The Dragon Stone

Chapter 16

                  The predawn darkness was especially dark when they set out from their Inn. The "Road" to Riverbend, if you could call it that, was normally a three day journey to Riverbend then two more days to the Red Keep. Since the road really no longer existed it would be double that and would be harder than any part of their quest thus far. They had hoped they could ride horseback but one look at the overgrown forest told them they would be walking most of the way.

"Mr. August are we sure there is no other way to the Red Keep which would be just as safe and any faster?" Orist asked for probably the tenth time in the past two days.

"I cannot think of any other way to the Red Keep that would not be the same as just setting sail and landing right into the port." Mr. August said with a small smirk.

"This is just going to kill my robes. I am so tired of picking thorns out of my robes." Orist said.

Kalin said quickly, "If you were a better mage you could either remove them with just a wave of your hand or better yet create a spell on your robes which would keep them from ever attaching to it."

The entire party laughed including Orist. They had truly become friends thru their travels.

The first day's journey went on just like that, the group watched out for danger but also bantered back and forth. The travel was easy that first day. But the next day was much tougher as they had to cut their way through thick bushes with thorns. It took them until late afternoon when they finally cut their way into an open valley. It lay before a mountain range to the west and a large stream to the south. The valley was vast so it will take day to get Riverbend.

They were walking through the valley near the mountains when they stopped on an overlook and Prince Dorian said, "It would appear we are going to need to find shelter and quickly." They all saw a storm a mile away moving towards them. They moved into the forest along the mountain side.

The shower started slowly but then hardened to a fierce rain quickly. They were in the rain for more than an hour when they came upon a cave entrance. They looked at each other and Orist said, "We should take shelter here." Everyone looked at the very dark cave and then back at Orist. Orist held his hand up and a small orange ball of flame appeared a few inches above his palm. The ball moved a few feet ahead of Orist as he walked toward the cave, the others followed.

They reached a gigantic cavern. Orist threw the fire high in the cavern so they could look at their surroundings. The cavern had only one way in, the way they entered, and had a small pool of water toward the far wall. They could still hear the thunder outside the cave. "We should probably spend the night here. Hopefully the storm will pass by morning." Prince Dorian said. They all started setting up a camp.

"So how many more days till we get to the Red Keep?" Kalin asked Orist.

"Probably another couple days depending on how long the storm lasts." Orist replied.

"Are we expecting problems when we get there?" Kalin asked.

"Well considering we have had issues everywhere we have gone, so why would the Red Keep be any different."

They all saw the beast staring at them. It had bright golden eyes and it looked like a lion but black and had wings.

"What is that?" Kaston asked.

"I don't know but it coming at us!" Kalin yelled. They all screamed as the beast attacked them. They were falling but were able to land on their feet. They were pulled out their weapons in matter of minutes.

"Is everyone ready?" Dorian asked. We didn't have a chance to answer because it attacked again. We were fighting until we hear a roar. The beast stopped attacking and we look at the ledge above us. Then they saw a flash of white and a few black spots. It attacked the beast and we watched in shocked. It looked like a giant snow leopard. The two clawed and biting at each other until the Snow leopard bite into the beast neck. The blood splattered all over the beautiful snow leopards fur. They all stared as the snow leopard turned to them and toke a few steps forward towards them. A bright light started to come from the snow leopard. As the light died down and we could see again. They gasped at what was in front of them. The snow leopard turned into a human. She had short white hair styled to the right side and a sunset orange eye color and she was wearing a long dark blue coat, black pants with a white jewel on the her belt, and a long glove on one hand. She had a hood up so you could only see her eyes and her bangs.