After hours of long work Nicholas grabbed belongings out his cubby and forced his tired legs to the door. Silence emptied the neighborhood that usually was filled with children playing and the village folk talking. Even though it was just before supper there were usually many people out and enjoying the gracious weather Lavarith had been given in the past months, but right now there wasn’t a single soul.  A taste of smoke laid itself upon his lips, smoke towers filled the sky ahead of him. When it finally hit him, he burst into a full out sprint. That was the direction of his house. HIS HOUSE. A crowd of people had formed in front of his gate. Tears built up in his eyes. Spirals of orange and red consumed his house tearing apart every strand of what he owned. He began to push his way through the crowd. His neighbors looked at him with terror in their eyes.
Mildrith his long time neighbor and family friend rested her hand on his shoulder, “The person that did this will pay. Nicholas there aren’t words…”
“Quiet!” The anger in his voice rumbled the crowd to silence. “Who. Is. Responsible?!” His eyes scanned the crowd looking for the guilty party. Scared mothers pulled their children behind him, and husbands stepped in front of their wives. A group of widows began to point at the fence gate that at one point guarded his house. There was a note connected to the handle.

“If you want to see her again. You must be prepared to sacrifice your life
Son of Jacob Zor. For we know your abilities. WE KNOW YOUR POWER,
And we will stop at nothing to have you killed so that we may fulfill our plans.

Meet in the city of Zeridth in a week's time.
Or you will never see your mother again.”

Nicholas pulled his satchel over his shoulder once more and turned around. The crowd that at one point had pushed and shoved him parted instantly. He marched his way to the stable. “I will ask only one time, Udred. Give me a horse to use to ensure the safe return of my mother. If I return, you will receive it back and all I have in treasures. I will spread your name to those Zeridth. To make it worth your while, your name will be spread to Zeridth of the quality of your steeds. They will come to you also.” Nicholas pulled the four silver he had in his pocket and slammed it on the table. The sound carried throughout the village.
Without a word Udred went to the back and released a young black horse, dressed it with a saddle and side pouch, and brought it to the front of the shop. He grabbed the four coins and put them in his pocket and nodded. Nicholas mounted the horse and with one whip of the reigns and a kick of his heals the horse sprang forward at full speed. The wind nearly blew off his hat. There was nothing to stand in his way. Nothing stopping him from saving his mother. He could do this.

A unending sea of grass surrounded him. The sun was beginning to set leaving a orange tint on the once blue sky. Cloud crept along the side corners of the sky, threatening a storm overhead. However that was not something that Nicholas noticed. He was stuck in his head because worry and anger consumed his every thought. Adrenaline had slowly started to wear off forcing him to not think in a fighting manner, but logically instead. One of the most important areas of fighting with someone is knowing the enemy. Now that he had returned to his natural state of thought, he realized he knew nothing of his enemy. Sadly there was no time to be this meticulous. His focus returned to the dirt path ahead of him, throwing him into a state of panic. For when he looked up, he noticed a hooded horseman less than ten meters ahead. “Woah there boy! Woah,” escaped his mouth while his arms pulled the reigns to his waist stopping just within a horse’s breath of the figure.
A woman’s voice revealed itself from the hood. “So you are the one. I couldn’t believe it at first, but now I see that I should’ve believe the scroll immediately, for now we are low on time.” She took this time to remove the hood from her face and look up to him. “I’m glad that on our second meeting, neither of us were so clumsy.” Nicholas stared in confusion, looking down at the one who earlier this day he barely caught after knocking her down.
“What do you mean believed the scrolls?” His voice lacking all the confidence it had once had. There were now too many things for his mind to figure out at once. He needed to have one thing figured out. What was so special about him that all of these people had all of the sudden found an interest in him?
“Ancient scrolls written by sorcerers way before our time. My grandfather alway told me this story when I was little, calling it a bedtime story, I had no clue that it was a prophecy, and even more surprising, One that would one day need to be fulfilled.” Her hand went to her knee as she kneeled to the ground lowering her head. “Nicholas you are the Chosen. Your power is feared by all evil and will be for the rest of your life. Unending strength, intelligence, wisdom, and sorcery is yours if you are willing to learn. My name is Grimal. I will tell you how according to the scrolls”
Nicholas dismounted his horse and held out his hand. Grimal placed her hand on top of his and allowed him to pull her into an upright standing position. “Understand this. On most occasions, I would be skeptical of you. But with the limited amount of time I have and my mother's life in danger I have no option but to trust you. Let us set up camp in the woods just north of here. It takes two days at most to reach Zeridth from here. Which means we have 3 days for you to teach me what I need to be ready to fight whatever I must to defeat… Whatever it is I am to defeat. This will give me a day in town to barter for armor and weaponry.”
“That will not be necessary,” Grimal pulled a bag around her waist and opened it revealing weapons and armor. “Let us set up camp. We will need to start at dawn. Be ready to work or 4 days.”
It took Nicholas no time at all to set up the camp and lay down next to the fire after tying the horse to a tree. The ground was cold and moist but there was not much he could do at this time. He closed his eyes, his mind was racing. Thoughts of his mother’s stew and endless prodding at him filled his mind like a waterfall of emotions. A single tear left his eye as fell fast asleep.

“It’s time. Get up we must start your training.” Grimals voice was foggy and muffled to Nicholas’s ears. When waking it usually took him awhile to be fully aware of his surroundings. Considering stress kept him half awake the entire night, he felt slightly groggier than usualy. Fueled by thoughts of his mother he rose up from the dew fed grass. He took a few seconds to pry his eyes open and allow the freshly raised sun to light their camp ground. It was almost as if the gods had planned for this. Trees lined the perimeter of a clean strip of grass that was a clear cut circle in the middle of the forest. “Your first test is the most difficult Nicholas.” Her came from behind him, but when he turned around to meet her gaze, there was no one there. His eyes searched the field they found nothing.
“And what might that be my lady?” His hands clenched at his sides, ready for anything to come his way. A gentle breeze grazed his back, and with no hesitation he turned to square with his first test, assuming a dual. But what he found was Grimal standing with a smirk.
“Trust.” Her hand grasped his and pushed the clenched fist back down to a relaxed position. “In order to get your strength from the energy around you, you must be open to receiving it. Imagine the earth as a trusted friend that you are able to tell your deepest secrets.” Nicholas followed her instructions exactly. Finding an inanimate object trustworthy was easier than it had ever been connecting with real people. Finally something that he could tell his secrets too and not have them talk back to him. “To start let's look at this stick. What are things that you can do with that stick, what can happen to it? Try not to limit….” Grimal’s voice faded away slowly as Nicholas continued his test. The lids of his eyes closed shut. He had continued to think of the stick, and all of its possibilities. Last night’s cold winds would have been vanquished if he had a stick like this to make a fire. A torch would have done nicely to light a pile of sticks on fire. Warmth began to surround his as his imagination formed a torch that was now a clear image. “Nicholas! Nicholas!” Awoken from his dazed state he noticed that there was actually a stick levitating off the ground with the end on fire. Fear took over, causing him to lose focus. The stick fell to the ground lighting the grass around it on fire. Grimal grabbed a bucket, and through the water inside of it on top of the flames. “I…. it takes sorcerers years to perfect combustion. And you.. You just did it in a matter of seconds.”
She grabbed a worn leather book from her right front pouch. After flipping through many of the torn yellowed pages she stopped. Grimal placed her index finger at the top of the page and slid it down until she found what she was looking for. “Try something for me,” she turned the book towards him, and pointed out a line of words reading Flacious Rubundous. “Say these words and hold out your hand far from your face.”
Sweat collected at the top of his forehead. He outstretched his hand, “Flamious Rubundous.” A shot of pain went from his shoulder to his hand, not pleasant but bearable. Orange and red collect on his palm. Reminding him of the day before his house being eaten by flames, destroying everything that he once saw as a home. He pulled his hand towards himself, looking intensely. His hand was still visible and looked to be the source of the flame which except for the feeling of warmth hadn’t made him feel anything. The clear and defined lines on the palm of his hands were slowly beginning to blur over, and Nicholas began to feel faint. Grimal took his arm and pulled it over his shoulder. The flame extinguished.
“Sorcery depletes energy faster than anything else you will ever do. There are small spells that you can help you sleep at night. The thing that will help you most in the end will be your willingness to connect with the earth. It is the energy of all life and will allow almost unlimited power.” She raised his hand over her head after placing him down next to the nearest tree. “Sit and meditate. Allow earth to be a part of who you are.” Exhaustion had finally became unbearable. His eyelids had become too heavy for him to keep open and he fell asleep looking up the beautiful spring leaves.

When Nicholas had awoke Grimal was ready to immediately start working. A few hours had past, and he had slowly gotten the hang of stopping when he needed to stop and finding peace with the earth to restore his mana.  Once he started to feel drained it took him only a matter of seconds to regain all of his strength. Grimal said that this was abnormally fast, once again emphasizing that he was the chosen one. Although he was confused by all of this coming at such a late point in his life, he was happy to have someone to have someone to keep him company and help him further himself. The only problem was that Grim was extremely beautiful and at point Nicholas found himself just staring at her face which was perfect and fair. Grimal had long since fallen asleep after a very long day. Wind was swimming through the leaves causing a constant symphony of rustling noise. Nicholas loved ambient noise when he was reading, and that was exactly what he was doing. He had snuck over to Grimals tent and gently pulled the pouch from underneath her pillow. More new words than he could’ve ever hoped for, filled page after page. The rest of his night consisted of reading nearly all of her spell books. Learning only what he thought would be important.
He slept two hours still waking up before Grimal, who had obviously had a bad day. Mediation was a beautiful thing, bathing in the sunlight had become one of the most refreshing things that he had ever experienced in his whole life.
“You read the books. How were you able…?” Her voice was exhausted and had the texture of gravel. The early morning meditation and her missing books must have been enough to clue her in on what had happened.
“Through all of my life,” Nicholas breathed in and out finding the peace within him, “I have only found peace in reading by myself. So I thought, why not do it when I can’t sleep anyway.” He reached over to the leather pouch and handed it to her. He had placed every single book back in order and had cleaned off each of the colors.
Without a pause Grimal put her hand on Nicholas’s shoulder. “You truly are more magnificent than I could have ever imagined you would be.”
Nicholas felt amazed, alive, and complete. He now knew exactly how to do all of the spells without hurting himself, and spells that could completely destroy his enemies. All he needed some pointers on how to better himself. Grimal could help him and he knew it.
The next days would go by in seconds. Nicholas was starting to have a hard time containing his feelings for Grimal. Her beauty had suddenly became something that he couldn’t ignore. Although he believed that she reciprocated the feelings, he knew that he was about to be in too much danger to have to care about anybody other than his mother. The mission would be hard, but he could do it. He knows he can.