Natalie Mandrake The Druid series part 1

Wizarding seemed like such an easy concept! I already am educated in magic. Well, except for the face it's in another language. But that's not really that important--to me. Apparently everyone would go nuts if they found out. So, that's why I'm the only one that knows. For now. I just am going to go to school. Like every other wizard on planet Earth.

Problem is, I'm just will never be a normal person. I've come to accept that as my reality. But being normal would be too boring. I wish my life was boring. Sigh. Let's bring you up to speed. Read faster. Ok, you're up to speed. Just kidding. Hug? I'm fourteen. I've lived my life as a druid. Not a creepy, skull, sacrifices, kind of druid. A magical person. Who can use magic. Done. Finished.

Ok, maybe my story is a little more twisted than that. I'll start my story about two years ago, when I was twelve.


Chapter 1: Education

"Come ON, nat! We'll be late!"
As usual, we were running a little behind. Hey, I'm going to be an introduced druid in two days, I have to start taking an interest in how I look everyday. Besides, we were getting wizard lessons from Dr. Sciss today. He's ALWAYS late. Not, five minutes, like, half an hour late.
"Oh please, Drake. It's Sciss! We'll be fine."
And my hair simply isn't cooperating.
"What if this is the one day he decides to show up on time?"
"Since when are you worried about something?"
Drake was a little shorter than me. He had blond spiked hair with blue eyes that'll make you feel like you're swimming in a sea. If you ask me, I think he just charmed them to do that. If there's one thing that Drake's good at, it's disguises. He taught me. Better than Harrissssssburg. (She has a bad lisp.) Anyways, he's not bad looking. Not that I have a crush on him or anything, we're just friends. That do everything together.
"I wouldn't say that about him." Hid voice slightly squeaked at the end there. Whenever that happens it tipically means we're about to---
"Running late today?"
Oops. I'd know that voice anywhere. It's low and slippery. Kind of mysterious. But don't think that's a good thing. It's a hard voice. I'd have to face the inevitable. So I turned.
"Sorry doctor--"
"Don't humor me with formalities, child," he spat out, "get to the tree as soon as you're ready. You have three minutes."
He turned on his heel and walked away. Man, was he tall. Six seven, at least. He had midnight hair that trailed down to his waist. Apperance was everything with him. He dressed in all black to match his hair. Long cloak to the groud. Balck boots laced up his calf. Black trousers. Black shirt. His skin was whiter than the moon. If that's even possible. Brown (almost black) eyes. You don't want to mess with him.
"I told you."
"Nice squeal."
"Shut up."
At that point in time, my hair was hopeless so we just sprinted to the tree.

I couldn't live anywhere else but here. The trees were so tall they seem to go on for miles with leave three times as big as me. Giant roots have been carved out of the ground to form arches that span through the entire forest. Trees are the center of everything, home base if you would like to call it that. It made up homes, stores, ceromonial places, classrooms, everything. Obviously 'the tree' is the most important tree of all. It's the largest and most ancient. It radiates with power. For some reason, this was Sciss' favorite place to teach us. We didn't mind. It was a cool place.

"Glad to see you two are on time," he said with relish. Why? Yeah, I don't know.
"Wouldn't miss it for the world," I said with just as much relish. Why? It made him furrow his thick eybrows together to make it look like he had a unibrow.
He stepped over my comment and continued. "What is a druid?"
The question confused us.
"We are magical beings. Like wizards, only different," Drake responded.
"No. Druid magic is not just a little different than wizard magic, it's a whole different universe. They are not connected."
"That's not true. Everything is connected," I replied, "We harness our magicks differently. That's all. YOu summon yours with one language, we summon ours with another."
Sciss seemed frustrated.
"So you're saying, I could summon your type of magic with your language, and you could summon mine with my language?"
Drake and I paused at this question.
'Not necessarily," Drake said.
"We also use our feelings and emotions guide us, too. If we want a cookie, we wouldn't channel anger towards it, cookies are typically happy thoughts. That's why at times you don't hear us say spells, we are letting our emotions guide the magic."
Drake added, "These tend to be our strongest spells, as you would call it, because it is the simplist form it can be. The simpler the spell, the stronger it'll be, because the simplicity of it will form into what the spell calls for. At times, more wordy spells can go wrong because the specificity of it doesn't allow the magic to do what it intends you to do. Also, if the spell is worded simpler, there is less chance the meaning of it will get confused.
"Which brings us back to using feelings. Emotions are the simplest spell there is. What about our magic? Does simplicity affect yours?"
"Yes, it can. But 'making up' spells is incredibly hard to do, so once a spell is discovered, all wizards use it."
"Cool. That'd get confusing after awhile though," Drake responded.
"Not necessarily. Alright, it's time for a little excercise I've been working on for awhile now. Lay down."
I cringed on the inside. Please don't let it be a torture spell...Please?
"Alright, now thread your magic to me."
Didn't see that coming. Ok. Sure. That's easy. Out of nowere, my back spasmed. All I could see was red blood. I knew I was screaming, but my heartbeat was too loud. Then blackness.


Chapter 2 The Dream

I was drifting on water. That much I knew. It was cold. That's the only way to explain it. My bones felt like they were going to snap. my head pounded from the assult. I wasn't in my body. It was back at the tree. I called for my broom. Spiritually, of course. When it arrived, I grabbed it and swung up onto it. You can't imagine the relief. When you have your own broom, it connects to you, and carries you. Remind me to tell you about it later. I wasn't in control of it though. I knew better. It would take me where I was supposed to land. So I waited.
I went over miles of sea and came upon a ruin. I could feel the pulse coming from it. It's magical aura was almost as strong as the tree. But I knew this wasn't a ruin. Illusions like this are easily shattered. You just need to know the right places. I found a weak spot in the mirage. I took a rock and threw it at the spot. I was almost blinded by the shatter. This spell in real life must be really strong. What was in front of me? A castle. Of magnificant size. It had towers and gargoyles and trelises. But there were kids. Lots of them. I was taken aback. There are only thirty children out of the entire druid population. I had never seen so many people.
I wished I could be with them. To actually be a kid. Not yet.
There was a rather large tree next to the castle. I flew to it. It's aura was strong too. Its branches all blew in one direction. They seemed lifeless. As if, every moment I was there was taking more and more energy out of me. I was being drained of my magic. I flew back to my body right away. I knew if I didn't return to my body before my magic was gone, I would be stuck as a lifeless soul drifting amongst the world. Back over the bone chattering water, away from that castle. I returned to my body. I was almost out of magic. With the last pulse of magic I had, I called back to my magic. Why had it chose to leave me? I wept over my loss. And I blanked out.

Chapter 3 The Awakening

I snapped back. Literally. Just snap! Pain radiated through my body. My broom laid next to me. Drake was sitting over me. So was Talia, the druid's head tribeswoman. She began chanting healing spells. I was fine. What had happened?

Well, i wasn't fine, actually. I was in bed for two weeks. I missed my ceromony to become an official druid. But, I healed. I almost lost all of my magic, which to a druid can be fatal. Especially one that is so interconnected with it such as me. (I was training to become a tribeswoman.) I had just barely saved myself.
Just because I recovered,doesn't mean that everyone did. Sciss had taken my magic to go infiltrate his government. He threw everything he had gathered from me. His spell had no words, just his emotions. He used selfishness, the weakest of all emotion spells. I used sadness for mine, which easily overcame his spell. When one calls his/her magic back to themselves, it has to go through the pattern which it went in. Which in my case, was back to Sciss, then back to me. Since I called back my power so suddenly, it all came back at once, and well...killed Sciss. My magic then came back to me and woke me up.
They say the government Sciss was trying to take over doesn't have a clue how the spell backfired. They don't know about druids. So, they're kind of in the dark.

My initiation has been put with the festival of the full moon. (Translation. It sounds much prettier in my own language.) That hasn't been done in over a hundred years! I'm lucky I guess.


To be continued...