Free Forced Magic by Jerod Lollar Page A

inside me, get louder. I had to get rid of this feeling. I closed my
eyes, not even caring if this made me an easy target or not.
    “Get out!” I shouted. I had to get this buzzing feeling out
of my body. It was going to drive me crazy. For all I knew it would kill me. Ifocused on pushing it away,
just relieving it, and somehow, without truly understanding what I did, I felt
this buzzing force push itself away from my body. I felt like I was a piece of
paper being torn in two. As the buzzing feeling escaped my body, it shimmered.
I opened my eyes and yelled. It was an arch that passed over the head of the
man on the ground and then it hit the green things. They all flew backwards,
smashing into cars and crashing into each other.  The arch, still flowing out
of my chest, picked them all up, and pushed them toward the blue ball. I could
see Booger trying to run away from it. He was knocked down by the wave then
picked up, spinning around and around.  He was the last one to be pushed
through the blue ball. As he disappeared inside, the orb grew a little bigger,
glowing brighter. With a loud pop, it collapsed in on itself and winked out of
existence. I could have sworn I saw Booger pointing at me, giving me a rude
gesture as he fell through.
    The parking lot was full of panicked people running out of
it or toward their cars. I heard sirens blaring down the street. I realized
that the fight must not have been very long. I felt a rush of excitement as I
realized that I had performed some kind of magic. Whatever had happened to me
today had changed me. I could do magic! My legs gave out on me as all the
energy in my body drained away. The dragon moved under me as I began to fall. I
looked at it, allowing myself to see it as the magnificent creature it was, and
not as the parasite that almost killed me. It turned its head and looked at me
with concern.
    “Dude," I said groggily, “You were incredible."
    It looked at me and rolled its eyes. Unfolding its wings it
knocked me off of its back. I hit the parking lot with a grunt and a dizzy
giggle. I felt like I was drunk. I could hear the dragon sigh with frustration
as it grabbed the remains of my shirt with its mouth and took off into the air
with me dangling from its mouth. I could hear the remaining people in the parking
lot gasp as we circled the lot. My feet dragged the ground, tearing off one of
the mismatched flip flops, as the dragon hauled me toward my duffel bag. It
grabbed it by its back claws and swooped clumsily up into the air. In my giddy
exhausted state, I marveled at the strength of this beast as we took off in the
air. I made a silent prayer of thanks for the strength of the now torn T-shirt
I was wearing. Looking down, I could see the lights of the police and
ambulances as they pulled into the parking lot.
    “Hey dragon,” I said with another giddy giggle, ”looks like
we're famous.”
    Then I passed out.

  Chapter 12
    I woke up to a strange, but familiar, sound I couldn’t
place.  Then it hit me. Ducks. It was the sound of quacking ducks. I sat up .
    The dragon had flown us to the pond at Reid Park. It was
still dark. I looked at the pond and I could see the faint outline of ducks as
they lazily floated. I found comfort in that sight and sound. They were normal
ducks. After all I had just been through, It was nice to hear something as
normal as ducks. At least, I thought they were normal. Remembering the bobcats
and the laughing squirrel, I had no idea what animals might be tied to the
magical world. I stood up, shivering as a cool breeze blew through my torn
T-shirt and hit my skin.  Looking down I could still see the letters that
spelled out ‘It’s All Good’ across the front.
     “Yeah Right ,” I said softly to myself.
    I heard a sound of paper being crumpled behind me and I
quickly turned around, crouching, ready for another attack. It was the dragon.
It was sitting on the duffel bag. It had another paper bag, full of tacos, it
smelled like. I