The Boy Wizard

The young narcissistic mind is explored in a world of fantasy.

The Boy Wizard

 

            Billy strolled down the high school walkway as if he were some kind of male model.  As he winked confidently at a pretty young blonde, he noticed Jake and Josh kicking a soccer ball back and forth.  Billy immediately glided towards Jake, stepped on the soccer ball to stop it just before it reached him, and said, “No.  You don’t have the skills.  Stand back lanky.”  Billy elegantly flipped his golden locks behind his head and gave the ball a flawless and powerful kick, sending it spinning perfectly to the other side of the campus and hitting a younger boy in the back of his head, knocking on him on his face.  Billy giggled at this and glanced dominantly at Jake with his sea blue eyes.  Billy continued his model-like walk now with an extra bounce all the way to his homeroom door. 

 

“Good morning students of Highland High School,” croaked Mrs. Crabtree.  “I will now relate to you the news of the day.”  The countenance of the entire class noticeably dropped as they braced themselves for the pain.  Billy ignored her and spent the time flirting.  “Inbil Skhet!!” she yelled with her pointed, crooked nose seeming to aim straight between his eyes, “You…listen to me…or you write everything you missed…a…a thousand times!”  Billy cringed at hearing his real name.  He felt like he lost some serious points with the cute girls, which is the only reason he listened to what Mrs. Crabtree said next.  “…And now for an update on Wizard Fiende who left the council in anger and vowed revenge.  It had been reported that Fiende was taking refuge in the caves just south of town.  This news is disturbing enough, but the most recent reports suggest that he is drawing dissenters unto him and is planning a revolt against the city.  None of you have any business venturing south of town.  Stay close to home.  Tell your parents what you are doing.  Blah blah blah blah blah.”  That was all Billy heard after the exciting part about a wizard that turned evil.  While pondering the situation, Billy could not resist the thought that he had to be stronger and smarter than even the wizards.

 

            That afternoon, Billy ran out onto the field as the leading striker of Highland High School’s varsity soccer team.  This was an important rivalry game that practically the whole town came to watch.  It was a hard fought game, and near the end, the score was tied 1-1.  They always used the town clock tower to time their games.  The fifth ring after five o’clock marked the end of the game, and just as the bell rang for the third time, Billy made a series of dazzling moves with the ball to get free from the defense, and while the clocked rang for the fourth time, he struck the ball with great accuracy and placed it into the top left corner of the net.  The crowd boomed, and as the bell rang for the fifth and final time, Billy’s teammates lifted him onto their shoulders and carried him off the field.  As Billy sat elevated on their shoulders, he could not help thinking that he actually was above them and deserved to be carried wherever he went. 

 

That night, Billy gave himself a victory bath and while soaking, he envisioned the winning goal time and time again in his mind, gloating constantly.  A strange feeling crept into Billy’s heart.  It was a feeling of underachievement.  He began to wonder why he was not already in charge of the entire city.  Even more, the king should have found him by now and appointed him to be his personal bodyguard.  The strange feeling now moved quickly through him like lethal venom.  He began to wonder why he was not born royalty.  He was more talented than any royalty he had ever heard of.  Soon after these thoughts had settled into his mind, the thought of merely being royalty was not enough - he should have been born the crowned prince.  He wondered in confusion why he had not been.  Then he imagined that he really had been born the crowned prince, but some sinister foe had kidnapped him at birth because he was the child of the prophecy.  He then thought he was perhaps switched with a peasant baby at birth as a cruel trick by one of the king’s foes.  He then imagined that he was under some spell, and that everything appeared to him as normal, but he was really living in a castle, but he quickly dismissed that thought because everyone he knew acted far too common.  He imagined so many possibilities that he almost began to believe the insane idea of being the crowned prince.  “No one this good could be born so common,” he thought to himself.  He fell asleep that night confused and tormented.

 

            The next day, Billy had almost forgotten about the idea of actually being the crowned prince, but he silently vowed to be common no longer.  Mr. Adamson, Billy’s alchemy teacher, was out sick, and they sent a substitute in his place, Mr. Ofog.  Mr. Ofog had long been banned from teaching alchemy, but there was new leadership in the school who knew nothing of this ban and foolishly allowed him to substitute for Mr. Adamson, which he was eager to do.  Mr. Ofog had been a teacher at Highland High for over twenty years, and had managed to get himself in just enough trouble to get reprimanded often but never enough to be terminated.  Secretly, Mr. Ofog had studied sorcery, and although he was no master, he could show off a bit, and he wasted no time on this occasion.  Mr. Ofog opened class with a basic review of the last class, and then abruptly asked the class if they wanted to see a magic demonstration.  The class excitedly agreed, and Mr. Ofog placed an empty glass bottle face down on top of the marble lab table.  He then proceeded to move his hands about in an awkward circular motion.  He appeared to be straining to concentrate.  After a few short moments, a small flame appeared inside the bottle and on the marble surface.  The flame grew until the glass began to turn black.  He quickly pulled his hands back, and the flame disappeared.  “Well, I never was an expert,” he said in a grumpy but proud tone, “but as you can see, it was magic.  I had it trapped in a bottle!  No air.  Couldn’t have been a trick.  Hahaha!  Well, back to the boring stuff I guess.”  As this was the last class of the day, Billy was desperate to stay and talk with Mr. Ofog.  While he had watched Mr. Ofog conjure up the flame, he felt that he had found a way to erase his rustic status.  He would study magic and become even more powerful than the wizards!  Mr. Ofog was more than willing to stay and chat about magic.  “Want to learn magic, do you?” asked Mr. Ofog in a mischievous voice.  “Your father was a wizard you know, it runs in your blood.”

“My father?  All he does is talk about boring stuff with a bunch of boring people!” said Billy. 

“That’s because he got scared.  Got scared of being too powerful.  Caused a landslide and almost killed a small boy.  So he hid up all his magic books and became a businessman.” said Mr. Ofog. 

“So that’s what he’s got locked up down there!”  said Billy.

“Down where?”  said Mr. Ofog more eagerly.  “You know where his magic books are?” 

“I guess.  Why?  Don’t you know already know magic?” asked Billy.

“I can make small flames and make them dance boy!  Those books show you how to control everything!” said Mr. Ofog more dramatically than ever.  “Go home!  Get them!  Meet me in the caves tomorrow after soccer practice!”

 

            The confusion Billy felt the night before was instantaneously erased after his conversation with Mr. Ofog.  Although he was disappointed to find the books locked in a small safe, with a bit of stealth, Billy had soon secured the key hidden in his father’s closet and was off to the caves with the magic books.  The two began to meet every day after Billy’s practice.  It turned out that Mr. Ofog was right; it did run in Billy’s blood.  He learned how to conjure up a small flame on only his third try.  He was so infatuated with making fire that he neglected all other magic and discipline training and quickly jumped from one fire lesson to the next.  Meanwhile, Mr. Ofog was entrenched in some very hideous magic that he had been waiting for many years to discover.  In a few short weeks, Billy had progressed so far in his fire conjuration lessons that he was able to create lethal explosions of fire.  He wandered around at night killing chickens at first, then large game, and eventually vicious predators.  He became so confident in his newfound power that he began to feel that he could destroy even the most powerful of wizards.  He felt that he could rival armies.

 

            The city council met to discuss a plan of action for Wizard Fiende.  Billy was eager to overhear their plan, so he hid in the closet at the back of the room and listened.  The council debated for hours, and just before Billy was ready to lose patience and just bust out of the closet, they agreed to send the three most powerful wizards on the council to the caves to apprehend Fiende before he became powerful enough to launch an attack on the city.  As Billy heard this, he felt frustrated at the plan since he believed he was far more powerful than those three wizards combined.  This thought grew in his heart, and soon he was sure that he should have been the one to go, and that if the city council only knew of his power, they would have sent him alone instead.  He resolved to go himself and prove himself to be the newest and most powerful wizard in the city.  He left the very next day early in the morning just a few short hours before the three wizards were to leave.  As it turned out, Billy got so terribly lost in the hills that he arrived just after the three wizards had entered the caves, although he did not know it at the time.  The caves were heavily guarded, and it would be nearly as much of a challenge to get to Fiende as it would be to apprehend him.  Billy was oblivious to the fact that Fiende was even guarded at all and was not surprised to find the path to Fiende’s layer clear.  The three wizards, however, had to venture through the caves and all of their perils.  The path was clear for Billy because as Fiende noticed an arrogant looking young man approaching, he chuckled and opened the front gate, allowing him immediate access to his layer.

 

            Billy strutted into Fiende’s layer as if his presence should stir up some sort of terror.  “Your power is nothing.  I am the new terror Fiende!” said Billy in a somewhat loud voice that he thought sounded like thunder.  Fiende could not help but let out a loud sinister laugh in response.  The laugh surprised and infuriated Billy who immediately conjured up immense explosions of fire aimed at Fiende’s body.  Fiende was protecting himself with a magical shield, and the explosions were easily absorbed and caused no damage.  Billy looked confused for a moment and then angry and more determined.  “He is not more powerful than me!” he thought as he sent flurry after flurry of explosions his way each time with the same result.  Billy soon became exhausted, and Fiende laughed all the more.  In an instant, Fiende’s laugh ceased.  He seized Billy with the air itself, pulled him quickly towards him, jabbed him in the stomach with his staff, and then struck him over the head, rendering him unconscious. 

 

            The three wizards made their way through the caves cautiously and carefully, disposing of Fiende’s minions one by one.  After a few hours in the caves, they arrived at Fiende’s lair.  As they entered the room, one wizard had a protective barrier around them all.  As Fiende frantically began to attack the barrier, another wizard was able to paralyze him.  The third wizard then cautiously began to tie him up using an enchanted rope.  As the three wizards cleared the area of any remaining minions, they happened upon a curious sight - Billy dangling helplessly upside down by a rope.  His cries for help would have made a grade school girl jealous, but fortunately for the wizards, they were muffled by the rags in his mouth. 

 

            Billy was severely punished by his father and reprimanded by the council, and he was forced to perform countless hours of humiliating community service.  Additionally, he was kicked off the soccer team and banned from practicing magic until tutored properly.  He reluctantly accepted the tutoring and was taught the error of his ways.  He was taught that he must be balanced in his approach to magic and devote himself to the study of it.  He was taught that this would require him to spend hours secluded while studying the principles of magic, and that he must master the most basic magic skills before progressing to those even remotely powerful.  He was taught that he could never be great without hard work and dedication, no matter how much talent he had.  A few short days later, he was in his attic studying basic magic.  Water dripped from the ceiling into an old bucket next to the table.   Through the attic window he had a view of a field behind his house.  There was a game of backyard soccer going on, and he longed to be free of his mundane studies and playing freely.  He looked at the bucket of water with disdain.  He felt that royalty would never have to endure common trials such as a leaky roof or be low enough to even own an ugly old bucket.  He looked once again at the bucket and then at the game outside.  “Forget this!” he yelled, then kicked the bucket of water over, spilling it into the room below, and ran outside to play soccer.

Author's Note

This is my first story. I do not have an editor, and it has never been critiqued, so I would love your feedback. Also, if the names appear a bit weird, it's because they are Swedish words.

Reviews

[Katannaism]

Different conversations/dialogue should be in different paragraphs.
For example:
"Hey." he said.
"How are you." she replied.
Get what I mean? Unless its from the same person then you can fit in what he/she says in the same paragraph. Hope you understand what I meant.
But other than that, this is a very good story. Raw and new. For a first, this is actually quite well written.
I'd suggest some proofreading of your own.. spelling/grammar check and everything. You'd also want to really put in more descriptions to make your scenery or environment more poignant.
But a good write for a first. Keep up the good work! *Gambateh!*