Wizardness

Tobias staggered to the barrack. His breath was ragged. He was the last one to enter the clearing. Each of the fist members was winded, but Tobias was breathing the heaviest. He wheezed as he limped to a stop. He unshouldered his bow and then swung his maul off his back. He felt his shoulders spring up with the drop in weight. His breath came easier. He leaned on the long handle of the maul. He ignored the indignant cries of his weapons.
“Form up Fist!”
Tobias dragged his eyes up to the voice. It was Lee’s voice, of course. The smug ass with his comb over and squinting eyes. Tobias glared daggers at the man, but did as commanded.
The maul felt like it weighed 200 pounds. His shoulder cried in protest. He pulled the bow over his shoulder as he fell in, last again.
“Each of you has a task you will need to do before you are allowed lunch.” He gestured behind them.
Tobias turned, his eyes fell to a pile of wood. He glanced towards the rest of the fist. Groans rang out from each.
“Well, Epsilon, let’s get to it. Lunch won’t get here earlier.” Tobias half heartedly called.
“Shut the fuck up. I got a fucking tree here.” Giggles cried.
“Yea, I got a couple trees’ worth of logs to split.”
Tobias stepped forward. He leaned his bow against a tree and placed his quiver next to that. He took of his shirt and walked to the pile. He searched for a splitter.
“Are you looking for a splitter, young man?” Draganvil spoke in his mind.
“Yes.”
“You merely need to ask and I can bend into many useful shapes.”
“Can you transform into a splitting maul?”
“Sure. Now will it.” the maul cheerily replied.
“Will it?”
“Yes. Obviously.”
Tobias rubbed his face and blew out a breath. “Will it. Willit, Wilt.” Tobias shook his head. He stared at the maul and envisioned the head as a splitting maul.
“You must be more serious than that!” Draganvil laughed.
Tobias glanced about nervously. The rest of the fist seemed to be staring at their weapons too.
He got back to staring too. He focused. Imagined the maul sliding into the shape he wanted. He’d see it start to quiver, then he’d slightly change the image and the maul would stop, then start again.
Tobias closed his eyes and remembered the maul he used to use. It was a brutal ugly thing. The blade was battered, moderately rusty, and with chips along the edge. They’d gotten it from the family of a farmer, who’d recently died.
Tobias remembered his mother forcing him to hone the blade and oil the maul to remove the rust. He’d never done a great job at it, but it looked serviceable and worked well enough.
Tobias opened his eyes and Draganvil had turned into a much larger version of that. Tobias started and the maul reverted.
“Really?” Draganvil scoffed. Tobias could hear the shudder in the weapon’s voice.
“What?”
“Such an ugly tool. Can’t you think of anything better? I’m a beautiful weapon of war and you turned me into that?”
Tobias tried again. He imagined what he thought he could do to that old maul. Start with cleaning it. Really cleaning it. Then adding decorations, using a branding iron to add details.
Eventually, Tobias opened his eyes. That maul looked back at him. It was a work of art. It was a work of art not a tool. Sap would get into that fine art work on the side and get a huge pain to remove.
Tobias let the maul revert. He glanced about. Plain, unsurprisingly was busy using his staff. Dar’Kid wasn’t anywhere to be seen.
Red was on her knees yelling at her weapon. Raven was flicking her fencing blade about. Giggles was maddly giggling as he was hacking away at the tree. As if he was killing someone.
Tobias shuddered. He walked to the logs and got set up. There was a stump he could use to raise the log he was splitting just a bit. He placed the head of Draganvil in the middle of that and set his feet. He tried to gingerly test a swing, but found, he couldn’t stop the downward momentum. His back wrenched as he tried to check the swing. He got pulled off balance and when Draganvil hit, his fingers were jarred.
Tobias let go of the maul and fell to the side. He laid there for a moment. He stared at the sky.
“Fuck me.” he breathed.
He stood and stretched his back. He rubbed his side and grabbed a log. He shook his hands to stop the tingling. He reset his feet and put the maul into the center of the log. He shuffled his feet to get the distance correct.
He swung the maul around and imagined that beat up maul. He held that in his mind as he swung.
The maul crashed into the log. Leaving a huge dent into the top. The log shot to the right while the maul skittered off to the left. The handle fell from senseless hands.
Tobias screamed in pain. He fell down. He stared at his hands as he shook them out. Trying to get feeling back into them. The numbness radiated up into his elbow while above that was fiery pain. His shoulders screamed at him. The fire slowly drifted down to his elbow and down his forearms, then to his wrist. Finally his fingers.
Tobais swore. He didn’t know if the pain or the numbness was worse. Eventually the fire faded from his hands, though that was replaced with a dull ache.
Tobias put the log back up on the splitting area. He reached for Draganvil.
“I told you, I deserve to look good. I’m a work of art.”
Tobias grunted. He glared at the weapon, “Fine.”
He positioned himself. He imagined a delicate maul. One that a blacksmith would use to show off his ability to make the finest things. It was more like a rich noble child’s splitting maul. An award for helping the lessers.
Tobias swung. He felt the head of the maul deform the shaft flung away from the head. Tobias staggered back. Splinters were stuck into his leg. The maul head was deformed and cracked on the log.
“What DID YOU DO TO ME?” Cried Draganvil.
“You wanted pretty. You wanted art.”
“FIX ME! I’m Dying!”
“How?”
“Put me back together.”
Tobias grabbed the pieces and did his best to put the shaft back against the other half. He found as many splinters as he could. Many of which were covered in his blood. He piled those onto the shaft. He squeezed the pieces together.
He imagined Draganvil as he’d first seen it. A massive daunting weapon. One that radiated power, brutality, and weight. A solid weapon. One that would never break. One that could break anything it hit.
“Thank you.”
Tobias opened his eyes. Draganvil was whole again. There was a line of red running around where the break had been. Tobias’s contribution, it seemed, was permanent.
“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have imagined something so… flimsy.”
“I was expecting your arms to break when I refused to cut through the log. I think your spark prevented that. I think it pushed back against me.”
“Asshole.”
“Fine. I’ll be that ugly brutal splitting maul.”
Tobias stood and got back into position. He imagined the best looking brand new splitting maul. One that a blacksmith would make for his lord’s staff. It was still plain, but the weighted part was embossed with the winged star. The handle was beautiful and would last for ages.
Tobias felt Draganvil smile as it crashed through the log.
They quickly fell into a routine. Set up, transform, swing, repeat. though each time through got slower and slower. Eventually Tobias collapsed and sat next to his pile of split wood.
He looked at his hands. Blisters were everywhere. They were pusy and weeping blood. They didn’t hurt, though. They hadn’t impeded his ability to work. He rubbed his left thumb along the right hand’s palm. The skin sloughed away. Not just the blister, but the rest of the flesh. There was something hard underneath the skin.
Tobias screamed in horror. The skin kept pulling away. He felt the skin deglove from his fingers. He turned away and retched. He sobbed as he looked at his right hand. Instead of the bloody mess he was expecting, he found a dull metallic skin. He could feel the finger prints on his finger tips. He rubbed his palm again. It was warm to the touch. It felt more solid than his hand had before, but didn’t feel like he’d turned into a metal Golem, just that his skin was silver.
He looked at his left hand. He saw silvery skin under a torn blister. Tobias shuddered. He shook his hand involuntarily and the skin peeled away. Tobias swallowed and pulled the skin away. After a moment, he realized, it felt like pulling away the skin from a sun burn. It wasn’t uncomfortable, but certainly wasn’t pleasant.
Tobias gingerly reached over to Draganvil. He felt a shock. A tingle. He wrapped his right hand around Draganvil’s handle, a surge of power stunned Tobias. The exhaustion in his muscles was gone.
He hopped up and started splitting more logs. Each time, he could see a flash as he swung the maul down. His hands caught the sun.
“Fist Form up!” Commander Lee suddenly bellowed.
Tobias was the first to arrive. He fell in while waiting for the rest.
Each seemed to carry themselves differently. Dar’Kid seemed to float as he stood. Plain looked like he was rooted to the ground. Red’s steps shook the earth. Raven danced across the field. Finally, and perhaps most shocking, Giggles’ face seemed clear. No madness.
“I see today’s training was successful. Each of you has unlocked some part of your spark. Good. Now pair up. You’re going to learn how to fight.”
Tobias paired up with Plain, since they seemed most even in size. He set himself in a ready pose. His shoulder squared, his feet about shoulder width apart. While Plain, on the other hand, stood at rest across from him. Arms loosely holding his staff and feet much too close.
“Alright, those of you on my right swing at your fistmates across from you. A simple overhead swing.” Lee ordered.
Tobias glanced at Lee, he was on the left. So he readied himself. He nodded at Plain.
Plain gave him a confused looked, “I’m supposed to hit you on the head?”
Tobias shook his head, “No see.” He gestured at Raven and Red. “See, Red is swinging towards Raven, hard, but Raven is blocking with her weapon.”
Plain nodded, “But I will hit you on the head.”
Tobias grinned, “You won’t. How about this. You swing at the shaft of my maul?”
He lifted the weapon. Despite his new found vigor, it was a heavy lopsided weapon. He envisioned the shaft iron-bound and unbreakable. Tobias staggered as Draganvil grew denser.
It was then Plain struck. He swung with his full might. Tobias’ wrists shattered, both bones in his forearms tore through the skin. His shoulders popped loose. The head of the maul rotated swinging the staff off to the right. Narrowly missing Tobias’ head. The staff slammed into his fingers and stopped. Then his knees blew out and his feet shattered.
He blacked out then.