Wizard (Troy Sanders Trilogy Book 1)

20: A-Flying, We Will Go

It was two days since Jake's death and the school had now returned to its normal self; at least, as normal as it could return to after such an incident. We the year ones were taken out into the field for “the next phase of our training,”; only God knew what that meant.

We had been standing for at least one hour with only a lanky man, Mr. Xander, as companion. I was really tired of hearing that man whistle blues from the seventies- seriously, how old was he?- so I moved towards the other half of the field when I saw Elaine. “Elaine,” I called as I reached her side. "Hi."

“Troy,” she returned, her face lighting up immediately she saw me. "Hello."

“How’s everything?” I asked, and hoped like hell she didn’t burst into tears at the mention of everything.

“Other than Jake’s death, it’s been as usual,” she replied, shrugging a little; apparently, she didn’t know that Jake was murdered. Well, no one but Vic and I knew. It seemed even the school authorities didn’t even know- crazy, right?

“I’m happy you are holding up well,” I replied here anyway and turned to take my leave when she suddenly held my hand.

“Troy, I hope that we can still hang out as before even after all this,” she said. But it seemed that she suddenly felt guilty for asking me that and wanted to let go.

But I held on. “Of course, Elaine. It’s no problem,” I replied and nodded to show that I really meant it.

“Alright, alright, children,” Mr. Xander interrupted the conversation, “everyone back to their places now.”

I got back to my position and got passed a broomstick; whatever the hell it was for. I stared at it for a while, taking in the details.

It was a long wooden broomstick; I was talking really old “I can easily break if hit by a gentle breeze” wooden broomstick. The Firewalt crest- a dragon in the centre of a flaming pentagram- was carved into its body; and of course, very importantly, it was sprinkled with a powder which passed a green energy through the length of the stick at intervals- yep, definitely magical.

“So, if you have a broomstick with you, then you’re ready to fly,” said Mr. Xander.

Umm, what! I looked over at Mr. Xander but he gave no cognizance to my look; nor did he seem to want to, in all honesty.

“You take the stick, climb it, bind yourself to it with your magic and control it with your mind while you're flying. It’s that simple,” he droned on as he walked to the back of the group- that didn't exactly sound simple to you, did you? Cos it most definitely didn't frigging sound simple to me.

But everyone was soon on their broomsticks and taking off the ground before long; well, everyone except me.

“Mr. Sanders,” called Mr. Xander when he saw that I wasn’t even making an effort to get on my broomstick. “Is anything the matter?”

I knew that he had purposely called me "Mr. Sanders" to remind me of the crazy family reputation I was supposed to upholding- that darn wizard and his stupid ways. “Nothing, Mr. X.,” I replied, “just giving them the head start they so badly need.” If only I feel as badass as I sound.

Anyway, I got on the broomstick and then closing my eyes, I imagined a large blue chain binding me to the stick- don't judge, that was the best I could come up with on such short notice- by the time I opened my eyes, the stick had begun float. I guided it forward and the flying began- who said I couldn’t do it? Well, I did but who cares?

I was kinda rocking the exercise, feeling myself; until the stick suddenly began flying so fast that I couldn’t control it anymore. Slow the hell down! I shouted at the stick through my mind but no such luck; whoever designed the sticks must have forgotten to add brakes to their mind control.

I looked up ahead and saw that I was going to crash into a tree if I didn’t control my crazy stick that very moment. Quickly as I could, I pulled the stick up just enough to pass over the tree. But then the stick began flying straight up towards the sky; it was like I was going into space or something.

Get back on course! I mind-shouted at it again; but it didn’t budge. I literally shouted at the stick the next time around; but it still didn’t respond. I frantically tried to direct it while I screamed for my dear life; but I then slipped and fell off the stick. I looked down as I fell and only then did I realize how far up I really was; everything down looked like specks of dust.

I searched my mind for some of the soft landing or protection spells that Vic had taught me but none came to mind; my fear was keeping me from accessing them. I got close to ground level before I knew that I was still going to crash into a tree; the very same one I closely avoided before as a matter of fact. I braced myself for the impact and pain but it never came. I opened my eyes slowly and found out that I was far away from the tree and floating down gently.

“You’re supposed to be riding the broomstick, not falling off it,” said a female voice as she came into view; my guardian, Abigail Clark. She had saved me. A soft smile crossed her face even though I couldn’t see what was amusing about my failed attempt at flying and almost "death by falling off a crazy broomstick" afterwards. “What happened?” she asked as she settled me on the ground, still smiling.

“Jake’s death kept coming up in my mind and I got distracted,” I lied. I just couldn’t bear to hear anyone giving me a lecture about how my father had rocked his flying broomstick on his first trial. Although, coming to think about it, I hadn’t exactly told Abigail a lie; Jake death really did affect me even if it wasn’t what had caused me to fall.

“We’ll just have to give you some space then, Troy, to recover.” She squeezed my shoulders affectionately as she left and Elaine took up her space next to me.

“Are you okay?” she asked, a lot of concern etched on her face.

“Yes,” I replied, “just a little shaken up.”

But then, the other kids began to laugh; no doubt at the debacle that was me. I quickly excused myself and walked away before I did something I would later regret. Even as I got far away from them, I could still hear the sound of their laughter and Elaine telling them off for being insensitive jerk; I made a mental note to thank her later for having my back there.

But I couldn’t all fault the other kids for laughing at me to be honest. I mean, no matter what excuse I had given, the reality remained that I was a Sanders who had failed a simple magic exercise; and woefully too. I would be kidding myself if I thought that scandal was going to go away anytime soon- well, welcome to your new nightmare, Troy.