"It's him…"
"I can't believe it…"
"He looks so majestic!"
"The stories were true then, he is the greatest magician in history!"
"Mom, why is he bald?"
"Merlin!"
"Merlin!"
"Merlin!"
The crowd chanted Merlin's name. Max tried to get to the first row to approach this Merlin guy, to tell him: "I'm Max, you did a great job back there thank you. I'm ready for you to teach me!" But the problem was that everyone wanted to do just that, or at least to approach him and see Merlin up close.
"Move a little bit please, thank you…" Max shoved people left and right slowly making progress. A guy in front of him was raising his son, putting him up on his shoulders so he could see better. "Can you see him Lerian?"
"Yes daddy, I can see his bald head!"
"Shh… the stories say he doesn't like to be reminded of that incident when he lost all his hair," the father said to his son.
The kids couldn't see anything from the grown-ups, so they rushed through them, moving swiftly with their small bodies, passing Max one by one who got stuck behind a huge guy with a giant sword on his back.
"Excuse me, sir," a kid said passing by Max and slipping through the big guy's legs. The mountain of the guy didn't even notice the kid, he was definitely the tallest person in the crowd, and he had no problems seeing Merlin.
Max looked at the mountain, around two meters tall, with muscles so huge that they were bigger than Max's head. Fuck it, his muscles had muscles, that's how huge the guy was. A black greatsword on his back, and an axe (a tiny bit smaller) attached to his hip. They all looked recently used, demon blood still on them, Max felt like he could hear the blood sizzling on the weapons, dropping curses left and right.
"Excuse me…" Max tapped the big guy on his back, but he didn't even acknowledge him. "Sir…" Max started tapping a little bit harder, but still no reaction. He really had to hurry, what if Merlin left or something happened, Max slowly got frustrated. "Yo, knobhead! Can you move, I'm in a hurry!" Max slapped him over the back, he felt like everything around him became silent. "I probably shouldn't have done that…" he said to himself.
The mountain turned around and looked around not noticing Max down there standing like a little kid. But then he noticed him. "Urgh!" he let out a weird noise and with his right hand he grabbed Max by his collar.
"Hey, please let me go, that was a mistake I didn't do it…" Max stuttered. "He did it, bro!" Max pointed his finger at the first person he saw, a kid that was just passing through.
"I did what?" the kid looked at him confused.
"Urgh!" the big guy dropped Max, grabbed the kid, and threw him into the air, straight back to the start of the crowd. The kid's scream echoed as he flew over them, Max looked at the flying kid, fear clearly visible on his face.
"Sh-sorry! Boorg is… Ugh… Sorry!" the big guy said, patting Max on his shoulder. Max almost screamed in pain when the big hand touched him, it felt like someone hit him with a giant log.
"No problem, friend!" Max uttered it out somehow. "Can I pass by, I just need to get to that bald guy there, the mage!"
"Th-ugh… Mage?" Boorg scratched his head. "Boorg help!" He picked up Max with one hand and put him on his shoulder. It felt like the entire world changed, Max could see everything now, people were down far away under him, and the mage's bald head shined in the center of a giant mass surrounding it like he was a saint.
High on Boorg's shoulder Max could smell smoke and ash, as well as a metallic smell of blood. Ruined stone houses surrounded them, their roofs destroyed. Many structures partially collapsed, with wooden beams standing out like broken bones.
The cathedral in the back was just a hollow shell. Its stained glass windows shattered, the half of the cathedral was completely destroyed with a giant hole in the ground where the explosion happened and the portal opened.
"Passing through, people, please move!" Max spoke up from Boorg's shoulder while Boorg with ease passed through the crowd, they were slowly coming closer and closer to Merlin.
People would start complaining about who was pushing them, but when they turned around and saw the mountain in front of them, they would keep their heads down and move out of the way.
"Ew! Ugh!!" Boorg said looking down at his feet. "Boorg almost stepped… Ugh… Lizard!"
"Who are you calling a lizard you little shi-AAAAAAAA!" something screamed.
Max looked down. "Snickers my friend! You're safe!!"
"M-Max?" Snickers stuttered looking at Max. "What in the actual fuck are you doing up there?!"
"This is my new friend, Boorg. Boorg this is Snickers he is our friend!"
"Friend! Ugh…" Boorg reached out to grab Snickers, making him scream once again, people turned around looking at them in confusion but no one said a word, who would?
"There lizard…" Boorg placed him on his other shoulder.
"I'm not a lizard you big… big… guy!"
"HA-HA-HA! Lizard funny!"
"Let him be Snickers, glad to see you safe!"
"I'm glad to see you safe too, Max."
"Anything interesting happened while I was gone? Have you seen Lett?"
"We'll talk later, now it is not the time…"
"Sure thing buddy!"
They continued pushing through the crowd, making their way to Merlin who still stood there, talking to some people.
"Damn he's so cool," Snickers said. "When I saw him fight, I almost crapped my pants, I don't want to be on his bad side!"
"Yeah, he is definitely cool, can't wait to actually meet him," Max said, his eyes shining.
They reached the first row of the crowd, and Max and Snickers jumped down from Boorg's shoulders. "Thank you, big guy, you can wait for us here if you want!" Max said to him.
"Boorg, wait, ugh."
"Hey! Merlin!" Max spoke up while coming closer to him. Over the time of his travels, he didn't really think much of what to say to him when he reached him. The King said he sent the letter so Max didn't even think about it to give an introduction or something like that. "I'm Max, I'm the new hero!" he couldn't say something goofy like that, he is not in middle school. It has to come from the heart, it has to be something cool, and memorable in front of all these people. In the future when they beat the Demon Lord, everyone will remember this moment, the first time the ex-hero and the new hero met and joined forces to defeat the evil in this world. Together they protected this town, of course, that was far from the truth but the history is written by the winners and not the losers or something in these words. Max couldn't remember really, he slept that day in history class.
Traveling on Boorg's shoulder gave him some time to think about his words, but not long enough. Even the things he thought of, he couldn't remember now. Expected in a way, I mean a legendary person is standing in front of him. A person from the same world as him maybe, he had a lot of questions but he couldn't remember them now at all.
His mind was blank, he stood there, looking at Merlin's face, Merlin looked back at him. His majestic beard danced around him, the wind played with it. People were shouting around them, cheering for them (only for Merlin actually, no one knew who Max was). What to say? What to say?
"Damn you somehow look even balder this close…"
Silence.
Silence.
Silence.
A sound of Snickers' hand hitting his face because of his comment.
Silence.
Silence.
Silence.
"Uhm-I came so you can teach me magic now…" Max stuttered.
Silence.
Boorg laughing.
Silence.
"Bitch who the fuck are you? Get out of here before I turn you into a frog or some shit!" were the words of the greatest mage that ever lived, Merlin, followed by a giant white flash as he disappeared from the town.