A sorcerer walked lazily in the forest, dragging his lithe body. He was wearing all the attributes sorcerers commonly wore; a large pointy hat (that swallowed more than a half of his head), a pair of black boots, and a black robe decorated with ancient runes symbols; eiwaz, perth, othila, berkana, manaz, gebo, ansuz, algiz, hagalaz, ehwaz, kano, teiwaz, raido, wunjo, thurisaz, jera, dagaz, nautiz, sowelu, inguz, laguz, fehu, isa, and uruz.

The clothing he wore inside were covered completely by the robe that was secured neatly with a tie. He held a small bundle over his shoulder, swinging it carelessly as he walked. A wooden carved sorcerer stick was held on his right hand, although it appeared more like an elderly cane rather than a magical thing, as he used it to bear his weight as he walked.

The Hollow Wood Forest -- the place where he was located right now -- was not a pleasant place. The air gave him a gloomy, depressing feeling. Well, it's not that he was a joyful person anyway. The last time he shed his happy tears was last year, when he was finally able to hatch his very first Adar Llwch Gwin, a giant bird that was able to understand human speech and obey whatever command that was given to it by its master.

Later he found out that it could speak perfectly well, too.

The sorcerer's face darkened when he thought about the garrulous creature. He -it was a he- loved to ask rhetorical questions and took his time for answering his own questions, analyzed and meta-analyzed them if possible, searching for the answer inductively and deductively. And he could take a command alright, but not before he was done studying the command word per word.

There was one time the sorcerer gave Gwin a simple command to bring him a glass of water. The Gwin looked at him in interest, chirping in delight, "What kind of water, master? As water moved continuosly on the upperworld, this world, and the underworld. The hydrologic cycle that is. So, water in what form do you wish me to provide? Or you don't mean it as in its physical form? A symbolism maybe? If that so, could be it the water to symbolyze a barrier separating two different realms dear my glorious master? If that so how could I have the right vessel to bring it to you? Should I bring the river to the underworld? The ferryman Charon won't be too thrilled I guess, but I will be more than happy to bring the infernal boatman along anyway, but what if it was not your true wish? What if.."

And the bird continued on his rambling for the next three months, thinking of every possible way to fulfill his master's command.  

The sorcerer scowled in distaste. The creature must have been waiting for him at home eagerly, couldn't wait to continue on sharing his thoughts about the differences between the color gray and grey. He shrugged his shoulder to erase the rather unpleasant memory and looked around his surroundings. It's getting dark. The huge trees were dressed in shadows, towering above him. Their twisted and blackened limbs were swaying as the wind whistled through.

He let out a huffing sound, unveiling his robe to take something from the pocket on the inside of the robe; a small crystal ball. "Tell me, dear crystal," he whispered. The crystal flickered as a response, lightened up the surrounding with bright pastel colors, "How far am I to the end of my journey," he continued as he gazed at the flickering orb.

"Ostende mihi viam," he commanded the crystal orb to show him the way; it shone so brightly, emitting rainbow colors all over the place for a short time before fading away and revealing an image, which was the map of the area. He squinted his eyes to study the area, running his small index finger from the Hollow Wood to the Jong Kingdom.

"Hmm, so from the Hollow Wood I have to go to Happy Fluffy Village, and take a bypass to Narcissus Lake to shorten the length. Avoid Spinsters Mourner Village or else I will have one of them clutching on my feet for the rest of my journey, begging to be married," he murmured, shivering slightly. He was not far away from the kingdom, about four hours walk if he was not mistaken based on the map.

The sorcerer sighed in content, "executus." The image began to fade, back to what it was before, leaving him once again in the dark with some light left in the sky to lessen the darkness a bit. He put the crystal orb back to his pocket and continued walking.

***