Scarr and Rickalas had long passed through the gap in between Krill and the mountains and Scarr could see a small village in the distance which he's trying to bypass, he just wanted to get Rickalas to the elves as quickly as possible. He turned west to go around the village which is named Grington, he carried on west until he had moved away from the village, then turned and started heading north again. They arrived at a forest border line and they followed it west until they reached a small roadway leading north into the forest.
They rode up the roadway for at least twenty minutes and to Scarr's right there's another road leading east towards the elven city of Aurora, but Scarr carried on heading north, the forest is deep and silent and no one was in sight, they're on the road alone. About ten minutes later they arrived at a folk in the road, the road to the right led north east to the elven city of Rhondda and the path to the left led to the elven city of Radnor but Scarr carried on heading north as he's heading for the elven capital of Tirian.
Scarr's horse began to gallop very fast and it isn't long before he arrived at the gates of Tirian, the guards on the gate saw him fast approaching. "Open the gates," shouted Scarr whilst still riding his horse rapidly towards the city, the guards quickly opened the gates and Scarr rapidly shot into the city.
******
The Guardians and Ki'lak had left Mallace on horseback and they had traveled north, they were all stopped at a hilt looking down upon a valley full of skeletons of dead men and monsters and as they looked deeper into the valley, they saw a ruined castle that's built into a small mountain. "What are they," asked Spiros, they all began to move their horses at a slower pace through the valley whilst trying to bypass the dead monsters. "They are dragons," whispered Ki'lak, they all gasped at the dead dragons that littered the valley. "What happened," asked Spiros again, Ki'lak cocked his head so he's facing Spiros and began to explain to him.
A war he said, about three hundred and fifty eight years ago when the Guardians were still young, the dragons came from their homeland of the Black Sage, they destroyed everything in their path. Tremendous flames burned from Plutopua to the edge of the elven kingdom and everything in between. The people of the Azzard united to combat this common foe as they have done so many times before, but it was not enough. When all seemed lost and on this very battlefield, the finial battle. Something unexpected happened, in the sky in the far distance there was a bright gold object rushing towards them. As it got closer and closer, it became clear what it was, a dragon, sun reflecting off his bright gold scales. Ki'lak explained.
He was larger than any of the other dragons on the battlefield, just when they thought that there was another dragon to contend with, but he did not attack them. Instead he turned on his own brethren, further out on the battlefield there was a young warrior' inspired by the shimmering dragon, he moved down the battlefield towards him. He flagged him down in a safe area, the dragon explained that he's the king of the Black Sage and this attack wasn't by his order and so the young warrior told him his name. His name was Scarr Thesulac and the dragons name was Tharos, Ki'lak explained.
Tharos urged Scarr to climb onto his back and so when he did, they were flying to the dragon that led the attack. With both of them working together they befell this common threat and the rest of the dragons retreated back to their home and Ki'lak also explained that if you look in front' on top of the castle you can see the bones of the dragon that they both killed, Ki'lak explained. They were all amazed by the story that they heard and Johnkal couldn't help but wonder, so he asked, "how do you know all this," Ki'lak couldn't think of an answer, how could he explain all this, he began to try and explain.
Ki'lak began to say that he remembers everything that he has ever read and that he thinks he saw it in an old book somewhere. Everyone seemed to buy it and so Ki'lak sighed as a sort of relief. What could Ki'lak be hiding' that he doesn't want the group to know, I'm sure it will be revealed in time, "so what is this place named," asked Damo, Ki'lak began to look around the place and felt a sense of empathy towards the fallen warriors' almost as if he was there himself. "Then I do not know, but since the battle it has been known as dragon's rock," answered Ki'lak.
The Guardians and Ki'lak moved as quickly as possible through the skeletons and eventually they came to the end of the valley and they could see the Provence of the Dwarven Keep spread out before them.
******
As Scarr shot through the city gates, he pulled the reins back on the horse bringing it to a sudden stop, as the horse neighed' Scarr jumped off his horse and he's met by two elves. "Help him, please," begged Scarr, he pulled Rickalas off his horse and laid him gently on the floor, one of the elves rushed over and as he was looking at Rickalas he began to ask, "what happened," Scarr thought for a few moments as he didn't really know what had happened, so he began to explain as best he could, "his mind was invaded by an evil spirit, I fear he will become like it," he answered.
The elf wasn't too happy to hear that, he apologised and he explained to Scarr that they are going to be taking Rickalas with them and that he couldn't come with them. "I understand. Go," Scarr whispered, as both the elves carried Rickalas away he thought to himself, "please save him," a tear swept down his left eye. He looked around the city, it's night so he could barely see anything, but the path ways were all lit up with stick torches. All the buildings where built into the tall wide trees and there's stairs going around them from floor to buildings and bridges linking all the trees together, he could see in the distance the elven palace all lit up, he knew that's where they're taking Rickalas.
The Guardians and Ki'lak have been travelling for several hours and they're becoming impatient. They reached the edge of the Roach Forest to the south east of dragons rock. They have finally reached the gap of Tirian and they could see the Dwarven Keep, they began to ride west through the gap of Tirian but suddenly they hear a cry coming from behind them, they stopped, turned around and saw a man collapse to the cold hard floor. Johnkal galloped as fast as he could towards him as the others followed behind. Johnkal got to him, he jumped off his horse, dropped to the floor and he held the man up on his knees.
Everyone looked worried for the man' except Spiros who turned away from him in a huff. "Are you ok sir," asked Johnkal, the man looked at him with the most fearful expression. He looked as though he had the life drained out of him. "They came from the forest, of lost souls, their stance of a man but nothing but smoke and nothing, the end is nigh," the man weeped, he then closed his eyes and passed away in Johnkal's arms. Johnkal recognised his armour to be from the city of Faryal to the east. A few of the others let a few tears go for the man whilst the rest remained strong.
The man wore silver armour with grieves and a helm, the chest piece as the royal family crest of the house of Faryal, it shows two dragons facing one another, breathing fire and their flames crossing. "Wait what is your name sir," he asked, but it was too late as he was dead, "what do we do now Johnkal," asked Spiros. Johnkal placed the man's body gently on the floor and stood up, he turned to face the others and he explained to them that they'll not leave him here like this and that they'll give him the honour he deserves, "we will give him a warriors burial," he said.
Johnkal told all the others to ride out and find some dry wood and as he said that they all galloped off in different directions while he stayed behind to prepare the body. He started to clean the man's wounds and clean the dirt of his face, he polished his armour and his long sword and he also took the helm of his head to polish. As he's tending to the body, he noticed a piece of parchment sticking out the top of his armour so he picked it up and noticed that it's a letter. He then turned it over and noticed that it's addressed to Scarr Thesulac and upon seeing the name he then proceeded to put the letter inside his robes for safe keeping and finally he stood up.
A few tears swept down his eyes as he stood there looking at the body' pondering over who the man could have been in life, "I am sorry brother, we did not find you in time to save you," he cried. Johnkal stood there motionless until eventually they all returned with the wood they were searching for. They all began piling the wood on top of each other, when they had finished doing that, they placed the body on top and placed two coins upon his eyes and whispered to himself, for the ferryman. With the few pieces of wood left over they lit a fire, Johnkal pulled a stick with a huge flame on the end and held it above the man's body.
He looked at the man for a few seconds whilst the others looked to the floor with sorrow in their hearts and so Johnkal looked to the skies and noticed Haven and Jovenstar had already begun their descent, "goodbye, my friend," Johnkal whispered as he dropped the torch on the man's body while Ja'nel walked up to him and held his hand. "We cannot linger here Johnkal, we have to go," she smiled, Johnkal turned' nodded at her and then they all got back on their horses and galloped through the gap of Tirian. Johnkal looked back at the man as the fire consumed his body.
He then turned back to face forward and began to gallop faster through the gap as he looked to his left he saw the Dwarven Keep which is a fortress built into the mountain face. They left through the gap and found themselves in Fasingworld, the realm of the elves. They all traveled south west until they got to the tree line on the horizon, they travelled south and turned west before they got to the village of Grington, from here they traveled the same path as Rickalas and Scarr until they reached Tirian.
******
Scarr's still stood at the city gates awaiting word on Rickalas's progress when he heard the guards shout suddenly into the thick of night, "whom goes there," he shouted, it's the Guardians and Ki'lak, "we are here for Scarr, we are the Guardians and we have come a long way," shouted Johnkal. Scarr became overjoyed as he heard Johnkal speak, "let them in," he said, all of a sudden, the gates began to open and as they got halfway open Johnkal could see Scarr. The gates fully opened and they all rode in, Johnkal jumped off his horse and bowed to Scarr as he also bowed back.
Lucyia jumped off her horse and ran over to Scarr throwing her arms around him, "is he ok," asked Lucyia as Scarr also placed his arms around her and held her tight. "I do not know Lucyia," cried Scarr, worry and grief took control of Lucyia's emotions and also the rest of them. The rest climbed of their horses and went to Johnkal, Lucyia and Scarr. "How long have you been here," asked Trogen, Scarr didn't answer his question straight away as he's pondering how long he had been here and when he couldn't think of how long it had been, he just replied with, "quite a while," and left it at that.
An elf approached them from the trees and bowed to them, they bowed back as the elf began to speak, "I have come to take you all to a more comfortable place, so you can all get some rest," explained the elf, Scarr walked over to him as the elf also asked if they would all follow him and Scarr wondered if Rickalas had made any progress' so he asked. The elf replied with, "he has not yet, but we will surely let you know," the Guardians and Ki'lak began to follow the elf towards a flight of stairs, they all went up the stairs around the enormous tree trunk until they got to the top.
They entered a building that as three floors, on the ground floor there's a dining room with a large oak table stretching from one end to the other and there's also a few book cases scattered around the room with a few pictures of elven kings. There's oak pillars holding the ceiling up whilst the rooms well lit up by many stick torches and there's also a staircase on the other side of the room in which they headed towards. They went up the stairs until they got to the first floor and they found themselves on a small corridor which has a room on either side.
The elf started pointing to the rooms explaining that's where they will be staying and that they may get themselves settled in, he also said, "meals will be served in the dining hall when you are ready, good day," the elf also explained that there's more rooms on the next floor. Spiros and Kelsia stayed in one of the rooms and Damo stayed in the opposite room although there's more rooms on this floor they're not for sleeping in as they're more like closets and things. The rest of the Guardians and Ki'lak continued up to the second floor and they each found their own rooms.
This floor's a lot bigger then the floor below for it holds more rooms, Lucyia, Ja'nel, Rosarlea and Trogen all have their own rooms on this floor but not Niklaus, Scarr, Ki'lak and Johnkal as there's no rooms left for them. They're more than happy to sleep in the attic as they have slept in worse places before now. The attic's dark, musty and the air tasted damp and there's stuff everywhere. Ki'lak turned to his right and noticed an old oil lamp which he carefully muttered the words "incendeus" as to not let the others hear him, as he said the enchantment the oil lamp lit up and you could now see the entire room.
Everything's dirty and cobwebs seemed to link every object in the room together, "spiders...I hate spiders," whispered Ki'lak, they found an open clearing in the centre of the attic but even still it isn't big enough. "We are going to need covers," advised Niklaus, Scarr turned to face him and nodded at him, "good idea, go," he said, "the rest of you help me clear this space," so they all began to move objects to make them more room so they can have a better nights sleep, as they were moving stuff they found that some are heavy and some are light.
Johnkal came over a large object he couldn't shift on his own so he called for Ki'lak's and Scarr's help so they approached Johnkal without delay to lend aid. They each picked a side to it, with Scarr's vampiric strength behind him the object in question proved effortless to move, but that isn't the highlight of the moment. As they lifted the object of the ground a few rats ran from underneath it over Scarr's feet and Scarr, he really hates rats. He gave out a large shriek, dropped the object and moved well away from them, Ki'lak and Johnkal couldn't stop laughing, they're both in stitches.
As they're both laughing at him Scarr couldn't help but give them both a nasty look, "behold, the mighty Scarr, tamer of dragons, bested by a rat," laughed Johnkal, they're both nearly on the floor it's that funny. All the while Scarr didn't know where to put his face. "That is it brother, you are fired," laughed Scarr as he ran over to Johnkal and grabbed him in a headlock and started rubbing his fist over his hair, "who is bested by a rat, Johnkal," Scarr laughed, Johnkal struggled as hard as he could to be free but Scarr proved too strong for him.
Ki'lak couldn't help but laugh even harder and has he did Scarr looked at him and spoke, "you do not laugh you are next," so Scarr spun Johnkal around and he landed in a pile of dirty white sheets and he thudded his head against the oak wardrobe behind him which made a loud noise which echoed all down stairs. Scarr then proceeded towards Ki'lak, went to grab him in the same move as he had Johnkal although Ki'lak anticipated it and grabbed Scarr's right arm twisted it around until Scarr's no longer facing him and held him firmly in place, "you are pretty strong boy, how do you explain this," asked Scarr.
As Ki'lak let him go Scarr turned to face him and tried to look him in the eye but Ki'lak's just looking towards the floor. Niklaus arrived back with the blankets in hand also with Trogen joined to his hip, "what is going on up here? There was an awful noise," wondered Trogen, Johnkal began to explain, "that would be my head brother hitting this wardrobe, thinking I can get away with insulting our leader," Johnkal rises from the ground and turns to face Scarr, they just smiled at one another while Niklaus walked over to them with the blankets and they continued where they left of before they were distracted.
******
ns 15.158.61.46da2
