Washing Wizards Part 1

 

     A tall thin man stumbled down the street, yelling and flailing his arms at the bar crowds walking by. The peaceful evening had come to an end. Officer Latham flipped on his lights and pulled up next to the man.

     "Had a few drinks tonight sir? Something else? You okay?"

     The man fixed an urgent gaze on Officer Latham, his voice raspy as he said "The wizards are coming for us all. We must prepare!"

     Officer Latham sighed, another one for lockup. He got out of the car and gently helped the man into the back of his patrol car.

     The man kept repeating "the wizards are at the laundromat, the wizards are at the laundromat."

     Officer Latham chuckled to himself as he drove off heading for the psychiatric ward. He had heard a lot, but that was certainly was a new one.

     At the laundromat, five bearded men in workout shorts and t-shirts sat at the long table while their robes, capes, and hats spun in the dryers overhead.

     "Do you think that guy was trouble?" asked the short, plump wizard.

     "Nah, they'll just think he's nuts Mikolus," the tall one with chiseled features replied.

     They all chuckled before getting back to business. Archuro's bald head glowed from the heat of the dryers as he took a sip of steaming hot tea from his cup and spread a large map onto the table. The one at the table with the wild red hair and beard looked at him intently.

     "Hey, where'd you get tea at this hour?" 

     The others glared at the redhead as they concentrated on the map. It depicted the city and surrounding the city was the mystic mountain range that could not be seen by the humans. Archuro tapped on a red mark on the mountain range.  

     "Is that even possible?" the youngest, and the only one without a beard, asked, tapping his leg restlessly as he pointed to the map. 

     "Yes, if we are patient, we should be able to get enough concentration of the magic to penetrate the air," Mikolus answered.

     The dryers slowed their speed and each of the wizards got up from the table to gather their ensembles. The tallest one grabbed a wand from his bag and began spinning it in his bony hands. Smoke filled the laundromat and they knew they would only have seconds to enter the mountain realm before the smoke alarms would start blaring and alerting the neighborhood to their presence. 

     It would have been so much easier to plan all of this from their home, but the other non-wizard residents there could never know about their plan. They would be punished by death if their plans were discovered. Even though the humans deserved everything that was coming to them, several of their mystical neighbors were protective of humans.

     In a blink, they were all standing in a thickly wooded forest. The air smelled crisp yet spicy, the smell of magic. The wizards walked together to the spot that was depicted on the map. It was a meadow with a clear view of the city. There didn't appear to be anyone else around, but they remained cautious.

 

     There were only five wizards left because for centuries they had been indirectly destroyed by the humans. Every time a wizard was mentioned in literature, movies, television, it cost the wizards some of their power. When a wizard lost all of his power, the wizard would die. 

     They tried to increase their population, but female wizards were so rare and those that did exist were the first to be destroyed by the careless humans. The five that remained had discovered that when they were in the human realm, it protected them from the energy drain. They spent more time there than they cared to, but they had finally preserved enough magic to execute the plan.

     They would penetrate the air with their magic and many of the humans breathing the air would die.  

Potion Problems

 

Tyler felt great. He hadn't felt this well-rested in a while. He turned to look at the clock. Wait, was that right? 8 am? His Oils and Herbs class started in 30 minutes! He tripped over the blanket hanging from the side of the bed as he got up. This resulted in a bump on the chin that was getting swollen. No time for that now. He showered and dressed and ran out of the house, forgetting to feed Milo.

Tyler ran most of the way to class. He opened the door to the classroom went in covered in sweat with a large bump on his chin. Mariel was in the corner of the room. Her copper locks and freckles drew his eyes every time he came to class. She took one look at him and laughed. That wasn't good. He had been trying to get her attention for months, now that he had, it was the wrong kind of attention. Perhaps he would make an amazing potion today that would make her forget all about his appearance.

"Class, today we are going to be creating a potion that will make things larger, just like in Alice in Wonderland." Mrs. Hanery chuckled as she pulled herbs and oils from the large cabinet.

When Mrs. Hanery chuckled, it meant trouble was on the way. Tyler swallowed the knot in his throat as he remembered that he was a bit behind on the required reading for the class. He hoped that he could get by today with what he already knew.

Tyler started mixing the ingredients. The contents of the bowl were a sickly shade of gray. Other students had brilliant blue and green in their bowls. Tyler wondered what was missing. He added a few extra drops of the oil of garniga, hoping to make his batch look a little better. When the oil hit the mixture, it bubbled and disappeared into the gray blob.

It was time to add the magic. That was his least favorite part. He watched as Mariel said her spell. Her voice was like a thousand angels as she ran her tiny fingers over the blue mixture in her bowl. A small butterfly emerged from the bowl. It grew larger until it was the size of a bird. The class ooohed and clapped.

Tyler wasn't sure that he should try adding magic to the gray blob, but he had to pass the class. The results could be bad, but on the other hand, they could be amazing. Tyler chanted over his bowl, but it was difficult to concentrate. He just remembered that he had forgotten to feed Milo on his way out. Milo appeared above the mixture, an orange temperamental cat. Milo started to grow, first to twice his size, then he started to fill up the room.

Mrs. Hanery called to the class to evacuate the room. She tried saying a reversal spell, but Milo kept growing. Milo soon filled the classroom. The students were screaming. Tyler tried to sooth the large and agitated cat, but Milo just hissed at him.

Milo started pushing out the walls of the classroom as he continued to grow. Loud footsteps could be heard in the hall rushing towards the classroom.

Dean Litsky's voice boomed "прекращать!"

Milo slowly started to shrink. In a few minutes, he was his regular cat size again.

Dean Litsky handed Tyler a slip of paper and said "You see me tomorrow," in his thick Russian accent. His bushy gray eyebrows raised as he looked at Tyler with a frown on his wrinkled face.

Tyler picked up Milo and took him home. He opened the cabinet and grabbed a can of food for Milo. He was really glad that Milo was normal size again because the cat food can for big Milo would have been ridiculous. He rubbed Milo's chin and opened his Oils and Herbs textbook. No more improvising. Well... no more improvising without basic knowledge.