《The Life of Magic》


 Chapter 1

    <h2>Chapter 1</h2>


    Running through the dark and mysterious forest, that felt ever watching, Rose thought to herself, ¡®Why didn¡¯t I just join a caravan to get to the capitol, why did I have to be stupid and believe I could protect myself on my journey¡­why did I go alone.¡¯


    Rose was a magician, perhaps not a particularly great one but she was however a young one. Just 15 years old and the prime age for joining the mages guild located in the capitol of Icarus, where magicians could work, grow and become powerful. Magic had always fascinated Rose and since her mother had a small amount of magical talent, she was also fortunate to possess the ability. Recently she had succeeded in casting the apprentice levelled spell called fireball. This was considered a great achievement by both herself, her surrounding relatives and friends, but it had ultimately led to this exact moment where she was running for her life through the ancient forest commonly known as ¡°Shadow Valley¡±.


    The name came from the enormous valley the forest lied in and the impossibility navigating it without getting lost in the shadows of the trees. So, what happened? Why did she run towards the only place in the kingdom where no man, monster or creature would be foolish to go?


    Because of her success in magic, Rose decided to take the chance given to her and journey to the Mages guild. It would be a long but manageable trip, but she was confident in her ability to walk the entire way¡­ too confident.


    After saying goodbye to her mother, Rose started her journey walking across the fields and meadows until she reached a road called ¡°Chains road¡±, the road had received this name a long time ago and practically no one knew of its heritage. Unfortunately for Rose the road had another name, a name everybody who travelled would know about and would therefore as a result avoid using this particular road. The road was called by travellers ¡°The bandits road¡±. Rose was after all a simple village girl and couldn¡¯t have known that as soon as she got on the road a group of bandits would be waiting for her. Let¡¯s return to this moment that would forever change the girl called Rose¡¯s life.


    ¡°Well look what we got here fellas!¡± a rough middle-aged man with mismatching equipment, of leather and iron, loudly said surprising Rose as she was not expecting somebody to talk to her on the road when she was supposed to be alone. Several other similarly dressed men had appeared quickly surrounding Rose as soon as the middle-aged man started talking. From the man¡¯s attitude and because he was the one initiating the conversation Rose could easily understand that he was the group¡¯s leader, a leader of what kind of group (although obvious) was not something Rose wanted to find out.


    ¡°He-hello there, who might you be and why did you d-decide to call out to me¡± Rose said, with a voice just calm enough that that her nervousness wasn¡¯t apparent. ¡®This is bad, why did these men just suddenly appear from nowhere? No decent human being would just simply wait by the road for a stranger to approach.¡¯


    ¡°You seem to be traveling alone, and me and my friends thought we would be kind and keep you company. You see, a young, beautiful, frail girl like you can end up in all kinds of danger, and we wouldn¡¯t want that to happen, now would we?¡±. The leader said with a disgusting smile on his face. The other men were also smiling with eyes looking everywhere on a body they shouldn¡¯t.


    ¡°I¡¯m ju-just one of many travellers walking on the road. I simply walked ahead of the group since I was excited to meet up with the adventures from Icarus that had accepted a request to guide us.¡± Rose said to make the group at least slightly wary, and hopefully cause them to leave, before things would take a turn for the worse.


    ¡°I¡¯m afraid you should try to seem calmer, and not look around so frequently, when telling such an obvious lie¡± The leader said with an even more disgusting smile as he now was convinced that the girl would be an easy victim. The man knew that the girl would not have anything of real value, but the decision to approach was not just to rob her.


    Before Rose could say anything in reply the man quickly decided to remove all pretences he had used in the beginning and said:


    ¡°Now here¡¯s what¡¯s gonna happen little lady, you are going to hand over everything of value that you have to my men here, and then you and I are going to become better acquainted with each other. After all we can¡¯t be sure if you haven¡¯t hidden anything underneath that robe you are wearing¡±. If Rose thought that smile was disgusting before, she was now not only nervous but also terrified of it. There was no way she didn¡¯t understand what the man was implying. The men around had also started to snicker, probably hoping that they themselves would get a turn as soon as the boss was finished ¡°inspecting her¡±.The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.


    ¡°Please isn¡¯t there anything I can do? Anything that would let me leave? Rose said, her voice easily betraying how frightened she was.


    The man had started walking forward, ignoring Rose, however he stopped when an additional man that Rose did not see before appeared to whisper something in the leader¡¯s ear. The smile that had been on the man¡¯s face quickly turned to a grimace as he heard what the scout said. The leader tilted his head causing four of the men to immediately walk towards him.


    He spoke quietly: ¡°It seems we will have company. Frank, Igor, go hide and prepare the ambush¡±. The two men, now known as Frank and Igor, walked away with their bows raised while the leader addressed the other two.


    ¡°You guys will take the girl and hide, I will be damned if we will be forced to just hand our prey over simply because some other gang decided enter our turf.¡±


    One of the men asked, ¡°You don¡¯t think the girl was actually telling the truth and a bunch of adventures are coming here?¡±


    ¡°You idiot! The girl is clearly just lying to make us worried enough so she can leave. Besides, our favourite scout told me that it¡¯s the rival gang that showed up a few months ago.¡±


    Rose prayed that help was coming, that her bluff was in some way becoming truth, and she would be saved. Even if she was a mage, that did not mean she could get out of a situation like this without any training or experience. Rose didn¡¯t even understand that she could have tried to intimidate the group with her knowledge of magic. Rose knew that magic was rare and powerful, but that the very thought of attacking a mage was something all bandits feared was not something she was aware of, unfortunately.


    The two men tasked with taking Rose away approached her while the leader decided to speak to her once again.


    ¡°It would seem that we will have some visitors coming our way. Do not worry we will protect you from harm while these approaching bandits will be taken care of.¡± The man smiled once more while Roses hopes were quickly dashed now knowing that it wasn¡¯t help that was coming but another bandit group.


    ¡®Oh no, why couldn¡¯t it have been anything other than bandits! Even if I scream the only result would be a change in who would do me harm¡¯. Rose, with tears starting to appear in her eyes, tried to think of a plan, but her mind was still shaking from the false hopes she had given herself.


    ¡°Now, please behave while my two men here will take you to our hideout and guard you. I promise nothing will happen to you.¡± The leader¡¯s words were not a lie entirely, he would have them protect and keep her safe, but only because he himself wanted to be first when having her body.


    Rose did not have time to reply as one of the men took her arm and started to walk away from the road, into the woods, while the other walked behind her. Rose did however finally have a plan, that could have a slight chance of success.


    ¡®If I stay calm and quiet, I can perhaps use my magic to escape once we¡¯re away from the rest of the group and they start battling¡­ If I can only remove the man¡¯s hand from my arm and summon a fireball on the man behind me, the shock might give me time to escape.¡¯


    The small group of three had only walked for a short while when they heard the start of fighting. The two men who had previously tried to think of way use their time alone with the girl, without the boss finding out, tensed a bit and started to walk faster.


    It was now that Rose decided to enact her plan. Rose started to deeply concentrate and gather magical force, so she could cast her spell, when she started slowing down. The men not realising the cause simply tugged harder for her to keep walking when Rose abruptly opened her eyes.


    She wrenched her arm from the first man¡¯s hand and quickly turned around, with her now free righthand she released the magic she had been storing and shouted ¡°FIREBALL!¡±


    She was successful in firing at the man walking behind her, but unfortunately only struck his shoulder. Still it caused the man to writhe in pain while the other man was simply to chocked to stop her from running.


    ¡°She¡¯s a mage!?!?¡± the man screamed while Rose started running, sweat already dripping from her forehead.


    ¡°NO KIDDING!¡± the man with a burnt shoulder screamed back as he started to run after her, clutching his shoulder that was in extreme pain. ¡°Who cares if she¡¯s a mage! If she gets away the boss will be pissed, come on!¡± The man continued to shout to the other man whilst running.


    Rose had already gotten a good head start when the men started going after her, but the men were faster, and more importantly used to their surroundings. Rose was running for her dear life when she got out of the pleasant forest and saw the towering dark forest coming up ahead, she had no mind to think about where she was running and did therefore not hesitate in entering this dangerous region. The uninjured man however stopped slightly when he realised where she was going. ¡°Shit, she¡¯s entering Shadow Valley!¡± He shouted to his injured ally.


    ¡°I don¡¯t care!¡± said the other man blinded by his pain as he continued running into the mysterious forest, which in turn forced the hesitant man to run after while grimly thinking ¡®this is a terrible idea¡¯.

 Chapter 2

    <h2>Chapter 2</h2>


    Rose felt as if she had been running for an eternity even though only a few minutes had transpired. She had no more stamina to keep herself running. Only now, in her exhaustion, for the first time since her escape did she take a deep breath. But it was eerily quiet. Rose was sure that the bandits who were after her, where shouting and getting increasingly closer with every step, but now she could hear nothing but silence. When Rose looked back and did not see her pursuers, she became relieved for just a moment, thinking she had escaped the danger.


    It was only now when she realised how dark it was, how towering the trees felt, looming over covering the sky itself, only letting in small droplets of light.


    ¡®Where am I? why is it so dark? I could have sworn it was merely midday, perhaps one or two in the afternoon.¡¯


    The relief she felt earlier vanished as quickly as it came when she realised where she was currently was standing. ¡®The Shadow Valley?!¡¯ she exclaimed in her mind becoming aware that the danger had not dissipated in the slightest but on the contrary increased because of her daring escape.


    She started turning around looking for a way out of the forest, but it only caused her to become more disoriented and panic-stricken.


    ¡°Oh no, oh no¡­ what should I do? Which is the way out?¡± she said aloud, almost shouting. But she was alone, and the shout quickly faded away forever to be unanswered. The tears that she had bravely tried to hide from before where now returning in full force as she could not hold back the fear, anxiety and all other emotions that had been building up from before.


    ¡°Sniff, sniff¡­ what should I do?... Mother why did I leave?¡± Rose was crying, crying because of everything that had happened. Crying for leaving home, crying from the bandits before and crying because she could now never prove herself to her family, prove to everyone that she would become a great magician.


    It needs to be stated that everyone feared the Shadow Valley, especially the children from the villages close to it, growing up hearing terrifying stories. Stories that spoke of monsters hiding in the shadows¡­waiting for a lost child they could eat, stories that spoke of the trees themselves leaving the forest to catch those who ventured near, and stories of a demon at the centre of the forest, in deepest part of the valley, a demon so dreadful that the gods themselves wouldn¡¯t dare descend and face it.


    Rose was only a young girl, these stories were still firmly attached to her psyche, causing her despair to continue for more than half an hour¡­


    With no more tears to cry, Rose simply looked down on the ground, with vacant eyes that had lost all hope. But she suddenly saw something in the distance, in the corner of her eyes, there was a light blue glimmer, that she could only perceive with her best efforts. What this blue light was, was not something Rose understood until later, or that the reason for her seeing it was caused by the small change in her previously emerald green eyes.


    Rose quickly decided to run towards the odd blue moving light. She did not care what it could be if it meant she would no longer be trapped in the darkness of the forest. She ran faster then she had done before when she was running away from the bandits, she didn¡¯t even fall or trip despite the multitude of roots laying on the ground creating the unsteady path to run on. She ran and ran, hoping to get closer to the blue light, that seemed so out of place in this dark and quiet terrifying forest.


    *


    The fighting between the bandits did not continue for very long, these newcomers were stronger, more coordinated and they even had a priest standing behind them chanting healing magic when needed.


    The middle-aged bandit leader that Rose had come across was lying on the ground, still breathing but with a big wound in his stomach that prevented any chance of survival.


    ¡°I don¡¯t understand¡± was all he could say, lying there with his comrades already sent to the beyond. The reason for his confusion was simple, the opponents were simply too strong... they were not bandits. He knew that he was only still breathing because the newcomers wanted him to. ¡°I don¡¯t care who you are or what you want, just kill me¡± the man said, his voice becoming slightly weaker every moment.


    Suddenly his eyes widened as he realised that one of the newcomer was in fact not a newcomer at all, but his trustworthy scout, that had previously warned him about the newcomers.


    ¡°Where is the girl?¡± the scout commanded


    ¡°Why di-d, cough cough, you betray us?¡± the man with great difficulty asked.


    ¡°Betray you? No, I was never an ally to begin with. Why would I stoop so low and become a mere bandit!¡±  the scout said with disgust in his eyes. ¡°Now tell me where the girl is!¡±


    One of the other newcomers approached and spoke to the scout, ¡°Hey, Felix what¡¯s happening? Why haven¡¯t you killed the man yet?¡±


    This newcomer was, contrary to the tall, slim scout named Felix, a big burly dwarf, holding a great double-bladed axe, as if it was weightless.


    ¡°The reason I decided to expedite our mission was because they captured a girl. I couldn¡¯t just stand and watch, but now I don¡¯t know where she is. They took her to their hideout.¡± Felix said with narrowed eyes that bore into the bandit leader¡¯s skull, as if to try to acquire the information by sheer will and the power of his glare.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    ¡°That¡¯s not good¡± said the dwarf with apparent concern in his voice, ¡°Hey Sonya, get over here, we need your help.¡±


    ¡°What is it Anders? Are you guys alright?¡± said the priest as she was walking towards the dwarf called Anders.


    ¡°No, we¡¯re fine, but there was a girl taken to the bandits¡¯ hideout and we need your help in extracting the location.¡± Anders said with a grim expression on his face, albeit covered mostly by his thick black beard.


    ¡°Hmm, alright. Give me some space so I can use my power, the bandit doesn¡¯t have much longer to live¡± Sonya said, preparing her cane while Felix and Anders stepped aside.


    ¡°Tell me, where did you take the girl?¡± Sonya said while a strange but strong power fused into her words.


    ¡°Sh-she was taken by two of my men to the hideout¡± The bandit answered, not realising that he no longer had any control over his own thoughts.


    ¡°And where is the hideout?¡± Sonya questioned.


    ¡°Just half a kilometre west of here, along the path over there¡± the man spoke whilst pointing to the place where Rose had been taken of the road.


    ¡°Thank you, I hope you spend your next life as an upstanding citizen of Icarus.¡± Sonya said whilst letting her magic dissipate and allowing the middle-aged bandit leader to finally perish.


    ¡°Okay guys you heard what he said, lets quickly go get the girl and be done with this awful quest. I want to get rid of these awful clothes and drink some mead at the guild before tomorrow evening!¡± Anders exclaimed to his allies, altogether 5 strong adventures, tasked with clearing out the bandits on the Chains road.


    These adventures are known together as the famous A-ranked party called ¡°Draupnir¡±, and they had gotten this request from the Guild master herself, to clear the Chains road before anymore travellers would come in harms way. The Icarus kingdom had put up with the bandits for long enough and had finally decided to quickly exterminate them with brute force. Draupnir had been forced to don common armour so that the bandits wouldn¡¯t realise that they had finally been targeted. This was also done so that the scout Felix could easily infiltrate the bandit groups, stopping the bandits from succeeding in their nefarious business, all the while the rest of Draupnir prepared for battle.


    Unfortunately, Rose had (unsurprisingly) no knowledge of this, and was therefore convinced when the bandit leader told her more bandits where approaching, leading to the desperate escape that was completely unnecessary. Felix himself, did not think the frail girl could amount to any struggle, which caused him to start the attack earlier than planned. His good intentions leading to Roses escape, was not something Felix expected, and he was now anxious to find the hideout and save the terrified girl.


    ¡°Follow me¡± Felix said, as he quickly moved towards the hideout. The group consisting of Anders, Sonya, Felix and two others moved without hesitation as they were all worried for the girl, but suddenly on of the unnamed two stopped and looked at a tree with a fresh-looking burn mark. ¡°Everyone stop, there was a battle here¡± a tall woman, even slimmer than Felix, said, causing the party to halt.


    ¡°We don¡¯t have time for this, Elena!¡± exclaimed Felix, being worried for the girl.


    The tall woman replied calmly to Felix. ¡°Yeah, but this burn mark is clearly new, and I can sense slight residue of magic being used here. The girl must be a novice magician and tried to escape from the bandits. No one else has been in this area for weeks besides her and the bandits, and we know none of them possessed magic.¡±


    ¡°The girl did not try to escape, she succeeded.¡± An identical tall woman continued, standing beside Elena.


    ¡°Where did she go Elisa?¡± Anders asked.


    ¡°¡­ Towards the Shadow Valley¡± Elisa replied, causing the entire party to become afraid for the worst.


    The entire party ran, with a speed incomparable to when Rose or the bandits ran, and they quickly got to edge of the forest before stopping.¡¯


    ¡°Shit¡± Felix loudly shouted.


    ¡°Why did she have to go in there?¡± Anders said with grief and sorrow in his eyes.


    ¡°We can enter a short distance into the forest without getting lost¡± one of the twins Elena or Elisa said, both having deep frowns showing the discomfort from being near this place.


    ¡°Elena and Elisa, you two will enter, but keep within eyesight of us. We can¡¯t afford to actually enter the forest.¡± Anders commanded.


    The twins entered and speedily searched the edge of the forest. For someone unacquainted it would seem strange to search the edge of a forest when Rose and the bandits clearly just ran straight into the it, but the Shadow Valley has the odd but dangerous feature of confusing the mind of those who enter it. When people were investigating the forest ages ago, there had been multiple sightings of those who entered still being at the edge of the forest for days, with no way of escaping despite being perhaps only a few metres from leaving the dreadful forest.


    It did not take long for Elena and Elisa to return, both holding a man each, Rose would recognise them as the bandits chasing her. Neither Elena or Elisa saw any sign of Rose.


    ¡°Let¡¯s wake these bastards up and see If they know anything of use.¡± Felix growled, clearly furious that they only found the ones responsible for this mess and not the victim they wanted to save.


    ¡­


    ¡­


    ¡°Wake up!¡± someone shouted.


    ¡°Uhg¡­what happened?¡± said the bandit with the burnt shoulder.


    ¡°You entered the forest, why?¡± Sonya asked, not using magic this time but simply taking advantage of the man grogginess from waking up.


    ¡°W- we were chasing that girl¡­ that girl¡­ that bitch who fired a fireball at me!¡± the man said, becoming angrier the more his mind cleared.


    ¡°And did you see the girl after entering the forest?¡± Sonya asked while keeping a straight face not showing the disgust she felt from hearing the man talk.


    ¡°Uhm, no ¡­ it was strange, we saw her enter¡­ but as soon as we ourselves entered there was nothing. Only dark trees everywhere we looked. We couldn¡¯t even find our way back to get the boss.¡± The man spoke, easily illustrating why the Shadow Valley was so dangerous to enter.


    ¡°Oh, that a shame. Let me help you meet your boss!¡± Felix said, interrupting anything Sonya was going to say, and then quickly cut the mans throat ending his life.


    ¡°We could have gotten more out of him.¡± Sonya said disapprovingly.


    Felix didn¡¯t respond other than clenching his left hand, holding the guilt inside.


    The other bandit showed no signs of waking up, so Anders decided to kill him too, essentially finishing the original quest they were working on, removing the bandits from the Chain road.


    ¡°Don¡¯t blame yourself Felix, there was no way of knowing that it would turn out this way. Now let¡¯s leave, there is nothing we can do for her since she entered the forest.¡± Anders said.


    The group was silent for a while before Felix finally answered with a heavy sigh: ¡°Yeah, you¡¯re right. Let¡¯s go home.¡±


    And so, the adventures left Shadow Valley and started the journey back towards the capitol, unaware that the girl they failed to save was moving deeper and deeper towards the centre of the Shadow Valley, a place no human has gone before.