Chapter
25: The friendly skies The Spy
Chapter
25: The friendly skies
Chapter
27: Vel'im in Orc Land
Chapter 25: The friendly skies
Magnus look at the professor and asks curiously, "Professor, was that an intended result of the spell? For you to see through the missles?"
"See?" The glowing missile take on a definite eye shape, hanging over the Professor like a ghostly Cyclops eye. "Well, originally no, but it's always been something I wanted to do. I figured it might be fun. Don't tell my students though." The giant eye winks conspiratorially.
Magnus says, "I mean, I guess the user of the spell would need the ability to see his target, but for the spell to provide the sight as well is quite impressive."
"Thank you. Though it does have it's disadvantages.” The professor warns, “if the arrows are facing different directions, you get a confusing mesh of images. I think that if I sent one or two of them toward something then I would probably be able to follow it, provided I didn't get confused by the mixed up scenes in my head.
Magnus asks, "If I may Professor, would you allow me to copy the version of the rune you have crafted?"
"Oh yes of course. But be careful though, you could get lost in the images so if you use it while we are here try and send them all at the same target. Multiple targets are a bit taxing on the nerves."
Magnus takes out his supplies and looks up to find Vel'im already hard at work scribing the rune on a quarter of his scroll.
The Professor says, "It is not wise to shrink a rune that you have never seen before. It could contain side-effects." Whether or not Vel'im heard him is unknown as the apprentice absorbs himself into the copy of the rune.
Magnus waits until Vel'im has finished then asks him to keep watch while he scribes the rune.
Vel'im smiles wiping the sweat off of his brow. "Those strange blotches, anchors... whatever you call them gave me a bit of trouble with the odd shape but I got it!"
Magnus takes up a position next to him as he too scribes the rune. After some difficulty dealing with the anchor points he finally gets the rune successfully copied.
As Magnus looks up he turns to find that the three magi have completed their studying of the rune.
A large circle has been drawn around the group in the dust. Nahabedian is in the middle of chanting a rune, while Torana seems to be inscribing the rune in a book, except he isn't using any ink.
Jadir however is using the more traditional ink and quill to scribe the rune in his book.
When Nahabedian finishes, the ground around them shakes violently. And there is a loud rumbling. The hydra flares out its wings, spreads its legs and hisses as its heads weave widely spread apart.
Magnus gets to his feet quickly, noticing that he has finally returned to his normal height.
The ground all around the circle sinks down below them out of sight and the wind begins to picks up.
Moving closer to the edge of the circle Magnus is surprised to find that the bit of land they are on has been lifted to the sky an they are now flying.
Birds that were once high flying now seem to be flying almost at ground level. The apprentices revel in the exhilarating feeling of flying over the land as the ground far, far below zip past them as they fly over desert heading to what appears to be a mountainous region.
They had been flying for some time before they see on the horizon several explosions of light appear. Ominously the explosions seem to be getting closer.
Within moments several cylinders with rounded fronts blast past the floating platform. Explosions rock the platform as everyone hits the ground. The ground buckles and Magnus suddenly finds himself falling through the air he flails around and something hits him on his side. Turning his head he sees his staff twirling through the air slowly passing him.
He reaches out and grabs at it flailing though the air turning around and around and upside-down. First he gets a good look at the sky above to see several more shapes flash by overhead, then he rolls over and gets a very good view of the ground coming up quickly.
Suddenly, his vision is obscured, as he slams into something at once soft as feather down and hard as a rock. The breath is knocked out of him and he lies there for a moment trying to recover. A familiar sound reaches his ears he looks up into the face of one of the hydra heads.
After a few moments he rights himself and looks around. He grabs hold of the hydra as the wind whips around him. He finds himself flying on the back of the hydra. It’s a sensation like none he's ever felt before. Partly terrified partly exhilarated he looks around with a death grip on the hydra's back. The sense of freedom is even more uplifting than flying on the platform.
The hydra makes a noise that sounds distinctly like joy. Magnus looks around, but can't seem to find the flying platform. After a few moments, the creature begins circling.
Suddenly a familiar face pops up inside the area being circled. Torana smiles and says, "Good Day young man." He tips his hat in greeting. "Do you happen to know the way to Gerad Bay?"
"That was horrible! Where did you get that sense of humor from?" Jadir appears a moment later hauling Vel'im. They are joined by Nahabedian with the Professor on his back. Jadir looks back the way the cylinders came and says, "I take it they didn't like that particular form of transportation."
Torana looks around and says, "They're not done yet. Here they come again."
Coming from the direction he is looking in, are tiny dots that quickly resolve into the cylinders of before. The group scatters as the cylinders tear through them.
This time Magnus notices that the cylinders are shooting something out of them. The projectiles zoom through the group and vanish into the distance.
Everyone dives trying to get to some kind of ground cover. Magnus looks back to see the cylinders closing yet again. They land, but there seems to be no useful cover anywhere.
Suddenly a pair of giant red balls comes from the sun and slams into the lead cylinder. The resulting explosion renders Magnus temporarily blind and deaf. He holds on even tighter as hydra is buffeted around by the heat and shockwaves coming from the explosion. The first explosion is followed by a second then a third. Then for a while there is blissfully silence.
When his vision clears Magnus finds himself still on the back of the hydra amongst his companions on the ground. He looks up to see the last of the cylinders being destroyed by a group of three spheres similar to Rauch's flying machine.
Two of the three take off as soon as the last cylinder is gone. Vanishing silently into the distance, they could have been ghosts. The third circles a few times then blast off into the distance with a mighty roar that threatens to deafen the group as it takes off with dust flying up out of its wake.
Nahabedian sighs, "I guess they don't like fliers. So I guess that option is out."
Suddenly Magnus head snaps up as he realizes that about a dozen creatures are moving in on them from all around.
He warns the others who look around the dusty barren wasteland. So they are ready when the creatures finally appear.
Easily six feet in height, their elongated heads too heavy for their necks to bear upright they step into view.
Dusty brown and only slightly darker than the surrounding barren wasteland. They are betrayed by several patches of shades of green dotting their various scales. With their necks bowed like a hunchback and claws sharper than knives they move with an awkward gait as if they aren't really used to walking upon two legs. The long tail swings back and forth rhymically behind them just above the ground.
The hydra doesn’t react at all to their presence.
They faces betray their lizard-like ancestry.
They surround the group casually, as if the group of magi were no threat to them.
Jadir looks around and says, "Well what do we do now?" He turns to Nahabedian. Who replies, "We are beyond my visions. I have not foreseen this far, but then I expected us to be in our home dimension by now."
Magnus looks at the approaching creatures and says, "I guess we are out of the stoneman territory."
This comment causes the creatures to hisss in a manner that sounds something like laughter.
One of the creatures says, "Oh little one you are not that lucky. You have by-passsssed our wardsss, but you cannot defeat ussss."
Torana says, "You're the translator Magnus let's see if we can make this painless."
Magnus nods and says, "Hello there, we are just travelers passing through. We are not here to fight." Again this prompts the hissing laughter.
"You have violated the territory of the Radianvelamichovusss Dermoula. You yave ssstolen one of our sssacred Grisss."
"But we have not stolen..." Magnus interjects.
"You ride upon the Sacred Grissss that only the high priestsss of Hlithecal can touch!!" The creature points accusingly.
As he speaks Magnus senses another dozen forms coming to reinforce the first and a dozen more after that.
"As the leader of the first group to find the traitors, I claim right of death!" he says.
Magnus repeats what he says as he slides off of the hydra.
Jadir says, "That does not sound good." A rather irritated expression crosses the faces of the magi.
"Why do you repeat what I say! Do you mock me!!!", the creature hisses.
"My companions cannot understand what you say, so I am translating what you say to them." Magnus explains, "Like I said we are strangers just travelling through."
"Well then your traveling days have come to an end! Choose your ssstrongest two warriorsss. They will fight me and my sssecond. If you win, you must leave our landss. When we crussssh your bonesss, you will be our sslavess. Either way the ssacred Grisss will ssstay with usss."
The reinforcements appear behind the first group.
Vel'im looks around and says, "We can still take them right?"
Magnus says, "The Hy..Griss was not stolen"
"Lies!"
"No he came to me willingly” Magnus says.
"Choose your warriors! NOW!!” the leader cries
Magnus translates the ultimatum.
Torana smirks and says, "I haven't had a good fight in while. What do you say Jadir. We rough them up and then if they try anything funny we show them who holds the power."
Jadir shakes his head, "No I abhor physical violence unless someone truly upsets me."
Nahabedian sighs heavily, "I shall fight. But I will have to tell you I'm not very good at it."
Torana and Nahabedian step forward as do the two of the creatures.
The third group of reinforcements appears to surround them and they begin shouting encouragement.
What follows can only be described as an absolute slaughter...
The leader of the creatures circles around then leaps at Torana. His razor sharp claws slice through the air, once, twice, three times. Then he swings around his powerful tail. The tail cuts the air so fast that it is merely a blur.
The second in command follows suit by attacking Nahabedian. He charges in and at the last moment twirls around with a tail attack. As he comes all the way around, his claws shoot out one right on the heels of the tail cutting through the air in a vicious deadly arc, before stopping on a copper and reversing direction to tear back into its target showing no mercy. At the same time it reverses its attack, it gathers its legs beneath it and launches itself forward. Its powerful open and close with a sound of crunching finality.
Both of the lizards attacks took less than a dozen heartbeats and both connected with air.
The two look at each other surprised. The sound of clapping draws their attention to one side. Torana lounges against his backpack clapping shouting, "Bravo, nice form. You could be a good warrior someday." Standing beside him Nahabedian is putting on a pair of red gloves his face looking grim. Torana gets up and the two magi walk toward the two creatures.
The second leaps at Nahabedian. In response the mage reaches out and grabs the neck of the creature with his left arm as it comes within reach. The second lets out a startled choked sound and reaches to his neck to tear the hand off.
Nahabedian brings his arm back and to the side as if he is going to throw the creature then brings it forward at the same time bringing his right fist forward. The two meet just in front of the mage, or rather they would have met if the creatures head hadn't been in the way. On impact, the creatures movements go from frantic to almost catatonic. This time Nahabedian does toss the creature. He tosses him straight up. The pulls his fist in close and crouches. As the creature comes down, his first comes out and the second goes flying out over the heads of those circling the group to land with a loud thud in a heap.
Meanwhile, true to his nature, Torana just can't do anything straight. He taunts the first until it attacks, then easily dodges the attack and smacks the first a few times playfully as it passes. The creature counters with a tail sweep that misses by a mile and earns him a few more lumps. The first tries a feint attack that Torana falls for and attacks. What the counter or set-up attack was will never be know as Torana knocks the creature down with a full body charge. The first gets back up and tries alternating swift claw and tail attacks. Torana dodges each attack and smacks the offending arm, leg, or tail as it passes by. The magus alternates between whistling obscure tune, skipping and dancing around singing "do-did-do-di-do", and outright insulting laughter. Each insult is perfectly timed to dodge one of the creatures attacks. Finally the creature rears its head in frustration and howls to the sky, "Fight me you foul demon!!!"
When he looks back down he realizes he made a critical mistake. A cardinal rule of battle, "Never take your eyes off of your opponent."
He looks and sees Torana smiling at him less than three feet away. The magus right foot comes up and in an incredible feat of agility and flexibility smacks the creature in the head. The first looks at him incredulously as the foot comes back and smacks him again in the head. That is the last clear picture the first gets of any portion of that fight as Torana’s foot begins to rock his entire body. When he blocks high, the kicks concentrate on his legs he drops his block he gets a boot to the chin. Just as the creature weaves and nearly falls. Torana drops his legs and spins around the drooping creature spinning around connecting with fist and elbow repeatedly. Each hit keeps him on his feet just a second longer. When he is done the creature seems to be out on his feet and only his tail props him up. Torana walks up to him and turns his head to look at one side of his head then the other, before he takes a finger and touches the creatures forehead. The first falls down into a heap.
In the silence that follows, Torana looks around to see his companions staring at him. He puts on an innocent air, "What didn't you know I studied hand-to-hand before I became a mage, and swordplay and” in a voice that seems to get quieter with every word, "archery, smithery, leather-making, cooking, farming, magistraing, petty thievery, etc. etc." The last said as a mumble.
Jadir stares at Torana suspiciously and says, "Exactly how old are you?"
Torana returns the stare and says, "Isn't that a bit rude to ask me what my age is?"
"So I am rude, it's my nature, now answer the question!"
"How should I know I stopped counting decades ago." Torana shrugs.
A third creature steps up and says, "In accordance with the law you may leave as you came."
"That's a cop out! You know how old you are!" Jadir insists.
"I think I have more important things to worry about than how old I'm getting." Torana counters
"Ha so you admit it you're an old fart!" Jadir needles
"...but you must leave the Sssacred Griss with us for purification and you must...." the third creature tries feebly to be understood.
"OLD FART!!” Torana shouts indignantly, “I'll have you know that I'm not that old I just have had a lot of experiences I expect to live a long time yet!"
Jadir pesters, "How old then? 700, 800?"
Torana looks shocked and mortified, "800!!! Do I really look that old! Can't be! I have naturally young looking skin. It runs in the family you know!"
"...leave our home and travel back through the warded lands..."
Jadir gets up in Torana's face, "Bull you look like a wrinkled old hag!"
"Old hag!" Torana leans into Jadir, "I'll have you know that I look much better than you. Even with the beard you can't compete."
"You're just jealous, because when we get back I'll be getting all the women!"
Nahabedian, Magnus, Vel'im and the Professor all exchanges confused glances. The creatures surrounding the group are starting to take bets on who whether or now they will fight and who wins.
The third creature tries speaking a little louder, "Hey you two shut up! I'm trying to tell ..." He is shut up as one of the others elbows him in the stomach, "Don't interrupt a good fight, I got two hundred scales riding on the dark one. Man I can't believe someone was stupid enough to take that bet!"
The two magi begin shoving each other, before finally jumping back and speaking runes. The crowd reaches a fever pitch. The Professor and Nahabedian gasps and shout "Incoming!" Nahabedian grabs the professor and they take shelter behind the hydra. Vel'im and Magnus follows suit. Both finish their rune at the same time and unless Magnus mis-heard it might have been the same rune. Both point their hands outward and a blast of arctic cold blast outward. Torana's blast flies out just to the right of Jadir and Jadirs flies out to the right of Torana. The twin blasts hit the spectators neatly freezing them in their tracks. The pair spin out in a wide circle hitting nearly all of he spectators. The only creatures not caught were two that took shelter behind the hydra like the rest of the magi. A few spectators were caught trying to run.
When they finish Torana says, "When we get back...five days...five cities...whoever gets the most invitations wins!"
Jadir turns and says, "Done!" And the two shake hands.
Chapter 27: Vel'im in Orc land
Vel'im grumbles, "I thought one was bad, now I have to deal with two of them." He looks at one of the two remaining creatures and says irritably, "What are you looking at?"
The Professor says, "Tell me I didn't hear them say that."
Nahabedian says, "You did."
"Now tell me again are we still in hostile territory?"
"Yes."
"Do they always act like this?"
"I'm afraid so."
"Oh dear."
Magnus shakes his head and almost laughs but reminds himself that they are still in enemy lands.
He looks at the two remaining creatures and says, "I suggest that you two remain quiet and just stand here in case anyone has questions for you. Otherwise what happened to your companions will be insignificant compared to what happens to you."
They look around them with wide eyes at the results of the last few minutes. One gathers his courage and stands firm, the other buries itself under the wing of the hydra. Mumbling something about the sacred griss protecting them.
The young mage calls out to Torana, "So when, oh venerable master, were you planning on showing me some of those combat skills?"
"Skills what skills?" Jadir says, "He was hopping around like a chicken with one leg."
Torana snorts and says, "My dear resourceful young apprentice...you never asked. Besides I thought you were so enamoured of the arcane arts that you would have no real use for such mundane skills like unarmed combat."
Nahabedian looks at Torana and says, "Since you like dramatics so much I'm assuming that at some point you have worked a stage?"
Torana looks at him with mock surprise, "Do I really seem that good? Wow! Thank you! Thank you all!" As he waves to the frozen masses.
After that Magnus adds, "There are still two of them left standing, are there any questions you would like to ask of them?"
"Uh oh", Vel'im mutters and gets out his quill and parchment and begins making drawings of the creatures.
Jadir turns away from Torana and says, "But of course we have questions!"
Jadir stands in front of the bold creature trying to look menacing and failing badly compared to the creature before him.
Magnus takes the amulet in his hand and concentrates
Jadir points at the creature and says, "What is your name!"
The creature stares back silently defiant.
Jadir begins asking questions in rapid succession, "Where are you from? What is a Griss? Why are they sacred? How many people are you with? Is this you're entire tribe? How many tribes or towns do you have? Is there a central government? What's with the elemental plain? Where is you're chief magic user? Are you deaf?!? Why don't you answer my questions? Why did you try to make us slaves? How do we get through you're lands without any more fights. Do you understand a word I'm saying? Why are you're people so ugly? Oops wait a minute its just you."
The creatures choose to answer all of the questions with silence. The last comment elicits a hiss from the creature as it closes it's claw into a fist and its eyes narrow dangerously.
But apparently it decides not to attack as it relaxes a moment later and continues to ignore Jadir.
Trying a different tact, Magnus asks in a friendlier tone, "How soon before more of your people arrive?" as well as "Why are the Griss considered sacred?"
Again stony silence is the answer. When he attempts to ask the other creature the question. The first interposes himself between them and gives a low warning hiss.
Torana says, "I think that you may have to give up your pet Magnus."
Magnus agrees saying, "Considering the hostility it may produce from the natives it would be wise. It has been useful, but if we can avoid further combat by letting it go that would be the better option."
Jadir interjects, "Give up a tame hydra!" Looking at Torana, "Are you nuts!" He pauses and mumbles "stupid question." He turns to Magnus and continues, "This is a wonderful opportunity we have here to study the creature in its natural habitat"
"But if we take it with us," Nahabedian says, "It will no longer be in its natural habitat."
"Minor details we can fix that once we return to our dimension."
"What happens if the transfer breaks the enchantment."
"Then we mollify it."
"And what would be any different than capturing one at home?"
Frustrated Jadir throws his hands in the air. "Oh never mind that! Let them have it."
Without another word the two creatures clamber up onto the hydra. The bold one hisses to the hydra who takes off straight through the icy figures snapping them in bits and pieces without regard for the figures frozen within. The creature moves forward eagerly as if anticipating something good.
Torana looks at the retreating hydra and says, "Didn't take much now did it?" He pats Magnus on the back, "Don't feel sad my boy. When we get back maybe I'll get you a dog to make you feel better. Okay everyone show time is over let’s go home."
The Professor nods and says, "I think we should be near the city of Miretin, but since we've been knocked around I can't be too sure we might be miles off."
Nahabedian says, "We should travel a little further for today and tomorrow we shall set up for the trip home."
The magi head out quickly leaving behind the frozen circle behind. As the group leaves Vel'im takes his last few sketches walking backwards, before turning and following everyone else.
Magnus moves close to Vel'im. "You know at the very beginning I thought we were going to end up as slaves. Those lizard men seemed pretty dangerous."
Vel'im nods vigorously, "You and me both. Trial by combat didn't seem even remotely fair considering our strong points are magic. I'm surprised we got out of it alive."
"I know Nahabedian is strong,” Magnus says, “but I had no idea that Torana was such an accomplished fighter even though he is a preening peacock."
Vel'im stifles a laugh as the others look back at the apprentices for a moment before returning their attentions to the surrounding landscape. Glad we weren't chosen as the groups champions."
Vel’im agrees, "If I were chosen as a champion, we'd be dead and at the very least the Professor would be wearing chains. I don't think Torana or Jadir would have stuck around though. They'd probably be even worse in captivity than they are now."
As they travel an occasional flying craft Is spotted zooming across the skies above but otherwise the area is quiet. The next morning the Jadir, Torana and Nahabedian work on the dimensional rune while, the Professor scribes several special runes for the occasion.
When the Professor has finished he says, "In order for these runes to work properly you must fully accept the transformation. If you fight it, it may fail or your personality may shift to accept the new form. While I'm sure you would make much better looking orcs. I shudder to think what damage you could do teaching that dangerously unstable form of magic to any students."
With that the Professor touches the rune on the parchment. The rune flashes a bright orange and a small ball of light appears in front of him. He gestures and the ball of light streaks outward. It circles around the feet of Vel'im and begins to spiral upward leaving an orange trail behind it. As it climbs upward a look of pain comes over the face of the elf and he screams loudly as he is enveloped by the light. The screaming fades first then the light passes and where before stood and elf, now stands a not-so-muscular orc. Despite the drastic change in physical appearance, his expression has not changed in the least. The most striking change however are his clothes. No longer dressed in wizard robes, the young orc is now dressed in a thin black woolen jacket that doesn't even remotely close at the top but is angled so that it closes with a single button near his belly. Peeking out through the opening in the jacket is a white shirt with frills coming down the center. He wears pants that match the jacket and a pair of hard black shoes made of some material that he can't quite place.
While Magnus is taking this in he feels something wrong with his legs, as he looks down he feels his muscles being shredded and screams as the light blocks out all but the pain.
An eternity later the pain stops and Magnus looks around. Somehow everything seems suddenly different. Colors seem more vivid, smells seem stronger. He becomes acutely aware that none of them have had a bath in quite some time.
Vel'im laughs at Magnus, "Now you look like a peacock!" Magnus looks down and finds himself dressed similarly to Veil's.
The Professor moves on to transform the other magi. Much to the disappointment to the apprentices, the other magi don't even let out so much as a grunt as they are transformed. Torana, Jadir and Nahabedian clothing is quite similar. Each are wearing black jackets similar to the ones worn by the apprentices. But their shirts do not have the frills to it and their jackets have gold designs on the shoulders and around the neck. Over the left side of each jacket are various symbols that seem to be pinned onto the jacket.
Despite the clean attire, only Nahabedian seems to do it justice. While he seems to be rather striking and impressive in the new attire, Jadir wearing the same thing manages to look sullen and swarthy and Torana manages to look..insane. Vel’im muses, “It must be the constant smile.”
The sharpened senses of the group pick up the sound of something coming. Around the same time Magnus picks up the a large force moving swiftly in their direction.
When everything is ready. The magi step into the circle and begin chanting the rune.
Several dozen of the creatures that they encountered before charge the group looking for blood. They suddenly vanish as if they never existed and there is nothing but blackness outside the walls of the circle.
Looking around, Vel’im sees a single silver spot on each of the people. Attached to the single silver spot is a line that runs off into the darkness and he thinks to himself, “Is this what happened last time?”
He soon gets his answer as the darkness suddenly becomes a dull misty gray obscuring the lines vanishing like a road heading into a fog bank. The mist swirls around getting thicker and thicker until it blocks out everything.
Vel’im muses, “And here we go, I must remember to take notes on this.” Then it starts, the strange feeling of being stretched tight as if his head wants to go in one direction and his feet want to go in the opposite direction. Strange I thought this hear a lot more last time. But compared to the transformation, it is more like an annoyance.”
Suddenly the mist is gone and visions of worlds flash before his eyes. “This must be what Jadir was telling me that I missed. Infinite worlds and infinite possibilities. There is no way I could capture even a small portion of the data on this, but what a mind opening experience.” All the while the feeling of being pulled in two different directions increases with each passing moment. He grits his teeth against the increasing pain.
Worlds without end flash by until suddenly the scene stabilizes and they find themselves in an quiet cobblestone street in the dead of night. The street however is well lit with tall lamps being placed at regular intervals down the street. Tall multi-story wooden buildings line the street in a straight line, each sharing a wall but with different fronts, but each has a iron wrought gate enclosing a small area between the door and the street. The style seems to favor tall pointing or arching roofs and thin windows. The buildings all seem to be painted in rather stately colors.
The sound of a horse neighing turns them around to see a carriage stopping before them, "Hey you fools! What are you doing in the middle of the...” The orc blinks and takes another look, "Umm, sorry gentle sirs. I mean I didn't see you. Er... Good night sirs. Sorry about that an all. I’ll be more careful." With that he maneuvers his way around the party and down the street at break neck speed.
Vel’im looks around stunned. “This isn’t like anything any one has ever mentioned about the orcs before. Either this isn’t our world or we don’t know as much about the orcs as we think we do. Or perhaps we are in some isolated hidden area of the valley where these orcs don’t deal with our normal orcs”, Vel’im thinks frantically as the possibilities spin through his now opened mind.
"We need to find an Inn. Hopefully, none will recognize me", the Professor says, as he looks very satisfied to be an orc again.
He starts down the street then stops and turns around looking rather embarrassed, "Does anyone perhaps have any money?"
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