The Way of the Warrior-Wizard
Chapter 4: Conflicting Expectations

Duncanset out on an expedition to town with his siblings and their dogs. It had been two weeks since he had begun histeaching duties at the University, and he felt that he needed to take on a fewmore family responsibilities at home in order to help his parents.

He and his twin brother Caleb, together with the next-oldestset of twin girls, Cara and Fiona, had been put in charge of supervisingeleven-year-old Ruari, the nine-year-old twins Charlotte and Cade, and weeHamish.

Their two older twin brothers, Sage and Glenlachlan, were inthe front of the van chatting about which girls they liked at the local highschool. Sage was driving the van in hisusual calm and detached manner. He drovethe group of young siblings down to the shores of Lake Bluestoneand dropped them off.

“You and Caleb bring the kids for a walk,” Sage directedthem, “while Glenlachlan and I get the groceries and other supplies for Fatherand Mum.”

Neither Duncan, Caleb, nor any of the other childrencomplained about the order from their older brother, for it was a welcomechange from the chores and farm-work. Itwas rare that the ten of them ever got to go out together without theirparents, and so even something as simple as going for a walk felt like a nicedose of freedom.

They clambered out of the van and went running down to thelake as though they had just been let out of prison. Four of the family’s border collies jumpedout and ran after them, determined to keep the wandering children organizedinto one manageable herd.

“We’ll be back in an hour or so!” Sage called, “You be righthere to meet us.”

“We’ll be here,” Caleb promised the older boys as hefollowed the rest of them down to the lake.

There was a wooden boardwalk which ran for miles along theshore here. The kids liked to jump onand off it to go and climb the many large boulders which rested, partlysubmerged, on the edge of the large lake.

“Birds!” Ruari called out to the sky, “Come and bring us ona magical flight!”

“Ruari,” Duncanadmonished the eleven-year-old, “Don’t you be shouting so loudly. People will think you’re daft.”

“Oh, who cares!” Cara, their free-spirited thirteen-year-oldsister exclaimed, “Let us feel the magic of the day, you stodgy old ProfessorDuncan!”

Charlotte and Cade were dancing near the water, and weeHamish was getting his feet wet trying to imitate them.

“Hamish!” Duncan called out,“Charlotte!Cade! Don’t let the wee one get his feet wet—the water is cold and we don’twant him getting hypothermia.”

Fiona, Cara’s more reserved twin, went over to help thecollies shoo Hamish away from the water, but the damage had already been done.

Fortunately, Caleb had an extra change of clothes and bootsfor Hamish, which he always carried in his knapsack in case of anemergency. He stooped down and took offHamish’s wet socks and shoes and dried his feet as best he could while theyoung boy kicked in the air energetically. He then put on a warm pair of red socks and black farm boots.

“No going into the water, Hami,” Caleb reminded theyoungster as the dogs and the two older girls herded him towards the boardwalk.

Duncanhad not brought his own Security dog, Davy the German Shepherd, on thisouting because it had been too crowded in the van with the other fourcollies. Davy had not been pleased abouthaving been left behind, but Duncanhad commanded him to stay nonetheless. He doubted very much whether he would need Davy’s protection today, whenhe was surrounded by his rather odd family members.

Duncanwished in some ways that he could take a walk on his own—he was feeling a bitweary of the children’s antics and was looking forward to the next day when hehad a class to teach. It was not that heminded spending time with the young ones, but today their constant shouting andleaping about was getting to him.

“You seem preoccupied, Duncan,”Caleb said to him as they progressed along their way, “are the Profs giving youa hard time?”

“No,” Duncanreplied, “most of them have accustomed themselves to my arrival. It’s just the one man, Jerry Donaldson, whoalways seems to have something disparaging to say to me. He thinks that I’m an arrogant brat, nomatter how polite I try to be.”

“It’s because you’re young,” Fiona interjected, “and youryouth and energy no doubt threatens him. Don’t try so hard to please him, because there’s little point if he’safraid of you.”

“Oh, I don’t think he’s afraid of me,” Duncan responded, “Why would he be afraid ofa child?”

“Because you’re intruding upon his world,” Caleb concurredwith Fiona, “in his mind, a fourteen-year-old just doesn’t belong in hiscircle.”

“Well,” Duncanconceded, “I don’t, really. I don’tbelong anywhere.”

“Oh, stop it, Duncan,”Fiona chided him, “you belong with us, in our family.”

“Sometimes I wish I didn’t,” Duncan replied under his breath, as Fionatook off her red kerchief and smacked him with it.

“Now, then, Duncan,you know you love us,” Caleb teased, “We always challenge your oh-so-rationalstate of mind.”

As if to demonstrate the world of non-rationality, Fionabegan to tell a tale that was straight from her imagination. She stopped part way through and said to Duncan, “Your turn.”

Duncansighed, and continued the tale about a rooster living amongst a group ofhedgehogs. He inserted his part of thenarrative, which was that the rooster was overly pedantic and the hedgehogsfound him to be tiresome. He then passedthe story on to Caleb, who immediately inserted some adventure into thepiece. He had a lynx appear upon thescene to threaten the rooster. Carafinished the story by adding a moral to the story: she made the hedgehogs rescue the rooster sothat the rooster could realize that talk was not as important as action.

As they walked along the shore together, Duncan began to feel better. Perhaps it was not as bad as all that, beinga part of a family of magical tale-weavers. He began to chuckle to himself at the antics of the younger children.

In front of them, a group of young boys coming from the oppositedirection appeared. TheMacGregor children politely moved to one side of the path to allow them to passby, but the largest of the five boys stopped suddenly. He reached out and grabbed Duncan by the collar of his shirt.

“You’re the Professor-kid, aren’t you?” he growledmenacingly. His friends sneered atDuncan and his siblings.

“Yes, I am,” Duncanreplied calmly, “now if you’ll kindly remove your hand from my shirt, we will allowyou gentlemen to go along your merry way.”

“Listen to this!” the boy jeered, “You gentlemen, he says! Whatkind of a freak are you, with your fancy manners and your weird family?”

“That’ll be enough, Josh,” Caleb warned the boy.

“You know him?” Duncanasked his brother incredulously.

“Yeah, from school,” Caleb replied, “He’s always botheringCara, Fiona, and I.”

“You’re all a bunch of freaks,” Josh persisted in hisbullying, “I’ve heard people say that you’re witches and that you’ve got ghostsin your house.”

“Yes, we do,” Caleb replied nonchalantly, “we have a boglewho followed us over from Scotland. He follows us everywhere we go.”

“What the frig is a ‘bogle’?” Josh asked heatedly.

“It’s a house-ghost, you ninny!” Cara interjected, wrinklingher nose at him.

Josh looked at Cara uncertainly, as if unsure whether totease her or flirt with her.

He finally settled upon saying, “You’re a witch, Cara.”

“Yeah, what was your first clue, Sherlock Holmes?” Cara shotback saucily, “I should mention that we also have some Faeries and Elves in thefamily. Our father says that he may havebeen a changeling—a Faerie-Queen left him in our grandmother’s cradle and stolethe Human bairn so that it could take Father’s place in the Otherworld—ourFather has told us that he’s actually the King of the Faeries, in addition tobeing a Warlock, that is.”

“You people are totally insane,” Josh replied, rolling hiseyes, “I’ve never heard of such an idiotic story. Do you really expect us to believe thatcrap?”

“I think we need to fight ‘em, Josh,” one of the other boyssuggested, “These freaks are too weird to let them wander around loose likethis.”

“You stay away from our sisters and the younger children,” Duncan warned them.

“We won’t touch ‘em,” Josh gloated, “but you and Caley, onthe other hand...I think you need to learn your place in the world rather thanlording it over us with stupid stories about being flitting fairies andwizards...sorry, Merlin and Gandalf,but it’s time you came out of the clouds and back down to Earth.”

Josh hurled Duncandown on the ground without warning, and it knocked the breath out of him. He felt a pain in his stomach, and he feltlike he was going to be sick. Heabsolutely hated fighting, but he could not just sit there and let Josh and hispals push them around.

Caleb had thrown himself at Josh, and the two husky boys peltedeach other with their fists. Josh’s fourcompanions cheered on their champion, urging the bully to “kill him”.

“You leave my brother alone!” Caleb warned them all as hesocked Josh in the mouth.

Duncanknew that he could not let Caleb fight Josh by himself and so he charged at thelarger boy, attempting to knock him down. Another boy grabbed Duncanand began to pummel him, ripping his shirt in the process. Cara and Fiona had picked up some olddriftwood and began to use them as clubs, hitting the attackers from theside.

The collies had encircled the younger children protectivelywhile they were watching the unfolding drama. Ruari was speaking in Gaelic, calling uponthe nature spirits to intervene and come to their aid. One of Josh’s smaller friends ran over andattempted to push Ruari, but the willowy blonde boy hopped neatly out of hisway as one of the border collies, named Shep, growled menacingly at thewould-be attacker. Young Charlottecharged at the offender, screaming bloody murder as her brothers Cade and Hamihurled pieces of wood at him.

“What’s this?!” a voice boomed, and a man wearing a greyovercoat strode over to the battling group.

Duncanstood up, his eye bruised, his nose bloody, and his shirt in tatters. When he saw the identity of the man, he sworesoftly to himself. It was ProfessorJerry Donaldson!

“Is this how the grand Professor Duncan MacGregor spends hisfree time?” Donaldson asked, “Engaging in childish fights?”

“I...” Duncanstammered, humiliated.

Of all the people who had to come to their rescue, why didit have to be his nemesis, Professor Donaldson?

“It wasn’t Duncan’sfault, Sir,” Fiona explained, dropping her driftwood club, “we were all mindingour own business when these boys assaulted us.”

Donaldson peered at Fiona suspiciously, as if he did notbelieve a word of what she was telling him.

“It looks more like you’ve all been beating up on these poorfellows,” Donaldson replied tersely, “Duncan,I am certainly disappointed in you; and you should be ashamed of yourself as well. I would havethought you were too mature to bully other kids. What kind of example are you setting for your younger siblings? I will be contacting the Dean as well as yourFather in order to discuss this behaviour in more detail. Do you honestly think that you should be leftin charge of teaching kids older than yourself when you can’t even get alongwith kids your own age?”

“Yeah,” Josh added, changing his tone of voice to make itsound as though he was the beleaguered one, “We were walking along, and theyjust attacked us out of nowhere. Duncan said he was betterthan us because he taught at University, and the others said that they ownedthe Universe because they were wizards and witches.”

“I want both groups of kids to walk in the oppositedirection of one another,” Donaldson ordered them, “If I see you warring witheach other again, I’ll phone the police...and it won’t be pretty.”

“Yes, Sir, of course,” Josh replied, now the essence of goodmanners.

He and his gang then turned and ran away, leaving Duncan andhis siblings to deal with the consequences of the melee.