Alzy created a nest of leaves and loose branches to sleep in. He wanted it to protect him

  until the sun crossed the horizon. Then he could do what he had to do.

  If the bull was still there, he would find a way to move it.

  The green light that flooded his body should help move a giant mean cow out of the way

  long enough to do what he had to do. He hadn’t been able to fly until a few minutes ago,

  now he could.

  He thought he could plan better if he knew what his new limits were. He thought that

  something would turn up to tell him what had happened. The fact that the light had

  indicated the ring told him that it bent to his will when he needed it to.

  It also meant that if he didn’t keep his thoughts under control it could hurt him by

  accident.

  What happened if he lost control while he was asleep?

  He sat down in his nest, and closed his eyes. He needed to sleep, but he also needed to

  be on guard. There were too many things that could snatch up an unaware traveler while

  he was trying to get some rest.

  He thought about the green light, and thought about what it had already done for him

  to keep him alive.

  The light shone through him. He thought about it, wondering what it did. A diagram

  appeared. He didn’t know if the light was alive, but it seemed to want to show him how

  it worked.

  He examined the mental diagram, thinking about what it could mean.

  Alzy concentrated on the picture. More drawings appeared around it. He realized the

  power was telling him it could alter his personal reality as long as he could hold the

  thought. Some of the drawings showed things changing when bathed with the green

  light.

  As long as he considered himself invulnerable, he would be. Once he lost the thread of

  that thought, the reality would snap back to where he could be hurt.

  I can fly away and let the monster bull wander around. It obviously touched the ring and

  been filled with the green light like he had.

  If he wanted to break that effect, he would have to convince the animal that it could be

  hurt and it needed to back off.

  He doubted he could win that kind of contest of wills. The bull knew it was the supreme

  power on the field. No matter what he did, he could probably not even dent such

  determination.

  Alzy thought he could capture it at least. He doubted it could fly, and he knew he could

  if he changed the way he viewed the world. Did he have enough to change reality for

  both himself and the bull? Could he build some kind of pen to keep it trapped while he

  went about his business?

  How long would it take the bull to break down any wall it wanted to get through?

  He had an idea that the more it wanted to get through something, the faster it would be

  able to do that.

  He needed to move it away from people and let it run free somewhere else. He didn’t

  have to kill it. The green light coursing through his body made it easy to kill normal

  things, but the bull had the light too. And he could be stuck trying to move a rock if he

  did try some type of direct confrontation.

  If he did carry it with the light, would that teach it how to fly on its own?

  Did he want to take that chance if he didn’t have to?

  The best thing he could do was blind it long enough to move it, and then put it

  somewhere it could live without hurting anything else. So he needed an island away

  from the mainland for that.

  He didn’t know enough geography to pick out a spot for that.

  Did he need to know it?

  He decided that he could fly straight up, keep himself and the bull safe, and just spot an

  island devoid of people from the sky. How hard could it be?

  He could probably build an island faster than he could find one from the air. He was

  close to the center of the land. He would have to fly up to the edge of the sky to find a

  place off the mainland.

  He just didn’t know if he had enough will to do something like that.

  He could leave the monster in place. He didn’t know if it would follow him if he took

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  the ring. Did he want to lead it to a town that wasn’t ready to defend itself.

  He decided that he could put it on an island out in the middle of nowhere. If it came

  back for the ring, he would deal with it when it arrived. It wasn’t the best solution, but

  it was better than a protracted war with something he wasn’t sure he could kill even with

  the green light flowing through him.

  If it did escape the island, he was sure that it would be able to keep doing it since it

  already knew it could.

  Avoiding the fight seemed more important than ruining the nearby land.

  Alzy examined his new power once more. He could fly, he could carry the bull and the

  ring, he could find the right place for the bull to guard. He saw a mental checklist in his

  head as he determined what he could do.

  He realized suddenly that this power could kill him if he changed his personal reality

  to something that wouldn’t let him live. He frowned. He would have to practice to keep

  that from happening, but for now he had to get out of the problem he already had.

  The green light wrapped around him, lifting him out of the tree. He floated there, taking

  in the view. He loved this out of his gift.

  He wrapped the ring with green light. It floated with him. He nodded. That had worked

  out like he thought. The force felt like a bubble linking to his bubble of flight. He

  extended a separate bubble around the bull. It mooed with outrage at floating off the

  ground.

  He felt the green light flow out and look for the island he wanted. It indicated a marker

  to the east of him. He directed it to pull him and his passengers along until they could

  see it.

  Alzy didn’t have time to watch the landscape move under him. The green light had

  turned them into a beam and fired them over the water. He asked it to speed up his

  perception so he could watch the sky around him as he flew.

  He saw a piece of rock emerging out of the water. He nodded to himself as he slowed

  down. This looked perfect for what he needed to do. All it needed was something the

  bull could eat without hurting itself.

  A little spot of grass and fruit trees should be fine.

  Fresh water might be necessary too. He didn’t know if the bull needed it, but he didn’t

  want to strand it and have it slowly die because it had nothing to drink.

  And he had no idea if it needed anything like a normal animal.

  He waved a hand to indicate he wanted grass to grow in the rock. The green light

  blasted the stone into soft loam, and created seeds out of the air. Seconds later, blades

  of green sprang from his work.

  A small copse of trees surrounded by bushes stood tall against the horizon.

  He used the green light to locate a water source he could turn into a small lake in the

  middle of the island. He dug a well in a few seconds, pulling the rock out of the ground

  because in that one area, molecules of like material repelled each other.

  “All right,” said Alzy. “It looks like you can stay here without hurting anybody. Try not

  to hurt any sailors that come by.”

  He asked the green light to carry him back to where he had met the cow. He still had to

  do something about the ring, and get to Baldwin. Maybe the city state could use a newly

  minted magician to help it grow and lord it over everyone else.

  He laughed at himself. He could barely keep himself together. What would a wooden

  head like him know about running things, much less getting involved with any type of

  government.

  It was better if he stayed hidden and only used the green light when he needed to do

  something that he couldn’t do with his own two hands. He didn’t even know how long

  it would last.

  He might run out of power on the way home and crash into the water, or the land after

  he made shore. He needed to do a lot more practicing with it and meditating on what it

  told him. Once he was confident about what he could do, and that he wouldn’t run out

  of power at the wrong time, then he could think about telling the authorities that he

  would support them.

  He had a feeling that the more unscrupulous politicians would want to use him to hurt

  their neighbors.

  He didn’t have time for that nonsense.

  And he realized the green light could just make any type of gold he needed to buy things

  out of thin air. He didn’t have to worry about any kind of work unless he wanted to do

  it.

  And if he wanted to work, the green light would make anything he needed to do as easy

  as walking three steps.

  He wondered if he could make other people with the green light inside them. Did he

  want to. Would they be responsible with their new power? Would he?

  He decided that he would hold the green light to himself for the time being. Sharing it

  could create magicians that would defend Baldwin from any harm, or it could cause

  them to try to take control of everyone and everything around them.

  That was the last thing the world needed in his opinion.

  And he didn’t need to start wars with the other city states over who had it better, or

  worse, when his power would be used as some trump card.

  Alzy realized that he was a soft touch. He hadn’t thought of himself as altruistic, but

  now that he could do anything he wanted, the urge to hurt things had fallen down to the

  bottom of his list of priorities.

  If that ever changed, he could be a threat that very few people had ever seen.

  He decided that he would help his home to the best of his abilities, using the green flame

  as a last resort. He didn’t want everyone coming to him about their problems and he

  didn’t want to impinge people who lived elsewhere on the continent.

  He arrived at the spot where he had picked up the cow. He floated above it, ring in tow.

  He needed to find a place to hide the ring, and then start building a farm. He didn’t have

  to travel now unless he wanted to reach one of his old haunts and hang out with other

  travelers coming in off the road.

  Even traveling lost some of its allure when you could just up and go halfway around the

  world in a few seconds of thought.

  He shook his head. He had saved future travelers trouble with the monster guarding the

  ring. There was no telling how many had been mauled to death in this stretch of the

  woods. He decided that he could bury the ring underneath where he wanted to put his

  new homestead. If he wanted to give others his power, he could just dig it up, show

  them how it had worked for him, caution them about their thoughts, and then bury it

  again.

  He hoped anyone coming after him would not turn themselves into some kind of

  monster with the wrong way of thinking.

  The light, like magic, controlled reality. One wrong wish and the new magician could

  be anything but a powerful human being.

  He could already see a lot of problems ahead with sharing his power.