Tales from the New Earth: Volume One

by Thompson, J. J.

  “But we're responsible, the Changlings,” Simon had objected. “Hell, if they want to blame one person specifically, they can blame me. I started this whole thing, after all.”

  “No, you didn't. The gods of Chaos started this war, not you. But irregardless, you can't reason with a dragon. They are evil to the core and arrogant beyond belief. If the primal brown dragon blames the elves for the deaths of its siblings, which I think it does, nothing will turn it aside.”

  In the short span of time since the invasion, the dragons had attacked the main elven city and reduced it to slag. Brown dragons spewed a form of acid that seemed to break down solids on contact, turning them into a nightmarish mass of sludge. That included buildings, plants...and people.

  Now the elves were on the run. Their entire world was apparently covered with deep forests and ancient trees. It would take the dragons a very long time to exterminate the entire elven species, but dragons were immortal, and patient.

  “There has to be another way,” Simon said desperately. “There just has to be.”

  “There isn't. I wish there were, believe me. I'm not the heroic type, old friend. Death certainly isn't my first choice as a solution to the dragon problem, but there doesn't seem to be another one. The elders have discussed it, they've asked for everyone's input. They even came to the resident human in the group,” and Daniel tapped his chest with a wry smile, “and wanted to know if I had any other options. But I don't. So here we are.”

  The wizard turned and looked out of the window. The panes were etched with frost and the field and forest beyond the walls of his tower were dusted with early snow.

  Looks like another hard winter, he thought absently. Harder still when your best friend is about to die and you can't do a damned thing about it.

  He frowned into the glare of the sunlight reflecting off of the snow. Something was nudging at the back of his mind; an idea half-formed and tenuous. What was it?

  Turning away from the window, Simon crossed the room and sat down again, looking at the elementals. They returned his stare with worried looks of their own.

  “I just thought of something,” he finally said into the mirror. “My small friends here told me some time ago that I'd be stuck looking like a kid for a very long time. Something about the magic altering the way my body ages.”

  He ran a hand through his hair and saw the splashes of white mixed in with the brown as it fell over his eyes.

  “It's the same power that's turned my hair this lovely, pinto-looking color.”

  “Yes, that's true,” Daniel said with a quirk of an eyebrow. “And your point is?”

  “My point is that I don't age the way that you do, old buddy. I think that a trip to the elven realm, provided I didn't stay for, let's say, more than a month, might not affect me at all, or at least not very much.”

  “Oh Simon,” his friend scoffed. “That's ridiculous. You...”

  The aged eyes in the mirror began to widen as he stared at Simon in amazement.

  “Aha!” Simon said with a grin. “See? I'm not just a pretty face. I'm on to something, aren't I?”

  “Perhaps,” Daniel muttered, looking off into the distance. “Perhaps.”

  He stood up abruptly and then staggered.

  “Daniel? Are you okay?” Simon asked, concerned.

  “I'm fine. Old men shouldn't jump up like that. Tends to make one light-headed. Listen, I'm going to find the council and ask their advice on this. It is quite possible that they didn't take your wizard physiology into account when they dismissed your offer to help. Call me back in...”

  Daniel frowned for a moment.

  “Call me back in two days. That should give me an hour or two to talk to them and get their opinion.”

  “Two days? Sheesh. Okay, fine. You might also want to tell them this.”

  Simon's voice hardened and Daniel raised an eyebrow.

  “Tell them if worse comes to worse, that instead of dooming their people to a horrible death, they can fall back to this world and seal the elven realm behind them. It might work, even if...” he paused and took a deep breath. “Even if it means that you yourself are trapped there to face your death alone.”

  His friend nodded slowly, a rather poignant expression on his face.

  “I agree. They would hate giving up their homeland to the dragons, but perhaps if it means saving their entire race, they'd been willing to do it. Reluctantly, I'm sure. And hey, I'm old now anyway. If my death comes knowing that the elves, and you and the other Changlings, are safe from the brown dragons, I think that's a fair trade.”

  “I don't,” Simon said roughly. “But it is the right thing to do, I suppose. Okay, I'll call you back in two days, my time. Good luck.”

  Daniel smiled.

  “Thanks. I hope you're on to something, my friend. It would certainly give those damned dragons a bit of a surprise to suddenly be faced with a wizard in this world.”

  Simon nodded, winked and closed the connection with a shake of the mirror.

  He put it down on the desk, leaned on his elbows and looked at the two elementals.

  “This is bad,” he said softly. “Really, really, bad.”

  “Is there no hope, master?” Kronk asked anxiously.

  “Against the primal brown dragon and its minions?” Aeris interjected. “If there is, I don't see it. The problem,” he continued, looking at Simon, “is that elves can't use magic. Well, they can, but not the way that you do. Their weapons, their clothing, even their homes are imbued with magic, but that's because they are themselves. When they create something, their power is transferred to that object. You see?”

  Simon nodded silently, listening intently.

  “But casting spells? No, this they can't do. Even their elders, the ones that watch what happens here in this world, are only able to do so because they've created items that allow them to see beyond their own realm. But they couldn't cast a Magic Mirror spell to save their lives, literally.”

  “Interesting,” Simon said quietly. “So that's why their arrows were able to penetrate dragon hide. The heads were magical because they were crafted by the elves using their natural magic.”

  “Exactly, my dear wizard. Dwarves are similar to that, but they do have certain members of their society that can manipulate magic. But they consider it almost dishonorable to do so.” He snorted. “The dwarven mindset: only if you face your enemy with an ax and bash in its skull have you truly proven yourself. Bah. Nonsense.”

  “Not to them,” Kronk said a bit crossly. “You've never respected the dwarves, Aeris. Their race is older than mankind and yet you constantly trivialize them.”

  I don't,” Aeris replied with a scowl. “I just think that if you are defending yourself, you should use every weapon at your disposal, and that includes magic.”

  He nodded at Simon.

  “Take our great wizard here. He's defeated three primal dragons. Not by slavishly following some narrow-minded doctrine but by thinking outside of the box.”

  He held up a small, blurry hand and began ticking points off on his fingers.

  “The primal black dragon; shorted out in deep water. The primal green; choked to death in its own poisonous breath. And the primal white dragon? Fried from the inside-out by getting a fire elemental and an air elemental to combine their powers. Try explaining that to a dwarf and see what they say. They'd probably be offended by the very idea of innovation.”

  Simon looked from Kronk to Aeris and back again.

  “Is he right?” he asked the earthen, who was still looking annoyed. “Are the dwarves so set in their ways that they refuse to adapt and change?”

  “To a certain extent, I suppose so, master,” the little guy said reluctantly. “After all, they've survived all this time using the same methods that have always worked.”

  “Right up until a horde of humanoid dragons came knocking on their gates,” Aeris said with a sneer. “They absolutely failed to handle that correctly. They're lucky that Simon d
estroyed the primal white when he did, or their capital would have fallen.”

  “But it didn't,” Simon said quickly. Kronk looked like he was holding back a stinging retort. “The dragonoids collapsed when the primal died and the water elementals that it had summoned were sucked back to the water realm. The dwarves just had to kill a few dragons and that was the end to the attack.”

  “Thanks to you,” the air elemental added quickly.

  “Thanks to all of us, Aeris,” Simon told him sharply. “It was a group effort, not just me. Anyway, we're getting off target here.”

  He stood up and walked to the door.

  “Come on downstairs, guys. I'm going to make some tea. I want to talk this whole thing out.”

  He went down the stairs and the elementals followed him.

  On the main floor, Simon filled his iron kettle and hung it over the fire in the fireplace. The room was warm and comfortable, thanks to Kronk keeping the fire going all night. Once the winter had rolled in early, the earthen had taken it upon himself to keep the fire burning all day and all night. He said it helped pass the time since he couldn't work in the garden anymore.

  While he waited for the kettle to boil, Simon fried up some smoked venison from his stores in the cellar. His provisions were well stocked from a good growing season and trading with the town of Nottinghill. By his calculations, he figured that he should be able to make it through the long, cold season with no problems. Hopefully.

  He sliced up some bread from a loaf he'd baked the day before and made his breakfast. His worried call to Daniel had been his first order of business when he'd awoken that morning.

  After he made his tea, Simon sat down at the kitchen table to eat. The elementals stood on the center of the table and watched.

  “Kronk, if we kept a fire going in the stove all the time,” and the wizard nodded at the big, cast-iron stove on the far side of the fireplace, “do you think that it would help heat the tower? I mean, I only use it to bake bread and the occasion pie every two weeks or so. Maybe during the winter, we should just keep a fire lit in it at all times?”

  The little earthen looked at the heavy stove doubtfully.

  “Well, we certainly could, master, if you wish. But the fireplace is connected by ducts to the rest of the tower. The main chimney draws off the smoke and the vents move the warm air through the walls. The stove would only heat this room, and only for a few feet around it. It would be a waste of wood, to be honest. But if you want me to do that, I would be happy to.”

  Simon chuckled at the little guy's tone.

  “No, that's all right. It was just a thought.”

  He ate his food quickly and then sat back and sipped his tea.

  “So, any thoughts on the situation with Daniel and the elves?” he asked his friends.

  The pair exchanged looks and Kronk motioned for Aeris to speak first.

  The air elemental seemed reluctant to say anything, which was unusual for him, but nodded slowly.

  “Yes, I suppose I have one. Your idea about your slow aging allowing you to enter the elven realm and return without harm is a good one, my dear wizard.”

  “It is? I'm surprised that you think so.”

  “Why? I may not have thought of it but that doesn't make it any less valid.” He paused and frowned down at the table. “Of course, we don't know that it will work. And the consequences if you are wrong would be...unfortunate.”

  “Yeah, that's one word for it,” Simon said dryly. “But I'm willing to risk it, if that's what it takes. But just for kicks, let's say that I can journey there and back and survive. What can I do against the primal brown dragon and its followers? What are its strengths? What are its weaknesses? How many browns are there? Did the leader bring eggs with it when it entered the elven realm? So many questions.”

  He sighed, a long slow exhalation.

  “You are worried, master,” Kronk said, looking at him sadly with those glowing red eyes.

  “More worried that I've ever been, my friend. And not just about Daniel and the elves. What about the consequences if the brown dragons actually do wipe out the elven race? Daniel said that there were hundreds of dragons crisscrossing the skies over there. Maybe thousands. Thousands! How is that even possible? We know that the dragon queen only laid so many eggs back when she birthed the five primal dragons. And that she apportioned out a certain number of eggs for each of them. How many, we don't know. But surely the primal brown dragon wasn't given thousands of eggs? I just don't understand where they are all coming from.”

  There was a moment of silence and then Aeris made a show of clearing his throat.

  “Just spit it out,” Simon told him bluntly.

  “Um, yes. All right. I think that the source of the eggs is fairly simple to figure out, my dear wizard.”

  “It is?”

  Both Simon and Kronk stared at the air elemental and Aeris actually looked a little abashed.

  “Well, don't keep us in suspense,” Kronk told him. “What do you think?”

  “Think? I think that the brown dragons retrieved the eggs from the primals that our wizard destroyed.”

  Seeing Simon's look of surprise, Aeris shook a little finger at him, but smiled a bit at the same time.

  “You really should have destroyed the eggs of the black and green dragons,” he said. “The way you destroyed the white dragon's eggs. I believe that the primal brown dragon or its servants swooped down and made off with those eggs and kept them for itself.”

  “Wait. Can it do that? Wouldn't eggs given to the primal black dragon hatch into more black dragons?”

  “Why would they?” Aeris said with a shrug. “We know that when needed, a primal hatches a new dragon to replace one of its lesser dragons that have fallen due to accident or in battle or whatever. They don't sit on them like hens roosting. They enforce their will on the egg and, just like that, they have a new minion. I think that the eggs are simply neutral; blank slates that await the will of whatever primal chooses to use them.”

  “Crap, that's a lovely thought.”

  Simon sipped his tea and stared blankly past the elementals.

  “You know, that does actually make sense,” he said finally. “And if Daniel says that hundreds, or even thousands, of brown dragons are searching the elven realm for survivors, then maybe the primal actually hatched all of its eggs to use in the hunt. Which means that if it wins, this world will be inundated with masses of blood-thirsty dragons fresh from wiping out the elves and eager to root out all of the surviving humans. Oh great.”

  “A terrifying thought, master.”

  “That is it. Okay, setting that aside for now, because just thinking about it makes me nauseous, what do we know about brown dragons?”

  “I'll get your book, master,” Kronk said quickly and hopped off of the table. He tip-tapped across the room and scurried up the stairs.

  “My book?” Simon said curiously to Aeris.

  “I assume he means that book of fantasy monsters you used to use back in the old world when you played those games of yours.”

  “Oh right. Well, it is surprisingly accurate, considering that the people who wrote it were just basically pulling ideas out of thin air.”

  “Ah but were they?” Aeris asked archly.

  “Meaning?”

  “Meaning that we already know how the old gods of Light liked to drop clues and hints on the cataclysm to come. Think of all of the ancient spells and runes that your friend Daniel found long before the dragons returned. It is quite possible that these fantasy writers were struck with divine inspiration rather than just having good imaginations.”

  Simon rested his chin in his hands and stared at the elemental.

  “You really are smarter than you look, do you know that?”

  “Well, thank you,” Aeris responded with a smile. Then he scowled. “Wait a second...”

  “I have it, master,” Kronk called out as he hopped down the stairs with the heavy textbook held over his head.
>
  The wizard grinned at Aeris and reached down to take the book from the earthen, who then hopped back up on to the table.

  “Why are you looking so crabby?” he asked Aeris, who sniffed and ignored him.

  Simon opened the book and flipped through it to the section on mythical beasts. Both of the elementals moved to stand by his shoulders so that they could see better.

  “Dragons. Dragons.”

  The wizard ran a finger down several pages until he found the proper paragraph.

  “Okay, here we go. Hmm, there's not a lot on brown dragons, is there? I guess they weren't that popular with gamers back in the day.”

  “Well, I'd say that attitude's changed,” Aeris muttered, his irritation forgotten.

  “I'd say you're right, at least where this former gamer is concerned,” Simon replied bleakly. “Okay, so what have we got here?”

  He mumbled under his breath as he read what little there was on brown dragons. Then he hissed, a look of disgust on his face.

  “What is it, master?”

  “Yuck. Listen to this. 'Besides using their fire breath, a brown dragon's principle weapon is acid. They can belch gallons of corrosive liquid which dissolves anything organic that it touches. Plants, animals, nothing is immune to this acidic attack.' Well, that's delightful,” he added with a shudder.

  “Acid, master? Oh, that is bad,” Kronk said with a look of horror.

  The little guy's reaction was more emotional than usual and he glanced at Aeris with raised eyebrows.

  “Acid dissolves rock,” the air elemental said wisely.

  “Oh, I see. Sorry, Kronk. Didn't mean to shock you. But don't worry; there aren't any brown dragons around here.”

  “Yet,” Aeris added ominously and then grinned wickedly when the earthen glared at him.

  “Stop that, Aeris,” Simon said, a little exasperated. “Let's concentrate on the problem at hand. If I can get to the elven lands and back safely, and maybe even if I can't and I go anyway, the question is; how do I deal with a brown dragon?”