My Apprenticeship (Part 1)

We were fools. We had travelled together for a few months, in the spring and summer of that year. I was nineteen, and I was next to the oldest.

In my homeland I had trained as a warrior, using the quarterstaff; it was our traditional weapon, and I am proud to say I was quite good with it. I joined with Kras Dolan, a spearman, Fresia the Nimble, an acrobat and sometimes thief, and her lover Sol Avar the sorceror. Together we traveled throughout the land now known as Spain, from the ice fields to the strait, and then across to the grasslands you now know as the Sahara Desert.

We fought highwaymen and collected the bounties; sometimes we found monstrous creatures to battle, like the Ape-Men or the Little People. They were not the elves or leprechauns you are thinking of, but more like modern-day Pygmys, endowed with magical powers.

Often we had heard of the evil wizard whose zombie army controlled a small kingdom in the northeast part of Africa, and one day Kras said "We can take him." So we headed east along the coast. We were fools.

No sooner than we had stepped into the courtyard of his dilapidated fortress, but we were beset by zombies from all sides. They drove us into the keep proper, where it was dark and gloomy, as the windows were all covered. Though badly abused we began to get the better of them, and Sol even said "They're on the run!"

Those were his last words. I tripped over a zombie Kras had dismembered, so the bolt of eldritch power missed me; but the others were not so lucky. I stood up, and found myself face to face with a horrid, withered sorceror. I could feel his icy breath from five feet away...

I ran, in abject terror. What man wouldn't, if he had not steeled himself for the experience? In my panic I chose a door we had not explored, and found myself descending. Soon I was lost in the caverns below the keep.

He pursued me for what seemed like days; in fact it may have been, for I drained my waterskin, filled it again and quenched my thirst in an underground stream, and drained it again before he caught me.

I had run down a blind alley, and before I had time to backtrack he was there. I had by then prepared myself to stand my ground, and fight like a trapped rat, but he raised his hand and spoke an arcane word, and I fell in a heap.

Three zombies came forward; one stripped my gear from me, and the the other two lifted my tingling body to a kneeling position. With another pass the monstrous wizard removed the spell, removing the paralysis.

"You are cunning and crafty," he said in a voice like dry leaves crackling. "Smarter by far than any of the other fools who have tried to best me. I will make you an offer, my friend: call me your master and become my apprentice, and I will give you power beyond your dreams. If you decline, know that I will make your death far more painful than that of your friends, here."

It was then that I realized the three zombies were the animated corpses of Kras, Fresia, and Sol. I cracked.

"You are my master, O great wizard."

"My name is Gruven Ket, but you will always call me Master." The zombies (I never think of them with the names they had in life) lifted me to a standing position, and I followed my new master meekly out of the caverns.