He had travelled for days and yet there was still no sign of civilization. He always followed the path less travelled so there was no doubt in his mind that he would find what he was looking for. Corcoran thought he was close to Maldor; but he could not be certain. Every path he had been avoiding showed no signs of recent travel.
Corcoran made a brief stop in Atanna. While he was there he had heard the news that Dustin had brought back from Maldor. He had learned that Dustin would not be bringing any more news back from Maldor; Dustin would be heading to one of the outer circle cities called Colodia. Corcoran was so intrigued by the news that he had decided to follow.
He was not much of a wizard right now, he had only mastered a couple of incantations; but those spells had guaranteed his safety so far. His master had cast him out after he failed to learn more than one common spell. Ever since he had been cast away Corcoran had been searching for purpose. He was inspired by the news of a new conflict arising in the outer circle of cities; Corcoran knew that he would have to follow Dustin on his path. Hiding in the backdrop of the forest he would follow the fledgling messenger.
He once lived in Colodia so he knew the way from Atanna; but he would have to remain hidden from the messenger as it was too soon to reveal himself to the messenger. Corcoran had other plans. He would have to travel at night to avoid detection. The road to Colodia would be too obvious; he would have to travel close to the paths that lead to the other towns on his journey. Never travelling on them; just around them or crossing over them.
The news of the conflict gave him a new purpose. Corcoran knew about previous conflicts in the region, those conflicts had driven people out of the west and into little settlements like Atanna and Maldor. The last conflict had been 30 years ago; he had only been a boy of 3 at the time but rumours had been spread and stories from the conflict had been retold. Of course the stories had changed and the hero’s names were changed to those that meant more to the smaller societies that had flourished in post conflict times. Although there had been one name that had not changed; Galen was the only name that had remained the same. By the time Dustin had become a messenger, the name Galen had not been a legend in the Atanna area.
Was it just coincidence that Dustin would be meeting up with a messenger going by the name of Galen? Corcoran just had to find out if this man was the man of legend. Although the legends never mentioned anything about Galen’s home town of Colodia; he was curious. Corcoran had left Colodia when he was only 14. He was interested in the rumours of magicians and wizards in the west. The news from other messengers had intrigued him from an early age and had talked many different messengers into taking him to one of the cities of legend.
This had all transpired in the past. Now he was on his way past Maldor and en route to Norfolk. He would have to camp out in the forest near the small clearing in between Norfolk and Maldor until Dustin and Galen would pass by. Thankfully he had been given the gift of patience from his old master who was patient up until the last year he studied under him.
Come back next week for part 2!
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