“Good dragon, nice dragon. You stay on your side of the cave and I’ll stay on mine.” The words were breathed out of the helmet as much as they were spoken through its vents, and were quickly swallowed up by the cavern, hungry to consume all light and life. It was large and roomy, with the typical stalactites and stalagmites associated with a cave of this age, however, many of the more central spires and towers were broken and now little more than stumps jutting out of the floor and ceiling. The message was clear, something big had passed this way.
A far smaller creature then the one that had left its mark, carefully moved along the edges of the cavern, keeping as much rock and distance between itself and the sleeping mountain of scales. Heavy feet made surprisingly little noise against the stone underfoot, though that was mostly due to the layer of ash that coated everything; footprints would be left, but the owner of the feet was hoping to be long gone before the cave’s occupant would notice the disturbance to its decor. Slow breathing echoed around the cavern helping to mask any misstep, or other unintentional sound, that might cause the dreamer to stur. Its breath was hot and sulfurous, and almost seemed to cling to the vacating visitor like a blanket, before it would sweep past and raced to meet the cooler morning air. Almost out and with the light, quite literally, at the end of the tunnel, the dragon’s ‘guest’ quickened his pace. Luck, however, seem to leave him at that moment, as the sound of claws on stone and very large bones snapping into very large joints echoed around the cavern. Nap time was over.
A man, clad in metal, suddenly made an extremely quick, and extremely loud, exit from the cave that was situated in the side of an impressively large mountain. Behind him, and far closer than the man would have liked, trailed a dark green dragon whose blinking eyes and shaking head pertained that it had, until very recently, been asleep.
“Quick! Ready the horses!” The metal man shouted, with more than a little bit of panic staining his voice. The words were push forwards and towards a rocky outcrop, where two stocky horses were being restrained, though not without protest, by a wiry figure in the standard leather and cloth of a squire’s livery. The knight-in-training, who could be no more than fifteen of sixteen, was quick to unknot the grander and bulkier looking dappled, gray mare before going round to its right side to hold onto its saddle. The movements were quick and practiced, this, after all, was not the first time they had had to make a quick getaway, though this was the first dragon, unless you counted Madam Rillat three towns over.
The combination of clanging metal and reflective bursts of sunlight off the armor made the knight, for that was what his current apparel suggested he was, a rather hard to miss target, and, had the dragon been fully awake, the plume of fire that now stemmed from its jaws would have not fallen short of said target. Then again, this dragon had dealt with its fair share of knights, so perhaps it simply did not want to deal with clearing up a smoldering lump of metal and flesh; at least not first thing in the morning and before he had had his daily ash bath. The heat turned up, both metaphorically and quite literally, certainly gave the knight a little more speed so, for all intensive purposes, the fire had done its job.
With more grace than one would expect from a man covered in metal, the knight raised himself up into the saddle with ease, his weight counterbalanced via his squire on the other side to ease any strain on the horse.
“Get to Duty, that dragon won’t miss again.” Said the now mounted knight, who was having to rein in his steed as she danced with impatience and fear against her rider’s will. After all, there was a rather large dragon to take notice of, and horses were not stupid when it came to knowing what dragons tended to do with small herbivores. The youth took to the other horse, a dark bay, with a perfected agility, and very quickly both horses were given the chance to act on their instincts, which at this moment, told them to get the hell out of there.
The dragon yawned and blinked his eyes a few times to clear his vision. He had not been expecting to have breakfast delivered, but, he was hardly going to look a pair of gift horses in their mouths.
The squire kept looking behind them while riding so saw when the green giant crouch low to the ground before springing up and catching the air beneath its wings. However it was only due to the experience of the bay mount, as well as its own need for self preservation, that stopped the youth from plowing into the other rider.
“Sir, the Dragon has taken flight!” Glancing over the knight took note of his ward, but did not bother looking further to the dragon.
“And so will you Boy! Give Duty his head. He’ll throw you if you don’t start riding with him and give him some rein. Now keep close, that Dragon won’t be able to follow us into these woods.” The silver pair turned to their left and were quickly swallowed up by the greenery closely followed by the younger brown pair, who seemed a little more reluctant. Having a dragon behind them, however, quelled any questions on the wisdom of riding, at full gallop, into a forest they knew nothing about.
Noticing that his meals had taken to the wood by his home, the dragon decided to take his time and gain a little height before he would start the hunt, after all the forest might be a good size, but it was barely a few wing flaps to reach either edge. All he needed to do is to wait for them to make a break for it, and their fate would be decided.
“Sir Wallace?!” The squire was forced to pull the gelding into a trot as soon as they had fully entered in emerald realm in order to avoid running into a tree or tripping over vegetation. Unfortunately this also meant losing sight of probably the only one who could get them out of this situation.
“Over here lad.” The knight trotted his mare over towards the youngsters while patting her neck. Neither of the horses were particularly fond of the closeness of the woods, and being cut off from any open route, should they need to run, was hardly reassuring, but they had enough faith in their riders to stay relatively calm. He lifted his visor up and motioned with a finger to his lips.
“Keep ya voice down, we’ve got some nasties lurking.” Sir Wallace’s words sounded one part warning and two parts excitement, after all nothing got a knight in a good mood better than getting one over on a dragon.
“What sort of nasties? Goblins?” The squire looked around nervously. Goblins were a pain to deal with, especially when you were in their territory as they always had all sorts of traps and tricks setup. Not to mention they liked to hide until they had gathered a large enough group to simply swam over any sort of defence you could put up.
“No, not this close to a dragon. Dragons can’t stand the smell of them, and even if they could goblins are quick to try their hands at stealing from any treasure, and that is one traite no dragon will ignore. More likely pixies and sprites, so watch your footing. The last thing we need is to be dealing with those pests, I am still finding quilled arrows in my clothes from the last batch. Here you go Gideon, catch.” At his last words the knight tossed something that flashed green in the dappled light. It was about the same size and shape of a small dish, and a dull green colour when properly inspected. The squire, having caught the thing, turned it over a few times to marvel at it.
“Well at least you got the scale, why did you only take one?” Gideon turned to access the large pack that sat behind the saddle. It took a moment, but eventually the squire found what was needed and pulled out a small leather bag that sagged under the weight of whatever was held within.
“I was hardly going to hang about any longer then I needed to. Beside, dragons prefer to burn their scales off rather than let them fall naturally. I was lucky to find that one. Just be glad that it’s the last ingredient.” Sir Wallace looked up, as did both the horses and Gideon, a thunderous roar echoed around them.
“Sounds like our cue to get out of here Boy. Powder it up with the rest and lets see if we can’t rob this dragon of a meal.”
Gideon nodded and placed the scale into the bag of powder. Once the drawstring was pulled, the bulge of where the scale edges pushed against the leather walls began to shrink back, until the squire was able to feel nothing more solid than sand within the bag.
“This will work won’t it? I don’t really like the idea of going back out there.” The dragon let off another roar which caused both of the horses to pull at their reins and worry the mulch beneath their hooves. It would seem that the equines felt much the same about that plan of action.
“Steady there Honor, good girl.” The knight patted his steed on her neck a few times before stroking her absently.
“Have a little faith lad, these powders are perfectly safe so long as you know what you are doing. Lucky for you I do. Now lets go find an open patch in this wood before the sun sinks too low.” At this the knight dismounted and pulled the mare’s reins over her head so he could lead her on.
“I still don’t see why we couldn’t have bought some travel powder from that vendor in Lillyoak.” Gideon copied the knights actions thus soon the human pair were both walking either side as their mounts trailed behind.
“Two reasons lad. One, I only buy from vendors I know I can trust. This is not the sort of magic you want to take chances on. If you are lucky, and you just get a bad batch, it will simply fizzle out and not work. If you are not so lucky you can end up stuck inside a rock or teleported a league above the ground - very messy.” The squire gave a visible shake, that was not a nice way to go.
“So, what about the second reason?”
“This is useful stuff for a squire, and in turn, a knight, to know. Now answer me, why is it we need sunlight.” Sir Wallace watched as his ward turned his mind away from the possible grisly outcomes of teleporting and instead focus on his teachings.
“Sunlight is needed to activate the magic, it is the trigger.” A thought crept through the teens head.
“But then, couldn't we just use a word trigger? Like that fire scroll you used?”
“A good question, but you see Giddy, word triggers are hard to craft into spells. The scroll was from a mage, as they tend to be the only ones that can craft anything that complex. This powder might be primitive but it’ll do the job. Now we could have added silver instead of gold than the powder would have activated by moonlight instead of sunlight, but most moon triggered spells only reach full potential on a full moon.”
“OK, that makes sense. Oh Sir there is a clearing over here.” The squire pushed past some vegetation to reach the open area where the sunlight was able to reach the ground. It was a perfect spot to cast the spell as it was free of anything that might get in the way.
“Gideon, what have I told you about not looking where you are walking” Sir Wallace sounded disappointed and it was that tone that stopped the youth.
“What do you mean?” Gideon turned to see Sir Wall and Honor standing on the edge of the glade but not within it. His arms were folded as he glared with his ‘you dug the hole, you fill it in’ face. Looking around Gideon tried to see where the mistake had been made. The place was open and large enough for the both of them and the horses to stand, though, it was a little odd that the clearing seemed to be almost perfectly round. A small bit of information tickled inside the pupil’s head before the mistake was picked up. Mushrooms. Well toadstools to be exact. They were dotted around the outside of the circle, almost holding the forest back. This was a fairy ring.
“Not again!”
“Yes, again. What is this, your fourth time in two years now? How on earth you managed not to be carted off by the fae before you signed up with me I don’t know. Go on you know the drill.” The knight showed little to no worry, he was mostly just enjoying his students embarrassment.
Gideon grumbled as a loaf of bread was pulled out of the bag as well as some cheese before braking, what would have been lunch, in half to lay on the ground at the center of the fairy ring.
“No Gideon, all of it, and some of Duty’s mane to since he crossed the circle along with you.”
“But...” Gideon held back any protest, it was no use arguing with Sir Wallace, after all ‘Sir Wall’ was more than just a nickname. Once he decided on something he was not going to move from it. The youth, after giving up what little rations they had saved for the rest of their journey, walked over to the bay, who at least had enough sense not to eat the grass from the fairy ring. Gideon ran long and nimble fingers through the horse’s mane to pull loose a good handful of black strands. These were also left in the center, held down beneath the bread and cheese.
With the payment made the two left the enchanted glade feeling only a small amount of resistance as they passed over the toadstools. Sir Wallace had already turned his back on the innocent looking clearing and was making his way back into the forests embrace. Gideon made sure to also keep the glade out of sight, even when the sound of childlike laughter could be heard emanating from behind.
“Your lucky lad, had you tried to cast the transport powder in the middle of a fairy ring you could have ended up anywhere.”
“Really? But how would that have made a difference?”
“The environment is always buzzing with magic, and that can get tangled up with any spell you cast. Normally it is not enough to affect a spell, most times it just helps to power it, but you always have to be careful around any sources of power.” With the lesson over Sir Wallaces tone changed to become more playful.
“Now, if you have finished trying to lure a fairy bride, I think I see another small clearing up ahead.”
Gideon blushed. It was common knowledge what happened to young lads that were caught by the Fair folk, and that was a situation would not end well, for either parties involved.
The second clearing proved to be far less fae made and was due to an old tree having come to the end of its life and finally falling after the insects of the forest had eaten away at its supporting roots. It was a messy opening but that hardly mattered, the sun was above and there was enough room for the group of four to stand side by side.
The knight removed both of his gauntlets and wiggled his fingers slightly in his thin leather gloves before placing the metal pieces into his own smaller bag on Honor. He also fished out a small leather pouch.
“Right then lad, hand me the bag and I will lay in our destination” This task proved to be no more difficult than adding a handful of dirt to the awaiting mixture.
“Good rich soil from Saltridge, and from there it is only a days ride to reach the port of Tal’fort. I’m looking forward to a nice big fish dinner and a stiff drink.” The talk of fish only made Gideon’s stomach grumble in protest, it would be at least a day before it would get much to eat. Stupid fairies.
“Perfect.” Said Sir Wallace wiping the remainder of the soil from his gloves.
“Take a wiff of that lad. Thats what top grade, fresh, travel powder should smell like.” The squire leaned in and took a smell of the dark, but slightly glistening dust, inside the bag.
“Ugh, it smells like charcoal and..umm.”
“Wet dog, at least thats what it has always reminded me of. You ready then lad?” Gideon nodded and held tightly to Duty’s reins in order to stop him from running off when they reached Saltridge. Using travel powder was hardly the nicest of ways to travel but it certainly beat riding for three weeks on no rations.
“Of we go then.” Turning the bag inside out Sir Wallace readied his hand to catch the dust. It immediately started to glow gold as the sun touched it and as soon as the bag was empty the knight tossed the glowing powder into the air above to let it fall and encase the travelers.
The glow was in fact bright enough to catch the eye of a certain flying reptile, who was becoming rather impatient that breakfast was going to end up becoming lunch if it didn’t hurry up. Feeling the human magic, and not wanting to let the little thief of a knight; for the dragon was sure the knight must have taken something from his hoard, get away without so much as a scorch mark was unthinkable. He did, after all, have a reputation to uphold. The dragon let off a focused fire ball at the golden glow.
The dust had grown around the four in a matter of seconds, and swirled like liquid sunlight as each grain took its turn to charge up in the heavenly fire ball’s energy. Unfortunately just as the spell had reached its peak another fiery ball decided to give it a boost, this time with very different implications. The heat seemed to melt the sand like dust into a twisted golden ball of glass which glowed from the inside, not with a soft golden light however, but a harsh white light that intensified with every moment until...
SMASH
The ‘glass’ shattered and tinkled to the ground as small fires burnt along the now charred remains of the old tree. There was no trace of the humans, or the horses, not even their smoldering remains. Upon seeing his failure, as well as the resulting mess that his shot had made, the dragon thought it best if he also disappear before his tiny neighbours decided to retaliate. Even so, if that knight ever showed his face around this area again he was going to end up welded to his caves entrance.
“Wow, that home made stuff really packs a punch” Gideon was having to hold onto Duty till he calmed down. The gelding had only traveled by powder once before, and even then he had not liked it, but this time had been enough to shake even Honor who was usually no problem.
“You can say that again. That forest must have been really old to give the spell that much of a boost. Steady girl, you're OK. That’s it. Maybe we were caught on a layline or somthing. Now lets see where we have ended up.” The knight mounted his now, almost, calm steed in order to get a higher view point. Green grass, rolling hills, a few trees dotted here and there. High mountains were visible from the north, they had been Sir Wallace's first clue that the spell had blown them off course. The problem now was working out how far off course.
“What do you mean ‘ended up’? Aren't we at Saltridge?” Having not been to Saltridge before Gideon had yet to realise that something was amiss.
“Not unless Mountain ranges grow like weeds.” Sir Wallace saw the panic flare in his ward’s eyes.
“Don’t worry lad, it’s quite normal to over shoot your destination when you get a little bit of stray magic into the mix. Think you can climb that tree there and give us a better idea of where we are? Maybe there is a town or a village we can head to.”
Gideon looked over to the tree and nodded. It was still a bit worrying that Sir Wallace didn’t know where they were, the man always seemed to know everything, but he was only human and there did have to be some limits to his knowledge. With Duty’s reins handed over to Sir Wall Gideon set to work on climbing a medium sized pear tree while also snagging one of the fruits on the way up.
“What can you see lad?”
“I can make out the sea to the east of us and...” Gideon used a hand to block out the sun’s glare from above but it still didn’t help give a clearer image of what was in view.
“I think I can see a really big town, no it must be a city”
“What do you mean ‘think’?”
“It doesn't look like any city I’ve ever seen. It has these big blocky towers sticking up with no rhyme or reason so I don’t think it is from a castle. There is a road that leads towards it, but even that looks weird.”
“Weird or not a road and a city are just what we need right now. Come on down and lets see just how weird this road is.
A short ride later had the pair looking down at a pair of very straight ‘roads’ running side by side and ribbed with metal and wood. The ground beneath and around the network was covered in rocks and gravel and there was a certain smell in the air, like ash and coal. It was certainly like nothing the squire had ever seen.
“I told you it was weird” Said Gideon matter of factly, happy to be right about something.
“I admit that it is odd but only because of where it is. These are tracks, dwarves use them to move goods around their holds, but I have never heard of tracks being used above ground before.” A sound started coming from the west. At first the pair didn’t notice it because of how gradually it built up but their mounts certainly did and displayed their agitation through head tossing and ground pawing.
“Sir what is that?”
The ‘thing’ making its way both quickly and loudly towards them billowed thick smoke above it. It looked to be maybe a little bigger then a carriage in height though it snaked back along the track for quite a distance.
“Easy lad, see it’s keeping to the tracks. Lets just back up and give it some space. I don’t know what Kingdom we have ended up in but it would seen the dwarves have shared their secrets with them. This must just be some new form of transport.” Moving a good distance back away from the tracks, and the approaching hulk, the small party stood and watched as the contraption got closer before passing by them. It was at that moment that the humans were greeted with possibly the strangest sight either had ever seen in their lives, and that was saying a lot for Sir Wall, who had once seen an orc who thought it fashionable to braid live pixies into her back hair.
The contraption was divided up into sections, most of which had windows all along their sides. Sir Wallace had been right to guess that it was designed for transportation but as for what it was transporting, well that was when things really took a strange turn. Miniature horses, tiny little ponies of every color imaginable, some of them even had clothes and hats on, and pretty much all of them had an expression of either fear or wonder, normally both, directed towards the mounted pair. One of the creatures held up a black box which caused a flash of light to dazzle both of the humans, who sat with their mouths agape, on top of their mounts, who were dancing around and trying to keep from panicking as the great beast roared past.
As the contraption finally ended, the pair were left looking at its back slowly shrinking away and where a light gray pony, with a blond mane and tail, clung to a railing with one hoof and waved at them slowly with the other. Then, as the thing faded from view, Gideon heard, for the first time in memory, Sir Wallace swear.