Wizards and Neanders - Chapter 9

It was very quiet in among the trees. There was an expectant hush hanging over the forest that was filled with a lot of tension. Usually the forest was filled with noises from the various inhabitants. The squirrels and chipmunks chittered away at each other complaining loudly whenever their territory was breached. The birds chatted at each other from high up in the trees and the ever present wind swayed the branches of the trees but at this moment it was very quiet as if everything in the forest knew that Branna was there and that he was being hunted. Even the wind had stopped blowing for a few minutes. It was the proverbial calm before the storm and he could feel it all through his bones. It was too quiet and it was making him even more scared then he already was. 1

Every second that passed it got more quiet which was remarkable because there was already a dead quiet. He could feel the fear building in him each second and he was sure that the one who was projecting it not only knew exactly where he was but also knew his emotional state. It was feeding off of the fear that he was projecting. Branna knew that he had to do something right away or he wouldn't stand a chance because he was already near panicking. He had seen too many times how much strong emotion, especially panicking, could disrupt your inner balance and cause you freeze up so much that you were no good at all and if anything dangerous came upon you in that state then you didn't stand a chance. However, just because he knew what was happening didn't stop it from happening. It had taken him years to understand that point. 2

The first key to self mastery was to recognize what was happening with your body. The second step was to allow it to happen and accept it. Only after you had accepted it could you begin to master it and overcome it. This was ingrained in him through years of practice and countless object lessons that had caused him a lot of pain. Only after step two could you actually begin to assert your mastery over your own body. Branna took a deep cleansing breath and cleared his mind of everything except the fear that he was feeling that had taken over his body. He started in his toes and worked his way up his body bring the fear with him. He imagined that he gathered it all together in a very tightly woven net which got fuller as it went up his body not allowing any to escape. When he got to the top of his head he took the net full of fear and tied it off and began compacting it until it was a small ball sitting in the back of his mind. Finally he opened his eyes and came out of his trance and found that he was perfectly calm and the fear was all gone although he could still feel it sitting bound and tied off in the back of his mind but it didn't bother him at all and after that initial awareness that it was there in the back of his mind he was able to ignore it completely. 3

It was right at dusk and the sun was just about to disappear over the horizon. Branna knew that he couldn't sit in this little clump of bushes all night or he might not wake up in the morning. He looked around at all the trees and started walking towards the biggest one that he could see. It was a huge tree that towered over all the others in the forest and he began climbing it by using the vines that were hanging down from the branches. It was hard work climbing that tree but he finally found a big enough branch that he could nestle up in the fork and stay for the night. He got settled in a comfortable position and prepared to wait. He was very hungry because he hadn't eaten since that morning but he went through the same exercise with his hunger that he had with his fear and after a few minutes it didn't bother him anymore. 4

He would have been fine after that except for one problem. He couldn't go to sleep. Once he went to sleep he would not be able to keep the fear tied up in the back of his head and it would come out once more while he was sleeping and lead the monster right to him. He had to stay awake all through the night in order to maintain that control. It wasn't the first time however that he had to spend a lonely vigil through the night with nothing to console him except for his thoughts, but it was the first time that he has to spend that lonely vigil a hundred feet off the ground in the fork of a giant tree. He wasn't very happy about the prospect, but he was much happier doing that then he was coming down out of that tree especially in the dark. He settled back in the tree and waited. In order to stay awake he began reviewing his lessons that he had been required to memorize since he was a small boy. 5

The wizard kingdom had once been a great force to reckon with and had been very big and dominant. They had cities all over their kingdom with a large wizard tower in every city. He had been required to know the name of all five major cities because of the prophecy that they would be rebuilt in the future and regain their former glory. 6

Bohanna was the capital city of the Wizard kingdom and had the largest wizard tower in the land. It was in the exact center of what was then the Wizard kingdom. The borders had changed since then but not by much. 7

Bratail was the northernmost city and all wizards were required to spend two years there helping protect the border from the cursed people living in the mountains. 8

Beshaki was the southernmost Wizard city and had the fields of grain that were used to feed the rest of the kingdom. 9

Bejare was in the east and Bejesh was in the west. Bejesh was set to watch over the Neander kingdom which bordered the Wizard kingdom on the west. Bejare was the major trading city for the kingdom. They had a seaport and ships from all over the empire came to trade with them. 10

There had been a war with the Neanders over the sword of Jeenthon in which the two kingdoms had destroyed each other. The Neanders had marched on the wizard kingdom with an army of two hundred thousand and after a war which lasted for five years they finally succeeded in destroying all five cities and burning all but one of the wizard towers. It was a very bloody and brutal war in which all but a hundred and twenty nine of the two hundred thousand neanders were killed, but not before they succeeded in killing every single wizard that they could find. After that war there were so few of them left that the Jalian empire and come in and taken over both countries forcing the few occupants left there to kneel to the emperor.11

Even the empire never found the sixth hidden wizard city however. The wizards were at the pinnacle of their power and might just before the Neander war and they had created a sixth city which was inhabitated by only wizards. After the city was created they had formed the largest wizard circle and created a protective shield over it which could only be breached by a wizard. Anyone else attempting to enter it would be transported to the other side instantly and had their memories erased for the previous thirty seconds so it would appear as if they had stepped from one side of the city to the other instantly with nothing in between enforcing the illusion that there was nothing there.12

Towards the end of the Neander war half of the members on the ruling council of the wizard kingdom had been able to come to the hidden city after they had realized that they were not going to be able to win this war. They had stayed hidden in that city for hundreds of years after that never coming out to let the Neanders or the empire know that they were there. They had tried to create other hidden cities but they weren't strong enough and the best they could do was to hide small villages which they had done all through the kingdom. 13

Every child in the kingdom was required to become an apprentice wizard and to study the arcane arts with diligence and determination. They were also required to learn warrior skills so that they could function in case their magic failed them. When they reached their nineteenth birthday they were required to go on a Dra'dele. It was a passage from apprentice to wizard in which they were turned out from the protected city or village where they had been raised and were required to spend five days in the forest by themselves. They were give one loaf of bread, one sausage, and one block of cheese and were supposed to fend for themselves the rest of the time. They also were absolutely forbidden to use any form of magic whatsoever the whole time that they were out. 14

Branna had been out for two days and now found himself in a big tree. He just shook his head at the craziness of it. Two days ago he had slept comfortably in his own bed, snuggled up under his own blankets. After he had been sitting in the tree for hours he was starting to nod off. It was so hard for him to stay awake but he knew he must. He started to nod off again when he was startled awake by a crashing in the forest below him. He jumped so much that he almost fell out of the tree and just barely managed to catch himself. Something big was stirring around in the bushes below his tree but he couldn't see what it was because it was pitch black around him. What little bit of light offered by the moon was captured by the tops of the trees and filtered out the farther down you went. When it got to his level it was completely gone and he couldn't even see his hand when he put it out in front of his face. 15

He decided that he couldn't trust one of his senses so he would have to increase the other four. He closed his eyes and tried to extend his senses outward. He caught a faint whiff of something putrid but he couldn't tell what it was. The smell came and went in a half a second. He tried again and again he smelled it only stronger this time. It was foul and smelled like dead meat left lying too long. At the same time that he smelled it he heard a scraping on the bark at the base of the tree. He tried touching the tree with his fingertips to feel any tremors that would indicate that it was coming up but the tree was too big and too firm and he couldn't feel anything. In the back of his head he briefly noticed a flare up in the fear ball that was bundled at the back of his head and he knew that it was the one that had been hunting him. 16

He knew that they were both on an equal footing now except for one thing. While these monsters didn't have night vision they did live in caves which were pitch dark most of the time and they were comfortable with using their other senses and not their eyes. He on the other hand didn't often go out at night and was not practiced in not using his eyes which meant that right now the monster had the advantage and unless he did something to change that he would be outmatched. 17

The one advantage that he did have over this monster was the fact that he had known all of this in advance. It was well known that these monsters waited until the sun went down and it was dark outside so that they would have the advantage. He had learned all his life that knowledge was power and now finally he could see that. He had the knowledge so he had the power. He reached for his pack and pulled out the bundle of torches that he had prepared in advance. Taking one he lit it using his fire lighting kit that he had brought with him. When the spark hit the oil soaked rag on the top of the torch it flared up and he was blinded temporarily because he didn't have enough time to look away. 18

Whatever night vision that he had was gone for a few minutes. He brought the torch down and looked towards the base of the tree and froze for a second at the hideous visage of the monster that looked up at him from halfway up the trunk. It's face was that of a snake and the fangs that showed were very long and very white and he knew that they were razor sharp. He hurriedly lit two more torches from the bundle that he had laid out and taking the first he dropped it right at the face of the monster climbing the tree. The monster reached up its hands to protect it's face and then realized that he had nothing to hold onto and fell down out of the tree flat on it's back. It laid there stunned for a second and Branna took advantage of that second to pull out his bow and nock an arrow. When he looked back down at the ground to let go of his arrow however there was nothing to shoot. It was gone and he couldn't see it anywhere within the range of the torches light. His adrenaline was pumping now having looked in the face of the enemy and all of his senses were supersensitive. He smelled it again and oddly enough tasted the foulness on his tongue before he saw it again. It had crawled around to the other side of the tree and was climbing again. He felt the flare of that fear in the back of his head again and he knew the monster was casting the fear before him hoping it would paralyze him or make him panic, but he did neither and as the monster came up to his level on the other side of the tree he calmly scooted himself away from the trunk of the tree to give himself an extra second and then waited for it to show itself on one side or the other. 19

They stayed like that for at least two minutes and in spite of the self mastery exercises the fear was threatening to come unbundled and consume his body. He didn't move a muscle, he just stayed there with his bow drawn with it pointing to the center of the trunk waiting for a signal about which way it would come. It was dead quiet and he was able to focus all of his senses on the spot on the tree right in front of him. Finally he heard a soft scrabbling on the right side of the trunk and the monster stuck it's head out from the side of the tree instantly followed by the rest of it's body. It came in a flurry and if he hadn't been sitting there ready like that it would have easily reached him and overwhelmed him. As soon as it's body showed he knew exactly where he had to shoot and he let the arrow go. It went right into the body of the monster and stopped it dead in its track not a foot away from where he was sitting. The monster was clearly dead though and it fell out of the branch and back down to the ground again. 20

Branna sat there shaking from the unused adrenaline that he almost lost his perch on the branch and fell down himself. He quickly turned around again and planted his back against the trunk of the tree and then he went through his self master exercises again until he had calmed down and stopped shaking. Suddenly he let out a loud shout and pumped his fist in the air and shouted, "Take that!" He didn't know who he was shouting at but he felt triumphant and ecstatic and wanted to jump up and down. It was exhilarating to know that he had been put to the test and he had passed. Not everyone did pass and there were quite a few empty bedrooms from the ones that didn't, but his bedroom would not be empty. 21

He finally calmed down and the adrenaline left his body and he realized just how exhausted that he was. He laid down once more in the fork of the tree and despite the fact that it was so uncomfortable he went right to sleep not waking until the sun was high in the sky the next morning. 22