The next two weeks, he spent working on spells. He had thought about the possibility of altering gravity and found that he could do it locally, after a fashion. Hmmm. He would have to think about the possible uses of that. The other, rather fancier spell he worked on was a lightning one. A thunderstorm had come over as he played around with the gravity modification spell, getting nowhere in particular. The storm had snuck up on him behind the ridge, and then he had been assailed by wind, rain, and rolling thunder almost without warning. He bolted for the truck as it boiled overhead, worried about getting hit by lightning as the big, dark clouds passed overhead. And then he thought about lightning and stepped back out of the truck and studied the storm.

He came up with a spell that would concentrate the air’s electrical charge and direct it at a particular spot. He ran it through his head a couple of times before he threw it, using a small, ragged tree thing down the track as the target. A lightning bolt blindingly sizzled into existence, creating a loud bang as the tree thing practically exploded in a shower of sparks, the flash momentarily turning his vision into a strange black and white abstract version of the scene. It took a moment, but once his eyes had adjusted back from the momentary blindness, he found all that was left was a smoldering hunk of the trunk and a few bits of burning branches or whatever spread around the immediate area. Woah!

And then there was another lightning strike, just over the rise. It was close enough he could feel the zing in the air. Then another lightning bolt struck the tree behind him. Shit! He jumped into the truck as another hit the bush he’d used as his target dummy. Hopefully, the rubber tires would shield the truck. Then the lightning strikes stopped just as suddenly as if he’d started them, and in ten minutes, the storm had rolled on, leaving a clear sky overhead and the gully awash in stormwater. Jason leaned back in the seat and relaxed his almost hyperventilation after the lightning attack, then he closed his eyes and promptly fell asleep. By the time he woke up, the mini torrent in the gully from the rainwater had largely run away, and things were getting back to normal.

It was clear he would need to practice how to handle lightning a good deal more! He supposed he would have to take the time to study storms academically and get a much better understanding of how they functioned. Then he could work out ways of using lightning strikes in a safer, more controlled manner! And definitely be careful about being out in the open when playing with an electrical storm! So, as he drove home, he added studying atmospheric electricity to his mental list of things to study further. It was getting to be a long list! But, at least there was plenty of information to be found on the internet! At that point, he suddenly realized what a major advantage he had over the sorcerers of Urasmian’s world. Hmmm. Something else to consider.