The Flower Children & The Boy Wizard

“Look out below!”, said the boy in the oversized, star covered robes as, trying to land his broomstick, he crashed its handle into the roof of the mushroom house.

Then, suddenly, Clara, Rose, Lily and Violet all came running out of doors to see what happened and were surprised to see a young boy dressed like a wizard climbing down the side of their house.

“What are you besides a walking catastrophe?”, asked Violet, rather annoyed that the boy had made a large hole in the middle of her bedroom ceiling.

“My name is Remlin. Remlin the magnificent! I am a great and powerful wizard”, announced the boy, tripping over the hem of his outsized wizards robe.

“You’re rather young to be a wizard aren’t you?”, remarked Clara, “Don’t wizards normally have white hair and long, straggly beards”.

“Well. Yes, that’s true but you see”, replied Remlin, stumbling over his own tongue, “I was old and did have a long white beard but, you see, I had a spot of bother with a youth potion which made me a little younger than I expected”.

“And a little smaller”, said Rose, giggling, “Judging by your ill-fitting costume”.

“Yes, that too”, said Remlin, unphased by Rose’s mirth.

“Well, Mr Wizard”, said Lilly, covering her ears and looking slightly pained, “There is definitely something you’re not telling us because I only get this pain in my ears when someone is trying to hoodwink me”.

“Madam”, said Remlin, “I assure you that I am telling the truth. My name IS Remlin and I AM a wizard and, at least in my own opinion, a very good one”.

And saying this, the boy drew a magic wand from within one of the long sleeves of his outsized robe and, waving it, summoned the broomstick down from the hole in the roof.

“I see”, said Violet as the broomstick came crashing down with a loud thud upon the boy wizards pointed hat, “But what I want to know is if you’re going to use your prodigious skills to mend the damage you’ve caused”.

“Oh certainly”, said Remlin, waving his wand once again and, this time, magically making the entire roof of the mushroom house disappear.

Now, all three of the Sisters were angry with Remlin and he saw, to his shock and surprise, Rose raise up both her hands before balling them into fists that suddenly crackled with blue lightning.

“I see you do a little magic yourself”, said Remlin.

“Yes and I should warn you”, said Rose, “that if you don’t start telling us the truth this instant I fully intend to zap you”.

“Alright”, said the boy, shaking his head and looking down at the ground, “I admit it. I am not actually a full fledged wizard but I wasn’t really lying because my name is Remlin, a wizards apprentice and my old Master, the wizard Zalamar, died and left all of his magical items to me in his will. Infact, that’s why I came here to this forest”.

And, saying this, the boy removed his pointed Wizards hat and, out of it, pulled a small, silver, egg shaped container covered in golden stars.

“It was my masters last wish, you see”, explained the boy, “That I bring his ashes here and scatter them within this forest. Apparently, my master grew up in this forest and always longed to return here”.

“Well now. Atleast you’ve told us the truth”, said Lilly, but then they heard the boom and rumble of thunder overhead accompanied by flashes of lightning and then rain started to pour down.

Fortunately, though they could not shelter within their roofless cottage, there was a cave nearby and, talking in the language of bears, Violet explained to the bear family that lived there that they had lost the roof of their house and the bears kindly agreed to share their cave.

Then, when the rain and thunder had died away, the boy wizard went deep into the forest until he found a large clearing and, opening the silver egg shaped Urn he scattered his masters ashes around the forest floor.

“With the sprinkling of these ashes, do I seal the spell. Out of death and into life”, said Remlin as he closed up the egg shaped urn again and then, transforming into a real birds egg, it started to crack open; a large blue flamed phoenix bursting up out of it and shooting off into the sky like a living firework.

But then, in the distance, he heard a chorus of ferocious roaring beasts and, running back to join Clara and her three daughters within the cave, he saw that they were being menaced by a terrifying Layer beast; a peculiar monster that looked, outwardly like an incredibly large bronze coloured lion until it opened its jaws wide and a long scaly dragons head popped out, also opening its mouth wide and roaring to reveal yet another creature lurking inside it; a woman with glaring eyes, fiery breath and a long forked tongue.

“I’ve never seen a beast that was quite so terrifying”, said Rose, trying to fend off the Russian Doll like monstrosity with blasts of blue lightning, “Surely nature could not have conceived such a hideous thing”.

“Not nature, no”, said Clara, avoiding the claws of the outer, bronze coloured, lion like creature, “They’re said normally only to appear when a soul has broken through the great wall between life and afterlife. Someone it seems, has returned from the dead”.

Then, suddenly, they saw the boy Wizard returning from the depths of the forest and, drawing his magic wand from the inside of his sleeve, he transformed the wand into a glowing battle axe and, charging towards the monster with a mighty yell, he cut off all three of the creatures terrifying heads before forcing the hideous beast to retreat back through a glowing, whirling vortex into the afterlife.

“Wow!”, said Rose, impressed, “You truly are Magnificent!”.

“Ofcourse, I am”, said the boy, turning round and removing his hat to reveal that all his hair had suddenly turned white, “I’m Zalamar, the magnificent”.

Then the Wizard started to grow in height until he was taller than all of them, and a long white, straggly beard started to pour down from his chin but age wasn’t the only thing that was creeping over him for suddenly his eyes became narrow and his smile became a crooked, cruel smirk.

“I needed a boy into whose body I could be reborn and that bumbling fool of an apprentice provided a suitable vessel for my soul”, said the Wizard, laughing malevolently and growing in height until he was even taller than their mushroom house.

“What will we do now?!”, asked Rose as they backed towards the entrance of the cave away from the towering evil wizard.

But then, Clara noticed that the rend through which the layer beast had come had not healed up entirely, that there was still a small part of it through which she could see glowing, ethereal light leaking out.

“Daughter”, she asked Violet pointing towards the glow, “Do you think you can speak the language of the Layer Beasts?”.

Violet wasn’t sure wether a creature from the spirit realm would respond to her but it seemed like their only chance and so, calling out towards the narrow opening, she shouted, “Layer Beasts! Guardians of the afterlife. Zalamar has escaped and killed one of your kind”.

Zalamar couldn’t understand the strange sounds that were pouring out of Violets mouth but, having spent many seasons in the spirit realm he recognized the language of a layer beast and immediately, turning his wand towards violet, cast a spell upon her that sealed her inside a glowing, transparent orb through which her voice couldn’t penetrate.

But it was too late for Zalamar, for deep in the glistening caverns of the eternal realm, the layer beasts had already heard Violets call and, bursting from the narrow glowing tear and ripping it wide open until it was a blinding chasm, not one now but five layer beasts emerged, roaring and breathing fire and, though they were a terrifying sight to Clara, violet and her sisters, they only seemed interested in Zalamar whose very soul they seemed to now rip and claw and drag away, back beyond the wall of death into the spirit world.

Then, just as suddenly as they had appeared, the monstrous creatures vanished and the glowing chasm, resealing itself behind them, was no more and then, looking down, Clara and her daughters saw the apprentice Remlin lying, dazed and bewildered, at their feet.

“What happened to me?”, asked the young apprentice, picking himself up off of the ground and dusting off his long, star covered robes, “One second, I was standing in the forest, having scattered my masters ashes and the next my own soul seemed to be in a strange dark place, a place where wicked souls go; a place where I didn’t belong”.

“You had a very narrow escape”, said Clara, putting her hand upon the boys shoulder and smiling warmly, “However, don’t think you’ll wriggle out of your responsibility. You still have to fix what
you did to our roof”.

“Oh no”, said Remlin, taking off his hat and his robes and shaking his head, “I’ve decided that I don’t really want anything to do with magic anymore. It’s far too dangerous”.

“Well”, replied Clara, “You may not become a great Wizard but you’re certainly starting to become a little wiser”.