Pyrus: War

The New Mage

  About a half hour later, I am dressed in the robes Richard wore when we met. I am sitting at an oak table with the four elements carved into it, one in each quarter of the circle. Seated with me are Rocky, River, Sky, Lilly, Gale, and Flora, as well as Shark, Quake, Hawk, and Dolphin. My council. Vulcan has reclaimed his roof spot, so he is not present, as much as I would like him to be.
  I shift in my seat, still uncomfortable with all the leadership, and speak. "Well. There are a few things we can do now. Any suggestions?"
  Gale is the first to reply. "We need to find out as much as we can about this Decimator guy, then retaliate ASAP." She smacks her fist into her palm with the last bit.
  "I don't think violence is the right approach. I mean, we just had a huge battle. The people aren't ready for a war yet," Sky counters.
  "The war his already here!" Gale shoots back, rising from her seat. "And since it is, I want to show those bastards they can't win!"
  Lilly puts a hand on her friend's shoulder, urging her to stand down. "It's ok, Gale. Revenge will come soon."
  River shakes her head. "I'm with Gale. The sooner we can kill these assholes, the better."
  Rocky squirms uncomfortably in his seat, and Hawk speaks. "You do not know dark magic well. Rushing in now is suicide. Darkness is much too powerful."
  "But we have Pyrus, though! Didn't the letter say that he could defeat them?" Rocky squeaks.
  Shark shakes his head. "It said that according to some ancient prophecy, a fire sorcerer would bring Decimator's downfall. We don't know if that's even Pyrus, or if this so-called prophecy is even true or real."
  "I'm with Sky. We aren't ready for another battle," reasons Flora.
Dolphin nods, but Quake shakes his head. "What good will it do? They'll just keep attacking and attacking, and if we don't strike soon, we're as good as dead," he argues.
  "Well, ultimately, it falls to our leader, and that's final," Shark proclaims, silencing everyone. All eyes turn to me.
  My mind races. What do I do? I clear my throat. "Well, I don't know. You're all right. We need to act, but we are still recovering. I don't know."
  The table is silent, as everyone thinks. Sky breaks the silence with a proposal. "What if we were to send scouting patrols of highly trained adults and use dragons for arial surveillance to scout out enemy camps and destroy them with surprise attacks versus going after the main base. This way, we are able to eliminate nearby threats while allowing the people a chance to recover until we are ready to go for the throat."
  It seems like a great idea to me. I decide to put it to a vote. "All for?" I ask. I raise my hand, as do Sky, Rocky, Lilly, Flora, River, Hawk, and Dolphin.
  "All against?" Shark, Quake and Gale are the only opposers.
  I nod. "It's decided then. I'll put it out on the notice board. Hawk, could I get you to organize the first patrol? I want dragons as well as scouts. Shark, Quake, Dolphin, you guys too. Everyone else, you are free to go. Remember, my training room is always open if you need it."
With a scraping of chairs, everyone rises and leaves. Except Sky. She stays in the meeting room.
  "You gonna go?" I ask her.
  "You make it seem like you want me to," she teases.
  "Don't get your hopes up," I kid back, grinning. She smiles at me.
  There is a silence as the two of us just stand in the room, staring at the intricately carved table. My thoughts overpower me; grief for Richard, stress from the leadership.
  I guess Sky sees my face fall, because she puts a comforting hand on my shoulder. "You ok?" She asks.
  I force a weak smile. "Yeah, I'm fine," I lie. "I just-"
  "Just don't really know what to do," Sky finishes for me.
  I nod, and slump into my chair. "I'm no leader. I don't know what I'm doing. I'm just not who Richard thought I was." I hang my head.
  Sky cocks her head sympathetically. "Oh Pyrus, your not a bad leader! You're doing great!" she comforts. I smile weakly at her.
  "You want some rabbit stew? It's around that time, you know," I say meekly.
  She winks at me. "Depends on how many Gingersnaps you can supply me with."
  I laugh. "Boy, you are really setting your hopes high. You think I'm gonna pull that stunt again?"
  She grins. "No. I'm expecting something better this time."
  I smile. "Well, I just might be able to, if you bring the council, minus adults, here for 7:30," I say slyly, wiggling my eyebrows mysteriously.
  "Well, okay. But keep in mind I'm holding you to that!" she kids as she exits the building.                
I don't waste a second. It's 5:30 now, so I have 2 hours. I decide to create the surprise first. Heading to the kitchen, I gasp. It is enormous! A giant wood stove, a large stone oven, huge pantries stocked with food. Perfect. Quickly grabbing what I need, I begin hurriedly creating the batter. By the time I am done, it is 6:00. It will need 3 hours in the oven, plus finishing touches, but I can reduce that time by tenfold.
Popping my treat in the oven, I crank up the heat using my magic. It should be done by 6:30. I then immediately begin on the stew. Firebolt waddles in from goodness knows where in this giant tower, evidently having caught a whiff of my cooking. I toss him a piece of rabbit, which he snaps up greedily. Giving me a mumbled thanks, he trots back out of the kitchen, probably to explore.                            
7:30 rolls around quickly. When I hear voices from down below (I am on the 7th floor), I quickly stash my treat inside the oven, creating a completely heat and fire proof bubble around it, and make sure it is well hidden.
Flora is the first one in. She breathes in and gives a contented sigh. "Gods alive, am I glad I came," she says.
"Hello, Flora," I say, smiling at her. "Rabbit stew tonight. Take a seat wherever." She smiles back and plops down in a chair.
Sky is next. "I'm ba-ack!" she calls.
"Aww," I complain, grinning so she can see I'm messing around. She sticks her tongue out at me and slugs me in the arm.
As I run my wounded limb, I whisper, "You didn't tell anyone about my little surprise-possibility, right?"
She shakes her head. "Is there a special something?" she whispers back. I just wink at her. She shakes her head and sits down beside Flora, and they begin chatting and laughing. The two girls look right at home, and I smile.
Lilly and Gale come in, followed by Rocky, who angrily accuses Sky of leaving him behind. Sky just shrugs and apologizes. The threesome take their seats just as River sticks her head in. I motion her over and she sits down.
"So, when do we get to eat?" Gale jokingly complains.
"How about now?" I reply. With that, 7 bowls of stew that had been hovering above come swiftly down, landing in front of everyone. Flora shrieks in surprise but then starts laughing. I smile and sit down.
Snapping my fingers, I proclaim, "Oh! I nearly forgot! I just bought this today." 7 intricate wine glasses float over, and when they land, they are each filled with a freshly-opened bottle of Honeywine. I love magic.
River stands and raises her glass. "To the Sanctuary!" she says, and we all clink our glasses together.
"To our new Mage," Flora adds before we take a sip. I blush at the compliment.
"Well, what are you all waiting for? Let's eat!" Gale exclaims. Everyone takes a spoonful and the praise is instantaneous.
"Oh my god, you made this?"
"How the heck do you DO this?!"
"Saints alive, this is good!"
"Is this for real?"
"Mm. I detect a little more flavour in this one. Did you actually add rat this time?"
The last comment, from Sky, makes me chuckle, while everyone else looks distastefully at their food, making Sky and I laugh our heads off.
"I'm just kidding!" Sky wheezes, a tear forming in the corner of her eye. We are finally able to calm down, but the laughter starts up again when we look at each other. Gale and Lilly exchange confused glances.
We spend the next little bit chatting and sharing stories and jokes. The bowls are finally all clean, empty of their stew, and Gale rises to leave.
"Well, that was great, Pyrus, but I should be going now," she says. Lilly nods and rises to leave.
Sky looks at me slyly and winks, and I wink back. "And miss dessert?!" I ask, pulling out the cake. Everyone, except Sky of course, gasp and laugh in surprise and awe.
Sky just shakes her head, chuckling. "Well, you sure do keep your word, eh Pyrus?" I grin at her.
A floating knife cuts everyone a slice of chocolaty goodness. I am once again hit with a wave of compliment. I blush, a bit embarrassed.
"I am going to assume this was made like the Gingersnaps?" Sky asks. "Cooked on magic?"
"What do you think?" I reply, smiling. After getting a second helping of cake, we all say our goodbyes, and everyone leaves. I smile, pleased with how well the evening went.
I climb a few more floors to Richard's room, or my room, I guess. I peek into the pet room, looking for Firebolt, but do not find him. I hear voices on the roof and begin the long climb. Vulcan and Firebolt are sitting informer of the orb, and Vulcan appears to be lecturing Firebolt, who looks riveted.
"Hi, Pyrus!" Firebolt greets excitedly. "Vulcan was telling me a bit about dragon history!"
I nod. "You comfortable sleeping out here tonight, Vulcan?" I ask. "There's plenty of room inside."
Vulcan smiles. "Don't worry about me. I pretty much live up here."
I just nod in reply. "You coming, Firebolt?" I say, already opening the hatch to go back in the tower. Firebolt smiles apologetically at Vulcan before bounding after me. I kiss my little dragon goodnight before falling asleep myself.