Chapter One: Not Again

Why is it always the furniture? And three days away from the start of training season. Can Tyler find Christine (and her furniture) before time runs out?

The moment I woke up, I knew something was wrong. It wasn't until I opened my eyes that I knew just how wrong everything was.

All my furniture was gone. Again. Why, Cybill, why?

My name is Tyler. I am a mage with power over the elements, and the youngest in the history of magic at 16 years old. I live on a wizard/mage training ground that rests on the back of a lion-turtle, making it mobile and secluded. I am one of two instructors on our island forest, the other being my friend, the Grand Master Wizard Cybill, the youngest to receive that rank ever at fifteen years old. Most of the time we have fun on our island with one of our other permanent residents, a changeling named Emma who stays at my request. She pretends that she only stays because she gets free food and lodging, but I know the truth. She stays because she's my best friend. We also live with our familiars, Blur and William. Mine is Blur, a shifter. Cybill's is William, the most God-forsaken lazy sack of a vampire that was ever too squeamish to feed on human blood. He's also great to mess with, the pompous jerk.

Anyway, every so often Cybill gets the idea into her head that magical powers aren't enough to help us survive and decides to remedy this by creating a furniture trading company. Using my furniture. Even though we live in the same house. (It's more of a mansion) I still made most of it.

But I digress. Anyway, as soon as I saw the lack of furniture, I summoned Blur, who was in the form of a dragonfly, to go wake up Emma. They can understand each other because neither of them have an original shape. (Also because both are bound to me, but her only in the way that she can sense where I am)

Once Blur flew off, I found a clean pair of Mage robes and put them on. I hate those things. I can only handle them because I can manipulate temperature and I'm close friends with a powerful wizard with great spell-casting ability. The only good thing about the robes that the Mage code forces me to wear in public at most times is the pockets. They're bigger on the inside. Well, I guess they look cool too. The set I grabbed was navy blue with a silver swirling pattern on them.

Once I was dressed, I stuck out my hand and my staff appeared with a flash of white light. Most wizards have different color flashes, and apparently white is pretty rare. Don't ask me why I got it, I have no idea. Either way, I stuck my staff in one of my pockets (when I say bigger on the inside I mean it) and went to find my magic wand. I've never actually needed a wand to cast magic, with the elements being deeply rooted in me, but I put off getting my magehood for it. I felt it was that important. I didn't actually need to make a wand, but I did, and it came out fabulously. That's the problem with store bought wands. Despite what anyone says, they all have some aspect of sameness. Mine is made of woven metal twisted together, filled with the magic essence of a changeling. Because of my unique core and shape, I have one of the more powerful wands, because almost nothing is as powerfully magic as a changeling. My staff is fairly unique as well. Two weeks after my wand was registered in the wand database, I was forced into taking a staff. I was taken into a giant, well-lit room full of staffs made from every wood and metal in existence. I was told to cast a spell to see which material would be best for me. I did. Nothing moved. Or glowed. Or did anything. I would have even taken screaming, but nothing did that either.

Needless to say, I was severely disappointed. I looked around, expecting my mentor to say that it had been a mistake to bring me here and that I clearly wasn't ready yet. He was smiling. That jerk.

Then he clapped his hands and said "I thought that would happen. There's only one thing left to do. Pick whatever you like and we'll conflagrate them all together!"

The results were fantastic. It turned into what my mentor said was the ideal staff for an elemental Mage, half precious metals and half wood, with a single large gem embedded at the top.

Well, I pulled on my robes and walked out of the house Sybill and I shared and came face to face with an angry werewolf.

I sighed. "Hello Emma."

The werewolf growled and changed into the form of a light blue water nymph, arms crossed and glaring. "We really need to ward our furniture next time. I'm sick of waking up on the floor after her slow acting sleep potion kicks in." She said, playfully jabbing at my side.

"No kidding. You ready to go?"

"Do I get to ride Blur?"

"Do you want to?"

"Yes."

"Then yes."

Blur flew over and changed into an emerald green dragon, letting Emma settle onto his back before rising to his full 15 foot height.

"You know you could just turn into a dragon and fly yourself, right?"

"Shut up Tyler."

"Yes Emma."

And with that I summoned the winds to allow me to fly, and we set off after Cybill. Straight toward the pixies.

Why did it have to be the pixies?

Author's Note

I really felt a did of intro and meandering was necessary and I got to the point eventually. Feel free to leave a comment and, as usual, enjoy!