The Dracomancer

CHAPTER FOUR: THE JOURNEY

They had a big task ahead of them, so they got right to it in the morning. Alex’s words of the previous day had held true. He didn’t let go until he woke up. Artemis was still asleep, so he gently shook her. They had had breakfast with Rell and his family and were now on their way to meet with one of the dragons she knew. She had used some sort of call to summon whomever it was. Suddenly, three humans jumped down from tree branches and ordered them to halt.
“Nobody goes past this point without our authorization,” said the one who appeared to be their leader.
“Okay, but let’s make introductions first,” Alex replied, inviting them to start.
“Sure thing. I’m Darrell, this is Dallas, and my little brother here is Jared,” their leader replied. “Now you.”
“This is Artemis, and I’m Alex. You might want to know, though, that I’m the Dragon Wizard.”
“Really? Prove it. Cast a spell. Any spell will do,” Darrell said.
“I’m new to this. I’m untrained in magic,” Alex replied.
“If you are the Dragon Wizard, you got here by means of a spell. That spell should suffice.”
These men were obviously not very bright. He couldn’t open a rift with the same spell that brought him here, and even if he could, opening another rift would be pointless if they weren’t going to go through. Unless they wanted him to open a rift so they could go through.
“Opening a rift to my world would be pointless if nobody will go through, so I’ll have to ask Artemis to teach me a spell. Could you give us a minute?” Alex asked.
“Deal,” Darrell replied.
Alex and Artemis walked away, but not as far as to arouse suspicion. They didn’t want the trio of humans to come looking for them. Artemis seemed upset about something, though.
“What are you doing?! You can’t go telling everyone you’re the Dragon Wizard!!” She hissed.
“Don’t worry. This will work out beautifully. Those men don’t seem too bright, anyways,” Alex replied. “I need a good attack spell, like a fireball or something,” he continued.
“I know what you’re planning, Alex. It’s too risky. Where there’s one, there’s more, and we have three here,” Artemis replied.
“Don’t worry. I checked the trees after they jumped down. They’re the only ones here,” Alex said.
“Okay. Just close your eyes, gather up some emotion, and imagine one of them burning, preferably Darrell. That’ll scare the others, and they’ll run,” Artemis said, hoping he wouldn’t go too far with the spell and drain his magical energies.
“If I burn one, the others will attack, but if I burn all three, they’ll run for the nearest pond,” Alex replied. He knew what men like these three were like. He hoped Artemis would see his reasoning.
“Burning all three will drain your magical energies. If the others attack, I can just revert to my true form and take them out,” Artemis replied.
“And alert any other creatures who may have sided with the demons? I’d rather drain my magic than draw the attention of the demons,” Alex stated.
“You have a point,” Artemis replied. “Alright. Make them burn.”
They went back to the men who were blocking their path, and Alex prepared himself to cast the fire spell. The trio looked like they had been waiting for their return, and ready now that they were there. Darrell especially looked like he was waiting to see what would happen.
“Alright. I’m going to cast a spell. Get ready to feel the heat of it,” Alex said in a joking tone, though he wasn’t joking.
“Whatever,” Darrell replied. He didn’t find such jokes amusing. He understood the humor, it just wasn’t his personal cup of tea.
Alex closed his eyes, thought back to something that had really set him off, extended his hand, and imagined the three men burning. They screamed even before Alex opened his eyes to see them running.
“Wow! I wasn’t expecting it to be that powerful!! I felt the heat, despite my skin being largely heat resistant. You’re probably feeling drained from that, though,” Artemis exclaimed.
“Actually, I’m feeling like I could do that several more times before being drained,” Alex replied truthfully. He wasn’t expecting to feel this way from casting a spell that should have drained him.
“It could be that your magical energies were awakened by that spell. I think the reason your magical energies were dormant was because you can’t use magic on your world. The only bit of magic I could perform there was to go into my present human form.” Artemis stated.
“That makes sense. I knew there was a foreign energy in me that had gone dormant over the years,” Alex replied.
“Your emotion could have contributed to the power of the spell, though. Which emotion did you use this time?” Artemis asked.
“Rage,” Alex answered honestly.
“That’s why the spell was so powerful. Anger increases the power of attack spells, happiness and love increase the power of healing spells, desperation speeds up all spells, compassion and sadness make resurrection more likely to happen, determination makes shape shifting more likely to happen and speeds it up. There are other effects that your emotions have on your spells, but I don’t know all of them. The others will be able to tell you the rest,” Artemis said.
“I should have no trouble with using magic, then because I’ve experienced all of those emotions, and I should experience them again in training and battle. I just hope I don’t have troubles with shape shifting. That sounds like something that wouldn’t be my forte,” Alex confided.
“Shape shifting is just taking the form of a dragon. There are four classifications of dragons. In order of lowest rank to highest, they are Drakes, Lesser Dragons, Dragons, and Greater Dragons. I’m a Dragon, so I’m sure you can imagine the others,” Artemis said, hoping he would be encouraged by her words.
“Okay. I’m imagining the Drakes being the smallest with no horns, the Lesser Dragons are a little bigger, with one small horn, the Dragons are a more impressive size, based on how big you are in your true form; they have two medium-sized horns, and the Greater Dragons are the biggest, with four large horns, and sometimes two heads,” Alex replied.
Artemis couldn’t help but laugh at that last bit, but she made it as short and quiet as she could, given what he had just said. His home world seemed to have strange ideas of what dragons could look like. That was alright, though.
“What’s so funny?” Alex asked.
“Oh, I’m just imagining a dragon with two heads, but other than that, you hit the bull’s-eye. Some Greater Dragons even have five horns, with the fifth horn being medium-sized, but they’re usually the older males,” Artemis replied.
“So dragons never have more than one head?” Alex asked to confirm it with her.
“That is correct,” Artemis affirmed.
For all of Alex’s knowledge and wisdom, he was still a fish out of water. She hoped he was a fast learner, because if he wasn’t, he only qualified for his role from his magical capabilities and virtues, which didn’t amount to much in the long run. He had a few virtues that significantly added to his physical charm, but she realized that deep down, he was still a kid. He may have been a young adult, but he was still inexperienced and it was starting to show. His face was beet red.
“So where do we go from here?” Alex asked, recovering from his embarrassment and letting Artemis know he was ready to continue.
“It’s just this way,” Artemis said, indicating the path going straight ahead.