What makes a river run backwards? The Sorceress and her Apprentice Part 4

“Teacher,” the young boy said, “what makes a river run backwards?”

“Run backwards?” The sorceress stopped and stared at the boy. She’d been adding sun potion to the sunflower and now it glowed golden petal-shaped flecks onto the walls of the room they used to relax and read in.

He nodded and put his book down. He hadn’t been able to focus on it anyway. He’d been too busy thinking about the river.

“What do you mean?” She asked.

“Every day, when I come to see you, I cross the river on a small wooden bridge. “Every day, I collect little sticks so I can stand on the bridge and race them down the river. I drop them on one side then run to the other side to watch them race downstream. It always carries the sticks towards the old mill with the apple trees. “But today it went the other way. Away from the mill with the apple trees.”

His teacher cocked her head in thought, deep purple eyes like the universe looking into his set, honest eyes.

“I’ve never heard of a river running backwards. That would mean it would be going up-hill. According to the laws of nature, that doesn’t happen.” She admitted.

The young boy’s mouth dropped open. But she knew everything!

She smiled. “I don’t know everything. But I do like to know much of the way the world works.”

“But, you knew what I was thinking just then!”

“That’s because it was so obviously painted on your face!”

The boy hid his face behind his hands and peeked through a gap between his fingers. “Could magic make a river run backwards, up the hill?”

“Perhaps. But none that I know. And I don’t know why you’d want to make it run the other way. There’d be no use in it.”

It was his turn to ask what she meant.

“Well--” She started to explain, “That river’s source is in the mountains, yes? The little lake in the mountain, and the melting snow, slip down the mountain towards us. It brings us cool, clear spring water that we use as it travels past, running wider and faster as it meets other little rivers. Eventually, it ends up in the sea. Why would we want to bring seawater back up the mountain, when there is a beautiful supply of fresh, clean water already?”

The boy moved his hands from his face and rested his chin in them, thinking hard. The sorceress chuckled.

“I don’t know! Does seawater taste nicer?” His eyes were wide and curious.

“Oh, definitely not.”

“Does it clean things better?”

“I’d rather use spring water.”

“Then, I don’t know!”

“What do we do when we don’t know?”

The boy thought again, sitting back on the comfy sofa and swinging his legs as he stared up at the patterns of golden light the sunflower made around the room.

“If you don’t know, you should go and try to know?” He asked. He looked uncertain.

“Of course. If you don’t know, you go on an adventure to find out!”

He jumped up, small round face lit up as brightly as the sunflower. “You mean it? We’re going on an adventure?”

The sorceress smiled and nodded, eyes twinkling.

“Our first adventure!” He jumped in the air and spun around. “What do I need to take? Do I need a sword to fight off mountain-dwelling dragons or a lantern to catch fire-faeries to light our way through dank caves?”

His teacher laughed and he paused, watching as the sorceress’ eyes crinkled shut with amusement. He wasn’t sure whether to feel embarrassed or pleased that she had laughed.

“We’re just going to the nearby mountain. I can sort out the necessities this time. You will need to go and ask your parents to make sure they agree, and they can help you put together your change of clothes.”

“No swords for dragons?”

She guided him gently but firmly to the door, persuading him they would only be able to go on their adventure if he went to get ready. He bowed quickly and grinned as he raced off, back over the bridge towards his cottage on the other side of the village.

On the bridge, he paused to watch the water slide past.

It was still going in the wrong direction.

Funny, he thought. I will need to tell Teacher it goes slower when going backwards.

And, to test this theory, he ran the rest of his way home backwards, finding it a very slow job and entirely proof that everything going backwards had to go slower.

He thought he’d just discovered a new rule for the world.

She would be proud.

Adventure time! Follow the boy through his lessons of wonder and magic with his teacher, the sorceress. What will the boy learn next, and what great adventures will they go on when he's ready to face the magical world beyond the village? See more in The Sorceress and her Apprentice series.

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Have you seen a seed fly? The Sorceress and her Apprentice Part 3

“Have you ever seen a seed fly?”

The boy turned to look into the eyes of his teacher, the wizard, to see the purple pools of the universe swirling questions and thoughts forever.

“A seed? Fly?” He grinned, facing her now and placing his hands on his hips, thinking of the seeds of flowers or apples.

Each year he’d helped sow the fields of grain and expand the orchards of fruits that supply their village with food each harvest. He’d seen the seeds drop through his fingers, plummeting to their bed in the earth.

None had flown.

“A seed can’t fly! Not ever!” He continued to grin, meeting her amused face with one of his own. She raised her eyebrows and cocked her head, purple pools of the universe twinkling with millions of yet-thought thoughts and wonders. Pushing back a soft, silver curl to sit behind her ear, the wizard rose. As she stepped quickly towards the door, the greens and violets in her cloak rippled until he thought he saw rainbows flash. But, as he blinked again, the rainbows were gone and his teacher was opening the door to their library and study. She turned back to face him, beckoning him to follow.

He stared at her blankly. Did this mean it was actually possible?

“What? You mean you don’t want to see? Come, let's go look.”

The boy was hasty to follow, trotting behind his master like a young pup. He wondered what incredible seeds she would show him. For a seed to fly, it must belong to some wondrous plant of anti-gravity, or a plant that held the secrets of the wind and skies and never stopped floating, no matter how little breeze there was. Being taught by a wizard, you learned to expect such wonders.

But, it wasn’t at some never-before-seen flower that she stopped. Nothing see-through or golden or wrapped in air. Shortly into the garden, the wizard stopped in front of a large tree. Its trunk was thick and stoic and its branches stuck out in all directions, providing excellent cover, balance, and space. He’d seen this tree often and, yes, always thought it a magnificent tree. But, how could it have seeds that flew?

It was just a normal tree.

His question was obvious on his face when he turned to stare into the agelessly peaceful face of his teacher, and he saw further amusement crinkle the corners of her eyes and the tips of her mouth.

“Here,” She began, stooping to pick a pair of brown seeds from the ground beneath the tree. She handed him the pair and he looked at them. The pair were stuck together at their centre, almost looking like wings. Strange, had he noticed wing-shaped seeds before? She continued, “when you throw them in the air, the pair work together like wings. They spin against the air, and the air pushes up at them. Somehow, it makes them fly. Even for a moment. Try it.”

The boy looked confused, not sure what she meant. Patient, the wizard stooped to pick up another pair of wing-like seeds. When he asked why she was picking them from the floor and not plucking them from the tree, she told him that trees dropped fruits and seeds when they were ready. To pluck them before it was time, would both be rude to the tree and mean the fruit or the seed wasn’t fully ready. To take it from the floor was the correct way. Then, she raised her arm quickly and tossed the seed into the air above their heads.

The boy looked up in awe.

Sure enough, the seed spun on the air, gently flying as it dropped through the sky and back onto the ground. He looked from the fallen seed to his own and then into the pools of purple universe in his teacher’s eyes. Then, a smile spread on his face once more, he tossed his seed up into the air and watched as it, too, spun. He followed it with eager eyes as it drifted on the breeze, spinning until it reached its place on the earth.

“Can I do another?” He asked with uncertainty, eyes raised pleadingly to his teacher. She laughed kindly.

“Of course. As many as you wish, if you take them from the ground.”

Thrice more the boy threw seeds into the air and eagerly watched the paired seeds spin their wing-like shape and glide on the wind to the ground. Each time, elation filled his face more and more. The wizard smiled.

“Why don’t they fly upwards?” The boy asked.

“If the wings could spin faster, they would fly upwards. But, as they fly, they slowly lose energy. So they drop through the air. If you could give the seeds more energy and make them spin faster, then they could fly.”

The boy nodded to himself and crouched for another pair of winged seeds. “How do you give seeds energy?”

The wizard laughed again, tossing her head back and short, light silver curls tumbling over her shoulders. “That, I am yet to discover. But, wouldn’t you like to discover it with me?” The boy nodded eagerly and the wizard smiled down at him. “The job of a wizard is to look for these things and look beyond them. Study hard and you can discover so much of the world.”

The boy clutched the seed gently in his hand and nodded up to her.

“And the tree, teacher, what is its name?”

The wizard looked up at the tree and showed him to recognise the leaves and the seeds and how they hang in pairs at certain times of the year. “It’s a sycamore tree. But, sometimes children in another world call the seeds ‘helicopters’.”

Follow the boy through his lessons of wonder and magic with his teacher, the sorceress. What will the boy learn next, and what great adventures will they go on when he's ready to face the magical world beyond the village? See more in The Sorceress and her Apprentice series.

#FantasyBooks #Magic #ShortStories #AuthorLife #FantasyAuthor #TheSorceressAndHerApprentice