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[Hello, here is the next part of the Wasteland Chronicles, for the previous part of the story check out the fan fiction on my site http://www.angelfire.com/goth/divinedivinity/home.htm
I've also posted the previous 2 posts ...]


éhéhéhéh, Still hungry? Dulartus said with what he believed to be cute voice. I would give you some food but the kitchen has just been cleant.
I know what we cold do, we can go and catch you a chicken, You're up to that? éhéh yes you are, yes you are... Does that mean a yes, what you are doing with your head? You DO understand me, that's nice, now come with me. you'll have to come with me, it's not like the chicken will just fly into your mouth. Ok, ok I'll carry you. Dulartus grabbed Elmo but...

The thousand year clock is winding down. In a matter of several minutes, the elemental spirit will be released from its millenium of duty as a guardian of the Ancient Staff of the Elements. When that time comes -- soon -- very soon now -- the guardian will return to its elemental plane, and a new guardian shall be appointed.
The Voice from Beyond shall ask, "Who bears the staff?"
Then the staff bearer shall be transformed into an elemental spirit and bound by duty to the staff for the next one thousand years.
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A "Flying Fox" bat wings its way through clouded mountain passes searching in the moonless night for a thing it can not name, yet can not ignore. A voice on the wind calls to him, "Bignor! Bignor! Here I am! Find me!"
But Bignor is cold and tired and very, very far from his home.

Vuldaran didn’t recognize this place anymore, he knew all the places to the cave by heart but this one he just couldn’t seem to place and it kinda drove him mad. He got of his horse to think and he pacing around in circles to refresh his memory but he just couldn’t find it.
He got so upset by it that D’luga got scared and started to trample a bit. Vuldaran shouted in the emptyness of the mountains, getting rid of his frustrations. D’luga was so scared by that horse that it mounted on it’s backlegs. Hereby it bumped against the mountain wall and the Staff got hooked to a small rock sticking out of the wall. It tumbled onto the ground and bounced towards the ravine. Vuldaran saw it and jumped towards the Staff…

Too late, he saw it bouncing into the ravine just before his eyes.

Vuldaran sudenly didn’t feel so dizzy anymore. It felt like his mind was clearing up and he came back to the real world. His eyesight became fuzzy and then slowly cleared up again and he recognized this place again. “YES” he shouted, ”Let’s go !!”.

He paced very quickly and dangerously now because it was getting very dark and he needed 30 more minutes to get to the cave.

*skip 30 minutes* ------------

When he arrived in the cave he immediately put a ban on the entrance and went deeper into the cave to meet with the Dark. When he entered the big room where the Dark stayed he immediately felt… home *at last*.
He tied the Elven woman onto an altar in the middle of the room and he saw that the Dark immediatley got to work, the information she kept was very important for him. He saw the elven woman struggling and fighting against the Dark but this was a fight that she just couldn’t win.
A few hours later she collapsed and she couldn’t resist anymore. Vuldaran felt the information flowing into his brain from the Elven woman via the Dark. He now knew where to go and he didn’t like the fact that it was quite a long and dangerous journey, even for him it was dangerous. He got instructions from the Dark to lock the Elven woman up and to get going on his journey. They needed the Elven woman for the Ritual so they would keep her alive as long as needed to complete the Ritual.

Vuldaran locked her up in one of the cells that could be found deeper in the cave that have been cut out by Dwarves. The cave itself was enormous and neither Vuldaran nor the Dark knew all of it’s secrets.

----------------

The Dwarves were not stupid when they made this cave because every room had 2 entrances. Even the cells, but the 2 entrance of the cells were hidden in it’s concrete walls and could only be opened from the outside. Behind the cells lay an immens and hidden network of corridors and rooms to escape if necessary, this was something that Vuldaran and the Dark didn’t know about…..

Bignor, the "Flying Fox" bat, fluttered through the thick fog, keenly aware of every rock, bush, and insect within earshot. He also heard the voice on the wind that called him. It called him by the name he owned when he was, for a time, an orc and a mage. The voice was that of Nogda, the Chief of his tribe. He had been an orc for years and years, and during that time he was steadfast in his loyalty to Nogda. He feared and worshipped Nogda. Now, Nogda was calling him, and every bone in his body (though now the body of a bat) told him to obey.

He was getting closer. Nogda's voice was louder, clearer. As he banked left into a foggy, moonless, night-filled valley he heard Nogda call again, this time from far above. Then, his hypersensitve ears detected an object falling toward him from above. It was long, and bigger on one end. It tumbled in freefall, an inanimate object plummeting toward him. His bat reflexes instantly adjusted his flight path and pivoted in a backward flip just in time to clasp the object with his rear claws. Summoning all of his strength, he fluttered his wings to slow the descent of the object until he finally gained the lift and speed he needed to begin a slow gradual climb out of the valley.

The object felt familiar. Very familiar. Nogda's voice whispered in his ear, "Good Bignor. Go now to the bridge. Carry the Staff while I bring the cyclone tailwind."

The gemstone on the head of the staff glowed wildly and the voice of Nogda whispered powerful words. Bignor traversed the vast distance across mountains and desert in a blur. Thunder echoed in his wake, and a shockwave formed in front of him, from traveling faster than the speed of sound. In no time at all the bridge was near.

As Bignor settled to a gentle landing near the center of the bridge, Fenrik's voice spoke from Beyond asking, "Who bears the staff?"

Drakonis saw this man that fed this little creature and then tried to pick him up. The little creature reminded him of something, something that he knew. Then suddenly he saw the little creature jump out of the mans arms........

DQueene came out of her dreamless sleep completely alert, gazing around the camp swiftly to see if everything was as it should be. “Mari is practically falling asleep standing up, poor child,” she thought as she rose from her warm spot by the fire.

She got up, slowly stretching like a cat to loosen up all the kinks in her body, and walked over to Mari, “Go to sleep, child, I’ll wake you in a few hours and we’ll continue our journey.” Mari nodded tiredly, and walked over to snuggle up to Shana by the fire. She appeared to fall asleep almost before her head was resting on her makeshift pillow.

Time passed swiftly for DQueene, she was alert to everything in her surroundings, but took the time to puzzle out the spell that had forced her change into the elven form she had worn for so many years. “Ah ha, so that’s how they did it!” She whispered to herself. “So if I do this … and this … Done!” She thought triumphantly.

She looked around the camp, gazing longest, and fondly, at the two girls sleeping so soundly and then lastly at the elf. “No, I stay as I am for now. They need not know I’ve found the key.” She mused. “They will let me stay with them if I’m in this form. I can protect them better this way.”

She walked over and shook both girls awake. Shana reacted instantly, jumping up and grabbing her knife from where she kept it hidden, prepared to fight.

DQueene, pretending it didn’t hurt her to see someone so young, so fearful, just held up her hand and told them both, “It’s time to go. The army won’t march again until at least morning, if then. The commanders won’t be able to rouse their men to march with their heads swollen from so much alcohol.”

She turned to look at the elf and asked the girls, “What do we do with him?”

Mari yawned, stretched herself and then groaned: Every tiny bone and muscle protested against her recent ride. A quick look to Zanor, who seemed to be alright - then a quick look to Elendirill.
"Guess, we'll have to wake him up, DQueene, hope he's in a better mood. Can you tell me, what's going on between the two of you?"
DQueene kept silent, Mari sighed, shrugged her shoulders and then went over to the huddled figure.
"Hey, Erendirill, you lazy-bones, come on, wake up - time to save the world, so stop sulking and pretending to sleep..." No stir. "Aw, come on, Elf, there are more important things going around than a feud between you and DQueene... Please, get up and be reasonable... I've got a map for you, I know where Feraila will probably be..." No stir, again. Mari felt impatience rise up and bent down to shake him...

DQueene saw Mari reaching down to shake the elf. She shouted at her, suddenly afraid he might take his anger towards her out on the trusting girl "No Mari! Get back! Let me wake him!"

Elendirill was pulled out of a dreamless sleep. The first in a very long time. He opened his eyes and reality grabbed him by the throat. Before he realized what he saw, a vision of Feraila came to mind. She had a place in his heart from the moment they met, but during the last month she had dominated his thoughts ... Not by her doing though, she wasn't the kind of elf who would draw attention to herself. But her being pulled away from him caused all of this.
He opened his eyes, still blury from sleep and sadness, and looked into the face of an elven woman.

Feraila? Elendirill asked with a broken voice. But then he saw the girl from the camp standing behind her ... and it was only then when he realized who he was staring right into the face.
He crawled back, wanting to get away. Fear and humiliation were mixing there own new kind of anger. When he noticed them looking at him, and others too from the corner of his eye, he calmed down. They expected him to get mad like he did before, but he wasn't going to let this chance slip away. If she wanted them dead, she had her chance when everybody was asleep ... He took a deep breath, and spoke to the dragon in his elven tongue, so the rest wouldn't understand:

I am looking for my wife ... and if you, in any way, can help me braking her free ... I ... would be in your debt. But he added swiftly: But you cannot expect from me to trust you entirely ... you know what you have done to the elven community ... and such a loss can never be forgotten nor be compensated, not for the elves ...

DQueene stared into his eyes. They say that your eyes are the windows to your soul, and if that was true than he was being honest. She answered him in his elven tongue, “I have done nothing to your kind, elf. You won’t believe me, but I speak only the truth. Now, I give you my warning. Your anger is with me, and if you cause any harm to these girls because of that anger – you will die.”

She stared at him intently, “Do you understand? They have my protection and you will not cause them harm.”

She turned and smiled at Mari and Shana, “We have reached an understanding. We will ride together.”

She turned to Shana, “You said you had food? Why don’t you fix us something to eat, while Mari and I get the horses ready?”

She turned to the elf, “Can you make the camp look as if no one slept here? We should remove all traces of us being here. We can eat while we ride, if that is good for everyone.”

at the same time, a unknown dragon woke up at the dragon lair...

ELmo? Where you're going? Oh you think you'll get there yourself? Well you can Go and try.

----------------------------+

Drakonis stood there, the little creature was coming towards him. He took the few strides between them and reach out with his hand to touch the little thing. This creature looked familiar somehow. As soon as he touched the creatures head, he knew this was not a little creature but in fact a small little dragon. But what was it doing it this abbey were the monks taunted dragons. He scratched this little dragon hoping he would get a response

the little dragon who woke up at the lair, opened his eyes and looked if he saw his mother or father anywere, but he didn't...

Sparkl flitted into her home fire, glad to be once again at the Abbey. She drifted out of the great hearth and floated around the ceiling of the Calderia. Looking down, she saw Kegger stoking the fire, just as she did every evening before she trundled off to bed. Sparkl floated down next to Kegger's ear and spoke to her.

"The elf lady is trapped in a prison in a mountain cave. The Evil One did something to her, something painful! You told me that the visitors were looking for her. You should tell them that I will help. But, first, you must make them hear me."

Kegger perked up, listened, then replied firmly, "I will tell them, little one. I will make them listen to you. Will you stay here while I try?"

Sparkl replied, "No. I must return to the fire, but you can call me when you need me. I can always hear you from this fire. Always." The floating ember drifted into the hearth flames, and disappeared into the crackling fire.

Kegger looked around. She had been planning to go to bed for the night, but this was important. Eandrae had brought the travelers here to the Abbey, so maybe Eandrae could contact them and arrange for them to meet Sparkl. It was worth a try. She saw the golden-haired stranger in the kitchen, so she decided to ask him if he had seen Eandrae or Dulartus.

"Young man," she began, "have you seen any of the other visitors? I need to speak to one of them named 'Eandrae'. She knows where Mari and DQueene have gone, and I have urgent news for them!"

Drakonis replied, "I know DQueene, old mother. I am Drakonis. She is my queen, and I am her prince. Perhaps I can give her the news you speak of?"

Kegger was flustered a little, because she had never met a real prince before. On the other hand, she didn't know that she had met a real queen before, either, and DQueene had seemed quite -- "ordinary" is not the right word.

It didn't take long for Kegger to regain her composure and get down to business. "I have a special friend. Her name is Sparkl, and she is a Fire Faery." She waited to see how this information registered on Drakonis' face. He seemed to take the statement quite matter-of-factly, so she continued. "Mari and DQueene were looking for a lady elf who had been kidnapped. Sparkl knows where the elf lady is, and is willing to lead them to her. Can you take this message to them?"

"I can do better than that." replied Drakonis, "I can speak to DQueene with my mind. She will hear." With that said, Drakonis concentrated and reached out with his mind, calling to DQueene. "I have urgent news ..."

Shana saw DQueene cock her head as if she was listening to someone talk to her. Wait! She could hear something too. It was a ‘male’ voice saying something to DQueene. She tried to stop listening. She really did! But now it was as clear as if he was standing there talking to them. He was telling DQueene that there was a Fire Faerie who knew where she was.

Shana looked at Mari and blurted out as she ran to the fire and peered at it intently, “There’s a Fire Faerie who knows where Feraila is! She’s coming to visit and we just have to watch for her. Do you know what a Fire Faerie looks like?”

DQueene heard Shana telling everyone what Drakonis had just told her in complete disbelief. “How did she know? She couldn’t have heard him … only a dragon would hear him.”

“Shana,” DQueene walked forward hesitantly. “Did you just hear Drakonis tell me about the Fire Faerie?”

Shana looked up at her and blushed, “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have listened; but he really was speaking to loud.” She scowled, “You should tell him not to think so loud. It hurts!” She turned around to study the fire again expectantly.

DQueene, just stood there stunned. She sniffed the air trying to see if the girl smelled of dragon. “Nothing,” she shook her head impatiently. Then she tried pushing her own thoughts gently at the girl and came up hard against a wall. Testing it, she could find no hint of how it came to be; just that she could not enter. “I must find out what is going on, but not now. Feraila comes first, then the evil, and then the child.”

She stared at the fire, waiting …

"Elendirill?" The elf startled and turned around, "Elendirill here is a map I drew according to my visions... Yes, I've spilled some ink on it, but here, you can see the cave clearly, right? This is the source of all that evil. We must be there as soon as possible... I feel it growing, gaining power. We're running out of time...."
The elf took the parchment hesitantly in his hand.
"Don't worry, the ink is dry... keep it, it's yours. Elendirill, we need to get there. I can't do anything on my own, but if we don't hurry, everything we love and care for will die. This evil sucks life, feeds of lust, anger, hatred - turns everything into a twisted mirror of one's self. Can't you feel the power rising? Feraila has something to do with it, I feel it..."
Mari stopped, words failed her and she looked intently at the elf's hardened face, waiting for some response.

another dragon-man ...

Your queene isn't around anymore.

Elmo! Elmo? are you coming or not?; hmm he seems attracted to you, you go and take him to eat a chicken. I think I'm going to help out the drunken monk... again.

Sparkl flitted from the Abbey's hearth to the hot spring's campfire, then floated over to Elendirill's ear.

She tried to speak slowly, but it probably sounded like a mosquito buzzing in his ear, "I am Sparkl. Are you the soulmate of the elf lady? I have seen her. I know where she is. I can help you, but you must be patient with me. I can't stay here for long. I can't stay anywhere for very long. But, I'll be back. Soon. Can you hear me? Can you?"

The ember started to float back toward the campfire ...

Lots of things happened at the same time.
For some reason Shana started telling verybody of a fire fairy, creatures from which he had heard, but only in some old stories his elders told, and ofcourse from the fairy tales they told to kids ... She almost yelled out how the fairy was going to bring them to the cave, but from what he knew from the old stories, that was impossible ... They couldn't stay away from their home fire very long, and the farther they got from it, the sooner they must return to their home fire. But then the human female came and gave him this map. She seemed to know where Feraila was too !!! How was this possible, he was the only one who was looking for his wife, and he seemed to be the only one who didn't know where she was !

Evil? He replied her ... I don't know about any evil, and actually I don't care very much either. As soon as we find Feraila I'm going to take her home, back to the forest, and we'll never leave again !! And whatever role she's playing in this nonsense, she isn't going to get killed by any evil creature !!

Elendirill almost yelled those last words, and some of the others even looked up from their staring into the fire. They were still hoping for the fire fairy ... Why would a creature so magickal, appear to beings so low as they were ... besides, the dragon would probably eat the fairy anyway, out of envy for it's magickal fire powers.

Then he heard a buzzing next to his ear, which was very strange because musquito's don't come out when it's this cold ... Speaking of which, it seemed to get a bit warmer too.
Elendirill looked around, but couldn't see anything, not even the littlest musquito. Then he started to pay more atention to the buzzing, there was something different, it even seemed like somebody was speaking very fast but very softly too ...

Sparkl flitted northward to the caves and found the torch that hung on the wall opposite Feraila's prison cell. She drifted through the narrow crack at the bottom of the cell door, and hovered briefly near the pallet where Feraila lay. The elf woman was beautiful once, but the starvation and torture had drawn dark circles under her eyes, and the shine was fading from her long silver hair.

Feraila was asleep. Sparkl could hear the sounds of her lungs -- early stages of pneumonia, or maybe just a chest cold? "Not good!" thought Sparkl, "This place is too dark, too damp, too cold. This lady will be very sick soon."

Sparkl found her way back to the torch outside the cell door, then flitted to the campfire where Elendirill sat. For him, only a moment had passed while Sparkl was gone. Sparkl drifted over to his ear again and spoke to him.

"Your elf-lady needs you to come soon. I think she is getting sick. It is dark. It is cold. It is damp there. You must leave now, if you would save her. I saw Mari's map. It is good enough to get you near to the cave. Light a fire or a torch when you get there. I will come to your flame and guide you to the cave. Hurry! Hurry!"

Sparkl then drifted over to Shana, but could force herself to stay only long enough to say "Follow Mari's map. Leave now! I will meet you at the bridge."

The glowing spot of light that was Sparkl began to fade. It quickly darted toward the campfire, and was gone.