Vegenrage: The Magic User (31 page)

Illith chants, and they appear in a room with Vegenrage lying on a bed. “He can rest here while we check on Peakreech.” Illith chants, and they are teleported to a part of the woods where six elven magic users are monitoring Peakreech, who is fighting the Vinegrowers and Treestriders outside the barrier. Inside the barrier, it is quiet, but they can hear what is going on outside the barrier.

Logantrance addresses the magic users, and they all take notice of Farrah. Very few humans are allowed in the Mystical Erkens, and they are people such as Logantrance that are well versed in magic and well liked by the elves. They inquire with Logantrance about this unheard of intrusion; however, Peakreech attacking their barrier has their full attention, and they return their concentration back on the barrier keeping Peakreech at bay.

This is an awesome battle taking place. Peakreech weighs over six tons, and the Vinegrowers are constantly wrapping around his legs, trying to shackle him, but he is so big and strong that he pulls them from their foundation. Peakreech has knocked over nearly two dozen trees, making a wide space for him to attack the shield from the ground. Treestriders are launching harpoons, which do penetrate his scales, and then they pull themselves feetfirst into him and they cause him serious wounds.

They watch as a Treestrider launches both harpoons into Peakreech’s left side and pulls itself feetfirst into his side, sticking deep into his flesh. There are now four deep wounds in Peakreech from this one attack alone. He bites the Treestrider in half with his powerful jaws and swings his head into the barrier, which deflects his weight. He notices another Treestrider aiming for his wings and catches the harpoons and swings the Treestrider into the barrier, cracking its body, and it falls to the ground. Peakreech steps on it, crushing it under his weight, and pulls its harpoons free from its body.

“I know you’re in there, elves. I know you are watching.”

Two more Treestriders shoot their harpoons into Peakreech and pull their bodies feetfirst, sinking deep into his back. His wings are tucked in close to his body and were not struck by the Treestriders, and they start to bite huge chunks of his flesh and scales with their very large powerful jaws.

Peakreech laughs, looking into the barrier, and turns standing on his hind legs and rolling back on the barrier, crushing the Treestriders and actually sinking their spear-like arms and legs deeper into his flesh. He looks to the forest and lets free his Breath of Biopleen. He swings his head from right to left, covering the entire forest in front of him. This is a very potent acid that clouds from his mouth in a raindrop mist that quickly melts and disintegrates everything it comes in contact with. Treestriders are no match for this, and the ones caught in the mist are slowly dissolving away.

Peakreech looks into the barrier like he can see the watchers, laughing as the Treestrider limbs in his body are forced out magically, and he heals himself, speaking in the ancient dragon tongue as the elves watch. He extends his wings wide, forming a triangle from the tips of his wings to the snout of his mouth, and chants, “Ex lexclon soell memom dles arkonious ander arrr rike kekon!” A red line grows from the tip of each of his wings to his snout and shoots in a very circular and wide red tornado into the barrier. The barrier deflects the red wind, but Peakreech continues his attack, and the dome starts to show visible cracks.

“Illith, he is going to penetrate your shield. I must get out there and divert him away.”

“Logantrance, we are ready for this situation, stand back for now. Crayeulle, Cebleeth, Tronillis, take position.”

The three elves move to the edge of the barrier and kneel, crossing their arms at their chests and repeat a chant over and over, concentrating. The ground opens up behind them, and a massive arrow rises out at a forty-five-degree angle facing right at Peakreech.

“Sombons, Lentoz, Angribe, take your positions.”

“Logantrance, what is that arrow?”

“It is a magnificent weapon, the likes of which I have never seen. It is made out of Foarsbleem, and it will cut right through that dragon.”

Sombons, Lentoz, and Angribe levitate in a pyramid above Crayeulle, Cebleeth, and Tronillis and begin to chant the same chant. The arrow rises at a forty-five-degree angle right to the barrier wall, and a magical golden circle forms inside the six elves. Illith starts to say magical words and walks back, pulling the arrow toward him, and the golden light mimics a bow string. Illith finishes his chant, and the arrow is released. It shoots with incredible power. The barrier has no effect on the arrow, and it passes freely, penetrating Peakreech right in the center of his belly and exiting, landing many feet behind him.

Peakreech’s flame tornado stops, and he falls to his front legs, vomiting a lot of blood from the enormous wound in his belly. He staggers and stumbles for a minute and falls to his side, dying. He says nothing and looks into the barrier, knowing the elves are watching. His breathing slows and stops, and he dies with his eyes closing.

The barrier was weakening and cracking, but it strengthens to its original hardness as the spell from Peakreech stops. Illith calls the arrow back with his magical words, and it sinks back into the ground from where it came. He looks at Logantrance. “That is what we call Dragonslayer. There is one more dragon on our western wall, let’s go see him.”

“Illith, that was awesome. I have never seen anything like that.”

Illith nods to Farrah as he walks by her. “We must get to the western wall to see the lesser of the two dragons, Orgrange.”

“Orgrange, that is the orange dragon.”

“That is right, Ms. Farrah. Time to put an arrow through him and aid our King Ulegwahn in the Great Erken.”

The elves gather around, and Illith chants the words to teleport the nine of them to the part of the barrier being attacked by Orgrange.

“Illith, Orgrange has leveled the forest with his napalm and is making attacks on the barrier now free from attack from the Vinegrowers and Treestriders. So far he has used his body to try and ram the shield and made some magical attacks with no real damaging effects. I do not believe he is capable of penetrating the Mystical Erkens.”

“Good job, Pryzill. We will take care of this minor threat and then help the others protect the Great Erken.”

“Illith, who is this with Logantrance?”

“This is Ms. Farrah. I have decided to make an exception in this case, allowing her entry to the Mystical Erkens. Otherwise, she would be dragon food. Let’s take position and eliminate Orgrange.”

The elves take position like before and begin the magical chant. Orgrange has incinerated a half-mile clearing in the forest outside of the barrier with his napalm breath and can freely walk around and make attacks on the barrier. The Vinegrowers and Treestriders do not have enough room to reach him from the forest and make viable attacks. Orgrange is sending napalm and magic missiles into the barrier with no effect.

“I can’t see you. I can’t hear you, but I smell you. I know you are there, elves. The sweet smell of elf is irresistible. I can’t go through this barrier, so maybe I can go under it.” Orgrange starts to dig like a dog with his front paws, trying to go under the barrier. He moves large amounts of earth with his massive paws and feels deep under the earth to feel for the end of the barrier so that he may go under it. Orgrange excitedly stands on his hind legs, realizing that he can in fact go under the barrier and starts to chant a magical spell to help gain him access underneath the barrier.

This is the moment Illith has been waiting for and releases the Foarsbleem arrow. It strikes Orgrange right through the belly, just like Peakreech, and lands many yards behind him. This is a deadly shot, and Orgrange takes flight, retreating away from the barrier, dropping blood along the way. He flies about twenty yards and crashes into the forest, falling to his death. The Treestriders will feast on this dragon for days before all the flesh of this massive dragon will be consumed.

Illith calls back the arrow, and it returns to the earth. He then instructs the rest of the elves to aid in the protection of the Great Erken, and they teleport.

“Let us go and check on your friend. Follow me, we will walk. I would like to talk to you about the events that are unfolding these past few days.” Illith heads into the magical trees, following a cobblestone pathway with Logantrance at his side, and they begin to talk about the awakening of Gwithen.

Farrah follows behind them, and her attention is quickly diverted to the magical and beautiful forest they are walking through. Almost immediately, she forgets about the dragons as the sun is shining. The trees are like none she has ever seen. There were times when Alisluxkana took her into the Mindsunk Bog and the Wickenfall Forest, and it was always dark, damp, and eerie. The trees had no leaves mostly, and they were all dead mostly. Here, it is bright. The trees are beautiful with thick, lush leaves, and they are in many shapes and different species. Even the bees are beautiful, very large, and she can see them fly like they are in slow motion. The butterflies are flying around, and she can easily hold out her hand and catch them. Actually, as she holds out her hand to a butterfly, it lands on her hand, and she admires its beautiful color. It flaps its wings slowly, showing off its unique pink and purples with flowing designs that imitate the silhouette of its body. She smiles as the beauty of this place makes her happy. A hawk swoops down at her, and she can see it fly with great clarity as it U-turns in the air just before reaching her and snags the butterfly out of the air and flies off with it. There are woodpeckers in the trees with large red helmets made out of feathers, and they are drumming away on the trees. She wonders how they all don’t have headaches.

They walk for some time, and before Farrah knows it, they are at a magical place, a structure made out of wood with carvings all over it in green and brown colors. It looks like a small home but like four of them joined to make one big home. Illith turns to Farrah. “Come, Farrah, let’s see how your friend is doing.” He extends his hand toward the door, waiting for Farrah to enter.

“Thank you, Illith.” She enters, and Illith looks to Logantrance, who knows this is the greatest hospitality ever granted to humans by the elves here in the Mystical Erkens.

Logantrance enters, followed by Illith. Logantrance and Farrah are standing over Vegenrage, who is still sleeping on the bed where they left him.

“He must have been very exhausted to still be sleeping. If he is such a great magic user, I would’ve thought the magical energy of dragons would of woken him.”

“Yes, well let’s see if I can’t do something about that.”

“Hold on, Logantrance, let me try.” Farrah starts to shake him. “Vegenrage, Vegenrage, come on, Vegenrage, wake up.” She shakes him some more, and he comes around opening his eyes and looking around.

“What is going on? Where are we? Logantrance, what is this place? It is very strong in energy like I have never felt, but I feel it here.” He sits up, noticing he has an audience.

“Yes, this is a very special place—one of the most magical places in all the realms. This is Illith, and he granted us safe passage while you were asleep.”

“Thank you, Illith. We must be in the Finkelbrim Realm. I recognize the structure of the carvings on the walls, and they are Erkensharie, but how did we get here?”

“The dragons found your home and mine as well. I had to move us or the dragons would’ve eaten us by now. Illith allowed us safe passage in the Mystical Erkens, a privilege granted to very few humans.”

“The Mystical Erkens. Amazing. I can truly feel the energy here. Thank you, Illith.”

“The pleasure is mine. Here, eat some of these.” He gathers some fruit from a table and gives it to Vegenrage, and he eats as they talk. “Logantrance tells me you have been chosen to help in the fight against the evil of Kronton. We have known for a long time now that evildoers were growing in numbers while those able to fight against them have been dwindling. The Dragon Feast is happening again in the Maglical System, and this presents a life-threatening challenge not only for the fighters of good but for the fighters of evil as well. This is a very dangerous time, and the doers of evil are in just as much danger right now as the doers of good. This takes precedence right now, and if you are as great as Logantrance says you are, then we could use your help. We have lost our greatest magic user Shandorn to an evil magic user named Cloakenstrike. He has stolen the most valuable and magical item of all the elves, the Octagemerwell. This weakens our defenses greatly, and our Great Erken tree, home to our new king, is under siege by Dribrillianth right now. The entire Erkensharie magical order is now protecting the Great Erken from him minus myself.”

“Dribrillianth is indestructible. The only chance I would have against him is to get him to the Carbonheight Hills. Only here can his diamond scales be penetrated and then only with the blessing of Cormygle. We all know that is not going to happen.”

“Who is Cormygle?” Logantrance looks to Farrah as to say don’t ask.

“In my study of Dribrillianth, it is said that Dribrillianth has never used his breath attack, so no one knows what it is. Do either of you know what his breath attack is?”

“Unfortunately, this is true. I have never heard any talk of his breath attack, only speculation.”

“I too have no idea what his breath attack is.”

“Well, this makes Dribrillianth a truly scary dragon, and being that he is only known to be about two thousand years old, his time is coming to become the dominant dragon. How are your magic users protecting the Great Erken from him?”

“As you know, his diamond scales are immune to all bladed and magical attack. The only defense we have without the Octagemerwell is to bombard him with magical missiles and arrows and the like. These attacks do not harm him, but they push him back, not allowing him access to the Great Erken tree itself. This will only keep him at bay for so long. He will eventually find a way in.”

“If Dribrillianth wants in, I don’t know that we can stop him, but I will help in any way I can.”