A Humorless Gesture

After completing the so-called tasks, more like chores, he finally instructed me to meditate for the next four hours.  When asked if we should sleep tonight, I was met with mirthless laugh. “We got things to do in four hours boy. We don’t have time for you to falling into a deep sleep. Here starts your training. Now meditate or do without even that.” He stated with a harrumph. He then settled himself into the floor and gestured for me to mimic his posture. I sighed, crossed my legs, and sank to the floor. I watched him closely as he loosely placed his wrists above his knees, took a deep breath, and closed his eyes. I sighed one final time, accepting my fate and copied his actions. As I closed my eyes he began to speak.

“Take a deep breath through your nose, hold it for a moment, and then exhale fully. As you exhale, allow your mind to become blank and serene. Push all your angst and worries away as you take another deep breath. Exhale fully again. As you take your next breath relax into your position, let the world slip away from your body. Keep taking deep, even breaths, relaxing more and more each time you exhale. Allow your breaths to even out to a more normal pace as you slip deeper and deeper into the blackness of your mind. Now, in this moment of blissful relaxation, put a tally in your mind for four hours, see if you can estimate it in your minds eye. After you have marked this in your mind. Put it to the back for later. Relax into your even breaths. And just let go.” His voice began to become incredibly distant and muffled as he droned on and on. After what felt like a lifetime, I finally felt my mind drift off into peaceful blackness.

I was awoken suddenly by ice shooting across my entire body, and the inability to breath. The immediate sensation of air was pure bliss as I ragged pulled in breath after breath of clear waterless air. That god damn dream. It haunted every night of my sleep for the past fifteen years. My eyes shot open as I realized that I truly well and was soaked to the bone. I looked up into the eyes of the old man as he was setting down a bucket.

“Took you bloody well long enough boy. I’ve been trying to pull you out of that meditation for the last forty minutes. What the hell is the matter with you? Blubbering on the floor like a fish out of water. I had no choice but to douse you.” He began muttering to me as I rose to my knees to stand. Once on my feet I shifted about the room to find a way to clean up all this water. I wasn’t ready to move yet but I really didn’t have much of a choice. The water was beginning to run under the table and cupboards. And the old man didn’t look as though he was going to clean up the mess he had just made. Undoubtedly blaming me for the mishap. I had been hoping that the dream would stay locked away behind the carefully constructed walls in my head. But some how the meditation unlocked the same door that his sleep always seemed too. But it seems as though this time he had a witness to the event who, thankfully, yanked him away before the suffocating end.

I grabbed the bucket up and found a pale of what looked like dry dirty rags. I placed a few at the base of the cupboards to prevent any more water from leaking through until I could get to it. I took the largest one and began quickly ringing the water back into the bucket. After a good fifteen minutes I felt like I had done all I could and carried the bucket and now wet rags outside. The old man was waiting for me on the porch, having left with a grunt of impatience upon seeing my insistence to clean up the water.

“Well now that your satisfied drop that bucket and follow me. We are later than I’d like to be. We should have left ten minutes ago boy. And we aren’t getting any closer by standing here wallowing.” He stated firmly as he turned and began limping into the woods.

I followed after him as he turned around a bend in the trees. I caught up to him quickly as the old man struggled to proceed up the rocky terrain. He lost his footing a couple times, and I was quick enough to grab his elbow or his shoulder for a moment as he regained his balanced. Every time was met with a soft grunt and a grumbled “thanks laddie”.

As we approached a clearing he began to speak in a clear strong voice “Here is the place that brought me to this mountain so many years ago. The place that I am bound to protect as was my mother and my mothers mother, and all those that came before them. I am the first male in the last five hundred years to be the protector of this sacred ground. My mother tried for years to have a daughter to carry on her place but alas here I am. She reluctantly taught me after I came of age. The first part of my life was spent with my father, my mother having been so upset with my birth, she sent me away to live with him until it was time to teach me to take her place. Some days I don’t know if I should be thankful or resentful of those precious innocent years of my youth. In the end I always come out grateful to have had the chance to know my father and had the few years I did with him.”

I was beginning to become uncomfortable. I truly had very little in common with this man. The experiences with my father were limited and strung up with disappointment and pain. My mother was the sole solace in my life and I lost that light a long time ago. I sighed deeply as I helped him up the last rocky step up into the clearing. He needed to get on with this, I didn’t want to know about his mother and her reluctance to love him. It hit too close to home to suit me.

“What is this place sir?” I asked as I released him and stepped away. I stared around me trying to make out the clearing in the growing light.

“It is a place of power boy. It will tell me what kind of wizard you want to be. And what kind of wizard you are. Some people choose the path of a scholar’s wizard but in their hearts, they act as if they are a war wizard. You can see how detrimental that can be to one’s training and advancement within this sect of magic. So, for your training it is best to know what kind of magic you have within you. In this place resides an old power that amplifies your natural powers and what your desired power is. Both are present in your aura but cannot be read separately unless it is amplified and read by one such as myself. It is the reason for my training and placement in this place. And it is why your people have termed this Witch Mountain. We are not witches. We are wizards. But we do work with the forces dwarves simple refuse to understand. You are my first dwarven apprentice. It is very rare for one such as yourself to choose this path. Now, quickly step onto that rock in the middle of the clearing. You don’t have to do anything special. Just face me and stay on that rock until I tell you to get down.” He instructed as he placed himself a good fifteen feet from the rock he motioned too. I did as I was instructed and stood upon the rock. It was surprisingly smooth and warm. The chunk of granite protruding from the earth looked anything but smooth from its texture. But my toes found nothings but smooth rock as I shifted back and forth from foot to foot. I took a deep breath, knitted my fingers together in front of me and raised my eyes to meet my master’s gaze. I was surprised by the intensity of his stare when I realized that he wasn’t looking at me but my aura. He looked about me as if an invisible cloud hovered around my body. He brow furrowed in clear disgust as the light began to peek over the tress and fall upon my shiny bald head. He grunted and began to pace in front of me, all the while never taking his gaze off me. He proceeded to keep up this scrutiny until the light hit the stone at my feet. In that moment he exhaled in disgust, turned on his heel and started to leave the clearing.

“You can get down. It appears we have much work to do my necromancer friend. Your aura is as black as your skin my boy. We have a long road ahead of us if I am to teach you this form of magic. And even then, I cannot promise you more then the basics. The advanced knowledge you are seeking will have to be obtained elsewhere. Let us start with the basics, shall we? Come then boy. Your wasting precious daylight.

I was so lost as to what was happening. Did he just say necromancer? I admit I’ve been inclined to some darker daydreams about my father, but I never entertained the idea of controlling the dead. Though some where deep down it felt right. I felt surer of myself as I accepted the darker side of myself. I never thought I would be good enough to be a dark wizard.