by Hans Bezdek
“I feel kinda bad having to fight them,” I admitted.
“It is a complicated and sad matter,” nodded the Great Oracle. “If you do not, though, they will kill you and the others. Perhaps, if you can kill Ulrich, those forced into the Dar’Ka’s army will have an opportunity to go back to their otherwise peaceful lives.”
I looked into the fire he had going. I wondered how many more people were going to die because of Ulrich before we stopped him. To think I had ever considered joining up with him…
“Are you headed for Chundar once you wake up?” asked the Great Oracle.
“We’ve got to find the blues and the dwarves first,” I said, shaking my head. “That’s assuming they make it to Ra’Chok. We all landed on the island at different days to try and confuse Ulrich. If we came in one major force, he’d simply come at us with his full military. This way, he’s had to split the Greeners up and he’s got to remain cautious.”
“I see.”
“Once we are all together we’ll head for Chundar. From what our maps show us, there are a number of mountains in the center of Ra’Chok. It might take us some time to find out which one houses Ulrich.”
“That could take quite a bit of time, moving an entire army up and down mountain after mountain,” he commented.
“We’ll figure something out,” I said, trying not to sound concerned.
I hadn’t actually thought about that before. We could end up exhausting our ground troops if we make them constantly march up and down steep mountains, but if we sent just our dragons they would be spotted. They’d then be forced to fight without any backup from the footsoldiers or archers.
“I’m sure you and your friends will,” smiled the Great Oracle softly. “You’ve made quite a few allies on your path here. You’ve done well to prepare for this Second Dragon War.”
“What can I say?” I boasted. “I’m a pretty likeable guy.”
The Great Oracle coughed uncomfortably and looked away.
“Okay, maybe some luck was involved,” I yielded.
“Regardless, our time is coming to an end,” he continued. “Once you awaken, I won’t be able to give you any more assistance. The fate of your friends, this war, and all of Yaerna will be decided by the events that take place over the next few days.”
“So… No pressure?”
The Great Oracle laughed. “Precisely.”
I got up, expecting to be sent away. “Oh, before I go, you mentioned something about secret helpful advice!”
“I believe you were the one that mentioned that,” said the Great Oracle.
“And you didn’t say no.”
“I’m afraid there is the chance you may need more than your usual strength when you battle Ulrich,” said the Great Oracle. “If that happens, I highly advise that you and your friends use the gifts Roxbury and I gave you.”
“You certainly guessed correctly how I’d feel about this advice,” I grumbled.
“I don’t see why you must be this way,” chuckled the Great Oracle.
“Because it’s no secret!” I protested. “We’ve used your gifts plenty of times since you gave them to us. Cassandra constantly wears hers so she can control the Shattered Sword. Braun uses his rock all the time whenever we’re about to go into a battle, or if we need healing. Dhot’s put his looking glass on Helga-”
“Helga?” asked the Great Oracle, tilting his head to the side. “Who is this Helga? A love interest of the goblin?”
“It’s his new gun. He named it Helga for some reason. He seems pretty fond of it.”
“Oh. I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“Even I’ve used the worthless mask you gave me back in Durnskeep,” I continued. “And I don’t see how putting on a mask is going to help me against Ulrich.”
“I’m happy to hear your gifts have been useful,” smiled the Great Oracle, ignoring my final quip. “I recommend you all continue to use them whenever the need arises, especially in the final battle of this war.”
“So your secret helpful advice essentially comes down to: keep doing what you’re doing.”
“Can’t improve on perfection, can you?” smirked the Great Oracle.
“You’re just trying to feed my ego after not being helpful,” I sighed.
“Perhaps,” snickered the old man. He walked to an open space in the middle and began stretching out. “If you don’t mind, I really need to continue on with my exercises. You don’t get to be my age without putting in the work.”
“I do mind, but I don’t have any more questions for you,” I said. Another dream where I felt like I didn’t learn anything super important or new. Maybe the old man just wanted to have someone to talk to while he was stuck in this cave. “You can send me back whenever you’re ready.”
“Very good,” smiled the Great Oracle. He stretched out his hand. I took it and shook it, a bit surprised I could. “It’s been quite the adventure with you over the past months. I wish you the greatest luck against Ulrich. Perhaps our paths will cross again one day.”
“So long as you’re fully clothed, I wouldn’t mind that,” I smiled back.
Everything went black and I woke up.
I looked around the tent to see everyone was still asleep. Glancing out of the tent flap I saw the sun was just starting to rise. For the first time in a long time, I felt well rested and I hadn’t woken out of a Great Oracle dream to someone screaming for me.
I hoped that was a sign of things to come.
Chapter 10
The Collective’s forces moved north, sticking close to the coast. We didn’t know exactly where we’d meet the blues and dwarves, and hadn’t heard anything from them on Dhot’s box. I hoped they would make it without too much of a problem. Since Ulrich and the bulk of his forces had retreated up to his castle at Chundar, we probably didn’t have too much to worry about.
It wasn’t long before the hard rain we walked through the day before came at us again. Thunder and lighting mixed in, along with surprisingly strong gusts of wind. The elves continued to march as if nothing happened, but the humans… not so much. Whenever there was a particularly close bolt of lighting we would hear panicked screams, and there was always a constant droning of their complaining to one another as we walked. It didn’t help that they were moving so slowly, either.
“Drinking makes you stronger?” Beatrix asked Tad.
“Uh, not exactly,” said the elf, taking another swig of his flask.
“Then why do you do it all the time?” she asked.
Tad smiled down at her. “Cause I like it.”
“Can’t fault the elf there!” said Braun.
“How about you, little one?” Tad asked the gnome. “Do you, uh, get your summoning powers through somethin?”
“Nope,” shrugged Beatrix. “Born with it.”
“Did you freak out the first time you summoned something?” asked Cassandra. “Surely it was a big surprise to you.”
“Oh, definitely,” laughed Beatrix. “You know how some kids have imaginary friends? Well, I really liked mine, and one day he appeared out of nowhere! I thought I was seeing things, but then everyone at school screamed and ran away. My parents weren’t too happy with me…”
There was a loud roar of thunder. Braun let out a whimper.
“Not a fan of thunderstorms, Braun?” asked Dhot.
“Oh, I like em well enough when I’m in a buildin,” replied the dwarf. “But being out in em? P-Preferably not.”
“I don’t think anyone likes being out in them,” I said.
“Not true!” said Dhot. “I love the chaos! Maha!”
“You were complaining about the rain yesterday,” I pointed out.
“Only because it’s so cold!” said Dhot. “The rain’s pretty temperate back on the mainland. There also isn’t so much of it.”
There was another roar of thunder, only something was a bit off about it. I slowed while several of the others came to a complete stop.
“Does that thunder so
und kinda weird to anyone else?” asked Dhot.
“That’s not thunder,” said Cassandra, her eyes widening. “Those are dragon roars!”
Up ahead of us we could just make out over a hundred figures through the rain. When lightning flashed again, we could see black and red dragons fighting with smaller blue ones. Dwarves with bows shot up at the masses, their arrows piercing through the rain.
“That’s our army!” I shouted back at everyone. “We’ve got to go help them!”
I didn’t wait for Emerich or Laurinaitis to rally their people. I sped off, my friends close behind.
Shortly after I heard battle cries coming from The Republic. Many of the dwarves turned in our direction at the new sound. They raised their bows toward us for a moment before recognizing who we were. They let out a cheer and raised their bows above them once again.
“I’ll go look fer dwarves to heal!” said Braun as we got to the edge of the dwarves. Within a few seconds, my friend disappeared into the mass of dwarves.
“I dunno how helpful, uh, the rest of us will be down here,” said Tad, looking around.
There were goblin, orc, and troll bodies littered across the field, but none were left standing. The dwarves and blues had gotten rid of the Greeners already, meaning the majority of our forces couldn’t do much. Even the archers would have to be careful as they picked their targets. Not only did we not want to hit our allies, but it wasn’t like we had an infinite supply of Zorikium arrows.
“He’s right,” nodded Cassandra. “I doubt the dwarves need that many more archers. It’s best if the dragons can join in the fray.”
“On it,” I said, taking a few steps back so that I could have some room.
“Hold up,” came Antonius’ voice. He put his hand on my shoulder firmly.
“What’s the matter?” I asked, annoyed that one of my own allies would interrupt me.
“You need to save your energy,” he said, shaking his head. “This isn’t the bulk of the Dar’Ka’s forces, not by a long shot. Let us handle this one.”
“But-”
“He’s right, Reimar,” said Cassandra. “Don’t use any magic, either. Only do it if it looks like we’re going to lose this fight.”
I wasn’t a fan of getting told what to do, but maybe they were right. I was clearly outvoted, so I begrudgingly nodded and stepped back up next to Cassandra.
“We’ll be back soon,” said Antonius. He shifted into his giant golden dragon form and flew off to join the battle.
“So now we wait around and do nothing?” I asked, looking up at the battle raging above us. The rain obscured most of our view, making it hard to see what all was happening.
Bang!
Cassandra and I jumped back, as did many of the dwarves.
“Maha! Tagged one!” laughed Dhot.
“That was loud,” said Tad, digging a finger into his ear.
“You’ll get used to it,” Cassandra lied.
“At least he can still do something in this fight,” I said jealously.
“Do you want a shot?” Dhot asked me.
“Er…” I said, looking down at the contraption in his hands. While it clearly hadn’t backfired on the goblin yet, I felt like it was just a matter of time before he blew himself up with the gun. I decided I didn’t want to push my luck. “I’ll pass.”
Dhot shrugged and went back to shooting into the sky.
One of the red dragons was chased down by two blues. The red looked pretty hurt, his right foot hanging limply and his left wing flapping twice as hard as his right. When the Dar’Ka dragon realized how close he was to the dwarves, he pulled his head back and prepared to unleash his firebreath.
“Get down!” I shouted, pulling Cassandra back and raising the Time Shield above us.
Before the red dragon could let loose his attack, one of the blue dragons grabbed him from behind while the other one brought his claws up into his neck. A burst of fire shot into the sky, then the red dragon went limp. The blue holding him tossed the body away from the dwarves and the two Collective dragons rejoined the battle.
“That was close,” I murmured, lowering my Shield and letting Cassandra get back up.
“Fighting dragons isn’t so fun when you aren’t one, huh?” grinned Cassandra.
“Definitely isn’t,” I agreed.
For another fifteen minutes or so the dragons fought against one another above us, their bodies crashing down at random intervals and in various locations. A silver crashed down hard among some of the humans, hurting several of them when it landed. Everyone made sure to start running when a body was coming their way after that.
Finally, there was a barrage of roars, and several of the dragons broke away. Another flash of lightning showed it was the black and red ones doing so, and they quickly flew to the east. Some of the Collective’s dragons pursued them for a few seconds, but the roars of the wiser ones had them quickly turn back around.
The dwarves let out a victory cry as the Dar’Ka dragons disappeared from sight. The Collective’s dragons slowly descended in a circle around the ground troops, careful not to land on anyone. They shifted out of their dragon forms and into humans, the silver and golds joining back with The Republic’s forces and the blues joining up with the dwarves.
“That wasn’t too bad,” said Antonius as made it back to us. The older man was grinning from the rush of battle. “Even Laurinaitis got in a few good strikes!”
“T-Thanks,” said Laurinaitis, the gold dragon looking severely winded and a bit scared. Even though he clearly didn’t enjoy it, I was glad the gold dragon was willing to put in the work needed to defeat the Dar’Ka.
“This way, sir!” I heard Braun shout through the mass of the dwarves.
A group of them parted and out walked Braun, followed closely by an older dwarf and a beautiful dark haired woman.
“What a pleasant surprise to see The Republic and Aelric so soon!” laughed King Julfr. “Never thought I’d be sayin that, truth be told.”
“We’re sorry we couldn’t have been more help,” said Emerich, bowing at him. “It seemed that your people had the blues more than covered from the ground.”
“Aye,” nodded King Julfr. “Think we would’ve won without ye, but the more the merrier!”
“I’m certainly thankful for the presence of the gold and silvers,” said Kiera, politely nodding to Laurinaitis and Antonius. She then glanced my direction and pouted. “I must admit I was rather disappointed to not see a certain green dragon entering the mix.”
“I would’ve been up there if it was up to me,” I said, my face feeling like it had gone red. I hoped the rain kept anyone from noticing.
“Maybe next time,” winked Kiera.
I made an involuntary strange noise in my throat, then laughed to cover it up.
“Maha!” laughed Dhot. He blinked and looked around confused. “Wait, why are we laughing?”
“It’s good to see you again, Kiera and King Julfr,” said Cassandra politely, guiding the discussion in a different direction.
“Especially durin time of war!” said King Julfr. “Can’t wait to get to it with more of them Greeners and evil dragons.”
“I agree,” said Kiera. “Do we know where Ulrich and the bulk of his army are now?”
“Yes and no,” I said, finally recovered. “It’s a place called Chundar and it’s on a mountain in the middle of the island. The only problem is we don’t quite know which mountain.”
“There only be one way to find out, eh?” said King Julfr. “Let’s be on with it! Me axe has gotten a taste fer blood and it ain’t wantin to stop now!”
Chapter 11
We pushed our army into the heart of Ra’Chok, coming across the beginning of a mountain range. There were plenty of locations that could be Chundar, and we didn’t have a clue how to narrow it down. Then we came across one of the largest piles of rocks I had ever seen. The dark mountain seemed like it stretched infinitely into the sky. We decided to take a risk and marc
h up it. From our vantage point, it was the highest mountain in the area, which would make the most sense for Ulrich to use.
My calves were burning up several hours into the hike. I really wanted to cheat and turn into a dragon, but that wouldn’t have helped the rest of our forces. It also would’ve looked bad to have special treatment. I just had to deal with the pain like everyone else and keep moving.
“What are the odds that this is an active volcano?” asked Dhot shortly after my calves felt like they were going to explode.
There were some nervous glances back and forth.
“Wait, d-do we really not k-know?” asked Braun.
“How did none of us think about that before?” asked Cassandra.
“I wouldn’t worry about it,” I said. “We’re already halfway up. If this thing is a volcano and it blows, we’d die before we got back down anyway.”
“I-Is that supposed to be comforting?!” cried the dwarf.
“Reimar’s right,” said Kiera. “No use in worrying about something we can’t change.”
The weather seemed to rotate between torrential downpour and annoying drizzle every few minutes, making the rocks slippery and more of a pain to climb up. We finished the rest of the march up the mountain without much talking, all of us feeling a bit winded. And at the top of it all, we found…
Nothing.
“No castle and no Ulrich,” I sighed, looking around. The top of the mountain was certainly wide enough to build a fortress on, and thankfully would be a resting spot for our army. It would’ve been nice to not have to march any further, though.
“How many mountains are on this blasted island?” asked King Julfr, covering his eyes as best as he could.
“Our maps don’t say,” sighed Emerich. “From the look of it, there could be a hundred, if not more.”
“Perhaps we should send some of our dragons out to scout the various mountain tops?” offered Laurinaitis.