Zelspar and the Magicians

by Cheryl Rush Cowperthwait

  “Aye, I hear a hunger unfed. Come out and eat your fill.”

  It was as if the giant could look through stone. He stared straight in their direction and held out a dripping ladle, its contents spilling down the sides.

  Zelspar whispered, “Let me go first. Let’s see what happens when he sees me.”

  Before Perthorn could raise an argument, Zelspar dropped his Invisibility and stepped out from the boulder.

  The giant took one look at him and exclaimed, “You! I have seen you in me dreams.”

  Zelspar let out his pent-up breath and motioned for his friends to join him.

  As soon as they approached, they were surrounded by the people of the land whose whispers filled the air. Zelspar felt the small hands gently touching his scales. He looked at them, then at the giant, and asked, “You have no fear of a Dragon?”

  “Nay. We knew you would come. You are Zelspar, are you not?” the giant said, one bushy brow raised.

  “Yes, but how…”

  “It was shown to me. We were guided to this land from the Sea. You have come with the two Magicians. You three will bring to me great Magic to protect this land and share with the people.”

  “What is your given name,” Perthorn inquired.

  A boisterous laugh rang out. He laughed so vigorously, his large belly shook. “I have many names but call me Cera.”

  “Cera,” Zelspar said, turning to his companions, “this is Perthorn. He is the Master Magician from the Inner World. Next to him is his apprentice, Kiel. As for myself, you have already called me by name.” Zelspar flashed a smile towards the giant known as Cera.

  “All the great people in all the great lands have been given the same dream. Aye, I can tell by the gleam in your eyes, you have had this dream.”

  “I call them Visions. Dreams with knowledge, and yes, the three of us have had these dreams you speak of.” Zelspar rubbed his long muzzle, perplexed. “Your dream was of me?”

  Cera leaned against his massive staff and said, “I saw a great white Dragon soaring in the air with two riders. In the dream, all around them I could see great waves of Magic surging out, rippling waves in the sky. When I looked to the ground, a mighty tree stood before me. The tree had a thick trunk, it’s bark white and heavily scaled. Upon the trunk are two main branches. From those branches, all other branches formed and filled the tree. I heard the tree speak. It said, Take from me, my knowledge. Plant my seeds on every land so that I may watch over and protect all the peoples of all the lands.”

  Zelspar narrowed his eyes in thought and replied, “Cera, in my Vision, and the one also that Kiel shared with me, we saw this land and the peoples around you.”

  “What did you see besides the people?”

  “The landscape. I was on my way to find such a place when I saw you and the other giant.”

  “What landscape are you searching for?” The giant gave him a half smile.

  “It wasn’t this place, but a place of many towering stones. There were rock dwellings made into the hills. Some small and some large.”

  Cera boomed, “Aye! Those are the same I have been shown. We are to build them. I am very strong but as you can see,” he said, pointing around them, “my people are not of my strength or stature. You have the Magic we need to complete our tasks”

  “What Magic do you require?”

  “It is the Magic to lift heavy stones and move them.”

  Zelspar’s brows bunched together. “Levitation?”

  “If that is what moves the stones, aye. We have much work to do. Show me how you use this Magic. Lift me from the ground.” Cera gave Zelspar an immense grin.

  “Cera, I only ask from you not to move as I work my Magic. Otherwise, you may fall. I don’t want it on my shoulders that I broke the back of the giant.” Zelspar’s look was piercing. The giant’s grin quickly faded as he understood the seriousness of the moment.

  Zelspar shot out his arms towards Cera, his lips moving to his calling of the Levitation Magic. His arms began to shake as beads of perspirations formed above his brow. Slowly, the giant’s feet left the ground.

  Around Zelspar the peoples pointed at the giant and a buzz of whispers drifted from one to another. Once Cera was above the heads of his peoples, Zelspar moved him to the edge of the broken mountain and set him down.

  Cera clapped his massive hands together in delight. “Aye! This is the Magic you will teach me to use. We travel east towards the lands’ end where the great water meets the shore.

  “Before we leave, please, fill your bowls with a giant’s stew, hearty it is, and will your strength to renew!” Cera scooped the ladle into the cauldron and poured the thick stew into their bowls. To Zelspar he passed the ladle. It was a perfect size for a Dragon to sip from. All had eaten until their hunger was satiated. Cera took the cauldron to the edge of the cliff and threw the leftovers down to the rocks. Flocks of seabirds dove down to enjoy the gift.

  Days of travel brought them to the place of the Vision, where a great place would be built. Cera halted abruptly, hitting his enormous staff upon the ground.

  “Tis the place of my dreams. Aye, here is where we will build.” Cera said, looking at all of his people. “All of you, go across the land and gather the small stones. It will take many to complete the task, but we shall not complete it. Nay, that will be for the ones who come after. We leave them with that task with the message carried in all the stones you gather. Our task is to align the standing stones. That is where I will need to be shown and learn the Levitation Magic, Zelspar.”

  Zelspar nodded and took Cera aside. “I have seen this place in my Vision, but what was on the land was a great mound surrounded by the tall standing stones.”

  “Yes, it is the same as in my dream,” Cera agreed. “But I was shown my part, our part, in the building of the sacred place is in the alignment of the tall stones. The people that come after us will not have the ability to move and stand such stones. What we will create is a Magical environment in which they can complete the task. Stones, especially the ones we use, are conducive to the Magic of the portals, to dimensional travels and mysteries even I have no knowledge.”

  Zelspar’s eyes narrowed as he drew his hand across his face. “I have great Magic, and have had many Visions, but I must confess, seeing things in the Future still leaves me perplexed. I saw a completed mound with a great passageway in which once a year the sun lines up to illuminate the passageway.”

  “Tis the same dream, Zelspar. Only we are to prepare the place for the future. Our stones, the ones we place around the perimeter, will mark the place for the people to complete the building when the time is right.”

  “Why is it we do not complete the Vision? We have the ability to gather all the stones, to align the massive standing stones, and take care of the stones within the passageway,” Zelspar asked.

  “That is not for me -- for us -- to understand. Ours is in the shaping of the area, the drawing of the people in our Future vision.”

  Zelspar shook his head. Not so much a disagreement as an attempt to understand the way of the Vision.

  He took Cera towards a hill, along with Perthorn and Kiel, to begin the training of Levitation Magic. After much training, Cera was able to lift his body from the ground and slowly move thrice the length of this body over the land. Only after belting out a joyous laugh was he brought down with a mighty thud.

  Zelspar slapped his hand across the side of his face in disgust before thundering, “Have I not warned you to not make any movements? Your laughter broke the Spell. Magic is not a thing to take lightly, Cera, you could have been gravely injured.”

  Cera turned his massive frame towards Zelspar, his face still wearing a huge grin. Zelspar could only shake his head. He knew from the past that each person he had trained in Levitation, even the Dragons themselves, could not disguise the sheer joy of being able to command their bodies to move up away from the ground without flight. Zelspar mused, it bordered on fear, that first moment their feet lef
t the ground...the wide-eyed stare as they moved higher and higher, even the great Galdean, the mighty warrior Dragon could not escape the impact that Levitation Magic gave. If the Dragons, so used to flight and being airborne had this reaction, surely the people must experience it tenfold.

  “Cera, it is difficult for me to remember my first Levitation experience as it was long ago. Forgive my harshness, I am a Teacher and do not always remember the gift. Let your heart feel the joy but bridle it whilst Levitating if you wish to move the stones.”

  “Understood, my friend. I experienced what happens when my thoughts shift. I don’t want to undertake moving the of huge stones only to have them crash down and litter the ground with their pieces. I am prepared. Shall we begin?”

  They did. They located a vast amount of the enormous stones in and around the winding river close at hand. The people looked on in amazement to see these stones moving through the air as if invisible giants carried them on their shoulders. They could not speak but only pointed at such a phenomenon. When at last they had the correct amount of stones in the area, Cera stood in each precise spot to have Zelspar place the stones. He only moved when the stone began to descend to its predetermined location.

  After all the large stones were set, they stood back to look at the design. It triggered a remembrance, a knowledge, in Zelspar. One that hid just out of focus but still made a tingle travel his scales. As he stepped forward, so did Perthorn and Kiel. They moved between the center stone and the next. A flash of blue lightning popped from stone to stone, traveling the arc. The giant, Cera, ducked as his people fled away from the stones. The lightning built until a roaring thunder filled the air. A blue dome covered the rocks and turned to a blinding white light which no one could look upon. A loud boom echoed through the air and then, the light was gone.

  As were the bodies of Zelspar, Perthorn and Kiel.

  Cera and his peoples slowly approached the arc made of stones. Each standing stone had been seared with strange swirls cut deep within the surface. Cera led his people away. Here, in this land, they would make their homes. He would give them Seasons and the ability to grow food from the land. His people would thrive and soon fill the countryside. As for his Dragon friend and the Magicians, he had not been shown. They had simply vanished without a trace. No bone or hide had been left behind.

  Chapter 25

  Forrest nibbled at his torn fingernails. His eyes darted to his paper and back to Ms. Lenonne. Half of my grade will be determined on the results of this Geography test. Suddenly he felt feverish.

  So much of his life was tied to that paper she held while scrutinizing his answers. His heart hammered wildly in his ears. He wanted to continue this journey. He wanted it in a way he wanted the next breath to come. It was life to him to have the ability to learn from Yuri, learn the secrets the Teller of the Tales held, and to travel to the places of mystery and history. He had to pass and pass well.

  Ms. Lenonne turned her back towards Forrest as she leaned against the window frame, adjusting her glasses up higher on her nose. Forrest tilted one way and then the other, trying to watch her.

  At last she turned around. It could have been minutes or hours, he could not say, for fear eats Time. Days could disappear when fear took hold. Her face wore no smile. Forrest dropped his head, fear whispered into his ear, you failed.

  “Forrest, please come to me.” Ms. Lenonne’s voice was not much louder than a soft twitter of a bird.

  As if in a trance, Forrest rose. The screech of his chair scraped against the flooring and pierced the quietness of the room. He moved towards Ms. Lenonne, head drooped and defeated.

  She took one hand and gripped his shoulder until he looked up. She had tears trailing down her cheeks. His head quickly dropped again, and his own eyes threatened to leak.

  “Oh, Forrest, you have exceeded any dream I had for your education. No one has ever taken this test and received your marks. You passed with flying Dragon colors!”

  His head jerked up, unsure he had heard her correctly. “I passed?”

  “Yes, Forrest. You passed. Not only did you pass, you only missed marking one obscure boundary on the map. A slight deduction only. Your grade on the test was a remarkable 99.7%.”

  He hugged her soundly. The both of them finally broke the tension-filled air with laughter. Forrest could not have been happier.

  “I’ve got to go tell my folks! They’ll be happy to learn I passed all of my required testing,” he smiled.

  “Surely, you may. Then you also should tell them you shall be leaving shortly to pursue your academia. We leave in two days to travel to Somerset and see what to make of the symbols you have seen.”

  “I’ll be packed and ready in a few hours --”

  “You might be, but I have yet to have another Teller of the Tales arrive. All things must be in proper order before we leave. Take your time with your family, Forrest. From here on out, their time with you will be most limited. We have much to do and more to learn.” Ms. Lenonne said, trying her best to let him know how precious his time with family would be.

  He shrugged and flew through the room, pushing his way through the massive door and down the porch before Ms. Lenonne had the chance to speak further.

  She walked out to the porch just in time to see as his figure disappeared down the hill toward the home of his youth. Surely now he is an adult and will live as he should, in an environment worthy of a Teller of the Tales. His home shall be here.

  She glanced across the lawn to the stately oak and remembered his early days as a listener to the Tales. Her mind wandered. Will he someday gather the listeners on the same lawn and fill their heads with Magic and Truths hidden from the many? Not all listeners are the children, as he was not a child himself, when he came. No, there are many who suddenly, awake. Where the ‘forgetfulness’ has abated, and their curiosity breathes. Soon now, he will guide the next generation. I wonder what discoveries we shall find before that time? How I hope we can solve the mysteries of Zelspar. I can’t even imagine all the history he carries in whatever form he currently is in. But most of all, where did he go?

  She went back inside and made her way up the stairway until she reached the third tapestry. Smiling an amused half-smile, she scanned the room. Then she flipped the tapestry to the side and pushed the wallboard, allowing her entrance to the hidden area, disguised from most in the design and architecture. Funny how Forrest’s eyes picked up on it right away, she thought.

  “Yuri, did you hear from all of the commotion going on downstairs?” she joyfully asked.

  “What was not to hear, my good lady? Yes, I heard his enthusiasm at passing the tests and saw him flee down the hill to his home. The illusion of stone across this portion of the house makes it easy for me to watch the comings and goings. It gave me a view of you Telling the Tales, but unfortunately, even I could not hear you at this distance.”

  His eyes carried a look of sadness only a Dragon and its protector could fathom. So much of Yuri’s time was spent hidden, just shy of being caged. He longed for the days he once knew, the days when he could fly with the wind freely. A thick plume of smoke escaped with his sigh.

  “Yuri, my dear, I do know how terribly hard it is for you being shut in so much of your time. We are getting closer. I feel it down deep in my soul. We will find the answers, Yuri, the answers Zelspar left. And I think, Forrest shall help us find them.”

  “Naomi, it is that hope that keeps me from bursting out of these walls and burning down the towns. I know there is an answer to the Dragons dilemma. There has to be. Zelspar said he saw a bright Future for us all. Therefore, we must only find it.”

  “We shall, Yuri. For you and the others. This is the closest I have felt the answers in a very long time. Others may have been able to lead us to the answer, but they could not keep our secrets. Forrest will. He is as hungry to learn everything as I was and still am.”

  “When will you leave?”

  “I gave him two days. Caye will be here tom
orrow. She will look after you and the property while we are away.”

  “Ah, yes. I remember her well. She has the long dark hair and a wicked sense of humor. I enjoy her company.”

  “I’m glad I could get her to come. You realize she is a great-grandmother now, don’t you? She has little ones to tend to as well as her other duties. Now that she has passed on her Teller of the Tales duties to her daughter, Trisa, she can enjoy her time with those great grandchildren.”

  “How long have you planned for this journey?”