The Wizard's Apprentice & The Quest for the Dragon Eye

There weren’t always dragons in the Valley. There have been legends of dragons living in the surrounding mountains for as long as there have been people living here. However, without sightings of dragons for hundreds of years, the old legends became accepted as nothing more than fairy tales. That all changed last night when hundreds of dragons descended in a swarm on the Valley. Causing mass destruction, wreaking havoc, and inciting chaos all throughout the city … and I might be the one responsible for bringing them here. I'm hoping that writing the events that transpired out like this will help clear my mind, and possibly my conscience as well. To give the full picture of what happened, I'll have to start from a few months ago when an eighth grade history lesson sparked the journey that has changed my life, forever.

"Once upon a time, over half a millenia ago I used to live within these old city walls!" Mr.Wilkin, my 8th grade history teacher, said in a high-pitched old man voice. Mr.Wilkin was my own personal hero. Unlike the other teachers at my school, he made his classes worth attending. He loved history and would always make it come to life for us. He would often dress up and teach his lessons completely in character. This particular day Mr.Wilkin was teaching us my favorite local legend, the one of the Great Wizard Terrowin. Mr.Wilkin stood at the front of the class dressed in a purple wizard's robe, the cheap kind you would find in stores around Halloween, he also wore a tall purple wizard's hat with silver stars, and a long gray beard.

"I was the most powerful sorcerer in all the land, King Lannister knew how important it would be to harness my powers for the good of the kingdom. He had a special tower built onto the castle and ordered me to use it to create spells and runes that would help protect the kingdom, and make the citizen's lives easier." Mr. Wilkin continued. He had the projector on using pictures to help him tell his story. The image projected now showed the outside of the old castle with a tower that stood tall above the rest.

"Can anyone tell me what the most powerful rune I created to protect this city is called?" Mr. Wilkin asked the class. I shot up my hand, eager to show just how much I knew of the old medieval legends.

"Yes, you there, the bright young girl with the hair as red as fire and as wild as the wind!" Mr. Wilkin said, causing laughter to roll over the classroom. Of course Mr. Wilkin knew our names, but when he was in character he always used descriptions to call on us.

"The Dragon Eye, Sir. Named for its shape that resembles the eye of a dragon." I answered, beaming.

"Very good young lady," Mr. Wilkin said while using a remote to change the image to one that showed a yellowed piece of parchment that had the Dragon Eye depicted on it.

"And what does the Dragon Eye do?" Mr. Wilkin Inquired.

"The rune has extremely strong protection magic that can keep any dangerous creatures from entering the city limits, including dragons!" I answered excitedly, without waiting to be called on.

"Know-it-all." Mumbled a kid from the back. A few chuckles could be heard from the comment, I could feel my ears turning red from embarrassment. Deflated from the comment, I slinked down in my seat.

"Now children, remember there's nothing wrong with having a lot of knowledge. Knowledge is power after all. Even I had to study for many decades in order to become the great wizard that I am." Mr. Wilkin said, putting emphasis on the 'many'. A girl in our class raised her hand, but started speaking before being called on.

"Mr. Wilkin, these legends are just fairytales, everybody knows that. Dr. Uchtdorf proved as much in the 1950s." The girl stated with a smug smile on her lips. The girl was Rebecca Smith, destined to be valedictorian, she always sought opportunities to show off her intelligence. With Mr. Wilkin’s teaching style contradicting the “norm”, Rebecca always managed to find something to correct him on; that made her public enemy number one on my radar.

"Ah yes, Dr. Uchtdorf, I'm glad you brought him up Ms. Smith," Mr. Wilkin said, breaking character and losing his high-pitched old man voice. With a mischievous gleam in his eye and a smile starting to spread across his face, I could tell he was about to teach us an obscure history fact.

"Dr. Uchtdorf's archaeological reports may be well known, but he had one very well kept secret. Dr. Uchtdorf was actually a firm believer that the old legends were true. This is recorded in his personal journaling that he left to the royal archives in 1973, after he passed away.

When he petitioned the King to allow him access to the Wizard's Tower and the artifacts therein, he did so for more than just the pursuit of archaeological research. He wanted to prove that the magic of the old days truly exists. Few people have taken the time to go through the Dr.'s journals, but those who have discovered the shocking truth behind his true intent." Mr. Wilkin changed the slide to one that showed some old images of scientists in a lab running tests on various peculiar objects.

"After the tests done on the artifacts from the Wizard's Tower came back reporting 'no unusual activity', Dr. Uchtdorf wrote in his personal journal," Mr. Wilkin clicked again to the next slide showing an old handwritten journal zoomed into a section towards the bottom of the page that had been digitally highlighted.

"'Although the scientists didn't find any peculiarities with the objects, I could sense that there was something special about them. It was a feeling tangible only to myself, and I suspect that while today's technology may not be advanced enough to capture the essence of the magic within the items, I am hopeful for what truths future technology may discover.'" Mr. Wilkin read from the highlighted section of the journal.

"In the year 1960 Dr. Uchtdorf's petition to have the Wizard's Tower open as an exhibit in the Old Castle Museum, was granted." Mr. Wilkin clicked to the next slide showing a picture of the grand opening of the Wizard's Tower Exhibit. Surrounding the room were old wooden shelves filled with books, crystals, jars full of various substances, and in the center was the most important artifact of them all.

"Here you can see my most prized possession," Mr. Wilkin regained his old wizard's voice as he got back into character, "known as the Wizard's Tome, it contains all of my knowledge. However, only the sorcerer worthy enough to become my apprentice shall be able to discern its contents and learn the ways of the most powerful wizard!"

At the conclusion of Mr. Wilkin's grandiose statement, the bell rang. All of the other students around me started to gather their things and file out of the classroom, but I was glued to my chair. The tome in the old photograph held me captivated. The Wizard's Tome was hard to see clearly in the photo, but I could feel its presence as if it was in the room with me, calling to me.

"Fascinating, isn't it, Ms. DeValois." Mr. Wilkin said, causing me to jump in my seat. It wasn't until Mr. Wilkin spoke over my shoulder that I realized I had completely zoned out.

"Oh, um, yeah it sure is!" I responded while frantically trying to gather all of my things together and get to my next class.

"It's a shame the exhibit got closed up again after that kid got hurt in the 80's, it would make such a great place for a field trip." Mr. Wilkin said, still looking at the old photograph on the screen with a hint of wistfulness in his eyes. I smiled at the thought of it.

"Yeah, too bad. I know I would've loved to see it." I said in response.

"Your father works as a night security guard at the Old Castle Museum, right? He's lucky, the security guards there are the only ones who still have access to the Wizard's Tower. " Mr. Wilkin said, as he switched off the projector.

After that day, I had become obsessed with the Wizard's Tome. I decided to learn everything I could about Wizard Terrowin and the mystical tome he created. I spent endless hours online and reading old books in the library trying to learn more about it. Unfortunately, there was only so much information available about them, and after hitting my billionth dead end I just about gave up. I couldn’t shake the feeling I had in class that day, the way the book seemed to call to me from the photo. There had to be something I could find that would give me some answers. If only the Wizard's Tower was still open, I thought. That's when my brilliant plan hit me, I was going to sneak into the Wizard's Tower, take the Wizard's Tome, and study it myself. With the Wizard's Tower being closed off, I would be able to take it without anyone noticing that it was missing, making this the perfect plan.

Once I knew what I needed to do, the real work could begin. I had to find a way to convince my dad to take me to work with him. I knew he would be reluctant to allow me to go with him because it was massively against the rules, but I didn't let that stop me. My dad and I were close, and I knew he had a hard time saying no to me. All I needed to do was wait for my opportune moment. That moment came last week when my dad told me that his manager was going on vacation. I innocently brought up my request and he said that I could go with him so long as I promised not to get into any trouble. I crossed my fingers behind my back and gave him my word. I felt bad tricking my dad about my intentions, normally I would never lie to him, but under the circumstances it couldn't be helped.

That brings me to the events of last night. When we arrived at the museum my dad introduced me to his coworker, Arthur Penn, who was already aware that we would be breaking the rules tonight, he was cool with it. Arthur looked to be about my dad’s age; he was really tall, had dark brown eyes, black hair with a box fade haircut, and he looked really strong. After walking the perimeter and doing the standard checks to make sure no one was loitering around after hours, we went to the main security office. It had a bunch of monitors against one wall that all of the cameras in the museum were connected to. Each monitor was connected to three or four cameras and they slowly flicked through each camera automatically. There were a couple of chairs for my dad and Arthur to sit in and they had brought in an extra one for me. Against the wall opposite from the monitors sat a couple of large storage lockers that remained locked. When I inquired about them, my dad told me they were where the museum had special equipment stored that were only used in certain emergency situations. On the wall next to the door was a large cork board stuck full of hooks that had a ton of keys hanging from them. As Arthur and my dad took their seats in front of the monitors, I meandered around the small room pretending to be interested in everything. However, my true goal was to get the Wizard's Tower key from off the key wall without drawing attention to myself.

I nonchalantly walked over to the keys and began to study them, looking for the one labeled “Wizard's Tower”. After a few minutes I found it, I looked over my shoulder to be sure that no one was paying attention to me. Aurther and my dad were still sitting facing the monitors, sipping their coffees, and chatting away. I had always been good at being quiet and sneaking things past my dad, but this was going to be tricky. Keys jangle and there were a lot of them situated precariously close together, I had to focus carefully or else I would get caught. I slowly reached up, holding my breath, willing my hand to be as still as possible and slowly took hold of the keys. Success! Now, I just needed to get them off the hook without making a sound. I closed my eyes, wishing to myself that Arthur and my dad would make some kind of noise right now because I could really use something to cover up any noises I might make. Then, almost like magic, just as soon as I wished it, the men started laughing hysterically. It was my chance, I quickly took the key off the hook and stuffed it into the front pocket of my jeans. I turned back around and to my relief my dad and Arthur were still cracking jokes to each other, completely unaware of my thievery.

I took my seat next to my dad and carefully watched the monitor with the door to the Wizard's Tower on it slowly flick from one camera footage to the next. Keeping my phone open positioned to my side, I timed how long it took for the monitor to flick through a whole rotation. Once I was sure I had the timing down, I told my dad that I wanted to go exploring on my own for a bit. Knowing how boring staring at security monitors was, he allowed me to go walking around for a bit. The museum looked different in the dark. All of the old medieval things looked less like they came out of a fairytale and more like they came out of a nightmare. Slowly, I made my way to the door that led to the Wizard’s Tower. Having kept track of the time, I knew that as I made my way into view of the camera facing the Wizard's Tower, the monitor would have just flicked to a different view. I slid the key into the lock on the door, and with a satisfying click it opened.

Once I entered and closed the door behind me, the entire place became pitch black. I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and turned on the flashlight mode. Before me was an old spiral staircase that led up to the actual Wizard’s Tower. This part of the castle hadn't been renovated like the rest of the museum had been, the air was much cooler, the stone stairs were worn by time and much steeper than I had originally thought they'd be, and with every difficult step I took I anticipated that the door behind me would swing open and I'd be caught, game over. Finally, after what felt like an eternity of climbing, I made it to the top. There was a heavy wooden door in front of me with engravings that depicted a scene of a Wizard performing magic. I could hear my heart beating in my chest. This was it, the moment I had been planning for. I pushed the heavy door, and it creaked open.

Windows surrounded the top of the tower and moonlight streamed in illuminating the room. Despite everything being covered in a good layer of dust the sight was magnificent. The room was exactly how it looked in the old photograph, shelves that contained books, and crystals, jars filled with an assortment of substances, and loads of other magical looking trinkets. In the center of the room was the old pedestal where the Wizard’s Tome was displayed. Unable to contain my excitement I decided to walk around the room to get a closer look at everything. I easily moved some red velvet rope out of the way and picked up a jar that had a mostly translucent silvery liquid inside, but when I moved it into the moonlight the liquid changed from a silvery color to a vivid violet. It was amazing! I decided to take it. I slipped my bookbag that I had brought with me off of one shoulder and placed the jar inside one of the zippable pockets. The feeling of taking something that might have magical properties was exhilarating! What other treasures might I be able to find? Out of the corner of my eye I saw something glittering. It was a small crystal hanging from a thin gold chain, and I just had to have it! As I was stuffing the crystal into my bag I heard a strange noise coming from outside the tower. Scared that it was my dad coming to find me, I decided it was time to take what I came here for. I walked over to the Wizard's Tome and brushed off the layer of dust that had built up on the display case. I put my phone back in my pocket and with two hands lifted the glass case off of the pedestal. I looked at the book with absolute amazement. I sat my bookbag down in front of me then reached out and carefully picked up the book. As I did, the book began to glow a bright blue light. Startled, I jumped back and let go of the book. However, the book didn’t fall, instead it floated in the air in front of me, opened on its own, and words started to jump off the page and swirl all around me. The words were in an ancient text but I could understand what was written before me, Welcome my worthy apprentice. Lights started shooting from the book like little fireworks and the sparks danced all around the room. It was like a dream, the best dream I could ever have. Only suddenly, the dream came crashing down into a nightmare when an earth shattering roar came from the sky.

I ran to a window to see what could have made the noise, and saw a massive flying creature circling the Wizard’s Tower, it was a dragon! I froze at the window staring at the creature in disbelief, until the dragon looked directly at me. Terrified, I spun around, grabbed the Wizard’s Tome out of the air, stuffed it into my bag and I ran as fast as I could back down the winding stairs. The whole tower started violently shaking. How could I have gone off on my own? I thought. My father won’t even know where I am right now! Stupid, stupid, stupid! Finally my outstretched hands felt the door that led back to the main part of the museum. I swung the heavy door open as fast as I could and ran through, slamming it behind me. I leaned against the door barely able to catch my breath. I closed my eyes as I waited for my heart rate to go back down, hoping that what I saw was just a hallucination caused by inhaling some kind of ancient fungus. However another earth shattering roar let me know that the dragon outside was real. Thankfully, that was when my father came running around the corner.

“Madeleine, there you are! Come, we have to go, now!” My father yelled as he took my hand. My father dragged me through some staff-only hallways that finally led us out of the museum. I would have been relieved if what I saw wasn’t more unbelievable than what I had just experienced. What looked to be hundreds of dragons had descended onto the city, breathing fire and causing unimaginable destruction.

“Take her and get out of here! Go to the South Expedition Park, the Polo Centre. It will be safe there!” Arthur called out.

“But what about you?” My father responded.

“Don’t worry about me! Just go! I have to fight this dragon.” Arthur answered.

“What!? You’re gonna fight, that!?” My father yelled, pointing to the 70 meter long monster that was attacking the Wizard’s Tower. My stomach sank, the entire Wizard’s Room of the tower had been destroyed, collapsed in onto itself. If I had stayed there a minute longer… I shuddered at the thought.

“How would you even fight that thing?” My father asked. Arthur gave him a mischievous smile,

“With this.” He said as he pulled a sword out from seemingly nowhere, it glowed a mystical blue just like the Wizard’s Tome.

“Now go, get out of here! Remember, the Polo Centre of the South Expedition Park” My father looked like he was going to protest again, but when the dragon suddenly landed directly on top of our car smashing all the windows and caving in the top, he quickly changed his mind. The dragon, looking directly at Arthur, let out a breath of fire. My father grabbed my hand again, looking at me he said,

“Let’s go."

We started running down the hill towards the fiery remains of the city. As we were making our way down, I looked back and saw Arthur strike the dragon with his sword before the rising hill blocked my view.

Running through the shambled city, we heard a robotic voice coming from loud speakers all over, playing the same message over and over again.

"Please make your way to South Exhibition Park, the Polo center is ready to help."

I held my dad's hand tight as he led us through the city. Being in the midst of the chaos was horrific. There were cries of agony coming from every direction; screams of men, women, and children followed us everywhere we ran. The air was thick with the smell of sulfur, and with dragons constantly breathing fire down on the concrete city, it felt as hot as a furnace. Eventually, we made it to the Polo Center, out of breath and completely covered in scratches, soot, and sweat. We took a quick look around unsure of what to do or where to go. We noticed there were people dressed in uniforms; some were directing survivors where to go, others were carrying boxes of supplies to different places, while others were heading out towards the city. My father walked up to one of the people who had a tablet in hand, who had just directed some others where to go.

“Excuse me, madam? Could you tell me what’s going on here?” My father asked.

“Not to worry sir this place has protections in place, name?” The lady responded. My father looked at the woman like she had two heads.

“Have you seen what’s going on outside? There are mythical creatures attacking our city! What kind of protections could you possibly ha-” The lady cut my father off.

“The Terrowin Preservation Society has everything under control. Please tell me your name so that we can get you checked in.” My father looked at the woman for a moment, a little dumbfounded.

"Jean DeValois" My father responded exasperated.

“And are you alone?” The lady asked.

“No, I’m here with my daughter." At this point my father turned and gently prompted me forward from where I was hiding behind him.

"Name." The lady requested.

"Madeleine DeValois." I said a little hesitantly. After taking our names the lady directed us to a large room full of people in a single file line stopping at different stations to get supplies. People in uniforms were manning the stations handing out certain supplies. There were cots with bedding, some sandwiches, fruit, water, and clothes. The clothing being handed out all looked the same and was similar to how the uniforms looked. It was a light gray t-shirt with a navy blue emblem on the upper left side of the chest, and gray sweatpants.

Once we received our supplies were brought to a small room with a single window.

"Alright DeValois you will be in this room, there are washrooms at the end of this hall where you can get cleaned up, and breakfast will be served in the great hall in the morning." Said the man who had directed us to our room, then he swiftly turned and left.

My father set up our cots while I went to the washroom to take a shower. The water was only lukewarm but in the state I was in it felt like heaven. My clothes were ruined so I got changed into the ones provided. While I had a moment alone I decided it was a safe time to check on the objects I took from the Wizard's Tower, surprisingly none of the items were damaged in the chaos of running through the city. I zipped up my bag and went back to the room. There were already some other survivors there getting themselves set up. I walked over to where my dad was.

"Apparently they're putting up to five people in a room." My dad said, reading the confusion on my face. He pulled me into a hug, and kissed my forehead, doing his best to comfort me.

"Here, I set your cot up by the window. Get some rest, I'm going to go get cleaned up." My father told me before grabbing his change of clothes and heading off towards the washrooms. While my father was gone a teenaged boy who looked to be by himself was brought to the room, as he walked in our eyes met briefly.

Soon after my father returned, a loud whirring noise came from outside. I looked out the window and saw some pillars rising out of the ground. The tops of the pillars opened up and revealed glowing lights, from the lights a translucent dome formed over the whole Exhibition Park everyone in the building started to wonder what was happening. A few people from the room next to ours stopped a person in uniform who was walking by.

"Hey, what the heck is going on here, huh? What was that? With the big light show, and now there's a big bowl on top of us. Is it trapping us here? What's that made outta' anyway?" The man from the next room asked, and although the man could've gone on forever, he was interrupted.

"Please do not be alarmed, everything is under control. Return to your room, and try to get some rest." The man in uniform said, then swiftly turned and continued on his way. After the people in the hallway muttered to one another for a few minutes about the nerve of that guy, they eventually returned to their room. A lady’s voice came over a loudspeaker,

"Attention survivors, all survival rescue attempts have been completed, all viable survivors have been rescued. Please assemble in the great hall at 8am for more information on the situation." With a click there was silence, then with a loud clunk all of the lights in the building turned off.

"My dear, try to fall asleep, huh. We're safe here." My father said, trying once again to comfort me. I laid down on my cot and closed my eyes. Unfortunately, I had far too many thoughts in my mind to be able to fall asleep. Did I trigger something when I touched the Wizard’s Tome? Could I really be the Wizard’s Apprentice? I didn’t even know that magic was real until a few hours ago, was it possible that all of this was connected somehow? After a while of not being able to sleep I heard footsteps in the hallway and the door began to open. Not wanting to risk getting into trouble, I quickly pretended to fall asleep. The unknown person walked over to the other side of the room and then stopped. Overcome with curiosity I tried to sneak a peek at what was happening. The person who entered the room was by the teenage boy and lightly tried to wake him. The boy must have been having a hard time falling asleep too because he instantly sat up. The person whispered something to the boy and handed him a long solid object. The boy lifted the object and pulled back what looked now to be a sheath. When he did I could see a blue light glow from the object. Was that Arthur's sword? The person whispered a few final words to the boy before leaving the room. The boy looked at the sword in his lap, from the soft glow emitted from the sword I could see tears streaming down his face. He looked over in my direction and I immediately closed my eyes hoping that he didn't notice me watching him. After a few more seconds the boy sheathed the sword once more and laid back down on his cot. Even more questions started to fill my mind, I pulled my bag closer to my body and eventually fell asleep.

I don't know what the next few days will have in store for me, hopefully the meeting in the great hall in a few minutes will help shed some light on things. What I do know, however, is that the Wizard's Tome is my key to finding the real answers.