Trudging along his way back home, Kyle came across a site that was uncommon in the busier parts of the city. A herd of tiny crystalline creatures, no bigger than a toddler’s hand, leaping and playing on the sidewalk. Usually, they stayed out of sight, hiding from the dangers of a modern city like cars, people, dogs, cats and all the other things that could harm something so small.

One might not realize what the small creatures were doing if one could not see the currents of magic flowing through the city. But if one could, as Kyle could, then they would understand that the cute little crystal creatures with no head or tail that were basically four legs with a torso, were splashing in a riverine flow of concentrated arcanes. They drank it in and sucked up as much as they could.

A rustling caught his attention, and he noticed a raccoon stalking the group just in time to see it snatch up one of the little magic creatures.

“Oh, no you don’t. Static zap.” It was a small spell. One meant to hurt instead of maiming. The raccoon dropped the prism with a screech and a hiss before bounding away. Kyle stared after it, resisting the urge to take out his frustration on the creature. It was just an animal. It wasn’t its fault someone had abducted his sister or lost her.

Piteous meeping drew his attention back to the herd of prisms. They had gathered around the one which Kyle had saved as it twitched piteously on the sidewalk. It also buzzed a bit with residual charge from betting hit by some of the static spell. The amount of charge was not enough to really harm it, but just in case, Kyle picked it up to examine it.

The prism’s crystal body was somewhere on the scale between opaque and translucent and looked like a collection of quartz crystals joined together into a quadruped body. It also had a tiny current of electricity running through it which meant it had absorbed enough of Kyle’s magic to change its magic type to electricity. That was one of the coolest things about prisms, they ate magic. Pure magic, elemental magic, it was all the same to them as long as they got those sweet, sweet, oh so tasty arcanes. But whatever kind of magic they absorbed, that was the kind of magic they became able to use.

This little guy or girl, was now an electric type. Kyle smiled as it rubbed one of its ends against him like a cat. Anna would like this as a pet. Kyle gently fed it a tiny bit more magic and set it down. The prism promptly ran to his feet and tried to climb one leg. Laughing, Kyle picked it up, gave it a bit more static electricity magic to eat and then tried setting it down again.

The little sucker clung to his hand as Kyle carefully tried to shake it off onto the ground. It would not let go. Now all the little prisms could see what was happening and were watching avidly.

“Fine, you can come home with me.” The warlock grumped and placed the tiny creature small enough to it in his palm, into his shirt pocket and headed off. It meeped happily and hungrily and with another sigh Kyle brought a hand up to his chest to pet the prism. Immediately it grabbed his hand and began rubbing what may or may not have been its face on the finger Kyle had used to feed it previously. Piteously buzzing and mewling for more sustenance, Kyle relented and fed it lightning magic as he walked until it was vibrating contently in his pocket.

Maybe his bone deep weariness was the reason Kyle did not notice the other prisms take notice of him generously feeding their fellow. Nor did the warlock notice that the herd had started gathering around him hopefully. Because yes, there was plenty of magic around, but a nice mage that would feed them even once this windfall of magic had gone away was even better. Though the city was abnormally quiet with few vehicles on the street and the regular nightlife absent because of the emergency, it was still loud.

Monsters roared, sirens wailed from one hotspot to another, and screams and shouts punctuated the night. The noise and not the fact that Kyle was practically asleep on his feet meant that it was almost a mile before Kyle noticed the clicking. It was faint, just barely there under the sound of the wind which had picked up after night had fallen.

Yet, as he slowed and tilted his head to one side, Kyle focused on the sound which almost seemed to be getting closer. Click, click, clickclickclick. Clickity-click-click-click. Click. He stopped walking and the clicking stopped. Listening for a moment, Kyle shrugged and began walking again. Click, click, click, clickclickclick. He stopped again and to listen but again the sound had paused.

He took one slow step.

Clickity-click-click.

He took another step.

Clickity-click.

Then another step.

Click.

He began walking slowly down the street and the clicking surged and slowed with each of his steps as if something was trying to keep up with him. With a sigh, Kyle lowered his shoulders and turned around with his wand at the ready. If it was a monster, he was going to be so annoyed. It… was… not… Instead of the monster Kyle had been dreading in his depleted state, Kyle saw the herd of prisms.

With his mind churning out worry over his sisters – and the rest of his family – but mostly his sisters, Kyle had almost forgotten about the little prism in his breast pocket let alone the herd it had come from. They were following him. Did they want their friend back? Okay. Fine.

He carefully reached a hand into his breast pocket and fished the little prism out. It snuggled against his palm while vibrating its contentment. The little prism was warm despite being made of hard crystal and buzzed from the static electricity he had imbued it with. In its crystalline body Kyle could see a tiny little current flickering giving the prism an internal light.

“Looks like your friends want you back little buddy.” Kyle tried to set him down on the sidewalk gently, but the prism clung to him again as it had done previously. For something that had such a smooth surface and no fingers, it had a remarkably tenacious grip. The other prisms reached their little stubby crystal arms up towards their fellow who just waved at them with one arm before latching tightly to Kyle’s fingers again.

“Okay. If you want to stay with me, you can, but you have to tell your friends that they can’t come inside with you.” Gazing expectantly at the prism in the palm of his hand, Kyle waited to see what it would do.

It waved a limb at the herd. Then they exchanged a buzzing humming conversation in vibrations. Finally, his prism seemed to point in the direction Kyle had been walking in, nodded one end of its body, and then scurried up Kyle’s arm, over his shoulder, and down his chest to disappear into his shirt pocket. After a few moments of rustling the prism poked what must have been its head, though Kyle couldn’t really tell, up over the edge of the pocket to watch where they were going and waved in the direction Kyle had been walking.

“Oh.” He laughed. “I see. You’re ready to go?” The others were still watching, waiting expectantly. “I hope you told them that they can’t come home with me.” He shook his head as he continued on his way home with a herd of prisms following behind him. Those poor things were going to be so disappointed.

Kyle the Apprentice Warlock

Chapter 60