"Magpie. Magpie. Wake up." Spoke softly a voice Magpie knew too well and longed to hear. Immediately flashed a content smile upon her face and a rush of new energy enabled her to open her eyes and sit up rapidly.
"Hold your horses, lass!" Blinked Ignatius surprised. "That was some fight you've survived. Maybe even senseless if the reason were for a few shimmering coins." He grinned broadly.499Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡZExjRiE9CS
"Ignatius!" Tears welled in her eyes and without thinking, threw her arms around him. "I've missed you." Magpie recognised the environment, the old cabin they would often meet during winter. A warm and peaceful fire burned at the fireplace with a pot of stew slowly boiling away. She was sitting on the wooden table, surrounded by dried herbs and a bowl of water with a bit of cloth.
A burst of amused laughter came from him. "Not back then, when you slapped me on each ear."
"That was for doing necromancy instead asking for my help." Magpie opened the embrace to look into his dark brown eyes. "What happened to make such a terrible choice?" She gently placed a hand upon his cheek; it felt warm to the touch and smooth.
Ignatius turns away and removes her hand. "You don't understand."
Magpie sighed and felt the urge to pull him at his collar, but that won't do any good. "Try me." A slight stinging pain begins to spread at her back.
Just as Ignatius was about to speak a high pitched metallic shriek interrupts. It came so loud and sudden that Magpie flinched and covered her ears. Her surroundings began to dissolve, like in a wet painting into black. Panic-stricken Magpie gawks around wide-eyed and silent, too afraid to move or make a sound.
"Elyza!" Called out Ignatius from the darkness but he was nowhere to be seen.
Magpie gasped as she opened her eyes anew. Bright yellow light stung her eyes and squinted. As she wanted to move a stinging wave of pain overcame her from her back. She cursed, and as soon her eyes got accustomed to the light, Magpie recalled where she was. She was lying on the floor face down with a painful wound at her back. She took a deep breath to gather strength to stand up, during the process, tears welled in her eyes, but it wasn't because of the pain. Damn the pain, but I must go on. He needs my help. Slowly and cautiously, she touches her back to feel out the wound and get a picture. The skin was caked in dry blood and luckily just a flesh wound that got a bit deep right beside the spine. Missed aim or a warning? Sadly her cloak is almost cut in two. In her time she took it off, tore off the cape part and wore the hood again. Since the rest of her clothing is cut open from the shoulder to the hips, the sliced cape will hold it up nicely for the time being and cover her back.
Magpie crawled on all fours to avoid further pain as she reached for her sword and sheathed it. If only I had a vial for healing or at least a boost of energy, but I have no other choice if I want to go on. With a sigh and ruffling her short hair, she looked around her surrounding. There was nothing that looked familiar to her world in Bhernia, no forest, no houses, no markets, not even a desert which Magpie dislikes to travel through. Always too hot and too open to hide. Where should I go?
Magpie doesn't have the faintest idea on how to return to her world. Ahead of her in the ceiling is a large hole, accompanied by dangling strange rope in various sizes and colours (cables), and a bright light shines in as well as on her floor level in farther distance. To her right are the stairs leading upwards that are lighted with a bluish electric light. At the left stand a few meters away from her two two-winged doors, similar to the one she came through. Which decision should Magpie make?499Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡLATvqx8zHE
- Call out and wait if someone answers499Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡABojN3lEEX
- Head towards the light with caution up ahead of her499Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡU27zOTtbFU
- Take the stairs upwards and explore499Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡS9pbgb99uX
- Pick one of the two-winged doors and hope not to encounter further evil creatures499Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡWgn4nN8dYC
- Get her mind straight before doing anything else
Slowly she staggered towards the stairs. To get the lay of the land, going up isn't a bad idea. An eagle's view is always useful. Magpie gritted her teeth to cope with the stinging pain, but it almost dissolved as she ended mounting the steps.
Suddenly in the distance Magpie heard something. At first, she thought it was just her imagination along with the pain-causing it. "I see..." Spoke a man's voice from afar and a stranger's too. There are other people here? Cautiously Magpie sneaked towards the source of the sounds and remained hidden in the shadows like any thief would do. Carefully she observed the situation from the shadows. In total there were five people; two of them looked like women and the other three like men. Are they together in this? Who are they?
Rapidly one of the men sprinted towards one of the women and held a curved dagger at her throat. "Now let's try this again. Let's go home, Animae." One of the other men held a strange-looking thing (gun), pointing at the man with the dagger. "I'll cut her throat before you can finish pulling the trigger. Not only will your healer be gone-" He pauses and looks to another man Magpie first notices now. "-but so will he."
It looks like the others could need some help. If only I had my crossbow with me to knock away the dagger from that sinister man. Time is running out to build one from scratch; I must act quickly without endangering the young woman. Magpie's eyes landed down to her dagger. Fight with a dagger against dagger is only fair, but the distance is too risky to charge head-on. Damnit! It seems I have no other choice but to use the only spell that I've learned from Ignatius, and it costs a lot of my strength, but it will do. It will save her! Magpie gritted her teeth and silently on tiptoes sneaked to a different location to get a better aim. She only has one shot with the spell to make it count. She took a deep breath to calm her nerves and looked over the rim of the squared shaped pole while in her mind reviewing the spell. It's an ancient language only spoken amongst dragons.
Suddenly Magpie saw a flicker of a massive dark coloured beast with sharp teeth and drooling to a broad evil grin. What is that? She blinked and focused. For a moment, it was invisible and then not. Magpie felt darkness and evil magic from the creature. Her mind faltered for a moment but quickly got a hold to herself to use the spell no matter what. Magpie shut her eyes as she lifted her palm to the sinister man and whispered the arcane words for the magic to enact.
"Someone else is here!" Shrieked an eerie voice but Magpie remained focused on the words. As she came to pronounce the last few words, she said them out loud with conviction and aimed for the hand the man held the dagger. The energy within Magpie began to drain from the beginning, and the air around her became static as well. As she ended the spell, a bright violet lightning bolt struck within moments the man's hand. The man shouted in agony as electricity streamed through his body.
The dagger fell to the ground. Magpie sighed to strain and leaned herself against the pole. Fainting of exhaustion is right now, not an option.
"There it is!", shrieked the eerie voice. Magpie saw nothing but heard heavy footsteps coming in her way. Suddenly she noticed a faint outline of some creature, but it was still invisible. Without thinking, Magpie leapt back to the nearest pole for protection. While in the air she heard a terrible slithering sound and felt at her right foot a grip like a rope's. In mid-air, she got pulled back and landed hard on her stomach that it knocked out her breath. She gasped while looking down at her right foot to see a slimy olive green tongue wrapped around the ankle tightly. Quick-witted, she drew out her dagger at her left boot and cut it off with one swift movement. The creature shrieked in agony and drew back the rest of its tongue. That's what you get for messing with me. Magpie smirked triumphantly and got to her feet.
The gravity and lack of energy soon began to pull her down to the ground as she looked around for the creature. It was nowhere in sight; neither was the sinister man. The other four looked at her with confusion. The man with the strange round thing (gun) kept pointing it at her with a scowling glance and slowly stepped closer. Magpie didn't have the strength anymore to stand and fell to her knees and panted of exhaustion. "My name's Magpie. I-" Her sentence got cut by the dark heavy void succumbing her and felt how her head landed on the hard ground.
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