FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

Chapter 31: Something You Can Measure

"Com'on mom!" Shimmering Star Bear stood with his back up against the kitchen doorframe, where height lines for him and Mira were marked upwards along with their ages, starting at 5 for both of them when they were old enough for that to matter to them.

"Hold your horses," Confidence Heart chuckled as she fished a marker out of a can on the kitchen counter where they kept all their pens and pencils. "Alright, let's see how you've grown." She rolled her eyes, Mira had done the same things at his age.

"And there." She stepped back then balked as Shimmers turned around and grinned at the line clearly 5cm higher than the last mark, which was only a month old.

"I'm growing see, mama!" he pointed at the mark.

"Yes, I do," Confidence Heart's voice had turned serious. She smiled down at him quickly, "Now go and play, daddy and I have to talk."

"Ok!" Shimmers didn't seem to have noticed his mom's sudden change of disposition as he ran outside. She waited until he was busy playing and went into the living room where Love Heart was sitting on the couch and just fiddling around on his heartphone. Mira had gone out with Marina and Flair earlier.

"He's doing alright I hope," Love Heart put away his heartphone as Confidence approached.

"Yeah he is, and growing fast, too fast." Confidence Heart all but pulled Love Heart up off the couch and dragged him over to the marked wall. Upon seeing the new mark, they both thought the same thing: a non-magi adolescent Care Bear (around 2-3 years old) could easily grow 5cm in a month, even with the average height of an adult Care Bear being about a meter tall (ears notwithstanding). A 6-year old magi? That was concerning.

As they stepped outside, Love Heart and Confidence Heart were given another reason to worry. "Mama! Daddy! Look what I can do now!" he held out his hands towards them, a small pulse of vibrating air thumping rhythmically in between them.

Confidence Heart winced slightly as the sound hit her ears, "You're already making sound waves like that?" she didn't try covering her ears, too much space and not enough hands.

"That's impressive, but maybe stop before you hurt mama's ears," Love Heart cast a side glance at Confidence Heart.

"Ok," Shimmers let the sound pulse disperse.

"Thank you," Confidence gave a sigh of relief, "Now I think we should go see Take Care. We missed your last checkup." It wasn't a lie. With all the insanity surrounding Futureheart's arrival up to his death taking their son for a checkup had completely slipped their minds, at least as far as they remembered.

"Ok..." Shimmers sounded about as enthusiastic as most children being told they were going to visit the doctor but allowed his parents to take both of his hands and lead him towards Take Care's office.

OoOoO

"I can't explain the cause but he's definitely aging faster, even moreso than a normal Care Bear his age would." Take Care sat with Confidence Heart alone in the privacy room she had set aside for counselling. A soundproof room that would let people vent or share their more private feeling without risk of someone from the outside listening in. At the moment Love Heart was keeping Shimmers entertained in the waiting room after being told he was healthy (which was true).

"But is he in any danger?" Confidence looked over her shoulder at the door for a moment.

"No, at least not physically." Take Care reassured her, "all I know for certain is that this is magical in nature. Call me if anything goes wrong."

"We will, thank you."

Confidence found Love Heart and Shimmers playing with one of those sliding wire toys in the waiting room. Shimmers was the first to look up, "Mama, are you alright?"

"I am, Shimmers," Confidence gave a slight smile, "We should go now."

"Ok," Shimmers and Love Heart stood up. "What's going on?"

"You're growing too fast because of magic," Confidence Heart said as they left the clinic. "Do you know why?"

Shimmers stopped walking and looked up at his parents, both of whom turned to face him. "I made a wish with Wish Bear so I could get stronger and help you fight. Does this mean it's working?" he looked hopeful.

"It might have, but I didn't think Wish could do that." Love Heart's face became somewhat grim. "Let's go see Grandma Life Heart and make sure you're alright."

OoOoO

Life Heart's horn glowed as she swept a magic scan across Shimmering Star. "This is caused by magic. There's reservoir of potent magical energy inside you, Shimmers, and if what I can sense is right then the wish you made resonated with Wish Bear's wishing powers to make it come true, but it can't change you all at once so it's just making you age and gain power faster."

Shimmers seemed to light up at this, "So it's coming true."

"Yes, it is," Life Heart patted her grandson's head, "Now you should make sure you're eating enough to help with this, more calcium and protein to help your bones and muscles develop, and training with your father alright?"

"OK!" Shimmers pumped his fists.

Love Heart and Confidence Heart were standing behind their son and watched at Life Heart turned her gaze towards them. Love Heart sighed, "I'd hoped we could resolve this before you got involved, guess I'll just have to step things up then."

"Well let's get going then, you've got a lot of training to do," Confidence took her son's hand.

"Right, thanks mom," Love Heart said before he left.

OoOoO

Love Heart stood with his arms folded and facing his son, who stood looking up at him. "Alright, normally I'd wait to train you at the usual session tomorrow but we need to take a step up, especially since your sister has graduated. As of this moment I'd advancing you to the rank of Sergeant so we're going to start your weapon training. You know how to creature items with your tummy symbol right?"

"Yes," Shimmers nodded.

"Good. Now I need you envision what you want your weapon to be, but don't just try to create it like you normally do or it will just be a toy. You need to tap into darker impulses to get it to work because it needs to be capable of lethal force when you need it. You need to think of using it to kill." Love Heart narrowed his gaze, his tummy symbol glowed and one of his swords appeared in his hand. "A Magi's weapon is an expression of yourself and a very personal form." He pointed the sword at his son, "It will be an extension of your body once you have trained it so think carefully." He lowered his weapon to watch Shimmers

"Ok," Shimmers gulped then closed his eyes as he did his best to tap into the dark place his father had mentioned. A memory stirred, one buried deep and dark. Shimmering Star couldn't make it out but he felt it, darkness, anger, fear, hatred. The memory faded but the emotions remained and his tummy symbol began to glow. He held out his hands as light poured out into a long shaft. Shimmers opened his eyes and saw what he was holding, a two bladed straight sword with a handle in the middle, the combined length of the weapon making it longer than he was tall. "Wow..." Shimmers held the weapon close.

Love Heart couldn't help but chuckle, "An odd weapon choice but very good. I'm surprised you were able to find the emotion to conjure it so quickly," Love Heart looked down at his sword, "the first time I create mine it was... unexpected."

"How did you do it, daddy?" Shimmers looked up from his new weapons.

"I'll tell you about it when we finish, now get ready to defend yourself," Love Heart dropped his sword, which dissolved as it left his grasp, and conjured a round wooden sword in his hand. "Don't worry, you can't hurt me with that, unless you really want to kill me." Love Heart held the sword towards Shimmers, "Now let's see what you can do on your own." Love Heart stepped forwards and swung at his son, not hard enough to do any serious harm but enough that the young bear had to block the blow, staggering back from the force of the blow.

"Good, now let's go!" Love Heart swung again and kept at it, forcing Shimmers to just barely block every blow, until Love Heart stepped around him and gave him a none-to-gentle whack on his back which almost made him fall over.

"Ow!" Shimmers turned to face Love Heart, who was in a more relaxed stance now.

"Alright, time for some basic swordplay lessons then," Love Heart stepped forwards, "Listen to me and follow my instructions."

"Ok," Shimmers nodded.

OoOoO

Love Heart and Shimmers trained every day following the revelation of what his wish was doing to him, both private lessons and sessions during the normal Magi training, father and son were determined to bring out his full potential since that was what Shimmers wanted. Love Heart could see him growing stronger every day and his skill with his two bladed sword getting more precise to the point that he was scoring hits on his father which forced him to up his game.

After about a month of training, Love Heart told Shimmers to take a day off so they could both recover. His son looked like he had grown two years older in that month, looking about eight years old, and he was eager to run off and show his friends how he was growing.

Love Heart had just made lunch for himself when Confidence Heart returned home, still damp from the shower at the gym. "Hey, Love, where's Shimmers?"

"Gave him the day off and took the day off myself," Love Heart sat down to eat the chicken soup with carrots he had just made, "How was your day?"

"Good, Gentle Heart's going to the gym now." Confidence didn't bother to cook anything, just making a salami sandwich with cheese before she sat down with Love Heart.

"Gentle Heart? Really?" Love Heart stared at Confidence.

"Yeah, she's trying to get healthier. I told her she should start on the treadmill instead to really challenge herself," she took a bite from her sandwich.

"Never would have guessed she'd want to do that," Love Heart drank the last of the soup from his bowl then went to clean it at the sink, "I think it's time for Shimmers to start learning more kinetics, he's really pushing hard to make the most of this..." Love Heart stopped once he had put the bowl and pot away, then just started out the window. His son wasn't anywhere nearby, probably gone to the playground but Love Heart wasn't worried, not about his safety at least.

"Cassy, am I doing the right thing?"

Confidence Heart nearly choked upon hearing his old pet name for her for the first time in years. She had to pound her chest a few times before she swallowed properly. "What?"

"Training our kids like this, pushing them to be Magi like us, soldiers..." Love Heart turned around to show the worry in his eyes. "Am I forcing them to give up their childhoods?"

Confidence left her unfinished sandwich on the table and walked over to Love Heart, "They made the choice, Love, they asked you to train them so they could be Magi."

"But should I have agreed to that?" Love Heart stared down at his feet, "I could have said no so they could have tried to enjoy being children. I'm sorry I need time to think about this."

Love Heart tried to leave only for Confidence Heart to embrace him from behind, "I know what you mean, but we have to let them decide for themselves if they want to."

Love Heart took her hands in his own, "Maybe... all I know is I want this to end so we don't have to face that decision more than we have to." He turned his head and they kissed, "I'm going to lie down and play something for a bit. I'll think about it more later."

OoOoO

The next day, Shimmers was bouncing eagerly on his feet inside the hidden training room in the Hall of Heart that Defender Bear had created years ago, "Are we doing more sword training today?"

Love Heart shook his head, "No, we've done enough of that for the moment, time to focus on kinetics," Love Heart held up his hand and created a field of electricity hovering in the palm of his hand, "You can do sound right? It's time to focus on strengthening that, and maybe working on a second element."

"What should I learn?" Shimmers held up his hand and created a sound pulse.

"First, we need to get you to create a larger sound pulse, one you can use as a weapon." Love Heart intensified the lightning in his hand, "Pour more mana into your element and try to unleash its power. Don't worry, this place is designed to take what you can dish out." He let the lightning disperse.

"Ok." Shimmers out both his hands together and turned to face a wall away from Love Heart. He concentrated and poured energy into his hands, the sound pulse getting bigger and bigger until he unleashed a huge blast of sound that exploded on a wall nearby.

Love Heart yelped and jumped back, hands covering his ears. Shimmers just stared in amazement at the damage caused to the wall, which was rapidly repairing itself. "That was, I mean wow," Love Heart stared at Shimmers, who was in turn staring at his hands.

"I did that?" Shimmers grinned, "So now what?"

Love Heart walked over to his son, "First, I think you need to calm down and relax." He grabbed his sound and started tickling his ribs.

"EEEEEHAHAHAHAHA STOP DADDY!" Shimmers laughed.

Love Heart smiled and let go of his son after a minute, "Good, you just needed to relax, now let's work on refining that." The eight pointed star on Love Heart's head lit up and seven targets appeared along another wall. Defender had showed him how to manipulate the contents of the training room with his unicorn magic, as the room was mostly composed of magic itself it was rather simple. "I want you to hit those targets without hitting the wall behind them, and only one at a time."

Shimmers had recovered from his fit of giggled and nodded with a smile, "OK, daddy." He turned to face the targets and held his hands forwards. He poured too much energy into the blast which destroyed three of the targets.

"Be careful, narrow the focus and only hit one at a time," Love Heart's star lit up again and reassembled the targets.

Shimmers took a deep breath, giggled, then shook his head to regain his focus. This time he compressed the sound pulse into a smaller blast and fired a narrow sound blast at one target, blowing it up without hitting anything else. Shimmers was visibly panting from the effort of keeping it under control but he turned to his father, "Like that?"

"Good," Love Heart clapped his hands together, "Now try that again." He pointed to the six remaining targets.

Shimmers nodded then turned to face the target wall, charging up his sound blast again.