A figure now stood where the orb was. He walked down, seemingly on air, and landed before us, looking curiously at us. He was clearly a wizard; standing tall on two legs, with black fur on top of his head and smooth pale skin showing through what looked like folded sheets of white material which he was wrapped in.
"It has been so long since I had visitors," he observed, "My name is Azor."
"Wow, he really does exist," I mumbled.
"What did I say?" Dracoa snapped.
"I don't remember," I replied playfully.
"What are your names?" Azor interrupted.
"Um, I'm Qassot," Qassot said after a long silence.
"I'm Cyil," I squeaked from behind Riselus.
"I'm Riselus," Riselus grunted.
"I'm Dracoa," Dracoa said.
Azor nodded knowingly. "I could see you coming down the river. Come, let us eat. I always find it easier to talk over a meal."
He went back up the tower on faded translucent slabs of rock that appeared under his feet. As we followed, the slabs disappeared behind us. We went to the tower where the orb once was. A pinpoint of light began to grow, spinning and gathering the air around it into a whirlwind. We saw green, two-legged dragons a third of my size - Dringochs - flying around in the hallways of the castle, carrying trays, cleaning rooms, milling around, and sleeping. In fact, most of them were asleep.
Azor led us to a comfortable room, furnished with a table, and a number of queer rectangular objects depicting scenes with various wizards fighting and displaying their magic, and then went through a door on the other side. I scuttled to the door Azor disappeared through and sniffed it. It smelled like meatballs, which I liked. Meatballs were extremely difficult to make, due to how hard it was to catch quails, but they were worth the trouble. They tasted delicious, especially with berries and a certain rare sweet-smelling herb that grew in the forest. I decided that I liked this place. I sat next to the door, inhaling the delicious smell, and looked around the room.
Qassot found a jar of water and made a whirlpool inside it. How, I don't know. She still won't say. Riselus stood precisely in the middle of the walkway and remained there with his eyes closed. Dracoa started exploring the room. My stomach growled. We hadn't been able to catch any fish since swimming through the ocean. The smell of food from the door grew stronger. I felt myself getting drowsy. I had barely slept since we left Ysk Mountain, and it was taking its toll. Before I could fall asleep, though, Azor opened the door, knocking me into a wall. I glanced up sleepily. Azor was walking in carrying a tray with steaming food on it. Azor sat down at the table in the center of the room and set the tray down.
On the tray were broiled quails, soft bread, a hard yellow block that Azor called cheese, crispy squid tentacles and a kind of leaf that left Riselus in a surprisingly good mood.
"Come eat," Azor said.
I quickly scampered over, jumped into the table, and began shoveling food into my mouth.
"Have some manners," Dracoa muttered as she slithered over.
I ignored her.
"So, where did you four come from?" Azor asked after we had sufficient time to stuff ourselves.
"I came from Qade Valley," I said. It suddenly occurred to me that it only somewhat resembled a valley; the dip in the land was very subtle.
"IamfromthebanksoftheKrieRiverIthinkbecausethatiswhereIusedtoliveexceptthen-" Qassot chattered, her mouth full.
"Have some manners," I interrupted. Qassot ignored me.
"I live on Ysk Mountain," Dracoa said.
Azor looked carefully at Dracoa. "You're the first wyvern I've seen since the Call of the Beyond."
"Oh?"
"I think there was another wyvern back then who looked just like you. Her name was also Dracoa. She left with the others during the Call of the Beyond. I didn't know she left behind children."
It was quite common for creatures to name their children the same name as themselves. I was named after my father, for example.
"Well…" Dracoa said hesitantly.
"I knew this one dragon who was named Eiro back at the valley," I commented, "His father was also Eiro, and also his father's father, and his father's father's father, and-"
"Quiet," Riselus grunted, "I'm trying to eat here."
"Well, back to what we were talking about," Azor continued, "Where are you from, Riselus?"
"I wander around the other side of the mountains. What's this called?" Riselus grumbled, staring at a long-stemmed, thin-leafed plant.
"Lettuce. What did you come here for? Have some more quail, Dracoa," Azor said.
"What's lettuce?" I asked.
"We wanted to know more about our dreams which we had when we came in contact with a poisonous berry. Pass the bread, please," Qassot said. A dim glint of excitement in Azor's eyes appeared. I found it unsettling, but I was too distracted by the food to comment.
"It's that plant," Dracoa explained to me.
"Huh?" I asked. I had forgotten what I said.
"I see. I'll ask more about that later," Azor said.
"Pass the squid, please," I said.
"Mrrsphrggrfff," Riselus mumbled.
"Don't talk with your mouth full, Riselus. Now, do you all remember those dreams?" Azor asked.
"Nope," I said, "Wait, actually, maybe."
"Can I have more lettuce?" Riselus asked, ignoring the question.
Azor gritted his teeth but said nothing, instead passing a bowl of lettuce to Riselus. We finished our meal with some translucent reddish water that tasted like berries. We went out to a porch near the front door to look at the sea. Azor walked up behind us.
"Those dreams you had, what were they about?" he asked.
"This red ball thing in the middle of a desert and this big black shape that tried to grab it," I said immediately, "It was super creepy."
"I thought you said-" Azor started.
"It was the same for me, but the ball was blue," Qassot interrupted thoughtfully, "And it was in a lake."
"Did you see the black person as well?" Azor asked. Riselus and Dracoa nodded.
Azor came up and said, "I knew there was something special about you four. The one you saw in your dreams was the one who let out those dark armies and is causing the disasters."
"Disasters?" Qassot asked.
"Yeah," Dracoa said, "Massive waves, earthquakes, abnormal heat, torrential rain, things like that. They've been happening all around the island for a while now."
"Huh," Qassot said, "I never noticed."
"I didn't see any, either," I said. "Not even when we crossed the entire island to come here."
Azor's face turned red. He cleared his throat. "That is besides the point. Now, about the figure in your dreams. I have a suspicion about who it is."
His eyes flashed briefly, causing the light nearby to dim. "Ezarik, a dark wizard living on the eastern coast, near the Raik Mountains. He turned from the island's former wizard council after most of them left for the Beyond. I stayed behind to watch him."
"Are you sure?" I asked.
"If not, then then it must be something from the Beyond."
"I hope it's not," Qassot shivered.
We all shuddered; we knew the stories of the beings of the Beyond; similar-looking to wizards, they forever sought to invent, innovate, and create items more powerful than the best magic that takes a lifetime to learn, that can be used without any training. They raised structures the size of mountains and created materials stronger than stone. Moreover, there were a vast amount of them, a number far exceeding any creature's capacity to imagine. Creatures that surpassed nature and magic without any special ability, only their brains.
"I had some nightmares about them once," I commented, "They picked trees out of the ground with their bare hands and made them explode."
"That has nothing to do with-" Dracoa started.
"You have had a long journey and are tired. Feel free to find a place to sleep outside. I have rooms available if you want to be inside," Azor interrupted. "We can talk more in the morning."
"Okay then," I said, and started scuttling out to a clump of bushes I saw in the distance.
"Where are you going?" Azor asked.
"To sleep," I said, pointing a wing at the bushes.
"I have guest rooms and beds here," Azor said.
"What are those?"
Azor sighed. "Just follow me."
He led us down a few hallways and up a few stairs and past some locked doors and around the castle until I had no idea where we were. He finally stopped at the top of a stairway next to a window overlooking the ocean, and opened the door there to reveal a long hallway lined with more doors.
"This part of the castle is entirely guest rooms. Pick a room and get to sleep. You've had a long journey," he said.
"What's a guest room?" I asked.
Azor's eye twitched. "A place for visitors to sleep. Just open one of the doors."
"Cool," Qassot said. She started down the hallway and opened a door. "Wow, what's all this stuff?"
"Ooh!" I called, "I call whatever quest loom has a bush in it!"
"No bush here," Qassot called, "This one looks nice, I'm sleeping here."
"There aren't any bushes in guest rooms," Azor explained patiently.
"Then how am I supposed to sleep?"
Dracoa slithered up behind me and whacked me down the hallway with her tail.
Azor cleared his throat. "You sleep on the bed," he called after me.
"What's a bed?" I called back.
"Is it this flat squishy thing on the floor?" Qassot asked from her room.
"It's the big squishy thing in the corner," Dracoa responded.
"How do you know?"
"I've seen one before." Dracoa moved past me to the end of the hall and disappeared into the last room. I looked up at the door I was next to. I saw Azor grab the stick thing on one of the sides and twist it before pushing the door open. I jumped onto the stick. It sank under my feet. I fell off. The stick jolted back up to where it originally was.
"Huh?" I mumbled.
"I can sleep outside," Riselus grunted as I tried to jump on again. I slipped off.
"I would prefer it if you stayed in one of the rooms," Azor replied, "You are my guests, after all."
"What's a guest?" I asked.
"SHUT IT!" Dracoa yelled.
"So mean," I mumbled, and went back to trying.
After a few more tries, I noticed that Azor was still standing there, arguing with Riselus.
"Help?" I asked.
"You'll need to figure out how to open the door on your own," Azor responded. "I do want you four training here for a while, after all."
"But I-" I started.
"Don't worry," Azor said, "Just keep trying. You'll open the door eventually."
"That's not what I was trying to say," I grumbled. I was actually trying to tell him that I was going to start heading back home the next morning.
I spent the next few tries figuring out that I didn't actually need to twist the stick, just land on one end hard enough to make it twist on its own. The next few tries were me trying to push the door while landing on the stick simultaneously.
Azor finished arguing with Riselus and led him back outside in defeat.
I finally managed to kick the door open as I slid off of the self-twisting stick.
"YES!" I squeaked triumphantly. I had finally opened the door to the room.
"BE QUIET AND GO TO SLEEP!" Dracoa shouted.
"At least let me relish this moment," I shouted back, "I finally conquered the door!"
"DON'T CARE!" Dracoa retorted.
"You're so mean," I mumbled.
"Can't you guys quiet down?" Qassot butted in, "I'm trying to sleep here."
I scuttled inside the room to avoid any more of that conversation and looked around. There was a straight-sided fluffy thing on the floor that felt like a bed of grass.
"Is this the bed?" I asked myself. "No, Didn't Dracoa say it was in the corner?"
I looked around. There were some more straight-sided things made of wood standing around the room with various scrolls and other things I couldn't recognize. In the corner furthest from the door was a rather large straight-sided wood thing with a large, white squishy-looking thing on it. I jumped up.
"I guess this is a bed?"
It was super squishy.
It reminded me of sand, just without the sandiness.
I glanced around at the walls. There was a window next to the bed. I crept to the edge of the bed and peered out. I could see the mountains we swam around through the gaps between more towers of the castle.
"Wow, how does one wizard manage to live in this huge place all by his lonesome?" I mumbled.
I looked at the window. Surprisingly, I didn't feel any cold night breeze from it. A dragon from Qade Valley once made her home in a hollow tree. She had carved a straight-sided hole in the back of it where she could look out. She called it a window, but it would let the wind in all the time. I tapped the window with a wing. Some kind of hard, clear rock.
"You know," I mumbled to myself, "All this stuff is kinda cool."
I squished my way to the middle of the bed and curled up.
"I wonder what Aavern is doing," I said, "He was always the responsible one of us. Maybe I'll head back after a few days of this."
I suddenly remembered the food Azor had given us. I smiled to myself.
"This place isn't so bad after all."