Dak And Stell/The Travelers Trilogies

1.20 Bargailius

As we all walked forward through the doorway, it was like walking through liquid metal. The blackness encompassed us, and I felt a small warm hand slip into my own. It was reassuring to feel Xalmia's soft hand in mine, and my heart quickened.

After walking for what seemed an hour in the eternal darkness, we emerged in an entryway. The room had a window that appeared to have the night sky behind it as I walked over to look outside. How was that possible? It was the day when we came into the cave. How could it be night already? As we all went into the room, a very different voice greeted us compared to the deep and booming voice that had spoken to us before.

"Well, it seems you lot have finally decided to come and join me, " a small old man said. He had a wiry beard and was wearing a tattered patch covered robe. The man also wasn't wearing any shoes. This scene was getting stranger by the second.

"Don't just stand there, you numbskulls come in and make yourselves comfortable. Please don't touch anything on my shelves. There are dangerous things inside of some of those objects, and they make a big mess when they get free, and It doesn't like that. So keep your hands in your pockets. So you don't accidentally get eaten by a dragon or a fistaborah." The agile little old man said as he zipped out of the room. In mere moments he was back with a steaming kettle of what seems to be tea of some sort. "I see you good folk have seemed to have stumbled on one of my doors. They are spread abroad, far and wide. Not easy to find. What may I help my good travelers and their strikingly beautiful little summer rose of a miss?" the strange old man asked.

"I'm not sure how about we start with names?" Xalmia asked.

"That sounds like a fine place to start, I am Bargailius of The Great Collection, " Bargailius announced with a flourish of his hand towards the sky.

"I'm Xalmia, and this is Dak and Stell. What do you do here, Mr. Bargailius?" She asked. Xalmai seemed to be getting a lot more out of him then either of us could have, and he explained to her about the different places he went to find particular creatures or items to had to his ever-growing collection.

As they did, I looked around the room. Shelves were lining every wall with things I could hardly even believe could exist. Some had jars filled with clear fluid and strange creatures floating dead inside them. At the same time, others carried row upon row of crystal vials filled with different colored liquid. Then a red bottle caught my eye. There seemed to be a snake wriggling around inside the bottle.

I stared at the bottle for a while then started looking at the other oddities on the shelves. Then I began to get a weird feeling that something was watching me. It was was like someone coming up behind me and placing there hands on my shoulders, but when I turned around and looked, no one was there. Stell gave me a weird look, and I just shrugged.

"Feels like someone had their hands on me," I sent to him. He gave me a look that said, relax, then I heard another sound in my head.

"Hello," a soft and hissing voice sent. I was surprised, what was that voice? Where did it just come from? I looked around, but there was no one else in the room but the three of us. Stell was ignoring me at this point, he was trying to listen to Bargailius, and I was distracting him.

"I'm over here, silly boy," the voice said, and I turned to see the snake staring at me through the glass directly. Can this snake talk? I was beginning to become worried, but I kept my outward composer calm.

"How are you speaking to me?" I sent questioningly.

"The same way you speak to me," the calm voice hissed softly.

"Why are you in that jar?" I sent to her.

"This thing thinks I am some trophy to beheld on a wall. Be careful with this one boy, or you might find your self trapped like me," she sent.

As I stared into the jar, the world seemed to melt away. Slowly the noise from the background faded away, and all I could feel was a warm longing feeling inside my soul. A sense that invaded my soul and set radiant vibrations coursing through my body

I could feel her presence inside the bottle, and it felt like I could fell she was in pain greater then I could ever imagine. Those eyes dug into my heart and soul, begging to be set free. My heart quickened as she began to give me a feeling of longing for companionship and a friend. Those eyes asked me if I would like to help her from this wretched state and pull her from this never-ending tormented agony.

I could feel her eyes call to me in a voiceless cry begging to be left free from her eternal prison of glass solitude. I began to rise, still staring with eyes locked on the small seductive serpent. As I did, I felt a pull trying to make me sit back down and muffled voices around me, but none of that mattered. My beautiful queen needed my help to free her! She must not be locked away in that evil red prison.

I started to move towards the shelf to release my captive queen so that we may rule side by side, but as I reached forward with my arm, the world went black.