I walked for two days in a largely circular route looking for any sign of the temple in the mountain. I was careful to stop and see if I was being followed, but there were no signs of my captors being interested in me anymore. I think waking up to find your paymaster slowly roasting on a campfire would probably be enough to put most people off their breakfast. But I thought it wise to be careful.
I was able to bag a couple of rabbits with my bow and started to feel much more confident with it than I had when I first picked it up. Risking a small fire on the second night I enjoyed a hot meal washed down with clear spring water. I had never considered a life of adventuring before, but so far, I thought, I seemed to be able to take care of myself. The horror of what I had done was still there at the edges of my mind, but the more I thought about it, the more I convinced myself that I had no other choice. And what is done is done. This is what I tell myself to this day. I was keen to see if Berad was going to be there at Temple, I was keen to tell him of what had happened. Maybe he had some answers.
The following morning, in the distance, I noticed two huge doors that had been cut into the mountainside, which was odd, because I had been retracing my steps out of an abundance of caution and I could have sworn they had not been there before. These could only be the entrance way to the temple that Berad had talked about, but if there was a dragon inside, there was no sign of it. The climb was steep, and I was winded when I reached the foot of a long, stone stairway. I looked up to see that there must have been hundreds of steps cut into the rock leading to the entrance. There at the top was a figure clad in black, with his dark cloak floating in the wind. My spirits lifted immeasurably as I recognised Berad standing above me and I lifted my arm in greeting. He signaled back and I started the arduous climb to meet him.
After what seemed like a week, but in all likelihood was probably no more than an hour I climbed the last step to stand next to him.
“Hail Berad!” I said cheerfully as I approached. Berad looked at me with a seriousness I had not seen before.
“How did you escape?” I asked him, catching my breath. “Who was the man dressed in white?” Berad said nothing, so I persevered. “Also, the men that took me were talking about something big that was happening and they seemed to think that I was in the middle of it all, do you know what that is?
“Is this where the dragon is?” I looked around. “It doesn’t look like somewhere a Dragon would be, anyone could walk straight up to it and knock on the door.”
The cleric was still ignoring me.
“How did you know I was going to get free? Were you following me? Do you know who they were? I killed one of them, it made me very sad, but I thought about it and…”
Berad turned to face me and put his hand on my shoulder. As he did so he said something under his breath and all of a sudden I couldn’t speak. I could think the words, I knew what I wanted to say, but it was if my mouth wouldn’t work.
“Peace at last.” He sighed. Then he grabbed my arm and everything turned white.
I blinked, we were no longer standing on the steps of the Temple, but inside a huge cavern. It was ancient, you could tell that it had been around for eons, the pillars were hewn from a dark stone I didn’t recognise, with intricate carvings ornately woven into them.
“As required by the Mother of Night, we travel from one place to this.” Berad intoned. “Needs must we start from the steps of the cursed temple, hidden from all but the faithful to make our way to the other side of the world.” He grabbed me again and forced me to walk with him towards an enormous alcove at the far end of the chamber. As we approached I could hear a rumble starting from within.
Berad positioned me in front of the opening and touched me on the top of my head. “Still.” He said. And now, as well as not being able to speak, I found that I couldn’t move either.
“In the search for renewed favour from our dread mother, we sacrifice this tarnished soul and cause the purest to commit atrocities against her nature.” Berad said quietly. At that he reached into a fold within his cloak and withdrew the scroll that I had purloined from the townhouse.
He stepped back and to the side, so that whatever was in the alcove would not be able to see him, unrolled the scroll and started reading from it.
I felt an incredible chill wash over me as the cleric uttered strange words that I couldn’t understand. The noise from within the huge black alcove grew louder still. At one point Berad stopped reading, lifted his eyes from the scroll and said in a high pitch voice, not unlike my own, “I feel no fear. Your might does not scare me. I will take what I want and be away!”
There was an almighty roar from within and suddenly out of the blackness appeared the head of an almighty beast, eyes glittering, it’s snout, head and neck covered in scales that might have been wrought from delicate leaves of silver or platinum. But not even the finest silversmiths of the Dwarven mountains could have created such a masterpiece as this. The head swayed slightly as the creature took in the surroundings and then fixed on me, still unable to move, more unwilling to speak.
“Who DARES enter my halls and challenge me?” The Dragon roared, speaking as much to me as much in my head as within the space between us. “Speak halfling!” It roared, focusing all of its energy toward me.
Still bound by the dark clerics words I could not answer the Dragon. But oh, I wanted to so very much. I wanted to tell it about the awful mistake I had made and how Berad had pretended to be my friend, but that he was tricking me, and the Dragon to get what he wanted.
“SPEAK!” The Dragon roared, and at first, I thought it was getting angry with me, but then I realised that it might be using some arcane power to force me to speak.
Now I don’t know much about spells and whatnot, but I think that there must have been some confusion, what with the cleric magicking me to do one thing and the Dragon another, so whilst I still couldn’t speak out loud, I now found that I could move a little, so I nervously pointed to the side where Berad was still engrossed in his scroll and not really paying me a lot attention. The Dragon’s turned its long, graceful neck and shifted its gaze from me to the cleric. I dashed to hide behind one of the gargantuan pillars. I wasn’t scared so much, but it seemed sensible to me to put something solid between me and it.
Then I heard a huge intake of breath, like the sound of the ocean crashing onto a stone shore, a sharp tang filled the air and she spoke in a deep cavernous voice. “So, you thought to best me, little one?” And then everything went very dark.
Briefly.
An icy blast erupted from the Dragons mouth engulfing the cleric. From my hiding place I saw Berad put his hands up to ward off the attack, but it was in vain. As the terrifying blast echoed and bounced around the stone hall, I saw what looked like a white statue where the cleric had once stood. Frozen solid with a look of pure terror on his face, the ice carving of Berad slowly toppled backwards and hit the floor shattering into a thousand pieces.
I shut my eyes and coughed again. This just wasn’t fair. I just wanted to find my Pappa. The sound of footsteps quietly walking towards me made me open my eyes and look up into the almond eyes of the most beautiful woman I had ever seen.
“Who are you?” I stammered. “Where did you come from?”
The silver haired woman laughed lightly. “I have been here for centuries. The more important question is where did you come from and why are you here?”
“Oh.” I said softly, understanding coming to me eventually. “You’re the dragon?” I was trembling a little, which isn’t surprising as it had been quite a day so far and this was just another shock in a long list of shocking things. So, I told her my story, of the Guild Master and the Scroll and meeting Berad and I didn’t even leave the part out where I shot the snitch thief with my arrow. “And so,” I finished, “if you could just let me see the book, I’ll be on my way, I don’t want gold, or treasure or whatever it is you’re guarding.”
“My poor child, I know not of these things.” She smiled sadly. “I sit, guarding this world’s greatest folly, not its greatest treasure.” She touched my chest with one of her slender fingers. “That which lives in the hearts and minds of folk such as yourself.”
As she touched me, I felt as if a great weight had been lifted from me. I would find my Pappa and brother soon enough, but maybe not just yet. I smiled at her, my eyes brimming with tears. “Can I go home?” I asked.
“Of course little one and take my blessings with you. I see that you have a perilous journey ahead of you, where strength, courage and a stout heart will be in high demand. Watch for friendly folk, trust them and when an offer of a simple task comes your way that seems a little too good to be true, take it.”
She closed her eyes and I felt as if I was floating. I looked around to see what was happening, but it was if I was looking at a huge map. It was quite detailed as someone had taken the time to draw clouds and shadows. And then, all of a sudden it was getting bigger again and I had the unfortunate sensation of falling, faster and faster until it felt like I was going to smash into one of the buildings in the town that seemed to be rushing up to meet me. Well, after everything that had happened, evil clerics and Kings Guards and snitch thieves and of course, Dragons, this would be one way to go.
And then I wasn’t floating any more but standing on the slick cobblestones of Daggerford. With people milling about me as if I were just stopping to look at the buildings. With a start I realised that my packs were full, my quiver bristling with arrows and in my pocket was a silver skull, about the size of a gold piece.
I made my way to ‘The Lady Luck Inn’ toward the centre of town, where I fancied I might be able to tell my tale and meet some folks.
