Ever since childhood, Adrian wanted to become a battle mage. He wanted to travel the big wide world and fight dragons, defeat ogres, and maybe, just maybe, fall in love with a princess.

Unfortunately, things didn’t turn out quite as he’d hoped. By his sixteenth birthday, he had yet to leave the farm where he’d been born. It’s not even that Adrian was lazy quite the opposite actually. He woke up every morning at 6:00 AM and went to check up on the sheep. Then he had to milk the cows and feed the chickens. Then he usually had an hour or two to kill, which he usually spent catching up on sleep, before more chores needed to be done. On Sundays, he would go into the village to sell milk, and on Thursdays, he would travel down that same path to buy grains and some vegetables.

His days were long and tiring, but he still found the time most evenings to study some magic. He had learned fire spells, and spells that tilled the land for him. He could carry his voice with the wind all the way to the neighbour’s house; which was over a kilometre away, mind you.

Adrian was beginning to fear that he would spend the rest of his life like this, just as his parents had predicted. But one day, just as he was walking up the path to his house with his empty milk bottles, he heard a scream coming from the fields.

“Help!” a voice cried out. “Please, anyone!”

The boy dropped the milk bottles on the side of the road, and with a wide smile on his face tumbled down from the road onto the field.

“I’m coming sir!” He yelled.

As the boy rushed in the direction of the plea, he noticed a large figure laying on the ground, with a scarecrow standing over it. For a second, Adrian got felt disappointed at the fact that this man must have simply taken fright at the sight of the scarecrow, and fallen over, but then, the scarecrow moved. Excitement rushed through the boy’s veins, as he quickly crossed the distance between him and the creature.

“Fireball!” He yelled, and a ball of fire appeared in his open palm.

He threw the magic flame at the creature, which hissed in pain, as it tried to put out the flames with its strawy hands. When it finally succeeded, it let out a displeased hiss, as if to warn Adrian that he hadn’t seen the last of it, and quickly hopped away deeper into the field.

“Thank you, young man.” The person who’d been laying on the ground said.

He’d stood up and patted the boy on the shoulder, to show his gratitude. The man was wearing traverser’s clothes and seemed to be around the same age as Adrian’s father. He didn’t carry a sword or any other weapon for that matter.

“No worries sir.” The boy replied with a satisfied smile. “Say, if you don’t mind my asking, what was that monster, and how did it wander off all the way into our village?”

The man raised a hand to his chin as if thinking how to explain it in terms the boy would understand.

“We don’t get those much around here.” The boy added to fill in the silence.

“And perhaps that is for the better.” The man joyfully decided. “Say, could you point me to the nearest inn? It looks like it would be safer for me to sleep indoors tonight.”

Adrian looked in the direction of the village. Some rooftops could just about be seen further downhill, where the fields ended. Then the boy looked up at the crimson sky.

“If you don’t mind, sir, I’m sure my mother won’t be against you staying with us for the night. My farm is closer than the village, and you never know what other creatures might loom in the dark…” The boy trailed off.

In truth, he had another reason for asking the man to stay at his house. He didn’t get visitors from outside the village often and wanted to hear tales of the world outside. The man must have picked up on that, since he nodded, and with a smile said:

“Alright kid, lead the way.”

“Adrian, who the heck is that?” Adrian’s mother yelled, as soon as she saw the pair cross the fence that ran around their farm.

She was not a nervous woman, but when her son hadn’t come home on time, and after hearing that cry for help in the fields, she had gotten worried. So, she went out onto the porch, oil-lamp in one hand, kitchen roller in the other, and waited anxiously for her son to return.

The boy was about to explain himself, but the man cut him to it.

“Where are my manners? My name is Samuel, I am a travelling – umm, traveller. Your son has helped me when I was in quite a pickle, and when I asked for directions to the inn, he offered for me to stay with you. But if I am a bother to you or your family, I would be happy to be on my way-”

“That won’t be necessary,” Adrian’s mother said with a smile. The man was quite handsome now that she had had a closer look, and she was far from being against him spending the night. “I will go tell my husband to set an extra plate at the table.” She winked.

Adrian, who’d caught up to the visitor, looked at him with admiration. He had rarely seen someone change his mother’s mind so quickly about anything. And the boy was starting to hope that maybe this man could also help him set out on his dream journey of becoming a mage.

The dinner flew by extremely fast. It turned out that Samuel was great company. He brought life to the table, despite never talking much about himself or the many adventures he inevitably must have been on. When it came time to go to bed, Adrian quickly drifted to sleep, excited to wake up the next morning and ask Samuel to talk to his parents about becoming a mage.