Take My Hand

I crossed my arms, waiting for an explanation. It took Karla a second to realize what I was waiting for.

She sighed, "I don't know what else there is to explain really. Ask questions and I'll try and answer them as best as I can."

I crossed over to the dining room table, sitting in a chair and gesturing for her to sit across from me. "Well, I guess we can start with something I hope is simple. What the heck is an actual witch? Is it different from what you see in fairy tales?"

Karla smiled, "Well, do you consider yourself to be like the witch's in fairy tales? We are completely human, except in one aspect. We can use magic, without a wand mind you."

"What kind of magic?"

"Well, pretty much anything. Although, everyone has something they are especially good at. Like me,for example, I'm good at teleportation, but horrible at anything to do with the elements."

"how do you find out what your good at?"

"Experimentation. For some people it takes hours to find out what they're good at, and others, years. The process usually begins when the young witch/wizard turns 13, but you are a special case. I was actually hoping we could start right now though."

I frowned, thinking about it, "Sure, why not. How do we begin." I figured the best way to see if she was telling the truth or not was to do what she said, until nothing happened, and I found out there is no such thing as magic, and this lady was crazy.

Her smile grew, obviously pleased by my answer. "First, let's try lighting a fire in the fire place over there. Focus on the logs, and just think about what you want to happen.

I did what she said, no sooner than the thought of fire crossed my mind did the logs set ablaze. I looked at them, shocked.

Karla looked a little shocked as well. "In all of my years as a witch, I've never seen anyone get it on the first try."

I felt oddly proud at her words, but at the same time, I knew it could have just been beginner's luck. Beginner's luck is something I've always had a lot of.

"Try something else," Karla smiled.

"Like what?" I replied, slightly more excited then I should probably be.

"Hmm... try levitating that feather in the corner."

I looked to where she was pointing, sure enough, there was a large black feather sitting in the far corner. I focused on it, and again, as soon as I thought about it, the feather floated up to the ceiling. I was even more excited now.

Karla still looked happily surprised. "Okay, now for something harder. Think of an object, any object. Although, if you can, make it a weapon that you know how to use, and teleport it here. If you are as smart as I think you are, you'll be able to figure out how.

I thought for a second. I had a sword, that is sharpened but I never use, hanging on my bedroom wall. I learned how to fight with a sword while going through a huge fantasy phase. I mean books, RPGs, If it was related to the fantasy genre, I was into it.

I thought about having the sword, in it's sheath, in my hand right now. Holding out my hand, it appeared there, looking exactly how it should. Pulling it out of it's sheath, I realized just how sharp it actually was. I knew they sharpened it, but not that they did it that well. I stood, sliding the sword back and tying it to my belt.

I looked up at Karla, who was giving me an incredulous look. "What?" I asked, wondering what the big deal was, I thought all witches could do this.

"I've never seen anyone as good at magic right off the bat as you are. I gave you something rather difficult for quite a few people, expecting you to fail, and you got it immediately. Plus, I didn't know you knew how to fight with a sword."

"I thought you've been monitoring my life constantly since I was born."

"Yes, but we had month long shifts, you must have learned during my 2 months off. Apparently no one thought it important enough to report on."

"Anyway, what do you mean you expected me to fail? Why did you tell me to try then?"

"I needed to find a starting point, and you already had fire and levitation down. I wanted to try teleportation, which you are pretty good at also. However, what we are about to do, I don't want to trust to a novice, so I will handle this one."

Karla grabbed my hand.

"When I say 3, start running forward, don't stop until I do."

I looked into her warm auburn eyes and nodded, a lock of hair falling in front of my eyes.

"1...2...3!"

I sprinted forward, perfectly in step with her, who, for some reason unknown to me, I trusted completely, despite her ludicrous story.

"Close your eyes" she yelled, somehow softly. I closed them,and felt a small pressure for a split second while I continued to run. We stopped abruptly, right after the pressure ceased. "You may open your eyes now," she whispered in my ear.

My eyes opened slowly, adjusting to the new found light. I looked around at all the vivid colors.

I'd been taken to the most beautiful place I'd ever seen.