The Riddle of The Ring

Once a White wizard said to his young apprentice that he must find The Wizard’s ring.

“Only then shall you graduate from apprentice to wizard”, he told him.

“But where shall I find the ring?”, asked the apprentice.

 “You must work that out for yourself, young one”, said the White wizard, stroking his long White beard.

Then he sent him to see the green wizard who lived in an enchanted forest in a tree house castle and the green wizard, when he saw him, cast a green spell upon him and he was bound up tightly in creeping vines and thorns.

But then the apprentice, because he had studied hard under the tutelage of his magical master, recited a spell which he had learned and made the vines and the thorns perish and crumble into dust.

“You know your magic well, apprentice”, said the Green wizard.

But the apprentice wasn’t pleased,

“I did not come here to fight with you”, he said, “I came to find the Wizards ring, please tell me where it is”.

“Go and see the Blue wizard”, said the green wizard with a smile, “Perhaps he has the ring”.

And so the apprentice, turning himself into a golden hawk, soared up into the air and flew off to see the blue wizard who lived in a coral castle deep beneath the sea.

But when the blue wizard saw him, he summoned a giant octopus to grab hold of him and tangle him up in its tentacles.

Fortunately, although he could not breath underwater and thus could not speak a spell, he knew his hand magic and, with a gesture, turned the huge octopus into a tiny, scurrying sea spider.

“You know your magic well, apprentice”, said the blue wizard.

The apprentice, because he could not open his mouth, used the powers of thought to reply.

“I did not come to fight with you”, he said, telepathically, “I came to find the Wizards ring, please tell me where it is”.

 “Go and seek the red wizard”, said the Blue wizard, “He may know”.

And so the apprentice, turning himself into a golden dolphin, swam to the realm of the red Wizard which was one of fire, deep underground.

But when the red Wizard saw him approaching he conjured up a fire ball from his left hand and a bolt of lightning from his right and flung them both towards the boy.

Fortunately the boy, because he had studied under his master how to guard himself against magical assaults, surrounded himself in a shield of golden light which protected him from the fire and the lightning.

“You know your magic well, apprentice”, said the red Wizard.

Now the apprentice was tired and bewildered but, sighing, he asked the red wizard what he had asked the other two wizards.

“I did not come to fight with you”, he said, “I came to find the Wizards ring, please tell me where it is”.

The red Wizard laughed.

”Go back to your master”, he said, “Where you began. There you shall find your answer”.

And so the boy went home to his master, the White Wizard.

“Did you find it?”, he asked the boy, as he came floating home upon a golden cloud, “Did you find theWizard’s ring?”

“No”, replied the apprentice, sadly, hanging his head low,  “I have failed, you oh master”.

Just then however, all around him, the apprentice saw a glow of bright magical light and then, to his left he saw the green wizard appear and to his right, the blue wizard and, finally, behind him he saw the red wizard materialize in a puff of crimson smoke and a flash of scarlet.

“You have not failed, my boy”, said his master, chuckling and laying a hand upon the boys shoulder, “For we four wizards are the Wizards ring and, in defeating each of my brothers in magical combat you have proven yourself worthy of joining our magical circle”.

And suddenly the boys simple clothes transformed into flowing wizards robes of shimmering gold for he had achieved the title of ‘Golden Wizard’.