Rainbow Dash Around the World

by MagicS

Mission Start

A fond farewell was given to Princess Fairscale, and Senax and the others left the castle to begin their trip to both find Rainbow Dash and solve the problem of the lizards on the other side of the island. It wasn’t going to be easy and they didn’t have much to work with. They had also been mobbed as soon as they left the castle (more accurately, Senax had been mobbed) and walked through the mountain town at the bottom of it. Thankfully being able to talk to the lizards had actually made things easier, as they could politely tell them they had something very important to do and not a lot of time to do it. A guide had also been sent with them to speed things along whenever they came to a new group—although no one had caught his name yet, he was being quite reticent so far.

Most lizards still wanted to touch Senax and see her off but they at least let her walk unimpeded through the town.

“I do plan to come back! I promise I will see you again and we can spend more time together!” Senax waved to the lizards as they left the mesa the town was on and began heading down one of the staircases leading to the western jungle.

“Child of Ponyseidon!”

“Take care!”

“Please come back!”

“Please speak to us more!”

That and much like it was all they heard even as they passed completely out of view from the mountain lizards.

Daylight sighed and shook her head, looking down the stairs winding through the mountains ahead of them. “At least it looks like getting through this half of the mountains will be easier than the back half.” She frowned and looked over at their lizard guide. “And by the way, do you have a name?”

The lizard guide looked startled to suddenly be addressed and instead of answering Daylight he turned to look at Senax.

She looked back at him, a little confused until she saw the imploring look in his eyes. “Um… do you want my permission to speak?”

The lizard frantically nodded up and down. “Yes! This one is not worthy to have been given such an honorable task, I—he feels it is not right to speak without being spoken to first!”

“Oh boy...” Daylight rolled her eyes.

“I-It’s okay! It’s completely okay to speak on your own,” Senax tried to convince their guide. “Please don’t treat me like I’m special. I’d like us to look at each other as equals...”

“Of course, of course!” The lizard bowed down to Senax.

“I don’t think he’s getting it all the way,” Breakwater muttered to Daylight.

Gilbert cleared his throat and reached a talon down to help the lizard back to his feet. “Now now, we understand your great appreciation for our friend, but we have some business to take care of. So how about that name then?”

“Y-Yes, my apologies! I am Smooth Tongue, tasked by the Princess to be your guide until you leave our territory,” Smooth Tongue the guide told them.

“Well nice to meet you then, Smooth Tongue,” Gilbert smiled and stuck out a talon for a handshake.

“Thank you...” Smooth Tongue graciously took it.

Senax also smiled at him. “Let’s get along well while we’re still together.”

He almost bowed down out of reflex but caught himself. “Yes, of course!”

---

The civilization of mountain lizards however was not very populous at all. That was something Smooth Tongue was more than willing to share with them. The mesa village they had left was the largest population center in the mountains, and there were only a few other places where lizards actually lived and worked. According to him, the savage lizards in the city to the west had a far greater population.

“I’m surprised they haven’t overran you if that’s the case,” Daylight said as they traveled down one of the last few mountains.

Smooth Tongue shook his head. “They try, they try very much, but they have lost their brains after so many years. They don’t know how to build and create what we can—nor can they use our magic anymore after losing their ties with our matriarch.”

“Fairscale did tell us that they’re not exactly capable of building or maintaining anything complex,” Breakwater said.

“They can go no further than simple wooden structures and tools,” Smooth Tongue nodded. “All they can do is breed.”

“Hmm...” Daylight thought as she rubbed her chin. “What kind of magic can you use exactly? We know the matriarch creates the fog and whirlpools around the island, and your elders gave us the ability to understand your language, but does every lizard possess some kind of magical ability?”

“Yes, though very weak individually compared to the matriarch,” Smooth Tongue said. “In fact—our magic resonates with one another so on our own we can do next to nothing, but in a group spells can be made to function.”

“I see, that’s rather interesting,” Daylight said. Being the only magic user in the group it naturally made her curious.

“So can you make shields and fire lasers with your magic? Is that how you defend yourselves?” Gilbert asked.

“What’s a laser?” Smooth Tongue blinked.

“Er, never mind...” Gilbert coughed.

“Can you only do the same sort of magic as the matriarch? Is that why it looked like the elders created a fog around them?” Daylight asked.

“Our magic is the same as hers—but lesser. Even if you got every other lizard in the mountains together we could not create one whirlpool in the ocean as big or powerful as the ones she makes. We can create small fog banks as well, but they will be lifted away by the wind just like normal fog is. We can hide things, and manipulate small streams and currents, which can help with getting our small boats and canoes around the island, but that is all. Our magic is not exactly made for fighting,” Smooth Tongue explained.

“So you must rely on something else to fight off the others?” Breakwater put forth.

“Yes,” Smooth Tongue nodded. “You will see when we get to the wall.”

The others shared a look with each other, wondering what “The Wall” was.

The rest of the trip down this last mountain was quite easy at least, the stairs were well taken care of and they had next to no interruptions. The weather for the whole island was also really nice, it must’ve been a naturally warm and tropical place for that jungle to exist. When the sun was out it was almost even too warm at times while they walked. As they made their way to the bottom of the mountain they finally saw the end of the steps and the open plains of green grass that spread from it in the direction of the jungle.

When they looked a little further they understood what Smooth Tongue meant.

A stone wall about twenty feet high spread from north to south across the green grass, just a short distance from where the jungle started to sprout up. From what they could see it had no end, but curved east a little bit in either direction. Probably blocking off the entire mountain range from the rest of the island. There were a few bulkier spots up on the wall at regular intervals that looked like they held some kind of object—maybe a catapult or scorpion—on them and a wooden gate directly in the middle. Besides the wall there were a few small stone and wooden buildings also built to the right and left of the gate. They looked mostly like storehouses but probably could’ve doubled as sleeping quarters as well.

“Wait a second...” Gilbert said as they made it to the grass and started walking to the wall. He blinked and squinted his eyes at it. “Are those… are those cannons on the wall?”

Senax, Daylight, and Breakwater squinted towards the wall as well. And yes, they were mistaken at first, what were actually up there on the wall were things they all recognized. Recognized and feared.

“Oh, do these things exist in the outside world as well?” Smooth Tongue asked.

“Yes,” Breakwater nodded hesitantly. “They’re used as weapons on ships and for defensive placements just like you’ve got here. I’m surprised to see them here, cannons seemed a bit… industrial for you.”

“Our matriarch says the knowledge of building them came from the children of Ponyseidon in the last days when the Necklace was given to her. We mine the mountains for what is needed to create the black powder that explodes, we use it for the cannons and keep it stockpiled in many barrels just in case,” Smooth Tongue explained.

The others glanced over at Senax, who wore an uneasy grimace on her face.

“My people… did we invent these? But it would have been so long ago...” Senax wondered.

“The savages are terribly frightened by the cannons. Even just a warning blast is enough to turn back most of their attacks on us,” Smooth Tongue said.

“Considering what we’ve been told of their tech-level I’m not surprised,” Daylight said.

“I’m still surprised they can’t just swarm you or somehow sneak their way in,” Breakwater said.

“We have other tools to help us with that,” Smooth Tongue explained as they made their way closer to the wall. “I will show you when we get there, and soon after you will have to go through the gate and enter the jungle on your own.”

There were some lizards on the wall and others down by the building and gate. Senax knew as soon as they came into view they were going to get swarmed. It was too bad the Princess didn’t have a fast way of sending a message to these lizards to prepare them.

That prediction turned out to be true when one lizard wandering out of a building turned to see them coming and practically gasped in shock. He turned to the others around him and started raising such a fuss Senax was worried all these guards were going to think they were under attack. In moments even lizards who were up on the wall, the ones supposed to be watching out for things, were coming down to join the crowd and rush over to Senax.

“Child of Ponyseidon! A Child of Ponyseidon!” That shout and many others came from the advancing horde. These guard lizards wore forest green tunics over their already green scales, some of them with brown straps going from hip to chest and a wooden totem of some sort tied over where their heart would be.

“Everyone, everyone! Please calm down!” Smooth Tongue tried to get them to stop before they stampeded over Senax and her friends.

“Where did she come from?”

“Is it truly a Child of Ponyseidon?”

“Please, please speak to us!”

“Oh dear…” Senax awkwardly smiled and tried to back up. It was almost the exact same thing down here.

It took a little while longer before Smooth Tongue was actually able to explain things and get the crowd to quiet down and stop swarming Senax. Even then they were still muttering and asking questions whenever they could. Their normal duties seemed to be completely forgotten. But it was still a nice moment, they were genuinely interested in Senax, genuinely in awe of her. They simply wanted to know as much as they could, and praise her as much as possible, just like the other lizards they had met. If they weren’t already on a schedule it would’ve been perfectly fine with Senax to indulge in these lizards.

In the middle of the meeting though, Daylight decided to speak her mind. “Shouldn’t you all be watching that wall anyways to make sure those other lizards aren’t attacking?”

“Ah, I almost forgot to show you our special tools!” Smooth Tongue suddenly said. “Thank you for reminding me.” He turned and smiled to one of the lizards with the brown strap and totem on his tunic. “Please, show them.”

The lizard proudly stepped forward to Senax and undid the little ties that kept the totem to the strap before holding it out to her. It looked like a piece of wood carved into a small cylinder, with pine leaves tarred to the top of it and a small emerald crystal affixed to the top. Truth be told it didn’t exactly look very special but the lizard was holding it reverently all the same.

“These are our protective totems,” Smooth Tongue explained. “They can sense the location of members of our race with just a slight infusion of magic. No savages can ever sneak up on us.”

“Well, that’s good then,” Daylight said as she looked over the totem. Though she and the others were still a little disturbed with how flippantly the lizard referred to the others as savages.

“Yes, very good for us,” Smooth Tongue nodded. “When it comes to fighting directly as well we have something to help with that, as you can see, our people are not very… robust. But we have made a special potion. A magical elixir that grants us strength and energy enough to fight for days… with the downside of also causing you to fall into a deep exhaustion for just as long after it wears out. The matriarch herself taught us how to make it.”

“Interesting… I don’t know if I’ve ever heard of something like that,” Daylight said.

Breakwater coughed and looked over to the gate leading to the jungle. “I uh, I suppose we oughta be going now.”

“Off to find Rainbow Dash and bring some peace to this island!” Gilbert smiled and brought a fist to his chest.

“We all wish you well! I know you will succeed, Child of Ponyseidon,” Smooth Tongue said to Senax and bowed down, all the other lizards quickly following suit.

“T-Thank you,” Senax said. The bowing was something she would never get used to.

Smooth Tongue quickly lifted his head. “Let us now open the gate for you.”

He gathered up some of the guard lizards while getting the rest to go back to their own duties. As dismayed as they were to say farewell to Senax. In a quick walk the group was standing in front of the wooden gate, nervous, and even a little worried, but this was the only thing they could do right now. Once the great doors were pulled open, Smooth Tongue bowed repeatedly and continued to wish them all well and good luck.

Senax stepped out. Daylight Gleam stepped out. Breakwater stepped out. Gilbert stepped out.

And the gate was closed behind them.

Comments

[redmar]

The more civilized lizards are far from defenseless but they will need help with the Bosche that Godfrey called to the island.