*note: due to the reviews I have received, 'Rine will be called by her nickname, 'Rine. Zemenar will remain the same. To tell the difference, the other one's dead. Thank you.
The world re-appeared in another flash of light. Now they were in the Enchanted Forest.
"Huh?" said Antorell. "We are supposed to be at Society…I mean, we are going from here to get the poison. Once it gets to the castle, the entire population there will die!" He smiled nastily. "And it grows right here. See this?" He held up a small round, clear berry. "After I send this to the castle, and set it to crush at a certain time, a fog will come out, killing any people who breathe it in. Soon, no one at the castle will be alive!"
'Rine was about to say something to this horrible pronouncement, when a large streak of fire appeared, followed by a large dragon.
"ACHOO!" it roared. The dragon had three horns, showing it to be a female. Her scales were blue-ish gold and mostly round, and her tail was fairly long.
"WIZARDS!" she roared, and blew a column of fire at Antorell and Zemenar. Antorell made a pass with his staff and disappeared, while Zemenar simply rolled out of the way, making his staff disappear at the same time.
The dragon stopped mid-sneeze. "Where'd that wizard go?" she inquired suspiciously. "And what happened to that one's staff? And…who are you?"
"My name is 'Rine," replied 'Rine. "This is my friend, the Princess Shaana, and this" she intoned this with deep disgust "is Zemenar, a wizard."
"Wait, 'Rine," said Zemenar hesitantly, his eyes downcast. "I'd like to explain myself.
"First, I am not, technically, a wizard. Yes, I do have a staff and I use wizard spells but I'm not a wizard at all. My staff has a blocking spell put on it so that it doesn't trap magic. I only use wizard spells because I don't know any others.
"Second, I don't want to be a wizard. Dad wants me to." He scowled. "I want to be a magician. or create my own kind of magic. Using, I mean." He lifted his head. "Do you think that you could help me find a magician, maybe? I'm really sorry about everything my Dad did, and I wouldn't get in the way, you could just drop me off with the first magician you find. Please?"
"Will you wait a minute?" said Shaana crossly. "You obviously don't know anything about dragon etiquette, so shut up!"
"Thank you, Shaana," said the dragon. "However, since you are so young, I will make an exception." Seeing the startled expression on Shaana's face, she added, "I am thought of as a little strange by dragon standards; a little less straight and a good deal more peculiar. But back to the point. My name is Quella."
"Pleased to meet you, Quella," said 'Rine. "by the way, could you get us, all of us, back to the castle? It's the one in the center—well, not in the exact center, but that's pretty close, and if you get us there we can find our own way back, but—"
Quella cut in with a laugh. "Peace, little one. I know where the castle is. i was heading there myself when I felt a large flare of magic." She saw Shaana open her mouth, and answer the unasked question. "I was going there because my grandmother, King Kazul, recommended Queen Cimorene's cherries jubilee. I wanted to try some for myself."
"Well, said 'Rine. "I'm fairly sure that she'll give you as much cherries jubilee as you want if you help us back home." She couldn't help thinking about how this was the dragon who had helped save King Mendanbar from the wizards.
"I'm glad. My grandmother gave me the recipe and I made it, and it was delicious. I had to try the master's work. Now, back to business. We're going to get back to the castle with a spell because I can't carry all of you. Since you are all magic users, we might all have to work together," said Quella.
"Wow," whispered Zemenar. "A dragon spell. A real dragon spell." At the looks from the girls he added defensively, "I told you Dad won't let me study any other kinds of magic. And all the people I know are wizards." Then he smiled. "And I can help work it." He walked over to Quella. "So let's start."
_ _ _
2 hours later, when all the plants and various other articles needed for the spell were collected, the spell began. It took about 15 minutes to set it up, and then Quella said:
"Ways of wind and earth and fire,
take us to the King's Tower."
There was a rush of sound and light. 'Rine felt like an ocean was roaring in her ears while she was inside a tornado. Then she heard Quella's voice say, "Oh, I'm so sorry, I didn't calibrate it to your size! Well, here we are!" and they dropped onto the hard floor of the throne room. It was just dawn, and someone was asleep in the throne. It was Morwen.
"Mom!" yelled 'Rine. Morwen opened her eyes.
"'Rine! She shouted. "You're back! Nobody knew where you were—thought you were dead—lost forever—just disappeared," she said through her tears. At the same time she was hugging 'Rine and Shaana as hard as she could. Zemenar was standing off to the side awkwardly. "Cimorene! Telemain! Mendanbar! Shiara! Daystar! They're back!"
"But not for long," snarled a familiar voice. Antorell had appeared, and was holding the poison-berry. "I don't really care about my own life, apparently, as much as getting rid of all of you—" He was cut off by Zemenar leaping onto him and bringing him to the ground. "No!" he yelled, trying to wrestle the berry from him.
Telemain appeared. "Faratshil!" he exclaimed. Antorell began to disappear quickly, fading away as soon as he had appeared. "Nooooooooooooooooooo!" he shrieked, the sound getting softer and softer as he disappeared, leaving only the staff and berry behind.
"Telemain! You figured it out!" shouted Cimorene, throwing her arms around his neck. Seeing the stunned look on the children's faces, she said, "When you disappeared, we naturally suspected the wizards. So Telemain started immediately, with even more eagerness, at discovering 'the wizard cure'." She smiled wryly. "Apparently, Antorell won't be coming back."
"And I have a staff! And not just any staff, but one that contains probably the largest amount of staff held magic in the world!" said Telemain, even happier than Cimorene.
"You can have mine," offered Zemenar, holding his up for inspection.
"Splendid! Now, I'll just go to the study with these…" Telemain muttered as he walked off, holding the two staffs.
"Just like him," said Morwen. "Going wandering off when you get back. Well, let's go eat, you must be starving…" They all walked off toward the kitchens with Zemenar in tow. It looked like they would be telling this story for a long time.
End of the Last Portion of this Remarkable Series
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