The Metamorphacist

A dark cave. A single light floated from deep within the bowels of it. Wandlight.

A man hooded in a blood red robe held a heavy iron wand out and flourished it extravagently. A single man writhed in pain on the floor, his shadow twitched, irregular with the body. The light comes in waves, sometimes bright and sometimes dull. The shadow was so dark that it was impossible to tell that there was stone beneath it no matter how much light there was.

The apprentice of the man stood back in the shadows. He had his own blood red robe, which marked him as one of the darklings. Soon a smile attempted to be spawned, but all that it appeared to be was that the man was being tormented by tiny imps that were ripping at the corners of his mouth. This did not bother him, however,his master was hard at work casting a spell which would bring forth a new species to their army.

Soon the wand movements became more stern and intense. The writing became more pained, and the shadow started rippling like a pool of water that was constantly being bombarded with handfuls of sand. A wicked melody began resonating throughout the cave, and soon the shadow was torn from the mans body, and it rose up onto the floor, growing to fill out the entire human form.

The hooded man beconed the shadow, controlling it with the wand, and bringing it right close up to his face. " Despose of him, we have no use for men with no shadows." His voice came out as gravelly as though he had recently attempted to swallow the worlds deserts.

The shaddow nodded and then turned to his prior master. The mans irises had turned grey with no soul. His hair from a vibrant red to a poisoned black. His fingernails had curled and withered away to nothing. His lips had turned to a muted grey. A few words was all the mans body could atempt to form.

" Please, I was . . . ." his voice thick and forced. the shadow hunched to his level and slowly waved his hands around the body. An eerie glassy green glow was erupting from the shadow's palms.

" Exactly, you were" the shadow hissed. The mans body was turning to something indestinguishable as either liquid or gas and was being absorbed in a cyclone form into the tunnel in the shadow's palms that the light resonated from.

A single cry was the last noise heard in the cave that night, before a raven as dark as night flew from it and deep into the mountains standing black against the morning sky.

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Sunshine billowed through the dense arbor of trees. Several birds conversed through song, and a deer or two wandered trough unnoticed. Once a bear even wondered through.

A large pool of crystaline water sat offcenter in a large clearing. On either side of it two boys sat, one with a long reed flute, the other simply gazing intensley into the water.

As the boy played the flute, the water around him began to dance and float, swaying to the music. Soon so much of the ater was in the air flowing that it was shallow enough for the boy to walk through and sit in the center where the water could float and writhe around him.

As the water slapped the water it made a single ripple travel far enough to the other side of the pool where the other boy was gazing. when it passed his line of sight his head wrenched up sharply.

" Gabriel! How many times to I have to tell you not to play that useless intrument while I'm divining! now stop fooling with that foolish thing and go charm some animal!"

Gabriel frowned at his brother and played a low note, which froze the water in the form of an archway for him to walk out.

" Fine, Simon. Maybe I'll get that bear to come and eat you!" And then stomped off,making as many ripples i the water as possible.

Gabriel and Simon were actually princes. Simon was the older of the two, but only by 2 years. He was sixteen and had inheireted their fathers straight red hair, which he usually had tied back with a black ribbon in a ponytail, along with their fathers peircing violet eyes. Simon was much the sterner child, and always took everything in life as though if he did something bad it would count against him as going to be King.

Gabriel was fourteen, and had the short, dusty, blonde hair of their mother, as well as her emerald irises. he was fourteen, and took his life as though it were a game. his mother had bought him the magical flute when he was 13 as the coming of age gift, which was always expected from each parent in the entire land to their own children, one from each parent. The tradition for the royal family was to have the child be bestowed with one crystal, magical item from the father, and an empowered instrument from the mother. Gabriels other gift had been a crystal hummingbird that gave him the power of flight while holding it.

As Gabriel walked he played a cheery, upbeat tune upon the magical flute, which made the plantys seem to shine brighter and grow faster. Down from the trees came viny tendrils.

Farther along the way Gabriel encountered a creature he had never seen before, with blue fur and orange claws. he stayed well away from it, and it ran of into the woods.

Minutes later he heard Simon yell.

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Gabriel blasted out a short high note. the earth around him rose up like an ocean wave and washed him back the pool in record time.

Simon lay by the water, a large gash in his arm and he was panting heavily. His white shirt had a rossette of blood blossoming across it. he cradled the arm with his other.

Gabriel momentarily went into shock, but a moment later, dazed, he played a sweet high tune on the flute. the bloody blossom slowly started to recede, and the gash healed up.

" well, I guess I should be glad you brought that thing now." Simon said.

" But What happened???" Gabriel asked, eager to know why he had needed to play a healing spell( healing songs took up alot more energy then anything else on the flute, other than death spells, though.)

" Some great hulking blue monster came while I was divining into the future. It attacked me and then once my blood was on its claws it ran off into the woods. it was nothing, probably just some monster angered by your tunes."

Gabriel wanted to ask more, but knew he shouldn't, simon was tough and never liked admitting that he would have needed help, or that he was in trouble.

- - - - - - - - - -

Far away in the mountains surrounding the kingdom that Gavbriel and Simon's parents looked after, a blue creature presented its master with the blood of a prince.

" good, good. You can turn back now, Aren." the creature nodded and then rose up and transformed into the dark wizards apprentice.

" Do you think that we have enough of his blood to transmute into our army? If not i would be glad to go back and fetch some more. Who knows how much we could get withut that pretty little he-"

" No need, my boy. We have enough for us to invade and conquer, and with that Shadowmancer we made last night, it will be all the easier converting the people of Ceramize. "

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    The Moonlight rippled through the bright and fresh green leaves of the grove. Only just rising nothing belonging to the night had stirred, but soon the light would hit the soil, and the subjects of the silver queen would rise from the night and dance the life into the tree's.

Far off in the distant mountains a howl revebrated from the echoing canyons. Probably nothing, but the not-yet-gone-to-sleep animals kept an ear to the ground, just in case it was the war call warning of the battle threatened in the history books.

Finally, the light glanced against the earth, and a single fairy flew from the ashes and began to frolic. With each step a noticeable lift shivered throughout every last leaf, becoming brighter and livelier. Soon other creatures joined the dance, including nymphs, driads, gnomes, elves, and even the odd goblin. Soon the leaves and plants were shining with energy, eventually turning silver and falling to the ground, immediatley repplaced by a new leaf, but transforming into a new creature to once again gambol with the others.

Another howl. This time it seemed that darkness bled throughout the mountains the moment that it sounded, but that could easily explained away as being the act of that strange dark cloud slowly engulfing the moon, yet still . . .

Slowly, but certainly, as the moonshine was sucked away into the cloud, the magical creatures floated back into the shadows. Soon only the very first fairy was left still playing. A shadow moved, and then walked up to her.

"You should have given in to peer pressure, you little battery"

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Far away, the royal library.

In the deep and mystifying halls of the books, silence sang throughout the night. Lexicons and tomes of every age, size and shape were nestled deep in slumber.

The books of this magical home were only accessable to those priveleged enough to have been blessed by the powers and their magic.

Every dusty dictionary and biography was placed high out of place, reachable and ever touched only by those who could fly.

One of these encyclopedias was desperatley attempting to share its secrets with the world. A single entry in it foretold the ending of the realm, an entry written 100 years ago, foretelling the attack from the darkness iminent, happening in exactly a century.

Yet another of these codex's yearned almost as much as the other, for it knew the man that was bringing the necrosis. A few turnings of a age and the whole world would know who to turn against, before it was too late.


The Metamorphacist


A formidable man,once called Jacob. Son of one of the most illustrious metal weavers ad infinitum. The father of Jacob wove him the most powerful wand in all creation. This miracle of the hand was so that his son could better humanity. Instead, the poor boy was overcome by a shadow while he was practicing with the wand. Normally the shadow would just be banished by the boys own power. This power, however, was currently resting within the wand. The Shadow saw this as an opportunity that wouldn't last for all eternity. Before the shadow was discovered it had warped Jacob's mind. All beauty was eliminated from his sight, all love was obliterated from his life. All his mind was situated on was on how to destroy goodness and sincerity.

On the third day of this ugly transformation Jacob came to an epiphany. He realized that all he need do was eliminate the mandarin ruling over his world.

That night he rose from slumber. He took the wand his father had given him. He unwittingly glided to his fathers room. Using the wand the man laying prostrate before him had made, he eliminated his father. Doing so he released all remnants of his soul and conscience, and bound to him the evil and the horrors.

Riding into the night it is said that Jacob, taking on the name Metamorphacist( the main power of the metal wand being to transform any and all items of the true world) it is said that the man has dropped off of the face of the world. prefferably dead.

Unfortuanatley the book knew otherwise.