Chapter 17: A wizard's staff is a sharp blade

I had Meri toss the kid his rusty knife as we left the campsite. The shadows were almost nonexistent, and the morning wind had a dampness that promised rain.

Yea.

We didn't have to wait long before the downpour started. I had just raised the cowl of my robes when I glanced over and saw a miserable Meri trying to keep up with me. I needed to get her a hooded cloak of some sort in the next village, if at all possible. I was about to offer one of my robes to her, but it just felt wrong to do so. I couldn't figure out why, but ever since my last commune with Kassandra I was making an effort to rely on my feelings when they tried to get my attention.

I just hoped that it would not be a three day rain, let alone a three hour one. We did stop for a cold, wet lunch under a weeping willow tree that gave us some protection from the rain. I made Meri change her clothes and gave her a blanket with which to dry her hair. She tried to give it back saying that it would just get wet again, but I didn't want to deal with a sick girl, so I showed her how to wrap it around her head with the tail running outside her blouse so that the rain did not drip against her skin.

I should have thought of that earlier.

After about twenty minutes or so, I asked if the towel around her head helped, and she just nodded. She still looked miserable, hopefully just not as bad as before.

It was around the time that we would have stopped for an afternoon snack and a stretch when the tree in front of us ignited. It was still pouring rain so the fire was quickly doused. I hadn't heard or seen any lightning so I stopped us around fifty yards in front of it.

A shapeless form streaked across the road trying to get away from the burning tree. I urged us on; I was curious what could have caused that to happen. There was a teen in a puddle, rolling around just off the road. He looked singed, his hair was burnt, and his clothes and face were blackened from the char.

"Meri, why don't you get a blanket and help the poor kid?"

She gave me that 'Mars' look again, before she dismounted and took out a blanket to hand to the kid. She couldn't get any farther away from him and still hand him the blanket. She definitely looked ready to bolt.

The kid didn't seem to want any help; I tried to persuade him otherwise. "Take help when offered kid, we won't hurt you." I called from the back of my horse. He crawled out of the puddle and stood, before he took the blanket with a mumbled thanks.

"Are you burned anywhere?" He shook his head no. I glanced over at the smoldering tree that was quickly being dowsed from the downpour. All of the lower branches looked singed and most of the leaves that were close to the ground were burnt. I saw a pile of ashes that could have been his camp. They too were smoldering

"I hope that you didn't have anything of value in your campsite." I pointed and he shouted a strange obscenity. I could only make out the end of it, that had someone's beard mentioned. He dashed towards the tree and I cut him off with my horse. "You'll get burnt if you don't let it cool."

"I don't care!" The young fool dashed under my horse's legs and ran to his burnt out campsite. It took me a few seconds to calm Daisy, she definitely did not like him doing that.

He dove in ashes of his campsite and started digging and cursing. Once I settled down Daisy, I dismounted and handed Meri my horse. He pulled out a large tome that looked unscathed. It, by far, was the largest book that I had ever seen; it had to be two feet by two feet and a good six inches thick. My intuition was telling me that this kid was a wizard of some sort.

"Meri, make camp." I instructed. She looked ready to argue but I stared her down.

"Yes, Milord." She stated resignedly, before she got busy.

I watched the rail thin kid minutely inspect his tome, before he stated digging again in the large ash pile. I wondered what he so desperately needed now; when he pulled out a thin silver knife. He used that to search around the ashes to try and find anything else that was worth saving. He did find a chunk of metal that must have been his coin purse before it melted.

Damn, that had to be a hot fire for copper and silver to slag like that. Copper melts at 2000F. That means that both the book and his dagger are magical.

He looked forlornly at the remains, pushing the ashes around without hope with his foot.

"Is anything irreplaceable in there that you lost?" I asked softly, while gesturing at the pile of ashes, as I walked up behind him. He jumped at my words and looked at me sadly.