A Beginning to the Summer
It was the beginning of the greatest summer of their lives - the summer before the beginning of their senior year of high school for two of them, and for one lucky friend the last summer before they left for college. The three best friends had agreed to meet each other down on the river by the Tracks, using their own private and dilapidated dock as the meeting place. The night was muggy and alive with the sounds of traffic from the trains and the cars of the city as well as the screaming of the cicadas. Erik was the first to arrive and scouted out the area, checking all the wards for any disturbances made by someone other the small tribe of pixies living in the tree by the old dock.
When he was satisfied that there had been no intruders on their property he took the appropriate offerings of candy and half-and-half dairy cups to the pixies for their continued truce with the Rogues. The tribe of little warriors accepted the offerings without a single jab of their spears at Erik’s hand (thankfully) and then took their spoils back to their nests to gorge themselves on cream and sugar. The High Priest smiled faintly at the pixies, sure not to show too much amusement (which would be taken as an insult) at their antics. With the dock now properly secured Erik placed his bicycle down inside the wards surrounding the dock and sat atop the cooler full of lukewarm sodas, tea, and lemonade.
Rashawn, the Rogues’ 2nd Lieutenant was the second to arrive in the beat up Olds Mobile that he had received when he got his license. The thing was ancient and used to belong to his grandfather back when Olds Mobiles were considered luxury cars and the only appropriate leather seat colors were burgundy red or navy blue. This model in question was of the navy blue variety and its paint glowed silver in the moonlight. Rashawn parked the ancient vehicle and exited the car with a backpack full of legally purchased fireworks; a reminder of the benefits of his recent eighteenth birthday.
“Anyone follow you?” Erik called from within the illusion of the wards which masked the dock behind a fake tangle of overgrown bushes and weeds so thick there seemed no chance of getting through them.
“Psh, man, you ask me that every time and the answer is always the same.” Rashawn stepped through the greenery as if it wasn’t there and came out on the other side of the wards to see Erik giving him a disapproving frown.
“And what do I say every time you give me crap about making sure you weren’t followed?” Erik questioned with a raised eyebrow and a disapproving glower he had learned from his mom.
“‘You can never be too careful when magic’s involved’,” Rashawn repeated mockingly as he put down the bag full of fireworks. “Fam, yer paranoid as fuck.”
“That’s my job,” Erik answered tersely.
The boys stared at each other silently for a moment before the tenseness of the encounter was broken as they smiled good naturedly at each other, clasping their hands together in a secret handshake they’d patented in the third grade.
“How much longer do you think it’ll take Abhay to get here?” Erik asked as he dug in the cooler beneath him for a soda. “Want something?”
“Get me a sweet tea,” Rashawn accepted the can that was thrown to him and thought over Erik’s question. “I think Abhay had services at the Temple tonight, he’ll be here soon though.”
“Good. We’re gonna need him to pull this off. Help me with the runes for these while we wait, ok?” Erik put aside his soda and pulled the fireworks out of the bag. With Rashawn’s help the two boys began to use sharpies to draw symbols from various runic alphabets onto the bodies of the fireworks, bespelling them for various added effects to produce larger and better explosions. They were safe within the barriers of the wards, ensuring that their magic could not be corrupted by outside sources (such as mischievous pixies).
The boys had just finished getting all of the fireworks bespelled and set up when Abhay pulled up in his father’s Mitsubishi Mirage. The 1st Lieutenant had indeed come after a night service at the local Hindu Temple and smelled of the fragrant incense used in his religion’s prayers. “Am I too late?” Abhay called out as he entered the protections of the wards and exited onto the dock.
“Were you followed?” asked Erik at the same time as Rashawn spoke.
“Nah, man, we ain’t started yet,” Rashawn assured.
Abhay got himself a lemonade from the cooler and answered Erik’s question. “I had a Iron Teeth following me, some sorta coyote warlock, but I threw out some lights,” Abhay wiggled his fingers to emphasize the small explosions of different colored lights he could summon, “and managed to lose her.”
“Coyote? You're sure it was a Warlock?” Erik asked in surprise. “She’s new. What was she driving?”
“Course it was a Warlock! We’re way too far from the Navajo Nation to get a Skinwalker, and you know no Warlock with any sense would dare to call themselves a “Skinwalker” without Navajo approval. You wanna be a Skinwalker - you’re Navajo, end of story.” Abhay made a hand motion to display that was the end of that then held his hands up helplessly at the second question, “And iunno, she was drivin’ some sort of old Herby lookin’ thing.”
“You mean a Volkswagen Beetle?” Rashawn taunted with a smile.
“C’mon man, cut me some slack you know I’m not good with cars.” Abhay complained.
The boys erupted into laughter, patting Abhay on the back. Erik even soothed him, “Hey, at least you knew enough to call it Herby. Glad you could make it though, this is a three man show.”
Abhay examined the fireworks display in question and gave Erik and Rashawn a skeptical look. “Where's the lead fuse? There's no way we're setting this off so close to the explosions.” The boys cursed when they realized Abhay was right, and quickly discovered that they had left behind their normal fuse extensions.
“Well,” Erik sighed, “there's not enough time to go back to the train car and get one now so…” He knelt down and unlaced his shoes; cutting off the aglet and tying the laces to their fuse to extend it. “They're cotton, so they should burn evenly. Hopefully. If not then Rashawn’s got this. Right, man?”
“Yeah, man,” Rashawn agreed, giving Erik a solid fist bump as all the boys backed up towards the back of the dock towards the tracks, leaving the set up for the fireworks towards the front of the dock out over the river.
As High Priest it was Erik’s job to start off the magic, and his smile took on a bit of a manic gleam as he looked over at his friends and took a deep breath. All three of the boys began to breathe deeply, grounding themselves and focusing on the magic imbued in the fireworks. The runes they had marked on them were all for financial gain, good luck, happiness and prosperity, and there were even a few messages that Erik had snuck in for Rashawn and Abhay to see after the show.
The three boys clasped hands in a circle over the very end of the fuse, grounding themselves and focusing their magic to a fever pitch as Erik chanted with Abhay and Rashawn chorusing him, “We call upon all the gods of lightning, fire, and light for their blessings as we start this summer. We pledge to continue to serve them in our actions and deeds, and pledge to continue our offerings in thanks for our magic.” The boys looked at each other, lightning flashing in Erik’s eyes, light in Abhay’s eyes, and fire in Rashawn’s eyes. They breathed in as one and turned their gazes to the end of the fuse lying on the ground in the middle of their circle. Their magics sparked in unison, lighting the fuse and sending that fire speeding down the length of the shoelaces and the actual fuse to the fireworks.
The results were instant as the fireworks went off in sequence, starting with the bottle rockets and smaller rockets starting out the display as the boys magic worked together to enhance the show. Erik’s plasma and electricity magic sped up the reactions of the fireworks, pushing them to greater size, Rashawn’s fire magic made sure that the fireworks went off in the correct sequence while the runes that he and Erik had placed spread blessings wherever the sparks from the fireworks fell, and lastly Abhay’s light magic increased the brilliance of the fireworks themselves as bursting lights of his own making went soaring up and danced amongst the explosions he and his friends had created.
The display lit up the southern half of Crossroads City, promising prosperity and blessings upon all who saw it. Everyone who looked up into the night sky to see the fireworks could feel themselves smile: from the younger Rogues members back at the Train Car that served as their hideout, to the Ward Witch sitting out at the park divining the future, to the waitresses downtown working their night shift at The Lucky Ave Diner, and all of the night shift crews at the Tracks, the Docks, and the Warehouse District who were able to take a moment out of their hectic shifts to watch the beautiful display out over the river. Back at their dock the boys stared up at their joint creation and in that moment they had never felt more connected to each other or to their magic. In this moment at the very beginning of their last summer together they had never felt more alive.
