Her words broke through the barrier I tried to keep up between us. It happened every time she was feeling a particularly strong … emotion, if that’s what you could call them. With effort, I rebuilt the wall between us. It was imperative that I didn’t have her voice in my head all the time. For my own sanity.
Terrance turned to face the fire, staring at it for a moment.
“Is that all you can do?” He sounded almost bored, and I could understand that.
The fire thing was old news: everyone had seen me create flames multiple times. The house rocking on its foundation was a little newer, but I hadn’t actually intended to do that, so it was less of a skill and more of an accident.
The panteras had told me to visualise what I wanted and that the key to using my energy was to visualise and practice. I was getting better at it, despite my current demonstration. Unfortunately, I had been put on the spot and the fire thing was my fallback. Annoyance roiled inside of me; it was frustrating that I was always having to prove myself to gods. Turning to Terrance, I attempted to envisage something a little more impressive, but Donald’s words continued to break into my thoughts.
Disgusting food. Bad food. Must fetch more appealing mudhog. Need mudhog. Better mudhog. Two mudhogs!
The warmth inside my body increased; the swirl of energy that usually existed low in my centre rose, filling me and bursting from every part of my body. I didn’t glow like Cyrus; there was no white light, but there was power. I had no idea what to expect, because Donald’s inner tirade had banished all of my concentration, so I peeled my eyes open with a heavy dose of trepidation. I let out a shocked squeak as Terrance seemed to dissolve in on himself. Nothing was left except a pair of pants, some leathers, and a sizable lump beneath his clothing—though it wasn’t big enough to be his entire body.
A much louder screech distracted me and I jumped a few feet—mostly because it hadn’t come from the pants, but from across the room where Donald had been standing. She was now striding toward us withtwomudhogs on leads.
“Donald?” I asked, blinking at her. “What are you doing?”
Delicious mudhogs. Not disgusting food.
I realised, just as the lump beneath the pile of Terrance’s clothing began to squirm frantically, exactly what had happened. The mudhogs Donald was dragging were both the same size as the clothing-covered lump.
Terrance sprung up after finally finding an opening in his clothes, and the small, wrinkly-skinned creature looked both confused and frantic as his hoofed feet tried to gain traction on the smooth marble. In the same instant, Donald’s two mudhogs suddenly sprang into action.
Shit.
