To the 7th NaNoWriMo! And beyond!

There was one table left, and they quickly snatched it before anyone else could, even though it was in the corner, where they weren't very likely to get much attention from the wait staff.

“Well, what else are you going to do, Mr. Spontaneous?”

“Well, first,” Rork opened his menu, which caused Akara to open her eyes in mock shock, “I think I'm going to try the,” Rork stopped speaking as he put his finger on the menu and moved it around randomly, and then opened his eyes when he stopped his finger, face dropping slightly as he realized what he had picked, “Pork chop stew?”

Akara giggled at the irony of the situation, “Well, I won't tell anyone what you landed on, just that you chose your meal randomly.”

“Thanks. Though, I really was almost looking forward to trying something new.”

It was almost half an hour before a waiter noticed them and took their order, but they didn't really care, or notice for that matter; they were too busy talking about this and that. The lunch went on wonderfully; the food was better than expected, which was saying something, as the Sorcerer's Cup was already known for their lunch menu. After they finished their meal, and Rork offered to pay for Akara's meal, they headed back to the school. It started snowing when they were about halfway back.

Akara hadn't really noticed it, since she had been talking most of the time on the return trip home, so Rork quickly made a connection with a nearby tree. He moved one of the branches back, the one which was the most heavy laden with snow, and then released it, with perfect timing as Akara walked by, and smacked her in the face with a huge clump of snow.

His smile of delight quickly faded, though, as she became furious, which was not what he was going for at all. “Sorry,” he started to say, but it was too late, the fire was already in her eyes, and he jumped back as a small sphere of fire puffed out, away from her, drying her face and clothes, as well as singeing the ends of Rork's hair.

“Don't ever, EVER, do that again.” With some force of will, it seemed that she managed to put her ferocity away, and she seemed somewhat normal for the rest of the night, but Rork was still cautious around her. He really didn't want to see that again. What really made him worried was that she didn't even have a source of fire, nor her staff on her. If she had either of those, she would have definitely been able to do much more than just singe his hair.

They reached the school, this time the silence was ringing in Rork's ears as they took the steps up to the main entrance. “Well, thank you for the fun time, I've only got a little while until the Grand Wizard is supposed to pick me up, I hope that your next level of training goes well for you. You better study hard though, cuz I'm going to be studying under the best wizard ever, so unless you want to get left behind...” Rork left the message at that, trying to end on a positive note instead of a sad, sappy note.

Akara caught the hint. “You better believe I'll study hard, there's no way a softy like you will ever be able to catch up to me.” And just like that, she ran up the stairs and disappeared into the school.

Chapter 7

The time until the Grand Wizard's coming flew by more quickly than Rork thought it would, and probably faster than he wanted it to. He wanted to cherish these last few moments with his friends and classmates, he knew he wouldn't see them for awhile, but he didn't know just how long that time was going to be. He was excited, though, for being with the Grand Wizard, he knew that he would experience great things, and also learn how to master all six elements. There must be some secret to gaining this ability; maybe it was a time magic lost to most through the ages which allowed the user to study and practice in a time between the time. Or perhaps it was a sacrifice to demons which opened up one's abilities to their potential. Rork had heard of people trying this before with some success, but he really didn't think he could go that far, there were always repercussions, and not very pretty ones at that.

That's how Rork spent most of these last days, wondering about what was going to happen, and how it would happen. Finally, the night before he was to be taken away came, and Rork made sure he had everything ready. He had already written a letter to his mother and sister, and his things were all packed up as tightly as he could get them in his packs. He'd even added more energy to his staff; he wanted to make sure that he was as stocked up on energy as he could be.

He went to bed, trying to get to sleep, but tossed and turned from the excitement and anxiety of the unknown that tomorrow would bring.

He finally fell asleep.

He had been asleep for what felt like seconds when all of a sudden voices could be heard in the hallway, some screaming, some shouting, but all of them shared the same intensity. Somewhat annoyed, seeing as it was way past sleeping hours, Rork got up, only to stand up as his door burst in. There, in his gray robe, stood the Grand Wizard, staff in hand, beard following the current of the air as the door, once again, swung off its hinges.

“Woah!” Exclaimed Rork, quite surprised, as he fell back on his bed. “What are you doing here? You're not supposed to be here till tomorrow.”

“In case you haven't noticed, it is tomorrow, now hurry up and get your things, we gotta get out of here.” There was slight panic in his voice as the Grand Wizard said this. “Now,” he added, with a motion of his head nodding towards the door.

Grabbing his things, he quickly donned his bags and sacks, and followed his master out the door, only to see a giant fireball explode in front of them right as he left the protection of his room. Fortunately, the Grand Wizard was there to dissipate it with water before it could do anything. Launching another attack at the red and black robed man who had apparently conjured the fireball, he lit up the entire hallway in front of him with a bright flash, causing the man to fall back, hands over his eyes.

“They're further along than I had hoped. Come, they're after you, we need to get you to safety.” The Grand wizard grabbed Rork's arm and closed his eyes, saying incantations and tracing a pattern in the air with his staff. In front of them appeared a small ripple, which distorted the things behind it, causing them to get wavy and disappear as the area grew larger in circumference, finally forming a circle about seven feet in diameter. A room could be seen through is, and the edges of the circle shown a bright silver and blue mixture. Without saying anything, his master walked through, and tugged him along with him.

He felt no different than normal as he exited the portal into the room. “Huh, I always though teleportation would feel more, I dunno, abnormal.”

The Grand Wizard just went to the fireplace, and used flint and steel to start a small fire in the fireplace. “It all depends on how you teleport. With water, it's not too weird, light gets a little funky, and fire burns a little bit.”

“So, what was all that, back at the school, who was trying to get me?” Rork had a flood of unanswered questions at this point, and while he knew some answers would have to wait, he wanted to know what he could at this point in time.

“They are those who believe that they own you.” Came the slow response after several long moments of silence. The Grand Wizard just stood and looked at Rork for a few minutes; the only action he took was to grab a pipe and light it while sitting down in a giant red armchair. Finally, he motioned for Rork to sit in the seat across from him. “And please, do make yourself at home; you will be living here for some time after all.”

That's not quite the answer for which I was looking. “So, why do they think they own me?” This seemed like a good place to start to Rork, might as well get the basics out of the way, right?

“Good question, my boy, but, unfortunately, that is a question I will have to answer at another time. However, I do know the answer to one of your questions.”

Rork sat up a little straighter, excited to learn some sort of secret knowledge that had been passed down from secret keeper to secret keeper through the generations.

“The bathrooms right behind you, second door on the left.”

Rork, sitting there bewildered, suddenly realized that he did, in fact, need to use the restroom. Must have been all that warm milk I drank trying to help me sleep, he thought as he dropped his bags and opened the door to which his master was pointing.

After washing up, he returned out into the main room. The Grand Wizard was deep in thought, and didn't notice Rork walk up next to him. He jumped slightly as Rork asked “So, what should I call you? It seems like saying 'Grand Wizard' or 'Master' all the time will get a little tedious.”

Gaining his senses again, the Grand Wizard replied, “Mikey, that will do.”

“Mikey?” Rork tried to not laugh, but had difficulty keeping a straight face. “That's not quite as nice a title as Grand Wizard.”

“Hence why I took it,” came the simple reply of Mikey. 

(Not quite sure where it's gonna go from here, this is always the part where I have difficulty, trying to figure out where to go with the basic background info taken care of.  Hopefully you all are liking it, and it should be less Harry Potter-ish from now on, hopefully that won't disappoint too many of you ;).  Anywho, nothing too major going on besides writing and work, and Minecraft.  I got back into that again. A friend and I are both working on it, as is my brother.  It's pretty cool.  We've already got a portal to the nether world, and it's gonna be awesome!  Anyway, hope your Monday was great[it's called Getsuyoubi in Japanese] and hope your Tuesday [kayoubi, I believe] is even better! )