((Author's Note: The next few chapters are some semi-short ones, and will flip between various character's view points. I'll start with Michael's experience…))
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At first, all I could do is sit and look majestically stupid in front of the girls as nothing happened. I felt like one of those fraudster telekeneticists like you sometimes see at fairs or carnivals who can 'mysteriously' bend a spoon with their thoughts alone.
Vicky's sparkling gaze of near worship was almost too much for me to bear as she glanced all about, looking like a puppy searching for his ball after you'd faked throwing it and hid it behind your back instead. And Maria? Maria wasn't any damn better. The look of expectant… hope, I guess? … that was splashed across her face was so intense it almost made me want to cry.
Come on! Come on! Come on, you stupid ass blue dot! Closing my eyes, my face turned red and I farted, I strained so hard to feel that SOMETHING once again. Stupid. Stupid. Stupid idea to mention it without more practice. Without seeing if it was just a one-off experience. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! What if it was just some reflection of a light in my…
"Oooohhhh…" Vicky's oohing drew me instantly out of my thoughts.
"Wha… What is *that*!!" Maria's almost breathless exclamation forced me to open my eyes to see what she was talking about.
The blue dot!! It was back, and it was still a shimmering thin line! Almost a half-inch thick, solid blue line, that hung mysteriously about two feet to the right of Vicky's face.
"That," I told Maria proudly, "is my personal magic. I think," I added uncertainly. "I'm guessing," I told her hesitantly, "that it's like a crack between worlds. A doorway, of sorts, if you will, which I can use to travel back and forth to that other world I dreamed about." At least, that's what I hoped it was, according to what I'd been thinking about back at the pond when Davy told us his story.
"Well make it bigger," Maria demanded imperiously, while Vicky reached out, eyes full of wonder, to feel it…
"WASSAAAIITT!" Panicking, I quickly grabbed Vicky's shoulders and pulled her back away from the object, while biting my tongue in the process. "OWWW!! Samn sit!" The bitter, copper taste of blood in my mouth had me sticking out my tongue and trying to ask, "Sow sis sit? Siz sit sad?"
"OH! My poor baby Master! That looks terrible!" Vicky's words made my heart tremble, as my mind instantly imagined the tip of my tongue bitten completely off. "I'd better fix that," she exclaimed brightly, leaning forward to unceremoniously shove her tongue down my throat!
"PHHAWW!!" Finally pulling her lips back contentedly from mine, Vicky giggled happily and explained, "A little spit will fix that!"
Damn horny little vixen! She'd almost scared me out of my wits!! It was then, at that exact moment, when I realized that I was going to have to train some proper sense and control in her soon!
Uncaring about what we were doing, the crack just sat there and remained hovering in the air beside us.
Two hours and a raging headache later, I felt like I was going to die. The *crack* between worlds, for lack of a better name for it, was now about a foot long and all of about two inches thick. And so far, I've only learned one irrefutable fact — growing the line wider takes time with my current skill level, but not that much true effort. Think of it much like trying to take a magic marker (Haha — MAGIC MARKER!!) and blot one dot at a time on the page that is reality.
Dot — .
Dot — ..
Dot — …
Dot — ….
A dozen Dots later — ...…
See how all those dots form together to create a single line? It's nothing very complicated to do — even a Nobody like me can dot a line on reality, after all — but it's tedious and time consuming.
Where the real problem and strain comes is when you suddenly decide to create whole rows of dots at a time! The effort doesn't just double, it increases exponentially!!
Let me illustrate simply:
...….. — This represents our starting line of sequential dots in reality.
... — Here, I just created a second row of dots. That's not two dots; it's dozens of them!!
And that's why all I've succeeded in creating so far is my foot long row of sequential dots, and only a two inch thickness of rows!!
And now, let me tell you, my ass is whipped! My whole body is drenched in sweat. My heart is pounding and throbbing in my chest. My head feels like it's about ready to explode. My stomach feels empty and is gurgling relentlessly for me to shove food in it, but even my jaws hurt so damn much, it's beyond my will to even chew or swallow to fill it.
Honestly, I think I'd have to get to feeling better, before I could even enjoy the sweet release of death right now!! Whatever fucking author decided that "using magic just made you a little fatigued", like most of the fantasy story tropes use, should have his pecker eaten off by a hoard of hungry chickens! I'm not just damn tired — I feel like I'm on the verge of a massive heart attack, stroke, and embolism all at the same time!
All the shit I can do right now is just sit here on the couch, curl up in a fetal position, and pray to any gods in this world or the next one, that I'll somehow faint soon and maybe feel better when — IF — I ever wake up again!