The Adventures of Raegor

III

Raegor opened his eyes. The air in front if him span. Where was he? Then he remembered. Hunting. The wolverine. Running through the forest. Then a sense if falling.

He looked around. He seemed to be in a large cave. At one end he could see daylight. He wondered how long he had been unconscious. He tried to get up- to move but found that he couldn't. He pulled up his trouser and was shocked to see a large gash on his right leg. There was dried blood down his calf and dirt in the wound.

Raegor looked around but then amended himself. It was his instinct to check there was no-one around before using magic.

"Styla" he whispered. The dried blood began to fade away. The skin over the cut knit itself together, quickly. The relief was immediate, but Raegor felt exhausted.

He thought back to when he first learnt magic. He and his Father had been hunting in the woods. His Father had taught him the names in the word-key language for all the animals that they hunted, then death words to kill them.

If only I knew the word for wolverine... he thought. I could have killed it.

Then he heard a loud scuff of boots in the mouth of the cave. He squinted into the blackness. There.... there was a figure at the end of the tunnel!

"Invisdêmon" he whispered, using the word-key for hiding. The spell began drawing on his strength with an alarming rate.

The figure began walking towards him. Raegor held his breath. He was shaking with fatigue. The figure was in plain site now. He (if it was a he for it had no visible gender) was about as tall as Raegor, with a weak looking frame. It had a bald head, and a hooked nose. It was wearing simple grey clothes and was carrying a small straight stick.

"A mnock" whispered Raegor. Mnocks were feared and hated throughout the empire. They were the spellcaster mercenaries of the evil emperor Nástak. After the conflict between Náskor, brother of Nástak, kind ruler of Arloas in the west and last ruler to give sanctuary to dragon riders, and Nástak, ruler of Erekarn in the east, evil necromancer king, the land split into those two factions. Other than necromancers, Nástak had no way to stop the dragon riders so he began to recruit young mageborns and train them with basic spells. They were often mocked for their weakness and ability to only cast simple spells, and they became known as Mnocks. They were not powerful but their strength was in numbers, and now they were one of Aorlas' greatest threats.

The Mnock walked further into the cave, out of Raegor's view. Raegor was shuddering with the effort from maintaining the spell.

"Cankra-Invisdêmon" he whispered, and the relief was immediate. He slowly got up and creeped behind the mnock, following it into the blackness of the cave.