The Fields of Fire

Chapter 8: Arthus Adana

Arty frowned, it was obvious what had happened to Zaben's parents. Arthus decided to take the conversation in a more positive direction, "Is there anything cool you can do with your powers?"

Zaben nodded, "What are you drinking." He pointed to the cup on Arty's tray.

"Grape Juice."

"Cool. Okay so you need to take your straw," Zaben reached over and grabbed Arty's straw. He positioned the straw so that it was in exactly the middle of the cup pointing straight up towards the ceiling, "Hold the straw like this."

Arty reached out and grabbed the straw like Zaben suggested. Zaben wrapped his hand around the face of the plastic cup. Frost started wafting off of his fingers as shards of frozen grape juice rapidly grew inwards towards the center straw. In a matter of seconds, the whole cup was frozen. Arthus finally realized the goal of his actions, Zaben had made a popsicle. Arty tried  Zanzibar aAsS. Z. to pull his finger off the straw, but much to his dismay he realized that his finger was frozen to it. He tugged at it until he felt skin start peeling off, so he stopped. Instead, he allowed the fire within him to rush into his finger. As it burst into flame he felt his finger free itself from the straw.

Arty looked back up at Zaben, "Sorry." he said, "Sometimes I have trouble controlling my power."

Arthus looked around to see that, not only was his tray frozen but so was his entire half the table. He stared at his frozen food and whimpered, "My crepes..."

"Yeah, I'm sorry about that." he said before grabbing a grape off of Arty's tray, "But frozen grapes are the bomb!" Arty grabbed his own frozen grape and shoved into his mouth. It was crunchy and sweet, Arty couldn't resist grabbing another one. Zaben spoke as Arty enjoyed his new frozen treat, "I hope I don't get in trouble for freezing the table."

"I don't think you will." Arty responded, before popping another grape into his mouth.

Zaben reached across the table to grab the frozen grape juice. He took it over to his side of the table, and tried to pull the popsicle from its plastic mold. To his dismay, the popsicle remained firmly inside the plastic cup. No matter how hard Zaben pulled on the straw that functioned as a popsicle stick, it simply would not budge. He frowned, "It works better with a glass cup."

Arty wrapped his fingers around the plastic cup. He felt the fire inside his veins rush towards his finger but instead of releasing it, he held it back. He thought of it like how a dam holds back most of the water, except for the water that flows over the spillway. A dim weak flame burned on his hand for a few seconds before he pulled it away from the cup. Much to Zaben's delight, he grabbed at the straw and pulled the purple chunk of frozen juice right out of the cup. It was dripping at the sides but he just put his finger on the Popsicle and refroze it again.

Zaben took one long lick before turning to Arty and smiling, "Thanks."

Arty smiled. This was everything he ever wanted. He had spent his entire life terrified of who he was, terrified about if someone would find what he could do. But sitting at that cafeteria table, he could be himself in front of someone else who was just like he was. He felt more at home sitting with Zaben than he had ever felt in his own house. He didn't know Zaben before that day, yet still, he felt like family.

"You're Welcome." Arty remarked. Zaben continued to enjoy his popsicle so Arty figured he'd just continue the conversation on his own, "So, what do you think of the Headmaster?"

Zaben tried to bite the popsicle, but the rock hard grape juice resisted. He paused from his frozen treat, "He's too young. Plus what kind of a Sorcerer has a name like Marcus?"

"I like him. He seems nice, even if he's a little bit out of his element."

"Yeah, I guess he seems nice." Zaben replied. Then he looked at me, growing a bit more serious, "How do you think you did on the Entrance exam?"