“Ryan, what happened with the elf?” I asked, sitting next to him, worried about his moping around for the last half an hour.

“Hell. Glorious hell” Ryan sighed as he picked himself up off the lair floor.

“Glorious hell?” I asked a bit confused.

“Yes, glorious hell: like that time I got the sugar mixed up with mom’s meds.” He chuckled, “Except with more death and less… other stuff.”

“What did he do?” I growled, worried about my brother.

“Well” he said, grabbing a cup of wine that Therin kept in the larder, “ it started off with us traveling to a revine, me and the bear set up camp next just a stone throw from the gaping maw. I never would have guessed that a bear could set up a lean-to that quickly.” Ryan chuckled his face plastered with a large smile.

“Wait, so let me get this straight, you -and the bear- set up camp… what was the elf doing.” I interrupted.

“He was killing off a group of flesh eating dryads.” Ryan replied before he began again.

“Anyways, after me and the bear setup camp, the elf said that it was time to begin training.” I watched Ryan shutter, “He picked me up and threw me off the cliff yelling, ‘be free my young not-dragon dragon.’”

“What?”

“Yup, he threw me off a cliff and yelled at me. But that’s not all, the best part is that I don’t remember hitting the bottom. I just woke up back at the camp.” Ryan chuckled.

“OK, this might be a case of the pot calling the kettle black but that is ridiculous. How does throwing you off a cliff help you learn magic?” I inquired.

“I asked the same question. You want to know the answer?” Ryan chuckled.

“Yes…?” I hesitantly replied.

“Magic.”

“We spent the night at the ravine as I recovered from dying for the first time. The bear cooked a delicious stew while the elf was hunting the man eating dryad’s tree.” He recounted. “I ate the stew while the bear helped clean the sap off the elf. The next day was mostly spent throwing me down the ravine and hitting me with lighting.”

“So why didn’t you want me to skin him alive?” I asked, my anger starting to boil at the abuse to my brother.

“Because I don’t think any of it actually happened, I mean even though magic exists do you really think an elf would be able to resurrect me almost 50 times?” Ryan replied.

“I… don’t know…” I replied, his comment like a bucket of cold water.

“So like I was saying, we spent half the next day with me dying until something finally broke and I was able to redirect the lightning bolt with magic.” His smile almost giddy. It was more than creepy. “Soon I will have my revenge on Mrs. Peterson.”

“Ok… well so what else happened?” I asked deciding that this might not have been the best idea.

“Well, after I cast my first spell, he said we were going to expand my spell repertoire or something like that. So he started to show me various spells by chucking them at me.” He calmly replied. “He cast all sorts of spells and I managed to figure out how he was doing it and in no time at all I was dishing out more than I was taking.”

“So you are a good sorcerer?” I asked stupefied.

“Yes. Check it out” he said. I could feel as he gathered the mana in himself, and, before I knew it, he had a large fireball above his hand.

“I guess you are safe …” I started to say as my mind wandered.

“So, after I started to magically kick the behind of that old elf, the bear interrupted and served us dinner. Later that night the bear woke me and stared into my eyes.” Ryan said. “After what seemed like an hour the bear sighed, ‘Well I can’t put this off much longer, it is only a matter of time before you get roped into the elf’s curse as well. When your brother comes back you need to leave, or terrible things will happen. ‘Like what?’ I asked. The entire exchange freaked me out. The bear explained that the elf was cursed by none other than Steve, the god of normalcy, to constantly meet variants of every species. If you are not careful you will be dragged with him on his travels until either you die or a god takes you away.’”

“Bro, though sometimes you act like you look, I am glad you are technically counted as a god, or else I would have been stuck with that insane elf for centuries.” Ryan said after downing another glass of wine.

“So let me get this straight, the elf is cursed to meet only variant creatures by the god of normalcy, who is named Steve, and you could only leave if a god helps you.” I asked, trying to figure out how a simple lesson turned into a web of crazy.”

“Yah, I mean how normal is it for a god to visit and take your friends away.” Ryan replied,turning red from all the alcohol.

“You know what, Ryan, we will talk about this later, also I am telling mom that you were drinking under age.” I started to chuckle as I lead him to his room