A Magical Surprise


As she stepped into the musty tunnels of the arena,Lanie wondered again why Raven thought this was the best way to get revenge in all of their lives. This was more suicide than revenge! No one had ever won Master Rowan’s Trials! Lanie,Raven and the others; Mavis,Alex,and Allison all lived in the kingdom of Pomrage. It was a beautiful,peaceful,and friendly kingdom until Rowan came along and killed his brother,and Pomrage’s ruler,Master Simion Pomrage and took over the throne.

After that,Pomrage became a much uglier,violent,and angry place to live. Lanie was a Mage,someone who could use magic. She had lived in the mountains of Astria for a few years before she had controlled her powers. She had left the kingdom before Rowan took over,and returned afterwards. She hardly reconized the place! Everyone was hungry,dirty,and turned on each other quickly. The day Lanie returned was also the day Raven sought revenge for. Her cousin,Tavel had been killed,her uncle went mad and killed her aunt,then went to jail where Raven’s father had tried to release his brother,and was shot down by the guards. After that her uncle was hung.

Raven had so many deaths that day to deal with,Lanie was amazed that she hadn’t gone mad like her uncle did. Raven did seek revenge though,on Rowan’s Trials. He had created thirteen dangerous and deadly trials for them to complete,which no one had ever survived. Already Lanie,Raven,Alex,Mavis and Allison had completed two trials. They had a poisons test; figure out which berries and herbs were safe to eat,on penalty of death. Mavis blew that out of the water,as she gathered wild fruits and veggies for her family. Next came the brains test,which forced them to find a pattern between erupting boiling geysers. Allison often had to sort things by pattern for her mother’s clothing shop,and easily reconized it. Alex then guided them through the maze of geysers,using dancing steps her mother had forced her to learn.

This trial,however actually involved fighting something. Raven was confident about this one,until they actually stepped into the arena. The first thing they noticed was the smell,an awful,overpowering stench that filled Lanie’s nostrils,making her eyes water and her breathing come in gasps. It smelled like blood,wet dog,and flesh. She glanced over at Raven and froze. Raven’s black hair,matted like always,hung limply around her pale face,which seemed even paler. Her green eyes were wide with horror,her mouth dropped open.Lanie turned toward the center of the arena,and her heart immadetly dropped.

Two large animals sat sneering at them,literly in one case. The first animal,which was the one that made Raven so frightened,had a man’s bearded face,on a lion’s body,with a long tail covered in razor-sharp spikes,some coated in blood. A manticore. Tavel had been attacked and killed by one when he tried sneaking into Rowan’s castle once. With luck,this was probably a different one. If not........Lanie didn’t want to know. She turned her attention toward the other animal,the one that made her blood run ice-cold. It was a lapard,which was like a larger,meaner,and hairer leopard. It had prickly grey fur everywhere,piercing yellow eyes,and bloody,shark-like teeth. In Astria,Lanie had been attacked and almost killed by a lapard,and this one was even larger! Lanie turned toward where Alex,Mavis,and Allison where,then gasped. They weren’t there! Suddenly,a voice filled the arena,Rowan. Lanie and Raven glared at the sky,hating him.

“Attention challangers! Your task for today is to face your fears,ALONE! I have your friends in custody until this is over. Win this and they won’t be hurt. Lose......let’s just say in addition to you dieing a horrible graphic death......they will suffer the consquences. Thank you and good luck!” Instantly,half a dozen spikes impaled themselves around Raven. Lanie shrieked,

“RAVEN!!!!!!” The spikes of a manticore are poisonious,Raven could’ve been dead in an instant. Raven shook with fear,then drew out her daggers that her father made her. As Raven chucked one at the manticore’s paw,Lanie used her magic,snow magic and blasted the lapard’s face. She waited to hear the lapard’s squall,which never came. She flipped her shimmering white hair out of her face,and looked at a puddle of water on the dusty ground between her and the lapard. Then she ran. The lapard chased her around the arena,she could feel it’s steamy breath on the nape of her neck. Today was too hot,she couldn’t hurt the beast with her snow and ice magic.

“Lanie! Look out!” A huge weight on her back forced Lanie to the ground. She imagined the fangs of the lapard sinking into her flesh and almost gave up. But then she thought about Rowan sitting in his castle,thinking up new ways to kill people in the Trials. That burned her up with anger and fury. She twisted a hand out from under the lapard and pressed it against the beast’s chest,pressing it deeper into the coarse fur,until she felt it’s rib cage. With a shout of anger,flames burst from her fingertips and engulfed the awful beast. Red-orange flames leapt off it’s body,as the lapard jumped around,squalling. Then it fell to the ground with a twitch,and moved no more. The flames continued to dance around for a moment or two,then died out,blackening the creature’s fur.

Lanie stood up,shakily and looked down at the dead body of the lapard. “H-how did you do that?” Lanie raised her head toward the voice,Raven was standing next to the dead,blood-stained body of the manticore. A dagger was stuck in its forehead,right between the eyes. Raven had a bleeding gash right below her eye,which dripped on the ground as she pulled the dagger from the manticore’s head,and sheathed it in her belt along with the other one.

“I-i don’t know......it just kind of happened.” Lanie understood why Raven was so shocked,Mages only had one type of magic they could do,no more,no less. They had a symbol of their power on their wrist. Lanie had a snowflake,because she was a Snow Mage.

Lanie looked down at her wrist and gasped. Instead of having just a snowflake,she now had a crystal snowflake surrounded by flickering red-orange flames. Raven followed her gaze,and her eyes widened. “ No way! You’re a Fire AND Snow Mage?! Cool!” Lanie nodded,still a bit too shocked to speak. Then,they noticed that the gates on the other side of the arena were open. They could progress to their next Trial. Both girls gathered up all their courage and walked through the gates.

Miles away,Rowan laughed.