Wizards

CHAPTER 12: The Old Tale

It was a quiet afternoon . . . not so much in the History Room. History Class started half an hour ago and Rei was still smiling about the flowers she got yesterday.

     Mrs. Eve twitched her ears, "While everyone is longing for the period of this lesson, you seem to be particularly enjoying it, Ms. Griffin."

     "That's because somebody's got an admirer," Brooke teased.

     "It was nothing!" Rei said, waving both hands, "Brooke, stop it."

     "Ah! The joy of being human," Mrs. Eve replied, "You wouldn't see people like us experience that."

     "Elkerians don't do those things, Mrs. Eve?" Racel Sacedor asked.

     "What's the matter, Sacedor? Never experienced that, have you?" Joseph Stinger teased, "What? You got tired of your books and want to know about flirting?"

     "That's enough, Mr. Stinger," Mrs. Eve said while everyone was laughing lightly, "We all know you fancy, Ms. Sacedor," she continued and everyone burst into laughter, turning both Stinger and Sacedor's faces red.

     "In Elk Nation, male elkerians court women by showing their talents in nature magic. Whoever grows the bigger tree wins the woman."

     Mrs. Eve waved her hand around the room, darkness covered them all. And then there was a tapping sound. Rei heard it before; it was Mrs. Eve's staff hitting the ground. There were three taps and glowing specks of dust exploded and stranded in the air.

     "Love is the most powerful thing in the universe — I trust you know this. . . . It'll either make you or break you like no other thing in the world can. It is capable of imparting the most joyous joy or inflicting the most painful pain."

     The dust started spinning the room slowly.

     "And while no one alive today witnessed the love story I'm about to tell you about the two lovers that changed the course of history. Their story lived on — teaching everyone how 'love' can be the most powerful thing you can possess."

     Brooke whispered to Rei, "My father used to tell me this story when I was a kid."

     Suddenly Rei didn't feel like smiling at all, wondering how it feels to hear bedtime stories . . . or have a father.

     "Long ago . . . a man who was known as Prince Leon Glenmore set sail and docked in a land called Magicana. He was greeted by the shore by a tribe called Celtra led by their chieftain, Megrim Celtra."

     The glowing specks of dust drew a face of man, a handsome man, perhaps the most handsome Rei has ever seen. There was no telling how pale or how dark his skin was, or what color his eyes were, but the shape of his face was enough to sway the girls in the room — even Rei.

     The dust drew ships and shore and groups of men unloading the ships and the tribe that greeted them.

     Leon Glenmore showed courtesy by bowing his head and placing his fist on his chest. But the chieftain showed no such thing.

     Rei heard a crumbling of plastic beside her. Snacks. Somehow, Brooke managed to slip in snacks inside the classroom by hiding them in her purse, yet didn't care enough to be discreet as she ate it.

     "You want?"

     Rei shook her head and laughed before she turned her head back to the dust.

     A girl appeared after the chieftain walked away from Leon. She bowed her head to Leon with her fist on her chest.

     "Leon met the youngest daughter of the chieftain, Arvina," Mrs. Eve said, no one's paying attention to her whereabouts now. Everyone was so dived in, watching the dust tell the story to them. Rei was only the one to notice that Mrs. Eve was sitting beside Brooke chewing potato chips. She swallowed and continued, "The chieftain was furious that Arvina showed courtesy. 'We do not bow to the likes of them!' the chieftain said."