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Chapter 2 – Forced to fight.

The Wilderness was a fascinating place for the four adolescents, despite its unforgiving landscape. They were in one of the mildest areas of the Wilderness, the shallow area, and didn’t find it at all as threatening as they had thought. They had encountered dangers on their path, but the most powerful of which were three reanimated skeletons, so weak they had obviously been raised by amateur necromancers. Ellya was able to dispose of them quickly with a well-selected spell.

After less than a half an hour of walking, they saw a forest of dead, mangled trees. None of the sounds usually evident in forests was heard; not the chirp of a bird, not the rustling of leaves; nothing but the deadly silence.

After some discussions, they decided on entering, albeit they were more cautious. After barely a minute in it, they heard child’s cry, not farther away than twenty yards away.

They froze up, all with the same thought on their minds: was it a trap?

“What is that?” Krystal whispered nervously, not directly to anyone. There was a dead silence for a second; even the child had stopped crying.

Suddenly, a yell sounded over the fog, young and frightened. “Kashan!”

Kashan stopped on the spot, staring in the direction the shriek came from.

“Timier,” he whispered to himself, and suddenly sprinted towards the source of the shriek, disappearing between the trees in less than a second.

They all shouted after him, but he didn’t stop. They didn’t go after him, either, as that would have meant splitting up further, and lessening their chances to get back to Edgeville in one group. A nerve-racking moment later, they heard the laughing voice of Kashan, yelling for them to come.

19-Sep-2006 23:02:12 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2006 23:08:13 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

[#80N8R0VWZ]

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They walked hesitantly towards the sound of the voice, careful not to get tangled in the warped branches. They found Kashan laughing, standing over a young boy: Timier. It was nervous laughter; they had all been tense from fear of the sound being a trap, and all let out a breath they hadn’t realized they were holding. Timier’s cheeks were flowing in tears, his eyes were swollen, and his face was clenched from the crying.

“It’s just Timier!” Kashan laughed, relieved, but then became more serious. “Timier, what are you doing here?”

Timier was still sobbing as he spoke, just recovering from the fear of being alone in the woods. “I followed you, but when we got into this creepy forest, I lost sight of you, and got scared.”

“Okay, no harm, no foul. We have to take you home now, though,” Kashan said to him kindly, and continued to the others, “okay, which way is Edgeville?”

It was then that they found out they lost their bearings in the woods. The town was out of sight, and there was no moon or sun in the Wilderness: only dark storm clouds.

“Oh, Saradomin help us!” Roan exclaimed, desperate, as he realized this. “We’re lost, in the Wilderness, with no food or water! If anybody’s got an idea how this could be any worse, I’d like to hear it.”

As if the land around them were teasing them, a lightning bolt was heard, as the dark storm clouds started venting their anger, soaking the people below in a second.

“This!” Ellya had to shout the simple statement to be heard over the windless monsoon storm.

Krystal seemed to be the only one who stayed positive. “Well, you can’t complain about having no water,” she said cheerfully as she adjusted the quiver on her back, and started walking towards what she thought was Edgeville.

19-Sep-2006 23:02:13 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2006 23:08:39 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

[#80N8R0VWZ]

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They all followed her, despite the heavy rain thwarting their vision slightly. After walking for almost an hour, they were all soaked to the point of nearly drowning from the seemingly endless rain, and their moods had already drowned. They were tired, wet, and hungry; but, as Krystal kept pointing out, they weren’t thirsty. They were beginning to think they were walking in circles, or that the forest was endless, but eventually reached the end of the forest.
Before them was empty land, as far as they could see, except for a single, very large boulder, perhaps twenty-five feet away. The earth was darker on this side of the forest, almost as if it were solid charcoal, and the skeletal remains of animals long dead littered the ground.
Desperation took them. If this wasn’t the way to Edgeville, then what was? They could be lost for days before finding their path, and that would surely be the death of them.
It was like this they stood, when the boulder moved. It unfurled, revealing a large dragon, its scales green as emeralds. It was at least twice as big as any of the foursome, and easily three times as wide. Its claws and canines were white as bone, and its emerald green scales shone like the well-polished jewelry they resembled. The large wings were as big as a rooftop, the wingspan over ten meters, a large, threatening spike on the end like a giant claw. Its long, thick tail was like a giant mace, brushing the ground like a cat’s. It was much deadlier than so, though, because of the immense weight, and the six spikes on the end.
Its wings were kept close to it, although its body had stretched out, and it sniffed into the air, still unwary of the intruders.
“Dragon,” Kashan whispered frightfully to himself, and then hissed to the others, as loud as he dared, “Run!” and then heeded his own advice.

19-Sep-2006 23:02:20 - Last edited on 11-Nov-2007 20:52:08 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

[#80N8R0VWZ]

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They ran back towards the relative safety of the forest, but the dragon heard the tapping of feet. It turned towards them, and roared. Immediately following the roar, there was a giant torrent of fire. It caught up with them in a second, but missed them by a good thirty feet. It didn’t miss its intended target, though. The edge of the forest in front of them went up in flames, hindering their escape.

They were forced to fight.

End of chapter 2.

19-Sep-2006 23:02:22 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2006 23:09:09 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

[#80N8R0VWZ]

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Chapter 3. Fight the Fire

Another torrent of flame hurtled towards them. Although this one was much smaller, it was still just as deadly at that. They all dove to the ground, the flaming torrent flying barely a foot above.

Ellya sprung up before the others had even thought of leaving their prone position. She raised her staff at a slight angle towards the dragon, and the air around her seemed to vibrate as the magical energies rose. The dragon seemed surprised that they prey he had thought was dead rose, and hesitated. That was the chance Ellya needed, and she took it.

Three blasts of water flew out of the staff’s orb in a quick succession, hurtling towards the dragon in a slight swerve, rotating around their own axis. They all made contact, but not on the dragon’s body; all three orbs flew inside its mouth. The dragon roared, as steam erupted from its wide-open jaw, and whatever fire had been forming was immediately extinguished.

By now, the others were standing as well, watching in awe at the dragon, which was roaring in frustration as nothing came out of its jaw but mist.

It roared once more, and finally opened its wings. It raised them once, and took flight. As it bore against the dark sky, it stuck out like a sore thumb, the green amongst the dark, and plummeted towards the small dots on the ground.

They all jumped away, spreading out to make for a less obvious target; the only ones who stuck together were Timier and Kashan.

The dragon turned its course, from the now empty spot they had all been gathered on before, towards the largest target; Timier and Kashan.

It opened its jaw, and light emitted from it as flames caressed the lower part of its neck; but they didn’t reach any further. The water from Ellya was still suppressing the dragon’s fire, and it was forced into melee combat, a genre of fighting it was, unfortunately, just as potent in.

19-Sep-2006 23:03:12 - Last edited on 18-Oct-2006 14:57:20 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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Its course of flight was disturbed, however, as an arrow whizzed just in front of its opened mouth. That distracted it, and it missed the target, turning to an ascent, and plummeted again, this time towards the shooter. Far below, Krystal held her bow up high, releasing three more arrows at the giant flying reptile in the sky.
Her aim was not up to par, though, as the rain blinded her slightly, and the odd thunder distracted her. The arrows, which were intended for the dragon’s eyes, made a good hit despite all that, piercing the dragon’* left wing. Its controlled descent suddenly changed into a wild crash.
Instead of crushing Krystal in the hit, as it had intended, it took a nosedive into the open space with bone breaking force. The earth underneath it rippled, and as if on cue, a lightning fell behind it, joining the thunderous blast of sound as the dragon made contact with the ground.
It lay there, still as the skeletons around them, for several seconds. Kashan got a feeling of security, which turned to be a false one. As he approached the ‘carcass’ of the dragon, it raised itself with speed belying its size, and swung its foot long paw towards Kashan.
However, it was still bewildered after the impact with the ground, and missed by barely an inch. It snagged Kashan’s shirt, and he soared through the air like a discarded piece of meat, a good ten feet before he landed.
Roan ran towards the dragon, seeking revenge for his fallen friend. The dragon turned to face him, and raised his claws for another strike. That strike never came. It was distracted, as two blasts of water flew up its jaw once more, and again a plume of steam rose.
The dragon roared. At first with frustration, but then with pain, as Roan had used the opportunity and hacked the edge of the tip of the dragon’s paw off with incredible force.

19-Sep-2006 23:03:14 - Last edited on 18-Nov-2007 16:08:13 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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The dragon sent Roan flying as it had Kashan before, though this time it wasn’t by snagging his shirt, but batter him with the half a paw. Roan was not as lucky as Kashan, who had landed on a wide-open space, but crashed right through the ancient skeleton of what was probably a cow dozens of years ago.

The force of the hit knocked him out, leaving only Krystal and Ellya left able to fight.

The dragon raised its wings, attempting flight, but replaced them tight to its body immediately, the pain of the rips where Krystal had shot it too great. Instead, it took a run towards Ellya, unsheathing its jaw as it went, still trying to unleash its hellish fire. Nothing but steam got out.

Ellya was stalemate. Any attempts at running would only get her into the forest, which was still burning brightly, and evading a beast of this size would more than likely fail.

The dragon bestirred itself, gaining even more speed. Suddenly, it skidded to a halt, as Roan’s battleaxe flew into the back of its head.

It turned around with a roar, seeing Roan with his outstretched hand and a smirk on his face.

The dragon roared at him, but made no attempts to attack him; only turned back towards Ellya. A thunder sounded, not far away.

Ellya had run to her left when Roan distracted the beast, increasing the distance between them by a considerable amount. That didn’t matter much, though, as the dragon turned towards her with a roar, and resumed its sprint towards her.

This time it stopped permanently.

As if on cue, a lightning fell from the sky, this time much closer than all before it. It struck into the metallic shaft of Roan’s battleaxe, which was still lodged into the dragon’s back, and led through the easiest path; through the dragon.

19-Sep-2006 23:03:45 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2006 23:10:56 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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Seeing a dragon was rare, defeating one was even rarer, and seeing one die from fire seemed impossible. Yet that is what happened. The lightning coursed through its body, frying organs as it went, and a faint sizzling sound could be heard. The dragon roared with pain as it collapsed onto the ground, dead.

End of Chapter 3.

19-Sep-2006 23:04:35 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2006 23:11:05 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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Chapter 4 – The Creature in the Fog.

As soon as the dragon collapsed to the ground, Roan did the same. His torso was bloody from numerous small cuts, though none of them seemed fatal or serious. He lay on the ground for a while, regaining his strength after the battle.

Meanwhile, Ellya approached the dragon hesitantly, suspecting a trap as before. She tossed the staff from her right hand to her left, and held it at an angle towards the dragon’s head as she came ever closer with an outstretched hand. She laid her whole hand on its long, gleaming neck, checking for a pulse, but found none. She let out a deep breath.

Krystal, however, didn’t take the time to make sure the dragon was dead, but rushed towards the unmoving body of Kashan.

He didn’t move as she approached him, but when she placed her fingers on his neck for a pulse, he winced, and opened his eyes. Krystal caught a hint of a smile on his face, and returned it with a smile of relief.

A while later, Ellya finished strapping up the biggest cuts on Roan, at the cost of the majority of his shirt. He couldn’t wear his armor anymore, since they aggravated his cuts too much. They decided to leave it, even though it was worth well over two-thousand gold coins; carrying it slowed them down too much.

Kashan had gotten his share of injuries as well, and was forced to give up a large part of his shirt as well, to wrap a head wound.

Timier had fallen asleep while the ‘grown ups* were patching each other up. Ironically, he had curled up right next to the dead dragon, seeking the warmth that still resided in its belly.

The moment Krystal put the last wrap around Kashan’s head, a massive, a grey fog cloud drifted to them from seemingly nowhere. The temperature dropped immensely from the humidity, and their visions became ever lessened as the grey clouds moved towards them.

19-Sep-2006 23:04:39 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2006 23:11:45 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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Kashan and Krystal edged towards each other nervously a second before the grey clouds hit them, so thick they saw barely an inch in front of themselves. Roan, Ellya and Timier all vanished from their sight, but they heard Roan’s voice, shouting through the fog.

“Where are you?”

Timier seemed to have woken up, as his shrill, childish voice was the one that answered. “I’m here!” he yelled fretfully, shriller than usual from fright.

Kashan yelled to the general direction he thought the others were, though he wasn’t even close to sure where they were. “Guys, go to Timier; we can’t be separated in this fog! Timier, keep talking, so we can walk on the sound, okay?” he added to Timier, kinder than before. He was, after all, speaking to a frightened child.

“Okay,” Timier yelled back, sobbing, and started humming an old, sad lullaby. The lump in his throat obscured most of the words, but it was loud enough for the others to find him.

Kashan wasn’t exactly thrilled about his song choice, but at least it got the job done. He hesitantly navigated his way through the thick fog, hand in hand with Krystal so as to not lose her, and found Timier moments later.

He nodded reassuringly to Timier, and he smiled back, his voice clearer now as the lump in his throat disappeared with the comfort of the company of his big brother.

In a matter of seconds, Roan and Ellya found their way to Timier as well.

“What are we going to do now? We can’t find our way in this fog,” the agitated voice of Ellya could be heard, though they were unable to actually see any more of her than a distorted figure.

“We have to; we can’t stay here,” Kashan replied towards the voice, “Being in the Wilderness in fog as thick as this is not good. Besides, we need to get Timier home before mom calls the Varrock Guard on our tails,” he continued humorously.

19-Sep-2006 23:05:52 - Last edited on 19-Sep-2006 23:12:08 by [#80N8R0VWZ]

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