I start this one on such a pleasant note: DEATH. Right in your face and everything. A couple of these have a mild religious tone. Try not to get offended, it's meant in good spirit and intends no harm. Also a few of these, especially number 27- Love- are offered with tongue firmly planted in cheek and irony in great supply.
Also, because it's been noted, the challenge itself doesn't actually have a word limit. I did that to myself. Although if you think you can do this, more power to you.
Disclaimer: me no own.
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5. Death
When a man looks his own demise in the eye, he tends to measure the value of his life. Most of Balthazar's was spent waiting- waiting for the Prime Merlinian, waiting for a chance to free Veronica. And now, after all his waiting, he was suddenly out of time.
He traced the chain with one finger, touching it almost reverently. It was almost as old as he was. He refolded the cloth around it and wrote his note, leaving both on Dave's desk.
The kid was in love. He would understand.
Then Balthazar walked out, to chase down his death.
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9. Good
Had anyone asked, Becky would admit that Balthazar scared her. It was understandable- ageless all-powerful sorcerer and whatnot. He radiated power, if you knew enough to recognize it.
She would also admit that she had misjudged him. She watched him as he healed a dog run down by a careless driver. She saw the affection he bore for his apprentice- Balthazar could destroy Dave with one sentence, if he wanted, and never did.
She would always be intimidated by him, there was no changing that. But she was content to know there was a good man beneath that bristly exterior.
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11. Nose
"Hi ullie lame oo or ish, Alla'ar."
Veronica frowned. "What was that?"
"I said, I fully blame you for this, Balthazar," Maxim repeated, lifting the rag from his bleeding nose.
Sitting apart from the other two, trying not to look guilty, Balthazar only shrugged. It had been a bad spell, although in his defense, Maxim should have been paying attention. Magic sometimes went wrong around the youngest apprentice when he was distracted, and seeing Maxim and Veronica laughing together certainly had that effect.
Veronica sighed. Young men, she had found, were often more trouble than they were worth.
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15. Meat
"This is what, again?"
"Spam," Dave offered. "Basically a meat by-product."
"Mystery meat," Balthazar clarified. "Nobody knows what it is."
Veronica made a face of disgust; Dave scowled at his master, who was leaning against the shopping cart's handle and wondering how they'd even gotten him to agree to this. Balthazar could be as patient as the day was long, but some things were given less priority; this he was done with by row two.
"And bowl-og-na?"
"Don't," Dave snapped, heading him off, and Balthazar smiled.
Then again, this was kind of fun.
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18. Subway
"So what are you two going to do when Dave graduates and you lose this place?" Becky asked, standing in the Merlin circle. Balthazar spared her a glance.
"Find someplace else, I suppose," he said carelessly.
"What, really?" Dave whined. "Give up this place, with all those memories?"
"Remember the mops, Dave," Balthazar said to his book.
Becky continued, gesturing at the circle. "And what are you gonna say about this?"
"Um. I... got bored?"
Balthazar closed his eyes and sighed, as if pained.
As if they ever could give this place up.
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20. Plane
They were sketches, quickly dashed onto a thick sheet of vellum, already feeling old and worn for all that the ink wasn't yet dry. Sketches of a machine that would put man, for once, on even footing with birds. They weren't practical, his sorcerer's knowledge of science told him, but they were a good first step.
The man responsible was still hunched over his work-desk, barely acknowledging his long-time friend. Balthazar gently set the pages down. He could not see the future, but he'd been around long enough to recognize genius that would last far longer than a single lifetime.
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24. Hot Dog
Take him out someplace special, Becky said. Get to know him outside of training, she said. Try to see him for who he is normally, not who he is when world destruction is imminent.
No one had ever bothered to tell him Balthazar was a closet baseball fan. Although this certainly explained Veronica's giggling.
"Do you mind?" A twenty dollar bill hovered in front of his nose, close enough he went cross-eyed. With a groan he didn't bother to hide, he snatched it and stood up. Another hot dog run for the bottomless pit.
This was never happening again.
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27. Love
"It's never been a problem for me."
Dave groaned and stopped pacing in front of Balthazar. "Not once? Seriously? C'mon, you can't be telling me everything's perfect with you two."
"The last time we had a fight, I sealed her in a nesting doll for a thousand years," Balthazar said dryly. Dave threw his arms into the air and resumed pacing. "Get her some flowers and apologize and it'll be fine."
"She should be apologizing, not me!"
"Or go tell her that. I'll wait here; be sure to tell me how it turns out."
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31. Flower
There was a flowering plant growing once, so very long ago, in a British field beside a tower. A nine-year-old boy picked a flower from it and gave it to a girl he lived with; the first sign of friendship he had given her.
Well over a thousand years later, the same boy stood in a supermarket, momentarily stunned. He'd thought the plant extinct- he hadn't seen those flowers in eight hundred years. Like so many things, the exact details had gotten lost in the haze of time, but he still recognized it instantly.
He wondered if she also would.
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36. Earth
He had seen every corner of Earth, it seemed; when he plotted out his life on a map, he lost track of where he had been for all the marks already made. There was desert and tundra, green plains and black forest, endless ocean and mountains challenging the sky.
Most days, he was too dispirited by his endless failure, but sometimes he found something that made him stop and stand in awe of the world he inhabited. Over time, he transferred that awe to the people he shared the world with.
Quite a planet, this little blue ball called Earth.
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39. Water
For all its malleable nature, water was a surprisingly uncooperative substance; it was exactly as obedient as it needed to be and no more, wanting to get back to its comings and goings as quickly as possible. Balthazar, who could out-stubborn a mule, was already frustrated with his continual failures.
He was nothing, though, compared to Veronica. She had never not gotten something on the first try, and was getting angry. Even Merlin had retreated to a tactful distance, watching his quickest apprentice soak herself time and time again.
In three years, she would have a river dance for her.
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41. Gargoyle
The gargoyle outside his apartment window was moving.
Balthazar felt his eyebrows rise, watching as the pigeon perch ambled from one corner of the neighboring building to another. It yawned, stretched, scratched its arm, and hunkered down over nothing. It stayed there quietly, head moving side to side as if it were reading, occasionally nodding to itself. One clawed foot tapped out an unknown rhythm.
After a few minutes of this, Balthazar turned to regard his apprentice, who was poring over his Incantus, one foot tapping, ring glowing unnoticed.
"Dave?" He called out, smiling.
"What?"
"You're projecting."
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46. Knights
They rode past, in tunics of white with a red cross splashed violently across them; Balthazar kept his face down and hood up. Most important, he kept his hands covered. These bloodthirsty pacifists knew to look for a ring when searching for a sorcerer.
Christianity was not a new religion, having been born before him. But it was gaining popularity, and with it came no tolerance for the arcane. A sword through the gut would kill him as readily as any other person. For the first time, being a sorcerer didn't buy him a free meal.
The times were changing.
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61. Werewolf
The ringing woke him up at some ungodly hour, he didn't bother opening his eyes to see which one. He flailed a hand around blindly, hit the table, and located the phone.
"What?" he snapped.
"So. Um. Are werewolves real?"
"Yes, Dave, they are."
"Oh, good. Can you talk to them while they're, you know, wolfed?"
"I wouldn't suggest it, no."
"Okay. Thanks, Balthazar. Good night."
He sighed as he hung up, deep and long, and levered himself out of bed. Honestly, only his defective apprentice could find a werewolf in New York City.
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63. Fairy
If catching a fairy in a jar was a really good way to upset the little pest- and it was- then laughing at a jarred fairy was even worse. Fortunately, Balthazar managed to keep a straight face. He knelt down before the little girl and respectfully took the jar. The child, who was perhaps five, was rocking back on her heels, watching him shyly; he smiled reassuringly at her.
"That's a good job, catching this," he said gently. "But I think you should let it go now, so it won't get too angry."
The fairy swore at him.
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76. Envy
It had been a blow, the first time he'd seen Becky. More specifically, the first time he'd seen Dave see Becky. She was a pretty girl, true, but it was the lovesick look on Dave's face that really got him.
He got to walk beside her, and laugh with her, and rescue her from a mugger. Dave's world was new and shiny and full of romance and the one dark spot was Balthazar with his doomsday prophecies.
There was agony, watching him, which was acceptable, if pathetic; but there was also a burning jealousy, and Balthazar despised himself for that.
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78. Betrayal
They'd learned of Maxim's betrayal days ago but could do little about it; winged horses wouldn't get them back any faster, and Maxim had destroyed the ensorcelled mirror Veronica had used to keep touch with Merlin.
He had sold himself to Morgana, who went now to kill his master.
It hurt like an open wound, and every thought of him was a deeper cut. Maxim had been their friend and ally. He had been one of them. Balthazar rode grim and silent, truly furious for the first time in his life.
That fury would carry him for a thousand years.
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86. Window
By week four, Balthazar would have happily murdered someone for a window. He didn't ask for much in life, having been taught to value the most basic of necessities and leave everything else behind as dead weight. But a window wasn't too much to ask for.
He was giddy with excitement and itchy with repression; the last thing he needed was Horvath thinking the boy was something more than just the last person to have the Grimhold. Fortunately his old rival wasn't paying him much attention in an attempt to discourage conversation.
So he waited, and wished for a window.
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92. Touch
Sometimes he regretted not being a better healer.
He stayed where he'd dropped, curled into himself on the bed, pounding head rested gently on the pillow. Migraines weren't as unusual to a sorcerer as he might hope.
There had been noise a minute ago; Veronica, getting home. Then blessed silence.
Then a touch, soft, fingers tracing carefully through his hair. She eased herself down beside him, touching him only with her fingertips, murmuring quiet nonsense while soothing him with her magic. She had the gift he lacked.
After a short time, he fell asleep, deep and dreamless and thankfully pain-free.
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95. Origin
He didn't necessarily believe either one side or the other, but the debate itself was of considerable interest to him.
He had seen too much, lived through too much, to believe everything was blind coincidence. He also couldn't accept that some great benevolent being had actually planned for this madness. Merlin had never once spoken of the origin of everything, and nothing in the Incantus or anywhere else provided any answers, or even any pieces to puzzle together. So Balthazar was left patiently confused and mostly unconcerned, watching in amusement as people upheld their beliefs like standard-bearers marching to war.