Aphelion

I really didn't care for this one. The style is crude and sort of jerky, all flat with a monotonous rhythm that doesn't change. Altogether ungraceful.

That might have been intentional, to reinforce the impression that the two heroes were being a bit zombie-like in response to the wizard's influence on them. Not likely, though.

The author also spilled his box of punctuation marks and left about half of them on the floor.

Some of the characterization was nice, though; I especially liked the riverboat captain.

Welcome aboard, dacairns! It's good to have another new commenter.

Feel free to show us some of your work -- the flash challenge is still open this month, if you're interested (hint, hint).