MAGIC

It's been three months, and Rex finally cracked. "Hey Gin, you there?"

"Always. How can I help you, this late at night?"

"How long before a baby could walk?"

"Well, if you grew up like a normal baby, on average, a baby will usually began walking at the age of eight to nine months. So, only six more months to go Rex?"

"Damn! Six more months? It's too long. I'm boreddd."

"I'm so sorry Rex. I would carry you if I could, but I only existed in your head."

"Hehe no it's okay. Thanks anyway. Guess it's back to tossing and turning again."

"I feel bad for you, Rex. That being said, I am also trapped in your head. So, we're kind of two peas in a pod. Quite literally."

"Hahaha, true. You are indeed a wise one, Gin."

"I should hope so. There's a world's worth of knowledge inside of me. If that didn't make me wise, then I'm beyond hope." They both laughed together, and then, Rex felt like Gin had an epiphany or something. "I know. You could read a bedtime story."

"Hmmm, that might be fun. Are those from my world, or this one?"

"This one of course. I think you're already bored with fairy tales from your world."

"Hehehe, right again my friend. Come on, let's see them."

Inside his head, a list of fairy tales titles suddenly appeared. Rex flipped through them, like us on our Netflix account, searching for titles that caught his interest. Finally he found it, but not for reading though.

"Hey Gin, this story, Moon Baby, what's this about?"

"Oh, it's quite a sad one. It's about a child with uncontrollable magic energy. The baby floated all the way to the moon. It's a made up story, but the moral of the story stuck around."

"Moral? What's the moral of this kind of story?"

"That one should not learn magic without the supervision of the church."

"Aha, so it's kind of a church propaganda."

"Yup, and it is effective. No child dared to learn and explore magic on their own. Which meant that no one will have more powerful magic power than the church."

"Huh. Neat. Well…can I use magic right now?"

"If you have enough magic power, sure."

"Well…how do I know?"

"Maybe try the first magic they taught at the Holy Academy. Body Strengthening."

Rex's big eyes gleamed with excitement. "Okay, I'm ready. What do I do first?"

"Okay. First, close your eyes, and spread your arms and legs like a starfish."

"Weird, but okay." Rex reluctantly did as he was told. "Now what?"

"So, this is taken verbatim from the church's lecture alright? Imagine, a night. It was cold, it was pitch black, it was silent. Can you do that?"

Rex nodded.

"Good, now imagine warmth. From within. Like the sunrise, but coming from the inside of your body."

"Oooo…kayyy?"

"Just try it Rex. This was a proven method."

"Fine, fine." Rex continue focussing. Imagining the darkness, then the warmth at the centre of his body. Soon, he felt something. It was pulsating. It was like his heart, but instead of the beating of muscles and blood, it was something else. Something foreign to him. "I think I felt it. Magic."

"Wow, great. Now, direct the warmth you felt, so that it enveloped your entire body. Kind of like wearing a full body armour. Or like putting on another layer of skin."

Rex did just that. The warmth travelled through his entire body like a virus, or antibody. It permeated every inch of his skin, every cell in his body. "Done. Now what?"

"Well, it's called Body Strengthening Rex. To them, they became stronger, faster, tougher to attacks. To a baby like you, perhaps you could learn to walk a little faster than most babies."

Rex smacked his lips. "I don't know why, but I sensed an annoying mocking tone coming from you."

"Oh you can tell. Mockery is indeed a sign of intelligence. You can say bad things straight to one's face, and be entertaining to both."

"Yeah, yeah. It's not that entertaining." Rex sucked up air in his chest. "Here I go. My first step."

It was not. He can't even stand up. He tried pulling himself up, but just fell flat on his ass. Worse thing is, he could hear Gin laughing at her. It literally was echoing in his head.

"You enjoying yourself in there?" Rex asked, annoyed.

"Awhh, so sorry Rex. It was just too darn cute. And sooo funny."

"Okay, that's enough of that. It didn't work Gin."

"I know. I'm sorry Rex. You just don't have enough magic power to do it yet. It's not something you can force. But hey, you have felt the magic. I'm sure, with enough practice, you'll be using magic in no time."

She was right. There's no use forcing this. And he IS a baby. Maybe some things needed to be followed in its due course.

But the scientist side of Rex just can't let things go. He thought that maybe he needed to understand more. Thankfully, to Naika, he had the entire knowledge in his brain.

"Hey Gin, what actually is magic?"

Lists of topics concerning magic appeared before Rex's eyes. A matrix sequence of topics later, Gin answered. "According to the teaching of the church, magic is the gift from God. Like air. Magic is evidence of God's love to His fellow subjects."

"Oh, deary me. You sounded like a preacher just now Gin. That sounded good and all, but what IS magic?"

"Hmmm, well the closest definition I could give you about magic, without relying on substance from the church, is connection."

"Wow, I can't believe the church's explanation sounded less bullshit than this."

"Heyyy, I'm trying here. Would you please let me finish?"

"Okay, okay. I'm sorry alright? Please, O great Gin, do continue."

"That's better. Where was I? Oh right. THe connection. Okay question. How do you move your arm?"

Rex moved his pudgy baby arms around. "Simple. I told my brain to send the command to my arm. The nervous system sends the command from my brain to my arms and, TADAA! Arms moved."

"That's the connection I'm talking about. The human's nervous system you learnt in your world, is basically the connection. the magic. Imagine right, you extending the command system of your nerves, to…that chair over there. And then, your brain told the chair to move. So it did. Hence, magic."

"Oh wow. That is so much easier to understand. May I give it a try again?"

"Sure, but be careful. Magic power is not limited. Used to much, and your brain will be fried."

"Wow, okay. Thanks for the heads up."

Rex thought about moving the chair, but he did not think that the nervous system of the magic could reach that distance yet. So he decided to try Body Strengthening first.

He did as before. Eyes closed, hands and feet in starfish's position, and began to feel the magic within him again.

He felt it, welling within him. As he slowly gathered the magic around him into his core, he tried to imagine the magic. Turning it into his nervous system. Or perhaps, an imagery of one. He imagined the nervous system like roots to a tree. Then he imagined the roots to surround every inch of his body. When he felt that the roots have covered his entire being, he tried again to get up.

"I DID IT! I DID IT GIN! I STOOD UP!"

As he finished saying those sentences, his feet gave way again. He fell back on his ass. "Man, I stood up. But it only lasted a few seconds. WHY?"

"Of course Rex. You don't have enough magic yet. You can barely use Body Strengthening without depleting your magic."

"There's a limit to my magic power? I thought that it was all depending on my imagination?"

"That's only half true. Your imagination lets you to use the magic. But your magic reserve is too low. It's normal for a baby your age. It's like you right now, learning how to walk. You know how to walk, you just don't have the leg muscle to actually walk on your own yet."

"Damn, and I was so close too. Is there any way for me to increase my magic reserve?"

"Well, there's two ways. Both, you would not like. Because you are an impatient man."

"Well, I'm all ears. However hurtful that comment is."

"Hehe, it's only the truth Rex. Anyway, the first is to just let you grow a bit. By the time you are seven years old, you would walk in the classroom with a usable magic reserve."

"Pffft! Pass. What's the second one?"

"The second one also takes time. But it was more fun."

"What is it. Show me then."

"The second one involved training. You will train on how to use your magic. Magic is like muscles. The more you train em, the bigger they got."

"Very good then. Sign me up for that."