Scroll Search

Rummaging through the piles of scrolls that littered the high-reaching room, he frantically searched the one he knew he had seen only a few months earlier.

Chiding himself for not having a more organized sorting system, he threw the unwanted parchments with the multitude of others on the ground.

After a while he sighed heavily and looked up to survey the shelves that lined the rounded walls that reached up into the vast space of the library that was housed within the old oak tree.

It was one of the many the wizard had hidden throughout the forest, and the last one he had been to over the last few days in search of the missing spell.

As far as spells go, it was a very minor one of very little power, yet his whole world depended on finding it.

A novice wizard fresh out of apprenticeship could cast it, nothing a Grand Sorcerer of the Nth Order as himself could not conjure in his sleep. Yet, he had somehow forgotten the exact wording and was now filled with frustration and desperation to find the blasted spell scroll.

With a harrumph, the cranky wizard levitated himself up to scan the scroll-filled shelves in the loftier levels of the oak tree library.

Each one he thought might be the one he sought built his aggravation as they turned out not to be as he flung them angrily down, fluttering to the ground below.

Soon the whole archive was filled with floating papers of magic that sparked and crackled with energy as they bumped into each other on their journey to the floor.

The wizard's vexing search continued until the shelves were bare and the piles of parchment on the ground had reached the third level of the spiralling tree tower, blocking the lower windows and doorway completely.

Finally there were only two dusty scrolls sitting on the highest of shelves near the intricately carved ceiling which depicted ancient symbols and icons that wove wards of protection over the entire library as well as added to the mysterious beauty of the spire.

Despondently, he floated up to the scrolls, convinced neither were the one he remembered seeing a few months back while he had been working on much grander schemes. They seemed untouched for many centuries, like so many of the spells had been, but he had checked all the rest unfruitful, he might as well be totally disappointed he thought as he reached for the first.

Just before his fingers touched the yellowed and dry roll of paper, the wizard was hit with a thought that caused him to groin loudly. He HAD thought of a filing system some time ago, he had just forgotten about it until now.

He then bypassed the first scroll and snatched up the last.

Unfurling the roll, he snorted at himself with distain. Of course; he had filed each scroll he would need in the last place he would look, thus theoretically, avoiding the entire search for what was needed by simply looking for it there first.

A theory only proven if one remembered to prove it.

A quick scan of the spell jogged the wizard's memory and with a booming, unearthly voice he uttered the mystical enchantment with a flourish of his long, boney hand.

With a flash and a pop the red and irritated blemish that had taken root in the middle of his forehead vanished and his unkempt beard and hair quaffed themselves into perfection.

Creating a reflective surface out of thin air, the now dapper looking wizard regarded himself with smug admiration.

Now, he was ready for his date with mountain sorceress he had been trying court for decades.

Satisfied with his handiwork, he snapped his fingers, causing the piles of papers that polluted the tree to start to reroll themselves up and zip through the air back to their places upon the stacks of shelves while he descended gracefully through the din, whistling a happy tune as he floated right out the door into the forest green to meet his enchantress fair.