Chapter 32

Livin' La Vida Magica

"You did very well, Kelso." KC congratulated her friend.

"That was...Wow!" Kel babbled. "Amazing, wondrous, spectacular..."

"Uh-huh!" KC nodded. "You probably have a million questions, but first we eat. _Then_we talk." Kacy advised, leading the nascent sorceress to the patio and sitting her down at the outdoor table. "I have a venison steak to grill for you, so sit and relax, have something to drink. Here, try this." She poured Kel a tall glass from a pitcher set out by Gwen.

"Oh that's good! What _is_it?" Kel asked, surprised at how her body craved it.

"It's Switchel, a post-circle energizer. It's a mix of honey, Apple cider vinegar, cardamom, Ginger, fresh mint and spring water. It helps restore what you burn between the worlds." KC poured herself a glass. "Think of it as magical Gatorade." She said, patting Kel on the back.

"It's wonderful!" Kel gushed. The amber liquid seemed to infuse her being with what it needed. KC brought out a tray of steaks, laying them on the grill. They sizzled tantalizingly and as the aroma wafted to her nose, Kel thought that her stomach would leap from her body and attack the grill on its own accord. Gwen joined Kel at the table and poured herself a glass of Switchel. "How are you feeling, Amanda?" Her eyes seemed to possess a hint of that unearthly glow as she smiled.

"I--I--I, oh WOW, I feel so, so..._alive!_Is it _always_like this?"

"The feeling of energy flowing through you? Pretty much. But remember, you have just been infused, so it's bound to feel a bit more intense."

"The first three things I'm going to teach you are grounding, shielding and drawing power within yourself. For without s_hielding_, it sometimes feels like you are walking around after someone has skinned you alive...you are a bit sensitive to energy fields. Shielding keeps it from over-amping your system." Gwen explained. Kel felt as if she was plugged into a 440 Volt high-tension line, so she could relate to what the skunk was saying.

"Grounding is the ability to dump excess energy safely into the earth, and drawing power is pulling it back into you from the earth. There are other ways to store and obtain energy, but those we will go into later." Kel just nodded. "It's all so _amazing!"_She felt like a Kit in a candy store.

"Uh-huh. Okay, let's try a little experiment, shall we?" Gwen smiled at her new apprentice.

"Sure Gwen--what do you want me to do?" Kel asked, polishing off her glass of Switchel.

"Place your paws together, and let's see what happens." Doing so, Kel almost immediately felt her palms getting very warm, as if someone dropped a hot coal from the BBQ.

"Yelp! Hot!" Kel exclaimed, puffing on her paws to cool them off.

"Believe it or not, that's a _good_sign. It means your energy centers have opened up." Kel looked confused as Gwen held up a finger. "Okay, think of it this way...When you add energy to water, the molecules start to move faster, and it gets hot, yes?" Kel nodded slowly. "Ookay." "Now, you have energy centers throughout your body, some folks call them chakras."

"Oh, right. I've heard of them." Kel commented.

"Right. Well, you have them in the palms of your paws. When you placed them together, the energy had no place to go and so it builds up heat. Now, try this..."

Gwen held her paws in front of her, palms facing in about a foot apart. Kel mirrored her.

"Now, slowly bring your paws together. Stop when you feel something, heat or resistance." A look of shock registered on Kel's face as her paws halted about six inches apart. "Weird." Kel whispered. "It's kinda like there's something there, pushing against my paws, kinda like a balloon."

"Good." Gwen nodded. "Now, try and compress it." The harder Kel pushed the stronger the resistance became.

"Oh,WOW,_this is weird... I _can't...It's pushing back!" Kel yelped.

"Okay, now try twisting your paws side to side, kind of like the way you would make a snowball. Smooth is into a ball..."

"Whoa... It--it feels like silk sliding over my paws!"

"Spread your fingers and keep at it, pause when it seems compact and smooth." Gwen grinned at her new student, this part was always fun.

"Okay...got it." Kel announced, a look of concentration on her face.

"Good. What you hold in your paws is an empty energy sphere. Now, take some of that energy you feel coursing through you and place it into the ball in your paws."

The space between Kel's paws started to take on a subtle blue glow, the vixen's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh wow..." Kel whispered.

"Very good. Now, try exhaling some more energy, into the space between your paws. Blow the energy into it." Gwen said softly as Kel inhaled, and then blew between her paws in one long breath. The ball got noticeably brighter! It was starting to cast shadows from her paws onto the table. "Ooh, this_is soo_COOL!" Kel grinned in excitement.

"How does it feel, Amanda?"

"Slightly warm, pleasantly so." Kel beamed in wonder.

"Okay, now try and compress it a little, say a third it's size." Gwen added.

Kel slowly moved her paws closer--the sphere glowed much brighter.

"Oh, she's _good."_KC said softly nudging me as we tended the Bar-b-que; I turned and saw Kel sitting at the table with Gwen, a bright blue sphere held between her paws. All the while, a look of wonder painted on her face. "Oh, I'll say, She's a natural all right." I agreed.

"Now," Gwen said. "You are probably wondering what to _do_with that?"

"Oh, um...Yeah, actually." Kel blushed a bit.

"Okay, you have a few options. You can press it to your chest, reabsorbing it, or you can press it into the grass, releasing it into the earth, grounding it. You can infuse a potion or stone talisman, storing it for later use, but that will come later when we cover Amulets, Talismans and potions. Right now, I would suggest you either reabsorb it or ground it out." Gwen smiled very pleased with Amanda's progress. Kel nodded, then slowly brought the orb to her chest and the sphere melted into her, She inhaled deeply as the energy infused her once more.

"Whew, that was neat!_Thanks Gwen." A moment later KC set a wonderfully thick venison steak smothered in sautéed wild mushrooms before each of the two Sorceresses. "Oh KC!" Kel exclaimed. "It smells_heavenly!_Thank you, I'm _starved!" I set two more platters down before KC and myself, taking a seat next to my beloved as KC scooted alongside Kel. Kel, for her part, was attacking her steak with a vengeance._"_I was just wondering something Gwen," Kel asked, pausing in the demolition of her steak. "You said that energy ball could be put into things like a potion or talisman and stuff..."

Gwen nodded.

"Cool!" Kel grinned, an idea forming.

"Could I put it into say, an empty glass jar?" The vixen asked. Gwen pondered it a moment.

"I don't see why not, what did you have in mind Amanda?" Kel grinned.

"When I was a kid, we used to catch lightning bugs and put 'em in jars...They'd light up a room at night if you got enough of 'em...also mom used to put up preserves, sayin' it was always good to put something up for later..."

"Oh, I see where you are going with this," Gwen brightened. "Magical energy preserves. I like it." Gwen nodded at Kel. "Create a storehouse of reserve energy, like a 'Mana-pool'. You would need to be cautious as to how you store it, for if one fell and broke, it would go off like a grenade!"

"_Magical Paw Grenades..."_I mused. "...I _like_the sound of that." I was working out the idea in my head, and I had that certain gleam in my eye that my sister knew far too well.

"Well, they aren't Levine bolts, but they could _still_be dangerous, Beloved." Gwen put in.

"Wouldn't they essentially be neutral energy?" KC asked. "And wouldn't they actually _help_an opponent, if they knew how to utilize magical energy in the first place?"

"Good point; didn't think of that." I winced. "_Unless_you could figure out a way to program the energy beforehand?" I added. The gleam was back.

"Don't get any ideas, RICK."_KC Growled. "Or did you forget the time you '_accidentally' blew a chunk out of the back wall of your shop?" I jumped indignantly.

"It_wasn't_a shop, it was my _ Lab _; and it wasn't an accident, not really. Just the unexpected results of an experiment, and it _wasn't_the back wall, it was just a few acoustical ceiling tiles and some Roofing shingles..." I grinned guiltily.

"Oh-my-God, what were you _doing_Rick?" Kel asked, not sure if she really _wanted_to know the answer. I held my paws up, "It was nothing really, just an experiment in energizing water. Okay, I'd heard that if pure water is vibrated at a certain frequency, through a transducer array that it would snap the molecular bonds and transform into energy. I had a quart of pure water sitting in a quartz crucible in the array, and I was slowly bringing up the CPS rating. Well I think it was around forty thousand cycles per second the water started to sparkle. Then it instantaneously transformed into raw plasma and shot straight up through the array and blasted a hole in the roof. It was _COOL._It completely _destroyed_my transducer array, but it was _definitely_cool." I grinned.

"Why in the _world_would you _do_that?" Kel shook her head. "It sounds so dangerous."

"Well, I'd heard a theory that if water molecules were excited fast enough, they would transform into plasma. I just didn't expect _that_violent a reaction. But in hindsight, it was kinda like that time I attempted to laze a stick of dynamite..."

"WHAT?" all three girls squawked.

"Just kidding..." I chuckled. "I couldn't get dynamite until I was twenty one. Besides, it was for a rocket propulsion theory I was working on at the time."

"And you wonder why they kicked you out of the high-boost rocket competition..." KC chuckled, shaking her head.

"Hey now, I did_win the National Science Fair when I was what, _eight?" I shot back at my sister.

"Yes you did. And we were all very_proud of you...my brother the _science geek." KC retorted, giggling with Gwen and Kel. I had to admit; I was a bit obsessed back then.

"That I was, wasn't I?" I laughed. "But I Got Better!" I said in a British accent, bringing on another round of laughter.

My 'Stuffed Buff' Buffalo roulade was succulent, but I had to agree with Kacy, it could have used some crushed red pepper. Finishing off with KC's 'Death-By-Chocolate drops and coffee was the perfect end to a great evening.

Lingering at the dining table, KC and Kel sat long after Gwen and I had called it a night. They nibbled chocolate drops while sipping coffee. For obvious reasons Kel was _way_too keyed up to sleep, even after using the grounding techniques Gwen had showed her, so she sat talking with Kacy.

#