The fire dragon belched out flame at the water dragon. The water dragon sprayed a wave of water neutralizing the flames. The locked like two giant snakes writhing around each other. The ground shook, fire rained down from the sky. Both dragons tumbled in a death dance toward the young warrior. Looking up in horror they fell upon him.
He bolted awake. Sweating and gasping. The nightmare returned. Hehe rubbed his eyes and found the old wizard staring at him with concern.
“Tell me about your dream” asked the old wizard.
The young warrior relayed his recurring dream about an evil dragon fighting a good one inside his mind and his worry of not knowing which will win.
The old wizard shrugged his shoulders and said “Hmm… That’s an easy one.”
“What do you mean? asked the young warrior.
“The one that wins is the one you feed of course. Feed the evil dragon and that is what will grow. Feed the good one and starve the evil one.” said the old wizard as he rose and tossed the young warrior an apple.
The young warrior caught it reflexively. Polished the apple on his shirt and took a bite. Feeling relived he said “Makes sense”.
“That leads us to the next part of the spell. Fellowship.” said the wizard.
“See sometimes things can get overwhelming and there is no shame in asking family, friends or helpful people for guidance, help or an outside opinion.” pointed out the wizard.
“It’s a good sign of humility. You came here for help. That’s why this ingredient follows the one about Ego. Your Ego may be too proud to ask for help and as they say ‘pride cometh before a fall’. Keep your Ego in check and don’t be afraid to ask for help. It doesn’t lessen you it strengthens you.”
“Let’s go for a walk.” invited the Wizard as he grabbed his gnarled wooden walking staff and headed for the door.
As they walked they reviewed the lessons so far.
“Not bad.” said the wizard. “I noticed you got frustrated though.”
“Yes it was more challenging than I thought.” said the young warrior.
“Don’t be so hard on yourself.” said the old wizard. “The next ingredient before we get to the final one, is ‘forgiveness’.”
“Forgiveness?” echoed the young warrior.
“Yes, often it’s easier to forgive others than ourselves. Mistakes are only mistakes when you don’t learn from them. Errors are only lessons in disguise. If your attitude is not about winning or losing but learning, growing, living and improving then you really never lose.” said the wizard as he slapped the young warrior on the shoulder.
“Well it seems to come to you so easy.” the young warrior said to the old wizard.
“Ha! far from it.” replied the wizard. “What appears easy is the result of lot’s of hard work.”
“But you seem to know so much.” said the young warrior.
“Nah, I don’t know a lot more.” replied the old wizard. “There are plenty things you could teach me.” said to old wizard to the young warriors surprise.
“Like what?” said the young warrior doubtfully.
“Well I heard you whistle yesterday.” said the old Wizard.
“So?” said the young warrior.
“So,” said the old wizard. “I don’t know how to whistle.”
“Get out of here!” said the shocked young warrior.
“Nope, no one ever taught me. Kind of one of those things I never got around to.” said the wizard.
“Teach me.” he continued.
So they continued down the path with the young warrior teaching the old wizard how to whistle. They made funny puckering faces. The old wizard managed to eventually blow out a very airy note. They both laughed. Then together they whistled a simple tune the young warrior taught him. The old wizard gave the young warrior an excited sideways shoulder bump wobbling his step a little as they laughed and walked back to the cabin.
In the wizards cabin the spell book opened to a new page and a capitol letter ‘F’ appeared with the words ‘Fellowship’ and ‘Forgiveness’ underlined beneath it.
