Of Realms and Relics

A Hero for the Ages

Precisely three hundred and forty one years. Pallando had waited so long for this, so patiently.

Wizards lived a lot longer than most people. He had trained, oh how he had trained. His mastery of the far-seer ball was heads and shoulders above anyone alive today. He had studied and he had trained and he had honed his crafts and skills to a perfection.

There was no one that could rival his magics and use of his relic, the Staff of Cor's Eye. What he hadn't done though, that was really the kicker after all, was save enough star's dust.

Star's Dust was a fickle thing after all. A pinch of ground Star Bloom. A smear of Spirit Pollen, taken from the bud of the Ghost Blood bloom at exactly midnight on a full moon of course. A tap of powdered oak root and mixed to a delightful milk like consistency with Angel's Tears. Which was dew collected from King's Cup daisys. Everything had to be just right and well, if he was being honest with himself, he just hadn't thought much about it. You know, with the world possibly ending and all, but God's above that blink juice would sure come in handy now.

Pallando reached into the front pocket of his robe and produced a vial about as long as his middle finger. He held it up to the sun and sighed.

A quarter full...damn.

He could drink it and probably get three quarters of the way to Castle Noss. It was the fastest and best way to travel. Drink some blink juice and as far as your eyes can see, that's where you'd be in the blink of an eye. It didn't taste good. Not at all. It did the trick though.

With his thumb and forefinger Pallando pulled the cork stopper off the vile.

Have I forgotten anything? Staff, pouch of miscellaneous magic mixes, jerky to calm a hungry stomach...disk!

The disk was important, how could he forget that? Once the blink juice wore off, he couldn't be expected to walk the rest of the way. What kind of wizard would he be? He needed his disk, with it's imbued floating magics, it was the only sensible way to travel. It folded up and fit nicely in a pouch and unfolded to be large enough to fit two people standing on it. He put the stopper back on the vial .
Pallando opened his front door back up and stepped inside. He reached down and grabbed the gold and red folded disk as it lay on the floor next to where he had kept his staff.

"Gonna you need again, sweet girl."

He had taken to calling it a she lately, without really knowing why. He paused, his eyes passing over the far-seer ball.

Maybe one more peek.

He smiled and walked across the room and stood in front of the ball. It was still glowing a light pink. He waved his hands over it and stared into the swirling mists of clouds inside of the ball. They began to fade as scenery began to form. A stone keep, broken and old. Patches of once green grass turned to a sickly black, and...

Holes? So many holes.

They surrounded the keep and fanned out for about fifty yards. Hundreds of them.

"What in the world?" He said aloud.
The scene raced by, rolling hills and patches of trees with their withering leaves. It wasn't even halfway through the summer, why were they dying?
The scene faded from the ball in a cloud of white tinged with hints of pink. He waved his hands over it again and the clouds cleared. This time, the scene was a cloud of dust.

"No, no. This won't do. Let me see more."
The scene shrunk, like a birds eye view of the ground below as it soared higher into the sky. He gasped.
"Certainly not. Oh my, this is not good."

In the ball, the dust seemed to clear as hundreds soldiers marched. Their armor broken and rusted, weapons ancient and eaten through with rust in spots.
"Closer on them, friend."

The scene focused on the soldiers and drew closer. As it did the army could be seen better. Torn and ragged skin, bits of bone peaking through skin on most.

"He raised an army. As if being a God wasn't enough, he raised an army."

Well, this was not something he had quite prepared for. An undead army and an undead dragon. All he could do was try though. The ole wizarding way.
He took a deep breath and waved his hands over the ball, dismissing the scene.

He really had to think now. Did he want to risk being seen on his disk by the undead army?

Maybe I use the disk now, then when I get closer I can blink into the castle.

He wasn't a rogue by any means, but sometimes he thought like one. He had it. A solid plan. Disk first, blink later!

Unfolding the disk, he walked out of his house again. Pallando smiled to himself.

Three hundred and forty one years for this moment.  Totally worth the wait.

He threw the unfolded disk onto the ground outside and stepped onto it. Muttering the ancient words in magic tongue, the disk rose.
"Castle Noss, girl. Let's go!"

The ground and trees flew by, barely noticeable as anything other than just greens of various shades and brown. The wind felt good against his face. He was finally going on an adventure.

"Let's take a break ole gal." He said as the disk slowed down and then hovered in place, only inches from the ground. Pallando stepped off and reached into his pouch. He produced a folded map and quickly straightened it out. He reached into his front pocket again and brought out a small container barely bigger than the tip of his thumb and pulled the cork out with his teeth. Carefully, he sprinkled the golden dust inside, onto the map.

Trees began to form in the glittering dust and mountains as well. A small version of himself formed and waved at him.

"Hello to you, little me."

He studied the map. Lightly tracing his fingers over the mountains. He was close to Castle Noss. He could probably drink the blink juice now. He would just have to be aware of where the undead army was.
It formed, ahead of his little self and just passed the nearest mountain range.

"But where is Shathari?" He whispered.

The golden dust flowed ahead of the undead army and formed into a massive dragon not far from the castle. It dwarfed its surroundings.

I knew he would be big...but...wow. I was really not prepared for that size either.

Pallando gently blew across the map and the golden dust fell flat to the map surface. With a twirl of his finger it gathered and flowed back into its canister.
He put the cork stopper back on it and placed it in his pocket. He rummaged around in the same pocket before producing the blink juice vile again.

"Time to be a hero."
Or maybe die trying