by Mike Ezekiel
“Kerwyn, didn’t you hear Elvin master Faunus when he said that you have Mother Nature existing inside you? Do you think that is normal? Mother Nature the goddess living inside of you. Also there is another entity living inside of you. Is it a god as well or a demon or what? Master Faunus didn’t say. In fact, he said that you would have to go and see the forest witch, Druantia, to find out.
A witch, Kerwyn. They are not like a wizard that needs to draw on the One Power like you do and they do not need to say any magical words to cast their spells. A witch is closer to Mother Nature but usually they are evil and change nature to be what they want it to be. If she wanted to change you into a frog, she could. If she wanted you to become a tree, she could and if she wanted to eat you, she might be powerful enough to that too. I have heard that witches eat children for supper. I do not know if Druantia is an evil witch but I would say that you being a powerful wizard yourself, you should be prepared to defend yourself in order to get the answers you need. I think you are wonderful and I do not want you to be eaten by a witch, and if not the witch, I do not want to lose you to a dragon either. Or the Dark Master.
You need to prepare for the worst and I am going to help you,” said Erlina with an expression that he had best not argue with her or she was going to make him very sorry for it.
“Ok Erlina, what would you have me do? I can not feel the flows of the One Power so I do not know how much I will be able to do,” said Kerwyn almost testily.
“Don’t get mad at me, Kerwyn. I am trying to help keep you alive, so here’s what we are going to do. I figured this would be a good place to eat our lunch and then we can try and get you to cast a spell. With my help hopefully you will be able to. We need that barrier opened up so that we can pass through it. We need you to fix it so that we won’t be trapped in here and then we can go see the witch for the answers to our questions,” finished Erlina full of energy and happiness now that Kerwyn had agreed to do what she wanted.
They sat down and began eating lunch in silence, neither one of them wanting to break the peace that they had come to. Once the decision was made, all that was left to do was to try and cast some spells. But that would have to wait until after Kerwyn finished his apple pie.
Licking his fingers for what seemed to him like a wonderful eternity, he finally had to put the plate down. He was disappointed that he didn’t have another piece of pie to eat, as it was the most delicious pie he had ever had. He also wished that he had one of those honey-dripping pastries that he had the first night they had come to the Elvin domain in the big banquet hall inside of the tree. Those were his favourite and they were the most delicious things he had ever eaten in his life.
Packing up their mess Kerwyn and Erlina stood facing each other. With a smile on his face, Kerwyn said to Erlina, “With a wonderful meal like that I think I am ready for another sleep why don’t we call it a day and head back so that I can go to bed?”
Erlina, not smiling, shook her head and started to draw in the One Power,
“You might want to try and draw on the One Power as I am getting ready to cast elvin magic at you. “Creperum,” she said and with that, Kerwyn was blanketed in darkness.
Kerwyn felt kind of funny and looked around. He noticed that his blue eye couldn’t see through the magical darkness, but his black eye was able to penetrate it easily. Trying to draw in the One Power to cast a return spell, Kerwyn couldn’t feel anything. Not wanting to be bested by a girl, he concentrated on a spell he wanted to cast. Closing his eyes and making the motions, he said the magical words, “Colo Colui Cultum Spray.” Out of the darkness a blast of colours spray-coated her from head to toe making her look like she was a court jester. With her hair dripping a bright fluorescent green, Erlina angered at being bested by a man who shouldn’t have been able to even see her, let alone cast a spell and strike her dead on.
Enraged and letting her temper get the best of her, Earlina drew on the One Power. “Veneficus Requiro” and from her hands shot a magic missile aimed at Kerwyn’s chest. Kerwyn, knowing what was about to happen, dropped to the ground hoping that she couldn’t see him and that her aim would be high. As he dropped to the ground the missile flew harmlessly overhead. Kerwyn realised that she was angry and was using offensive magic. He needed to stop her before one of them got hurt.
Kerwyn wondered what to do and came up with he hoped was a solution. He reasoned that if he were able to make a common enemy appear, then Erlina would begin to attack it and leave him alone. He thought back to his days of studying legendary creatures with Master Sernett and one creature stood out in his mind. Concentrating on his spell and pointing his finger behind her, close to the waterfall, Kerwyn whispered, “Voco Shrieker Quod Suscipio Shrieking!”
Suddenly, from behind Erlina there came a female creature that looked like a human ghost. Erlina had only heard about these creatures but had never actually seen one. She couldn’t believe that a creature from legend was here in her domain. It was rumoured that its wail could paralyze any living thing with fear and then it would feed off of the frozen victim’s life force while it was unable to move or defend itself. Legend had it that many lives were lost to these creatures. Erlina thought to herself how odd it was that one was here, before her, as they were usually only found in the oceans far to the south.
That was all the time for thinking Erlina had before the Shrieker began wailing directly at her as Kerwyn was still hidden from view. Erlina knew that she only had a moment before the Shrieker’s wail hit her she so she quickly took aim and lined up her magic missile spell again and said, “Veneficus Requiro!” Another magic missile flew from her hands and went straight for the Shieker, catching it in the center of the chest and was forcefully thrown back. Erlina could see smoke coming off of it but, unfortunately, all her spell did was make the Shrieker more angry and bought Erlina a few more seconds.
From inside the darkness Kerwyn was watching and decided that it was time to enter the fight. Again Kerwyn reached out for the One Power but was still unable to feel it, so he closed his eyes and concentrated on his inner energy. Thinking about the spell he wanted to cast he opened his eyes and said the magic words. “Radiance Of Silentium!” Out of Kerwyn’s outstretched hand came an invisible beam that hit the Shrieker in the chest. With that the area went completely silent. It is not like everything just went quiet, but, rather, became an absolute vacuum; absent and void of any sound. There were no sounds of birds chirping, no sounds of the waterfall rushing and no sound of even the air moving over the grass: just total and utter silence.
Erlina turned to face the zone of darkness that Kerwyn had just cast from and shook her head. Turning back to face the Shieker she started to draw in the One Power, tried to say the magic words “Pete Sinus” which would put the creature to sleep. But without the sound of her voice to cast the spell, nothing happened. Elvin magic required the words to complete the spell casting. The Shrieker felt the Power within Erlina and rushed to grab her now that it was unable to wail and freeze her in place. Kerwyn hadn’t anticipated the speed and ferocity of the creature, or the fact that his silence spell would cover such a large area. He had wanted Erlina to be the one to use her magic to stop the creature but if he did nothing she would have her life force sucked from her body. Kerwyn pulled back his arms and said the words in his head and thrust his arms out he cast his spell, “Subitus Nex Ut Creatura.” With the last words of magic said in his head, a silent explosion of black and red energy blasted from Kerwyn’s hands and flew directly at the Shieker, catching it just above where the heart would have been on a human. It picked the creature up and moved it away from Erlina, twisting its body into unnatural positions as the black energy cut through the creature like it was melting butter. It started to dissolve the creature’s body into a pile of sopping goo. When Kerwyn had finished with his spell there was nothing remaining of what was once the Shieker. Walking out of the darkness Kerwyn turned to face Erlina.
Erlina tried to talk to Kerwyn but couldn�
�t get any sound out. Kerwyn cast his dispel magic spell and using his inside voice he said, “Aufero Veneficus.” With that Erlina started to talk a mile a minute.
“What was that creature? How did it get here? How were you able to cast accurately through the zone of darkness spell? What was that last spell you cast? I think it was pure dark magic and only a necromancer should be able to cast those kinds of spells! Well…? Aren’t you going to answer any of my questions?” demanded Erlina with her hands on her hips.
Kerwyn holding up his arms in defeat, said to her, “Slow down, I can only answer one question at a time but first I have to tell you something... I’m not feeling very well.” And with final thoughts of Elvin wizards and with the feeling of having done this once before, his eyes rolled back up into his head and he collapsed onto the ground knowing no more.
chapter seven
BARRIER FREE
Once more opening his eyes seemed to send sharp pains through his head. He woke up from his sleep, lying in his room the same way he had the day before. It seemed to Kerwyn that life knew how to play tricks on him. For this was the second day that he had awaken in a room that was too bright with his head really hurting him. Glancing around the room and squinting, he caught sight of a sleeping figure in a chair. Looking at Erlina Kerwyn thought that she looked like a little girl because she was so petite and delicate looking. But knowing from the fights that they had been in, she was anything but helpless. He knew that behind that little body was a powerful Elvin wizard. He knew that she was still an apprentice as far as elves went but she was one hundred and ninety eight years old. Young for an elf but old as far as humans were concerned. Funny how he was lying there staring at her that he didn’t look at her as an older woman. Smiling to himself he knew that she was beautiful and that she seemed to care greatly for him. But he also knew that she was an elf that would live forever unless something tragic happened to her. Also, there was the fact that she was not only an elf but also the Princess of all the Forest Elves and that he was just a no body. What chance would he, a mere human, have of being with her or even considering the possibility that there could ever be anything but friendship between them? He knew that he would entertain the idea as a fanciful dream and that he would enjoy every moment spent with her. But he would steel himself against loving her, as the time would come when he would have to leave this place and leave her behind forever. Looking away from Erlina and around his room a bit more, Kerwyn looked out the window of his bedroom, still finding it weird that a living tree had windows in it. The elves were fantastic manipulators of their domain and their trees grew the way the elves wanted them to. Kerwyn noticed that even though he found it bright, if he closed his black eye, the room became almost black. There was just a little bit of light coming in from outside. Reopening his black eye made the room almost as bright as if the sun was shining into his room in the middle of the day. Catching a flicker of motion in the corner of his room, he caught sight of a little creature, thinking about the shape and size of this creature. He figured that it must be an imp trying to hide in the shadows, and Kerwyn saw that it was staring at him. When it realized that Kerwyn was looking directly at it, it tried to scurry and hide in a different shadow. It looked back and saw that Kerwyn was still tracking it with his eyes. Freezing, it just crouched as low as it could and stared back at Kerwyn, not moving. Kerwyn thought that this was very peculiar behavior for an imp, as he remembered back to the clearing in the forest when the imps there were trying to cause problems but this lone imp was just sitting there watching him as though it were a very small dog that was watching its owner. Kerwyn wanting to see what this little creature was all about and why it was just staring at him reached his hand down and called to it.
“Come here, little fellow, I will not hurt you,” Kerwyn called out but softly enough as to not wake Erlina from her sleep.
The little creature turned its head to the side as if hearing his master’s voice calling it to breakfast. With little, shy movements at first, the little creature began inching its way towards Kerwyn.
By this time Kerwyn was becoming intrigued as imps were not supposed to be creatures that befriended humans. But Kerwyn, for some reason, knew that this little creature didn’t mean any harm or problems for him.
It was just a lonely creature that had been trapped in the Elvin domain for a very, very long time and it was scared that if the elves ever found it that they would kill it. But it was just as curious about this strange elf that had the One Power very strongly in it and that it could not only see through the imps darkness shielding spell of hiding, but that it could also talk to it in its native fairy language. It had never before seen any other elf who could talk the fairy language and it wanted to find out more about this one. It didn’t feel threatening or scared but seemed as curious as about it, as it was about this elf. Reaching the edge of Kerwyn’s bed, the elf reached his hand down till it almost touched the floor so that the imp could climb up into his open and waiting hand. Almost instinctively, it wanted to flee and didn’t want to be put in such a dangerous position; but the draw to see this strange elf close up was too much of a temptation. It reached up with its little hands and climbed up into the strange elf’s big, outstretched hand. Feeling itself being lifted, but very gently, it held onto the elf’s thumb making sure that it didn’t fall.
Picking up the little creature in his open hand was exciting. Kerwyn had never held an imp before and he was a little scared that if the creature wanted to, it might be able to hurt him. Imps were fallen fairies and by all accounts had turned evil. They had given up their wings and their beauty so that they could wield the more powerful dark magic. This was so they could become much more powerful then any normal single fairy. The exception to this was of course the fairy queen who had almost unlimited power which was close enough to match the gods.
As Kerwyn brought the creature up close to his face it reached out a small hand to touch Kerwyn on the nose. Very gently it touched Kerwyn letting him know that it wanted to be friends. Speaking in its native language it said that its name was Hernes. Kerwyn could not believe that he had not only heard the imp but that he had understood it.
“Your name is Hernes,” Kerwyn repeated. The imp’s head bobbed up and down, excited that this elf had understood it and that it didn’t want to hurt it.
“My Name is Kerwyn,” said Kerwyn.
Hernes had been in hiding for so long it was nice to now have another creature to talk to and be friends with. Imps and fairies are social creatures regardless as to whether or not they are good or evil and always stay in groups. Poor Hernes, though, had accidently fallen into an elf’s hunting pack centuries earlier and had been brought back here, trapped ever since because of the magical barrier.
It had felt the barrier go down and had also felt the amount of the One Power raging inside of Kerwyn. It watched the battle between the trolls and elves and then watched the battle between the elves and goblins and throughout both battles, he had kept an eye fixed on the strange elf whom it now knew as Kerwyn.
Hernes and Kerwyn talked for a few more hours in the darkness but once the sunrise came up, Hernes told Kerwyn that it was going to find shelter and asked for him to not tell the other elves that he was here as the imp was very afraid that he would be captured and killed by the mean elves.
Kerwyn promised not to say a word to anyone and was rather pleased with himself that he now had a friend.
Half an hour later, Erlina began to stir and wake up. Kerwyn pretended that he was still sleeping for a while after that as not to let on that he had been awake for hours talking to Hernes, his newfound friend.
“Kerwyn I see you moving, are you awake?” asked Erlina.
“Yes Erlina, I am awake. My head feels much better today than yesterday but it is still sore,” Kerwyn, opening up his eyes and squinting at the bright morning light that was streaming through the window of the tree.
“Kerwyn, you have been sleeping for more than just one day. You hav
e been out cold again for the past three days. Your master was very unhappy with me that I took you someplace where there was an evil creature waiting for us. My elvin masters still have no idea how that Shieker got into our domain. They are wondering if maybe there is a gap in the river and that perhaps it came in that way. They say that this is a creature usually found only in the oceans to the South. They also said that we are lucky to be alive as some of our books here say that they are almost impervious to all normal magic. I guess that’s why all I did was push it back when I hit it with a magic missile and really didn’t hurt it. They also said that it was a good thing that you were able to cast the silence spell because if it had been able to wail, we both could be dead right now. They say that the wail of the shreikers not only paralyzes its victim but it also destroys the victim’s brain because of the super high frequency of their wail,” finished Erlina.
“But that is not what I remember reading in the books Master Sernett had.
All it really said was that their wail paralyzes its victims and it was their touch that sucks the life out of you,” argued Kerwyn.
“My masters have battled these creatures in the past and they said that one shrieker is powerful enough to kill entire crews on ocean ships. They said that they are some of the most feared creatures on the open seas. So they are very impressed that two apprentices were able to deal with one. They said that if they had to bet before the battle started as to whether or not we would survive, they would have only given us about a five percent chance of one of us surviving, and no chance for both of us to survive,” Erlina said.
“I had no idea that they were that powerful...” Kerwyn looked down with a very concerned look on his face.
“Don’t worry, Kerwyn, I’m so glad that you are so powerful. My masters told me that if I had gone there alone they would have found only a dried up husk and I would have died a most horrible death. They said that I would have been alive until every last ounce of my soul had been sucked out. They said that it was a most painful death as these creatures also feed on the terror and fear they cause while draining their victims. Kerwyn, how did you cast your spells while in the field of silence? I was always taught that unless you say the words aloud, the One Power will not listen to your command over it,” asked Erlina.
