Chapter the Second
Krynn
We arrive in a world strange to us. Three moons hang in the sky, Red, White, and one of Black so deep that I barely see it. We make camp near a pond. K'vin and I use our magic to change to human form, for we thought it wise to conceal our identities. Superman tries to fly without my magic to aid him. He falls on his face.
"Nope, not Earth" he says good-naturedly.
"What was your first clue?" I ask
"I can't fly' He responds. "What was yours?"
I point in the sky. "Three moons. Earth has one." I say. He peers at the sky.
"I only see two," He says.
"Trust me, there's three" I say. "The third is solid black. Look just down and to the left of the red one. You can see the outline."
"If you say so." He agrees
We sleep, setting no watch, for we thought it was not needed. We awoke to find our hands tied and strange lizard-men standing over us. Superman tries to get up, and one of the lizard-men knocks him down.
"Hold still! Don't move!" he hisses us.
"Who are you" K'vin asks.
"I am a Draconian." He replies proudly. "Sergeant Gloth. Now shut up." He drives his point home with a club he has in his hand.
I speak for the first time. "Release us and I may let you live" I tell him softly. He sneers
"A puny Human threatening us! Ha! I think the patrol commander should see this." He turns and walks off to find his "Patrol Commander". Soon he returns with him. His leader speaks.
"And what have we here? Three humans in lands held by the Dark Queen. Hmmm. Spies, perhaps?"
"Tell him what you told me" Gloth says to me. I twist on the ground so I can see his commander.
"Release us and I will let you live," I say in the same soft tone of voice.
"And how would a puny human, tied up, kill me?" he asks with a sneer.
"We are not humans. I am a Dragon" I reply
"Ho! A Dragon! Pretty big claim! And I suppose that next you'll say you a Dragon of Takhisis? Or a cursed Wyrm of Paladine?"
"I am neither. I am a Dragon of Sosaria, the World I seek." I say calmly, not having a clue who Takhisis or Paladine are.
"There are no other Worlds. You speak lies."
"Last chance," I say. He laughs. Suddenly I let out a load roar and shape-shift into my true form. Ropes are snapped and my chains are broken. I tower over them in my form. The leader lets out a yell, and instead of running, his Draconian's rush forward to attack.
"K'vin! Help would be not unwanted!" I shout over my shoulder as I throw back the attackers.
I here a snapping sound behind me, and suddenly K'vin is rushing past me, bowling over the first wave and whipping the next with his tail.
"DUCK!" I yell. He ducks just as a wave of dragon fire streams over his head, burning the Draconians.
I notice that when the Draconians Die, the bodies do strange things depending on the color. Silver ones look like dragons, Gold ones exploded. Bronze and Copper ones turned to stone. They were causing K'vin much pain as he bashed and clubbed them. "K'vin! Get outta the way!" He moves off to the side after breaking one last skull. I dash up to where he had been standing. Throwing back my head, I let out a horrible roar and flap up a gale with my wings. The Draconians can hardly keep their feet. With most of them knocked down, K'vin and I finish off the rest with our breath. Gloth and a few others manage to escape. When it is over, we shift back to Human form.
"Over a hundred dead," K'vin remarks.
"Child's play" I say.
"Notice how some of them are now dragons?" He asks, "Why do you think that is."
"I noticed too. Depending on the color, the bodies do different things. Some explode, some turn to stone, and some take on the shape of the killer, I guess."
"Um, Guys?" Superman calls from across the clearing.
"Ah yes. Sorry" I say as I walk over to untie him.
"Well, now we have some Human Weapons, and armor for Superman" K'vin remarks.
"Indeed we do, friend. Indeed we do." I say.
We pick over the bodies, taking the armor and weapons we like. Superman chooses a Broadsword, and some chain mail armor. K'vin picks a spiked Mace and some light Scale mail armor. I choose a large two-handed sword and the Chain mail armor from the former leader of the band. It had a blue aurora to it. Possibly Magical. Properly equipped, we set off toward the road in the distance. As an after thought, I grabbed what look like coins from a sack near one of the dead. As we walked I inspected them.
"Well, now. This is strange," I say.
'What is strange?" asks K'vin
"These coins. They are not gold, nor silver. I think they're Steel" I reply
"Steel? Why would steel be used as money?" Inquires Superman
"Must be the only thing Valuable around, I guess" I respond. I shove the coins in my pack. Some time later we reach the road. We turn onto it and keep walking.
"We should get some horses," Superman pants. "This is too tiring"
"Feet are good enough for honest folks like us," I say. K'vin nods his agreement. Superman Sighs. Night soon comes. We go off into the trees a ways and make camp.
"We will take turns standing guard." I say. "No need to repeat what happened last time."
"I agree." Superman and K'vin say at the same time.
"I will take first watch. Then K'vin. Then Superman." I say. They nod their assent. As they settle down to sleep, I look up at the sky. The stars are strange to me. I get up and walk around a bit, reaching out with my magical senses. I sense many people in the distance, a town or city. A camp of Draconians is behind us on the road. In the mountains to the north, at the very limit of my senses, I feel strange beings. Like humans, but smaller. Underground. Dwarves, maybe? No matter. They matter not. I remembered my promise to T'dam, and cast the Spell to mark a rune.
"Kal Por Ylem" I intone in the language of Magic. The air above my outstretched hand takes on a blue tinge and begins swirling round and round, finally coalescing into a rune in my hand.
When my watch is up, I wake K'vin, unroll my bedroll, and am asleep before my head hits the balled up blanket serving as my pillow.
When I awake, the Sun is just rising over the horizon. Superman is on watch. I sit up, stretch, and get up. Yawning, I ask Superman what's for breakfast.
"Damned if I know. I'm just on watch" he replies sleepily.
I start a small fire and begin making a breakfast of bacon fried in the coals, and cheese taken from the Draconians. K'vin wakes up smelling it.
"Smells good," he says. We sit down to eat
"I've been thinking," I say around a mouthful of cheese. "The Draconian talked about Dragons of Paladin and Takhisis. Leaders of Weyrs? Or possibly gods?"
"You should have asked" K'vin tells me.
"In any case, I think that from now on, you and I should walk in our true forms. It may serve to discourage bothersome people."
"What about me?" Superman Inquires
"One of us can give you a ride. Or, if you like, I can change your form to Dragon."
"Yes! Change me to dragon!" He says eagerly
"And that's all it would be. Form. You wouldn't have a Dragons strength, speed, or flight," I caution him. He still wants to be changed, so I do it. We set out along the road. We take a leisurely pace, and soon the other Draconians I detected earlier overcame us, passing on the other side of the road. The Leader, a large gold one, came over to speak to us.
"You are a strange colors, for a dragons," He says to me. "Are you a Dragon of our Queen?"
"Who is your queen, and who else has Dragons at their command?" I reply
"You truly do know nothing. Takhisis her Dark Majesty, Ruler of all Ansolon, archenemy of Paladine, Cursed God of Good. You have not the colors of our Queen, yet you have not the Metallic colors of Paladine's Wyrms. Indeed, you have a bit of both. Are you really a Dragon at all?"
"I am Warped, a Dragon of Sosaria. My friends are K'vin," K'vin dips his neck, "and Superman" Superman nods, "From The Realm of Asgard and Krypton. We are searching for the way back to our worlds, and are stuck here until we find one."
"I am tempted not to believe you, but who knows what is possible? I shall report you to our commander at Nereka, and he to our Queen. She will know what to do with you. For now, Farewell. I am known as Kang, of the first Dragonarmy Engineering Regiment. Until we meet again" And with that, he walks to the head of the column, and they move off down the road.
"Maybe she'll come down in person, and we can straighten this out" Superman remarks.
"I hope not," I say in reply," If she does, she may decide she doesn't like the idea of Dragons neither hers nor Paladines, and destroy us. Not that I think she could." I add as an afterthought "I am more than a match for anything in Sosaria, I hardly think this world could host more deadly dangers than Sosaria has faced."
"More Likely she will send some of her own dragons to destroy us." K'vin remarks. "I read his mind while he was talking to you, and learned a bit of this god business."
"Pray, enlighten us" I say mock-humble
"Takhisis and Paladine both have five colors of Dragons. Takhisis's are Red, White, Blue, Black and Green. Paladine's are Gold, Silver, Bronze, Copper, and Silver. Draconians were created magically from the eggs of Paladines Dragons. Paladine is the God of Good; Takhisis is God of Evil. Along with their brother, the god of Balance, they make up the three most powerful gods. There are others. Rerox, god of the Dwarves. Mishikal, a god of healing. A few others. Paladine, Takhisis, and the other also have offspring, one each. These are the gods of Magic. There is a war going on between the Followers of Paladine and Takhisis. Takhisis seems to be winning at the moment."
'Whoa, that's more information than I need!" I say, "What did you do, read his whole mind?"
"No, just the parts that looked interesting" He replies.
"Well, in any case, now we know what's going on. Did you happen t learn anything of geography?" I ask
"Indeed I did. The chief city of this world, which is known as Krynn, by the way, is Palenthese. They worship Paladine. Anyway, that is where most of the mages live, along with some librarian fellow, who is said to know everything possible." He answers.
"Than we shall head for it" I declare decisively.
As we are not disguising ourselves anymore, we decide to fly there. I turn Superman back to human, and he climbs on K'vin's Back. We take to the air, and fly many miles by day. K'vin's mental map of the land wasn't all that accurate, as the draconian hadn't been to this part of Krynn, but only seen it on a map I was sure was drawn by a one eyed Cyclops. We got lost frequently, finally finding our way by flying overhead along the roads, stopping only to read signs. We made it to the mountain pass, through which the city could be reached by foot. In the pass was the High Clerist's Tower, a famous fort of some sort. It was here that the two Red Dragons confronted us.
"Incoming!" I screamed as I dove down and left. I had looked over my right shoulder, to check the where the sun was, and spotted two Red Dragons with Riders bearing down upon us. My Dragonic Collision Detection instincts kicked in, and I didn't even think about it when I started to evade. All Dragons are born with them. K'vin however, had Superman on his back, so couldn't maneuver as well.
"Land! K'vin, Land!" I yelled at him. He came to rest on the ground beside me just as the Red's came within range of my fire. They landed a short way away, and approached cautiously.
"Who are you that you challenge the power of an Elder Dragon?" I intone in a deep voice that rumbles like thunder.
"We are the sons of her majesty the Dark Queen, here with our riders at the order of our Queen," answers the larger of the reds.
"And what are your orders?" I inquire in the same deep voice that speaks of an earthquake ready to be unleashed.
"To intercept you, and find out who and what you are, whom you serve, and whom you follow" He answers.
"I am Warped Dragon, Ancient Wyrm of Sosaria. This is K'vin, Dragon of Asgard, and Superman, Last son of dead Krypton. We are Dragons, save Superman, who is Human. As to whom I serve, I serve no beast, be he Man, Dragon, or anything else under the sun, and I follow the Eight Virtues of the Avatar." I say in the Deep thunder voice. "Now what does your petty Queen want with us? I have little time to spare for squabbles among your so- called Gods," I tell him. The smaller of the reds rears up hissing
"Speak respectfully of her majesty, who created our kind and gave us life." He hisses at me
"And what of Paladine, who also created Dragons and gave life to them?" I ask. The larger red gives the smaller a look, and the smaller backs off. The Larger turns to me and answers my question
"Paladine also is worthy of some respect for his part in creating our kind. But what manner of dragon are you, that you care not of the ones who made our kind?"
"Paladine and Takhisis may have created Dragons in this world, but I am not from Krynn. I am from beyond this world, beyond even this Dimension, from the world of Sosaria. Go tell you queen that, and if she wishes to bother me further, she can come in person." I say. Turning, I leap into the air. K'vin follows, with Superman on his back. The reds stay on the ground for as long as I can see them. We landed again to rest and sleep, K'vin and I changing to Human. After a deep sleep, we awoke to a very different place than when we went to sleep. We in a huge desert, as far as my eyes could see there was a flat plain of sand. The sky above was endless blue, no clouds at all. We were alone. What's worse, we were all in human form.
"Um, K'vin? Any ideas on this would be nice," I say to him as I examine our surroundings.
"Only place I can think of like this is the Abyss," he says. I almost jump at the name. It brings a pain of homesickness, for I am reminded of the Great Stygian Abyss in Sosaria. "The abode of Takhisis, Dark Queen of Evil"
'Those dragons must have done some fast flying to tell what we said." Superman says. "Warped, why did you have to insult her? I get the feeling it was a mistake"
"INDEED IT WAS" booms a female voice so loud it makes an avalanche sound tiny. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, but using magic I quickly identified the source. Turning toward it, I reply without fear.
"I beg to differ. There is nothing in this world that can destroy me. Hurt me, yes. Stop me, maybe. But never destroy." Having said that, I counter her shield of invisibility and suddenly in front of me is a woman in a black robe, twined 'round with a multi-colored five headed Dragon.
Surprise is painted on her face, quickly replaced by anger. She raises her hands, and steps toward me.
"K'vin, you and Superman get out of here. Hide. Just don't stick around." He nods, and suddenly Superman and K'vin vanish under an invisibility spell. I turn back to Takhisis.
"A Dragon thinks he can challenge my power. Me, one of the creators of your kind! You will pay the price for your insolence" She says with truth in her voice.
"Say what you will, you did not create my Kind. I am not an offspring of you or the other gods. I am a Dragon of Sosaria, the hatch-place of my kind, and thus am of the Elder race." I reply with equal truth.
"We shall see what the power of an Elder Dragon is quite soon," she says. Then, white fire flies from her hand to surround me. I let out a roar of Pain. I try to shapeshift to my Dragon form, but find it blocked by her magic. I throw up a shield and her fire dies away. I destroy the block and shift to Dragon. Now I tower over her.
"Indeed you shall know the power of an Elder Dragon, for this is war!" The final word ends in a deafening roar. I summon my magic to me, and put forth my will. The air begins to swirl, round and round. Sand mounds and begins to rise from the ground, forming an Earth Elemental. The whirlwind of air coalesces into the shape of an Air Elemental. I point at Takhisis and they move to attack.
"Is that the best you can do?" She asks, waving a hand. The Air elemental drifts away. The Earth Elemental Crumbles back to sand.
"No" I answer. I rear up on my hind legs and reach for the sky, intoning in a deep voice "Vas Corp Por ." Suddenly, in front of Takhisis, a. rift. opens in the air. Through it comes an Energy Vortex. It sounds an Erie yet chilling cry and moves to attack her. She waves her hand again, yet this time nothing happens. Blinking, she says something and the Vortex stops, yet after a moment it keeps on towards her. She raises a finger, pointing it at the vortex, and chants something in a loud, shrill voice. A Bolt of Lightning shoots out form her finger and hits the vortex. It slowly stops and begins to shrink. Soon it is gone.
"Now my Turn! Elder Dragon of Sosaria, fight a Red Dragon of Takhisis!" She cries, and suddenly the larger of the Red dragons I met in the mountains appears. "Kill him" she says, pointing at me. With a roar the Red charges me to attack. With a louder roar I charge to meet him. We come together with a crash and boom. The dust rises, shielding us from sight. Loud cries and strange sounds come from within the cloud. When it finally settles, the Red Dragon is on the ground, knocked out cold, and I am standing over it, with a grim look on my face.
"This fighting has no point, goddess" I say. "All I want is to find my home world. I have no quarrel with you or any of the gods here."
"What you want doesn't matter. I plan to kill you, for a Dragon not made by the gods could convince our dragons not to obey us. You must DIE!" With the last word, the Red Dragon Vanishes, only to re-appear behind Takhisis, along with White, Blue, Black, and Green Dragons, all of them awake and ready to fight. "Kill him!" Takhisis screams, pointing at me. With roars, they charge as one.
"Looks like magic is going to have to win me this one." I mutter. I raise my arms, balancing on my hind legs and tail, while chanting "In Ex Grav". A field of shimmering energy appears between the Dragons and I. They try to run through it, not knowing what it is. They become stuck in place the moment they touch it. "Paralyze field, boys. Rather effective, don't you think?" I ask as I prepare to cast my next spell. I make an Arcane gesture while saying "Vas Ort Grav", and out of the clear sky, multiple lightning bolts fly down to strike each dragon at least three times, and Takhisis once. She Screams in fury. To finish off the Dragons, I raise one arm, and chant "Kal Des Flam Ylem". Rocks fall from the sky, striking each dragon until it is unconscious.
"You shall pay for hurting my children, and for hitting me," She says in a calm voice. She. ripples, and turns into the Five-Headed Dragon that was on her robe, each head a different color.
"A glorified Hydra?" I say incurdlsely. "There's not a hydra spawned that can hold its own against a Dragon", and with that, I charge.
Long was that fight, and tiring, for Takhisis had five heads with which to bite me, and I had but one, and she was larger than me by far. Finally, tired by the sheer length of the fight, I grew weary and tripped over her tail. With a snarl she lunged. That would have been the end of my flying days, for though she couldn't kill me, she could maim. Out of the blue, K'vin hurled like a cannon ball into her side, knocking her away from me. Superman, with his great broadsword, flew down to hover over one of her heads, doing his best to knock some sense into it. I take the extra moment to cast a quick Fatigue removing spell. As the spell takes effect and all weariness leaves my body, I hurtle into the center of the fray, cracking anything that comes into reach. Finally, Takhisis goes limp
"I give up," she says in a strained voice. We all release her and step back a good distance, K'vin and I changing to Human, as does Takhisis. Suddenly, Paladine is standing near Takhisis.
"I have watched your fight, and I see now that you are not Dragons of our world. We shall send you to a another world, we know not which it will be." He tells us. He waves his hand, and a shimmering gate appears, like yet unlike a Moongate. As we go to walk through it, he leans over and whispers to us
"I never thought I'd see my sister say she gives up. Anyone who can overcome her deserves my respect, and you have it." He tells me. Right at the brink of entering the gate, Superman stops with a thoughtful expression on his face.
"No offense you guys, but traveling with you is more than I bargained for. If it's all the same, I'd rather take my chances on my own." He says to K'vin and me. "Paladine, can you conjure me a Space Ship? For if Warped is right, and this is the same dimension as Earth, mayhaps I can find my own way there"
"I can, and for the valor you have shown today, I shall give you the ability of flight, for good." He replies, waving his hand. "Although I know not what this 'Space Ship' is, the picture in your mind is not unlike a device the Gnomes of Mt. Nevermind have created. I shall send you to them"
It was not until much later, long after I made it back to Sosaria, that I found out what became of Superman. All I will say now is that one should never trust ones life to a Gnomish Contraption.
"Farwell, Paladine! Farewell, Takhisis," I say as I walk through the gate. As K'vin walks through, he turns and yells over his shoulder
"Great fight Takhisis, lets do it again sometime" As he exited the gate on the other side, it shimmered and began to close, just before Takhisis can leap through and attempt to 'hurt' him.
Krynn
We arrive in a world strange to us. Three moons hang in the sky, Red, White, and one of Black so deep that I barely see it. We make camp near a pond. K'vin and I use our magic to change to human form, for we thought it wise to conceal our identities. Superman tries to fly without my magic to aid him. He falls on his face.
"Nope, not Earth" he says good-naturedly.
"What was your first clue?" I ask
"I can't fly' He responds. "What was yours?"
I point in the sky. "Three moons. Earth has one." I say. He peers at the sky.
"I only see two," He says.
"Trust me, there's three" I say. "The third is solid black. Look just down and to the left of the red one. You can see the outline."
"If you say so." He agrees
We sleep, setting no watch, for we thought it was not needed. We awoke to find our hands tied and strange lizard-men standing over us. Superman tries to get up, and one of the lizard-men knocks him down.
"Hold still! Don't move!" he hisses us.
"Who are you" K'vin asks.
"I am a Draconian." He replies proudly. "Sergeant Gloth. Now shut up." He drives his point home with a club he has in his hand.
I speak for the first time. "Release us and I may let you live" I tell him softly. He sneers
"A puny Human threatening us! Ha! I think the patrol commander should see this." He turns and walks off to find his "Patrol Commander". Soon he returns with him. His leader speaks.
"And what have we here? Three humans in lands held by the Dark Queen. Hmmm. Spies, perhaps?"
"Tell him what you told me" Gloth says to me. I twist on the ground so I can see his commander.
"Release us and I will let you live," I say in the same soft tone of voice.
"And how would a puny human, tied up, kill me?" he asks with a sneer.
"We are not humans. I am a Dragon" I reply
"Ho! A Dragon! Pretty big claim! And I suppose that next you'll say you a Dragon of Takhisis? Or a cursed Wyrm of Paladine?"
"I am neither. I am a Dragon of Sosaria, the World I seek." I say calmly, not having a clue who Takhisis or Paladine are.
"There are no other Worlds. You speak lies."
"Last chance," I say. He laughs. Suddenly I let out a load roar and shape-shift into my true form. Ropes are snapped and my chains are broken. I tower over them in my form. The leader lets out a yell, and instead of running, his Draconian's rush forward to attack.
"K'vin! Help would be not unwanted!" I shout over my shoulder as I throw back the attackers.
I here a snapping sound behind me, and suddenly K'vin is rushing past me, bowling over the first wave and whipping the next with his tail.
"DUCK!" I yell. He ducks just as a wave of dragon fire streams over his head, burning the Draconians.
I notice that when the Draconians Die, the bodies do strange things depending on the color. Silver ones look like dragons, Gold ones exploded. Bronze and Copper ones turned to stone. They were causing K'vin much pain as he bashed and clubbed them. "K'vin! Get outta the way!" He moves off to the side after breaking one last skull. I dash up to where he had been standing. Throwing back my head, I let out a horrible roar and flap up a gale with my wings. The Draconians can hardly keep their feet. With most of them knocked down, K'vin and I finish off the rest with our breath. Gloth and a few others manage to escape. When it is over, we shift back to Human form.
"Over a hundred dead," K'vin remarks.
"Child's play" I say.
"Notice how some of them are now dragons?" He asks, "Why do you think that is."
"I noticed too. Depending on the color, the bodies do different things. Some explode, some turn to stone, and some take on the shape of the killer, I guess."
"Um, Guys?" Superman calls from across the clearing.
"Ah yes. Sorry" I say as I walk over to untie him.
"Well, now we have some Human Weapons, and armor for Superman" K'vin remarks.
"Indeed we do, friend. Indeed we do." I say.
We pick over the bodies, taking the armor and weapons we like. Superman chooses a Broadsword, and some chain mail armor. K'vin picks a spiked Mace and some light Scale mail armor. I choose a large two-handed sword and the Chain mail armor from the former leader of the band. It had a blue aurora to it. Possibly Magical. Properly equipped, we set off toward the road in the distance. As an after thought, I grabbed what look like coins from a sack near one of the dead. As we walked I inspected them.
"Well, now. This is strange," I say.
'What is strange?" asks K'vin
"These coins. They are not gold, nor silver. I think they're Steel" I reply
"Steel? Why would steel be used as money?" Inquires Superman
"Must be the only thing Valuable around, I guess" I respond. I shove the coins in my pack. Some time later we reach the road. We turn onto it and keep walking.
"We should get some horses," Superman pants. "This is too tiring"
"Feet are good enough for honest folks like us," I say. K'vin nods his agreement. Superman Sighs. Night soon comes. We go off into the trees a ways and make camp.
"We will take turns standing guard." I say. "No need to repeat what happened last time."
"I agree." Superman and K'vin say at the same time.
"I will take first watch. Then K'vin. Then Superman." I say. They nod their assent. As they settle down to sleep, I look up at the sky. The stars are strange to me. I get up and walk around a bit, reaching out with my magical senses. I sense many people in the distance, a town or city. A camp of Draconians is behind us on the road. In the mountains to the north, at the very limit of my senses, I feel strange beings. Like humans, but smaller. Underground. Dwarves, maybe? No matter. They matter not. I remembered my promise to T'dam, and cast the Spell to mark a rune.
"Kal Por Ylem" I intone in the language of Magic. The air above my outstretched hand takes on a blue tinge and begins swirling round and round, finally coalescing into a rune in my hand.
When my watch is up, I wake K'vin, unroll my bedroll, and am asleep before my head hits the balled up blanket serving as my pillow.
When I awake, the Sun is just rising over the horizon. Superman is on watch. I sit up, stretch, and get up. Yawning, I ask Superman what's for breakfast.
"Damned if I know. I'm just on watch" he replies sleepily.
I start a small fire and begin making a breakfast of bacon fried in the coals, and cheese taken from the Draconians. K'vin wakes up smelling it.
"Smells good," he says. We sit down to eat
"I've been thinking," I say around a mouthful of cheese. "The Draconian talked about Dragons of Paladin and Takhisis. Leaders of Weyrs? Or possibly gods?"
"You should have asked" K'vin tells me.
"In any case, I think that from now on, you and I should walk in our true forms. It may serve to discourage bothersome people."
"What about me?" Superman Inquires
"One of us can give you a ride. Or, if you like, I can change your form to Dragon."
"Yes! Change me to dragon!" He says eagerly
"And that's all it would be. Form. You wouldn't have a Dragons strength, speed, or flight," I caution him. He still wants to be changed, so I do it. We set out along the road. We take a leisurely pace, and soon the other Draconians I detected earlier overcame us, passing on the other side of the road. The Leader, a large gold one, came over to speak to us.
"You are a strange colors, for a dragons," He says to me. "Are you a Dragon of our Queen?"
"Who is your queen, and who else has Dragons at their command?" I reply
"You truly do know nothing. Takhisis her Dark Majesty, Ruler of all Ansolon, archenemy of Paladine, Cursed God of Good. You have not the colors of our Queen, yet you have not the Metallic colors of Paladine's Wyrms. Indeed, you have a bit of both. Are you really a Dragon at all?"
"I am Warped, a Dragon of Sosaria. My friends are K'vin," K'vin dips his neck, "and Superman" Superman nods, "From The Realm of Asgard and Krypton. We are searching for the way back to our worlds, and are stuck here until we find one."
"I am tempted not to believe you, but who knows what is possible? I shall report you to our commander at Nereka, and he to our Queen. She will know what to do with you. For now, Farewell. I am known as Kang, of the first Dragonarmy Engineering Regiment. Until we meet again" And with that, he walks to the head of the column, and they move off down the road.
"Maybe she'll come down in person, and we can straighten this out" Superman remarks.
"I hope not," I say in reply," If she does, she may decide she doesn't like the idea of Dragons neither hers nor Paladines, and destroy us. Not that I think she could." I add as an afterthought "I am more than a match for anything in Sosaria, I hardly think this world could host more deadly dangers than Sosaria has faced."
"More Likely she will send some of her own dragons to destroy us." K'vin remarks. "I read his mind while he was talking to you, and learned a bit of this god business."
"Pray, enlighten us" I say mock-humble
"Takhisis and Paladine both have five colors of Dragons. Takhisis's are Red, White, Blue, Black and Green. Paladine's are Gold, Silver, Bronze, Copper, and Silver. Draconians were created magically from the eggs of Paladines Dragons. Paladine is the God of Good; Takhisis is God of Evil. Along with their brother, the god of Balance, they make up the three most powerful gods. There are others. Rerox, god of the Dwarves. Mishikal, a god of healing. A few others. Paladine, Takhisis, and the other also have offspring, one each. These are the gods of Magic. There is a war going on between the Followers of Paladine and Takhisis. Takhisis seems to be winning at the moment."
'Whoa, that's more information than I need!" I say, "What did you do, read his whole mind?"
"No, just the parts that looked interesting" He replies.
"Well, in any case, now we know what's going on. Did you happen t learn anything of geography?" I ask
"Indeed I did. The chief city of this world, which is known as Krynn, by the way, is Palenthese. They worship Paladine. Anyway, that is where most of the mages live, along with some librarian fellow, who is said to know everything possible." He answers.
"Than we shall head for it" I declare decisively.
As we are not disguising ourselves anymore, we decide to fly there. I turn Superman back to human, and he climbs on K'vin's Back. We take to the air, and fly many miles by day. K'vin's mental map of the land wasn't all that accurate, as the draconian hadn't been to this part of Krynn, but only seen it on a map I was sure was drawn by a one eyed Cyclops. We got lost frequently, finally finding our way by flying overhead along the roads, stopping only to read signs. We made it to the mountain pass, through which the city could be reached by foot. In the pass was the High Clerist's Tower, a famous fort of some sort. It was here that the two Red Dragons confronted us.
"Incoming!" I screamed as I dove down and left. I had looked over my right shoulder, to check the where the sun was, and spotted two Red Dragons with Riders bearing down upon us. My Dragonic Collision Detection instincts kicked in, and I didn't even think about it when I started to evade. All Dragons are born with them. K'vin however, had Superman on his back, so couldn't maneuver as well.
"Land! K'vin, Land!" I yelled at him. He came to rest on the ground beside me just as the Red's came within range of my fire. They landed a short way away, and approached cautiously.
"Who are you that you challenge the power of an Elder Dragon?" I intone in a deep voice that rumbles like thunder.
"We are the sons of her majesty the Dark Queen, here with our riders at the order of our Queen," answers the larger of the reds.
"And what are your orders?" I inquire in the same deep voice that speaks of an earthquake ready to be unleashed.
"To intercept you, and find out who and what you are, whom you serve, and whom you follow" He answers.
"I am Warped Dragon, Ancient Wyrm of Sosaria. This is K'vin, Dragon of Asgard, and Superman, Last son of dead Krypton. We are Dragons, save Superman, who is Human. As to whom I serve, I serve no beast, be he Man, Dragon, or anything else under the sun, and I follow the Eight Virtues of the Avatar." I say in the Deep thunder voice. "Now what does your petty Queen want with us? I have little time to spare for squabbles among your so- called Gods," I tell him. The smaller of the reds rears up hissing
"Speak respectfully of her majesty, who created our kind and gave us life." He hisses at me
"And what of Paladine, who also created Dragons and gave life to them?" I ask. The larger red gives the smaller a look, and the smaller backs off. The Larger turns to me and answers my question
"Paladine also is worthy of some respect for his part in creating our kind. But what manner of dragon are you, that you care not of the ones who made our kind?"
"Paladine and Takhisis may have created Dragons in this world, but I am not from Krynn. I am from beyond this world, beyond even this Dimension, from the world of Sosaria. Go tell you queen that, and if she wishes to bother me further, she can come in person." I say. Turning, I leap into the air. K'vin follows, with Superman on his back. The reds stay on the ground for as long as I can see them. We landed again to rest and sleep, K'vin and I changing to Human. After a deep sleep, we awoke to a very different place than when we went to sleep. We in a huge desert, as far as my eyes could see there was a flat plain of sand. The sky above was endless blue, no clouds at all. We were alone. What's worse, we were all in human form.
"Um, K'vin? Any ideas on this would be nice," I say to him as I examine our surroundings.
"Only place I can think of like this is the Abyss," he says. I almost jump at the name. It brings a pain of homesickness, for I am reminded of the Great Stygian Abyss in Sosaria. "The abode of Takhisis, Dark Queen of Evil"
'Those dragons must have done some fast flying to tell what we said." Superman says. "Warped, why did you have to insult her? I get the feeling it was a mistake"
"INDEED IT WAS" booms a female voice so loud it makes an avalanche sound tiny. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere, but using magic I quickly identified the source. Turning toward it, I reply without fear.
"I beg to differ. There is nothing in this world that can destroy me. Hurt me, yes. Stop me, maybe. But never destroy." Having said that, I counter her shield of invisibility and suddenly in front of me is a woman in a black robe, twined 'round with a multi-colored five headed Dragon.
Surprise is painted on her face, quickly replaced by anger. She raises her hands, and steps toward me.
"K'vin, you and Superman get out of here. Hide. Just don't stick around." He nods, and suddenly Superman and K'vin vanish under an invisibility spell. I turn back to Takhisis.
"A Dragon thinks he can challenge my power. Me, one of the creators of your kind! You will pay the price for your insolence" She says with truth in her voice.
"Say what you will, you did not create my Kind. I am not an offspring of you or the other gods. I am a Dragon of Sosaria, the hatch-place of my kind, and thus am of the Elder race." I reply with equal truth.
"We shall see what the power of an Elder Dragon is quite soon," she says. Then, white fire flies from her hand to surround me. I let out a roar of Pain. I try to shapeshift to my Dragon form, but find it blocked by her magic. I throw up a shield and her fire dies away. I destroy the block and shift to Dragon. Now I tower over her.
"Indeed you shall know the power of an Elder Dragon, for this is war!" The final word ends in a deafening roar. I summon my magic to me, and put forth my will. The air begins to swirl, round and round. Sand mounds and begins to rise from the ground, forming an Earth Elemental. The whirlwind of air coalesces into the shape of an Air Elemental. I point at Takhisis and they move to attack.
"Is that the best you can do?" She asks, waving a hand. The Air elemental drifts away. The Earth Elemental Crumbles back to sand.
"No" I answer. I rear up on my hind legs and reach for the sky, intoning in a deep voice "Vas Corp Por ." Suddenly, in front of Takhisis, a. rift. opens in the air. Through it comes an Energy Vortex. It sounds an Erie yet chilling cry and moves to attack her. She waves her hand again, yet this time nothing happens. Blinking, she says something and the Vortex stops, yet after a moment it keeps on towards her. She raises a finger, pointing it at the vortex, and chants something in a loud, shrill voice. A Bolt of Lightning shoots out form her finger and hits the vortex. It slowly stops and begins to shrink. Soon it is gone.
"Now my Turn! Elder Dragon of Sosaria, fight a Red Dragon of Takhisis!" She cries, and suddenly the larger of the Red dragons I met in the mountains appears. "Kill him" she says, pointing at me. With a roar the Red charges me to attack. With a louder roar I charge to meet him. We come together with a crash and boom. The dust rises, shielding us from sight. Loud cries and strange sounds come from within the cloud. When it finally settles, the Red Dragon is on the ground, knocked out cold, and I am standing over it, with a grim look on my face.
"This fighting has no point, goddess" I say. "All I want is to find my home world. I have no quarrel with you or any of the gods here."
"What you want doesn't matter. I plan to kill you, for a Dragon not made by the gods could convince our dragons not to obey us. You must DIE!" With the last word, the Red Dragon Vanishes, only to re-appear behind Takhisis, along with White, Blue, Black, and Green Dragons, all of them awake and ready to fight. "Kill him!" Takhisis screams, pointing at me. With roars, they charge as one.
"Looks like magic is going to have to win me this one." I mutter. I raise my arms, balancing on my hind legs and tail, while chanting "In Ex Grav". A field of shimmering energy appears between the Dragons and I. They try to run through it, not knowing what it is. They become stuck in place the moment they touch it. "Paralyze field, boys. Rather effective, don't you think?" I ask as I prepare to cast my next spell. I make an Arcane gesture while saying "Vas Ort Grav", and out of the clear sky, multiple lightning bolts fly down to strike each dragon at least three times, and Takhisis once. She Screams in fury. To finish off the Dragons, I raise one arm, and chant "Kal Des Flam Ylem". Rocks fall from the sky, striking each dragon until it is unconscious.
"You shall pay for hurting my children, and for hitting me," She says in a calm voice. She. ripples, and turns into the Five-Headed Dragon that was on her robe, each head a different color.
"A glorified Hydra?" I say incurdlsely. "There's not a hydra spawned that can hold its own against a Dragon", and with that, I charge.
Long was that fight, and tiring, for Takhisis had five heads with which to bite me, and I had but one, and she was larger than me by far. Finally, tired by the sheer length of the fight, I grew weary and tripped over her tail. With a snarl she lunged. That would have been the end of my flying days, for though she couldn't kill me, she could maim. Out of the blue, K'vin hurled like a cannon ball into her side, knocking her away from me. Superman, with his great broadsword, flew down to hover over one of her heads, doing his best to knock some sense into it. I take the extra moment to cast a quick Fatigue removing spell. As the spell takes effect and all weariness leaves my body, I hurtle into the center of the fray, cracking anything that comes into reach. Finally, Takhisis goes limp
"I give up," she says in a strained voice. We all release her and step back a good distance, K'vin and I changing to Human, as does Takhisis. Suddenly, Paladine is standing near Takhisis.
"I have watched your fight, and I see now that you are not Dragons of our world. We shall send you to a another world, we know not which it will be." He tells us. He waves his hand, and a shimmering gate appears, like yet unlike a Moongate. As we go to walk through it, he leans over and whispers to us
"I never thought I'd see my sister say she gives up. Anyone who can overcome her deserves my respect, and you have it." He tells me. Right at the brink of entering the gate, Superman stops with a thoughtful expression on his face.
"No offense you guys, but traveling with you is more than I bargained for. If it's all the same, I'd rather take my chances on my own." He says to K'vin and me. "Paladine, can you conjure me a Space Ship? For if Warped is right, and this is the same dimension as Earth, mayhaps I can find my own way there"
"I can, and for the valor you have shown today, I shall give you the ability of flight, for good." He replies, waving his hand. "Although I know not what this 'Space Ship' is, the picture in your mind is not unlike a device the Gnomes of Mt. Nevermind have created. I shall send you to them"
It was not until much later, long after I made it back to Sosaria, that I found out what became of Superman. All I will say now is that one should never trust ones life to a Gnomish Contraption.
"Farwell, Paladine! Farewell, Takhisis," I say as I walk through the gate. As K'vin walks through, he turns and yells over his shoulder
"Great fight Takhisis, lets do it again sometime" As he exited the gate on the other side, it shimmered and began to close, just before Takhisis can leap through and attempt to 'hurt' him.
