Brian tossed the ball as he got closer, noting that most of the other kids were naked as well. That made him feel better, and he pushed the worry out of his mind. "You guys know anything about a wizard around here?" He was hoping to hear more about Llandros, or better yet, possibly find out about another wizard.
"Oh, yeah!" One of the older boys laughed. "You musta got zapped, right? I knew I hadn't seen you around here before." He tossed the ball to Brian, who passed it on to another boy. "Was it Llandros or his buddy?"
"Buddy?" Brian wondered if the kid was talking about Dar.
"Yeah, another wizard, comes from a town about ten miles from here." The boy pointed to where some smaller children, little more than toddlers, were splashing at the edge of the mud. "James, the kid in the middle, used to be the blacksmith. He tried to overcharge the wizard for shoeing his horse."
The game, which had started out as mostly catch, started to get rougher as it turned into a kind of 'keep away'. Brian was a little surprised that he was enjoying the roughhousing, and ended up wrestling in the mud to grab the ball just as enthusiastically as the other boys. He was a little annoyed when the game of keep-away, which had been mostly targeting the younger boys, selected him as a target. It took a while of running around before Brian suddenly realized he WAS one of the younger boys! A boy no more than 7 or 8 tackled him and it was a struggle to get free. Brian finally slipped loose and scampered out of the mud to look at himself.
The older boy laughed and pointed. "The new kid is heading or the babies!"
Brian started to protest, but realized it was at least partly true. He had become one of the youngest, if not the youngest, boys playing ball. The weird thing was he didn't mind. It was fun being a kid. If he stayed with the big kids, he probably wouldn't change much more. Bu if he went to the little kids, he'd be the biggest instead of the littlest.