Wizard
He is like the others
But he walks with Randall
That means nothing
He is written in the stars
Stars can still shine after they die
Which means that stars can lie
“Sam,” Randall said, sounding urgent. “What’s happening?”
“Oh, just a debate as to my intentions,” I ground out. “You know how it is.”
“What are they saying to—”
The butterfly shot off ahead of us, wings flapping furiously. The sparks hissed as they fell to the ice. The butterfly rose upward, spinning in lazy spirals, light trails curling around each other. It went higher than I thought possible, and just as soon as I began to see the light reflecting on an impossibly high cave ceiling, the butterfly exploded in a bright, silent flash. The blast sent pieces of light throughout the room, the shock wave causing them to vibrate. They began to fall slowly back toward the ground, illuminating the room brighter than before.
Icy cliffs jutted out from the walls of the cave, large boulders and stones here and there. I thought I could see purposeful shapes in them, but recognition was just out of reach, wrapped in shadows. The shape of a horse and a man and a dragon, an egg, a tree, and a—
Wait.
Hold up.
A dragon.
I took a step back.
The lights flickered around us.
I laughed. It sounded forced. “It’s just a stone.”
“What was that?” Randall asked me.
I shook my head. “It’s just—”
The stone turned its head toward me.
“—a motherfucking dragon,” I finished weakly. “Um. So. Hey there, good buddy. How are you?”
And the dragon growled as it unfurled itself, lights falling around it, eyes glittering in the dark, catching the remains of Randall’s spell.
“Do you see that?” I whispered furiously to Randall.
“I see it,” he said, sounding calm.
“Good. Now. What was your plan?”
His head whipped toward me. “My plan?”
“Right. Good. Your plan.”
“Sam, you’re the one who said—”
“No need to point fingers. I don’t blame you for running in here half-cocked. Heh. Better than being full-cocked, wouldn’t you say?”