This is another glimpse into the history of the world of Terebethia. This adventure revisits a character from the short story, "Colors of Summer" that is featured in the "The Magic Realms: Short Story Compendium." You can get it for free in ebook form or can be ordered as a paperback. Check the "Books" tab for how you can get it!
A number of elders, all Dragons in their Human forms, sat about a large fire pit in an large circular stone room. Each wore a fine robe with a tabard that was the color of each Dragon’s flight. The eldest of the Dragons, appearing as a Human with stark-white hair and thinning stature, banged the flat side of a half-sphere made of stone on the table in front of him to call the others to order. “That is enough! The flights were tasked with finding the most capable warriors among them! It matters not whether we disagree with the choices here. Both the Red and the Black flights agreed together, something they seldom do, that he is the most capable warrior among them and compliments the skills of the ones chosen by the Blue and the Green flights.
“His upbringing may be regrettable, but the Aurora’s Light order of paladins strongly vouch for his character after his rehabilitation and treatment. The very head of their order stated, and I quote, ‘Anyone who had been captured and raised by such an evil terror would be a reprobate. It was by nothing less than the hand of the Creator that he has now become one of the most noble of individuals I have ever known, and his desire to do good and to protect others is earnest.’ Such words would not be said lightly.”
The head-elder stood and straightened his blue tabard before he continued. “Now, if we could continue with a manner of civility and calm temper. Also, might I remind you that time is of the essence. With each passing day, Nathaniel Hailstorm pushes the borders of his new empire even further and has nearly reached the lands of the Blue Flight. If he should force our flight of Dragons into his service, he may pose more threat to Terebethia than even did the Aspect.
“We cannot allow him to continue spreading his dominion, nor take him at his word that he will stay within his planned borders as he has already gone beyond them in the south. As the four closest dragon flights, and as we are directly threatened, it is our responsibility to act. We do not have the luxury of time to debate and begin the process of seeking out champions again!”
“He’s right!” yelled a strongly built man as he leaped to his feet. “We should get this over with and let them set out! This is pointless bickering!”
A woman wearing a green tabard sighed. “Spoken just like a Black Dragon.”
The man growled at the woman. “What do you mean by that?!”
“Only that your flight is the most aggressive and fastest to jump to a fight, sometimes without giving matters proper thought and deliberation.”
= = = = = = = = = = = =
Meanwhile, while the assembled council continued to bicker back and forth, three figures stood on the other side of a large wooden door and listened. A beautiful slender woman with rich blue hair, and pointed Elven-like ears, sighed and rubbed her forehead in frustration. “How much longer can this possibly go on?”
A man of well-built stature with brown hair stood impatiently with his arms crossed over his green tabard. “Well, I don’t know. They might have a point.”
The woman locked her green-blue eyes on the man in a solid glare. “Don’t you start.” She turned her gaze to the third, a well-built Human with tanned-olive skin, brown eyes, and black hair. “I can see the wisdom in the decision of the Red and Black flights. A highly skilled weapon master with a wide range of rare and valuable weapons at his disposal rounds out our group very well, Tenron.”
Tenron snorted. “And what of him almost having no magic?”
The woman exhaled slowly. “And what if Darion had magic? Couldn’t that be turned against us if we were hit with magical suppression and all three taken out at once? His skills provide a counter to that, or we would have a very short trip indeed.”
Darion sighed and fought to contain his temper. “You know,” he said as he looked at Tenron, “I am right here, you know. If you doubt what I’m capable of, perhaps you would like to test it you overblown –”
“That’s enough, both of you!” snapped the woman. “The head elder is right! We don’t have time for all this ...” She looked between the two of them. “And we don’t have time or energy to spare on fighting amongst ourselves either! We either learn to cooperate and fight together, or we might as well let the tyrant take our lands! We’re dealing with one individual who can conquer entire kingdoms on his own without help!”
Tenron huffed. “Little kingdoms who were weakened by constantly warring amongst themselves.”
“What of it!? That means that they had skilled and accomplished warriors and mages who were used to combat, yet they never stood a chance even when they worked together!” She paused and listened to the ongoing debate in the main chamber as the other two looked at one another in silence. Anger welled up in her as she listened to one of the council reiterate that Darion’s former title was “The Crimson Death.” The woman grumbled and took the blue tabard off of her fine mage robes. “That’s it!”
“What are you doing?”
“I’m tired of this waiting while they bicker back and forth like spoiled school children.” She laid her tabard on the back of a chair. “Now take yours off. We’re leaving and starting our quest even if I have to drag the two of you with me.”
Darion gave the other a triumphant smirk as he took off his own tabard, which was black with a red border, and threw it onto the back of a nearby chair. The Tenron sighed as he took off his own tabard, folded it, and neatly sat it on the seat of a chair.
“Are you coming?!” called the woman as she paused at a door that led to a hallway.
“I’m coming, I’m coming!” yelled Tenron as he jogged to catch up to the other two.
“Good. Now before we get started, we’ll take three days to train and learn how one another fights. Then we’ll be at least somewhat coordinated and won’t step on each other’s heels when we try to fight. Transform and we’ll be off.”
The woman transformed into a strong-yet-majestic Dragon with scales the color of a clear sky and electric-blue magic-amplification runes on her arms and shoulders. Tenron into a large and powerful Dragon with scales the color of oak leaves in the Spring. Darion transformed last.
The other two couldn’t help but stare with widened eyes at they looked down at his smaller form. Tenron marveled at how Darion’s body wasn’t covered by normal scales but by flexible red-rimmed black armor plates. “You’re not much bigger than a horse …” muttered Tenron. “What can you do like that?”
I could kick your arse, thought Darion as he looked up at Tenron. “Let’s just go.” Without waiting for a response from either of the two Dragons, who were two stories or more up to their shoulders, Darion took off and took off with such blinding speed that Tenron and the woman could do nothing but continue to stare.
“Well?!” cried Darion while cupping his hands and yelling across the great distance between them. Then, suddenly in a blur, he was sitting down on the ground between the other two. “Are we going or not?”
The woman and Tenron both jumped and looked at him in amazement. She took a few moments and slowly opened her mouth before speaking. “I’d guess there’s other tricks that you’ve got.”
Darion grinned and gestured toward the sky before taking to the air again, this time at a more leisurely pace so the other two could join him.
= = = = = = = = = = = =
Tenron looked down from a platform high above a freezing lake tucked away in a remote mountain valley. The vegetation was sparse but hardy evergreen trees grew around the water. Tenron looked over at the woman, “I know you want us to train on coordinating our movements since you learned I can fight with tonfas in melee combat ... but isn’t this excessive, Elane?
Elane smiled and casually pushed some of her blue hair out of her face and held it back as the wind blew. “Of course. Our enemy won’t give you the luxury of fighting in a comfortable environment.”
Darion stared down at the lake and fought the memories that tried to flood back into his head of his “Father’s” favorite mountain training ground. He cringed and fought to maintain his composure. He drew a slow breath to refocus his mind on the obstacle course made of floating platforms before him.
“What’s the matter, Darion?” asked Tenron with an obvious touch of annoyance in his voice, mixed with just a hint of contempt.
Darion blinked and looked at Tenron with a stone-faced expression. “Nothing.”
Elane made a gesture with her right hand and her platform floated over to Darion’s. “You do seem to be distracted ever since we got here ... You were fine at the other two locations.”
“Yeah, and I never knew someone trained by paladins could have such a foul mouth when they’re upset. Muttering obscenities under your breath while growling,” added Tenron.
Darion glanced at Tenron with a restrained look of seething rage as he fought the urge to yell out his defense and the story of his life at the hands of a lunatic. “Let’s just get this over with. I just don’t like areas like this.”
Elane looked at him compassionately. “Alright. We’ll do this run and then move somewhere else. There’s only one more day of training left and then it’s the real thing. Are you both ready?”
Darion and Tenron readied themselves to take a leap to the nearest platform to each of them. Elane glanced between them and held up her hand. She brought down her hand and yelled, “Go!”
Both warriors took off with startling agility as they began the course. They both performed wonderfully, dancing from one platform to the next, between different heights, under and around obstacles, all while their two courses began moving closer to one another. As the two courses merged, a strange looking cloud caught Darion’s eye and he faltered. He and Tenron collided and the gravity spells on each of them brought them down toward the water like rocks.
Elane cringed as both of them hit the water with resounding splashes. She released the gravity spells as they sank like stones toward the bottom of icy-cold deep mountain lake.
Darion was the first to claw his way to the surface, having had muttered bubbling obscenities into the water the whole trip up. They continued as he took off swimming toward the shore. Tenron surfaced shortly after and grumbled at the language that assaulted his ears. Elane floated her platform down and greeted them both as they climbed out of the water. She cast warming and drying spells on each of them as she looked between the apologetically.
Tenron growled at Darion. “I bet you can’t get through the rest of this ordeal without cursing.”
Darion glared at him and then a thoughtful expression formed on his face. “What do you want to bet?”
Tenron grinned triumphantly, with the expectation that the victory was already his. “Hm,” he murmured thoughtfully as he pondered what would be both a humiliating and satisfying prize. “How about the winner makes the loser a gourmet meal?”
Darion glanced at Elane. “So, we’re going to a different location now?”
Elane puzzled over the question for a moment and then nodded.
Darion grinned at Tenron. “Then, you’re on.”
= = = = = = = = = = = =
Darion was much more at ease at their next training location, and through the rest of that day and the next he failed to utter even one obscenity. Tenron looked at him with an agitated expression as the sun set on their third and final day of training. “You’ve done good, so far … but there’s one final test yet.”
Elane sighed and glanced back at them from her bedroll. “You’re right … so get some sleep! We’ll need every ounce of strength we’ve got to breach his defenses at the border and defeat him at his castle.”
Darion kicked some stones out of a spot on the ground and laid down directly on the dirt. Tenron watched with some puzzlement and asked, “Isn’t that a little hard?”
“Not that I’d notice.”
Tenron blinked, shook his head and cast some nature magic. Darion watched with some amusement as some sparse grass grew taller, morphed, and formed into a full sized green mattress. He smirked. “Show off.”
Tenron shrugged. “I could make one for you too?”
Darion shook his head. “I don’t need it. Goodnight.”
Tenron shook his head, laid down, and muttered “Goodnight,” in reply.
= = = = = = = = = = = =
The next morning brought with it a flurry of activity as the three got up, went over their plans as laid out by Elane, and made sure they were equipped with the weapons and equipment they would need to face the challenges ahead of them. As soon as they had eaten a hearty breakfast, they each three transformed and took to the sky. It was a short flight from their secluded clearing in a forest that straddled the border between the lands of the Blue Dragon flight and the lands besieged by Nathaniel Hailstorm.
Elane cast detection spells as they approached the border. “Be careful. Hey may be conquering these lands, mostly, on his own … but he has won over the support of many already and I expect we’ll encounter resistance.”
The other two nodded silently as they carefully scanned the ground for any sign of threats. It was a tense thirty minutes as they flew toward their objective, with only occasional offensive spells thrown into their path by fleeing forces.
“I guess they must not be that loyal yet,” muttered Darion as he watched a band of horseman split into two panicked groups as they approached on their low-flying route to Hailstorm’s castle.
“Hopefully that will make things easier to deal with in the aftermath,” said Elane with a touch of optimism in her voice.
“There’s the castle ahead!” called out Tenron. “Look at the size of it!”
“Compensation?” asked Darion with a smirk before glancing at Elane. “Are you sure he’s in there?”
Elane nodded. “Positive. I’ve detected high-level casting coming from the castle during our flight aimed at different areas. He doesn’t have any mage order under him yet, that I’m aware of, so that would mean he’s doing it.”
“What kind of casting?” asked Tenron.
“Offensive. He’s been casting spells at the remaining bastions of resistance within the countries he’s trying to conquer,” explained Elane. “That should also mean that he’ll be somewhat weakened when we face him.”
“And according to what I’ve heard,” added Darion with a grin, “he’s too proud to take us out at a distance or he could be viewed as a coward. That fact that we’ve made it this far is proof of that.”
“Oh?” asked Tenron. “Eager to get a one-on-one fight?”
“No, I thought I’d let you have some of it.”
Tenron smirked. “Thanks.”
“There you go boys,” said Elane with a nod as she came down for a landing by the castle’s main gates. “See? You two can play nice.”
The other two watched in silence as Elane transformed back to her human form and summoned a mage staff with multiple inset elemental crystals on the head. She glanced back at them. “Coming or do I do this by myself?”
Darion and Tenron quickly transformed and summoned their own preferred weapons. Darion a large black sword with a crimson edge and Tenron his two magically-enhanced wooden tonfas. They cautiously followed Elane into the castle through the open doors. The hearts of all three beat more rapidly and they didn’t dare take anything more than quick short breaths as they listened for even the slightest sound that could indicate an attack or a trap.
Their path wound down curving hallways and through strangely spaced doors as they worked their way toward the center of the castle where the throne room and primary casting focus should be. Tenron absentmindedly checked the fit of his enchanted leather armor, and having seen Tenron check his, Darion glanced over his black leather armor. Tenron couldn’t help admire the smooth grace of Elane as she moved cautiously ahead of them. Her robes flowing as if they were being hit by a very slight breeze.
They worked their way further into the castle, and all three of them were becoming worried at finding no signs of resistance or attempts to even slow their progress. Elane stopped outside a pair of large doors and gave the other two a worried glance. “This is it.”
Darion shifted quickly to the left side of the doors and Tenron to the right as Elane prepared a spell to open the doors. After glancing between them for confirmation, she cast. The doors exploded off of the frame and flew into the throne room in the form of a multitude of splinters. Darion and Tenron slid around the corner and into the room in an instant, both prepared to fight anything in their path … only to find nothing and no one.
Elane walked in behind them, her eyes wide with concern. “What is this?” She looked around the room and realization dawned on her as she noticed the intricate tile work on the floor throughout the room. “Arrays …” Her jaw dropped as her eyes opened even further. The curving hallways. The strange architecture. It all made sense now. “It’s a trap! The whole castle is an array built to—”
Before she could finish her sentence, everything around the three Dragon champions was filled with intense light. They each cringed and covered their eyes, each believing that they had met their end. Then, suddenly as the light began, darkness. There appeared to be a complete absence of light and yet, when they opened their eyes again, they could see each other perfectly. They were in a void. No ceiling. No walls. No floor.
“We’ve been trapped in a magical prison,” announced Elane despondently.
“Well …” began Darion as he studied his surroundings. “Poop.”
Tenron looked at Darion in stunned disbelief. “What?”
Darion grinned at him.
“Poop?” asked Tenron.
Darion grinned wider. “You owe me that dinner.” He looked off again. “When we get out of here.”
Like the short story that this one follows, this one will (mostly likely) stand apart and will not be a part of a novel, except perhaps as a prologue. The story proper that would pick up after this one will begin with a few unexpected twists and fun happenings. Although, the only way you can find out about that is if I get the support of a publisher and and am able to share these stories in novel form. If you want to see this, then there are a few things you can do. The first is to hit the social share on this post to share it with fellow fantasy lovers. The second is to get your very own copy of "The Magic Realms - Short Story Compilation" and leave a good review if you like it. The third is to hit the social buttons at the top of this page so you can follow me on Facebook and Twitter. Doing so will also get you updates on whenever a new story is posted ... and speaking of which ... there will be another story posted soon(ish).
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