Years he had spent, years. All in as much silence as was possible in this forsaken forest. But of course it had to go wrong at the last moment. Just as he was about to make the finishing touch to his research a loud knocking disrupted his concentration.  The man that had been working on a piece of wood for a while now made a surprised reaction as the knocking on his door ensued.

“Furry and all! Who is it that comes a ’knocking on my door at such a bad time?” but the person that was making all the noise didn’t stop for a second.

“All right! I heard you the first time” said the man as he rose from his seat and moved towards the door.

“Now what is so…” the man tried to begin his rampage against the unlucky person that was supposed to be standing in front of him. Except, there was no one to be seen and the forest looked the same as ever.

“Come on out, I won’t hurt you” badly the man finished in his head. But no one came and so he waited for another minute or two.

“Must have been my nerves playing ticks on me then” and with that he closed the door. As soon as he turned around though, he knew that something was wrong. He didn’t have to wait long before he knew what had felt different. The piece of wood that had been on the table when he got up was no longer there. Instead it was currently being examined by a slender looking young boy. “How the hell did you …”

“Oh hello, I’ve got to say that you are quite the patient man for waiting all that time even though nothing was to be seen. I would have stopped the very first second”

Still a bit startled why there even was a boy speaking to him, the man began to speak. “First off, patience is what you get when being alone for such a long time in this forest. Second, who are you and what are you doing in my home. And third, lay that thing back where it belongs immediately!” before he had finished his sentence the piece of wood was back to its old position on the table.

The boy that had been sitting in one of the corners of the room on a stack of books stood up with a swing. ”Ah sorry I didn’t introduce myself, did I? My name is Nelrim and I was just wandering through this surprisingly big forest when I just happened to see a house. If you can even call this cottage a real house at all. As for how I got in here without you noticing? Well that’s because I am a mage of course.”

On the mentioning of the boy being a mage the old man started to take a better look at this intruder. The boy was wearing a long piece of cloth as a cape with multiple colours mixed in. With a bit of fantasy and the right light the colours could even be an emblem woven into the original fabric.

“You a mage? You probably don’t even know how many stages of casting there are, let alone know how to cast one at all. I must say that you are good in getting into other people’s houses, I give you that, but that doesn’t make you a mage. At best it makes you a good burglar.”

The face of Nelrim that had shown a smile ever since the start of the conversation was getting a bit less enthusiastic. “But it was how I knew where your cottage was, or actually how I was even able to get close to it at all.”

Now that was a good point the boy had there. Because of the suddenness of the appearance of the boy he hadn’t even remembered the existence of the warding spells that he had placed on his surroundings. Now that he thought about it, it was probably high time to recast a few of them.

While the old man was deep in thought the boy, or should I say Nelrim, started moving again. “Now that I answered some of your questions how about I get to ask a few too?” Nelrim clearly wasn’t expecting a satisfying answer as he continued “What is that piece of wood?”

“What does that concern you?”

“Well you see, when I tried to channel some mana into it, nothing seemed to happen, not even any of my mana getting in.”

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The man got a concerned look on his face. “Do you always just channel mana into stuff you don’t understand? It’s a great way to lose your hands if you’re lucky.” He took a few steps towards the table and grabbed the piece of wood he’d been working on.

“If you can stay still and keep quiet for a few hours I will show to you what it does. If you however think you can’t handle that task then I will need you to leave this forest at once.”

The boy made a silencing motion in front of his mouth and sat down on a stack of books. Satisfied with the boy’s reaction the man sat down on his chair and continued his work where he had left off. The man used a knife to carve things into the wood while using a pencil to add another layer of symbols on top of that.

Once almost two hours had past and the man was satisfied enough with the results did he put his tools down. The moment he did the boy was already standing by his side.

“Not that I try to insult your hard work or anything like that, but I don’t see much of a change from before.”

Well guess that was as much for the silence. “That’s just because I’m good at what I do.” The man motioned towards the opposite side of the table. “Now please take a seat and be the first to see the fruits of my labour.”

The man touched the centre of the ward at which a dot of light appeared. The dot of light started to spread itself as if following the nerves of the wood. It eventually became clear that the light was actually activating tons of small runes that had been carved inside the wood.

For a moment the lights didn’t extend any further but then something else happened. The piece of wood began to extend itself. The wood that had been as thick as an apple was now almost as thin as a letter. Again the process stopped but this time nothing came afterwards and the lit runes slowly dimmed.

“That’s it?  You made a fancy cutting board? I must admit that it looked pretty, but is it really that useful?” The boy was disappointed to say the least.

“Who said that this was it?” The man had a satisfied smile on his face. “How about you put some of your mana into it on the count of my three.” The boy nodded but didn’t expect much more. “One. Two. Three!”

The moment they put a bit of their mana inside of the wooden board thin figures arose from it. The figures looked exactly like the boy and the man.

“Now I want you to send a spell at me. No need to hesitate I will be fine, the wards will block the most lethal spells” if the wards are still working.

The boy, not willing to hurt the man in front of him, tried to cast a paralyze spell. But instead of being cast by himself the figure that represented him cast it. And towards the other figure instead of the man himself. The man’s figure disposed of the paralyze spell with a resist spell.

The boy was wordless at this work of magic that had just happened in front of him.

“If you have time to be staring at the board then you surely have time to dodge this don’t you?” and a bolt of lightning came soaring at the boy’s character. Nelrim tried to respond as fast as the man had done, but wasn’t on time and the bolt hit its target. The piece of wood stood still for a moment and after glowing once sank into the board. The other figure also sank into the board, but without glowing.

“I won’t charge a fee for being able to play against me this time. That look on you face is enough payment for me.” The man touched the board and again a light appeared. This time however instead of spreading out it was like the light came back to it. With the lights beginning to fade from the board, the board itself started to transform back into its old shape.