Far in the Northern lands,in the valley,embraced with mountains which hid various dangers and were said to hold mysterious creatures,lay the old castle.Peace was not long since established within the castle walls,every citizen looked relieved,almost happy,occupied with their daily tasks,since there was much to do,to restore the damage the war brought onto their home.
In the farthest part of the castle,almost ruined,but still in one piece,a gray tower rose towards the sky.In it lived an old man,alone,isolated from all others,a wizard for whom it was told that knew the ways of seeing the future,but is blinded by that gift,and driven to insanity.The impact his staff made with the tower floor echoed across the room,as he walked from one end of it,to another,clearly bothered,his face showing worry.He knew something wasn’t right,furthermore he felt it with his whole being,deep down in his bones,and the thought of something terrifying happening to castle again,gave him no rest.He had a strange ritual of arguing with himself every time he was in a certain dilemma,and now he was doing just that.”I know this feeling,I’ve had it before,nothing good can come of it,nothing good.I have to do something,they don’t have a clue what’s happening.” He took off the hood,and with a slow move of his shaky hand moved his long,gray hair from his face.Then he looked towards the center of the room.There stood a wooden round table,and beside it,a chair made out of same type of wood.Black silk fabric,with a bunch of tiny,shining stars on it,was covering the items on the table,and the dust on it indicated that the items underneath were not used for a very long time.At the site of it he shook his had away,continuing the argue.”No,no,no,I’m far too old for something like that,and even if I did it,I wouldn’t be able to do anything,and who will listen to the senile old man like myself.”He continued his walk around the room,and as he passed beside the table,his staff caught up in the silky fabric,stripping it of the table,and revealing what was underneath.There stood a ball,perfectly round,transparent,but it had some kind of a misty matter inside,which could paint the ball in any color.At the moment it was gray,but as he stared at it,it slowly started turning darker,filling the inside of the ball,until it was completely black.His eyes opened wide,he felt it was bad,but now,he knew it was even worse that he thought.He sat in the wooden chair,laid his staff beside him,and decided that he is going to use his gift,one last time.He couldn’t look away from the ball,his curiosity prevailed over his sanity,and he reached out,touching it gently with his fingertips.A wave of shock rushed through his body,and the wind surrounded him,making a terrifying sound as it twisted his hair and his robes.He had his eyes closed for a bit,as he concentrated,in order to see the vision as clearly as possible.Then,he opened them suddenly.His eyes and sweat on his face gave away an enormous amount of fear,as he had seen it all.Raging beast high up in the sky,those bloodthirsty eyes,flames,desperate cries of his fellow citizens.It took him a while to come together,but as soon as he did,he rushed through the door,swiftly descending down the round stairs of the tower and yelling:”Beast,flame,despair,death.”
Bunch of people were gathered near the walls,repairing the damage,because soon,winter will come,bringing snowstorms,and although they were all busy,his yelling caught their attention.He saw that many had gathered,and decided that he was to tell them what he saw as quickly as possible.”I have seen it all,I just had a vision.A raging flying beast will rise up in the sky bringing flames of despair,wreaking his anger upon us,bringing chaos,even death to our people.His lair is high up in the mountain,you have to go there and kill it,before it dooms us all.”Silence.They all looked at him,but no one spoke,until the head construction worker heard what the wizard said.”You are crazy;living isolated in that ruin made you insane,you can’t even tell what’s real and what’s not.Raging beasts,yeah right.Dragons have been extinct for centuries,you miserable old fool.Quit scaring this people with your insanity,just go to that hole you crawled out of.”
It were not words that hurt him,but disbelief,ignorance,and most of all,the lack of respect he felt they should have for him,for he is the one that saved them during the great war many years ago.It would seem that everyone has forgotten who he is,and his isolation made him less trustworthy.There was only one person he hoped would listen to him now.He turned away,heading for the main chambers,in which lived the king.There,he found the king,told him everything he saw,to the smallest detail,the way he heard the dragon’s wings clapping,the way he felt heath in his vision,but his hope was soon lost.”I believe that you saw it,my old friend,but look at it from my perspective,there is too much work to be done,and not too many men,I can’t spare time,supplies,swords and men for that quest,we have to restore our power and fast,and as you once said it yourself,that visions are not always true.” His eyes watered,as he knew that there was no one else to turn to,and his voice quavered as he said:”I will then go on my own,there is just about enough strength left within me for this one last journey,do not try to stop me,for I am not insane,and I will not let disbelief and ignorance be the end of this people”
“Maybe you have lost your mind,as people claim,and if you wan’t too lose your life too,I will not stand in your way”
-Wind howled stronger and stronger,as wizard struggled to climb the mountain.There was no sign of anything living on the mountain for two days,but as he continued his way,he felt like he heard a relaxing flute melody somewhere in the distance.It encouraged his curiosity,and he moved towards the direction it was coming from.He heard something like singing,and as he mowed towards it,it became louder.It came from a small cave,and as he reached the entrance,from the fire that burned inside,he could see the shadow of a man on the wall.The wizard approached the cave slowly,and stood in the doorway,he didn’t want to get any closer,fearing he might interrupt the man’s song.The man stopped,and turned to the wizard,smiling at his site.”Come,join me,I see you traveled a long way,sit next to the fire,have something to eat,regain your strength.What journey brings you here,my friend?”He leaned his staff next to the closest wall,and took of his hood.Smile vanished from the bard’s face,as he saw the look on the wizards face.It gave away enormous sorrow.He shivered,and barely made it into a sitting position across the bard.He barely found the strength to answer the question bard asked a few minutes before:”Ignorance,fear,disbelief and love brought me to this place.”Bard was used to wizards and knew about their puzzled way of saying things,but this seamed awkward to him,he wanted to know how those 4 can come together,and lead a man to a place where you couldn’t force others to come.He reached out for the wizard,handing him a loaf of bread.”Regain your strength old one,and tell me more about your journey,I wanna know everything,maybe I can even make a song out of it.”They sat like that in silence for quite some time,until the wizard spoke again.”I had a vision about my people being killed by the beast that lives on this mountain,but as I tried to warn them,they would not listen to the senile old fool,blackened by magic,as they called me.No sword,no magic,not any kind of violence can hurt me,as much as this breaks my old heart.Don’t get me wrong,it’s not disbelief,insults,and lack of respect I feel they should have for me,but the lives of so many young ones,so many innocent will be lost,if i fail this task,that is what breaks my heart.”He never needed fame,fortune,respect,glory,although he deserved it,he knew those things don’t mean anything,they are all temporary,and time will make them fade away,yet still he grieved for one thing.He wanted to be remembered,not as a senile old fool,misled by dark magic,but as wise,good man,savior,for he had done nothing but the best for his people.If he could defeat the beast now,a small sign of gratitude,a simple smile and a thank you from at least one of the citizens would mean the world to him,and give his life meaning,for even that single man,or a child would know who he really was,and what he really did for him,and he would know that all of his efforts were not in vain. ”I’ve heard so many stories like yours,so many good people like yourself being treated like the worst scum of mankind,and I can’t figure out why this happens so often to people that are good…”
“Well,what do you think my friend,why is that?”
“Faith can be cruel sometimes,but you shouldn’t lose hope,that’s for sure.”
“Faith?What is faith,tell me?It’s nothing more but an imaginary thing,people tend to blame where there is no obvious reason why something happened.Look at it this way,can one man’s faith exist without that man?I’m sure it can’t.Then if you choose to end your life,would it be faith too?No.That’s just an action you choose to do,no higher power has anything to do with it.Faith is not so complicated,it is nothing more then what ordinary people call opportunity,just a matter of whether you seize it,when it is given to you.The idea of faith,destiny or whatever you wish to call it,is that a man has a path which he is bound to go by,no matter what he does in his life,whether he want’s to go along it or not.We fight for freedom all our lives,but tell me,can one truly be free to do as he pleases if there is already a road he must take?That just seems so sad to me,and is so much easier to not believe in it.”
“Well,when you put it that way…”
“There is no other way to put it,it is not faith that brought me here;people did,I’m sure.Although whole my life has been dedicated to magic and mysterious things,and although I know much about it,people are still the biggest mystery to me.”
“Perhaps I can be of help with that.I’ve traveled the lands you don’t even know exist,seen all kinds of people.It is envy that brought you here my friend,envy is in the blood of all men.They refuse to accept you for who you are,because they lack what you have,and therefore they rejected you.Narrow are the minds of us man,we refuse to give our minds the ability to work at their full power.Maybe it’s the fear that we would become different,realize more things,the fear of changing,for people are used to living like this,the world without pain,cries and misery would not last for long,for that is not the world we are used to live in.Maybe it’s the lack of time we are given in this world,for if we could live 200,300 years,we would all realize so much more.Maybe it’s that there is not much love left in this world torn apart by wars.Seldom are those who found true love,and enjoyed it’s full benefits.Many focus on mere survival,my friend,and do what they must to maintain those petty things that they have earned in this life,and just can’t focus on other things.When we learn to brake free of all the fears that keep us bound to the ground,we will gain wings,to fly above all we know,and see the world from the different perspective,see the image of what world could look like if we would just let it.Once we learn to open our eyes,not fearing what we will see,then will the world be as you and I would like it to be.”
“True,my friend,true.Although as much as it breaks my heart,I know that it’s not all their fault,and deep down in my heart,I still love my people,that’s why I must do this,for I have failed to change the world,and I’m glad to give the opportunity for someone who is yet to discover the world,for you can never know which one of us has within him what it takes to make this world a better place.I must go now,I have regained enough strength to face the beast,and I fear that I would be late if I don’t go now”
The bard set there,as the wizard was leaving the cave.He opened his mouth,but before he said anything,he realized that “good luck” would just make wizard more upset,because this had nothing to do with luck.Therefore,he didn’t say anything,just moved his fingers slowly across his instrument,in that way saying his goodbye.Wizard slightly raised his staff as an answer,and that was the last of their meeting.
As wizard went along the path,he thought so much about the bard’s words,and imagined what the world would look like if he and the bard had the power to change it.He felt happy for that time,he wondered into that imaginary world,so much that he didn’t even notice anything around him,until a wave of fire surged in front of him,barely missing his face.His heart started beating insanely.This was the moment he’s been waiting,and he knew exactly what he had to do,despite the horrible sounds that came from the huge cave,and the fire that surged out of the cave entrance every now and then,he knew that he must not show fear.As soon as he entered the dragon spotted him,and fired another wave at him.He fell to the ground,barely dodging it.As he was struggling to get up,his eyes caught a sight of a stalactite hanging above the dragon’s head.A sign of hope appeared on the old man’s face,as he knew that this was his chance.Dragon roared,clearly mad from missing the first shot.This time a huge fireball went towards the wizards face.He didn’t focus on getting up,or running away.Instead he raised his hand,bending his fingers into some kind of a claw shape,closed his eyes,and forced all of his energy into it.He just knelt there,still holding that hand up in the air,griping the snowy surface of the cave with another,quickly breathing.His heart was pounding like never before.Then he realized he is still alive.He listened.Nothing;just the sound of the wind.That must have meant only one thing.He tried breathing normally as he struggled to open his eyes again.Relief surged all over his body,at the site his as were looking at.What was once a vicious beast,now laid in the snow,covered with his own blood,head pierced by the stalactite that fell of,as fireball hit it.He did it,he reflected it,he saved them all.He knew that that was the last of him,he barely had the strength to come back to the village and tell them of his great victory.
When he reached the castle,and came through the front gate,he felt a little disappointed,but at the same time laughed at himself.”Did I really expect for them to be different,they don’t even know what happened,so foolish of me”.He looked like a poor man,insane,his head all over the place,face dirty,and his robes torn apart.People started looking at him,as they were drawn by this site.”You are looking at your savior,my dear people,I have killed the beast,and therefor freed you all.”The look on their faces changed,but not as he hoped.Some of them shook their head in disbelief,while others were laughing at him.A stone flew near his head,and he found himself shocked.The head construction worker was clearly mad at him for some reason,as he started throwing more and more rocks towards him.He really had no more strength to move away,and one of them hit him.He knelt,holding his stomach,clearly in pain.The construction worker started yelling:”Fool,don’t you get it.We are sick and tired of your false stories and fairy tales,stop messing around with this people.Your black magic did nothing to help rebuild the city,you are just wasting our time,you might as well go somewhere and die,you’ll be of use that way.”The mob agreed,and a few more showed their anger at the wizard,throwing more and more rocks.He fell down,massively bleeding from his head.A tear slipped away from the corner of his eye,and froze before it reached his cheek.He could never imagine that this would be the last image his eyes would see before they close forever.His face buried in the sand,and he closed them.
A few moments later,he opened them again,only to find himself in the room of his tower,sitting in the wooden chair beside the table,still holding his hands on the ball.He was breathing heavily,tears flowing down his cheeks.Then he realized,ALL THAT was a vision,but he had no will or strength to do anything about it.He just leaned back in his chair,awaiting the tragic destiny of his people,and himself.