need any magic from his brothers. He didn't want large amounts of magic anyway, on the off chance that he might use too much and attract unwanted attention.

The fetch of the group managed to cast all but one of the five new water-based spells he learned from his lucid dream session with Jenna. He wasn't even sure how to start with the fifth one so he worked on controlling the four spells he could cast and then got back to the last one after he felt he had good control of the others.

The fifth spell was tricky and potentially dangerous because it dealt with water in the body. Water could be added to or removed from the body and if he wasn't careful, he could dehydrate himself. He could cast it on someone else but until he got better control, he didn't want to take the chance of hurting one of his brothers.

After slowly pulling moisture out of the humid air, he managed to add a significant amount of water around his waist, and he also moisturized his skin to help it stretch. The added bulk made his pants slightly uncomfortable so he unfastened the button fly on his jeans and unzipped them. Then he wondered exactly how to remove the water. The spell allowed water to be easily absorbed but once in the body, it had to be moved through proper channels or removed with magic. The magic didn't exactly work the same way in reverse though. He couldn't remove it the same way he added it and he wasn't sure how to use magic to reverse the process.

The obvious way to get rid of water normally involved a urinal or toilet but he didn't want to do that outside in spite of the relative privacy. He also considered having himself sweat it all out, though that would soak his clothes, so instead, he tried moving the water higher up on his body, thinking he'd give himself a more manly chest. It didn't work out exactly as he'd planned though. He shyly turned away from his brothers, zipping up and fastening his jeans while he tried to think of a way to get rid of the excess water. As he stood there, thinking, he heard some nervous laughter behind him.

"I saw that, Dan," Pat said. "I think that spell would be popular with the girls."

Dan blushed and turned back around. "I need to get home to use the loo. I added water to myself and need to... um... flush it out."

Both boys finally noticed Simon, staring at Dan's chest. Dan wore a light jacket that emphasized his apparent breasts very nicely.

Pat lightly punched his twin's arm. "What's the matter?" he said. "Never seen boobs before?"

Simon remained silent and tried not to stare. After an awkward couple minutes, he tore his gaze away from Dan and gave the matter some thought. "Try your mouth," he said after a couple minutes.

"What?" Dan said.

"Yeah," Pat said. "He's right. Try moving the water up and spraying it out your mouth. You know... unless you like having boobs."

Dan blushed again. He remembered to start small to keep good control and soon had water dribbling down his chin. With a little more effort, he pursed his lips and had a little stream of water shooting out of his mouth. His chest deflated, returning nearly to normal after a minute or so, and he breathed a sigh of relief. A last little bit of water refused to budge, leaving him with a hint of breasts, but he figured he could work on draining it completely later on in the day.

Pat shook his head as he watched his brother.

"Keep it up," Dan told him. "Maybe I'll try practicing on your arse next."

Simon snickered and ran off before he could become a target.

~o~O~o~

Jenna visited again Friday night, leaving Dan with several new spells, including a few using elemental air magic. According to his report of the day, his control improved enough that she deemed him ready to expand to other elements.

She also left the twins with an assignment, giving them each a simple spell to create a puff of air, just strong enough to blow out a candle. They'd eventually go on to learn several different kinds of spells. Learning a few spells would help the twins better understand the magic that they channeled and help them work more effectively together with a fetch. During their next session in the pool, they'd continue to master water-based magic and then spend the rest of the day practicing what they learned about elemental air magic.

The girls all gave the boys more lessons on control in the pool both Saturday and Sunday, with Jenna meeting up with them again on Monday night. General admission to the pool ended before the school day ended on Monday.

'How was the mood at school today?' she asked Dan.

'Grim and depressing,' he told her. 'I could tell everyone got nervous as they walked through the entrance. A lot of the grass and shrubs were burned, and we could also see where the ground opened up and swallowed us. That didn't help. But thanks by the way. I know you did it to save us.'

'You're welcome.' She smiled and had to wonder if things would've been different if the other students didn't need protecting. A teleport spell would've required too much time to gather the magic needed to cast it and the raw materials for a proper shield weren't around. She did the right thing in any case and she felt good about that.

'They announced your funeral today,' he said after a short pause, wiping the smile from the girl's face. 'That's when things got depressing.'

Jenna didn't say anything. The news left her lost in her own private thoughts.

'It'll be four in the afternoon this Friday at Askern Cemetery,' Dan continued. 'We're not exactly invited but we're going.'

That got the girl's attention. 'No! You mustn't!'

'What? Why not?'

'Someone or something might show up to confirm our deaths. It'll be too dangerous.'

'I guess you'll have to teach me some more spells then because we're going.'

'Dan!'

'How would it look if no one from school showed up? I know you didn't have a lot of friends other than each other. Your families will be there but how many schoolmates do you think will come?'

'Not many,' she said. 'A couple. Maybe.'

'Right. That's it then. We're going.'

Jenna quickly gave up trying to stop the boys from going to their funeral. Instead, she coached them on what to watch for and how to act. If anything other than a normal human appeared, it would most likely be invisible to humans without magic, or mundanes as many witches like to call them. The boys however might very well have advanced enough to see through a low-class invisibility shield or illusion.

'Whatever you do,' Jenna said, 'don't let them or it know that you see them. Promise me. Promise me!'

'Okay!' the boys said in unison, startled by the girl's intensity. 'We promise!'

That satisfied her for the moment, but Dan had to ask an obvious question. 'What about your family? They'll be at the funeral. Won't they need to be warned too?'

Jenna shook her head. 'They don't practice magic. Most of them don't even know it exists… for their own protection. Magic ability isn't hereditary. It just seems to pop up randomly.'

'What about your teacher then?'

Jenna shook her head again, though much more slowly. 'She's dead.'

Dan barely heard her answer, and seeing the sad look on her face, decided not to ask any more questions.

The three boys weathered an awkward silence before blurting out together, "How about another lesson?"

'That's really strange,' Jenna told them.

'What?' they all said.

'That. How all three of you talk at the same time like that. You seem to be doing it a lot.'

'I have noticed doing it more but it seems natural now,' Dan said. 'Twins do it all the time and I just started myself. I didn't used to do it. I thought it had something to do with the magic.'

'Perhaps,' Jenna said. 'You're much more synchronized than my trio though.'

'Synchronized speech,' Simon said. 'Cool.'

~o~O~o~

Tuesday and Wednesday brought more lessons in the pool. Everything went well until Jenna caught Kate staring at Dan late in the lesson on Wednesday.

'Kate! Stop staring!' Jenna said after the boys surfaced to catch their breath.

'I'm not staring,' the dark-haired girl said.

'Shameless girl,' Jenna said with a teasing lilt. 'You are.'

'I'm not staring, I'm... inspecting. Dan's looking a little... softer and more feminine. I'm worried. He's changing too quickly.'

'Ah. I see what you mean. That'll make it awkward for him in the pool. He can't very well wear a girl's swimming costume if he starts developing breasts.'

'It's not fair,' Emma said suddenly, startling the other two girls.

'What's not fair?' Kate asked, prompting the angry girl to erupt.

'This! This isn't fair! Why did we have to die?! It should be us out there fighting! Us!'

The angry girl looked like she was crying. She tried to cry, but being dead made actual tears impossible, frustrating her all the more. 'I can't even cry! I hate this!'

The boys came back underwater and caught the tail end of Emma's outburst. Pat went over to her to try to comfort her as best he could, giving her a sympathetic look and setting her off again.

Emma looked away from her pupil. She faced away from the entire group. 'It's bad enough we're dead and can't move on. But we have to teach these smelly boys too. It's not fair!'

'Oy,' Pat said. 'I'm… sorry. I'd rather have you alive... but what else can we do?'

'You don't understand!' Emma wailed. 'You're taking our place!'

'Emma,' Jenna said, her tone of voice had an edge to it to serve as a warning.

'Fine. Don't tell them. They couldn't handle it anyway. Emotionally challenged, the lot of them.'

'Tell us what?' Dan asked, totally confused. 'What's going on?'

Pat ignored his brother and focused on Emma. 'I can't relate to being dead but I do have emotions,' he told her. 'I might not express them well but I have them. Please consider that before you shout at us again.'

The distressed girl turned and actually gave her pupil a sympathetic look, knowing that his life would likely get a lot more complicated as he slowly became more feminine. Then she shot back to her remains in the morgue.

The group gave a collective sigh and the boys surfaced for another breath of air, leaving the two remaining girls to continue their previous discussion. They still needed to figure out where to finish the magic lessons. The pool made the perfect place to teach water magic but there were other types of magic that wouldn't work well underwater.

Kate looked thoughtful. 'It certainly rains often enough to practice elemental water spells without a pool. We can finish water magic lessons soon anyway, but then where will we teach?'

'I don't know, Kate. I don't know. The Goddess will direct us though.'

That satisfied the two girls enough to focus back on the boys, though Kate wasn't necessary for the next lesson. She politely excused herself, saying that she wanted to check on Emma. Jenna approved, leaving just her and the boys.

'I think it's finally time for that water breathing spell,' Jenna told them.

'Thank the Goddess!' Simon said, surprising everyone. The boy blushed at the attention.

'When did you start thanking goddesses?' Pat asked him.

'Not goddesses,' Simon corrected. 'Goddess. The Goddess. She's like the magic school administrator or something. Right?'

Jenna smiled. 'We can talk more about Her later. For now, we have a water breathing spell to cast. Dan? Here it is.'

The girl sent a thought form to Dan who spent several seconds processing it. He soon nodded his head, dipped into Pat's magical vortex and cast the spell on Simon.

The youngest member of the new trio looked shocked as he took his first breath underwater. He choked a little as his magically modified lungs filled with water but he could breathe.

'Cool!' he said.

Dan cast it on Pat next and then himself. All three boys stayed underwater for several minutes, enjoying the new experience, before Dan thought to question it. 'What about the swimming attendant?' he asked Jenna.

'Don't worry about him,' she said. 'There are a lot of swimmers today. He won't notice. But if it'll make you feel any better, you can surface for a short time every so often and catch his eye. Just make sure you don't try to breathe air when you do. If you try to breathe air, you'll spit up all the water and end the spell.'

'How long does the spell last?' Simon asked, with Pat and Dan nodding.

'Until you try to breathe air again, though I wouldn't recommend staying underwater too much longer today. The chlorine in the pool isn't very good for your lungs.'

The boys cocked their heads all at the same time, bringing a smile to Jenna's face. They had synchronized body language as well as synchronized speech.

'Congratulations,' she told the boys. 'You're all honorary fish today.'

They all had a good laugh at that. Jenna gave them homework assignments for the next couple days and the lesson ended. The boys reluctantly surfaced and resumed their air-breathing.

"That was so cool," Simon said after he spit up all of the water from his lungs.

"Not bad," Pat agreed. "But I didn't like the taste of the water."

"Chlorine," they all said in unison, then looked at each other and shrugged.

~o~O~o~

 © 2013 by Terry Volkirch. This work may not be replicated in whole or in part by any means electronic or otherwise without the express consent of the Author (copyright holder). All Rights Reserved. This is a work of Fiction. All the characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional and any resemblance to real people or incidents past, present or future is purely coincidental.