Chapter 4 - Old Man Garrett
As soon as he appeared outside, he couldn't help but be shocked.
There was no sign of technology anywhere, it was just small houses where people lived with their families and reared either cattle or livestock. Even the roads weren't tarred. They were just bare brown earth that were blackened by some substances that he couldn't really identify what they were.
He however believed that this was so because it was a town, it would definitely be different for the cities which he believed would be a hundred times more advanced than the towns.
After looking around for sometime, he climbed down the long wooden stairs to their house that was elevated far above the ground and was made from well-baked solid bricks.
After climbing down the stairs made from some type of hard tree wood, he headed towards their gate in the distance. And as he did so, he looked around him and saw that his parent also reared cattle and livestock, which provided them with limited supply of meat.
Immediately he arrived at the tall wide gate also made from wood and entered the street, Maxmillan couldn't help but have his eyes shine in an inexplicable manner.
"It's almost like in primeval times on earth." Maxmillan said in a greatly dissatisfied tone, as he was used to the sophisticated technological inventions that he used back on earth.
Although he had been expecting these within himself, he was still however disappointed. He was hoping that when he appeared outside, he would find things that will cause him to feel excited.
But he didn't and so, his excitement died down. He however continued to walk down the street to take a look around before returning home.
After walking for sometime where he had almost reached the end of the street with nothing really great happening, and with disappointment filling the depth of his heart, Maxmillan was about to return when someone far in front of him suddenly shouted something incomprehensible and caused large dragons that burned in bright violet flame to appear and swimmingly encircle him, before bellowing towards the sky and unexpectedly shot out towards it at great speeds.
Bang!
Immediately they reached an altitude of two hundred feet above the ground, the massive dragons that burned in violet flames, instantly exploded into countless violet sparks that beautifully illuminated the sky and only dispersed some moments later.
When the flaming dragons first appeared and bellowed to the sky like they were exceedingly furious at it, Maxmillan who wasn't expecting that, suddenly fell to his feet.
With eyes fully widened and jaw wide open, Maxmillan who was still on the ground with his mind still reeling in shock from the previous mind-blowing scene that continuously replayed in his head, eventually recovered from it.
He then stood to his feet to look carefully at the person that exhibited the marveling feat.
It was an old man that had grey hair, long grey beards and wore a white robe that made him look like one of the sorcerers he saw in epic fantasy movies back on earth.
'Interesting.' Maxmillan said within himself with his brows now furrowed as he began to pay a great deal of attention to the man who only glanced at him for a moment before looking somewhere else.
Shortly after, like fifteen seconds later, kids started rushing out of their homes to come look at their favorite spellweaver perform magic.
When they finally gathered around him, the old man who was excited at the number of kids that had surrounded him, burst into joyous laughter and said when he calmed himself some moments later, "So kids, what do you want me to do today? Mention anything, and I will make them come true with my unrivaled abilities, dear children."
"Yeaaaah!"
The kids shouted in unison excitedly.
"Make a rock manifest from nothing." One of them suddenly said once the clamorous euphoric noises that emitted from them died out.
"Alright kids. Watch this and learn." The old man said with joy in his face.
Then putting his palm out in front of him, he closed his eyes. Once he would open them back, they were glowing in bright yellow light that caused Maxmillan to be absolutely shocked at the spot that he stood.
"This definitely isn't a false trick. It looks absolutely real. But how did he make his eyes glow? Is he a true magician? I have seen too many magic tricks in my world that I don't believe in anything anymore. But this look way too legit. It looks so real. If so, then it would mean it's my first time seeing a real sorcerer perform right in front of me. How interesting." Maxmillan said and immediately drew closer to where the white-robed old man was flanked by kids.
At the moment, he wanted to carefully observe the feats the old man was going to perform next and see if any concealed device or trickery technique would be employed.
With incomprehensible utterances making their way out of the old man's mouth, which Maxmillan believed to be spells or enchanting words since he had seen many things like that in movies on earth, the air around the old man began to roil before the effect spread out to everyone else, since the air circulating around them also roiled and became turbulently windy.
Then in the next moment, pieces of rock started shooting towards the old man from all angles and in different directions where they gathered around him into a massive number of small individual rocks that were enveloped in the same brilliantly glowing yellow light that emanated from his eyes.
Once that was achieved, with the old man bringing his palms together the next second, the light that enveloped the countless small rocks floating around him, immediately vanished with the rocks instantly attracting towards one another where they rapidly fused together to form a large heavy rock that floated hundreds of feet above the ground.
The large rock was really smooth that it gleamed in the light coming from the sun, seeming as if it were glossed and polished by rock sculptors. Then all of a sudden, numerous parts of it chipped away before swiftly transforming into a miniature building that was formed entirely from rocks.
Still floating far above the ground, it instilled both awe and reverence in the heart of everyone that saw it. It simply seemed like a small version of the deific abode of unearthly majestic rulers.
"Whoa!" Maxmillan said with his eyes widened once more. While the kids that surrounded the man, clapped their hands happily for the beautifully executed magical feat that he just showed them.
"Old man Garrett, how come you are so good? Our grandparents, parents, uncles and aunts can never do this. You are simply really amazing." A kid said with the expression of enthrallment and excitement written over his face.
"Haha. How can your parent compare to me, an Astra Spellcraft Commander? Your parents are only poor to average casters of Astra Mystralis. They can't be compared to me who had once led a small army of average Astra Mystralis spellweavers in battle against a group of blood-lusting pillagers and won." The old man said in a self-deriding tone.
"So kids, what else do you want me to do?" The old man asked once again and he caused the kids that surrounded him to be filled with laughter and happiness.
But Maxmillan who could understand his tone, as he wasn't a naive five year-old child but a twenty seven year-old adult, furrowed his brows as many thoughts began to flash in his head one after the other.
After thinking that he had seen enough true magic for the day, he decided to return home to ask his parent what Astra Mystralis was, what an Astra Spellcraft Commander was, and why it seemed like nearly everyone could produce magical effects, since it seemed like a common household thing to do.