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When Shiloh finally let out that sudden holler, Kaleb flinched like a bomb had just gone off. But as the genuine praise was heaped upon him, that fright ebbed away to let in a sort of giddy confusion. He really... did it?

"I just... thought about what you did, and it just happened," he explained timidly, a nervous smile working it's way onto his face. It was impossible not to smile when his friend was laughing like that, like the best thing in the world had just occurred and Kaleb was the one who had made it happen.

As Shiloh slid closer and literally nudged him to try again, he felt butterflies in his stomach. He raised his hand again, this time shaking slightly, and drew another squiggly line in the air. "It's working!" he squeaked, astonished by his own repeated performance.

Kaleb laughed as the dandelions seemed to explode all over his friend. Shiloh was pretty incredible, all that excitement over a little line in the air... But it was like having a weight taken off his shoulders, seeing his friend genuinely pleased with what he had accomplished, and looking at the possibilities without heaping on the expectations.

"I said I was going to maybe practice some things," Kaleb offered meekly, but after that enthusiastic response to a little bit of magic, he felt more open to sharing his work in progress. "I'm not very good at it yet, but..."

He trailed off and held his hands out, and a bubble appeared in front of them. It was only as tall as the sitting teens were, but it remained fixed about an inch above the rocky beach, and shone like glass in the sunlight.

"It's not as great as Jeremiah's shield, but Horace was able to punch it and it wouldn't break. And now it stays until I make it go away, when I started it used to just pop after a bit... I still can't do anything magical on our side, not that I know of, but at least I won't be completely useless here..." The nervous explanations trailed off as Kaleb ran out of words, and his cheeks started to turn slightly pink.

"I don't think- I could never... It would be impossible to put myself on the same scale as him, but you should have seen it, the bubble just covered us both, the air was all cool inside, and the magic was like... crystals." Kaleb's stammering ended almost abruptly. How was he supposed to describe the magic he had felt inside that bubble?

"Defensive stuff." He said, a bit more decisively. "That's what Jeremiah wanted to teach me, so I wouldn't have to be so afraid... " The hesitance crept back into Kaleb's tone and expression after the flicker of determination, as he remembered how strange and new everything was. "But I'm still afraid, and I don't... I don't have any experience in magic or in being friends, so both are very frightening sometimes."

The shield bubble vanished in a way that could only be described as popping.

"You're a really good friend though," Kaleb murmured softly, his shy face turned down towards his hands. He wasn't sure how to say those kinds of things, or whether it would be embarrassing to hear it, so it was said only very quietly.

Even just the threat of embarrassment made his cheeks turn slightly pink.

"Your clovers... The magic felt like sunlight." Kaleb still felt a little nervous, trying to describe how the magic appeared to him didn't really capture the feeling itself. "Like a little pocket of warmth in the summer, in between one breeze and the next that cool you off... And it's light was sort of indistinguishable from the heat. When the air shimmered it was like a cloud, and then it formed little shapes. And the clovers came from the ground to fill the space the magic had made for them."

Maybe he wasn't making any sense at all, sometimes everything was just all muddled within his range of perception when it came to magic. It was like the seamless blending together of smell and taste, except across many senses all at once. Hopefully Shiloh wouldn't fault him for it.

"Magic sometimes feels like a lot of things all jumbled up together," Kaleb admitted sheepishly. "It takes more words to describe, that's all..."

He nudged his glasses higher up on his nose, to little effect. "This place is full of magic though, and I can only sense certain bits and pieces, like something has to be... active, before I can tell it's there. It has made it a bit easier to find portals out of here though."

Hearing the stones shift under teeny tiny feet, Kaleb looked up to see Bean with it's treasure. Shiloh's comment on top of that made him blush even more than before. "Wait, you don't want me to have it, do you? It's a beautiful stone."

Kaleb had no experience at all with art, his leaning had gone quite dramatically towards the sciences, but he thought he knew what Shiloh was talking about. In high school English courses, how many times had he wondered if a writer was not trying to use metaphors for deep life lessons that required in depth analysis and comparison, and just wanted to tell a good story for the fun of it?

"I once read a case study about a man who grew up blind, and he became an artist. Whenever he painted houses, the roofs were red. No symbolism, it's just how he painted them." Kaleb grinned lopsidedly. "It's really amazing what people are able to do, even without magic."

The little sprout's enthusiastic flailing was too cute and too persistent, Kaleb had to laugh and hold out his hand. "If Bean wants me to have it, I'll definitely keep it. It's a beautiful gift, thank you!"

It was only Shiloh's lack of concern that kept Kaleb from freaking out a little during Bean's bizarre little rock-related fit. Was this just how sprouts expressed happiness? He laughed, a little nervously, but it was still a laugh.

Kaleb glanced down again, taking a moment to experience it all. He was new to a lot of things, and still did a lot of overthinking, but right then it sorta felt like things would be okay. It was amazing what just a little bit of friendship could do.

"I should probably practice a bit, that's what I said I was going to do after all... Might as well make use of the time while I'm here." Kaleb smiled lopsidedly. "I wonder how far down the beach we can go before our glowing air lights run out?"