by Robert Spina
A very small mosquito is flying through the night air. It is very small, about half the size of a regular mosquito. It lands on Vegenrage’s neck and begins drinking his nourishing blood. Vegenrage sleeps soundly and is unaware of the almost microscopic proboscis draining his blood. The belly of the mosquito is getting fat and red with blood, when its abdomen squeezes tight and the blood squirts back into Vegenrage. It removes its proboscis and flies away without Vegenrage ever knowing it was there.
The light of morning is breaking the horizon, and Glimtron wakes, waking the party just before the sun reaches the horizon. They moan and groan and get some breakfast to eat from their food bags.
“Come, everyone, let’s get moving. I don’t want to waste any of the daylight. I hope to hear from the elves or the Dagi today. Ahnkle, where are the giants?”
“I don’t know, Glimtron. I have not seen any of them since Osworns spoke with us last night.”
“Churcher, have you seen the giants?”
“No, there is no sight of them.”
“Well, we cannot wait. They will catch up with us. Let’s move on, everyone, there is no time to waste.”
The party moves on down the last hill from the Sand Marshes and heads toward the misty and creepy Ruin of Altrar. The land is clear of trees for about a mile from the Smildren Sea to the upward sloping hill where Altrar was built. The path they are taking goes along the base of the hill and around Altrar, and the party looks on, observing the rotting and falling-down structures. They are heading east with the Smildren Sea to their north and Altrar to the south. The hill is quiet, and the trees are red and green and brown, giving great color and a creepy beauty to this once very populated place. The ground is covered in fallen leaves, and the wind whistles as it passes the unoccupied buildings and houses. The hill rises slowly, and it is very neat the way the people here built the homes right into the hill. Of course, over time the hill has eroded, collapsing a lot of the structures.
The air grows chilly, and roars start to sound out, startling the horses. The party alertly looks around for the source of the sound, which eludes them so far.
“Glimtron, what is it? What is making that noise?” Blythgrin and the Dagi ride up to Glimtron. They dismount, and Blythgrin pulls the Sapphirewell from his Bag of Holding. It is gleaming fantastically with silhouettes of dragons floating within it.
“Glimtron, the dragons have found us.”
“Everyone dismount, the dragons have found us. We make our stand here.”
The dragons fly up from over the Ruin of Altrar, and the dwarves look in awe as the horses head back the way they came. The dwarves ready themselves with fantastic Foarsbleem axes able to slice, cut, and dismember anything that comes into range. Unfortunately, that is a very small range. The feeling of hopelessness is overwhelming as not one, two, or three dragons appear, but over fifteen dragons of all colors are now circling in the sky.
“Get to Altrar, use the structures as shelter. Hurry!”
“Glimtron, we will stay here. We can do much more good using the Sapphirewell from here in the open, and the dragons will not be able to get close to us.”
“Blythgrin, Trybill, Grenlew, Solmbus, and Greeter, may our fathers be with you. Take nothing for granted, and use all your strength.”
“And you as well, Glimtron, now go get to the buildings.” The dwarves except the Dagi head for the ruins.
“Vegenrage, I am scared. What do we do?”
“Do not take to the air, Farrah. There are too many of them. Let’s head for Altrar with the dwarves and get Vergraughtu ready. Use his strength. Remember, his strength is yours.”
The dwarves find shelter somewhat in the Ruin of Altrar. They spread up and watch as the dragons circle from above. Blythgrin and the Dagi set up the Sapphirewell on a specially made pedestal that holds the Sapphirewell about three feet off the ground. It is a small wooden structure covered in a thick blue blanket with golden stitching throughout it. They all begin to chant, and a blue dome appears around them about fifteen feet high. The dome is visible like blue glass and has streaks of white all throughout it. There are five chairs that Blythgrin has pulled from his Bag of Holding, and the Dagi sit around the Sapphirewell facing outward.
Yarwellorn is the first to attack, and he makes his move on the dwarves in the ruins. He swoops down on an area where six dwarves are hiding in wait for a dragon to get close enough to strike at. They are in a building, not really hiding, because they can be seen, but they keep moving and bobbing behind and around walls. Yarwellorn floods the structure with his Breath of Grianaslenth. The dwarves have no defense for this and begin to slip and fall. They cannot hold onto their weapons and slide out from within. Yarwellorn lands, not learning his lesson from Mourbarria. He snags up a dwarve in his mouth and bites hard, crushing and almost cutting Debbreir in half. He raises his head high in the air and funnels the dwarve down his throat.
“Debbreir!” yells Carboul as he slides by, unable to get up, slipping in the slime.
Yarwellorn easily snatches Carboul and makes him a tasty treat. The dwarves in this building have no escape. The hill slants right to Yarwellorn, and they cannot help but slide right to him or right by him, and he makes a snack out of each of them. He bites them off the ground with incredible force, immobilizing them and swallowing them whole. Yarwellorn has his head high with the sixth dwarve sliding down his throat as he hears large footsteps and assumes it is one of the other dragons. When he lowers his head, he realizes too late that a Stone Giant has run over the hill and has jumped high in the air and swings his right arm in a windmill fashion, coming down with a crushing blow, crushing Yarwellorn’s head with its stone club.
This is a sight to be seen, and the dwarves cheer as Fillismrend follows through with two more crushing blows, flattening Yarwellorn’s head into the ground. He pulls a stone knife from his belt and cuts the head of Yarwellorn off and shows it to all. Swomairen makes his descent on a structure hiding five dwarves.
“I have to help them, Vegenrage.” Farrah flies over to the dwarves. “I summon Vergraughtu, consume all breath.” She does this just in time to consume the Breath of Aquaisen unleashed by Swomairen.
Vegenrage sees Bailseize flying right for three dwarves that will easily be picked off, and he flies straight at his head. Bailseize is about to let loose his Breath of Broam when Vegenrage turns in midair feetfirst and kicks with his right leg, which amounts to a magical kick so powerful hitting Bailseize right in the head that it sends Bailseize spinning through the air.
Solmbus and Greeter both work on water elementals. The water forms human form and rises up in the air, able to fly. They both fly for the nearest dragon, and that is Meamante. Meamante sees them approaching and sends a blast of fire from his mouth in an attempt to evaporate them. The elementals easily fly around and avoid the fire, landing on Meamante’s back. They grab onto his wings and guide Meamante right at the Dagi. They turn their hands and arms into water spikes and punch deep into Meamante’s flesh, causing him great pain and serious injury.
Meamante speaks the words and casts an incineration spell evaporating the elemental but not soon enough as the elementals have guided Meamante close enough to the Dagi for Blythgrin to cast a brutal spell. He finishes his words as Meamante heads away and a blue marble flies from his hands like it was shot from a rifle into the stomach of Meamante. Meamante looks at his stomach. “Noo!” And the marble grows in one second to the size of Meamante’s belly with nearly one hundred spikes protruding from the sphere.
All the dragons watch as the spikes protrude from his body, slicing him to death, and he falls dying on impact with the ground. Swomairen turns his head to watch Meamante fall to the ground, and amazingly, from out of nowhere, Osworns, Cremnole, and Nordiath stand up from behind the structure Farrah and the dwarves are. The giants fire crossbows with huge stone arrows into Swomairen. All three arrows hit the left side of Swomairen below his wing in a line up to his neck.
The giants pull with all
they got, pulling Swomairen to the ground, and here comes Fillismrend jumping high in the air and Swomairen watches as the club comes down, turning his vision to black. Fillismrend crushes Swomairen’s head with two more crushing blows and cuts his head off with his knife, showing it to all again.
Ragbrise swoops down, flying parallel to the hill and high up, breathing fire that shoots extremely powerfully and sets the forest ablaze along the flight path he is on. He is heading right for the dwarves when Farrah flies right at him and Vegenrage sees something amazing. Farrah flies right at him, not saying a word, and Vergraughtu consumes his fire. Farrah continues her flight right under Ragbrise, extending Vergraughtu into the belly of the dragon and cutting him wide open. When she passes Ragbrise and turns and pulls her arms down, all the innards of Ragbrise come free from his body and fall to the ground followed by Ragbrise, who dies on impact.
Glurtain and Rifter are the farthest to the left side of the hill and watch as Ragbrise falls dead to the ground. Their attention is drawn to the left as they hear the ground shuffle and they see imprints on the ground, but that is all. “Dragon!” yells Glurtain.
These two dwarves have bows with Foarsbleem arrows, and they start firing into the invisible dragon. These arrows are relatively small in comparison to the dragon but are Foarsbleem and penetrate deeply, causing serious and painful injury to Guylumbree, who becomes visible and descends on Glurtain with exceptional speed, biting him in his mouth and raising his head, biting Glurtain in half. Glurtain’s feet fall to the ground, and Guylumbree swallows the rest. Rifter keeps firing arrows into the dragon, who is about to snatch him up when Vegenrage, flying at incredible speed headfirst, enters Guylumbre’s stomach. Guylumbree, with incredible force, is slammed to the ground on his side and rolls into a large tree, knocking it over before coming to a stop. Guylumbree stands, flailing and bouncing around, screaming in pain, yelling, “Stop, stop!” and Vegenrage exits his back between his wings, killing him.
Richter watches as Vegenrage hovers smiling, covered in gore and, with a wicked shake, expels all the gore and regains his normal serious look. He floats down to Richter, who is just as much afraid of Vegenrage as he is the dragons. From out of nowhere and at incredible speed, Vegenrage is snatched out of the air by Blethstole, who flies off with Vegenrage in his mouth.
“Vegenrage!” yells Farrah, and she flies after Blethstole. This starts a chain reaction, and all the dragons follow. The dwarves come down from the hill to meet up with the Dagi.
“Glimtron, we lost Debbreir and Carboul.”
“We lost Glurtain, Cringelin, Breemkin, Leersee, and Dodgeker.”
“I know we have, and we have five slain dragons lying dead here in the Ruin of Altrar. This is an unprecedented achievement on our part. Come, we honor our fallen.”
The giants join the party when the ground starts to shake. “Blythgrin, what is it? Earthquake?”
“I don’t think so, arm yourselves.”
The Salcendreepes start to emerge from the ground, and the giants immediately attack. Fillismrend and Osworns are on the first one they see come up and start slamming their clubs into its head with bone-crushing force. Cremnole and Nordiath do the same to another. The dwarves start attacking with their axes, severing legs and cutting gaping wounds into the long bodies of the Salcendreepes. Solmbus and Greeter raise water elementals, which attack, and Trybill and Grenlew raise dirt elementals, which attack. Blythgrin shoots lightning bolts, which have devastating effects, exploding large holes into the creatures.
The Salcendreepes thought they had the dwarves at a disadvantage, but the adrenaline in the dwarves is flowing and their alertness high. They also were not prepared for the giants, which easily crush their skulls with their heavy blunt clubs. The dwarves, elementals, and giants turn this scene into a free-for-all, and the Salcendreepes themselves rose right into a trap. The Salcendreepes never even get a chance to use any of their magic. This battle happens to fast, and they are way too outnumbered. The elementals take the attention of four of them, the giants kill four of them in no time, and they are swarmed by the dwarves and the magic of Blythgrin, making this a very short one-sided battle.
The barbed appendages of the Salcendreepes prove deadly as before they are crushed, dismembered, and torn apart, they inflict mortal wounds to four more of the dwarves that the Dagi are not able to heal. These are the only four dwarves that died here at the Ruin of Altrar, and their bodies remain, with the exception of the legs of Glurtain, which are buried. The remaining dwarves bury Kreil, Siller, Drypes, and Alitch and make a beautiful monument in their memory at the base of the Ruin of Altrar. Trybill and Grenlew go to retrieve the horses, and soon enough they are back.
Blythgrin notices a piece of cloth floating in the air, and it seemingly floats right to him. His curiosity gets the best of him, and he grabs it from the air. He looks at it, and there is writing on it. It is actually directions to him from Vegenrage. He looks up.
“Blythgrin, what of Vegenrage and Farrah? Do you know if they are still alive?”
“I do not know, Glimtron. I have some more disturbing news. I have not been able to contact Limms, Breebellow, or Logantrance. Usually, by the time we get to the Long Forest, I can at least communicate with the elven order, but there is nothing. No response at all. This is very troubling.”
“Let us hurry to the Erkensharie. We may already be too late.”
“Glimtron, I must take Trybill and Grenlew. I may know where Logantrance is, and he needs our help.”
“How long will you be?”
“We will be back with you within the day. We must go. It is of the utmost importance.”
“Blythgrin, I feel this day will be a pivotal day for all the races of man, and for some reason, I don’t know why but it seems we are all separating. Go and hurry back, we will be fine with Solmbus and Greeter.”
The dwarves head off to the Erkensharie, and the three Dagi head into a Dimension Door.
From atop the Ruin at Altrar stand Cloakenstrike and Bastrenboar. Cloakenstrike looks to Bastrenboar. “Now we know where the Sapphirewell is. Let the dwarves battle the dragons, and we will be there in the end to take our treasure.”
“What about Vergraughtu?”
“Once we have both the Octagemerwell and the Sapphirewell, we get you the Snow Gold Trinket. Vergraughtu will be within our reach, but for right now, let the dragons and races of man fight over him.”
“Dribrillianth, what is this place?”
“This, Gairdennow, is Vollenbeln.”
“This is the home of Vlianth. What are we doing here?”
“We are waiting the coming of Vlianth.”
Blethstole and a whole lot of dragons following him enter the night sky through a Dimension Door. Vegenrage can be seen still alive but caught in Blethstole’s mouth with his teeth dug deep in Vegenrage’s body.
“It has begun, Gairdennow, just as it was written, the coming of Vlianth.”
CHAPTER 30
Vegenrage’s Destiny
Vegenrage was completely taken by surprise. Blethstole has concealing magic of his own and snatched Vegenrage right out of the air. Blethstole bit down on Vegenrage at just the right time to sink his teeth into Vegenrage’s right arm, chest, and back. Vegenrage is stunned and immobilized. Blethstole has such a tight bite on him he can just barely breathe with very short, shallow breaths, and he has never felt fear like he does now. His left arm is dangling outside of Blethstole’s mouth, and he has just enough strength to reach over to the cloth on his shoulder and magically engrave some wording on it. He uses a weak Blade of Sharpness to cut the cloth, and it floats in the air. It floats and tumbles and swirls in the air, and the passing dragons fly by, sending it floating in the air currents.
Like it was meant to be, the cloth makes its way to Blythgrin, and he can decipher the message Vegenrage has sent. Vegenrage was caught so off guard by Blethstole and put in such a compromising position that for the first few moments all he could think about were the
visions coming to him. He could see Logantrance suspended in the magic bubble in Blethstole’s lair. The teeth of Blethstole are sunk deep into his body, and they have cut right through the scale that he has affixed to his chest, and this is very bad. He has not lost all the immunity to charm, but most of it. Being in contact with Blethstole is what is making it possible for him to see these visions, and he has just enough energy to send a message to the Dagi. Vegenrage’s healing magic is nullified because he cannot do anything about the teeth that have punctured his lungs and keep him weak. He is conscious but unable to do much more than concentrate on keeping himself calm and try the best he can to prepare for what Blethstole has in store for him.
Blythgrin, Trybill, and Grenlew arrive right on top of Blethstole’s bed of gold. It is pitch-black in here, so they cannot see a thing, and they hear the gold and treasure clank and ring under their feet.
“What are we standing on?”
“Blythgrin, where are we?”
“Hold on a second, let me light this up for us.” Grenlew casts a Staff of Light, and the entire lair is lit up with his light. The Dagi look in awe at the wide earth cavern that they are in, but very quickly they are realizing they are standing on a bed of gold.
“There, there, he is right there.” Grenlew and Trybill look to see Logantrance frozen in the bubble high up in the wall.
“That is Logantrance. How did he get there? And where are Breebellow and Limms?”
“Yeah, and where are we?”
“We are in the lair of Blethstole.” Grenlew and Trybill look at each other with wide eyes.
“Come on, we have to get Logantrance out of there quickly.”
The Dagi levitate up to Logantrance, and Blythgrin pulls the Sapphirewell from his Bag of Holding. He touches the Sapphirewell to the bubble, and it dissipates, releasing Logantrance from its magic. Grenlew and Trybill catch him, and they float back down to the bed of gold.
“We have him now, let’s get out of here.” Blythgrin begins to chant his Dimension Door spell.