by Nathan Anton
Another Tiring Day of Magic
Copyright 2014 Nathan Anton
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Another Tiring Day of Magic
About Nathan Anton
Other books by Nathan Anton
Connect with Nathan Anton
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Amy Rose for the beautiful cover art. Stock image courtesy of James Barker from FreeDigitalPhotos.net. Thanks to the family for their support and Alex James for his expert proofreading and editing skills.
Another Tiring Day of Magic
Brrm.
Brrrrrmm.
Brrrrrrrrmmm!
The Aero Magic Academy (AMA) was an airship that hummed loudly among blistering winds as it continued its course along the magical ley-lines of Earth Alpha. The students were beginning to come out of their rooms as heavy footsteps forced the ship’s trajectory to change once again.
“What have I told you all about running about like minotaurs!”
The nearby staff on hand scolded the students and they meekly resumed their preparations for the day. Alice was a student at this esteemed hi-tech establishment. She wasn’t popular, in fact she was but for all the wrong reasons. Her “fellow” students weren’t very pleasant towards her and would frequently mock her for messing up a spell.
Kabooom!
“Hahaha!”
“You’re so stupid!”
Another failed spell backfired and caused an explosion. Alice sulked and dragged herself back to her seat after the public humiliation. First lessons were always practical and Alice always failed in that regard. She was actually a very bright girl and diligently took notes in class, but for some reason she always failed when it came to performing the spells she read about. Alice studied all kinds of runes and ancient literature to further enhance her magical knowledge but it didn’t seem to help.
“Sigh, practice more my dear witch, exams are coming up…” The teacher followed her with unhelpful words.
“Y-yes,” Alice replied.
The students around her smirked and acted out exaggerated explosions, mocking her no end as they said, “She’ll blow up the academy one day.”
Alice almost wished she could; the constant teasing; and her inadequacy were making school a bother to say the least.
Why can’t I do anything right?
Alice fought the urge to turn on the waterworks and continued to wear her mask of strength. The alchemy lesson eventually ended and her class headed out to the deck for flight training. Levitation was perhaps one of the most basic spells in a mage’s arsenal and especially important for the students at the Aero Magic Academy. Since the AMA was essentially an airship, the risk of falling off into unknown lands was extremely high. Flight training was more of a safety precaution than anything else. Despite this Alice could only manage to lift herself a few centimetres off the deck and wouldn’t be able to save her own life in the event of a fall.
“Practice Alice, this is a requirement of the curriculum! Maybe I should throw you off and that will make you take this seriously, goodness me…”
Alice remained silent. Of course she was trying to fly, she gave every ounce of effort she had, but with minimal results again. The teacher’s “encouragement” wasn’t helping, neither was the sneering from her classmates. She averted her gaze from the childish mob and distracted herself with the outside world.
The horizon looked beautiful as always. The deck was the best place to view the ever changing scenery of Earth Alpha. Deep blue oceans and bright illuminating deserts were just a few of the exotic places the academy passed. Occasionally a mountain would have to be expertly avoided but the pilots had gotten used to flying this beast over the years and seldom ran into trouble.
It was break time now, and the students were given free reign of the deck today because of the pleasant weather. Alice however chose to retreat to her room, her only bastion of peace. Friends were something Alice didn’t have.
After a lovely bit of reading of a horror novel named “Siren’s Wrath,” Alice went to her third lesson of the day. History and Ancient Artefacts was her favourite class. Not many students enrolled in this academically heavy subject and tended to favour Destruction and Defence (D&D). Usually the D&D class would make lots of noise next door and prompt the history teacher to either tell them off or in more extreme cases, silence them.
Memorizing runes was hard work but the background of each unique rune was fascinating to Alice. Runes that existed since the dawn of magic; even runes that had such advanced properties they seemed to come from the future or other dimensions!
“Well done Alice, very logical matching of your rune paradigm. Don’t be afraid to mix it up a little though as that is essentially the greater goal of studying magic.”
The teacher winked as she praised her. Alice smiled under her breath and continued to fiddle around with her given runes to create more dramatic combinations.
The interesting lesson soon ended as all great things fly by quickly. Her unusually happy attitude made her lower her guard on the way to the next lesson.
“Watch out!”
It seemed Alice wasn’t the only one that had trouble with spells…but she seemed to be the only one with bad luck. A fireball whizzed down the narrow corridor and was on a collision course with Alice. Normally a simple warding barrier would solve the issue but Alice didn’t have that luxury. Students ducked, levitated, and clung to the wall to avoid the fiery ball of death that could arguably fry a chimera.
“Eh?” Alice noticed the bright ball of flame but didn’t have enough time to move out of the way. She whipped out her sceptre and chanted quickly to dispel the danger. As usual, Alice botched it and accidently mimicked the fireball, sending another to meet the charging mass of fire.
The students gasped, some screamed, some ran. The two forces collided and mixed to create a cataclysmic explosion that could have blown a gaping hole in the airship. Luckily for the airship, and more importantly the lives of many witches and wizards, a teacher was about.
The explosion that could have killed hundreds was contained in a magical shield, and it swirled around angrily from within its confines. The raging red and shining yellow mixed in a beautifully entrancing way, and the purple barrier that contained it made the spectacle even more wondrous. There was a unanimous sigh of relief as the crisis had been averted.
Luckily for Alice it was her favourite teacher that saved the day and she didn’t get too much of a scolding but was warned of the magnitude of danger everyone had been in. Needless to say, Alice entered her next class tardy and was subjected to more teasing and unreasonable “advice” from her teacher.
Rolled up manuscripts were constantly thrown at the back of her head in this class by a particularly troublesome bunch. They laughed and shot paper at her at high speeds with their wands and almost brought her to tears on the spot, but she held it in. She couldn’t combat these bullies and would be subject to more harassment if she complained; so she merely took it and held her head down.
Lunch time took forever to come. Alice rushed out of the classroom and held her books and belongings tightly as she headed towards the cafeteria. Her mind was ablaze with frustration at the paper-throwing bullies but couldn
’t do anything about it and cursed her own inadequacy. The lines for food weren’t too long because Alice walked so fast; she got her food and raced off to her room. The solace and safety among the walls of her room uplifted her spirits. It was a space that was her own, where nobody could bother her.
Eating, and watching the Projection Device (PD) went hand in hand. The PD broadcasted images from many places around the world. The magical particles in the atmosphere acted as transmission nodes and were collected by the receiver in her room to display the real-time images.
Today a particularly brave wizard was tackling a rare nine-headed beast known as a hydra. The battle was exciting, as was the hyped up commentary. The wizard eventually defeated the massive serpent by sealing it in a gigantic boulder. Then the plot twisted and the hydra’s daughter came out of the shadows. Unlike the frightening beast, the girl was a beautiful humanoid with snake-like features.
Some consider humanoids to be evolution, others think them an abominable mutation; Alice agreed with both to some extent as the world was essentially a massive magical generator that could twist the very fabric of nature on a whim.
The Projection Device show ended happily and Alice’s food had vanished for the greater good. It was almost time for the last lesson of the day, combat training. Combat training was hard work and Alice always failed to emerge victorious. Usually the students would