So in this part of the story, Marc tries to explain to Toby who he is and where he came from. It was sort of a tricky section to write because it also introduces Marc’s real character to the reader, but I didn’t want it to be too heavy and to keep it at a level that everyone could understand. Let’s read through the section that I’m talking about. We’ve come in just after Marc tells Toby that there’s an incredibly evil force out there called Deimstors (hey, don’t complain about the name, its hard not to come up with the normal Satan, devil, politician!)
***
“How many of these evil people are there?”
Marc swept his hand around. “They are all around us, in everyday life, in your military, and even in your government. They use their power and position to follow their own goals, manipulating those around them, and waging war and destruction on those who oppose their needs. Think about the people in power and I guarantee that some of them are working with Deimstos.”
Toby was silent for a long while and Marc began to wonder if he was okay.
Finally, Toby gathered his thoughts and asked, “You said Nature was using its reserves to counter Deimstos. What reserves has Nature got?”
Marc lightly tapped his own chest. “Me. I’m the reserves. Myself, and others just like me.”
Toby was shocked. “You’re one of the reserves?”
“Nature needed someone who could fit in with mankind, so I was created to be able to freely move among them.”
“So. you’re… not… human?” Toby wasn’t sure if he was talking to a madman or not.
“Yes… and no.”
Toby was clearly perplexed, but Marc continued. “What I mean is that mankind was born out of the energy, as was everything you see around us. The birds, the trees, you, Jake, and everything is a product of this Earth, and this Earth is alive because of the energy, so from that point of view, you and I are from the same place… and I don’t mean London.”
Toby wondered how Marc knew where he had been born but swept the thought from his mind. He started pacing up and down as he fought to make sense of what he had just been told. “But you’re not human?” Toby thought that he may be losing his mind.
“Calm down,” Marc instructed kindly. “Nature needed some of its own to get among the people and combat Deimstos. It simply gathered some energy together and created this form.” He motioned with his hand up and down his body and smirked. “I picked up the name of Marc from a friend.”
“So, you just appear and disappear?”
Marc burst out laughing. “You spend too much time in front of a television. Yes, I could disappear if I wanted to, but why bother? Sometimes it’s easier to walk and see the beauty all around us, plus it’s much healthier.”
Toby’s mind spun with everything he just heard. He had always wanted to believe in superheroes and ghosts ever since he was a small boy, but, as he grew older, he began to think they didn’t exist. But now he was sitting next to someone who was saying that it was all true and he felt like laughing out loud and shouting. After all the movies he had watched about magic, wizards, and different worlds that were invisible to humans, to find that they were real just blew his mind. But why did he believe what he was being told? Yet there was something about Marc that convinced him that it was all true and he found that without any form of evidence, he found that he trusted this strange person.
“What about the others like you? Do you know who they are and where they are?”
“There are many of us throughout the world, some a lot older than I am and some of your old books even mention them. For example, back in medieval times, there was one who called himself Merlin. He spent most of his time trying to mind his own business, but he kept finding himself being drawn into the spotlight again and again. Why do you think it’s called The Dark Ages?”
“Are you a magician too?” Toby imagined Marc wearing a black cape, holding a wand, and pulling a rabbit out of a hat.
With a shrug, Marc said, “In the original use of the word magician, yes. A true magician has the ability to adapt the energy around him in whatever way he wants. There are several of us around, but with so many copycats, things get confused.”
Questions continued to bubble out of Toby uncontrollably. “Can you pull a rabbit out of your coat pocket?” Images of a white rabbit popping out of Marc’s top pocket caused Toby to giggle. “Bet you can’t conjure up a burger and fries for me right now.”
Marc wagged a finger at his young friend. “Don’t mock me or I’ll turn you into a toad.”
They both sat in silence for a while as Marc tried to gauge how Toby was reacting.
***
Marc tries to explain that there are evil people in our everyday lives which we’re all kind of aware of, and he’s also told Toby that Nature tries to use its reserves to combat what causes problems for the environment. Toby asks what reserves to which Marc replies, ME! Now at this point, Toby was probably thinking that Marc was a nutcase and sarcastically asks if Marc is not human, so now Marc needs to convince Toby to take him seriously, I wanted to keep the tone light, but have Marc reason with Toby and get him to take the possibility seriously. Put yourself in Toby’s shoes if someone was explaining the same thing to you – I know that I’ll be ready to walk away.
Marc carries on to explain that Nature gathered the energy force that surrounds up and materialized it into a physical form, a sort of “beam me up, Scotty’. I put in an interesting point just here as Toby admits that he used to believe in superheroes when he was young, just like most of us believed in Father Christmas when we were little but now we come across an adult who was convinced that Father Christmas was still real (I mean, I didn’t find out that Father Christmas wasn’t real until last year!)
I also added in that Toby watches magic and wizardry movies (note that I didn’t say Harry Potter), At this point Toby’s inner self knows that magic isn’t real, but this Marc character is so convincing. He picks up that Marc said that he wasn’t alone so asks who the others are. This comes back much later in the story but at this stage, Marc is very much on his own I also intentionally added in spots of humor here, because, from my personal experience, when I was faced with something that I couldn’t understand, humor was often my way to help me cope.
This sets the scene for the following episodes where Toby begins to see Marc perform what he considers magic, as we’ll talk about in a later post.
Well, that ends a short post from me, I’m busy putting together a sequel plus looking at a whole new series so I’ll try to get back with the next post in a few weeks.
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