The Magician's Apprentice

By Les Penhaligan

Geordie a young Dragonis chosen by Merlinthe Magician to become his apprentice.The story follows Geordie through his first few months of training in developing his magic ability.

With Merlin away on a quest Geordie teaches himself to fly and learns some advanced magical skills.Merlin is cap

• Language: English
• Publisher: Integrity Publishing
• Release date: Jun 5, 2024
• ISBN: 9798894650234

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Copyright © 2024 by Les Penhaligan.

ISBN: 979-8-89465-023-4 (e)

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be

reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or

by any means, including photocopying, recording, or

other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior

written permission of the author, except in the case of brief

quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other

noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This is a work of fiction. Characters, names, places, businesses,

incidents, and events are either the products of the author’s

imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance

to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely

coincidental.

Printed in the United States of America.

Integrity Publishing

39343 Harbor Hills Blvd Lady Lake,

FL 32159

Contents

Geordie’s Special Day 4

Merlin’s Castle 8

First Morning 12

Geordie Tries Some Magic 17

The Magician’s Apprentice 22

Merlin’s Quest 28

Dark Days 35

Let Battle Commence 41

Dark Wizard’s Secret 46

The Duel 52

Wilfred the Healer 58

Trouble at the Castle 62

Geordle’s Feast 67

Geordie’s Special Day

Geordie’s left foot began to tingle just after he had begun his breakfast one bright summer’s morning. It started at the end of each of his four toes and slowly moved up his short greenish-blue leg. He put up with it until he had finished eating, then jumped up from his chair, ran outside, and began to stamp on the ground.

The tingling still did not go away; in fact, it got steadily worse the more he banged it. Finally, he could stand it no longer and ran into the cave to tell his parents.

He was surprised to see that his father had left the cave and only his mother remained. ‘Mummy, where is Daddy?’ cried Geordie quite forgetting about his tingling foot.

‘Oh, he has gone off on a message. He will be back in about an hour,’ replied his mother.

His question answered, Geordie remembered about his foot and told his mother how it tickled and itched, but then again, it did not feel like either, but it did not hurt.

‘Does it feel as if it is burning inside your foot but isn’t?’ asked his mother after his long explanation had finished.

‘Yes,’ said Geordie, ‘do you get it too?’

‘I used to,’ said his mother quietly, ‘when I was young, about your age but not anymore. It usually meant that something exciting was about to happen. In fact, my parents said that it was a sign that you could do magic, but hard as I tried, nothing came of it.’

Just then his father came back into the cave, and with a big grin said, ‘Come on, lazybones, get your case packed. You are going on holiday tomorrow.’ Geordie looked at him in astonishment. ‘Do you mean me, Dad, or are you talking to Mummy?’ he blurted out hoping that his father was talking to him. ‘You Geordie,’ said his father. ‘We have arranged for you to stay with a friend of a friend in Wales, a Mr Merlin I think they call him.’ You will travel down tomorrow for about a month.

‘Yahoo!’ yelled Geordie at the top of his voice. ‘I’m going on holiday.’ The rest of the day was spent in packing Geordie’s case, not that dragons had any clothes, but they required lots of things to keep their scales and the small horns on the top of their heads in good condition.

Finally, bedtime came, and Geordie had to admit that he was tired but managed to delay bedtime by an additional hour trying to find out how he was going to get to Wales. The only story he could get from his father was that someone would come and collect him.

Next morning just before dawn, Geordie was up and sat patiently, waiting at the cave entrance, staring out over the Cheviot Hills. A quick look at his school atlas the night before had told him Wales was a long way off, so he guessed that the journey would take all day.

Dawn came and passed, but there was no sign of anyone along the winding road leading to the cave. Breakfast was a hurried meal taken at the cave entrance just in case he missed his guide; still, no one came. When finally lunchtime came, Geordie was nearly in tears, but his father kept asking him to have patience and someone will come.

About three o’clock in the afternoon, Geordie noticed a dark cloud on the horizon, and his heart sank. If it rained, his guide would never come. For about ten minutes, he watched the cloud as it moved swiftly across the sky all the time getting nearer and nearer but never really getting any larger.

After about a further ten minutes, a number of things happened almost at once; his foot began to tingle harder than before, the cloud began to fall to the ground, and a deep voice said, ‘Geordie, are you not ready? We have a long way to go.’

Geordie did not know what to do first, hide in the cave or stamp his foot to get rid of the tingling, but after the voice called his name a second time, he forgot his foot and ran and hid in the cave.

He was just trying to hide his short spiky tail and his head under the straw of his bed when his mother said, ‘Geordie, your guide is here to take you on holiday.’

Forgetting his fears, Geordie scrambled out from under his bed and ran outside. What a sight met his eyes! Standing on the cloud which he had seen earlier was a tall man dressed in long, flowing white robes and a brilliant white beard. ‘This is Merlin,’ said his mother. ‘Say hello to him, Geordie. He will not eat you!’

Geordie was not too sure of that, but being a brave dragon, he held out his hand, and in his bravest voice said, ‘Pleased to meet you, Mr Merlin.’

The man stepped from the cloud, took his hand, and said in a loud voice

‘Wo hoppity Poot, take the tingle from Geordie’s foot.’

Geordie at once remembered his foot, but as soon as the last words had been uttered, he felt the tingle leave. Overcoming his fear, he said, ‘How did you do that?’ And then after another few seconds blurted out, ‘And how did you know I had a tingle in my foot?’

‘I know what I know,’ replied the white-robed stranger. ‘I, Merlin, know everything about everybody.’ As if to prove this point, he took Geordie’s hand and began to tell him everything he had done the day before, including waking up with a tingle in his left foot.

‘Put your case on my cloud,’ commanded Merlin, ‘and let us be off as we have much to do and so little time to do it in.’ Geordie obeyed and was surprised to see that his case did not sink