After the party had left Lytra alone in the war room, they continued down the hall. Looking for a way out, or a way to get Danidar and Morgan.
" Think Lytra will be ok by herself ??"
" Oh don't worry about her, She can take of herself. I doubt she could get into too much trouble."
Then the group stared at each other. Remembering that she may be Babbet.
" Perhaps we ought to go back."
" No, lets keep going, we'll get Lytra latter."
" If she's still alive, 'M' might get her anytime. And there is no telling what kind of evil creatures there are in this mountain."
" Lets find a way out, and then find out were 'M' went fishing. Then we can go back in and get Lytra."
The rest of the party agreed to this. They continued round corners and down endless amounts of halls inside the mountain. With his acute hearing ability Gramps stopped the whole group .
" Something is following us."
THWUMP, , , THWUMP
" MY ELF, it's the Dragon."
" How in the world did it get through the stone wall we made ??"
Gramps grabbed his staff.
" I'll create a magic wall this time. The dragon will never get through it, but, , , "
" But what ??"
" It takes time to come into full physical form while I conjure it. Someone will have to hold off the dragon while it's being created . And they would be trapped on the other side of the wall."
The head of the Dragon could now be seen at the far end of a hall. Torner grabbed his sword and started running toward the dragon.
" No time to vote who's going to do it. I'll hold it off while you folks get out, Gramps make that wall!!"
Again Gramps held his staff tightly and gazed into the gem at the top. A vague form of a smoky wall started to form as Torner ran though it. The wall got darker and darker, thicker and thicker. The heroes could hear the sound of Torner swinging his sword, and yelling obscenities at the dragon. Then they heard the dragon growl and tare. And the sound of Torner fighting went silent. And the sound of the dragon walking away from the magic wall could be heard.
" MY ELF, that beast killed Torner. He's , , he's , , , He's dead."
Ophillia started to cry.
" Now, now Ophillia, Torner is a great knight. He sacrificed his life for what he felt was necessary for us to move on and find 'M'."
" First Pavek, then Morgan and Danidar, now Torner. This mountain is killing us all"
" Then I suggest we had better to find a way out."
Torner ran into the smoky mist that was forming across the hall. He knew he would be trapped and would have to face the dragon alone this time. But it meant the lives of others would be saved. He was not going to run away this time, like he did years before. He had lived all those years with the guilt. Now it was time to make things right.
As he ran through the mist, his foot hit a stone that had already formed, and he stumbled. He was tumbling forward and put his hands out in front to stop him as he fell face first to the floor. He let go of his sword and it skidded down the hall. On the other side of the wall, all they would hear was a sword banging ferociously and Torner cursing.
"%&@*!@&"
Torner grabbed his Swiss army knife and charged the dragon, careful to pull out the blade and not the spoon this time. You see, there had been an incident that was most embarrassing when he was a young knight.
" NOW YOU VILE #%&*! DRAGON, DIE."
Torner attacked the dragon. It put up a good fight. Funny , Torner thought, this dragon doesn't seem to be as tuff as it was in the cave. The dragon grabbed Torner and threw him down the hall. He landed next to his sword. Torner was quite winded by now. He took his sword and ducked around the corner. He wasn't one to chicken out, but he needed to get his second wind. And maybe he could buy more time for the others to get out. He waited. And waited, but the dragon didn't come.
On the other side of the wall, they would be hearing nothing, and Ophillia was starting to cry.
It was to quite for Torners liking. And now he had got his breath back. He peeked around the corner, halfway expecting the dragons head to be there and bite his head off. But he saw no dragon. Just a little way down the hall was a figure. Sort of human shaped. But Torner could tell it was going through a morphous.
" Pavek ?? that you ?? "
In a dreary voice Pavek responded.
"Yeah Torner, it's just me."
" What in the name of the Elf are you doing here, you supposed to be dead ??"
" Well as far as I got it figured. There seems to have been small miscalculation. It seems that the accountants in charge of those life contracts shorted me about two hours of life. It kind of all happened because of daylight saving time, they added an hour when they should have subtracted, or something like that."
" So what are you doing in a dragon form ?? I could have killed you. Or worse yet, you might have killed me. "
" It was the only was to get in. There is this opening in-between the two halves of Mount Bottoms Up you know, right in the middle, kind of like a, , ,"
" I don't want to here about it "
" Well.. any way, it's a black dragon opening. One made special for black dragons. The only way I could get in was to look like a black dragon"
" Can we get out that way ??"
" I don't see why not."
With that the two adventurers left once more. Pavek changed back into a Black dragon, and Torner hoped on his back and put both arms around his long neck. The two shot out between the two tops of the Mountain, which must looked like a , , well use you own imagination.
" Pavek, you didn't see the real black dragon while you where coming in did you ??"
" Yes I did, it was heading off in that direction."
Pavek pointed toward Bottomburn.
" Oh great &%#&* Elf. There is no one in that city that can defend it against the dragon. Pavek fly to the city. We have to stop that dragon."
" I know a short cut. it may get us there before the dragon."
Torner wondered how Pavek would know of a short cut, and the dragon wouldn't. But now was not the time to discuss it. He looked down, and could see that he was several hundred feet up in the air. He gulped. No, this was not the time to argue.
As luck would have it, Pavek beat the dragon to Bottomburn. And landed in the city square. A place were all the nerds and weirdo's hung out.
" Torner, I hate to fly and run. But I think my two hours are up. Time to die , again."
" That's ok Pavek, I can handle it from here."
" Sure you wouldn't want any help ??"
" No, you go on. I'll take care of the dragon. And this time, , , it's personal"
Once more Pavek faded away.
Up in the sky, a black shape moved across the sun, then began a descent to the city.