Vegenrage: The Magic User

by Robert Spina

  “Wait! We have to get something first.”

  “What, Logantrance, what do we have to get?”

  “A book, a very powerful book, and you have the Sapphirewell, which we need in order to retrieve it. Be quick, Blythgrin, Blethstole surely knows we are here by now.”

  Blethstole lands for the first time on Vollenbeln and drops Vegenrage to the ground and stands on him. He sinks Vegenrage into the soft earth, and only his head is exposed. Blethstole looks around at the dark sky. “Humph! You are a clever one, Logantrance. Gairdennow, freeze him.”

  Gairdennow blows a bubble from his mouth, and Blethstole removes his foot and the bubble encapsulates Vegenrage. “Dribrillianth, freeze him.” Dribrillianth freezes Vegenrage just as Logantrance was.

  Blethstole looks to the sky and chants magical words, and the realm of Vollenbeln transforms into the day sky revealing Vegenrage’s home, which is still intact. Blethstole is surrounded by Kertinkpice, Pryenthious, Bailseize, Gisewear, Gairdennow, Dribrillianth, and Gannream. These are the largest, most adept dragons alive. More and more dragons are entering Vollenbeln and landing keeping their distance from the older larger dragons, showing their respect. Before long, all the dragons are on Vollenbeln, and Blethstole walks to the top of the mound, entering Vegenrage’s home. He stands there with Vegenrage frozen in the bubble and clearly visible for all to see, and he addresses the gathering.

  “This is the coming of Vlianth, and here he is. For the first time in our history, all the dragons have been summoned to Vollenbeln, as written in The Wattsverocy: The Coming of Vlianth. And for the first time in our history, here we all are not fighting and killing one another but focused on this event that will ensure our dominance over the Maglical System and continue our supremacy. This is Vlianth, the true master of magic, and through this vessel, our race is to evolve and grow supreme, or else we will fall to the races of man. This one day has been foretold, and this is the time we evolve or we fall.” Blethstole looks to the air like something has his attention. He snaps his head to the dragons. “We need the book. The book is being stolen from my lair right now. Get there, get there, kill the humans and bring the book back here.”

  All the dragons take to the wing and head through Dimension Doors to Blethstole’s lair. All leave but one. Blethstole stands on the mound alone with Vegenrage. Blethstole begins to chant magical words in his dragon tongue. The mound rising over Vegenrage’s home begins to separate, exposing the interior. The earth pulls apart, and the fireplace in the center of his home rises. The floor and all of Vegenrage’s belongings change into a melting pool of gold and hardens. All the books surrounding his home start to shake and come free from their shelves, floating into the fire in the center of the room. The books burn and burn until they are all gone. The center of the fire pit falls, and the fire in a second vanishes, exposing a dark pit from which a very large book rises. Molten silver rises from the pit and covers it, cooling as it hits the golden floor, and it grows upward, forming a beautiful solid silver pedestal and the book lay on it. Blethstole floats to the pedestal with Vegenrage above the book.

  “Not even I could believe such a thing without seeing it with my own eyes.” He talks to Vegenrage like he is listening to him. “All the books in this fantastic library, this great wealth of knowledge condensed into this one book. Knowledge is power, and somehow you, magic man, have managed to obtain all this knowledge in you, and through you, all this knowledge will be transferred to me.” Blethstole looks to the sky, laughing. “The Coming of Vlianth is mine.”

  “Vegenrage!” yells Farrah, and she flies after Blethstole. Farrah does something very smart: she turns invisible, and Vergraughtu conceals her scent from the dragons. She is flying as fast as she can to catch Blethstole. Fear is nowhere in her mind. She is taken over by the instinct to save Vegenrage. As she gets closer, she can see Vegenrage caught in the teeth of Blethstole, and he looks like he is dying. And now she feels fear, fear of losing Vegenrage, and tears fly out of her eyes, and she is consumed with rage. Dragons are flying by her, and she is swung all over by the air currents and hit by one dragon, which looks, noticing something but not enough to maintain its attention, and it speeds on.

  Blethstole vanishes through a Dimension Door, and the dragons follow. Again Farrah does something very smart. She spots Gannream and follows him. She can see Gannream in her mind, and if she concentrates, she can actually see through his eyes. Gannream flies into his Dimension Door, and Farrah can follow, seeing where he is going. She appears in Vollenbeln and watches the dragons out of their detection. She can see that Vegenrage is still alive and listens to Blethstole as he addresses the dragons. She watches as Vegenrage’s home transforms.

  “What am I supposed to do, Logantrance? What book am I supposed to retrieve?”

  “The Wattsverocy.”

  “The Coming of Vlianth? That book is only myth, Logantrance, it does not exist.”

  “Blythgrin, use the Sapphirewell. Call for the book and find out if it is myth or real. Hurry, we have no time to waste. Call for the book.”

  Blythgrin holds the Sapphirewell and calls, “Wattsverocy: The Coming of Vlianth, I call to you. Come to me.”

  The wall just below where Logantrance was held captive shakes and the earth pulls free and a book emerges and floats over to Logantrance, who grasps it and puts it in his Bag of Holding. His Bag of Holding spits the book out, and it falls on the bed of gold. Logantrance quickly picks it up.

  “Logantrance, I have never seen a Bag of Holding spit out an object before, especially a magical one.”

  “Yes, this book is too powerful. It will take over my Bag of Holding and render its ability useless. Only Behaggen can hold this book, and Behaggen is with Vegenrage. Where is Vegenrage?”

  “He was caught in the jaws of Blethstole and taken away.”

  “Vegenrage caught by Blethstole? This is not good. We must get to him before the dragons use him to further their elimination of the magic users, or worse yet, kill him.” Logantrance tries to open the book, but he cannot.

  “Logantrance, do not open this book. It is meant for dragons only. If you read one word of this book, you will be rendered a servant of them.”

  “Thank you, Blythgrin, I had forgotten that part. Fortunately, I cannot open it, but we need to know its secrets. We need to know what to do next.”

  The Sapphirewell starts to gleam brilliantly with the silhouettes of dragons flying around inside of it.

  “The dragons are coming. They know we are here.”

  “I think I know where they have taken Vegenrage. I don’t know how, but I think he will know what to do. Come, follow me.” Logantrance draws a Dimension Door and tries to walk through it but is thrown back like he has walked into a glass door that molded to his body and threw him back on his back. Grenlew helps him up.

  “Logantrance, what happened?”

  “I don’t know. Our escape has been blocked.”

  The bed of gold and treasure that they are standing on bursts into the air and lines the walls of Blethstole’s lair. It melts and forms shapes and designs that none of the magic users understand. Underneath this incredibly large mound of treasure is a statue lying on the ground of a once great dragon. Logantrance, Grenlew, Trybill, and Blythgrin were thrown and now stand at different sides of the statue. They hurry to group together, unable to see one another because the statue is immense.

  “Logantrance, do you know what this is?”

  “I do not, Trybill, but I think we are going to find out.”

  The gold lining the walls starts to shine golden lights on the statue, and it rocks, creaks, and starts to crumble. Bursting from the rock shell, Hornspire, the great horned dragon, emerges. He is colossal, standing fifteen feet on all fours. He is the color of gray rock and has horns protruding from all over his body. He shakes his head and body like a dog getting out of a bath. Blythgrin holds up the Sapphirewell, and the four back up to the wall.

  “Do not fear me, races of men. After a
ll, it was you, Logantrance, who made this all possible. It was you that brought the ingredient we needed to evolve our species. It was you who brought the human from another world so that we could harvest him and take from him the purest and strongest magic from another world to add to ours. The one who can give us the ability to cast magic without having to speak first. It was you that leads us to greater evolution and you who brought Vlianth to us, and he will lead us to earth, where the food supply will last us for another millennium. You puny races of man think you can compete with the dragons when we have been playing you for millenniums. Everything is almost set, and the races of man that think they are so smart, they think they are so cunning, they have been our pets forever.” Hornspire laughs. “We now have Vlianth, Behaggen, Vergraughtu, and the newly formed book, Wogenkeld, all in one place, and all thanks to you, Logantrance. I say and bow to you. Thank you for collecting all the most knowledgeable books and gathering them in one place for us to harvest. That was very nice of you, my pet. All that is left is the Sapphirewell, which, can it be, is right here in front of me and the Octagemerwell, which man himself will bring to us as well. I love the races of man. They are our food, they are our inspiration, they are our salvation.”

  Hornspire raises his wings and flaps them at the four, and they disappear. They appear on the back side of a silver podium, and Blethstole is standing in front of it. The Sapphirewell raises out of Blythgrin’s hands, and he cannot stop it.

  Cloakenstrike and Bastrenboar are on top of Mirrimya Mountain.

  “What are they doing in there? Is this really the home of Blethstole?”

  “Yes, his lair is right under us. We need to be smart, we need to wait for the right time to make our move, and this is very dangerous for them to be where they are and for us to be where we are. Wait, they have moved again.”

  Cloakenstrike looks into the Octagemerwell, and he can see the opened earth where the Dagi and Logantrance have been sent to. He can see Blethstole looking at them. He sees the Sapphirewell as it floats away from Blythgrin. “We move again, but first we need some enlightenment from Oriapow.” He puts the Octagemerwell in his Bag of Holding and retrieves the Oriapow Genie Book.

  The Sapphirewell hovers about three feet in the back of the podium, and the book Wogenkeld floats up and opens. It flaps like a bird flapping its wings and flies over to the Sapphirewell. It opens and hovers motionless. Suddenly, a magical burst slams the Sapphirewell to the ground, and it hits with incredible force but sticks to the floor gently.

  Logantrance and the Dagi are frozen in their curiosity, unaware of the events that are unfolding. The Sapphirewell starts to crack and crumble to the floor and grows and grows, forming a solid bed of blue sapphire with the imprint of Vegenrage in its top. The bubble containing Vegenrage lowers and disappears, gently laying Vegenrage in this bed made just for him. The gold floor that Logantrance and the Dagi are standing on is a form of Dragonmire that is only effective on the races of man, but what a genius trap this is. They do not experience headaches and nausea, but their magic is all but gone while standing on this metal.

  Wogenkeld flies back to the podium and lies down closed. Blethstole looks to the Magic Users. “Now only two more pieces and the prophecy is complete.” What can they say? There is no need in trying to intimidate the dominant male dragon of the Maglical System.

  Farrah can wait no more. This is her moment and her time to save Vegenrage. She flies at Blethstole, who is unaware of her presence, and she swings Vergraughtu, slicing off the tusk on the top right side of his head. She comes down on the other top tusk and removes it as well. She is still invisible, so no one can see her. This does not cause any real damage or pain to Blethstole, but he screams like his is in pain. The only real pain is to his ego. “Ah, what is this?” The tusk on his bottom left side is sliced off. Farrah goes for more damaging attacks, targeting his wings.

  Blethstole begins to take flight when Farrah flies down the left side of his back and, with Vergraughtu, slices off his entire wing. This obviously causes a lot of pain and serious injury to Blethstole. His wing falls to the ground, and Blethstole faces that way, unleashing his Breath of Decadence, swiveling his destruction through the air. Vergraughtu sucks it up, and this brings Farrah and Vergraughtu into the light for everyone to see.

  “What? This cannot be. Vergraughtu cannot be used against me.” Blethstole moves to the left side of the newly formed room, and Farrah points Vergraughtu at Blethstole, and from Vergraughtu’s mouth ignites a magnificent scene. All the breath attacks that Vergraughtu has consumed can be combined into the most magnificent weapon ever seen, and she uses it for the first time, directing the Wave of Death at Blethstole.

  Blethstole vanishes just in time before he is obliterated. The breath attack ignites from Vergraughtu’s mouth and is a brilliant yellow, red, orange, blue, and white light that nothing known can defend against. This attack kills and destroys anything it targets. There is no magical defense against this, and Farrah now holds the most deadly weapon in all the Maglical System. She floats over to Vegenrage.

  “Farrah, do not settle to the floor. It is Dragonmire, it will exhaust your magic.”

  “Here, let me get you out of there,” Farrah begins to levitate them out of the Dragonmire trap.

  From out of the air behind Farrah extends the magnificent eight-foot horn that extends from the nose of Hornspire.

  “No, Farrah!” yells Logantrance.

  Hornspire literally walks right out of the air, and his horn penetrates her back and drives through her, paralyzing her, and she drops Vergraughtu. Hornspire lowers his head and grabs Farrah with his right paw and slides her off his horn, throwing her to the ground and stomping violently on her with his hind leg and kicking her with his other hind leg off onto the grass, a clump of crushed flesh.

  “That was for thinking you could take on a dragon, little girl. Now, Logantrance, one more piece to complete my transformation, and you, who did everything he could to try and stop me, now you will watch helpless to stop the evolution of the greatest being so far in history.”

  Cloakenstrike and Bastrenboar are watching from pretty far away. They are undetected because Oriapow has created a protective barrier concealing their presence.

  “Oh my god! Did you see that, Cloakenstrike? She could have been my queen.”

  “I gotta say I am a little scared. These dragons are very impressive. They may kill us. I can’t think of anything more exciting. Are you ready, Bastrenboar? Are you ready to be the greatest warrior ever known?”

  “I am ready. Let us see if Oriapow’s vision is correct, and if not, I can’t think of a better way to die.”

  Cloakenstrike pulls the Oriapow Genie Book from his Bag of Holding, and it opens up, exposing Oriapow. “How may I help the master?”

  “I really hate to do this, but here we go. I release Oriapow from my control.”

  The white gold table forms into the hips and legs of Oriapow, and Oriapow stands facing Cloakenstrike. He looks dead serious and points his index finger at Cloakenstrike. “When this is all over, you and I have a score to settle.”

  “When this is all over, I am coming back for you. For now, let us take on the dragons.”

  Hornspire picks up Vergraughtu. “Ah! Finally the most powerful weapon ever created and in my hands, and it can only get more powerful. The great thing about Vergraughtu is that when he is owned by a human, and he always has been, that human becomes immune to all dragon breaths, all dragon magic, and all dragon attacks. Well, that human can aspire to obtain all these abilities, and this impressive female did. That human, however, if killed by a dragon—and you may be asking yourselves how I killed this human since, after all, I am a dragon—but anyway, since I did kill this human and now Vergraughtu is in my hands, he has becomes my possession, and just like your female was immune to all dragon attacks of all kind, I am now immune to all human attacks of all kinds. No man or woman of human, dwarven, or elven race can ever hurt me. This just keeps getting better
and better. Oh yes, how did I kill the human you ask?”

  Hornspire has a horn on his nose that is eight feet long. This is exceptionally large even for his size. He grabs the horn with his right paw and rips it from his nose, which was attached by sort of a glue. The horn is actually rock, and this is why it penetrated Farrah. “It is time for the last piece to be put into motion for my transformation to be completed.”

  Just like Hornspire has planned this all along, Cloakenstrike flies in, holding the Octagemerwell, chanting spells and shooting all kinds of magic at Hornspire that simply deflects away as Hornspire laughs. Meanwhile, to the back of Hornspire and out of sight, Oriapow is sitting just outside the Dragonmire and chanting magical words and tossing pieces of metal on the Dragonmire. Slowly but surely the metal is losing its golden color and is losing its ability to drain magic from the races of man. Cloakenstrike hovers over Logantrance and the Dagi, shooting magic missiles, fireballs, lightning bolts, magic arrows, and whatever he can think of at Hornspire, and nothing works.

  I never thought I would be glad to see Cloakenstrike, Logantrance thinks to himself.

  Hornspire laughs. “OK, playtime is over.” He reaches out his paw, and the Octagemerwell floats to him. “Time to become the supreme being that I was meant to be.”

  “You mean time to die, don’t you?” yells Cloakenstrike.

  “I give you, races of man, this: you are testy, you are resourceful, you are determined, but none of you can harm me in any way, so I let you live to watch as history is made.”

  Bastrenboar appears above and behind the head of Hornspire with four-foot iron spears tied to each of his legs, and he drops, sinking the spears deep into Hornspire’s neck. Hornspire raises his head in obvious pain with a loud roar. Bastrenboar is holding high above his head with both hands his Lavumptom Drawer. “Maybe the races of man cannot harm you, but what about a humanor?” and he swings full force, and the Lavumptom Drawer easily slices the head of Hornspire from his neck, dropping it to the ground, which is now a dull silver color. The body of Hornspire falls lifeless, and the Octagemerwell rolls to the podium. Bastrenboar picks up Vergraughtu and quickly drops it as it shocks him. Cloakenstrike quickly runs to pick up the Octagemerwell, and he too drops it quickly as it shocks him.