The Customer

Ben's Customer
A Wizards of Apex Valley Tale featuring Ben Avery
By
Brian E. Ritenbaugh

Apex Valley is a moderately size town in Southwestern Pennsylvania, just an hour outside of Pittsburgh. Corn and dairy farms surround it on the North, East and South. The small but growing Allegheny University borders it on the West. Among the friendly populace are twelve people with the ability to summon the four elements: Air, Water, Earth and Fire, and combine them for miraculous effect. Twelve wizards dedicated to protecting humanity from the ever-present danger of demons and evil magic. Today one of those wizards, Ben Avery, owner of the local bookstore, has a very unusual customer.


It had been quiet this morning at the Book Bin, which is not at all unusual for a Tuesday morning. Ben Avery had all ready received the small shipment of books. As he entered the invoices into the computer at the customer serviced desk, one of his booksellers, Maya, shelved the books. The bell above the front door jingled.

Ben turned his attention to the customer. He was surprised by what he saw. The man standing in front of Ben Avery was pale and sweating profusely. His eyes were red rimmed and bloodshot. He was breathing heavy and fast. Despite the summer heat, he was wearing a long raincoat. He clasped the raincoat tightly to his chest. His hands shook as with palsy. The raincoat looked leathery, almost like bat wings. Ben felt a resonance inside, telling him something was not right.

"Please, wizard," the man's words tumbled from his mouth as he stood in front of Ben at help desk. "I really need your help."

Maya looked at Ben inquiringly. He shook his head. It wouldn't be the first time he's dealt with a...weird customer.

"Wizard books, you say?" Ben improvised, grabbing the man by his arm. His coat didn't just look like leather; it felt that way as well. Ben suspicions increased as they rounded the corner into the Science Fiction and Fantasy aisle.

Ben looked around quickly.

"Okay," Ben said, "Who are you and what do you want?"

He nodded in appreciation of Ben's directness. Ben was being rude, not direct. He didn't like it when his two lives collided. It's way too... messy. Unfortunately, the magical world just doesn't respect working for a living.

"My name is Darcor. There's an...issue. All life on Earth is in danger. Can you leave now? I need to show you."

Ben frowned. When doesn't something magical threaten all life on Earth? He considered, briefly, that this could be a trap: a sorcerer or demon luring wizards to their death.

But as Darcor continued to tremble and sweat, it was taking a supreme effort on his part just to remain standing, Ben decided that few evil beings would put themselves through so much misery to trap one wizard.

Ben sighed. "All right. Tell me where and I'll meet you there in twenty minutes."

Darcor sighed with relief and explained. A few moments later, he was gone.

"We didn't have what he was looking for?" Maya asked her boss.

"Not quite," Ben replied. "Listen, Maya. I need to run an errand. Do you think you'll be okay here for while?"

"Sure, Ben, no problem."

Shortly, Ben had left the bookstore, as well as Main Street in Apex Valley. He pulled his car into a small stand of maple trees just outside of town at the edge of Rhubarb Hill State Park. He took the short walk down a hiking trail to the shore of Lake Guyasutha. This side of the lake was off limits for swimming and there was too much scrub to stand on the shore and fish. Unless someone came by on a boat, there wouldn't anyone around for miles. Well, almost no one.

"I wasn't sure you were going to come, wizard."

Darcor, still in his long leather coat, stepped from behind a tree. He looked even worse than before. He shook so hard Ben worried he might just fall to pieces.

"Here I am. Now tell me what's going on."

"Yes, of course. But I must change first."

Before Ben could say anything the man threw his coat off his shoulders. It fluttered behind him and sent up a small cloud of dust from the ground. As Ben suspected, it actually wasn't a coat. It was a set of leathery wings. They arced six, seven, eight, and eventually fifteen feet from the Darcor's back. That was the most subtle change. Darcor's skin darkened as scales clinked across his skin. His nails turned black and grew becoming deadly spikes. His face narrowed and elongated, large triangular teeth sprouted from his muzzle. When Darcor had finished transforming, his long sinuous body weaved through the trees, his great wings bent branches and shook leaves to the ground and all around Ben.

Ben took in an eyeful of the gleaming red scales, the large golden eyes, massive claws and deadly teeth. He gulped.

What the hell is going on that a Red Dragon Lord can't handle?

Ben did not have to wait longer to find out.

"Down that path, wizard, is a group of young humans. They have made revelry throughout the night. While I was...seeing to my grooming, they found my lair and have stolen an object I have been sworn to guard until the end of time.

"They have found a small black box. The prison of Thralor, the demon of Conflagration. If he is released the entire world will be consumed by his flames. You must stop them and return the box to me."

Ben put his hands on his hips and stared at Darcor.

"Why can't you just grab it from them yourself? If they're still drunk, they'd never believe they even saw you."

"One among them posses an inate, but small, magical talent. They have all ready begun to open the prison. As a being composed of magic I can not enter their circle without completing the release. As humans are born of the physical and your magic is within you..."

"I can slip in and grab it without triggering anything," Ben finished. "And I can assume that I can use magic as long as it does not come in contact with the box?"

"Correct."

"Peachy."

Ben followed the trail the dragon had indicated. As he walked, the silence thickened. The local birds and small animals had all ready fled from the danger. The air carrying the scents of plants and earth faded into stale beer, vomit and burning wood. Ashes blew into Ben's face as he came upon the clearing.

Ben was not unfamiliar with these "parties in the woods." It seemed to by a past time for a lot of rural kids. Shortly after Ben's parents died when he was in High School, he had been invited, out of pity, by some of his classmates, to one of these parties. It was nothing more than a bunch of stupid teenagers drinking themselves blind around a barely contained fire. He was no exception. When he woke up the next morning, horribly hung over and covered in leaves, it looked a lot like what Ben saw now.

Beer bottles, cigarette packs, used condoms, some clothes and piles of vomit were strewn around the passed out young bodies on the ground. This scene had one difference from the party Ben remembered. Five of the kids were not passed out. Four stood around the fire that still burned. Ben noted that they stood in the South, the cardinal direction for Fire. Ben hoped he could get the box from them before the demon was released. The fifth was the strangest. He sat in the fire. He and his clothes were unconsumed by the fire. On his lap, he held the black box. Orange runes glowed brilliantly all over the surface of the box. Blazing tentacles penetrated the boy's eyes and mouth.

The cool autumn air was a great aid to Ben's actions. Summoning the power within him, Ben called the element of water and froze the ground solid. The ice cracked as it neared the fire, but the mystical flames were no match for the force the young wizard put into his spell. The wood popped and crackled and the fire was snuffed out in an angry hiss of steam.

Immediately, the tentacles receded into the box. But the demon's influence was not as quickly snuffed. As one the teens turned to face Ben. With a roar they leaped on him.

In mid-air they changed. Fingernails lengthened and sharpened. Fangs grew from widening mouths, muscles bunched and thickened and throats emitted primal screams.

Oh, man!"

Fortunately for Ben, one of his closest friends as well as teacher was a 400 year old warrior. The young wizard grabbed the nearest teen in a wrist lock and summoned the wind. With a spin, Ben tossed the possessed kid into his friends. They fell in a heap of arms and legs.

They quickly recovered however and resumed the attack. Unfortunately for them, the second attack ended similarly. While they were down, Ben once again called forth the ice. The demonic teens were soon stuck to the earth by a thick coat of frozen water. They roared and struggled but it was no use, they were completely trapped.

After a few moments, the teens stopped struggling and the fire demon's influence, unable to withstand the cold, fled the freezing teens. Ben waited until they passed out, then he made the ice melt.

Stupid as these kids are, I can't let them get frostbite.

As the kids lay unconscious nearby, Ben inspected the fire demon's prison. The orange runes had faded and the box was cool. But Ben could sense the malevolence within it. He didn't want to touch it.

"Well, Thralor, I'm afraid there's no partying for you this time."

Ben surrounded the box with a coating of ice then summoned earth to insulate his hands from the ice. He lifted the earth and ice encased demon prison and turned down the path where Darcor waited.

"Dude," a gravelly voice came from behind Ben.

It was the kid who had sat in the fire with the demon tentacles in his mouth and eyes.

"I...I..." The kid's voice failed him.

"You welcome," Ben told him, "You and your friends done being stupid?"

The kid could not meet Ben's eyes, but he nodded.

"Good. Now go home before the Park Rangers find you and stay out of this part of the park. Got it?"

The boy nodded again as his friends began to stir behind him.

Ben considered telling them to stop the crazy partying too, but figured he'd get a better response telling the trees to stop dropping their leaves.

Moments later, he handed his prize to its guardian. Darcor took the dirt and ice enclosed box gently in his massive claw.

"Thank you, wizard. You have saved the world from a horrific fate."

"What? Again?" Ben smiled at the dragon.

"I never understood human humor."

Darcor turned away from Ben and slid away into the forest.