MAGES: Dark Shadows

Chapter 4

Waking up early that morning, John got out of bed and put his robes on and went outside.

He admired the landscape as he climbed to the top of the mountain.

We really need to make some stairs.

He pulled himself up the rocks, all his muscles heaving with the effort. After five minutes of climbing John finally reached the top.

The mountain huge. It had snow on the top of it and if you stood at the tip you could see every thing. From were the river meats the ocean to the Northern star to the desert and the coliseum.

John wandered over to the horn on the tip of the mountain. After loudly blowing it John sat down and stared at the open ocean. The horn signals a meeting. When the horn is blown, every Mage in the group must attend the meeting no matter what. John watched as the sun rose above the water, it's raze looked like golden light across the blue ocean.

John welcomed the rest of the group as they reached the top of the mountain panting.

"Oh how I miss the scaly beast and the big bird," Finn sighed.

Finn was talking about John's dragon and summer's Phoenix. They had recently, 'gone on holiday' as the group thought. They still didn't know what happened to them or if they'll ever come back.

"Good morning to you all, I trust you all had a good night," John announced starting the meeting.

The girls sniggered.

"Yes?" Asked John.

"We heard you all last night roasting marshmallows!" The girls laughed.

John's cheeks went hot with embarrassment.

"We were hungry so we had a little fun, no harm in that!" Jack laughed.

"Finn I hope you had a nice time in your new room," John changed the subject to stop any more embarrassment.

Finn said nothing but nodded.

"Where's Archer?" Asked Cooper looking around.

"Here!" John nearly collapsed with the fright of Archer teleporting to stand next to him.

John knew well that it wasn't teleportation. As a time Mage, Archer could stop time and move while every thing else was still frozen. When this happens, you are unaware of the fact that you are frozen in time. This allows others to believe the time Mage is teleporting. For example, Archer could freeze time as he's holding his coffee. He could then drink the coffee and unfreeze time. That would mean that his coffee would instantaneously disappear as he unfroze time.

"Archer!" Screamed Sonja in fright.

"What?" The time Mage laughed.

Sonja frowned.

"You scared me to death!" Archer raised an eye brow.

"You are not dead, therefor I could not have scared you to death." John rolled his eyes.

"Thank you Archer..." John turned to the others.

"As you are aware, the dragon and the Phoenix have gone." Everybody nodded in agreement.

"We are more vulnerable than ever before, there for, we must train harder and prepare for the worst," John paused, "I can tell something is soon going to happen, someone or something is coming for us." John paused again at that.

Everyone took in what John had said slowly.

"Anyway, I'm sure every thing will be fine, I hope you have a good morning, I'll see you in the training room." He said after finishing some meeting topics.

Every body clambered their way down the mountain. All except Archer. John sat down and looked out at the ocean again.

After another five minutes, John sat back back up and was just about to climb down the mountain. Suddenly, somebody grabbed John by the arm and pulled him back. It was Archer.

What are you still doing here? Wondered John.

"How do you know?" Archer yelled.

John was very confused now.

"Know what?" Archer lowered his voice.

"I thought it was only time Mages who could predict the future?" John was starting to get worried.

Archer whispered almost silently just before he disappeared.

"Be careful John, something IS coming." John heard the words again and again.

They spun around in his head repeatedly. John half yelled half screamed as he hurtled down the mountain towards the training room.