Vegenrage: The Magic User (39 page)

The book does not explain how he was turned into the Staff of Barrier Breath, but the book does tell how Vlianth will awaken Vergraughtu and start a chain reaction leading to his release back into dragon form. This is all needed to happen in order for Vergraughtu to make yet another leap forward in evolution to yet another form of more significantly powerful type of dragon, and this is where Farrah is left hanging. It does not explain any further. Farrah does now know dragon tongue, and she knows that
Vlianth
means “Vegenrage.”

Farrah is lying close to Vegenrage as she has all week when they sleep. She quietly whispers, “I need my sight, I need my sound to be hidden from the light up from the ground.” A magical barrier rises up and over Farrah and Vegenrage like a large capsule, and they are now invisible to the party, and the sounds they make unheard. It does not take the dwarves long to realize they cannot see or hear them.

“Krimzill, Krimzill!”

“What, Eebil?”

“Look, Farrah and Vegenrage, have hidden themselves from us. I bet they are bumping uglies.”

“Yeah, well, I bet their uglies are not as ugly as yours and Regalamda’s are.” Some of the dwarves in the party start laughing.

“Quiet, all of you. Leave the humans. We need to be ready this morning, get some sleep.” They all quiet down and chuckle a little bit.

Farrah slides over close to Vegenrage. “Vegenrage, I have some questions for you.”

He raises his hand over his mouth, and a green glow with white and blue lines moves between his palm and his mouth.

“What are you doing?”

“I am making my breath minty fresh.” Vegenrage slips into the sleeping bag with Farrah and kisses her. “What do you think?”

Farrah smacks her lips and flaps her tongue against the roof of her mouth and teeth. “Very nice, I like it.”

Vegenrage starts kissing her again. “Vegenrage, stop I have some important questions for you.”

“I thought you liked kissing me.”

“I do, but I need to know about Vergraughtu and you.”

“The Staff of Barrier Breath is yours now.”

“Yes, but the book I read on Vergraughtu said he could only be woken by Vlianth, and that is you, Vegenrage, and by waking the Staff of Barrier Breath, this set in motion the final Dragon Feast. It also says that Vergraughtu is destined to transform into another form of superior dragon. I don’t know what to make of all this. What if really, I mean really, bad things are happening and are going to get worse?”

Vegenrage rolls off Farrah and lays his right arm flush with the ground and rests his head on his hand, looking at Farrah, and runs his left hand fingers through her hair. “I don’t know either. Sometimes I feel like this is all one big trap that I have been put into on purpose.”

“Why did you give Vergraughtu to me? It sounds like he was meant for you and you only. I think this is a magical item that is way too powerful for me. I don’t know if I can handle it.”

“You asked me over and over to teach you magic. There are things I can teach you, yes, but for the most part, you learn magic by taking charge of yourself and your emotions. You learn magic by not being afraid of it and letting it flow from within yourself. You have used Vergraughtu many times already, and already you have proven over and over that your desire to learn and grow and use magic has not diminished in enthusiasm and excitement. Yes, you can handle Vergraughtu, and the way the book spoke about me awaking Vergraughtu and then somehow passing him on to another form of superior being is just so hard to understand and make any sense from. When Parnapp asked for you to be his master and that I leave Vergraughtu with him and you, I somehow took this as a sign that you were meant to be, I don’t know, like my savior. You, I thought, would be my ace in the hole, not because I made it this way, but because you made it this way. I believe that somehow you and I together were meant to play some important role in the Maglical System, and together we will see through the bad. And whatever happens, we together will do what we can to make things better.”

“What if somehow I was meant to transform Vergraughtu? I can feel his strength race through me. I can hear his words in my head. He keeps getting stronger and stronger in me, and I am starting to fear him. This is too reminiscent of the way Alisluxkana had a hold of me. I never want to be under the charm of someone or something ever again. I just want to be with you now.”

“We are almost to Erkensharie. We will find Logantrance and get more answers. For now, remember you are becoming a great magic user and always have confidence in yourself. Trust in your instincts, and as far as Vergraughtu, remember you are his master. He cannot lie to you. If you have questions or fears, ask him, and he has to respond honestly.”

“This is getting so scary. I don’t want bad things to happen to us. Can’t we go back to your world? I would like to see it there, and we can be together and live without the fear of having dragons wanting to kill us.”

“You would get very bored there. You would forget about me very fast and wish you were back here. Besides, I am not about to abandon the friends we have made here when they need our help. We have come this far, and I am not going to let anything happen to you. I bet when we wake up, your enthusiastic spirit will have returned, and you will be ready to take on any dragon as I have seen you do already. No, I think we should rest now and think about helping the elves in the Erkensharie.”

“You know I love you, don’t you? You won’t let anything bad happen to us, right?”

“I am not letting anything bad happen to us.” Vegenrage rolls over and looks to the sky as the magical barrier Farrah cast vanishes and the stars reveal themselves. He thinks about what could’ve happened to Logantrance and why he can’t communicate with him. Farrah cuddles up next to him, and they fall asleep.

A very small mosquito is flying through the night air. It is very small, about half the size of a regular mosquito. It lands on Vegenrage’s neck and begins drinking his nourishing blood. Vegenrage sleeps soundly and is unaware of the almost microscopic proboscis draining his blood. The belly of the mosquito is getting fat and red with blood, when its abdomen squeezes tight and the blood squirts back into Vegenrage. It removes its proboscis and flies away without Vegenrage ever knowing it was there.

The light of morning is breaking the horizon, and Glimtron wakes, waking the party just before the sun reaches the horizon. They moan and groan and get some breakfast to eat from their food bags.

“Come, everyone, let’s get moving. I don’t want to waste any of the daylight. I hope to hear from the elves or the Dagi today. Ahnkle, where are the giants?”

“I don’t know, Glimtron. I have not seen any of them since Osworns spoke with us last night.”

“Churcher, have you seen the giants?”

“No, there is no sight of them.”

“Well, we cannot wait. They will catch up with us. Let’s move on, everyone, there is no time to waste.”

The party moves on down the last hill from the Sand Marshes and heads toward the misty and creepy Ruin of Altrar. The land is clear of trees for about a mile from the Smildren Sea to the upward sloping hill where Altrar was built. The path they are taking goes along the base of the hill and around Altrar, and the party looks on, observing the rotting and falling-down structures. They are heading east with the Smildren Sea to their north and Altrar to the south. The hill is quiet, and the trees are red and green and brown, giving great color and a creepy beauty to this once very populated place. The ground is covered in fallen leaves, and the wind whistles as it passes the unoccupied buildings and houses. The hill rises slowly, and it is very neat the way the people here built the homes right into the hill. Of course, over time the hill has eroded, collapsing a lot of the structures.

The air grows chilly, and roars start to sound out, startling the horses. The party alertly looks around for the source of the sound, which eludes them so far.

“Glimtron, what is it? What is making that noise?” Blythgrin and the Dagi ride up to Glimtron. They dismount, and Blythgrin pulls the Sapphirewell from his Bag of Holding. It is gleaming fantastically with silhouettes of dragons floating within it.

“Glimtron, the dragons have found us.”

“Everyone dismount, the dragons have found us. We make our stand here.”

The dragons fly up from over the Ruin of Altrar, and the dwarves look in awe as the horses head back the way they came. The dwarves ready themselves with fantastic Foarsbleem axes able to slice, cut, and dismember anything that comes into range. Unfortunately, that is a very small range. The feeling of hopelessness is overwhelming as not one, two, or three dragons appear, but over fifteen dragons of all colors are now circling in the sky.

“Get to Altrar, use the structures as shelter. Hurry!”

“Glimtron, we will stay here. We can do much more good using the Sapphirewell from here in the open, and the dragons will not be able to get close to us.”

“Blythgrin, Trybill, Grenlew, Solmbus, and Greeter, may our fathers be with you. Take nothing for granted, and use all your strength.”

“And you as well, Glimtron, now go get to the buildings.” The dwarves except the Dagi head for the ruins.

“Vegenrage, I am scared. What do we do?”

“Do not take to the air, Farrah. There are too many of them. Let’s head for Altrar with the dwarves and get Vergraughtu ready. Use his strength. Remember, his strength is yours.”

The dwarves find shelter somewhat in the Ruin of Altrar. They spread up and watch as the dragons circle from above. Blythgrin and the Dagi set up the Sapphirewell on a specially made pedestal that holds the Sapphirewell about three feet off the ground. It is a small wooden structure covered in a thick blue blanket with golden stitching throughout it. They all begin to chant, and a blue dome appears around them about fifteen feet high. The dome is visible like blue glass and has streaks of white all throughout it. There are five chairs that Blythgrin has pulled from his Bag of Holding, and the Dagi sit around the Sapphirewell facing outward.

Yarwellorn is the first to attack, and he makes his move on the dwarves in the ruins. He swoops down on an area where six dwarves are hiding in wait for a dragon to get close enough to strike at. They are in a building, not really hiding, because they can be seen, but they keep moving and bobbing behind and around walls. Yarwellorn floods the structure with his Breath of Grianaslenth. The dwarves have no defense for this and begin to slip and fall. They cannot hold onto their weapons and slide out from within. Yarwellorn lands, not learning his lesson from Mourbarria. He snags up a dwarve in his mouth and bites hard, crushing and almost cutting Debbreir in half. He raises his head high in the air and funnels the dwarve down his throat.

“Debbreir!” yells Carboul as he slides by, unable to get up, slipping in the slime.

Yarwellorn easily snatches Carboul and makes him a tasty treat. The dwarves in this building have no escape. The hill slants right to Yarwellorn, and they cannot help but slide right to him or right by him, and he makes a snack out of each of them. He bites them off the ground with incredible force, immobilizing them and swallowing them whole. Yarwellorn has his head high with the sixth dwarve sliding down his throat as he hears large footsteps and assumes it is one of the other dragons. When he lowers his head, he realizes too late that a Stone Giant has run over the hill and has jumped high in the air and swings his right arm in a windmill fashion, coming down with a crushing blow, crushing Yarwellorn’s head with its stone club.

This is a sight to be seen, and the dwarves cheer as Fillismrend follows through with two more crushing blows, flattening Yarwellorn’s head into the ground. He pulls a stone knife from his belt and cuts the head of Yarwellorn off and shows it to all. Swomairen makes his descent on a structure hiding five dwarves.

“I have to help them, Vegenrage.” Farrah flies over to the dwarves. “I summon Vergraughtu, consume all breath.” She does this just in time to consume the Breath of Aquaisen unleashed by Swomairen.

Vegenrage sees Bailseize flying right for three dwarves that will easily be picked off, and he flies straight at his head. Bailseize is about to let loose his Breath of Broam when Vegenrage turns in midair feetfirst and kicks with his right leg, which amounts to a magical kick so powerful hitting Bailseize right in the head that it sends Bailseize spinning through the air.

Solmbus and Greeter both work on water elementals. The water forms human form and rises up in the air, able to fly. They both fly for the nearest dragon, and that is Meamante. Meamante sees them approaching and sends a blast of fire from his mouth in an attempt to evaporate them. The elementals easily fly around and avoid the fire, landing on Meamante’s back. They grab onto his wings and guide Meamante right at the Dagi. They turn their hands and arms into water spikes and punch deep into Meamante’s flesh, causing him great pain and serious injury.

Meamante speaks the words and casts an incineration spell evaporating the elemental but not soon enough as the elementals have guided Meamante close enough to the Dagi for Blythgrin to cast a brutal spell. He finishes his words as Meamante heads away and a blue marble flies from his hands like it was shot from a rifle into the stomach of Meamante. Meamante looks at his stomach. “Noo!” And the marble grows in one second to the size of Meamante’s belly with nearly one hundred spikes protruding from the sphere.

All the dragons watch as the spikes protrude from his body, slicing him to death, and he falls dying on impact with the ground. Swomairen turns his head to watch Meamante fall to the ground, and amazingly, from out of nowhere, Osworns, Cremnole, and Nordiath stand up from behind the structure Farrah and the dwarves are. The giants fire crossbows with huge stone arrows into Swomairen. All three arrows hit the left side of Swomairen below his wing in a line up to his neck.

The giants pull with all they got, pulling Swomairen to the ground, and here comes Fillismrend jumping high in the air and Swomairen watches as the club comes down, turning his vision to black. Fillismrend crushes Swomairen’s head with two more crushing blows and cuts his head off with his knife, showing it to all again.