The great wizard's mission

Chapter 4.

"Master Xian, there is a girl in a strange colored garment down there..." Konnan pointed his finger at a young girl, who was dressed in a short green cloak.

Brenda watched her for a moment and squealed with delight: "It's true! Just as we novices must wear gray robes, apprentice wizards can only choose between yellow and brown; but this girl wears green. Besides, she looks very young, so she can't be an Official Mage. Maybe she's the person we're looking for... What luck! It wasn't so hard to find her after all."

Omar Xian showed a bitter smile and explained: "Stop making a fuss over so little. Or do you really think we'll find her so easily? Of course not! This forest is a huge place, where death is near the apprentices for much of the time and many don't care one bit about the ancestral rules of the academy, such as the proper way to dress according to their rank in the academy."

Konnan frowned, as he clicked his tongue, but said nothing.

Omar noticed and explained: "Most apprentice mages believe that no one bothers to control things within this vast forest. For this reason, some think that wearing different colored clothing, such as green, is a good thing to camouflage themselves better; especially in some areas with dense vegetation. Also, some do it to pretend to be an Official Mage, in case they are seen from a distance, and thus avoid dangers when walking alone in this place."

Omar noticed that the two young men said nothing and added: "You must understand that here, most of those who don't die soon, it's because they are quite cunning or cowardly; or both at the same time."

"So... Some trainees pretend to be something they're not? That's very dishonest! And they could be expelled from the academy, or worse, should they do this in the novice pavilion!" Complained the beautiful Brenda, her lips pulled back in anger.

She looked quite lovely when she was enraged.

"Brenda, you must lose your naivety soon or you won't last a day in this place when you are promoted to a Mage's Apprentice." Rectified Omar, with a solemn tone. And then, he added: "In this forest, assaults, abuses, and murders, are the common currency of everyday life. And those who respect something as banal as formal dress, do so mainly because they must sometimes enter the main building of the apprentice pavilion to acquire knowledge or trade. In that place, some official mages control things. But if it weren't for this, hardly anyone would do it around here."

"I understand, master." Brenda nodded her head slightly; while thinking that, if she really wanted to survive for a few years in such a dishonest place like this, she should possibly change her current way of being a lot, or she would be destined to be cheated by others.

"Anyway, we'll go question this green-cloaked girl, as she might know something." Sentenced Omar Xian, as he guided the huge bird to descend near the young girl.

The girl was concentrating on picking some mushrooms from the ground when she abruptly noticed the huge bird descending a few meters from her person; giving a tremendous fright to the young girl, who almost stumbled backward.

With a white complexion and trembling slightly, the young girl could see three humans descending from the huge bird and gradually calmed down. But then she remembered what kind of clothing she was wearing and her complexion became horrible again.

Sweating large drops, she began to stammer: "Mighty wizard officers, I am very sorry for this misunderstanding. Actually... This green cloak I'm wearing is not mine! I found it lying around and since I was cold I put it on, but..."

The girl was so frightened that she didn't even notice the gray robes and the young faces of Brenda and Konnan. From her point of view, the mere fact that a human descended from a tamed flying beast like this, already meant that he could only be a powerful Officer Mage.

Omar raised his hand, to stop the unnecessary monologue, and spoke softly: "Don't worry, we're looking for someone and I just want to know if you've seen her."

The girl seemed to calm down a little when she heard this. And she paid more attention to the trio in front of her and the clothes they were wearing.

"Two Novices... and a..." Muttered the young girl feeling more confident, but when she saw Omar's black-colored robe, she turned pale again and almost fainted on the spot.

Official wizards were rare enough to see here, but someone dressed in a robe of black, white, or gold could only mean one thing, it was a Grand Wizard or the very Archmage of the academy himself!

The girl began to tremble and couldn't even form a single coherent word.

Noticing the other party's scared bunny attitude, Omar realized that he was wasting his time here and preferred to change his strategy.

In this place, fear was a basic survival instinct, which some people overdeveloped. So, Omar Xian stopped trying hard to try to calm the other party down and preferred to use what he already had to his advantage now, fear, to force her to speak faster.

Raising the palm of his left hand upward, in a cold and imperative tone, he commanded: "This is the person we are looking for. Tell me if you have seen her, and perhaps I will completely forget the matter of inappropriate dress, for a simple apprentice wizard such as yourself."

An image, somewhat fuzzy, but one that could equally be seen with the naked eye, formed from his hand; showing the youthful face of Alinna, the girl they were looking for.

"Looks like the image on the holographic discs we see in class..." Murmured Brenda to Konnan, somewhat surprised by the scene.

"Yes, but this is much more amazing than that. Even though the image doesn't look as sharp as in the holographic discs, the control on the mana particles needed to form the portrait of a person, using only one's own mana, is something too delicate and extremely precise." Said Konnan, totally amazed with the ability of a Great Mage.

This was the first time they had both seen someone achieve such a feat of mana control and without needing to use any extra objects to achieve it, besides the huge magic staff that Master Xian always carried with him.

The girl looked at the image carefully and, trembling with fear, replied: "Yes, I've seen it, but... Please don't kill me!"