Vegenrage: The Magic User (34 page)

The dwarves cheer loudly, and a chant emerges from the wall of noise: “Dragon hunt. Dragon hunt. Dragon hunt. Dragon hunt. Dragon hunt. Dragon hunt. Dragon hunt. Dragon hunt.”

Glimtron jumps down from the table and sits by Logantrance. “Tonight we feast, because in the morning, we go to our friends in the Erkensharie to hunt dragon with them.”

Logantrance shakes his head with a smile.

CHAPTER 27
Farrah, Vergraughtu, and Parnapp

Farrah is soaring through the air with her arms stretched out. She has Vergraughtu in her right hand, a big smile on her face. This is exhilarating, and she is loving it. She can fly. She can position her body any way she likes. She can fly in a sitting position with her legs crossed. She can fly like Supergirl. She can even fly backward. It is just like Vegenrage had told her: it’s all a state of mind, just vision what you want and you can make it happen. She doesn’t even know how she gained the ability to fly. She just felt this urge, this sensation, making her feel lighter than air. She spoke the words and she was levitating and now flying. She realizes that she created the spell with the words she spoke, and they are unique to her with the use of her magic. She is elated and can’t wait to tell Vegenrage. She flies through the mountains, watching the beauty of the mountains and pulling the leather clothing Vegenrage had made for her from Parnapp and putting them on in midair because she is freezing. She bundles up, snug as she can, and watches the mountains pass underneath her. She does not know how, but she can see the shadow of a dragon moving across the ground, and she is flying along the route taken by the shadow.
I wonder what that shadow is, and I wonder why I can see it.

“That is the shadow of Gannream, and you have been quickly unlocking my powers and absorbing them, growing exponentially in the use of magic. I can feel Vegenrage in you, and he has imbued you with the gift of absorption. He has given you Parnapp and myself, making you a very able magic user.”

“Vergraughtu, you can speak? You can talk like Parnapp. I can feel your words and your magical ability. It was you that made me think to strike Gannream with you and you that prompted me to say the words allowing me to fly.”

The dragon head on the staff is moving and talking like it is alive, and Farrah now has two talking magical items, jumping her into a rare class of magic user. Like so many before her, she now has the ability, she has the talent and the means, but what will she do with her newfound wealth?

“Hey, come on now. I am still your favorite, right?” Parnapp awakens and talks to Farrah with those big eyes forming, and they seem to be able to float all around the bag without being attached to it.

“I have two favorite magical items, and we have to go find Vegenrage before those dragons do something bad to him.”

“Well, you might want to turn invisible then, because if any dragon sees you flying, they will come and eat you.”

“I don’t know how to turn invisible.”

“Yes, you do, just use your mind to visualize what you want to happen and speak the words.”

“Are you sure, Parnapp? Can’t you just tell me the words, or do I just make up any words?”

“Well, the thing is, you have to see what you want while saying the words. It doesn’t matter what language you use, and you don’t even have to say the words the same way every time as long as you know the magic and can see the effect of the magic. Vegenrage is the only one that can see his magic and make it happen without speaking. The spoken words are what make the magic come alive, and Vegenrage is something very special.”

“Parnapp is right, Farrah, just speak the words of the magic you want to extend, and it will happen.”

“OK, guys, I will try. The air is clear, the wind cold, take my form and make it disappear.” Farrah looks at her legs, and they are gone. She looks at Vergraughtu and Parnapp and can see nothing. “Guys, it worked. I am a magic user. It worked.”

Farrah is now flying out past the mountains, and she flies fairly close to the ground, maybe two hundred feet up. As the mountains are left behind and she lowers with the slope of the ground, lower than that of the mountains, she is still very cold and keeps on her leather clothing. Farrah is still following the shadow of the dragon moving on the ground and remembers holding on to Vegenrage as he flew them through the Mindsunk Bog and saying that he could easily follow the trail of Alisluxkana. She thinks she is following the dragon now, like Vegenrage was following Alisluxkana then. “Vergraughtu, how do I see the shadow of Gannream on the ground?”

“Through me you are gaining magical abilities allowing you to see the route taken by Gannream after you struck him.”

“Will I gain more abilities from you?”

“You have not even begun to scratch the surface of the magic yet to be learned.”

Farrah has noticed that for a long time now she has been flying over nothing but flowing hills of sand. For some reason, no trees grow here and all the hills are made out of a type of sand that does not fly away in the wind, and all the hills run east and west, heading toward the Smildren Sea and the Mountain Creek Hillyards. Of course, the Hillyards are home to the Mountain Creek Dragons. There is a lush vegetation that grows in between all the hills, making the ground look like a carpet of brown and green lines. She has been flying south and steadily veering to the west, and the Mountain Creek Hillyards are coming into view now.

“That must be where the Mountain Creek Dragons live. I can see Gannream standing outside of his lair, and I can see him enter into a large hillside, but I cannot see inside. Vergraughtu, why can’t I see what is inside?”

“Remember, dragons are very powerful magical beings. I once was a dragon, and very powerful magic protects the homes of all dragons.”

“You were an actual dragon, Vergraughtu?”

“Yes, and as time goes by and you learn more, you will see how I became the magical item you now command.”

“I read a book called
Vergraughtu
, and it told me a lot about you and how you were made into the Staff of Barrier Breath. I have not had time to really think about all the magic it took to make you what you are now, but I will try to find a way to return you to your true form.”

“That is very kind of you, Farrah, but you have much to learn, and I am very happy where I am. Things worked out much better for me than I had hoped.”

Farrah is now over the Mountain Creek Hillyards, and the landscape has drastically changed. Trees now grow with not long straight hills that run seemingly forever but rolling hills in a more natural state. It looks like a mix of jungle and forest with places of thick growth followed by lighter growth with lots of streams and flowing water winding and weaving all throughout the trees and vegetation, with a lot of high hills that seem to have been cleared of all trees on the top. Farrah starts to get a little nervous as the reality that she is heading right for dragons suddenly seems to hit her.

She stops her flight and levitates high in the air and tries to communicate with Vegenrage. She concentrates. She thinks and talks in her mind.
Vegenrage, can you hear me? Vegenrage, I know you are near. Help me find you.
She talks for a while, waiting for some kind of magical presence to help guide her, but nothing, and she gets very worried.

“Vergraughtu, is Vegenrage OK? I don’t feel him. I don’t sense him at all. I know we are close to where the dragons took him. I know we are. Why can’t I communicate with him? Did they kill Vegenrage?”

“Farrah, calm down. We are close but not even I can penetrate the home of a dragon. You have to go in and find out what and why.”

“Take off the leather, Farrah, it blocks the ability of Cleapell, and you are going to need that protection.”

Farrah takes the advice of Parnapp and puts away the leather clothing. “I should’ve listened to Logantrance. What was I thinking? I can’t take on dragons. Vegenrage, where are you? I need you to help me.”

Vegenrage is lying in a large birdcage just big enough to hold one human. The cage bars are golden and shining a warm golden light. It looks exactly like a birdcage with a round floor and the bars extending six feet up from the floor and curving to a rounded top. The bars are close enough, so he can’t squeeze his body between them. He is lying on the floor of the cage, and it is just big enough for him to lie in.

He has a massive headache. It feels like his left temple is pounding painfully, and then it stops, then his right temple pounds. It is like there is a pain just under his skull trying to escape, and his skull reflects the pain back into his brain. The pounding stops and then starts at the back of his head. He feels very nauseous and is all sweaty. He is absolutely miserable. The only thing he can do is lie there very still and try to cope with feeling so badly. He moves around, trying to position himself in different ways to cope with the pain, and every time he seems to get a little break from the pain and nausea, it starts right back up again.

The dragons have captured Vegenrage and put him in a Cage of Draining. This cage drains the physical and magical energy of anything inside it as long as the cage is locked, and obviously this cage is locked. He can’t concentrate; he can’t talk. Every time he tries to focus, he feels like he is going to throw up or is almost brought to tears because the pain in his head is sharp and shocking. He can do nothing but bear it for right now.

The cage is sitting on a ledge carved out of the back wall of the dragon lair, and the only way in or out of the cage is through the door that is locked. There is a metal lining the wall around the cage, and Vegenrage recognizes it as Dragonmire, the same metal the cage is made out of. This is a mixture of Tintyganium, Amberglow, and gold magically altered by dragons and is more than enough to keep Vegenrage physically and magically drained. He can look outside of the cage to see the spectacular home the dragons have made here, very different than any dragon lair he has studied in his books.

There is a very large plateau on which his cage sits in the very back. It is half a football field wide and long, and then it gets even more beautiful. There is a waterfall that falls from the ground level above the cavern some sixty feet, splashing into a good-sized pool of water that flows down the earth about forty yards to a large opening that leads out into the Mountain Creek Hillyards. The cavern is huge, half a mile high and three quarters of a mile wide. The large entrance where the water exits is very large, and a lot of light shines in, allowing for lush vegetation to grow all around. Not only can the dragons easily fly in and out where the water exits, but they have many dragon holes throughout where they can enter and exit also.

As if this is not astonishing enough, there are three dragons on the ledge. It is not uncommon for a mother and up to six offspring living together until the offspring reach adulthood; however, what Vegenrage sees next amazes him. Gannream lands and begins to talk with the offspring and mother. This is never heard of, and Vegenrage concentrates all he can to try and eavesdrop on the conversation. Dragons have a language of their own with many different dialects. Some of the dialects are so different that it is almost a different language, but none have evolved into a different language so far. As he tries to listen to the dragons who have all but forgotten about him, a thought pops into his head. He remembers a magical ring that he took from the lair of Alisluxkana, and thank the heavens he did.

The dragons simply teleported back to their lair with Vegenrage, and he was teleported right into the cage. They have no idea who Vegenrage is, thanks to his Cloak of Concealment. But they do know of Vergraughtu, and the only reason they did not try to eat Vegenrage is because they are using him to lure the owner of Vergraughtu to them. The dragons can feel Vergraughtu’s presence and know he is not with Vegenrage, but now that Gannream has returned, they all know that Farrah holds Vergraughtu, and that is the goal of the dragons—to obtain Vergraughtu.

Vegenrage slips his hand into Behaggen and feels around until he finds the ring and slips it onto his finger. Instantly he feels better. This is a Ring of Magic Absorption, and it does just that: it absorbs any magic applied to the wearer. The headache goes away, and the nausea recedes. Fortunately, he puts some Pluanges in Behaggen when he was in the Mystical Erkens, and he lies with his back to the dragons and munches on one, gaining his strength back. Now he can concentrate on listening in on the dragons.

“Father, are you sure they will come for this one?”

“We will know soon enough, and when they do, we will be ready for them. The female, she has Vergraughtu. She is our main target. The old one is the one to watch for. He is probably the most powerful one. This one here is very young and has very limited magical ability, but the female has gained much power from Vergraughtu, so beware of her. She can cause us great injury if we are not weary of her. She is Vlianth, and we must take her to Blethstole. So be very cautious of her. Her power is great enough to kill, but we need her alive.”

“I don’t like you drawing the humans to our home, Gannream. I think we should hunt them in the open, where the skies are our protection. Our home is our sanctuary but not if the humanoid races find out where we are.”

“The skies are our protection, tell that to Leebentin. I want to hunt down the dwarves that killed our son, and they have retreated deep in the mountains out of our reach. The skies serve us no protection there. Vergraughtu will strengthen us, and we can draw them here, where our magic will serve as our protection. Don’t worry, Mezzmaglinggla, the humanoids are being devoured by all the dragons, and there is no better time than now to draw them out. We have Vergraughtu in our sights. We must own him.”

“She is here. I can smell her.”

The young ones raise their heads, sniffing deeply. “Ma, you always did have the best nose.”

“Razcour, Emzwer, head out the north entrance. I will the east, and we will converge on her.”

“Yes, Dad.” The young dragons jump off the ledge and fly up and to the north while Gannream heads to the west. Mezzmaglinggla looks to Vegenrage and sees he is still lying seemingly drained in the cage. She leaps into the air and flies upward for a different exit.

Vegenrage waits a few moments and shrinks until he can squeeze between the bars and turns invisible, flying off.

The two young dragons fly out of the cavern through a small opening in the ceiling.