Beyond the mortal realm, a tale of Dungeons and Dragons

A new point of view

Chapter 15, getting back in the game

The return was hard. I still had to cope with the demise of my old friend, Gimley Ironbeard. The cave entrance tunnel seemed to echo the past with his voice, and even ghostly formations depicting the events of the days prior.

The ghostly forms were like a play in my mind, like watching myself sit there helplessly as Gimley was abducted. No one else seemed to notice. Perhaps they were just thoughts playing on my mind. Or maybe he was there, but only to me. Either way, it hit me harder than a ton of bricks.

One thing did catch my eye however. As we were walking through the wide tunnel to the surface, Sven and I noticed that something wasn't right. We stopped the group. Then we saw it, leaning against the wall was... nothing. Where our old comrade Paralysis had once been, there was now nothing. There was no tracks, the blood on the wall dried in place. The soft, thin layer of sand on the ground was undisturbed. It wasn't the work of any creature, beast or animal, that moved our old friend.

I wondered if it were like Malcer, our ever elusive acquaintance, who I wondered if we'd ever see again.

Suddenly the silence was broken by the paladin knights who stood watch at the entrance to the cave. They looked us up and down. Seemingly satisfied that something was in order they sheathed their weapons.

One of them asked where Rehlad was, although he already knew the answer it seemed. We confirmed his fears and he slowly nodded his head before ordering the rest of the squadron to pack up camp and head out to their city.

The strange thing was that they seemed to know that we had completed the task, not just been hiding for a few days. Maybe it was the look on our faces that said everything. Maybe they saw through my tough shell and into my eyes and the pain and sorrow that lay within. Either way, it matters not how they knew, it matters that they did, and without Rehlad, convincing them would've been challenging.

The paladins packed up quickly, then escorted us back to the golden city. Nothing was said by either party on the road to the city, anything that anyone wanted to say was said in the silence of our thoughts.

As we approached the gates, we all came to a halt as one of the city guards approached and spoke quietly to the commander. In the few seconds that this happened, the gates slowly, yet silently opened to reveal the city in all its splendor, which I must admit, is a lot better when you're not in chains.

Once again, we climbed the steps up to the grand room to meet Lord Drake once again, only this time, he was not a dragon, rather he was a man who came running up to us to greet us as old friends. One at a time, he embraced us. Then he came to me, looked into my eyes and saw the anger that resided there. The pain that dwelled within.

'Where's Rehlad?' he said finally without embracing me like the others, being brought back to the room in an instant.

'Dead, along with Gimley' I replied, watching him closely as he did a double take on Mort, despite the fact Gimley had a ginger beard and Mort had silver-white hair and beard to match.

'I'm sorry.' was the only thing he said before granting us passage to Egivere... by riding on the back of wyverns that his soldiers used in battle.

Before we could say anything, Duratier appeared and bade him that I give him Fercion's blade, a weapon of light in return for a cure of my curse so that I may return to my duties for the lord of darkness. With little hesitation, I obeyed my lord and handed him the blade. The blade dispersed into shadow as my own body seemed to relax. The pain I felt becoming obliterated by the darkness that Duratier had bestowed within my body before Duratier disappeared from the room.

We thanked Lord Drake, stayed the night in our old quarters, then left in the morning with a small squadron. Four wyverns for four passengers. One wyvern each. And with that, we mounted, and left the golden kingdom.

The journey was rough. We only stopped at night. Then you have to consider that the flight is four days by wyvern. It wasn't pretty and we didn't smell it either. It only got worse when Mort clogged a six feet deep hole full of his... yeah, I think the pages of this journal need sparing from enduring those words. Let's just say I told him not to eat the full spit roast before we left and that he completely ignored.

Anyhow, the flight was long, but the most interesting was the third day of travel. We managed to both terrify, and make the four paladins laugh simultaneously...

Chapter 16, A storm of madness

The day began similar to the rest of them, with all of us hanging for dear life onto the back of the paladins.

It was normal, until Mort pointed out that the clouds were moving unnaturally. My mind raced trying to place what they were. Ultimately, I didn't need to figure it out, because before I could find an answer, they launched an attack. It turned out that they were air elementals. Two of them appeared from the cloud that surrounded as a couple hundred feet above ground.

Before they could attack, Sven pulled a gun on one of them... but we didn't hear the bang which we normally would do. What we heard was an almost inaudible squeal... from Sven's mouth as his gun failed to fire.

The elemental reacted and attacked him, almost knocking him off the wyvern. I saw this and thought quickly, thus deciding to throw my rope around the wyvern riding paladin, who was comfortably tied to a saddle, and tied the rope around him. I quickly saw others doing the same as me.

Then I stood up, turned to face the elemental who had its back to me and drew my short swords. Then I jumped off of the wyverns back towrds the tail and attacked the elemental, slashing part of its body as I came hurtling towards the floor before the rope became taught and I swung back under the wyvern.

It was here that I used the momentum for a follow up attack as I came back towards the wyvern. It was enlightening to see that the others had done the same as me. Four adventurers casually dangling from wyverns by hemlin rope. The paladins were laughing, while also trying to keep control of the wyverns.

After the first wyvern fell from my blade, I noticed Killbane do something... stupid. He phased out of his rope harness to attack the elemental. It was successful in that he hit it, but then he began to plummet towards the ground a couple of hundred feet below.

Thankfully Mort was underneath the elemental as he caught Killbane mid-air. And Sven finished the elemental off with a successful shot this time. The fight was over, but the battle wasn't quite done.

I gave Argus a reassuring look as I glanced at him in the wyverns grasp before I began to climb up the rope after both my swords were sheathed. We all made it back to the seats where we spent the remainder of the day and the following one.

It was the early morning when we finally saw the floating city of Egivere. And what a sight it was to behold. The descriptions I had heard as a child couldn't compare to the beauty of the city in person.

The city appeared to sit above clouds which formed a crator around the city. It was breathtaking. It's time to land...