First Lesson

It was an old wand with a purple jewel at its tip. It wasn't fancy, but it was Eve's first.

As she walked beside the old wizard, her appointed guardian, she pointed her wand at shrubs and trees along the dirt road. She willed it to do something, but the wand wouldn't cooperate.

"How does this thing work?" the girl asked.

"In time, lass," the wizard replied.

Eve looked up at him, pursing her lips sourly. "The bad men burned my home and my papa. They should burn, too!" She thrust the wand at a flower, the purple jewel twinkling in the sunlight. "Burn!"

Nothing.

"Uh...fire!"

Nothing.

The wizard grabbed her wrist. "Enough. It will not heed you, not with darkness in your heart."

"There's no darkness in my heart. I'm just a child!"

"Who thinks of nothing but revenge. Magic will not heed your ill thoughts."

Eve pouted.

Up on the road, there was a brownish shape laying in the dirt. Eve sprinted ahead to investigate, ignoring her guardian's calls to return.

It was a fawn she found, its body covered in scorch marks. It writhed in the dirt, in pain. Deep sympathy filling her heart, Eve knelt down and touched its head, gently.

The wizard's shadow fell over her. "It's dying."

Not quite knowing what she was doing, but knowing that she didn't want the creature to die, Eve aimed her wand at the animal, asking with all her heart that it be saved. The jewel at its tip began to glow. Eve watched in astonishment as the fawn's wounds began to close and heal. Then it scrambled up and darted into the wood.

Eve looked up at her guardian, mouth agape.

The old wizard nodded. "That is how it works. Pure heart, pure mind. Remember."