Sometimes you get an idea that's rather -- abstract.
Has to be brought down to earth. All very well to devise a reason why our young hero is so valuable to a wide variety of people -- as long as they are magical types -- but then I have to send some of them after him.
Well, there is magic -- open magic -- and schools of magic, but nailing down has to start. What sort of creatures might be a peril?
I think I need to go hunting through old ideas to see if this is the other half of them.