Finishing the Sequel

"He turned my father into a clock, too." Makos said, feeling helpless all over again. "We still have him, but we don't know how to change him back."

"We?" Larca asked.

"I have an older brother." Makos explained. "His name's Danos."

"He doesn't have magic like you do?" She asked.

Makos shook his head. "I don't think he would like it anyway."

"Why not?" Larca asked, eyes wide in shock. "Who wouldn't want magic?"

"I don't know." Makos replied. "I think my power makes him nervous. I kind of... break a lot of stuff, and having magic doesn't help me out with that."

(If you have been following along, you may notice some inconsistencies in the story. I am taking advantage, yet again, of the fact that this is my first draft. I can go through it again later from start to end and rewrite parts. Notice that the purpose of this blog is for me to practice writing, so I apologize if any changes make things hard to keep track of, though I will add notes as I go along, like this, if I feel any major changes need to be addressed. I will also be giving spoilers throughout for what I plan to write later in the story. Some may turn out to be false alarms. It all depends on how things go when I get to those parts. Also, as I read, I realize my characters are not acting, or more so talking, their ages. I am considering bumping their ages up in the revisions. Who knows?)

"May I see your powers in person?" Larca asked politely.

Makos shrugged his shoulders. "I guess, but you might want to stand behind me. I don't really know how they work yet."

She moved behind him. Makos set his feet in a sturdy stance and took a deep breath. 'I hope this doesn't go too badly...' He thought, then swung one arm out quickly like he was throwing something sideways.

Nothing happened.

"Hmm." He remembered that his waving had made no ripples when the monsters attacked him. He swung his arms around harder several times, but there was still no magic.

Larca suppressed a giggle.

Makos frowned deeply. He kicked a few times toward a tree just to be sure, but there was no response.

"Are you OK?" Larca asked, hiding a humored tone.

"I did it before." He exclaimed. "It stopped working when the monsters tried to eat me." He studied his hands. Why wasn't it working? He was doing everything like he had before, but it was like the magic had left him.

"Well, that's OK." She said, patting him on the shoulder. "You can always try again later."

"I guess." He agreed.

"Would you take me to your house?" Larca asked. "I want to see these clocks. I think I recognized one."

"You did?" Makos asked. "Sure. We should stop back in town first, though. I left my brother back there and he is probably really worried. I was supposed to meet up with him a while ago." Makos hoped Danos hadn't gone to the police to report him missing. His gut felt like it was twisting into a knot. He turned to face Larca and said, "Now that I think about it, I probably shouldn't go into town."

"Why not?" She asked.

"I'm a wanted criminal." He said through a worried expression.

"You?" She asked, then closed her eyes. She put a hand to her mouth and chuckled quietly. "Oh. I see."

"I'm not really a criminal." He said quickly. "I guess my powers just acted up at the wrong time."

Larca smirked at him. "And you pretending to be a rune knight didn't have anything to do with it, I'm sure."

His face grew red.

Makos didn't respond to that, instead noting, "It's this way."

The two moved through the tall evergreens as the sun disappeared behind the mountains in the distance.

-----------------

Danos glanced  at the horizon. It was getting late. The sun was low in the sky, and it would be dusk in a couple of hours. His focus was broken when a tiny cane poked him in the neck.

"Don't get distracted now." The governor glared up at him from within his shirt pocket. "We must hurry. My bones are aching, which means rain. At this size, a raindrop packs a bit more punch."

"Sorry." Danos said, resisting the urge to look at the clouds.

To Be Continued.

(This is a reminder to myself to include a quirk about Makos' magic. Spolier alert. Don't read if you want to be surprised:

(Highlight this next section if you want to see)
Makos and Danos are going to discover that they both share a portion of magic. Often without warning, it will shift from one of them to the other. The power manifests differently for each of them, too.)