Magician’s Supper

By: Trent Summers

“Bye, Mom. Goodbye, Grandmother. I’ll meet you both at sundown.”

She said this as she shut the door behind her and stared blankly at the yellow field in front of her. A golden landscape with yellow crops surrounded her cottage. There are sectioned paths for walking, which travel in all directions, as far as the eye can see. With her blazer and skirt adorned, she took her first step out of the gate and emerged onto a path with two directions, left and right. Of course, she chose the right. After all, that is where her school, The Azura Magic Academy, lies deeper within this land of crops.

As she idly passed by her surroundings, she walked along the light-yellow path and passed by the green meadow hills that filled beyond the horizon. It all went by, one by one. From the slow clouds drifting across the sky to the silent blades of grass at the depths of the ground, she occasionally looked toward the side for a view. The fresh morning sun, peering in her direction, shined across the front of her short pink hair. For the girl— Rose simply saw it as another day.

Her pathway progressed for minutes as she moved closer to her destination until what she found beneath her feet was no longer the softness of the grass but the firmness of stone. Before she realized it, she had made it to school early.

The Azura Magic Academy, a wide collection of five stone buildings, was one of the oldest buildings constructed in the village of Canvia. The academy resided on the outskirts of the town’s eastern agricultural area and was founded by an elderly wizard who worked as the right hand to the seventh king. Its complex structure and dragon emblems attracted more attention than most buildings around. 

Rose observed the clock tower that stood at her campus’s center. “Ninth Hour, Fourteen Minutes, Solaris,” she noted to herself. 

Of course, it would be a surprise to find somebody making noise in the middle of school grounds at a time this early. 

“Heeeeeeey~!”

However, hearing a loud and lengthy hello, she remembered how life could be full of surprises.

The girl dashing in a full sprint behind Rose made her jump out of shock, but hearing the tune of a familiar voice, she safely turned around and looked in front—no, below her. The energetic girl with blue hair was hunched over, entirely out of breath, carrying two bags instead of one.

Rose greeted her. “Hi Blu, so like I was saying yesterday, you are able to come to class on time whenever you can put your mind to it.” 

“I don’t… huff~ want to hear that from another student like you, Rose!” said Blu in between gasps. 

After a few more seconds of their strange banter, Blu could finally contain herself and stood eye-to-eye with Rose. “So, um… anyway, hey. What’d you end up doing after school today? You left without saying a word.”

Rose closed her eyes to respond, “Oh right, sorry about that. There was…some business I had to take care of at home.”

“It’s fine,” said Blu. “I pretty much did the same thing, so I guess we’re even. Anyway, my family and I traveled down to the marketplace the other day. It turns out the food coming from outside of the village is really cheap. My dad sent us there to get his ingredients for half the price!”

“Mhm…” Rose simply listened along to her friend chattering away. 

It wasn’t unheard of but still considered quite rare to cross over to the other side of the village. The populated area on the western side of Canvia was filled with taller buildings, people bustling all about, and even The Town Market at its center. Traveling across the river and forest without a freelance guard was a rare sight for a student; after all, there were still some magical beasts to account for.

This wasn’t to say that Rose couldn’t have made it across herself, given her magical ability, but not having so yet; it remained something that floated in the back of her mind. 

Her thought was stopped as Blu began again, “So that’s how we ended up having soup and bread for supper last night. My younger brother found bread for only four silvers. Can you believe that?” 

“Huh, I can hardly believe it myself,” Rose responded somewhat sarcastically.

“Oh, that reminds me…There is something I wanted to give to you.” Blu said, reaching into her second bag.

On most days, she only had one bag, which carried her wand and textbooks. Everyone at the academy, even Rose, had one. However, what lay strapped across Blu’s non-dominant shoulder was akin to a handbag, and she was searching through it.

Although what caught Rose’s attention wasn’t whatever was in the bag, but something or someone entirely different.

There was a dark-haired man who walked past her. She noticed he was quite tall, but more importantly, he was a student. Like a distant dream, she felt as though she recognized him, but by the time she began to, he was already gone. She never saw his face clearly, so she just kind of put it off.

“Anyway… Here it is!” Blu announced.

“…”

“Huh?”

In the midst of her preoccupied mind, Rose wasn’t sure what to make of what she just saw. However, there were more pressing matters in front of her, such as how there was nothing but white everywhere she saw: up, down, left, right. Her vision was completely obstructed and all white. This wasn’t to say that she had gone blind or was under any sort of curse, but rather something white had gotten in her way.

“Well, don’t you want it?” prompted Blu, who was holding a pair of leeks uncomfortably close to Rose’s face.

“…”

“Yeah, I know this is random, but I got carried away with buying vegetables. So, I thought you might want some…or not. If you want something else, then I could offer some…”

“Uh… No! It’s great. Leeks are fine.”

Blu let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good to hear. Well, I guess I’ll be off! I think I spot a teacher!”. She dashed off before turning around one more time to yell back, “Hope you can find good use out of those. See you later!” She was off with a dust cloud behind her.

Rose didn’t know how to respond. She hadn’t moved for the past few minutes ever since she began speaking with her odd, loud friend. She looked at the lanky pair of vegetables that she held in her hand and said aloud, “What am I supposed to do with this?”

They weren’t magical items nor enhanced by any curses, blessings, or spells. Besides, she wasn’t all that great at cooking. Regardless, she paid it no mind and casually wandered into class, vegetable in hand.