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Magic and The Pink Floyd
Small rays of sunlight lit a dirt path through the thick forest’s leaves. Four men traveled on this path, each camouflaged with a brown cloak. Their heads were hooded but long, messy hair stuck out in front of the hood on each of their heads. The man in front, David Gilmour, held a perfectly clean, silver sword, leading the way. He was one of the best knights in the kingdom, and it was obvious with his perfect stance and determined face. The man behind him, slightly taller from the rest, was Roger Waters, a poet and writer who was documenting their travels. Next in row was Rick the Radical, a distinguished wizard. He held a staff in his hand which wielded a glowing rock above it. Last, but not least, was Nick Mason, an incredible archer, who had a bow and arrow wrapping around him tightly, ready to shoot it at any given moment.
The group crept cautiously through the forest. Their mission today was to find a small pack of trolls who had stolen the king’s crown. They were sent by the king himself to retrieve the prized possession, and each of them carried with them a sense of pride despite the overwhelming wave of fear that came with hunting trolls. Just then, a crack came from their side, and all four of them instantly turned their heads to face the source. At first, there was nothing, and a minute of silence passed as they all stood like startled deer, motionless and waiting. But then, a bright light appeared and Nick had caught the glimpse of a hooded figure dash from behind one tree from another. An arrow whistled through the air and hit the tree. Had the figure not sheltered behind it, he would’ve certainly be dead. Then the men turned to face each other to find that one of them were missing. “Where’s Roger!” yelled David, turning round to look through the whole forest. “Watch out!” yelled Rick, lifting his staff in a defensive position as another flash appeared.
This time, the three men watched the figure rise into the sky for a moment then disappear into the air. A bird flew away from it’s direction. “A shapeshifter!” cried Rick, shock pure on his face. “I thought they didn’t come to these parts,” The men, still shocked, all turned to scan the forest once again looking for the fourth member. They gave each other a scared face before hearing a quiet but deep voice. “Down here!” it yelled. They looked down, and at first it was difficult to see. But they soon made out a tiny man in a cloak waving his arms and shouting. He couldn’t have been more than four inches tall. “Roger?” said Nick, as the three of them kneeled to observe. “Oh my God!” yelled David, leaning his face closer. It was, in fact, Roger, now shrunken severely. His voice was the same tone, which was oddly off-putting for his size. He looked exactly the same except, well, he was incredibly small.
“You almost stepped on me, you bloody idiot!” he yelled in his slightly quieter voice, facing David. “How was I supposed to know you shrunk?” he fought back. Soon he realized how ridiculous this would look to a passerby. A grown man fighting with what appeared to be a leaf on the ground. “Rick, what are we supposed to do?” asked David, turning to the wise man. Rick stroked his beard for a moment. “I’ve seen this before. There is a way to restore him, but I’m afraid we will have to delay our current task. It is rather tedious,” Another moment passed as Rick stroked his beard, pondering. “We will have to travel to the Black Mountains,” he finally continued.
A cold frost bit the men’s exposed faces as they climbed higher and higher. They had soon discovered the reason for Rick’s worry when he told them what they would have to do. The Black Mountains were surely no friendly place. For Roger, however, the travel was not that terrible. He was seated on David’s shoulder, gripping onto a long and thick lock of hair for dear life. He had also dug his feet into the threads of David’s cloak, which were so big to him. In fact, everything was massive to him. David’s eyeball alone had been the size of a large boulder to Roger. He sat quietly and watched as they ascended ever higher into the mountains, wondering and worrying if he would ever return to his regular size.They reached a heavily wooded place where the sky grew darker. They soon realized it was because of the increased amount of pine trees that had grown there. “Through here,” said Rick, now making his way to the front as he lead them.
A small and shabby shack came into view. Inside it, a dim light poured out into the dark forest, illuminating a small patch of dirt where some flowers weakly grew. Rick knocked on the thick wooden door with his free hand, as the other two took that moment to breathe and observe their surroundings. The door handle moved and immediately all four pairs of eyes were heavily fixated on the door. Behind the door stood a man wearing a grey cloak. Shabby, short brown hair and a beard surrounded his head. “Rick the Radical!” he said, his face turning bright as he embraced the wizard. “Storm, Son of Thorger! It has been quite some time!” he said, letting out a light laugh. The cloaked man invited them indoors. ”Guys, this is Storm. He’s a fellow wizard and astronomer,” said Rick, pointing the crowd at Storm. Each of them introduced themselves and it was then that Storm noticed the small man on David’s shoulders. Rick saw the look of surprise on his face. “That happens to be the reason we are here,” he said, pointing at Roger. “Ah,” replied Storm. He drew his face in closer to Roger, which slightly intimidated the tiny man in return. He gripped harder onto the lock of hair.
Storm invited Rick to his study while the rest of them stayed in the living room, warming beside a neat fireplace in the center of the room. “Do you think they’ll fix me?” said Roger, his voice holding worry. “I have no idea. You know how wizards love to be mysterious,” he chuckled. “And if they don’t, that won’t be too bad. I like the pocket Roger, he said, pointing a giant finger towards Roger and poking him gently in the stomach. “Hey!” he shouted in reply, trying to keep his balance. Twenty minutes later, the wizards returned into the room, holding all sorts of strange looking objects in their hands. Rick gave his friends a reassuring smile. He and Storm began to draw shapes on the ground with weird patterns. Then Storm put down some kind of root, a couple of bones, and a strangely colored rock in the center. “Alright, get him on there,” David held out his palm and Roger walked onto it. He placed his hand down in the center of the strange creation. Roger crawled off his hand and stood in the center, waiting. Then Rick and Storm reached out their hands and began chanting. David and Nick backed up for a moment, scared as they saw a faint cloud of smoke rise from the center where Roger was. Suddenly the cloud got massive and there was a slight crackle.
“Ow!” was all they heard. When the smoke cleared, they saw Roger. He was restored to his regular size. “Yippee!” they all seemingly shouted in unison, each leaning back onto a piece of furniture behind him. Hours had passed and they were still circled around the fireplace, staring into it intently as each man took in the experience. “Well, that was certainly something,” said David. Roger agreed. “Remind me to never drink tea from Syd’s kettle again,”