Are those…horns? - Magic & Mushrooms

Ryder floated about his room; one hand on his chin, the other wrapped underneath, simply musing to himself.

"What would you say about a man with horns and flowers in his hair?" Ryder spoke to himself.

From the nothingness emerged his best friend, Alice, standing tall behind him. "A man with flowers in his hair? Is he homosexual?"

Ryder huffed. "So what if he was?"

"It was merely a question. Flowers typically aren't considered a masculine trait," the muse spoke.

Ryder rolled his eyes and continued to float. "Well, I like the idea of him having soft flowers at the base of his horns. He's a druid after all."

Alice simply shrugged her shoulders.

Ryder's eyes narrowed as he continued to imagine the horns. So delicate and branch-like with pastel colored flowers set at the base. This druid was to be his main character in yet another story he was fabricating. A powerful druid with a tender, loving heart. Character design was one of Ryder's favorite aspects of writing.

The frei closed his eyes and imagined the horns blossoming forth from his character's head. A smile crept upon the toadstool's face as he watched his druid's head sprout the horns and flowers in his mind.

As he opened his eyes, he smiled.

"They're beautiful."

Ryder turned to his muse with a confused glance. "What are you talking about?"

"The horns, they're beautiful."

Ryder shook his head quickly. He had no idea what she meant. Could she see what he was imagining for the druid?

Feeling the pang of hunger within, Ryder waved Alice away into the recesses of his mind before floating out to the kitchen to rummage through whatever he could find.

As he brought out some expired, sour milk to drink, he closed the fridge door only to be greeted with a shocked gasp from none other than Reuben himself.

"Ryder!? What on earth is on your head? A-are those...horns?"

Ryder shook his head and floated upwards, still confused. He grasped upwards atop his head, only to feel what everyone else was talking about. Suddenly, his eyes widened immensely as he felt the soft petals of what seemed to be flowers upon his head, then moving his hands upwards he felt the branch-like structures. It was as though they had no actual basis in reality, for he didn't have any sense of feeling in them, and his head didn't feel heavier for having them there, but he could physically touch them.

Ryder quickly raced to the bathroom to see what he was feeling. As he entered the bathroom, his jaw dropped. The horns that he had imagined on his druid...were...on him!? He quickly felt up the branch-like structures and then went back down to feel the soft petals of the flowers on his head.

Reuben knocked at the door. "Ryder...is everything okay!?"

"Y-yes! It's uhhhh....uhhh fine! Yeah, it's fine! Everything's fine. I'm fine. The hor-I mean, it's fine. Nothing's wrong."

It was clear to Reuben that Ryder was just as freaked out as he was when he first noticed them.

Ryder was panicking, continuously grabbing onto the horns and trying to rip them off of him. He felt nothing at his skull, but the horns wouldn't budge. Not even the flowers would come off, neither would the individual petals be pulled from their base. What was he to do!? He didn't want these horns on himself! Even if they were beautiful to him! They were meant for his character!

Finally, the frei gave up and opened the bathroom door. Reuben took that as an okay to enter.

"Are you really okay? How did this happen?" This first quarter of Ryder's life seemed to be a busy one for the poor frei, coming into so many different powers all within such a short time frame. Controlling them and really focusing on one was hard for the boy with his scatterbrained self, Reuben knew that. But he also knew that this boy's magic was strong, powerful, and was unfathomably wide-ranging; only limited by the boys own imagination (which was...well...never ending).

"I-I really don't know. I was just imagining my new character to have these horns exactly. But I didn't think they would grow on me! What do I do?"

Reuben gave the horns a look over and rubbed the scruff on his chin. He then went to grab the horns only to realize that his hands went right through them. Slight shock overcame the guardian a moment as he went for the horns again, only to see the same results. "Y-you feel those?"

"What do you mean? Of course I feel them. I wish I could just pull them off!" the raevan called in frustration trying to rip them from his head with as much might as he could muster before giving up in a fit of frustration.

"I mean...I can't touch them. My hands go right through them."

Ryder looked into the mirror and watched as Reuben went for them a third time, only to see that his guardian was right, they were like holograms for him. His hands went right through as though they didn't exist. So...only Ryder himself could feel them physically. They weren't really there. They didn't exist. They were just a figment of his imagination; an extension of his power. As he realized this, he looked into the mirror and watched as they began to "glitch out" and as he narrowed his eyes and willed them away, they continued to glitch until they disappeared completely.

I will it to happen and it does.

This magic was utter will. This power was his and he already had a strong grasp on such magic, constantly willing Alice to come in and out of his life. This was simply an extension of that same magic. This was what Ethiriel talked about. That power, something that was already so ingrained inside of him. His very essence even. Visible Imagination. His imagination made visible by will. Now he truly understood.