Chapter 3

Dr’gÿn Attack

Novembre 30, 5599

 

After a quick breakfast, Maidawn and the rest of the party gathered near the tower. They all had their backsacks packed and ready to travel. Any spare space in them was stuffed with food, a gift from the bloclabs.

L’ssilla and N’kkitta exited the tower.

Maidawn noticed that the younger bloclab was wearing the same kind of white armored suit that Shorn had worn. On her feet she wore what looked to be a well-loved pair of boots. Around her waist was a thick belt that had an empty D-ring every two inches. On the right side of her belt a plasma pistol inside a leather holster. On the left side, a round leather pouch hung from a D-Ring. It was about as big as Maidawn’s hand with her fingers spread apart. Something resided inside the pouch, but she didn’t know what it was. Maidawn noted that N’kkitta had an interesting item on her back that kind of looked like a backsack, but it was different. It had a lot of extra pockets on it that looked like they were sealed with some sort of strange multi-teethed sealing device. On her forehead rested a pair of round connected glass circles that looked like them might slide over her eyes. Straps from the circles ran around her head, one ran under her ears and the other underneath her mandible.

Maidawn approached the newest member of their party and gave her a hug.

“I’m so excited,” N’kkitta whispered in her ear.

“So am I.”

They let go of each other as L’ssilla started to speak to Alizabet. “Do your best to keep my daughter safe.” She turned to the rest of the travelers. “All of you, I wish you a safe journey. From what I’ve learned, you all are on an extremely important quest. I hope that you succeed in finding the rest of the Amber Armor items.”

“Thank you, L’ssilla.” Cyereth approached the lead bloclab scientist and hugged her. “I’ll tell Queen Wanitha about you. I’m sure that she’ll send a few envoys over here to meet with you. From what I’ve seen, our people would be great allies.”

“I look forward to meeting with them, and eventually your queen.”

Cyereth nodded and stepped back.

Alizabet looked around and noticed that everyone was getting antsy to leave. Some of that was probably due to the fact that they were about to use the Hopper for the first time. Maybe they aren’t antsy, she thought. She figured that they were probably more nervous than anything else.

Maidawn watch N’kkitta as she removed the Hopper from the round leather pouch and held it out in front of herself. The bloclab pressed a button on the top of it and the device chimed as it powered up. The screen on the front of it lit up and Maidawn moved in closer to see what N’kkitta was doing.

N’kkitta’s manipulated the device by using the index finger of her right hand. A moment later, a holographic map sprung up in the air in front of her. “Hmm, if we go the maximum distance of 83 myles, that puts us at the border of Dr’gÿn Thickett. Like I said yesterday, we’ll need to let the device recharge for fifteen minutes before we can hop again. The issue we are going to have is that our second hop will put us into the heart of dr’gÿn territory. We’ll need to find shelter for those fifteen minutes. We don’t want to run into a dr’gÿn.”

“Can’t we go further south into the Sambeen Slough?” Maidawn pointed at the land just south of Dr’gÿn Thickett.

“We could, but I wouldn’t advise it. There are creatures there that are worse than dr’gÿns.”

“I find that hard to believe,” Thorfrn grumbled.

“It’s true,” L’ssilla spoke up. “Only one bloclab has ever returned from the slough, and she was never the same again. Something there frightened her so badly that she never recovered. We don’t know what it was, but we know to never hop there. It’s a forbidden area for us.”

“I guess we’ll have to take our chances with the dr’gÿns, then.” Zift added. “Maybe they’ll be as nice as Hÿdrætélth was.”

“I doubt it.” Thorfrn rested his hand on the handle of Bloodedge Skullsplitter. “I be ready.”

“As will I,” Braunk said, his hands wringing his halberd.

Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. All of them were prepared to start the next leg of their journey.

L’ssilla approached her daughter and gave her a hug. “You be careful.”

“I will, mother. I promise.”

D’ggless came running down the road from his house and stopped, looking around for Stench. He ran up to L’ssilla and wrapped his arms around her legs, tears flowing down his cheeks. “That Stench guy took some things out of my room. I can’t find them anywhere.”

“We’ll go there shortly and look for them.” She patted her son on top of his head and then squatted down beside him. “Go say goodbye to your sister. She’s going on a trip.”

D’ggless turned to look at N’kkitta, who smiled and waved at him. He shrugged his shoulders and looked back up at his mom. “But my things . . .”

N’kkitta rolled her eyes. Maidawn laughed, thinking of Wrecker.

“All right, everyone. Let’s all stand in a circle. No, wait, turn around. We should all face outward, keeping our eyes alert for any danger. Now, everyone hold hands with the person next to you. Maidawn and Cyereth, since you are on either side of me, each of you rest your free hand on my shoulders. I have to manipulate the Hopper, so I can’t hold your hands. Okay, are we ready to go?”

“Ready.” Everyone chimed in.

“Right. Here we go.” N’kkitta selected what she thought was the best spatial pocket to travel to and pressed the green icon on the screen.

A blue glowing bubble emerged from the Hopper and grew until it surrounded the entire party. Then the bubble popped. The party had disappeared.

In the foothills of the High Steppe Mountains, 80 miles away from Gröll Tower, a tiny blue bubble suddenly appeared. It floated in the air about five feet above the ground. The bubble quickly expanded until it reached its designated size. The bubble popped to revel the party standing in a circle, their eyes wide with amazement.

“That was an interesting sensation,” Braunk said. “I am not sure how I feel about it.” He wandered away on wobbly legs from the group, his head in a daze.

“I forgot to mention this, but the first couple of times you hop, it can leave you a little disoriented,” N’kkitta informed the party. “It should wear off in a minute or two.”

Thorfrn took a shaky step or two and then locked his knees, holding himself steady. “Science, bah!”

Alizabet clung to her staff with both hands, locking her knees like she had seen the dwarf do. Maidawn reached out to grasp Alizabet’s staff with her left hand, trying to steady herself.

“Whîsçór dùô ägfljås,” Cyereth stated, her magical wings appearing on her back. They lifted her off her feet so she hovered above the ground. She shook her head back and forth trying to clear the cobwebs from her mind.

Zift was the only one that the hopping didn’t seem to affect. He looked around the open land below him seeing the tree-covered thickett, knowing that dr’gÿns lived there. We are going there next. Oh, boy. That’s not going to be good.

N’kkitta pressed the timer icon on the screen. Fifteen minutes appeared on the device and started counting down.

“We have some time to kill.” N’kkitta tore her eyes away from the Hopper to see where they were. “We should be safe up here. I’ve been in these mountains many times. The dr’gÿns stay in the trees down there most of the time. The only other beings I’ve run into here are green goblins and blorcs, but they are far and few between. Still, we should always be on the lookout for danger. You just never know who or what may appear.”

Everyone soon recovered from the initial dizziness from hopping. The fifteen minutes passed uneventfully and they all gathered in a circle again.

N’kkitta located their next spatial bubble and pressed the green icon.

Twenty seconds later, the party appeared in the middle of a thick grouping of trees. The trees were so close together that no direct sunslight penetrated the overhead canopy. It was definitely darker under the trees then when they had been before, but not quite the oppressive darkness of night. It was more like dusk, after the suns had set.

Maidawn looked around in amazement. This was nothing like the Tenebrous Forest back home. It seemed a little more ominous, probably because of the lack of light.

N’kkitta pressed the timer and put the Hopper back inside the pouch on her belt. She snapped the flap closed, sealing the device safely within.

Beside her, Alizabet raised her staff and said, “Ånvatïo ûérwìfy käysíñ.” The jewel on the top of her staff flared to life, beating back the darkness and lending comfort to those that did not see well in low light.

Unfortunately for the party, the creature that just happened to be flying over the thickett noticed the gimmer of light below. He bent his head around, focusing on the light twinkling as he glided over the tree tops. It was barely noticeable through the thick, intertwined branches that formed the roof of the thickett.

“Hmm,” he growled. “Something new.”

A malevolent grin spread across the creature’s face as his triple forked tongue flicked out of his mouth, tasting the air. He tilted to the left and started to descend in a wide circle.

Thorfrn heard a whistling sound from above and peered upward, his hands pulling Bloodedge Skullsplitter from his chest harness.

Zift’s ears picking up the sound that Thorfrn heard, his head tilting up to peer at the branches far overhead. Ripper’s claws sprang forth, the metallic sound of them extending warning others that the battle corgi may have detected some sort of danger.

Braunk held his weapon ready, the halberd’s blade glimmering in the light of the staff’s light.

Maidawn drew Jati and Torrid from their sheaths and stood ready while Cyereth removed the elven bow from over her shoulder and pulled an arrow out of the quiver on her hip. She nocked the arrow, but did not pull the bowstring back, waited until they all figured out what the sound was.

They didn’t have long to wait.

The dr’gÿn crashed through the branches above and fell to the ground a short distance away. He hit so hard that the ground actually shook, causing the party stumble around, trying to gain their footing as branches and leaveds pelted the ground around them. Seconds later, they held firm, their weapons all pointed at the massive creature less than a hundred feet away from them.

“What have we here?” a deep voice rumbled.

Maidawn glanced at her brother, and then her eyes returned to the dr’gÿn.

Zift’s lips curled back and he let out a low growl as he moved closed to his sister, ready to protect her from the large dr’gÿn.

The scales of the dragon were varying colors of red, except for his chest, where the scales were a dirty shade of white. He folded its large barbed wings onto his back as he dug his long black claws into the ground.

The beast sat back on his haunches, studying them, the tip of his tail flicking back and forth. A thin stream of smoke wafted out of each nostril, and from between the teeth of his slightly open mouth. There was just enough room for his tongue to flick in and out.

Maidawn remembered that Hÿdrætélth looked more like a large serpent than an actual dragon. That was not the case is the monstrosity in front of them. This massive creature had a thick barrel chest and extremely powerful-looking arms and legs. She feared that this encounter wasn’t going to be quite as pleasant as their previous meetings with the water dr’gÿn.

Maidawn noticed that some of the creature’s features looked the same as Hÿdrætélth’s, like the horns around its neck, the webbed ridges running down its back, and the deadly looking claws on its hands and feet. The main difference was the expression on this dr’gÿn’s face. Whereas the water dr’gÿn they had previously met turned out to be quite friendly, she doubted this was going to be true with this monster. As she watched it look over her party, a grin spread across his face.

Thorfrn took a step forward, brandishing Bloodedge Skullsplitter. “We mean you no harm. We be gone shortly.”

The dragon squinted its yellow eyes at the group that stood nervously before it. The long vertical slit of a pupil studied the seven small being and their weapon, deciding that they were no real threat.

“Will you now?” the dr’gÿn replied.

“My name is Maidawn, sir dr’gÿn. We have recently befriended Hÿdrætélth. May I inquire as to your name?”

The red dr’gÿn purred. He enjoyed being called sir. “You may call me Pÿræcÿndér. You met Hÿdrætélth, did you? And she let you go? Hmm. I haven’t seen her in a hundred years or so.”

Zift was about to say how much they enjoyed meeting the water dr’gÿn and how she had helped them defeat the blorcs on the ships when Maidawn spoke up.

“We are pleased to meet you, sir Pÿræcÿndér.” Maidawn slightly bowed to him, but never took her eyes off of the massive being.

Pÿræcÿndér chuckled. “Are you know? And what, may I ask, are you doing here in Dr’gÿn Thickett?”

“We’re just passing through,” N’kkitta said, keeping one hand on the Hopper’s pouch, anxious for the fifteen minute alarm to go off. “We will be out of your territory in a couple of minutes.”

“Hÿdrætélth became a wonderful ally,” Zift was finally able to say. “She’s a very friendly water dr’gÿn.”

Pÿræcÿndér snorted, a cloud of smoke shooting from his nostrils. “She always was a strange one, making friends with whomever she ran across instead of eating them. I never understood it.”

Thorfrn glared at the red dr’gÿn. He guessed that the creature was contemplating eating them. As he squeezed the axe handle tightly, the runes started to glow. He felt his strength increase.

“A what kind of dr’gÿn be ye?” he asked.

“Only the best kind. I’m a fire dr’gÿn. Couldn’t you figure that out by my name. All fire dr’gÿn’s names start with “Pÿræ.”

Cyereth nodded. “I see. So, does that mean that all water drgyn names start with Hÿdræ?”

Pÿræcÿndér snorted, a cloud of smoke short from his nostrils. “You aren’t a dumb as you look.”

Cyereth frowned, wanted to retort, but she restrained herself from saying anything else.

“That wasn’t a very nice thing to say,” Maidawn pipped in, defending her friend.

Pÿræcÿndér grinned at her. “Like I care.” He stood up and blew out another cloud of smoke.

Alizabet noted the creature’s change in posture. She knew that they were probably in trouble. “You mentioned eating before. Is that what you are planning?” Alizabet asked, getting a couple of spells ready in her head.

Pÿræcÿndér shrugged. “Well, I’m not very hungry right now, but I do like a bit of sport every once in a while. And since I have been bored lately, oh so bored, really, and you are standing right here in front of me, I guess I will have to kill you. I’ll just leave your toasted bodies here to rot for a few days and come back later and eat you when I grow hungry again.”

“Uh,” was all Zift had to say.

 “So, are you ready to die?”

“Uh, no!” Zift yelled.

“Well, too bad.” Pÿræcÿndér started breathing deeply. Each time the fire dr’gÿn exhaled, more and more smoke shot from his nostrils. Finally, he opened his mouth wide and charged, snapping trees in two with his body as he plunged through them. The white scales on his chest began to glow and the party noticed the glow moving up his chest into his throat until a stream of liquid fire spewed from its mouth, headed right for them. Ever tree that the fire touched burst into flame.

Alizabet extended her staff in front of her and shouted, “Ìcªsl wárün äjîfliú šal sfjãøwe!”

A wall of ice materialized out of thin air in front of the party just as the liquid flame reached them. As the flame met the wall, the ice wall hissed. A large cloud of stream rose into the air as it started to melt.

Thorfrn ran around the left edge of the wall, Cyereth right behind him. She leapt onto a low branch of a tree that was not on fire and sprang high into the air, her magical wings popping into existence as she muttered the familiar spell, and fired an arrow at one of Pÿræcÿndér’s eyes.

The fire dr’gÿn saw the arrow coming and simply closed his eye. The arrow bounced harmless off of his plated eyelid and fell to the floor of the thickett.

Maidawn leaped onto Zift’s back as he ran around the other side of the steaming ice wall, her two swords glowing in the half light.

Braunk stayed back with Alizabet and N’kkitta behind the quickly melting wall of ice. He held his halberd in his hands, ready to defend the two women should Pÿræcÿndér make it to them. He needed to make sure that N’kkitta and the Hopper were protected from harm so the party could hop out of there when the timer reached its end. He peered over the top of the wall and watched the other four approach the dr’gÿn.

Thorfrn picked up speed as the magic of the axe lent him extra strength. When he was about twenty feet away from the quickly approaching beast, he leaped high into the air with his axe over his head. With a mighty swing, he brought the axe down on the right arm of the dr’gÿn, just below the creature’s shoulder.

Pÿræcÿndér bellowed as the axe bit into his flesh, the edge of the axe halted by the bone in his arm. Moving at the speed of light, he swung his head around and grabbed the dwarf around his waist. He whipped his head around as he opened his mouth. Thorfrn bellowed a dwarven curse as he sailed over the ice wall, still clinging to Bloodedge Skullsplitter.

Cyereth zipped after Thorfrn, both sets of wings moving as fast as they could. As the dwarf reached the highest point of his arc and started to descend directly toward a large tree, Cyereth slapped a golden beetle brooch onto his right boot and touched it twice. The brooch glowed blue as it attached the invisible tether to Cyereth.

“Whoa!” Thorfrn yelled and Cyereth flew around the very tree the dwarf has just about smashed into and zipped back toward the battle, the dwarf squinting his eyes from the wind as he was dragged foot. “Spin me around, dag nabbit! I can’t see ‘nothin’!”

Ten seconds later, now facing forward as the skimmed over the land, Thorfrn screamed out a dwarven battle cry, the runes once again glowing on his axe.

Meanwhile, Zift ran past the left side of the fire dr’gÿn while Maidawn clung onto his back. She slid her swords back in their sheaths, she hopped up facing the side of the massive creature on Zift’s back, one foot on Zift’s hind quarters, the other on his shoulders. As they passed the rear legs of the fire dr’gÿn, she squatted down and then sprang forward. She landed on the thickest part of his tail, right behind the dr’gÿn’s rear legs. Almost sliding off, she reached out with both hands and grabbed the webbed ridge running down the beast’s back and tail.

Pÿræcÿndér felt something on his back. He swung his head around and was shocked to see a small, frail human girl running up his lower back. He jumped in to the air, attempted to extend his wings, but the thick trees prevented him from doing so.

As the fire dr’gÿn fell back to the ground, Maidawn impacted hard on the creature’s back and nearly slid off. She stood up again and began running toward the beast’s head.

Zift launched himself as the dr’gÿn’s left rear leg, Rippers blades bouncing off the hard scales. He attacked again and again, but the blades did little damage. Then he spotted a recent wound near the tip of the dr’gÿn’s tail. Grinning, the battle corgi headed for the fresh scar, ready to inflict some actual damage.

Alizabet watched her ice wall crumble, no longer able to support its own weight after the middle had melted away. Understanding that they were battling a fire dr’gÿn, she quickly rifled through all of the cold spells she had learned and picked one she thought would be best.

She aimed her staff at the creature’s front left foot and shouted, “Åsífv lâž wël  šãrkjà!”

A stream of liquid ice shot toward the enemy and encase his entire leg in a mound of solid ice.

Pÿræcÿndér tried to lift his left foot, but it remained frozen to the ground. His body still had forward momentum, but as he realized that he couldn’t lift his foot, he said, “Uh, oh.” His chest slammed into the ground, shaking all the trees around them. Leaves slowly fluttered down around everyone. His chest was quickly followed by his head crashing to the floor of the thickett. A loud thump vibrated the ground again and the fire dr’gÿn lay still.

Cyereth and Thorfrn landed in front of the creature’s nose.

“The beastie is still breathin’” the dwarf stated as Maidawn hopped to the ground beside him. Zift came running back toward the party when he realized that the dr’gÿn was not moving. He was disappointed that he had not had a chance to inflict any damage on the massive dr’gÿn.

Thorfrn walked around the head of the dr’gÿn and stared at the thinnest point of the creature’s neck.

He started to raise his axe when Maidawn laid and hand on his arm. “No, we will not kill a sleeping enemy.”

“But he was goin’ to kill us,” the dwarf complained.

“I don’t mind us killing in defense, but we will not kill and helpless being, no matter how nasty they may be.”

Thorfrn lowed his axe. “Aye, you’re right. I don’t know what I was thinkin’.”

N’kkitta felt the Hopper vibrate with the one minute remaining reminder. She pulled it out of the leather pouch and brought up the screen. “We have one minute to go. Everyone come over here.”

Pÿræcÿndér’s eyes opened as the party headed away from him.

Alizabet saw this and yelled, “Hurry, everyone! The dr’gÿn is waking up!”

Pÿræcÿndér lifted his head and swung it around toward his frozen leg. Taking a deep breath, he blew a blast of seared air toward his appendage. The ice began to melt. He took another breath and repeated the process.

By now, everyone had gather in a circle while N’kkitta searched for a good spatial pocket for them to hop to.

“Oh no,” Cyereth said. “The dr’gÿn is free.”

Everyone, including N’kkitta looked toward Pÿræcÿndér.

“I’ve got you now,” the fire dr’gÿn said as he began to move toward them, his chest starting to glow again.

“Go, go, go,” Zift said to N’kkitta. “We need to go now.”

The fifteen minute timer sounded. N’kkitta turned it off and looked back toward the dr’gÿn. A look of panic crossed her face, which was quickly replaced by determination.

She looked down at the Hopper and started scrolling the map forward, looking for a good spatial pocket. She was having trouble finding one. “Where are you?” she asked the Hopper.

A familiar glow moved up Pÿræcÿndér’s chest heading for his mouth.

Maidawn shook N’kkitta’s shoulder. “Just pick anything or we are going to fried to a crisp.”

Unfortunately, Maidawn accidentally caused the bloclab to scroll the map to the right as she was about to pick a special pocket. Her index finger picked a pocket and her middle accidentally pressed the green icon.

“Oh my,” N’kkitta said, her eyes opening wide.

A bubble formed around the group just as Pÿræcÿndér let go of another blast of liquid fire. It covered the bubble, but did not penetrate it.

Inside the bubble, the heat began to grow.

Pÿræcÿndér charged the dome of lava and smashed it with a clawed hand. It fell to the ground revealing that the party he wanted kill was no longer there.

He reared back is head and let out a mighty roar of frustration. The sound traveled over the entire thicket. Every dr’gÿn that heard the roar understood Pÿræcÿndér’s frustration.

All of the dr’gÿn’s in the thickett roared in response. Not one of them liked giving up on a tasty meal.