Lands of Daranor: Book 01 - DreamQuest
Page 36
The knights stood iron-faced for just a moment, pushing their lips together in an attempt to keep the laughter from bursting out of their throats. One started laughing, and then soon it was too much for all of them. The knights cracked up, and none laughed harder than Sir Undbar.
CUT!
The defenders on the north side weren’t doing as well. Although Yan’s force had the numerical advantage, some of Marhyn’s deadliest monsters had been placed there. Cilio realized that if Marhyn were able to break through there, she would be able to surround the hill that had the bulk of Cilio’s force. And if she could surround them in such a small area, she would be able to thicken her lines and give them little chance of breaking out. Then she could deliver the killing stroke. But it looked as if both of Cilio’s lines were holding, at least for the time being.
Right then Marhyn delivered her knockout punch. On the north side of the line, her huge black dragon rose from the battlefield and got ready to attack Yan’s force. Cilio knew if it was not stopped immediately his line would collapse. So that had been her plan. To put her men into battle in the south, but to concentrate her strength in the north and thus break through. Now that he saw it too late, he had only one hope left.
Yan quickly dispatched a monster that he had been fighting with, turned into a liquid silver, and rose. Their one hope flew up and faced the Dark Lady, who was perched high atop her dragon. Flying seemed a bit more difficult than usual.
Marhyn gave him a long, odd look. Her dragon eyed him hungrily, with not even the slightest hint of fear in his eyes. Something felt wrong.
Yan looked down to the field below. Lithar and Yonathan were locked in fierce combat, a circle around them watching the two fighters. General Cilio slapped his palm to his forehead and shook his head slowly. He muttered something, but Yan’s sharpened dragon hearing could not pick it out. The field itself looked so… tasty.
Marhyn’s dragon screamed its battle cry and lunged after him. Yan answered with a cry of his own. “MOOOOOOO!”
“Moo?” The cry caught in his throat and he barely dodged Marhyn’s attack. Yan turned and flew towards a small reflective pool on the field. Looking down, he was shocked.
Instead of becoming a dragon, he had mistransformed into a flying cow.
Transforming was not a trivial magic! He was never going to hear the end of this one from the Council of Gurus. Those guys never knew when to let a joke die. They were still going on about the time the great wizard Aramus had prepared a potent love potion to win the affections of the beautiful Princess Melanie. He hadn’t figured that her royal food taster would try the draught first. The taster, who naturally was significantly overweight and not the least bit attractive, chased Aramus far and wide across the Lands of Daranor.
Marhyn’s dragon swooped to attack again, and this time Yan transformed to a small bird, flew away, and retransformed into a dragon, correctly this time.
CUT!
Darhyn sensed the trouble he was in and with a snap of his fingers monsters flooded into the room. They headed straight for Thon. The big man knew he was in trouble, so he hefted the Orb with all of his strength and threw it straight for Tarthur, who reached out his hands to grasp it…
A winged creature darted in front of Tarthur and grabbed the Orb before Tarthur had the chance. The monster beat his wings once and screeched in a high-pitched whine. He never finished it though. Gyeun leaped up as high as he could and rammed his sword into the creature’s soft underbelly. The monster toppled over and the Orb fell from his grasp.
Tarthur hurriedly spoke the words of the levitate spell, and sent his force out to grab the Orb. It bounced once in the middle of the air as if it had fallen on a mattress, and then Tarthur reached out his spell and caressed the Orb. Fluidly, he called out to it and brought it near him. Tarthur could feel himself succeeding. He could feel all of his doubts, insecurities, and problems of the last year being washed away. Tarthur felt the wild exhilaration surge through every part of his being, felt it fill him up and lift him off of the floor.
Tarthur saw Darhyn fold his hands together in his cloak and bring them out with a tongue of flame floating above his palms. The Death Lord reached inside his cloak and brought out a yellowing scroll. This fight was just beginning. Darhyn read aloud the words, and then a blast of fire shot directly at Tarthur. Tarthur rolled out of the way, and commanded the Water Orb to come to his aid. He screamed at it for it to help him, to wash away Darhyn with its powerful floods.
Nothing happened.
Tarthur looked down at the scroll in shock. For the first time he could read it! It had words like, “1 pound of fresh papples,” “2 shirts for traveling” and “bootlaces.” The paper was also too new. There wasn’t even a faint hint of yellow to it. Wait a minute! This wasn’t the Water Orb Spell. It was his grocery list from Breshen! He must have grabbed the wrong scroll by mistake!
Tarthur felt trapped. He ran from the room, calling after the rest to follow him. There was no way “a bouquet of Elven flowers for Yvonne” was going to help them against the Death Lord Darhyn!
CUT!
About the Author
Bill Pottle is the author of several fantasy books as well as several non-fiction books on martial arts. He is a 6th degree black belt and the owner of the Korean Academy of Taekwondo, one of Colorado’s oldest and most successful martial arts schools. He lives happily ever after with his wife and children. His official website is www.billpottle.com