|
Post by Hobbit-eyes on Aug 17, 2005 12:18:29 GMT -5
OK then, I WON'T take it down!!! Happy???
*runs away and cries*
|
|
|
Post by reasonably_crazy on Aug 18, 2005 22:04:09 GMT -5
YAY!
|
|
|
Post by Hobbit-eyes on Aug 20, 2005 3:51:02 GMT -5
*sniff* You can be so mean to me.
|
|
|
Post by reasonably_crazy on Aug 20, 2005 20:11:32 GMT -5
Well excuse me, little miss "I'll write a really cool story then never update again and then I'll RUB IT IN YOUR FACE!!!!"
|
|
|
Post by Hobbit-eyes on Aug 22, 2005 6:30:55 GMT -5
But it's TRIIICKYYYYY!!!! Do you have ANY idea of how many stories I have going at once???
No, you don't!!! So I shall TELL YE!!
First of all, there's Fandom Wars, which takes a lot of remembering just what all the characters are up to!
Then, there's all the stories in the 'Shadows in the Cave' universe! That includes Meniclaraza, at least two other stories which are likely to become trilogies in their own right (so that's SIX stories), not to mention the entire 'Silmarillion' thing about how that world was created! THAT'S EIGHT STORIES IN ANOTHER UNIVERSE!!!
THEN, there's the Bifrost series, which is causing me SERIOUS problems because I REALLY want to write them but am suffering major writer's block!!
AND THEN, there's the Sarla series, which are a group of stories set in an alternate reality where magic has come out of the magical closet, where I have at least THREE stories without titles yet, and I have a whole load of other ideas buzzing around my head for there and none of them are coming out!!
AAAND THEEEN there's the Afterlife series!! Guardian angels, Angels of Destiny - again, these are all big ideas and I don't have time to translate them all into stories!
AAAAAAND THEEEEEEN there's the random stories just floating around, like Hawthorne Dene (likely to fit into Sarla) and Dragon Chasers!!! And random stories which I haven't got titles for!!
AND THEN THERE'S OFUT WHICH I REALLY NEED TO WRITE BUT HAVE LOST NEARLY ALL INTEREST IN!!!
THERE'S TOO MUCH, I CAN'T TAKE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!
*sits down and cries*
|
|
|
Post by Hobbit-eyes on Aug 22, 2005 6:32:07 GMT -5
I apologize for that, I'm very tired...
|
|
|
Post by reasonably_crazy on Aug 22, 2005 20:54:15 GMT -5
Awww...
It's okay, deary.
*pats back*
Have a cookie.
|
|
|
Post by Hobbit-eyes on Aug 23, 2005 3:07:40 GMT -5
YAY COOKIE!!
*snarfles*
|
|
|
Post by reasonably_crazy on Aug 23, 2005 23:30:47 GMT -5
Wow.... Um... here, have a second.
Can you snarfle again? That was cool!
|
|
|
Post by Hobbit-eyes on Aug 24, 2005 12:18:35 GMT -5
Of course I can.
*snarfles*
See?
And I'm having a fresh attempt at this tonight. Break through the writer's block.
|
|
|
Post by reasonably_crazy on Aug 24, 2005 23:48:47 GMT -5
*clappy clappy*
|
|
|
Post by Hobbit-eyes on Aug 25, 2005 6:07:50 GMT -5
I DID IT!!!! *cheers* And got really caught up in it. This story is ALIIIVE!
A couple of minutes later, she was seated at his disappointingly ordinary-looking kitchen table, and the wizard was bustling around making the tea. She kept on glancing around hopefully for any signs of magic – anything to justify her growing sense that yes, he was a wizard, and no, this wasn’t all some hallucination or trick – but the room seemed entirely normal.
“Where’s your cauldron?” she asked.
“Cauldron?” said the wizard, sounding surprised, “What would I want one of those for? Kettles are much more convenient. Besides, I’m not a potions type of person – you can get most remedies at chemists nowadays.”
Alex, again, felt slightly disappointed. “You can’t make potions to – I don’t know – turn people into cats, or grow curly eyebrows, or something?”
“Erm,” said the wizard, “Well, we might have been able to in the old days, but not any more. Why on earth would you want to grow curly eyebrows, anyway?”
Alex didn’t have an answer for that. The wizard brought over two mugs of tea, and handed one to Alex. Written on it was ‘Wizards don’t only have big pointy hats’.
“Oh, sorry,” said the wizard, reddening slightly when he saw the cup, and quickly handed her the other one, which just had a picture of the wizard grinning and holding a stick insect. “A present from my cousin – real sense of humour-”
Alex chose not to comment. The wizard quickly took a gulp of tea, and then set his mug down again on the tabletop.
“Shall I take a look?” he asked. Alex held out her plastered arm. He frowned and ran his hands over it, looking at it so intently that Alex thought he might be able to see through it. He looked up at her. “I’m going to have to take the cast off. Don’t worry, I’ll put it on again.”
“Er – OK,” said Alex slightly hesitantly. The wizard ran one finger along the cast, and it split open along the middle, exposing her bare bruised arm. Alex winced slightly as pain stabbed along it, but the wizard didn’t notice.
“Hmm,” he said thoughtfully, examining her arm. A few moments later, he added, “Hmmmm.”
Alex waited patiently. She felt awkward staring at him, so she looked around the kitchen again. A cat jumped up onto the windowsill outside. Alex smiled at it. The cat rolled its eyes and leapt off again.
Suddenly, she felt a warm tingling sensation in her forearm, like pins and needles, and a strange feeling as though her bone was knitting together again. She tore her eyes from vacated windowsill to her arm. The wizard was resting one hand on it. His fingers seemed to be glowing slightly, but not with light – with something else. Her arm was glowing too. The bruises were fading rapidly, as if being rubbed out with an eraser. She opened her mouth to say something (she wasn’t sure what, but was certain something would occur to her) but before she could the glow faded, the tingling sensation faded and the wizard lifted his hand away.
She looked at him expectantly, but he didn’t say anything - he just sat back in his chair, eyes closed. He looked exhausted, Alex noticed with surprise. She looked down at her arm again. All the bruises were gone. Gritting her teeth, she moved it experimentally. When pain didn’t shoot up her arm, she tried again. Encouraged, she lifted it off the table top and clenched her fist. Nothing. The arm was mended.
She looked back to the wizard, amazed. “You-”
“-are a wizard. Yes, I know,” said the wizard, still with his eyes closed, “Only just realized?”
“I…” Alex didn’t know what to say. “I guess I didn’t… it’s just… I’ve always thought wizards are just stories, you know?”
“Mmm.” The wizard picked up his mug and took another deep gulp of tea. Alex watched him expectantly.
“So?” she said.
The wizard looked at her. “So what?”
“So? Are you going to explain? How you’re a wizard, how magic is still around, where the pencil fits into all this?”
“Oh. That.” The wizard put his mug down again. “Erm. Well… as you’ve grasped by now, I am a wizard. I can do a bit of magic, but not all that much.”
“How?” asked Alex eagerly.
“What do you mean, how? Do you think a bird understands about air pressure and lift when it flies? I have no idea how magic works, I just do it, that’s all.”
“Well, how did you become a wizard?”
“I bought myself a pointy hat.” Alex looked at him. “Oh, you mean, when did I realize I could do magic?” Alex nodded. “When I was about eight years old, I dropped a little vase, and it smashed. I started picking up the pieces, wishing I hadn’t dropped it, and suddenly all the pieces sprang back together and mended. And then a cat standing nearby said, ‘What do you know, a new wizard.’”
“I’m sorry – a cat?”
“Oh yes. They can detect wizards. Bloody know-it-alls, though.”
“So – can anyone do magic?”
“I don’t think so. Hardly anyone can do it nowadays. I only know a few wizards.”
“How?”
“How else do you get to know rare people? Over the internet.”
“There’s a website for wizards?”
“Several. Of course, sometimes I have to try to figure out whether they’re real wizards or people who wish they were.” Alex stared at him. The wizard took advantage of her silence to go on, “There used to be more wizards a few centuries ago, but as wizards died out, magic faded as well. There are several natural sources of magic in the world, and you can use them to ‘charge up’ objects.”
“Like magic wands?”
“That was fashionable for wizards a while ago, yes, but nowadays we use more everyday objects to avoid detection. Such as…”
“A pencil,” said Alex, looking down at the silver one held in her hand. “This-?”
“Is charged up with magic, yes. It’s one of the only magically charged objects left, and by the looks of it, it’s got a fair bit of power left in it.”
“Is that why Mr Brown wanted it?”
“What?” The wizard’s face suddenly changed. Before, he had been looking at her with an expression of contentment and interest – now there was alarm in his gaze.
“That guy at the hospital last night – the one I mentioned? He came and asked about the crash, and the pencil-”
The wizard had gone pale. “What did you tell him?”
“I – er – I said I thought I saw you with something, but I didn’t know what it was…”
“Ohhh,” said the wizard, grabbing his cup of tea with a shaking hand and taking a long drink of it, and slamming it back down again. “Ohh, this is not good…”
“What – why? Why?” asked Alex in alarm. The wizard had hurriedly drained the rest of his tea and got to his feet, and was now pacing the floor. He stopped and looked at her.
“Firstly, this – Mr Brown, he told you his name was? – is also looking for the pencil. Secondly, he wants it for the wrong reasons. Thirdly, he knows who you are. Fourthly, he knows I was with you. Fifthly, he’s probably guessed by now that you have it, or I have it. Sixthly, it’d be all too easy for him to track you down. Seventhly, it wouldn’t be good if he did so. Eighthly-”
“I think I’ve got the point,” said Alex, “What do we do? What does he want with it?”
“I don’t know…” said the wizard, running his hand through his hair and looking extremely stressed, “I just don’t-”
“Of course you do,” said a bored voice from the door. Alex leant sideways in her seat, and her eyebrows shot upwards. The cat she had seen on the windowsill seemed to have just come through the cat flap, and was now looking at the wizard with a disdainful look on its face.
“Oh no,” said the cat, catching sight of Alex and giving a weary sigh, but then looked back to the wizard. “Of course you know what to do. You know exactly what to do.”
“It’s not that simple,” said the wizard, showing no sign that it was odd for him to be talking to a cat, “You know I – oh, terribly sorry. Alex, this is Cephalonius, Cephalonius, this is the girl whose car I stole…”
“Charmed, I’m sure,” said Cephalonius, walking up and holding out a paw. A little uncertainly, Alex shook it. His eyes immediately snapped back to the wizard. “First of all, I’d recommend getting as far away from here as possible. He will come soon, and as soon as he arrives here he’ll know you’re nearby.”
“Who’s-” began Alex.
“And get her away from here as soon as possible as well,” continued Cephalonius, jerking his head at Alex, “She’s not involved.”
“But-” began the wizard.
“She’s not-” repeated the cat firmly, “-involved.”
|
|
|
Post by reasonably_crazy on Aug 25, 2005 22:03:15 GMT -5
Oooh! Exciting-ness!
*dances with glee*
Took you long enough. *smack*
awww... sorry. Here- BROWNIE!
Happy happy!
And after all that, she didn't even say thank-you for making her arm better?
|
|
|
Post by Hobbit-eyes on Aug 26, 2005 5:13:35 GMT -5
I think she was too astonished. She might remember later.
And I've written more! Will post a bit.
|
|
|
Post by Hobbit-eyes on Aug 26, 2005 5:15:03 GMT -5
Alex looked from the cat to the wizard. “What’s going on?”
The wizard looked at her in surprise. “You can hear him?”
“Well, yes. Why?”
“It’s just… normally only wizards…” The wizard looked from her face to the pencil in her hand. “I wonder…”
He was staring at the pencil, looking thoughtful. Alex waited, but he seemed to be lost in thought. “Wonder what?” she asked eventually.
The wizard started, as though he’d forgotten she was there. “Has the pencil – er – done anything?” he asked hesitantly, “Anything odd?”
“Well, it burnt really hot when Mr Brown came,” said Alex, “It burnt the bed. It didn’t hurt my hand though, I was holding it – he seemed much less persuasive when I was holding it-”
“Oh great,” said Cephalonius, rolling his eyes.
“What?” asked Alex.
“The pencil’s adopted you,” said the cat.
“It – it WHAT?”
“It might not have,” said the wizard hurriedly, “We mustn’t jump to conclusions. If you’d let me see it-”
He reached towards the pencil. Suddenly, the pencil pulled Alex’s hand up and slashed through the air – a white line appeared on the wizard’s cheek, and the wizard staggered backwards clutching it. Cephalonius arched his back and yowled. Alex’s hand fell back to her side, and she stared at the wizard in shock – blood was starting to trickle through his fingers.
“I – I didn’t-” she stammered.
“Don’t worry,” said the wizard wearily, and lifted his hand away in time for Alex to see a gash on his cheek closing up, leaving no sign it had been there. He turned to the cat. “You were right. I hate it when you’re right.”
“I always am,” said Cephalonius mildly.
“What – what-” Alex was still staring at the pencil in her hand, scarcely able to believe what had just happened. “Why – how-”
“It seems that the pencil has, indeed, adopted you,” said the wizard, sitting back down in his seat and taking Alex’s mug of tea, which was untouched, “This will, of course, make things a bit complicated…”
“What do you mean, it’s ‘adopted’ me? Why did it cut you like that by itself, I didn’t do it…”
“Of course you didn’t,” said the wizard, “Besides the fact I’m hopefully assuming you don’t hate me so much as to attack me, you couldn’t understand its power anywhere near enough in order to use it for such a purpose. No, the pencil thought that its ownership of you was being threatened, and defended itself.”
“Its ownership-?”
“It seems that in the short time you have looked after that pencil, it has become fond of you,” said the wizard wearily, “So it has adopted you to be its guardian, to make sure it’s used in the proper way. It will protect you as long as you protect it. Which is all very interesting, because it would suggest you have the power to do magic.”
“Which would explain why you can hear me,” put in Cephalonius, while Alex stared at the pencil in amazement, “Only people with the ability to use magic – even if they don’t know it – can hear cats. I knew she did,” he added to Cephalonius, “As soon as I came in. At first I thought it was just the aura of the pencil, but apparently…”
“Haha,” said Alex suddenly, “Hahahahahahaha. No, you’re wrong. I can’t do magic.”
“Of course you can’t,” said the wizard, looking surprised that she had even suggested it, “Not yet, anyway. That pencil will give you some ability, but if you are to be a real wizard, you’d have to visit one of the magic sources… and we’d have to get you a hat.”
“No,” said Alex, “No no no no, I really can’t be a wizard. It’s just too weird.”
“You can be a wizard,” said Cephalonius sternly, “If you can’t, then I’ll be wrong for the first time, which would be an extremely profound experience for me, and I’m not sure I’m quite ready for it.”
Alex shook her head noiselessly at the cat.
“You don’t need to worry, Alex,” said the wizard, “You won’t have to do anything you don’t want to.”
“I can give up the pencil?” said Alex hopefully.
“Er,” said the wizard, “No. It would follow you.”
Alex stared at him. “Follow me??”
“Oh yes. Try it. Leave the pencil on the table and go into the next room.”
“Er – OK…” Alex got up slowly and tentatively put the pencil on the table. It lay there, looking perfectly innocent. She turned and walked towards the door, glancing back over her shoulder. The pencil still lay on the table. It wasn’t showing any sign of sprouting legs or flying after her…
“Keep going,” encouraged the wizard.
Alex kept watching the pencil over her shoulder. When she reached the door, she turned away and stepped into the next room.
On the coffee table in front of her was sitting the pencil.
Alex span round. The kitchen table was now bare except for the two mugs. The pencil had vanished. She turned back to the coffee table. It was definitely the same pencil. She went over and picked it up. It seemed to be radiating an aura of slight smugness.
“I’m sure this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship,” said Cephalonius.
|
|