Searching For A Guardian

2. Magic and Swordplay

The Potions room was very much what you would expect from a sorcerers study. It had high stonewalls, small barred windows and a large reinforced door. It was in the lower parts of the school, the dungeon it was known by some. There were two rows of large black cauldrons in the centre of the room; and around the walls there were hundreds of shelves holding thousands of liquid materials, bones, feathers, teeth etc. In clear glass bottles of all shapes and sizes. Some were centuries old, but all were sparkly clean as if made that very morning.

The dungeon was a unique place; for starters it was one of only three places in the whole school where physical magic was not allowed to be used. This room had an exception for potion magic. Secondly, it was the only subject that Rogue Lee was not very good at. Thirdly, Rogue’s best friend, Kirsten Britton, was a master at the art of potion mixing. It was like a second nature to her and she cherished in the thought of being a great and powerful potion mistress in later years to come.

Kirsten worked alone in the dimly lit dungeon. The oil lamps flickered as the soft cool breeze filtered the room through the open windows. It was cold enough to give her goose bumps but she shook them off as she concentrated on the mixing of potions.

“Green Truli with red Trulo,” she whispered softly to herself as she poured a mixture of contents into a large jug, shaped like a cooking pot, “Thunder sticks go in and something for the blast,” Kirsten dropped two brightly lit yellow sticks and a large white tablet into the jug, she then reached for an ice blue coloured liquid and measured its contents with a large spoon.

The large door opened slowly, heavy chains clattered together and made a loud bang as it opened fully. Chad stepped into the room, smoke evaporated from his body. He walked up to Kirsten and gave her a warm kiss on the cheek. Kirsten felt butterflies in the pit of her stomach, and the room warmed up suddenly.

“Hello, Chad, it’s strange seeing you down here,” she said happily.

“Hiya, Kirsten, how have you been?” He replied.

“Very well thank you, I’m working on a new formula at the moment.”

“Really, what’s that?” Chad looked around the room, he felt uncomfortable about not being allowed to use magic in there. While he was not looking Kirsten quickly tidied her hair, it was long so she kept it in three ponytails that hung past her shoulders. She ran a hand down her face, making sure it was not covered in liquid like once before. She had a small normal shaped nose and a few passing freckles on her face where finally reaching womanhood. She picked up her green triangle shaped gem, it hung upside down on brown cord and had the marking of Scenrio on the back.

“If this formula works it will be like a super strength booster for Rogue’s wind capabilities. Power that can reach a status only the creature of death she keeps talking about can summon,” Kirsten sounded pleased with herself. She placed the gem in her bag.

“Sounds extreme,” smirked Chad.

“Indeed,” replied Kirsten, “Here, warm this up for me,” Kirsten passed him the ice blue liquid she had now poured into a small beaker.

“I’m not allowed to so much as breathe in this place you know,” said Chad matter-of-factly.

“Look at the smoke rising off you. Think it’s a bit late for that. Once more won’t hurt. Please? For me?” Kirsten fluttered her eyelids.

“Okay, okay, I’ll do it,” Chad’s hand holding the beaker suddenly ignited, “How hot do you want it?”

“Till it turns orange please… But not red!”
Chad looked down; it was already a matching dark orange like his hand. The flame blew out and he put the beaker down.