Steve stared at Frizz, who stared back at him.
"Frizz…. Did you just say…"
"Yes, I did. And I mean it, Steve. I am going to study more advanced black magic than those that we learned from Alexander."
Steve couldn't believe the words coming out of Frizz. Was this really his friend talking?
"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that, Frizz."
Now, Frizz seemed to get angered, as he crossed his arms and turned his eyes to the golden sky.
"I didn't ask for your permission, Steve. I simply wanted to tell you my choice."
At this moment, it was Steve's turn to get angered. With a suppressed anger, he spoke to Frizz:
"I am going to get my staff now… And I hope you will have a change of heart when I come back!"
Steve then turned his back towards Frizz, and approached his staff.
"I am going to persuade Frizz so that he won't think about that kind of thing again. I surely hope it's just the ale talking. But he seems to be sober. Hmmm, I'll have to think of a way to…"
As Steve bent down and got a grip of his staff, Frizz spoke a spell!
"Farirs!"
A small, green ball of energy appeared out of Frizz's wand and struck Steve's back. Before he understood it, he flew several meters down the street and crashed into it with his face first and started to roll a few turns before stopping.
Steve immediately stood up and took a tight grip on his staff. Furious, he looked at Frizz, who still had his wand pointed at Steve.
Blood was dropping down on the street, and Steve felt with his left hand on his nose. It was bleeding. He removed the hand and said to Frizz:
"Frizz… That was very unnecessary of you, attacking a man with his back faced to you. You appear to have forgotten Alexander's one rule about fighting."
Frizz smiled, still pointing the staff at Steve.
"I found it completely satisfying to me. I feel no shame, so it can't be bad, can it?"
Steve now felt an anger starting to take form inside him. He felt the urge to scream, he wanted to curse him. What had gotten into his mind? Why was he acting like this?
"Have you gone totally mad, Frizz? Or are you just drunk? Because the Frizz I knew for about 15 minutes ago, would never attack his own friend while he had his back turned to him!"
Frizz sighed, and shook his head.
"I just realised something, Steve…"
But Steve didn't let him finish.
"Frizz. I don't know what has gotten into you, but I'm going to fix it. I do not like the idea of you becoming a mindless toy that is corrupted by darkness, because the darkness will take you over if you advance in the arts of black magic! This, you know as well as I do!"
Frizz watched Steve as he talked. For a moment, Frizz face caught a glimpse of doubt. He stopped pointing his wand at Steve, and put it in his pocket instead. He then stood and watched down at the street.
"Maybe he is having a change of heart… Perfect, maybe now I can get him to forget about black magic."
Steve approached Frizz, who was still looking down at the street.
"Please, Frizz… Don't throw away 6 months of friendship for something you will regret for the rest of your life. Don't become just another corrupt black mage. Please…"
Steve then stretched forward his arm, offering Frizz his hand. A lot of thoughts ventured through Steve's mind at the moment. Steve was getting sad, as he saw his friend looking down at the street. He never suspected this to happen between them. He was on the verge of pleading to Frizz to ignore the black magic. But he resisted the urge, and started to talk again, this time however, with a more low voice and more pitiful.
"It's your choice, Frizz. Either you can take my hand, and we will try to fix this. I will help you in any way I can, because I don't want to lose you as my friend, Frizz."
His voice was becoming more uneasy, he suspected that he would start to cry any minute.
" sniff Or you can ignore my hand, and walk over to the Black Tower, to study black magic, to become a powerful but mindless toy, bent on obeying his master's command."
Steve now noticed that his arm was shaking. So was Frizz, although in his case it wasn't only his arm that was shaking. He himself was shaking totally, and his fists were clenched.
"Come on, Frizz. Don't throw all this away…"
Just as Steve had thought this, Frizz started to move. He raised his arm, and were about to put his hand in Steve's. But just as he was going to do it, he hesitated, and pulled it back. Frizz then took a few steps back, crossed his arms, and looked up at Steve.
"I choose option 2!"