Character's POV
I hate my hat. I shifted to this place a month ago from earth, expecting it to be full of mages with star-studded blue robes and pointy hats, but aside from myself and some crazy bug-eyed old bat, no one in Qaernt-Takal wears stupid pointy hats or cereal-box-Merlin robes. I'll never follow the steriotypes again. Even if the hat makes people give me a wide berth, I feel like a moron. I guess it couldn't be helped, though. Very little information was given to me about my job in Qaernt-Takal aside from "it's very magical... and medieval, kind of, only with more, well... Star Wars". Yeah. Right. Some mentor he turned out to be. But he's my uncle, and the only other High Mage within hundreds of miles that wouldn't kill me on first sight. They didn't like my eyes.
High Mages and well-trained Mid Mages are the only ones who automatically see through the shield that makes me look fully human. It doesn't have too much to hide; just red eyes, white hair, and tan skin laced with a network of red lines and swirls. And tiny fangs, but most don't see past the eyes or skin. Forget the fact that I'm five-four. By the look on some mages' faces, you'd think I was ten feet tall. With all their hostility, I have no choice but to trust my insane uncle.
Even when he forgets to mention that I'll be going to place with dragons, one of which is soaring below me, recovering the spell I'd hit it with when it tried to turn me into crispy barbequed mage-demon. Aside from the dragon trying to fry me, the journey to the bizarre pink castle didn't look like much of a challenge. And then the giant stone face to my right, which I'd assumed was an immobile statue since it lacked any traces of magic, broke away from the cliff and turned to stare it me. Well, at least it's just a head. Heads can't do anything, really.
Unless they can shoot blue rays out of its eyes, which it did. I smelled something burning above me, and I ripped my hat off to see that it now looked like a tophat. The lasers destroy things, apparently. Okay then. I shoved my hat back on my head and avoided another laser, wondering if the stupid hat had just saved my face by drawing the stone head's attention to the hat instead. Well... maybe it wasn't such a bad hat.
((Character sheet coming later.))