Flammie Tales Book 1: A Wizard's Trial

Chapter 3: The Evil

(Bring me into her memories?) I nodded wanting to know what would happen. Then suddenly all my surrounding seemed to fade into what I figured was Seryn's memory. I was now in a vast expanse of total blackness. All I could see was Seryn limply floating.

(This must be the Void.) I examined. All of a sudden, I saw a portal open out of nowhere, and Seryn was being sucked into it. Everything went black, but when light started to return, I quickly realized that Seryn was nowhere to be found. I was now in what seemed to be a fairly modern room. There was only a large box and another human who looked to be about my age.

The boy opened the box and pulled out what appeared to be Seryn, only ... not. Instead of about 12 feet head to tail, she was only about six. She also looked more ... artificial. It was then that I realized that Seryn had been reborn more times than she originally told me, but this time she was not a normal flammie, she was a flammie plush!

I briefly wondered what this had to do with Karmen Aridos, but my question was soon answered when Seryn's memory flashed and showed her alive, but still a plush, talking to what looked like a simple old man. Seryn was talking with him, drinking what appeared to be dye, and asking him how he could turn her "owner" into a plushie like her.

The memories flashed once more, and I witnessed Seryn the flammie plush and another plushie flammie, who I assumed to be her "owner," talking to the same old man.

He showed them a strange looking arch, and after he pushed a few buttons, the arch turned into a portal to a strange other world. I saw Seryn's "owner" run into it without another thought, but Seryn herself stayed behind to thank her "father".

At that moment, all these images cleared and I was back in my back yard looking into Seryn the flammie's eyes.

"Oh, I get it. Aridos had somehow retrieved your soul from the void, and placed it into a plushie. He had at least once before been the source of your rebirth." I said aloud.

"Yeah. That is why to this day, he is still a father figure to me. He was even the cause of this rebirth." Seryn replied.

"You mean…?"

"That's right! That spell book of yours was not only written by Aridos, but his magic controls it. You may have thought that all wizards perished a long time ago, but the truth is, they simply don't show their powers openly anymore. Aridos is one of the most famous wizards to this day, and believe it or not, he is STILL ALIVE! He still runs his little shop where my plushie form was bought by the human you saw in my memories. Skyler, it is time for you to meet your mentor in person."

Wow. Just wow. Not only was I going to be a full wizard someday, but I was going to see my living wizard mentor! Seryn crouched down low enough to let me climb on her neck, and took to the skies.

"Hold on tightly! Don't worry about ripping any fur out, it's stuck in there pretty good."

I grabbed on to Seryn's neck fur to keep myself steady, and when she felt I was ready, she started flying very quickly to our destination. We were going to Karmen Aridos's store called Plushtopia, which was at least 300 miles away from where we were, but we got there in less than 5 minutes. Clearly, a flammie can fly faster than a car could ever travel.

When Seryn came to Plushtopia, she gently landed in a skylight that had been opened for us. Clearly he had been expecting us any time.

"Seryn, is that you?" I heard the same voice that was talking to Seryn when she was a plushie. This was the voice of the man she called "father". "Oh! Seryn! It's so nice to meet the real you! I see I was very close with the plush form I constructed for you way back when. What are you doing here anyway? Shouldn't you be looking after my aether apprentice, Skyler? I mean, you could accomplish a similar result as you did with Rye on your own."

Seryn blushed a bit. "Actually, funny you should mention him. I actually brought him to meet you. Skyler, can you get down by yourself, or would you like some help?"

Determined to show that I was competent, I slid down Seryn's neck and landed on my feet. I revealed my self to Aridos. He looked very old, but he obviously still had some gusto in him. "Good evening, Sir." I politely said.

"Sir?" Aridos chuckled. "Quit with the formalities! Just think of me as a sort of father." His eyes seemed to gleam a little. Did he know something I didn't?

"Alright, what would have me call you then?" I asked.

"Aridos will do. I just hate formal titles. Anyway," he turned to Seryn, "you shouldn't have come here quite yet. I still need Skyler to learn much before he's ready to move on."

Seryn sighed. "I suppose you're right. I just thought that Skyler would like to meet you in person. He seemed really curious about how I knew you last night when our minds were fused."

"I see." Aridos said knowingly. "You told him about you're last life and wanted him to meet me. I suppose there is no harm done, but you two really do need to get back.

Seryn perked up a bit. "Alright. We'll just be on our way then. It was nice seeing you again."

Suddenly Aridos exclaimed "Wait a moment! I still need to reveal something to you Seryn. It is just a warning, but I don't want you to tell the boy before the right time." Seryn lifted her ears and carefully leaned closer to Aridos so he could tell him this secret. After they were done, I could feel a hint of fear in flow from Seryn as she lifted me back on to her neck.

"Good bye, father. Thanks for your time!"

"Bye Aridos!" I waved as Seryn flew me back home.

By the time we arrived back home, the moon was starting to rise, and Seryn's fur was starting to lose its sheen. She put me on the ground and told me that she was going to go on short flight. I was feeling absolutely exhausted, so I just started to head for bed.

Almost three months have passed since Seryn took me to see Aridos. I have learned many new spells since then, and I was feeling pretty confident about taking on this great evil. Seryn too has been practicing her fighting skills. Soon we were going to be a match no one could beat! Seryn had also explained to me about a flammie's initial ability to exhale not one but two different elements. On top of these two elements that any flammie could have, there were also some other special elements that only certain flammies had access to. These special breaths usually meant that that flammie had a very special destiny, or had accomplished something amazing. She told me that because of her eternal conflict with her brother, she was gifted with Flammie Breath, which essentially could do almost anything she needed it to.

Today was the day that I came face to face with the evil that I would be facing. He had flown in directly to my home where I was practicing magic and quickly made his presence known. He was a flammie like Seryn only he was about 2 feet taller, he had a dark violet fur, piercing red eyes, dark blue claws and pads, and he had two teeth sticking out of each side of his maw instead of one. His wings and ears were tipped with the same red as his eyes. At one look, I knew he was pure evil.

I quickly tried to fling a fire ball at him, but he just smacked it away with one of his wings. I tried every offensive spell I knew, but none of them had any effect on the monster. He was baring his fangs looking directly at me and coming closer. He was going to bite me and make me his minion when he was suddenly hit by a burst of blue flame.

"YOU! You piece of flammie scum! How did you get here?" He bellowed.

Seryn quickly flew over to me and told me to cast blind. It was a light spell. I channeled my aura into my staff's crystal and made it turn a pure white color. The light from my staff was so bright that it succeeded in blinding the evil flammie. Seryn at that moment picked me up and flew as far away in as little time possible.

As we escaped, I heard the evil shouting. "You can't hide forever Seryn! When I track you down, I am going to kill you, turn the kid to my side, and take my rightful place as king of the world!"

When I had finally regained my voice, I inquired, "Seryn, what was that? What did it want with me, and why is it threatening us?"

"Not a 'what' but a 'who'. That was my brother, Mana. He is the evil you are to face. He is trying to bite you to turn you into an evil flammie that lives to serve him. I won't let him get you Skyler. You must hurry to finish your training before he finds us again. I'm going to ask Aridos if he can do anything to shelter us from the evil that will, until destroyed, hunt for us specifically. We can't just let him roam forever, but he is still too strong for us now."

When we arrived at Plushtopia, Aridos seemed to know the situation and quickly escorted us to the large arch that I had seen Seryn step through in her memories.

"I think I know just the place where you can hide." He grunted. "Seryn, do you remember Rye? He was the one you married when you were a plush." Seryn blushed at this fact. She obviously remembered him, but why was she blushing? "I am going to send you back to the world you and he escaped to. It should give you enough time to teach Skyler what he needs to know."

"But I don't know if ..." Seryn began to protest, but quickly realized that time was waning. "Never mind we'll do what we have to do."

Aridos went over to the arch and once again pressed some buttons to open the portal. When the portal opened, Seryn quickly ran through the portal. I was following her when Aridos stopped me.

"Take this with you." He handed me a large backpack. It was white toward the back, but faded to a goldenrod in the front. "It has your spell book and a few other necessities." I gratefully took the pack and strapped it around my back. I then said good bye to Aridos and rushed through the portal.

Seryn was waiting for me. We were about to walk around and explore this new world when we were stopped.

"Welcome to Plushtopia home of the ... Seryn? Is that you? Don't you remember? It's me, Rye. I thought you were gone!"

END OF CHAPTER 3!

Author's Ending Notes: … I think this chapter was actually shorter than the last one. And also, when Mana says "How did you get here?" the spell checker called that a sentence fragment. Silly spell check. You don't need to do my editing for me.

Look out for:

Chapter 4: Plushtopia