Walking was incredibly boring, and three weeks into it, Greta hadn't said a word. I was starting to get a little annoyed, but I didn't want to hurt Greta's feelings or worse, make her angry. That night, I decided to do something. It started to rain near nightfall, and Greta was soaked. Sitting next to the fire, I attempted to break the ice.
"I found out this cool way to stop the rain."
"Leave me alone."
"Nonsense. Check this out." I unfolded my wings and rotated them around my head so they made a large umbrella. Greta responded by turning her back to me. Without even thinking, I grabbed Greta by the midsection and set her down underneath my improv canopy.
"Wha--!"
"You need an attitude check." Greta had a strange look on her face, and even thow I knew I knew what it meant, I couldn't place what that look.
"Does this feel strange to you?"
"Umm... Yeah, it does."
"Is this too close for you?" I had realized that six inches might be a little too close for Greta.
"It's way too close."
I backed up a foot or so, and the tension relaxed from Greta. We began to talk, and I found out that the head of the opposing warlock faction was actually Greta's father. We actually ended up talking late into the night, and I didn't realize how late it was until Greta fell asleep. The odd part was when I tried to fall asleep. After an hour of nothing, I finally started to fuzz out. Suddenly I snapped awake and there in front of me were the five me's. But I wasn't in the cave. I was sitting by the fire with Greta.

"How did you get out of my head!?"
"Relax, Ian. This is totally natural."
"Natural?"
"You are able to see us like this when you are at rest. You don't need to sleep anymore."
"Natural?"
"We sleep for most of the day, and your mind rests in between."
"That is handy."
"So now you get to talk to us all night!"
"I'm simply overjoyed, Misery."
"I know."
It was then that I noticed that Love was totally captivated with Greta, and he stared at her with a weird look on his face.
"No way man, she's off limits for you."
"What?" Snapping out of it, he looked around like he was unaware of what had just gone on.
"Its not like that with her."
"Ian, since you became isolated from other people, Love has felt uneeded, and so he's a ittle desperate."
I looked at Love, and in his cold grey eyes I saw a... hunger.

I spent the rest of the night talking with Love.

I didn't know what to expect when I returned to the Council Chamber, but everyone was looking at me expectantly.
"Ian," intoned the Leader of the Council, "we have decided that you will be allowed to live."
"What!" exclaimed the leader of the warlocks, "He is an abomination!"
"He is a member of the magical community, and is protected by this council!"
You could feel the tension between the two leaders, and I knew this wouldn't end well.
The second in command of the warlocks stood up in defiance. I noticed that he was the leader of the three that helped examine me.
"I cannot stand by and allow this creature's destruction. He is a one-of-a-kind marvel and is a powerful member of the Council."

The sound in the room died. No one moved, and hardly anyone breathed. The head warlock looked to his second, pure hatred in his eyes.
"You wish to harbor this creature? You are no longer a member of this fellowship."
A murmur passed through the non-warlock members of the Council, and some of the warlocks looked to each other nervously.
"This could get interesting," pondered Misery.
"Very interesting," replied Pain.
"That's it!" shouted the head warlock, "any you who wish to follow this foolish traitor can stay. Those who wish to follow me are leaving. Now."
Just over half the warlocks stood up and left. I was crestfallen to see Greta was one of them. A few moments of silence passed, then a clamour rose from the hall. There was a loud bang, and Greta stormed into the room looking furious. I would not have wanted to cross her path, especially with the way I saw her now.
Greta made 13 warlocks who stayed, exactly half the warlocks who came to the council.
"In view of recent events," began the Leader of the Council, "I say a magic 'guard' should be formed to help hide Zach from the warlocks, and defend him if need be."
"Not that you need protecting," whispered Zaak.
"All classes will have one representative who--"
"What!" cried the now lead warlock, "How can that be asked--"
"A full trio is too many, and with the social taboo on pairs, the only thing that can be done is to only send one warlock."
"I'll do it." Greta stood as she spoke, defiance gleaming in her eye.
"Very good. Any more volunteers?" Zoe and Alisha stood.
"That shouldn't be a problem since you already know Ian... Now all we need is a mage."
I almost vomited on the floor.
"I'll go." A small japanese girl that spoke with a slight accent stood up, a smile on her face.
"Thank you Kukichi," replied the Leader of the Council, who couldn't help but smile.
Zaak stood, and at first I wasn't sure what he was up to.
"I wonder I if could join as well, since--"
"I understand. That would be completely fine."
"If it would be helpful," replied Zaak, "we could stay at my house, at least for a while."
"That is something you should suggest to the team, but I don't see why not."

We met outside the council complex, not sure what to do next.
"Well I caused all of this, so I guess I should introduce myself, Kukichi. I'm Ian Kemt, and I am-- was a wizard."
"Nice to meet you," replied Kukichi, absolutely beaming.
"So, Zaak, what's the plan?" I asked.

The plan was that we made our way to Zaak's in three groups. And that we went the slow way. Kukichi and Zaak would arrive first, followed by Greta and I, and then Alisha and Zoe.
Greta and I flew the first leg to Olympia, but then we had to WALK the rest of the way. I was PISSED. But there wasn't much I could do. As Greta and I made our way into the Cascades, Pain began to laugh.
"This is going to be fun."

Shut up, Pain.

I love the rain. And Japan is breathtakingly beautiful. But neither of them helped me that day. Lying on that hill, I could almost feel my humanity bleed away. After they found I didn't tire, the team set out to find my strength. The scary part: they couldn't. No matter how much the weight, I could lift it. They hypothesised that when my muscle cells broke down, they regenerated incrediblely fast, allowing my strength to increase to whatever size needed. But my strength didn't go back down after I was finished lifting, it was permanent because I was generating new muscle fiber. As a result, I was very bulky after the lifting tests. Then a curious thing happened. My muscle returned to their original size. Puzzled, I lifted the largest weight again. My muscles didn't become larger. The warlocks figured it out first.
"Your body is toning itself," said one of the warlocks, "if it didn't your muscles would get so big it would be impossible to move."

After some intense questioning, I couldn't take it anymore. I ran outside into the rain and flung myself on to the ground a way off from the Council Chambers. The isolation set in, and with no one in the world to talk to, I began to question myself.

To my surprise I found myself in the cave again. The other five of me were still talking to each other, and I still couldn't hear them. I decided to make myself heard.
"If you don't mind me asking, who are you guys?"
The five spun around, looking at me in utter disbelief. Gaining control of himself, the leader bent down and wrote in the dust on the floor: ONCE WE SPEAK THERE IS NO GOING BACK.
"I honestly don't care."
The leader smiled at me.
"How nice of you to join us, Ian."
I felt a barrier in my mind fall down. I could now sense five other selfs inside my head.
"Who are you?"
The leader responded, "I am Death."
The other selfs began to name themselves.
" I am Pain."
" I am Misery."
" I am Truth."
" I am Love."

I woke up on the hill, slightly disoriented.
"Where am I?"
"On a hill outside the Council Chambers."
"Thanks Truth."
Just then, I saw Zaak walking towards me.
"Good old Zaak. Glad to see him."
And I agreed with Death.

I have to admit, I was freaking out. Anytime the Head of the Council says, "We are now going to test you," you should be very afraid. I was shown into a chamber that looked at little too much like a prison cell, and asked to remove all my clothes except my underwear by a pinked-robed female mage. I hate mages.
"What!? What kind of place is this?"
"It is needed in order to see the full extent of your transformation."
I was suddenly very glad none of my friends were on the examination team.
Begrudgingly, I pulled off my shirt and pants. I had never took the time to actually look at my new self, and I was surprised to see that I was A LOT more muscular.
"Since your skin has been bonded with magic, we will first see how resistant it is to various otherwise dangerous stimuli."
I felt the blood drain from my face.
"Lets start with heat."
A small flame ignited just off the tip of her finger.
"This would just start to burn you under normal conditions."
Without any hesitation, she put the flame to my new rock hard abs. Nothing happened. The others in the room started murmuring amongst themselves.
"How's this?"
The flame grew larger, and I could actually feel its warmth, but still no pain. A look of frustration crossed the mage's face, and I grinned at her fierce concentration. She began to slowly add magic, and the flame grew incrementaly. Abruptly, the little mage stopped. I was about to make a snide comment when a huge forced slammed into my back. I could tell it was a fireball, but rather than being hot, my back felt very cold. I could hear a strange fizzling sound as the magic died out, something very abnormal for a fire ball.
"Now we are getting somewhere," remarked a voice I didn't recognize.
I whipped around to see three warlocks standing at the door, one of them still had his arm outstretched.
"Now please," asked the mage," could we see your wings?"
Curse Zaak. Man never could keep a secret.
"Why don't you look at them yourself? They're right the--" But they weren't there. As far as I could see, my wings had disappeared, but I knew they were there, I could still feel them. I unfurled my wings to their full length, and everyone gasped. I should say, everyone gasped except for the warlocks. The were still by the door, stoic as ever.

Over the next half an hour, I was repeatedly burned and struck by lightning, neither had any affect.
"Water and earth would only measure strength, and we're testing that one later..." pondered one of the wizards on the Examination Team.
One of the warlocks stepped forward.
"Sharpened air." It was NOT a question.
"Nothing too dangerous," piped in the pink toad.
The warlock proceeded to form an air disk as tall as he was and launch straight at my chest.
The pink mage screamed as a deep rent was opened up in my chest. The pain was incredible, but it was endurable. Then, about a second after the pain hit, it was gone. The huge gash in my chest was totally gone. The mage didn't even notice at first.
"IT COULD HAVE CUT HIM IN HALF!" she shrieked.
The warlock looked at her with a grin plastered on his face that would have gotten a normal human thrown in an asylum.
"It should have." Was all he said. You could hear the ecstasy in his voice.
The mage then looked back at me, and realized that I was now unhurt.
"What happ..." The mage promptly fainted. THAT got a good laugh out of me and the warlocks.
A magician walked to the center of the room.
"Why don't we move on to strength now?"
"Oh f***," I thought.

I was puzzled when Pterry, as I now called him, began to descend. I realized that while I didn't fatigue, Pterry must have been exhausted. We set down in the peninsula of Washington, and I chucled as I saw the irony. To bad there isn't actually a town named Forks. Zaak sent Pterry back home, and I got a fire started. It was a lot harder than usual, because I can't cast magic in my new body. My magic is bound to my cells.



After we settled in, Zaak and I began to chat about old times. When I brought the subject of apprentices, Zaak got very tense.

"The Council of Magic can tell you more about that."

"Is that where we are going?"

"Yes, they meet in Japan a ways outside of Tokyo these days."

The Council of Magic is the head authority in the magical world. They represent wizards, warlocks, mages, and magicians. The fact that the Council was having a session just because of me was rather frightening. I fell into an uneasy sleep, not sure what to expect.



I didn't dream at all that night, which scared me more than my regular nightmare. Crossing the Pacific was uneventful, and I had a lot of time to think. As I landed on a hill on beautiful Honshu, I was unsure how I would handle the questions that would be thrown at me.



The outside of the building was magically hidden, but the inside was incredibly oppulent. I saw several people scurrying about, and I could almost taste the magic in the air.

"It seems a little sparse from what you told me," I commented.

"Since it's an emergency meeting, for the most part only the council is here."
As I walked into the Council chambers, I was shocked to see somewhat familiar faces.
"Alisha and Zoe are on the council!?"
"As a matter of fact, they are."
"I didn't even know they possesed magic!"
"Council members are usually talented at concealing their power."
"I'll bet."
"Alisha is a wizard like you... were, and Zoe is one of the more powerful magicians."
"That's what the colors mean?"
"What?"
"The magic I see radiating from people has different colors, and apparently it denotes the type of magic they have."
"That's interesting. Hmmm... the warlocks have just arrived."
My jaw almost hit the floor, and I almost crapped my pants at the same time. The trueself of a warlock was amazingly beautiful but at the same moment almost disgustingly harsh. The effect made them terrifying, but impossible for me to take my eyes off of. My heart almost skipped a beat when I realized that one of them was Greta.
"Close your mouth, everone can see you," whispered Zaak.
"Sorry."
I couldn't believe that I didn't know that Greta was a warlock. I could feel the magic coming from the whole group of them. I felt retarded that I had never swept for magic around any of my friends.
As the Council came to session, I noticed that the warlocks sat by themselves, and that Zoe and Alisha barely looked at Greta. I wondered how someone could NOT stare at the warlocks, but then I remembered that I was the only one who could see them that way. A man I didn't recognize then cleared his throat and looked directly at me.
"Ian, we have called this council to speak of one and only one topic. You."

"Can we eat first?" I asked, the fact that we were leaving didn't even register as a big deal. Then it hit me. I'd never seen Zaak leave his property except for one reason. In the nine years I'd know him, he'd never even hinted at going anywhere else.

"No! Of course not!" he shouted as he swept some things into a box. "We have to leave as soon as possible!"

I ran upstairs and threw somethings in a bag. I noticed that all of my old things were exactly as I left them, and there was something that was nagging at the back of my mind. I froze. Zaak hadn't taken on a new apprentice after I left. A wizard like Zaak would have one after another...

"Ian! Hurry up!"

I ran to the front stairs and hopped the banister, gliding down to the first floor. "How are we traveling?" I asked. I knew I could fly, but I wasn't sure about Zaak.
"Flying, of course."
"Oh great." I thought. "I don't know if I can carry you." Is what I said.
"No, no, no. I'm not flying with you."
"Then how?"
A mischevious grin crawled along Zaak's face.
"Follow me."
He pushed a button on the wall that I had never seen before, and walked through one of the various locked doors in his house. We walked into a gargantuan hangar, but something seemed to be missing.
"Where's the plane?" I asked.
The grin came back.
Zaak put two fingers in his mouth and whistled. I could hear the tint of magic, and a shiver ran down my spine as the whistle pierced all the magic dimensions. The air in the top of the hangar began to shimmer like water, and then a huge mass dropped out of the rift. A pterodayctal rigged with a saddle rose up and stretched its wings.

The look on my face must have given it away.
"Do you like it?" Asked Zaak with the biggest grin Iv'e ever seen. "I summoned him from the under world and put him in Dimensional Space 3."
"What are the first two?" I asked.
"Storage and a fridge."
"So why does he get a dimensional space to himself?"
"Hehehe. He gets cranky when he's hungry."
I looked up worriedly at the huge beast.
"Don't worry, he's eaten."
The thought had crossed my mind, but what I was actually worried about was having to fly near the thing.
"Well, we'd best be off."
As Zaak climbed onto the creature's back, I began to walk towards the mouth of the hangar. With a sudden whoosh our winged friend took off and roared just over my head, Zaak cackling with glee. I couldn't help but laugh as took off in a light run that brought me the the door of the hangar almost instantly. I lifted off, feeling free in air once more. As I got settled in above Zaak, I began to think.
"Why did we have to leave on such short notice?"
Zaak looked me straight in the eyes and said, "Ian, you are in BIG trouble."

I woke up the morning confused and unsure. I was already used to the way my body felt, but I didn't dare look in the mirror. As I showered, I thought about my dream from the night before. You see, ever since my gift was awakened at the age of seven, I've had the same nightmare every night.

I'm walking down the center of a dark cave, with a vaulted ceiling above me and pillars of rock randomly spaced to my right and left. There is a blue light emenating from the back of the cave. Standing in front are five of...me. They are darker, more sinister, some even grotesque, but they're all me. They stand in a spear head formation, and the first raises his left hand and beckons me with his index finger, palms up. He even has a dark, twisted smile on. And thats usually when I wake up screaming. When I was younger, Zaak was always there to reassure me, although he never asked what I drempt about. But as I grew older, Zaak would come less and less, until eventually he might not even wake up, but he'd never admit that.

That first night I was at Zaak's, however, the dream was different. The cave was the same, except this time I stood with my back to the blue light. And beside me stood the leader of the other me's. We both turned to the entrance to the cave, and the other four me's walked in, chatting with each other, but no sound seemed to reach my ears. When the four saw the leader and I standing together, a look of shock crossed their face. They looked questioningly at the leader, who shook his head. The leader turned to me and stroked my hair just once, then walked over to the others. They began to talk amongst themselves, but once again I couldn't hear a word they were saying. It was then I noticed that the blue light at my back was beginning to brighten. As I turned to look at the source of the light, the light flashed, and then a hand grabbed my shoulder with an almost painful grip and yanked me backwards.

I hopped out the shower and quickly got dressed. I barely even noticed that my clothes fit a lot tighter on my new body, and I didn't stop to think of why Zaak would have clothes that fit me even though I hadn't lived with him in three years.

I slid down rail of the kitchen stairs like I always did, but Zaak wasn't in the kitchen. I stepped into the front living room to see him running around and cursing at the top of his lungs, an occurance that only happened once a month.
"Ian!" he yelled, "we have to leave!"

I recognized Zaak immediatly. His long, flowing, hair and those weird robes he always wore. I realized, as I looked at him, that he looked different now. His stomach glowed in a pale light. Not only that, but he looked so much... younger. I didn't know what to make of it, but before I could say anything, Zaak stopped me with his hand and said "There are many things I must explain, but first, would you like something to eat?" That was when I realized that I was about to keel over from hunger. But strangely enough, I didn't feel tired at all...

After a pound of bacon, a bag of hashbrowns, and a dozen eggs, was full enough to talk. Zaak began with, "Ian, I called you here because of what happened" Duh. "you were subjected to--" "I know what spell was cast on me" I interrupted, "what happened to me afterwards?" "Well," replied Zaak, "to put it simply, all the magic in your body was freed from your magic-sack and was bound to every individual cell in your body." Side note here: magic-sack is slang for an "awakened" appendix. It is where the body stores magic when it is not in use.

I was half-way through my second bucket of ice cream when Zaak finished. "And thats why I look young. You can see my trueself." All this talk about magic was making me woozy, and i was a little confused. "All this talk about magic is making me a little woozy, and I'm a little confused," I replied. "Why don't I look any different to myself?"
"I said this before Ian, you have transformed into your trueself. That is what you are truly like."
"I'm supposed to look like this?! A freak!?" was all I could get out. I stormed off to my old room, and went to bed. As I slipped into the world of dreams, my nightly terrors came to visit again...

I began to slow as I realized I wasn't in Iowa anymore. The Loess hills of western Iowa gave way to the flat, rolling plain of Nebraska. Even though I had gotten there in half an hour, it felt like running took too long. In spite of myself, I stretched my new wings and took to the sky.

I have to admit, flying began to grow on me. I was free in the air, and soaring over Nebraska was the most exhilirating experience of my life. Unfortunatly, the feeling that I had to get somewhere fast didn't leave. The sensation was akin to a disturbance I hadn't felt in three years, "but there's no way" I thought to myself...

Gliding peacefully over eastern Colorado, the feeling, the tug, grew stronger. I followed it, crossing over the first foothills of the Rockies. A few minutes later, I saw it: a huge chateau that dominated the wooded hill it was nestled into. I glided to the front door, the impulse to go inside incredibly strong. As I threw open the doors, a familiar voice greeted my ears.

"Hello, Ian, I'm so glad you were able to make it."

He stood up looking like Death himself: his black wings unfolded, eyes that pierced your soul. He could kill anyone in existance, but there was only one we wanted dead. He focused the last of the energy rampaging through his body into his finger. As he rose into the air, there was no anger in him, no emotion at all. The girl simply HAD to die. She tried to take him away from everything he loved, and she must pay. The beam of light that left his finger carried all the love of his life in it. And as the spear of hatred hit the girl, we knew it was done. As the flash from the explosion bled away, I crept back to the corner of his mind where I lived. I killed that girl for him, but my body was now his to keep forever. I was asleep once more...


I awoke on the ground, not sure what just happened. As I stood up in the midst of the crater, I realized that a huge crowd of people was staring as if I was some kind of freak... I cringed when some nut started yelling something about a demon, but when I cowered, everyone in the mob gasped. Then I saw them: huge, black, feathery wings that swept out my shoulders at least ten feet. Then, I did somethig that I almost never did-- I ran. Not only that, I ran FAST. As the world fell into a blur behind me, I didn't care where I was going, only that I never got there.

The day I killed that girl started like any other day. I didn't mean for it to happen, and there is nothing I can do about it or what happened afterwords. All I can do is tell the story...



"See you later, Seth" I called as I turned up the side walk. It was a beautiful day; you could almost taste the magic in the air. And then, I saw her. She was driving out of the first lot when I saw her. I only glanced at her for a second, but I could see something strange in her eyes. I didn't sense anything strange--I didnt expect to--so I just kept walking. I was about to cross the bridge when I heard the words-- words that even if others could hear, wouldn't-- they were meant only for my ears. Before I could do anything, a feeling of euphoria shot through my entire body, tingling across my skin. Slowly, at first, the tingling turned into the feeling of electricity crawling all over my skin. Then it became a burning, then an incredible pain that knocked the wind out of me and dropped me to the ground, even though I wasn't sure how I got into the air. As I got to one knee, a feeling of emptiness swept through me. And the hate flowed forth.