The Power of Imagination - Part 1

"YES! It's finally here!" Reuben's voice rang throughout the entire house.

Ryder, curious to see what his guardian was so excited about, floated out into the living room with his arms crossed. He watched as Reuben unleashed his fury on the box, cutting it as much as he could with his box cutter and tearing through the cardboard to reveal a styrofoam box within.

Upon closer inspection, the styrofoam opened to reveal a very beautiful clouded quartz crystal ball. It was nothing to be so excited about, Ryder thought. It was literally a piece of molded crystal, albeit a very pretty molded crystal.

"What is it?" Ryder questioned.

Reuben laughed as he pulled the ball from the styrofoam. "It's my new crystal ball that's used for divination. Isn't it beautiful!?”

Ryder shrugged. Sure it was really pretty, but it definitely wasn't something to get so worked up about. "I...guess?"

Reuben scoffed and chuckled. "You don't even understand how cool this is," he said as he walked through the kitchen towards the back yard.

Ryder just shook his head and went back to his bedroom.

Looking out of his bedroom window toward the gazebo, Ryder watched Reuben wipe down and just stare at that crystal ball. He had a goofy smile on his face as he gazed into it. Ryder just chuckled at the face his guardian made and tried his best to imitate it before laughing a bit and shaking his head.

As the day went on, however, Ryder noticed that Reuben was still out there staring into that stupid ball. "What is so damn special about that thing?" he asked aloud.

Finally, as he watched, Reuben covered the ball and made his way into his shop. Now was Ryder's chance. He had to see what was so interesting about it.

The frei floated to the gazebo and looked at the desk where the crystal ball was sitting. He slowly lifted the deep purple cloth that covered it to gaze upon the ball itself. With a curious eye, Ryder floated down to eye level with the ball, staring through it he saw nothing.

With a roll of his eyes, he floated back up and looked down at the ball. That's all it was; a simple, crystal ball that looked pretty. There was no power there. He didn't feel any sort of magical energy coming from it. Shaking his head he then picked it up.

Suddenly, the different broken elements within the ball began to swirl towards the center. "Whoa!" Quickly taking his hands away, the swirling reversed back to it's original state. Ryder shook his head quickly a second as to bring himself back to reality. Did that really just happen?

Slowly going to tap it with one finger, it did nothing. Then, he left his finger on the ball a moment. The broken shards right underneath his finger began to distort and wiggle as if they were dancing underneath this glass frame. Pulling his finger away stiffened the broken shards.

The raevan slowly gazed at his hands, both back and front. His freckles softly glowing as if to warn him that his magic was stirring. He rubbed his fingers against his palms a few times before grabbing each side of the crystal ball once more.

This time, the swirling began quickly and the center of the swirl began to show off a vision of a very cartoon-esque styled drawing of a woman with torched hair and elongated eyes which he instantly recognized. "Th-that's Alice..." he stated under his breath with a quick gasp of surprise. He was seeing Alice within this crystal ball.

Ryder let go of the ball and the vision faded as quickly as he did. Ryder felt a bit tired once he let go, but it didn't stop him from thinking about what he had just witnessed. His muse within some magical crystal ball. The frei then grabbed the sides of the ball again and envisioned Alice dancing in a field of flowers. Upon this thought, the swirling started and there she was, in her very distorted cartoon-esque style scurrying through a forest clearing of blue and gold flowers that looked as though they were drawn by three year old children. Either way, Ryder knew whatever he was thinking about was coming across this crystal ball.

One vision led to another and Ryder began down a path, just staring deep into this crystal ball he got lost in a daze as if he was just staring into the void.

THUD!

Before he could even realize, Ryder had exhausted himself and passed out on the gazebo floor.

"Ryder!? Ryder! Ryder!" Reuben's voice could be heard echoing through the frei's mind as if they were nails on a chalkboard. With a pounding headache, Ryder opened his eyes slowly to see Reuben on top of him calling his name.

Ryder couldn't do much but push Reuben off of him and roll to his side.

"Ryder, what happened!?" the concerned guardian called.

Ryder couldn't even bring himself to speak. His face scrunched as he laid on the floor, ribbon strewn ever-so-lazily on the ground.

"Lets get you inside," Reuben said, trying to pick up his charge.

A moan escaped the frei's mouth as he slowly moved to grab Reuben's hand away. He just wanted to be left alone.

"Ryder..." was all that echoed in the frei's mind before he slowly drifted out of consciousness again.

Upon awakening, he found himself in his bed with Reuben hovering over.

"Thank the gods you're awake. I had to call Zeke because I didn't know what to do."

Ryder's head pounded with pain as he sat up in his bed. "Uh-ow..." he moaned quietly under his breath, rubbing his head.

"What happened to you?" Reuben asked. He wanted to get to the bottom of it.

Ryder just continued to hold his head and once he felt well enough to speak, he did.

"I...saw Alice in your crystal. And then I just saw more and more and it was cool. Then the next thing I know, you're standing over me yelling my name."

Reuben let out a large sigh. "At least Zeke was right," Reuben stated.

Ryder looked at him with squinted eyes, as if there was a blazing sun staring directly back at him. The look on the frei's face made it obvious that he wanted to know what the vet told his guardian.

"He said that you're probably experiencing some sort of power exhaustion. You used too much of your magical energy and passed out because of it. He told me if you don't feel better to definitely bring you in, but that you should be just fine. Just don't ever over exert yourself like that again. He also said that you'd probably feel starved when you woke up. So, I went around the neighborhood really quickly and gathered some of our neighbors old food and also found some rotting veggies in the garden. So here you go. Eat up." Reuben stated, shoving a plate of the rotting matter towards his charge.

This was the first time Ryder felt that Reuben truly was being a guardian. Before then, Ryder viewed Reuben only as company, not a companion. Now, with this little scare, he knew that Reuben cared deeply for him; and it showed on his face when he woke up. Through the pounding in his head, he smiled. "Thank you, Reuben," he said, accepting the gift of rotting veggies and expired foods.