CHASING THE WIND
By Cyndy Nishiyama
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Copyright 2012 Cyndy Nishiyama
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Marian's red curly hair swirled from the draft below her. She stared nervously down at her dangling feet.
"If I throw you off the cliff, can you soar to safety? No? You want to find out?" the cloaked mage said to the quivering skinny girl she held over the steep ravine. "I could teach you…for a price, of course.”
Marian would have been ecstatic that a wind mage offered to help her study spells. It had always been her dream to be able to cast a fireball like a fire mage, create a whirlpool like a water mage, bend metal to her will like a blacksmith, unhinge a boulder off a rock face like an earth mage, or even soar through the air like a wind mage—like this wind mage can do in a heartbeat.
She sighed. She was ten but she was realistic. And the reality of it was she was dirt poor. It was evident in her tattered cotton shirt which she has worn and washed repeatedly for days in a row. Her patched-up blue shorts looked more pathetic than the dirt-ridden clothes of the mage that still held her captive. "I don't have any money," she huffed. She thought it would have been obvious from the way she looked.
"Of course you don't. From the Slums, I suppose? You've been following me since I passed by there."
It was true. For a girl like her, being born in the Slums meant she had learned to fend for herself at a very young age: which meant scavenging for trinkets she could trade off in the black market and finding food. She frequented the latter in the Animari Wilds where fruits and tubers were abundant. She only had to figure out which ones were safe to eat and which ones could snuff the lights out of her.
But one thing that Marian wanted and that the Animari Wilds could not give her was the ability to use magic. She knew she has latent magic: everyone in the land of Eithra does. But she had one gigantic hurdle to get over before she could do so: money. She needed lots of it to enroll in a guild where she could learn magic.
The Animari Wilds bordered Eithra. Its mountains and woodlands stretched around the magical land. The cliff they were on overlooked the Slums—the only safe entrance to this part of the Animari. From a distance she could see the Vannalke Market. She liked it there. She could see many magical things in the stores that she would have liked to have if she could afford them. She didn't try to steal anything; the stores there are protected by anti-theft rune, magically imbued stones with a natural magic property. Runes would only serve one purpose and thus would only have one element. The anti-theft runes were like lightning bolts. Marian would have been shocked within an inch of her life before she could have made-off with anything.
She looked at the wind mage. How did she get herself in this trouble? Oh, right. She ‘stealthily’ followed the mage into the Animari Wilds. She intended to steal the spell book when the mage was off guard. It was an easy job, or so she thought. "Please put me down! I'll return your spell book. Just don't kill me."
The mage laughed, pulling her hood off her face. The mage had brown pixie hair and beautiful purple eyes. She would have been a pretty mage had it not been for a scar that ran along her left temple, all the way down to her jaw. She pulled Marian back in.
"Relax kid, I won't kill you. I, however, want my book back." She plunked Marian down beside her as she eyed the nearby trees and the barren path behind them.
“Levitair!” the mage chanted, extending an arm towards the trees. The book which Marian hid under the exposed roots of a huge tree floated towards the extended hand of the mage.
"You knew all along? Where I hid—you could have easily taken it back?! Ouch! Why'd you do that?" Marian said, massaging her head. The wind mage had wacked her square on the head with the spell book.
"That's for stealing. You had it coming," the mage said while storing the book back in her bag. She unrolled a scroll and looked at a map of the Animari. "I'm sure there was a left turn here somewhere."
"Did you mean what you said? That you could teach me magic?" Marian said as she dusted herself off. The mage hoisted the bag on her shoulder.
"Yes. I also meant what I said afterwards: for a price. But you just said you don't have any money on you. No gotts? No silpers? No centaels? Unless you have something else of value to trade with me?” the female mage said, eyeing the silver piece that dangled on Marian’s neck, “What do you have there?”
“If you want it you can have it—”
“A useless trinket? Tough luck, kid. You know, you can't ask for something without giving back something of equal value in return." The mage started walking past her and on to a dirt path that led to the dense forest of the Animari.
"Hey, that path leads to the red kobolds! It's dangerous there," Marian warned. Her curly hair bounced as she took double steps, trying her best to be on the same pace as the female mage.
"Well, I'll just have to find a different route. Now go away and stop following me. I will not teach you anything." She looked at the map again, veering away from Marian and the red-kobold-path. There was a new path drawn on the map but none where she actually stood.
"This map is absolutely useless," the mage said, exasperated. Of course it was of no use. The map was sold to her by a suspicious balding merchant who reeked too much of salamander rum.
Marian quickly hopped in front of the mage, overtaking her. Something clicked in her head.
"Yes, you will. I just gave you something valuable. Information. That path is dangerous. It leads to a horde of nasty kobolds. I taught you something. Now you have to teach me something in return. A fair trade," Marian said, voicing out what ran in her head and then quickly she added, "I know a lot about the Animari Wilds. I can help you better than that bogus map can."
The mage stopped walking, surprise colored her face. She smirked. "What's your name kid?"
"Marian Redwick. What's yours?" she replied, careful to keep the flow of information even. This mage was trying to get rid of her. She'd better not let that happen. This was her only chance to know some magic spells because she couldn't afford formal education at a guild.
"Phoebe Weiss. And you, Marian, are a deviously cunning child."
Marian smiled smugly. Her gaze fixed on Phoebe.
"Do you know what your magical blood type is? If you're wind? Earth? Fire? No? How about we make a deal: if you're wind and if you guide me to nice hunting spots for kobolds or whatever else I have on my list, you can watch me cast spells. I'll teach you some basic ones after every hunt. But, if you're not, you will return to town right now and go find some other mage to stalk. How's that? Fair enough?"
"Alright," Marian said, appeased, “what do we do?"
Phoebe fished around for several pebbles in different colors: grays and blacks, browns and reds, and among them was a single blue pebble. She laid them down at arm’s length in front of Marian. "Sit down, and hold out your hand towards the pile," Phoebe said. Marian obediently did so, her eyes bright with excitement.
"Try to make the blue one move on top without touching it. Breathe deeply and imagine moving the pebble. Chant ‘Levitair’, with emphasis on the first syllable. If you're a wind mage, it should budge."
What Phoebe told Marian was half-true. The spell was correct but only a few novices could make something move at will; for others it would just oh so slightly quiver during a guild test. And besides, what are the odds of the little urchin to actually be of the wind?
"Of all the rotten curse scrolls," Phoebe hissed.
Marian did it. The blue pebble, half buried in the pile, slowly but surely moved on top of the others.
"I’m a wind mage! What's next?" Marian said, anticipating further lessons. She couldn’t believe her luck.
"Not so fast demon child. First we hunt for kobolds.
I don't want the red ones; I just need the tails of the ones that are weak with wind spells, the blue ones. Show me where they mostly hunt."
Marian was beyond belief: she's a wind spell caster! Pretty soon she can fly and catch kobolds on her own. And she can sell the tails in the market. And then she'll have all the money she needs—
"Hey, kid. Which way?" Phoebe said, disrupting Marian's day dreaming.
They soldiered along the dirt path Marian led them. Marian held a makeshift staff she fashioned out of a dead branch which she used to poke around with. It seemed like a very random thing to do but Marian knew what she was doing. Kobolds were not the most dangerous creatures in the Wilds: true, the red ones were aggressive and had a kill-on-sight attitude. And the blue ones, though more passive than their red cousins, attacked in hordes when provoked. But what Marian was watching out for were carnivorous beasts that liked to mimic harmless vegetation and