The Lady and the Pig

Synopsis:  Sarah Winningham is a semi-popular girl at Indigo Academy.  She is thoughtful, altruistic and ‘always prepared for just about anything’.  Little does she know she has two emfatuees.  One is a slightly awkward geek named John Offenbach who drops not so subtle hints he likes her.   Sarah likes him back and has even helped him understand algebra homework.   The two have been friends since kindergarten but he has never had the fortitude to ask her out.  With the upcoming prom, themed ‘Aloha, Hawaii’, he needs to ask her out quick before someone else sweeps her off her feet.   There is a necromancer named Charles ‘Chuck’ Wraith who practices in secret.   He first tries casting an aphrodisiac that backfires, due to Sarah’s awesome personality and love of self.   Angered, Chuck decides to turn John into a pig but forgets to make him unable to speak English.  

Chapter 1--The Immaculate Heart of Sarah Winningham

It was early August as another school year began for rural Indigo Academy.  Matters were quiet but the community began its hustle and bustle this time of the year.  Tourists began to arrive due to the kitsch, souvenirs and fall colors later in early October and late November.  Plus there were plenty of festivals and orchards to frequent so it seemed the economy of Cornucopia was doing marvelously.   

Meek and polite, John Offenbach watched behind black-rimmed glasses that accentuated his dark eyes.   His curly black hair cascaded a bit above his eyebrows but in spite of his good looks, mild-mannered personality and intellect, he just couldn’t seem to garner the courage to talk to Sarah.  He walked up to her, running his fingers through his thick curly locks, trying to act suave but the moment he opened his mouth to speak to Sarah, he stammered.  

‘Hey, John !   What’s going on ?’, Sarah said, rhyming like a bard.   John couldn’t help feeling butterflies encompass his whole frame.   Chuck Wraith watched from a distance, glowering and gritting his teeth.

‘If I don’t stop this soon, he’s going to sink his teeth into my prize.’, he seethed.   His straight black-blue hair hung over his striking amethyst eyes and he glared at his own reflection in his hematite crystal pendant.    One way or another, he would have Sarah’s affection, even if it was forced.

Chapter 2--The Aphrodisiac

To the accompaniment of black metal, Chuck began to mix his aphrodisiac.   He wore a typical black robe, the eerie green glow accentuated his high cheeks and aquiline nose.  He would’ve been dashing had it not been for his overly possessive nature and creepy fixation with Sarah.   With a prick of his thumb, he added a tinge of his blood to the mixture, made the incantation and watched as the caldron glowed and the elixir flowed into a vial.   

‘All I have to do now is give Sarah this Coke with her name on it.  Once she imbibes, she will belong to me and her heart will never be swayed.’, he thought, after adding the potion to the Coke.   The Coke levitated momentarily in a spooky motion, phosphorescent.   The unearthly glow disappeared and he kissed the formula.

‘This is my ticket.’, he thought, stroking the bottle affectionately.   Soon enough, he mused, Sarah would see no one else but him and her heart would continuously sing his praises from the moment the elixir had its desired effect.  

Chapter 3--No Go With the Elixir

Chuck's heart was filled with glee as he disrobed and awaits in anticipation for tomorrow to drug Sarah with it.  Chuck placed the bottle next to her locker with her name prominently displayed in the front. He stalked off to watch and wait in a shadowy corner to see if his  potion would work. As was her custom Sarah came into school thirty minutes before the bell and went to her locker. She noticed the bottle picked it up and.... Chuck watched with hunger almost salivating at the thought of her taking a sip now and becoming his forever. Sarah places the coke in her bag to the dismay of Chuck as she makes her way to class. Chuck stalks off moodily to class to await the lunch bell. He hopes she waits until lunch so he can watch as her heart is turned toward him.

The lunch bell can't come soon enough for Chuck. He waits near the entrance for Sarah to walk in and he says hello.

"Oh, hello Chuck. Not feeling hungry?" The friends she is with whisper with themselves at how Sarah can be nice to this creep who apparently is obsessed with her.

"Oh...I...Uhhh. I will. I am just thinking of what I want to eat before I get in line." Chuck swears in the language of spells in his head before being thankful she hadn't taken a drink yet. He enters the lunch line close behind her and her friends. They sit down and Chuck rushes to take a seat where he can watch Sarah. He seems to ignore his food and waits impatiently for her to pull out the coke and drink from it. After only ten minutes she reaches down for her bag. Chuck becomes so tense that the other people at that table leave. Chucks eyes widen in horror as he sees that the level of the coke isn't  where it was.

In his head,

‘She’s clearly taken a drink of my potion.  (Curses in unknown language)  Why ?  (Curses again).  Perhaps all is not lost.   Perhaps she needs more of the potion in her system for it to work.’    Charles begins to slowly eat his food not tasting anything as he watches Sarah down the remaining contents of the bottle and never showing any sign of change.   Chuck felt his eyes go dark with rage that the potion didn’t work.   Storming out of Indigo High, he sulked in his lab, searching the instructions again and again to make certain he crafted everything correctly due to the right ingredients.  

‘I followed this to the letter.  Nothing.  Blast it all.  I didn’t want it to come to this but she won’t be asking that twit John if he’s porcine.’, Chuck said aloud.   He flipped through his necronomicon and quickly invoked the incantation.   He knew his gaffe with the aphrodisiac.  

‘It was no fault of mine but just her sheer awesomeness that overcame it.  She has far too much of a good heart and loves herself too dearly to be influenced by something chemical or even otherworldly.’, he thought, sparks emitting from his fingertips.   The energy was enough to make him feel slightly enervated.

‘There.  It is done.  Say ‘oink’ the next time you see Sarah, Johnarino.’, Chuck cackled before heading to his grotto-esque room down in the basement of his overpriced mansion.    For a young man who had inheritance enough, he always longed for items he could never possess.   It didn’t stop him from trying to seize things by force, and he mused, evilly, one way or another, Sarah Winningham would belong to him and him alone someday.

Chapter 4--Clearly There Must Be Some Sort of Exit Clause

John was having the most horrendous nightmare.  He had been chased by a manic man wielding a cleaver, screaming, ‘Catch that prized pig !  That’s my family’s BBQ dinner !’   The butcher hurled the silver cleaver at John, nearly missing his head.    When he awoke, he found nothing out of the ordinary until he looked at the mirror and saw he was a pig.   He squealed, literally in distress.  

‘What’s the matter, sweetie ?’, his darling mother asked, but then fainted promptly upon finding her son was porcine.   

‘I can’t go to school like this, let alone ask Sarah to prom.  Maybe if I go to her, she’ll understand...No.  No !  This is so retarded !’, he thought to himself, pounding his poor little pink head on the wall.   He did have to admit, the curlicue tail he had was just darling, but he didn’t want to keep it.   He had a feeling that Charles had done this to him.   Ever since John had been introduced to that eerie goth kid, he knew that there was something sinister about him, and not for the cliched reason that he died his hair royal blue and wore nothing but black.  

This pasty lunatic stalked Sarah from the moment he had arrived in town.  He hadn’t stopped watching her from the time he had ‘accidentally’ dropped a flier for his band ‘Scab’s’ performance (which no one attended because to be honest, both he and his band sucked) and she helped pick it up and hand it to him.  

Even though it was totally irrational, John literally ran to Sarah and jumped up to hit her doorbell with his piggy schnoz.  

‘Please be awake...Please be awake !’, he thought, feeling more helpless and awkward than ever.  Nothing seemed to happen at first so he rung it again and again until  a light came on  inside. Thankfully Sarah lived on her own. As unsteady footsteps sounded from within drawing nearer and nearer. He feared she would only think this was a prank and that it wasn't him and slam the door on him so he dashed down the front porch to hide just beyond it in the shadows. The door whooshes open as a groggy voice says "Yes?"

John's heart fluttered as he heard Sarah's voice. Now is not the time to get cold feet he says to himself. He opens his mouth...."Sarah?"

"John? Is that you? Where are you, and what are you doing here at this hour?"

"It is hard to explain. ... I mean.... Oh why me? I'm good for nothing now I guess I should go"

Sarah hearing John's voice she began to inch toward from where it emanated. Upon hearing the despair in his voice she more quickly made her way to him. Just as he was about to dash off around the house Sarah was towering over him. John squealed and Sarah jumped. John recovered first. He so wanted to run off but he couldn't help but look at how frightened Sarah was as she began recover in from the jostle her tailbone took.

"Told you it was hard to explain." Sarah's head shoots up to look at him in astonishment. "Yes it is me. Some how I got turned into a pig as you can see." Sarah's jaw dropped to the floor as she sat there unbelieving that this magical talking pig claimed to be John.

Sarah "How....how.... Uhhhhh"  John "I'm sorry, perhaps I should go." He turns to leave but Sarah beckons him not to. John looks at her mournfully. "Uhhh You can't be running around at this hour come in please."  John "You sure? I have been turned into a pig after all. We aren't the cleanest animals known to man." Sarah giggles at his halfhearted attempt to break the tension with humor. Sarah "Yup that's John. I don't know how but... Well." John "Yeah I know. It's going on forty five minutes since I woke up like this from a weird dream of someone chasing me with a cleaver."  Sarah "How?" a brisk wind comes up and abruptly silences her as she shivers against it. "Come on inside John. Just make sure that if you have to do any business do it outside."  John "I resent that remark. I may look like a pig but I'm still a human on the  inside." They both giggle as they head inside.

Morning finds it's way through the curtains. Sarah slowly wakes from her slightly cramped position on the couch. What a dream she thinks to herself. "Ughhh" she stretches as the sounds of a flushing toilet reached her. "Huh?" She gets up and begins to make her way to the bathroom to investigate as John comes out of the bathroom. "Oooooooooooo It wasn't a dream." she moans. John "What wasn't a dream?"  Sarah "You being a pig." is her reply. John "Oh. Sorry to disappoint. I wish it weren't true myself. I'm not going to mention how difficult is was to drain the main vein earlier. I sure didn't want to make a mess on the floor. You never know the importance of thumbs until they are gone." Sarah "Ha, ha. We need to figure out what happened to you and how to fix it. Thankfully Today is Saturday so no school." John "Oh I forgot about that. I don't think the teachers would take to kindly is a talking pig showed up to class." Sarah's stomach growls. "Mind if we eat first?" John "Sure just no bacon please. I don't need to be reminded of what I look like. This altitude I'm at doesn't help." Although I get an excuse to admire your legs he thinks to himself. Sarah "Deal. There has to be a way to undo whatever was done to you. Thankfully I know a few wizards who might understand or know how to reverse it. You didn't begin playing will a spell book?" John "No! That would be just stupid. Last thing I need to do is go playing around with magic. I took a test for it when it was becoming popular and it just wouldn't work for me. Can we please get going right after breakfast. I'm rather famished myself." he says as he begins to wag his tail. Sarah "Aww that tail is so cute on you." Somehow John managed to blush as a pig which made Sarah laugh hard. She eventually stops and they eat breakfast and afterwards they head off to the most powerful wizard Sarah knows.

Chapter 5--Fenwick the Fantastic

Fenwick had been a family friend of the Winningham's for years.  In fact he was a godfather and executor of their will and estate should they predecease him.   Fenwick, or ‘Fenn’ as he was called, kept his alchemy under wraps, but the Winningham family had been privy to his secret for years.   He used his ability to help others, especially those down on their luck.   He was a force of uncommon good in the community.  

Ringing the doorbell, appropriately enough, the opening strains of Harry Potter’s theme song played from it.  Fenn came to the door and saw Sarah carrying John in her arms, and invited them inside immediately.

‘I know the mark of this necromancy all too well. Wraith did this to you, there’s no doubt about it.’, Fenn sneered.   The Jennings family had been in contention against the Wraiths for eons.   They had been keeping the peace in the land of mortals since magic had come about.    

‘Seems this Chuck fellow has a bit of a fancy for you.  We have to work against him and fast.   I alone will not be strong enough to stand against him.  The more hatred he has, the more fuel he gains to control your desires.’, he said.  He was only looking after Sarah’s best interest and John only wanted to protect her.  

‘I know this is a bit sudden but I have cared for Sarah since I was in kindergarten, but I never really had the fortitude to say so.’, John finally confessed.  He turned even pinker than his skin would allow.  It looked like he was glowing in a way.  

‘Aww, you are such a romantic, John.’, she said, kissing his snout.  John oinked happily.  

The spell was relatively easy to reverse but defeating Chuck would be another huge hurdle they would have to overcome as a team.

‘This is only temporary, but you will be endowed with abilities to stand up to this bully.  I know he has been causing immense trouble at Indigo, don’t think I haven’t been observing and hearing through my scrying.’, Fenn said.

‘Fenny, that’s a little creepy !’, Sarah said, cringing a bit.

‘It was your father’s idea.  Have it up with him if you find issue with it.’, Fenn retorted, almost in a self-deprecating, laconic way.   Their lives felt like a Twin Peaks episode gone full tilt into weirdsville, and it was only going to become weirder.   

Chapter 5--Mortals Using Magic  

With everything the spell entailed, John and Sarah were given ability to use magic and Fenn had come to school as a ‘foreign exchange student’ named Fogg.  None thought the wiser and no one seemed to question the Irish import.   Fenn had a charm that made him instantly likeable and amicable.   He didn’t even have to open his mouth to instantly recruit friends.    Girls found him almost irresistible but having a doting, bombshell wife at home, he had to become a heartbreaker.   

John rubbed a healing  bruise he obtained over the weekend as he and Sarah learned how to wield magic. John was thankful that Fenn was there to help them as they learned. It was so hard to keep focused. Yet focus he must if they were to stop the antics of Chuck. Chucks face was PRICELESS when he saw John walk into school. They could easily see his eyes go black and almost felt the heat being sucked out of the room as he cursed silently even though his lips moved. They all thought that it was going to be on but instead Chuck just turned and sulked away to brood over his latest failure.

Sarah and John looked at him. He shook his head no as he said telepathically "Not yet. If we make a move now while he is so enraged there is no way our combined strength can take him on. Let him go and stew over his latest failure for the time being. He will make a move. Make no mistake about it. Although it will probably to kill John." Sarah and John looked shocked at each other as Fenn continued. "Yes. This isn't the first time he failed at a spell. Sarah, he some how gave you a potion and it didn't work. I felt faint traces of it in your system when I opened my door. He tried to give you a love potion for lack of a better word."

Sarah's mind went to the coke that had her name on it. She thought John had done it since he would do it from time to time thinking she didn't know. Well, she knew because she spotted him placing one next to her locker one day when she came earlier than normal. She liked the thought of it and never said a word to him over it. They went about their day as normally as they could each carefully watching for Chuck to show up. Lunch came and went with no sign of Chuck and soon the after school bell rang and they waited as everyone began to file out. Fenn had a hard time turning the few stubborn girls down who wanted to give him their numbers, but eventually they turned to leave. As they did so Chuck rounded the corner from a semi-dark hallway and saw the three friends there. A shadow seemed to flow behind him as a unseen cloak leaving where he had been in utter blackness. He halted when he saw the three standing there looking at the retreating girls and he glared at them. They each felt his eyes knowing that he was there, and the fight was on. Even the girls felt something odd and turned around to look.

‘I can sense you’re not fighting me alone.  Fenwick, you know I can sense your aura.   That invisibility cloak is doing you no favors.’, Chuck said as he stopped time around them and enclosed the four of them in a time sphere.  Only they were locked into the space encompassing them.   

‘So much hatred.  It’s about time I settled the score between our clans.  It’s bad enough you drug some hapless mortals into this !   No offense.’, Fenwick said, in deference to his non-magical friends.   The magical world was just too dangerous for mere mortals to meddle with.    John and Sarah had been briefed thoroughly in what they were delving into and they knew the risks but they had no other recourse this time.  

Chapter 6--Magic Duel

The battlefield was outside, located in a completely different dimension.  Nothing made sense here.   Entropy ruled and glitches could be seen passing by.  It was like Escher and Magritte decided to collaborate in an artistic dump of some sort and Bill Plympton had been given free reign to draw his heart’s darkest, most twisted and illogical desires.   

‘Man, this is like Rick and Morty on acid.’, John thought to himself but then realized that this duel was a matter of life and death.  It was no laughing matter or time to muck about.  The three heroes faced down their foe, deciding who would make the first move.

‘I could easily turn you all into detrivores.   Would you like to become maggots or turkey vultures ?  Oh, or I could turn you into dung beetles.   Either way, you’d be stuck eating some rather nasty crap the rest of your short existences.’, Chuck cackled.   His manic laughter was eerie and unnerving but the heroes continued undeterred, observing Chuck’s actions and the swirling darkness and hatred roiling in his royal purple eyes.  

Fen was flanked on the right by John and the left by Sarah. They each spread out a bit to hopefully make it more difficult for Chuck to win.

Chuck responded by making multiple images of himself and having them run around to confuse them as to where he really is. Thankfully they know that he would likely do this so the three wait until the real one casts a spell to throw since only the real one actually cast. All the images begin to compose a spell hoping to get them to randomly begin attacking his images so he can cast unseen yet they don't take the bait. The spell builds and builds, the strategy is to either force him to cast it or break his concentration in keeping all the images in place and acting that the real one can be distinguished. Chuck was hoping that as soon as he began building one they would panic and react. He had chosen a strong and fast building one. Soon the strain would become apparent.

John could see that the spell was a strong one, so he began to cast one hoping that it would force Chuck to try and continue his. It worked and soon, unnoticed to Chuck, his images began to vanish one by one and he began to sweat and shake due to his concentration. Fenn could see what Chuck was trying to do and was initially shocked John decided to break rank and begin a spell yet soon after he did he saw why. It seems that since John knew Chuck for a while he realizes that this was the best way to defeat him. As soon as the Images began to vanish and one of them began to show signs of weakness Fenn began casting a spell. Chuck suddenly realized his mistake and imploded the spell hoping to create enough of a distraction for him to reset.

As soon as Fenn saw this he told John telepathically "You aim a bit to the right and I'll aim a bit to the left." They all cast the spells at the same time which created a brilliant changing flash of light. the three friends waited until their eyes readjusted back  to see what happened. Chuck thinking that since John was newer would not shift his aim to account for his movement during the implosion went to his left. Since John was new to magic he didn't shift the aim enough and only clipped him. Rendering his right arm temporarily unusable. Just as their eyes focused they saw Chuck beginning a spell with his left hand as his right hung limp at his side. They three cast a shield around them as he flung it at John. John's shield held but he lost concentration right after the impact and was sent flying backwards out of sight.

The remaining two didn't have time to look and see if he was alright as Chuck began casting another spell. Sarah began casting a shield again hoping to have the time to look for John as Fenn tried to build and cast a spell first. Which was going well for him since he was uninjured and had both of his hands free. Just before Fenn was about to cast his spell all of a sudden a cage was formed around Chuck locking him inside. They both looked where the trail of energy lead and they saw John riding on a "paint strip" as he continued to enclose Chuck in the cage. Fenn and Sarah stopped their casting and watched hoping John wouldn't lose concentration again as Chuck would try to blast out of the cage. They could see Chuck absorb the previous spell and begin casting another spell. This one looked deep red and dark it built slowly and was being as precisely cast as possible. John braced for impact and Fenn began casting a spell to catch John just in case he failed. Before he was halfway done there was a brilliant flash of energy and the entire dimension rocked with the impact.

Chuck saw what Fenn was up to and cast the spell before it was entirely ready. So much energy collided it caused Fenn to lose focus on his spell. Again they had to wait for their eyes to adjust to see if either of them were still here. They did see John floating on a paint strip knocked out and they both felt relief. They looked to Chuck and they saw him knocked out as well. Fenn took charge of them and got them out of the other dimension and they were once again back at the school. The girls descended on John and Chuck asking if they were okay and what happened.

Chapter 7--A New Perspective

Chuck had ultimately been defeated.  The ashen remains of his body blew away in the wind, forgotten.   

‘What just happened, John ?’, one of John’s friends, Cassie asked.  

‘Oh, after the power went out, I honestly had trouble finding where the dance floor was.’, John fibbed.   Through what little alchemy he bore lingering on his tongue, he was able to trick his friends and faculty that there had been a slight power outage.  Being summer, solar flares were common nationally so no one raised an eyebrow or questioned John’s rhetoric.   

‘Nice Hogwarts costumes by the way.  A little out of place for the prom but hey, you’re doing your own thing.  Rock on.’, Sarah’s best friend, Gabriella laughed, nudging her in side.   

The prom began with a slide guitar version of ‘This is Dedicated to the One I Love’.   John slow danced a waltz step with Sarah, surprised that her head was atop his shoulder.  They had just saved Indigo High from the wrath of a psychotic necromancer and by proxy perhaps the entire world.   

‘I Know This Much is True’ was the second song that played. Sarah looked deeply into the eyes of her fellow savior.

‘We did well today, me and you.’, she said, a huge smile beaming across her face.  

‘That we did.  I couldn’t have done it without you.’, John confessed.   She hugged him close and then stood on her tiptoes to kiss him.  He dissolved into her kiss, completely lost in her spell.   In a whisper he said,

‘I love you.’  He feared what the outcome would be, but was cautiously optimistic.  

‘As do I, my dear.  I always have and I always will.’, she agreed.   He held her even closer as the dance came to a close.   Faster, more upbeat songs kept the spirit alive all the way until post prom until everyone plotzed from exhaustion, sleeping quietly until their trip to Cedar Point the next morning.   

Chapter 8--Making Our Own Magic

Cedar Point was massive.   Only a few students from Indigo Academy had been, so Sarah and John were extremely eager for this epic road trip to undiscovered territory.   John it turns out had been by there once when he visited relatives. Everyone that had been there or knew what it was entered into a pact and agreed to say nothing about it. John really enjoyed how everyone tried to get him to talk about it. Even Sarah got in on the action with a kiss here and there trying to get him to talk but he never told anyone anything. Everyone seemed to watch when she did kiss John. It was almost like they were thinking "Finally they realize they like each other." Little did she know how close he was to talking about it with her. Eventually the first sign of some bowed structure appeared on the sky line like a rib from a prehistoric beast. As they grew closer some more appeared in a seeming tangled mess here and there, and every so often a bump would coast along the structure smoothly.   Fenn reappeared for a second.

‘Could you at least warn someone before you do that ?   Don’t just pop out of thin air.’, John said, with a start.   His heartrate was still irregular from the fright that Fenn had given him.   Sarah couldn’t help but laugh.   

‘I just wanted to check up on you.  I was thinking, both of you took to alchemy like ducks to water.’, he began.   They both knew where this spiel was headed.  

‘We’re just high schoolers.  We’ve got full lives ahead of us.’, John said, grasping a sore spot where Chuck had socked him in the solar plexus repeatedly.   

‘There aren’t many of us left.  Evil still lurks in the shadows and magicians are always needed.   You have the gift.’, he said.   He knew it would take them years to reach Sage level as he had but it would be worth it.    

‘Alright, Fenn.   You know you’re going to have to teach us how to be inconspicuous.’, John admitted, feeling a little antsy about the whole thing.   They both realized that they were the chosen few that are selected among the human world to join the ranks of magicians simply to keep the balance of the universe in check.   After all, villainy had its way of rearing its ugly head when least expected.  It was better to be fully prepared for anything and everything.   

‘You’ll learn that and more.  You may even surpass Fenn the Fantastic someday.’, Fenn said, confidently.   Fact is, Fenn knew their futures having an all-seeing-eye.   He couldn’t reveal it to them but he would help them along their way acclimating to their new lives as magicians.   

Chapter 9--Subtle Energies

In time during the course of college and Fenn’s tutoring, Sarah and John grew closer together and married after having dated for 8 years.  To be technical, they had been sweethearts since kindergarten and had always remained the closest of friends.   Now they were newlyweds having returned home after a much needed vacation in Antigua.    They had gone to Bermuda, Key Largo, Key West, and Puerto Rico on their cruise.   The weather had been splendid and the seas had been smooth their whole trip.   It was a honeymoon they wouldn’t soon forget.  

Sarah felt a shift in energy in her own being and felt herself become warm.  She turned to John and beamed a massive smile his way.  He already knew what she was about to say to him.

‘I think you know that we’re about to partake upon the greatest chapter any two human beings can ever know.’, she said, holding him close.   She took his hands and placed them on her stomach.  He could sense the essence of their unborn child forming in her womb.   They both knew it was a boy and were tickled pink that they would become parents in no time.  

As they became more and more intimate with the workings of magic, they could see and sense things around them that only Sages know.   The mundane world had completely transformed since their eyes had been open to the ethereal.   

Epilogue

James came into the world without even crying that much, which John and Sarah found interesting and not at all unusual.   They knew they had given birth to an old soul that would one day grasp the baton of magic and carry on the ancient ways of protecting the Universe.    James soon was joined by his sister, Kendra in a matter of 7 years.    The Offenbach family was now complete, even with its black cat familiars, Dust, Ashley and Cinder.    They attended ‘normal’ school and went about mundane activities, blending in perfectly with their surroundings.   Fenn observed them grow and outrank his own abilities.   With their prowess the wizard knew that John, Sarah, James and Kendra would be tremendous guardians in times ahead.  

The End