The Legend Of The Wizard's Apprentice (Book 1) (27 page)

Waking Durin from the lightning blast wasn’t as hard as they would have thought; Master Sernett just threw water into his face and he was up and ready to go. “Dwarves are tough creatures,” Master Sernett said.

Master Sernett, observing the sunrise, decided that it would be best to get a move on before anything else came back and wanted to eat them.

Elden took up point again and started his tracking of the changeling. Finding that they weren’t very far behind it, they all increased their pace and prepared themselves to get the acorn back.

After what seemed like another three-hour walk, Elden told them all to be very quiet. They had come up to a little stream and by the stream was the changeling in Elgar’s form.

Kerwyn, wanting to be the first to attack, gathered the One Power and quietly called out "Lentesco Textus" and, again, a hundred spidery webs shot out of Kerwyn’s hands and covered the changeling in sticky webbing. Unable to move, the changeling called out for help, not knowing yet who had trapped him. When Kerwyn walked forward so that the changeling could see his face, the changeling realized who had him and paled with fright.

“Please don’t kill me, Master Kerwyn. I promise to never involve myself in your affairs again. Here, I’ll even give you back the acorn for the Tree of Life,” said the changeling in Elgar’s form.

Durin, coming up behind the changeling said to Kerwyn and Master Sernett, “Don’t you worry about the changeling, I will take care of him.” The dwarf tapped his massive hammer against the palm of his hand and, grinning like he was a mad man he said, “A friend of mine has died because of you, and we have some unfinished business to take care of.”

The changeling soiled himself and started to weep, “Please don’t let him kill me, Masters. I promise that you will never see me again if you let me live. I am a pathetic creature and one of the weakest of the Dark Minions. I am always bullied and teased and I hide from the others, as they would kill me just for fun. I thought that stealing the Acorn would raise me in the ranks and the others would leave me alone. I am sorry for the trouble that I have caused.”

“The unfortunate thing for you is this; you have killed how many people at the Tree of Life? At least thirteen that I know about and I don’t think that you really are sorry at all. I think that you will say anything to save your own skin and then come and get us while we sleep,” said Kerwyn.

“No, no! I promise I’ll leave and never return. I can’t face the Dark Master anyway now. He would kill me because I have failed to give him the acorn. So I need to run and hide anyway,” said the changeling.

Kerwyn turned to his master and asked very quietly, “We are not going to kill this pathetic creature, are we?”

His Master looked at Kerwyn but his face never changed. Looking back at the changeling, Master Sernett went over and took the acorn from the Tree of Life and handed it back to Kerwyn. He then told everyone to step away as he was going to deal with situation.

The party backed up, all except Kerwyn who said, “Master, you can’t kill this creature, not in cold blood.”

“Why not Kerwyn? This creature would have killed you if you hadn’t stopped it. This creature will continue to kill the helpless; it feeds off of our blood. It’s a parasite and deserves to die.

I am willing to rid the world of this creature and all of its kind. They sneak in and kill you while you sleep. There have been many deaths on this one’s head. In three years he has killed thirteen people. This worthless creature is at least seventy years old. That could mean that there are upwards of around two hundred and seventy people dead by its hand. No Kerwyn, this creature must die; it is one of the Dark Minions and it will never stop killing.”

Turning suddenly, Master Sernett cast his spell. Aiming at the changeling with his staff, he yelled, “Levitas Offendo!” A bolt of intence blue lightning blasted from his staff into the front of the changeling, melting its skin and sending it into convulsions.

Watching the last of its death throes, Kerwyn couldn’t believe that his master had just killed this creature in cold blood and thought, “Shouldn’t even evil be given a chance to repent? Otherwise, don’t we become them?”

Master Sernett walked away from Kerwyn knowing that he was going to be mad and upset over what had just happened. But it had to be done; this creature was like a mosquito, it had to drink blood to stay alive and reproduce. It was an evil creature that could kill a person and take over that person's appearance and then kill their entire family at night while they slept. Master Sernett knew a few families that had ended up that way. They were good people, found in the morning sucked dry of all of their fluids and all that remained was the dried up husks of who they had once been. Kerwyn couldn’t have any idea how many times Master Sernett had said that if he found one of these creatures he would kill it. Today was that day.

Kerwyn watched his master walk away. He was the one person who Kerwyn thought he knew the most about, and it turned out that he didn’t know as much about his master as he thought he did. He thought, “I guess when you live as long as wizards do sometimes secrets are hidden very deep.”

Kerwyn turning to look at the rest of the party saw the same look on their faces, all except for Durin’s. He was nodding his agreement that killing the changeling was the right thing to do.

Kerwyn looked down into his hand at the fragile acorn in his palm. He looked again over at the body of the changeling and then back again to the acorn, and thought to himself, “Why do things have to die so that life can continue?”

“Ok, let’s get back to the forest elves' domain. I’m afraid it’s going to be two nights outdoors before we get back there and it looks like rain,” said Master Sernett.

No sooner had Master Sernett spoken than it started to rain. It rained lightly at first and then, as the day wore on, it became harder and harder. Everyone was soaked even under the canopy of the trees. Also, the Cyclopes with all their hair didn’t smell too nice plus they hadn’t had a bath since before their last fight. Cyclopes sweat is a very strong thing.

Kerwyn wrinkled up his nose at the smell of their party and said, “If the smell alone doesn’t keep anything evil away then nothing will.”

Celie told him that they smelled bad because their armor was very heavy and it was hot walking through the forest with it on. But they would keep it on just in case anything jumped out at them and they needed it. They walked all day and into dusk. Elden was in the lead and again raised his hand up, everyone to stop.

There, ahead of the party, lights could be seen approaching through the forest. Telling everyone to get and hide somewhere, the cyclops hid behind the base of the trees and the smaller creatures of their party hid under brushes.

They all hid quietly waiting to see what it was, that was coming around the bend.

chapter twelve

GODS IN THE FOREST

Around the trail came a strange and beautiful looking creature that was a cross between a tree and a young girl. She had bark for skin and looked like she had bark and leaves for her hair as well.

It was pulled and tied back into a ponytail with a green sash that looked like a vine to keep her hair out of her face. She had a wicked looking bow and arrows that were also made out of wood. But this wood had runes all over it and it had an incandescent green glow. She also had a very sharp looking sword that was made out of the same material that her bow and arrows were and it too had runes inscribed all over the blade and along the hilt of her sword.

She wore what looked like a leaf skirt and had smaller leaves covering her breasts. The weird thing was that the bark moved in the same way normal skin would move and she was extremely pretty. Her eyes were the colour of green emeralds and shone with the same glow as her runes on the sword and bow. She had a walk that would remind you of one of the great cats and had that same graceful stance, as though she knew how to handle the weapons she carried. There was also something else unseen, but felt about this exotic female that said danger and to beware.

Coming up behind her, and where they could see the lights approaching from, was a multi-antlered stag and the beast had an aura about it glowing golden and green. The wooden girl was talking and not paying attention to the creature that was walking behind her almost like this was a very typical thing for this creature to do. Kerwyn was thinking to himself that this was the same creature that the Queen of the Elves had as her throne in the Elvin Great Hall.

Suddenly the girl stopped and faster than the eyes could see, she had her bow and arrows out and knocked in her bow was an arrow ready to fire. She had it aimed at the brush where Master Sernett, Kerwyn and Durin were hiding.

“Show yourselves, for if you do not I will be forced to use deadly force, and I promise you, I will not be an easy target to subdue,” the girl called out to the brush.

Master Sernett stepped forward from his hiding place with his hands outstretched showing that he meant her no harm and that he was unarmed save for his staff.

“Forgive me, my lady, but we were not sure if you were some more of the creatures that we have been plagued with fighting over the past few days. We thought hiding would be the safest thing we could do,” explained Master Sernett.

“You keep addressing yourself as
we
. I should expect that an honest person wouldn’t mind stepping out into the open to prove one’s innocence,” said the wood girl with her arrow still knocked and ready.

“Ok everyone, we are amongst friends and we mean no one any harm so please come out and introduce yourselves,” Master Sernett said in a loud enough voice so that everyone could hear him.

Kerwyn stood up and walked out to the path, saying as she saw him, “I am Kerwyn and I am Master Sernett’s apprentice.”

“Aye, I am Durin, Son of Koryan the great Dwarven king of Dorokk Mountain,” stated Durin, walking out from the brush as well.

“We are Elden, Byamee and Celie and we are Cyclopes from Alberic,” said Byamee as the three great fifteen-foot tall Cyclopes emerged from their hiding places.

“Master Sernett, I see you are travelling with a very impressive company. I am quite surprised that you would be hiding from anyone,” said the wooden girl, lowering her bow but not releasing the arrow from the bowstring.

“My dear, you would be surprised at what we have been fighting these past few days and we have even lost one of our cyclops companions, friend and family member to the ogres. We have also fought with forest trolls, goblins, the undead and even a changeling.

“I am Korowai, Druid Wooden Woman from Papua and this magnificent creature is Cernunnos,” said Korowai.

“Cernunnos is the God of the Forest is he not, Korowai?” asked Master Sernett.

Korowai squinted her green eyes at Master Sernett as if trying to read whether he could be trusted; whether he was friend or foe.

Cernunnos took her decision away from her as he walked right up to Kerwyn and knelt on the ground then and stood back up, placing his massive antlered head into Kerwyn’s hands the same way a dog would welcome you home after being away for a while.

Korowai’s eyes opened wide and she moved to stand beside Kerwyn in a blink of an eye and, faster than you could see, she was there beside him.

She looked up into Kerwyn’s eyes and tilted her head like a bird of prey or some sort of great cat. “I have never before seen Cernunnos bow and cuddle into anyone before. This is very perplexing to me.”

Noticing Master Sernett’s staff for the first time, she flashed over beside him and bent over, looking the staff over from top to bottom. She stood up and asked, “Who are you to have one of Mother Nature’s relics of power?”

Squinting again, she turned towards Kerwyn and flashed over to him faster than thought itself and asked, “May I place my hands upon you, as I would like to know why Cernunnos shows you such respect?”

Kerwyn, not knowing what else to do, nodded his head to show her that he didn’t mind. When she placed her hands up on him a surge of power shot through him like he was being electrocuted. Closing his eyes to prevent himself from vomiting, he could feel her inside of his head but, unlike the fairy queen, Korowai was almost hostile.

He could sense that she had come up against a barrier and, as she tried to break it down, he could almost feel the mental slap. Then there, in all of her glory, was Mother Nature standing like a giant in his mind. Korowai shocked and now realizing whom Kerwyn was retreated with as much speed as she could from his inner thoughts. Releasing him from her intrusion she dropped to her knees and said in a low voice, “ Please forgive me my intrusion, Master Kerwyn, I had no right to doubt Cernunnos his respect of you. Please forgive this servant of Mother Nature for all of her ignorance. I did not mean you or Mother Nature any disrespect.”

Almost crying, Korowai knew that Mother Nature was not happy for bullying her way into another being's mind the way she had. But she also knew that she should have seen Mother Nature's presence radiating from Kerwyn in the first place. She was a child of nature and Kerwyn was filled with the power of nature. She should not have attacked him the way she had. He had voluntarily allowed her to enter his mind and she had taken advantage of his approval, finding out everything she could about who this person was.