Wielders of Magic, Book 1: A Spell Binding Tale
Survival

Jackson stared into the camp fire, his eyes leaving the real world and seeing a different one. One where his enemies would burn in that fire, one where they would feel the pain they inflicted on others. He wouldn't rest until they were all dead at his feet, their life blood spilling out onto the dust, not buried nor honorable.

They deserved as much.

"Jack, are you alright?" Drusilla appeared before him, her cool, pink eyes meeting his own. "You seem . . . distant."

"I feel no reason to talk with anyone right now. Everyone died Drusilla, don't you get that?" He stood up and walked into the dark woods, the stars above being covered by ominous rain clouds. The four hoped it would not rain, but their hopes were dashed against the rocks and none dared to believe in it anymore.

Hope was for those who still had something to grasp onto, but they had nothing but themselves.

Which wasn't much of a hold on reality either.

"Jack please don't leave!" She cried after him, though he didn't turn to look at her frightened face. He just kept walking, fists clenched, mind fuming and replaying the massacre he had seen the day before. He would never forgive, and he would never forget.

"Leave him be. He has a lot to think about." Rentham said while cleaning his large, twin swords. "As do we."

Drusilla turned around and stormed over to him, her eyes burning embers. "No offence to your majesty, but you do not know Jackson like I do. Jack has been my friend for . . . name of the gods how long has it been? See I can not even remember the date of the first time we met. I know him, you fallen king, do not tell me what he needs, or what he wants. He is not himself, and I know that I can fix that!"

"Why don't you just sit down and be quiet for once!" He stood up and pointed his right sword at her, the blade barely an inch away from her throat. "You are very irritating, and I can not figure out why anyone has ever been in any kind of relationship with you! You are dangerous, annoying, always spouting your opinion, and won't listen to others! Not to mention your emotions are out of control, and you scream at the sky more than once every day!"

"Shut up!" She shrieked, a blast of power knocking him off his feet. Edowain got up than, running to her husband to hold him back. She was the only magic user in the camp, and it was a little scary for her to live among so much power and not have anything to control it. She did her best though, and would gladly try and protect her husband, even though the odds were greatly against her.

"You are no king of mine! I will act how I please, I will talk how I please, and I am damn well sure I do not care weather you understand me or not!" She seemed to grow two feet taller, fire surrounding her form as her hair blew dramatically around her shoulders. Her arm extended, pointing at him. "I am as dangerous as you make me, Rentham, King of the Shadows, and if you wish to fall by my hand, by the gods that is your own choice!"

"Drusilla, please, have mercy!" Edowain cried, trying hard to keep her husband at peace.

"One side darling!" Rentham shoved her out of the way and got back to his feet, his own blast of magic hitting the Red Witch and throwing her into a tree at the other side of camp. "You should know better than to challenge a Lord of Dark Magic!"

"Ha!" She stood up rather quickly before falling back into the dry weeds. "Some Lord of Dark Magic you are! You can't even save your own people!"

Rentham stared at her for a moment before his face darkened with fierce anger. He started to advance towards her, as she did like wise, and all Edowain could do was sit and watch in horror as her companions were about to destroy one another.

"Stop it!" Jackson flew out of the trees and landed between them, each hitting a force field that he had spawned. "We should not be destroying each other! We should be trying to survive!"

"He is right!" The blonde woman flew over to them grabbing the arm of her husband. "Please, do not bear a grudge against her. She is as hurt as you are, and both of you have lost something very dear to you today."

Rentham turned away, walking into the dark of camp as his wife followed, both talking softly to one another.

"Drusilla, why would you provoke him like that!?" Jackson shouted loudly at the Red Witch. "You both could of killed Edowain! You could of hurt yourself and him! Why can't you just think about others besides yourself for once? Just sit down and be quiet!" He pointed to the log that was sitting beside the fire, which she slowly sat down upon. "If you care about me, you will not cause anymore trouble. Here." He took a book out of his pack and handed it to her, it reading, "Spells and Incantations".

"Thank you." Was all she could say, her hands curling around the spine of it as sadness started to claw its way up her throat.

"Stop thanking me for things. I am not worth that." He walked back into the woods, running a hand through his silvery hair before disappearing.

Drusilla wrapped her arms around her stomach and bent over, resting her head on her knees. She cried softly, feeling like an alien in the camp. Jackson was someone who had always been there for her, and now he was being distant and strange. She didn't know who to trust anymore.

Could she even trust herself?

She suddenly sat up, done with her sadness, done with her week emotions that only brought her down. She had to be strong, as she always had before. There was no more emotion, she was dead to that now, all she needed was to destroy those offal witch hunters that had ruined her life since the beginning.

There was a savage roar in the bushes, which made her fly to her feet and draw Kiss, her long sword, from her back harness. She could wear one now, without her beloved wings . . .

The beast crashed through the trees and came into the light of the fire. It was an abnormally large black wolf with crystal blue eyes.

"Rey!" She shouted.

The giant beast started to change, the Dark Warlock falling to the ground with a gasp of exhaustion. He had been running for who knows how long, and there were scratches and deep cuts covering his body. "I plowed through everything . . . I had to find . . . my brother!" He coughed raggedly, blood splattering onto the ground in front of him. "Where is he!?"

"Settle down, he is here, he just is in the forest some place. He walked away a few minutes ago." She wiped her tears away and went to get some bandages, stopping for a moment and looking over at him. "Can't you heal yourself?"

"Normally . . . not . . . now." He tried to get up but fell again, breathing heavily.

"Who is this!?" Rentham shouted, drawing his sword with lightning speed and holding it to the back of Rey's neck.

"No! He is Jackson's brother, remember?" Edowain said.

"Oh . . . yes I do." He took a few steps back, putting his twin sword back and watching as Drusilla quickly started to bandaged his wounds.

"I am . . . trying to remove the . . . dark magic . . . from my veins!" He tried to say, clutching the Red Witches shoulders. "It is . . . not going without a . . . fight!"

"Why are you doing that?" She replied, trying not to flinch at the pain of his iron grip.

"I . . . can't talk . . . now!" He sucked in one more breath before another cut started to form on his shirtless chest. It climbed from his stomach all the way up to his shoulder, a scream escaping his lips before he fainted from the agony.

"This is not good!" Edowain exclaimed, staring at him with horror.

"I can help him." Drusilla went to get the book Jackson gave her and started to flip through it, searching for a certain spell. "The divine light spell should extract it." She nodded and made a little whoop when finding the right page. Her nimble hands set it down in front of her as her hands presumed the position her friend and master had showed her when they had met.

"Meristolas, Carinolia, Mestose, Handorindas, Pelo!" Her hands started to glow with a divine, white light, shinning brighter than the camp fire. She slowly put them down onto Reys chest, which made him convulse to the point where they had to hold him down.

He screamed and kicked and thrashed as the white light started to shine in his veins, pushing what looked like darkness up and out of them, like unclogging a drain. Edowain suddenly got up and ran away, horror spread on her face.

"Wait! . . . GET BACK HERE!" Drusilla shouted, Rey not being able to be held down by two people.

"What were the words to that spell!?" Rentham asked quickly.

"In the . . . spell book!" She replied.

The fallen king grabbed the thing and started to cast the spell as well, his words becoming as powerful and as loud as the wind. Soon his hands were glowing as well, and he placed his hands over the Red Witches, watching as Reys veins were quickly being "cleaned". The darkness was retreating, and soon it was a large ball that collected in his chest, shooting up out of him in a stream that shot into the sky, screaming in agony and despair as it eventually dissipated.

"Whoa . . . that was . . . weird." Drusilla said softly, exhaustion in her own voice. "He better do some work for me after he recovers because that . . . wasn't easy. I am going to charge him." She let her self fall down beside the warlock, breathing in large gulps of air as if she had been swimming the whole time.

"Same here." Rentham sighed, placing a hand on his forehead. "What was that all about anyway? Was he poisoned?"

"In a way." She replied, looking over at him. "Thank you."

"Your welcome." He smiled and closed his eyes, resting for a bit. "Edowain!" He flew off the ground and into the woods, quickly casting a spell that would turn her trail into an incident blue glow.

Drusilla sat up as well, wondering how he was able to use his magic so casually, especially after a spell. She was exhausted every time she even used a minor one, and trying to cast another would result in failure and/or death.

How could one be so comfortable with magic?

"Drusilla . . . brother mine?" Jackson gasped, running to his brother and testing his pulse. "What happened?"

"He burst into our camp as a wolf, than said he was trying to get the dark magic out of his veins. Me and Rentham helped him along a little bit." She smiled, curling her knees up to her chest and resting her chin on them. "I used the Divine Light spell in your book."

"Excellent." He replied, throwing his brother over his shoulder and carrying him to his tent.

"That's all you have to say-" Her voice caught in her throat and she stopped, trying her hardest to keep her opinion inside of her. No more complaining. Things were how they were and she would be . . .

Strong? Yes, that was it.

Suddenly Rentham appeared in the camp once again, the others being sort of startled at his sudden jump out of a transportation spell.

"Come with me, quickly! Edowain is in trouble!" Rentham said, Drusilla the only one out around the camp fire. Jackson leaned outside his tent and nodded, getting a coat before joining him.

"Drusilla, you stay with Rey." Spellbinder said, not even giving her another look. "Lets go Rentham."

The fallen king said his spell once again and the two flew through time and space, going to search for his wife.

"Well, I don't see why I wasn't invited." She mumbled, rolling her eyes. "Than again, I guess Rey needs me." Drusilla said sarcastically and got up, going to the tent and taking Jackson's book with her.

The Red Witch sat down among some pillows and nestled in the blankets, opening to the spell she was trying so hard to memorize. It was one that could grow vines out of the ground, magical ones that were immune to fire and would capture all she desired. They would only last for a certain period of time though.

"Water . . ." The warlock mumbled beside her. "So thirsty . . ."

She got up and left the tent, looking to the sky as the clouds started to swirl. It was raining sleet now, not exactly snow or rain, just freezing, irritating drops that showered over everything, making every last being in the forest miserable.

She walked down to a stream and scooped some of it up, noticing that the ground was thawing into Spring finally. She missed the leaves of trees, the buds of flowers, the smell and feel of fresh, green grass.

She did dearly love Spring. It told her that everything had a winter in their life, they just had to hold out and wait for it to pass.

As she brought the water pale back, she saw something wiz by though the mushy ground, leaving rather large foot prints. She called a spell to her mind and extended one of her hands, walking steadily back to camp.

She saw nothing else of the being for the rest of the night.

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