Skull's Tale

The Choosing Part one

The young apprentices were gathering in the center of the enormous chamber which was called the Apprentice quarters, or in an occasion such as now it was referred to as the hall of stories. Some of the stories told in the hall had were a century old for every year the tiny apprentices had lived on this Earth.

In the center of the great hall, as he had the previous night, a huge figure sat on an arm chair which looked like it had been carved out of stone. Today however, he had not donned his mask which he wore almost every day of the year. His face was pale and gave anyone looking at him the look of someone who had been born into nobility. Although he had never been poor, his power in life did not come from money. His huge body was covered in a black trench coat which, when he sat in a certain way bulged at the arms from the strong muscles beneath.

As the children slowly gathered around in front of him, he smiled. He had been one of them once and he could remember those days well, almost fondly.

“Well children,” he began and almost as if on cue all the children stopped speaking and fidgeting. Many of them even sat up a little straighter.

The figure looked at the assembled children again; a smile crept across his face.

“Do any of you remember where we left off?”

“Mista Skull!” one of the children burst out, his little hand shot up in the air. Others followed suit less enthusiastically.

“Mista” Skull chuckled and looked back at the boy who had spoken, “better than Elder, and I believe you may have heard of an individual who used to call me that, but we will get to that later! Where were we my boy? How far did we get in my tale?”

The boy smiled and replied proudly, “When you first entered this room! But before you went to your choosing,”

“Ah yes, the choosing, now I take it you all remember your choosing children,” the children nodded and some presented Skull with toothy grins, “now, we all know what I chose, but I will tell the story anyway, but what I want to know is what you chose,” the children stared back at him, “tell me children, do we have any Regenerators in this room?”

A few children put their hands up in the crowd, barely a dozen of them but still a large number for any group of apprentices.

“Ah, a good path, okay how about any Ethereals? Do we have any of those?”

A single girl put her hand up, she had a slight tan, mousy brown hair and green eyes, the strangest of all was the tan, which were strange among the Icelandic’s who made up a large portion of the world’s mages.

“Ah, a good skill to have, I had a friend who was one, she looked a lot like you. You don’t happen to be related to someone named Mooneye do you?”

The young girl was embarrassed but answered regardless; her voice had a thick Celtic like accent, “she’s me’ mum sir,”

“I see, well when you see your mother next tell her I said hello and I hope her leg is much better these days,”

“It is sir, I saw her last weekend! Don’t worry I’ll remember though, even if it is a long way off,”

“Good girl, I’d ask your name, but I believe none of you are seven yet,”

The children nodded.

“Oh well, back on track then, anyone pick the aspect of the Druid?”

A large group of children raised their hands, Druids tended to be quite popular with younger mages.

“The ever popular Druids, a good discipline, and if you ever want to stick to just one aspect; that is one that will reward you again and again. Okay, I fear to ask but do we have a Warlock among us?”