Age of Dragons Online

Chapter 22: Enemy In The Mist

            Chapter 22

Enemy in the Mist

Nadran woke up extremely uncomfortable and with cramps, and while he was confused at first, it didn't take long to figure out why. As he cleared the sleep from his mind, he noticed the giant, 400 pound Naga that was still crushing him. It's probably only due to the poison and my exhaustion that I was able to sleep at all.

Taking as deep a breath as he could, he called out "Guys? Can I get some help here?"

He heard several groans as the others woke up. Aledro looked over at Nadran, then burst out laughing.

"Hey!" Nadran cried in indignation. "I've been stuck here like this all night because you guys decided it would be a great idea to sleep instead of preventing a giant Naga from crushing their companion!"

At this, the others started laughing at the ridiculous situation, too, and Aledro was literally rolling on the ground while laughing uncontrollably.

"Oh, I see. So this is how it's going to be," Nadran said in exasperation. "And Aledro, get up, it really isn't that that funny."

"Hahahahaha, yes, haha, it is, hahahaha," Aledro managed to squeeze out between laughs, in complete hysterics.

Well, from an objective standpoint, I can sort of see how this situation would be entertaining, Nadran tried to reason. But still, Aledro is going a little overboard with this. Maybe he just needs to laugh to let out all the stress of being trapped in this game.

"If you guys are going to be laughing at me, might as well give you something else to laugh about," Nadran grumbled, trying to think of something to do or say.

They all looked at him excitedly, and Aledro leaped to his feet. "Are you going to tell us a joke?" he asked energetically.

"Um, uh, sure," he said. "Let's see, um, ok. So a patient runs into a doctor's office and shouts "Doctor! I'm a wigwam! I'm a teepee! I'm a wigwam! I'm a teepee!" "Relax," the doctor says. "You're two tents."

Nadran's suspicions were confirmed when Aledro fell to the ground, laughing hysterically. "I get it," he choked out. "Two tents, too tense, HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

Aledro's ridiculous laughter was contagious, and even Nadran started laughing. A few seconds later, Nadran abruptly stopped, and everyone else fell silent, looking at him. "So," Nadran said sarcastically, now that we all have THAT out of our system, mind getting this GIANT FREAKING FOUR HUNDRED POUND NAGA OFF OF ME?!?!?!?"

This spurred another round of laughter, but this time, everyone except Aledro (who was still incapacitated on the ground, laughing until tears streamed out of his eyes) went to lift Lo'kar's corpse off of Nadran, which took almost thirty seconds to do.

"Thanks, guys," he said, only slightly sarcastic now. "Ugh, I think I'm going to have bruises from this."

The mood light, they ate a quick meal of preserved meats roasted over a fire (Lunalia actually was the one who knew the preserving method), then they went on their way toward the mountain.

The walk was fairly uneventful for the first few hours. Other than the heat from the sun overhead and the occasional monster that was quickly dispatched of, there was nothing of note. A little over halfway through the day, however, they heard a female voice suddenly speak up from the top of a ridge they had just passed.