Wizard in the Woods

by Jeffrey M. Poole

“It’s in the past,” Mikal hurriedly assured her. “Gareth, help us with our, er, predicament and I’ll put in a good word for you with my father. What do you say? Do we have a deal?”

  And I will speak to my father about him as soon as he becomes available.

  “Pravara just said she’ll do the same with her father. I’m sure you’d like to go outside again, wouldn’t you? The dragons now know what you look like. I know you know all about their Collective, so trust me when I say that every dragon knows who you are now and where you live.”

  Gareth paled. He worriedly looked over at his mother and aunt.

  “I really don’t have a choice here, do I?”

  Adyna fixed Mikal with a stare.

  “Are you serious? Could Gareth truly help solve whatever crisis is affecting our jhoruns?”

  “I don’t know,” Mikal admitted. “Honestly, it couldn’t hurt to try. The more people we have working on this the better our chances become in trying to figure out what to do.”

  Gareth leaned forward and gently set Peanut back upon the ground. In less than a second she was back in Gareth’s lap. He wrapped his arms around the dog and held her tight for a few moments. He gently set the dog back on the ground for a second time and then hastily stood before the dog could get back on his lap. Gareth slowly approached Mikal and crossed his arms.

  “You probably can’t guarantee that if I do this then my record will be wiped clean, can you?”

  Mikal shook his head, “I wish I had the power to make that deal, Gareth, but that is something my father must approve. I’m sorry.”

  “Very well. I have my own deal.”

  “Gareth,” Mikal slowly said as he rose to his feet, “you’re really not in a position to be the one making the deals.”

  Lissa stood. She took Mikal’s hand.

  “Let’s hear what he has to say. Gareth, what do you propose?”

  Gareth looked back at his mother and aunt and smiled tenderly at them. He turned to look at Mikal.

  “If I help you solve this jhorun problem then I want them to have a new house. Something nicer than this. No offense, Delythia.”

  “How many times have I told you to call me ‘Del’?” his aunt chastised. “And fear not. No offense is taken. Well, maybe a little.”

  Mikal nodded.

  “I was expecting worse. I think I should be able to arrange that.”

  “One last thing,” Gareth continued. “You also agree to help me either find my father or else find out what happened to him.” He held out an arm. “Do we have a deal?”

  Mikal grasped Gareth’s forearm and gave it a friendly shake.

  “We have a deal.”

  Chapter 8 – Misplaced Affection

  “If he gives you any problems then you have my permission to physically knock some sense into him,” Adyna informed Mikal as she pushed her son out the door after him. “To think you’re responsible for this mess, Gareth. What would your father think?”

  “You don’t understand. That’s what I’m trying…”

  “Hush,” Adyna snapped. Both she and her sister had folded their arms across their chests and were frowning at the boy. “You will mind your manners at all times. Do you hear me?”

  “Yes, ma’am,” Gareth sullenly responded.

  “I don’t care if you’re told to go jump in a lake,” his mother continued. “You will do it with no questions asked and with a smile on your face. Is that clear?”

  Gareth refused to look his mother in the eye.

  “Aye.”

  “Good.” Adyna turned to Mikal and smiled. She gave him a tiny curtsy and promptly closed the door in his face.

  Mikal turned to Gareth, “You’re lucky to have a caring mother like her.”

  Gareth stared incredulously at him, “Are you kidding? She’s the most overbearing person I’ve ever met. She is always telling me what to do. I can’t stand it.”

  “She wouldn’t do that if she didn’t care for you,” Lissa pointed out. She was holding on to Peanut’s leash and was constantly pulling the inquisitive corgi back to her side as Peanut was more interested in exploring the surrounding countryside than listening to their boring conversation.

  “Says you,” Gareth muttered. “I’ll bet your mother doesn’t badger you on a daily basis.”

  “Better let this one go,” Mikal quietly advised, loud enough for Gareth to hear but soft enough so that there was a chance Lissa couldn’t. The youngster, unfortunately, wasn’t paying attention.

  “I wish my mother would remind me to brush my hair, or to pick up my room, or to simply tell me she loves me,” Lissa answered. Her eyes went wistful for a few seconds before she turned to Gareth and sighed. “I’d wish that more than anything.”

  Gareth, intent on staring at his feet and not at the warning signs Mikal was trying to give him, scoffed loudly.

  “Then you’re lucky. You don’t know how cumbersome an overbearing parent can be.”

  “Shut up,” Mikal hissed at him.

  Gareth finally looked up, “What? Did you just tell me to shut up?”

  Lissa placed a restraining hand on Mikal’s shoulder and faced their new friend, “Gareth, my mother is dead. I never knew her. I grew up an only child with just my father to raise me.”

  Gareth’s shoulders slumped. “Oh. I didn’t know. Uh, sorry?”

  Lissa shook her head. “You didn’t know, Gareth. Besides, it isn’t your fault. It’s just the way it is.”

  “You don’t have a mother and I don’t have a father,” Gareth quietly observed. “We’d make a good pair.”

  Mikal coughed loudly and quickly stepped between his girlfriend and the young wizard. He put a protective arm around Lissa’s shoulders and shot Gareth a warning look.

  “She’s taken, pal.”

  Lissa turned to give Mikal a patronizing look, “Stop worrying. That’s not what Gareth was doing. It wasn’t, was it?”

  Before Gareth could respond the earth suddenly shook so hard that it knocked everyone off their feet. Even Peanut was thrown off balance, stumbling backwards until she fell into a sitting position. It was over in less than two seconds. Everyone hesitantly looked around the forest. Several trees were now leaning precariously against one another. In fact, they all watched one of the two leaning trees give up its attempt to stay upright and fall noisily to the ground, taking out several branches of a few neighboring trees along the way.

  “What was that?” Lissa whispered as she cautiously rose to her knees.

  Mikal shrugged. “It’s hard to say. It could…”

  Two huge green forelegs thrust themselves between the lines of trees and wrapped themselves around two different trunks. Each tree was given a violent jerk in the opposite direction, snapping each off at the trunk. The broken trees were then pulled through the makeshift opening and discarded, much like two large pieces of trash.

  “I trusted you!” an angry female voice roared out. “You assured me these pointless examples of your ire were a thing of the past! What have you to say for yourself??”

  It was Pravara. Her fangs were bared, she hadn’t stopped growling, and she was glaring at Gareth. Wide-eyed, Mikal looked at his companions. He hadn’t ever seen Pravara that angry before. What had set her off? What was this about pointless examples of ire?

  Mikal nervously cleared his throat.

  “Umm, what was that?”

  “Not you. YOU!”

  Pravara extended a heavily scaled foreleg and pointed one of her two-foot long talons at Gareth. Twin trails of smoke were rising from her nostrils, and unfortunate indicator that her internal furnace had been stoked and she was ready to spit fire.

  Mikal threw up his hands and jumped in front of Gareth.

  “Whoa! Pravara, take it easy. What’s the matter? What’s happened?”

  Pravara roared again and advanced on their small party, forcing everyone but the corgi to retreat a few steps. Unperturbed, Peanut looked up at her large wyverian packmate before glancing back at her human on
es. She cocked her head, as though she was uncertain which side she should be taking.

  “Another dragon has fallen under your spell! I saw it with my own eyes!”

  Mikal and Lissa turned to Gareth with shock written all over their features.

  “Tell me that wasn’t you,” Mikal softly asked. “You promised you were done with all these dastardly acts.”

  Gareth jerked his hands up into the air.

  “It wasn’t me! I’ve been with you two. I haven’t done anything!”

  Lissa tapped Mikal on the shoulder.

  “I hate to be the one to bring this up, but is there any chance that we have the wrong person?”

  Mikal turned to look at Gareth and waited, expectantly, for an answer.

  “I already admitted I was the one who bewitched the other dragons,” Gareth reminded them. “I’m the wizard you’re looking for.”

  “Could there be another wizard?” Lissa asked.

  When no one answered, Mikal nudged Gareth in the ribs.

  “Well? If there’s another wizard, would you be able to tell?”

  Gareth automatically shook his head affirmatively.

  “It’s not an easy task, bewitching a dragon. It took me some time to master the process. It’s easy for me to do now, sure, but… but I have no intention of ever doing it again,” Gareth hastily finished as he eyed Pravara’s menacing jaws.

  “One of my brethren has become bewitched,” Pravara growled. She looked pointedly down at the small group of humans. She singled out Gareth. “Do you know who my father is, human?”

  “Er, your father is the Dragon Lord, right?”

  “Correct. Do you know what he’s going to do to you once I announce to the Collective who the wizard responsible for these attacks are?”

  Gareth paled. “I swear, this time it wasn’t me!”

  “Then who?” Mikal demanded. “If you’re not the one who did this then we need to find out who did and quick. If Kahvel learns about this I guarantee you it isn’t going to end well. Heck, if my father learns about this then –”

  “Look, I get it,” Gareth interrupted. “I’m going to be in more trouble than I already am.”

  “Gareth, how did you bewitch the other dragons?” Lissa asked. “It’s not like you could go jumping up on their backs. Or could you?”

  Gareth shook his head.

  “Of course not. It’s easy, really. I took ordinary rocks and submersed them in a potion of my own creation. I let the stones dry then all I have to do is drop them into the hands of a dragon. Keep the stones small enough and I can use a gust of wind to blow the stone into a dragon’s hand. As soon as contact is made the dragon falls into a trance and becomes highly susceptible to commands.”

  “How many of those stones did you prepare?” Mikal asked. “Are they all accounted for?”

  Gareth smiled sheepishly. “Come to think of it, they all are. All but one, that is.”

  Mikal and Lissa shared a look.

  “All but one? You lost one?”

  Gareth shrugged. “I always carry a stone with me. You never know when you might need it. Anyway, it happened right after I created the rock golem. I was running for home when I heard your dog barking. I panicked. I must have dropped it in the wind storm. The wind must have carried it out into the valley.”

  Mikal grunted. He looked up at Pravara. “There’s your answer. I’d say the missing stone was found.”

  Pravara growled.

  “One of my brethren has fallen into a trance and will not awaken. How do we rectify the situation?”

  “What happens if a dragon enters the trance and no one is there to issue a directive?” Lissa wanted to know.

  Gareth was silent as he considered.

  “I really don’t know. It’s never happened before.”

  “Well, congratulations,” Mikal glumly announced. “We’re about to find out.” He glared at their new companion and hooked a thumb back at Pravara. “This is your doing, Gareth. You are going to help us fix this before her father finds out.”

  “Or yours,” Lissa reminded him.

  “Right. Mine, too. You made this potion. What do we have to do to nullify it?”

  “If I could place my hands on the dragon’s head then I could give it a jolt strong enough to wake it up. Otherwise it would have to receive the jolt some other way. A splash of water would do it. A blast of fire would, too, but you’d have to aim it at the head. The rest of a dragon’s body is too fully armored.”

  “Pravara, could you place Gareth on… hey, who was bewitched, anyway? Do we know?”

  “Cylandria. She’s young. Younger than I.”

  Mikal groaned softly. A young dragon had found Gareth’s missing trance-inducing stone. This was not good.

  “So what do we do?” Mikal wanted to know. “Can you get Gareth on Cylandria’s back?”

  “I’ve already tried to approach,” Pravara informed them. She continued to growl at Gareth. “She tried to attack me.”

  Gareth eyed Pravara’s huge talons and shivered.

  “No offense, but I’d rather not go for a ride. Do you think you can force her to land?”

  “I wasn’t offering to let you ride me,” Pravara coldly informed him. “And no, not without doing irreparable harm to her.”

  “We need to distract her,” Mikal mused. “Then when she isn’t paying attention someone can swoop in and drop Gareth on her back.”

  Pravara stared at him as though she had just heard someone say she had sprouted another tail.

  “You may have noticed that there is only one dragon here,” she reminded him. “I cannot be in two places at the same time. If I call for assistance then his involvement will become known.” Pravara again looked at Gareth and growled.

  “Isn’t there anyone that can help us without giving us away?” Lissa asked helplessly. “There must be someone!”

  “I have an idea,” Gareth quietly announced. He looked over at Mikal. “Do you trust me?”

  Mikal shook his head. “Sorry. Trust is earned, not bestowed. It’s going to take some time.”

  Gareth shrugged and waved his hands in the air, drawing several intricate symbols known only to him. “It’ll have to do.”

  An unknown force slammed into Mikal, causing him to fall to his knees, gasping in shock. Before anyone could ask what had happened Mikal’s body began to swell. His skin darkened, thickened, and sprouted scales. Two dark, leathery wings sprouted out of his back, ripping off what was left of his clothes. Mikal’s neck lengthened and his torso stretched to three times its normal size.

  Mikal stared uncomprehendingly at one of his arms. It had become heavily muscled. He clenched his hand and felt the power ripple through his muscles. Wait. His hand! He had lost a finger. In fact, it looked as though one of the fingers had merged with another to become a thicker digit. Each of his fingers, he noted, were now tipped with talons that were at least two feet long. Then he caught sight of his skin color. He was purple.

  Gareth had turned him into a purple dragon.

  His long neck twisted this way and that as he attempted to locate his so-called ‘friend’.

  “Purple? You turned me into a purple dragon? Are you kidding? Why couldn’t it be black?”

  Gareth shrugged. “It’s my mother’s favorite color.”

  Pravara studied Mikal’s new form. She gave the young wizard a skeptical look.

  “This is your idea? I’m willing to bet Mikal has had no experience in that form, which means he’ll be a novice flyer. This plan is doomed to fail.”

  “Give it a chance,” Gareth told her. He looked up at Mikal’s huge form and grinned. “Do you have any idea how difficult it was to learn how to change one form to another?”

  Lissa approached Mikal’s purple wyverian body and craned her head to look up into Mikal’s eyes.

  “You make a handsome dragon, do you know that?”

  The purple dragon’s nose jerked down. Mikal eyed his girlfriend and grunted once, which in his wyver
ian form came out as a growl.

  “Do you know how to fly, Mikal?” Lissa wanted to know.

  Mikal bent his long neck behind him to inspect his newest set of appendages. His wings were huge! Each wing must have measured at least thirty feet long and was tipped by a foot long wing talon. He experimentally flapped his wings a few times and then grunted again, satisfied he could handle the mundane task of flying.

  “No.”

  “This will not be easy for you,” Pravara warned as she prepared herself to launch into the air. “You are in a new form now. I would encourage you to get used to your new body as quickly as possible.”

  Mikal’s purple visage frowned.

  “Easy for you to say. You’ve been a dragon all your life. We should see if Gareth can turn you into a human and see how you like it.”

  “No, thanks. My mother was a human once and she didn’t care for it at all. All you have to remember is…” Pravara’s head jerked up and she stared at the sky. “Time’s up. She’s near. We must hurry!”

  “What? You can’t leave me now! What were you going to say? What’s the most important thing to remember?”

  It was too late. Pravara had already leapt into the air, spread her wings, and disappeared from sight. Moments later a bright blue dragon with white jagged stripes running across much of its torso appeared. It flew directly over them and would have attacked had it not been for Pravara. She swooped low, fired a blast which struck Cylandria’s hind quarters, and then ascended high into the clouds. Fortunately for everyone involved, Cylandria took off after Pravara.

  “We’d better be going,” Gareth advised. “She’s going to need our help.”

  Mikal extended a wing and inspected it skeptically.

  “Do you really think I can do this?”

  Gareth nodded.

  “I’ve changed my form a few times. What I’ve learned is that each body already knows how to move. It knows what to do. You just have to tell it where you want to go, without actually telling it. Trust me, flying is a breeze.”

  “Huh? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “I think he means you shouldn’t overthink what you need to do,” Lissa guessed. “You don’t need to figure out which muscle to move if you want to take a step. Look at us. When we walk do we need to consciously order each of our legs to move?”