The crackle of electricity echoes through the cave, sparking life to a fire that lights up the surroundings. Shadows dance on the walls. A wave of whispers caused by the excited kids breaks the silence. Awe and jealousy can be heard in their voices, for they are still too young to be able to conjure.
A creature can be seen at the mouth of the cave. A mass of brown fur at a height of about two meters is standing on two legs, leaning on a crooked wooden staff. The tip of the dark staff entwined into a four-pronged crown and its body is covered with carvings of unknown meaning. The bear like creatures pointed ears are somehow dry, despite the storm outside. It lowers its paw and a flicker of lightning sparks between its abnormally long claws.
Heads turn to watch the old shaman plodding towards the flames. The sound of the crone's staff bounces off the totems carved to depict faces of different animals and monsters. Bones and other ornaments can be seen hanging off the walls and ceiling.
The fire illuminates her, revealing the greying fur around her snout. Her eyes, the colour of thunderclouds, sweep over the cubs sitting in crescent around the fire as she sits on a smooth rock the opposite side of the fire. Silence falls again, disturbed only by the howling of the wind, and the crackling of fire.
A slow, raspy voice leaked from between the crone's fangs.
"This world is vast and larger than you may be able to imagine. Beyond the mountains of the Paw, there are countless lands filled with a vast variety of creatures. Our ancestors once came from those lands before finding peace here, beneath the aesis trees, away from the outside world. Not many tales remain from those hard times, and most have departed to Rang with their tellers.
Yet all has not been forgotten. Stories of elves and drakar are still told. Tales of wondrous lands filled with treasure, and lands of peril and danger. And the tales still live on.
Spurred on by those tales, I ventured beyond the embrace of the paw's mountains. And I met something that wasn't supposed to exist. Something not of this world.
It was during a hunt, when I was still just a youngster. I was stalking a prey, when I felt something weird. An inexplicable sense of uneasiness overcame me and soon before my eyes the world itself was ripped to shreds. A small purple crack appeared floating in the middle of the forest, and out of that crack came a being standing on two thin legs. It was short of stature and lacked fur everywhere except on its head. It was dressed in shining armour made of stone and brandished a straight staff that reflected light, the colour of the sun."
The young ones wanted badly to know how something could be wearing stone, but no one dared to interrupt the shaman.
"It appeared seemingly confused, swaying around like it was about to fall over. Though it looked rather weak, it radiated an aura of overwhelming power. Though I was young, I was not foolish. I chose to hide and observe the creature. But the prey he was hunting was not as smart.
The wolf I was chasing pounced on the disoriented creature. And was obliterated instantly. With a flash of bright red light, the three-meter-high animal was burnt to ash. A sphere of fire emerged from the being's staff and ravenously consumed everything in sight."
"Did you die?"
"No, little one. How could I be here if I had died?" She snapped at the cub, before the annoyance on her face faded to a soft look.
"Now hush. Listen."
"As I was saying – The flames died down within seconds, and there wasn't even a rock left. The wall of flames stopped just before it reached me, but the tree I was hiding behind caught fire from the heat, forcing me out into the open.
The creature looked around frantically, seemingly searching for something. Everything was destroyed, and the crack in the world had already disappeared. As it fell on the ground, weeping, I tried to slowly creep back into the forest, but at that moment the creature's gaze snapped to me."
Lightning lit up the cave and the small cubs huddled closer to each other. Someone let out a quiet yelp.
"It jumped to him with a strong gust of wind that would have felled trees had there been any left. Instinctually I realized there was nothing I could do. The outworlder was in a completely different class. The outworlder was gazing at me intently. I knew that submitting to the being was the only way I could live. As I fell over, showing my stomach in submission, a piercing pain erupted in my head. I felt my consciousness slipping away and all sorts of pictures started emerging in my head.
My family, tribe, everything I considered important in this life, flashed before my eyes. Then the pictures started taking a weird turn. Suddenly there were images I had never seen before. A massive hut made of stone. A stone pen as high as the trees, filled with exquisite huts, bustling with activity. An army of beings similar to this, wearing that shining armour, covered a meadow as far as the eye could see. Then the darkness overtook my consciousness.
I later woke up, the outworlder nowhere in sight. I swear I could have as well dreamt it all, if not for appearance of a clearing full of ash, spanning hundreds of meters."
"So little ones, remember to never attack anything you do not recognise. For in this world there are many beings you must not anger, lest you wake up a sleeping dragon."
Lightning flashed again, and when the shadows returned, the shaman was nowhere to be seen.
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Silently a purple light began to glow in the middle of the air. It opened into a tenebrous tear about two meters high, out of which came a ragged looking man wearing a suit of armour.
The instant Azaliah had managed to return back to his lab he slumped on the cold stone floor, heaving.
The lab consisted of a big room in the castle's basement, partially carved into bedrock in case of any unexpected accidents or explosions. It was divided into two sections divided by enchanted glass.
Half of a section was home to many bookshelves filled with an intriguing assortment of meticulously organised scientific books and magical tomes. Their titles ranged from; "The Handprint of God: The alchemical composition of our world" to "So you want to give a sacrifice to a devil?" Next to them was a writing table littered with scrolls. They were filled with messy writing and an ink bottle had fallen over ruining some. Azaliah was a bit displeased that he had let his workspace fall into such a mess.
Half the space was taken by a metal table, which had cupboards on both sides. The left one was filled with weirdly shaped glassware along with mortars & pestles, tongs and similar alchemical tools.
On the right there were glass jars filled with magical ingredients. One glass had a blue grass the other iridescent scales. There were jars with animal parts like tongues and eyes floating in a murky liquid. The eyes looked disturbingly like human eyes.
A heavy looking metal door barred the exit of that room and similar reinforced door was embedded in the enchanted glass. On the other side there was a room ending in bedrock. In the corner of that room was a pile of stone rubble with carvings on the shattered stones and other magical junk.
Slowly and painstakingly, Azaliah stood up and dragged himself in front of a mirror that was hanging on the wall. In it was reflected a man in his late twenties with an unkempt stubble and long brown hair. His suit of armour was full of scratches and scorched in some places.
But the man himself was in a much worse condition. Sticking out of a head of tangled hair were sticks and leaves. Everywhere his skin was showing you could see scrapes and bruises. If one were to remove his armour, they wouldn't have been surprised that his ribs were showing through his battered skin.
But the most impactful feature about him were his dark green eyes, sunken deep into the skull and shining with a maniacal gleam.
"You did it you beautiful motherfucker."
A wide grin spread across his face as he screamed in joy.
The same instant his face fell into a look of deep concentration. He started murmuring to himself in a deep voice.
"Oh, but now I got to report to the king. But I'm in no shape to show myself in front of him. But this is the find of a century. No, a millennium. This must dwarf even the invention of wordless spellcasting."
He straightened up, slamming his fist into his hand.
"Yes, I must inform him of it right now."
The door of the royal bedroom swung open revealing the king of Ashia laying on an extravagant canopy bed accompanied by his wife feeding him grapes, both wearing lackluster clothing.
"You... YOU DAFT BABBOON!"
The king seemed to be in his early 30s. Smooth silver hair covered his reddened cheeks as he stood up and screamed his lungs out at Azaliah, who had just entered the room still in his damaged and stenching armour.
"I TOLD YOU ALREADY TO NOT BARGE IN MY ROOM LIKE THIS OR I WILL PERSONALLY TIE A NOOSE AROUND YOUR BALLS AND THROW YOU OFF THE CASTLE'S FRONT BALCONY!"
"C-calm down dear brother, besides this is much more important than some love making. If you don't like my news, I'll gladly let you throw me off the balcony. I finally got results!"
"It's about your research? You seriously say that knowing that not once in fifteen years have you delivered satisfactory results?"
Glee creeping into his voice, Azaliah continued with fervour.
"It exists. They exist. I am now certain of it. There are worlds beyond this one, it's no longer just a theory."
"And how can you be so sure?"
Reaching into his pocket, Azaliah pulled out a small flower that he had collected. It glowed faintly, the colours of the flower changing fluidly from lime green to blood red. Even the king, who wasn't a mage by even the vaguest definition, could feel the mana pulsing from it.
"Because I visited one."