Circles and Triangles

Jyirah and Veltar had brought the once-thought dead body into the tunnels so that Metas and Myranda could keep their privacy.

Luckily, they had a newly emptied shared den since Vincent had helped them dig tunnels and homes for everyone. They could sit and talk without disturbing anyone - or so they thought as Joss came to the trio with an excited look on his face. "Jyr - Jyr come look at th--" the silver 'fox' of a male ceased his words immediately as he saw the odd scene in front of him.

"What...?" Joss started and took a step back.

"Hey, handsome," the shorter half greeted as the love of his life came through one of the tunnel's opening bounding towards them like am excited child whose dreams died on Christmas morning.

"Who?" the taller of the two returned before the old man let out a small laugh to cut him off.

"This is Jhinto, he's a mage from the mountain. He's the one who delivered those books. What'd you find that has you all excited?" Jyriah answered and tried to get his mate back into the good mood he walked in with.

"Oh - that, yes! So, I was angry at first because I can't read human script, so I thought the human book was useless. I gave up for a bit and went back to the runes book, and I noticed something. The humans used the same shapes we do for their bomb-building, just not with runes. Look, look-" Joss continued excitedly and used his paw to show what he meant.

First, he drew a large circle, and then inside of it a smaller one with about 2 inches of space in between them. He scrawled some of the same symbols he saw for the element 'fire', and then filled out the center with an obtuse triangle that connected to the inner, smaller circle.

"This is just a small fire," Joss started and then put his paw into the center of the spell he had drawn and in response, the design crumbled into itself with the very dirt it was written on and once the runes were fully 'dissolved' a tiny fire erupted.

"Woah." Both Veltar and Jyriah said at the same time. No one had ever seen real magic before in the tunnels.

While the upper crust enjoyed magical shows and displays for parties, those below thought of magic as...well... magic. It was unexplainable, probably not real, and as long as things worked, no one asked how or why. They were too busy trying to not get dragged into the tunnels to care about how a stone worked.

"Now watch this," Joss continued and kicked loose dirt onto the fire he created so he could start anew.

He did the exact same thing with the circles as last time, but instead of the obtuse, he went with a right triangle that didn't connect to the rings, and once more he put his paw on it.

Right before their eyes, the soil seemed to 'bubble' like it was boiling, and crawled into itself like a rocky landslide taking place around a crater all at once. At the epicenter, the runes bubbled into the earth and then immediately a small explosion burst where the frothy earth had just disappeared.

"Yah!"

"What the fuck!?"

Both Veltar and Jyriah said at the same time as they recoiled slightly. Jhinto just sat and watched with a proud smile as though he had taught the young wolf himself.

"Depending on how you draw these triangles, it how the element will respond. Looklooklook," the silver haired wolf went on like a little child who had discovered something new to show its parents.

"If I add the water sigil here next to the fire one, and use that same triangle as before, but also connect it with water, it makes..." he trailed off and put his paw on the center again, and the reaction was so weird looking, it was hard not to recoil.

Just as the other two runes, this one reacted with the soil - but it made it... thin...like rising grass through loam. It was creepy, and it looked like something was reaching out to crap them. Instead, the lines disappeared into one another and in their place, a stream of steam puffed up into the air.

Joss couldn't help but pant with delight and look around the room with wide orange eyes that screamed, 'tada'.

"You did all of this.... in two hours?" Veltar questioned with disbelief.

"Yeah, I just played around with them and I'm so excited to see what else I can make. I don't think I'll be able to sleep at this rate, I'm too filled with adrenaline," Joss replied, and was literally quaking in his paws.

"The humans didn't believe in magic when they first built things," Jhinto cut in as though he were a teacher leading a class. "They got magic half-right with mathematics, that's what the other book is that you couldn't understand. All you need to know is the shapes, the elements, and how to use both together. Once they figured that out after the first unicorn was discovered, everything fell into chaos. They destroyed so much...." he continued with a soft sigh.

"As soon as they discovered that Plutonium worked very well as a volatile substance," the mage paused as he read their confused faces, and continued patiently with a smile.

"Volatile means reacts violently."

Once the three males nodded in understanding, the patient teacher continued, "when they figured out how to use their run-off for magical purposes, the Great War began against man and magical. While they destroyed everything in their path, they did figure out many things we know to avoid....like the arsenal Harbinger is prepared to use. We need to figure out how to cancel that out, or at the very least - a powerful protection spell. That's why I brought you those books, young one."

"M-me?" Joss asked.

"Yes, you. The silver haired wolf with the eyes like the sun. They were specific when we spoke in my dreams," Jhinto replied with a sagely nod.

"They?"

"The Goddesses of course," the mage said proudly, even though all three of the young ones had gaping faces that had a mix of blasphemy and disbelief.