IdleMuse0307
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Between Wands & Sigils - Chapter 1
🕑 Added 2025-09-04 04:53:02 +0000 UTCDisclaimer - I don’t own anything. As the corporations say these days, you will own nothing & be happy. I don't, and have never claimed to, own Marvel or Disney or any of its characters. With that out of the way, let’s goooo!
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“Ugh,” he groaned, feeling a killer headache as he felt something pushing his legs to the side. He simply turned around with a mumbled, “Five more minutes.” Not finding any blanket nearby, he just settled on cozying up, only to hiss in pain as the slight movement made pain bloom on his back.
He sat up, blearily opening his eyes, only to see….
He rubbed them a few more times, blinking wide at the scene in front of him before he thrashed around, screaming bloody murder, desperately trying to create some distance between the wolves standing tall all around him and his body.
Midway through his screaming, he remembered his predicament from yesterday, his mouth shutting down, still hyperventilating from the fear of seeing so many wolves together, all towering over him in ways he had never seen before.
Oh, right. He was a wee bit of a child now.
Eventually, he found his back against a tree, keeping a watch on the wolves, eyes darting in all directions to see any route of escape, despite knowing that he would never be able to outrun wolves, not when he was a full grown adult and certainly not now where a single jump from the wolves would cover a dozen steps of his tiny body.
In the middle of his panic, he felt it. A cool wave of calmness washed over his mind, bringing forth multiple facts to his attention, things that he would have missed in his panicked flailing about, something that the wolves had not reacted to.
He noted the formation of wolves, spread about loosely but not around him. He noted the lack of growling or any other threatening gesture from any of the seven wolves standing in front of him. He noted the saliva–eww–on his pants but no bite marks.
How? He did not know.
And that’s when it clicked for him. He remembered the note from yesterday.
High Magical Talent & Expert Enchanter.
He looked down, hoping that his hunch was right and- "Aha!” He was correct.
He ran his hands down the fabric of his shirt, his brain automatically understanding the near invisible writing on the fabric, his perks kicking in despite not having any formal education whatsoever.
“Thermal protection & regulation. Calm Mind. Enhanced durability. Forcefield projection. Hostile intent detection. Air Filtration.” He mumbled to himself, reading the enchantments on the shirt as if it was just text instead of some obscure language.
It felt as if he was engrossed in the reading for only a second but when he looked up, the wolves were gone, and he was left all alone in the middle of nowhere, with enchanted magical clothing.
“Whoa,” He muttered to himself, realising that it could be dangerous to just get so engrossed in enchanting, if he lost his sense of time so much.
Standing up, he put his hands on his hip, mentally activating thermal protection and sighing in relief as his clothes heated up from the inside, keeping him warm, a far cry from the chill he was feeling last night. Or was it last night? Just how long was he asleep on the floor here?
He shrugged at that and started walking. For the time being, he had some protection, and judging by the way he could feel a slight drain on him from the enchantment being activated, it meant he could use magic right away.
No need to unlock his magic or wait for it to manifest at a certain age. He could start right away and right now? He was brimming with inspiration, and just itching to just use stones and wood as the base for enchantments, something that his intuition told him was possible, it would just be more expensive in terms of magic being used.
Speaking of his magic? He raised his hand and tried to will something to happen. He did not know what should have been the result but all he could feel was a slight tingly feeling in his hand as what he called magic surged to the forefront of his body, but not out of his body, which meant he was lacking something.
“Not the time,” He whispered to himself as he began walking ahead, keeping his ears open to see if he could hear anything that might help him. Signs of human presence would be appreciated. If not, running water would be the next best thing.
He was starting to accept the fact that he might just be all alone, stuck in this place, without any backup arriving in any reasonable amount of time. So, keeping that in mind, he picked up an errant pebble from the ground, his magic rushing to the forefront, as if begging to be used in this way, his mind already going through all the options it had, before settling on a single one.
Heat absorption (mild).
Somehow, he could already dissect an existing enchantment, and even adjust the intensity of the effect. The effect was almost instantaneous, his magic leaving his body for a fraction of a second, enveloping the entire pebble before rushing back inside his body, as if afraid of being caught outside, which was odd.
The second his magic rushed back inside, the pebble, previously a dark grey, glowed red and yellow for a split second before returning to its previous ordinary appearance. He could feel the enchantments and if he squinted enough, see the single character as well, but overall, it felt the same as before.
He tossed the stone on the ground, and crouched down to see if it had any effect. It was not instantaneous but within a minute, snow was already gathering on the pebble. After about two to three minutes, the pebble was entirely covered in snow.
Now, the mild level enchantment might not have been as strong since he was in a very snowy region but it definitely worked as a proof of concept. Also, it confirmed that he could continue supplying energy to his clothing, which acted as armour for him whilst also casting another enchantment.
He touched the pebble, his finger feeling the cold, as he dispelled the enchantment with ease, the stone glowing red for a moment, as the magical effect was gone.
He grinned at the ease with which he just created what was, honest to god, a magical stone. After doing it once, ideas basically flowed into his mind, on how to overlap two effects to create a greater effect, to have it absorb energy and then channel it somewhere else, to store that energy, and more. It was all so interesting that he had to take a moment to shake himself out of it.
Sighing at the thought of not tinkering anymore, he began his walk. He had to find shelter, food and water before it became dark because while his clothes might have worked against those wolves, who knows what else was lurking in this forest? If he had magic, it would certainly not be impossible for something else to have magic as well.
God, he hoped that he was not in a world where magic was tracked worldwide, and if he was, he hoped that the good guys got to him first.
[A few hours later]
So far, he had found a couple of smooth stones, storing them in his pocket, since he had an idea for creating bombs out of them. No water, no food, no living being in sight. He did find a cave but it was really small. Not small as in he could barely fit, small as in he could not enter it at all. It was more of a hole in a rocky wall, really. If nothing else worked, he was going to have to perform an impromptu explosive digging into that rocky wall but for now, he was still searching.
The sound of small twigs breaking upon impact made him flinch in the beginning but now he was used to it. He had no shoes to speak of, and yet, as soon as he used the enchantments on his clothes, he could walk on sharp stones without even feeling it.
The forcefield generation enchantment was really coming in handy here. He had even poked himself with anything sharp he could find and even after pressing as hard as he could, he felt nothing.
Aside from that small hole, he had discovered yet another thing. The previous enchantments he saw on his shirt were only one part of the whole.
There was a whole other laundry list of enchantments on his pants.
Self cleaning. Energy regulation. Water repellent. Invisibility. Shaped Durability. Sound absorption. Kinetic absorption.
These were game changers, as his mind once more exploded with new ideas on how to better use them. That was how he came up with the idea of using all that thermal energy absorbed by a pebble before halting any further absorption and timing a total energy release function into them.
He hadn’t yet used it, mostly because he was afraid of the noise attracting predators but he already had a couple in his left pocket, with his right pocket holding ordinary pebbles just in case he needed to make more on the spot.
Invisibility was limited only to his pants for now, but with study and some relatively higher quality material, he should be capable of creating a quilt or blanket with that enchantment, turning him invisible. The sound and kinetic absorption should turn him completely silent as well, giving him all the knowledge needed to make an absolutely stealthy suit, as long as he could figure out ways to evade radar and infrared.
Sighing at the absolute avalanche of ideas in his mind, and yet being unable to use them, he trudged forward, starting to feel a little hunger now.
It would be better if he found at least shelter as long as it was still bright outside. He had an idea to gather water from the snow around everywhere. It would not be ideal but it should work in a pinch.
He was so engrossed in his own thoughts, he didn’t even notice when he had turned around a bunch of trees and walked into a medium sized clearing, larger than the one he had found himself in when he first woke up here.
It was only when he heard a distinctly different sound of his feet or rather his forcefield, hitting the ground that he looked down, only to see a vast expanse of ice that was frozen.
Ice, not snow.
He grinned as he promptly took multiple steps back, activated the Shaped durability enchantment on his pants, allowing him to shape the forcefield around his feet, allowing him to create invisible knives.
Gingerly, he lifted a single leg and slowly placed it down, eyes widening in awe as his foot, clad in that forcefield, sank into the ice as if a hot knife entering butter.
He slowly got his leg out of that hole and smiled in relief as water gushed out of that small hole.
He all but collapsed on the ground in relief, the Shaped Durability enchantment deactivated as the forcefield returned to its normal shape.
He looked at the frozen ice and realised that he had the issue of water sorted for a long time now. Getting fish from the lake should solve his food issue and all he needed was now fire and shelter.
He already had ideas for fire and had a temporary shelter just a ten minute walk from here.
The confirmation that he had the basic things vital to continued survival broke the tension that was ever present in his body, allowing him to finally relax as he lay on the ice, enjoying the light hitting his face. Closing his eyes, he basked in the happy feeling, not wanting to move for now.
