Among the Mundane

1 - Encounter

When wizards get stuck in trees, surely, they should be able to cast a simple levitation spell to get themselves out of such a predicament. However, that wasn't the case for a certain red haired wizard-in-training.

The disgruntled boy clutched the tree branch he was perched on as he scanned his surroundings with hopes of finding a solution. He was elevated too high up from the ground and there was nothing to cushion his fall so that he may jump down safely. He surmised that he was in a rural area since there were multitudes of plowed land and trees in the vicinity—and so, there was little hope that anyone would stop by.

In his frustration, he yelled at this companion. "Point, help me out here! Do something!"

"Fukase, kiddo, you're the one with magic here. You should do something," Point—a small, white, humanoid creature—retorted. "You really oughtta pay attention to your wizardry classes. Maybe then you could have casted that levitation spell to get out of this tree. Or maybe you should have thought first before climbing a tree."

"Hey now, give me some credit. I do actually know the spell!" Fukase—as he was called—responded indignantly and then paused. He continued in a more subdued tone, "...But I can only use it on small objects."

Point simply shook his head in discontent at the wizard's incompetence. Suddenly, he stiffened and whispered, "Hold on. Someone is coming." He fell limp into a doll-like state and rested against the boy's knee.

Fukase stuffed Point into his satchel and listened intently to his surroundings. Among the rustling of leaves against the wind, there was a faint tune of cheerful whistling. The sound gradually became more pronounced, so Fukase turned to the direction the melody originated from.

Within moments, the whistler approached into plain sight; a young boy—in denim overalls and a plain white shirt with messy blond hair tucked beneath a sailor cap—skipped around as he continued with the tune. He seemed to have taken no notice of the miserable wizard stuck on a high tree branch.

Fukase didn't want to take his chances of losing potential help. "Hey, you there!" He shouted as clearly as he could from the distance between them. "Would you please help me down from this tree?"

The blond boy stopped in his tracks and faced the trajectory that the voice came from. He tilted the brim of his hat to shield his eyes from the glare of the sun as his gazed wandered up the tree. "I can go grab you a ladder." He had a certain softness to his voice that made it difficult to hear amongst the wind. As he turned to leave, he shouted as a follow-up, "I'll be back!"

Once the boy was out of sight, Fukase sighed in relief—half to himself, and half to Point. "I guess we lucked out, huh?" He asked rhetorically as he patted his bag; Point gave no answer and remained motionless.

With the burden of escape off his shoulders, Fukase took some time to scout his surroundings more carefully. In the distance, an old farmhouse sat among a sea of trees with a barn in the adjacent area to it; Fukase inferred that the boy had went off to that direction. Nothing really seemed interesting nor out of the ordinary.

The atmosphere was quiet and peaceful—perhaps a bit too peaceful for the young wizard's liking. A frown crept onto the corners of his lips at the prospect of staying in such a mundane world; he wondered why he was sent to such a place without magic. However, he had not much time to ponder as the unnamed boy returned with a wooden ladder.

"Hey, I'm back. Sorry, it took a while to get here," the blond said as best as he could while nearly out of breath. The ladder was about twice his height and appeared quite heavy for him to carry alone. He unfolded and pressed the ladder against the base of the tree so that it would not collapse. He then gave it a gentle jolt to test its stability. Satisfied, he looked up and instructed, "You can climb down now."

Fukase glanced at the ladder with delight that he would finally be freed from the elevated prison. He balanced himself and proceeded to descend from the branch. Once he determined that he was close enough to the ground, he jumped off—skipping the last few steps. He sighed in relief that he was once more reunited with a solid surface.

As Fukase steadied himself after the jump, he turned his attention towards his savior—who peered back at him with great interest. Upon closer scrutiny, he noticed that the boy was quite young and had bandages wrapped around the left side of his face. As curious as he was, Fukase figured it would be best to thank him first.

However, before Fukase could say anything, the wind picked up and carried the blond's hat to the top of the tree the redhead was previously on. The hat was snagged onto a sharp branch too far up for them to reach with the wooden ladder.

Eyes widened with anxiety, the boy immediately turned to run towards the direction of the barn. "Sorry, I need to go grab some tools to get my hat back!"

What's his problem? Is that hat really that important?  Fukase wondered to himself and smirked. Maybe my magic will finally be put to good use.

Once the blond was nearly out of sight, Fukase raised his staff—with a bit of concentration—and lifted the hat off from the branch. However, the wizard hadn't realized that the boy had turned back to retrieve the ladder he had left behind.

"What is this sorcery?" The boy blurted out his question with perplexity.

Cold sweat surfaced from Fukase's forehead. "Err...well, you just answered your own question." His voice trembled as he spoke.

"That was amazing!" The boy's initial shock had turned into inquisitiveness. "I have so many questions but I don't know where to start."

"I guess the cat's out of the bag, eh?" Fukase let out a nervous chuckle. "I'm Fukase. Wizard-in-training." He handed the hat back to the curious boy. "Thank you for getting me unstuck earlier."

"Ah, my hat! Thanks!" The blond gingerly traced the hat before securing it back onto his head. "My name is Oliver and I'm just a farm boy." His glance shifted back to the redhead. "Also, you should definitely show me more magic tricks sometimes."

"You're going to have to keep this magic thing a secret though." Fukase grinned slyly.

"Deal!" Oliver responded almost immediately. "Well, thanks for getting back my hat for me. What can I do to repay you?"

"You already helped me out earlier, but if you insist..." Fukase cleared his throat before he continued. "Point and I just arrived in this world and we need a place to stay in. Can you provide that?"

"Point?" Oliver tilted his head in confusion.

"That would be me." Point popped out of an opening on the side of the satchel and waved. "And no, I'm not a doll," he said in anticipation of the question.

"That is awesome!" Oliver exclaimed. He then paused for a moment and remembered he had yet to respond to the request. "Oh, and I'm going to have to talk over this with my guardians first."

"Guardians?" Now it was Fukase's turn to inquire with disorientation.

"Don't worry, they're really nice." Oliver giggled at the redhead's unwarranted concern. He tugged on Fukase's sleeve with eagerness. "C'mon, let's go discuss the arrangements now!"

And with that, Fukase let himself be dragged off into the direction of the farmhouse. Even in such a mundane world, things were surely going to get interesting.

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Just so you guys know, this isn't an Olikase story.  While you can see their relationship however you want, Olikase will not be canon in this story.