magic A New Farmhand In A Very Foreign Land- Part 2: Muscle Magic

[JasonDarkfire]

Hey everyone; just finished the latest part of this story series. Link below if you need to catch up on the first chapter; otherwise, all constructive criticism is welcome. Hope you enjoy!

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              “I thought you said you were going to help us water the crops, Xavier.”

 

              “GAH!” I nearly fumbled the bucket in my hands when I heard Cyra’s voice behind me out of the blue, juggling it for a moment before managing to get a firm grip on it. After checking to see I’d taken minimal splash damage, I turned to look back at the massive bull woman looming behind me.

 

              Cyra crossed her massive arms over her chest as her brown eyes looked at me with something that looked like a mix of confusion and annoyance. I’m a hair shy of six feet, but she easily had six inches or more of height on me(and given how big her muscles were, she probably had at least six inches on me with a lot of measurements). She was wearing the same thick white cotton shirt that she’d had on at breakfast earlier, though she’d added a thick black apron and brown gloves since then. That and the various tools sticking out of the pockets led me to believe that she’d been working at her forge like she’d mentioned earlier.

 

              “Hi, Cyra.” I took a moment to steady my nerves before holding up the bucket in my hands, showing her the water I’d filled it with from the well. “That’s exactly what I’m doing.”

 

              “But why are you using my drinking cup to do it?” She responded, her short black hair shifting slightly as she tilted her head.

 

              “Your… drinking cup?” I blinked and looked down at the bucket in my hands. “Isn’t this a little big for a cup?”

 

              “I get really thirsty.”

 

              “But it was tied to the pole above the well…”

 

              “I don’t want to lose it.”

 

              “But…” My next retort was cut short as I noticed Cyra’s glare narrowing. Fighting down a sigh of annoyance, I gently let the bucket go to hang back above the well. “O.K.; how should I do it then?”

 

              The way the well was constructed was a little odd to me at first, or at least the construction around the well had me confused. Sitting atop a hill, the well itself looked like… well, a well. What confused me how the well itself sat in the middle of what looked like a giant stone bowl that was probably about ten feet across and about a foot or so deep. One end of the bowel opened up into a trench that flowed downhill into a massive basin near the field of crops while on the side opposite that atop the bowel a small wooden bridge let me access the well without having to jump in the bowel myself. For the last hour or so I had been drawing water out of the well with the bucket and dumping it down into the bowl surrounding the well.

 

              “I told you at breakfast I was going to leave the supplies you’d need by the shed.” Cyra motioned toward said shed at the bottom of the hill. “They’re still sitting there waiting for you.”

 

              “I remember you said that, but I didn’t see anything that looked like it would help.” I would’ve asked for help, but Asura had already left for a nearby village and Cyra… well, given her attitude toward me so far, the less I bothered her the better.

 

              “For Goddesses sake…” With a heavy sigh and an eye roll she descended the hill while I(somewhat reluctantly followed). Reaching the side of the shed, she grabbed off what looked like a belt that had been hanging on a hook and practically shoved it into my hands. “Here. Now get started; we’re already behind schedule.”

 

              “Uh…” O.K., I admit I barely know the difference between a rake and a hoe, but even I was pretty sure the stuff she handed me wasn’t typical farming equipment. I took a moment to assess I wasn’t missing something beyond the sheathed knife and two glass flasks that adorned the belt. Both flasks had simple cork stoppers keeping them closed, one filled with a white liquid and the other filled with something yellowish and was ice cold to the touch.

 

              “At the risk of sounding really stupid…how?” I asked, holding up the belt toward her.

 

              “With your muscle magic, obviously.”

 

              She said it so naturally and plainly I figured she meant it, but that didn’t mean I understood what the hell she was talking about. After a few awkward moments of staring at each other, it seemed to finally click for her that I was totally lost.

 

              “I thought you said you had magic in your world. Isn’t that how you got here in the first place?” She asked.

 

              “What? No!” I sighed a little; despite her intimidating size and her general dislike of me, I couldn’t help but let a little annoyance slip into my voice as I responded. “I’m sorry, but Asura and I talked about this exact thing at breakfast this morning. You were there with us pretty much the whole time.”

 

              “Eh; I stopped paying attention once Asura said you were going to pull your weight around here. Tell me what you said, and make it quick.”

 

              “But that was aft-“ Another glare and a bullish snort cut me off, which threw me off a bit considering she still looked largely like a human woman, just a large one with horns and a black bull tail. “Fine. Long story short, there is no magic where I come from. We have the IDEA of magic from fantasy books and whatnot, but it doesn’t actually exist.”

 

              “Then what was that weird rectangular stone you were messing around with at breakfast? Looked pretty magical to me.”

 

              It took me a moment to realize the rectangular rock Cyra was referring to my smartphone. The waterproof case it was in saved it from getting damaged when I took that dip in the Blight earlier, though it essentially was about as useful as a rock now. Apparently there weren’t any cell towers or wi-fi in this seemingly medieval fantasy based world. Shocking, I know.

 

              That meant I couldn’t reach out to Rachel to ask her how or why she’d done this to me. It had to be something she did, right? I don’t think any company would be fine with selling equipment that disappeared their customers to another world, though I suppose that WOULD cut down on customer complaints if the customer was no longer around to complain in the first place. As crazy as it sounded, she had to have done this herself.

 

              The only thing even more confounding than the how was the why. I’d spent most of last night in bed thinking over our friendship for the past decade, wondering if I had done something to her that she deemed banishing me to another world justified. As far as I could honestly tell, the answer was no. She was a cute girl, but by time I even started to entertain romantic feelings for her in high school she was already getting scholarships to top colleges when we were more than a year from graduation. Knowing that meant her moving several states away and never picking up on any signs of mutual feelings for her beyond friendship, I set aside any long shot hopes of love and tried to be the best friend I could be.

 

              “Well, you must have done something. Or not done something if she wanted you here. Worry about your other world problems later; you got real world problems right now.” Little weird hearing a massive woman with bull horns and a tail tell me to focus on my real world problems, but it was probably best to listen as Cyra continued. “You said you’re familiar with the idea of magic at least. Even you should be able to handle something as basic as muscle magic.”

 

              “Yeah, about that. I’m sorry, but when I think magic, I don’t think about muscle.” I responded. “Honestly, quite the opposite.”

 

              “Why? Magic is just about forcing your will on reality with some sort of power. Wizards do it with fancy words, clerics do it with their faith in the Goddesses, and males do it with their muscles; at least, they did when they were around. It’s not exclusive them of course, but not too many females are interested in practicing it.”

 

              “Present company excluded, I’m guessing?” My question got the first smile I’d seen out of Cyra since coming here.

 

              “I guess you’re not totally clueless. Yes, I practice it. It’s pretty much the only way I can keep with the massive amount of work needed for this farm by myself.” Cyra’s smile faded after a moment. “Ah crap…”

 

              “What? What’s wrong?”

 

              “Well, I’m no teacher, but if you’re gonna be any kind of use around here, someone’s gotta show you how to do it.” She looked me up and down for a moment before sighing. “Damn it Asura; you planned this, didn’t you?”

 

              Before I could ask what she meant by that Cyra grabbed the knife off the belt I was still holding in my hands. A brief moment of panic hit me as I expected she was about to plunge it into my chest out of annoyance with me, so I was completely unprepared when she removed one of her gloves and pricked her own finger instead. She passed the knife back to me(hilt first) before telling me to hand her the white liquid flask and step back. Doing as instructed, I stepped back as she stuck out a foot and spun herself around completely, standing center in the middle of what looked like a perfect circle she’d made in the soft dirt.

 

              “To be clear, muscle magic sucks in a lot of ways. Pretty much all its good for is moving and manipulating what’s already there, and since your drawing power from your own body it’ll leave you both physically and spiritually exhausted if you go for too long. You’re pretty much begging for trouble if you use it in a combat situation with anybody who can use any other kind of magic.” Cyra held out her pricked finger over the circle, letting a drop of blood fall onto it. “That being said, it does have some benefits…”

 

              I just nodded along like I understood as Cyra uncorked and tipped a drop of the liquid on her cut finger, the liquid bubbling not unlike when you use hydrogen peroxide on a wound. Her finger looked good as new as she set the bottle down at her feet and rolled up her sleeves, fulling exposing her ripped arms. Closing her eyes, she held her hands out in front of her like she was gripping an invisible bar. She then began to pump her arms in what looked like a double bicep curl.

 

              Though it looked like she was holding nothing, Cyra moved as cautiously and steadily as if she was curling actual weight. By the time she finished the third rep I started to ask what she was doing, but as she started the fourth rep my attention was diverted to her arms. Bright blue lines started snaking their way down from her shoulders to her arms, the pattern looking vaguely similar to a vein structure as it continued to move along. While it seemed to be covering her whole arm, the glowing did seem to concentrate largely on her biceps which looked…bigger?

 

              It seemed crazy, but her arms were definitely growing, and not just from the normal muscle pump I’d have expected. Without a tape measure I couldn’t be sure, but she had to have added at least five or six inches to her biceps by the time she hit the 12^th rep, the rest of her arms looking a bit larger as well. The majority of the growth did seem to concentrate in her biceps along with the glowing blue lines, so there was obviously some connection there. At 15 reps she appeared to release the invisible bar, then stomped on the edge of the circle.

 

              Two things happened almost simultaneously as she stepped on the edge of the circle; the lines along her arms disappeared and I heard a low rumble coming from the well. A moment later water began to shoot from the well like a geyser, shooting four or five feet into the air before falling into the bowl around the well. This continued for about thirty seconds as the water flowed down the trench into the basin below, easily matching if not eclipsing what I had managed to do with an hours work with the bucket alone. I looked back to Cyra in awe, who smiled as she flexed her hugely pumped arms.

 

              “Like I said, muscle magic’s sucks in a lot of ways. But just like how your body builds itself back stronger the more you work it out, magic does the same thing. When you mix both of these together, the long term growth effects of both occur much quicker and stronger than they would alone. I’m guessing Asura knew that, and she mentioned how you wanted to get in shape. Well, if have any hope of keeping up around here, you’re going to have to learn it too.”

 

              I nodded dimly, three different thoughts running through my head at the same time as I contemplated Cyra’s words.

 

              Number 1: “Holy crap, I really hope I can do stuff like that.”

 

              Number 2: “Holy crap, I’m not sure if I’m more turned on by watching her grow or the thought that I could grow like that too.”

 

              And number 3: “Holy crap, I hope she doesn’t notice how hard that made me.”

 

              “Come on; I need to get back the forge eventually.” She motioned back toward the shed. “I’m gonna grab something else that should help you out, and then we need to get started on growing you too.”