Free writing - Session One

A man stood alone in the darkness, the wind rustling everything around him. He knelt then and poked at something in the dirt beneath him. The object was hard and cold in his fingers and he brought it up to examine it carefully. There was little doubt in the man’s mind as he ran his hands over the coin that his quarry had indeed come this way though whether or not they knew they were being pursued was another matter. Perhaps the coin was a trap. He looked around with suspicion but did not see anything out of place. Two steps back were taken into the shrubbery as a voice sounded out close by.

"This way, it’s this way."

"No, we’ve been that way before. Face it, we’re lost here." The sounds of someone sitting reached the man in the shrubbery.

Well even if we are lost we can’t stop. There has to be someone hunting us. The man shifted his foot then and froze as a stick cracked beneath it. Everything froze then and the man had to strain to hear the whispers. "There’s someone out there… What we gonna do?"

The man slowly drew a shortbow as he waited to hear a response and then blinked as the darkness vanished, the light of a ball of flames illuminating the area. He muttered something under his breath as he switched out his bow for a club, his eyes tracking the ball of flames as it flew by his right side. He could see them clearly now, the one he was hunting and his companion. It had complicated his mission when he had run off like this into the wild after accidentally burning down a house or two.

He sniffed, excited that this mission was close to its end and watched as another ball of flames flew by him. A quick prayer to the Maker and a spell to hasten his actions and then he charged, erupting from the shrubbery. The distance between him and the pair was quickly covered, far too quickly for the pair to react in any meaningful way. He casually swung the club in his hand into the girl’s stomach, propelling her backwards into his target. The hunter watched as the pair tumbled to the ground and then swung again, this time at his target.

He smiled under his helm as he saw that both of his strikes had knocked out his targets and quickly went about binding their hands. The girl he gagged as well for her ability to speak was irrelevant here, the boy was the target. The hunter dragged the pair over to a tree and sat them up underneath it. A second later and his right hand clasped the boys shoulder and a blue light glowed in the flame light clearing. The boy jerked awake and the hunter smiled as he stepped back. "Jarvius of Redwater, you have been called to present yourself as a possible for becoming a Magister of Auctor. How do you answer?"

"I errr what?"

"You have the talents necessary to become a Magister. You displayed those talents quite recently." The hunter looked over at the charred brush then back at the embarrassed face of the boy.

"But… but… Auctor is thousands of kilometers away, in the north."

"We do not discriminate. I have a teleport scroll to use. What is your answer?"

"I… can my friend come with me?"

The hunter looked over at her and then back at the boy, "Does she have any useful talents?"

"She’s quite useful in a fight." The hunter nodded. "Alright, I’ll come then."

The hunter looked once more at the charred brush and then pulled out a piece of paper. He recited the words on the paper and then the trio of humans vanished from the forest.