The Darkness

Lesson 2: Power of Laughter

When I was walking back to the tree house Seto saw me and waved me over. After the long hike back it had become quite a chore to walk, my wings were still sopping wet and heavy. They were like sponges, absorbing all the liquid they could.

"So, how did flying lessons go?" Seto asked.

"Well I'm not afraid of heights anymore, I think." I replied.

"You are afraid of heights?" He asked, walking through the vines.

"Well, ya. Lots of people are." I think I'll be okay if I'm not forced to fly against my will.

"What?" He asked turning to look at me.

"Lets just say Bodil ended up in a lake before me." I replied.

"Okay then..." Seto said confused. "Try stretching your wings."

"Umm...okay..." I said, doing as I was told. When I stretched my wings, all the water they absorbed was squeezed out. I flapped them lightly.

"Thanks." I said with a sigh.

"No problem." He replied, leading me into the secret passage way.

"So what are we going to do?" I asked.

"We are going to learn some magic." He said with a smile. We sat down on a carpet in a stone room. There was practically nothing nothing in the room except for the carpet, a lone chest in the corner, a white, brown, and black leather bound book, and a book and quill.

"Okay, so have you discovered any new abilities on your own?" He asked picking up the book and quill.

"Well I think I teleported today." I said casually. Seto looked up from his book,

"Your kidding right?"

"No, there was a bright flash when I was thrown over the cliff, and afterward I was sitting at the top again." I replied.

"How did you do it?!" Seto asked in amazement.

"I don't know! I guess it only works when I'm in a life or death situation." I replied.

"Wow, okay." He replied, writing it down. "Anything else?"

"Not that I can think of." I replied.

"Okay," he said picking up the brown leather bound book, "today we are going to learn how to make objects levitate." I nodded, listening. "Its fairly simple, just focus your energy on something and think 'up'." He instructed. I focused on the quill, making it glow silver.

"Woah!" He said, looking up at me.

"What?!" I asked in alarm, losing my focus.

"When you focus on something, your eyes turn silver." He said.

"That's kinda weird." I said, focusing back on the quill. I did as what I was told, and thought 'up'. The quill levitated off the ground, and I started making it fly around the room.

"Incredible! You learn really quickly!" he said with a smile.

"Thanks!" I said focusing on the carpet. The carpet slowly rose a foot off the ground.

"Wow." Seto said, looking over the edge of the carpet. He grabbed the quill out of mid air and then started to write in his book again.

"What are you writing?" I asked.

"I'm keeping track of what you can do, and how well you can do it." he replied, "Now I'm going to teach you how to make a magic base for a spell. There are basic and complex bases. A basic spell base is made of a basic energy, like fire, sunlight, moonlight, electricity, or air. Complex bases can be made with a combination of three or more basic bases, or can be made from laughter."

"Laughter? Why laughter?" I asked.

"Laughter is a strong emotion, complex bases can be made from any strong emotion, such as extreme sadness or anger, but I prefer laughter because its usually less risky."

"Why would a emotion complex base be risky?" I asked.

"If a complex base made of emotion escapes, it will do as much as it can to make more of itself." He replied.

"How does it make more of itself?" I asked.

"An emotion complex base will afflict the person that made it to make more of it. It has gone as far as to killing someone to make a person sad to make more of its base." He said sadly.

"So a laughter complex base is better because if the energy escapes, it tries to make the person laugh?" I asked.

"Pretty much." He replied, then the door opened, and I turned to see Ghost in the door way.

"There you are Starlight, I was wondering were you went." Ghost said. Seto leaned over and whispered smiling misceviously, "Here is an example."

"Ghost?" Seto asked, speaking up. "Do you still have that bottle of energy I gave you?"

"Yes, why?" Ghost asked.

"I'm teaching Starlight about complex bases, and I wanted to show her an example." Seto replied.

"Okay, here." Ghost said, taking it out of his pocket, giving it to Seto. It was a glass flask and in it black, orange, yellow, and pale blue energy swirled around inside. Seto walked over to the chest in the corner, grabbed an empty flask tossed it to me, and came back and sat down.

"Wait, what is the second flask for?" I asked.

"You'll see." Seto said with a smirk, placing his hand on the stopper containing the complex magic base.

"Wait!" Ghost started but was cut off when Seto opened the flask, allowing the energy to escape. Ghost just froze as the energy flew over to him and hovered in front of his face. Then the energy started to fly around Ghost, slow at first but then faster. Ghost grimaced then burst out laughing, leaning against the stone wall. I watched as the ring of energy got thicker and thicker as it spun around him. "Make...it...stop!"

"Say it." Seto challenged.

"Say what?" Ghost said, continuing to die of laughter.

"Apologize to the villagers please." Seto said.

"Never!" he yelled.

"Fine. I'll just wait here then." Steo said.

"Starlight, Help me! For the dignity of the Ghost Army!"

"I'll try!" I focused on the energy flying around Ghost, making it freeze. Ghost sighed with relief, sinking to the floor. I concentrated hard floating the energy into my flask, forcing the stopper into the opening.

"That was...incredible!" Seto replied. "It took me forever to get that trick down, and...you did it, just now, without any instruction at all."

"That was cool, I came to tell you that Bodil has come up with another idea, and that we'll be ready for another go tomorrow morning." Ghost said.

"Thank you." I replied with smile.

"I think that concludes our lesson," Seto said with a smile, "but before you go, can you help me by bringing these books to the library? It can be a test of your new skill." I nodded, focusing my energy on the books, making them levitate. Then we walked out of the stone room, into the large center room, and then into the library, where Jordan was sitting at the table, flipping through a blue leather bound book.