'Well done Gents, you have done as I asked, did you have need to draw your swords? No, I can tell that, but please come sit, have something to eat, you are the first to come back.'
'Can I ask what sort of traps you set up?' asked M.
'Well the usual, deadfalls, shallow pits, silly things that you can easily avoid if you knew what to look for.'
'But what if the others can't, what about them? What if none of them come back? What if we are the only four to do this little 'test' of yours?'
'I can see that you will have no problem in the future, I can only also sense that you are one who harbours a little magic, and with some help can become more powerful.'
'OK the, but what about my questions?'
'The others if they do not get here before sunrise will fail, if they do not see the traps then they may carry on it depends how I feel about them, if you are the only ones who pass, then you are the only ones to pass, we have usually had about six or seven pass, I hope that not just four pass,'
They waited for a couple of hours, until they went to sleep, when they awoke in the morning, there was two others that had arrived, the teacher was no where to be seen.
A couple of hours passed, and they cooked some breakfast and sat and talked about what had happened in the night.
The two that had come in the night could not believe that it was as easy as that and all they had to do was ask the teacher for advice.
Come nightfall the teacher still had not come back so they decided to sleep till daybreak and if he had not come back then they would go and look for him.
Morning broke over camp on a damp and foggy day, they all awoke and decided to set off in pairs with equipment and supplies, and if no such luck had happened then they would meet back in two night's time.
They all set off after leaving a note in case he came back.
It was slow going as they could not see very far, pretty soon it became annoyingly damp as all their clothes sticking to them, still best to continue and find the teacher and then they would be back and dried off.
The first day bought no success and halfway through the next day they thought they heard the horn the teacher so favoured, they decide to follow the sound until it suddenly died.
Then all of a sudden, two great rambling things came shuffling out of the fog in front of them. The things then let out a blood-curdling scream then charged.
As they stood rooted to the spot with swords that suddenly seemed to have just magically appeared there all their thoughts seemed to glisten with what had been taught them in the last year. All of the other boys they had know and all of the perils that the teacher had led them into, only for most of them to escape from, now they knew what it was all for. This moment, this very thing that stood between them and certain death was all that they now knew.
Then as the things drew near the swords suddenly seemed as though they were actually part of them, seemed to move of its own accord. Next they knew the things lay dead at their feet. They realised that must have killed them, the swords where caked in blood. It must have been us, there was no one else around.
That night was one of the longest they had known but both knew one had to stand watch while the other slept, but only fitfully.
The next day they where met by even more of these things that seemed to appear from nowhere and then suddenly be killed in the heat of the moment. But they noticed one thing, the things where getting stronger and better at defending themselves.
They trudged back the way they came and not surprisingly met some more of the things, but this time even worse than any they had even seen. If the thing fought harder then they had to outwit and find a weakness in its attack, if it defended all to well then they had to find a niche in its defence and bring it down that way. If it attacked harder then they had to defend even more so and find a way through and dodge its sword while it prepared to come back and swing at them.
Eventually they were near camp, and expecting to find one last thing, they where not wrong. This seemed to even sense the attacks, it knew every move that they made and somehow just seemed to be out of reach of the swords. This they knew must be the true test to see if they could kill it. Then all of a sudden from M came a blinding flash and one the things just seemed just seemed to crumble. C turned to M and saw that he was half kneeling with a look of horror on his face as he looked at the thing. C felt the thing charge him, he turned and saw it was mere feet from him. In almost no time he had turned then bought his sword to bear on the thing, then his sword disappeared into the mist and fog.
His heart beating a fast tattoo in his chest he grabbed M and yanked him up as the thing stopped and turned then slowly came toward them.
'Whatever it was you did to that thing, you had better do it now mate.'
'I don't know, I just thought about wanting it dead so bad that I just imagined it burnt to a crisp and then there was a blinding flash from my hand and then 'poof' it was crumbling up'
The thing was charging faster, then the world seemed to slow down, it dawned on C that he was almost willing it to do so. The thing seemed to be at a snails pace when it raised its sword and came to bring it down upon them. Then C grabbed hold of the things wrists and just seemed to turn snapping its wrists and taking the sword and gently lopping of its head.
They both stood for a moment looking down when the mist almost seemed to just blow out of the way, almost as though some god had decided to just blow it all away as you would a pall of smoke. Then out of the mist they saw the B and A just standing there as they were.
They slowly picked up the swords, cleaned them and sheathed them and all walked back to camp together saying nothing.
Back at the camp the teacher stood waiting for them,
'Well done you have passed my final test, I now know who you all are. Two of you are protectors, with a great wizard in the making. You B are destined to become more. That I will show you, as for the rest of you, you will now be drafted into a group, a special group who will look after you and teach you more.'
'Who is the wizard then?' asked A.
'That will be M, and he will be taught the same as you others. Now go get some rest we will set out in the morning and make our way to your new homes.'