by T. J. Hunter
Chapter 8
The wall of the library reappeared after I entered the living area. I placed my hand on it to be sure it was solid – it was – then turned to see Alura comfortably sitting on the couch reading a magazine. The fireplace had a nice fire going and I could smell the scent of burning wood.
“How did it go?” Alura asked.
“How do you think? Nothing like finding out you’re the appointed protector of planet Earth. It was certainly a first for me, and how weird is it talking to a voice from a book large enough to crush a small car.”
Alura closed her magazine and grinned. “Yea, I guess it would be a bit unsettling the first time. Don’t worry though, you’ll get the hang of it with more practice. Once you came into contact with the amulet in Las Vegas, your brain began to rewire itself.”
“Rewire? What happens when a brain gets rewired?”
“My goodness brother, you are a bag of nerves, aren’t you? Look, you will still be you. Professor Willington is Azul and vise versa, but I do remember you having a better sense of humor during your last recognition. Even so, what’s going on is that your brain’s ability to store information and develop greater capacity has begun to take shape. With every passing day, you will become stronger and more comfortable with being a wizard. Trust me, I know my brother, professor or not, and we have traveled this path together many times.”
Not like I have a choice. Alura kissed me on my check and headed toward another room.
“It’s going to be a big day tomorrow preparing to battle the lycanthropes and I’m exhausted. See you in the morning dear brother, or should I say ‘great wizard’,” she said, then pointed to a door. “This is my bedroom. Yours is over there with the two big doors. Wizards always get the best accommodations.”
I grinned. If those doors reflect what the inside of my bedroom looks like, I’m in for a treat.”
Alura chuckled a little as she closed her door, obviously knowing what I was thinking.
I opened the double doors expecting to walk into the Waldorf Astoria. It was fairly large, but those mammoth doors were misleading for what was actually a less than humble setting. The room had dark brown colored walls with wide wooden floorboards. If that wasn’t gloomy enough, thick dark brown wooden beams were abundantly in place to support the ceiling, making the room look like something out of the middle ages. Candles arranged at several tables lit up as I entered the room, but did little to change the dreary decor.
There was a single leather chair in the middle of the room surrounded by a pentagram with strange symbols along the outside edges. I walked over the circle surrounding the pentagram and was startled when it glowed. I turned and stumbled backward several feet into the chair and the pentagram stopped glowing. After calming down, I walked to the inside edge and jumped over the pentagram outline hoping that nothing would happen, and nothing did. I took a closer look around the room and saw a wall lined with shelves with various sized jars, cans, and small boxes. I didn’t investigate any further what was on the shelves because I had enough adventure for one day, plus I was tired and wanted to go to bed.
Wait a minute, where’s my freakin bed?”
I turned to face the living area and shouted, “Bet someone else I know has a nice bed, and probably down feathered too.”
I scratched my head thinking I’d have to sleep in the chair. A second later, and without uttering a single word, the chair disappeared and an inviting bed appeared in its place, which meant I’d have to cross over the Aurora Borealis again to reach it. I moved to the edge of the pentagram, closed my eyes and hopped over it, then opened one eye a little. The pentagram wasn’t glowing, so I opened my other eye and then checked out the bed by pushing my hand on it. After assuring myself it was real, I flopped down on it and quickly fell asleep.
A few hours later I was awakened by what sounded like an animal inside my room. When I opened my eyes, I saw a rooster sitting on a bedroom window watching me. Odd, I didn’t notice the window before. There was no sun yet, but enough daylight was beginning to light up outside the window to see chickens running around in a barnyard.
Wait a minute … I’m sure there was no window here last night. Everything went silent and the window disappeared when I stepped out of bed. No more rooster or chickens either. At the same time, candles flickered on and the room filled with light. Very weird.
I felt fairly rested and decided to check out my bedroom more closely. It didn’t take long to decide the room must have been decorated using a Spanish Inquisition mail order catalog. It was hard to believe I once liked dark gloomy decor, but here it is. If it were not for the fact I was going to be sleeping here for who knows how long, I’d definitely give it an 8 out of 10 on the creepy scale.
My bedroom wall got fuzzy and disappeared when I got a couple of feet in front of it. I went into the living area and saw Alura’s bedroom door still closed and wondered if she also had a crazy barnyard alarm clock. Not wanting to disturb her, I decided to use the time to ask Kyiel some more questions. After clearing my throat, I looked around to be sure no one was around and said, “Aptier Kyiel.”
“Hey buddy, did you get a good night sleep?” I asked.
“Azul, you know that …”
“Yea, I know, you don’t sleep. By the way Kyiel, don’t you have any other colors in your wardrobe to choose from? I think dark grey is out of season.”
Kyiel didn’t respond. I think he was getting use to my sarcasm, even though he had a sense of humor akin to a store manikin. It’s hard to think of someone as a close friend who never smiles or doesn’t crack a joke once in awhile.
“Today will be your first battle in many thousands of years,” Kyiel said. “You will need the tools from your wizard bag to help destroy the lycanthrope pack.”
“Tools … are we going to build cages for these wolves?
“No, not cages,” Kyiel replied. “Your wizard bag stores a combination of spells, silver, and wolfsbane which you in the past have called tools. You selected to use this word to avoid others overhearing you say magic or spells, especially when such things resulted in being burned alive or beheaded back in those days.”
I grinned nervously. “Okay … not being thrown into fire and keeping my head sounds like a good reason to keep using the word.”
More likely I’d be shot today than burned at stake, which is not much better, but that’s beside the point.
“Most important are the water and fire spells, which as you now know, are formidable weapons against lycanthropes,” Kyiel said.
“Yea, I remember that from the book Alura gave me. You’ll have to show me where my tools are located. I don’t remember anything about a wizard bag.”
“Your memories will begin to return soon Azul. You must remain patient.”
One would think that anyone in their right mind would be scared to death fighting werewolves, or lycanthropes to be politically correct. Strangely, the thought of coming face-to-face with these creatures didn’t frighten, but it did fill me with anger. The images I saw when downloading the Wolfpedia book into my brain would make anyone angry. What I saw – men, women, and children being torn apart – was beyond horrifying. These creatures destroyed entire villages and turned innocent people into their kind.
Real lycanthropes are worst than anything Hollywood ever produced. They are six to eight feet tall, 300 or more pounds, and have razor teeth and long claws. They smell like roadkill and have heightened senses making them extraordinary hunters. They’re also nearly impossible to kill without lethal doses of silver or having their heads cut off. If that wasn’t enough, lycanthropes are able to regenerate damaged tissue quickly, including new limbs. They have weaknesses though, such as not being able to cross running water, and wolfsbane throws their senses off.
What is most scary about lycanthropes is how they evolved. There are two kinds now. The first is the ordinary run of the mill four legged variety seen running free in the Northwestern United States woodlands. The second is a mo
re cunning creature able to shapeshift and blend in with society. Shapeshifters live, work, and even eat fast food, albeit humans are their favorite dish. They also use a glamour spell to hide their stench and true form in order to integrate into society.
“Ready hot shot?” Alura asked as she came out of her bedroom, wearing army fatigues, two swords cross strapped on her back, grenades strung across her chest, and a two Desert Eagles strapped to her legs.
I felt quite underdressed wearing jeans and an untucked t-shirt. Did I miss the war fashion memo?
“Damn Alura. Do you think you might be overdoing the war girl look a little? What about all that magic you have?”
“Dear brother, as you will soon learn, magic only can go so far. Magic requires concentration and focus, whereas my grenades filled with silver pellets don’t – they just go bang and kill lycanthropes in all directions. I also have my silver swords and hollow-point silver nitrate .44 mags as backup.”
“So you’re not going to use magic to fight the lycanthropes? You were awesome when training me.”
“Unfortunately, my magic is quite limited off Keob. Sarila invented a amplifier to boost my magic while here and close to her lab. I can still do some basic stuff elsewhere, like transporting, night vision, shooting flares into the sky, but that’s about it on Earth.”
Alura smirked. “Not all of us have the natural magical power of master wizards like you Azul,” she said, placing her hands on her hips. “A little help with these toys do just fine, especially when caught between a rock and a hard spot.”
“Where can I get some of those toys?”
Alura took the artifact out of my backpack and tossed it to me. “Here you go.”
I caught the artifact and as it passed through the air, nearly dropping it because it suddenly grew two more feet in length. It also had a stone on top similar to my amulet necklace and ring, but larger, that was held on top by the same six webbed silver strips connected to a band – it resembled a gentleman’s cane.
“Hey, what did you do to my artifact?”
“Like it?” she asked and grinned in anticipation of my response.
“Yea, it looks great. Seems it stretched out a bit, but the stone makes all the difference. I guess while you’re blowing up and slicing wolves into tiny pieces, I can poke their eyes out with it.”
Alura grinned and Kyiel chimed in to correct me.
“Azul, that is your staff, the same staff you used in the battle on Zeshtune. It channels magic much more powerfully than either the ring or necklace amulets you now wear.”
I held it up closer and noticed the stone on top of the staff was glowing. It then made a crackle sound and the staff expanded to nearly six feet. I know this because I’m six feet tall and was eye to eye with the stone.
I smiled. “It does look more menacing now,” I said. “Now I can whack a wolf on top of its head without getting too close.”
Alura laughed. “Pretty cool, huh? It works the same way your ring amulet does, but better and at greater distances with many with more spells. When you hold the staff in the same hand as you ring amulet, your power increases 10 fold, so be careful not to blow yourself or us up. As an extra bonus, it can change to any thing you wish, such as a cane, pencil, or whatever.”
Kyiel instructed me how to make my staff change using the magical word ‘unclass’, such as ‘unclass pencil’ or ‘unclass staff’. I tried a few sizes and shapes and became convinced that it was indeed very cool and would come in handy during covert situations. Still, having grenades filled with silver pellets seemed pretty cool too and I decided to get me some one day. I practiced one more time using my new toy.
“Unclass coin,” I said and watched my staff change into a quarter, then flipped the coin into the air, caught it, and placed it into my pants pocket.
Alura grunted and shook her head. “Boys will be boys.”
“What? You don’t like coin tricks?” I asked.
Alura responded with a smirk and said, “Come on Houdini, we have just enough time to find the lycanthrope pack,” she said while walking to a wall filled with books, then turned to wait for me.
“Okay, I got this,” I said and faced the bookshelves, then using a confident voice said, “Entrunezum.”
Nothing happened. I noticed Alura had her hand covering her mouth trying to keep from laughing.
“What, this wall has a different magic word?”
Alura raised her hand and tilted a book from a shelf outward. I heard a click and a door on the wall opened.
“Very funny,” I said. “So, some things are low tech around here.”
“A few things, but most are magic or high tech. Wait a minute and you’ll see for yourself.”
We entered a long hallway leading to a large steal door. Alura turned a bank vault style wheel several times and pulled the door open revealing a massive cave.
“Whoa, how big is Keob anyway,” I asked.
“Big,” Kyiel answered.
He wasn’t kidding. This area of Keob looked a lot like the Batcave. All kinds of electronic equipment were humming, blinking, and it was all hooked into the Internet. News networks displayed on gigantic screens and satellite images were tracking who knows what. Up to now, everything I experienced was mostly related to magic, so all this technology seemed out of place.
There were three people wearing white lab coats who had long white hair pulled back into ponytails. As we got closer, I noticed they all had the same brilliant blue eyes that Alura and Kyiel have. Apparently I was the odd man out having the only brown eyes on Keob.
Alura smiled and said, “Greetings Sarila.”
“Alura, I am happy to see you, and you have brought a friend.”
“This is Azul,” Alura said, placing her hand on my shoulder to make me feel more at ease.
“Ah, the long awaited brother and wizard,” Sarila said. “I hope Alura has not exaggerated your importance in the Zeshtunian prophecy.”
You’re not the only one. I smiled, but kept my thoughts to myself while checking the place out.
Sarila looked young, about twentyish I’d guess, and carried herself with the confidence normally found in a much older person. She had beautiful features and radiated with intelligence. After staring at me for a few moments, she smiled.
“Welcome dear wizard. All you see here is at your disposal. We are, so to speak, your employees. But we are employees who are not paid, get very little sleep, and have a fondness for certain foods,” she said and with a wide grin, pointing to a few dozen empty pizza boxes.
My eyes widened. “Wow, you certainly do like pizza. I can most definitely appreciate your appetite.”
Sarila curled her arm under mine and led me to what looked like a helicopter pad with a large pentagram. Alura and Kyiel followed.
“I see you have one those circle things too,” I said. “I had the pleasure of sleeping with one surrounding my bed last night. Is it nap time already?”
Sarila looked over to Alura and back to me.
“He has a sense of humor.”
Alura smirked. “Yup, but I’m not sure I’d call it humor.”
Sarila grinned. “Good, you will need a sense of humor after tonight,” she said and gestured with her hand for us to enter the pentagram.
Alura and Kyiel went inside first and I reluctantly followed. Sarila arched her eyebrow and grinned again, which made me feel like a mouse being trapped by a cat.
“Happy hunting,” she said. “Be sure to stay inside the pentagram wizard. We don’t want you to lose any limbs.”
“Lose limbs … what does that mean?”
“Well wizard, you keep your arms inside while riding a roller coaster, don’t you?”
“Sure, but what does that have to do with this?”
“Let us not find out,” she said and winked at Alura, who grinned as though I was the most gullible wizard alive.
Alura took a blue coin shaped object from her pocket and placed it in the center of the pentagram. She c
losed her eyes and crushed the object under her foot, then said, “Transmati pack.” Blue-white streams of light began flowing out from under her foot and encircled us in swirling motions, then shot up to the cave’s ceiling. I felt a static electrical field as wind whipped around us, then everything went dark, except for something resembling a wormhole from a science fiction movie. There was a sudden pop and lots of bright daylight appeared causing me to squint. I looked around and realized we were transported to the middle of a desert with nothing but sand and rocks as far as I could see.
Roller coaster … now I get it. Sure hope Sarila was only kidding about losing limbs with the whole ‘stay inside the pentagram’ warning.
“What was that coin shaped thing you stepped on?” I asked.
“It’s a variety of herbs and natural elements used to contain spells. We actually do call them magic coins because of how they look.”
Alura handed me one of the coins. It felt weightless and brittle like an anti-acid tablet.
“You will find them useful while undergoing recognition, especially since they have a long shelf-live and are easy to carry.”
Alura noticed me studying the etched symbol on the coin and further explained.
“Each coin has a unique color with a symbol on its sides for specific spells. They can only be used once by crushing them and speaking the correct ancient words, which amplify the magic within us to cast specific spells, such as transporting us here.”
Alura pulled out two more blue coins showing different symbols etched on top. She handed me one and I recognized the symbol was the same as on both pentagrams back at Keob.
“I assume this one is for getting back to Keob.”
“You are so cleaver brother,” she said and handed me the second coin.
“What does this symbol mean?” I asked.
“That’s for another place in New York,” she replied with a sly smile. “Don’t ask brother, I won’t tell you because it’s a surprise. Another thing … if you need to use a coin to return to Keob, first construct a pentagram out of stones, sticks, or even a drawing in the dirt. Place the coin in the middle and say the words ‘transmati domas’ while thinking of your destination to transport to either Keob or Manhattan. You can also say ‘transmati Keob’ and you will transport to Sarila’s lab.”
“Is a pentagram always needed to transport?”
“No, not for everything, but we will cross those bridges as they come. Think of pentagrams as a way to channel your magic and keep it localized so you don’t end up inside a cactus or rock.”
“That can happen? Are you kidding?
“It happened once when a young new wizard sneezed while casting a transportation spell. All that was left of him was one foot sticking out of the side of a mountain.”
“What happened to the rest of him?”
“Solid rock,” she replied. “What do you think happened?” she asked, watching for my reaction, and got one when my mouth fell open.
Alura laughed. “I’m just kidding Azul. That never happened, but it could and that’s the point. Magic is not to be taken lightly, so stay on your toes buster, and whatever you do … never, never, never … sneeze.”
“Ha-ha, you are a real riot among comics,” I said, feeling a little silly having believed her in the first place, but joined my sister in the moment and laughed – albeit a nervous laugh.
“Azul, be sure you only use the coins when needed. You can construct new spells later, but it takes time. That coin you now have is needed to get us back to Keob. Having just one will help prevent making a mistake by using the wrong coin and ending up who knows where.”
“Okay, good to know,” I said and put the Keob coin in my pocket, then gave her back the other one.
“So, here we are,” I said while looking around at the strange landscape. “And where exactly is here?”
“We’re in Iraq,” Alura replied.
My mouth dropped again. “Iraq? Maybe a heads up about the travel plans would have been a good idea. Did we really travel back to Earth in less than five seconds?”
“Yup, we sure did, just like your first trip from Earth to Keob. Get use to it brother because time and distance is not what you think it is. You will get the hang of it soon enough, so don’t get your draws in a bunch.”
“Don’t get my draws in a bunch? The humor never stops with you, does it funny girl? We’re both lucky that I don’t have to change my draws, never mind bunching.”
Alura shook her head. “Yea, that would be much worse.”
“Hey, didn’t Kyiel transport with us?” I asked.
“No, he’s a collection of molecules and has no physical mass. He only entered the pentagram on Keob to help build your confidence. Don’t forget, he is tied to the power of your amulet and you can summon him anytime and anyplace.”
“Well, let’s not leave the guy out of all the fun,” I said and summoned Kyiel who appeared several feet in front of me, still wearing his same dark suit.
I was actually happy to see my stone faced friend, even given his dreary sense of fashion.
“Come on Kyiel, join the party, and remind me to discuss some dress for success tips with you later.”