The Mischief of Apprentice Brown

By David Petrey

Apprentice Brown is a novice Apprentice to the most famous Sorcerer across the Land of Tellus. His impatience and inquisitiveness often leads to unexpected outcomes, sometimes with humorous results, sometimes fraught with darkness and danger. The Sorcerer and his unusual house play a key role in defining each of the books chapters. Features of the house have been built by previous Apprentices who have infused their unique magical ability, known as an Art, into the house; including towers that whisk those ascending them away to far off lands.

Apprentice Brown must overcome encounters with one-eyed giants, man-eating plants, even dragons, as well as those using dark magic to take over the world. But most of all, with the help of the friends he makes along the way, he must overcome his own self-doubt on the long road to becoming a Sorcerer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: David Petrey
• Release date: Apr 25, 2017
• ISBN: 9781370805051

David Petrey

David Petrey is an online author. But his day job revolves around more mundane tasks of making digital maps where he dreams of being a full-time author. When not writing he is most likely reading, gardening or sighing at the growing pile of videogames he finds no time to entertain.

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The Mischief of Apprentice Brown

Apprentice Brown Book I

Book I of The TimeSunder Histories

Copyright 2019 David Petrey

Published by David Petrey at Smashwords

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Table of Contents

Acknowledgements

Prologue

Map of Tellus

Mischief One – The Chosen

Mischief Two - Patience

Mischief Three – The Art of Illusion

Mischief Four – The Forbidden Tower

Mischief Five – The Art of Potions

Mischief Six – The Tower at the Edge of the World

Mischief Seven – The Art of Elements

Mischief Eight – The Tower of the Mountain Meadow

Mischief Nine - Words

Mischief Ten – The Art of Melody

Mischief Eleven – The Citadel Tower

Mischief Twelve – The Art of Soul

Mischief Thirteen – The Tower of the Tropical Forest

About David Petrey

Other books by David Petrey

Connect with David Petrey

Acknowledgements

Thanks to Lyndsey.

Map of Tellus

Mischief One – The Chosen

The Hopefuls

Once upon a time and space, at the edge of a town far, far away, along a winding road, past a mossy meadow and up a gently rolling hill, there stood a large and somewhat angular house. Emerging from the roof of this most curious of houses grew a large chimney stack. Every day the cloudy puffs of smoke which softly rose from the chimney changed in their colour. One day they might be a fresh, pale green, and then the next a bright and uplifting yellow; or maybe even a hue of blue, as cold as a winter’s sky. From a distance, to any unsuspecting onlooker, it could appear as if a floating flock of painted sheep danced away from the rooftop of the mysterious old house.

Some people said that the colour of the smoke was decided by the mood of the Sorcerer who lived within this most distinguished of houses. Luckily for the townspeople, the Sorcerer was famous across the land for being a very kind and generous man. The one colour that nobody had ever witnessed coming from the chimney was a fiery red, as the Sorcerer was never angry.

Within this special house the wise old Sorcerer had five dedicated Apprentices. They were all learning the Art of using magic for good deeds. Every two years the Sorcerer would choose a new Apprentice, when the Apprentice who had spent ten years studying magic was finally ready to be called a Wizard.

It so happened to be a very special and busy time for the town. This season the Sorcerer would be choosing his new Apprentice. An electrical atmosphere of excitement was growing by the day. Already people were arriving and setting up camp in the fresh, spring meadow which lay opposite the Sorcerer’s house. Coming from far and wide, some had braved the hottest of deserts, or climbed the highest of peaks, or crossed vast monster-ridden seas, all for the chance of becoming the lucky chosen one.

At the opposite side of town there lived a little boy called Arek. Being so young, this was the first time he could remember such an event. Every morning he would leap out of bed and rush over to his small bedroom window. He was always eager to see what weird and wonderful sights awaited him. Pressing his little nose up to the pane of glass, his breath would eventually fog up the window and he would have to wipe the mist away just to stare some more. Some of the outlandish travellers he beheld wore magnificent garments, with all kinds of intricately fashioned fabrics in a variety of vivid colours and patterns. Others passed by in mere rags. Some brought animals of all descriptions, large and small with them. Others brought nothing.

‘It doesn’t matter how you are dressed, or what you look like,’ his grandpa told him over breakfast one day.

‘But how does the Sorcerer decide?’ Arek questioned. His grandpa often seemed to know as much as the Sorcerer did, if not more. But today he seemed to be avoiding any questions and just frowned at his inquisitive grandson.

‘He just does,’ was the short reply. ‘That’s why he’s a Wizard.’

Following a rushed breakfast, Arek quickly scrubbed his face and made a half-hearted attempt to tame his mousey-brown hair. It seemed to be forever sprouting tufts of itself in all directions at once, as if trying to escape from the very head it was rooted down to. After annoyingly being sent back by his grandpa to clean behind his ears, the impatient little boy was finally able to grab his straw basket by the door and stumble outside. Raiding their henhouse, he plucked six warm hen’s eggs from their cosy, little nests and carefully placed them into his basket. His grandpa had told him to take a trip to the meadow. There he could trade each of his eggs for the rare and exotic items that the travellers brought from afar.

Today, like most days, Arek was joined by his friend Oxana. She was the same age as Arek, but rather irritatingly had always been that little bit taller. She had long, velvety strands of black hair that curled up from her head before cascading down past her shoulders. Arek was sure that if he could just shave his friend bald she would be almost the same height as him.

Oxana lived with her mother and father in the little cottage next to Arek and his grandpa. Mr. Pike, her father, was an expert fisherman. Today, Oxana was to meet him later to finally start learning how to fish, as was their family custom. For now however, the two friends both hurried with excitement along the winding road out of town with the precious basket of eggs.

Arriving at the meadow, both children stared up at the strange people they passed by. At times they stood open-mouthed with the wonder of the amazing sights they beheld. They encountered strange, ill-tempered animals with humps on their backs; fierce, orange-striped animals which had to be kept within cages because of their large teeth and sharp claws; as well as giant animals that looked like huge, grey boulders but with funny, long noses and big, flapping ears.

‘That is called an elephant,’ Oxana announced proudly, pointing at a large grey animal. They both watched spellbound as it cleverly picked up some grass with its extremely long nose and tucked it away into its mouth to slowly chew upon.

Making their way further into the field, the campsite grew more crowded. The pair of friends approached a stall appearing to sell a variety of goods and took the time to have a good nose around. The tall and thin stall owner patiently described the usefulness of each item that they held aloft.

‘That’s for cleaning carpets with,’ the man said of a barrel-shaped object with a spinning wheel and a long hose attached. Both Arek and Oxana returned a blank look at the man, having no idea what he was talking about. The man rolled his eyes at his uneducated audience. ‘A carpet is like a rug that covers the entire floor of a room. Distinguished people of wealth have them throughout their entire home. To use the device, one person turns the wheel and it helps to suck up air through the nozzle that the other person moves across the floor.’

The children nodded politely, but having no use for such an object they looked around at what else was available. Arek lifted up what looked a bit like the skull of a rabbit, but with long pointed teeth.

‘That there is the head of a blood-sucking vampire-weasel,’ the man explained. ‘It helps drive away evil spirits and unwanted guests.’ He then turned to see what Oxana was looking at. ‘That, little girl, is what the rich use to pick their noses with.’

Oxana screwed up her own little nose with distaste and instantly let go of the item she held, her hands suddenly feeling rather sticky. At first she had thought it to be some kind of slender musical instrument, but now she wondered which end you did the actual nose-picking with. Maybe both.

‘It’s hollow,’ the stall owner added. ‘So a servant can help when you have a particularly nasty cold by sucking at the other end.’

Oxana grimaced at the thought.

‘Or you could even attach it to the carpet cleaner and actually suck out someone’s brain,’ the stall-holder added as an after-thought in an attempt to sell both items together. However Oxana just grimaced some more, whilst Arek edged closer for a better look, finding the nose-picker strangely alluring. Then his eyes sparkled as they cast their gaze upon something else. Smiling he picked up a long, firm stick with a net affixed to the end and asked the man behind the stall if he could trade it for one of his eggs. The man accepted and Arek beamed with delight, holding it out for Oxana.

‘You can take this to help with your fishing,’ he said.

Oxana’s eyes widened as she suddenly recollected the meeting with her father. Looking up to the sun she saw it had already climbed high into the sky meaning she needed to be off.

‘Thank you,’ she said, hurriedly taking her gift before rushing away. ‘I promise to catch you a big fish for supper,’ she called back. Arek watched with envy as she left. He wished he could go fishing as well. But he had these dumb eggs to trade, though he didn’t want to disappoint his grandpa.

Arek spent the rest of the morning wandering through the camp. Most of the people he met seemed extremely friendly. Nobody had told him to stop being a bother the way Mrs. Mallory the Mayor’s wife did. He managed to swap one of his eggs for a bag of rice. He also gained a pair of new shoes. They were a deep blue in colour, like the depths of a vast lake, and the seller had told him they would last a lifetime, having been made from the skin of the last ever Laculus. Arek had heard tales of the Laculus, the fishfolk of the great Lake Tellus, but he was sure the seller was just pulling his leg about the shoes being made from their skin. Still, the stitching almost invisible under inspection. Each shoe cost him an egg, but it seemed a fair trade considering the state of the current pair he wore, which had grown so tattered and worn they were almost falling off his tiny feet. His biggest toes could be seen poking from holes at the end of each shoe, like timid tortoises peering from their shells.

Moving on and having only two eggs left now he came to a stop upon spying a pile of peculiar objects nestled outside of a wooden caravan. They were large and oval shaped, and orangey-brown in colour. Marked across their surface were ridges with the shape of diamonds. If it hadn’t been for the thick, waxy, spiked leaves sticking out from the top Arek would never have guessed they were the fruit of some plant. They could easily have been mistaken for little, tucked-up piglets with spiky, green hair. In fact, so much so