Trying Something New

The hunter lowered his hand, apparently pleased that she remembered, and said,

"For it would have been, let's say, a violation. And it would contaminate… Don't let humans or fairies disrespectfully touch what is yours. Your wand partakes your magic, so it's a very personal item. It's the same if I touched your… hmm," he gestured with his chin, pointing to Eun Ha's chest. Eun Ha instinctively shrunk the area, and shielded her bust with folded arms.

"No way! Gross! Not my boobs!"

"It would be very invasive and offensive to touch a person's private parts, and it is also invasive and offensive to touch another fairy's wand… It's like that." He made a dismissive gesture at her reaction.

"Well, I get it, but is there a reason why it's so, besides that it's a very important and powerful private object?"

That drew a sneer from Eun Ha's tutor. "The wand is an important object to any fairy, but it's not powerful by itself."

The information sounded weird to the young fairy woman, who began to doubt her teacher. Unfortunately he was what she had at hand. "If the wand is not powerful, why is it important? Sorry, I'm not getting it."

He nodded, and took his old scarf from the paper bag, and after making a makeshift cushion of sorts, said: "Put your wand here."

"You make a nest out from a scarf so it is enough to prevent touching my wand?" She asked, intrigued.

He stared blankly at Eun Ha for a moment as he held the rolled-up scarf so she could to put on her wand. Even a bit afraid after the recent information, she did it. The paradigms about her wand have completely changed after the analogy the Hunter made just now. As if reading her thoughts, he said acidly:

"If you had this 7 centimeter thick of clothing between your hmm and my hand, no one in their right mind, and surely I'd ever, think I'm touching your hmm, Jung. The same goes for your wand. That's what I'm talking about."

"Ah… I get it now. It has to be a real touch." She held the shock with another scary analogy involving her boobs. And after it, she found very weird that he wasn't using the word 'breast', or 'boobs'; but just pointing out with his chin and murmuring 'hmm' every time he needs to mention this female's anatomy part. 'Thinking further about it, he didn't need to mention it, now he's making me think of my boobs all the time. Aigoo, why he's so weird?!'

Quickly and possessively she reached for the wand back from the cradle it was in, in the Hunter's cupped hand, but he prevent it by slapping her hand with his free hand. She shrieked in surprise, and immediately withdrew her hand with a resented 'ehhh!'. He took the makeshift cushion and set it carefully on the floor.

"Your precious wand is safe away from the contact of someone else's dirty fingers. Now you do again what you did before."

"That doesn't…"

He silently pointed at the bush, and did a gesture with his head motioning her to start.

"Do it, Jung. At least try. "

Though shocked, Eun Ha was smart enough to understand what he meant. And that was no less fantastic. It was another paradigm emerging like a wall rising out of nowhere in her mind. Should she then be able to do magic without her wand?

"Wow. I'd never think… "

"I know you didn't. Now do it. Show me what you can do without the wand to constrain you."

'Uhn? what did he mean with this?' She, who thought she understood something, was again confused by his words. 'Constrain me?'

But she turned to the bush. And she concentrated to cast the same effect as before. Eun Ha already felt a little awkward about not holding her wand, and drawing arabesques in the air to make things happen. She took a deep breath, trying to summon the magic. She tried to imagine that the power was coming out of her right hand, and a bit self-conscious, reached for the bush. There was no tingling in her arm this time, just a slight heat in her cheeks and neck.

"Hmmmhh!" With a grimace, she forced herself mentally, but it didn't seem like something was going to happen, just that she was contracting several muscles in her body at the same time.

"Professor Shin! I can't! " 'Maybe what I can get is an embarrassing accident if I keep pushing so hard.' the thought crossed her mind.

"FOCUS!" He said in an authoritative voice. "Stop cowering!"

"Let the air out of your lungs!"

"Focus on what you will make!"

" Stop thinking you have a wand."

"Let it expand!"

"Find the heat within you. It's the magic."

"Let the heat grow… Make it grow! "

He was speaking slowly, and Eun Ha began to follow the suggestions. Now that he was naming things in his low, crisp voice, she began to identify "the heat" on her cheeks and head. 'Grow it up? Is he crazy or something? I don't think I should let it... growwww ... '

But she didn't have time to think about it anymore. A powerful lightning-like flash had struck right in her front and involuntarily she opened her eyes. Eun Ha suddenly felt dizzy and hot; the heat of her head and cheeks seeming to reach every inch of her body, boiling and growing, filling her up and making her legs as jelly. Eun Ha felt that her nerve cells were getting imbibed into something that felt like liquid electricity… Her eyes were heavy and her legs light, but she heard a loud crash, and felt the strong twirling wind whip against her body; all sensations at once.

Opening her eyes in astonishment, she saw the shrub growing, cracking up through the soil and the flowerbed with violence; its branches multiplying and splitting into new branches. Its trunk became broad and full, growing in height like a leafy and imposing tree, in full blooming, in front of Eun Ha and her teacher's astonished eyes. It grew high reaching a height of ten feet in a matter of seconds.

She was still feeling hot, recovering from the experience. She was sitting on the floor, feeling unable to get up in the next few minutes. Her legs won't obey her.

The Hunter stopped staring at the tree that metamorphosed before them from a mere bush, and turned to En Ha to say something, but apparently got distracted by watching her reactions after her spellcasting climax.

Eun Ha's gaping gaze shifted to the barely concealed smirk on the other fairy's face. Her teacher finally reached out to help her up.

"You're okay?"

"Ah, I guess so." Eun Ha blushed at his amused gaze, and touched her own face with her palms just to make sure she was as flushed as she felt. 'Damn it! What a shame! I almost pissed myself! It was so strong! What's wrong with me?!'

"Not bad, Jung. Not bad, "he commented, putting her on her feet.

"Did I really make this tree?"

"Wow. That's not what you wanted, right? "He was whistling Eun Ha away with quick steps.

"No, I… No, it wasn't."

"Then you should know what the wand is for."

"Uh… to channel the energy out, like some kind of lightning rod?"

He nodded, returning the fabric with the wand. Eun Ha looked back at her wand with redoubled curiosity.

"So you mean the magic is in me, not in the wand, but that I control the magic better with the wand?"

"That's it, Jung. The wand is, as you said, a lightning rod, an outlet device. It transports magic where you need it. It is a very useful and private object. Because, I think you get it, it can partake from what you are and the magic that's within you."

"I thought of my wand as a prescription eyewear, but I didn't understand it until now. "

"Well, I'd say a wand is like a finger. A finger that you point to when you want things done. But… If you chop your finger off, your heart will keep pumping blood into your body, your brain will keep thinking… And your finger is pretty useless to anyone who finds it. It's only worth something when it's in your hand."

She got shocked.

"Seonsaengnim has pretty weird analogies with body parts."

"Oh really? "He looked legitimately surprised, but didn't seem to mind it anyway.

She still felt breathless and wobbly, so he sat her on a stone bench. "Get some rest, Jung. Then we'll move on to some more practice."

"That kind of thing that happened today… Can I control it? At this intensity? Because… "

"Let's see. It should get better when you start handling your wand the right way. "

"Ah… I wondered if I was doing something right. "

" If I know what you were doing, I can tell you."

"Well, basically… "She diverted her look from his face, rolling the wand on one leg to distract herself as she talked. "I jinx things up. I cause accidents. I mean, little accidents. A poltergeist effect, you know? Things fall, things break, things get lost, spill up, go wrong, etc… Things like that!"

In the ensuing silence, she looked up to ask, looking into the Hunter's face:

"Does that make me a threat?"