Defenders of Draulath

Chapter 5: The Ingredient

After their encounter with Xazumun, Norlamin runs through the streets of Shadowfen with Eldak in his arms, as Martiln stays close behind them. They look for the nearest alchemist to see if he can heal Eldak, they run to the first building they see labeled "Bubbling brew" in the corner of the town, it sounds promising so they hurry inside. Both our heroes run through the door and immediately ask for assistance, "We need an alchemist now!" Norlamin screams with panic in his voice. A few seconds later a man in all black robes comes out of a back room and says "I am a necromancer, but I know my way around an alchemy table, what would you like?"

Norlamin tries to say what he needs but is too frantic and scared to say anything. Martiln steps up for him and speaks "We simply need something to heal out friend here he took quite a blow to the head after a great fall." The necromancer goes over and takes Eldak from Norlamin "Follow me." He walks to a large table in the center of the room, he begins the inspect Eldak and his injuries. "Interesting..." the necromancer begins feeling Eldak's head for any stratches, cuts or abrasions.

"How is he?" Norlamin paces back and forth, he does not want to loose his friend that has helped him all his life. Martiln goes over and holds Norlamin's shoulder, "Will he be alright?"The necromancer stays quiet still checking Eldak, then he stops and he looks up at the two, "You're friend will be alright but..." he stops and tries to find the right words to say, Norlamin's eyes widen "BUT?!" The necromancer goes to the table and puts his hand on Eldak's head, " I can sense that the inside of his skull is cracked and he is bleeding profusely in his head."

"Can you help him?" Martiln begins to fear for Eldak "Oh of course I can give him a potion of healing and he shall be right as rain." The necromancer goes to sit down and opens a book that he had on the table and begins reading it. Norlamin looks very confused and slightly annoyed, "Well... aren't you going to make it?" The necromancer looks up from his book at Norlamin, "Hmmmm? OH! The potion? Yes I don't have the ingredients for it."

He begins to continue reading but Martiln walks over and closes his book and throws it across the room, "What do you mean you don't have the ingredients?!" The necromancer just looks at where his book was thrown, sits in silence for a few seconds and the looks at Martiln "Well I don't have one of the ingredients I should say." He gets up and walks over to his book, Norlamin follows behind him, "What is this ingredient?" The necromancer picks up the book ad dusts off any dirt it has, "It is a drop of crystal dragons blood. I cannot get such a thing for I am but a mere necromancer and trying to defeat a crystal dragon for its blood is a suicide mission"

"Why not just buy a drop of  crystal dragons blood from a merchant?" Martiln replies slightly confused, the necromancer stops what he was doing turns to and Martiln, "If I can't get that dragons blood do you really think that a simple merchant can?" He laughs slightly and goes to sit down. Norlamin contemplates his next decision for minutes for he doesn't know what to do, but he wishes to save his friend. "What if we went out and got you this drop of blood?"

The necromancer stares at Norlamin, mouth agape, "You would really go out and do that just to save your friend?" Norlamin walks over to the table where Eldak lies, "For Eldak, I would do anything." Martiln walks over to the necromancer, "We are warriors this is what we do, so.... we go find a dragon harvest the blood and YOU make us a potion for Elron here..." Norlamin looks back to Martiln and whispers "Eldak." Martiln looks to him again "...Eldak! Sound good?"

The necromancer stands up and puts down his book, "Yes please, I would greatly appreciate it. Here take this jar and put the blood in this, if you could try and get as much as you can... In case something like this happens in the future." Norlamin takes the jar but before they leave, he walks over to Eldak's bag and decides to carry it with him. "Thank you sir, we will return shortly." Martiln and Norlamin exit the alchemy lab, when they reach the street they stop and look around. Martiln stands for a few seconds then looks at Norlamin, "Where the hell are we going to find a dragon?"

Norlamin simply starts to walk and Martiln follows close behind, "No matter where we go we will be guaranteed to find a dragon somewhere I would assume." Norlamin says confidently. The two adventurer's exit the town of Shadowfen and begin walking east, for in Draulath the further east someone goes the colder it gets and the most common type of dragons in the land are ice dragons.

The journey to find a dragon drones on for days as they walk through huge grassy fields day by day. Norlamin is becoming exhausted and Martiln is very close to passing out, they both need a place to rest for their feet are so tired and their legs could give out at any second, but there is not a town for hundreds of miles. They decide to stay where they are and make camp for the night, Martiln goes out and retrieves some fired wood and Norlamin makes small bedrolls out of pieces of leather found inside Eldak's bag, "Hope you don't mind too much Eldak." Norlamin says laying the soft, warm brown leather on the cool grass beneath them.

When nightfall approaches the two begin to settle down for the night, Martiln sits close to the fire warning his hands, he looks to Norlamin and says "You know Norlamin I didn't have time to thank you." Norlamin seems confused by this statement "Thank me? For what?" Martiln looks deep into the heart of the fire, "For inviting me on this journey, it's just been so long since I've been on a quest with someone else. I mean the people in Shadowfen are amazing but they see me slay a giant once by myself and they all think I'm some type of lone warrior, like I can fend off anyone or anything on my own. But it's not true, I'm a normal man I get scared like everyone else and finding all this pressure placed on me is hard."

Norlamin simply moves closer to Martiln and puts his arm around him like a father would to his son, "Of course Martiln, I'm so glad that Mifirth told me about you otherwise I'm not even sure I would be able to defeat Xazumun on my own." They both look at each other and smile, "Oh and as for being scared, it's okay Martiln we all still get scared it's just a matter of turning that fear into a way to use it against your enemies. I can teach you as we go along that you can be scared and still be the most badass warrior around."

Martiln and Norlamin laugh together, both happy that they could share this moment of sentiment with one another. As the moon appears to be at its peak and the two decide it is time for them to sleep so the go to their bedrolls and rest their tiresome bodies for the morning ahead of them.