EnigmA Amiga Run 1995 November/EnigmA AMIGA RUN 02 (1995)(G.R. Edizioni)(IT)[!][issue 1995-11][Skylink CD].iso/earcd/docs/sillyd3.lha/Magicopolis.doc

Text File | 1993-03-08 | 7KB | 123 lines

                    Life in Magicopolis


It was morning. The place, where the morning was, was Magicopolis. The morning
would have wanted to be somewhere else, like Paradise, but at this moment it
had no choice.
  The sun's rays can't be said to have slowly crept inside through the
Magicopolis wizard academy's windows, because the crashed in without
hesitating. Mercilessly they woke up Tim Wiggins, George White, Heinrich Braun,
Maria Ross and many other people and other beings, who had come to Magicopoils
to study the noble art of magic.
  Tim greeted the morning happily and cheerfully. George murmured without any
effort to comment on this new phase of day. Heinrich screamed of fear. He
hadn't noticed the morning, and wasn't used to surprises. Maria said nothing,
she took morning for granted.

The four friends walked peacefully to the great hall, where the teacher, Glok
from Alpha Pavonis III, greeted them with a high-frequenced waving of his
tentacles. Little did he know, that on Epsilon Muscae V the gesture in question
was a most offensive insult. Luckily there was no one from Epsilon Muscae V in
the wizard academy.
  Suddenly, out of nothing appeared a frog. It turned out to be a wizard who
conjured up a clipboard. On the clipboard was an Arabian message which nobody
understood anything about. Tim said a translation spell, and in a moment in
front of him floated an English message which asked them to bid the French
wizard Michelle la Plaz cheerfully welcome.
  Tim had heard of Michelle. He decided to bid her welcome, but not cheerfully.
His plan was to be somewhat indifferent.

Michelle la Plaz arrived on the scene levitating on an invisible disc. She was
naked, since because of the planet's thick atmosphere it was boiling hot
outside. She had no need to be ashamed, however, because a universal illusion
spell made the impression of her being dressed in a most classy wizard dress.
  After getting her room shown and introduced Michelle stepped in it and
dressed in exactly the same outfit everybody thought she had been all the time.
Nobody was amazed when she came out.
  "So this is the famous Michelle. Hello!" shouted Tim, announcing the latter
half of his message in a louder voice than the former. "Yngft", murmured
George. Michelle thought whether she should greet these two people and came to
the conclusion that she should. "Hi", she said indifferently.

It was lunchtime. Because the academy had to save money at least in some
things, so as to maintain an image of tax avoidance, of which it had no need,
there was no door to the dining hall. There was no cavity of any kind in the
brick wall.
  The absence of a cavity didn't cause any trouble to the students. They just
teleported themselves to the other side of the wall with a wave of a hand,
tentacle, proboscis or whatever thing it was they grabbed stuff with.
  The food was special food. It had no real name, because it didn't exist. It
was just the outcome of a cunning spell, and was nevertheless very tasty and
filling. Everybody ate it gratefully, after which they left the dining hall as
quickly and effortlessly as they had entered it.

The teacher, Zgtfw from Dseta Persei VII, guided the students to the practice
hall. The mission was to come up with a spell, which created a light blue
colour. The students had a time limit of 15 local minutes, which corresponded
to approximately 12.83564 Earth minutes.
  The first to manage the test was a creature from Uranus. The Martians were
the slowest, which pleased George. Heinrich was irritated, because he never had
learnt to bear Uranusians.
  Tim felt lively, either because in front of him floated a light blue colour
so soon or because he wasn't tired yet, although everybody else seemed somewhat
drowsy. Maria was about to be disqualified, when her last sleepy draw created a
colour which can be called something like light blue.

The next practice was directed by the techer Rfuuthi from Omicron Centauri IV.
The spell, which was the goal of this examination, was to create seventeen. The
students went straight to work.
  Maria was first to pass the test. After her came a group of beings from Delta
Velae II. Next were the Martians, although their outcome was in fact 17 3/5.
Last of all was George. He didn't manage anything other than 38.234.
  The teacher didn't bother punishing George, because some Venusians had only
managed to create -32 * 10^78. According to the teacher, a small mistake falls
blank before a big one.

After the noon devotions, during which every student could worship his/her/its
own god, idol, totem or whatever it was that was worshipped, came a break. Most
of the students fell asleep standing in the corridors of the academy, but Tim
and Michelle challenged a group of Venusians to a duel with imaginary weapons.
Michelle started. Her Balanoeptra Musculus hit the Venusians in their centre,
which caused general disorder, but the Venusians counteracted with a
(H2BrO3)5Pt, which rendered Tim slightly unconcious.
  Tim gathered all his strength into a great big 6.3845 * 10^325, which he
togehter with Michelle hauled on the necks of the Venusians only to get an
irritated-looking Napoleon Bonaparte in return. Michelle didn't care about
this, but dropped some of the Venusians from the battle grounds with a well-
aimed ochre.
  The Venusians' geology staggered Tim a little, but he didn't fall. Tim's
efficient antigraviton dropped the rest of the Venusians from the battle
grounds, which made the judge claim Tim and Michelle as the winners.

Later the human friends, who had become quite familiar with each other, met in
the lobby. "Hey, you know what, we won?!" yelled Tim. "You won what?" asked
Maria. "To be precise, the match", snapped Michelle. "Oh bloody well..." said
George. "Eek!" said Heinrich, only just awoke to the conversation.
  "Maybe someday, some place, somebody will write a book about us", said Tim.
"What, you two?" asked George, who was in a sarcastic mood. "No, but us wizards
generally", said Michelle, who was reading Tim's mind. "Oh, don't be silly",
said Heinrich, "who would be interested in wizards?"

Later at night the students drew to their quarters. Some of them did a spell
which put them to sleep straight away, some fell asleep naturally, when some,
like the humans, spent the time before the compulsory sleeping time by reading.
  Maria was reading "The good wizard's handicraft guide". It didn't interest
her, but because she was a practical person, she had decided to read it.
Heinrich was reading "The new adventures of Winnie the Poooh". He had planned
light relief after a hard day.
  George was reading "10.000.001 reasons why pickles enjoy their life more than
humans do". He didn't like the book, only its name. Michelle was reading
"Ghuutyi Cefri Thuat". She had never completely understood what its name meant,
but she thought the book very interesting.
  Tim was reading "The three musketeers". He enjoyed Earth classics.

Just as the compulsory sleeping time came the humans fell asleep.
  Sleeping, Tim thought about the thing Heinrich had said. "Who would be
interested in wizards?" had Heinrich said. For a moment Tim thought he could
find hundreds of beings that would be, but after beginning counting them, he
saw that there were not many enough. "Yes", thought Tim," who would indeed be
interested in wizards?"