BBS One-Shots

start of something magical (Basicallyido407)

In an alleyway in a small village in a small town of mostly bakers and famers (with the ocasional alchemist around as there usually was) there was a cat. The cat was sleeping, not really causing much harm or bother to anyone at all.

Marcel clattered down the alley with such speed that the cat quietly minding its own business leaped away in fright. He was tempted to yell out an apology but it wouldn't have been of much good to anyone, since he was trying to not be found. His pursuers however, were hot on his trail, rushing into the alley after him. Their royal guard armour clanked and clashed as they ran, nearly drowning out the warnings they yelled at the rogue boy.

Marcel winded through streets, trying to find somewhere he could duck behind without the guards noticing. On a particularly empty street, he came across a small stone ruin of what used to be a wizard's tower, but was now just an abandoned stone house, since the top floor had been destroyed somehow. He bolted to the door, yanking it open with uncanny easy and practically threw himself inside, slamming the door shut after him.

He breathed heavily for a while with his back against the door. Leaving a bit of time to pass, he got curious, and started to wander around the tower, or two-storey building.

Looking around the ground floor, most of the walls were lined with bookshelves, which only had a few books actually in them. The rest of the books had been thrown to the floor with little care or concern. There was a desk in the corner, and on it was parchment, an ink-pot and six broken quills, all of which looked to be hand-snapped. The desk's accompanying chair had fallen on its back, and one of the chair's legs was slightly smaller than the others.

It was pretty dark, but there was a single lit torch on the wall. Now, Marcel had previous thought this place to be abandoned, so he now wondered who the hell lived here. Sure, it could have been teenagers playing a stupid prank, but most were too scared to enter the tower. Rumour had it that it was cursed, haunted or both.

He decided to investigate further, because hey, he might as well. It didn't seem too bad so far.

Venturing up the stairs, he heard what sounded like annoyed muttering. Peeking up on the first floor, a person around his age stood at a round table, whispering roughly to themselves.

Suddenly, they whipped around, spotting Marcel on the stairs. They screamed. Marcel screamed, and then fell backwards down the stairs.

"Sorry!" The person called from upstairs.

Marcel groaned, attempting to pick himself up from the heap of books he landed in. His joints ached horribly.

"I'm not very used to... people." The person continued, peering down at Marcel, who began to slowly go back up the stairs.

"Well, I can't really blame you, I wasn't exactly invited in." Marcel replied, stretching out his arms. Getting a better look at the person, he appeared to be male, with short brunette hair and blue robes that had white runes tracing the hems. He wore a wizard's hat too, matching the robes. "You're a magic user."

"Yeah, no shit." The man replied, walking back over to the table and dusting down his robes. The table had an assortment of fungi, liquids and fancy looking rocks scattered across it, and a book wide open on a bookmarked page. "What are you doing here?"

"Hiding from castle guards." Marcel explained. "They think I was robbing a woman when all I did was return her purse to her."

"They don't trust people like you up near the nobles district. I can tell from your clothes you're some sort of rogue or whatever." The boy said, glancing at the book. "No offence."

"None taken, really." Marcel sighed. "My name's Marcel, by the way."

"Scotty." Wizard-boy replied. He raised his hands and his sleeves fell down just below his wrists. "Don't get to close for this." He warned.

Taking one last glance at the book, he shut his eyes and appeared to be focusing on something. Runes glowed white on his arms, making patterns and shapes from his fingers down. A single rune on his forehead glowed bright, and seemed to focus on a red toadstool on the table below.

Marcel waited, anticipation building inside, but nothing happened. Scotty just lowered his arms in defeat, and all the runes faded and were no longer visible.

"So, uh, what was that?" Marcel asked.

"A failed attempt at the simple transfusion of a mushroom an a table. If it had been successful my boring brown table would be polka-dotted and red." Scotty's sighed, shutting the book.

"So you, can't do magic?" Marcel said, raising an eyebrow.

"Of course I can do magic!" Scotty huffed, putting the book into a large pile on the floor.

"But... you're a wizard who doesn't know magic." Marcel replied, hands on hips.

"I know magic!" Scotty protested, getting frustrated with Marcel's doubt.

"Okay, show me some magic then." He insisted.

"Fine!" Scotty grumbled inaudible things, but Marcel did catch 'don't need to prove' and 'what does he know'.

"So what are you gonna do?" Marcel inquired, leaning on the table.

"I'm gonna blow your mind." Scotty answered, sifting through a different pile of books. "And don't touch anything in that table.

Marcel poked a shiny pink rock. It wobbled a bit. Not much happened.

"Okay!" Scotty exclaimed, plopping a new book down onto the table. "I've done this spell so many times for so many people. It was one of the first spells my dad taught me when I was learning magic in here as a child. I can fucking do this."

"What is it?"

"You'll see." Scotty rolled his sleeves up to his elbows. He grabbed the biggest crystal on the table - a white chunk of quartz that reflected rainbows if you angled it right - and put both hands on the sides of it. "Come and little closer, and you'll see exactly what it does."

The runes on Scotty's body began to glow again, the bright white glaring off the crystal. Soon their eyes adjusted to the light, and something else appeared from within the crystal. It seemed to be a volcanic area, where two figures were on the black rock surrounding it. One was kneeling on the ground while the other lay limp in their arms, clutching a long item.

Looking closer, the scene became clearer, and Marcel saw that HE was the one clutching the limp person, and that person was Scotty. Marcel was overcome with a sudden wave of sadness as the version of him in the crystal started to cry, hugging the unconscious body.

He glanced at Scotty, who stared in shock at the event before him. He blinked a bit, and the magic dissipated, crumbling into little glowing sparks. He looked horrified, and maybe even in pain. Marcel guessed that might have something to do with the fact that he wasn't doing so good in the magic image.

"What was that?" He asked, putting a hand on the wizard's shoulder.

"I-I've never..." Scotty lowered his hands and the white glow once again faded. "The spell is supposed to give you a small glimpse at an important event in your future. I've never been in any of them, though."

"What?!" Marcel exclaimed. "So at some point in our lives-"

"I can't go very far into the future, so I'd say in the best month or two." Scotty informed him.

"Right, so in the next month or so, we're gonna bond a hell of a lot, go to some volcano, and you're gonna fucking die."

"Well, I wasn't dead, but pretty much, yeah." Scotty answered, looking just as confused and scared as Marcel felt.

"So, HOW exactly?"

"Guess we'll just have wait and see."