"ShadowStride: A Mages Legacy...Chapter 1" by Morgan Alec Cove

Xavier frowned at the river he was staring at. Thanks to his curiosity, his hands and feet were now bound by thick rope from the bandits he had confronted. Any minute they would be back to push him in, and Xavier would surely drown.

Or so they thought.

What the bandits did not know was that Xavier was a mage warrior in training. When they pushed him in, all Xavier had to do was make an air bubble over his nose to breathe through, then when they were gone, he could use telekinesis to lift a kunai knife from his hidden pack and cut himself free.

Xavier snickered as the bandits looked around for his pack. He had left it at his camp before he’d followed them. What idiots they were, they had seen him walking behind them without a pack, so why would it be in the grass ahead of where they captured him?

“What are y’laughing at?” The chubby one snapped at Xavier.

“Your stupid accent, fat man!” Xavier replied.

“Why you little…better watch y’mouth, boy, I cut your tongue out, I will.”

Xavier rolled his eyes. Where had this guy learned English? He clearly couldn’t speak it very well. “Like I’m scared of you. Aren’t bandits supposed to be, I dunno, thin? I can crawl faster than you can run, Chubby.”

Chubby kicked him. It didn’t hurt, so Xavier went on. “Just trying to be helpful. You know, if you’re running, someone near could think it’s a stampede of buffalo. Then they’ll shoot you. It’s easy, mistaking you for a buffalo, that’s why I followed you in the first place. Buffalo don’t live in the forest, I thought I’d hit the jackpot.”

Chubby’s friend, the thin bandit, slapped Xavier. That stung.

“Throw ‘im in the river, Steven, I want to get out o ‘ere. Word is a rich man isa comin’ to that town north o’ here, we’ll catch ‘im alone and take everything he ‘as. Then we can kill ‘im and get away before anyone finds out.” Chubby said. Wow, his English was really bad.

With a grunt, the bandit Steven pushed Xavier in the river. Xavier willed some of the water to form an air bubble over his nose. He waited until the two bandits laughter faded away before focusing on an image of his pack in his head, willed the knife out, and carried it down the forest path until it was close enough to drop in the river and cut the rope that bound his wrists. Xavier was still a bit clumsy when it came to telekinesis, so when his focus decreased a tiny bit he sliced his wrist. Naturally. He grabbed the knife with his hand and cut the rope around his ankle. Grinning in triumph, he kicked to the surface and crawled out of the water.

He shook his head like a dog, attempting to dry his shoulder length black hair some, and jogged down the path to his camp. After returning the knife to his pack and sitting down on a rock, he thought about what had just occurred. Note to self, Xavier, when being stupid and following bandits, don’t get spotted. He thought about finding the bandits again, so they’d think he was a ghost and wet themselves or something, but decided against it. He had to keep moving, because he was running away from the village he came from.

Xavier was from a small village of mostly farmers, and had been an orphan. He had noticed at a young age that he could sometimes move things without touching them if he was really angry, and that most of the villagers had similar features…except Xavier.

Then a man arrived, claiming to be called Henry, and told Xavier he was his grandfather. He taught Xavier how to move things at will, how to use magic, he told stories of the mage clans and how Xavier was a descendant of them, like himself.

The mage clans started out as a group of swordsmen who, after an encounter with a mysterious traveler, noticed that they had magical powers. They called themselves Mage Warriors, and unlike wizards, they didn’t need a wand or staff to channel magic through. Though it wasn’t necessary, they channeled magic through their weapons, which were double edged swords, each having a different symbol engraved at the base of the blade. They called these Magi Swords.

Lots of mages were hunted and killed by a group of assassins, claiming mages were freaks and deserved to be wiped off the planet. They few that remained were saved by one mage, Morzarr, who used all his magic to cause the assassins to fade away. Morzarr was killed in the process, and his Magi Sword was given to his son, and was handed down from father to son for generations.

Henry died of old age and sickness, and on his deathbed, he revealed to Xavier that he was a grandchild of Morzarr, and when Xavier’s father - and Henry’s son - had died, Henry had retrieved Morzarr’s sword from him. Then he gave the sword to Xavier, told him it’s name was Somnium, and…just died.

Xavier had a sudden urge to see the sword, so he pulled Somnium’s case from under his pack and slid the sword out of it’s sheath.

Somnium was a beautiful sword that could easily slice a human clean in half. Its blade was the color of a rose, the edges had a pink tint to them, the pommel was silver and the hilt was silver. The symbol on the blade was black.

Xavier put the deadly tool back into it’s scabbard, feeling safe with the weight of the blade at his belt. Xavier could hardly believe the sword that hung from his side used to belong to the most powerful Mage Warrior of all time. Much less that he was a descendant of Morzarr.

Even though Xavier had never used Somnium in battle, he was a very good swordsman. After all, he had spent 5 years training with Henry using wooden swords, and could now easily defeat any swordsman he had ever met. But then again, he had only met two swordsmen besides Henry and they had been beginners.

Xavier remembered Henry’s last words, the words he spoke as he gave Xavier the sword: “This sword is Morzarr’s legacy, one of the most powerful weapons ever. It is called Somnium, and it will serve you well. Protect it with your life, because many people will try to steal it if they find out you have it. Remember…a sword is powerful, yes. But it is more powerful if the hand that holds it has courage…”

Xavier grabbed his pack and slung it onto his back. As of now, he had no clue where he was going or what he was going to do, other than get away from the village he was from. Try and find other mages, he guessed, so he could continue his training and be a Mage Warrior in full.

He wondered what the other mages would look like. Would they have the same dark hair and light blue eyes as him? Pointy, elfish ears? Xavier was human, but Henry had told him all mages had pointy ears. The difference between elves and humans was most elves had silver or purple hair and their skin had a bluish tint, and they had pointy ears.

Xavier started down the path, wondering what the future would hold for him. Would it be the jade forests he loved? Blood? Pain? Death? Hopefully it would hold the rest of the mages, and some adventure. After all, everything is better with a little excitement.

Xavier laughed at himself. He sounded so dramatic.

It wasn’t long until he could here a little kid crying, and then the boom of a voice he recognized; “Shut up or we will kill you. Now, give me every last coin you have or else.”

“Hey, why don’t you pick on someone your own size! Or…well, not your size. The only thing that’s exactly your size is a whale, fatty.” Xavier called to the chubby bandit who had attempted to kill him earlier, who was terrorizing a little boy holding a pouch that apparently had coins in it.

Chubby looked and his jaw dropped. “That’s right, you didn’t kill me. Oh and word to the wise, buddy, lay off the cakes.” Xavier said. He decided this bandits name was officially Chubby.

Chubby raised the dagger in his head and was probably going to stab the kid before Xavier used telekinesis to jerk it out of his hand. Chubby stared at his empty hand, apparently frozen.

Xavier ran at him, and yanked Somnium from it’s sheath. These bandits were too dangerous to let go. Xavier stabbed the fat bandit through the heart from behind, then spun around and sliced the head off the other one before he could attack Xavier. He noticed the blood didn’t stick to Somnium. Cool, at least he didn’t have to clean the sword after every kill. Nice.

“Hey, it’s okay, they’re dead, you can open your eyes now.” Xavier said softly to the kid. When he looked up at Xavier, he continued “Listen, you better go back to where your mom is, ‘kay?”

Xavier turned and walked away. A little voice spoke “What’s your name, mister?” Heh. ‘Mister’. Xavier was only 14, and had never been called that before. He sheathed his sword and looked at the boy over his shoulder.

“It’s Xavier.”

And with that, Xavier ran into the sunset, feeling very proud he had just saved a kids life.