*that* other magical work of fiction I've been working on...

Rough bits:

(?) by Gee.
Original.

...

Dawn
Matthew (Matt)
Yannis & Taryn – Dawn’s parents.


“I watched you yesterday.” She heard the words whispered into her ear in an undertone. “I saw what you were doing.”

She jumped at the sound, causing her bag to spill half of its contents onto the floor. She inwardly cursed at whomever it was who had snuck up on her like that.

“What are you talking about?” she said, defensively squaring her shoulders and turning around. She sighed in relief when she realised the words had come from her friend. “Matt, are you still on those pills the doctor gave you?” she said, trying to deflect the conversation.

“…well, yes,” he admitted, uneasily. “But that doesn’t detract from what I saw yesterday.” She raised an eyebrow, urging him to continue. “I know what I saw, Dawn,” he said with a determined look in his eyes.

She closed her eyes briefly, reminding herself to remain calm and forced her teeth to stop worrying her bottom lip.

“Ok. What did you see?” she asked, keeping her face neutral.

“I saw you. Just like I’m seeing you now. You were making these little lights glow and dance around,” he gave her a small smile. “I though they were really pretty.”

Her lips involuntarily quirked up into returning a small but pleased smile. She schooled her features into a blank look.

“I… What you saw… It must have been a trick of the light or something,” she lied, trying to come up with a logical excuse and not really succeeding. “I mean why would you think I was creating them?”

“Right. Of course you don’t want to admit it. I don’t know why you would want to, especially not to your best friend,” he said, a hardness settling over his features. He turned and was halfway along to the door before she had even registered that he had moved away.

Panicking, she rushed over and grabbed hold of Matt’s arm, throwing her weight behind her hold and forcing him to stop. No mean feat, since Matt was at least a foot taller than her, and considerably heavier.

“So?” he asked, turning to face her. The semi-accusatory look he had on his face was enough to break her resolve.

“Not here,” she replied in a whisper.

Matt’s glare softened.

“Alright, not here,” he agreed. “Get changed and meet me at my car. I’m taking you for a burger and you are going to fill me in on what I don’t know.”

...

“You’re taking the news very calmly,” she said to him, relaxing into the cushions. “I was expecting fireworks. Or at the very least a lot of yelling.”

“Well, I’m just surprised it’s taken this long for someone to find out.”

“So…no yelling?” she asked tentatively, narrowing her eyes suspiciously.

He fixed her with a stern glare before his lips twitched and he barked out a laugh, unable to contain his amusement any longer.

“No yelling,” he agreed. “Besides, your mum found out about my magic shortly after I met her. You and Matt have been friends for years. I could hardly criticise.”

Her mouth fell open into an ‘o’ of surprise.

“I…what?” she stuttered. “But you always told me to be so careful with my magic. ‘Who knows what would happen if the wrong people found out’,” she mimicked in her father’s voice.

He didn’t even have the decency to look abashed.

“I’m your father, Dawnie. I’m supposed to say things like that,” he said.

Dawn rolled her eyes at her father in exasperation, but moved in for a hug when he beckoned her over.

“How quickly did she find out?” she asked after a while. Her father kissed the top of her head, stalling his answer.

“Dad?” she prompted.

“About an hour?”

She sat up, shrugging his arm from around her shoulder and turning to look at him with an indignant expression on her face that made him laugh.

“An hour?” she pulled one of the cushions out from behind her back and swatted him with it.

“What were you doing? Showing off for her?”

“I am both shocked and appalled that you would think so of your own father,” he said, assuming a hurt expression complete with overblown pout. Dawn merely raised the cushion in reply.

“Alright, alright!” he said, laughing and raising both hands to fend off her attack. “On this occasion you’d be correct.” He looked wistful all of a sudden. “Your mother was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I’d have done anything to get her to notice me.”

...

Since she was classless for the final double period of the day, she headed to one of the empty classrooms near the gym at the end of lunch to get started on her homework.



Stuck on one of the more complex aspects of her homework, she briefly thought about starting on another piece of work when an idea struck her.

‘Maybe if I bring it to life it’ll make more sense.’

She concentrated her thoughts on the accompanying illustrations and one by one a three dimensional copy rose up from the page to hover in front of her. She muttered a colour-changing spell and each separate component started glowing a different colour. Another spell set them turning slowly, allowing her to get a good look at each part.

...

-Yannis looks up at the sound of his daughter laughing and clapping her hands with delight. The sight which greets his eyes makes him smile with pride (and yet, there is a heaviness in his chest). Dawn is playing with her toys, except there are now teddies drinking from their teacups on their own and the animals on the toy farm her grandfather had made for her are gallivanting around as if they aren’t made of plastic.

“Daddy, look!” she cried in delight and turns to find a huge (if slightly forced) grin on her father’s face.

“How are they doing that?” she asks a while later.

He doesn’t have the heart to tell her it’s only a quirk of nature, a rogue gene that causes it. Something that will have her labelled as a ‘freak’ by other children (and their parents). He rationalises that she’s too young to fully understand what it is that sets her apart from other children.

Tags: drafts, ideas, writings: original