Chapter 4: Mr. Enter and the Wizard Training

"Where are we going?" Mr. Enter asked the Old Man as the caravan trotted along. The camels cost nothing to use, unlike the other caravans the Old Man had suggested. At some point, likely at the beginning of the dialogue exchange, Enter had requested that a simple car be used, but it was shot down by Old Man for unreliability.

"To the ancient training grounds, to practice your wizardry," Old Man explained, his voice as dry and emotionless as the desert stretched out in front of them. The Desert of Maine, as it was called, had patches of sand in-between forests. A camel statue stood, overlooking the closed tourist attraction as the duo dismounted.

"And what are you going to do with the rest of the camels? Let them graze the sand?" Mr. Enter questioned as he remained on his camel, waiting for the aid of the Old Man. His wounds from his fight with the shadowman still aching, but the blood flow had calmed; his movements were stilted.

"They will despawn when the spell wears out," he further explained, taking out his staff once more. The orb remained on the previous spell, the sphere glowing white with spiral swirls. He position the staff at an angle facing Enter, and not a second later the same healing stripes caused his wounds to vanish. "Any broken bones?"

Enter tested his arms, then his legs, then shifted his body ever-so slowly onto the ground below. As his boots touched, the train of camels broke apart, fading into the sand beneath them. He stood there, mind awed but face indifferent, before a sharp pain struck him down. On the sand, he held his leg, where a gash remained.

"I won't be able to cast the spell for a few hours," Old Man said, helping Enter up, "do you suppose you'll survive."

"Oh, I'll survive all right," Enter's voice was riddled with sarcasm. "Why don't you teach me how to use that spell so I can heal myself?"

"Heal isn't available for a novice like you. Your staff can take it; it's a novice spell; but you need to find inner peace for it to work."

Dusting the sand off his robe, Enter took in his surroundings. Stretches of fertile-soil-turned-sand marked the area, and the previously-mentioned treeline was thick into the distance. "This is a tourist attraction. You want me to practice magic, in a tourist attraction?"

Old Man tipped his head, coating his face in shadows. It was a gesture Enter noticed as the years went by, a gesture that indicated impatience. "Look, there aren't many places within reasonable travel distance, so this will work. Unless you want to take a camel ride to a cave three hours from here, I suggest you accept what we have."

Arguing against the Old Man would prove futile. Enter took the staff, ignored the pain in his leg as he adjusted it, and looked the Old Man in his shady eyes. "Fine… What are we practicing? A spell for better transportation, I hope?"

With the shake of his head, the Old Man simply said, "No. We will be practicing spells and spell reading." The look on Enter's face spoke of sheer disbelief, but the Old Man went on, "If you can't read your spell, there's no point in casting. Twist your orb up and down to select an element; there should be five pre-installed on that staff."

Silently listening, Enter followed the instructions to look through the spells. To his surprise, each element had its name listed in English. Fire, water, ice, health, and necromancy. Each element had a unique glow to it: Red, blue, pale blue, white, and purple. When Enter returned his gaze to the Old Man, he had started rushing to Enter's side, checking the staff.

"That can't be right," he muttered, flicking through the elements again and again, caught in the repetitive motion. "There shouldn't be any necromancy spells. This staff is supposed to have earth installed in its place; that is how I created the camels. You can't form transportation from the necromancy class."

He backed away, gave a defeated sigh, and returned the staff to Enter. "You'll have to learn necromancy on your own. I have no proficiency in that subject. I assume the intended staff was misplaced, or you grabbed the wrong one. Either way, that is enough of that. If you slide the orb sideways, you should see spells appear. The names will be foreign to anyone who isn't holding the staff, but you will read it in your main language."

Again, Enter listened to these instructions, and swiping through the set of fire spells, he could see Fire Ring, Torch, and Lantern. "And how do I perform these spells?"

"Think of them. Imagine yourself as the staff, as the spell, as the energy being absorbed from the particles in the ground beneath you. Once you do that, the rest comes naturally."

He took hold of the staff, changing the element down to water. Performing fire near a forest, all as an untrained apprentice, would cause major damage that he could predict. The water spells were of a similarly-limited selection: Splash, pool, and drizzle. Enter shut his eyes, attempting to hone in on the element of water as Old Man had instructed. Pointing his staff, and reopening his eyes, Enter expected water to shoot out; he had set his staff to pool.

Not a single droplet fell from the orb. Its hue was as blue as the deepest of oceans, but looks were different from action. He shook the staff out of frustration, like he'd expected it to start working out of desire. "Any better advice? 'Honing in' doesn't seem to work."

"You're a wizard, Enter," Old Man said, "the staff will work for you eventually. Maybe not right now, but when you need it most. Consider another spell, on another element."

Again, Enter repeated what he did before, though the pause was greater, emphasizing his focus on the second element he chose, health. Since his leg was screaming in agony, surely that had to be enough focus to do something? The spells were, again, limited. Heal, recover, and bandage were listed, but in Enter's opinion, the first two were indistinguishable.

"You can't use heal," Old Man repeated, "it's a spell that, if you perform wrong, could rip open your wounds in an attempt to heal them. I would recommend bandage as a starter spell."

"Is there any difference between heal and recover?" Enter questioned, surveying the area. The sky was becoming dark; only a little, with indigo painting the sky, but another hour and he would be unable to see five feet in front of him.

"Of course. Why would there be two spells that perform the same action?" The Old Man rolled through the spells in his staff. "Heal is the weaker form of divine light, from a master spell book. Heal stitches up your wounds, hardening bones together and connecting open skin. Recover causes your wounds to speed up in the healing process; use with major, untreated injuries could cause complications, however, so be wary if you use it. And, if you wondered, divine light is both, but better at healing you overall."

Enter used the staff, locked firmly on the heal spell, only for the staff to, again, do nothing of notice. He grunted, shuffled through his spells, and gave the Old Man a solid look. "How long did it take for you to learn?"

"About a month for the basics. I stopped counting after that."

He took Enter's staff, and in seconds cast the heal spell himself. The last of Enter's wounds from the shadowman healed, leaving him conflicted, but happy overall. Giving it back, the Old Man suggested, "Perhaps your mind is too occupied to learn the staff. Without clear thoughts, all you will do is swing the staff mindlessly in fruitless attempts, expecting it to work.

"I have decided to change my mind. The Desert of Maine might not be the best starting place for you. You have to wait in a place where no shadowman can disturb you, but you can find inner peace to begin your training,"

With the bow of his head, he changed his element to earth. Upon summoning a flock of ostridges, Old Man motioned for Enter to get on one. "We need to continue our travels. If luck is on our side, we should reach it before night falls."

"Hang on," Enter interrupted, "what about the shadowmen? If we ride ostridges, won't we be more noticeable targets?"

Old Man ignored the question until Enter joined him on an ostridge, to which he said, "Shadowmen don't have eyes as far as I'm aware. They take advantage of smell."

The two rode away on their ostridges, passing the small desert patches and entering the forests beyond. Darkness crept from the inner hollows of trees, or the shade of leaves, bringing forth a sense of unease. The distance between the start and end of the forest would be a measly few minutes, though Enter remained on high alert, his eyes often returning to the staff held in his hands.

"I wouldn't consider using magic," Old Man whispered, "not until we're away from any shadows. The shadowmen sense magic with greater skill than they sense smell."

Birds stood from the branches, eyeing the travelers as though they were a threat, unaware that the more dangerous enemy lies in secrecy. "I still don't understand," Enter went on, "why me, of all people? I know I'm not that liked; far from it; but to send absurd creatures after me? Forcing me to use… to use magic?"

He expected the Old Man to respond at once, but he was quiet as they rode on. The forest light grew as the trees thinned, allowing the ostridges to break away and free themselves from the shadows. Stretches of grass covered the land, up until the mountains in the distance, where a faint blue hue coated its true colors.

The Old Man chose to speak at that point, even though Enter had already forgotten his question. "I understand it as much as you do," he admitted, "but life has a way. I might not know it, you might not know it, but somewhere down the line, we will understand everything."

They rode in silence after that. The grasslands were a breeze to get through, like a calm before the storm, yet the Old Man stopped the ostridges and despawned them once Enter got off of his. "Night is falling," was the only explanation he gave.

Enter watched him raise the earth so that a small wall of stone, thick like the rock layer of a campfire, encircled them. Several pillars rose, followed by their flattening into walls, and then a roof overhead. His staff changed from dark green to red, when he set the grass ablaze with fire. The part of the floor that wasn't burning was overturned to reveal soil, then covered in hardened earth.

"This will keep them out for now," Old Man said, opening a hole in the roof to cause grass growth above, which was lit as well. "We need safety as much as we need sleep."

Pressing his back against the cold, hard stone, Mr. Enter thought about the sudden events of the day, questioning how he could have ended up in such a situation. It all started with that burrito in the microwave he didn't own… And now here he was, hiding for his life in a poorly-constructed house of stone, surrounded by fire and enough heat to cook him alive.

The Old Man noticed his discomfort and grew a barrier of stone around the fire to decrease the temperature, even if by a little. By a miracle, they were able to fall asleep. Enter let the darkness consume him, expecting the days to go by faster, and thus for this mission to end sooner.

Enter woke on a floor as black as the night, with walls only a bit brighter but severely reflective. An unknown light source brightened up the room to an impressive degree, though the figure who stood in front of him should have remained in the dark. One of the shadowmen overlooked him, taking the figure of a typical human, without any of the defining colors.

The shadowman stared, his expression blank yet menacing. Or, perhaps it was the lack of defining features, causing his uncanny appearance. Enter backed away, narrowed his eyes, and bolted. He had no weapons; no form of attack. It was either run or be forced to look at the shadowman.

He shut his eyes in an attempt to flee, but they were forced open when a second shadowman stopped him, forcing him still. The creatures were quiet, suggesting that they could not speak. Enter managed to say something, but his voice was hoarse. "What do you want?!"

They ignored his question, only looking at each other before returning their nonexistent glares to him. Enter watched as they nodded, turned towards the approaching of a third, more human figure…

His features could not be found before the void came crashing down.