Darci physically jumped back, gasping for air. For a fleeting moment she had seen into the thing inside her mind, somehow connected with the twisted presence of Domati. What she had seen terrified her. Eyes open and head cleared, she looked at the shadow and shivered. What would something so evil and twisted want with her?
“You know that I am more powerful than you, wizard,” the shadow growled. “If you don’t get out of my way I will simply destroy you and take what I want anyway.” Tension filled the air as silence fell. Even the birds in the trees and the wind in the air appeared to pause, awaiting Belderon’s next move.
“You may be more powerful than me, warlock,” Belderon responded, “yet I shall not yield. There will be others more powerful than I who’ll prevent you from reaching your evil goal.” A sudden wind began to swirl around Belderon, moving his long beard as if it had a mind of its own. His eyes filled with malevolent green, as his entire body appeared to grow larger and more intimidating. “You will not get the child.” His voice unnaturally loud, he gave his final benediction.
“Have it your way then, wizard.”
Belderon did not hear the Domati’s final words, for his eyes had closed and he was beginning to chant softly. He began to wiggle his fingers in a complicated dance to the ancient tune he was playing whilst the shadow appeared to be waiting for whatever was about to happen.
The wind began to increase, swirling around Belderon, tousling his capes, his hair and then beard. With a blinding flash of white light, both shadow and Belderon disappeared, leaving Taslessian and Darci rubbing their eyes.
The courtyard was empty, sun shining where once darkness and Belderon had stood. In an instant, everything had changed. Taslessian took the shocked girl by the hand as he started to lead her away from his home. He sighed deeply as he took one last look at the wooden shack. In his heart he knew now that it would be a long time before he could return, if he could return at all.
* * *
Though the temperature was cool, Darci was beginning to work up a sweat as they walked non-stop along a well-worn animal track. As before, animals of all shapes and sizes ran wild across their path, unafraid of the intruders, until they realised that their footsteps could prove harmful. Although there was light enough to see, it was rare that the sun shone directly through the thick canopy above, creating a feeling akin to being in a large room instead of actually being outside amongst nature.
After a while of blindly following Taslessian, Darci finally found voice enough to ask a question. “What actually happened back there?”
The apprentice wizard stopped suddenly, turned to face her and then sighed. He did not really wish to talk right now, but he had to say something. Who knew what kind of uncertain thoughts were floating around in Darci’s head, especially considering what she had already been through?
“You deserve to know the truth,” he eventually responded, “but I must warn you, I am going to be very blunt about this.”
She nodded as he pointed to a fallen tree close to their path that they could both sit upon.
“That shadow was an evil wizard called Domati. I’m afraid that he is renowned for collecting things from other worlds and for using them for his own twisted desires. To protect you, Belderon challenged him to a duel that had to be fought on a magical plane so as not to destroy the balance in this world,” Taslessian explained in a dull monotone so as to hide the pain he was feeling.
“Belderon will not survive,” he concluded, matter-of-factly, before turning his eyes away from Darci. Taslessian took a deep breath to try to clear his mind and control his emotions.
“Oh,” was all Darci could manage to say in reply. She had been in this world for less than a day and someone had already been prepared to give their life to keep her from the clutches of an evil warlock. She looked at the ground to see a small possum-like animal peering up at them from under a giant leaf. Although it was obviously watching them to see if it could run away, its eyes appeared to be full of knowing sorrow.
“Come on,” urged Taslessian standing up. “We need to get out of here. The further away we get from Domati the harder it will be for him to find us. If he does find us, there is nothing to stop him from taking you.” Darci kept staring at the small creature, so Taslessian continued.
“The Master won’t stop Domati, he will only be able to delay him, and once Domati is victorious, he will come straight for you. He will probably kill me, and after he’s got all the information he needs, he will probably kill you also… or turn you into his slave.”
Slowly the gravity of the situation began to sink through Darci’s thoughts. The absurdity of her situation no longer seemed important. No matter how impossible she felt it was that she was in another world, she was here and it was real. They had to get moving. She did not want anyone else to die. Most of all she, did not like the idea of some evil and twisted warlock getting things out of her head and then killing her… or worse.
The small, understanding animal seemed to nod twice in agreement to Taslessian’s urgency before scurrying off into the undergrowth to get away from the now standing humans. So, with the sun beginning to hide behind the trees of the great forest, showing only glimpses of the orangy red colours of evening, the two travellers set off once more.
* * *
Not until well after darkness had fallen and the eerie symphony of the night had begun did Taslessian call a stop to their weary steps. He had decided to camp in an area that was too small to be called a clearing. It was simply space on the ground for the both of them and a diminutive fire under a few stunted trees growing in a cluster. Exhausted, but in need of the warm comfort of firelight, Darci began to gather twigs and small branches.
“I’m sorry about your master,” Darci finally said as she placed her first pile of twigs in the middle of their camp. She was feeling awful about how he sacrificed himself so that they could get away. Throwing her assorted kindling in a heap next to the ones gathered by Taslessian, she slumped down on the dusty undergrowth.
“He should have just given me to that guy.” Her voice quietened as she picked up a twig to begin unconsciously drawing in the dirt. “Then you and him could have continued life as normal. I mean, he didn’t even know me, and yet he died because of me when it would have been much easier to just turn his back,” she sighed. “I’m really confused.”
“I have lived with Belderon for seven and a half years. He is… was like a father to me. Sure, he may have been tough on me at times, but then I deserved it.”
With his eyes moist with unshed tears, Darci knew that Taslessian was trying to be strong. She had known him for less than a day, but she felt it the right thing to do, so she decided to reverse the roles from earlier and shuffled over on the ground to sit next to him, placing her arms around him to give him a hug. For a while they sat in silence.
It was not long, however, before Darci yawned, breaking Taslessian out of his mourning. He wiped his eyes with the back of his hand.
“Now we should try to get some sleep, so we’d best make ourselves comfortable on the ground,” he said with an unsteady voice. Darci shuffled back to the space that she was going to sleep in. She picked up the small bag Belderon had given her, only to realise that it was empty. The young girl heaved another sigh. She was not relishing the prospect of sleeping with nothing but a small, empty bag to keep her warm.
Taslessian managed a wan smile as he looked over at his new friend. “We purchased all the blankets that we need to make ourselves comfortable; they’re in the bas.” Darci looked at him as if he was daft. To show her, the young wizard pulled a sizeable blanket out of his small material bag.
Darci gave her bag a bit of a jiggle, but it still seemed to be empty. She turned it upside-down and inside out, but she still found nothing, and looked to Taslessian for an explanation. His mouth twitched to a half grin while he watched her. He then took the bag from her and brought something out of it that looked like two loaves of bread.
“T
hat wasn’t there before,” she said, thinking that Taslessian was somehow playing a trick on her. He was, after all, an apprentice in the art of magic, and perhaps they had a strange sense of humour in this land.
Taslessian handed her a loaf while he explained that it was a wizard’s bag, something very hard to create and something that only wizards could use. You had to organise what you wanted to get in a place where the objects would not be disturbed. All you had to do to bring the object to you was to imagine opening the fabric at the bottom of the bag, bypassing space, to one of the places the spell had previously been set. Going back to his other bag, he pulled out another blanket, handing it to his comrade.
Darci took the blanket before brushing away the twigs that sat on the ground behind her. She then piled some leaves in her small bag to use as a pillow before leaning back in an attempt to make herself comfortable. “How long do you think that it will take to get to this dragon’s place?” she asked as she curled up on the ground.
“Around five days, if we are not delayed,” he replied, placing a few more sticks on the fire. The small flames danced light over the apprentice wizard’s tired face. From the apologetic youth from earlier in the day his face now held bags under his eyes and lines of worry in his brow; in hours he seemed to have aged years.
Darci lay down under her blanket, squirming around until she found a position that was not painfully uncomfortable. Her effort was then ruined as she moved so that she could look at Taslessian. After setting out his blankets, the young wizard had begun to half walk, half crawl around the limited area of their campsite, drawing dust marks in the ground at different points. When all four of the marks were complete, he mumbled a few indiscernible syllables. With a flash, bright golden light flared up along the invisible lines between the marks.
Before Darci could even raise a single eyebrow in question, Taslessian explained that this was called The Diamond of Protection. It was an Elven spell that was part of their ability to seemingly appear out of nowhere in the forests to the South East. Elves may have been the best warriors amongst the trees, he clarified, yet it was not due to all the hard training and discipline of their order as they would have you believe, as they too were magic.
“In the end, this spell will slow Domati’s detection of us because it hides us from prying eyes, magical or otherwise.” With an exhausted yawn, the apprentice wizard lay down in his blankets and closed his eyes.
Darci rolled over once more, too tired now to even care about the stone digging into her back. She had no idea of the time at the present moment let alone what time it was back home. For all she knew it could have been morning there, meaning that she had not really slept for at least twenty-four hours. The unfamiliar noises of the night animals accompanied by the occasional crackle of the fire made her eyes half open with every pop, each time reminding her where she was, making it difficult for her to relax.
When the troubled young girl finally did get to sleep, it was filled with nightmares about a shadow constantly behind her with a myriad of unfamiliar faces surrounding her. She was tossing and turning; it felt as if something was trying to strangle her. It was wrapped around her arms and legs and it was almost covering her face. Then something else grabbed her on the shoulder…
* * *
Darci woke up in a cold sweat, trying to fight off her dream assailant. All the fuss however turned out to be caused by her blankets. Somehow, throughout the night, she had managed to twist herself into a cocoon.
Taslessian had grabbed her on the shoulder to wake her from her nightmare. There was no one trying to smother her, instead, simply waking her from her tormented dreams. She took a deep breath as her pulse began to slow.
Through the dense growth of trees above, she could just make out the light blue colour of the predawn sky. The usual smell of the forest drifted away to be replaced by the scent of something cooking. Taslessian had left her to finish waking up, and was now shaking a pot over the small fire. “Morning,” he said. “I take it that you didn’t sleep well either?” He stuck his finger in his mouth after sticking the pot too far into the small fire.
“Not particularly,” Darci responded with a yawn. “A lot of nightmares that I can’t seem to remember.” She rolled back with a moan, placing the blankets over her head. “I’m so tired,” she mumbled, “this must be what jet lag feels like.”
“Is this ‘Jet Lag’ serious? Can I help?” Taslessian’s face was so full of concern that Darci had to smile. Over breakfast, she explained how that if you go to another place and the time is different your body has to adjust. The concept of time zones however seemed to be lost on the young man, as it seemed that there was no method of travel on this planet that would jump time zones. If one walked or even rode a horse, time would just be time, and there was no way to contact someone in a different zone to talk to them at your day to their night. Darci was beginning to realise that there was going to be a lot of explaining to be done on both sides in the days to come.
When handed a steaming cup, she ate what Taslessian had made for breakfast. The lukewarm, bland broth-like soup was a far cry from cereal or porridge, yet food was food, and her stomach grumbled gratefully at the sustenance. After drinking their breakfast, they rolled up their blankets to shove them back into the magical sacks. The fire was put out by Taslessian’s boot as they set off once more.
“So, where are we going again?” Darci asked Taslessian. She could not find what he had told her through the blur of images that was her recollection of the previous night. Again she found herself stumbling behind him on a small animal trail that they had been following in between tall trees and luscious undergrowth.
“We are travelling to the Dragon Caves that lay in the mountains. There we should find Grisham the Great. He is one of the oldest and wisest dragons still alive and if anyone knows how to get you home, it will be him.”
* * *
The quiet echo of their feet on the hardened ground began to disappear as grass replaced the beaten path they walked. Young trees and shrubs were becoming few and far between as a breeze picked up, bringing with it the promise of cold. Constant walking was only made bearable due to the variety of animals hiding everywhere; from underfoot to the very top of the trees, making the walk one of discovery for Darci’s wide eyes.
Most of the morning went without mishap. There was no sign of Domati, and Taslessian was not too worried about the evil wizard catching up to them just yet. The battle between the two wizards would have weakened him severely, ensuring that his power for tracking would be limited. Taslessian hoped that by the time Domati recuperated they would be long gone.
Exotic birdcalls echoed around the forest. Darci’s eyes wandered from tree to tree as she tried to catch a glimpse of which bird was making what noise. With a particularly cold breeze, the hairs on the back of her neck began to rise. She folded her arms over her chest, yet despite the extra warmth, the hairs still refused to go down, causing a peculiar sensation.
It felt as if someone or something was watching them. Looking around the seemingly innocent forest surroundings, she tried to peer into the hearts of the trees with a different motive other than sightseeing, but they would not divulge their secrets. She voiced her feelings to Taslessian, and after a moment’s pause he agreed. He handed Darci a sturdy wooden branch that had fallen nearby, arming himself with a short sword.
A rustle in the trees caused them both to jump and face the offending plant. A moment passed before something flew out from a bush, pausing to flutter in front of them before flying off ahead. Darci almost laughed out loud. The thing that had buzzed past them looked like a very small, out of proportion, lizard man with wings. It was one of the funniest animals Darci had ever seen; the best version of a miniature sixties movie monster she could have imagined. Taslessian did not share her humour, however.
“I think that we just let a spy get away.” The young wizard’s sword was still held in the air as he looked slowly around them, taking in e
very detail.
“But it was only a bug man thing…” Darci could not see why something so small was going to affect them. But then again, what did she know? She did not even have a description for the animal that they had just seen.
“That wasn’t any bug, it was a Frary.” Another look of bewilderment prompted Taslessian to explain. Frary’s were devious but dense little dragons that could speak with limited human tongue. They would do anything for anyone upon the promise of a hard-boiled sugar sweet. Since they had discovered this particular treat from humans they had found nothing else more important to live for.
“Who would be spying on us?” asked Darci as she looked around at the now devious forest that could conceal any number of dangers. Taslessian reassured her that it was not Domati. The evil wizard Domati did not think that he needed any other assistance but his own. As to who had found them now, he did not know. Inwardly, Taslessian could only hope that they were not evil.
They continued on through the forest of giant trees with their weapons held at the ready, legs energised and heartbeats racing, ready for flight, keeping their eyes out for any more spies; hoping that if they walked fast enough, the Frary would not be able to find them again.
For now at least, no trees moved and the birds continued to talk to one another as usual, with the forest keeping its secrets. Suddenly, as a total contradiction to their situation, the Frary that had flown away reappeared without announcement, flying directly towards them along the animal track. Darci gave an indignant snort, feeling cheated of all her careful vigilance. After fluttering in close enough to turn her cross- eyed, the troublesome Frary landed right on Taslessian’s shoulders.
“Me Gorak. I been sent to warn you,” the strange creature puffed. “Warn us about what?” Darci tried to coax the information out of the small creature but the Frary turned away from her persistent eyes, seeming reluctant to answer. Taslessian took something out of his bag, leaving the Frary to gobble up the sweet with only a large gulping sound to show its passing.