The Wind Apprentice

Diz blurrily opens his eyes and groans. The light is too bright. The teenager rolls over and buries his face in the soft pillow.

His eyes suddenly snap open as he remembered what happened. Shooting up, surprisingly free of pain, Diz sees he’s in what looks like an infirmary of some kind.

Hadn’t he gotten stabbed? Don’t people usually die when that happens? After checking, Diz finds all that’s left of the knife wound is a faded scar just under his ribs. Definitely magic. What else could have healed him? Part of him is thankful another part is angry they would dare use devilry on him.

A door opens cutting off that train of thought. A woman in forest green and dark blue robes comes in with Master Wright in his usual white and dark blue robes. What’s with the dark blue? Maybe it means something.

“Hello there. You gave us quite a scare.”

“Did I?” Diz’s voice is scratchy.

“Yes, but I can see your fine now. You had lost a lot of blood when they had finally gotten you in here. They had to put you in a stasis field to make sure you didn’t die. You’d think they’d take a trained healer on Gathering Days for things like this….”

“Wilma, your ranting.” Master Wright said, clearly used to this kind of thing. The woman, Wilma, blushed slightly and muttered something about other things to do.

“She prattles on a lot. You’ll get used to it.”

“Where are we?” Outside the closed window Diz could see Razor Wing flying around.

“Jeneiso. More specifically the Magicians Guild.” Well, that explains a lot.

“I brought you something to change into. After that, we’ll get you settled into your dorm and then we can get you a familiar. Everything was settled while you were in that coma.”

“What was settled?” Surprisingly Diz could feel no rage that they had made decisions without him. No point really. As far as Diz was concerned it didn’t matter anymore. What else did he have?

“Well, your dorm room, for one. There’s only a few other kids around. Most are still at home, school doesn’t start for another few weeks.” He paused for a moment. Diz really didn’t care about other kids.

“Every student here is assigned a Master to teach them about their element, one on one. The Lords and Ladies council assigned me as your Master.”

“There’s other subjects, assigned from elements?”

“Yes, actually. There’s: Magical Creature Studies, Healing, Alchemy, Math, Ancient runes, History, Social Studies, Astronomy, Geography, Physical Education, and Herbology. Of course there’s electives as well. You’ll choose eight classes for now, and one -three electives. Elective classes are taken during the weekend and the rest during weekdays.” Diz simply nods numbly and grabs the clothes that were laid out for him. Heading to the bathroom to change, Diz couldn’t help but be a little excited to choose his familiar.

-

Diz was following closely behind Master Wright as they moved along a path and towards a large building located in the far left corner of the Guild. The guild was broken up into building inside the fenced area that separated the Guild from the rest of the capital. The university was the largest building aside from the stadium.

Getting to the building Master Wright opens the door and shows the teenager inside. The entrance room was small, really it only had a desk and a lot of file cabinets. There was double doors leading to somewhere, Diz didn’t even want to guess.

“Hello, Maya.” the young girl behind the desk smiles. She is wearing a blue and green robe. It was the same design as Diz’s white and green robe.

“Good Afternoon Master Wright. Is this your new apprentice?”

“Yes. Could you…”

“Of course.”

“Alright Danny, I’ll be waiting out here for you.” Diz frowned, not only at the use of his first name, but also at the fact that he’d be alone. Especially because it looked like the girl was only unlocking the double doors and nothing more. One said doors were unlocked the girl gestured for Diz to go through.

-

Never in Diz’s life did he expect to see what he did. On the other side of the double doors a path that ran between two different environments. On one side was a prairie the other was a savannah. Dix could see a forest in the distance and mountains beyond that. How did they fit this all into one room. The teenager had a feeling that there was also a rain forest and desert in there as well.

Deciding Diz wanted to get off the path, and sense he didn’t want to trek through a savannah Diz started to walk into the prairie. Diz could see fairies teasing a couple of prairie dogs and rats and rabbits bounding about.

After Diz nearly had a bad run in with a hornet (a bee like creature that grows from anywhere from one foot- four feet) Diz decided the prairie definitely wasn’t for him.

Finding the path again Diz sees a rain forest on the other side of it. The teenager frowns as he an odd tugging feeling. Starring at the rain forest for a bit, Diz takes a few hesitant steps towards it.

Seeing a giant spider web, Diz decides suddenly, that his curiosity isn’t worth it, if he has to deal with a Royal Arachnid. What were these devils thinking having these creatures in here?

As he stumbles in the general direction of the path Diz feels as though he is being watched and the odd tugging sensation is stronger. Stopping Diz turns and finds himself face to face with a pair of large cat like eyes. Diz frowns and takes a step forward. At least it isn’t a Royal Arachnid.

Getting closer Diz is able to determine it is an Oother. Oothers are creatures that look like a cross between a monkey, a cat, and a bat. It looks like a lemur (brown and black fur) with bat like ears, cat eyes, and bat wings only strong enough to allow it to glide. They are reclusive creatures that prefer to keep to themselves, aside from the odd prank. Oothers are also very intelligent and can understand speech, but cannot speak. Most are extinct today.

“Hello. I’m Diz.” The boy says as he stretches his arm out to it, hoping it’ll take the invitation. The creatures tilts it’s head to the side then leaps from the branch it was perched on and glides over to him.