by Mike Ezekiel
Master Sernett put his hand on Kerwyn’s shoulder and said, “Kerwyn this time I want you to concentrate on a ball of pure bright light and then focus really hard on the spell you want to cast. Once you have that firmly in your mind, draw in the One Power slowly and keep control of it until you’re ready cast your spell.”
Again Kerwyn opened up his mind to the flows of floating energy that was surrounding him and as soon as he did, the energy of the One Power rushed in and filled him with a sense of unlimited power. He focused his mind on a ball of pure white light the way his Master had told him to. He then waved his hands and spoke the word of power again; “Luminarium!” he again felt that familiar rush of energy.
There was a sudden and intense blinding explosion that threw Kerwyn and his master several feet to the ground. Above them hovering three feet above the ground was a ball of the brightest and purest white light the world had ever seen. It was approximately four feet wide and it pulsed with the pure force of the One Powers energy.
“Kerwyn tone it down my boy, or you’ll blind the both of us!” exclaimed Master Sernett, surprised that Kerwyn not only succeeded with what he was told to do, but that he had done it better then he had ever seen it done by anyone.
Kerwyn concentrated his will towards the brilliant glowing ball of light and gradually the light’s intensity dimmed enough so it no longer hurt the eyes to look at it. Blinking rapidly and rubbing his eyes, Kerwyn quickly looked over at his master and saw the biggest smile on his Master’s now red sun burnt face.
“Kerwyn my boy you did it! Not only did you do it, but what a light. I think I’m going to have spots in front of my eyes for the next couple of weeks. Plus I’m going to have to make a healing lotion to sooth our sun burnt skin.”
Kerwyn saw his master laughing and was somewhat proud of the fact, that he had finally done exactly what and how his master had trained him how too. Even though he himself was somewhat temporarily blinded and had a sun burnt face from the initial flash of light. Kerwyn looked again at the ball of light and then made a mental note to close his eyes and then cast the ball a little further away from him the next time he cast the spell. Kerwyn also knew that casting the spell perfectly, would now show his master that he could in fact focus his will and cast the perfect spell. Kerwyn thought that maybe one day, he might even be the greatest wizard in the world, just like he had always dreamed of being. But of course those were just fantasies and childhood fantasies like these would never come true for an orphan like him. “One day, just maybe one day.” Kerwyn whispered to himself.
Neither Kerwyn nor his Master could yet know that they had just begun the biggest journey of all time for good against evil and that the wheel of time had just turned one more spoke closer to pulling all the evils out of legends and bringing them closer to this world. In the Darkest part of the River Glen forest, the evil that lived in the Black Towers squealed with excited hatred at the unsuspecting world that they would soon be released from, by their Evil Necromancer Master to destroy. This was the way of legends. The Wheel of Fate had been turning for this day since the beginning of time. Once a person’s path was caught up in the wheel, there was nothing in this world, or any other that could alter fate’s design.
Days after Kerwyn produced that ball of light, Master Sernett had him recreate it time and time again. Kerwyn was getting the hang of making the light appear in different degrees of brightness and even in different colours. Master Sernett even had Kerwyn make copies of living creatures with it. Kerwyn made it take on the shape of one of the forest fairies, flying around and flapping its little wings. Then he had it take on the shape of a ten-pointed stag and had it run around bucking and acting just like it would if it was defending its territory. Kerwyn then had it run as far as the eyes could see just to test his limits. Master Sernett was very impressed with how far Kerwyn’s strength of will; could control the One Power.
“Kerwyn, you are getting stronger each day with your spells and your control of the One Power. I am very proud of you, my boy. But I think it’s time I started teaching you about the different ways of using offensive spells and which one you should use at the right time. You just never know when you may need to put an angry Dire wolf to sleep, or set a Raging troll on fire. You do remember that fire is one of the only things that can kill a troll right?”
“Yes Master I remember, you told me that a knight could cut a troll into many parts, but unless you burn all of those pieces, the troll can heal itself very fast, and it will come back seeking revenge for all the pain it suffered when you least expect it. Trolls are very big, long limbed and are really strong. They stand anywhere from seven to fifteen feet tall. They can pick up a fully-grown horse and eat it like we would pick up a chicken leg and eat it. They have knobby and usually broken teeth with which they crush and tear the flesh into bite-sized bits. You also said that a troll prefers a living meal to finding and eating a dead one.” Kerwyn grinned feeling that he had explained the ugly trolls in as much depth as could remember. Master Sernett backed up and sat down on one of the many logs that surround their little house by the brook. All the while going over everything that Kerwyn had said about what he knew about trolls.
After what seemed like forever to Kerwyn, his Master opened his eyes and responded with, “Yes I did say that, but they are not likely to skip over something that is already dead either. They just really, really like to hear the screams from their food while they crunch bite-sized chunks off. Trolls are very evil creatures and they will kill anything just to hear it scream. But that’s not all; even when their victims are dead, they will break the bones just to hear the snap made by them. Trolls are generally solitary creatures, thank the gods, but during mating season a group of the biggest troll males will group together and take out entire villages. They do this so they can bring as many screaming victims back to the female trolls they are trying to impress. The more living victims a troll male can bring back to the female, the more the female trolls will favour them. It is a very well known fact that female trolls will only mate while listening to the music of crunching bones and the painful scream’s of their victims. This is one reason there are so many trolls in this world: there isn’t a shortage of victims, as they don’t care what type of creature is doing the screaming.
Now while we’re talking about so many trolls, there are also many different species of trolls. There are Wood Trolls – dead brownish tree-like creatures that wonder through the dark forests or that will simply plant them selves and wait patiently until an unsuspecting victim walks beneath them. Swamp Trolls look like big mouldy mounds of dirt with moss and mould growing all over their backs. These trolls usually move very slowly and have huge mouths to swallow anything that walks across their path. Lake Trolls are big and have a bluish colour to their skin to blend in with the water, they will wander around the edges of lakes and rivers looking for unsuspecting prey that are trying to get a drink. Then there are the dumbest, biggest and most aggressive trolls of all. These are called the Mountain Trolls; they are huge grey creatures that are all rocky in appearance and have very tough skin that is hard to cut. They blend into the Mountain slopes and paths. They will amble along the mountain paths, and caves seeking out anything that they could kill and eat. Now all of them are deadly but the Mountain Trolls really enjoy the kill and they love to squish their prey using their big rocky clubs. Mountain Trolls have a really unique way of eating their prey once crushed. After a good crushing they enjoy slurping up the victim’s leaking juices and then chomp the mashed, fleshy bits down their throats.”
Kerwyn’s face changed a few shades greener while he envisioned each of these creatures catching and killing helpless travelers.
Thankfully Master Sernett saved Kerwyn’s belly from empting its contents by interrupting his thoughts and asked his next creature question.
“Now Kerwyn, how much of what I taught you about Goblins do you remember?”Master Sernett reached out and touched his apprentice on the shoulder trying to get
him to focus on his questions as he saw that Kerwyn was looking as if he had just eaten a bug.
“Goblins are humanoid in shape with twisted limbs and they are generally easily spooked. But when they are in great numbers they tend to toughen up and become a lot braver. You also said they have very hard heads and never to get into hand to hand combat with them as they are a lot stronger then they look,” Kerwyn recited what he remembered from memory.
“That’s right. They are very strong and they have enough strength to tear a full-grown man’s arms off. What else did I teach you about them?” Master Sernett asked.
“You said that goblins are like ants; they will swarm an enemy and will even kill their own kind without a conscience. They are notorious for their cruelty and their sadistic ways of torturing their enemies and prey. The leader is usually the biggest and the most sadistic of goblins. He maintains his leadership by being the most feared in the goblin hoard. The leader will have the most kills and trophies around his neck. The trophies are usually the ears or noses of their victims. A lot of times these grisly trophies even belong to other goblins that had challenged his right to rule or were killed to be made an example of.
Goblins are a merciless lot and they have neither honour nor loyalties to any ruler. A true rampaging goblin hoard is nothing short of a giant mass of black twisted bodies that is all on a single mission of devastation and destruction. Once started, their blood lust fills them full of hatred and they will even kill their own kind without remorse if caught under the surging goblin wave,” Kerwyn looked at his master and waited for his direction to continue.
“Ok that’s good. Let me ask you a different sort question then and this one you will need to think harder about. What spell would you use to stop a lone goblin from attacking a farmer out in his field?”
Kerwyn blinked and paused a moments trying to formulate his answer.
“I think I would cast the magic missile spell. That way I would kill the goblin before he had a chance to strike,” Kerwyn said finally.
Master Sernett waited to see if Kerwyn would think of anything else and elaborate more on his answer. He heard nothing further from his apprentice and decided to help him out.
“Well that is one way to stop a goblin. But what guarantees do you have that you wouldn’t miss and kill the farmer instead?” his Master asked, trying to get Kerwyn to look outside of his normal thought process.
“Hmmm, I see what you mean,” Kerwyn thought and tried again.
“Well then I guess I would cast a sleep spell and put the goblin to sleep before he could hurt the farmer.”
Master Sernett knew that Kerwyn was starting to realize that not all spells will work in every situation and pressed him a bit more.
“Well that would work as well, but then you would have a sleeping farmer too as your sleep spell would cover a wide area and it would put everything within the casting area to sleep. And then you would have to try and drag the farmer to safety and, as you well know, goblins hardly ever hunt alone.” Kerwyn’s face wrinkled in thought.
“So now that would leave you both open for an attack,” Master Sernett knew full well that his apprentice was getting frustrated but continued to question his apprentice, trying to get him to think quickly on his feet so that he would have a better chance for success.”
“Alright Master Sernett I give up, what spell should I use in this situation?” Kerwyn threw his hands up in the air in frustration and, with a defeated look on his face; he turned to his master for help.
“Well my boy, if I were you and I had just finished learning my new ball of light spell, I would probably cast that one,” the wizard paused long enough for Kerwyn to absorb his words and continued, “You had just finished telling me a few minutes ago, that goblins spook easily. One thing that you didn’t say was; goblins prefer night hunting then day hunting. The only way a goblin will be out hunting in the day light is with the Hoard Lust on them, or if they are extremely hungry. They have very big sensitive eyes and bright light makes it hard for them to see. So after casting your ball of light spell, chances are the goblins would become scared and run away in search of a good hiding place. So now you have scared them away, saved the farmer and have given both of you enough time to get to safety. Now, let’s just say that this wasn’t just a small group of goblins, but a full hunting party out searching for food to feed the whole colony. Then what would you do?”
With each scenario Master Sernett drew Kerwyn into the unknown, trying to make him see that not every situation is as cut and dry as the stories in the big books made it appear.
“Hummm well, what about the spell of confusion? Even if I cast that and the farmer was caught up in my spell he wouldn’t remember what he was doing either and that would make all the goblins forget about killing the farmer too,” Kerwyn looked not all that confident with his answer and waited to see what his master would say.
“Well Kerwyn that is not entirely correct. What happens to the farmer when he forgets to run away or doesn’t remember that he is not even a match for a single goblin and tries to attack it? Plus remember this is not a lone goblin, this is a goblin hunting party and it could have up to thirty or more goblins in it. Kerwyn you need to remember the two basic natures of goblins; one is to kill, the second is to eat. So with that in mind, I don’t think the farmer has much of a chance of survival with that spell either.”
Kerwyn looked downcast and cried, “Ohhh Mudpuppies Master, I don’t know what spell would be the best for that situation!”
Smiling to himself, Master Sernett responded, “Well you actually have a pretty good idea there by using a summoning spell. Mudpuppies would work in this situation very well. I would recommend summoning about a hundred Mudpuppies for this task. Mudpuppies do not like Goblins much; in fact Goblins usually avoid the river and riverbanks for this reason. Mudpuppies are fierce protectors of their territory and they do not like it when a predator enters their area.”
Confused, Kerwyn said, “But master, Mudpuppies are so small and they are just harmless little lizards.”
“Oh my boy, the mudpuppies you’re thinking about are just the babies of the full sized ones. A full sized Mudpuppy can grow to about three feet long and since Mudpuppies are a member of the dragon lizard family, that makes them dangerous.” Master Sernett tried to make Kerwyn think about Dragons and how even the smallest dragon can be deadly when it wanted to be.
“But Master, I have played with the little ones by the rivers many times and I have never been hurt by them. Sometimes there are so many mudpuppies crawling on me that I have to sit down before I fall over with the weight of them.”
“Oh Kerwyn, you need to stop thinking as a commoner; you are a wizard's apprentice. Think about it; if the Mudpuppies attacked humans then the humans would come hunting them. Mudpuppies act very similar to the way a dog would react with a human. If treated fairly they can become social and even see a human as one of its pack. But have you ever heard of a human ever hurting a mudpuppy? If they ever were to try, the adults would be out quick to protect their young. Sometimes we only think about them as being harmless because as a rule humans do not intentionally go out of our way to hurt them. In fact, our young are like playmates to their young. Do you understand what I am saying Kerwyn?”
“Yes master, I think I understand now. Mudpuppies don’t hurt us because we don’t hurt them. But they hate goblins, because all good living things hate and fear goblins.” A triumphant look appeared on Kerwyn’s face.
“That’s right Kerwyn, all the animals in our world treat us the same way we treat them. It’s the way of Magic here in this world. Also don’t forget that since they are a distant relative to dragons they can sense whether or not we mean them harm. It has something to do with our aura and the way each and every living thing taps into the One Power. They know when danger is near and will hide from it. That’s why when hunting birds such as crows, hawks and harpies fly overhead, you will see the Mudpuppies run and hide underground. Once the t
hreat is gone, the young mudpuppies come back out to play. But rest assured that the adult Mudpuppies are on guard for the really persistent predators and will defend their young and territory when the need arises. Now back to the task at hand: summoning a hundred Mudpuppies would work because they would have no place to hide and as such they would fight the goblins while protecting the farmer inadvertently.”
Kerwyn had a realization and interrupted with, “Sometimes Master, magic isn’t just about the magic is it?”
“No, my boy, it isn’t. Being able to cast offensive spells is one thing. But knowing what spell or series of spells to cast could mean life or death. Don’t worry Kerwyn; you will learn what the best spell is for the right occasion. It takes years and years of practice to get it right. Sometimes it will be from your mistakes that you will learn the most.”
“Ok enough about Goblins; what can you remember from my teachings about Dragons? Since we have touched already on some of the relatives of Dragons, tell me what you remember about them”
“Well there are a lot of different species and colours of Dragons. Some of the types of Dragons are the great and honourable Golden Dragons, the rare and very evil undead Bone Lynch Dragons and then there are the very small and shy pixie Dragons. There are also the Evil Black Dragons, the unpredictable Blue Dragons and then White Frost Dragons from the north. You have also taught me about the mean Green Dragons and the deadly water Dragons and....” Kerwyn ticked off on his figures each type of dragons almost as if he had them each catalogued and was reading about them from a book.
“Ok Kerwyn, so you know about the many different types of Dragons. I see you were paying attention during that lesson. But can you tell me what all of the Dragon species have in common?”
“Oh yes Master, all Dragons like their privacy and they all collect vast treasure troves and will defend it right down to the last copper coin. Also they are all temperamental and unpredictable. Dealing with any Dragon can be deadly, as all Dragons are known to kill and eat humans on occasion. Also, Dragon Magic is one of the most powerful types of magic in our world because they are the most in tune with the One Power. Dragons were one of the first creatures created from the One Power by the gods themselves. Or, that’s what we have been told since they are the oldest living creatures and no one knows for sure.”
