Javelin

The effects of the spell were finishing. The sky dimming, the earth cooling from the heat, the smell of sulfur almost burned his nose. There was no doubt that this was the most powerful spell ever cast since the first apocalypse. Javelin had fallen to his knees Kiel running to his master's aid. "Master, here sit up, how can I help?"

"Shhhhh, ah silence, so rare, so precious. Here, help me stand." Kiel handed javelin his staff and helped him get up. The two where standing in a crater at least a mile wide, created from the spell. The sky was red and cloudless. It was unbelievable to think that just two minutes ago they where standing in a beautiful forest, the sky full of clouds, birds singing, it is amazing how quickly all that could reverse. As Kiel was admiring this, javelin began to cough up blood and a strange sparkling substance. This was the first time he had seen his master show any sign of weakness in all the years he had been under his teaching.

"Master, what's the matter, are you wounded?" Kiel asked.

"That spell was too much; I won't live for much longer. I can already feel the magic draining."

Once again Javelin had fallen to the ground. This time Javelin just sat on a stone. Kiel, joining him asked. "What are we to do? Were both out of mana and the walls of this crater are too steep to climb."

With a sigh Javelin said. "Don't panic. It is apparent that were going to be here a while. Now pay close attention for I will not be able to repeat myself. You must take command of the wizard high order. I left orders for this to occur. Next, you must protect the zodiak stone with your life. " Javelin carefully handed Kiel the precious stone that had been handed down from generation to generation of wizard high priests since the dawning of creation. Sternly he said.

"You are being given a very big responsibility, Kiel. Do you think you can handle it?" Kiel knew he would have a lot of work to do if he accepted. He said

"If you would have me do so, I would walk into the deepest part of the dark forest. I accept this responsibility, master." With that gentle smile of his, javelin said.

"You remind me of myself when I was young, I was so afraid."

Jokingly, Kiel said. "That must have ages ago."

Smiling, Javelin answered. "Yes, actually it was, thousands of years. It was an age of light, of relative peace, before all of this war and evil. I believe its time you learned my story."

"But everyone knows the story's about you." Kiel questioned.

"No, they know the legends and myths. I'm talking about my story, the one about me, not Javelin arch wizard, lord of magic. I mean the story of Darius Sith."

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The sounds of swords clashing could be heard a mile away as Javelin and Clint's swords struck each other. This lesson was very intense, it had lasted almost an hour, so the two men were almost completely out of breath. Clint had given Javelin a two handed-long sword, but only allowed him to use one hand to fight with. This built up the swinging muscles in that arm. Javelin was about five when he first moved onto the farm after his father's death. But now he almost thirteen years old and he already had the muscular build of a man. His messy black and gray hair was hidden from the world by the old brown hat that he had received from his uncle as a gift when he turned ten as it was a tradition for the elves to give there sons a special gift on their tenth year. But javelin's father had died almost six years ago and his mother; eight years ago. And so he was put into the custody of his loving uncle Clint and aunt Aura. How either of his parents had died was kept a secret from Javelin, his uncle telling him that it didn't matter because tit would make the thought of their loss even more painful. Though he was curious about his parents, he never asked about them, it always seemed to upset Clint, but that was fine, it never bothered Javelin.

Javelin was nicknamed after his most obvious skill, with the throwing spear, which is very common to be done in Aradnia. His actual name was Darius Sith. He was a very hard worker and hated leaving anything left unfinished this was his human side. Javelin was also part elf which resulted in his good hearing and eye sight and also his stealth whish resulted in his tendency of being a trouble maker on the farm. Javelin would hide a chicken's eggs for the thrill of being chased; sometimes he would dress as an ogre to scare a cow. But his tricks and taunts stopped with that, he never did any thing more than that. Clint once threatened that if javelin ever did exceed the lines of small pranks he would never teach him any more fighting techniques like sword practice or archery.

Javelin liked lots of things like sword fighting and fishing. He also liked to read, not fairytales or stories, but books about different places and races like dragons and goblins. About powerful humans and elves. You could often find him fanaticizing himself as a warrior or adventurer in the near-by forest. But these things grew boring after time; this was when javelin finally grew the courage and nerve to ask his uncle to teach him how to wield a sword. Much to his surprise his uncle gladly agreed and began his first lesson.

But he had one secret passion or rather an obsession, something that his uncle would greatly disapprove of. He was consumed by the thought of magic, of sorcery. He dreamed of becoming the most powerful wizard in the entire face of Farren (the world on which they reside). It wasn't long after, that a wizard had come to their village looking for spell components. That day Javelin was in the town picking up a package for his uncle when he met the young man looking at a strange stick shaped like a snake. Then, the man noticed the boy starring at him and asked his name and the name of this village.

"I'm javelin, and this is Valen. What's your name?"

"My name's Danith". He said this with a strange accent that sounded like a mix between elf and dwarf. Javelin was astonished by this man, he couldn't understand why, but he couldn't stop asking every question that popped into his head.

"Where are you from, what are you doing here, have you cast many spells, how'd you learn to cast spells, do you ride horses or did you use magic to get here?" Despite all this Danith seemed very patent with him and answered all his questions with a voice that seemed to be a whisper but javelin could hear him as if he where shouting. It seemed very strange to him that the wizard studied him as intensely as he did, observing his every move and each detail of what he said. It seemed so ironic to javelin that he was being studied more than the wizard was. He merely saw it as a coincidence, perhaps he didn't get to see much of the country life and obsessed about the life that javelin lived. Their conversation seemed only to last but a few minutes but after several hours Danith said.

"You're a very interesting young man, and though I'd love to talk for all of eternity, I really must go now. But don't fret, I feel that we'll meet again, and much sooner than we think. Until then I bid you farewell javelin of Valen, may your teachings go well." And with that he disappeared.

On his way home Javelin thought of nothing but Danith and how it would be like to live like him, it was something that he had dreamed about all of his life. Once he got home he hung his hat up went to the kitchen to give the package to his uncle.

"What took so long? I would have thought you'd be back ages ago. Did you meet some lady I should know about?" He asked with a taunting smile.

"I met this man in the market, he was a wizard it was rather interesting. I don't think I've ever met one before, have you?" With this, his uncle's smile turned to a frown. Realizing that this was not a good sign Javelin tried to save himself.

"We just talked for a few minutes, besides its good to meet new faces right?"

"Wrong, wizards are evil, casting their terrible little spells with their dark creatures at their side. It's its wrong to cast magic, or even be around magic for that matter. "

"But I don't see what's so wrong with them" With this argument going on, Aura left the kitchen leaving them alone, allowing the lecture to escalate into an argument. He knew this resistance was futile. When Javelin got into trouble, she usually stood up and defended him, but whenever she knew it wouldn't help she'd just leave the room and not say a word, acting as fit never happened. And this was definitely one of those times. Javelin had bitten off way more than he could chew and he and Clint both knew it. He should have given up a long time ago but he felt that he should go on which was suicide.

"It's dangerous and reckless to cast even the simplest spell. And plus their lazy and never do any work, just using magic to do there work. I've lived a lot longer than most people and I used my own hands to get this far, and I surely wont let you waist you life away ruining you life! "

"I don't want you going anywhere near a wizard again!" With that he left Javelin alone. Clint was usually a gentle man, but when you crossed paths with him he could be vicious as a mother dragon. He would never hit Javelin, but scold him harshly, so harshly that he wished his uncle would have hit him instead.

Four years, three months, and twelve days later, Javelin was turning butter around dawn getting ready for the big day. Out of all of the four hundred and twelve days of the year this one was the most important to half of the world, today was the first day of harvest. But there was another reason it was special, something would happen that not even the wise men or the even the gods could have foreseen. Clint, who was up before anyone else on the farms, was milking the cows. Javelin doubted his uncle had even slept because he was so excited. Whistling to himself Javelin was gathering up the harvesting tools when his uncle came running in to the shed, caught his breath, then said

"Javelin! I don't know what were going to do! We don't have any wheat bags and our cycle just broke! Can you go into town to fetch them? It could take a while to get through with all the chaos but we need them"

"Is that all you need, just a sickle and wheat bags?"

"Yes and be as quick as possible" Clint gave him seven coins and a smile and ran back to work. Javelin was proud of himself for receiving such responsibility. He started on his way to town with about ten feet of rope for the supplies. It seemed like such a long journey but it was only a mile to town and he was jogging instead of walking like he usually did. Before he even got there, there were lots of people on their way to market or vice versa. Around the local tavern Javelin had some thief encounters but outsmarted them, but it was near the fish store that a thin and short man with a strange looking beard grabbed his coin pouch and ran for it. Javelin who was a fast runner had trouble keeping up with him, turning around corners and ducking out of the guardsmen's view. Javelin needed that money and was willing to do what ever it took to get it back. Suddenly right in front of a guard the man was walking slowly with a stick in his left hand as support. Javelin dived on top of the man and began hitting him until he was hit in the back of the head with something hard and he rolled onto his side with lots of people looking at him in disgust. The guardsman held javelin by his arm and shouted at people to get back. It was then that javelin realized what had happened, the looks of disgust where aimed at him, but why he asked himself he robbed me. Then he saw the man's face, it wasn't the thief but an old man who was now bleeding and coughing constantly. Javelin tried to explain but the shouts of the crowd and the guard drowned his voice. That was the last thing he remembered because once again he was hit in the head and knocked unconscious.

When he awoke he was cold and hungry. Shivering he tried to sit up but he felt his arm tugged, his arm was bound to something. After a while Javelin realized where he was, the local prison and his arm was bound with rope to a bar. It wasn't that small of a cell but it was crowded with thieves, murderers, bandits which made him nervous and jumpy. Only a few of them had their arm tied like his most likely the more dangerous ones, but why would he be dangerous, he just tried to get his money back. Javelin was looking around trying to peace this puzzle together when a rather ugly looking creature with horns reached for the tray in front of Javelin; it was his food tray the guards must have given him. The beast looked horrific, but he was hungry and wasn't about to let some over grown bull take his lunch, or was it supper he didn't know, but he snatched it. This made the creature very upset and started screaming in some strange primitive language. Just then an almost sinister voice said softly.

"You'd best let him have it, his kind is known to tear a man apart for food." javelin let go and the thing devoured his food to nothing and went to the other side of the cell.

"You really don't know pick fights do you?"

"No, I know how but I had never seen one of those before, but thanks for your help, uh who are you?" Javelin felt so vulnerable and weak but did his best to hide it with a plain face. But the strange man didn't seem to notice. He wore a cloak that concealed his face.

"The names Setherin, Seth for short. How in the world did you find your way into this place and even got tied, it takes a lot to get tied. And look at you, you're not even eighteen by the look of ya, you're dressed like a farmer, part elf and do I smell roses? You'd probably be judged as a human if it wasn't for your ears and height" Javelin didn't like to be able to read like this.

"I'm Javelin and I'm not sure why I'm here. I just chased and caught the thief who stole my uncle's coins. It was very confusing, they think I just robbed and beat that old man. I thought that he was the thief, but I just don't know" this seemed to be some kind of joke because all the other prisoners fell on the floor laughing

"Yea I tried that one too on my first trial, but I prefer the `oh the wizards made me do it'" but others just shook their heads. Then Seth said

"Don't listen to them javelin they just can't say the same. I'm in because I stole two horses and a stupid rock. They caught me on my way out of town. You look hungry, here you can have the rest of mine" Javelin took the food graciously and ate while Seth explained his story. After a few hours the two quickly became friends, telling stories or just telling about their families. Seth explained that he had once been married but she lost interest in him later on in life. This reminded javelin about blade, a local girl who his eye had caught on. She sometimes visited the farm saying that they needed wheat or to borrow a tool just to see him. And he did the same for her but strangely got lost in her home and just had to stay until he could remember his way home. Eventually she found someone else and forgot about him completely. While in this daze javelin suddenly came to realize that that the guard had come for him. And he was now being dragged down to the back room by his arm which had been unbound. It wasn't that long of a walk, being as the prison was small, due to the small town it was in. Once at the end of the cells the two went through a large creaky door that made Javelins hair stick up. Inside were a desk and a pile of chains and loads of papers. A voice came up from the desk.

"Step forward and state your name, and hurry up about it we don't have all day"

"My name is Javelin" the man began to write.

"Homeland"

"Valen" the man asked a few more questions then said.

"You have been sentenced to slavery for the rest of your life unless freed by your master. The reason for murder of….."

"What?! I didn't kill anyone I just--".

"Save it kid, I've heard that one a million times and it hasn't worked yet. There's a long list of people who need to be sentenced today and I can guarantee that they'd all say the same thing if they just got a chance." This was the one thing that javelin felt was wrong about the Aradian justice system, if someone thought you were guilty and you had at least three whiteness that agreed, than you were. He had always expressed his opinion about this to any one who would listen in hope of talking to the right number of the right people to some how have it changed. Javelin knew that this was never going to happen and he had one too many people tell him so. Once he almost even got put in prison for treason when he tried to protest this publicly but his sly personality somehow managed to weasel his way out of it. This time however, he didn't see that happening again.