by Weiqi Wang
‘Wow.’ Soarame’s eyes and mouth were both wide open; he had never seen anything like this before. He could even hear the bird singing and the noise from insects, and perhaps small animals somewhere. Just when Soarame was about to ask something, there came a loud, bass roar from the deep forest. Soarame could not tell what that was about, but it sounded scary, so he ran to Scankeen and grabbed his gown.
The roar sounded like it came from some beast of prey, and it became louder, as if the beast was approaching fast. Soarame swallowed subconsciously and stepped back behind Scankeen’s leg. He looked up to Scankeen’s face, expecting his master to say something, but Scankeen was silent.
‘Aawwuuu!’
The next second, something swooped out from the cover of the big trees, jumping on the man in gown. It was a really big, fierce and fast figure, but the scene was so clear that Soarame could catch the appearance of the beast — it looked like a bear of some sort, but covered with scales all over its body.
Soarame was in a panic just watching, but the man in gown was calm; he took a step sideways and dodged the swoop. The bear-like beast seemed to be surprised that its strike didn’t work; it stood up on its hind legs like a human and started punching its chest like an ape. At the same time, the man in gown turned around, facing the beast, so that Soarame could see his face vaguely — he was a handsome young man with sharp eyes. Although the beast stood up three times as tall as the man, he didn’t seem to be afraid at all; looking at the beast, the young man stretched out his index finger and crooked it.
The beast seemed to understand what that gesture meant, and burst into anger at the sight of it. It roared like a thunder bolt with its mouth wide open. The next second a blast of flame burst out from its mouth at the young man!
What’s that? Soarame was mind-blown because he knew that bears or apes couldn’t do that. So this beast had to be a spitfire monster of some kind!
The young man looked a bit more serious than previously. He jumped up high to dodge the flame; but while Soarame expected him to come down again in a second, he floated in the air.
‘Wind magic!’ Soarame couldn’t help shouting it out. ‘He’s a wizard!’
‘Indeed. Keep watching, boy.’ Scankeen patted Soarame’s head to ease his nerves. ‘Actually, let’s walk over there and take a better look.’
‘No, it’s dangerous!’ Soarame dragged Scankeen’s gown hard backwards, making Scankeen chuckle.
‘It’s ok, Soarame; it’s not real, although it very much looks so.’ Scankeen grabbed Soarame’s hand. ‘Trust me; I’ll protect you if anything happens.’
Although Soarame didn’t really want to believe that, out of curiosity he walked slowly with his master, grabbing the hem of his gown firmly in his hand. This amused Scankeen; he picked Soarame up in his arms and paced towards the young wizard. Soarame put his arms round Scankeen’s neck and peeked at the battle; right then the young wizard started to speak —
‘Bend over to me and be my mount, and I’ll spare your pain.’
‘What’s that?’ Soarame lowered his voice and asked Scankeen. ‘Why is he talking to a monster?’
‘It’s not a monster; it’s a magimal; remember what we talked about yesterday?’ Scankeen laughed. ‘And it’s ok to speak up, they won’t hear you; they are not even real.’
‘What are they if they aren’t real?’ Soarame wondered.
‘They are a part of my memory, and I store it in that crystal ball.’ Scankeen turned around to point at the crystal ball that he had put on the table; then he waved to it and the entire scene stopped immediately — no more movement of any sort, and no more noise came out of it; even the gown of the young wizard stopped fluttering. ‘See that? They can’t hurt us at all.’
‘Wow…’ Soarame looked back and forth between the crystal ball and the scene, with bewilderment in his big eyes. ‘So is that man… you?’
‘No, it’s someone else. Just focus on the story for now, Soarame.’ Scankeen didn’t expect Soarame to understand this right away. ‘As you’ve seen, this is a magimal that can spell Fire; this young man is a Wind wizard and they are going to fight.’
‘What did he talk to a magimal for?’ Soarame still didn’t understand this.
‘He wanted this magimal to be his mount — his horse, just like you and Richie.’ Scankeen teased Soarame by scratching the tip of his nose. ‘See how different magimals can be? Richie is small and super friendly; but this one is even bigger than the boar and tends to burn people.’
‘Wow…’ Soarame nodded while looking up and down. ‘And this magimal can hear him?’
‘Some can, but this one cannot.’ Scankeen was again amused by the question, because this one actually made a point. ‘That young man just likes to show off all the time.’
Scankeen walked right underneath the wizard, so that Soarame could look up in the air and see a black magic wand in his right hand. When they passed the standing magimal, Soarame felt suffocated; its body was as big as a small house. Underneath the open mouth of the unnamed magimal, Soarame could clearly see its sharp teeth and the dark-red cavity; each of its scales was as big as Soarame’s palm, shining cold and threatening.
‘See how scary it is?’ Scankeen approached the wizard, after stopping beside the magimal for a few seconds for Soarame to observe. ‘Now we’ll see what happened next — ready?’
With another wave from Scankeen, the gown of the wizard started to flutter in the wind again. At the same time, the magimal came back to life, flaring up at the wizard’s provocation. However, it sensed a strong threat from the floating man, so instinct made it hesitate before launching another attack. Therefore, there was a cease-fire for a few seconds, while the young wizard was floating in the air, at the same height as the head of a twenty-feet-tall magimal, eye to eye, staring at each other, in a stalemate.
‘Aaww-awwuuuaaa!’
The stalemate didn’t last long; the magimal burst out first. It stepped hard on the ground and bounced up, throwing itself at the target in the air, fire-bolts spitting out one after another. The wizard sneered at this and swiftly dodged all the bolts, at the same time waving his wand —
After a series of buzzing noises, something seemed to emerge in the air and distorted a ray of light; the next second it shot at the magimal, cutting into its body!
‘Aww!’
The magimal roared in pain; an incision showed up on its bleeding shoulder as the scales there were cut through —it tried hard to dodge the invisible attack, but the mysterious weapon was too quick to be dodged. The wizard seemed to be satisfied by his performance; a curve lifted the corner of his mouth, as if he was smiling. Soarame was so focused on thinking what exactly had cut the magimal that he didn’t notice Scankeen heaving a sigh on seeing the wizard’s smile.
The pain madly enraged the magimal; its eyes blazed red, muscles expanded and claws stretched longer. After an earth-shaking roar, it swooped at the wizard like a flash; the attack was so fast and so sudden, that it had already got the wizard before Soarame screamed out. The wizard seemed to be frightened too, as if he didn’t expect such a huge body to move at such a fast speed; however, he was still quick enough to summon something invisible in front of him that hindered the magimal’s mobility. As a result, although the attack was successful, it only hurt the wizard’s left arm and tore off his sleeve.
After getting injured, the wizard was angry too and became much more serious. He flew higher in the sky and took full advantage of his mobility to dodge the magimal’s attacks; meanwhile he launched numerous invisible attacks, impacting all over the magimal. The magimal managed to dodge some of them, which then cut down big trees and even split rocks down the middle; but the rest all hit the magimal, injuring it more and more badly. The magimal finally realized that there was no way that it could win, so it started to run away.
‘Okay, enough.’ With a sigh, Scankeen waved the scene away. Everything disappeared all of a sudden, leaving only the crystal ball on the table.
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nbsp; ‘Master, wait!’ Soarame protested. ‘What happened next? Did he get the magimal as his horse?’
‘No.’ Scankeen shook his head as if he was thinking about something. ‘But it’s not because he couldn’t; he didn’t want it anymore.’
‘Why not?’ Soarame kept at him. ‘What happened, then?’
‘Because he was spoiled.’ Scankeen pondered a bit and decided to only answer the first question fully. ‘And because of that, he grew up to be a bad person. You don’t want to be a bad person, do you?’
‘No I don’t.’ although Soarame was puzzled, he answered without hesitation.
‘Good.’ Scankeen seemed less happy than before the scene was cast, but he took a deep breath and smiled at the boy. ‘What do you think about Wind magic now?’
‘It’s awesome!’ Soarame cheered up right away, his hands clapping, ‘How did he hurt the magimal?’
‘It’s called windblade, a powerful spell in Wind magic.’ Scankeen knew Soarame would ask this. ‘Now you know why I asked you not to hurt people after you learn Wind magic.’
‘Oh, I see! And I won’t!’ Soarame was till eager. ‘Teach me now, please!’
‘I am teaching you already, but it needs to come step by step.’ Scankeen was happy to see that his decision actually made a difference. ‘First of all, you need to learn the basics about Wind magic — flowing of the air.’
With that, Scankeen flipped his hand and a leaf appeared on the table. ‘Remember the dancing leaf? Only after you learn this, can we move on to the next level; and then bit by bit to the magic carpet and windblade.’
Soarame nodded, although he seemed disappointed; but his attention was soon attracted by a shining thing in Scankeen’s hand — a wand looking similar to the young wizard’s, only golden in colour.
‘Watch carefully, this time I will do it slowly.’ Scankeen moved the wand, drawing in the air, at the same time chanting something. What came right after was a blast of soft wind, which blew the leaf off the table. ‘Did you see that?’
‘Wow.’ Soarame looked at the flying leaf with his eyes wide open. In his eyes, he could see a breeze of grey magic elements accumulate and fly towards the leaf, lifting it up and pushing it off the table.
‘What I chanted is called an incantation; for each spell there is one incantation to learn. This one is the simplest one in Wind magic, called wind summoner, and it’s your homework from now on,’ Scankeen looked at Soarame. ‘I won’t teach you more spells until you master this one.’
‘Sure, master,’ Soarame was excited. ‘What did you do with the wand?’
‘Nice observation. That was for drawing the wind summoner hexagram; you need that for the spell too.’ With a flip of his wrist, a small magic wand appeared in his hand. ‘This wand is yours from now on. Now, chant the incantation after me…’
Soarame took the wand, full of joy, and started to learn seriously.
He tended to fail a lot at the start, but he kept trying without complaining, which was a rare thing in Scankeen’s experience. Scankeen was very pleased to see this boy so devoted already; it seemed that the Wind magic in the scene he had cast had carved deep into this young heart.
And so, every day, in the palatorium of Scankeen, Soarame would swing his wand, pointing to the leaves on the ground, and chant some incomprehensible incantation over and over again…
It is Time
Seven years had passed and Soarame was twelve. Thanks to Scankeen, the potential magimal hazard didn’t really happen to the town. Soarame often demanded that they visit the woods and see if there were any magimals, but Scankeen either refused or, when he brought them there, nothing could be found. Therefore, Soarame had been spending a peaceful time learning magic in the palatorium.
‘Master, master!’ in the palatorium, Soarame shouted with excitement. ‘Master, check this out!’
Hearing Soarame’s voice, Scankeen smiled from ear to ear. ‘You can do it? Already?’
Soarame didn't reply. Seeing Scankeen coming, he swung his wand and recited an incantation. Instantly, there blew a gust of wind that made the trees in the garden swing to and fro, causing the leaves to drop one after another. Then, he drew a circle with the wand so that the direction of the wind changed immediately, spiralling on the spot. The falling leaves were drawn into the cyclone and continued spiralling into the air. Soarame harnessed his mind power, resulting in the strengthening of the cyclone, causing the chairs and a table to be drawn into it — swirling together alongside the cloud of leaves.
Soarame was not done yet. In total concentration, he slowly drew two triangles in opposite directions with his wand and cast a few dots in the air, mumbling a more complicated incantation. Then, he pointed his wand at the swirling, airborne table.
Scankeen saw the whole thing. Piecing the two opposite-directed triangles together manifested the foundation for all magic and magic arrays — the Magic Hexagram. When the Magic Hexagram was decorated with various magic marks and corresponding incantations, different magic spells could be performed. Scankeen had told Soarame before that the Magic Hexagram incantation, together with a magic wand, was both supplementary means to strengthen magical power; and that the magical power came from the wizard’s ability to summon and control the magic elements. Once such summoning and controlling ability grew strong enough, the Magic Hexagram and incantation wouldn’t be necessary. That’s why senior wizards didn’t need drawing or incantations when performing junior magic.
Suddenly, a transparent crescent shot out from the tip of Soarame’s wand, aiming for the wooden table. The crescent was about ten inches long and caused turbulence, flying at super speed, making its outline vaguely visible to the naked eye. The crescent went straight to the table and left a deep score. Soarame drew another two triangles as before, and recited the same incantation; another crescent came shooting towards the table. Soarame repeated this twice more and stopped after emitting the fourth crescent. The wooden table was knocked out of the cyclone by the four strikes in succession and dropped down to the ground, with one leg broken.
‘Not bad,’ Scankeen said happily. ‘You’ve mastered the windblade and could do it four times in succession. You’ve done very well!’
‘Master, that’s not what I want you to see.’
‘What is it then?’
‘The table!’ Soarame’s eyes gleamed mischievously as he ran to the table. ‘Master, look!’
Scankeen followed Soarame to the table and glanced at it, but there was nothing obvious. ‘Little Soarame, what do you want me to see?’
‘Call me Soarame, not ‘little’ please!’ protested Soarame. He lifted the table, gathering power in his right hand before slapping it firmly on the surface of the table.
With a ‘pang’, the table was broken neatly down the middle into two halves. Scankeen was puzzled — fighting skills? Soarame had learnt fighting skills behind his back? No, it was not like that. Scankeen realized soon enough that, even with fighting skills, in order to chop the table into two neat halves, he would have needed to chop with a palm-chop, not just a slap. The next second, Scankeen got it, ‘You… you can control the windblade to such an extent?’
‘Heh-heh!’ snickered an elated Soarame.
Scankeen stared at the table. The two halves were the same size and the cut was as neat as a cut by a knife, but there were three connection nodes. What this showed was that the directions of the four windblades Soarame shot were so well controlled that they travelled in a perfect line, end to end, across the table — a single windblade wasn’t long enough to cut the table in half, but four of them together could do it. The process sounded easy, but the table was swirling inside the cyclone; so, to make the four windblades cut the table surface in a perfectly straight line was truly difficult. Scankeen raised his head, realising that Soarame was even better than he thought.
‘If you try your best, can you chop this table in two halves directly with the four windblades, without slapping it with your palm?’
‘No,
but I will soon; I only need to cut a little deeper!’ Soarame was a little frustrated to admit this. ‘But I could make it if I got four more windblades right on top of the previous four!’
Scankeen suddenly realized the key question. ‘How many windblades can you cast in one go?’
‘I’ve tried twenty,’ answered Soarame. ‘I didn’t try more than that.’
Hearing Soarame, Scankeen was shocked into silence. Generally speaking, spelling windblades was impossible for a twelve-year-old, because it was the hardest spell before Adept level. That is to say, Soarame was no longer a Novice wizard. The cyclone summoner, which ranked just under it, was already challenging, but Soarame’s cyclone was strong enough to draw a 300-pound table into the air.
‘Twenty? That’s enough for today, then. Have a rest and fill your mind ocean through meditation.’ After pondering for a while, Scankeen made a decision. ‘Tomorrow I’d like to see how many windblades you can cast in one go, using your best effort.’
‘Wait, master. Did you forget something?’ Soarame’s eyes suddenly started to twinkle.
‘Oh yes… you want to try it again?’ Seeing this, Scankeen knew what was going on. ‘You are too big to ride Richie now, my boy. What are you going to do, even if you can summon him?’
‘It doesn’t matter; I just want to try it.’ Soarame was persistent. In the past few years, Scankeen had told Soarame that Richie was a special kind of magimal that couldn’t really be summoned by anyone — Scankeen could call him up only because Richie lived in his palatorium. However, Richie was not anyone’s magimal — that is to say, Richie had never been bonded with anyone and therefore had never had a master.
When a wizard says summon, he means summon his bond magimal; and bonding was a magical process that connected a wizard and a magimal, after which the magimal recognized the wizard as its master. This had never happened to Richie though, because for some unknown reason, even Scankeen was not able to bond with the mini horse, which had left him really bewildered ever since.