"ShadowStride: A Mages Legacy...
BY;fernand jiro
Or so they thought.
What the bandits did not know was that Xavier was a mage warrior in training. When they pushed him in, all Xavier had to do was make an air bubble over his nose to breathe through, then when they were gone, he could use telekinesis to lift a kunai knife from his hidden pack and cut himself free.
Xavier snickered as the bandits looked around for his pack. He had left it at his camp before he’d followed them. What idiots they were, they had seen him walking behind them without a pack, so why would it be in the grass ahead of where they captured him?
“What are y’laughing at?” The chubby one snapped at Xavier.
“Your stupid accent, fat man!” Xavier replied.
“Why you little…better watch y’mouth, boy, I cut your tongue out, I will.”
Xavier rolled his eyes. Where had this guy learned English? He clearly couldn’t speak it very well. “Like I’m scared of you. Aren’t bandits supposed to be, I dunno, thin? I can crawl faster than you can run, Chubby.”
Chubby kicked him. It didn’t hurt, so Xavier went on. “Just trying to be helpful. You know, if you’re running, someone near could think it’s a stampede of buffalo. Then they’ll shoot you. It’s easy, mistaking you for a buffalo, that’s why I followed you in the first place. Buffalo don’t live in the forest, I thought I’d hit the jackpot.”
Chubby’s friend, the thin bandit, slapped Xavier. That stung.
“Throw ‘im in the river, Steven, I want to get out o ‘ere. Word is a rich man isa comin’ to that town north o’ here, we’ll catch ‘im alone and take everything he ‘as. Then we can kill ‘im and get away before anyone finds out.” Chubby said. Wow, his English was really bad.
With a grunt, the bandit Steven pushed Xavier in the river. Xavier willed some of the water to form an air bubble over his nose. He waited until the two bandits laughter faded away before focusing on an image of his pack in his head, willed the knife out, and carried it down the forest path until it was close enough to drop in the river and cut the rope that bound his wrists. Xavier was still a bit clumsy when it came to telekinesis, so when his focus decreased a tiny bit he sliced his wrist. Naturally. He grabbed the knife with his hand and cut the rope around his ankle. Grinning in triumph, he kicked to the surface and crawled out of the water.
He shook his head like a dog, attempting to dry his shoulder length black hair some, and jogged down the path to his camp. After returning the knife to his pack and sitting down on a rock, he thought about what had just occurred. Note to self, Xavier, when being stupid and following bandits, don’t get spotted. He thought about finding the bandits again, so they’d think he was a ghost and wet themselves or something, but decided against it. He had to keep moving, because he was running away from the village he came from.
Xavier was from a small village of mostly farmers, and had been an orphan. He had noticed at a young age that he could sometimes move things without touching them if he was really angry, and that most of the villagers had similar features…except Xavier.
Then a man arrived, claiming to be called Henry, and told Xavier he was his grandfather. He taught Xavier how to move things at will, how to use magic, he told stories of the mage clans and how Xavier was a descendant of them, like himself.
The mage clans started out as a group of swordsmen who, after an encounter with a mysterious traveler, noticed that they had magical powers. They called themselves Mage Warriors, and unlike wizards, they didn’t need a wand or staff to channel magic through. Though it wasn’t necessary, they channeled magic through their weapons, which were double edged swords, each having a different symbol engraved at the base of the blade. They called these Magi Swords.
Lots of mages were hunted and killed by a group of assassins, claiming mages were freaks and deserved to be wiped off the planet. They few that remained were saved by one mage, Morzarr, who used all his magic to cause the assassins to fade away. Morzarr was killed in the process, and his Magi Sword was given to his son, and was handed down from father to son for generations.
Henry died of old age and sickness, and on his deathbed, he revealed to Xavier that he was a grandchild of Morzarr, and when Xavier’s father - and Henry’s son - had died, Henry had retrieved Morzarr’s sword from him. Then he gave the sword to Xavier, told him it’s name was Somnium, and…just died.
Xavier had a sudden urge to see the sword, so he pulled Somnium’s case from under his pack and slid the sword out of it’s sheath.
Somnium was a beautiful sword that could easily slice a human clean in half. Its blade was the color of a rose, the edges had a pink tint to them, the pommel was silver and the hilt was silver. The symbol on the blade was black.
Xavier put the deadly tool back into it’s scabbard, feeling safe with the weight of the blade at his belt. Xavier could hardly believe the sword that hung from his side used to belong to the most powerful Mage Warrior of all time. Much less that he was a descendant of Morzarr.
Even though Xavier had never used Somnium in battle, he was a very good swordsman. After all, he had spent 5 years training with Henry using wooden swords, and could now easily defeat any swordsman he had ever met. But then again, he had only met two swordsmen besides Henry and they had been beginners.
Xavier remembered Henry’s last words, the words he spoke as he gave Xavier the sword: “This sword is Morzarr’s legacy, one of the most powerful weapons ever. It is called Somnium, and it will serve you well. Protect it with your life, because many people will try to steal it if they find out you have it. Remember…a sword is powerful, yes. But it is more powerful if the hand that holds it has courage…”
Xavier grabbed his pack and slung it onto his back. As of now, he had no clue where he was going or what he was going to do, other than get away from the village he was from. Try and find other mages, he guessed, so he could continue his training and be a Mage Warrior in full.
He wondered what the other mages would look like. Would they have the same dark hair and light blue eyes as him? Pointy, elfish ears? Xavier was human, but Henry had told him all mages had pointy ears. The difference between elves and humans was most elves had silver or purple hair and their skin had a bluish tint, and they had pointy ears.
Xavier started down the path, wondering what the future would hold for him. Would it be the jade forests he loved? Blood? Pain? Death? Hopefully it would hold the rest of the mages, and some adventure. After all, everything is better with a little excitement.
Xavier laughed at himself. He sounded so dramatic.
It wasn’t long until he could here a little kid crying, and then the boom of a voice he recognized; “Shut up or we will kill you. Now, give me every last coin you have or else.”
“Hey, why don’t you pick on someone your own size! Or…well, not your size. The only thing that’s exactly your size is a whale, fatty.” Xavier called to the chubby bandit who had attempted to kill him earlier, who was terrorizing a little boy holding a pouch that apparently had coins in it.
Chubby looked and his jaw dropped. “That’s right, you didn’t kill me. Oh and word to the wise, buddy, lay off the cakes.” Xavier said. He decided this bandits name was officially Chubby.
Chubby raised the dagger in his head and was probably going to stab the kid before Xavier used telekinesis to jerk it out of his hand. Chubby stared at his empty hand, apparently frozen.
Xavier ran at him, and yanked Somnium from it’s sheath. These bandits were too dangerous to let go. Xavier stabbed the fat bandit through the heart from behind, then spun around and sliced the head off the other one before he could attack Xavier. He noticed the blood didn’t stick to Somnium. Cool, at least he didn’t have to clean the sword after every kill. Nice.
“Hey, it’s okay, they’re dead, you can open your eyes now.” Xavier said softly to the kid. When he looked up at Xavier, he continued “Listen, you better go back to where your mom is, ‘kay?”
Xavier turned and walked away. A little voice spoke “What’s your name, mister?” Heh. ‘Mister’. Xavier was only 14, and had never been called that before. He sheathed his sword and looked at the boy over his shoulder.
“It’s Xavier.”
And with that, Xavier ran into the sunset, feeling very proud he had just saved a kids life.
Because the forest was so thick, hardly any light from the moon penetrated through the trees, making it pitch black every night.
Xavier continued down the path until he heard a rustle behind him. He yanked Somnium from his side and whirled around. All the saw was a little brown creature
He breathed a sigh of relief. “A squirrel. I thought it was a bear or something. Geez, am I getting paranoid.”
He continued until he found a cave, checked for any signs that it was home to a bear or lynx, and went inside once he was sure it was safe. After he had built a fire and had a snack, Xavier pulled a blanket out of his pack and fell asleep.
Xavier rolled over and opened his eyes. He could hear birds singing outside, but he refused to get up. Eventually his stomach refused to let him sleep any longer, so he got up and ate the last of the dried berries in his food sack. He spit out a spider that had clung to a berry.
“Okay, well, not exactly the breakfast of champions, but at least you didn’t decide to crawl back up my throat or something.” Xavier said to the spider and squished it. He put his blanket away, and was almost out of the cave, ready to walk a couple more miles, when he noticed the now familiar weight of Somnium at his belt was gone. He turned around, thinking he’d forgotten it, but it was nowhere to be seen.
“Thieves,”
But when Xavier looked down, he smirked at the clear footprints in the dirt leading away from his cave. Whoever this thief was, he was seriously stupid. Xavier followed the footprints and flattened grass until he was at the wagon road. Sure enough, there were a group of men standing around a wagon loaded with stolen items. Xavier could see Somnium’s hilt sticking out from under the tarp.
Now, how to get it back? Xavier had no way of defending himself other than a kunai knife, which, against the swords he could see hanging at the thieves sides, wouldn’t be much use. But…what if, along their way down the road, one of their wheels broke?
Xavier snuck around to the front of the wagon, so they wouldn’t see him, and started cutting one of the wooden wheels with his knife about halfway, so that after a little ways down the road it would break.
One of the men started walking around to the front, so Xavier crawled under the wagon. With any luck, the man wouldn’t notice the damaged front wheel. Xavier looked up at the bottom of the wagon, and saw that in a small square, the wood was a different color than the rest. A trapdoor, maybe? He pushed up and sure enough, it opened up to where all the stolen items were held. He crawled inside and just as he pulled the door closed, the wagon started moving. Great…
Xavier had to lie flat on his belly to fit, so it was kind of hard to look around for Somnium. It took him awhile to find it, and no sooner than he closed a hand around the scabbard than he heard one of the front wheels bust, and the thieves cursing. Something behind Xavier broke.
“Lemme check the back o’ this thing, I heard somethin’ break. Better make sure it ain’t nothin’ too valuable.” A man said.
Xavier froze. They were going to find him, he was as good as dead. Now he knew what it felt like for flies to be stuck in a spider web. Desperate, he peered through a crack in the wood. He could see the feet of the man as he undid the knots holding the tarp down. Also a pebble that looked very sharp…and would probably do some damage if it hit the mans skull at a hundred miles per hour.
Concentrating as hard as he could on the pebble, Xavier lifted it with his mind and hurled it as fast as he could toward the mans head. When Xavier looked, there was a perfect hole through the mans skull, and he dropped dead, blood pouring out of the wound. Xavier grinned. Twenty points for the mage in the wagon.
The rest of the thieves gathered around their fallen comrade, and while the were distracted, Xavier managed to open the trapdoor and slid out of the wagon. They must have heard the thud and the “oof” that escaped Xavier as he hit the ground, because one of them said, “Hey, Parker, I heard somethin’ under the wagon.”
Xavier grimaced. Ten points for the thieves.
He crawled his way out from under the wagon and buckled Somnium’s scabbard back onto his belt, then slid the sword out of its sheath and pointed it at the thieves.
“Looky here, Parker, we got a little man tryin’ to steal our goods. What d’ya gotta say to that, little man?” One of them said. Xavier assumed this Parker was the leader.
“You stole it from me in the first place, I had every right to get it back. Now, you can let me go or I’ll kill every one of you like I killed that one that’s lying there in the dirt.” Xavier said.
The thieves formed a circle around him while the biggest one said, “That’s awful brave talk for a kid that’s about to get his neck broke!” And Xavier indeed felt an arm wrap around his neck and start to squeeze. He thrust the hand holding Somnium backwards, bashing whoever had him in the face with the hilt. Xavier heard bone crunch. He must’ve broken his captors nose. Heh, sixteen points for the mage.
Before they could react, Xavier jumped forward and brought his sword down on the biggest one’s shoulder, cutting through the flesh and bone until the blade struck the thief’s hip, severing his right shoulder, arm, and part of his side. Xavier stopped at that - the man would bleed to death, so he was taken care of.
Xavier spun around and saw one of them jumping at him with a dagger. He swung Somnium and the flat of the blade struck the thief on the side of the head, knocking him out cold.
At the same time, he used telekinesis to pick up his knife, which had fallen several feet away, and flung it through the hair, impaling the last one - who was trying to run away - in the back of the head.
Xavier looked around at the mess of dead thieves. Hmm…sixty points for the mage who kicked butt just now.
“Okay, well, not really the best way to start a day, but at least I had some fun,” he said as he started back down the road, through the forest, and into the cave he had stayed in over night. He grabbed his pack, and continued to walk down the forest trails.
Xavier though about going back to the wagon and seeing if there was anything in there to be of use to him, and after a very long time of trying to find it again, he was pulling the tarp off and digging through the junk.
The only thing that could be of use was a large back of coins, which he dropped in his pack, then continued up the road away from the bodies.
He set out at a fast walk, eager to get farther before dusk, and stopped only to get an apple from a tree in the middle of the dirt road. He used magic to get the biggest one from the top - gotta love telekinesis.
“Aha! You! I knew I was going in the right direction!”
Xavier spun around. There was a group of men standing right behind him. Judging by the armor they were wearing, they were soldiers patrolling the wagon roads, looking for trouble makers.
Xavier turned and ran as fast as he could.
A soldier on a horse pushed past Xavier, stopped, and the horse kicked him in the chest, sending him flying backwards. Xavier hit the dirt several feet away, gasping for air. That kick had knocked the breath right out of him. And it hurt.
“Game over, kid. We know you killed those men back there. Now, cooperate, and you might live a little longer.” A soldier said to him.
After several tries, Xavier managed “But they were thieves,” he coughed, then went on “they stole my sword and when I tried to get it back they attacked me, I was defending myself.”
“Sure. Uh huh. Now why don’t you -”
Xavier missed the rest of what the soldier was going to say, because he blacked out. He couldn’t seem to breathe very well…
When he woke up, he was lying in the back of a large wagon. The road was bumpy, so at least the horses pulling the wagon were walking - if they were going any faster Xavier was sure he’d throw up.
He tried to sit up, and noticed his wrists and ankles were chained to the floor of the wagon. A soldier came over to him.
“May I ask what your name is?” The soldier said.
“It’s…Axel.” Xavier said. There was no way he was going to tell them his real name. What if they posted wanted signs or something?
“Axel, my name is Jason. I am a soldier, as you probably know by now.”
“Where are we going?” Xavier interrupted.
“To Gavios, for your execution.” Jason told him.
“Execution? Why?!” Xavier said. You know it’s a bad day when nearly getting killed because you got kicked in the chest by a horse isn’t near the worst thing that’s happened.
“You killed those men,” Jason said simply.
“Well yeah, they stole my sword and tried to kill me! I was defending myself. Why do you even care, they were thieves! We’re all better off without them!”
“Be quite. You did it because your cold hearted scum. Now shut up.” Jason snapped, and exited the prisoner hold. This must’ve been a pretty big wagon.
Xavier slumped against the wall and tugged at the chains. It wasn’t any use. This wasn’t fair! He had just been getting back what was rightfully his, and defending himself against the thieves.
He stared at the wooden floor, determined to try and figure a way out. He knew were Gavios was, and it would probably be a day or two before they arrived there. Xavier drifted back to sleep…
Xavier jerked awake, thinking about the dream he"d just had, about when he first learned fire magic.That was it! Set the wagon on fire and get the heck out of here!
Xavier used telekinesis to turn the lock on his chains and free himself, then stood up and focused on the wagon, except the small section where he stood. “Nigrum Incendium!” He whispered. The wood of the wagon shot up in pitch black flames.
He saw Somnium and his pack at the other side of the prisoner hold, lifted them to him using telekinesis, and jumped out of the burning wreckage that used to be a soldier wagon. After he was sure the soldiers were dead, he put out the fire before it could hit the trees framing the road.
After hoisting his pack back onto his shoulders and buckling Somnium back onto his belt, he set off at a run down the road and through the woods. He knew he wasn’t in any danger of being hunted - the soldiers had burned to death.
Two hundred points for the mage, Xavier thought as he continued through the forest.
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