The Legend Of The Wizard's Apprentice (Book 1) (2 page)

“Master I didn’t mean to bring it back to life. It had died and I didn’t want to lose my favourite apple tree. I loved that tree; it made me sad that I was not going to have any more of those delicious apples. I just kept reaching out to the tree and asked it to come back, I did not even know that I was using magic, it just sort of happened. One minute the tree was dead then the next minute I felt the One Power fill me and a brilliant light shot from my hands, and then the next thing I saw was the tree was alive asking me how come it couldn’t walk.”

“Kerwyn, all things die in time. But you giving that old apple tree a new life is against the nature of magic. I still do not know how you did it. In all of my years I have never seen a wizard powerful enough to bring anything back to life once it had died.”
Without using the forbidden evil Necromancer magic’s
, Master Sernett thought to himself.

The old man continued, “But you were not only able to bring it back to life using the One Power, but you changed it into a sentient being, which not only feels, and thinks: it also talks. No Kerwyn my boy, you are a marvel. You have access to depths of the One Power that is far more powerful than mine. One day you will learn how to control it and you will be the strongest wizard in the land. We just need to find a way that you won’t kill yourself in the mean time Ha-Ha.”

Kerwyn knowing that his master was making a joke laughed along with him. Still, he wondered how, all those years ago, he had brought forth the One Power so strongly that it had been enough to bring the dead tree back to life.

He wasn’t sure at all how he had done it. He remembered feeling the sense of loss at losing his favourite tree and then his desire for it to be alive so badly that every fibre of his being surged with energy and ended up breaking forth in a flash of blinding light. It even took him a while to realize that the light had come from him. It was even a bigger surprise for him when the tree called him father. Remembering that now, he started laughing about a tree calling him father, which was something that he would never forget.

The funny thing about the tree now was, not only was it alive and well with a will of its own, but the apples that it bore all year ‘round had a magical healing effect on anyone that the tree allowed to eat them.

Kerwyn thought to himself, “No matter what I will ever do in life, from that point on, the gods must have some special plans for me. Who would have ever thought that I, an abandoned kid left on a stranger’s door step, would turn out to be living at Master Sennett’s house, the most powerful wizard in the area?”

“Ok, Kerwyn, enough of that day dreaming. We still have some more training for you to do before we stop for the day,” said Master Sernett.

“Sorry Master Sernett,” Kerwyn said, with a down cast look.

“Ok Kerwyn, instead of the sticky web spell let’s try and make that light spell that you have been working on. But this time try to get it right; we don’t need any more misshaped spider web spells today. Concentrate on the flow of energy that’s all around you and feel the One Power passing through your body. Once you have it inside start channelling that energy into a single focal point. Once you have the image in your mind, speak the words of power and then create your glowing ball in the air.”

“Ok Master, I’ll try,” said Kerwyn.

As Kerwyn opened up his mind he could see all of the flowing energy of the One Power that moved around him like rivers of energy. These rivers are found throughout the entire world. There are places that seem to contain more of these energy flows and are called places of power. Then there are spots in the world that only have a few energy rivers. These are known only as Voids. The Voids are an unknown mystery and no one has been able to find out why they even exist. It is almost like these places suck all of the One Power into nothingness, or maybe draws it deep back into the plantets core. Wizards have to be very carful when casting spells in Voids because the wizard ends up using his own life energy to cast his spells if there isn’t enough of the One Power’s river energy to tap into. The void has a tendency to leach a wizard’s energy while he is casting. It is almost like the Void is trying to reclaim the missing energy back into the planet.

Kerwyn started to channel the energy of the One Power and concentrated it into a single point of power. He glanced above the little bubbling brook by the edge of their property; breaking his concentration for just a moment, he saw a firefly flashing its little light in the distance.

He waved his hands and spoke the magical word of power “Luminarium!” and a blast of energy rushed from his open hands. The air shimmed and began to fold in on itself in such a way that time and space became one. In that instant there was an explosion of sound and light and right there, where Kerwyn was focusing all of his energy, now buzzed five hundred fireflies. Each one flickering and blinking, they hovered in a tightly formed group roughly the shape and size of a three-foot diameter ball.

Master Sernett sighed and shook his head before he spoke.

“Kerwyn you did well, but you didn’t focus your mind on a ball of pure light. Why did you think of fireflies? Yes they give off light, and they seem to be following your will, but a ball of pure white light would be of better use when one needs to see in the dark.”

“I’m sorry master I didn’t mean to summon fireflies. I saw one over by the brook and must have thought about fireflies.” Kerwyn’s face turned scarlet.

“Kerwyn, you really need to keep focused on what you are doing! One of these days you’re going to cast something that you don’t want and it’s going to end up hurting someone by accident.” Master Sernett exhaled and drew in a breath slowly, to calm himself.

“I know master. I’ll try harder, I promise.” Kerwyn stated in a small voice, upset that he had disappointed his master, yet again for the day.

“Alright Kerwyn, release those fireflies and let’s try it again.” Master Sernett tried to calm his voice to put Kerwyn at ease. Kerwyn released his will over the fireflies and watched them scatter across the sky looking for a nice place to hide.

Master Sernett put his hand on Kerwyn’s shoulder and said, “Kerwyn this time I want you to concentrate on a ball of pure bright light and then focus really hard on the spell you want to cast. Once you have that firmly in your mind, draw in the One Power slowly and keep control of it until you’re ready cast your spell.”

Again Kerwyn opened up his mind to the flows of floating energy that was surrounding him and as soon as he did, the energy of the One Power rushed in and filled him with a sense of unlimited power. He focused his mind on a ball of pure white light the way his Master had told him to. He then waved his hands and spoke the word of power again; “Luminarium!” he again felt that familiar rush of energy.

There was a sudden and intense blinding explosion that threw Kerwyn and his master several feet to the ground. Above them hovering three feet above the ground was a ball of the brightest and purest white light the world had ever seen. It was approximately four feet wide and it pulsed with the pure force of the One Powers energy.

“Kerwyn tone it down my boy, or you’ll blind the both of us!” exclaimed Master Sernett, surprised that Kerwyn not only succeeded with what he was told to do, but that he had done it better then he had ever seen it done by anyone.

Kerwyn concentrated his will towards the brilliant glowing ball of light and gradually the light’s intensity dimmed enough so it no longer hurt the eyes to look at it. Blinking rapidly and rubbing his eyes, Kerwyn quickly looked over at his master and saw the biggest smile on his Master’s now red sun burnt face.

“Kerwyn my boy you did it! Not only did you do it, but what a light. I think I’m going to have spots in front of my eyes for the next couple of weeks. Plus I’m going to have to make a healing lotion to sooth our sun burnt skin.”

Kerwyn saw his master laughing and was somewhat proud of the fact, that he had finally done exactly what and how his master had trained him how too. Even though he himself was somewhat temporarily blinded and had a sun burnt face from the initial flash of light. Kerwyn looked again at the ball of light and then made a mental note to close his eyes and then cast the ball a little further away from him the next time he cast the spell. Kerwyn also knew that casting the spell perfectly, would now show his master that he could in fact focus his will and cast the perfect spell. Kerwyn thought that maybe one day, he might even be the greatest wizard in the world, just like he had always dreamed of being. But of course those were just fantasies and childhood fantasies like these would never come true for an orphan like him. “One day, just maybe one day.” Kerwyn whispered to himself.

Neither Kerwyn nor his Master could yet know that they had just begun the biggest journey of all time for good against evil and that the wheel of time had just turned one more spoke closer to pulling all the evils out of legends and bringing them closer to this world. In the Darkest part of the River Glen forest, the evil that lived in the Black Towers squealed with excited hatred at the unsuspecting world that they would soon be released from, by their Evil Necromancer Master to destroy. This was the way of legends. The Wheel of Fate had been turning for this day since the beginning of time. Once a person’s path was caught up in the wheel, there was nothing in this world, or any other that could alter fate’s design.

Days after Kerwyn produced that ball of light, Master Sernett had him recreate it time and time again. Kerwyn was getting the hang of making the light appear in different degrees of brightness and even in different colours. Master Sernett even had Kerwyn make copies of living creatures with it. Kerwyn made it take on the shape of one of the forest fairies, flying around and flapping its little wings. Then he had it take on the shape of a ten-pointed stag and had it run around bucking and acting just like it would if it was defending its territory. Kerwyn then had it run as far as the eyes could see just to test his limits. Master Sernett was very impressed with how far Kerwyn’s strength of will; could control the One Power.

“Kerwyn, you are getting stronger each day with your spells and your control of the One Power. I am very proud of you, my boy. But I think it’s time I started teaching you about the different ways of using offensive spells and which one you should use at the right time. You just never know when you may need to put an angry Dire wolf to sleep, or set a Raging troll on fire. You do remember that fire is one of the only things that can kill a troll right?”

“Yes Master I remember, you told me that a knight could cut a troll into many parts, but unless you burn all of those pieces, the troll can heal itself very fast, and it will come back seeking revenge for all the pain it suffered when you least expect it. Trolls are very big, long limbed and are really strong. They stand anywhere from seven to fifteen feet tall. They can pick up a fully-grown horse and eat it like we would pick up a chicken leg and eat it. They have knobby and usually broken teeth with which they crush and tear the flesh into bite-sized bits. You also said that a troll prefers a living meal to finding and eating a dead one.” Kerwyn grinned feeling that he had explained the ugly trolls in as much depth as could remember. Master Sernett backed up and sat down on one of the many logs that surround their little house by the brook. All the while going over everything that Kerwyn had said about what he knew about trolls.

After what seemed like forever to Kerwyn, his Master opened his eyes and responded with, “Yes I did say that, but they are not likely to skip over something that is already dead either. They just really, really like to hear the screams from their food while they crunch bite-sized chunks off. Trolls are very evil creatures and they will kill anything just to hear it scream. But that’s not all; even when their victims are dead, they will break the bones just to hear the snap made by them. Trolls are generally solitary creatures, thank the gods, but during mating season a group of the biggest troll males will group together and take out entire villages. They do this so they can bring as many screaming victims back to the female trolls they are trying to impress. The more living victims a troll male can bring back to the female, the more the female trolls will favour them. It is a very well known fact that female trolls will only mate while listening to the music of crunching bones and the painful scream’s of their victims. This is one reason there are so many trolls in this world: there isn’t a shortage of victims, as they don’t care what type of creature is doing the screaming.

Now while we’re talking about so many trolls, there are also many different species of trolls. There are Wood Trolls – dead brownish tree-like creatures that wonder through the dark forests or that will simply plant them selves and wait patiently until an unsuspecting victim walks beneath them. Swamp Trolls look like big mouldy mounds of dirt with moss and mould growing all over their backs. These trolls usually move very slowly and have huge mouths to swallow anything that walks across their path. Lake Trolls are big and have a bluish colour to their skin to blend in with the water, they will wander around the edges of lakes and rivers looking for unsuspecting prey that are trying to get a drink. Then there are the dumbest, biggest and most aggressive trolls of all. These are called the Mountain Trolls; they are huge grey creatures that are all rocky in appearance and have very tough skin that is hard to cut. They blend into the Mountain slopes and paths. They will amble along the mountain paths, and caves seeking out anything that they could kill and eat. Now all of them are deadly but the Mountain Trolls really enjoy the kill and they love to squish their prey using their big rocky clubs. Mountain Trolls have a really unique way of eating their prey once crushed. After a good crushing they enjoy slurping up the victim’s leaking juices and then chomp the mashed, fleshy bits down their throats.”

Kerwyn’s face changed a few shades greener while he envisioned each of these creatures catching and killing helpless travelers.

Thankfully Master Sernett saved Kerwyn’s belly from empting its contents by interrupting his thoughts and asked his next creature question.