Rescuing the Princess

The Raven landed on a long, gnarled branch of the old oak tree which the people called the Gallows-Tree. He watched the folks talking and trading on the market-place for a while.

A colourful bunch of people had gathered here to the annual Festival of Spring. There were proud Elves and strange Dwarves between all the Humans. Sometimes he could even see a Lizard-Man or a Cat-Man wandering through the crowds, and beneath them some Halflings, who had some trouble making their ways through all the people's legs.

As he was wondering if it was save to catch some meat off the ground, his look was attracted by a horde of riders, making their way ruthless through the crowds. They stopped their horses directly under the branch. One of the riders, a small man in a blue garment and a lot of gleaming and glittering things on his hands and neck, went down and pulled a pergament from out of his horse's  saddlebag. He did something with it at the trunk of the tree.

Unsure, whether he should stay, or fly away, he began cleaning his feathers. But he did not let the man leave his look. Then, the man got his horse again, and rode away, together with the other riders. Now curious, the raven looked at the pergament the man had left on the tree. It was a light-brown skin with many small black spots on it. It seemed to have an magical attraction for all the people around it. Now it surely became too crowded for him, and he opened his wings, lifting himself into the blue sky.

Because the raven could not read, at least not this kind of writing used on this piece of pergament, he didn't know WHY the pergament had such an appeal on all the people standing around it.

Because this sheet, that hung on the tree, showed up astounding news !

"Go on, tell me ! What's on the sheet ? I left my glasses at home !" shouted someone in the crowd.

A man, who stood in the front of the tree, inspected the pergament, and began reading it aloud, for everyone to hear what was inscripted on the it :

"My people,
Through an sly attack by the Old Dragon, my youngest daughter was stolen. And, what's more, the Old Dragon demanded to get the half of all our yields from the fields, and the half of all our animals from the farmers. Or he will bring death and desaster over my beloved land, he said. I call all my people, to withstand him and actively fight against him, the Old Dragon "Gezitrdoch". Additionally, I will give the one who slaughters the Dragon 1000 pieces of Gold and the hand of my youngest daughter.
This message was written by King Fasabar el Radiash."

A woman in the typical clothing of the Southerners went to the front. "Well, that's a typical nerf-herder ! The hand of the daughter, as if only men were able to fight ! He can keep his daughter, but I'd really like to get this gold. What's standing beneath the main writing ? Able fighters should show up at Captain Timogrim of the Town's Guards. Well, there's nothing left to lose for me. Go away, folks, I've got a job to do !"

On the other side of the town, a man inspected a house. Going into the next room at the right of the main hall, he just manages it to defuse a trap with critical success, and takes a magical sword which was glued under a chair. Unfortunately, it is an intelligent weapon, which drives his new owner almost mad by talking and jabbering, as he makes his way to the headquarters odf the Town's Guards.

Having arrived there, he sees a woman applying for the Quest, too. After putting some coins into the Cauvinist’s cashbox, he takes on a wide, chauvinistic grin.

Suddenly, a very robust and angry looking dwarf in an armour assembled of leather and chains, pushed the people, who were standing there, aside, shouting: "WHERE IS THE DRAGON ? LET ME HAVE HIM!!!" While shouting, he showed his enormous Plasma-Cannon,which was almost as big as he was. The people fled.
Shortly after that incident, a giant Northlandish Ranger came and beat the dwarf  with his fist on his helmet, with the result that the helmet was pushed over the dwarf's head and he wasn’t able to see anything anymore. Desoriented, the dwarf sat down, only to be taken away by the Ranger, who also took away his weapon. Excusing, the Ranger said: "Sorry, wrong game..." Walking away, the remaining people could hear him murmur: "...And I DID say to him not  to play THAT much of that game from Q...".

Meanwhile, Captain Timogrim of the Town’s Guards discussed some strategical questions together with King Fasabar’s Advisor.
He wondered if he should send the heroes alone to the Dragon, or in groups ? What, if the woman manages it to defeat the Dragon, or a married man ? The advisor decided to persuade the King to give the one who solves the quest additional 1000 pieces of Gold instead of the daughter, if this one wouldn’t want the daughter. Additionally, with this system it would be possible to send a group of heroes to the quest, because a single daughter couldn’t be divided between a group of heroes.
Well, he said, now we should make a list of those who have applied so far.
1. The woman from the Southlands
2. Thorwyn with his magical sword
3. ----
Chief Timogrim and the Advisor notice that the list is a little bit too short, and decide to talk to the King about an increase of the prize.

After the people were gone, a smart fox had read the appeal, too. As he was always on the side of the fair ones, he immediately decided to help the King.

But he also knew that his real shape would only frighten the humans, he ran to a befriended Magician, who gave him temporarily human shape, but one which tended to show similarities to his real self.

So, he went to the King, and asked him about the quest. Since he was well equipped, and because he told him he would do the job without the prize, having fun in defeating the Dragon alone, he also was sent upon the quest by the King.

The other heroes, who couldn’t imagine someone giving up a prize of 2000 pieces of Gold, looked at him with some mistrust.

Even from a fair distance the King and his Advisors could sense an enormous helter-skelter, see several Servants being knocked down, and hear a loud, babbling voice calling "That's a fact !"
Soon, the creator of all this rumble and tumble stood before the King himself and tried to perform an unpractised - and therefore clumsily looking - bow and let the amazed King know: "For the Wale-God's sake ! The one dragon, which catches up with Ulath, the Northerner,  must still be born ! Of course I will lead this group of heroes ! That's a fact !"
After that, the King could hear him murmur: "Is there anywhere a bottle of "Fire" schnapps ?" The King shook his head.

Having said these words, the big, viking-like man from the noth-west of the country staggered away.
Having caught his breath again, the King rubbed his clean beard thoughtfully and said to his Advisors: "I wonder if this will turn out well... This seems to become a rather strange group. And which one will become the leader of this group is most unclear. I can only hope that they'll kill the dragon, before the manage it to kill themselves..."

Meanwhile the Servans could hear a loud scolding and crying coming out of the rooms of the elder daughter of the King. Knowing the awful moods of the Princess, they went away from her rooms as fast as possible. If only they had listened a bit longer...

"How does my father dare peferring my little sister ? 2000 pieces of Gold for the one who rescues her ! And the hero gets her hand ! Although she is only half as pretty than I am ! And I only wonder what happens if someone really manages it to resue her !?! Maybe she isn't able to shut her mouth and begins jabbering about how she was kidnapped !?! This is something we cannot let happen.

A few seats away sat her half-brother. It was surely forseeable that his criminal career - which covered things like stealing, betrayal, blackmail and assassination - would surely lead his ways to the old Gallows-Tree.

Naturally, he agreed to her. "Yes; we cannot let them succeed ! Haven't you seen these fools who are going to make their way to your unfortunate sister ? I guess that they aren't even able to rescue a cat from a tree !"

"Yes, that's true, but we still must not allow them to succeed in their quest. You must go after them, and make sure that they'll never come back !" answered the sly designated heiress. Meciless, she added: „I will be able to help you with my magic. Don’t lose my magical amulet ! And if not only the Dragon, but also our detested sister becomes a victim of these stupid „heroes“, the better for us...“ [Insert evil and merciless laughter here.]

Only one hour later, in the darkness of the night, a figure shrouded in dark clothes left the castle, heading for our group of heroes...

Shorty after midnight, a cloud hid the moon. Nevertheless, an attentive spectator would’ve been able to see something - a bat hanging from a brach of the old Gallows-Tree, staying here for a short while.
Just before the cloud wanders by, the bat flaps away, on the search for nutritious insects.

Meanwhile, in another corner of the town, a young man named Aidan packed his rucksack. He had recently seen the young princess at a festival, and was enchanted by her beauty. But, since he was a poor man, without any influences at the King’s court, not being able to fight like a real fighter, he knew that his chances of getting to know the princess were rather bad. After having read the pergament, he decided that he would go, seeing in this quest the only way to get her, or to die. Aidan knew, that any group of heroes would hardly tolerate him as a member. He knew some recipes for healing potions and herbs supporting courage and strength from his grandmother, but he couldn’t fight. His weapon was the lute. Aidan was a most talented singer, who earned his income by singing. So, he took some potions and herbs, catched his lute, and went after the group of heroes.

At the same time, the group moved on to the lair of the Dragon. The four different fellows wrapped themselves into icy silence, looking at one another with mistrust.
Sajet, the Southerner woman, examined her unwanted companions for getting to know their strong and waek spots.
Ulath, the Northerner, was still under the influence of excessive consuming alkcohol. Nevertheless, he made an impressive look of  being higly trained. His axe - he always took with him - was quite worn, telling tales of many „incidents“.  However, it was possible that he could lose his courage to fight the Dragon soon after he would be clear-headed again. Also, he produced a terrible noise noise as he staggered after the group. She feared that this would clearly lead waylayers on to their road. She was sure thzat this particular man would make many troubles during their three-day journey to the dragon.
The „Redhead“ was slimly built and had fine fingers. His fingers told her that he har more work with books than with hard physical work. She only hoped that he understood a bit of magic, because she couldn’t imagine him as a fighter. On the other hand, an academic, having studied books for the most of his life wouldn’t be able to sneak away and inspect his surroundings as he could. The „Fox“, as he was called by his fellows, was a riddle or her.
Thorwyn was far easier to judge. Like Ulath, he looked trained and seemed to have his strange sword under good control. Sometimes he seemed to do things faster than he thought, but he seemed to be an  humorous and open-minded fellow. He stepped cheerfully on, hardly noticing his surroundings. He seemed only to concentrate on the expected confrontation with the Dragon.
Sajet drew the backbend with her two sabres firm, as she suddednly hear something cracking in the bushes. Instinctively, she took her dagger and went after the Redhead.
„Hey, Redhead“, she whispered, „I have a feeling as if someone follows us. I see you watching our environment; haven’t you seen or heard something suspicious ?“

As the night came, and the moon enlightened the market-place with the old Gallows-Tree, only interrupted by some clouds passing by, a shadow scurried vom wall to wall.
He had been there, leaning on the tree, as the men attached the pergament on the tree. He hated being in the middle of a crowd, so he quickly went away, but not without having memorized the look of the strangers.
The stars sparkled where the sky was clear and open. Occational clouds, becoming thicker and ticker, although they were no rain-clouds, changed the light on the place.

He decided to stay in the shadows of the Guild-House, and inspecting the pergament with his small telescope, he had bought once in a small shop. He directed his small telescope on to the pergament, and...

Oh, my ! A big cloud had just drawn itself before the moon, and he couldn’t read the anything anymore !
So, he had to get closer to the tree...

E decided to use one of the main ways to the market-place, to appear as one of the normal citizens coming home late. So he surried away, to the next shadow.

Having got to one of the main ways, he glided out of the darkness, into the light, after he was sure not to be watched by someone. As he went closer to the Gallows-Tree, he stepped a little bit more strongly with his shoes, giving the impression of somone coming right out of the house’s shadow. He stepped to the tree.

The pergament was really so fresh and exciting new, as he had expected. The most finest pergament, he felt. And he hadn’t seen men in such clothes for quite a while. A dragon, having robbed the King’s daughter ? That hasn’t happened for quite a while, too. Was this dragon new in this region ?

... And the hand of the youngest of the King’s daughters ! That was it ! But no, he thought, if she is too young for me, unexperienced with life and people, I don’t want her. But that would be rather good, to heal my loneliness which follows me for years now. For that, I would even give up the Gold...

A female strayer, a wanderer, like him, experienced with Light and Shadows, that was a woman he was looking for for years. And he wondered why these women were so rare...

He moved on, making his way to his small house he lived in. Once, he had inherited this small house, and it was enough for him. He was glad that this town did not demand any „house-maintenance fee“, that wouldVe been too much for his income. He would’ve had to sell his house, he called „his base“. As a normal citizen now, he could afford pretending not to hear his squeaking main door, although he was terrified by its sound.
Inside, he packed everything he thought he would need into his bag, including his ranger-clothing.

Tomorrow he would show up at the Town’s Guards.

Arriving at the Town’s Guads, he heard thatr the others were already on their way. Some things never change. He decided to walk after them. The footsteps of the Northerner couldn’t be overlooked...

After a long, hard and boring march, our fellows chose to find a place for the night. Well, obviously it was Ulath, who „decided“. Caused by his high amount of alcohol in his blood, he simply dropped - or rather collapsed -  on the road, shortly after sunset. The others dragged him glumly to a rock, which hung like a roof over a small piece of meadow nearby. Well, art least it would give them a bit shelter from strong winds, they thought.
The „Fox“ showed astounding abilities in making wet wood burning, and that with still wuthering winds in his back. From that, he made a small campfire. Soon, all others sat around it. At first, they were quiet, still looking at each otgher with mistrust. But a few jokes from the Southerner about the sleeping Northerner made them laugh, and soon they began introducing themselves.

„Hello, my name is Eolus, and I think, I can help you with your hunt for the dragon. I don’t want the Gold, I only want the Karfunkel-Stone from the Dragon, that is all I want.“ said a voice suddenly coming from out of the back of the rocks. He sat down next to the fire. „I have read the King’s appeal, and have followed your tracks. I thought you might be in need of a  Magician.“, he said. The others had nothing against another supporting member of the group.

After they had introduced themselves, the group organized the night watchers from the group, with Thorwyn being the first one. They surely had to sleep.

In a tower far, far away an old Wizard observed the gathering of our adventurers with sceptical eyes. Too long had he weaved his own threads, but now he was sure that he was able to fulfil his own quest. He was only unsure whether those adventurers were a threat to him, or if they would be able to support him. Quickly he packed his scrolls, and left his residence.

The fox in human shape wanted to do the night-watch at midnight, and that had a special reason: The old friend of him, the magician, had said: „Your transmutation will last 30 days perfectly.
No-one will be able to identify as a fox. But there are two things you should be aware of ! Every night at midnight you will transform into your original shape. It is not possible to prevent that. That’s why you should be careful !“ After having said that, the magician fell into a deep sleep, so the fox couldn’t hear the second thing.
At midnight the fox was the night-watcher as he transmuted back into his original fox-shape. Being like that, he roamed the following hour around the fire, looking for suspicious scents.

Meanwhile the dark shrouded figure from the castle drew closer to our heroes. It wouldn’t have been possible for him to follow them, if there hadn’t been the amulet of the sly King’s daughter.

The way hadn’t been easy. He was scratched by many boughs and had a bump on his forehead. Glumly he asked his sister, using his amulet.

„Their camp lies barely two hours  away from you ! You must go around it this night !“ a shrill voice said in his head. „How long is it to the Dragon’s Lair ?“ he thought. „There are 5 days bofore you ! Tomorrow their way leads them to a ford in the wood. It’s the only one in a wide area. The river is swelled at this years’s season, they won’t have choice ! They can only pass this way. And even this ford is dangerous!“

„So I will perform an ambush ?“ the rascal asked.

„Very clever !“ the shrill voice sarcastically said in his head. „I have already positioned a number of Ogres there. They are not very smart, but they are good with clubs and spears. You will instruct the ambushers, and then move on, so that you will be before the „heroes“. Don’t forget to approach the ford carefully, or the ogres might attack you ! They are not that smart.“

„You said this before.“ he sighed.

The night passed uneventfully. The magician waked up the peaceful sleeping fellows.

In a surprisingly good mood the group went on. The weather couldn’t have been better, and the companions japed and listened the now clear-headed Northerner, who told them many incredible deeds with his loud and sounding voice from his life as an adventurer. The way led them through a dense wood, but suddenly it became thinner, and the „Fox“ - who had a good sense of hearing - told our heroes about the murmur of a small river nearby. „Well, this will be be ford, the King’s Advisors told us about ! Let us cross the river !“ Thorwyn cheerfully shouted to the others. But Sajet looked with a glumly face to the river and said: „Hm, that looks too good. That is THE ideal place for an ambush !“ „For the Wale-God’s sake, who should make an ambush here ? We’re in service of the King ! That’s a fact !“ „Well, sure, but normally even Kings have foes...“ the magician cynical threw in. Confused, our heroes looked at each other, not knowing what to do next. „Does anybody know a better way ?“ the Northerner asked. But he earned only silent looks. „Then we have no choice. Let us trust in our Gods and let us go to the river. But be careful and take your weapons out! Although I don’t think anyone could beat us ! Ha ha ha...“
Having spoken these words, he went to the river. The others followed him...

Aidan, who was never a good traveller, having spent most of his life in inns and tavers, singing from adventures, travellers had told him, was not so fast than the other the group. Fearing the night in the wilderness, he went away from the road, looking for a calm place. After he made a small fire, he took his lute, beginning to sing songs which should support his courage. „Bravo !“ said suddenly a voice. Aidan looked scared up. A female Wood-Elf leaned on a tree. „What are you doing here, in the forest, without an audience ?“ she asked. Aidan told her from his unfortunate love to the King’s Princess, and that he was on his way to the Dragon.
„Good idea. I guess you want to defeat him with your lute ?“ she asked. „Well, I...“ „Would you mind me going with you ? I must have a look at this ! I recently went out of my own forest, to take a look on the world outside. My name is Xera.“
Aidan was shocked. „You alone ? Have you no fear being alone, as a...?“ „...Woman ? In contrast to you, I’ve already learned fighting with the bow and the dagger. And what’s more, Idon’tz make such a noise in the middle of the night, so that every bandit in the area knows where I am.“
„A bard is always save !“
„That stands in the Handbook for Bards, but Goblins are not able to read ! I see, I must come with you and protect you. Otherwise you won’t get to the Dragon alive ! Go on, get yourself to sleep, I will be your guardian.“
Aidan hat nothing left to say against her, so he went to sleep. Tomorrow will be another day.

Knör, the Ogre at  the river, was an expert on strategy. At least that was what he thought about himself. Early in the morning he had positioned his people. A clearly simple task, the foreign Ogre with the strange accent had told him. Ambushing a bunch of heroes at the river.

„Ey, Schnickschnack and Gröntz, you will go to the other side and go down there ! Don’t let yourselves be seen, you maggots.“

„So what ? Schnickschnack ! Noone will see us ! Come on, Gröntz, let us cross the river. Our boss is always telling schnickschnack...“

Knör made an sceptical face. He had to watch over this Schnickschnack. He was becoming too self-confident. And he was talking too much. But he was also good at using the spear. The right man for this task.

Carefully he positioned the rest of the group. „And don’t forget, we attack only when they are in the middle of the river !“

He looked into the silently agreeeing faces. „Who, then ?“ he suddenly heard a low voice, just as he was about to go. Of course Brocken, who else. Some things never changed. It se3emed as if he hadn’t listened at the discussion earlier this morning. He only wondered why he was the boss of such dummies. Some things never change.

„Be careful with aiming your spears !“ he grumbled. „You won’t let anyone out of the water, you worms, or you’ll get to know MY club ! Simply BUM-BUM, and their heads are mash...“

He was sure that they would obey. Is wasn’t the first time that they ambushed a group of unsuspecting travellers. So the Ogres were happily waiting for our heroes being entrapped in their „net“.
Soon he saw the hand-sign of Gröntz. The travellers were near ! In a wild, happy anticipation of what was coming, he rubbed his big hands...

... That was one of those nights with the full moon he loved so much. On the other hand, this partucular night was not so good, since he had lost his way. Somehow - he wasn’t able to recall how - he had lost the footsteps of the group. Overtired, he had stumbled through a path, looking for a safe place to sleep. So he didn’t notice that the real path had dissolved. The way he had used, suddenly became into nothing - the way simply disappered between herbs and bushes - which told him that he had followed an animal-trail for the last hours. He took the wrong path. He cursed silently. That was something he didn’t want.
Now he stood in the middle of the forest, the light was between the trees like silver honey, a light breeze let the leaves rustle and the boughs and branches groan. In the distance he could hear a wolf howl. He was confused. He feared that he had to sleep on a tree, something he didn’t like. But is was safer than sleeping on the naked ground. The only problem was, that he couldn’t find a fitting tree... He stumbled further on...

Suddenly, he saw something glittering in the moonlight. He went closer to inspect this thing. Maybe it was an ancient ring, or a gem, left in the earth vor aeons ? Or maybe a piece of gold, fallen out of the bag of a ranger or a wanderer ? A jewel, lost by a raven ? But as he drew closer, he recognized the „glittering“ thing as a firefly, enlightening the night. He was frustrated. he really would have liked it to get a piece of gold. He took a close look on the insect that was on his palm. It was so small, and he was so big. He could have easily crushed it between his fingers. But now this living being became valuable for him. He didn’t know why. He had the strange feeling as if this single being had its own value, its own place on earth. And it didn’t make sense to him destroying that life that didn’t harm him. But since he had no use for that animal, he let it walk upon the next leaf of a bush. From the corner of his eye he saw a small lizard quickly crawling away. „What ? A lizard in the middle of the night ?“ he thought.

On the search for a tree that was strong enough to keep him, so that the wouldn’t fall off the tree in the middle of his sleep, he walked on. He tried not to sep upon boughs, but he was not perfect. Sharp-hearing animals would surely notice him walking.

Totally exhausted, he leaned on a tree. Fatigued, his body lost it’s hold, and slipped down, with his back towards the tree. He had no chance of thinking about that - whether it was safe or not - he slept almost immediately.

He woke up. Did he hear something, or not ? He was perturbed. He didn’t whish being the meal for some hungry wolves now. He decided to find out more about what had disturbed him. The moon was still in a silvery light.

He heard a short noise, then it was quiet again. He managed it to get upon his feet - although still tired - and wakled into the direction of that puzzling sound. But as he walked, he was too tired to be absolutely quiet. He did hear that.

Sudeenly he came to the border of a small clearing. The clearing was covered with grass. Monnlightgrass, he thought, as he saw that the moonlight enlightened the grass and the dew and the and the spider’s webs in it.

Further on, he noticed a white blur. Struck in surprise he rubbed his eyes. He didn’t believe what he saw ! The entity looked in his direction. His breath stopped. His amazement grew stronger ! : This was truly an Unicorn ! He heard many stories of them, always believing that they were fairy-tales. He did not know that they actually existed ! „Now I believe in wonders again...“ he whispered to himself.

He even didn’t dare breathing, caught in fear that this wonderful entity could be scared away by him. In his eyes this being was so beautiful, so perfect, that it seemed not to be from this world. He never believed it to be possible that there might exist such a perfection, such a perfect Beauty. This entity seemes not to be from this world, he thought.

The female Unicorn looked at him, and as their eyes met, he was overwhelmed by the aura which surrounded the Unicorn. „You are new in this area !“ He suddenly heard a amused voice in his mind. „You have never seen a Unicorn before ! And you have never even believed that we might exist !“ He was sure, that he heard a smile in this voice. „And you have lost your way...“ he heard.

The white Unicorn drew closer. The moonlight seemed to be wuthering around it. Mist rose from its nostrils. It snorted shortly. „I want to help you. The Goddess sent me to you. I knew you would be here. You succeeded in her trial.“ He was irriteted. But then a thought arose in his mind.
„Go back to your tree, gather what you have left there. Then come back to me, quickly. I will lead you through the forest. We have several ours of walk before us.“ So he went back - as silent as possible - to do what the Unicorn had told him. After having got together his things, he went back to the clearing in the forest, back to the Unicorn. „Well here you are again. Now, follow me.“ They went into the wood.

They walked for a long, long time. He had totally lost his sense for time. He didn’t know how far they had been wandered, or even how long. The light moon was his only proof that the night was passing by. He felt more and more tired and exhausted. He began stumbling upon boughs. Then, finally, he flew across a big branch and landed on the earth. The Unicorn turned towards him. „You are tired, hm ?“ she asked. „Yes,“ he answered in a whisper. „We are on our way now for such a long time. I can’t walk anymore.“ Slowly, he stood up. She seemed to think, then turned to him and went to him. As she stood before him, he suddenly felt a strange feeling, thereupon feeling no more tired or exhausted. „We must go on...“ she said. Feeling fresh, he followed her.

The sky forebode the new day, the coming morning. The sun would be in only a few hours at the sky. Finally, they reached the border of the forest. He could only guess the way the Unicorn had taken. She had consequently avoided clearings and meadows, so they could travel more savely in the shadows, at the cost of a longer journey with more indirect ways.

Not far from the border, in the neighbourhood of a river, he noticed  smoke, possibly a dead fire. „There are your fellows.“ the Unicorn said. „Stay here for a while.“ he just heard, then she was gone.
He waited and waited, but there was no trace of the Unicorn. The sun would arise in about one hour, he estimated.
Just as he was about to leave, going into the direction of the dead fire, the Unicorn returned. „Take this amulet.“ she said. „It will bring you good luck. But I won’t say, what for.“ The voice in his head sounded like the equivalent to a smile. Then she took a close look at him, as if she wanted to create a mental image from him, then she went back into the forest again (with a loud rustling this time).
He put on the amulet, then he went to the extinct fire. He would be there, just in time when the sun arises, he thought. Then he would awaken them, that was his plan.

As he had walked a bit on his way, he just looked back, to the woods. He believed he had seen a scurrying, white „something“ that went into the forest, from the corner of his eye...

„Get up, lazybones !“ he heard a voice pulling him out of his dreams. Everything ached. „Oh, my, how could I be so crazy to replace my own nice bed with the forest-ground ?“ Aidan thought.
Is was a beatiful morning. Dewdrops were glistening in the sunlight. „Have you been sleeping, Xera ?“ Aidan asked the female Elf who looked much more fresh than he was. „Of course ! The one who is able to attack a sleeping Elf still must be found ! I think I get more sleep than you do, even when you’re awaken !“
After a light breakfast they went on, following the rest of the group.
Aidan had troubles finding the clear footsteps from the day before. „I fear me must go back, Xera“ he said „ I can’t see the footsteps from the group anymore !“ „Methinks you have forgotten opening your eyes ?! Have you got fear getting to the Dragon ?“ That was a thing Aidan would never admit; so he followed Xera, who seemingly had no problems at all at following the traces of the group of Dragon-Slayers.
The way was plain, and so they had the opportunity to get to know each other much better. Aidan had thought he was good with herbs, but he couldn’t catch up with the knowledge of the Elf - so he learned many new things. The way she deduced from the broken bough and the half footprint in the plash was also interesting for him. „Soon we will come to a river, which can be crossed easily at a ford. From the next plateau we will be able to see it. If we are lucky, we will even be able to see the others who are a way before us !“
...

Suddenly, a figure came out of the bushes. „Greetings for the God’s sake !“ he said to the frightened two travellers. Aidan, who stood behind the Elf, was the first to recognize the man. „Isn’t that Eolus Thunderstorm, the Archmage ?“ The Elf didn’t know him. „Who is that ?“ she asked. The stranger smiled friendly, saying: “Is it possible to become a member of your group ? I’ve lost the trace of others,since I had to help a helpless farm which had to withstand an assault by small, nasty, grimly Goblins. The thing got even worse, because the Farmer himself was in the town, and his wife was alone with her children. But thanks to the Gods, we managed it. Well, what’s on ?“

„You can come with us, if you wish.“ answeresd Aidan. „Well, another of those Dragon-Slayers; that is going to get funny. I have nothing against protecting two men ! Then I might be able to see how they manage it to defeat the Dragon !“ she laughed. „If we hurry, we could catch up the others!“

The the fire was left alone, was no surprise for him. So Unicorns didn’t have the Ultimate Knowledge, too. It was morning, and the ohers were surely gone. He explained it so, that the others might were gone as he had been on his way, together with the Unicorn.

He wandered further on, to the river, without feeling exhausted or tired.
Naturally, he wandered along the woods, in the shadows, always having the way in his eyes. He didn’t want to get lost once again.

Suddenly he heard a wheezing. Creeping closer, he noticed something threatening: Ogres ! They were squatting in the bushes, with their backs to him. Seemingly, they were waiting for something.

Then he heard a splashing in the River. Someone was trying to cross it.

Someone shouted.

He decided to warn the unknown travellers who were possibly the other Dragon-Slayers. He shouted „Daaangeeer ! Ogreees !!“
He threw his Throwing-Dagger into the back of one of them. Ther Ogre was rather unimpressed. Seemingly he had a thick skin. But he was disturbed in throwing a spear towards the river. The other Ogre turned towards the him, raising his massive body up to his full height, to smash him up with the Ogre’s mighty club. But it was too late for the migty but slow Ogre - the dagger-thrower was already at the river.

As they reached the plateau, they could see the other group. They were in a fight with heavy Ogres. Quickly, Xera took her bow and ran down to the river.
Aidan was too shocked to do something - it was his first real fight ever. He was only able to stand there and watch the fight.

The old Magician watched the uneven fight from a hill.He didn’t feel anything for or against those travellers, that was why he did not wanted to be involved. He had other, importand things to do. On the other side, he wasn’t able to do as if nothing were.
The was thinking.
He was sure that if nothing happened, the heavy Ogres would win this uneven fight. But he wanted to remain unnoticed, too.
He put on his cloak, and stepped onto a clearing.

The fight was short, but hard. Being warned just as they stood in the middle of the river, the group of  Ulath, Thorwyn, Sajet and the „Fox“ were just able to draw their weapons. Then the spears came. They were heavy, just the works of Ogres. They were built rather to smash than to kill.
Being supported by the arrows of an unknown Elf and the sword of another human - perhaps a kind of ranger or strayer - the group did the best they could. But the Ogres were really frightening mighty.

A Fireball, cast by a magician on a hill, stopped the fight drastically. All Ogres who had been in it’s way were lying dead, burned. The few others - Schnickschnack and his Boss Knör were among them - ran away in pain and fright, like being followed by the Demons of the Night.

The heroes were severely hit, too. A fight against big Ogres was always an awful thing.

Ulath couldn’t believe it. THEY HAD WON ! How was that possible ? Had the Goddess of Fight herself interfered ? Or had it been Eolus, the magician ?

With still burning eyes and many wounds on his body, he slowly walked towards the others. There some new people there: A kind of strayer or ranger, a female Elf, and a bard.

„For the Wale-God’s sake ! What a fight ! But - what has been done to the Ogres  ?“ he asked. He looked at the burnt corpses of the dead Ogres. The others had no idea.

Having finally crossed that river, they couldn’t see anything from the rest of the Ogres - except smashed grass and bushes. They began healing their wounds. Thorwyn had a blooding foot, but the Elf said: „Don’t worry. I’ll put healing herbs on it. You’ll soon be fine.“

Sajet looked at the new ones with mistrust . „Who are you ? And where did you come from ?“

„What ??? The plan had FAILED ???“
The Half-Brother of the elder Princess had been waken from his slumber by the magial Amulet. „How was this possible ?“

Shuddering, he remembered his meeting with the five wild-looking Ogres. The magical Amulet had given him the shape of an Ogre himself and transformed his own words into Ogre-language. Before that, he had not even known that they had a language.

But he had had Angst ! Although everything worked fine. Only once had the situattion been difficult. Seemingly, there was no word in the Ogre-language for „Northerner“, and the transcription, produced by the Amulet, let the Ogres burst out in laughter.

By the Gods, what did go wrong ? Why did it go wrong ? Surely, the „heroes“ were dead in his mind, but something had interfered...
„There were magical forces. Forces, I did not take into my calculation. But that shouldn’t be no problem. The next time...“ his half-sister said.

„The next time ?“ he cried aloud. „What can stop such a group, if not Ogres ? The pitfall with the sharpened pales I dug early this morning will surely be no great threat to them. And nothing puts a group together like a victorious fight...“

„Don’t be so pitiful fainthearted. Don’t worry ! If all your traps might fail I have something special for  this band of wannabe-heroes - or better: someone special...“ He gulped. „Someone in their group is under MY control, works for MY service...“ she explained.

„A traitor ?“ he asked. „Shouldn’t I know who this is ?“

„No, no. Sometimes it is better to keep little secrets to myself...“

The next moment he instinctively held his ears, because in his mind was an absolutely crazy and cruel laughter, something so awful that it could’ve frozen his blood to ice...

Aidan released himself from his paralysis and ran down to the river. Everything went so fast, but after the fight came a great stillness. Some of the heroes seemed to be wounded, perhaps he could help them with his herbs.
He watched Xera collecting her remainung usable arrows, insulting the fled Ogres „Damned, these Ogres have such a thick skin ! I must make new, better arrows !“

The Northerner, Sajet and Thorwyn had already crossed the river and sat down for relaxing from the heavy fight and cleaning up their weapons. The Fox inspected the surrounding area, looking traces from the Ogres.

Aidan stepped to the group, saying: „Excuse me, I have seen your fight from afar, but I couldn’t help you, since I’m not a good fighter. I’m only a bard. Maybe I could help you with my Healing-herbs and potions ?“

„Don’t talk this much; go and have a look on these wounds.“ Xera said. She inspected Sajet’s injuries.
„ I’m Xera; I just wanted to kill some of these Ogres with my arrows, but they were too weak, it seems. It was as if they didn’t even scratch them.“
Sajet’s wounds were not critical, only Ogre-scratches. Nevertheless, scratches from Ogres could become dangerous, if they caused an infection. Additionally, there was a bigger cut at the upper part of her arm which was likely to be hindering Sajet in her next fight. „I’d like to try some healing-magic.“ Xera said. „I’m not an experienced magician, but some easier magics work sometimes.“ „Don’t hesitate. I won’t have anything against it.“ Sajet answered with pain in her face. She was glad that the magic spell worked and her cut didn’t look so dangerous anymore.

Meanwhile, Aidan took a look at the others. „Does anyone know where that helping Flash came from ?“ Ulath asked.
„Probably from Eolus Thunderstorm ? He was with us until shortly before the fight.“
„I didn’t do it.“ said avoice from iout of the shadows.
„Thank you for your help.“ said Ulath, who noticed the strayer.

Xera looked around. All these heroes, they had become quite a group.

Unfortunately, they weren’t able to move on so soon as they wished. The Fireball, which had burnt the Ogres, had been very hot. Almost too hot for Ulath, and the other fighters. They had to remain longer at the river, cooling their skin. The dead, burnt Ogres were put into the river.
„Look, what a mess such a Fireball can do !“ said Eolus.“ That’s why I didn’t use it.“

The red-haired „Fox“ was sent to take a look on the trails of the remaining Ogres. The group didn’t wanted to become a victim of them once again. Later, he returned with the message that the enemies had run far, far away, on a straight line to nowhere.

Approaching the river, the „Fox“ stood on a hill, inspecting the group.

Easy to see there was Ulath, the mighty Northerner fighter with his great Axe. He had smashed one of the Ogres with his own Axe, before the Fireball had given the enemy this unnatural colour. He was obviously the mightiest fighter in the group.

Eolus, the magician stood at the border of the camp, looking at the other’s activity with a smile. He seemed to be the least in the fight involved member of the group. Had he drunk a healing-potion ? He looked as if he was filled with magic.

Sajet, the temperamentally Southerner, now mostly fine again, tried to calm herself down. Apparently, the fight had  heated her blood, what was the reason why she tried to get to rest.

Thorwyn, who limped still a bit from his wound, was just cleaning the last bits of blood from his strange looking sword, which looked, as if it was talking to him. He was a good fighter, but not as good as Ulath.

Xera, the graceful Woodelf (or Forestelf, as others might say) was worried about the wounded. She gave the impression of exotic beauty and enigmatic magic, a thing which was considered typical for her race. The Fox was deeply impressed.

Then there was the strange strayer od ranger, always in the shadows, as if he didn’t like too many people around him. In a way, the Fox liked his behaviour. He seemed to be friendly, though.

The last one was Aidan, the bard. He didn’t fight aginst the Ogres, but was a good help against wounds. Also, the fact that he was a bard, was a good thing for the group’s morale. After all, he would be the only one to describe the deeds of the group correctly, additionally to sending the word out into the world.

They were eight heroes now, very different ones indeed. What could stop them now ? As foxes were always a bit pessimistic, he could imagine many things...

With the new view in mind, he went down the hill to the others.

Eolus sat down at the border of the place where the group relaxed themselves from the fight. He smiled about that Fireball, and thought that a little bit Ice would have done it, too. A frozen ground under clumsy Ogre-feet would have been disastrous for them. The men-eating Ogres were dead or gone, and he didn’t need to use a bit from his magical forces. So he could use them later. Silentm, he thanked his Goddess of magic and knowledge for that, keepuing in his mind that he had to be careful with his power, as long as they were not safe enough, even as long as the Dragon was not defeated. He wanted to get into that fight with his full might. He laid himself into the grass. „Why do I do all this ?“ he asked himself. „My, the Gold is fine, but not important to me. I have enough of it. Glory and honor are not my things, I already have a name. Beside that, it has always been my wish to help people.
No, the only reason is the Princess. I can’t get her out of my mind... She is so beautiful...“
Rethinking the whole journey, he stood up, and stepped into the wood. There, he found a quiet place, where he could weave a protection-spell which hould help them against the hot breath of the Dragon. He used the shield from the farmers, whom he had helped before, with it.
After his work was done, he felt exhausted, and went immediately to sleep.

The old magician had seen enough. The Ogres were gone, and the others save.
What could he do for them ? On the one hand, he wanted to remain secret, on the other hand he couldn’t let them become the prey of those animal-like enemies. That was why he considered the Fireball as the best result. He knew that it had been dangerous, but he also knew that the group of „heroes“ had enough time to heal their wounds now.

In the distance, he could see the forest, and even further the mountains. He hurried on, becausde4 he wanted to get into the shelter of the forest. „I must arrive there until the night comes. There, I will surely find a good place for the night“ he takled to himself. He was sure, if he was fast enough, he could find a place even in the sunset.

Although he was old, he reached the border of the forest in almost an hour. He noticed a path along it, leading to a small shack. That was perfect ! he thought. That would be a fine place for the night !

Coming closer, an inner voice told him not to enter the shack. Instead, he turnjed towards the wood, where he found a clearing with an old fire-place. He made a small fire, frying something as his night-meal. Putting out the fire, he went to sleep, but it became an unquiet slumber.
Thick clouds came, and thick mist descended from the sky.
Startled by strange sounds, the magician looked to the stars, which were hidden by mist and clouds.
He decided to leave this place. Returning to the path, he noticed three figures standing in front of the shack. Although it was too dark and the people were too far away from him, he had an idea who these persons could be. He squatted in a bush and tried to listen to them. But soon they went inside, where no-one could hear them, leaving the magician alone.
Curious, he drew closer, and tried to listen a the wall of the shack, which was built of wood. He couldn’t understand a thing, but the voices sounded kind of familiar. He had heard them before...
The one sounded like one of the King’s daughters. He knew the King and his daughters; from time to tiome he travelled into town to advise the King and bring him new things from the borderlands. He hadn’t heard the other one before, so he was unsure. The third one never spoke.
Since he wasn’t able to get more information, he decided to take advantage of the early morning and moved on.

He had used this shack before. Every time he came into conflict with t he law. Even now, he had to do something. But he had always kept this shack secret.

Knowing the „almighty“ magical Eye from his half-sister, he had known that it was difficult to keep his little secret to himself. In fact, his sister knew of the shack, although she had never been there.

Even now she was just an illusion, generated by her magical amulet. She stood in nearly full height beside the door. But now - producing great anger in him - she had brought someone in the flesh with her - and with that she made the secret shack completely unusable.

„What a new plan is that ?!“ he asked her ( or better, her „picture“) a bit sharper than he normally would’ve done.
She looked at him, a bit astonished. Then, her face turned into something he would’ve called „amused“. She explained.

„Well, my brother, as you should know, those „wannabe-heroes“ have to cross the chain of mountains we know as the „Dragon’s Ridge“. So, if they dare to cross it, they’ll surely need some advice - a leader who knows the terrain. Otherwise, they won’t find the small Pass over the mountains.“

„And ? That won’t be difficult for them. The mountains are full packed witth Gold-miners. There should be many good leaders for them.“ He became nervous, because he didn’t understand his sisters’ intentions. With mistrust he watched the silent stranger.

„Be patient, brother ! Let us go into the shack and talk about it !“ the lightly transparent figure of his sister told him. „Even the trees could have ears nowadays !“ They went inside.

The shack was rustic, but good enough for someone with few needs to live within for some weeks. She told the stranger to sit down.

„Yes, normally this wouldn’t be a problem !“ she told him. „But these times are not normal !“ She made a sardonic smile.

„Yes, and thet’s where my men come in !“ It was the first time the stranger ever spoke. He had a exceptionally deep voice with a strange exotic foreign accent, which reminded him of something deep in his past. „This morning we have ambushed one of the camps of the Gold-miners. No-one was left alive.“

He shuddered a bit, but tried to remain serious. He was surprised and startled by the way the stranger spoke of the ambush - factually and cold,  like it was a money-business. „And how is this going to help us ?“ he wondered.

„We have...well, reworked the place after the fight. Now it looks as if Elves had performed the ambush.“

„What ? Elves ? That’s totally unnatural for them ! No-one will believe this !“

The deep, deep voice of the stranger purely consisted of scorn. „So you are totally wrong, my small friend. You don’t know us.“

Having heard this kind of „title“, he wished the stranger many bad things. Wait, until my time has come. Then you will celebrate your next birthday in the Halls of Death ! he thought.

Calm down , calm dowm ! he heard his sisters’ voice in his head. Control your temperament. We need him a little bit longer, just as long as he fulfills his deeds for us.

Obviously, the stranger didn’t notice the small talk between brother and sister. Unimpressed he explained further on: „The Gold-miners have had the opinion for a long time that the Woodelves are the cause for that little amount of Gold they’ve found so far. My men only did their best to encourage the miners in their opinion.“

„Well, brother, can you imagine a horde of miners crossing the ways of our cute wannabe-heroes ? Remember, there is a Wood-elf in their group !“

„And my men will do their best to let them find out who is travelling with this ominous group. If these strange men plus the Woodelf dare to fight their way, the word will be quickly spread through all the miner-camps - surely in less than a day ! The whole mountain is full of them ! They will NEVER be able to evade the miners ! Hundreds of hundres of eyes will search for them. With no mercy. Now you should be able to image how raw and violent these frustrated little souls are. They stone you, and ask after that. I have seen it by myself, how they beat an „Elvenfriend“ to death.
Additionally, they surely will not find a leader among them ! Alone, they won’t never ever find a way through that labyrinth of rocks ! That’s as sure as Gold !“

A deadly plan, made up by his sister. This intrigue must lead these „heroes“ to death. There was no other possibility. They had to die or to return shamefully back to the King. That was „as sure as Gold“, like the stranger had said.

He almost felt pity towards this group, but he soon went serious again. Soon he fell into the loud and merciless laughter of the others.

„The Master will be pleased !“ a shadowlike creature calling himself the „hunted“ whispered to himself. Located on a hill, he had seen the fight of the Ogres, and felt happy that his work had been done by the clumsy men-eaters.
The Master hadn’t anticipated that ! he thought. The mortal ones are trying to kill themselves !
He decided to wait, until they were too near to him to flee. Then he would kill them.
After he had watched the camp for a while, his body dissolved into smoke and floated away...

Half on the way between the heroes’ camp and the first ones of the mountains was the lonely cottage of Krasnegar. Krasnegar was a Dwarf, but not an average Dwarf. Normally, Dwarfes of his Race could become 150 - 180 years old, but Krasnegar was even about 200 Winters old.
His hair and his beard were snow-white, and his face had many, many wrinkles, more, than the rocks nearby. But he was not weak. He was strong as he could be, and he was still able to stand a Mountainbear, of needed.

He lived here for a long time now and knew many of the mountains’ secrets. He knew tha area like no other, and had gone all ways and paths before. There was no was he didn’t know. Therwe were only few who still knew that there existed a system of tunnels beneath the mountains, a legacy of his ancestors.

He wouldn’t invade these tunnels, because he surely knew that there existed many dangerous things inside. But he also knew of the rumors, that there were rare weapons and artifacts in the tunnels, and secret treasures as well. But there were also rumors of Ghosts, Wraiths and Undead beings inside the tunnels. No, he was not crazy. He was actually NOT going into any of them !

Also, he tended not to mix with the miners. They were all humans, not able to share their respect with the Bones of the Earth. Even now these ill-looking scoundrels were on their warpath, caused by some quarrel or argument.
Kresnegar didn’t like the arrogant, mistrusting Woodelves, too, but he simply couldn’t believe what a befriended ranger had told him yesterday. The Elves had attacked a miner-camp and massacred the people there !? Simply ridiculous.

Now, as Krasnegar was working with his pile of firewood, one could have noticed his hands. They were both crippled. Anyone asking him about the reason would have heard the answer „Working accident.“ But only he - and a few others - knew the truth. These few others were men - miners. On their greedy search for more and more Gold four of them had „asked“ him. They had taken him in a surprise attack, and tortured him. They wanted to know the location of rocks, richly filled with Gold. They could’t get enough of it, it seemed. To support their „questions“, they had broken both of Krasnegar’s hands.
Since then, he had imagines more than 1000 times what he would do with them, if they’d cross his ways once again. Especially their leader with the deep voice was on his list.

A long time agon, when his hand were healthy and he had more strength, he could easily use his heavy warhammer, and he was quite skilled with his crossbow, too. Nowadays, his weaponry consisted of a heavy hunt-knife and a dozend throwing-axes. These were weapons he could also use with his left hand...

Krasnegar blinked into the sun and sniffed around. Something special was in the air today. He had a curious feeling in his leg, like it was always the case when something special was about to happen.

Awaking the next morning, Eolus packed his things, and the shield that was now magicaly enforced. Following the traces of his group, he soon catched up with them.

After a cold, humid night, the group moved further on.
Going along the way, they began wondering how they should pass the mountains. Thorwyn asked Xera, if she knew something of the things ahead, but she told him that gher folks would rather go through the forests than climb onto mountains. So she didn’t know much.
Ulath was complaining that there was very few schnapps in his supplies. He wanted rather an inn than  mountain.
None of the fellows had been here before, only Thorwyn knew rumors about Gold-miners. He suggested to ask them about the way.
Instead, Xera suggested visining an old Dwarf who was living in a cottage a few miles nearby.

While walking, Thorwyn became worried. „I’m thinking about that ambush. I haven’t heard of surprise attacks on this good way for a long time. It seems almost unnatural.“ „Do you think someone had sent them ?“ Aidan asked. He remembered that in any tavern, where he had sung his stories, he had never heard of attacks against simple travellers. Beside that, they were no simple travellers, they were in the service of the King. Maybe the King had a son who was weaving intrigues. He chose to talk with the others about that - the next time they would take a rest.

Ulath was not that happy - he was the walking behind the others, sheltering their backs. Well, from the next rest on, he would surely be the first in the row ! That’s a fact, he thought. This was an easy way, any blind one could walk this way. He thought that this Elf maiden should rather walk in the middle. He was worried about the time she would need until her bow was ready for fight. Would she be too slow if some Goblins attacked them ?
Where were the „Fox“ and the strayer ? Weren’t they able to walk straight on the road ? Why had they alwys to stray through the bushes ?
Also, he suspected the magician Eolus was sleeping, or at least „meditating“ and the bard was musing about something, too. Only Sajet seemed to be awake.
He didn’t trust this silence...

After walking a while, the Fox stood suddenly before Xera, the leader. „There is something before us, I sense it clearly...“ he said. The strayer looked questioning out of the bushes. Ulath rumbled cursing into the last ones of the group.

Xera signalled the others to become quiet. She listened to the wind. Then she turned, saying: „There is something going on ahead of us. I have heard some howling - maybe a dog, maybe a wolf. A smile went through the face of the „Fox“.

As silently as they were able, they approached the place from where the howling came. And that was quite difficult though, because they had weapons and chain mail armor, which tended not to remain silent while hanging from their bodies.
As they found out, there was indeed the howling of a dog.

After an abrupt curve, they came to a nearly rectangular hole in the way. Beside it, there stood a big brown dog with a loose band of leather around his neck. Looking at the strangers with mistrust, he soon turned towards the hole again and began howling, only interrupted by whining.

Arriving from his meditation, Eolus wondered why they were standing on the way, wiith a hole ahead. „What are you standing  here ? Come on ! There is a Princess to be rescued !“

„What did you say ?“ A curious voice came from the wood. An Adventurer showed up, dressed in a strange collection of clothes: black trousers, Leather-boots, a jerkin consisting of leather as well, and a wide-brimmed hat with a long feather. Waving a greeting with his left hand, the fellows noticed that there was no hand. Instead, the stranger had a hook.

„My name is Gideon Derlaf, and I just heard something about a maiden in danger. Well, if you wish, I could travel with you, helping to rescue her. Of course, there will be a kind of reward, the more, as she is the daughter of a King...“

He was not the only one arriving there.

A stranger stepped out of the forest’s shadows. He was tall and thin, having on his back a longbow with the accompanied equipment and a rucksack. He was wearing leather trousers, armored by a leather armor. His face and body were hidden by a cloak. As he kneeled down, inspecting the traces of the fight at the river, metal at the height of the hip was blinking in the sunlight. As he was not moving, his shape seemed to merge with the surrounding, additionally, it was then not easy to say what colour his cloak had; it seemed to vary in form and colour.

These strange traces made him curious. He decided to follow them.

Wandering around and around, he stayed nowhere for long, always on the search for new things to discover. He learned a lot about plants and animals through the course of time. As long as he was wandering.

Always at the border of the way, near to the wood, always prepared to merge with the shadows, he followed the trail.

the light white robe of a resting person warned him. Soon he saw the others, deciding to go into the wood. They were quietly talking, a whinig dog was heard nearby.
Drawing closer, he could inspect this group.But only late did he notice the shadowlike person standing  separately from the others.
„Kelendan, you’re getting sloppy. Thank the God of the Hunters that you were not noticed !“ He squatted down. He noticed the white clothed person stepping to them and talking to them. Then, another stranger appeared. He had a hook for his left hand.

Xera moved closer to the rectangular hole. Peeking inside, she was horrified about what she found. „You’d better stay away !“ she said to Aidan, who came closer, too. She knew he was unexperienced in battle and slaughter. For a short time, her look met the saddened look of the dog. Slowly, she shook her head. The animal seemed to understand. Mourning for its companion, it began howling...

The others understood. Here, someone had fallen into a trap. What horrified them, was the impression, as if the trap had been set for them...

They buried the dead stranger - his look was that of a man who knew the forests - with a small ceremony. They understood that the forthcoming mountains were possibly more dangerous than they had thought...
They moved further on...

Krasnegar had taken a pile of firewood into his cottage. With his left hand he searched his bag for something to make a fire with.
It was slowly getting colder. The autumn was drawing closer. Luckily, he had found two big rodents in his animal-traps this morning. Now, he was preparing to remove their skins and roast them afterwards. He didn’t need much. Some meat and collected berries and nuts were enough for him. Only from time to time he delighted himself with a drink of Dwarfschnapps, he traded twice a year from a travelling merchant.

Just as he found his things, he heard steps outside. If Sam Dry River had returned ?
But why didn’t his dog bark as usual ?

But no, instead he heard a deep voice. „Cripplehand, are you at home ?“

Krasnegar took his great hunt-knife...

Bearpaw was not sure what to do next. His two-legged leader was dead, that was sure in his dog’s mind. When these other two-leggers had carefully taken the dead body out of that hole, he could see it. His two-legged leader didn’t bark anymore and didn’t move anymore. Like all dead beings.

The others had put the body under a lot of earth and stones. That was the moment Bearpaw knew he would be alone again.

The two-legged ones went on, only to stop again. There, they were barking at each other, obviously discussing where to hunt for food. It was time for Bearpaw to look for a new companion.

The first one was the one who had looked into the hole as the first. She talked almost only with her eyes, only barked only a little. But Bearpaw loved it, when he was also touched by „his“ two-legger’s hands. So be chose to look a bit further.

The second one was that really great two-legged being. He was higher than anyone else, and he barked louder than anyone else. He was surely their leader. He barked loud and determining. No-one else barked, when he did.
Bearpaw approached him, like any good dog approached to his leader. But this two-legged one didn’t even notice him. He made a short, more demanding bark, and waited for a reaction. There came a reaction, but it was an unfriendly one:  a sharp look and a kick told Bearpaw to go away. How impolite ! Should he better leave this crowd ?

But then another one approached carefully Bearpaw. His barking was quietly and friendly. He was the one who had been the second at the hole, but had been driven away by the first one.
Now this one was holding his own paw towards him and let Bearpaw sniff his paw. Now that was a promising beginning ! Bearpaw wagged his tail and looked expectingly to the stranger. The two-legged began touching him with his own paw, like his old companion had always done. Although this one sat down on a stone while listening to the others barking, he never stopped touching him.

Bearpaw decided to sniff more at this one. He had a strange thing consisting of wood on his back, when touched, it made curious sounds. If it could produce more of these sounds ? Well, he would see. After he had memorized the smell of his new leader, Bearpaw laid his head on his legs. The look of both met, and Bearpaw noticed that the look of  the two-legged was deep and friendly. A bit unsure, he tried too whine again, but his new leader rather increased his soothing touches. Bearpaw knew, with whom he would travel from now on...

Aidan touched the dog. He was thinking. The dog seemed to like it. A good dog, Aidan thought, we should become friends. When this adventure is behind us, we should have enough to live quite in comfort.
The dog had a band around his neck, made of leather. Aidan inspected it, hoping to find any  traces of the former owner. He discovered a writing, seemingly burned into the band. „Bearpaw“ he read. The dog loked at him. „Bearpaw, is that your name, my friend ?“ Aidan asked the dog. „What a pity that you can’t speak! But anyway, I’ll call you Bearpaw from now on !“

The group had taken a rest. The sun had went higher and higher; the burial of the unknown stranger had taken too much time.
Ulath seemingly made himself as the leader of the group. Why not ? he thought, as long as he does a good job.
He urged them to move on. Aidan thought that Ulath was surely happy at the possibility to get some Dwarfschnapps from the miners or the lonely Dwarf Xera had told about.
„Hey, Aidan, don’t fall behind ! Take this dog or leave it here ! We must go !“ he shouted. „Well, my friend, let’s go!“ Aidan told his dog.

Soom they came to a small cottage. Xera told them, that it belonged to the Dwarf she knew.
As they atrrived there, they watched a massive man knocking at the Dwarf’s door. „Cripplehand, are you at home ?“ he shouted.

Krasnegar opened the door. He knew what the heavy man standing in front of him. But he didn’t 
know the others, coming right out from the path.
Why did they take Bearpaw with them ? The dog never went with strangers !

The strangers spoke to the heavy man. „My, what are you looking so grimly ? Aren’t you the protector of the dwarf ?“ The big man turned slowly his head.

Krasnegar heard sounds, just as if someone tried to move slowly and silently along the wall of his cottage, towards his door.

Now he figured the whole thing out: It was a surprise attack ! „An ambush !“ he shouted, trying to draw the strangers on to his side. Other bad-looking persons came from the side of the wall. In a desperate effort he attacked the man standing before him.

They had arrived just in time. The Dwarf was being attacked by bad-looking people, possibly miners. They heard „an ambush“ and then they knew what they had to do: defending that Dwarf.

The number of men on both sides was almost equal, and having drawn their weapons, each sides fought against each another. The only one who didn’t fight was the heavy, big man with the deep voice - slowly he fell over. And now they all could see why he didn’t fight: the Dwarf’s hunt-knife had ended his life.
The attackers fled.

„What led you to me ? Was it Sam ? Where is he ? Come into my house, it will soon be raining !“ the dwarf invited the group.

He didn’t say a word of thanks towards the group for helpig him. But if they had known him better, they’d knew that this invitation was much more than he normally said to strangers. Going inside, he gave the corpse of the heavy man a kick.

„I’m not that prepared for so many visitors. I haven’t that many chairs for all of you. So please sit down where you have space.“ Having said that, the Dwarf sat down - on one of only two chairs in the whole cottage (the other one had always been for Sam Dry River). Eolus - now a proud magician - took the other one.

„Do you like a good drink?“ Krasnegar said to Ulath, whom he identified as the possible leader of the group. Ulath looked at the bottles and flasks standing in the board. This were great expectations! „Yes, please. I always like a good drink !“ Ulath answered.

Krasnegar looked into the direction of Aidan. „Behind you there is a barrel and some mugs. Be good and give us some.“ Thorwyn smelled the drink - it was surely alcohol. He feared that they had to carry Ulath to the Dragon...

Ulath feld good. Enormously good. He hadn’t felt better the last months, he thought. The Dwarf was a good companion. Fine drinks did he have ! If  he only could  remember when the second Dwarf had come into ?
Ulath fell down with a loud sound - to sleep. It was obvious that he was deeply drunk.

Soon, after a while of  drinking and relaxing,  the fellows went to sleep - so godd as it was possible in this house.
In the middle of the night, Bearpaw woke up from a quite loud helter-skelter. There was heavy rain outside, and a thunder was heard. Bearpaw growled. Ulath tried to get up - like the warrior he „normally“ was - but couldn’t manage it. Still drunk, he fell down again, colliding with the also drunken Dwarf. The knot consisting of the two finally collided with the Fox ant Thorwyn, until it came to rest. All of them moaned.

The „surviving“ rest was alarmed. Eolus looked surprised to the door. Sajet took her swords while rushing to the door. The strayer was there, too, drawing his throwing-knife. Xera and Derlaf were the last ones.

In the same moment, as the strayer pushed the door open, a flash enlightened the place before the cottage. There was nothing special out there.

No. There WAS omething special out there. The corpse of ther dead heavy man was gone ! The flash of a  second lightning gave the small group the opportunity to prove their finding. The rain became even stronger.

Disturbed, they went inside again. This night was an unquiet slumber for the sleepers, although the earth remained quiet.

„Damned ! We should’ve looked if he still lives !“ The next morning they were talking about the nightly incident. They were highly worried. They saw that this man could be a mighty enemy. What, if he manages to collect all the miners around him ?

They decided to stay here for a few days, trying to protect the Dwarf, from other surprise attacks.

The heavy man was almost dead. Dead as a Dodo.
But he had luck: he had found a healing-potion he had hidden the day before while planning the surprise attack. Slowly, he went onwards. Only his magfic had safed him from death; he used everything of his magic power to remain alive. So far.
Having finally reached and drunk the potion, he felt better again. He decided to get back to his house at one of the camps. And he swore revenge...

The old Wizard had reached the mountains. He chose to hide himself from the coming  storm, as good as it was possible. He knew a small cave where he could at least remain dry.
Like a bad fog the coulds seemed to entangle his mind. He needed all his will-poewer to fight against his lack of self-confidence. He needed all his power to go against the upcoming evil forces.
The „Ogre-Fight“ had given him about a day avail.
Without knowing it, the Princess had given him a small advantage.
He hoped that this group of heroes would be able to help him, although he feared that they might consider him as an enemy, since his Fireball had become a little bit too big.

Having arrived at the small cave, he sat down on a rock, resting for a while.

The strayer dreamt of fire, of the Dragon, different dangers, and  - at last - of the Unicorn, which silently whispered to him with a soft voice: „Don’t be worried so much. Dreams can be foreshadows of coming events, or afterglows of  incidents in the past - but they are passing by. Now sleep, tomorrow will be a long day.“
In this night the magic cast by the Unicorn upon him lost its influence.

Early in the morning, Xera woke up as the first one of the whole group. The cottage stank of  sweat and alcohol. Not very fine for an elven nose !
She decided to go out - leaving the smell behind her - trying to collect some berries and hunt for food. Yesterday she had noticed traces of a small bourn, so she chose this direction.
The still thick mist interrupted her hunt, forcing her to go back.

Arriving at the house, she saw Sajet and Thorwyn standing outside, with the Dwarf in the middle.
„Which direction should we go now ?“ Thorwyn just asked him.

„You should go directly to the mountains. After about 4 hours you’ll come to a small bourn. You will have to follow it until you reach the entrance of a canyon. It goes up there, finally broadening itself to a plateau. Having come so far, you should then go rather to the east, evading the first miner-camp, and then...“

„For the Gods sake ! We’ll surely need a leader ! Don’t you think the miners could show us the way ?“ asked Sajet.

„No, no. I strongly discourage you contacting these rascals. Normally, it is difficult to trust them; nowadays, it is simply suicide.“
„Well, can’t you lead us - showing us the way ?“ Thorwyn asked desperately.

„Why should I do this ? What have I lost in the mountains ?“ Krasnegar made a grimace. „Whats more, there are better things than stumbling upon graves with you as my company...“ He glanced at the young Xera, the Elf, who was just helping Aidan putting his rucksack into a relatively comfort position.

„But we helped you...“ Thorwyn began.

„I didn’t ask you.“ Krasnegar answered.

„But...“

„No „but“. What an idiotic idea, fighting the Dragon ! By the God’s Smith !“

„Well, then we must go helping those Dwarfes alone...“ murmured Sajet, glancing at Krasnegar from the corner of her eyes.

„What was that ? What kind of dwarfes ?“ He seemed to get seduced by the bait.

„Well, we heard of Dwarfes who were enslaved by the Dragon to mine Goldore for him...“

Krasnegar looked irritated. She was surely up to manipulate him ! But, on the other hand - it could be true. He had heard rumors of Dwarfes and even whole Dwarf-Clans being lost inside of the tunnel-systems. It was said that the Dragon had kidnapped them. And - weren’t inhabitants of the next village gone, too ?
They had to help them ! There was still some stock for the winter beneath his chamber. He surely needed his old chain-mail - armour, then. The blade of his hunt-knife had to be sharpened...

„No ! I won’t go into the tunnels !“ The Dwarf was determined not to take a single step into the „stony realms“ as the tunnels had been known for a long time. He had noticed that he even began making plans for travelling with these hero-newbies who wanted to fight the Dragon. What a ridiculous idea ! „I won’t never ever lead you there. I’m not that crazy !“

„Leave him alone, Sajet.“ Thorwyn said. „He can’t make it. He is just too old for such a task, you know ?“

„WHAT ? What did you say, young ma ? ME -  TOO OLD ? My, this is... I have more experience in fighting even in my smallest toe than you will ever have in your whole life ! The next thing you will tell me is that I fear this this thing, isn’t it ? Well, you’ll surely see... In one hour we move on ! And I don’t care if you’re ready or not !“
Determined, the Dwarf went into the house, while murmuring: „Me - too old ! ... What a nonsense ! ... Ridiculous ! ...“

Thoryn and Sajet looked at each other, both grinning wide. He winked with his eye...

After a while, Krasnegar came out of his small cottage, grumbling and saying: „We still don’t know how to travel through the mountains.
There are two ways: One over the mountains, and one under the mountains.
The first one isn’t passable with an Elfe, and the second one isn’t passable for me. At least I won’t go there - no 10 horses can bring me into the tunnels !“ 
He sat down on a stem, and began smoking a pipe. „As I said before, there are two ways. The first one is quite hard and needs about 2 days, the second one is far easier to go and needs only about 12-14 hours.
The first one isn’t acceptable for an Elf. Because of the miners. After 3-4 hours you would come to a miners camp. It is said that one of these were attacked by Elves - a few days ago. So - going with an Elf into a mining-camp would nowadays be suicide. They hunt now Elves. Leaving your Elf behind would mean that we could easily travel under the sky. Although it needs more time, it is safer than travelling beneath the earth. Although...not that safe. The miners tend to see in almost everyone a foe who wants to steal their Gold. Except for long known and trusted merchants.
I guess, your small, harmless looking group won’t get into troubles. You should try to understand them: They have been attacked by Bandes of criminal men greedy for Gold ! I even suspect that the attack which is said to be done by Elves has been manipulated by one of these Bands.
I have never seen Elves in the mountains. They don’t know what wonderful things can be made of Gold ! They don’t even seem to use steel for their arrows ! Well, rabbbits can be hunted by arrows made of wood, too.
The other way...well...yes. It was about 400 Years ago when Dwarfes began searching for ore in the mountains. Especially for Gold.“ The Dwarf grinned. „A great Mine arose in the following years through the hard work of the Dwarfes (and a few from other races). After a hundred years or so the miners discovered a natural system of caves - deep in the mountain range. Through measuring it the miners deduced that the system would nearly go through the mountain range - to the other side ! In the following time then the people managed it to build an exit passage.
That way through the mountains was soon well known in the dwarfish world and many, many of my peoples used this passage as an easy way to travel; even traders used it.
But - the miners also discovered a second natural cave. All Dwarfes sent into it for prospecting and exploring the cave never came back - at least we never saw them again. It it still possible that they might have survived - under special circumstances. Dwarfs can live a very long time in caves - as long as they have water and mushrooms available.
In the course of time, more and more Dwarfs disappeared in the system - possibly seduced by the unknown cave - so many that we decided to abandon and close the system, around 50 years ago.
I can draw a map for you; but I will never go into there again.“

The Dwarf took a deep breath and paused a few minutes.

„As a principle, the way is rather easy to find. The only think you must hold in mind is going along the right side. There are 3 turns, but they end after a while, because there was nothing valuable to find there. After 3-4 hours of walking, you should come to a good aired resting-room complete with benches and places to cook, all crafted of stone. Following the way, you would soon enter the natural system of caves. There are several caves, which follow one after the other like a string of perls.

Additionally, you should  look for the mushrooms in the caves and especially those on the walls. I hope they are still there. They are fine, tasting good, but too much of them leads to hallucinations. They were a good healing agent in those days.“ He looked to Xera, as if he was her teacher. „You can make a paste of them or a powder. They can be put directly on wounds for a cure or eaten, if you wish. I would be very grateful if you’d bring me some !“

Again, he paused a while, still smoking his pipe.

„Having travelled through them, you should shortly come to the original dwarfish way again. It goes straight to the end of the tunnel: the exit behind the mountains. You know it when you see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Having finally come out of the stony realms, there is a meadow before you (at least if it still exists there). The hill, you are standing then on, goes down, to small loch. A good place to rest there !“

Krasnegar was satisfied. He had told them everything he knew about the two ways - maybe except the dangers lying there. But with his help they should surely be able to evade them.

„Hey ho ! Let’s go !“ he shouted, and everyone packed his and her backpacks. Krasnegar pointed to a wooden box standing next to the house. Open it and take some torchs, my old oil-lamp, and some flasks filled with oil.“ Ulath took the lamp, thinking: „This doesn’t sound that dangerous.“ Derlaf and Sajet took the flasks and the torchs. „We still have a way before us ! 4 hours and we’ll reach the Entrance ! Enough time to make plans !“ Krasnegar began walking, followed by a strange group of  heroes.

The way was muddy and wet, not easy to go. The heavy rain from the day before had turned the small bourn into muddy waters. At least it didn’t rain anymore. The increasing temperature made thick clouds of fog ascending from the grounds. The earth seemed to breathe.
Luckily, the sight was good enough to recognize the way and enemies would be seen early enough.

The strayer and the Fox obviously liked the mist; they were once again gone - into the woods, still following the path. Xera shook her head. She liked the woods, too, but going through the wet bushes and trees was too much for her: she had no desire to fight against masses of wet leaves.

The fellows discussed the forthcoming way to go. The Dwarf wanted to leave the Elf behind and to travel outside. The miners could be friendly to him, but he was not that sure. At least he knew his foes.
Xera tried hard to listen to their words, but she didn’t succeed. She only saw Ulath shaking his head several times.
She would regret being left behind. Until she had met Aidan, she had known not much about the world outside her village (and the surroundings), only other Elves and travelling traders.
Now, everything was so different, so new ! There were so different people in the group ! Ulath, the giant, the hiding strayer, the magician, the strong Sajet, the mysterious „Fox“, the bard Aidan, the strange Derlaf with his missing hand, the quite normal Thorwyn with his talkative sword, - and now a dwarf ! She had never seen dwarves before ! She had only heard stories about them... The people in the village didn’t seem to like them that much, but she never understood why...

After a while the way became more and more stony. It climbed up. The trees became less. The mist was also gone. The mountain range was now good to see.
The group had a good. walk. They became a bit more silent. Especially Aidan had a few difficulties with the stony path. „I should leave the inns more often and rather wander through the world“ he thought.
Around midday they came to a clearing directly under a slope. The way seemed to end here. All around were the remainders of houses and shacks. Krasnegar pointed to the rest of a house which was still in a good condition; only the roof was gone. „I think we can rest here.“ he said. „Over there“ - he turned and pointed into a different direction - „is the Entrance to the tunnels. It is hidden now behind some bushes. I’d propose that the Elf, the strayer and the one you call the „Fox“ go out and try to find some food for us. Our singer will make a small fire, and the rest will go with me - trying to open the Entrance. Don’t wonder about the houses - here lived some traders. After we had abandoned everything, the buildings declined.“

Aidan had no problems making a fire. It seemed as if this building had been a resting place for several wanderers. Three walls were still intact, the others burned almost to the ground.
Bearpaw found the warmth of the fire comforting and laid down, next to the fire and next to Aidan. Aidan had found an old pot. He wanted to see if he was able to cook some tea in it. „Watch over the fire, Bearpaw, I’m only away for some water. I’ll be back soon !“ He went to a small stream he had seen at the border of the wood.
Krasnegar showed the others the slope. „Now - where’s a door here ? Or a cave ?“ Ulath asked.
The Dwarf grinned, swinging his axe towards some bushes. „First, we have some work to do !“ he said. Sajet took a closer look - she could see a darker area behind the bushes. Maybe this was a door. But for now she couldn’t do anything but help Ulath and Krasnegar.

After a while of hard work a door appeared. It was a dwarfish door. Which meant - it was made of stone.
At leat that was what Sajet thought. It was dark behind the bushes, but inspecting the door, she discovered her mistake.
The dark area was nothing than a mass of planks, nailed on the entrance to prevent travellers to accidentally invade the tunnel-system.

Thorwyn separated himself from the others a bit. The sword was about to jabber once again.
„Well, recalling the fight against those Ogres once again, it remembers me of a fight against raw, wild Woodmen; I don’t exactly know what they actually were.
But there is one thing I know: They were wild ! And they were strong ! They were big, too.

I remember that my former owner was on a journey, then. My owner and his company were attacked by those Woodmen. They were strong ones, and everyone knew that they had to fear them and fight for our lives.
A fight of simple clubs used by strong, heavy, wild men against fine crafted swords, used by sophisticated fighters ! What a fight it was ! And a heavy fight it was !

There missed not much, and I would’ve been broken by some simple clubs !

Recalling it, I must say that the flesh of those „Woodmen“ felt a bit like the flesh of those Ogres we have fought a few days before.

After a while we finally managed to win. It had been hard, and no-one was left without wounds.
I only thank the creator for the fact that we had won - otherwise I would have laid in the wet earth, rusting myself away !“

Suddenly the sword stopped. „Oh,“ it said with a rasping voice, „ I think I’m getting hoarse. I must stop talking now.“

With a sigh if relief, Thorwyn put it back and went to the others.

Krasnegar released the entrance from the planks. „My, it isn’t even locked !?“ Ulath wondered. „Why should it ? The planks have their only purpose in keeping people away from accidentally going in. And with leaving the whole thing open, we simply wanted not to lock up others who might be in the system. Let’s go back.“ Krasnegar answered.

Meanwhile, Aidan had begun cooking some tea in the pot, with herbs from his backpack.
Ulath and Krasnegar might not want my tea, he thought, but Sajet and Xera might like tea made from herbs. And if no-one liked it, he would drink it alone.
Aidan laid down beside Bearpaw, waiting for the others. The sun was standing high.

In the afternoon, everybody was back, except the strayer and the Fox.

Ulath had taken a look into the cave. „Anybody there with a torch ?“ he asked. Without saying a word, Kranegar made his way to him. When you go deeper into the system, you should came across a stock of torchs.“

„Has anybody fir...“ Popint out the nothing, the strayer stood beside Krasnegar, giving him what he needed to make a fire. „No-one’s near our camp...“ the strayer said with a lightly rough voice.

Ulath made the torch on. It enlightened the „entrance hall“.

„You surely want to enter this Labyrith ?“ Krasnegar asked. „Strange things are going on there...“

„Don’t be so superstitious !“ Thorwyn answered. „If your map is correct...“

„I have made it by myself !“ Krasnegar’s voice sounded a little bit insulted. „But I think...“

Suddenly the Fox appeared within the group, telling what he had found.
„We are not alone here. Out of our range, beyond a small forest, there is a big camp. I have heard many voices and...“ the Fox held himself back: he had been about to say that he had smelled many men... „seen many men.“ He didn’t want to let the others know that a real fox could smell better than a human.

„A Camp ? In our situation we should avoid any contact...“ Krasnegar said.

„Well, sure, but - there is a problem...“ the Fox answered. „As I approached them, I suddenly heard a dreadful crying. Followed by sounding laughter. Then I quickly went back - to you, trying now to make you understand the importance of this situation.“

„What have to do with them ? What if they kill each other now ?“ Eolus said coldly.

„We cannot ignore them !“ Sajet looked angry at the magician. „What, if they have cought an Elf and torture him now ?“ she said. „At least we must go and have a look at what’s going on there.
Xera looked thankful at her. „I’m for it !“ she said.

„Shouldn’t we part ? A half of us going under the mountains, the other half over the mountains ?“ Derlaf asked.

„It’s a big camp ! Many men !“ the Fox looked at them.

„We shouldn’t part,“ Ulath decided, „we should rather go there, having a close look. But I think it won’t be easy, approaching the camp in the light of the day.“

The Fox and the strayer looked quite insulted.

Unexpectedly, it was Eolus who suggested making the inspectors invisible.

But Xera said: „I’ll make it. And I’ll take Krasnegar with me, he knows them better than we do...“

„WHAT ? Taking with you ? At the end you will try making me invisible, too ? I don’t want to have anything to do these worthless tricks...“ But Xera already drew him with her away.

The Fox escorted them a bit, showing them the right way. The strayer looked after them, curious, because he hadn’t seen anyone so far making himself invisible. As Xera finally made herself invisible - and everything she held in her hand - the Fox began to smile, as he noticed that Krasnegar had shut his eyes... So they disappeared...
He went back.

The strayer was astonished. Incredible ! It was possible to make himself disappear - so completely, so invisible !
It would be safer for him. If he only could do it...

Rethinking it, he higly respected Xera and the one they called the „Fox“. They were higly talented in sneaking and moving through the woods and shadows - like him. The „Fox“ would be a good ranger, he thought.

Eolus couldn’t stand seeing his companions simply standing around, waiting for something. „What’s going on ? Shouldn’t we begin entering tthe cave-system ?“ He said, making himself ready. Ulath shook his head „You can enter the cave, but I thin it would be better to wait for them. Let’s see if our musician has made a fire...“
Arriving at the place where they had left Aidan, Ulath couldn’t suppress a smile: The bard was sleeping...

It became evening. Sajat sait that it would be wise to get to sleep early, at least they didn’t know what theya had before them. Ulath told her that he wanted to study the map a bit further. The rest of them went to sleep, Sajet covering Aidan with a quilt, then laying herself next to him, while Krasnegar and Xera inspected the camp, Eolus inspected the cave, and the strayer inspected his curiosity...

Sajet ran through the dunes. She loved the feeling of hot sand under her feet and looking at the stars in the sky above her. Before her, the Old Temple raised high off the ground. Orju, her adoptive father, was the last priest of these almost forgotten four gods. Her tribe was the last one which performed this cult. Orju had always hopened that Sajet would become the next priestess. He had always said that the gods had determined her for it, and also the circumstances how they had found her in the desert. But - Sajet never felt a special closeness to the gods. And - being honest, she had to admit that she had never searched for it. Everything that was supernatural produced fear in her. No matter if it were Ghosts, Wraiths, Demons or even Gods.

At the entrance of the sanctum she hesistated. The force oozing out from the old walls was frightening. She had seen many sacred places befrore, and every time she had sensed a powerful radiation. But nowhere had it been as powerful as here, this small, unapparent temple. Sajet pulled herself together and stepped into the sanctum.

The room was not very big. It was dominated by the four gods, who looked lifelike. In the middle stood a simple table for things offered to the Gods. It was carefully crafted out of stone. Sajet looked at the four gods. At the left side there was sittng Sa, the Goddess with a catlike head and a sword in her hand. Sa meant „Earth“ in her language. She was Sajet’s protective Goddess, and from her she had recieved her name. Sajet, meaning „Daughter of the Earth“. Sa was responsible for everything that had to do with the humans. Next to Sa stood Ju, meaning „Water“. Ju had a fishlike head and held a disc in his hand, in which an uncountable number of animals and plants was graved. Water meant Life and Ju was the Creator and Preserver of all that lived. Everything that lived came from the water, that was the belief in her tribe, and so no animal that lived in the water was allowed to get harmed. Next to Ju stood Ma the Cobra. Ma meant in her language „Secret“ and for everything that was mysterious and paranormal, supernatural stood this Goddess. Ma brought Death and Wisdom to the humans. And next to Ma stood To, the Sky. This falconheaded, winged God represented Truth and Eternity. Speaking alll the names one after the other, they composed the word „Sajumato“, what meant „World“. As usual, Sajet had to smile while thinking about it.

As Sajet was about to turn and leave the room, the walls became blurred and she stood in a clearing, next to a small pond with fishes in it.

Do you really believe you can change your destiny ? The voice asking this question was as smooth as the wind, that murmured through the trees.

Your destiny is unchangeable, Sajet, a second voice hissed right beside her.

Why can’t you trust us and your abilities, young child ? a third voice asked from the left.

Come to me, Sajet said a fourth voice coming directly from the pond before her. Come and look what a mission we have for you.

Hesitating, she stepped o the pond and looked inside. The water became black and suddenlly she stood in a dead, rotten landscape. Dead animals and men were lying everywhere. The trees were only dry skeletons and the earth black, stinking mud beneath her. A suppressed cry came out of her mouth, as she observed the devastation around her. Suddenly she froze in her movement. A horde of demons appeared before her. They were led by such an awful being, that human words were not able to describe it. Like a deadly, ice-cold hand the fear grasped for her, and she believed to lose her consciousness any moment.

Than, the landscape changed again and she was standing at the pond. A sand-coloured cat sat next to her, and a white cobra crawled at her feet.

What you have seen, young child, could be the future of this world, if no-one hinders this creature, the cat said to her. This is your real enemy, and not the Dragon. He will only guide you to the right direction. Hold your eyes and ears open, and you will stumble upon mighty allies against this foe. This bracelet with the four amulets will guide you in your fight. The force will reveal itself from time to time.

Prepare your self good for that fight, the white cobra hissed at her feet. And carefully prepare your companions for the fight, too. But dont’t ever forget: The foe comes often in the disguise of friends, Sajet...

In a jerky move, Sajet stood up. Her clothes glued on her wet skin, covered with sweat. The cool nightwind from the mountains made her shiver. Only a sdream, she thought, covering herself with her quilt again.
Suddenly, her look fell on the bracelet at her arm. A bracelet with the four sacred animals of her Gods. An ice-cold feeling crept through her. It was to her, as if she still could hear the serpent from her dream, as it hissed: Your destiny is unchangeable, Sajet...

Xera and Krasnegar had almost arrived at the small wood, which the Fox had showed them. Unexptectedly, they heard a terrible cry. Xera jerked, while Krasnegar pressed her hand a little bit stronger, trying to calm her down. What was going on there ? After a while of silence, there was a sounding laughter to be heard. Although she was worried about what they might find, she was quite glad that the Dwarf had lost his fear. His steps looked more determined...

About 5 Minutes later they had arrived at the camp. About 150m men were there, both bad and poor looking rogues, obviously gold-miners. „That’s very unusual,“ said the Dwarf, „normally they don’t gather in such big groups.“

Shshsht, a little bit more quiet, please. We are invisible, but not inaudible. If you’ve got something to say, try to whisper, then...“

„But Dwarves cannot whisper...“ answered Krasnegar, now a lot more quiet...

Fortunately, the miners hadn’t heard them. Instead, they concentrated on a figure, that was lying next to a fire. They couldn’t see the face of the being, but from the shape of the body they deduced that it came near to an Elf. No, no Elf. The body was not that smooth, fine, everything that was typical to an Elf; rather, the body was a little bit more clumsy, compared to an real Elf. Probably an Half-Elf ? Or a very high and thin man.
Now someone said something to the tied packet, that lied on the ground. Xera couldn’t hear a word, but she surely heard the slash of a whip, that followed. The person cried again. Krasnegar murmured. What a bunch of nerfs...

Looking from a safe distance, she inspected the camp. Here were no houses, but only small tents. It didn’t look as if they were here for mining something; rather as if they were ready to leave at any time. Like hunting-party. But what were these men hunting ? Gold ? Elves ? Ridiculous - how could they only hope, coming in contact with a single Wood Elf with such a loud mass of people ? Anyone - at least any Elf - would be able to hear them, see them, smell them for kilometres in the distance, before they had arrived at any place.

Then a new voice appeared. It was quite deep, coming from a big man, who had held himself in the background all the time. Xera sensed that the hand of the Dwarf contracted itself. Somewhere she had heard this voice before, but couldn’t remember, where.
Then the heavy man stepped into the firelight. „Now, that’s enough for today. Let’s go to sleep; tomorrow is a new day, a new chance. Tomorrow we’ll get this information where the others are, or we’ll simply cut his head. With that, we’ll have revenge for all of your friends, who were slaughtered and tortured so badly by the Wood-Elves.“ He thought a little bit. „BInd him good; I have seen it with my own eyes, how he set the houses on fire; all this time he was laughing. I don’t think that he’ll ever tell us where he and his companions have hidden your Gold. But we’ll soon find out, when we have finally cought his whole band of greedy marauders. They should be here soon; all of them supporters of the blood-greedy Elves and this terrible Dwarf; the one with the crippled hand.“
As he turned and walked away to his place - the biggest tent standing here - the miners could hear him murmur „soon...soon...“.

Krasnegar was struck and speechless. What a terribly sophisticated speech of hatred ! At first thought, he just wanted to get away from Xera and strike down his tormentor. Did he have a thoussand lives ? But Xera held him back, revealing quite a strength in such a gentle person.
The more he listened or memorized the voice of this dark man, the weaker became his resistance. He noticed that he was about to believe what the man had said. Yes, Elves were marauders full of greed and bloodlust, wandering raiding and firing anythin on their way, having no ethic rules, no mercy, no end.
He shook his head, driving away these dark thoughts. Dark Magic ! Mass-hypnotization !
Xera had heard enough, too, and withdraw, having always the Dwarf at her hand.
„What shall we do now ? The way through the mountains is barred !“ the Dwarf asked.
„First, we shall go back to our friends. We must tell them everything we have heard and seen.
I think we must rescue this prisoner, sooner or later. We cannot let him remain there and be a victim of these rascals. What’s more, it is directly or indirectly our fault that he is now in this terrible place.“

„And then ? If we have rescued him, we’ll have legions of miners behind us ! Like the Legions of Lettow !“ he shuddered. „We’ll be hunted for days !“

„We will ALL have to go into the tunnels...“ Xera answered.

„WHAT ?“ Krasnegar suddenly stopped, leaving Xera’s hand. Soon he appeared again, becoming visible for everyone. Fortunately, they were already far away from the camp.
„We ALL should go into the tunnels ? Never !“

„How often have I heard you saying „never“ theses days ?“ Xera smiled, which couldn’t be seen by the Dwarf, simply because she was still invisible. She lowered her voice. „Be careful - we are not far enough away from them. They might still hear a stone crashing.“

Xera moved on. From the corner of her eyes she could see the Dwarf following her, grumbling, just as if she were visible...

The report provoked a heavy excitement in the group. In a kind of tumult, they were discussing how to attack the camp (Ulath, Krasnegar), different fighting techniques (the strayer, Sajet & Thorwyn), leaving the prisoner behind, because they had already lost time (Derlaf, Xera), Aidan unsuccessfully tried to calm down his dog, Bearpaw, who was barking at the whole bunch, while the hidden Kelendan simply stood in the bushes, looking at them with his mouth wide open.

As Eolus arrived later that night at the group, they were still discussing. For a while, he listened to them. Finally, he ended the whole thing with the remarks that no-one would survive an attack, simply because they were the minority. Ten zu sixty, rather more, he added. But now, it would be even nine - „where’s the Fox ?“ he asked.

„Away. He said that a silent shadow could do more than a bawling horde.“ the strayer answered.

The Fox waiting for the dawn. The dawn was wuith him, and he saw that everyone went to sleep. Some of them managed to go into their tents, others were simply lying around, being drunken and asleep.

The alcohol had two functions: One the one hand, it helped the heavy man to keep the men under his control; on the other hand, the men could give up all of her scruples. They could also cheer themselves up. This could become quite handy in an interrogation...

The heavy man slept now, too, but in a bigger and better tent than the others.

The Fox approached to the prisoner.

The Prisoner was obviously exhausted, smellt of sweat, and his breath sounded a little bit unhealthy. The Fox couldn’t see whether he was asleep, or unconscious, or what had happened to him. There were several traces of torture around him.

The Fox whispered. „Can you see me ?“ he asked the Prisoner. He slowly turned his head aside. „Not that again...“ he sighed.
„You don’t have to fear me. I’m here to rescue you. You must only have some patience.“ The face of the person relaxed a bit.

He needed a long time; far too long in his terms, to free the Prisoner. Meanwhile, the night had come. Now it was dark. He touched the Elf and told him: „I’m ready now.“

The Elf tried to get up, but his strength was gone. He had needed too much Energy to heal his wounds with magic; now he was exhausted. That was why they didn’t get the information out of him: He had helped himself withstanding them with his magic.

What he still didn’t understand, was, what these alcohol-filled und therefore -stinking humans had wanted from him. Yellow metal ? For what ? He knew that humans were crazy for this kind of metal; but in the wilderness it couldn’t help them anyhow. „Then try to withstand a Bear or a Wolf with your incredible-valuable-metal in a forest !“ he had said to them at the beginning of his imprisonment. They didn’t understand. The men only had become more excvited and angry - he still couldn’t understany why - and bound him with thick chains. He had heard someone of the men saying something like „he doen’t know the value of Gold !“ Since then, he knew that they called this yellow stuff „gold“.
He wanted to get up, leaving these horrible days behind him, but he failed. He just fell down.

The Fox wheezed. The Elf was heavy ! At least for him. They would need a fairly long time to get away from here. Mostly, because the Elf was so weak. He only hoped that they won’t make too much noise !

Against all odds, they had good luck. They withdrew, as far as they could.

Suddenly, the weak, and therefore clumsy Elf made a small kick against one of these many, many bottles...
There were many, many bottles, formerly filled with alcohol, lying around. A lot of them were amassed on a small slope, unfortunately the way they had chosen, because it was the one pointing directly to the camp of the heroes.
This single bottle rolled down the slope, bumped into another one. Both of them rolled further down, bumping into other bottles, clinking around...

The heavy man woke up. Couldn’t they be quiet even in the middle of the night !? Couldn’t they get completely to sleep from the whole alcoloh ? He got angry.
Now ! It clinked again ! Was there one of those drunken idiots making „bottlethrowing“ ?

It clinked more and more, louder and louder. Now REALLY angry, he ran out of his tent, about to call these drunken BEEEP.

Outside, he was irritated. He saw no men, but instead an enormous helters-skelter consisting of bottles rolling down the „junk-slope“.
He looked around him. The men were still asleep, deep asleep. The fire was almost down. And - something was missing.

What was missing ?

Only as he noticed the chains, he knew it: the Prisoner was missing ! His look wandered to the mass of bottles rolling down... Over there, he could just see two shadows disappearing...

„ALARM !“ he shouted. Grumbling and groaning, the men woke up only slowly. He was still angry. What a BEEEP ! This time he would show it the stubborn Elf ! He would let him hunted down by a horde of massively drunken men ! They would catch him, and show him, what he deserved: death. This time, the Elf wouldn’t have a chance...
But for that, he still needed his men. And they were awaking only VERY slowly. It would take a long time, until the’d be mostly awaken. On the other hand, the trace of the Elf would be fairly easy  to follow...

Deeply exhausted, the Fox and the Elf arrived that the camp of the heroes. It was still before midnight. Lonely in the night, Eolus watched over the group.

„Alarm ! You must wake up quickly !“ the Fox shouted. Eolus jumped a bit, mostly because of the loudness. He quickly calmed himself down. „What’s ghoing on ?“ He asked. „We are hunted; right now. I have freed the Elf, but now all miners are behind us !“ he told Eolus while wheezing. He had to carry the Elf almost alone, so weak had he been. Only the last part of the way had he been able to move further on by himself, driven by the fear to get into the hands of the miners again.

„We must go into the tunnel!“ suddenly  a clear voice came out of the shadows. It was the strayer. „let’s pack our belongings and then disappear ino the tunnel-system ! They might not look for us there.“ he said.

Hectically, all woke up, packed what they had, and went into the Entrance - Krasnegar calling many curses and protests. Although he didn’t like it, he understood that they would be soon dead as Dodos, if they stayed here.

The big, heavy man and his company searched the surroundings of the camp for traces; but they couldn’t find any.
Now, IF they had gone into the tunnel - the Elf and his helper - they would be soon safe. He smiled sardonically. Safe for the death.
He said to the ones who stood next to him: „Let’s go ! There is nothing we can do for now ! Noone had ever left this tuinnel alife ! We don’t need to go behind them anymore !“

He knew, that this wasn’t true; but he didn’t mind it. The likelihood, that they could come out alife, was very small...

Still upset, the group went further into the tunnel, to get away from the Entrance as fast as possible.
Sajet couldn’t stand it. The walls came closer and closer, the air became thicker and thicker. Sweat was running down her forehead. The walls surely wanted to squeeze her down ! Slowed down. Now, the walls were just before her ! She couldn’t walk anymore ! Frantic, she wanted to cry, but couldn’t let a single sound out.

Aidan noticed that Sajet stood still, stretching out her hands, as if she tried to keep the walls back from her. He turned towards her. „Is there any way I can help you ?“ he asked. As he noticed that she wasn’t able to speak, he just held her in his arms, trying to calm her down. „ Don’t worry ! It is only dark, and we will leave this place soon - in a few hours. It is safe and secure. Nothing has changed here for 50 years. Come on, fight against your fright and you’ll make it !“ he whispered to her.
„Hello, we need a rest !“ he shouted to the others.

Eolus had noticed it, too, after Aidan had called the group. He saw, in what a situation Sajet was. He didn’t like it, because he wanted to preserve his magical power for the fight against the Dragon, but he decided to ease her with a magical spell.

The strayer wasn’t happy. There were shadows, shadows, shadows. Too many shadows. Too many shadows for a surprise attack. He glideed deeper into the shadows, because it believed that „only from the shadows, you can see the shadows attacking“.

After 3 hours of walk - more slowly than at the beginntng, because they wanted to give Sajet time to acclimate herself to the caves, they arrived the Resting-Room, Krasnegar had told them about.
Small Stalagmites had grown here, but otherwise the room hadn’t chaged much. Except of the little bit dust, maybe. It was filled with fresh air, what meant that the airing-system was still intact. Good dwarfish work. They sat down on the stone-made seats.
Ulath proposed a rest. Seemingly, no-one of the miners had followed them; also, they could heal the Elf, and at least they were all tired and needed a good sleep.

Krasnegar pointed to the small waterfall. „The water over there is still fresh; at least it was as we left, 50 years ago. On the left side, the fireplace should also be still usable. The air here should drive the smoke away.“

Krasnegar made a small fire. Small, becvause he feared that it might work as an unwanted sign for inhabitants who followed the leaving of the Dwarves...

The strayer walked to the water, wanting to check and restore the water supply of the group.

Near to the water he found mushrooms.

Asked by the strayer,. Krasnegar told him, that these were mushrooms one could eat without fearing to get poisoned. Actually, he told, these were mushrooms the Dwarves had used for hundreds of years in any dwarfish town as a food supply. Some Dwarves, he said, only eat by these mushrooms (although these remained few).

The strayer picked some for food supply; the rest was left as it was, so that the mushrooms could reproduce further on.

They took the time to taker a closer look at the Elf, the former Prisoner.
He surely wore the typical Elven clothes, but his body was a bit too massive to look like an real Elf. Also, his eyes and ears didn’t look too elfish.
As they could see, this Elf had human blood in his veins.

„A bastard“ murmured someone, obviously Hookhand, who earned an angry look from Xera. His face blushed, and he turned aside.

Xera healed the Half-Elf’s wounds, using her magical forces for that. Slowly, he regained his strength.

„What’s your name ?“ she asked the former Prisoner. A little bit surprised, he turned his head towards her, answering: „I am, well, my name is Galladrion. I thank you for my rescue.“

„You can thank our „Fox“. Your rescue is the work of his brave hands.“ „Well, thank you...“Fox“ .“
„Don’t mind. Anyone would have done this.“ Suddenly he seemed to be embarassed by what he had done.

„What’s up ?“ Krasnegar’s voice was heard. „We should move on soon.“
„Well, we have your Map, Krasnegar, so wec should be able to move quickly forward. Let’s see where we are...“

„Quiet ! There - there’s a sound...“

All voices became silent. There was a sound. A knocking sound, as if two stones were pushed against one another.

Clack, clack-clack, clack-clack-clack, clack, clack-clack, clack-clack-clack,....

„We are not alone here !“ said Sajet, in her voice sounding like a bit panicked.

In the excitement, they didn’t notice another sound.

Tap-Tap-Tap-tapdidapp

Small, patting feet walked on the ground.

„Meschlinke... unt errr ... antere.“

A sensitive non-human nose sensed the smell of fire, while approaching with his owner to the group of travellers.
The being thought about these grimly looking heroes, wondering what they might want in this cave.
But they were surely blocking him from the fresh water and the mushrooms he loved so much. His shape became one with thr shadows around him, and he bagan eating some other mushrooms. But - instead of driving away the feeling of hunger, they rather increased it. Soon, the creature became nervous.
His eyes wandered to the waterfall. They were picking his mushrooms ! His mushrooms ! And he had let them grow for weeks...
The thin body began climbing along the cave’s walls, towards the waterfall.
No-one looked up to the ceiling, where the creature was climbing.
Having come near to the waterfall, the creature slid into a small cave behind the waterfall. Now, here it could drink and wait for the travellers to leave...

Ulath wasn’t impressed. He was determined not to let arise any kind of panic.
„Well, let’s put our chances together: What we can do is: first, to got further on with Krasnegar, second, going back, hoping that our pursuers are no more there, third, if the followers are gone, bringing Xera and the Half-Elf to an elfish village, and continuing our way without them, fourth, going then back somehow, trying to get some reinforcements by the King. What do you think ?“ he asked.

„By the Gods, I want to move on !“ Krasnegar looked quite determined, too.

He earned many surprised looks. „My, a few days ago, you didn’t want to ?!?“ Aidan hook his head.

„Well, that’s true. But now I’m already here. And I want to know where alle the disappeared Dwarfes might have gone...

Dwarfes...disappeared... Aidan’s face became more and more pale.
In the following silence, the clacking sound was still audible.

The hunger became stronger and stronger. The small creature climbed slowly out of the waterfall, going tdirectly to the travellers, who were blocking him from his mushrooms.
Hungry, the creature picked up one of the mushrooms, followed by a curses while falling into the water with a loud, splashing sound.

In the water, the creature quikly ate his meal, then climbed up again. He wanted to get known by these travellers.
„Err... Hi ! Boyz ??“

„What - who are you ?“ asked the deeply surprised Aidan.

Embarassed, the creature didn’t quite know what to say. „Ahmmm Chello ?“

„Hello, my friend, who are you ? Do you live for long here in this cave ?“ Aidan asked, trying not to frighten the creature. He turned to the others. „Does anobody now what this is ? I have never seen or heard anything from such a creature so far.

Laughing, the strayer turned to Krasnegar, saying: „Now here you have one of these inheritors of the left cave.“

Eolus, who wanted to take a look into one of the other caves, bumped against one of the stones lying in the dark shadows. He soon felt a kind of soothing warmth where had bumped into the stone. Noticing a kind of light, he looked above him. There he saw Flamjiadi, the Fire-Elemental who accompied him from time to time, but mostly in caves.

„I see, that you liked your cellar very much.“ the Elemental said quite ironically. „Let me give you some light and guide you to your fellows. They are in this direction.“ He formed an arrow, floating to the rest of the group.

Aidan asked again. Do you know what this reature might be ?“ Flamjiadi felt as if this question was directed to him, ans answered: „Do I know what this creature might be ? Why do all people think, Magicians and Elementals have eaten their wisdom with full spoons ?“

Flying closer, he inspected the creature. „Don’t you see ? It is just an...“

„A Prmbfpl ?“ the strayer asked, giggling.

„Yes, indeed ! He brought it to the point ! It is a Prmbfpl !“ Flamjiadi floated once again to Eolus. „Why aren’t you able to make such exact definitions ?“
He returned again to the others. „Now - follow me !“ He became a bit brighter, shaping himself into an arrow once again, which directed the heroes to the next cave.

The small creature shook away the water from his body. „Chey ! Don’t walk awaych ! Takech me wich you ! You have eaten my Muchrooms ! I chave chunger !“

Eolus asked the small freature. „Take you with us ? Why ? do you really want to give up your cave? Here are many mushrooms !“

He went to the entrance of the next cave. „Come on, folks !“

„Chey ! I am Azdrak, and if you don’t takech me wich you, I willch follow you !“

Sajet suddenly got thze impression as if ther small creature became bigger and bigger, looking more and more threatening, while speaking his last words. After that, the creature shrunk to its normal size again. Since no-one seemed to have noticed that, she thought that it might have to do something with her fear she always felt in closed rooms.

The reality was, that she had been the only one who had eaten one of these mushrooms so far. That was why she also wondered why everything suddenly looked so colourful... Since no-one seemed to notice, she thought that it might be normal somehow...

Indeed the creature was not frightening at all, apart from its small teeth it needed in this environment...

They soon moved on, into the next caves. The strayer inspected the caves; tht was something he hadn’t seen so far, like Aidan, hadn’t, too.

Once, he asked Krasnegar, if these tunnels and caves were safe. Just as Krasnegar was about to answer a rumbling sound told them, that there had just collapsed a tunnel. They became silent.

Flamjiadi floated to the group, coming out of the direction of the collapsed tunnel. „Nothing to worry about.“ he said. And while floating back, he added: „You are able the get through stone, aren’t you ?“
Krasnegar asked Eolus: „Where have you got this restless ghost from ?“

They went to the place where they could see from a distance an enormous cloud of dust. „Seems as if a tunnel had collapsed there. There is nothing we can do for now. But it isn’t that bad for us, because this tunnel wasn’t on our way.“ Krasnegar said.

Azdrak was saddned „ Not bad ? Not bad ? Chis was my home ! „ he said. „Many, many muchrooms !“

„Don’t be so saddened. You had good luck, at least you weren’t  there, where the stones fell down!“

„ Me, chappy ? Wich youk ?“ Azdrak cpouldn’t understand their kind of thinking. He separated himself from the group.

As the heroes were discussing, they suddenkly heard a groaning and rumbling. With a thunderlike sound, the other tunnel behind them collapsed, too.

And the strange creature was gone...

They thought they had heard a laughing coming from behind the stones...

As they wanted to pack their belongings once again, and follow the way, they noticed that almost everything of their stock was gone, too. And their torches would soon be burned down, if there was not Flamjiadi to help them...

Looking at each other, they were quite shocked. „There is no way back anymore...“ Hookhand murmured.

After Krasnegar’s advice, they walked as far as they could,  into a room, where he said was a box to be found, in which were some more torches.

They didn’t want to lose any time, so they mached to the Exit of the cave-system.

The Exit-door was closed, but heavy hits by the Northerner’s axe solved this problem.

Sajet felt - undescribable free again ! The frsh air, the smell of grass and flowers, the wind on her sking - it was an incredible feeling to her ! She was free again !
In the back of her mind, she decided never ever to go back into a cave again...

„Fresh air !“ The strayer was glad to breathe fresh air, with the smell of grass and flowers, again.
Although he didn’t like caves that much, this had been his first cave. It had been an interesting experience to him.

Krasnegar told them that it would only be one or even a half day to travel, until they would come to the Dragon’s Cave. If they would follow this way, they would come to another cave, where Dwarves lived. Another way would lead them to the northeast, to a small village of farmers, which sold the miners food.

Aidan thought about the last days. „Something’s wrong here“ he said, „ first, the Ogres, then the pitfall with the dead ranger - possibly the Sam Dry River, Krasnegar had told us about, then the surprise attack at Krasnegar’s, after that then the miner’s camp...there’s too much going on. I fear that someone tries to hinder us from freeing the Princess. It could be someone at the King’s court. I’ve often seen courts. They often tend to scheme there.“

„What have we to do with politics ?!“ Ulath asked loud. „Let’s go to sleep early now, and let’s try it tomorrow at the Dragon’s Cave Entrance !“ After a short discussion, they all agreed, and went to sleep - it was about sunset.

Eolus separated himself from the others - he wanted to meditate - restoring his magical energies - he was sure he would need them in the forthcoming fight. Late that night, he went to the others, going to sleep, too.

Knowing, that it would be a long day, they had their first meal of the day. Feeling strong enough, both mentally and physically, they began walking to the Dragon’s Cave.

On the way, Krasnegar told the group that there was a strange magician around here.

A few hours later, they actually came to a nearly vertical slope, being a part of the local mountain.  Before it, there was a wide clearing covered with grass, and an old fireplace.

„This is the clearing, where the strange magician and the Dragon could be seen - at different times, as far as I know. The vertical rock is fairly even and without any cracks. Maybe tha Entrance is magically hidden !?“ Krasnegar told them. Thorwyn had guessed that this strange magician coul’ve been the one, who had helped them against the Ogres.

Carafully looking at the sides, the group went to the even rock. The strayer was searching for a possible ambush. He felt that the group was vulnerable while standing on the clearing like the dinner on a plate...

Nervously, the group walked slowly towards the slope.

Everyone looked at it, but they didn’t find anything. The rock was smooth, without any cracks.

Ulath beat the rock with his mighty axe, without success.

Krasnegar inspected the rock more intensively, and came to the conclusion: „This is dwarfish magic. Or some other. No-one else would’ve been able to close any entrance in such a way. Although - I have heard of Dwarves, who were able to produce such a thing in the Old Times.“

Eolus, the magician, came closer, inspecting the rock, too. He came to the conclusion, that only magic could reveal the magic that had worked on the rock. He was sure that a kind of magic locked the cave with that rock; but - he couldn’t  prove it. For that, he needed a magical spell.
He got angry that he had to use a some of his magical powers for that, although he’d rather used it in the fight against the Dragon. But without magic they couldn’t get in.
„Please stand back, all of you !“ he said to the others. He needed room for weaving his spell. The others stepped a bit aside, only Ulath looked with a bit suspicious. Did he have problems with magic in the past ?

With widely drawn gestures he weaved his spell, and behold ! : A gap was there, in bluish, unearthly colours. It went down from the top to the earth - and possibly even into the earth, Eolus thought.

„Now !“ he shouted, not knowing how long this gap would last.

Filled with energy, the group stroke towards the gap, like they had already found their foe. Ulath beat it with his mighty axe, Sajet looked, if she could put her blade into the gap, Krasnegar draw a mighty dwarfish hammer from somewhere.

„BACK !“ a thunderlike voice sounded. Everyone got frightened to the deep, because they had concentrated so much on opening the gap.

As they slowly turned around, they saw an old man with white hair and a long, white beard, leaning himself on an old stick. He looked very old and fragile. They couldn’t believe that this man could’ve produced such a voice. „Back, that’s what I’ve said.“ the old man said now in a rather tender voice, like a teacher who has noticed that his students were not ready, not mature enough for his task.

Feeling both intimidated and curious, they drew back from the gap, which slowly faded by.

Now, the old man lifted his stick, and spoke highly sophisticated formulae. It seemed, as if almost invisible, pale bluish flows of energy moved from the man towards the crack in the rock. (They didn’t see the crack anymore, but still knew that it was there.) A rustling and a crackling was to be heard in the air around the slope - and it became louder and louder !

And - what wonder !  The gap in the rock opened, without any sound ! The old man stopped with weaving his formulae, and now he was his self again. An old, fragile man, with white hair and a long beard, who was leaning himself on a stick. The noise had suddenly become completely quiet, leaving nothig but the singing of some birds in the trees.
„Tell the Dragon, that Gandalf has opened the door for you.“ he said quietly. Then he turned slowly, and began walking back to the forest, where he had come from.

Stunned by amazement, the whole group looked after the old man. They stood between the open door, which looked like an open, yawning muzzle, and the man himself, who was slowly walking away. Only Eolus was the first ine who was able to speak again; no wonder, since he was an magician, too. „I thank you very much, old, wise man.“ „Yes, yes; you don’t need to thank me.“ the OLd one murmured.

The heroes packed their things, making themselves ready for the last journey: the march through the Darkness.

Only the strayer and Xera looked after the old man; and Eolus nodded slowly, with high respect.
And there, where the man reached the trees of the forest, the sight of the strayer began to become distorted, and small tears fell off his eyes.
He rubbed his eyes, to get his eyes clean and dry again, but as he was ready, he found that the old man was gone. Where he had seen him the last time, there was now a tree. Wondering, he turned around. (He was sure that Xera and Eolus had had this, too.)

The group had gone into the tunnel without any light. Krasnegar made light with his torch. Sajet was glad that he had made some light. She felt uneasy, because she had to go into another cave again. But now, having made the experience of the cave-system the days ago, she felt stronger now. She didn’t want to get impressed by any tunnel again. At least they had a job to do !
She heard Aidan’s dog sniffing. There was a light smell of Sulphur.

The way became a long and winding road, but it was quite short, at least shorter than they had expected. They made a rest more often than usual. Everyone felt a high pressure, because they knew that there could happen a fight at any minute ! It became highly difficult for them, to remain quiet.

Aidan’s dog, Bearpaw, noticed that, too. He sensed that the two-legged humans were under a very strong feeling of pressure. Although...he didn’t quite understand why. He smelled something strange, but wasn’t able to tell a danger from it.

Just as the air became a bit better, he suddenly stood at the entrance of an enormous cave. In the distance layed an huge animal. He knew what an animal that was.

They had sent the strrayer to the front, because he had such good skills in sneaking, as Ulath said.
He felt very uneasy. But no matter how he felt, he tried to fulfil his duty as good as he could. „Goddess of the Amulet, help me..“ he whispered.

He tried to remember everything he had ever learned. All possible tricks, someone could use to intercept intruders. Anything the priests of the god of  the thieves and tradership had told him. And anything Xera had told him in the last days.

He knew that his life depended from it.

Xera was just behind him. She had tested her bow and her arrows a last time. Additionally, she had also „improved“ her arrows magically with a better targeting.
Suddenly, the dog went a few steps ahead.

The strayer cursed. He couldn’t shout to the dog to come back again. They had to remain silent for any price, or they were doomed !

He waved to the others to remain where they stood. The he ducked and crawled a little bit forward, to the dog, which still stood there, where he had stepped to. He looked around the edge. Slowly he stood up.
And then he saw him, the Dragon.

He layed on his hoard of Gold and Silver (and some other Metals not so valuable), and within the treasures a gem glistened at him !
The greed overwhelmed him. Gold ! Silver ! Incredible gems ! Treasures !

Just as he was about to run to the treasures, the Amulet spoke to him.

„Alrik“, the Amulet spoke, „Alrik, consider what you are and what you want ! What is more important to you - riches and glory - or your life ?“ Alrik became paralysed.

Xera sensed instinctively that something important had happened inside the strayer. The dog sensed it, too. They wouldn’t be able to talk to him anymore. Slowly and carefully, she moved on.
Then she saw him, the Dragon ! She waved to the others.

The group came after her. The gesture of Xera signed them that she had sawn the Dragon. Quietly, they all drew their weapons. Krasnegar whispered:“We must be as careful as possible ! A single flame could roast us !“ „Don’t make such a fuzz,“ Ulath said “no Dragon had ever withstood me before.“
What Ulath didn’t say, was, that he hadn’t fought against a Dragon before.

Bearpaw made a decision. He ran towards the Dragon.

Krasnegar, who saw how the dog’s tail disappeared, cursed silently. The moment uf surprise was now gone !
Now Ulath saw it, too. And he made a decision, too. Now or never !

Yelling out loudly - what all Northerner fighters used to do - he ran with his drawn axe forwards !

Xera shook her head. These humans ! She could’ve possibly been able to call the dog back, but now...
She stepped forwards, and shot her first arrow against the Dragon.

The others came after them, passing the strayer who looked paralysed like a pillar made of stone.
Only Aidan stayed carefully back. He got scared as he saw the Dragon. He haden’t imagined him sooo big ! He took a step back, and saw how Xera positioned her second arrow.

THAT would be the greatest fight of his whole life ! He alone against a Dragon ! „Well, not really, because the others ran behind him.
As Ulath ran towards the Dragon, yelling his worst war cry, he saw how the Dragon turned his head slowly towards him. But - no ! He opened his mouth and produced a flame-arrow ! Ulath ducked instinctively down, but noticed that the flame passed him. He turned his head, and could just see, how the flame consumed an arrow. Ulath stood up and ran further on, through the enormous cave.
Yelling different war cries, the others, who didn’t have any weapons for distances, ran across the cave, too.

The Fox was still suspicious. He closely watched the face of the Dragon, as good as it was possible for him, from the distance. He hoped that he could learn something about the Dragon’s plans and tactics. He didn’t run that fast. From the edge of his eyes he could see Eolus, who prepared himself for releasing a spell.

The Dragon saw this poor bunch of small warriors running towards him. They would surely disturb his plans. In the short time he had to consider the situation, he just decided to knock them over. It would only be difficult to save the dog. He spoke his spell.

As he ran closer, Ulath saw that there was a beautiful woman sitting at a table next to the Dragon. Surely the kidnapped Princess ! Suddenly the Dragon lifted a claw and murmured something in his deep, sounding voice.
Before he got knocked down, Ulath saw two things: First, he saw the young, beautiful woman getting scared and standing up, going to flee, secondly,  that in her movement she threw a playing-board to the ground.

Krasnegar saw the claw of the Dragon and threw himself to the ground. In his family there existed many stories about magical spells made by Dragons, and this was surely one of them. Throwing himself to the ground early, he would be the first one to stand up again, he thought, no matter what would happen next.

Eolus concentratede so much on performing his spell - one og the mightiest he knew - that he got knocked down totally unprepared. What was this ? What had happened ? Was this Dragon able to perform magical spells ?

The Dragon chose that he could stop these humans only through the truth. He nodded to the still scared Princess, who was standing at the entrance of a tunnel leading out of the cave. What a pity he couldn’t finish that fine game !

„Listen to me !“ his voice sounded like thunder. „Listen to me for a moment !“ There was nothing else the lying humans could now do. „I am innocent ! I have not captured the Princess ! She is here - for her own safety !“

„Yes, that is true !“ a young woman stepping out of the cave’s entrance shouted. She was dressed in a cape with creamlike colours, carrying a sword with her, which twinkled in the firelight.

„THAT is a thing I want to see !“ shoutede another woman, who just stepped out of a gap in the cave’s wall on the other side. She was fully dressed black, and looked in a cruel way beautiful.
She was accompanied by some of her rascals - and a few demons...

And now, the heroes stood in the middle of them...

Flamjiadi flew to the ceiling. „Haven’t I always said that this is dangerous !?“

Aidan could only stare at the Princess. Here was nothing like it should’ve been. The Dragon protected the Princess ? Who was the enemy then ? The sister of the Princess ? Or was she herself under the influence of something evil ?
Ulath stood slowly up. He was irritated. Who was the Princess ? And who was the sister of the Princess now ? The youngest woman, the one with the sword, or the one dressed in black ?

The Princess looked at the colourful bunch of heroes. She asked herself what could be the reward would be her rescuers would get from her father, the King. It must be something very valuable, she thought, otherwise these different people wouldn’t travel so far to her.

„We don’t have the time for such things.“ She heard the Dragon’s voice in her mind. She hated it, when he used his magic to read her mind. But - alas ! - now he was right.
The Prioncess looked to her dark sister. She was beatufil, but not in her heart. The youngest one of the daughters did never understand why her oldest sister was so jealously to her. For all of her lofe she had tried to avoid her darker sister. It wasn’t her fault, that her father, the King, liked the youngest daughter most.
She had spent quite a while with the old sorceress who worked in the palace. She had learned a lot from her, and she was - like her sister - performing the magic of the old belief. There were only few people who knew that the Old Magic was not gone, and even fewer knew how to use it.
Her mother had been a blessed witch, and she had done everything before her death that her oldest sister would study at an old druid. Some years after her 18th birthday the druid had disappeared, and she had always had the suspicion that her sister had something to do with it.

Nevertheless,  she felt sorry for having to fight against her to overcome the evil.

The Princess thought about how she could lead her supporters out of the cave without getting into a fight. She hoped that the Dragon would find a solution, but just as she was about to drive her thoughts towards the Dragon, a very bright light illuminated the cave through a flash.

Eolus had managed lighting a fulminant „flash“...it had only been a little bit too bright...so that no-one could see anything anymore...

DumDrum was happy. There was a noise again ! He loved noise ! He loved making noise ! He loved making noise on his DRum.

DumDrum was a demon, and his drum was built of  squeaking-creaking bones made from undead ones. The skin on the drum consisted of real skin, again made from undead ones, which whined, moaned, when he beat his drum. That the drum produced a cacophony of groaning, moaning, sqeaking, creaking, whining and crying didn’t disturb him; instead, he liked it very much. It sounded like music in his ears.

DumDrum liked noise. Noise made by his drum.

Eolus was thinkg. He hadn’t been able to control his flash, because the Dragon had thrown him to the ground before with his magical powers.
He felt sorry that he wasn’t been able to control his powers, but the magic that „lived“ within this field was much more powerful than he had ever experienced before.

As he regained his senses, he noticed that everyone stood there, where he had last seen them.
And he noticed a new sound...something new had come to this place...or better: had manifestated itself here...something not from this world...something from the world of demons...

Slowly, all the others could regain sight, and he gestured to his group, so, that the others could see him now. And there was still the Dagon and the Princess... What could he do to restore the order ?
Flamjiadi floated nervously over the heads of the others. „Please, I really don’t like making clever advises but - don’t you thing it would be time for some good PANIC !!!!“

„No. No panic. Not now.“

The voice had changed. His hand still held the Amulet tight. He was unrecognizable now, at least concerning his „inner values“.

„You have a task now. Fight against the demons.“ said the former strayer to the fire-elemental.

Not used to this tone, Flamjiadi did as he was told.

The Dragon saw the evil woman and her demons. (Her human companions would be the lesser problem.)

What a mess ! Demons - here ? How was she able to summon demons so fast ?

Also, he was astonished (and a bit saddened) that she had corrupted her soul in such a way that she was able...
What a pity for her sister...but it seemed too late for her.

The Dragon had to change his plans. The REAL danger came now from the evil sister of the Princess and her companions - humans and demons.

The formulated a ban for demons...

First, he had to identify these creatures. From the descriptions he identified a poisonous cloud, obviously summoned to irritate others, a slimy, human-shaped fighter-creature, and a huge, tiger-like demon, a heavy fighter !

Having stood up, Eolus was getting upset. Oh, Gods ! There are demons ! he thought. He had to restore the order of the Gods, beause those demons were a kind of perversion of it.
He had to do it.

As careful as possible he ran owards the tiger-like demon, the heaviest foe he saw. While running, he paut a gem out of his bag, something he needed for banning the demon. He layed it down near to the tiger-like creature, and ran away, to the Fox. He gave him a piece of chalk.

He had been blind. He had been driven almost mad by this group. Now he regained sight again (both physically and mentally) and had to rearrange his priorities.

The Fox was just getting up, as the magician Eolus came nearer. He gave the Fox a piece of chalk, saying: „You are swift, aren’t you ? Now you can show us your talents ! Draw a pentagram around the tiger-like creature for me !
Swift ? Nothing was easier !

Holding a incredible heavy, clumsy sword, swinging it around, the huge tiger-demon came closer to the group. The big one over there, that would be a good opponent ! He liked cutting the big ones into pieces, and then tearing the small ones into peaces. While walking and swinging, he didn’t notice the small magician running around his feet...
The Fox fulfilled his task. He ran around the tiger-demon, drawing what the magician had wished.

Ulath stood stunned nearby. First, because the demon was walking right up to him, secind, because he couldn’t believe his eyes seeing a small person (the Fox) running swiftly around the feet of this huge, dangerous demon.

Soin, he was ready with the drawing. He knew a little bit of magic (he had learned a bit from his friend), so he knew that the magiascian needed the pentagram to ban the demon...

Blood ! Flesh ! Parts of flesh !  Pieces of flesh ! The tiger-demon did what he could do best - fighting and cutting. Soon, he would’ve reached the big one over there; then would be his time !  That would be a happy slaughter, bloodshed !

Ulath was highly tightened. Now there was a far more dangerous enemy - a demon ! Even more dangerous than the DRagon, because this being seemed to CONSIST of bloodlust. He hated demons.
He surely tried to recall all of his fighting techniques, but unfortunately there weren’t many.
He held his own axe horizontal - for better protection. He didn’t know if this would help him, anyway.
He saw the mighty sword of the demon coming down...

He couldn’t let it happen that innicent humans died from an unholy demon’s weapon. He concentrated a bit, then threw his flame-arrow towards the tiger-creature. That would block him, he knew.

Derlaf Hookhand stayed in the background. It was always safer to stay in the shadows, overseeing the situation.

Even Krasnegar got frightened. Demons ! He he hadn’t seen any of them for mor than...thinking...about 60 years ?
Unimportant. Now it was the time to swing his own axe ! He was glad that he had made the effort to adopt an axe for his crippled fingers...

His plans were different. The Gold secuded his mind. A good moment. The Dragon was occupied in this fight. The enemies were all bound in the fight against one another. Now was the time. He drew his long knife...

Krasnegar felt a sting in his back. Deep, but not deadly. Who could’ve done this...a traitor ?

Derlaf Hookhand was quick. He soon disarmed the Half-Elf. He would never be able to hurt anyone  with his knife again...
He hated traitors; that was why he wished to punish the Half-Elf himself. But no - he had to wait until the fight was over. They had to interrogate him.
He put him into the deepest corner of the cave and guarded him.

Xera was irritated. First she had thought the Dragon was their foe, but now everything was different!? The Dark Men over there frightened her. She took aim at one of the dark rascals, and shot an rrow directly into his heart.

She noticed that there was something going on in her back. She turned around and saw a fallen Krasnegar, with his axe laying nearby. Instinctively she saw that he needed help. Xera ran towards him, trying to heal the Dwarf.
Bearpaw had biten into the leg of the leader of the dark human companions of the evil sister. He was a big, heavy man with a deep voice.
Inimpresse, he walked further on; he was far too strong for the dog. Bearpaw looked for a new opponent.

Xera concentrated. This spell  HAD to work !

And she made it ! Slowly, slowly Krasnegar’s wound closed itself...
After that, she had to heal the Half-Elf...she didn’t like him that much, but she also didn’t like injured people...

Sajet stood for a moment still. That wasn’t her foe. The REAL and true enemy had come through a gap in the rock.
In the back of her mind she called her gods for help...

It rumpled a bit; the earth trembled a bit, but not very much.
Everyone stood still - except the tiger-demon, who was just being banned with the help of  the pentagram, just collapsing into a cloud of stinking smoke. Eolus had managed throwing him back to where he had come from ! He felt a little bit exhausted. Thank God the others demons were far easier to fight. He drew his mighty hield, which he had „enforced“ with his magical powers. It was now ideal for his mission.

The Dragon was glad having an able Magician between this bunch of might-be-heroes. Someone who was actually able to ban demons. Although - he had helped him a bit, since he had weakened the tiger-demon with his flame-arrow.

The tiger-creature couldn’t stand this ban. In a wild fury he cried out his anger about the ban.
Ulath, the Northerner, standing directly before the demon, held his ears shut...

It rumpled a bit; the earth trembled a bit. Out of the ground came a human-high, white Cobra.
No-one knew how, why  and where this creature had come from.
The Cobra hissed loudly, then turned towards the heavy leader with the deep voice...

Sajet was both surprised and delighted. Did SHE do this ? Did this mean she was REALLY the last Priestess of her ancient religion ? Had she really managede it calling one of her Gods ? Her bracelet looked like glowing red. With wide eyes, opened by surprise, she looked after the Cobra.
An attacker, determined to take advantage of this situation, didn’t succeed; Bearpaw had been faster.

The heavy man was surprised. What was that ? A white Cobra - coming directly out of the Earth ? Well, he was sure he would handle this creature, and take it back to where it had come from - to the Earth. He lifted his weapon - a heavy blade, „improved“ by a stolen brew made of Tea and demon’s blood... In his eyes there was bloodlust. Yelling, he ran towards the Cobra.

The Cobra spit fire. A fireball - or was is a stream ? - flew directly towards the heavy man, who could only just avoid the hot fire. His clothes were partially burned.

He smiled. The slow Cobra wouldn’t be a match for him....

The Cobra mutated into a huge, white, cat-like Warrior...

Krasnegar felt better now. Xera brought him carefully into an corner.

The middle of both sisters drew both of her blades. Yelling a war cry, she ran tiowards her bad, older sister.

Sajet regained consciousness. Wondering, she saw an attacker laying at her feet, Bearpaw standing next to her, wagging his tail. She drew her sword, ready to stand by her Gods...
Bearpaw followed her.

Eolus felt exhausted. He didn’t thought that he would be able to use his normal method of banning a demon in this fight again. So, he specialized on casting spells on the rest of the demons.

Derlaf watched the former strayer losing his paralysis. This one also drew his weapon, but also held this mysterious Amulet tight.
Something had chanced. That was not the way the strayer normally moved...

The strayer couldn’t think a single clear thought.
The strayer could think clearer like he never could.
The Amulat took possession of him.
 He ran in a strange way towards the evil Princess.

The blades clinked.

Flamjiadi was an Elemental. Or an elemental ghost. He didn’t know for sure.
But there was one thing he did know for sure: He hated demons !
So he flew to the cloud-like demon and attacked this one with his fireballs. But the creature was good at avoiding them...

Angry about the imprisonment of her half-brother, the dark sister weaved a paralysing (and nearly turning into stone) spell.
That was a thing the middle sister was unprepared about.She was only able to reflect her sister’s own spell back to her, instead to Derlaf Hookhand, whom the evil sister had taken as a target.

The middle sister saw how her older sister prepared herself for a spell. She didn’t know which one she would use, but she knew that any spell of her didn’t mean any good.
She swung both of her blades faster and faster, because she was determined to show the evil sister her border.
But in a sudden she changed her target ! The middle sister was almost stunned, as she realized that she was now her sister’s target ! The only thing she could do was letting her blades fall and then throw herself to the ground.
The spell was cast, but the middle sister was not there anymore. Instead, her spell was now aimed at one of her human companions. She couldn’t stop her spell anymore, with the effect that instead this rascal now got paralysed...

Ulath saw a great, matching opponent: the leader of the evil group, the heavy man yelling in a deep voice; he had seen him before - at Krasnegar’s. He took his big axe, and ran to him.

For Aidan this fight was too much. Harder than he had expected. He hadn’t seen a real fight before (except the attack of the Ogres), and he became sick.
FRom the distance he saw the young Princess fleeing into a tunnel. What, if someone of the evil group followed her ? He had to protect her. So he ran after her, through the cave, carefully avoiding arrows and blades, into the tunnel.

The Dragon was now totally displeased by the whole action. He hafn’t imagined such a strange fight even in his stranges dreams. First, there was a group which tried to attack him, second, there appeared the evil sister of the Princess with her group, and additionally several demons and one God !
He was astonished to see this strange God-Fighter between the figures. He remembered four Gods of an ancient religion - which had been young as he had been young, too...

He saw his hoard in danger. He had to intercept some of these...

The middle sister didn’t look particularly impressive. She was pretty, but not beyont the normal measure.
Schima had always been different than the other two ones. The King had never understood why, but he had accepteed it.
As he didn’t want to detract her love for freedom, he did evolve a new profession for her, in which she could work mostly free: The Royal Diplomat. In fact, she acted in this position like a kind of courier.

She had always been a Diplomat, always travelling back and forth between the aristocratic courts.
She didn’t mind. Instead, she loved nothing more than her freedom and nature. In the fug of the royal court (at least that was how she considered it), she would have withered like a flower without air and light.
Here, as a Diplomat, she could live her lust for freedom without any restrictions - apart from the missions she had to fulfill - and freedom meant for her to be one with nature.
Naturally, the ways weren’t without dangers. Especially not for a Royal Diplomat. That was why she early realized (after a several attacks), that she had to defend herself. She learned several kinds of martial art, but strangely she was especially skilled in fighting with two swords at the same time.

A sill which had saved her life several times. A skill which was now valuable.

Xera looked after the Half-Elf. She was both astonished and shocked by his deed.
Her magical healing did not only free his hand from pain, but also his mind. „What have you done ?“ she whispered to him. „Was your greed for Gold so great ? Did it so totally overwhelm you ? You must be very diseased.“

The mist cleared in his mind. Now he had clear sight ! How blind had he been ! Now he saw what he had done - not only now, but also in the past years.
Had this greed for Gold influenced his whole life in such a fatal way ? He could hardly believe it.
„Please, save me...“ he whispert silently. Xera heard it, understood it.

Her whole life had always been influenced by jealousy and spitefulness. Always had her father preferred his youngest daughter ! Never could she live her own dreams and wishes ! Always only her youngest sister.
Pain, sorrow drew through her life. Sorrow and pain about missed chances, unspoken words and wishes, pain about a life in continuing self-scorn about her own incapability to just be her self. Pain, which had driven her into bitterness - and to the end into evil.

She had always had the feeling to have to subordinate herself under someone - after the death of her mother. She had been the only one who had really liked her.
First, she had to subordinate herself under her youngest sister - which always got what she wanted to - and then under this silly Druid. She didn’t kill him, only driven him away; at the moment of her final exam of her druidic education. She had shown the best she could do - and that had been more than her teacher had imagined. She was skilled in that.
The only skill she had, she thought with bitterness. And she would surely need it, to reach her aim.

Now she felt anger that she had been so weak - but her intentions were reasonable; no-one had ever understood her pain. She felt anger that she had been so weak, so that in a moment of deepest despair, hopelessness, bitterness and pain she had made this pact with that demon.
And this anger about herself only increased her self-scorn.
It was like driving in circles - with no end.

Derlaf and Krasnegar had cosen to help the others. The main reasons were that Krasnegar felt now better, and they saw Thorwyn in a heavy fight with four enemies attacking him, while Ulath now attackedc the big, heavy man, and Sajet went to help this strange, catlike looking fighter, which had looked like a Cobra before. This one seemed to consist merely of soil. They wathted this strange creature turning away from the heavy man, and towards the black-dressed woman.

Aidan reached the tunnel. In a distance he could see the Princess running away. Because he couldn’t imagine a better way, he just chose to tell her his situation. „Please wait ! Don’t run so fast! I must protect you !“ he shouted breathless after her.

The Princess hesitated. That a voice ! Someone had called her; and she was sure that this voice didn’t belong to a warrior. It sounded too wrong for that. This man must be an artist, she thought.
She stopped and looked back. There he came ! And his movements weren’t those of a fighter.

Instinctively his hannd took her arm; he did not know why. Maybe something in his subconsciousness had done this.
As Aidan and the Princess lokked into their eyes, it struck them like a thunder coming out of a clear sky: Now they knew that „love at first sight“ was...
For a moment, the the world around them seemed to halt. For a moment, they forgot the world around them...

She saw that her fight became more and more hopeless. Additionally, she had to overwhelm the Dragon.
In her despair she summoned her mightiest ally: The Archdemon, with which she had made this pact.

The strayer had finally reached her. In the middle of her summoning he pressed his Amulet onto her skin. She cried aloud.

Immediately a voice appeared in her mind. „Do you still want to destroy life ?“ the voice asked her. „Do you still want to flee from your own healing by destroying what you love ? Come to me, and I can heal you ! Come to me, and I will show you a life without pain !“
This voice didn’t sound seducing at all. Not at all like the voice of the demon. Instead, this one voice sounded clear and pure, clear like a stream in the mountains. This voice sounded like life, like a new beginning, like healing from the past. She sighed. Her subconsciousness said yes, and that was enough. She fell unconscious, as the Goddess took her over to heal her.

But ist was too late. The Archdemon, she had summoned, manifestated itself next to her, in the middle of the enormous cave.

Everyone stood still. Everyone stared at the ceiling of the cave. a colossal demon ! Eolus got panicked. An Archdemon ! That was too much for all of them !
But at the same time the catlike fighter grew, too, until he was as high as the black, winged creature.
Sa was a Goddess after all...

The huge demon, consisting of unholy stuff, complete with wings and claws, looked around him - with balls of fire instead of his eyes, located there, where living being had their eyes. Before him stood an enormous fighter, seemingly consisting merely of soil and/or loam. Consisting of earth itself.
The demon didn’t know fear, but he was near to that. Because this fighter was a Goddess...

Ulath fought against the heavy man. Both were absolutely equal opponents. Their blades met with loud clinking sounds. They moaned under the pressure.
Unfortunately the big man knew a few more tricks than Ulath did. With a sardonic smile he brutally struck Ulath’s blade several times, shortly one after the other. ULath lost control over his blade. He hadn’t met such a brutal, mean foe before.
In an incredible movement - surely supported by magic, otherwise it wouldn’t be possible, Ulath thought - the big man struck against his blade, disconnecting the blade from its wodden handle.
Ulath was now defenseless.

Just as the heavy man lifted his own weapon fot his final strike - which was actually supported by magic - he heard a shout behind him.
He turned around.
He looked down.
„Oh, look !“ he said with his deep voice. „There is Krasnegar, the cripplehand !“ He would only need a short time for him. The Northerner was unprotected now. He lifted his blade.

Finally ! Finally had he met his torturer ! And finally he could take revenge.
The heavy man wasn’t fast enough to realize that the Dwarf hit him.

As the companions of the evil sister and the heavy man saw this, they got panicked.

The rascals had no leader anymore. They fled.
Sajet, Derlaf and Bearpaw followed them, while the Fox looked after the wounds of Thorwyn. Four enemies were too many him. He was glad that his friends had finally helped him.
A was a little bit angry about himself: Don’t let youself be drawn by a group into a fight ! He told himself.

Ulath stood still. He had to regain strength from this heavy fight.

The strayer was now awaken once again. His Amulet laid now on the black-dressed woman. He drew his weapon to fight against the remaining foes - all of them demons.

As his own weapon broke through, he looked uneasily around himself. His hands were now free.
Suddenly the female warrior with the two swords was next to him. It wasn’t Sajet. She gave him one of her blades, and for a moment they were filled by a kind of harmony.

What she didn’t know was that her swords were sanctified...
They would surely beat the demons with these blades.

The earth quaked under the feet during the fight of the Goddess against the unholy demon.

The Draghon saw that he could support her in her fight. With all his power he cast a demon-ban against this unholy creature, which shook himself, being heavily damaged.

Sa was a Goddess. And the strike of a God or a Goddess was the most terribly thing of anything imaginable. She hit him with her sword, made of earth. The demon was now beaten. With an terrible, unerthly cry the creature disappeared.

The Goddess became smaller again. She wanted to thank Sajet for having called her.

Under a cacophony of moaning and groaning th lat ones of the ddmons disappeared, too.
The allied forces consisting of Eolus, Flamjiadi, the strayer and Schima, the middle sister, had won!

The fleeing warriors of the oldest sister, who originally „belonged“ to the heavy man, who was a kind of mercenary together with his group, didn’t come far.
From the Entrence of the cave came a signal ! A fanfare ! The Royal Sign !

The King himself had come here to rescue his own daughter. But now he met fleeing people and a changed situation.

He had found the way tzo the casle through a scout, who had told him - through couriers - which way the bunch of heroes had taken.
Some incidents had consumed additional time...

The King had come, seen, and won ! At least that would have been the way an biographer would have written it, if the King hadn’t demanded to notice that the Heroes had been the ones who had actually won the battle.

Aidan had just finished his newest work of art a few days ago: A Ballad about the Rescue of the Princess !

Now he was just singing, supported by his lute and the voice of Xera. And the voice of the Princess!

It had been a successful surprise for the Heroes who were now happily sitting around him!
He had mrerely invited them „to a small snack“. Xera and the Princess had been the only ones who had known about the whole thing - apart from Bearpaw. They had carefully exercised the whole Ballad.

They were now sitting at the Royal Table, some snacks and drinks standing before them.

Now they were all together:
Thorwyn with his speaking sword, wich always tried to comment the singing, but was successfully hindered by Thorwyn,
Sajet, who was noe wearing the official vestment of a Priestess of her Religion - so unapparent, that they wouldn’t had noticed it, if they hadn’t known,
Krasnegar, who was just bumping his drink with
Ulath’s drink, both seemingly not caring about the fine music that filled the hall,
the Fox, who had come to this place with his old friend, the magician, wjo hat temporarily given him the human shape once again (they all know his little secret now),
Gideon Derlaf, who was about to bump his drink with the dink of
Kelendan - the scout the King had sent - too,
Tira, a little bit pale woman, who had formerly been a Princess, but had just given up her right for the throne to live at a place where she now found peace after all those years,
Qarn, the Half-Elf, her half-brother, who would travel in the next days into the elfish area, to a plece where there didn’t exist any gold,
Schima, the middle one of the three King’s daughters, who was carefully listening the music produced by the four musicians - Aidan, Xera, the Princess and Bearpaw who sometimes howled through the hall, hand in hand with
Alrik, the strayer, who would now accompany Schima’s missions - as the Second Royal Diplomat.

The morning-dawn came, as the music ended. All of them were a bit astonished that they had listened through all the music without getting tired, a thing that told them much about the good quality of the Ballad.

The audience applauded.

After the applause the King stood up, and said: „It is dawning now. In two hours the sun will rise. I think, it makes no sense getting to sleep now, since we will have a small festivity at sunrise.“ Like a conspirer he blinked to the musicians.
„I think we should rather use the last couple of the remaining hours to talk, drink, and then prepare ourselves, because today, exactly to the sunrise, Aidan and my daugter Sahita will marry !“

On the one hand, the audience was surprised, on the other hand it was not. It had been too obvious that they had a thing going, after the rescue in the cave, but they were a bit surprised that the marriage would take place so early.

Nevertheless they were happy, to be able to witness the forthcoming wedding, before the group would part again.

After a while of talking, drinking and singing, a courier unexpectedly disturbed the fellowship.
„What’s on ?“ the King asked the courier, a little bit angry.
The courier reported: „Sir, You have a visitor. A Dragon is standing at the Castle’s Entrance and wishes to get permission to enter.“
„Ah, just in time !“ the King sighed. „Go, and let him in !“ He waved a sign to the servant, who disapperad quickly. He seemed not to have experience with Dragons.
„And now, I think we should now slowly walk towards the place where the marriage will take place. Follow me !“ the King shouted.

Everyone had gathered in a half-circle around the Priestess, the King, the bride and the groom, and Bearpaw.
Sajet worked as the Priestess for the ceremony.
Over all, the Dragon watched the scenery.
From afar, an old, unapparent magician watched them.
A bat flapped by.

The Priestess and all the others waited for the sign.

Now they saw the sunrise...

THE END