Bruce, The Raging Bull

**Chapter 1**

The year is 5500. Across the universe, in the Beozian Quadrant, on the Planet Earlix, slapping its butt with its tail and breathing heavily, a grey bull finds itself trapped in the center of a sparkling & dangerous magic circle. "It's just another one of Living Legends' wacky marketing moves," says John as he walks across the courtyard. Roger is standing inside the summoning triangle, and John is casting spells.

John took a deep breath and continued to compose a scene with the raging bull. With his charm, he looked into the bull's eyes and mumbled, taking in deep breaths. He tried to conjure some relief for the bull.

"Hey, sorry, but as cool as it is to have you here, you can't enter that form! I cast Luck at it just in case it felt discomfort. Your charm seems to be a bit over the top, Bud. Take it easy. We're not in the Savage Wars."

"I hate it when wizards take way too long to calm the natural specimens," Roger said, then made air quotes, jerked his head from side to side, and scrunched his face at John.

He quickly scanned the room and uttered, "I have to go back to my wizard life now. Wiz." He ran his over-ringed hands through his greasy hair while John gave him a dull, lifeless expression.

**Chapter 2 **

A ruckus broke out across the courtyard, and an old wizard wearing an even older suit and cloak appeared in a book of fire, green smoke, and blood-colored dust. He called out to a group of young wizards reading and chatting together under an ancient Arc-tree.

"Hello, children! I am Master Yaro, an old wizard come to teach you about the art of magic!" He laughed and rubbed his hands together. The young wizards paid him no attention.

"I will teach you about the ancient art of wizardry," he continued, "of which there are six branch arts." The young wizards continued to ignore him.

He paced back and forth, put one hand behind his back, pointed his right index finger, and said, "One, the art of summoning, the art of the witch, the art of the spirit. Conjuring and calling up demons."

The old wizard laughed and looked at Roger and John. He then coughed, revealing his few rotten and yellowed teeth, and laughed uncontrollably. He then zapped over to John and grabbed him by the shoulders.

The old man whispered to John and said, "So I made a deal with death. He would be executed anyway, so he accepted my offer to enter that tower in my place! It's really an inconvenience, as I've been patrolling for months."

The old wizard ran away from John and Roger as if possessed and more out of his mind. He ran in circles and pulled at his hair, yelling, "No! No! No! No!" Some sorcerers tried to gather and calm him. "Hold on!" The random sorcerers pleaded to the old wizard. "Magic Medics are on the way here now."

"Please, do this for me. I'm still just a rotating polyhedron. My shape is Kepler's Stella Octangular! No need to worry. You will find peace. That won't do for now. I know. I'm sorry!" He laughed as the nonsense spilled out of his mouth.

The Magic Medics rushed in with a poof of gray dust, grabbed the old wizard, now lifeless on the ground, & poofed him away in a cloud of gray and gold dust.

**Chapter 3**

Roger looked at John and said, "That was weird." John looked up at Roger, quickly, like out of a deep sleep, & replied. "Maybe if they knew what form they wanted upfront, I wouldn't have to go through this every single time." He put his hands on his hips & smiled at Roger. "At least we have more time now." Then John turned from Roger and looked at the gray bull in man's clothing, ragging & out of control.

Roger mimicked John's voice. "Blah blah blah."

John looked away from the bull and back at Roger, smiled, and rubbed his hands together. "Okay!" He said. "Let's mix it up!"

Roger looked at John, tilted his head to the side, and squinted at a small blue light radiating from John's hand.

John held a blue charm in his right hand and lifted his left hand to the sky. He made a circular pattern in the air and mumbled words like the old wizard.

Suddenly a bolt of lightning struck the glittering circle of magic holding the raging bull. And the bull stopped its frantic dance. It stood up like a man and spoke.

"I am free! Thank you. What is your desire, kind wizard? Thank you!" He walked towards John and received a massive jolt of lightning to the chest. He was still in the circle of wicked wizardry.

Yaro stepped to the magic circle and placed his hand on it. Visible volts of lightning struck him, he didn't move his hand, stood firm, & continuous jolts of lightning hit his body.

Roger pulled a small spellbook from his pocket & frantically flipped through it. "What are you doing, John? What spell do I cast? John! I don't know what to do!"

The jolts of lightning stopped. Roger looked up from the small green spellbook. And John spoke.

"I call out to you for your power, Epsilonian, and your protection in the face of the wicked." John proclaimed with a smile big as day. Jolts of Lightning now pooling and jumping from his hand.

Wizards on magic pads across the courtyard, some walking their own garden patches, stopped and looked over to Roger & John.

Then John looked around, laughed, looked to the sky & yelled. "Vengence is mine! O spirit of the water, hear me know, I beg you to lift this cage. Keep my brother from the Azerians. We will pay your price. I release you!"

A bright blue light flew from his right hand and into the sky.

A few young wizards with looks of complete horror painted on their faces ran out of the courtyard at this moment, looking back and saying nothing.

Others stood still and watched John.

John looked at the bull, raised his hand to the dark sphere now pulsing around the bull with black lightning, said, "Free yourself, brother. Free yourself now!"

The magic circle exploded in a cloud of dust and sand around the now brown bull, and he stepped outside the boundary of the now crippled magical prison.

When the bull stepped out of the now black circle, upright like a man, rubbing his large hairy arms and smiling. He said, "I'm truly free, finally free."

John looked at the bull and grabbed his arms with ease & comfort, & certainty, and said, "It's been too long, Bruce, brother. I found you & I'm taking you home. Almost gave up on you being alive, and here you are. Alive and free."

**Chapter 4**

"Yaro?" Bruce asked hesitantly. His big bull face and voice reflected his uncertainty. "Yes, it's me! I had to jump through a lot of people to find you and across the galaxy. I took this body from the wizard that held you in that prison." He gestured toward the now-black circle on the ground.

Seeing that John was not John, Roger took a step back. He started running towards the exit of the courtyard, & so did a few other wizards and witches, yelling for help. But none of them could. None of them could move their legs.

In John's body, Yaro focused on Roger & yelled out a spell. "Wind & rain, circle this drain!" Then with a bang and flash, the wind and rain started blowing wild. Roger and everyone in the courtyard tumbled around like sand on the beach, still unable to move their legs independently.

John and the bull walked through the yard of chaos, talking, catching up in a peaceful bubble, commanding the storm. Blue lightning struck random spots every other second.

Yaro held Bruce's hand, and they gestured together and called out to the heavens. "O cosmic being! Give us command of thy legions of spirits!"

The spirit of the water, called forth by Yaro and Bruce, appeared. It was a tall, elegant creature. Its form was nearly entirely transparent. The occasional wave of color would glimmer over its figure. It was a being of almost pure liquid, with a single eye suspended in its center.

**Chapter 5**

"Who calls my name?" the spirit demanded. Yaro said, "I am Yaro, and I call for your service." And Bruce followed, saying, "I am Bruce, and I call for your service."

"And what would you have me do, sons of Epsilon?" the spirit replied. "We wish to return to the Vortex System, blue spirit." They responded with force. "What is your price?" The water spirit looked around, splashed, flew to the edge of the courtyard and back, then transformed into a solid being.

She walked towards the Epsilonians and started to laugh with wicked harmony, saying, "All magic comes with a price, Beloveds." She looked at the cyclone around them and chuckled.

"We know." Bruce and Yaro responded. "Name your price." The spirit approached Bruce and placed her hand on his chest, rubbing his Astral Charm. "I want your Astral Charm or the life of every living soul in this place."

*Chapter 6**

Yaro looked at Bruce and said, "I've come too far to turn back now. I'm not leaving without you, brother." Bruce nodded his big bullhead, rubbed the scars on his nose from the charms of the wizards that were now huddled, powerless, in fear. He took a deep breath and said, "Okay, water spirit of the deep, take them, and send us home."

Roger lets out an audible, frantic, "No! No! No!" He stands up and pulls out an enchanted lighter, lighting it while mumbling something only he can hear. And it explodes in his hand, consuming his entire person with blazing flames. Young wizards run for the escape, but it's gone. Some try casting spells, and they can't.

Yaro & Bruce looked around the courtyard full of scared wizards huddled in seven small clusters now, around the square, and under the Arc-tree. They swayed & cried in the vacuum of the cyclone, separating them from the rest of the world. Bruce took in another deep breath, held it in, and let it out gently. "They didn't care about me, water spirit, so if the price is their life, so be it."

The air left the lungs of every life in the square, including the Arch-tree. The faces of the young wizards no longer looked afraid. They looked asleep and at peace.

Bruce looked at his brother, a small tear escaping his eye. The brothers took each other by the hand, the cyclone around the courtyard disappeared. The brothers embraced in a hug, full of tears and gasps, and the water spirit carried them all across the universe to the Vortex System, home.

**To Be Continued...**

**PS: Thank you for Reading**

Hi Reader,

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J.C.J