Vegenrage: The Magic User (9 page)

“Not even I was aware how powerful this magic is, but now we know. It is a pleasure watching this power not controlled by good or bad and not acting on behalf of a deity, only his own free will. He may summon evil someday, and that is when we will move on him for our benefit. For now, go to him and give him what he wants. Let him know you are weak against his power, and maybe this will allow you a way to slay him in the future.” Xanorax looks at his arms to see the Life Stealer is still intact.

“Master, he said he only wants the Staff of Barrier Breath.”

“Then take it to him and submit to his wishes, or be struck down by him again. Not even I have the power to protect you from his wrath.”

“It shall be done.” Xanorax heads up the stairs as Practu sinks back into the liquid, filling the cylinder.

Vegenrage stands on the crater rim as he feels the presence of evil. His heart speeds up and slows and speeds up and slows as he looks over the destroyed vastness for signs of demons or other danger. The feeling goes away. He reaches down and grabs a handful of earth in his right hand. He shakes his closed right hand and throws the now-gold dust into the air. It falls to the ground, drifting toward the Pinegrow Forest. He reaches into his right pocket and pulls out a toothpick and shakes it. It grows into the Staff of Power that he emancipated from Inglelapse. Vegenrage picks up a stone from the scorched earth and looks in the direction the dust was drifting toward before it hit the ground and turned back to dirt. Vegenrage holds the staff in his right hand and the stone in his left hand. “Show me the way.” He tosses the stone in the air and bats it with the staff, and the stone flies for miles over the Pinegrow Forest and falls. Vegenrage watches the stone fly. “Aha! There you are.” Vegenrage shakes the staff, and it shrinks to a toothpick and he puts it in his pocket. He takes to the air and flies above the Pinegrow Forest. He follows the path the stone flew in, and sure enough, he sees Xanorax walking on the ground toward him. But Xanorax is not aware of Vegenrage flying above. He sinks to the ground in front of Xanorax and faces him. Xanorax lowers to his right knee and holds out the Staff of Barrier Breath with both hands, bowing his head, not making eye contact.

“This is what you asked for, the Staff of Barrier Breath. I offer this to you in the hope you will spare my life.”

“I didn’t spare your life. Your master brought you back.” Vegenrage takes the staff and flies off toward Mirrimya Mountain.

Xanorax watches as Vegenrage flies out of sight.

CHAPTER 7
Vegenrage Faces Blethstole

Vegenrage flies over Pinegrow Forest with his new staff in hand toward Mirrimya Mountain. As Vegenrage flies closer to Mirrimya, the forest starts to thin out, and the land starts to show itself free of trees. Hunger starts to overtake his stomach as he lowers to the ground and makes a fire. This is a nice spot for camping. The clearing is about twenty yards across with trees and forest still surrounding this small clearing. He flies through the forest, looking for his dinner. He comes across a deer lying under a tree. “Sorry.” He levitates the deer off the ground and ends its life quickly and painlessly by snapping its neck with his magic. He flies back to his fire with the deer in tow and, a moment later, has a spit slowly rotating and cooking dinner.

He studies the staff given to him by Xanorax. This is a beautiful staff, solid wood with a cork of black coral giving it good weight. The staff is shiny black with a gold inlay swirling up from the bottom to the top. It is etched with magical words in the ancient Imblogbem language. The magical etching starts at the bottom and reads up the staff using the gold inlay as a reference under the words. He reads the words, speaking in English. “The bearer of Vergraughtu shall be empowered to consume all dragon breath with Vergraughtu when these words are spoken aloud. I summon Vergraughtu, consume all breath.” The writing stops, and Vegenrage looks at the staff as it transforms. The gold swirling up the staff begins to glow beautiful golden light with breaks of molten black coral that break the gold seeping from within. The top of the staff spreads apart like a blooming rose and falls off as a golden dragon head rises from the top of the staff, looking at Vegenrage, and speaks to him, “Vegenrage, I am Vergraughtu, the consumer of all dragon breath. No dragon shall harm you with its breath while I am in your possession.”

The staff continues to transform as a spine grows down the golden swirl of the staff, broken by the black coral, which beautifully combines with the gold, giving the dragon the illusion of sharp spines. The spine grows down the staff and becomes a tail wrapping to the bottom of the staff, giving it a sharp spear-like point on the bottom of the staff. Wings grow from the back around the staff, as does a stomach and arms and legs appear around the staff. When completed, it is still a staff about three and a half feet long, but the illusion makes it look like a beautiful gold-and-black dragon.

Magnificent Vegenrage thinks to himself as he looks at this beautiful creation of ancient magic. The staff is now solid gold in color with the exception of the black coral along the spine and the green eyes of the dragon head, which is the only part of the staff that is actually the shape of the image seen. The rest of the staff is circular and round, like a dowel rod, but by looking at it, you would really think it is a dragon. The bottom is of course a pointed tail of the dragon, which could be used as a spear. The eyes of the dragon are emerald, a beautiful green with a black coral dot in the center, widening like the pupils of a large cat.

Vegenrage looks in awe, loving the treasure he has acquired. He rips a piece of meat from his roasting dinner and eats, just looking at his new treasure as he turns it, amazed at how it looks like a real dragon but is truly the shape of a staff, the Staff of Barrier Breath. Vegenrage eats until he is full and feels the need to rest, not even knowing how long he has been awake now. His eyes fall, and he remembers what Logantrance had said to him about his presence being known and snaps awake. He looks around, ready for sleep, but is wary to unkind visitors during his sleep. He waves his hand in front of the fire, and it goes out smokeless. He rips another chunk of meat and consumes it. Using his magic, he burrows a human-size divot in the earth, fills it with soft down, and covers it with a soft blanket. He casts unusual magic that creates a small invisible dome around his bed, which will surely prevent entry at least long enough to wake him should danger approach. This dome makes his bed appear like the natural earth and conceals Vegenrage and his magical presence as he lies down quickly to sleep even though it is only early evening at best.

He falls fast asleep and sleeps well, waking in the nighttime. He has no idea what time it is, but that is not a concern of his. He is excited and stretches his legs and arms and back, all happy because he is about to challenge wits with a real dragon. The moon is hidden behind a thick cloud cover, and the air is very dark and breezy, just the way he likes it. He drops his magical dome that has protected him through his sleep and brings thick vines and leaves from the forest with his telekinesis ability. He uses his magic to create a magical belt of brown and green color, which has two scabbards, one hanging from the left hip and one from the right. His Barrier Breath Staff fits perfectly into the scabbard on the left side of him, and he pulls out his Staff of Power and it fits perfectly into the scabbard on the right of him. The scabbards hold firm and free of swaying, allowing him to move freely without the staffs bouncing around and getting in his way.

Vegenrage throws flames from his hands, heating what is left of his dinner, and eats some meat, walking around, anxious to get on with his quest but yet a little cautious. This is Blethstole, and he will not take kindly to intruders into his lair. In fact, it is well-known that dragons kill all that enter their domain, even their own kind. Vegenrage thinks about what he will say if language comes into play. He thinks about the types of magic he may have to use in a flash, but all in all, he has to go see what will happen, and yet he still hesitates, using the yummy deer meat he is eating as an excuse to linger where he is.

Two hours pass and Vegenrage has eaten all he is going to and, after a short rest, takes to flight, heading toward the Mirrimya Mountain. It is very dark on this night, and he can only make out shadows but flies high and can manage. He flies up the mountain, looking for entrances that are large enough for dragons to enter and exit. Surprisingly, small holes can be used by these very large beasts, but when one appears, he should be able to spot it. He remembers his study of dragons; he has many books at his home on them. Dragons are a very complex species, coming in all the colors with different magical breath depending on the color of the dragon, and they are all magical beings able to speak many languages and cast an array of different magic. Dragons are very proud and sometimes give way to those that flatter them using the correct wording, because they love to hear about their magnificence. They love to be bathed in grandeur by terrified beings begging for their life, and sometimes the dragons allow those they deem submissive enough to go free. Really, dragons do not want to spare the life of any, but the thought that someone will return to others speaking of the terror and the incredible strength and unimaginable power of the dragon is very gratifying for them, and this is their real motivation for letting free someone that has spoken with them.

Vegenrage is very high up the mountain now, and the moon is still not visible, but the silvery blue glow from the clouds is creating some more light than lower to the ground. The mountain is beautiful, and he loves the night. It’s comfortably cool, dark, with a hint of eerie creepiness, which he loves. The mountain rises slowly with large plateaus full of plant life, large rocks, and even trees here and there. The mountain is starting to grow steeper with high cliffs now as he climbs higher through the air and up farther toward the top of the mountain, which almost reaches the clouds, or so it would seem. He gets to the top of the cliff face. He is rising above, and at the top of this steep cliff is another large plateau. And there it is, the entrance he was looking for. He flies down and lands for the first time on Mirrimya Mountain. The air is noticeably colder here and just a little above the comfort zone for him, but he will make do. He knows Blethstole is in his mountain lair because he can amplify his hearing with magic, and he can hear the deep rumble of Blethstole as he breathes. He also knows from his studies that dragons do not have intricate lairs. They generally have one, two, or three entrances and exits, which lead to a large room where they sleep on the stolen treasure they have accumulated. This is mostly true of all dragons, with rare exceptions.

He draws his Staff of Barrier Breath and enters the surprisingly large entrance, which is wide-open, with no effort to conceal its location. Blethstole is obviously worried of no threat. He heads in and turns invisible as he enters the dragon’s home. The entrance is a large, whale-size blue hole leading into the mountain, and he walks cautiously. The entrance starts to slant downward until he has to take to the air to avoid dirt and stones from rolling into the pit as the entrance slopes down to a vertical drop. He slowly floats down the hole, surprised at the depth. The air is warming, and the light has vanished to solid blackness. He transforms his eyes to that of a nocturnal animal so that he can see in the dark. He floats down into the lair of Blethstole and can see fine with his eyes that are now three times larger than normal, and what he sees is breathtaking.

Blethstole is lying on a bed of gold, jewels, artifacts, paintings, magical items, trinkets, and the remains of some of his prey. This treasure bed is some forty feet high and about fifteen yards wide. Blethstole is curled up with his fantastic head resting on his tail, which wraps around his stomach and head and continues around his back to his hips, where the spear end of his tail ends. His tail is lying on his front paws with talons for nails. His hind legs are under his body, and his left wing is acting like a blanket covering most of his body, from his neck to his hips. Blethstole’s wings are not connected to his forearms, as is the case with a lot of dragons. His wings sprout from the center of his back and look like thick black rubber.

The part of his body that Vegenrage can see from the bottom of his hips down his tail is a shiny black scale, like that of a snake, very clean and nearly invulnerable. His head is pure fantasy. He has four horns that grow from the back of his head, two above and behind his ears, which are unusually large and well defined for exceptional hearing. The two horns grow from the back of his head toward his tail for about three feet, and then a sharp U-turn in the horns brings them up over his head, and then they slope down away from his head and then veer straight ahead, forming fantastic tusks about four feet above his head, ending in sharp points about two feet in front of his snout. There are two more horns that grow from below his ears, straight away from his head about three feet, and then they turn toward the front of his head and grow forward, ending at the same point as the two top horns do. He has an awesome-looking head—formidable and intimidating—and the teeth have not been seen yet, and all these weapons are nothing compared to his Breath of Decadence.

He has strong, well-pronounced ridges above his eyes, and his face extends out some three and a half feet, narrowing to the tip of his nose, which is well-defined and an awesome sensory unit allowing Blethstole the amazing sense of stereoscopic smell. He has four very thick whiskers, two on either side and just below his nose. Vegenrage is not deceived by the peaceful sleep Blethstole is in. He knows that in an instant, Blethstole can unleash magnificent power, and most likely he has already smelled Vegenrage’s scent. He lowers himself to a natural outcrop in the cave and relaxes, unable to avoid the sense of awe at being one of very few who ever get the opportunity to watch a sleeping dragon in its own lair.

Dragons are magical beings and have natural resistance to most all magic. That does not mean they are immune to magic, just that magic cast on them must be much more powerful to have any effect on them. Dragons, depending on their color, are immune to certain types of magic; and in the case of Blethstole being a black dragon and very old and wise, he is immune to all types of charm. He cannot be put to sleep; he cannot be made to panic or feel hysteria. His thoughts cannot be altered magically, making him a real challenge. Vegenrage thinks he can take advantage of the unique situation he is in by shooting lightning bolts, massive fireballs, at Blethstole or send an inferno at him, but it is not his nature to take advantage of situations. He is very honorable and likes the thrill of confrontation; it makes him better, stronger, more well adapted, and experienced. Besides, he does not want to damage or destroy the overwhelming treasure that he is dying to sift through and explore. With that thought in his mind, he knows Blethstole will not part with any of his treasure while he is alive.

Blethstole takes in a deep breath through his nostrils and exhales. He raises his massive head, and his wing covering his body folds up and rests on his back. Blethstole opens his beautiful emerald eyes, which look like green oranges with orange pupils that extend in an oval shape from bottom to top. This color gives great contrast to the solid black color of the rest of Blethstole’s body, and he looks right at Vegenrage.

Vegenrage can sense the charm Blethstole is casting upon him, which, thanks to the staff, has no effect since it makes him immune to dragon charm, but he knows this is a crafty, smart, dangerous creature he is about to duel wits with. Vegenrage appears on the ground to the left of Blethstole’s bed. Blethstole looks at him.

“So you think you can steel my treasure?”

“Why else would I be here? The riches and wealth here are worth any risk. I think I am going to steel that and that and—oh yeah, that looks very nice.” Vegenrage points out treasures he would like as he speaks.

“Many have tried, and all have perished. I do like your courage. Most try to hide from me, but you openly face me.” Blethstole sends a fireball from his mouth, incinerating Vegenrage, and Vegenrage appears fifteen feet to the left of where he just was. “Oh, you are a crafty one. Already you have evaded my charm and dodged my fire. So how many of these clones must I kill before I get the real you, Vegenrage?”

“Oh, a couple, Blethstole.”

Blethstole rises to his feet, sending treasure tumbling down the hill of gold as he rises and turns to face the newly formed Vegenrage. Vegenrage is casting mirror images of himself minus the staffs. They are complete replicas of him, including the warmth of his body and his smell, keeping Blethstole honest in having to take each image as though it may be the real Vegenrage.