In Search of Colours

“A frog’s eye, the claw of a still living tiger, the femur bone of your enemy.” The raspy voice said, “See, I told you it would be useful to keep his corpse.”

The old wizard looked up from his book and stared at the small goblin at the other end of the dark room.

“The hair of a virgin and the heart of a pet. Gnarl, go and fetch me one of those canaries. And don’t forget the treats!”, he barked out the order while he gathered the other ingredients.

“With this spell, I will finally be the most powerful. All will bow before me.” He talked to himself as he rummaged through the blacked shelf. As he returned to the desk the door slammed open. A burly creature with its belly poking out from under its armour stands in the doorway.

“Sir, uhm. Them are coming!” he says stepping from one foot to the other.

“Who is coming? Boron, you must be more precise! Who is coming?” the wizard said annoyed as he picked up the ingredients and threw them into the pot.

“Them ‘eros. Them about to enter the graveyard.” Boron reported, getting pushed out of the way by Gnarl holding a franticly chirping bird.

“Don’t worry about them. They will meet their friends there. And soon they will bolster our defences.” The wizard dismissed the report and Boron with a flick of his wrist.

“Let me continue. Tiger, Femur, heart ah yes there we are. Mix them all together on high heat and add a sprinkle of glitter.” He stopped a while and flipped the pages back and forth. “What in the Old one’s realm is glitter!” he cursed and flipped through the pages. “Gnarl go fetch me that book from the last poor wizardly chap! He might have had some inclination of what glitter is!”

The wizard now searched through all his books, searching for that term when Boron slammed the door open again.

“Uhm, boss. Them in the dungeons now.” He said while trying not to stand on any of the books lying on the floor.

“Good. Let them rot there and bring me anything useful!” The wizard said absent-mindedly.

“Uhm, no. Them still fighting.” The wizard looked up from his current book.

“So go on and send down some more guard!” he shouted at Boron, who turned around and ran over Gnarl, who dragged the dead wizard's book behind him.

“There you are! What took you so long?” The wizard snagged the book and put it on the table. He started muttering to himself as he flipped through the pages. “The colour red, blue, yes, yes. Yellow. But where in the Old one’s name is glitter!” Frustrated he tore out some pages and threw them across the room. When he finally found what he was looking for. “Glitter is created by combining the rainbow colours while chanting the spell. Its power should not be underestimated, jadiadia.” He read out loud, slightly jumping. His joy was short-lived, as he heard loud clangs and breaking jars nearby.

“Boron! Where are you? Did you send those guards down?” He shouted as he stepped over all the mess to the shelf to gather the ingredients for the other spells. But Boron did not answer, Gnarl was nowhere to be seen too. The wizard cursed and muttered to himself, as he tried to focus with all this noise around him.

“The eye of a spider, and the blood of a poor vampire. Creates red.” He mixed the things in a flask. Slowly a red smoke rose from the ingredients and after a short while a red light appeared in the flask. He repeated the steps for orange and yellow as well. All the while the clanging and breaking came closer. Now he heard shouts mixed in with all the commotion. The wizard worked as fast as he could.

When he started with blue the door slammed open again and Boron stood in the doorway again, some blood ran down his face and he held a long sword in his hands.

“Them ‘ere. Sir.” He announced as something flung him away from the entrance. In his place a knight with bright blue armour with yellow and orange decorations stepped into the room, followed by a beautiful young lady in a red and orange dress with a hood over her face, wearing colourful trinkets. Last stepped in a wizard in a violet robe and he leaned on his staff.

“What a dreary dark place you’ve got here. I see you wanted to brighten the place up a bit. But we must ask you to step away from the colours. We don’t want you to make glitter, do we?” the violet wizard said, while the knight stepped towards the desk.

“Stay away you brute! You’ll just break things!” The old wizard shouted. “You are too late! I soon will have the power of all the colours! You will be just another rock in my way!” He said and cast a spell that forced the knight backwards and flung some books through the room. In this commotion, he grabbed the colours and ran towards the backdoor. But the lady was faster than him and blocked his way. Franticly he looked around when he noticed a violet flask in her belt. He flung himself at her, grabbing the violet flask. Still lying on the floor next to her, he mixed the colours and shouted the spell.

“I am now no ordinary wizard! I am the wizard of many colours!” he shouted as he slowly levitated above the heroes holding them with his newfound magic in place. “All shall bow before me!”