I didn't think it would even start up, much less run.Turning the hand held machine on, I pulled the trigger. THOOONK! I watched the canister sail over and across the forest floor, then landing in the pond, and busting open, it let out a surge of liquid from the inside. instantly the contents of the newly made projectile set fire the surface of the water. After several fist pumps and self congratulation I realized my canister launcher,Firestorm, was overheating from the overworked engine on the inside. Opening up the boiler compartment , a pile of burning contents spilled out onto the ground. stomping them out, I felt like something was watching me. Moving my uncontrollable hair out of the way I listened carefully, slowly I put my hood on, kicked out the iron claws attached to my boots, and scrambled up a tree in a hurry.
On the way back home I wondered how impressed my brothers would be. Most of the things I create are extremely volatile, they usually just explode, but not this one.
I stopped. Down below I noticed something riding on an enormous wolf. The rider was cloaked and hidden in the shadows. It was hard to make out details about its figure. But its mount appeared to be a demon-like-wolf with crimson fur and blood red eyes, like burning coals. They held the remains of my cannister I had launched only 5 minutes ago. Turning on Firestorm, I took a canister out of my drakon skin backpack, but this one was marked with skull and crossbones. As the cloaked figure was messing around with the projectile, I aimed Firestorm at them. KER THOONK! When my projectile had made contact with the sinister fellow I saw green flames leap all over him. The powerful shot had burnt the dark cloak to a crisp revealing a dark, red skinned demon like creature with black horns and spikes all about his grotesque body. Still inflamed he let out a dying roar in agony. After watching the humanoid figure burn to a pile of charred remains, I wondered, what was it. I shimmied down the tree, upon inspecting the remaining ashes and goop, not much was left the fire was so intensely that it had practically incinerated the guy, whatever it was. I looked around to see if any more where around, waiting to get me. Seeing him tracking me made me a little paranoid, if any more we're out there. I buried the remains of its body, I shifted leaves over the loose dirt, making sure not to leave any traces. The wolf was only a half of what it used to be, its body now only 5 feet long, had the head and upper body still intact, the back was bleeding profusely, it was snarling slightly as if it still had enough fight in it to take me down, i brought out my long dagger, and drove i straight into its eye, the poor creature died almost instantly, no long moving its front legs in pain, its body lay still. I took the charred saddle bag off its back. Going i thought that the tree house might be under attack,i quickened my pace,i thought maybe i can reach the fort by tomorrow, midday.
I wandered along in the general direction of my home . The trees seemed to barely shift in the rough winds high above. I felt calm , the morning mist swirling like little clouds, floating above the blanket of thick fog, lying lazily on the ground.At that moment I decide to go hunting for my two brothers back at home, probably doing whatever interested them at the moment, as I was doing right then. Slowly I picked my way among the lower thick branches of the forest trees. finding a hiding spot, I waited for my next meal to wander right under the tree that held certain death, and a hungry belly. Waiting for a deer or a bore, I readied my net. My way of hunting required nothing but a net, knife and rope. After a while of sitting and waiting, a Rabbit thunderer right up under me. Now the reason I say thundered is the fact that this medium sized Rabbit was four foot long, around the size of the gorse bush it was sitting next to. Launching the net right out of my hands I watched it spin in a circle as it slammed right on top of my next meal.
Quickly scrambling down I unsheathed my knife and put the animal to an end.
as I dragged my catch to the nearest tree. setting up a fire, I skinned the rabbit, smoked most of the meat and cooked the rest for midday lunch . After scraping all the flesh off of the hide, I continued to feed the fire I had made for lunch and tanned the fur it for later use, I would cure it at home (underwear or a rug was the probable use since I was low on those two necessities). sitting there I watched the smoke billow up,then dissipate into the air. " I wonder..." I said breaking the silence, " What day is it ?" this questions only had meaning because, me and my brothers went to the city to buy supplies and materials we couldn't make on our own. I looked down at my clothes. I was wearing old leather boots with iron claws on the top that I could kick out, so I could climb trees with greater speed, as well as iron claws attached to my forearm i also could extend. I also had a dark green worn out shirt, in dire need of replacement. over that I had a thick black overcoat with woven wool on the inside. but my outermost article of clothing was a dark cape with a hood, this was identical to my brothers. But thinking of the massives city with that enormous market place gave me a headache. having no money we had to sell a good amount of furs and hides to the residents of Torlaun city. A thought jerked me back to reality, the demon creature that had been following me may have died, but he probably wasn't alone. "there will be more in the city.." I said to myself out loud. "enh, who cares."
"cu mon ! ,I shouted, why you no work?" I looked around my room, why didn't the powder work? " I've combined everyone on the list... Rechecking the list I found I had not. 'Oh , Gunpowder". Adding in the last catalyst I put on my safety goggles. putting the Canister in one hand and the held canon in the other. I pointed it out the oval like window. "uh...HEY LOSER!!" "WHAT?', my brother shouted back ."COME ER'E!", "All right ,all right..." He muttered. In the back of the room a trap door opened and a yellowish-orange troll clambered down into the lab, he was about 3 and a half feet tall his face was chubby and rounded. "What is it Tobna...' He said, sounding tired of my incessant pestering. " I've finally made a working flash bang." I said. " The last one you made set fire to my entire vintage grenade collection..." he grumbled, "your valuables are worth as much as dead dirt." I retorted to the single dark black eye peering at my newest recipe list. "you finally took out the beltronnite?" Grund looked up at me nonchalantly, his large black eye questioned my motives , making me second guess. "Yes ,I did, because---" "No need to explain, I already know , big explosion... and so on."Grund waved his hand in the air, to dismiss my train of thought. "ANYways..." I Began to say, "Wanna see it?" "sure." pulling the launching mechanism, a brilliant light leapt out of the nozzle and collided with a passing squirrel. The poor creature was flung aside when the flash bang exploded making every thing around cast a very definite shadow.
A long ways away, a demon scout noticed a bright light, off in the woods.
Grund looked up at me, being only four feet tall and an orange ball of leathery skin, he didn't look that impressive. " Good job, though it's launching speed is too high, it'll explode if you fire it in a room." looking around, the rooms of our tree house were large, about thirty feet in diameter. most trees had a regular radius of fifty feet. Those kind of trees were too big to even begin to carve out to make a treehouse. Grund took the recipe off of my only clean work table, all the others were covered in unfinished projects.
that were to be finished for later. " ill mass produce this, just because I love you. any other reason and i'd probably not even think about it." "Love you to..." I said as I turned my attention to the launching pressure. after a few minutes of calibration and tweaking I heard a the sound of a full scale battle starting upstairs."ARGH!!!" Grund only yelled when he was in trouble.
As I hurried up the stairs the miniature battle raged on. '"I'm coming I said."
Entering the warzone I saw multiple little red winged creatures waving around the room. Diving and doing barrel rolls, the creatures shrieked every time they took a blow from his thwacker ( it's a long stick with mass of thorns at the end, it was quite effective). "TAKE THAT YOU MONGRELS!"Grund shouted. Jumping into the fray I swung my knife this way and that, only to see them scatter even more about the room. Eventually they could take no more of the beating the received from gruns thwacker and the threat of severe injury from my knife. The leader ( I presumed he was the leader, he was the biggest) flew above the round hole of a window and let out out a few words in demonic (A beast like language, involving guttural noises and many howls). When the leader had made a valiant retreat the others decided it was a good time to get out. While taking leave of our house the leader of the pack of small demons, was still shoving others out the window, Grund thinking the battle was not over, thwacked the leader in the head, Knocking his leather pack to the floor,
Unnoticed by him. He shrieked in terror, and with the remains of the group, they flew away aching from the beating they had received.
Surveying the damage caused by the little red interlopers, I noticed the the left behind satchel. "Oh look, some leftovers." . "Grund tossed in my directions
As he wandered around his workshop, he said aloud. "I wonder what brought them over here."
"Maybe they were hungry?" "we have an open window to the pantry, they could of just snuck in."
He responded. After a couple of seconds of silence he also said, "They also came from the floor above." "Cable's room?" I said as I rushed over to the ladder on the left side of the room.
Opening up the trap door, Down came debris and ash. "Oh no..." I said. Stepping up into his room I found his entire library in ruins, an entire side of the room was covered in burn marks. As grund saw the wreckage, he said "I..." "How did I not hear this...." Walking around the library, I remembered the satchel they had left behind. Opening it up, I pulled out a necklace. It had a clear chain made of some kind of crystal, the centerpiece was the symbol for infinity, or in simpler terms a sideways eight. The symbol was a single piece, but it was made of different gems, each one melted off into the next, making a smooth slightly rainbow colored object. "Whoa." I said.
As I cradled it in my furry hands.(forgot to say this but I'm a bear thing3r4e, a four foot tall humanoid bear, With human like hands and feet, full brown eyes and cylindrical limbs, I am quite small).
"What is it?" said Grund. Looking into my hands, he saw the relic like object. As we peered into the small wonder I held in my hands, we saw an energy of sorts, flowing through the relic. "Well what is it"? "I don't know." I said. "You haven't tried?" "I'm Scared" I said in a still small voice.
"I don't think I can read this." "Be specific" he said. "What does it do"? "Ok."
"I'll try once." Quelling the extremely nervous energy inside, I ignored my instincts to throw it into a forge and melt it down, never to be seen again. I focused on the necklace. I summoned the raging power from within. The hand I held it with instantly came ablaze with a deep emerald green fire. I closed my eyes. I asked myself a question I somehow already knew, "what does it do?'
Deep from within me my voice answered back gentle and calm, " it gives infinite energy to the to the user for magical purposes." Opening my eyes I said, "Oh".
"Well?" He looked me straight at me. "Gives the user infinite energy, to use in like magic or something." with his eye slightly wider, he said. "Cool. But why did they burn his entire library to the floor?" "No idea." I also wondered why this had happened. "They didn't seem that intent on breaking my stuff said." As he said this, he wiped the "sweat" off his brow in a comical way.
He looked at me. "Where is Cable anyway?" what did he say before he left... "I think he went off to test his "Firestorm", the new grenade launcher he had made. I walked over to the side of the room, then jumped up onto one of the unturned chairs ( being three feet tall he had big chairs). Looking at his work table, most of the tools he had taken, were the equipment necessary for changing the pressure for a steam powered gun. As we got quite, lost in thought, I felt our tree house slowly moving in the wind, whispers of the gust of wind moving through the forest found their way in. Looking about the room, it felt sadly peaceful, the burnt books on the floor, Crispy paper across the room, the overwhelming smell of fire. "Better clean it up..." said Grund in a sad voice. " he's going to be devastated when he gets home." I was concerned he might get depressed, he had been collecting most of these each time we had gone to Torlaun. Which had taken around three years. "We might as well get the broom" Grund said.
Looking around, I could see the forest grow darker by the minute. I was far off from home, with no way to travel in the night (I forgot my torch) I setup my tent. It was more of a roofed sleeping bag, with long strips of thick cloth sewn together, by string and bits of leather. To keep the creatures of the night from looting my sleeping area, I colored it the darkest murky Green I could get it, so at night it was invisible to the eyes of any night dweller. I laid my sleeping tent next to a tree, the ground under me was covered in a layers of moss, It emanated the musty smell of the earth. Looking up I saw two moons, that I had not seen before in this part of the land. One was the color of rust, the other the color of a pale tan. Occasionally if The moons were close enough to one another, you could watch them collide into each other. Watching the moons revolve around in a slow dance, I noticed a ship one tenth the size of the moon, use one of the dancing moons as a landing strip, it slowly fell to the surface and stopped to rest on the pale colored moon. "I wonder what it's like to be in a different tier of technology." In my mind I went through all of the tiers( A ritual i was never tired of). I was in tier 2, sentience. To move up in the the tiers, you or another member of your race must acquire or create the next level of technology(being a loner it wouldn't be to hard for me). Looking up at the stars I wanted to travel in space, as I imagined many creatures across the never ending land felt. I remembered the people of the ground, as the land went on, a huge flat plane went north, south , east and west, it also went on forever up and down. You could dig for all of eternity and never find and end to the world. I sometimes wished I lived on a planet floating above or beside this giant wall of land desert or sea . Knowing your entire race is safe from being destroyed instantly by the footfall of a creature miles tall. "I'm tired" I said... "Goodnight." And the world around me slept.
The next morning I awoke slowly. The morning was cold and cloudy, I packed up all my gear. I looked around, curious about my surroundings. Last night I had set up my sleeping tent complete darkness,(starting fires scares of some things, or attracts others). "Cool." I grinned because I found myself within a half day's walk from home.
Setting off towards home i kept my pace a little faster than a walk, I was still quite proud of finishing my Firestorm, I had been working on it for a while. On the way home I had an idea about what else it could shoot. It would be a small grape sized cylinder, it would be contained inside a large can like object that would spin as it launched, projecting out a spray of fire and destruction.
I thought this was a cool idea so slowed down a bit stuck my hand into the back side of my pack. Pulling out some gears wires I constructed an addition to my launcher, so could take out the side and insert the rack, so I could switch my ammo to large to small. I stopped, something was wrong. I looked around, I realized I was about a minute away from home.
I heard a low rumbling noise come from the right of me. Looking over I saw a large canine animal, it looked too much like the other i had seen only the day before, except this one was a dark purple. Its eyes were closed. I wasted no time reaching into the pouch on the thigh of my pants. I set down my pack. Backed into the shadow of a nearby pine tree, dwarfed by the other titan trees of the forest. I was lucky, vegetation like this was sparse, there were few bushes and tall patches of grass between each large tree. Looking at the backpack between me and my newfound friend, I reached into the back side of my shirt. I withdrew from the folds of my thick black jacket, a mask, it was a little thinner than my finger, it was a dark deep green much like the rest of my clothing. It had two ovals for my eyes, I slipped the leather straps around my head, putting up my hood over my head, I prepared for the the battle I was about to start. Looking down to my pant I observed my hand hadn't left my thigh pouch, pulling out my hand I produced an explosive. My hand was shaking as was the rest of me, my homemade device had no bigger purpose other than to explode, I had packed as much gunpowder as possible into it.
I didn't even know if I could throw far enough away where I wouldn't be caught in the blast.
The huge monster of a wolf opened his eyes. I threw the bomb straight into his side. With the sound of a thunder blast it engulfed the wolf in fire and smoke. I was flung aside about 10 feet away. I was groggy and disoriented,the explosion made me lose my senses, it dawned on me that i still needed to deal with the rider,if it even had one, and now I was alone in the forest with a huge demon lizard thing. Things were not turning out so well. My backpack was not damaged, it was still behind the tree where I had left it. "Hah." there wasn't much left of it. Mostly a few little bit of bone or flesh. with no more bombs, there was no way I could take any more of these wolves out. I ran on home.
As I drew near my house, I saw fire. "Oh no...." taking my blast mask out of my clothing and putting it on I made my way up a nearby tree. Below me a battle was raging on, the huge lizard demons were assaulting the tree fort. ⅓ of them had wings so most of of the battle was getting up the trunk of the tree. Constantly boiling water or fire spewed of of little knot holes in the tree. Much of the shouting came from a large figure standing 15 feet from the tree, out of range of the rocks, he was huge and dark red he had horns that came out of the side of his head and extended a little farther than his shoulders, his triangular face a had a few needle like snaggle teeth and to compliment his good looks were glowing yellow eyes, he stood six and a half feet tall. Most of the words he said were inaudible or an entirely different language. But more importantly he seemed to giving directions to the twenty or so troops he had attacking the fort.
I pulled out Firestorm, I aligned the scope with his head. I didn't pull the trigger, I spammed it so many times I thought my shoulder would be dislocated from the repeated shock of the launcher, slamming into my shoulder. I didn't even check if he was dead or not, going higher and higher into the tree,I found myself at the zipline used for the occasion of snow or being under siege by angry badgers. Flying through the canopy of thin branches I slammed into the top deck of the fort, it hurt badly considering the top was lined with cobblestone and polished wood."ow ow ow ow ow ow..." as the trap door came open I saw little fumes of all colours float up and out.
"Uh, That's not good." scrambling down the ladder I screamed "where MOVING!" from the lower levels of the fort I heard much screaming and more scrambling. Going down each floor I grabbed essential items we would need outside the comfort of our home. On the last floor I found my two brothers, a small brown bear that stood on two feet next to an even smaller orange troll thingy( still have no idea what they are). They were creating bombs... "Hey have you guys even packed, we gotta go, we can't hold them off for more than twenty minutes or so." they both looked at me like I was an idiot, " yes dad, we packed our stuff." said Tobna. " i'm going to skin both of you two, were about to die let's get out of here!" I was getting tired of their mixed priorities.
On our way up the ladder the fire spread up to the floor below us. "Go go go go go go go go!" Grund seemed in a hurry, I went faster. On the top floor we threw our gear into the air cart, after attaching the train to the zipline, we took off. Speeding our way into the dark we went faster and faster. "Grund, doesn't this land in the ulvenwald river?" Grund smiled, "oh yeah, it does."
A good ten minutes later "Here it comes." said Tobna. One second we were zooming through the air the next we were flung into a river. The angle of entry from the zipline to the river was almost parallel, the river flowed from behind us to the front. The boat we were floating was painted black it looked like a rowboat from the above point of view, but from under it was made of a thin layer of metal for protection against river logs or rocks.
The dark river was quiet all through the night. The intensity of the night sky could not be explained to a planet dweller, in every direction, you could see billions of stars, planets, moons
And spaceships. Off in the west I saw charger moon, one of the fastest moons in our area, you could see it visibly move through the sky. After a while of star gazing Tobna suddenly said,
"Did you hear that?" He was talking to grund because I certainly didn't. "I think so..." replied Grund. "What? What happened?"
"Our home just exploded." "wait... you finished the bomb"? I asked. "Guess so." said Grund.
"Looks like your library being burned to the floor before they attacked doesn't matter then?"
I turned my head around. They both had winning smiles on. Making sure not to scream, I let out a muffled " Whhhhhhat Hhhttt?!" After a few minutes of stifled whimpering and groaning, I asked them a question, "wait, just my library?" "yeah, that's how we found this!" he reached into his saddle bag, we couldn't find anything for him that was smaller, and produced a small infinity symbol, no bigger than my thumb. The small little stone was attached to a long crystal chain, the center piece itself was glowing from some kind of energy from within.
"What is it?" I asked. Tobna picked it up out of Grunds small hands. "I apparently it can give infinite energy to the user for magical purposes. "Magic? What's magic?" I wondered. "I dunno." said Grund. We both looked at Tobna. "Why me!?" he said exasperated. "Uh because you can do that fire thingy." Grund was quite interested in the ability that Tobna was born with. In turn I thought we were each jealous of each other in our own way, I was a toddler in smarts compared to both of them. Tobna had no talent whatsoever in building anything, and Grund was so physically inept, he sometimes would was so clumsy it looked like he rolled around to get places, in turn I thought we were the closest people could get to each other, though I hadn't met many siblings. As tobna and grund squabble over what magic possibly could be, I said aloud, "wait where did you find it?" "Oh uh I knocked it out of a smaller demon, that had attacked our house a few hours before." we were silent realizing we had no home to return to, the forest was no longer safe for us. Then I said "Maybe that's why they attacked us, that necklace could be extremely valuable."
"But then what is magic ?" Grund wanted to know what magic was badly. "I don't think it wise to create a distinct green flame in the middle of the night floating down a river away or towards danger." Tobna explained. Grund rolled his eyes. "Fine..." I relented.
The rest of our trip down the river was uneventful. Much of was just steering with the rudder, taking turns looking for rocks or inspecting the necklace. After a while we came upon a wooden dock that slightly jutted out into the river. It was morning the faint light that emanated from the sky cast vague shadows on the light brown water. "Lets dock here." I said as I turned the rudder. Tying our boat to the dock Grund commented that the craftsmanship of the dock was beyond what any man could do. "Maybe it's a higher tier of building" Tobna said. I laughed, "how can a dock be better on one tier to the next? As we went along the path that came up along the dock. The path was a well trodden, the dirt under our feet was a fine brown sand and the few rocks in the road were smooth and flat. At the end of the path was a three story wooden house, it was long as it was tall, the sign on the front said, "Bokes Inn." The house was made of a dark brown wood. The roof was a faint red. Approaching the tavern we heard much chatter and music, though it was not lively or excited, it didn't seem empty. When I reached the door Grund didn't seem too either excited. "Uhh guys, why are we going inside?" "For a room you moron." Tobna was irritated from the river ride, his brown fur was soaked. I turned around,"Quit arguing you two lets just go in, get a room and some food." opening the door a short hallway, made entirely of wood from the ceiling to the floor, that led us to a counter with a door next to it. Behind the counter was a gruff looking Dorunne. He was about seven feet tall, had one snaggle tooth protruding out of his mouth.his skin was dark brown, he had a flat face with a big nose. The only slightly non-threatening thing about him was his eyes, though small and beady the where bright blue. He looked down from the counter and leaned on it a bit. "Ello. welcome to the Bokes in, Finest guild tavern for a thousand miles. What can I do fer ya?" Since I was the only one with money I felt obliged to responded, "Hello, i'd like a room for two, with a bathroom. He raised his eyebrow "That's uh fair amount of money, you payin?" "Yes sir." pulling a cliche small round bag out of my right thigh pocket, set down two gold coins, most of our money was the standard currency gold little rectangles,we sold pelts in high quantity so we never had any lesser value of coin
. "How much will this last us?" scrunching up his eyebrows he looked upwards. "about three, young sir." Putting my coins away, It sadly felt a little lighter. All the while this was happening Grund and Tobna were trying to inspect a stuffed head, mounted above the bench the sat upon.
"Thank you mister.." his eyes widened a bit, "Meh name is Gorral-briar, Call me Gorral."
"Thank you mister Gorral." as I said this, I turned around to see several stuffed head all lined up on the floor in an a row with two little morons climbing all about them. I walked over and smacked them both on the back of their heads hard. "Hang them back you morons, well be kicked out if you try something like that again!" Grund looked a little displeased as he started picking up a stuffed dragon claw, and stuck out his tongue at me. "Oh and my young lad,' I turned around to Gorral,"yes?" , "you'll be needing this key, fraid the only room left is a double room, so you'll be sharing a restroom with him, though i'm certain he not gonna be needing it."
"Oh uh, thank you Gorral." picking up my gear I set off down the hallway to the stairs, as Grund and Tobna came up to me, I looked at the room key."Says room 7."
The side of the stairs faced the hallway, and on the wall next to the stars was a large door with a sign that read, "DINING ARENA ENTRANCE." Tobna looked the sing over, "what's a dining arena? Do you fight for your food something?" I chuckled at the thought of 50 or so people fighting over 1 plate of food. Going up the stairs,we came upon a hallway about 10 feet tall, the long corridor had multiple doors along the wall, varying in size at such a rate that some doors went from ceiling to floor while others were 4 feet tall. Ours was at the end of the hallway, which made no sense because the first door you come up to was 6. "Now before we go inside, you two need to be quiet so no one kills us for waking them up, plus where sharing the restroom with some fellow, so I don't want you to going into his room through the bathroom." Tobna looked at me like I was an idiot."Thanks dad." he said in the uttermost respect. Grund was tired of standing around." let's just go inside already!" "Goodness all right." I said as I turned the key.
Entering the small hallway, before the main room, there was a distinct smell, it smelled like lightning, it filled the room, but was not so unbearable that you have to leave, for it wasn't unpleasant, it was like nothing ever before. "What's that smell?" I said aloud. "Mechanical stuff." Tobna seemed familiar with the smell. "It comes from the discharge of energy volleys." We looked at Tobna. He rolled his eyes, "lasers..." As We walked through door,we found that the bed was on the very end of the room with a window on the wall and another bed at the foot of the first, the part of the room closest to us was occupied by a round table and four chairs. The right wall had a stone fireplace, the floor in front of it was inlaid with an intricate pattern of brick, just next to it was a door marked "restroom, not machine friendly".
Tobna walked past the fire place and to the door, he was eye level with the door knob. "Hmph.."
He didn't seem pleased. I inspected the room for a bit, it was wood top to bottom like the rest of the inn so far. I put all my stuff on the table, Grund and tobna did likewise. Suddenly
The right bed started screeching, and the sheets flew off the top. Grund was so terrified by the beds sudden change of attitude that he promptly dove into the dormant fireplace, Tobna ran under a chair. Me being a clumsy human, I promptly fell straight down and backed into the wall. A human figure stood up on the bed, it was covered in white sheets. "What in tarnation are you doing in my room!" Tobna yelled rarely, usually when people tried to kill him or take his stuff. The blankets fell off the screeching intruder. The fellow who Decided it a good idea to take a nap in our room was around 6 feet tall, he was entirely covered in layer of metal, his face had human characteristics, two glowing blue ovals where his eyes would be, where his mouth would be, a little grey rectangle promptly sat. "im am deeply sorry for my intrusion, and outburst of extreme emotion, I was watching a "how to video, on Magaliod breeding, it was quite humorous." I was taken aback about what he was talking about, and by the fact that his voice didn't sound, natural. Grund and Tobna, they seemed intrigued by it as well. As we stared at the metal humanoid he seemed to get a little uncomfortable, "what?" "It's your voice, why is it so, so unnatural?" Grund asked.
"Oh, it's an electronic, a kind of false voice to emulate my own." He explained "wait , are you inside that armor, and its speaking out of it?" I Thought it would be uncomfortable to inside it a suite made entirely of metal. 'What? No no no. im controlling the suite for a time being while Chronicler Takes His annual 5 hour break. The very moment he Explained this to us, we heard the angriest yell I had heard for awhile, it was on par with the time I put red star beatles in a giant Badgers nest. The mechanical man voice told us ,"oops time up..."
Tobna
I was so terrified of the Enormous roar coming from the room next us, I felt it necessary to go back to the comforts of the Fireplace, which were quite nice. I Looked at the huge metal figure on what I thought o be my bed. "What was that!" I Squeaked , though being a bear, it sounded more like a feeble growl. It looked over at me, "That's log, he's the one who wears this suit, but don't address him as that though, he gets a little upset when someone calls him that. The terrifying voice from the other room yelled even louder: " S-4333, Get in here! Or I will revoke your internet Permanently! He got down off the bed, I assumed it was a he, it sounded like one. "Goodbye, Might get to talk to you again, probably not, see you." The light in the metal man's eyes died, its movement became stiff and exact, as if he was no longer with us. He seemed to lifelessly walk and open up the bathroom door and went to the next room. Grund got out from under the table a second time. I felt a little safer that he had left, I didn't' trust him. Most people I Newly meet, I have no trust for. I have little to no memories of my childhood, most of them are feelings of terror, and being alone. My earliest memories are of waking up in the forest, with Cable and Grund above me, asking me random questions about myself, as if they had just met me. They told me I came out of the sky, in A metal capsule, a little bigger than myself at the time. It glowed for a time nonstop. But after a while it flickered and went out. It was probably Still back at our home. It was most likely burned to the ground, Nothing but a husk of our peaceful life left behind in the dust.
Tobna: After unpacking our stuff and taking a nap, I decided it was time to eat. "hey , you guys hungry? Let's head downstairs to eat. I'm starving." it was no lie, I had only eaten the day before, breakfast. Which seemed like ages ago. Grund half heartedly, slowly moved his one black eye across the room, to finally meet my gaze. "sure." "cable?" I looked over at him laying on the bed. I didn't realize he was sleeping. I got clambered over to the bad, heaved myself up on the sheets and looked in displeasure at is Peach colored face. His hair was dark not too long, and It stuck up on the back if he slept. I jumped up and down. And the came down like a crashing space-junk right on his face. "TOBNA, YOU-YOU, IDIOT YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO DO THAT!!" I sheepishly grinned. "I didn't think I would slam my elbow into your face...it was an accident."
He looked at me with great distaste. "What was so important for you to do that." The scowl on his face made the light of the ceiling lamp and window behind him put a dark shadow on his face. Making him out to be even more angry. Grund spoke before I could even get off the bed. "He wants to know if you want some dinner..." "in the dining arena?" The Moment the word "arena" left his mouth, a grin spread across his face.
"Sure, I don't see why not?" Still scowling, he put his cloak on.
A few moments later, we stood in front of the door we had came across a few hours ago. A newly placed singh under the Dinning arena words said: "were not responsible for spontaneous combustion, broken wires,bones or internal organs, enter at your own risk. "Hmmmmmm." Cable put his hand on his mouth, do ya...do ya think this might be a bad idea?" I looked up at him. I crossed my eyes and said in a low dumb voice. "Noooo, well be perfectly fine." I drew out my final word to make the point that, it was a dumb question. Grund spoke up, "maybe we should rethink this..."
We all looked at the door. It was a light shade of brown. It had what looked to be, week old blood stains."Ummm..." I was getting stomach pains from the smell of food drifting through the door. We stood there for minutes, weighing, having the chance to eat, or getting the light knocked out of you. The door at the top of the stairs swung open. Heavy footsteps came down the stairs. Each footfall made the floorboards of the stairs creak. We all looked up and to our right (for the side of the stairs faced the hallway, making the inn seem a little more, odd)
And saw the metal man coming down the stairs, his movement no longer stiff and lifeless, his eyes no longer, glowed bright blue, but instead a dull grey. We stared at him coming down the stairs. He didn't notice us until he stood directly in front of grund, whose stood farthest away from the door. "oh ,hello,are you by chance the residents of the room number 7? His voice sounded real, nothing like the false voice we had heard in our room. "Why yes we are, we just spoke to you, not even an two hours ago! You were laying in our bed when we just arrived in or room!" I was still cross for the the terror he had caused me, I thought the demons had found us.
His head tilted a bit to the right after hearing what I had said, " i'm terribly sorry for what my counterpart caused you, here could buy you some dinner for the trouble I caused? Cables face brightened. "That's a grand idea, can't refuse an offer like that can we now?" he looked down at us smiling with sincere gratitude. I knew he wouldn't let us decline, he had this look on his that said "If-you-try-to-say-no-i'll-kill-you." I Looked over at the ever so generous man, offering me dinner, in a place that, contained serious pain, and probably a little agony. "My names Tobna, what yours?" "my apologies, I should've introduced myself, I am the chronicler. And what might be your names?" his gaze drifted over to Grund and Cable. "My names Grund" "and my name is Cable." They said, But Cable said Grund said Cable. Those two idiots sometimes, when meeting someone new, would say the others name to be their own, or even say they had the same name, for their own "personal" amusement. "Nice to meet you." he said with some amount of strange formality, usually seen when doing business or buying something. "Well come along my friends, let's get you something to eat." and with that we entered, the Dining arena
Upon entering the room, I noticed the floor, it was slightly warped up and down like little wooden hills, and it was made entirely of wood, like the entire inn. It was a real fire hazard. There were no fights, explosions or fires, no huge axe wielding maniacs, not even an arm wrestle. People and beasts alike, were sitting at tables, or milling around a the bar in the back of the long room. there was a little bit of smoke in the rafters from a few pipes here and there. We walked over to a table near the right wall. We all sat down. There were a few glances at us, but not that many to the point of feeling like we were being watched. After a couple of seconds a waitress came over. " Would you like drinks or an appetizer before you order? We each ordered a soup and bread of sorts and she left.The chronicler looked at me. "So where are you boys headed?" it was something I had not thought of, the past day or so I spent most of my time thinking about getting away from those horrible monsters. "We were-" I cut Cable off before he could finish his sentence, he didn't look too pleased about me kicking him in the knee, I didn't really know who he was or what his intentions were. He turned his head slightly towards me. "Not the trusting type, are you? Smart, as I would expect from a Myorn." I was taken aback by what he said. My brow scrunched up, "is that what I am?"
It was his turn to be surprised. "Are you an orphan? Do you know how old you are? I felt a little tinge of sadness and insecurity at his questions, looking up I said, "they found me in a metal capsule that fell out of the sky, I don't remember much before I woke up in the forest..." My lack of memory before the crash, made me long for previous memories. Gently, he held up his hand above the center of the table, after a second of holding it there he flipped his hand over, the palm of his hand facing towards the ceiling, a small blue diamond came out of his hand, as if his hand where made of smoke, it spun mid air above hand, it was no larger than the black of my eye. Much like us, Grund stared mesmerized at the little gem. "What is it?" his voice sounded distant and in disbelief. "My memories, living as long as I have, I keep personal memories in my mind, and the rest in this. It's like expanding my capabilities to store information." Cable spoke up, "why do you need so much space for memory?" As Cable spoke the crystal spun faster,and began to glow. He looked up. "My job is to experience events, and record them in first person, thus my name and title, The Chronicler. And with the expansion of my mind, and my millions of counterparts across space and time, I have access to, some, of their memories." he looked straight at me, his metal face was covered in glowing lines, pulsing randomly. "And with that I might be able to find where you came from." He lifted his hand up a bit, his face now directly faced the little blue diamond. "Excuse me." I was was so startled so badly I fell right out of my chair and onto the floor. I looked up but the person who scared me was behind me. The waitress had snuck up on me. "Sorry..." I was so short it took me awhile to get my chair back up.by the time I got back up into my chair, she was gone, and they had started on their food. Grund looked up at me, he had breadcrumbs on his face." sooo, how was the floor?" he was trying to suppress a smile. I started to eat my soup, it was a kind of chicken and noodle. I don't believe it was chicken or even had noodles in it, but it tasted good. Looked up, out of curiosity, how the chronicler ate his food. I watch him pick up some bread, bring it near his face, the moment it seemed he was about to shove bread against his mask, it went straight through the metal surface, just like the crystal that he produced out of his hand. "Um, how are you eating the bread, if you're wearing a mask?" He chuckled," I guess you're not used to that sort of thing." he paused and looked ." I guess you could say my whole suit can move, on its own in a way, like a tree would grow around a fence entirely, my mask morphs around it to let it be consumed, and it's good for checking poison." "you were saying something before I fell?" "oh yes, let's find out who you are." he did the same sequence of events, only faster. once again the little stone floated up into the air above his hand as if suspended by a string, "let's see... with his other hand, the right one, he waved it to the side, a small gesture, suddenly image burst out, into the air, it was a flat rectangle and it orbited the diamond. It looked like a newspaper, the head title was: Myorn sub world destroyed!. His finger flicked up a bit, the image seemed slide up into nothing, but at the bottom words kept on coming up. All the while cable and Grund looked on in interest, while still eating. The scrolling image got faster and faster, until it stopped. "I couldn't read it, what did it say?" "Hmmm, it said that a Myorn sub world was under attack, that much I guess you understood. They seemed to be under attack by rebels, their own kind, which I have never seen heard or read for your kind to even come close to doing... after the planet was destroyed, all the other planets in the system made some kind of last defense-hyper jump. But the planet that was destroyed in the process, i'm guessing it was the spatial stabilizer, it stabilizes the system around it for huge objects to wave walk or hyper jump, to travel long distances. But since it was destroyed, I guess, they were scattered along the current timeline. I didn't even know this had happened, this was only 7 years old, and guessing from your anatomy, Tobna I would say, you're only a few hundred years old, maybe less, I think in Myorn terms, you're a baby." "cable burst out in laughter. "Tobnas no baby! He can comprehend much more than either of us can." Cable seemed adamant about it. I took it as a compliment. "Wait, i'm a baby!?!" it took awhile for it to sink in."well..." the small crystal descended into The chroniclers hand. "Technically you're a toddler, Myorn's live such a long life, that no one knows how long they do live, maybe forever."at that, he turned his head towards Grund. "Now for you my friend..." Grund Seems to have been ready for this. "I think I know my origin, and my own race. I'm a troll, of a kind, and I've been a n orphan all my life. Never really needed to know who my family was." The chronicler nodded his head,along with grund. That much I thought to be true, Grund sometimes wondered who his parents were, but only for the posterity of it, he had grown up his whole life without them, he couldn't really miss something he never had. "Brings me to another question, what are you three doing out here?" I took a leap of faith in trusting him, I still don't know if he was telling the truth, though he had shed some light on my past,and what I was. "We were attacked, me and grund where at home, our tree fort, while cable was a day's journey from home, he said while he was off in the woods he had been tracked by one of the beasts that burned our home down." I looked at cable so he would tell his part of the story.
It didn't take long to finish the story. The chronicler sat there for a minute or two, his hand under his chin, in a contemplation sort of gesture. " And we found this." I pulled the necklace out of my pocket. It was his turn, I guess , to fall, almost completely out of his seat. Re-adjusting himself in his seat. " Is that, an Archstone?" "I didn't think a necklace would have a name." said cable."what is an Archstone?" The chronicler seemed to go deep into thought, after a few seconds, he looked up. "Every thing in the universe, can be summed up by one thing, can it not? For instance the Archetype of life, the Archetype Death or power or elements and many others. now the Archetypes are Something of a, bi-product of the beginning of time." we all leaned in closer. " to tell you everything about what you seemed to have acquired, you will need to know the history, leading up it to its creation, or some general knowledge about the world you now live in. In the beginning, nothing existed. Not even the rift, nigh even the emptiness of space wasn't a reality
Some believe this was the era, of a higher being, of something so incomprehensibly powerful, it is beyond even the greatest of beings this age, but there is no proof. But, we do know something happened. Though most of the beings of that era do not even speak to mortals, much less care to tell what happened. Most scholars believe, that the Aetheons , were born." "what is an Aetheon?" I asked. "I would say, in common terms, a god. They have limitless power, exist in a dimension that is connected to all dimensions throughout all existence, the rift. Now, at the time of the four patriarchs at birth, the patriarch of the Atheons that is, they did not set out at that very moment and start to fill the empty rift. Each of the Patriarchs existed on a different level of existence, life, another energy and another in death and chaos. Each of them did not fill the empty expanse of the void, but Instead created a race of lesser beings to do this for them, without knowing, and all of this was done in the blink of an eye. So The moment the Aetheons gained consciousness, the entirety of existence began. Most living creatures were created by the Aetheons. After a while, when the Atheons were content with their work, one of them, who had been created by a child of the patriarch of life, was upset, its work did not last as long as the others. its work had been been destroyed by another Atheon's creatures, and soon he became overlooked by the others, and viewed as foolish and weak. To spite the others and prove them wrong, he created Archetypes, objects, creatures or places, that represented something, like power, or magic or landforms, some of them were named after the Patriarchs . These objects have control over each of their perspective types."
I spoke up, "so the animal one, could control all animals?" He tilted his head side to side.
"Essentially, yes, that's the idea, but the magnitude of power that the necklace you posses, is-is unimaginable! Its th Archetype of power, limitless energy from electricity to magic!" Grund leaned forward a bit intertwining his fingers, in a business manner of sorts. " that's what we need help with, what exactly is, Magic?" The Chronicler burst out laughing. This seemed extremely funny apparently, for it took awhile for him to calm down. He wiped an imaginary tear off his face, it seemed like he wasn't used to having a mask on. "Magic is complicated, it has many variations, names, and uses." he stopped for a moment as if trying to find the right words. "I have no idea how to explain it. It's like you point at that cup." He points at a brown cup. " you say the word float, puts power behind the words, in whatever way you can and it floats. Every one each stared at his own cup. "Cable took one of his hand held electric generators, and some rope. He tied the generator to his head, and started to crank it up. The Chronicler sat speechless, at the stupidity of the human that sat before him. After a couple seconds of winding it up and stabbing the receptacle into his hand, he pointed at the cup and said, "Float!" and nothing happened. He untied it, turned it off, and put it away. He looked around the table and said in a monotone voice, "it doesn't work." Grund slammed his hand on the table, and said in a serious voice: "it was a good idea too, I was sure that would work." The chronicler put his face on the table. "Oh my. That's not what I meant."
After a bit more asking questions, getting answers, and drinking. I had decided it was bedtime. As we departed from the dining arena, the chronicler had one last thing to tell us. "Knock On my Door in the morning if you want to have breakfast." After that we went up the stairs, walked along the hallway. In our room, the fire was somehow lit and the beds remade. I just jumped into the first bed I saw. And As if by fate, I heard rain start to fall outside our window, and with the quiet murmurs of my good companions, along with the thrum of the rain, and the soft light of the fire, it didn't take much to fall, into a deep, deep sleep.
Chapter 2: The Fall of scardam.
It was dawn, light streamed from the windows around the room. I was alone. I growled at the morning, and all the stiffness that it brought, and the fact that they had gone to breakfast without me. I put on the dark trousers and cloak, while I looked into the tall mirror next to the bed, I noticed my leather bag, hanging from the the right hand side of the mirror. The necklace was inside it, the night before I decided I would be the one to hold on to it, apparently I was the oldest and yet the youngest? I thought it a good idea to take the bag as well.
loud chatter came from down stairs. maybe some demons were down stairs, and the others couldn't warn me about it... Sometimes fantasies Invaded my reality, but never to the point of me taking any actions. Usually.
I put on my cloak and trousers, they're all black garments, made of a thick cloth, with a cotton underlining. I only wore it for the others, Most of the time, when others aren't around. I don't wear anything at all. Cable and Grund both think i'm a strange creature. And i'm missing something very important, I haven't the slightest what it could be, but it seems a little alien to them.
Getting out of the room was a process. The knob of the door was is high enough for me to reach it by standing on my toes. Going down the hallway, I felt a little scared without Cable,or Grund. It seems enormous, the doors loomed above me left and right. Suddenly the thought of horrible creatures flooding into the hallway filled my mind. I quickened my pace.
I finally made my through the hallway, down the stairs, and got to the, so called, "DINNING ARENA". I chuckled, when I first stepped into the bar, I expected a full out war. I tried to open this door like the others first but it didn't seem like it was going to budge. I put my head close to the door, I heard some sort of racket going on. I heard footsteps behind me.
I opened my eyes, wait, what just happened? Oh yes, I was trying to open the door, but where am I now? The world seemed to have slowed down around me. I was flying through the air in the Dining arena. People all around seemed to be fighting, chairs were being thrown, lasers and balls of fire where sailing through the air. I skidded across the ground. I looked up to see the chronicler with Cable and grund, hiding behind a table with two arrows and an axe imbedded into the front facing side. Cable smiled, "Nice of you to join us. But why did you come bursting through the door?" when I realized how I came to be inside a full out brawl, within a bed and breakfast, I noticed my back was sore. "I think someone kicked me." The chronicler reached over and put me down next to Cable. I took a glance at the door to see a Huge Boar-man, Dressed in armour, with a matching chainmail kilt, charge through the door. He trampled several Mogolenns, got hit by a fireball in the process and fell to the ground unconscious. He would have been cooked ham if his metal shirt had not taken the brunt of the attack. I poked Cable in the face. "What did you do?"
He looked at me surprised, as if I didn't know who he was. "I accidently pulled the pin off one of my grenades, so I had to chunk it the air, it exploded, set some guy on fire, ran into people, they punched each other, and punched other people, after that it escalated." when he said escalated, a dagger tore through the table and landed right in front of Grund. "Cool ! A sword!" It was only a knife, but I was quite large in comparison to the troll. He stached it away.
"WOOOOOOOAAARRGGGHH!" Gorall stepped into the room, he loomed two feet over even the tallest of brawlers. In a loud voice that rumbled through the room, grabbing everyone's attention. "I enjoy a good fight, as much as any of you. But we have night time. Scardam has fallen, the allied nations have been wiped out. The final battle destroyed both army's completely, but the Shadi's army is not spent, it was only the first wave. No one is left to defend the pass. Flee if you wish, or hide in the mountains, I must take my leave." His voice grew quiet as he finished the final sentence. Many of the men around the tavern went to the upper floors, to collect their things. A few of the older men, with white hair, who had not taken part in the chaos that had ensued before the abrupt announcement, sat and talked in harsh whispers. Cable looked to the chronicler, "who are the Shadi? Why are they coming this way?" He looked down at each of us. "The Shadi are a race, a kind of humanoid wolf, they're tall, usually 7-8 Cubits tall. Terribly fierce, strong and would die before breaking an oath. So far each shadi lord has only been concerned of taking territory. Raiding villages, destroying entire nations. Plus no army has ever truly defeated them. They seem to be unstoppable, they number in the Trillions. Each army a hundred thousand strong." I remembered something from what Gorrell had said. "What about the pass, why does it need defending?"
"Ah yes, Thaundras Pass. It's the only way other than by sea, to approach the never ending city. Its full of gold, weapons, resources and much plunder. The city is so vast, that it would take one a lifetime to reach the end, if there is any." We stood in silence, people rushed around us, going in and out of doors, up and down the stairs, rushing to get ready, to flee to a safer land. Free of the terrible threat of the shadi. Most of the conversations I heard, were murmurs of the terrible shadi, and the things they do to captured generals, or villages. "We best be leaving too." The chroniclers choice of words surprised me. "We?" I said. He looked down to meet my gaze. "Unless we do not seem to trust one another? What do I have to gain from you three?" "The archetype of power. The necklace I mean." My bluntness surprised him. "True. But I can't have three young men wandering the mountain range." I reached into my bag, I felt around churning the contents of the satchel, finally I retrieved the necklace. "Then take it." I put it out in front of me.
Everyone around me took a step back, Cable seemed the most surprised, "Tobna what are you doing?! That's ours!" I smiled, my idea was brilliant. " If he has the necklace, he won't have any reason to hurt us. I wanted to trust him, and I did for the most part, plus it would be safer if he had it. While Grund and Cable looked on in a daze, I handed a bag to the chronicler. He chuckled, "My my, you are a clever little fella," He gently took it out of my hands, "But if i'm to travel with you three, we best be going, the Shadi wait for none."
We were on the road not even an hour later, The chronicler told us to make great haste if we were to reach the strait of((, the name is on the map...)). We stood outside waiting for The Chronicler, no sooner than Grund started to say, "What taking so long?" He opened the door and walked out, Wearing a faded black hood with a ripped cape, it has flecks of mud and grime at the end. I'm sure it had seen much travel. Cable stared intently at the cloak. "Do you not have a space ship?" He stopped abruptly, looking into the distance. "Not really, I haven't had a need for one. Plus i'm technically not allowed to fly, or even be alive really..." Grund sounded annoyed when he said, "And why are you not allowed to fly?" A moment of silence passed. Then The chronicler Explained to us, what lengths he would sometimes go to get an interview. Like Illegally interviewing the greatest military leader of all time. By the time he was done, Grund was staring wide eyed at him. "Did you die?" grund seemed concerned.The chronicler got much louder all of a sudden, "we best be moving!"
We walked for some time,avoiding roads and bridges, sometimes creating new trails as we walked toward the mountains. We were silent most of the time, the pace was hard, leaving little time for rest. The trees around us began to become darker, shorter and rougher. The air seemed to grow thin as we walked towards the mountains. I was unaware of how high we were going, the land seemed to barely rise with each step
Two hours later we took a break. Cable seemed a bit tired, but grund and I were exhausted. We ate some Badger jerky, compliments of our backpacks rations. I looked over at The chronicler, He ate nothing and talked little, while we were traveling he sometime would spin around and stare out across the mountain slope, towards the great plane, shrouded in clouds. Presently he sat there doing so. "Chronicler, what are you doing?" He seemed to jolt back to reality. He put his fist to his mask as if thinking. "I can see for miles with the greatest of clarity, listen to the marching of ants, right now the Shadai are marching to Thandreks pass. I can see each and every one of them, an army six million strong, all headed for one city." we were all listening now Cable and Grund moved closer, Cable looked off into the mist, "why are they at war with the city?"
We sat in silence. "As birds build their nest, and bears sleep winters crest, they to act upon instinct. I should probably write that down..." He spent a minute or two poking his finger into the air on a little blue box.
While the others chatted for a bit, I wandered off to explore. Before I left Grund let me borrow his "sword" for a while. It didn't take long to become engulfed in the piney woods. My steps were silent on the pine needle forest floor. The only scent I could pick up where pine needles and moss. The more farther I walked the darker it got. The trees got taller and larger, the trees suddenly became sparse, a couple yards in between each. Slowly I noticed a new scent, it smelled old, ancient,like the trees of my forest, they had an aura of eons past, but this also smelled evil, almost like, like a snake.At that very moment I turned around, And ran back along the way I came back the way I had come. I heard an immense noise. The trees behind my started exploding.
Cable and The chronicler both stood up."What is it?"
Neither of them moved, they stood there silent. I started hearing a loud rumbling noise, I could see trees not to far off being thrown into the air, smashed into half. "Run." The chronicler pointed to the right, " Go hide in the big grey rock, there's a large crevice in the side of it. We took of sprinting in between the dark trees, I looked back to see the chronicler draw a glowing blue sword right of out the air.
Chronicler: They took off into the woods. I didn't have much time. I could see Tobna sprinting through the woods, The Drakon was right behind him, the only reason it hadn't caught up to him, was because the forest was so thick, it had to knock over or destroy each and every tree in its path. But they were coming up on the field where I stood. I turned on my clear vision, suddenly the trees disappeared. I could see Tobna fleeing for his life, and the huge dark green beast, stopping and starting like an old car. Toban was a few yards away from the clearing, i could see him plainly now. I yelled to get his attention. "Tobna, go to the right, find the dark grey boulder, I'll take care of this!" He realized my plan, he took a sharp right, or his left and sped off towards the large rock.
Only a few seconds later he burst into the clearing, only then could I appreciate his size. It was Forrest drake, a smaller species of the Drakon, It could turn its outer scale to wood to appear as a tree, and break from its cover to devour an unlucky animal. Its eyes were a sickly yellow with a bright blue center, it stood on four legs, with a long tail and blade at the end. The top of its head was fifty feet above the ground. It looked right at me, hissing angrily. Through all of its efforts to catch up to Tobna, it had impaled itself with many chunks of wood. It didn't seem to happy. He closed his mouth, which was bad, being in the family tree of the more common dragon, it to could breath fire, in a way.
He reared back his head and wiped it forward, releasing a searing beam of light, directly into me. He saw I had not moved, nor that it had affected me in the slightest. In reality, it had taken 14% of my shields, "My turn."
The great lizard lunged. My thrusters kicked into action responding to a single thought, I flew high up into the air, right above his head. He looked up and roared. I brought my sword directly down strait through his nose, slicing right through his scales. It screeched in pain. I dropped down and dashed forward, under its belly, using my boosters to slice away at its under side. Nearing the end of the Drakon, I flew up onto its back, and stuck my sword into his backside. Once the blade was hilt deep I threw on my rockets. Moments later it laid, dead, his back completely opened up all the way to it head. "what fun." I said aloud, mostly to myself, I thought it was a pretty cool finishing move. "Whoa." The voice behind me belonged to Cable, "how did you do that!? You can fly? What was that?" I was not prepared for the flood of questions, but I started with the first one. "Yes, I can fly, I've got little vents all over this suit, they use plasma propulsion, an ancient technology, even if it is slightly impractical. but hydrogen is cheap nowadays. What was the second question?" Grund answered, "What was that thing? I thought for a moment. "That was a wingless dragon, more commonly known as a Drakon. Let's talk, on the road."
Tobna: The Chronicler answered all of our questions up until it was time to sleep. We found a grove of trees a ways off the path, they were in a kind of a circle, there branches were about five feet above the ground, creating a sort of "room". We all sat down, leaning on our trees. I went over the events of the past two days. How we had lost our home, ran from Demons, and met the chronicler. I felt a little strange, excited almost.
After a little while of thinking Grund asked me a question. "Hey Tobna, do you know if we can ever go back home?" I looked over to Grund, he looked a bit sad, about losing our home, maybe even a little homesick. "I don't know Grund. I don't know." Not much was said after that. It had been a long day. Our sleeping bags were warm, and the night air was somehow relaxing, after a few minutes of watching the vast infinite sky, I fell asleep, to live in a another world, for a little while.
"Tobna, get up." The chronicler gently shook my arm. My voice was groggy, almost sounding like a frog, "Time to go?"
"Not exactly." He was about to say something else when I heard the sound of war horns, not far off. "What was that?"
"Unexpected guests..." He was quite, whoever this was seemed to affect his mood greatly. We sat in the grove of trees, using the wall of branches to conceal us from outsiders. Grund and Cable where both awake. I still had no idea what was going on . "Is it the Shadai?" I looked through a small hole in the bottom of the branches, I saw nothing. "The Shadai have sent a small force through the mountains to guard their rear." The chroniclers eyes were red, not the usual blue. I started to feel a little sick. "How far away are they?" The chronicler looked back a me from the edge of the grove. "Not too far off, our only chance of survival would be hiding, opening a gate or some kind of far travel..." His voice trailed off, lost in thought. We sat there not long until we started to feel a deep shaking in the ground under us. " An earth shake?" Grund didn't seem any better than I felt. The Chronicler stood up. "Here they come."
Eventually the shaking became more organized. Soon it became clear it was not an earth shake, but footsteps. "How could they get so close without us noticing?" Cable spoke with his back to us peering out of the grove. "Only one way it would be possible." The Chronicler seemed to pause for dramatic effect. "Magic..." He seemed to say magic with lots of negative emotions. Not any fear, but lots of annoyance. "Hey techno buddy." Grund seemed just as annoyed. "Explain." after a moment of waiting, the Chronicler let out an exasperated groan. "Magic is an energy that exists around or within you, using this energy you can accomplish just about anything. For example: Time travel, breathing underwater, turning into other creatures or eating rocks with consequences." We just stared at him dumbfounded. "The only problem is only living creatures or other dimensions can create magic energy, so it's almost impossible to use it as a basis for a nation to industrialize." As he spoke the stomping got a little quieter, but I didn't really take it to mind.