The Brothers Tuerl & The Staffs of Zeus

by Bryson Strupp

  Chapter 24-Gregory’s Tough Training

  The next morning, Gregory’s gruff voice floated across the room waking the brothers. “Come on, birthday boys. It’s about time you began your training.” Irgen peered over the top of his sheets as a yawn escaped from his lips. Before him stood Gregory, but instead of being in his white armor, he had changed to reflect the mood of the occasion. A grey polyester shirt and black, sweat pants covered his robust body. Somehow, to Irgen, he looked fiercer now in this attire, than he had in his armor.

  “But it’s still dark outside.” He muttered in surprise as he looked out the hospital wing’s small square windows, into the black night outside.

  “What! And time waits for the sun?” Exclaimed Gregory while he snorted at Irgen’s objection, “soon you’ll be happy you got the pleasure of waking up early and avoiding that horrid ball of fire.” He smiled gleefully at the two’s astounded faces.

  “Now up, let’s go. We haven’t got all day.” The two of them looked miserably at each other, and a feeling of gloom seemed to pass between the two of them. Slowly they got groggily out of bed.

  “That’s the spirit, now look lively it’s time to start. Follow me and we’ll go to work.” Gregory almost sang the last words unable to hold back his enthusiasm, and then without another word he took off down the stairs. His masculine figure contrasted comically with the loping stride he had as he seemingly flew down the stairs. Unfortunately for the two brothers, they were not in much of a position to laugh, so without saying a word or looking at each other, they plodded along after Gregory.

  When they reached the bottom of the staircase, they found Gregory waiting for them. “What is this?” He said pointing to their clothes. “You can’t work in those.” The twins looked at their clothes, and to their astonishment, they found that they had not changed from their pajamas the night before. A bewildered look came to Irgen’s face, as he tried to comprehend what had happened. Their clothes always changed back as soon as they stood up, so why was today any different.

  “Don’t worry yourselves over it. It has to do with the fact that you are now sixteen, which means that you can now use magic to change your own clothes. I guess this will be your first lesson.” He rubbed his hands together in front of him as though thinking.

  “Now it is exceptionally easy to change your clothes, all you have to do, is picture exactly what you want to have on. For example this morning I pictured these clothes and voila there they were. But if you don’t concentrate correctly, you’ll end up getting extremely weird colors. That’s why most of the pajamas people wear at night are just plain outlandish because no one ever wants to concentrate that hard when they’re about to go to sleep. I mean they have a point too-haha, because there is no sense in wasting effort on a pair of pajamas that no one will ever really see. You know, funny enough, you’ll see girls take forever to get ready, because they just can’t make up their mind on what to wear. It’s one thing to not be able to choose between two different pairs of clothes, but quite another to choose between everything the world has to offer.” Irgen smiled as a picture of a certain young woman who couldn’t find anything to wear flashed in his mind.

  “Unfortunately, it is a luxury only offered to you while you are within one of the six castle grounds. Everywhere else in the world, you have to buy your own clothes.”

  “So what do we have to do to change our clothes, Gregory?” Idus asked.

  “Well I’ve already told you that haven’t I?” The brothers exchanged quizzical looks.

  “Maybe you have, but we still don’t understand.” Gregory swiveled his head to look at Irgen as though seeing him for the first time, surprised at his logical objection.

  “Hmmm, oh yes… dear me. You are right; I forget that listening does not come easily to the young.” He laughed as the two faces hardened against him. “I’m only joking. It was my fault; I forget that I don’t always explain everything as much as I should.” He laughed once again and this time they half-heartedly joined in.

  “Ok so what you’re going to do is just focus on clothes. First picture what you want, for our purposes get a shirt and a pair of sweats. Once you’ve focused on the color, then focus on any emblems you want. Oh and don’t forget to get shoes and socks, that’s always embarrassing when you forget them. And you may want to close your eyes to help your mind concentrate. The final step is, once you have your outfit all picked out, you have to picture them on yourself and then you’ll open your eyes and hopefully, if all goes well, the picture that meets your eyes will be the same.” He looked at them, and they started.

  After a time Irgen opened his eyes, and exclaimed in surprise. It had worked. He was wearing just what he had pictured. A dark green shirt, with black sweats. He looked at his feet and to his relief he found normal color tennis shoes, with white socks.

  After Irgen’s exclamation, Idus lost focus and opened his eyes. He shook his head with revulsion at the scene which met his eyes. He was wearing a bright pink shirt with purple flowers, and his sweats were orange balloon pants. He looked at Gregory in dejection, but Gregory just winked back.

  “Don’t sweat it Idus, the first time I tried it, I ended up with pink shoes and didn’t even notice until the end of the day. Fortunately, for us, you can always try again.” He folded his arms and looked at the ground.

  Idus closed his eyes again and tried to focus again, over Irgen’s roaring laughter. This time, when he opened his eyes, he found to his satisfaction, a brown shirt with faded lettering, and off white sweats. “That will do nicely.” Gregory grinned with a flourish. “Alright, now let’s go outside, and get to work.” They followed him outside, in much better spirits then they had been before.

  As soon as they left the turret, a cold blast of wind hit them, chilling them to their bones. The two brothers shivered noiselessly as they followed Gregory along the pathway to the gate. The gate swung open as they approached it and to their surprise instead of veering from the path, and staying inside of the castle, they continued straight outside. Once out of the protection of the castle walls, the brothers could feel the true fury of the wind. It howled around them, making their bodies stiffen from the extreme cold.

  “I thought it was supposed to be summer.” Idus yelled irritably. The cold was having the worst affect on him. His already sore muscles were seizing up around him, and his bones were crying for relief. He felt himself stagger from the pain, but then he straightened up, and felt his iron will dominate his body. It was as though he was locking down his body, shutting down the troublesome areas.

  They went on like this for a time, wondering where this was going, until finally they came to a pathway leading down towards the ocean. Gregory took it and soon they found themselves gradually descending a large precipitous cliff. A short time later they found themselves on a sandy beach next to the cliff face, once again they found themselves shielded from the wind, warmth slowly returned to their bodies, and Irgen looked up in awe at the domineering walls that surrounded him.

  They were on the shore of a large bay. In front of them, the apparently black sea frothed noisily against the banks of the shore. On the right of them, the castle stood prominently with its large, beautiful vista of the sea. The bay had formed in a triangular shape, with the castle at its head, creating a V shaped entrance to the ocean before them.

  Irgen shivered as he peered into the distance before him. Darkness veiled everything ahead of him, but he thought he could hear the crash of unforgiving waves colliding with rocks in the distance. His whole body froze with terror at the thought of being out there, in the merciless grasp of the sea. He shook his head, trying to calm his restless body.

  Gregory smiled encouragingly at Irgen, before striding towards the unyielding black walls of the cliff and picking up a large pick-ax. He pointed at Idus and said, “This is your first lesson…Well technically second, but really this is your first real lesson. I want you
to create a hole in this wall with this pick.” He held the pick-ax out in front of him, but Idus just stood there dumbfounded at the request.

  “What’s the point of me doing that, I thought I was supposed to be magic.” Idus put his hands on his hips stubbornly.

  “Come on boy, don’t be afraid. This is your first real test. Before you, you have a sheer rock face, this represents earth. You are an air conjurer, and in so being, you will always have to fight against the power of the earth. You must learn to respect the powers of your rival. Without respect for Earth, you yourself can earn no respect. You must learn to respect your enemy, but not fear them, and that is why this is your first lesson. Your lesson is on mental toughness.” He pushed the pick into Idus’ hands and turned towards Irgen.

  “Your first lesson is to swim out to sea. I have heard that you are a good swimmer, but it will not save you out here. You must learn to be more cunning than the sea. It will try to push you against those rocks.” He pointed ahead of them into the darkness. Irgen shivered at the prospect of his task, as the waves smote the shore below them emptily.

  “Irgen, you are a fire conjurer. You must learn to respect and eventually defeat the power of water.” He turned and addressed both of them, “These are your weaknesses. You must learn to crush them, or resign yourself to always losing to them. It will not be easy training, but in time you will learn that you cannot allow fear to rule your lives, and you will also learn that respect must be given to everything, now to work.” He smiled disconcertingly at Irgen as his hands shot out and shoved him into the water.

  He fell forward, plummeting face first into its icy cold depths. He kicked with his legs and came back to the surface gasping for breath. “What was that for?” He sputtered angrily.

  “Just consider it a shove in the right direction.” Gregory replied smiling.

  “But I’ve still got my clothes on and everything.” Irgen said exasperatedly.

  “Well then take them off in there, and start swimming.” Irgen shot him a glance colder than death itself, before ripping off his shoes, and shirt and finally socks and sweats, leaving him looking like a wet rat shivering in the salty water with only his briefs to cover him. Idus started laughing but stopped immediately, when Gregory shot him a glance, and said, “Aren’t you supposed to be doing something as well.” Idus flashed a quick, timid smile which quivered and broke under the determined stare of Gregory.

  He walked towards the wall of the cliff and swung the pick-ax confidently with as much force as he could muster. The pick struck the wall solidly and flew back, out of Idus’ hands onto the ground quivering from the impact. Idus picked it up, dismayed that his swing had done nothing at all to the wall. He lifted it again, and once again his stroke bounced back leaving the wall looking quite untouched. Again and again he hit it, until finally a crack appeared, eventually yielding a large chip, which flaked off the wall stubbornly, as though still trying to hang on.

  “Good, Idus. Remember it will take a lot of those little chips to make a big hole.”

  “Thanks for the encouragement, Coach.” Idus said unable to keep his voice from dripping venomously with sarcasm.

  Ignoring him, Gregory turned and looked at Irgen who was still shivering in the water. “Irgen, your power is fire, for crying out loud, don’t just sit there shivering. Warm yourself.”

  “I… D-d-don’t kn-n-n-ow how.” He said under the chatter of his teeth.

  “Well then you’re not angry enough, get swimming and you’ll find the power within you soon enough.” Irgen shook his head in distaste as he turned and swam off towards the sea.

  He did not know how far Gregory wanted him to go but he didn’t care. Fear had been pulsing through him since he had stood on the beach, and he knew he needed to conquer that fear. So he set off, trying to put as much space between him and Gregory as possible. His powerful front crawl propelled him softly through the small waves around him. His fear was replaced by anger as his muscles began to warm up, and now he began to notice how strange it was that the shoreline seemed to cut off at the beach. Only now, as his fury began to build, did he notice that there seemed to be a complete lack of a shelf next to the beach. It was as though no land existed under him, only fathomless fathoms of water. He remembered faintly a lesson in science where he learned the speed of a wave had to do with how deep the water was, but he couldn’t remember if it was better to have deeper water.

  After a few minutes he paused, satisfied that he had gotten away from the shore. He turned onto his back, floating amidst the soft, massaging waves and regained his breath. His breath, in the frigid water, still came in ragged intakes. He remembered Gregory’s council about not being angry enough to produce warmth.

  As he paused, he began to feel how much his muscles ached. Even now while he was resting they stayed contracted, trying to give him as much warmth as possible, and trying to stave off hypothermia from hitting his system. The freezing water was tightening its hold on him. Anger pelted through him at this thought. He thought that if the water was going to take him, it was not going to be by freezing him to death.

  He felt a kind of frenzy begin to build in his body. He focused all his energy into keeping himself warm, but he found he could not. Every time he was on the verge of creating the same shield of warmth he had made for himself previously, another shock of cold would lap over him, as another wave took its toll on his body.

  Panic entered him as he realized that he just couldn’t save himself from the unforgiving element of water, he turned and in desperation swam towards the sea. His strong stroke pushed him out towards the mouth of the bay. After a long time of struggling with his tired muscles, he reached the mouth of the bay. Here he found a force which he had not known before. Here he met the true power of the wind and water combining against him.

  He tried to swim more strongly, but he could not. He could not muster any more strength, and indeed, his very vigor was being sapped by the merciless tug of the waves around him. His breathing now was forceful at best; he had long since lost the feeling in his arms and legs. They felt like long sponges attached pitilessly to his body. He continued to try to struggle, but it was useless. He felt himself being dragged slowly down. He wanted to cry for Gregory to save him, but he was too far away. He tried anyway, but nothing happened, and he knew it was over. No, there was no saving him. He was doomed.