It was the first time I had looked at the pint and probably my first time seeing any blood since my mom died. The steadiness of my heart changed to a more rapid pace as I placed my hand on the lid and took it off. I tilted the container over just enough for me to see the blood inside. It was dark red and looked thick. The ice pack attached to the side of the cup helped to stop it from coagulating.

If what Naomi was telling me was true, then I would have been able to feel the blood in front of me. Only issue was that I felt nothing. Even after closing my eyes and putting all my focus on the blood, the only thing I could feel was the shape of the cup in my hands. I tried to channel my energy from my breathing and push my magic into the cup, but it dissipated into nothing.

When I opened my eyes, Naomi and Hama were both staring at me. “Did you feel anything?” Naomi asked me while her invisible tail was wagging.

I looked back down at the cup and twirled the blood around “No… I didn’t… I can’t feel anything at all. It’s like the cup is empty.”

Hama barks at Naomi and the two have a quick conversation. Once done, Naomi asked me “Well this is all still new to you right? How about you put the cup down and try to move the blood with your hand? Hama said that’s usually the first thing people learn.”

There wasn’t a lot of confidence there. If I wasn’t even able to feel the blood’s presence, then how was I suppose to move it? But Hama was the best person to ask about this magic so I listened to him and placed the blood down on the bench between me and Naomi.

I held my hand slightly above the cup and tried my best to focus on the blood. Once again I took a deep breath in through my chest and pushed the energy to my hands. The energy was there, but I couldn’t manipulate the blood. It was like all of the energy was trapped in my finger tips and couldn’t go anywhere else.

Feeling a bit frustrated I pulled my hand back and sighed “I’m just not feeling anything. I’m putting everything I have into trying to move it but I still feel nothing… I don’t mean to disappoint you both, but I don’t think I can actually manipulate it at all.”

Hama walked over to Naomi’s feet where she picked him up and put him on her lap. She then relayed to me “He says that you are able to do it, but your method is totally wrong. You’re thinking too much like a Fire witch and not like a Blood witch.”

They were trying to help me, but I was still confused “What do you mean? I’ve never learned anything about using Blood magic before. I’m only doing what I know from learning Fire magic.”

“And that’s exactly why it isn’t working!” Naomi responded “It’s because you’re trying to push the magic from your lungs like you’re trying to use Fire magic when you should actually be working from your heart for Blood magic!”

It was still hard to grasp what she was saying. Both the lungs and the heart are in the chest, and the chest was were I did all of my Fire magic. So shouldn’t the two have used the same method? It was so hard for me to think of using my chest in any other way.

But even if I didn’t completely understand what they were saying, I still wanted to give it another try. So I once again looked into my chest, only this time thinking more with my heart, and attempted moving the blood. And again there was nothing “I’m sorry, but I just can’t feel anything.”

While I was staring at the blood and feeling defeated, the two of them had another private conversation. This time for a bit longer than the other times. And after a moment, a look of surprise came across Naomi’s face. “If you think that will work then I’ll give it a try.” she said to Hama out loud.

Not understanding what was going on, I opened my mouth to ask them, then quickly closed it after Naomi suddenly stood. My eyes followed her as she put Hama down where she was once sitting then made her way around the bench until she was sitting right behind me.

When I tried to open my mouth again, she shushed me and said “Focus on the blood, not me.” then gently turned my head until I was looking back down at the cup.

She then surprised me by putting her hands on my shoulders where she began rubbing them “What I want you to do is really focus on the beating of your heart.”

I didn’t know what the two were getting at, but I was able to feel my heart beating quicker. There was even a feeling of lightness in my stomach. Whatever Naomi was doing was obviously working. So I closed my eyes again and really focused on my heartbeat and the cup.

Initially it was exactly as before. I was close to giving up again until I suddenly felt something. It was faint, but I began to actually feel the blood in front of me.

Though I didn’t have much time to focus on it once Naomi unexpectedly brought her mouth extremely close to my ear. Close enough for me to feel her breath. She whispered “You can do this. Just focus on the beating of your heart.”

All the things I was feeling before were suddenly amplified. My heart was beating in a way I don’t ever remember feeling before. It was such a foreign feeling that I assumed she had used her magic on me to change my emotional state. And it worked because now I was only able to focus on the beating of my heart. Everything suddenly became much more clear.

The movement of blood being pumped from my heart and around my body was easily felt. It was like I was right next to the blood cells in my veins. I could feel the entirety of their journey from being pumped by the heart and throughout my whole body until the blood eventually returned to the lungs to get more oxygen. There I could feel where my Fire and Blood magic met. I was finally able to separate the two.

Bringing my focus away from Fire and into Blood came the sudden feeling of blood other than mine. It was the cup in front of me. I was finally able to sense the blood in it when I wasn’t even paying attention to the cup. So with my head in the popper space, I tried once again to move the blood.

My hand reached out over the cup once more. I took a breath and focused on pulling the blood towards my fingers. Initially I thought I wasn’t doing anything, until I peeked inside of the cup. There were five little mountains of pulling towards the tips of each of my fingers. To make sure I wasn’t imagining it, I moved my hand in a small circle and each of the mountains movement matched my fingers movements.

It was such an unbelievable sight that I had no idea how to respond to it. All I could do was break out into maniacal laughter.

Something that had seemed impossible yesterday was suddenly a reality in front of my eyes. I felt so much more connection with my own body. It felt stronger, but also more crowded. Like there was someone else there helping with my magic. Though it wasn’t too much of a stretch to realize it was Hama’s presence I was feeling.

Feeling his connection to me for the first time was incredible. My blood no longer felt cold as it coursed through my body. It felt energetic. I was so happy that I could barely contain my excitement “I did! I actually did it! I actually moved the blood with magic!”

Then before I could say anything else, Naomi’s hands moved from my shoulder to around my waist. She pull my body towards hers and gave me the hug that she had promised she would “That’s so amazing! You have no idea how proud of you I am right now!”

It was a bit surprising after having forgotten telling me she was going to do it. And the hug coming from behind wasn’t something I was expecting either. But her long arms wrapped around my body made me feel oddly safe. I couldn’t help myself but to fall back into her.

My excitement was contained and I felt as if I was loosing myself in her arms… that is, until I heard a small and raspy voice shout out “You did it!”

The suddenness of it made me panic and move away from Naomi to see who it was. But after looking around, I strangely didn’t see anyone. The rest of the people that were in the park had left at some point and it was only the three of us sitting on the bench. Which made me realize who it was.

I looked down at Hama and he was looking back at us with a giant smile “Did you just day something, Hama?” I asked him.

And that got the attention of Naomi. She grabbed my shoulders and turned me around until I was facing her “Wait, were you finally able to hear him just now?! Quick! Tell me what you think he said!”

Her sudden grabbing of me and enthusiastic shaking made me give her a rushed response “I think he said ‘You did it.’ just now!”

That being correct, her eyes lit up and she pulled me in for another hug, only this time she pinned my head to her chest “That’s exactly what he just said! That means you can finally hear him!”

While still being squeezed by Naomi, I looked over as much as I could to see Hama and asked him “Can you say something else?” though nothing was heard in response besides a bark from him. But I knew he said something when Naomi asked me “Did you hear it that time?”

Which was of course disappointing “No… I couldn’t.” and my more somber response lead to Naomi releasing her grip from me, allowing me to sit back up. There was a bit of silence out of the two of them while I was collecting myself as they were having another telepathic conversation.

Once done, Naomi said to me “That’s fine. You were ignoring your Blood magic for a really long time, so it’s pretty normal for you to not hear him immediately. So don’t be upset! Be happy that you even heard him in the first place!”

She was right. I was feeling mopey because I couldn’t do something I had literally just learned how to do. I needed to sit back and actually enjoy the moment for once. So I invited Hama to jump on my lap so I could give him a hug.

He enthusiastically ran to me and jumped in my lap. His tail was wagging while I held him close to my chest “I love you Hama. I can’t wait until we’re able to have a real conversation.” he then gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and laid his head on my chest.