Theo (need a title any suggestions?)

Chapter One

Chapter One
“Theo, am I glad to see you!” Lord Elysia sweeps me up in a twirling hug.
“Lord Elysia, please put me down, this is very unlady like.” I smooth out my dress and fix my hair as he puts me down. Lord Elysia was my first friend at Alfred’s house. Together we survived my finding out that I have magical ability. If it hadn’t been for him, I would never have agreed to be Alfred’s apprentice.
“Lord Elysia? What happened to calling me Eli?” Eli groans rubbing his arms, “It is a good thing I am an elf and that we are stronger than we look. Spin around and let me take a good look at you.”
I slowly spin and then give him a proper court curtsy. “So how do I look?”
“Cook and I were just talking about how quiet the house is without you. Plus I think cook misses cooking for you.” Eli gives a laugh as he rubs his belly.
“It’s nice that someone missed me.” I sigh, “Alfred wishes he’d left me at home under lock and key.” I shake my head, “he is so mad at me, I think I’ve really done it this time.”
Eli takes my hand, “Let us go to the garden and you can tell me all about it. You do have the ability to get under his skin with your accidents, but I doubt its is as bad as you say.”
I shake my head, “I’m not exaggerating this time. It might even be worse than the time you got hurt. I doubt that he will ever teach me magic now.” I stop talking we are in the middle of the most beautiful garden I have ever seen besides the Wizard Council’s garden. There are flowers of every shape and color arranged along a winding walkway of crushed rock. A high hedge surrounds the garden. “I didn’t know there was this type of garden here.”
“You never asked, this is were Hulda spends all of her time.” Eli leads me over to a bench off in a corner of the garden. “Hulda might not command magic, but you would never know it by looking at her garden. There are many druids who are positive that she has some type of magic or Alfred is secretly helping her.”
“A druid? Is he helping her?” I look around. “She sure puts a lot of work into this garden. Glad I don’t have to weed it.”
“One question at a time, please,” Eli holds up his hand in surrender. “It is so good to have you back. Now for the first question, a druid is a priest who uses magic for the good of the earth, the flowers, the trees, and the animals. Your second question, Alfred would not dare use magic in Hulda’s garden. Hulda has done this out of her love for the earth with no magic involved.” Eli looks at me, “enough about the garden, why is Alfred mad this time.”
I blow my hair out of my eyes. “I’m not overreacting, he is never going to teach me magic.” I blink back tears, “and I really want to learn magic and now I won’t be able.”
Eli pats my shoulder, “it can not be as bad as you think, how about you tell me what happened and let me be the judge.”
I take a second and compose myself. “Alright, first we went to the Hall of Wizards, that was exciting. There was color everywhere and their garden makes Hulda’s look small in comparison, but they use magic I’m sure of it.”
“Theo, interrupts Eli, “you know that they are a bunch of pompous fools acting like peacocks.”
“I saw the peacocks in the garden, they are so pretty when their tail feathers are all fanned out.” I look at Eli.
“I was talking about the wizards,” Eli shakes his head.
I punch him lightly on the arm, “I know I was just acting like I didn’t but I do want to learn magic and be a part of that group.”
“Finish the story,” Eli rolls his eyes. “We can talk about joining that group later. What happened while you were there? I still do not know why Alfred is mad at you.”
I pause and remember the meeting, “we spoke to the head wizard and he said if Alfred did some jobs for the council they would look at the spell and see what went wrong.”
“What?” exclaims Eli, “they could not see what was wrong by looking at Hulda? What kind of wizards are they?”
“They never saw Hulda,” using my best Hulda voice. “Mercy child, I will not have anyone see me as a mule.” I clear my throat. “There was no way Alfred would admit that he made a mistake or that it was his fault she was a mule.”
Eli is looking very serious. “Alfred lied to the council?”
“Alfred said it wasn’t a lie just on om, omi,” I stumble over the word.
“An omission is still a lie,” explains Eli. “Magic is to be done with hear and mind. Lying corrupts magic.”
“What do you mean corrupts magic?” I look at Eli in confusion.
“Has not Alfred taught you that corrupt magic is done to harm another or to force another creature, magical or not, to do what it does not want to do. We can talk about that later.” Eli isn’t looking too happy.
“Anyway,” I continue, “The council didn’t know about Hulda but they fond a few nasty jobs for Alfred to do.” I move to the grass under a large tree and stretch out, Eli follows. “The first place they sent us was to Arkell.”
“All that sand in Hulda’s coat,” Eli scratches in sympathy
“Hulda was so miserable, that we got to talking about snow.”
“Snow?” interrupts Eli, “it doesn’t snow in the dessert.”
“It did that day.” I made a face at Eli.
“Theo you did not!” gasp Eli.
“I did, I didn’t mean to but it didn’t matter to Alfred and his new favorite pupil.” I put on a sweet innocent face.
Eli sits up straight, “Alfred cannot take a new pupil, he has an apprentice.”
“Rance and Alfred believe that girls can’t learn magic and its a waste of their time to teach me.” I remember that conversation and start to get angry.
Eli looks me right in the eye. “Theo, you know that is not true, girls can learn magic as well as anyone. If you have the ability it just takes heart and determination and you can control magic.”
I shrug my shoulders, “not according to Alfred and Rance. Anyway, Rance finally gets the knack of weather magic so we move on.” I grab an apple from the tree. “The next place we go is to visit a dragon, poor Hulda was so nervous.”
Eli pretends to be sad, “I would not want to go into a dragon lair and especially not as a mule, to him that would be a snack.”
“You’ve never visited a dragon?” I ask in disbelief.
“No,” Eli shakes his head, “I do not plan on being anyone’s before meal snack. Dragons think of elves as a delicacy.”
“Not this dragon, he was nice. He didn’t know he was doing wrong because a monk was draining him of his magic.” I argue.
“How did Alfred figure that out?” Eli leans closer.
“I saw the magic being drained.” I shrug, “I couldn’t focus on the monk but when I looked out of the corner of my eye I saw the chord that was draining the magic.”
“There is not a lot of wizards or magical beings that can actually see magic,” remarks Eli.
“It wasn’t nothing, and had some time so I worked on why I couldn’t focus on him, Alfred would have noticed in time.” I defend him.
“Do not count on that, “ mutters Eli, “he seems to be overlooking a lot.”
I rush to his defense. “It was I who made the dragon mad. They had just begun talking when I thought that the dragon sounded like a small child and I pictured him in my head as a tiny lizard. You can imagine everyone’s surprise when he changed for a few seconds.”
“That I would have loved to see a dragon turning into a lizard,” Eli pauses with a puzzled look on his face. “I cannot believe that you would have such power.”
“Trust me, I don’t. It only happened because the monk was draining him. I just used the silver sword to cut the chord. The dragon gave me a request of anything I wanted as a thank you and I used t to change Hulda back.” I shrug.
“So the council did not change Hulda back it was dragon magic?” Eli asks.
I stand up, “Yes, now I’ve got to run. I promised Hulda I would help her arrange the furniture in the sitting room.
“How about a picnic lunch, right here tomorrow?” Suggest Eli.
“Great!” I run into the house.