Shadowcast

Entrance Exam: Part 5

As Liza crept through the forest, she took inventory on what she had. Her patchy old satchel, and a magic twig. She produced some scraps of paper from her pockets. The paper scraps bore strange-looking symbols. From her limited magical experience, Liza knew that these symbols held some type of power. She didn't fully understand how or why, but she knew that they worked, and that was enough for her.

A shadow bolted past Liza, knocking her back over a log. She looked over into the dark recesses of the forest. Across the trunk of a tree crept a vaguely human shadow. Slowly, quietly, Liza picked up a thick stick off the ground and approached the tree where this creature was hiding. With a powerful swing, her stick broke against the trunk of the tree, but didn't make contact with the monster. Confused, her gaze darted back to the shadow. Like a painting peeling off a canvas, the shadow peeled off the trunk of the tree and sunk its spectral claws into Liza's throat.

Liza gasped, bracing for the end. The shadow's claw didn't leave any wounds, but she felt her strength leave her. She darted back from the shadow, tripping over her shaky feet. She drew her new wand and aimed it at the shadow.

"Aha!" she shouted with a flick of the wand. Nothing happened. "Um... Abracadabra! Please?" She tapped the business end of the wand. "Is this thing on?" Still nothing. "For the glory of Graybone!" Her impotent twig produced nothing but frustration. "Holy Hiessa, magic is hard!"

The shadow lunged out again, hissing as the sunlight burned its silhouette. Liza narrowly ducked under a swipe. She pulled out one of the paper slips and tapped the rune scribbled on it. A beacon of white light blazed brightly from her palm. The shadow shrank back, black smoke peeling off the edges of its form.

"Ha!" Liza cheered, "How do you like that?!"

Her success was short-lived. She heard a rustle in the underbrush. A terrible stinging pain shot up her leg. She looked down to see her thigh impaled on a bony spear. She followed the tendril of flesh connected to it all the way back to the deformed humanoid figure it belonged to. Two empty black sockets gazed into her soul. An amorphous dark opening resembling a frown opened and closed on its noseless face. A deep, growling sigh billowed out from whatever it called lungs. Liza's legs shot out from under her as the creature sucked its fleshy grappling hook back into itself.

Liza scrambled for purchase in the rocky ground. She gripped a jagged edge, stopping her slow slide toward death. The barbs on the creature's bone harpoon lodged deeper into her leg. Liza felt something pop. If that creature kept up, it might rip her leg clean off.

Suddenly, three bolts of red light zipped past Liza into the creature. It stopped dragging her, giving her a second to grab the tendril and bite it off with her teeth like a fishing line. The tendril jittered and squiggled away like a severed squid tentacle. She looked back to see what produced such an attack, and her eyes fell upon some kind of half-demon with lavender skin and curling ram horns.

"Over here!" shouted the horny fellow. Liza made a mental note to think before giving people nicknames. She clambered to her feet and half-limped, half-hopped over to him. "Sorry I'm late." His tousled black hair and arrogant smirk radiated a confidence Liza tried to match.

"Oh no, you're right on time." She winked at him.

The half-demon opened his hand and flashed the many rings on his fingers. A stone hand erupted out of the rocky ground. It mimicked the wizard's movements, reaching back up and bringing a closed fist down on the creature. Black ichor sprayed across the clearing, and the squirming remains of its fleshy tendril went still.

For a moment, Liza was speechless. "That was cool," she said, "I'm Liza."

"Wren," he replied, "Nice to meet you."

"Hey, Wren," said Liza, "Could you give me a hand with this?" She pointed to her thigh, which still had the bony harpoon in it. "Do you know any healing magic? Is that even a thing? Do wizards do healing or is that just a potion-y thing?"

Wren shook his head. "It's not something they'll teach you in a classroom. I know a little of my own, but it might get messy. You'll need to take that spine out for it to work."

Liza nodded. "I'll see what I can do." She firmly gripped the spike with both hands and on the count of three, yanked it out. A gout of blood leapt up and hit her in the face. Wren reached down and placed his hands on Liza's leg. His demonic features shed a strangely angelic light. A pungent, metallic smell of ozone filled the air. The scent of magic at work. The wound scabbed over before her eyes. It still hurt, but at least she wouldn't die. Wren flicked his wrists, and Liza's blood magically disappeared from his hands. "Can I get a bit of that?"

"Sure. Anything for a pretty girl like you." Wren mumbled something and wiggled his fingers in front of Liza's nose. The blood flaked off like old dirt, leaving only the slightest hint of a red blush on Liza's brown cheeks. "But don't you already know how to do that? It's the most basic spell in the book."

"I, uh... learned magic in a different way."

Wren shrugged. "Everybody's different." His strangely celestial eyes studied the edges of Liza's face. "But I want to know how. How do you do magic that's so different from mine?"

"You'll just have to wait and see." Liza got to her feet and stumbled a bit on her weaker leg. "There's a clearing up ahead. Looks like a pretty good meeting point. We might find some friends there."

-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_

Author's Note:

I've decided that I'll release the first chapter, "Entrance Exam," in one chunk so that I can feel like I'm making progress.

Opinions so far? 

You've had a brief introduction to the four primary characters, what do you think of them?

Don't forget to vote and leave a comment. It makes the algorithm happy and it makes ME happy, too!