Torm's Barn

    The side of the barn exploded. Torm wasn't very happy about that, for he rather liked his barn. But  what was he, a mere non-magic using human, to do about it? Things always seemed to go this way when he had his brothers over. Both of them, Bran and Luzen, were rather adapt magic users, and had even been accepted into the Grand Academy for Wizards. Not to mention they were among the top percentage of students. Torm hated them for those reasons.

    The two brothers, twins actually, were always at odds with each other, competing over everything that could be competed over. And as was the way with wizards, magic was the primary medium of competition. Torm was just thankful that the roots of wizardry ran so deep in their bloodline that they were almost immune to magic.

Almost.

    "Gods blast it you two! If you're going to sling spells then do it outside! That last spell singed little Timmy's hair and almost burned his face!" Torm shouted, hoping the two fools would see reason and stop their castings, or at least do it elsewhere.

    "Bah! It will help him build character!" retorted Bran. "Besides, he shows more magical casting prowess than you, being around magic and taking a few spells will help him get used to the arcane arts.

    Luzen, seeing an excellent chance to accost his brother, stepped in. "Are you mad? He's just a babe and you think a fireball to the face will help him "build character?" Yes I'm sure it would. In fact, that was probably Maddock's reason for his Crushing Telekinetic Retrieval spell. He thought: "I need a spell that will crush my baby while bringing him back to me after I've punted him with Bruxby's Giant Foot. All in the name of character!"

    At this point the rest of the family, about twenty or so other members, started picking up their dinner plates and moving outside at the same time some of the other family wizards levitated the table as well and brought it with them. They all understood that the two brothers wouldn't finish their argument until one of them was unconscious.

    "Can't you do something Pops?" Torm asked his father as he reluctantly followed the exodus of the barn.

     "You know I can't son. They're both far better at magic than I and they won't listen to reason," he replied.

    Torm sighed. He had finished building the new barn just a few weeks ago, after his old one was demolished in much the same way. Torm didn't think he'd invite Bran and Luzen over to the next holiday dinner.

    "Don't you get sarcastic with me!" Bran yelled as he pointed a finger at Luzen and unleashed a bright blue lightning bolt.

    "Are you kidding me? They're already at lightning bolts?" Torm questioned no one in particular. Many of the other family members laughed. They always did. They found Bran and Luzen's quarrels hilarious, and considered them nothing but good fun when Torm objected. Some members of the family even placed bets on the matches. Torm didn't think they would feel the same way if it happened in their barns.

    Luzen, however, came prepared. He knew his brother's love for lightning and chuckled at his resourcefulness as Bran's lightning blast was absorbed into a ring on his left hand.

    "Here. Have a taste of your own spell," said Luzen as he lifted his left hand and willed the ring to release the spell it had caught.

    However, despite the roughly ten feet or so Luzen was from his brother, he missed. He missed a lot with his spells actually. Luzen's counterattack blew another hole into Torm's precious barn and Torm cursed.

    "Sometimes I wonder how the hell you're considered my equal at the Academy," Bran said, shaking his head as he moved his hands in a casting pattern. A moment later a solid wall of thick ice rose up between the bickering twins and an icy trail covered the ground between the barn wall behind Luzen and the ice wall. Luzen had never seen such a spell before and would have to admit, he was intrigued by his brother's newest conjuration. Before he could guess what the spell did however, he was shown. The wall zipped along the icy trail, smacking into Luzen on the way and carrying him into, and subsequently through, the barn wall, drawing a loud yelp of pain from the younger twin.

    "What's the matter?" called Bran. "I thought you liked ice spells!" Bran laughed out loud at his own humor.

    Luzen was furious. How dare his brother use one of his beloved ice spells against him. Angrily, he grabbed a ring on his right hand, his most prized possession, and gave it a twist. Ice started to form over and around Luzen as he was transformed.

    "You'll pay for that, smart-ass! I'll show you the power of a real ice spell!" Luzen cried. He continued to transform until he was a hulking ice giant, larger than the barn.

    "Oh you have got to be kidding me!" Torm shouted as the family members around him started cheering and throwing down more bets.

    Bran used the time he was out of Luzen's sight wisely and cast a short teleportation spell, putting him on the edge of the forest, quite some feet behind Luzen. This elicited several "oohs" and "ahhs" as well as a few "shhs" from the crowd. Luzen didn't hear them though and with one strong swipe of his arm tore off a large portion from the roof of the barn. Without even stopping to look around the barn for Bran, Luzen closed his eyes, opened his mouth and blew a freezing gale into the barn, instantly turning a large portion of it to solid ice.

    Opening his eyes, Luzen looked around the barn and realized his target wasn't inside. Well aware of another of Bran's favorite tactics, the towering ice giant turned around and looked at his brother through hate filled eyes. The older twin stood defiantly with a wooden wand in hand, blue sigils carved into the surface glowing fiercely. The twin-turned-giant realized his mistake at that moment. His ring, the only defense against his brother's deadly lightning magics, wouldn't work while he was under his transformation spell. Bran uttered the activation word for the lightning wand and a deadly bolt, easily ten times larger than the one he cast earlier, struck his younger brother squarely in the chest. The heat from the bolt melted a fair portion of Luzen's transformed torso and pushed him backwards, causing him to trip on the barn and crash through it, shattering the iced over building into tiny pieces. Luzen's transformed body shattered as well and his frail human body laid in the middle of the barn unconscious. Bran had clearly won, making the family wizard match count 32-0. The winners of the betting collected their small winnings, and the losers wondered if Luzen would ever win.

    Shortly after, Bran brushed the dust off his robe and rejoined the family. Everyone was eating again as if nothing had happened. But Torm could only stare at his barn, destroyed more completely than ever before. He considered giving up his farm life and moving to the city nearby.

Yeah. I could use a change of scenery.