The Lizard And Safe At Last

Brad began to focus as he poured mana into the summon zombie spell, "so far so good" he thought. The last few remaining zombies had died at this point and now the goblins could put their attention on Brad, they charged forwards as they waved their spears and nets in the air as they assumed that Brad was now helpless.

Brad thought to himself "there is not enough time! what can I do?" unfortunately for Brad there was nothing he could do, the only thing he had left was his advantage of speed. As a rank 1 warrior if it came to a foot race then the goblins would be left in the dust, but Brad was not willing to leave now, not when he was so close to success.

Brad steeled his nerves and decided that he would continue until the goblins got into spear range and his face paled with fear as the goblins finally reached the edge of the spear range, he saw the movement of the lizard as it rose from the ground.

Immediately Brad turned and ran while yelling for the lizard to change the goblins, it was a carnage, the goblins were surprised and the zombie lizard was in the middle of their group in seconds. Brad watched in awe as the goblins were decimated, "wow," said Brad, "I'm glad I didn't have to fight that."

After the goblins had been taken care of Brad started to check the loot, the goblins like normal had crap items but he did find a human-crafted shortsword and 54 silver coins. On the back of the lizard, there were bags placed next to the saddle, "looks like someone lost their mount." thought Brad, "I wonder if they are still alive?"

Luck seemed to favor Brad as there was a map in the bags, travel supplies and even a few sets of clothes. Brad seeing the food began eating earnestly, after being in the wild and only being able to eat what little berries and fruit he could find, he welcomed the change in diet.

After Brad finished eating he looked over at the lizard, it was a mixture of green and blue scales with a row of spikes near the end of the tail, it also still had large amounts of small spear wounds along the body and the deep gash on the neck.

Now Brad mounted the lizard and told it to go, after falling off a few times Brad got the hang of riding it and the trip became much more smooth. Brad continued to practice the negative energy bolt and after another whole day of failure he finally got the spell to work, "I did it!" Brad yelled. "Aaron, you see? look!"

"I see it," said Aaron unamused. " I don't know why you're so happy, it's only a simple spell." As Brad had his emotions dampened he pulled out the map, "it looks like if we continue to follow this road we will arrive at WaterMeadow Keep," thought Brad.

A couple of days later Brad arrived at the keep, as he looked around, Brad was glad to see the gate was open with humans along the walls. As he drew near the gate a guard yelled "Halt! Name your purpose for coming here."

"I'm a student of the GoldenWinds Guild training camp! I was separated from the group and have made my way here alone," said Brad, "why do you have an undead lizard mount then?" Questioned the guard, suspicious of Brad and his mount.

Brad was stumped for words, he had never thought about how to explain his new magic. So he decided to lie, "the lizard is not mine, I met a mage in the forest as I escaped and he had this lizard as a pet, he told me to get on and that it would take me here."

"Well, it just so happens that we have 2 instructors from the GoldenWinds training group here, if your story is true then they should be able to recognize you." Brad nodded and said, "yes, please show me the way to them."

After meeting up with the instructors and the guard confirming his identity, Brad was lead to an Inn to sleep and a place where he could put the lizard. Unfortunately, the lizard had to remain chained to a strong stone wall while Brad stayed in the keep for safety reasons.

For the next week, Brad stayed in the keep with the instructors as they waited for any other survivors from their group, Brad did what Aaron said was meditation and was what mages normally did to raise their mana levels. As Brad was hiding his magic, he only practiced when he was in his room at night and other than that he trained in the sword with the instructors.

At the end of the week only Brad, the two instructors, and one other lucky student had survived the trip to the wastelands. They left riding horses this time as Brad had the lizard following behind them, they were returning to the GoldenWinds training ground in ShoreHead City.

As they traveled Brad began to learn more about the other surviving student, he was the son of a talented warrior that worked for the ShoreHead City lord, he would have liked to know him better and become friends other than a warring from Aaron that stopped him in his tracks.

"Stay away from this boy, I feel a strong sense of tainted blood coming from him. Whatever or whoever he is, there is a feeling about him that I do not trust." Aaron said, "it's better to be safe than sorry and we never learned how he was able to survive when all the others did not." With those thoughts in mind, Brad remained polite but never dropped his guard around him.