Into the Abyss

“Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it, we all do,” Boggy said sympathetically. “Look on the bright side; at least you’re big and impressive enough so that not many trouble makers will bother you.”

That sparked another question in Tom’s weary mind, “Why, am I so much bigger than you? I mean, what was it that made the people decide I looked like this?”

“What makes any man think the way he does?” Boggy asked philosophically. “However, in your case it’s fairly obvious. As I said when I flew up here, you must have given your capturer a good fight, or fright. Basically you resisted him or her quite strongly, or impressed him enough, so that he thought of you as a fairly powerful demon. Now that in itself isn’t enough of course, otherwise any half assed new demon could scare the shit out of a wimpy conjuror.

“No, you must have done something to absolutely convince several people that you were quite powerful. The Astlanians do, by the way, have a scale for rating demons, I won’t bother with it now, but there is at least a scale to judge demon power. It’s that scale, in the mind of trained wizards that they weigh all new demons on, and that kind of fixes their mental images of how big and powerful you are. You resisted them pretty well, so they figured you had to be some big powerful demon, so that’s what appeared before them, a big powerful demon. Add to that, the fact your own will power and thoughts had something to do with it too, they can’t just make you something you aren’t, just reshape you.”

“And, most importantly, the bigger they think you are, the more powerful spells they bind you with; it’s these bindings that infuse the Mana into your form, giving you the power you have. The bindings infuse you with a shit load of magical energy.” Tizzy suddenly interjected. “It’s oozing out of you, like butta!” He did the yenta voice again.

“Wow,” Tom said., He felt he wasn’t saying much that was intelligent or worthwhile most of the time; but the whole thing was just too much, too overwhelming to handle at once. It was exceedingly difficult to think of worthwhile responses at this stage. Besides, his bone deep weariness was rapidly returning.

Boggy said “I know it’s quite a bit much to handle at first, but you’ll get over it. Why don’t you rest now, we’ll come back and see you after you’ve had some sleep. Actually, you normally don’t need sleep, but after heavy expenditures of energy, like you’ve just been through, sleeping is the easiest and fastest way to regenerate your energy field.”

“And it keeps you from going insane!” inserted Tizzy.

“He’s got a point, it does allow one to relax and get rid of tensions and frustrations,” agreed Boggy.

“Yeah... well, I guess I’ll just lie down here and rest,” Tom stated.

“If you like, or off over that way,” Boggy pointed behind him and over the pillar, “there are some mountains with caves. You’re welcome to find an unoccupied one and move in.”

“Um,” Tom stared over the edge of the ledge and looked pointedly down at the nearly bottomless depths below, “how do I get over there?”

“Why, use your wings of course, that’s what they’re there for!” exclaimed Tizzy.

“But, I don’t know how, I’ve never flown before.”

“Easy enough, just relax, think of which direction you want to go and go. It’s almost like walking; don’t think about what you’re doing and let it happen naturally. It’s natural, comes built in. But, just like when first walking, don’t think about what you’re doing, otherwise you’ll screw up and fall,” said Boggy.

“Just, step off the cliff?”

“Yep, easy as that, those wings know what they’re doing, even if you don’t.”

“I don’t know...” Tom said nervously, eyeing the long way down.

“Just try it. Here watch me.” With that Boggy stepped off the edge and flew a few feet out before turning around to face Tom and hover.

“Well, got to try sometime.” Tom tried relaxing, attempting to clear his mind of all the wild things that had happened to him. He looked toward Boggy and took a step forward. Trying to brace himself, yet remain calm, he walked three steps forward and off.

He lurched a little, but he kept concentrating on heading toward Boggy. It worked! He was moving towards Boggy, and his feet weren’t moving. This was totally wild! It took very little effort, even in his weakened and tired state. Considering the nature of his new legs and feet, it was even easier than walking. Thinking of his feet he looked down at them, to make sure they weren’t actually what was carrying him along.