They flew into camp with the morning's sun. The golden queen snake and the blue green male beside her. They glittered like precious gems in the sun's first light. They landed together in a graceful descent that looked like an airborne dance of wings. Nafon helped Quago to dismount and they walked into camp side by side, she glittering in her golden tunic and he carrying the shimmering staff of power.
"No! No! No!" Ott screamed when he saw them. "I won't have it! What is this planet coming to? First that idiot, Wasos, becomes head wizard over me and now it gives a brainless Ziat a staff of power. No! No! No! I won't have it! Give it to me!" Ott made a grab for Nafon's staff but Nafon moved gracefully out of his way.
"You told me yourself that a staff calls its wizard. This staff called me, wise one." Nafon said with quiet authority. Ott looked at him as if he were seeing him for the first time.
"So you are a wizard, are you?" he said with narrowed eyes. Nafon nodded silently. It was the staff that declared him a wizard, not his own pride.
"A great and powerful wizard?" Ott asked casually. Nafon didn't trust the old man as far as he could have thrown him. He circled the old wizard with his hunter's instinct keeping him on the balls of his feet.
"The staff is powerful." he answered quietly. He smelled an attack with every fiber of his being.
"Then you must be prepared." the old one said moving in gentle rhythm with Nafon's circling. "Will you stand still?" Ott yelled at him after several minutes of more senseless circling. Nafon froze in his tracks. The old one nearly fell down at the change in movement. He leaned against Nafon until he was less dizzy. Then he started again.
"This calls for a wizard's duel." Ott hissed with malice. The other warriors in the small camp gasped. Nafon smiled softly but with deadly purpose.
"You don't want to fight me, Ott." he said softly.
"Don't tell me what I want to do and not do!" Ott screamed bouncing up and down. "I am the wizard here! If I say we duel then we duel!" He pointed his own crystal- tipped staff at Nafon.
"You are a rabbit!" he yelled gleefully, dancing up and down. Nafon stood, unchanged, shaking his head.
"Ott, why do you do these things to yourself?" he asked quietly. Ott looked puzzled.
"A rabbit!" he repeated, pointing his staff at Nafon's chest again. Nafon still stood in human form and shook his head. He looked extremely sorry for the old man.
"Ott, don't do this." he said quietly.
"Try and stop me!" the old man crowed. "Rabbit. Rabbit. Rabbit!" he chanted as he danced. Slowly a blue smoke grew around the wise one until he was completely out of sight. When it cleared, a big, fluffy rabbit sat where the wizard had stood.
"Ott, I tried to warn you. You just wouldn't listen." Nafon said gently as he squatted down beside the big-eared creature. Ott wrinkled his pink nose and hopped toward Nafon. Nafon scratched the soft fluffy ears.
"What did you learn at Segat?" Ott asked in a squeaky little rabbit voice.
"Death came up from under the ground, Wise one. They never had a chance to defend themselves. I shot an arrow into one of the snails that we found in the mountains and it didn't have any affect whatsoever." Nafon explained to the old one, but loud enough for the other warriors to hear him.
"Impossible! Did you say snails?" the rabbit twitched its great ears.
"Huge, black snails that seemed to erupt from the very ground." Nafon paused. "They seemed to suck the life out of everything that they touched. All that we found in Segat was armor and flags fluttering in the foul air."
"It can't be!" the old one declared and hopped away from Nafon. He stopped at the edge of the camp and sat there frozen for a minute. He tasted some of the sweet grass there and came back reluctantly when called.
"They are only a legend. Things that go bump in the night. Stories used to scare wicked children. They aren't real! They can't be!" the wizard continued as if he hadn't interrupted himself with lunch, the pink nose wrinkled in distress.
"What can't be real, wise one?" Nafon said quietly.
"Sliobs!" the squeaky rabbit voice answered with dire seriousness.
"Sliobs?" the giant Teliat asked the tiny rabbit skeptically. He shook his shaggy head and murmured under his breath, "I can't believe I'm talkin' to a bunny rabbit!"
"It is all part of the legend. The legend of the golden tree and the deep dark beyond." the rabbit looked at the Teliat with big, pink eyes and raised itself up on its paws confront the larger man.
"Tell us, Wizard Ott." Quago said musically in her deep voice from her perch upon Mieb's shoulders. The small Tekians settled down near her and Nafon leaned back against Desiage. Finally the big Teliat lowered his large frame to the ground and turned to the small, white rabbit.
"Yeah, tell us a bedtime story, Old Man." he jeered at the old wizard.
Ott's small body trembled. He looked quickly left and then right as if he expected a fox at any minute. He hopped toward Nafon and though he didn't say a word, his eyes pleaded for release. Nafon pointed his staff at the white rabbit and in a puff of silver smoke, the old man stood among them in human form again.
"You better hope that it is just a story, you walking pile of carpet!" Ott yelled at the Teliat.
"Who are you calling a carpet, you old bag of bones?" Telon shouted back. He jumped to his feet and charged at the wizard.
"You're a bat!" the old man yelled and in a puff of smoke the Teliat found himself chasing a small bat. Nafon groaned.
"How are we ever going to learn anything with those two fighting all the time?" he asked the prince.
"Does he always get his spells backwards?" the prince asked Nafon as they watched the bat flutter in and around the enraged giant from Telia.
"Yes. It was what got him sent to Zia in the first place. He tried to put Wasos to sleep for a week and while he was unconscious, they moved him to Zia." Nafon said smiling. "He hasn't gotten a spell right since I've known him."
"But surely the people of Zia would complain after a while." Rejro said bewildered.
"No. I always cleaned his messes up and he never knew that they had gone wrong." Nafon laughed. "He really is one of the oldest wizards on the planet. He has great powers, too. He just gets confused sometimes."
Rejro looked at Nafon closely. Alone and unlearned, a child who was neither wizard nor Ziat had kept an entire village prosperous and growing. He was impressed with the company of which he now found himself a part. Norfy, he knew was impressed by young Quago. He had never known his young warrior to be so taken with a woman before. He turned now and caught Norfy watching her as she stroked her golden queen snake. He looked back at Nafon and the young wizard watched her, too.
"Can you switch him back to wizard so that we can get on with this story?" Rejro asked the boy quietly. "The sun moves toward noon and before this day is out we will need a battle plan against that which is invincible."
Soon Ott was with them again and the giant Teliat was a dog sitting near Nafon's feet. He barked occasionally but basically he was frightened enough to remain very good.
"Your story, if you please, Wizard." Rejro said with all his princely authority.
"Well, it began long ago." Ott began.
"Like all good legends." the prince said softly. He sipped from a cup of herbal tea. Ott jerked his beard out of harm's way.
"Yes. Just like a legend. Because that is what it is. A story to entertain children around the fire at night." Ott answered hotly. It was near enough to noon, and he was hungry, as the grass wasn't very filling. He walked over to the fire and picked up a piece of journey bread. He chewed and swallowed. Seven pairs of eyes watched him. He turned and glared at them. Then he began as in the proper way of legends...
"Oorly, oorly, oo... There was a time and a time there was..."
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