"The joy we have in thinking and learning makes us think and learn even more."

Aristotle.

Ezequiel sat on the porch step watching Igor who remained standing, in the yard in front of the cabin, in the center of the clearing that he destroyed a few days before, a clearing created by the powers of the elder in the same way as the house and everything around it. With the staff, he radiated successive waves of energy that went in all directions, bouncing off whatever they encountered and hitting the young wizard in simultaneous bursts from all sides. Igor dodged with great skill, but every now and then he ended up receiving a weak, but unpleasant, electric shock, as he would need to have eyes in the back of his head. The wizard intensified the discharges in order to make the young man's dodges more difficult, as he wanted Igor to use his powers and not dodges to neutralize the attacks.

Igor began to get tired when, finally, his subconscious brought to the surface a way to defend himself and a greenish luminous barrier formed around his body, shaping it. All the balls and rays of energy thrown hit the protection without anything happening and Igor laughed at the teacher's face who intensified the attacks even more. Soon after, a new memory appeared and he began to float, rising slowly and laughing, delighted with the gift of being able to fly.

"Listen here, my son," said Ezequiel, interrupting the attacks that became useless. "You are a wizard and not the Green Lantern, so act like one."

He had barely finished speaking, he hit the staff on the ground and, with a frightening thunder, an intense ray tore the air, coming out of the small globe on its top and hitting the boy's barrier. At first nothing happened, but soon after, Igor was seized with convulsions and his protection collapsed. Out of control, the poor guy fell as the attack was suspended. Without holding back, the old man began to laugh at the apprentice.

"So," continued Ezequiel, when Igor recovered and sat down, shaking his head and showing a small smile, "what lesson can we learn from this?"

"That you are very dangerous," he said, laughing afterwards at his grimace. "And I believed that I had done well!"

"Considering that this barrier was made intentionally, it was great, but I'm sure you shouldn't be knocked down by the rays, even without the barrier. They are energy, so absorb them and reuse them. In the woods, your barrier withstood the explosion of the strongest plasma balls I've ever seen in my life and nothing happened to you."

Igor got up and entered the cabin, taking water. He sat on the step, drinking slowly and thoughtfully:

"Ezequiel," he said, finally, "when I came to myself, you gave me clothes and said that you brought them from a nearby city, but on another occasion you said that we are many kilometers from any civilized place."

"It's because at that moment I didn't want you to know that I'm a wizard and I created the clothes," explained the elder. "I was afraid you were much worse than you looked."

"I understand, but I know I have to go soon," he insisted, worried. "Maybe it's not safe to stay too long in the same place."

"Came on, son, explain to me how you intend to face what you don't know?" asked the wizard, very serious. "You can even keep running away from something, but without knowing your enemy, you will never be able to defeat him. To get out of here, only walking a lot to the east, flying or opening a portal."

"How do you open a portal?"

"Only level one wizards have this ability," he replied, shrugging his shoulders. "You have it, but you don't remember and that's something I can't teach. This is almost the only difference between your degree and mine."

"How can you know that I have this gift?" asked Igor, curious. "Nothing in my attitudes showed anything for that side!"

"Believe me, son, I know what I say." Ezequiel got up and entered the cabin, returning with a very old book in his hands. "Take it, read this, but take good care of the book that there are very few left of it."

The young man opened the book and, despite the runic-style characters, he found out that he could read it.

― ☼ ―

The days went by and Igor trained his magic with zeal, already being able to do several things. He did not miss a single opportunity to devour the book that the elder had lent him. One day, the young man began to feel very restless and without understanding the reason. Asked by Ezequiel, he shrugged his shoulders.

"I feel a strong disturbance in the balance of the planar particles that bothers me," he replied, without thinking very well about what he said. "I fear that something bad is about to happen and I have been feeling this discomfort for a few days, but now it has become much stronger. But I don't know how to define what it is, nor do I even know what I said."

"This means that there may be people from other planes here, people who should not be on Earth."

"But where?"

"It depends on the sensitivity of the Guardian of the Portals to detect it. It can be thousands of kilometers, even on the Moon."

"Do you feel anything?"

"Only your nervousness, son," replied Ezequiel, but he had difficulty hiding his own concern. "I am not a Guardian of the Portals, but, by the way, that's what you are. So calm down, but stay alert."

That afternoon, they both went for a walk in the woods because Ezequiel wanted him to learn some unusual things, such as camouflage, among others. He said:

"As soon as you regain your memory, you will end up dominating the light and being able to become invisible, but until you learn that you will have to settle for the knowledge of level two. Remember, in the clearing, when the pumas attacked?"

"Yes, I confess that I thought you had run away and left me to my own luck. Then I saw you out of the corner of my eye."

"I was very close, but I looked identical to one of the trees. Learn mimicry, like the chameleon, which can be very useful."

Igor found out that it was not difficult, besides being very fun, but he never fooled Saci who, as always, had accompanied them on this ride. Stupefied by the animal's ability to discover him, he asked Ezequiel for the reasons. Laughing, the wizard explained:

"Dogs are colorblind, Igor. Remember: deceive a dog and you will deceive any other; see as a dog and you will never be deceived. Simple like that."

However, as much as he tried, Igor could not and that left him a little frustrated because he did not like to lose at all.

The evening was already advanced when they returned. Happy, Igor took the opportunity to appreciate the virgin and beautiful nature. He who had been paying attention to everything, noticed that something was missing, a simple thing and that should be a very bad sign. He drew the attention of his friend, becoming restless again:

"Ezequiel, have you noticed that everything is too quiet?" he commented, in a questioning tone. "At this time, we usually hear a lot of birds and even monkeys in the trees. In addition, that unpleasant feeling of mine increased a lot."

"It's true, Igor, and look at Saci's nape," commented the elder, pointing. "He only gets bristled like that if there is something very bad nearby. He doesn't scare easily."

They were still a good ten minutes away when Saci growled loudly and started walking crouched, more like a leopard ready to pounce than a huge dog. Ezequiel put his hand on the young man's shoulder, making him let the dog go ahead.

Without warning, Saci growled even louder, but it was no longer a canine growl but something macabre and frightening, serious and very intense, similar to a crocodile roar, only much louder. Once again Igor felt Ezequiel's hand holding his shoulder asking him to stop. Without taking his eyes off the dog, he saw something that chilled his soul, because he was no longer in front of a dog but of something that metamorphosed and defined itself with every step he took. Now, the animal would compete with a Tyrannosaurus Rex in size without any difficulty. The hind legs were large and shrunk in the same molds as a hare, having perhaps a third more in length than the front ones. The fingers were long and as manipulable as those of a human being. His tail was thick like that of a crocodile and must have a length equivalent to his body that already passed ten or twelve meters, all covered with a shiny dark green leather and very robust. The neck had its three meters and was the owner of an impressive mobility, like a snake, only with the head of a transcendental beauty and proportional to the size. It had a triangular shape and a large mouth, with a row of very white and well-aligned teeth, although the canines were larger than the others. The eyes were large and penetrating, well pulled back and with a capacity for dilation and contraction of the pupils similar to that of the felines, which allowed him to see very well in the dark. Above the mouth the nose ended with two slits that closed at the owner's will and the super-sensitive ears were protected by thin membranes that moved in any direction with ease. Igor, astonished, saw all this metamorphosis occur in just four steps that the creature took, discovering that in front of him was a huge dragon that started running to the clearing in large jumps. His head was about two meters above the treetops and, with each roar, smoke and some flames came out of his snout. From there, Igor could not see if it was by mouth or nose, but he also did not think right about it.

At that moment, the monster opened two pairs of huge wings, made of thin membranes similar to the ears and gave a gigantic leap upwards, taking flight and gaining height very quickly. Ezequiel pulled his friend and the two wizards started running to the cabin, always attentive. When they arrived at the clearing, they found the dragon perched in one of the corners of the bottom, but, apart from that, there was nothing abnormal. Ezequiel approached and said:

"Something or someone walked around here," he signaled to approach, showing marks on the ground, "but whatever it was left the craziest footprints I've ever seen."

Looking sideways at the dragon, Igor approached and had the same unpleasant feeling again. Ezequiel, as soon as he noticed that there was nothing else around, muttered a few words and the staff shone with force. With it, he touched the dragon who began to shrink, returning to the form of a dog a few seconds later. The animal approached the wizard and touched his snout on his hand.

"This thing that came here is very bad, Igor," continued the old man, worried. "In two thousand years of existence, I have never felt anything so bad. Let's go inside. With Saci around, we are safe."

"Are you serious, do you have a real dragon as a pet?" asked Igor, very amazed. "Do dragons exist?"

"As an old wizard friend of mine and dead for many generations used to say: 'there are more things between heaven and earth than your vain philosophy dreams of.'"

"Did you know William Shakespeare?" Igor made a face of astonishment, so strange that Ezequiel even laughed. "And was he a wizard?"

"He was a better writer than a wizard, much better," commented the wise man, mocking, "but we were very good friends. As for the dragon, they are from a world that is on the eighth plane, they serve well-defined purposes and they are not pets, as you mentioned. Your amnesia is what prevents you from knowing this, but they used to be our allies, helping wizards of second and third levels to walk through the thirteen planes or spheres of existence, among other things."

"But there are not only thirteen planes but fifteen—"

"Who told you that?" Ezequiel was very shaken and nervous when he heard such a thing. "Who told you that there are fifteen planes?"

"Sorry, Ezequiel," replied Igor, amazed by the sudden exaltation of his teacher, "but that came out without thinking."

"Well, among the first level wizards who can cross the planes without the help of dragons," explained the elder, calmer, "there is one who defends the thesis that there are more planes, but that has never been proven."

"I see that I really have a lot to remember," said Igor, with a sad smile. "Maybe I knew that man."

"This thing that came here is worrying. I feel a pure evil, a total absence of balance," he said. "If that's what you were running away from, son, we have trouble. Thank goodness Saci is around."

"Did you turn him into a dog?"

"No. Dragons can take on other forms, like a magic of their own because they become the creatures themselves, but they can never imitate the human form. They have a few very specific powers. I just helped because, with my intervention, the metamorphosis is much faster. He chose the canine form at my request, so as not to stand out. We have been together for about eighteen centuries, a very long history of friendship."

"Speaking of age," said Igor, laughing, "for a two thousand year old elder you are in an enviable physical shape, to run like that."

"I still have many decades ahead, my son." Ezequiel gave a good laugh. "It's very good to keep fit."

Despite the wizard feeling safe with Saci, Igor was restless and nervous, barely closing his eyes at night. In the morning, he woke up worried and tired, but felt better after having a good coffee. Afterwards, sitting on the porch, he asked:

"Ezequiel, is there anything here that is of value to a possible invader?"

"What is valuable to some, may not be to others," he replied, enigmatic. "But yes, there is something valuable here, but no one can know about it because it stays here, but in another additional dimension, as if it were a pocket inside the pocket.

"Igor," continued Ezequiel, changing the subject. "You don't remember your nightmares, but the subject of them is always the fact that there are many dead and you blame yourself for it. Do you have any idea what it could be? After all, to always have the same dreams is because it happened and it shocked you a lot—"

"He's back." Igor interrupted, getting up. Not two seconds later Saci did the same thing. "I feel a great disturbance of the planar lines."

Soon after, everyone heard the laugh, a cold laugh, to freeze the blood. At the bottom of the clearing bushes moved and a black thing, like a shadow, appeared. It looked like something out of the head of some lunatic who intended to create a terrifying horror movie character, but it was only a shapeless sketch.

The young man's first reaction was to freeze with fright, but the sight began to provoke many flashes of memory. It was fleeting and fast, not eliminating amnesia in its entirety, but helping to remember many things, enough to remember most of his powers. The hesitation was a dangerous mistake, but, despite that, Igor was still the first to react, raising both hands above his head and throwing two balls of energy that should have destroyed anything within a radius of more than a hundred meters. At the same time, a strong greenish brightness shaped his body, protecting him from everything. The plasma spheres, however, did not have the desired effect on the strange nightmare being, who began to laugh and absorb the strength, increasing the young man's nervousness and insecurity.

When the strange and bizarre creature retaliated, it did not use plasma but a black and cold sphere that, when touching Igor's protection barrier, burst into dozens of smaller spheres that surrounded him and exploded, causing the collapse of the young wizard's defenses. Igor jumped to the side, but was grazed by one of them. He felt a stabbing pain in his arm that was cold and with a little impaired mobility, feeling weak.

"Igor, I will always find you and you will never escape me," commented the shapeless monster, laughing non-stop. "I said I would find you and here I am. You can even try, but you will never escape me. I already got your parents and I will continue to destroy everything you love and cherish, I swear. Your powers are useless against me."

"Never, you black demon," shouted the young man, angry. "You are not indestructible, no one is."

Amid a new laugh from the creature, Igor threw another pair of energy balls, but the being seemed to grow with each attack from the young man. At that moment, Saci transformed again, placing himself between them and creating a curtain of fire over the invader while Ezequiel raised the staff and also attacked, making the creature have to retreat, cornered.

"Now you know who your enemy is, son," said the old man, keeping calm while seeing the panic on the young man's face and concluding that he must have recovered at least part of his memory.

Moving with some difficulty, Igor struck a new attack on the entity, but his attacks only strengthened him and the wise man saw it. Leaving the attacks to Saci, he approached the wizard and held his shoulder, saying:

"Try to escape, Igor, try to open a portal and close it right away so he doesn't track you. Here, you only increase his power. Look for your parents that we will delay him. He can't face me and Saci together, but when you get close he strengthens too much."

"But what about you?" he asked, distressed, "I can't abandon—"

"You just get in the way, Igor, get out," insisted Ezequiel, imperative, while squeezing his shoulder more, "and avoid coming back so you don't get tracked."

Unlike the young man, the dragon's attacks affected the creature that could not get any closer. Scared, but reluctant, Igor started running into the forest, going deep and far away and Ezequiel joined the dragon in the attacks, launching rays much stronger than those he used to train the young man.

Igor still did not remember all the resources he had, but he already remembered who he was and knew that the despair in him made his greater powers come to the surface. That time was no exception and, as he ran, both hands began to glow faintly in a milky color. He stretched both forward and suddenly he was no longer in the canyon. It seemed that the place in front of him was a painting so realistic that it mimicked reality and he crossed it, as if he tore it. Right after and still running, everything got much darker and he tripped, falling on something soft and bumping into a wall. Panting and frightened by the huge noise he caused, he rubbed his head with his hand where it hit: the wall of his room, in his parents' house. Right after, he realized that he broke the limits of space-time and opened a portal to where he wanted to go from the beginning, starting to remember how he did it. Relieved he looked around and saw in front of the closet, next to the bed, the gap he opened and that still showed the virgin landscape of the Itaimbezinho canyon. In a hurry, he got up and closed the passage, sitting in the chair next to him, with his lungs panting and thinking. A part of him tried to understand the reason for being powerless against the creature when Ezequiel, who was much weaker, could keep it in respect. More likely he and Saci had already killed the demon. He began to search his memory and discovered several memories, but still had gaps.

At that moment, he remembered what he wanted to do before meeting Ezequiel and a chill of fear ran up his spine because he just concluded that the noise he made should have been enough for someone to check, but no one appeared. He left the room and went down to the living room, calling his parents out loud and finding no living soul. He searched the whole house until he went to their room and, what he saw, made him go into shock and, then, cry like a child.

He found both reclining on the bed, as if they were watching television despite being turned off. However, their bodies looked like those of two elders and were lifeless. The being had told the truth and sucked their essence as he did with so many others. He knew that the bodies would not deteriorate and would remain as if they had mummified.

Crying always, he opened a portal and took them to another place to give them a burial worthy of their condition. By his calculations and according to his memories, now he and Ezequiel should be the last living and active wizards in the entire Universe, except for the dormant ones, who were unaware of their abilities despite having them.

After that and still not remembering the whole past well, but returning to dominate most of his powers consciously, Igor returned home and decided to retire as a wizard.

― ☼ ―