Summary: Inspired by a comment on YouTube on a trailer for the movie the Sorcerer's Apprentice, in regards as to why the person to save the world is always chosen, and never just sort of "stumbles into it". :) Or just helps instead of saving the world by themselves. ^^ No real plot yet, just a random girl meeting a random sorcerer - who, I'll admit, was based a little teeny tiny bit on Balthazar… ^^; -, and somehow she gets caught up in his mission. To be honest, I'm not even sure if I'll continue this or not… I just sort of wrote this randomly about a week ago when I couldn't sleep. … but if you all want me to continue it - and actually give the characters names and backgrounds and such -, I'll try my best. ^_^
He sighs heavily as the girl follows "quietly" behind him, tripping over his ankles - which results in her mumbling numerous apologies -, her own two feet, air, or just all three at once.
He wonders briefly if such an act is possible, but if it isn't, he can't doubt that she won't somehow find a way to make it so.
After all, it's because of her horrid clumsiness that they met.
He was fighting with one of his many adversaries in a dark alley. Balls of fire and plasma were flung at each other left and right, and just as he was preparing to blast him into oblivion - his rival most likely doing the same -, he heard a girl's voice, a very unladylike "OH FUCK ME", and then the sound of a body hitting the cement.
He turned around, loosing all the concentration he'd had on that one spell, and stared at her intently for a moment. She groaned in pain and looked up at him, eyes wide, and simply blushed. After giving her a death glare, he turned back around, and saw that his opponent had taken advantage of his focus being on the girl and cowardly fled, most likely by use of a transportation spell.
"Shit!" he hissed.
"Hey, umm... sir," the girl began nervously. His head whipped around to glare down at her. She faltered, but continued after a little gulp. "I... I'm really sorry, I can be such a klutz sometimes..." She put a small apologetic smile on her face.
"Really?" he snapped, still glaring down hard at her. "I never would have guessed!" As he stormed out of the alley in a rage, she scrambled to her feet and struggled to catch up with him in the sea of random city people.
"Hey, wait a minute!" she called out, shoving past several people - who glared at her with a hatred that only strangers can express - to fall into step with him. "Look, now was I hallucinating, or were you and that other dude using... magic wands and stuff like that?" Her voice held barely contained excitement as she asked this.
With a scoff of annoyance, he looked down at her, ready to retort something having to do with her being a dumb kid who needed to take her meds. But in her eyes he saw all the wonder of a child, and as he found that he was unable to lie to her, he answered, "Yes."
Which he immediately regretted after she squealed and giggled loudly in happiness. "That is so cool!" she gushed. He rolled his eyes and began walking away from her, when she said, "I mean, I've always loved reading about magic, but to know that its actually real-"
He whirled around, placed his hand over her mouth and grabbed her arm, shoving her backwards to the alley so he could force her to shut the fuck up and not get too many odd looks.
When her back finally touched the wall, he inhaled deeply through his nose, trying to keep himself from exploding in her face, and removed his hand from her mouth. "Look... little girl," he started.
"I have a name you know..." she muttered, glaring up at him.
"Yeah, I really don't care what your name is," he said quickly before she had the chance to tell him. "Look, its bad enough that you know we were using magic, the rest of the city doesn't need to know as well!"
"Well you could have picked a better place to fight..." she mumbled. "I mean, honestly, who fights with magic in an alley?" She snorted, and looked up at him as he towered over her, eyebrows raised and eyes warning. She smiled sheepishly. "Oh yeah, huh?"
Rolling his eyes, he stepped away from her, wiping his hands on his rather old and worn coat. "I think we should go somewhere and talk," he suggested.
"Oh, I know this really awesome coffee house, about a couple blocks away," she said. "We can go there!"
He nodded with a sigh. "Fine,"
After they'd bought their coffee and sat down, he explained his mission, which had to do with an evil sorcerer trying to take over the world, and him doing everything he possibly could to stop it, over a vanilla latte - which he never once touched - and a chocolate chip "Javakula" - which she sucked down noisily as she hung onto his every word -.
Once he'd finished his story, she simply breathed, "Wow..." and took one last long and loud slurp from her cold drink. She seemed to think long and hard to herself for a bit - during which he began messing with whatever he could get his hands on - before she finally looked back at him and asked, "Can I help?"
He simply stared at her for a long moment before he laughed aloud. "Oh, no," he managed to get out through his laughter. "I'm sorry, little girl. I'm trying to save the world... if I were to let you help me... hell, I might as well just join the opposing side!"
She glared hard at him, deeply insulted. "Okay, one, quit calling me 'little girl'. I maybe a little... petite, but I'll have you know that I am eighteen years old - an adult. And two, yeah, I have my clumsy moments. And yeah, they may suck a whole lot, but I can't exactly help it. Besides, I'm not even that bad - you're just over exaggerating it because you're mad," He shrugged carelessly, and looked out the window for a couple moments, before he turned back to find her pleading with her eyes. "So please, can I help?" she begged.
"No," he said simply.
She sighed. "Okay, I'm not usually one to resort to blackmail - actually, I've never had to before now... -, but... I know magic exists. Now, if you want it to remain a secret from the rest of society or whatever..." She paused. "Besides, if I were to help you, I could just hang in the background doing... whatever. I mean, you gotta admit, I'd make a damn good magical distraction,"
"I have no doubts that you would," he muttered. "Really, after what happened earlier..."
"See? And I could be your... oh, damn monkey fudge, what's that word... apprentice!" she exclaimed. "I could be your apprentice! Like how Mickey Mouse was Yen Sid's apprentice from that Fantasia segment, The Sorcerer's Apprentice,"
He winced as he recalled that scene. "Hopefully without the dancing mops and brooms and sea of soap and water?" he suggested.
She smiled sheepishly again. "Err, I'll try my best not to let that happen...?"
He placed his hand against his forehead. "I'm going to have to think about that for a while... a long while..." he told her, sighing heavily as he stood up.
When he was halfway to the door, she murmured, "Oh, okay..."
Now, as they travel through the city, he turns his head and looks down at her as she looks all around them, a small smile on her face as she glances at all the tall buildings that surround them, and all the bright neon lights. As he studies her, he ponders all that she had said before in the coffee house.
He isn't sure that she can handle being a sorcerer's apprentice. Sure, she said she loved magic, but he highly doubts that she's ever cast even the simplest of spells before. She hadn't even known magic really existed until tonight. Besides, she's so young. Eighteen years old - barely out of high school, most likely.
But, she seems to be really serious about wanting to help him, and learn things in the process. And he can see that she has some potential and willingness to learn...
"Fine," he relents finally, sighing heavily as he stops in his tracks. She looks up at him, startled and brows furrowing as he continues, "You can be my apprentice..."
She can do nothing but smile up at him, eyes shining with happiness. But with that happiness, he can see her determination to not screw everything up. He hopes to every possible god that exists that he will succeed in his mission and that having her as his apprentice might make the odds work more in his favor.
"So," she starts, as they resume walking, "Do you think this might be like one of those stories? Y'know, there's The Chosen One, and The Chosen One has no clue they've been chosen to save the world, and there's nothing special about them, blah blah blah, but then it turns out that there is something special about them and they totally end up saving the world?"
He scoffs. "Not a chance,"