Another Fine Myth by Robert Asprin

“Sit down, kid, and finish your lizard-bird.”

We were out of the forest proper now, but despite the presence of the nearby road, game was still plentiful and fell ready victim to my snares. Aahz still refused to join me in the meals, insisting alcohol was the only thing in this dimension worth consuming, but I dined frequently and royally.

“You know, kid,” he said, looking up from his endless sword-sharpening. “You’re really coming along pretty well with your studies.”

“What do you mean?” I mumbled through a bone, hoping he would elaborate.

“You’re a lot more confident with your magik. You’d better watch your controls, though. You had enough energy in that pentagram to fry anything that bumped against it.”

“I guess I’m still a bit worried about the assassins.”

“Relax, kid. It’s been three days since we set ’em up in that ambush of Quigley’s. Even if he didn’t stop ’em, they’ll never catch up with us now.”

“Did I really summon up that much power?” I urged, eager for praise.

“Unless you’re actually engaged in magical battle, wards are used as a warning signal only. If you put too much energy into them it can have two potentially bad side effects. First, you can draw unnecessary attention to yourself by jarring or burning an innocent bystander who blunders into it. Second, if it actually reaches a magical opponent, it probably won’t stop him; just alert him that he has a potentially dangerous foe in the area.”

“I thought it was a good thing if I could summon up lots of power.”

“Look, kid. This isn’t a game. You’re tapping into some very powerful forces here. The idea is to strengthen your control, not see how much you can liberate. If you get too careless with experimenting, you could end up helpless when the actual crunch comes.”