Lusam: The Dragon Mage Wars Book Two by Dean Cadman Read Free Book Online

completely empty-handed. He quickly collected as many of the berries as he could hold, and then started heading back upstream to meet Renn. It must have been at least twenty minutes by now, and he didn't want Renn worrying that he had got himself into some kind of trouble.
    Just before Lusam came within sight of their rendezvous point he heard a loud shout, followed by splashing noises, as if someone was being attacked in the water. He dropped his two handfuls of berries on the ground and sprinted towards the sounds as fast as he could. By the time he reached the source of the commotion he had a large powerful fireball fully formed in his right hand ready to defend himself, or Renn from any would-be attackers, and a strong force-field surrounding his entire body, just in case it was another one of the strange men in black robes that had somehow found them here. What he saw instead of a battle scene, was quite possibly the funniest thing he had ever seen in his life. Renn obviously had been trying to catch fish whilst standing on one of the slippery moss covered rocks, but now he was in the water on his back splashing around between two rocks in the shallow water. Above him, holding him down was a strange looking fishing spear wedged tightly between the two rocks so Renn couldn't stand up, and on the end of his spear was a large skewered fish, still flapping and trying to escape its fate. Lusam couldn't help himself, and burst out laughing at the sight before him.
    “Stop your laughing, and get me out of here will you!” Renn screamed at Lusam, while he held on tight to the fishing spear to keep his head above the water. Lusam let his fireball fizzle out in his hand, then he thought about how best to get Renn out of his situation.
    After a few seconds Lusam said, “Okay, take a breath I'm going to release you by breaking that pole.” He concentrated on the fishing pole and it snapped like a dry twig.
    “NO! Wait....,” was all Renn managed to say before the fishing pole broke in two with a snapping sound, and his head disappeared under the water. Surfacing a couple of seconds later he managed to stand up in knee deep water, coughing and gasping for air, and looking more than a little worse for his ordeal. Lusam really struggled not to start laughing at the sight of Renn standing there dripping from head to toe, and still holding half of the fishing pole in his right hand. Renn waded towards the far river bank and clambered up the slippery muddy bank. By the time he reached the top he was not only completely wet through, but covered in mud too. Lusam couldn't take it any more and burst out laughing at Renn's expense. Renn stayed silent until Lusam regained control of himself, before throwing what was left of his fishing pole into the river.
    “By breaking the pole like that you just lost us a good fish, who knows if we can get another?” Renn stated in a controlled even tone. Lusam was very surprised at how calm Renn actually was considering what had just happened to him. He knew if the roles had been reversed it would have taken him much longer to calm down whilst being soaked to the skin, cold and hungry. Lusam searched the water with his magic and quickly located two good sized fish. He enclosed both fish in a small force-field and catapulted them to rest at the feet of Renn, who was still standing there dripping water onto the floor from all of his clothing. The fish startled Renn as they came hurtling out of the river directly at him and he took an involuntary step backwards, tripping over a root and landing hard on his behind, with two large fish flapping around on the ground between his feet.
    “See, I told you I was good at fishing,” Lusam said trying to keep a straight face. The long hard stare Renn gave him spoke a thousand words, he was sure none he would care to hear. “So, did you find a place to cross the river?” Lusam dared to ask after a few more seconds. Renn contemplated his answer for a few