Vegenrage: The Magic User (2 page)

“OK, so I sit here for a thousand-plus years all alone and learn magic, then what?”

“Then when you have mastered your magic, you set out to help those that need help. You protect those that need protection. You quest for powerful artifacts, talismans, jewels, and books that in the wrong hands would be used for chaos and destruction. As evil gets stronger and fiercer, you will fight against it with the forces of good.”

“So while I am doing all this, what of my home on earth? What of my family and friends?”

“This is the price you pay. You have stepped out of that realm. You are just gone, and it must be this way. There can be no link, no bond to you and your former life. As time goes by, you will be missed and then forgotten, and this is necessary so it can’t be used against you.”

“So you went through this process as well? I can’t imagine what people were like ten thousand years ago.”

“Well, it was a little different for me, but that’s a discussion for a different time. Right now is time for you to start your learning. I have all the books in order. Start here with the healing. Start top to bottom and work your way around the room. Work your way from the left side of the entrance here.” Logantrance walks to the entrance and points out the books as he talks. “Work your way all the way around the room until you finish them all, and I will see you in about ten centuries,” he says, laughing.

“You have got to be kidding me. What do I eat? Where do I shower?”

“Where do you want to bathe? Where and what do you want to eat?”

“Please don’t start talking riddles to me.”

“Come, Robert, show me.”

“Show you what?”

“Come stand by the fireplace with me.”

He walks to Logantrance, and they stand by the fireplace.

“Now think of this fireplace as your shower.”

Robert looks at the fireplace, and it turns into a four-walled non-see-through shower. Robert opens the door and turns on the water. A shower head, which hangs straight down from the ceiling, runs water, and he runs his hand through it. He turns to Logantrance. “It’s the perfect temperature.” He turns the water off.

“Now, Robert, think of the shower as the food you would like to prepare.”

The shower turns into a beautiful kitchen island with a stove and a refrigerator completely stocked with food. He looks in the refrigerator. “
Oh my god.
This is already better than home.” He turns on the stove, and sure enough it works. He looks at the kitchen, and it turns back into the fireplace.

“You see, Robert, magic has always been a part of you. You just need to train and harness the magic within you.”

“You know, Logantrance, doing is training and using is learning. I gotta try something.” Robert points his fingers out the front door. He pulls his hands back to his shoulders and thrusts them forward. Two magnificent lightning bolts shoot out the door, one from each hand. The bolts come from each finger and thumb, connecting to one larger bolt about a foot from each hand, and about six feet from him, they connect to a larger bolt shooting out the front door. They are a brilliant blue, white, and silver in color and an amazing spell that greatly surprises Logantrance.

“No! Robert, don’t do that.”

Robert holds his arms out in front of him parallel with the ground and his hands up, which burst into magnificent red, orange, and blue flames. “You’re not kidding, Logantrance, the magic is a part of me.” Robert winds up like a baseball pitcher and throws a superheated fireball out the front door.

“No! Robert, stop! You don’t understand!”

Robert’s hands go out, and he shrugs his shoulders. “What! What’s the matter, Logantrance? You said the magic is a part of me, and it is. Watch this.” Robert points his right hand at the first book on top of the left side of the entrance, and the book comes to his hand.

“Robert, stop and follow me.”

He sends the book back, and it fits perfectly in place. He follows Logantrance out the entrance and up the mound. He stands by Logantrance as he reaches into his Bag of Holding and pulls out two staffs just like the one Robert first saw him with.

Logantrance holds the staffs high in the air, forming an
x
in front of him, saying, “Proillu Seeot Tehsion Ichnn Inyie Viyoease!” The staffs emanate white lightning shooting out the top of each in three magnificent bolts, outlining a pyramid from each staff to a circular wall that encircles the plane they are on. The circle around the plane crackles and sparks a dancing array of lightning bolts circling at incredible speed for about thirty seconds and then vanishes. Logantrance stakes one staff in the ground then the other about five feet from the first one. “Robert, sit down with me.”

He sits Indian style on the ground, and Robert sits face-to-face with him. Logantrance puts his hands on Robert’s shoulders and concentrates with his eyes shut. The colors of sapphire, emerald, and diamond sparkle along the outline of both men and stretch to the staffs and then reach to the shell circling the plane. Logantrance removes his hands from Robert’s shoulders, and the colors stop ending from the men to the staffs to the shell of the plane they are on.

“You got me, Logantrance. I have no idea what kind of magic all these lights are all about.”

“This is the magic of deception. I am trying to conceal your presence. However, I think it’s too late for that. We will know soon enough. The thought that you would be able to cast offensive spells never occurred to me. I mean, you have no training, no knowledge, and you didn’t say a word. This is quite astonishing. Certainly your lightning bolt and fireball passed beyond my Retention Barrier. This is very bad because there are evil forces that will detect you and try to sway you to their beliefs.”

“I can tell you this: nobody sways my beliefs. I believe what I believe, and that’s that.”

“If they can’t sway you, if they can’t use your power to reach their goals, then they will try to destroy you.”

“Who are they? Let them try to destroy me. I am Vegenrage, master magic user,” Robert says with a big smile.

“Master magic user? You don’t have any idea yet the power you can possess. You have read not one book. You have not one quest under your belt, and already you name yourself. I admit I like your enthusiasm. I like your confidence. Now show me and prove to me that you deserve the name Vegenrage. Get to your studies and become Vegenrage the Magic User.”

Robert takes a deep breath, gets up, and walks into his new home.

Logantrance stands up between his staffs. He looks up and begins to speak. “Mooshion Neuane Tooave Seevil Eye!” Logantrance slaps his hands together in front of his body, and the clouds circle the plane with increased speed. Interestingly, there is no sun in the sky; however, it is illuminated like there is one. A view of the plane from far out in the sky shows it is simply a flat piece of earth about one mile in diameter. The entire plane flips 180 degrees. Now the bottom of the plane is showing, and it is dark earth—no grass, just dirt. As the plane flips, the sky becomes night with bright, beautiful stars all about. The scene switches back to Logantrance on the grass-covered mound in the day-lit sky with fluffy clouds sitting in the sky. Logantrance looks around, saying, “That should protect him for now.”

CHAPTER 2
Bastrenboar

The woods are quiet with light mist seeping through the trees as the morning burns it away. The trees are tall and thick, growing straight up with no branches until very high up. The bark on the trees is thick and strong, brown in color, and etched with ridges that grow up the trees. The hills are gently rolling with the earth covered in soft pine needles fallen from the trees. The earth is thick with strong, beautiful tall trees with very little brush or vine growth along the carpet of pine needles. This is a very healthy forest, a very beautiful forest. The trees come to a clearing as the earth slopes down gently, exposing rich earth untarnished by grasses. The earth slopes down about twenty yards and starts to level as the forest resumes.

The stillness and quiet of the morning is broken as a figure steps out from behind a tree on top of the ridge and looks over the clearing. This is a strange figure with the hooves of a pig on a bipedal humanoid figure. The hooves are where the feet of a human should have been connected to the calf muscle then the knee and thigh. The hips, abdomen, chest, shoulders, arms, and hands are all humanoid, only very muscular along with the legs. The neck and head are human, although there is a pig nose that extends out above a human jaw and mouth, and the ridge of the snout slants gently back to the unmistakable eyes of a human. The ears on the side of the head grow straight up and out, not flapping but solid, able to turn forward and back, capturing sound from the front side or back. The skin is human, but the hair on this human creature is like that on the hide of a pig. The hair on its head forms a
V
starting between the eyes and growing up and over the head.

This is a very sturdy-looking creature, very muscular, and standing over six feet tall. It has a shield held to its left forearm by a strap at its wrist and a strap just below its elbow. The shield is an oval shape with straight edges at the top and sides. There are five pieces to the shield about the width of a two by six about four and a half feet tall in the middle, about three and a half feet high for the two pieces outside the middle and three feet high for the two outer pieces. The material of the shield is brown in color, and what it is is unknown. It looks kind of like the shell of an animal.

There is a very large broadsword connected to a belt around its waist on its left hip. There is a stretchy but durable brown cloth around its hips, waist, and thighs, held tight by its belt and the only clothing it wears.

It walks toward the downward-sloping earth, turning its head side to side, looking intently, sniffing the air. “Where are you, Ugorian
?
I smell you and your elusive kind.”

Out of nowhere, an arrow strikes the humanor right through the heart—a thick, smooth light-brown arrow with heavy white feathers on the end spotted with red. The humanor grasps the arrow with its right hand and falls to its knees. The humanor breathes heavily as it feels its heart losing its life force being severed by the deadly broad head of the elvish arrow. Another arrow strikes the humanor to the right of the previous arrow, putting a hole in the humanor’s right lung, and it falls to its left side, dying. The humanor takes its last breath, and the forest maintains its silence.

A few minutes go by and a small five-foot figure moves through the trees very efficiently and so well camouflaged. It seems to disappear into the trees unless it is moving. A Ugorian elf jumps down from the trees and stands by the humanor corpse, retrieving its arrows. The elf taps the blade of its arrow, which is razor-sharp, against the tree, releasing the gravy-colored blood from the arrowhead, and repeats this with the other arrow, returning them to their quiver. “What is a humanor doing in the eastern ridge of the Ugorian Highlands?” the elf says, looking around.

The humanor lying on the ground opens its eyes, which are solid black except for a white ring that circles its pupil. The humanor reaches over and grabs the elf by its left ankle while chanting strange words. The elf looks down to see its leg turning to stone, his flesh hardening and turning to stone up his leg to his hips, down his other leg, and up his abdomen to his neck and down his arms. His head remains flesh and bone from his neck up. The elf’s light-brown moccasins and loose-fitting leather pants, along with its loose-fitting hooded shirt, which buttons down the front, remain unchanged. The elf’s clothing is all the same light-brown color with unique stitching throughout. The quiver tethered to his back, along with his arrows, bow, and accessories, all remain unchanged.

The humanor stands up with the holes in its chest healing before the elf’s eyes. The elf cannot speak and will die in a few minutes. The elf’s head is intact, but with the rest of its body stone, he cannot breathe or talk, and his brain will suffocate shortly.

The humanor looks at the elf. “Do you know who I am, elf? I am Bastrenboar. You have heard of me, haven’t you, elf? You are the first to feel my wrath, and all the rest of your kind shall feel it soon, right down to the elven mage Arglon, who made me this. I leave you here as you are, so take in the last sights you will ever see, elf.” Bastrenboar walks off and disappears into the forest.

The elf looks around, able to swivel his head left and right, with his short brown hair and his unmistakable pointed elvish ears, and look over the ridge with his beautiful golden eyes until his head slants forward and his eyes close.

Bastrenboar is walking down a corridor lined with cement brick and illuminated by torchlight every fifteen feet. He walks many yards until the corridor leads to a huge circular room. There is a fire pit with a gently blazing fire in the middle of the room. The walls are lined with hundreds of books with eight podiums around the room. The floor slopes slightly downward from the bookshelves around the room to the fire pit five yards to the center of the room.

Bastrenboar walks down around the fire pit and up the opposite side of the room to a very large chair made of solid black coral. It looks like black glass and you would think it is very uncomfortable, but there are large cushions at the seat and back, making it very comfortable to sit on. He sits down and reaches his right hand toward a book on the right wall, which floats to his hand. He opens it and begins to read. A huge flame bursts up from the fire pit. Bastrenboar looks up and sends the book in his hand back to its rightful place. “Come in.”

A man walks in right out of the air about five feet in front of Bastrenboar to his left.

“I trust your visit in Ugoria went well.”

“I left the elves something to think about. I returned sooner than I expected because I felt something. A very powerful sensation swept through me, clouding my mind and chilling my bones. I was just studying this when you showed up.”

“Yes, a newbie has arrived, a pure magic user, and he is well protected. My search for him was blocked, and he is traveling through dimensions. He is by far the most powerful presence I have ever felt unmistakable in the art of magic. This innocence and purity of magic was felt by all who use magic in all the realms. Even you felt it, and you know why your bones chilled?”

“Why, Cloakenstrike, why did my skin tremble and my spine cringe?”

“Because this magic is pure and newborn, completely free of evil thought, making it your enemy.”

“Then we will destroy it.”

“Yes, we will, Bastrenboar, or it will destroy us.”

“Destroy you? Cloakenstrike, you are the master of stealth, the bringer of death. Nothing can destroy you.”

“Don’t be misguided, Bastrenboar. We all die. This presence came to us and chilled our spines as a warning to beware of this force and give it the respect it deserves because it is smart, it is strong, and it is not us. Don’t forget, you and your two thousand men were turned to pigs by the elven mage Arglon for raping Somgla, the elven princess of Ugoria. You and your men ravaged her to death, and before you all had transformed to the pigs that you are, I thwarted this magic before its completion, creating the race of humanors. Now you and your race seek to destroy all Ugorian elves and murder anything in your way. This is the doing of evil, and I am your teacher. This new magic will seek us out and confront us. That is what we felt, and we must prepare and be ready for it. I know you want to take the elves on your own. You and your men have plotted for seven hundred years now, and I commend your study of magic and commitment to your goal, but it’s time to speed up the process. You must possess the Snow Gold Trinket of Ugoria. Its magical essence will increase your magical strength tenfold, and you need it now. Time is no longer on our side. Come stand by the fire with me.”

Cloakenstrike and Bastrenboar walk to the fire and meditate. Cloakenstrike is a six-foot-tall man with long straight black hair. He has deep blue eyes and a strong, attractive appearance. He wears a golden brown cloth shirt like a T-shirt, but the front left of the shirt folds under the right side of the shirt, which wraps across his chest, and the shirt tucks into his thick blue metallic cloth pants, which fit him comfortably. He wears soft-soled boots that lace up from the feet halfway up his calves. The boots are black suede studded with sapphire, ruby, and emerald gems. He wears a Bag of Holding around his waist, which hangs to the right side of his groin.

Bastrenboar has studied magic under the teaching of Cloakenstrike for seven hundred years now and has become fairly fluent in the art of magic. The two-thousand-man army that Bastrenboar led has long since perished; however, they can reproduce, and the offspring are the humanor race. Bastrenboar has led his army many times, raiding villages and towns, stealing the women, and growing their race.

The humanors are now eight generations into their evolution and control the vast wood and grasslands for hundreds of miles outside of Bastrenboar’s home. This is known as the land of Hunoria. The humanors are now a viable, sustainable race, maintaining all human traits with the added pig traits, those being hoofed feet, pig ears, and a pig nose extending from the face. The humanors are very muscular, with great endurance and a formidable foe to any adversary. Their fighting technique is brute force like that of a barbarian using swords and shields, Bastrenboar being the only one of their kind with magical abilities. The humanors go about their lives, living for the most part peaceably; however, when Bastrenboar calls upon them, they fight for him without question. They fight fearlessly and to the death if need be.

Cloakenstrike and Bastrenboar are ruthless and evil in their methods, but they are not evil just to be evil. They are very smart and calculating. They are not impulsive, and they think plans through very intelligently. Bastrenboar has a heart pumping for revenge against all the Ugorian elves because of the creature Arglon has made him. Deep down, Bastrenboar knows all that has happened to him was of his own doing, but he pushes those thoughts aside and focuses on revenge against all elves. Cloakenstrike just wants power. He wants to lead armies and watch destruction. He wants to be the most powerful being, whatever he is. Both want power and dominance to be theirs, and they work surprisingly well with each other to advance their superiority.

Now standing at the fire pit, Bastrenboar looks to Cloakenstrike. “The elves are very powerful. They are strong, agile, and wickedly deadly with their bows. I don’t have the ability to protect my army from their weapons. They will cut us down with ease. I can take out many of them with my magic, but my army would be destroyed long before I can gain entrance to the elven kingdom.”

“We have to set traps and use illusion to distract them. We must distract the elves and force their fighters to all sides of the kingdom. By the time they realize they are killing illusions, we will have slipped into King Trialani’s lair and taken the Snow Gold Trinket of Ugoria. We have talked about this before. Outside of the elven mages, only you can harness the magical power of this trinket. When Arglon cast his magic upon you, your personal being was imbued with his magic, and with your study and knowledge of magic advanced as it is now, you can gain the magical strength of the Snow Gold Trinket. We must plan this theft well and strike with efficiency. You need three of your best generals to lead one hundred humanors each. We will cast powerful magic on them to protect them from elven arrows. We will send them to three outer points of the Ugorian Kingdom and have them attack while many other imaginary armies attack simultaneously. The illusions will appear to be killed as will your men; however, your men will not die, and when the elves investigate, your humanors will take them down, keeping the elves honest and focused on all outside armies. While this is going on, you and I will teleport to King Trialani’s lair, where the king, Arglon, and others will surely be contemplating what is happening. This will be no easy doing and the most dangerous fight we have encountered. There will be elven bowelves and the very powerful magic of Arglon. If we are not efficient, deadly accurate, and decisive, they will defeat us. This is the deadliest challenge you and I have faced, but the reward is worth it. Not only will your magical ability grow tenfold, but you will gain an inherent knowledge of all Ugorian magic. With the presence of this new magic user, you must gain the Snow Gold Trinket.”

“I cannot just take the trinket from Trialani. He must be slain first, and Arglon will certainly have him protected.”

“I will be there to neutralize Arglon, and then you must take down the king and acquire the trinket from around his neck. We will need ten of your best fighters to go with us to help distract any protection the king will have. I will concentrate on Arglon, you will concentrate on the king, and your fighters will help protect us. King Trialani and his eight-hundred-year rule is about to come to an end, and the name Bastrenboar will be his downfall.”

“I hope you have a good plan to deal with Arglon, because even your magic will be tested to its limit by him.”

“Have you read the books you have on the Finkelbrim Realm?”

“You mean the planet Fargloin ruled by the Erkensharie elves and the Glaborster dwarves. This is one of the greatest and strongest alliances on all the worlds and of all the realms. The Treestriders and Vinegrowers protect all the woodlands along with the elves. The Stone Giants and Golems protect all the mountain ranges with the dwarves. There are orcs, ogres, hobgoblins, and bog wolves, but if they venture far from the swamps and gas bogs, they are quickly slain. I like the story of the elven dwarven alliance. The dwarves mine the earth for its metals and jewels and trade them to the elves for magical knowledge. According to my books, the only dwarven magic users in existence are the Glaborster Dagi. I am very curious to see them. I wonder if they have any skill at all.”