Chapter 6

"Ok, what the HELL just happened?" thought Aric.

As he was filling the cart with wood, suddenly an extremely huge Brown Bear came out of the woods. He tried not to move, but the bear was looking for a fight. He was pretty sure he could take the bear, he was pretty strong and fast, but it would be close.

The bear was easily twice his size in wide and almost twice his height standing up right.

As he was trying to circle around to get a good position, his foot slipped into a gopher hole up to his knee. When he looked down, that was all the bear needed, and it charged him and attacked.

But right at the bear got to him, Aric raised his hands defensively. His hands felt warm, and then suddenly red fire shot from them and hit the bear square in the face. The bear pawed its face a few times, whined, and then ran off.

Aric was staring at his hands totally confused as to what just happened.

Aric tried for almost two hours, but he couldn't duplicate what he did.

After that he tried to find out about magic.

He knew his mother had been a mage, but he never thought much about it before. But now it was important to him to know.

Later in day he asked Daven if he knew any mages.

"There is one that lives just off the castle grounds to the side of the barracks," said Daven. "But a warning, Quinlan is a little off if you know what I mean"

So Aric went to see him.

If he was a mage maybe he could find out what happened.

<Knocking>

"Excuse me is anyone home" called out Aric as he slowly opened the door.

"Who's there?" said a voice.

"Hi, I'm Aric. I'm a friend of the Prince may I come in?" he asked.

"Are you going to try to get me to buy something or ask me to do tricks for your party?" asked the voice wearily.

"No sir. I just have some questions about magic," said Aric.

"Fine come in if you must," said the voice.

Aric came in and couldn't believe the clutter.

There were books everywhere. There were papers everywhere. He was sure that there was a table or bed somewhere in the room, but for the life of him he couldn't find it.

Here and there, there were bowels and cups stacked on books. Some were empty and some half eaten. He started to wonder if this was the right person to ask.

In the back corner sat Quinlan. He looked to be in his late fifties with long black hair and grey streaks along both sides. He had his head down as he looked over a book. He was sitting on a stool.

"What can I do for you?" he asked without looking up.

"Sir, I was curious about magic," said Aric trying to smile down at his head.

"Why, do you want to try to make some girl fall in love with you?" he asked while still looking down.

"Love potions won't work if there isn't some base attraction to begin with," Quinlan said.

"No, I have a girlfriend already but I was just curious if children could be mages just because their parents are?" Aric asked

Quinlan put down his book and looked up for the first time noticing Aric.

"My you're a big one aren't you?" said Quinlan looking Aric in the eye.

"Why are you asking? Do you know a child that might be, or are you asking for yourself," asked Quinlan.

"Myself really," said Aric

"Have you done any unexplained things since childhood?" asked Quinlan. "Like start fires, freeze things, move things around the table, or anything like that."

"Not really. But the other day fire came out of my hands. When I was threatened." said Aric.

"Hmm. Well that may qualify, but you know most of the time when magic manifest by itself you're a small child don't you? Usually about three seasons old," asked Quinlan.

"No I didn't know that," said Aric.

"Catch this," said Quinlan.

He threw Aric a faintly glowing white globe. Aric caught it and it turned a very light and pale shade of pink. Barely different from the way it already was.

"What is this?" asked Aric concentrating on the orb.

"It's a detection crystal. It's used to detect magical ability," said Quinlan.

"Hmm. You have a small latent ability, but it's so weak that it might as well not be there. Most people have some form of magic. But it's not usually in a high enough quantities for it to be useable. You're not a mage," stated Quinlan firmly.

"Well thank you then. But a question, why was there flame from my hands?" asked Aric

"Probably stress. Sometimes in great stress we do something we normally can't do. But I would say that you pushed what little skill you had at that point to the max," said Quinlan.

"Ok, but what did the red mean" asked Aric sitting on the floor.

"Well if your power was great enough you'd be a Red mage. Someone able to use fire based spells," began Quinlan sitting back and putting his book down.

Aric was the first one to show true interest in magic since he got here. Well other than for personal gain that is. He seemed truly curious for the sake of learning.

"The easiest and most common is Red, because it often is triggered by anger, frustration, or fear. Because of that it is often the most powerful as well. It is most used for offensive attacks, but it does have some defense abilities as well.

"It often manifests itself as either fire or as some form of burning. The more powerful you are the more damage you can do. And there have been a few reports of some people's eyes that start to glow red, and those people are usually extremely powerful mages. But usually that only happens in time of great stress, and some only view it as a side effect of a loss of control.