“Run!” I screamed as I grabbed Noel and waded through the leaves. I cast motion magic to push my way through, barely making it out before a scorching arrow of feathery destruction turned everything behind us into ash.

Needless to say, using fire magic against this thing would be pointless. I raised my free hand towards the back of the beast and pointed a single finger at it. I concentrated my magic around my fingertip and poked the beast. After entire days of practice, I could poke a hole in stone if I tried hard enough and man, was I trying really, really hard to pierce through this starred monster’s skin.

When I tried to push, my magical finger met a wall that felt harder than steel. If I had pressed this hard with my real finger, it might have broken clean off. The monster didn’t take kindly to being poked by an invisible finger, and it flapped its wings to circle back around. Embers flew off its wings and landed in the many piles of leaves and dead wood around us, which promptly caught fire.

Noel used her motion magic to lift a pointy stick, which she positioned right in front of us. The monster didn’t care at all as it whizzed towards us, headfirst. I grabbed Noel by the shoulder and ducked. Wind popped against my ears as a searing heat passed overhead. The smell of burning hair filled my nose as the top of my head was singed by the fiery bird’s flames. Noel’s stick lay shattered in a million pieces in front of us.

More trees crashed and burned. The monster screeched and circled around again. This time I grabbed my right arm with my left hand, closed one eye, and grabbed a small pebble. I felt a sharp pain in my head, but ignored it. I made my one magic hand anchor itself on two trees, made the pebble move to its center, and bent the arm back in the middle. I jumped out of the way with Noel, but kept my magic going from the side. As the monster neared, I let go of the magic arm and let the pebble slingshot loose. The monster screamed as it jet past us, making my ears hurt.

I caught my breath and stared at the beast as it crashed into the ground. I winced and put a hand to my head. Manipulating motion magic like that wasn’t something I could do often, so I was glad I managed to defeat that thing with the slingshot. There was a ringing in my ear, so I couldn’t hear what Noel was saying next to me. I smiled at her, glad that she was worried about me even though we had won.

But her eyes were wide and full of panic. I followed her pointing hand and saw the starred Farro Bird’s wings rustle. As the hearing in my ears returned, I could make out the monster’s low growls and deep breaths. The embers on its wings burned even brighter as flames engulfed the whole forest around us. Even the stream was full of wood-ash and burning branches. The monster turned its head back, even though its body was facing the other way. There was a large gash under its eye, where a large stone sat embedded into its skin. The beast’s eyes widened in rage, and the blood that trickled down its beak burned a shade of crimson richer than the fire around us. The burnt parts of its body began melding with the unburnt parts, as its whole body began to glow. It opened its foot-long beak and flames spewed out of its mouth like vomit.

Noel screamed. We were too close, we couldn’t escape this attack. I ignored the pain in my head and raced to find a solution but nothing came to mind. I had been so sure we would be able to handle this monster, the only bit of preparation I had done for different kinds of magic was the motion magic that had already proven useless. The Farro Bird that I had defeated with my first bit of magic was now going to scorch us to death unless I could stop it. But how. How could I stop this massive, powerful, enraged monster?

I raised a trembling hand towards the monster as the fire in its beak gurgled forth. I tried to lift my other arm but it was broken. I hadn’t even noticed. Blood dripped into my right eye. When did I get cut there?

Before the massive wave of fire could leave the monster’s beak, I collected my thoughts, took a deep breath, and willed, and prayed harder than I ever had before. My muscles tightened, my breathing stalled, my eyes froze in place and my entire body felt like it was made of stone.

The monster stood motionless. The flames in its beak tossed and roiled, but soon died out. The starred Farro Bird lost its crimson glow. The flames on its wings, the menacing light in its eyes, even the intimidating sound of its deep breaths, everything stilled. The star on its forehead continued to glisten and flash with its evil red light, but its power seemed confined to the star itself, unable to reach into the monster’s body like before.

If I could breathe, I would have let out a breath of relief, but my chest was stuck in the position it had been in when I cast my magic. I could only continue to stare at the monster frozen in front of me, since my eyes couldn’t move or blink either. Fortunately, I couldn’t feel anything either, or my aching arm would have dropped to my side by now. I couldn’t tell what Noel was thinking or doing beside me, because she was out of my vision. Hopefully she would come up with something soon, because I had no idea how long I could keep this magic going.

It had come to me in a flash that there was another direction I could’ve taken motion magic. I had even mentioned the ‘knowledge’ needed to cast it. Zeno and Parmenides’ arguments against motion. Specifically, I was reminded of the paradox of Achilles and the tortoise.

If Achilles is racing against a tortoise, but he gives the tortoise a hundred mile head start, and both of them run at different but constant speeds, at some point Achilles will reach the point where the tortoise started with its head start. But by this point, the tortoise is fifty miles ahead, so Achilles runs to this new point, but by this point, the tortoise is further ahead, so Achilles runs to the new starting point. If this keeps going, Achilles can never get ahead because the tortoise will always move a certain distance before Achilles reaches its new starting point.

This isn’t how anything works, of course, and modern physics can run this paradox through the mud, but that wasn’t important. By using it as a basis for what I knew about Zeno’s arguments against motion, I was able to quickly cast a type of motion magic that froze both the caster and the target. The only problem was I would have to let go at some point, since this magic was draining my mental energy like crazy. The edges of my vision were already beginning to grow dark and everything was getting blurry.

You better be doing something useful, Noel!

I felt a hand on my shoulder. I gasped for air as my chest began to move again. The darkness at the edge of my vision retreated, but the pain in my head and arms came rushing back. My brain felt like it had been pierced with a needle, but I grit my teeth and prepared to cast more magic.

The starred Farro Bird let out a guttural screech as it opened its beak. Thankfully, all its fire was gone so its hateful voice sounded almost comical. It soon realized it wasn’t spewing out any fire, so it closed its beak and leaned back again. Why was this bird brain so quick to react?

I heard another shout, this time from beside me. Noel was covered in cuts and bruises, a whole branch worth of leaves in her hair, but her brows were furrowed in concentration. A pointed rock hung in the air in front of her: a piece of flint. It looked like it had come from the tip of the small flint spears we had been given on our first hunt. The stone’s end was incredibly sharp, probably prepared by elder Vell herself.

Before the monster could begin a new attack, Noel launched her piece of flint with a loud shout. It flew through the air, whizzing past my head. The monster saw the projectile approaching its head, but couldn’t react in time as the sharp rock was reflected larger and larger in its eyes. A bloodcurdling screech filled the forest.

The starred Farro Bird thrashed around and kept screaming. It covered its head with its wings, sent sparks flying off to its sides, and wallowed in the sea of flames it had created. I heard a small splash to my side. Noel collapsed to her knees, breathing heavily while sitting in the water. I hadn’t even noticed that she was standing in the stream.

My own body began to give way, so I tried to walk over to the stream. But my legs turned to jelly, and I swayed and swiveled from side to side before collapsing, knee-deep, in the stream. I propped up my body with my one good arm, and met Noel’s gaze.

I heard an enraged growl. The starred Farro Bird was staring at us from a distance, body covered in flames, blood drenching the feathers on its head. Noel’s piece of flint jut out from its right eyelid, as its other eye focused on us, glinting with the red light of the star on its forehead.