Inexperienced Heart

Chapter 17: The Wise Wizard

Past the ticket booth and past Gracie's area they walked side by side. It was Landa's idea to come back to the dolphin zoo and ask the employers they hadn't questioned yet about Lost Surfer's Hollow. Goldtin thought it was worth a try. Logan didn't have an opinion, so he came along.

They had already asked ten people, explaining the same story over and over again. They also had to deal with the shocked reactions a million times. Unfortunately, all the answers continued being negative. They weren't getting any clues and no progress was being made.

As they were heading to ask the twentieth person that day, it was at this time that Logan noticed an old man entering the zoo. He was tall and clothed in bright green robes. He was holding a staff his height that was gold colored. It shimmered majestically in the sunlight. He had a long white beard that hung loosely halfway down his chest and white hair on his head. He wore a green, pointed-at-the-top hat. He wore little spectacles on his nose. He had a kind face.

As Logan surveyed him, it came into his mind that this man looked a lot like one of the wizards in the books he had read. He soon stopped thinking and followed Landa and Goldtin, but he had a vivid picture of the old man in his mind.

As they continued walking, Logan kept looking back to see the old man keeping in pace with them. The man looked as if he was minding his own business, but he kept a close distance between himself and the trio.

They still had not lost the old man after talking to ten more people. He never lost speed nor lagged behind. Logan was getting extremely suspicious and uneasy, but what bothered him the most was that, apparently, Landa and Goldtin had not noticed that they were being shadowed.

Finally, Logan could stand it no longer. He edged closer to Landa and whispered in her ear, "I think we're being followed. That man behind us has followed us for the last thirty minutes, ever since he arrived here."

Landa turned around and for the first time, saw the man. Goldtin also looked. Landa quickened her pace. The man did the same. Landa tried making hard turns. Still, the man followed.

Then, Landa sat down on a bench. Logan took a seat next to her and Goldtin sat on the ground at their feet. The man soon reached them and to their surprise and astonishment, stopped directly in front of them. He turned towards them, made a neat bow, and started speaking in a deep strong voice.

"First of all, I'm sorry to intrude on your mission, but I couldn't help but overhear what you kept saying to the employers here. It fascinated me as I am a wizard and I believe I can help you. But tell me, what are your names?"

Landa, Logan, and Goldtin introduced themselves. The wizard made no loud reaction to a talking rabbit. In fact, he acted as if he sees talking rabbits every day, as if they're an ordinary common thing.

Landa, shocked as she was, took a shot at talking to the wizard. "So, you're an actual wizard?" she asked.

"Yes," was the wizard's clear, simple answer.

Logan said what Landa was feeling but could not express. "Woah," he said in awe and Landa nodded.

"But how do you know you're a wizard? I mean, how did you discover it?" Landa asked, trying hard to understand this one-in-a-lifetime occurrence.

The old man chuckled heartily. "How do I know I'm a wizard?" he started. "It's quite obvious. You don't discover it, you know it. My parents were wizards, so they raised me to be a wizard. My parents' parents, my parents' parents' parents, my parents' parents' parents' parents were wizards and so on. It's a long family tree. It dates way back then. The wizard name was passed down from one generation to the next.

"Now you may want to know how the very first wizard got that title. It was a hundred years back. The first wizard was a regular man. His name was Yanis Easton. He married a fair-faced woman named Paloma Beauregard. She was not a witch.

"The day they both became wizards, or magicians, started out with an accusation. The couple was sitting quietly in a small romantic bar, enjoying each other's company. By them, on a shelf, lay a golden box. They hadn't even noticed it or they just paid no attention to it. Therefore, they were stunned when the owner came over to them, glared at them, and hollered loudly enough for everyone there to hear the accusation. 'You stole my golden box! Where is it?' the owner demanded of them. There were murmurs all around the room. Then, one small man with horn-rimmed glasses stepped forward and said, 'May I make a theory, sir? I saw you eyeing the golden box constantly. The second you turned away, these two robbers grabbed it and hid it from view! I suggest you search them from head to toe!' The couple, though frightened, did not resist. The owner himself searched them as the little man had suggested, but found no article of gold on them.

"The little man's eyes got wider and wider until they could not open any wider. Then, he exclaimed, 'Sir, do you know what this means? We did not find your golden box on them. That means they have done magic! Witchcraft, I say! They are wizards and witches!' The audience there was shocked as they spoke in whispers.

"Yanis and Paloma stood up and said they'd go home now. The owner blocked the exit and would not let them leave. Everyone else joined him. Yanis, extremely irritated, had had enough of this. He grabbed his wife's hand and the two of them walked right through the wall of people as if the people were just a hallucination of their minds. The people tried to reach out and pull them, but they couldn't even feel them. They could not move at all; they found themselves to be frozen. All they could do was see them. They looked like foggy images as if they were ghosts.

"Once they got through the door, they ran for their lives. The people, now unfrozen, ran after them like an angry mob. Paloma was afraid they would get caught, so since she and her husband were still holding hands, she loudly said, 'Fly!' Paloma and Yanis gradually gained feet above the ground. They were actually flying!

"The people on the ground thought they were smart. So they said in a commanding voice, 'Fly!' But they didn't go up. They soon gave up.

"They never saw Paloma and Yanis again. The couple landed on an uninhabited island and lived there for the rest of their lives. They had many children on the land. When they died, their children, also being wizards and witches, possessed magical powers. They flew to the inhabited lands and the population of wizards grew, all from one couple. I come from that couple. My parents did not teach me witchcraft and wizardry. It was in me, in my genetics, so I was born knowing it. But it's more than genetics. If you are a wizard, you know it."

Landa and Logan were overwhelmed with all the information from the wizard's story.

"What is your name?" asked Landa shyly.

"Galadriel Zatanna," the wizard answered proudly.

"That is the coolest name I have ever heard," Logan said in awe and Landa nodded in agreement.

"Are you married?" Landa asked.

"No."

"Do you want to be married?"

"Not really. Ever since I was young, I never thought of marriage and as time passed, I remained single."

"But surely you have loved?"

"Of course, like everyone, but never enough to marry."

Landa thought deeply. Then, an idea, completely beyond the current subject, popped into her mind.

"I think you can help us. Do you know anything about the Palson family?" she questioned.

Galadriel nodded and said businesslike, "Yes, but I can't tell you here. Follow me."