Alexis

“ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR” I screamed as we fell.

The ground was getting closer and closer. I took another breath breathing in before opening my mouth to scream again. The ground was coming closer, now we had been falling for almost twenty seconds and we had barely fallen half the distance. The ground was rushing towards. We were barely five hundred meters from the ground now and falling fast. I put my hands out knowing it wouldn’t make a difference, this madman beside me had killed us both. I shut my eyes then not wanting to see the end as it raced towards me.

F̴̗̽̾l̵͕̫͚̎y̵̨̻͑

I heard that voice again, it was like the sound of a thousand voices screaming out in one disjointed cacophony. I noticed it then, the wind had stopped the howling wind had stopped. Slowly I opened my eyes. In front of my face was the forest floor no further than ten centimetres from my face. I felt the arms of Arthur around my chest suddenly let go. I feel towards the floor then planting my face into the ground. Siting up I spat out a large clump of mud that had made its way into my mouth reaching up wiped my face trying to get rid of much of the mud as possible.

“Ha ha ha” I looked up to see Arthur chuckling to himself, greatly amused at my displeasure.

“NEVER do that again” I snapped out.

“I thought I was going to die” I continued on.

“Why? You were safe the entire time. I’m a wizard remember” Arthur responded.

I watched him then as he slowly hovered away from the patch of mud I was sitting in, moving towards a drier patch of ground. He stepped down, placing his feet on solid ground, before turning around and walking off into the forest.

“Come on now we haven’t got all day” his voice called out.

God, I wanted to stab him after that move. Standing up doing my best to brush the clumps of mud off my clothes. I stood up rushing to catch up. As I caught up I walked alongside him. We walked in ten minutes in complete silence before I asked the question that had been on the back of my mind since our earlier conversation.

“earlier you said everyone can use magic, what do you mean by that?” I asked.

“how to best answer that question,” he said.

“A bit of terminology is required first. There are three kinds of wizards. Wizard is the overall term for magic users. The first is the mage, these are those that studied magic using science and mathematics to create spell structure to guide their spells. The second type is the sorcerers, these are your natural born wizards, they tend to be very flashy with large spells that are very inefficient. A good mage can use fifty or sixty spells of verity power before running low on mana a sorcerer would be lucky to cast five. Then there are warlocks, these are those have little magical ability that makes pacts with magical creatures. They ware typically untrustworthy, unwilling to put in the effort needed to become a mage instead relining on the magic of a creature. These are a very mixed bag some are very powerful while others are incredibly weak it depends on what creature they formed the pact with.” he said

“The next part you need to understand is what Mana is. Mana is a physical manifestation of one’s soul. Mana is the excess of one’s soul, the extra component generated from a personal growth and experience’s throughout there life. While only a few are born as sorcerers anyone can become a mage or warlock. Judging by the lack of monsters in this world I would think there are no warlocks in this world. Mages, however, are able to be taught. A skilled mage often takes upon a number of apprentices teaching them how to detect and utilise their mana. Without teaching It is highly unlikely for someone to develop mana natural the odds against it are billions to one. Those taught the mage path often start out with little to none mana and have to build it up over years. A typical apprentice can take up to ten years to complete.” He said

As he continued his lecture, I got more and more interested.

“So, can you teach me magic?” I asked expectantly.

“We can see. Each person had a different potential, each person has a spell branch that they specialise in, I myself am Perficient in Lighting and Holy magic, we will see what your aptitudes are and if they match mine, if they do I can teach you but if they don’t I can only provide theory and teach you the most basic non elemental spells like magic missile and shield.” He responded

“Don’t get your hopes up it takes weeks of teaching to even be able to detect mana, and without an Attitude Orb. it will take at least six months to determine your attitudes. That’s if you have the patients, to begin with anyway” he said.

“So you will teach me?” I asked,

I started to feel slightly excited, magic was an unknown to me. Something I never thought I would ever see, never mind learn it. If I learnt it I could make something of myself. Mages were in short supply apparently even those with the smallest slither of mana were recruited to be some courts wizard often immediately granted titles and land. While magic was rare to find outside of the royal line it was not uncommon to find a price had a dalliance or two leading to a number of wizards appearing. If I could learn magic I could make it have a comfortable life not worrying about my next meal.

“Don’t get too excited” Arthur’s voice cut into my daydream.

“There’s a good chance you will have no aptitude for the study of magic, anyhow we will discuss in the evening. We need a quite calm location to study magic” he continued.

We continued on walking in silence for at least an hour maybe more, my mind was lost in the possibilities, I could by a bath, own a horse, all I had ever dreamt about.

The sharp smell of burning cut threw my daydreaming like a knife. I stopped then look up. In front of me behind a few trees was the village, or what had been the village. It was gone everything was a blackened ash, timbers continued to smoulder. The only building still standing was the church its stone walls were recognisable standing there unmoved.

We walked forward than moving towards the walls, blackened skeletons littered the streets, I watched as Arthur, nudged one with his boots and it collapsed into an ashen pile.

D̷̻͌̿ê̸̝̇t̸̤̼̎e̶̦̓̒ĉ̶̩͐t̴̡̍̈ ̷͚̎̐l̷̹̪̆̆i̶̞͛f̷̤͍̅̂e̸̯͑

I turned to look at Arthur, after hearing him mutter in whatever magic language he used.

“there’s nothing living here, not anymore” I heard him say

It was surreal, I continued walking towards the town square, walking toward the church. the corpses littered the streets, I walked forward towards the steps of the church where I had last seen my mother. As I walked towards the church there were no bodies in the square, off to the side was a large pile of ash. Walking towards it I looked into the pile, I could see bones, almost I spotted at least seven skulls. Looking down I collapsed falling onto my knees, a single tear falling down my cheek. I stayed there for five minutes not moving, slowly I got to my feet, I turned around Arthur was standing there five steps behind me. As I walked towards him then I noticed I was shaking. I grabbed my hand with my other hand steadying it.

“They will not get away with this,” I said In a low calm voice.

“They came in on waggons into the square, I reckon almost a hundred and twenty of them in total there carts were significantly heavier when they left,” He said.

I stood then walking towards my old home,

“What are you doing they went the other way” Arthurs voice called out behind me.

“I have a stop to make first” I responded.

I walked towards my old cabin little was left of it just an ashen heap by the tree line. As I entered the old doorway of where my bedroom used to be I turned to Arthur.

“Hand me your axe,” I said

Looking at me inquisitively he handed me the axe hanging on his belt. Slowly I pushed a large chunk of ash out the way reviving the dirt floor that had once been my bedroom. I hit the axe into the dirt, again and again, slowly pulling dirt out. I continued hacking at the floor for a good five minutes before I spotted the package, I was a long cylindrical package wrapped in cloth. I continued digging at the spot using my hands to dislodge the earth now uncovering the package. Slowly I uncovered it pulling the string holding the cloth in place. In front of me was my families prised procession, it had been in my family for longer than anyone could remember, at least ten generations. Pulling at it I reviled the bow, it was a long recurve bow, two bands of an unknown silvery metal stretching out. The string was still stung made out of an unknown material it had lasted generations, not a cut or frayed thread out of place. My father had buried it here the day he had been conscripted.

“May I inspect that?” the voice of Arthur came from behind me.

“Sure, but you better return it,” I said.

I handed the bow towards him as he turned the bow back and forth in his hands.

“Where did you get this?” he asked.

“I don’t know, it been in the family for generations why?” I said.

“Because this shouldn’t be here. It lacks the correct craftsman’s marks but this is definitely an elven bow, made from Moon Glass, with a spiders web string. Your certain that there are no elves in this world? He said

“No, there are not any Elf’s in the world only humans” I responded.

As he handed the bow back, I reached into the cloth, as I pulled the quiver out I noticed that it had not faired as well, my dad had made it and buried them along with the bow. Most of the arrows were broken and the heads had rusted slightly, but all I needed was the heads. The shaft and feathers I could make on the journey.

Standing up I readied my self-looking out towards the road leading out of town.

“Let’s go,” I said,

Walking out of the hut I had a feeling, I would never be back here by leaving today I was giving up my old life. I faltered just for a step before looking at the road and the tracks the bandits had left behind. I took a step then another following after the tracks they had left behind.