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I ran as fast I could, pulling him on the wagon with me as we deserted the battle ground.
"Come back here and face me Knight!!!" The wizard roared and his dragon roared with him.
I stumbled over a tree root but quickly righted myself and continued my disgraceful retreat.
"It's no good Lance." I said looking at my brother as he stared curiously at a caterpillar.
We were far away from the battlefield, where I managed to trap the evil mage Watchkin.
It was a trap that managed to work due to obvious luck, yet it did and the mage was convinced that I was the one that posed more of a threat, even though the trap never would have worked without Lance.
I recalled, how he bested the warrior and his wooden soldier, forcing him to take a step back and trying to summon the Dragon, thus falling into the magical holding trap, while I stayed out of sight on a high vantage point, gathering mana to execute the plan
In a bid to try and lose the spell, Watchkin fired a forgetful spell at me, and unluckily it hit my brother, Lance.
The trap fully activated and Watchkin fell unconscious while I came back and met an unconscious Lance too.
I took Lance back into the forest and when he came too, he was a baby or at least behaved like one.
Since then I've been trying to get him back to normal and trying to defeat Watchkin.
I watched as he ran after a butterfly and suddenly the anger overshadowed me.
"Don't take it out on the kid." I heard a voice while something held my hand back from slapping the memory into him.
"Oiiii!!!! Mister Frog. Mister Frog." Lance said laughing as he jumped into the strange huge blue frog's body.
I squirmed as he slid down from his tummy due to the frog's slime.
Suddenly, I realized that something was still holding my hand back, Mr frog was like 4 feet away and his two hands were with Michael. I looked at my hand and saw a long, yellow tail like an appendage wrapped around it. As I traced it back to the frog's mouth, I blacked out.
"Is he better?"
"He'll come."
"He has to come, he's the chosen warrior, we need him." At the completion of that sentence I woke up.
"Chosen? Who's Chosen? Me that hates being picked?"
I say to no one in particular, then as my vision fully came to, I saw that it was all the animals of the bizarre forest.
The Big frog and the small elephant held a meeting on my behalf.
They held it outside the three trunk cave, me and lance were using for shelter.
As I woke, the talking died down, I took a deep breath and walked out.
Outside the tree trunk cave, I saw all the animals.
The 5 Chief forest animals; Bear, Snake, Frog, Hawk and Fish who were in the stream near the cave.
For some reason, Lance was given a seat next to Frog and he played with the leaves on the edge of the flat stone they were using as a table.
The silence when I came out was slow, unsettling and long.
I saw other animals bowing towards me and my heart was pained.
Soon a murmur started and not before long, it became a chant.
The chiefs quieted the chant and I shaked from the amount of pressure put on me.
I called Lance inside the cave for a talk.
"Hey big bro." He said giggling in his childlike voice.
It was weird hearing the voice of a 5 year old coming out from someone of almost 17 years of age.
"Do you remember anything? You're the chosen warrior Lance. These animals need you." I say, looking into his eyes and sincerely hoping that whatever spell he was put under by Watchkin would clear up.
"Nuh-uh." He said, shaking his head, closing his eyes and crossing his hands.
"Mr Bear and Miss Bird told me that you were the Golden warrior and that you were going to beat that big meanie Watchklin."
"No!!!" I scream, with tears in my eyes.
"Come back to normal Lance, please, remember who you are." I shook his body in my outburst and for some reason he started laughing as though it was some game.
"The spell's not going to break that easily chosen one." Mr frog said, coming into the cave.
It seemed all the other animals had been dismissed yet he remained.
"Why do you all keep on calling me the chosen warrior? I've already told you it can't be me." I say tiredly.
"It was an old prophecy from time past." The frog began.
"This prophecy talked about the arrival of a set of twins into our forest, these twins whose parents are great warriors would adapt to the mana in the air, bringing up powers of magic.
They would save this forest from the natural disaster bound to destroy it."
"We all waited for this set of twins for decades, then Watchkin, our chief of mages in the land, gave up on the prophecy.
He decided that if the twins aren't going to come, he would build an all powerful protector himself.
He used a magic that was condemned by law, a magic so dark, it wasn't even mentioned to mage apprentices.
He used Blood magic and the entire mage clan was his sacrifice.
He gained unfathomable power, he had done it, or so we thought.
The price of the power wasn't just his brothers and sisters, also his sanity.
He feared that someone else would try and take the power away from him, or someone else would become as powerful as him. Hence the savior from oppression, became the oppressor.
Then you guys came along, and we knew this was the time prophesied about, we watched you both grow and flourished in this air meant to be unbreathable for regular humans.
"Now here we are, the time of confrontation, the previously unbeatable Watchkin has been trapped."
"Not for long." I reminded him
"That doesn't matter, he has been TRAPPED!!." He said holding and shaking me with his two webbed hands.
"Before you children, nobody had even been able to pass his barrier, yet you guys have trapped him in one of your own."
"Lance has been wounded." I reminded him. "He doesn't remember anything, and it seems he is getting worse."
"It's the receding spell." Frog said as he regarded Lance playing with a rock.
"A dark magic that plays with one's mind yet leaves their body."
"He wouldn't keep on receding in age inwardly till he's nothing, a blank mind but a body filled with mana." Frog shook his head.
"I'm sorry to say it, but he's completely useless in this battle now."
Frog walked over to him and covered his eyes while saying a spell, Lance fell unconscious.
"What did you do?" I asked rushing over to check Lance's heartbeat.
"He's alright." Frog assured me.
"I just put him in a deep sleep, he will wake up in 36 hours from now. By then everything would be over."
Frog turned to me now.
"You have to do it Chris. Your brother, I and this whole forest depend on you beating Watchkin."
"I don't know how?" I said, fear and doubt dwelling in me.
"For you to be here, your parent's were great warriors wherever they are."
"We got the letter when we arrived, they're surely dead now." I replied pessimistically.
"Magic doesn't die. Their memories are still with you, I can tell. All you have to do is to recall."
So that's how I saw myself, standing against the barrier I put a day ago, facing the most powerful being in this world.
"It's only you today boy?" Watchkin said laughing while his dragon growled.
I had no come back so I just stood with my feet shaking, hoping I looked as menacing as I wanted to look.
A lot was on the line of this battle, the fate of the crazy forest, my brother and me.
A lot of odds were against me and it's unlikely I'll win but of all the things I remembered about my parents.
The one thing I recall is that they weren't quitter's.
