Chapter 1
Enid was trudging through the forest, her eyes keen on the ground looking for anything interesting, she had been at it for a while and was just trying to fill up the last few spaces in her bag. She had found the old, overgrown forest to be filled with excellent quality potion ingredients ranging from mushrooms and herbs to insects she had only seen in dusty old books from her Masters before.
An uneasy feeling overcame her when she felt something tugging in the back of her mind, something magical was rapidly making its way toward her and it certainly didn’t feel friendly.
The rumors the nearby farmers’ family had told her about these woods had been nothing short of terrifying but she had written them off as mere fairy tales to tell the kids so they wouldn’t wander into the woods.
It didn’t shock her much since magical forests such as this one were akin to death traps for the average person, the beasts were much stronger here after all and the wandering trees made navigating nigh impossible without magical means.
Even so, there shouldn’t be any magical beasts so close to the treeline, why would something as strong as what was heading for her try to leave the forest?
The Beast was advancing quickly, it had only been a few seconds and the tugging feeling had been joined by the sound of twigs snapping as the trees were too slow to bend out of the way of their assailant.
With the speed it was coming at her Enid might be able to duck under some roots and let it pass by while hoping it wouldn’t notice her. Her eyes had already started scanning the area when the farmer’s family sprang into her mind again.
Their farm wasn’t in the direct path the beast had taken so far but she couldn’t be sure whether it would take a detour or not once it saw some of the livestock or Gods forbid some of the children.
There wasn’t a chance that she would entertain even the thought of letting their fate be up to chance when they had sheltered her mere hours before.
So she was left with 2 options, either she defeats whatever was coming at her, or she could try to redirect it.
No matter the final decision, she would have to stop it first, a quick barrier should be enough to make it stop for a moment.
Her hand hastily moved to the Belt satchel on her right, where her spellbook was readily waiting.
The familiar feeling of used leather mixed with a surge of her magic through her hand into the book was all she had before she started to draw the simple barrier rune into the air.
The light resistance of magic while she closed the last circle to complete the spell told her the beast was close enough for the pressure of its magic to start affecting her casting.
The barrier sprung into existence and not a breath after the unknown beast impacted.Her arms trembled as she tried to hold her ground, her barrier didn’t have enough time to properly set up so she had to make sure it didn’t move by anchoring it through continuous supply with magic.
With a loud thud the beast had landed on the ground, Enid abandoned her barrier and had already started drawing a stunning rune when her gaze fell on the creature.
It was smaller than she expected, rough leathery gray skin, buttons-. Wait.
She blinked once, twice, her arm that had been drawing the rune slowly sank as she processed what had just barreled into her barrier. A Hat, a magician’s hat to be precise but even those shouldn’t be able to fly through the air nor should it have any magical aura, especially such a big one.
It was lying crumpled up on the ground and didn’t seem to move, maybe someone had sent it out as something like a scout?
As soon as the thought was finished, it suddenly shot straight up again and seemed to look around for a second while seemingly mumbling to itself, she thought she heard the words “...was that… ungrateful… bad day…“, the hat paid her no mind at all and before she could mutter a word it had charged up again and had left her with nothing but a shocked expression and a slight breeze moving her hair. Reality set in and she started stumbling after it, ” Wait!” but the Hat was long gone.
At least she wouldn’t have to worry about the farmers’ families’ well-being anymore, a hat could neither eat their children nor hunt their livestock. Enid was ready to write this day off as another strange occurrence to write into one of her letters home when a strange glint caught her eye.
There, lying in the dirt where the hat had just been, were glasses, they were dirty, probably from the rough journey they had until they landed on the ground.
“They must belong to the owner of the hat..” she muttered while picking them up, jingling stopping her sentence,
the glasses had intricate golden chains fixed to them, it was a rather popular style of securing one’s glasses in the magical community. The weights on the end of the chain were teardrop-shaped gems with some magical properties, rather unusual.
Enchanted gems were hard enough to create, even harder to find in the wild and unless you were extremely wealthy, you would not use them as a decorative part of your glasses.
So the owner of these glasses probably had money, a lot of it, something which Enid had not. Surely there would be a reward for returning them to their owner and if not, she at least wouldn’t have to travel with stolen merchandise. It would also allow her to ask about the flying hat. The easiest way to find the owner would be trailing the path the Hat had created and with how much power it had used, tracking the path would be a piece of cake for her.
She looked up at the thick canopy, golden light of the midday sun shining through, would she have enough time until nightfall? She didn’t even know how long the Hat had traveled.
Her rations were low but it would be enough for a night in the forest, she could also follow her plan to stock up at the nearest town and then return but risk losing the trail.
If the owner of these glasses was as wealthy as she thought she wouldn’t have to sell any of the materials she just gathered, maybe even buy a new cauldron, the one hanging from her backpack had really seen better days.
With that in mind, she started to push some brush aside and started following the Hats trail.
Enid had been walking for hours until she finally found the clearing with the wizard’s tower in it.
The Tower had already begun to fall and if it weren’t for the copious amount of support beams it would have done just that. The beams were plastered with charms to enhance their efficiency and durability, fine paper with intricate sigils that would have even taken her some time to draw up.
The person living here really was wealthy.
Apparently, they were also awake since the chimney was spewing out sparks and thick purple smoke, slithering up into the night sky like a snake. A strong breeze carried it away to the left and she held onto her hat so it wouldn’t fly off as she made her way to the circular door.
It must have been a window before the tower fell. A sturdy wooden staircase led up to the round door made of stained glass with rich colors dancing with the light coming from inside.
Upon climbing the last stair Enid felt a rush of wind on her nose as the door suddenly sprang open and before her stood a tall man. He let go of the door handle and turned towards her, his dark violet robe swaying with every movement. She looked up at his face, being met with glistening emerald eyes and the fiery red hair hanging over them in thick curly strands.
His eyes turned from hopeful to confused in a second when he realized that it was Enid standing in front of him.
“Who are you and what are you doing in front of my tower in the middle of the night?“, his brows furrowed and he took a step back while he asked, clearly on guard. By now he must have noticed her magical presence.
Enid cleared her throat and sheepishly pulled out the sullied glasses, offering them to the stranger
” I’m sorry for the intrusion but I found these glasses after a tussle with a rather strange Hat and its trail led me here, might these glasses belong to you?“.
His shoulders relaxed and he grabbed the glasses from her hand lightly brushing her fingers as he pulled away, he put them on, scrunched his nose when realizing how stained they were, pulled them off, and started cleaning the glasses with the hem of his ochre turtleneck. When putting the glasses back on he asked,
“A hat you say? It did not, perchance, fly? Do you know where it went, I need to find it”.
“Well, it sure didn’t run. Look I don’t know what to tell you - It came flying towards me while I was out picking herbs, at first I thought it was a beast but when it flew into my barrier it just turned out to be a hat, before I could grasp the situation it already flew away, leaving me with your glasses”
He visibly deflated, ” Well it is a start. It is already late, do you want to come in and stay the night? You have gone through quite the adventure on behalf of my possessions after all”.
She thought about it for a moment, bunking with a stranger in an unknown magical tower, or spending the night outside in the forest with who knows what’s out there.
She took a deep breath, ” I’d love to, my feet are absolutely killing me”
