agaricus5
Level: Smitemaster
Rank Points: 1838
Registered: 02-04-2003
IP: Logged
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Re: Reconstruct The Story (+2)
Hmm… I’m going to try to see if I can finish off this magical part of the story, and see if I can get it going again on a more general level. Apologies if it’s not that good – I’m not an extremely good storyteller, and it will have to be quite long because I want to tie off this bit of the story and start the next part with a bit more description.
Dirkus was the only one who was actually free and escaped the earthquake's effects. Turning, he found the passage behind him had been blocked by fallen rocks, and he was alone, standing in a little alcove on the side of the chasm. Dirkus stared unwillingly at the gigantic hole before him. The darkness emanating from below was so intense that Dirkus felt as if it was slowly devouring him, taking away all memory of light and colour from his mind. Suddenly, a huge gust of flame shot upwards from the darkness below, lighting up the chasm with a brilliant flash of yellow light and causing Dirkus to fall over backward with shock. Dirkus quickly stood up again and peered over to see what had happened. He saw the darkness had been replaced with a fiery light and that the sense of evil coming from the chasm was now even greater than ever. Then Dirkus saw Chbit rising from the fire. Nothing Dirkus could have ever imagined would have prepared him for the paralysing sense of fear that overtook his body. His gaze became transfixed on Chbit, and he froze, unable to move or to even snap his attention away from the intense evil that was rising upwards to meet him. As it approached, the feeling of fear grew stronger and stronger until Dirkus could no longer even see Chbit or hear the huge rumbling noise approaching behind him because he could not concentrate on anything but the feeling of fear in his mind. Dirkus began to sway, rapidly losing control over his body, and after making one final jerk backwards, fell forward into the abyss, towards Chbit, unconscious. However, the rumbling noise behind Dirkus was not being caused by Chbit – it was Elmer, rapidly blowing fire to melt through the rock blocking the passage to get to Dirkus. Just as Dirkus fell, the dragon managed to blast his way through and shot forward after Dirkus, moving faster than he had ever done in his life. Elmer, closing his eyes to avoid looking at Chbit and trusting to his magical psychic powers, snapped forward at the air in front of him to try to catch him. By some strange luck, Elmer caught the back of Dirkus’ shirt, very narrowly missing his back, and flew upwards, away from Chbit, holding Dirkus from his mouth. However, Dirkus had dropped his sword when he fell, and by some strange chance, fell directly into the middle of Chbit’s head. Such was the force of the impact and the strength of the sword, that it went straight through Chbit and continued falling out of the other side. Chbit screamed in agony and began to disintegrate, sending jets of flame and light in all directions as he began to self–destruct. Elmer continued to shoot upwards, for he knew that the dying Chbit would explode in a gigantic burst of energy, and to be caught in the full force of this blast would be death. Elmer had only just cleared the top of the mountain when a huge explosion rocked the ground beneath him, sending a huge jet of flame into the air that was so bright that it rivalled the sun’s light from Sun Island. The explosion ended as suddenly as it had started, and behind, Elmer saw that the hole had been much enlarged. He put the unconscious Dirkus on the ground and flew back down to see if he could find any traces of Beethro. He quickly spotted him, hanging on the side of the chasm from a ledge of rock. Elmer returned to Dirkus with Beethro, who proceeded to try to revive Dirkus. Presently, Dirkus regained consciousness and opened his eyes.
“Where am I?” he asked. “I thought I fell into the chasm. How did I get here?”
“You killed Chbit,” said Elmer. “Your trusty sword Flippy fulfilled the prophecy and rid the world of the demon.”
“Flippy? My sword?” said Dirkus, surprised but proud. “Good old Flippy… But wait…” Dirkus stood up and fumbled for his sword, but, of course, he did not have it.
“Flippy! Where’s Flippy?” Dirkus screamed and began to cry. “My Flippy!”
“Calm down,” said Beethro. “Flippy fulfilled the prophecy. Feel proud for it, not sad, for it did the most noble thing it could for you.”
Dirkus saw the sense in it and stopped crying at once. He turned to Elmer and thanked him for saving his life, to which the dragon nodded gently. Then he said: “So, we escaped. Now what do we do?”
Elmer thought for a moment. “Well, I don’t know,” he replied. “I can’t feel Clancy’s presence anywhere and I don’t know where he is. I suppose we should head towards Sun Island and see if the dragons there can help us find him”
Beethro looked at Elmer and saw that he was quite badly injured. His tail, for one thing was badly crushed, and his scales had been badly burned when he melted through the rock to reach Dirkus. “I don’t think we could do that yet, Elmer. You’re too badly injured to fly that far,” said Beethro. “We need to find a nearby town to stay in where you can get better again before we set off for Sun Island. Plus, our provisions are all gone, and we need to re–stock up on them. Oh, and Dirkus also needs a new sword.”
Elmer scanned the horizon. There’s a town a few miles from the mountain range, over there,” Elmer said, pointing at a small steep hill rising out of the flat lands in the distance.
They climbed on Elmer and he flew towards the town. The town was the town of Felna, situated just north of the Unwanted Mountain Range, in the land of Theklet at the intersection of two important trade routes of the local area. Like most towns, this one was built on the top of a steep hill, about 500 metres tall, that rose fairly steeply from the surrounding plain of Gorlab. To the east of the town, on the plain below, flowed the river Borat through a large area of uninhabitable marshland and small lakes, infested with water serpents and other aquatic creatures, which often flooded. To the north was a large wood, covering about the same area as the town itself, and further on, there was a smaller hill, on which lay the ruins of a smaller town, long abandoned. To the east and south, the land rose about 50 metres above the flat lands around the town, and so, since it wasn’t as liable to flooding or attack from Wraithwings, was also inhabited quite thickly and covered with numerous farms. Elmer approached Felna and began to look for a place to land on the hill. Dragons, although seldom seen, were not unknown in the Eighth, for many young dragons often went exploring, travelling far and for long periods of time before returning to Sun Island, and so although Elmer was regarded by the inhabitants suspiciously, they did not stop their work or attack him when he approached. Elmer landed quietly at the edge of the hill, on a small field, and Beethro got off.
[Edited by agaricus5 on 04-04-2004 at 10:56 PM GMT]
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