The Dragon Masks

Chapter 2-- Political Heroes

Blair woke up with a start. He heard a chuckle and some sort of blurry figure looking at him while eating an apple. "Here take one, old man. Do you need any help? You know you don't need to sleep on the floor, we have free bunk beds here for everyone, this is the Brightzone!" the man laughed. Blair didn't want to deal with this guy, he just needed to find Opik. He realized that the best thing to do was be honest and ask. "By any chance do you know a guy named Opik?" Blair asked. "Do I know him?!", the man laughed hard, "I am him.". Blair felt like an idiot. Suddenly, a small red object fell to the ground, tossed from the hand of a blindfolded man standing nearby. "What is that?" Blair inquired as the object began beeping rapidly. Quickly, Opik pushed Blair and jumped far enough from the object to not feel the impact of the fire. The other denizens of Brightzone were screaming and panicking, pushing each other to leave the area. The blindfolded man led a small group of other blindfolded people who followed quickly behind him. "We are the Dragon Cult. We know you are hiding the Cobalt Mask here somewhere. Minstrels! If you aren't a coward, come out." the blindfolded man announced. Opik stood up after helping Blair get to his knees, and spoke loudly among the chaotic street, "I'm not a Minstrel. But I'm not a coward either. And I'm not an idiot like you. This is the brightzone, not the home of the Minstrels. They are north of here. Attack them, not us, unless you pick up a fight with us". Angrily, the blindfolded responded to Opik's message, "You all are the same. You mess with one. You mess with all of them" . In Blair's mind he agreed and it was his dream, but realistically it wasn't the truth. Opik commanded, "Leave. Now. Or else-", Opik's sentence was cut short by the blindfolded man from whose side appeared a Wizard dressed in red. He blasted fire right towards Opik. Blair knocked Opik back on the floor, avoiding the critical attack. Blair wondered how his messenger was going to come to this alleyway to help him. A barrage of arrows fell from above upon the Dragon Cult and the Wizard. The Wizard burnt some of the arrows in mid-air saving Ingra, the blindfolded man and second in command to Appius. About fifteen archers from the Sluhan had arrived to their aid, and among them was Larka, the messenger. "Lord Blair, are you right-ho?" Larka asked. "I'm quite alright, thank you very much." Blair soothingly finished his sentence. "Lord... Blair...?" Opik said shocked, "I-I'm sorry-" and he cut off himself, and fell to his knees. Before Opik could do anything, Blair spoke, "It's not needed. And things are going very well. I came here to investigate the Dragon Cult.. Now then, let's get back to them shall we?". The Wizard and Ingra took off north trampling over bodies of dead dragon cult members. "We need to catch them before they get the mask!" Blair frantically spoke, as he set off chasing the Wizard and Ingra, and Opik, Larka, and the Sluhan Archers followed.