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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 9: Graduation
By the end of the week, after a day off from fire magic practice, Dani created a third golem for Emma. Like Kate's, the new golem looked like the girl who's spirit would inhabit it. The six girls all met under the shade of their favorite oak trees and Simone passed some fire magic directly to Dani for the second to last part of the spell. They didn't need any processing of the elemental fire from Pat.
Emma hovered over the clay figure, deemed it an acceptable likeness and passed into it. Dani supplied the life magic to complete it and then stood back to wait.
Within the usual time of around ten minutes, the golem spit up some muddy water and uttered her first word. "Wicked!"
While Emma got used to her new body, Dani insisted on a few improvements to Jenna's golem. The little clay figure looked much more like the girl inside when Dani finished.
Kate couldn't help herself. She squealed and grabbed her two trio mates in a group hug as soon as they were all close enough to do so. Dani and Simone laughed at the display, and even Pat smiled.
"Tonight we'll have to dig a third hole in the cemetery for Emma," Dani reminded everyone. "I hope it goes better than last time."
Kate put up a fuss during her turn, crying and moaning about how yucky and dirty it was to live in a shallow grave over a deeper one with her real body. The distraught golem got tired of complaining about the dirt and moved on to the real reason for her displeasure. She felt like a freak, being more like an elemental being of earth than a human. It took nearly all night for Jenna to calm her down enough to get her to try out her hole. They wouldn't have to spend a lot of time in their little holes but they had to get used to it to keep from being spotted.
"Are you okay, Emma?" Jenna asked. She felt that the newest golem would be okay but it never hurt to ask.
"Oy. You're not gonna treat me like Kate, are you?"
"I will if you want," Jenna said with a teasing tone.
"Ha ha. Let's just get on with teaching these girls some of the advanced shit and complete their education. We've got some serious arse to kick soon. I can feel it."
Advanced lessons moved indoors to Water Works cottage. Jenna rightly figured that the strong water magic that permeated the small home would make it harder to detect spells from long distance. It was also true that the spells would affect much smaller areas and be much easier to contain than elemental magic so they could be learned inside the cottage.
The group of six met in Dani's room, with Dani sitting at her desk, Simone perched on the edge of the bed and Pat on the floor with her back to the white door to block it in case their Mum showed up unexpectedly. Each of the three golem girls sat very near their respective pupil and Ash lurked in its usual spot on a large sheet of steel under the bed.
The new trio had to work together for the more difficult spells, and they had to be very careful to keep everything scaled down and under control at minimal power for each spell. High level spells like invisibility required a lot of power. It would be so easy to attract unwanted attention.
Jenna sat on the edge of the desktop so she could see everything. "Remember, Dani," she told her pupil. "This type of magic is different from anything you've used before. We call it electro magic and it's ever so much more subtle. The magic power itself is as complicated as the spell that uses it."
"I think I've got it. At least let me try?"
"Right. Have a go then."
Simone readied the required magic and fed it to Pat for processing. Then Dani concentrated, pulling magic from Pat's vortex. She wrinkled her nose and squinted a little until she could just make out the silver threads of magical energy. Once she got that far, she wound the threads around a small marble to block all light, making it invisible. She smiled when she rolled it across the desktop, hearing it but not seeing it.
"Excellent," Jenna said.
Dani experimented with the new magic whenever she could, and she put her science lessons at school to good use. The magic was based on electricity so knowing about electricity made things a little easier at least. Electro magic took more effort to use than elemental magic but it had great potential. The girl's time and effort were well spent.
Over the next few days, the teachers went on to cover various other advanced subjects. Before long, with Dani's aptitude, she'd progressed enough to cast spells to phase through walls, levitate and even fly. She could store up electrical energy and send bolts of lightning from her fingertips. Worst of all in terms of destructive power, she could disintegrate matter, including living things. She practiced on a glass marble and shocked herself when it turned to a tiny pile of sand on the desk.
"That's scary," Dani said, more to herself than anyone else.
"Yeah," Simone agreed, having a good view of Dani's desk. "But in a cool way."
"I can't believe it," Emma blurted out.
"Can't believe what?" Pat asked.
"That you've all come so far, so fast. It took us ages to learn all this."
"True," Jenna said. "But I still have one more spell to teach. And after that, it'll be up to our star pupils to practice and eventually mix and match different forms of magic to create new spells. Like most skills, it takes a lifetime to learn and master, something we didn't get a chance to do."
"The questions never end," added Kate. "That's for sure."
"I have a question," Dani said. "What's the last spell?"
"Teleportation," her teacher said. "It takes more power than any other spell. That makes it dangerous, both because it's so difficult to cast and because it could very well be detected by the Dark Forces."
"Teleportation?" Simone said. "Cool!"
"Cool," Ash mimicked from under the bed, still learning new words but not yet able to form sentences.
Dani smiled. "Good Ash. Yes. Cool is a good word."
The salamander thumped its tail a few times to show it liked the praise.
"We'll use a marble, of course," Jenna said, interrupting Ash's speech lesson. "And I'll have Dani teleport it only twice. The first try will be a few centimeters. The second try will be across the room. After that, I have a surprise. So let's get started."
The three Green sisters continued working together and Dani soon had her first successful casting of the teleport spell. The sisters wanted to celebrate but Jenna insisted on the second goal. It took three tries but the marble disappeared from the desk and instantly reappeared across the room and dropped onto the bed. Everyone cheered. It sounded funny coming from the golem girls with their raspy, squeaky voices but no one laughed.
They all went very quiet though, after a knock on the door.
"What's going on in there?" Sue asked. "What are you cheering about? Are you playing a game?"
"Everything's fine, Mum!" Dani shouted, sounding a little panicked.
Sue tried to enter and found the way blocked. Pat still sat in front of the door. "Let me in!"
Simone quickly collected the three golem girls and slid them under the bed with Ash. Then she flopped on the floor in front of the gap under the bed to shield them.
The salamander happily accepted the golems, licking them silly before settling down and quietly nuzzling them.
With all of the magical beings secure, Pat quickly moved to the bed and flopped down, sitting like a boy with her legs spread wide just before the door flew open.
Sue gave a quick look round the tidy room. "What've you been up to in here? I thought you were playing a computer game. I heard strange voices."
Pat spoke up first. "We were just studying and got excited when we finally figured out a difficult exercise. That's all."
Sue turned to listen to her daughter and glared. "Patricia Anne Green! What did I tell you?!"
"But Mum! I'm wearing jeans!"
"Keep your legs together, dear. You need to make it a habit or I promise you you'll be sorry. Follow your sisters' example."
Dani sat at her desk with her legs firmly together. Simone, still on floor, had her legs stretched out and crossed at the ankle. Both girls also wore jeans.
"Yes, Mum. Sorry, Mum." Pat pinched her legs together and sulked, letting her older sister continue the conversation.
"We won't be making any more noise, Mum. Sorry if we disturbed you."
"You didn't disturb me. But I have to wonder why you're not outside on such a nice day. School is still a couple weeks away. You shouldn't study all through your summer holiday."
"Yes, Mum. We were planning on going out soon."
Pat and Simone nodded agreement.
"Right then. I'll leave you to it. She gave a last quick look and walked out, quietly shutting the door behind her.
Pat moved back to her position in front of the door and Simone retrieved the three golem girls, setting them on the edge of the bed and sitting next to them.
"Now that that's over," Jenna said. "I have something to say. You three girls are unusually gifted. You've learned everything we have to teach in less than six months. Do you know what that means?"
"You're quitting?" Simone asked.
"In a way, yes. But I'm not talking about myself. I was referring to your accomplishment. Congratulations. You've all graduated. You're all full-fledged witches."
Simone almost cheered but was held back with a warning glance from Dani. Instead, the three sisters had a group hug. They held the hug and then each one of them picked up a golem and included them in the hug.
Ash peeked out from under the bed and spoke quietly enough that no one heard. "Hug."
Jenna had an additional subject to talk about but it was just for Dani's ears. She waited until after everyone else left the bedroom. Simone and Pat carried their respective golems out, hiding them in the hood of their hoodies. Ash remained under the bed. The large salamander was too large to sneak out of the house while Sue roamed the cottage.
"You should get a blank journal to keep notes about all the spells you've learned. It's also useful to write down new spell ideas. Witches call it the Book of Shadows. It's not like what most people think of as a spell book. You couldn't read from it and cast the spell. You know that. It would just be to help you remember everything that you need to cast all the spells you know."
"Sounds like a good idea," Dani said. "I'll do that."
"I'm telling you privately so you keep it hidden. It's not meant to be shared."
"Right. The fewer people know, the better."
Dani turned to look down at Ash, who'd peeked out from under the bed.
"I don't suppose I could cast an invisibility spell on Ash so I can sneak the poor thing outside."
"No. Sorry."
Ash understood and whimpered. It didn't like being left alone.
Dani bent down, casting a quick water skin spell on her hands as she did so. She gave Ash a few gentle scratches behind one ear until the water on her hand sizzled away.
Jenna moved to scratch the other side and Ash loved it. The salamander actually purred.
"I'm glad we kept Ash," Jenna said.
Dani nodded agreement and then something amazing happened.
"Me too," said Ash, speaking its first sentence.
Jenna and Dani turned to look at each other and gasped.
"Wow!" they both said in unison.
Dani met up with her two sisters in the usual spot under the oak trees near their cottage. She gently removed Jenna from her hood to join the other golem girls and all six of them sat on the ground to talk.
"What do we do now?" Emma asked. "I like being a golem a lot better than being a ghost, but are we going to spend the rest of eternity as golems?"
"I don't think we'd last that long," Jenna said. "We need recharging with fire magic."
"You know what I mean."
"I think I do. I guess we can watch the girls practice or something."
"I meant us. What are we going to do?"
"Oh. Right. We can't cast any spells."
"I have an idea about that," Dani said. "I'm sure we can use all the help we can get so how would you like to help?"
The three golems turned to look up at her with their little blank faces.
Dani explained how she planned on making magic items that the golems could use in the coming battle. She reversed the heat in the flaming sword spell to store a freezing spell in an item. The golems could throw the item or attack with it and whatever it hit would suffer damage from freezing cold, assuming it was vulnerable to cold. It was a good assumption because most users of fire magic put a lot of their energy into protection from fire magic so they could effectively use it. Otherwise, they'd get burned. That was the one big disadvantage of elemental fire spells.
The golems could use fire magic without any problem, being magical clay beings, but they could also use ice magic. That would help. They had something else in their favor too.
"You're very small," Dani told them. "You should be able to use that to your advantage. You can hide and use stealth to ambush and surprise opponents."
"Brill," Kate said. "I like it."
"I'm in," Emma added.
"Me too," Jenna said.
"Me too," came another familiar voice from behind the trees.
"Oy! Ash!" Pat shrieked. "How did you get out?"
"Walked," the salamander said as it walked around the trees to join the others.
Dani slapped her forehead and groaned. Ash was too large, intelligent and impulsive to keep hidden in her bedroom. Like a small child, the salamander would need constant supervision.
"We should tell Mum about Ash," Pat said. "If she doesn't already know."
"She probably knows," Simone added. "Mothers know everything."
"Okay," Dani said. "When we get back I'll tell her." Then she turned to Ash. "No talking around Mum. Got it?"
"No talk to Mum," Ash said, nodding.
"We've another sibling then?" Simone asked.
Ash nodded and said, "Me brother."
"Finally!" Pat shouted. "I can stop referring to him as it!"
The others laughed.
The golem girls waited for dusk in the wood so they could sneak back back into the cemetery and watch over it. Meanwhile, the three sisters walked back to their cottage, with Simone and Pat keeping Ash company while Dani went in to speak to their Mum.
Sue stood in the kitchen, putting crockery and cutlery in the dishwasher and generally cleaning to get ready to make tea when Dani entered.
"Hi Mum."
"Hello, Dani." She gave her oldest daughter a piercing look. "What happened now?"
"What do you mean?" the girl looked around.
Sue laughed. "You look guilty. It's written all over your face. Are you coming to tell me about your house guest?"
"I knew it!" Simone shouted from outside the kitchen window. "I knew she knew!"
Pat shushed her twin but Sue couldn't help hearing. She'd turned slightly at the sound and then turned back for an answer.
Dani replied. "Yes, we have a house guest. It's a… a…."
"Lizard? Like one of those monitor lizards?"
"What?"
Sue smirked. "I can do research on the Internet too. I read all about large lizards."
"Oh. Right." Dani felt more relief than anything else until her mother continued.
"But aren't they rather dangerous?"
"Not Ash!"
"Ash?" Sue raised an eyebrow.
"That's his name. He's large but he wouldn't harm us."
Not intentionally.
"If you're sure, Dani."
"I'm sure."
"But you should've asked first. You know that, right?"
"I know. I'm sorry, Mum. Ash was an unexpected… gift. We couldn't just drop him in the dust bin and forget about him. Please, can we keep him? Please?"
Dani started crying, causing her Mum to cry a little herself.
"You can keep him," Sue said before hugging her oldest daughter.
After a brief tender moment, Dani called to her sisters to bring Ash inside, which they did. As soon as he got inside, he started thumping his tail against the bottom cupboards, showing how happy he was. It got a smile out of Sue.
"He's rather large for a house pet, isn't he?" Sue backed away slightly as Ash approached.
"He stays under my bed. Don't worry, Mum. You won't see him."
"I've already seen him. I'm sure I caught glimpses of him before but I saw him leave the house earlier today. I was surprised that he knew how to open a closed door. He jumped up and twisted the door handle in his mouth. Quite the clever clogs."
"He's very intelligent, yes. But we'll watch him. Don't worry."
"Okay. Go wash up for tea then. And Simone? Will you be helping me again tonight?"
"Yes, Mum."
"Good girl. I'll see you soon then."
"I'll help too," Pat added. "If you like."
"Well!" Sue gasped. "This is a day for surprises." She laughed and ruffled Pat's hair.
The youngsters hustled out of the kitchen, leaving their bemused mother alone for the moment.
I love my family.
© 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.
