Thursday, September 15, 2005

   Chapter 6: The University Caravan (part 2)
It was the day before they left for University when Pen found the paper that Tory had stuck behind the shelf. He was gathering together his special papers in preparation for the next morning, when they would be traveling to Quont-Ein in order to join the caravan. Surprised that someone else had come across his hiding spot, he unfolded the old piece of parchment.
It had a line of angel-magic symbols, labeled with the words “awaken power.” Pen, who possessed almost no magic, could not read them, so he folded it back up. He gathered his article about Predicus and his invitation to University, and took the little stack up to his dorm room.
The room was only a small, empty, dark space. A collection of Pen’s clothes—the plain, brownish-gray outfits of the Archives—was already packed into a well-worn backpack given to him by a wiseman. He sat down on the colorless bed to look at Predicus once again.
His hero appeared like he always did, those fierce gray eyes staring somewhere Pen could not see.
I’m on my way, the boy thought to himself. I’m going to Havoc!

The next morning, two wisemen walked a group of five kids to Quont-Ein to join the University Caravan at the head of the main trail. The wide, well-worn path was the primary way of travel between Quont-Ein and Goswen Port. After Goswen, the rest of the way was by boat along the Acheron River.
All of the kids were quiet with excitement the whole way. Three were girls; Tory and two of her friends. The boy also seemed to know her, although not as well. Pen was, again, the outsider in both appearance and additude.
The wisemen said good-bye to them as they mingled with a large group of other elf-kids from nearby villages. Towering over the sea of children was the caravan: soldiers, some more friendly-looking than others, all armed and ready for duty.
A blue-haired elf with kind, yellow eyes checked his watch. “We leave as soon as the guardians arrive,” he told the group of impatient kids. Even though the main trail was used often, it still went through the forest, so you could never be too careful, especially with a group of delicious kids. “They’re late, as usual.”
“No, never!” yelled a voice from the forest. They heard the pounding of hooves in the distance. A moment later, a horse and rider burst out of the woods before them, the gigantic bay rearing as the elf on his back wheeled her around to a stop.
Many of the kids gasped and held on to each other. Horses had become a rare sight since the Continental War, before which they had been plentiful. Many hundreds of thousands had died bravely in battle, leaving nearly only the wild ones to survive. There were only a few bred war-horses still around, not counting those that had gone wild after the war, and this appeared to be one of them.
Pen would have expected no less. The gray-haired elf on her back wore a shimmering, pearl-colored cloak and he held a staff with a big white crystal on the top; the outfit of a Havoc-graduate wizard.
“Oh, don’t scare them, Contra!” cried yet another voice, this one even more familiar. Pen spun around and saw Panda on the back of Keion, hovering just over the ledge of the city.
“Do you have the dragon?” Contra asked his colleague.
“Yep, right here!” Panda pointed to a little speck of red on his shoulder that was Sasheeta.
“Okay, we can start moving,” Contra announced. He turned his horse around and started to lead the way along the main trail. When the soldiers also started to move, the kids gave each other meaningful glances and started walking. Panda flew overhead, watching over the scene.
After several minutes, the kids started to talk amongst themselves while they walked. Some of the tension faded from the air.
Pen, who walked alone at the edge of the group, immersed himself in his own thoughts. He was frustrated about not having found the solution to Lucaya’s strange two-word name. On the other hand, University also had a large library, not to mention knowledgable people that he could ask.
“Excuse me,” said the soldier beside him. Pen was mildly surprised; it was an elf-woman. She had light brown hair, braided back with a strip of leather, and matching colored eyes. Her armor consisted of chain mail covered by a plain, black surcoat. She wore only a quiver of arrows and a bow as her weapon. “Are you the boy who was invited to University a year early?”
Pen nodded grimly.
“Wow, I’ve heard so much about you!” she exclaimed. “I’m Nomei by the way. Is it true that you really killed a night griffin? Your eyes are really black?”
“What does it look like?” Pen snapped.
“It’s so strange though!” she continued, not put off by his angry tone. “I can’t sense any wild magic around you, which is really strange, because only wild magic could do something like that. Elf or angel magic alone doesn’t have the power to change a person’s body like that.” She sighed, not noticing that Pen kept flashing her angry looks. “Maybe my magic is just not sensitive enough…
“Hey, have you heard of Gerrit the Earthbound?” she suddenly asked. “You must have heard of him from somewhere!”
The name did sound vagely familiar, but Pen couldn’t recall where he had heard it before, so he shook his head. “No, I don’t believe I have.”
“Well, he might be able to sense if it was wild magic that made you like this,” she continued, talking so quickly Pen nearly had trouble keeping up with her. “He’s really perceptive of wild magic and he’s always on the lookout for it. We run into him a lot when we travel. He’s a strange guy. He always says I talk too much and he won’t answer any of my questions. Hey, maybe we’ll run into him along the way! He always runs into the University Caravan every year at some point in time…”
Pen was no longer listening. Nomei kept talking on and on about everything from wild magic, the magic of the wild wizards, to Akana, Contra’s horse. He did not know or care how she could talk so much. One thing was for sure: Gerrit was dead right. She did talk too much. Way too much.
Comments (1)