The Preposterous Tale of Sir Edmund The Courageous

Chapter 3 The Journey to Skull Tower

    Despite the exhaustion Sir Edmund felt he knew that he must swiftly return to free the princess, lest she feel bored in waiting. So after hastily wiping Krakk's blood off of Dermos he rose and returned down the path to Krakk's lair, Edmund the Wise trotted after him but neither spoke. They reached the guard room and began to descend back into the cavern beyond. Sir Edmund felt a shelling of pride in his heart once the adrenaline rush began to cool and he wished to burst into song only he knew none for the occasion and the silence seemed indisposed to being broken.

    Yet broken it was; as the Edmunds approached the bottom of the path they heard voices coming from inside the room, mixed with the screams of the princess. Sir Edmund perked up and drawing his sword he ran into the room.     Before him stood many skeletons, yes stood! For these skeletons were the remains of a cursed nation, held erect by some fell magic they resided in their decaying land for eternity, no peaceful death could they come to.

    They sometimes had business that brought them to the Dragon Mountains and such was their purpose here, they had come by wish of their king on an errand to Krakk, and upon reaching his mountain home and on their way to the cave they heard the scream of his death and so had hastened up the slope. But as they passed the cave they heard another scream, that of a maiden, and turning from their purpose they came upon her and as she saw them her screams increased and turned to terror, but they were no longer intent upon her and instead found fury in the cage she was held in: for a strange kinship to bone they had developed over the centuries of waiting, and loath were they to see it mistreated.

    But as they took the cage in their bony hands and prepared to take it a knight clad in the blue and gold of a Zanlarian ran into the room and demanded that they drop the cage they did as they in their frenzy thought reasonable; they rushed past the knight and fled from him, descending the mountain speedily and throwing the cage onto their carriage, pulled by horses that had been cursed the same as they, and driving away, the damsel in containment quite forgotten.

    Sir Edmund stood dumbfounded for a moment before he recovered his senses and shouted "Ho ho! The quest is not over yet! The dragon be slain but the princess is still in need of rescue! Come namesake, let us ride!" And grabbing his shield from the place on the ground where he dropped it and kept upon his steed, up the path they galloped and out again into the daylight and down the mountain after the skeletons, reaching the foot less than a minuted after they had rode off, "After those cage-stealing villains!" Sir Edmund called and they galloped after them.

    The chase lasted the rest of that day and even some into the night, though the Edmunds had to slow their pace and lost much ground, they finally stopped at the very border of the Dead Lands "It is not wise to venture into the Dead Lands in the dark." Edmund the Wise had said. And so they rested until the sun shone again and Sir Edmund, perhaps a little lacking in sleep, rose and yawned.

    "Let us now journey into the Dead Lands." He said after a quick breakfast and a splash of water on his face. Then together they crossed the boarder into the Dead Lands, all about the ground was strewn gravel, so that nothing at all grew or lived. The air was ominously quiet and Sir Edmund could sense no movement, a long path could be seen, discernible only by more neatly paved stones, leading away to the south.

    "I would guess that that is where the carriage went." Edmund the Wise said as they stared at the gloomy landscape.

    "So I also guess." Said Sir Edmund, and they began to walk.

    The journeying was long and dreary, the land also seemed to have an innate chill about it, as it was a now August the fifth, the day after Sir Edmund's birthday though he had been otherwise occupied that day. Rocks crunched under the armored boots of Sir Edmund and the hard hoofs of his four-legged namesake. The melancholy settled deep in their spirits and lingered there, hiding the memory of happy things away from remembrance. The Edmunds met no one as they walked, the land about them was slightly more desolate than usual for the Dead Lands and no skeletons had built their homes near.     Eventually, however after many more miles of traveling a small village came into view, as they got closer they could see that the streets were mostly bare with only a few skeletons going about any kind of daily business. It looked to once have been a farming town though of course no farming was still being done, the few villagers that walked about wore straw hats so old and frayed that it looked as if they too must be held together by magic, though this was not the case.