HDMGF Book 2- Part 8

Jake’s POV

“Yes ma’am, I’m happy to.” I said then turned to Suma. “Suma, could you send me back before a doctor, or worse, my mum, comes back?” She did, and I slowly reappeared back in the room, thankfully without seeing that flaming figure again.

“I told them you went to the bathroom.” My mum’s voice announced from behind me. It startled me, and I spun around.

“Oh… uh, thank you.”

“You passed out, Jake.” Mum said flatly. She was sitting in one of the chairs by the window that the nurses rolled in.

“…I know.” I said unsure of why she was reminding me.

“Do you? Because you don’t act like it. Why would Suma summon you, knowing what happened?” She asked annoyed.

“She didn’t know actually. I just told her, and got some time off from all the physical training, but they still want me to come in for the nonphysical stuff.” I explained.

“Did you tell them you passed out?”

“Yeah, but they still want me to come for their classes because it won’t be dangerous.” Mum looked ever more annoyed with each explanation.

“Jake, Suma is a doctor, right?”

“Uh, sort of.” I said as I sat down on the bed.

Mum stood up angrily, “Why can’t she just cast one of her spells and fix you then?”

“Well, she actually did try, but she doesn’t understand our biology enough to fix this. A broken bone or something, sure, but passing out… she can’t help with that.” I said trying to defend Suma and calm her down.

Mum sighed, “Jake, you need to take better care of yourself. You spend so much time in that world, it’s taking it’s toll on you. You almost let slip about Suma when you woke up, and now the doctors think you’re hallucinating.” My eyes probably went wide for a second, I considered lying, but I knew I shouldn’t, not this time.

“Actually, that wasn’t a lie; I was hallucinating.”

“What?!” Mum yelled. “Wait, so there really is a man made of flames?”

I flinched, “Oh, yeah… I forgot they told you about that.”

“Why wouldn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t want you to worry.” I said.

“Jake, you joined a foreign military, organized and run by bird wizards, to fight a magical war in another world… I’m always worried.” Her voice sounded disappointed, scared, and a few other things that made me feel like crap.

“I’m…” I sighed. “I’m sorry. Alright, no more secrets.”

“Thank you. Now, what happened? Why are you hallucinating?” She asked and sat back in the chair.

“There was this creature, I don’t know its name, so I always just called it The Figure of Flame. I first saw it about a year ago, just after I met Suma the second time. It didn’t do anything then, except force Suma to give me a special familiar’s name that she uses when she summons me.”

“A familiar’s name?” Mum asked.

“Uh, that will take a while to explain. Long story short, names are rare on her world, so naming something is like honoring it in a way.”

“Why are names rare?” She asked.

“Because naming something makes its magic stronger, so it needs… ugh, its hard for them to do. I’ll explain more later. Anyway, the figure demanded she give me one, then he vanished. I didn’t see him again for a while. Suma was summoning me to start training that day.”

“You two train a lot.” Mum said shaking her head.

“Yeah, you’re telling me. If it weren’t for her healing magic, I’d have walked my feet off. Anyway, Suma summoned me, and I saw him again then. It was like I was in space or something, like a void, and then I saw him. Once we actually started talking, I realized he was kinda crazy.”

“How?” She wondered.

“It’s like he has split personality or something. He switched randomly between angry, and calm, and when he does, his looks change. When he is calm, he looks more like a humanish shape, and when he is made, he looks more reptilian.”

“Is he some kind of dragon then?”

“I don’t think so. Suma says all the dragons of her world went extinct a long time ago, or they left or something.”

“What is he then?”

“I don’t know, and neither does Suma. The first time I saw him, was the first time she saw him too.”

“Is that all the times you’ve seen him then?” Mum asked.

“No, I saw him a few more times. The last time I saw him, he did something; went into my mind.”

“Why does everyone from that world try to mind control people?!” Mum asked upset.

“No, he didn’t. It felt more like he was trying to show me something. I think it was memories.” I explained.

“Why do you think it was memories?”

“Because that’s what those hallucinations felt like. It was like I was reliving something. Well sort of. Really it was more like I was interacting with the memory itself.”

“What was it about?” She asked.

“It was of a Neame. In the memories, he felt familiar.”

“He was a familiar like you?” Mum asked confused.

“No, I mean, it just felt like I knew him.”

“Oh, of course.” She shook her head.

“After I was shaken out of the memory by a store employee, I passed out.”

“Did it hurt?” Mum asked worried.

“No, actually it was kinda nice. Like I said, it felt like I knew him, so it was kinda relaxing. The passing out part hurt a bit though, mostly from hitting my head.”

Mum leaned forward and put a her hand on mine, “Jake, I’m so scared for you.”

“I’m fine now, Mum.” I said.

“No, you’re not, and that’s what worries me. You’re young, you think you’re invincible, and you’re going off to war. I’m so scared you won’t come back. That you will be killed, and I’ll never know.” Mum was crying as she spoke. I didn’t know what to say, there probably wasn’t anything to say. I did my best to reassure her that I would do my best to be careful, and hugged her.

It took a while for the doctor to come back, which Mum appreciated because it gave her enough time to dry her tears and fix her makeup. She took me to get an MRI, and a few other scans with lots of jumbled letters in their names. I was told that it might be several hours before all the scans came back, so we spent the night in the hospital. It was about three in the morning before a new doctor, this time a man, came in and explained the scans. He said they were abnormal, and that my brainwaves were unusual. They said they were going to order more tests, and that I might be here for a few days.