Chapter 2 Rio
The Dungeon of Elements
I looked around, amazed. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
It was about a hundred feet tall, taller than any freestanding tower I've
ever seen. There were stone gargoyles mounted every ten or so feet. The
gargoyles seemed almost alive, as if they were going to jump out at you at
any given moment.
"Hey, Kyorn," Beorn yelled, "isn't this place supposed to be the 'Dungeon
of Elements', not the 'Tower of Elements'."
"That's precisely what this is, you big oaf. This place is the Tower of
Elements. Dungeons are usually underground, and there's usually a landmark
pointing out where it is."
I laughed. I didn't like Beorn that much, and it was funny when he was
wrong. I saw Fin dart off towards the tower, and I followed him.
"Hey Rio, look at this!" Fin said excitedly as he pointed towards a sign
hanging on the gates. It said:
ONLY ONCE THE UNDERGROUND
HAS BEEN CLEARED
AND THE OWNERS CHOSEN
WILL THE TOWER BE OPENED TO THEM
"That's pretty odd," I said. "I wonder what it means by 'and the owners
chosen'."
"The owners of the elemental shards, of course. The dragons are said to
have been here, and left tokens of appreciation for the people. Times are
different now, and people and dragons aren't as close as before."
"So what's significant about the Tower of Elements?" I asked.
"What?" Fin asked astonished. "Don't tell me you don't know the story of
the Elements?"
"I can't lie to you." I said," I don't know the story."
"Well, when the world was being created, there were only four beings: The
ancient dragons. They each controlled one element. The Red one controlled
to element of Fire. The Green one had Air and Wind. The Blue one had Ground
and Earth. And the Black one had Water. These elements are important
because with them, you can create anything.
Well, these four dragons went around creating everything in the world
wherever and whenever they pleased. Then, there were four spots of land, or
whatever it was, and they all decided to make it all of their forces
together. This resulted in the four great deserts: Aeris, Treumant, Yama,
and Gaiur. The deserts were named after the ancient dragons, which were
never seen again. The people erected the towers in homage to the new
dragons, which spawned from the ancient ones. It is said that every so
often, dragons come to the towers and leave gifts of appreciation for the
people who build the towers."
"Well, you could have said it a bit slower, but I think I understand now.
Thanks for telling me." I said.
"My pleasure," Fin answered.
"Which dragon controlled which element?" I asked.
"The blue one is Treumant, the red one is Gaiur, the green one is Aeris,
and Yama is the black one." Fin said.
"The entrance is over here," Kyorn shouted over to us. "Hurry up, it's
almost dawn."
I had no clue why we needed to get in before dawn, but I grabbed Fin, and
ran towards Kyorn.
We walked down the dimly lit passageway, going deeper into the earth. I
knew that it would get cold as we went deeper, but I didn't think it would
get as cold as it was getting. I saw a light at the end of the passage, but
it seemed unnatural. It was white, and very bright too. I don't know how it
could be so white, or how there could be such a bright light down here.
"What is that?" I asked Reebus, who was standing in front of me.
"I'm not too sure." He said. "Must be some type of magic, but it's strange
that I don't feel anything."
"What do you mean that you don't feel anything?" I asked.
"All magic users can feel a faint aura of magic when there is some around.
I don't fell any magic. None at all." He answered.
We stepped out into the light and saw something that I never thought I
would have seen. The light was coming from a white tree in the center of a
room full of ice.
"That's amazing," Kyorn said. "I've never heard of trees that give off
light or trees that even live in this environment."
"I'm not too sure it's even a tree," I said, "Looks almost like crystal."
"It might as well be a wingless Pegasus, It's not right." Reebus said,
"This has to be some kind of trick or trap."
"You're probably right, but I can handle anything you throw at me." Beorn
said, and started to walk forward towards the tree."
"Beorn, wait," Kyorn said, "Reebus is right. We should probably do
something first."
"Who cares?" Beorn asked, "You said yourself that you don't like me. I'll
be doing you a favor by dying."
"That's not what I meant," Kyorn said, but it was too late, Beorn was
already halfway to the tree.
The rest of us stood silent and watched. As soon as he reached the tree,
there was a bright flash, and he was knocked away. He got up, and started
to walk back towards the tree.
I had a bad feeling about this, "Beorn, get back here," I shouted, but he
kept on walking. I admired his courage, but I began to think that this
courage was actually stupidity. My gaze shifted to underneath Beorn's feet,
where a dark shadow started to appear.
"Get out of there!" I yelled, unsheathed my sword, and ran towards Beorn.
The others did the same, but before we could reach him, the ice began to
split. I giant white mass flew out of the ice. It landed between Beorn and
the tree. I noticed that the creature was a white dragon. Beorn just stood
there: paralyzed with fear. Suddenly, with lightening quick reflexes, the
dragon lunged at Beorn, crushing him between his jaws. Red blood dripped
from the creature's mouth, and it's gaze shifted between the five of us,
probably deciding which one to strike next. This dragon was huge, spanning
about ten feet tall, and about twenty-five feet long. Though this seemed
huge to me, compared to other dragons it was only a child.
I shouted a battle cry, and charged towards he dragon. Confused by the
sudden onslaught, I caught the dragon off guard, and drove my sword deep
into his shoulder. The rest of them got the idea. Before the dragon could
respond, Rashas drew his bow and fired an arrow. The arrow hit the dragon
just above the eye, but just enough to have the dragon close its eye
temporarily. Reebus and Kyorn started chanting in the language of magic,
and Fin scurried over to the dragon's blind-side. The dragon, still angry
with me, opened its mouth, and released a breath of freezing water. I tried
to jumped out of the way, but the water hit my feet, freezing instantly,
and bringing me to the ground. I felt the pain crushing my feet. I couldn't
move, so I was a sitting duck for the dragon.
Kyorn and Reebus finished with their spell and shot streams of fire at the
dragon, distracting it, and slowly burning through it's armored hide.
Rashas shot another arrow, trying to permanently blind it, but missed and
hit next to where my sword lay: embedded in the side of the dragon. Fin
jumped up onto the dragon's head, and stabbed down through the skull. Fin
missed the brain, which I assumed was his target, but instead he caused the
dragon to go into a rage, spewing ice into the air, and whipping around.
Suddenly the dragon spread its wings a flew up into the air, with Fin still
attached. I was amazed at how far up the dragon flew, because we weren't
that far underground. As I stood, stuck to the floor, I noticed Fin let go
of the dragon, and the dragon's head exploded in a ball of fire.
Rashas ran and caught Fin. I guess 'caught' isn't exactly the right word
for the situation. Fin was moving so fast that he actually knocked Rashas
to the ground when he landed. Meanwhile, Reebus melted the ice on my foot.
"Thanks," I said.
"No problem," Reebus answered.
I felt the warmth return to my feet. I tried to take a step, but fell over.
We all got a good laugh at that. I got up again to see Fin standing in
front of me. "How did you make that explosion?"
Fin smiled proudly, showing me a necklace. It was made of mithril, and had
six small chain hanging down from it, but only one had something attached
to it. I looked at it, and noticed it was a small marble. Inside of it,
though, there appeared to be a small raging inferno going on. I stood back
up, looking at the others for any suggestions of what it was.
"It's a necklace of fireballs. Took me so long to make it, and that damn
elf seems to keep on stealing it from me and using them." Kyorn said. "I
haven't even gotten to use one yet."
"I don't steal it," Fin said. "I just stumble across it when I'm looking
through your pack, and think that it looks nice. I meant to give it back, I
swear."
Kyorn breathed a heavy sigh and put his hand out, motioning for Fin to give
it back to him.
Fin gave it back, then quickly hustled over to the dragon's smoldering
carcass. He was trying to pull the sword out of the dragon's skull, but
just couldn't manage to budge it. I walked over, and pulled it put for him.
"At least you can walk again," Rashas said, 'We should probably get going."
"Yeah, I agree with you." Kyorn said. The sooner we get out of this hell
hole, the better."
"Why not just go out the way we came in?" Fin asked.
"I already checked," Kyorn said, a gate fell down, and it won't budge."
"I guess we just have to go forward to get out." I said, "And there's only
one door out."
"Well lets get going." Kyorn said, "And stay away from the tree. It might
summon another Dragon or whatever."
We walked towards the door, and went through. There was a long tunnel, much
like the one to the first room. We finally emerged into another room, which
was about the same size of the last one. There were three statues of
minotaurs blocking the door.
"I bet that when we get near them, they'll become alive, and kill us." Fin
said.
"This is a very strange place. No matter what crazy things you say, it just
might come true." Rashas said, pulled out his bow and shot an arrow. The
arrow flew straight towards the statue in the center. As the arrow reached
the statue, it put its arm up and caught the arrow, crumbling it to dust.
"Told you," Fin said, almost mockingly.
The three minotaurs started to advance. I, feeling stupid that I hadn't
bought a long-range weapon, unhooked my sword, and waited for them to get
to me. Kyorn and Reebus cast spells, and flaming swords appeared in their
hands. The walked up and stood next to me. Fin also pulled out a bow, and
shot at them. The minotaurs finally reached us, and the battle began.
Kyorn, Reebus, and I engaged one of the minotaurs in battle, while Rashas
and Fin shot arrows at it. We all slashed at the first one, and quickly it
fell, but not quickly enough. It managed to get a swipe off with its giant
axe, making all of us step back. However, Reebus didn't move in time, and
was knocked over with a slice across his chest. With another arrow from Fin
and Rashas, it fell to the ground, crumbling to dust.
The second one didn't even bother to attack. Instead, it dropped its axe to
the ground. Kyorn stepped up and slashed at the minotaur with his flame
sword. The blade slashed across the minotaur's body, but as the sword cam
in contact with the minotaur, the blade seemed to dissipate from existence.
"Damn short spell!" Kyorn shouted, and tried to run away from the minotaur.
But before he could, it reached down, and picked him up. It flung them
across the room at Fin and Rashas. They dodged out of the way, but the mage
crumpled against the ground. I brought down the minotaur with the next
swipe of my sword.
Fin and Rashas struck the final one in the legs, and it fell to the ground.
I chopped off its head with one quick stroke. The battle was finished, and
I ran over to Kyorn and Reebus. Before I got over there, I knew that they
were dead. I didn't even bother to go even closer. I saw that there was
nothing I could do to help them, so I walked back towards Rashas and Fin.
"Don't either of you die on me now," Rashas said.
"We'll do our best," I told him, "But we've been doing our best this whole
time, and look where it's got us."
We all fell silent, and continued to walk towards the door. We made it
there safely, and walked through the door and the long passage that
followed it. At the end of the passage, there was another room.
"I sure hope that this is the last," Fin said, and we all silently agreed
with him.
We walked to the edge of the platform that we were standing on, and looked
down. All we saw was darkness. A vast chasm probably filled with spikes at
the very bottom. If there even was one that is.
"I have an idea," Rashas said, and pulled out an arrow. He tied a rope to
the end of it, and tied the other end of the rope to a rock. Rashas fired
the arrow at the wall opposite us, across the chasm, and it lodged into the
wall. There was a faint red glow that surrounded the arrow, and then the
rock from the wall started to grow around the arrow, encasing it.
"How..."I started to ask.
"Magic," Rashas said.
I just nodded in agreement. Rashas started to climb out onto the rope. I
had done this type of exercise when I was training, and I hoped that I
still remembered it correctly.
All of a sudden, a strong gust of wind blew, and it knocked Rashas off of
the rope, into the abyss.
"Rashas!" I cried out. There was nothing I could do. I felt so helpless
because I couldn't save them. They were just dying, and I couldn't do
anything about it.
"Um... Rio?" Fin asked, "How are we supposed to get across?"
"We strap ourselves on." I said. "Do you have any rope?"
"Uh, sure," Fin said, taking his backpack off. "How much do you need?"
"Everything," I said. "We'll have to tie it around our bodies a few times,
and maybe even our hands and our feet. I just hope to the gods that we
survive this and a dragon doesn't fly up and eat us while we're crossing."
"Yeah," Fin said.
We tied ourselves to the rope with more rope, and started to cross. I made
it across safely, and untied myself.
"That was pretty easy." I said, "I would have thought it would have been
harder."
"Don't talk too soon," Fin said, "You never know what will happen until
we're out of here."
Fin was right, I did talk too soon. On the other side of the chasm, where
the one rope was tied, a huge stone golem was trying to rip the rope off of
the rock.
"Fin," I said calmly, "Don't look back."
"Why?" Fin asked. "Is there a giant stone golem trying to rip the rope
apart?"
"How did you?" I asked.
"I had already looked back." Fin answered calmly.
"Well," I said, wondering how one could have a sense of humor at a time
like this. "Just hurry up."
Fin made it across and untied himself just as the rope was torn apart.
'Well," Fin said, "That went over pretty good."
I just laughed, and headed through the door, barely noticing the rock that
landed a few feet away from me.
We walked down the hall, wondering what would be next.
"Just so you know," Fin said. "I'm not going to die at this next
challenge."
"Why not?" I asked.
"Because I'm better than you." Fin said confidently.
"Better than me at what?" I asked.
"Everything." Fin said.
"Well maybe a few things, but not everything." I argued.
"Nope," Fin said, "I'm better at you than everything."
"You mean 'better than you at everything'." I said, correcting him.
"Nope," Fin continued, "I'm better than you at everything. Besides, someone
will have to die. Someone has during all of the other ones."
"How do you know that someone won't in this one?" I asked.
"Because I'm smart," Fin said, "and I never won't be."
We walked into the room, and I looked around. There was nothing in the room
except the white platform that we stood on, and black floor past that. I
started to think that neither of us might survive this. At the other end of
the room was a large disk. Kyorn had told me that it was the disks that
granted the wish. I started to walk out onto the floor, and it crumbled
away almost as soon as I put my weight onto it. A large fiery creature
climbed out of the floor in front of the disk.
"How are we supposed to get past that thing?" Fin asked.
"You're the smart one," I said sarcastically, "You figure it out."
"Alright," Fin said, "Uh, you your waterskin at it. Maybe it will hurt it
because water stops fire, and it's water, and he's fire and...."
"Sure," I said, cutting him off. I unhooked my waterskin from my belt. I
cut a slit in the side of it, and threw it at the beast. It shrieked and
sank back a bit, but I had tripped, and fell through the floor. I could
feel my body burning. Fin used this to his advantage, and darted past the
beast. He reached the disk before it could catch him.
Fin held the disk above his head. "I wish that this fiery burning beast
thing was erased from this plane of existence."
The disk granted him his wish, and it disappeared. There was a faint
humming that came from he disks along with a faint blue glow. I felt
unconsciousness take over me. I tried to fight it, but I couldn't. I still
lied burning on the charred floor.
I awoke in front of the tower. Almost the whole town was there, watching
us. I tried to stand up, but I couldn't. The last thing I saw before I went
into blackness again was an elf girl with purple hair walking towards me.
The Dungeon of Elements
I looked around, amazed. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
It was about a hundred feet tall, taller than any freestanding tower I've
ever seen. There were stone gargoyles mounted every ten or so feet. The
gargoyles seemed almost alive, as if they were going to jump out at you at
any given moment.
"Hey, Kyorn," Beorn yelled, "isn't this place supposed to be the 'Dungeon
of Elements', not the 'Tower of Elements'."
"That's precisely what this is, you big oaf. This place is the Tower of
Elements. Dungeons are usually underground, and there's usually a landmark
pointing out where it is."
I laughed. I didn't like Beorn that much, and it was funny when he was
wrong. I saw Fin dart off towards the tower, and I followed him.
"Hey Rio, look at this!" Fin said excitedly as he pointed towards a sign
hanging on the gates. It said:
ONLY ONCE THE UNDERGROUND
HAS BEEN CLEARED
AND THE OWNERS CHOSEN
WILL THE TOWER BE OPENED TO THEM
"That's pretty odd," I said. "I wonder what it means by 'and the owners
chosen'."
"The owners of the elemental shards, of course. The dragons are said to
have been here, and left tokens of appreciation for the people. Times are
different now, and people and dragons aren't as close as before."
"So what's significant about the Tower of Elements?" I asked.
"What?" Fin asked astonished. "Don't tell me you don't know the story of
the Elements?"
"I can't lie to you." I said," I don't know the story."
"Well, when the world was being created, there were only four beings: The
ancient dragons. They each controlled one element. The Red one controlled
to element of Fire. The Green one had Air and Wind. The Blue one had Ground
and Earth. And the Black one had Water. These elements are important
because with them, you can create anything.
Well, these four dragons went around creating everything in the world
wherever and whenever they pleased. Then, there were four spots of land, or
whatever it was, and they all decided to make it all of their forces
together. This resulted in the four great deserts: Aeris, Treumant, Yama,
and Gaiur. The deserts were named after the ancient dragons, which were
never seen again. The people erected the towers in homage to the new
dragons, which spawned from the ancient ones. It is said that every so
often, dragons come to the towers and leave gifts of appreciation for the
people who build the towers."
"Well, you could have said it a bit slower, but I think I understand now.
Thanks for telling me." I said.
"My pleasure," Fin answered.
"Which dragon controlled which element?" I asked.
"The blue one is Treumant, the red one is Gaiur, the green one is Aeris,
and Yama is the black one." Fin said.
"The entrance is over here," Kyorn shouted over to us. "Hurry up, it's
almost dawn."
I had no clue why we needed to get in before dawn, but I grabbed Fin, and
ran towards Kyorn.
We walked down the dimly lit passageway, going deeper into the earth. I
knew that it would get cold as we went deeper, but I didn't think it would
get as cold as it was getting. I saw a light at the end of the passage, but
it seemed unnatural. It was white, and very bright too. I don't know how it
could be so white, or how there could be such a bright light down here.
"What is that?" I asked Reebus, who was standing in front of me.
"I'm not too sure." He said. "Must be some type of magic, but it's strange
that I don't feel anything."
"What do you mean that you don't feel anything?" I asked.
"All magic users can feel a faint aura of magic when there is some around.
I don't fell any magic. None at all." He answered.
We stepped out into the light and saw something that I never thought I
would have seen. The light was coming from a white tree in the center of a
room full of ice.
"That's amazing," Kyorn said. "I've never heard of trees that give off
light or trees that even live in this environment."
"I'm not too sure it's even a tree," I said, "Looks almost like crystal."
"It might as well be a wingless Pegasus, It's not right." Reebus said,
"This has to be some kind of trick or trap."
"You're probably right, but I can handle anything you throw at me." Beorn
said, and started to walk forward towards the tree."
"Beorn, wait," Kyorn said, "Reebus is right. We should probably do
something first."
"Who cares?" Beorn asked, "You said yourself that you don't like me. I'll
be doing you a favor by dying."
"That's not what I meant," Kyorn said, but it was too late, Beorn was
already halfway to the tree.
The rest of us stood silent and watched. As soon as he reached the tree,
there was a bright flash, and he was knocked away. He got up, and started
to walk back towards the tree.
I had a bad feeling about this, "Beorn, get back here," I shouted, but he
kept on walking. I admired his courage, but I began to think that this
courage was actually stupidity. My gaze shifted to underneath Beorn's feet,
where a dark shadow started to appear.
"Get out of there!" I yelled, unsheathed my sword, and ran towards Beorn.
The others did the same, but before we could reach him, the ice began to
split. I giant white mass flew out of the ice. It landed between Beorn and
the tree. I noticed that the creature was a white dragon. Beorn just stood
there: paralyzed with fear. Suddenly, with lightening quick reflexes, the
dragon lunged at Beorn, crushing him between his jaws. Red blood dripped
from the creature's mouth, and it's gaze shifted between the five of us,
probably deciding which one to strike next. This dragon was huge, spanning
about ten feet tall, and about twenty-five feet long. Though this seemed
huge to me, compared to other dragons it was only a child.
I shouted a battle cry, and charged towards he dragon. Confused by the
sudden onslaught, I caught the dragon off guard, and drove my sword deep
into his shoulder. The rest of them got the idea. Before the dragon could
respond, Rashas drew his bow and fired an arrow. The arrow hit the dragon
just above the eye, but just enough to have the dragon close its eye
temporarily. Reebus and Kyorn started chanting in the language of magic,
and Fin scurried over to the dragon's blind-side. The dragon, still angry
with me, opened its mouth, and released a breath of freezing water. I tried
to jumped out of the way, but the water hit my feet, freezing instantly,
and bringing me to the ground. I felt the pain crushing my feet. I couldn't
move, so I was a sitting duck for the dragon.
Kyorn and Reebus finished with their spell and shot streams of fire at the
dragon, distracting it, and slowly burning through it's armored hide.
Rashas shot another arrow, trying to permanently blind it, but missed and
hit next to where my sword lay: embedded in the side of the dragon. Fin
jumped up onto the dragon's head, and stabbed down through the skull. Fin
missed the brain, which I assumed was his target, but instead he caused the
dragon to go into a rage, spewing ice into the air, and whipping around.
Suddenly the dragon spread its wings a flew up into the air, with Fin still
attached. I was amazed at how far up the dragon flew, because we weren't
that far underground. As I stood, stuck to the floor, I noticed Fin let go
of the dragon, and the dragon's head exploded in a ball of fire.
Rashas ran and caught Fin. I guess 'caught' isn't exactly the right word
for the situation. Fin was moving so fast that he actually knocked Rashas
to the ground when he landed. Meanwhile, Reebus melted the ice on my foot.
"Thanks," I said.
"No problem," Reebus answered.
I felt the warmth return to my feet. I tried to take a step, but fell over.
We all got a good laugh at that. I got up again to see Fin standing in
front of me. "How did you make that explosion?"
Fin smiled proudly, showing me a necklace. It was made of mithril, and had
six small chain hanging down from it, but only one had something attached
to it. I looked at it, and noticed it was a small marble. Inside of it,
though, there appeared to be a small raging inferno going on. I stood back
up, looking at the others for any suggestions of what it was.
"It's a necklace of fireballs. Took me so long to make it, and that damn
elf seems to keep on stealing it from me and using them." Kyorn said. "I
haven't even gotten to use one yet."
"I don't steal it," Fin said. "I just stumble across it when I'm looking
through your pack, and think that it looks nice. I meant to give it back, I
swear."
Kyorn breathed a heavy sigh and put his hand out, motioning for Fin to give
it back to him.
Fin gave it back, then quickly hustled over to the dragon's smoldering
carcass. He was trying to pull the sword out of the dragon's skull, but
just couldn't manage to budge it. I walked over, and pulled it put for him.
"At least you can walk again," Rashas said, 'We should probably get going."
"Yeah, I agree with you." Kyorn said. The sooner we get out of this hell
hole, the better."
"Why not just go out the way we came in?" Fin asked.
"I already checked," Kyorn said, a gate fell down, and it won't budge."
"I guess we just have to go forward to get out." I said, "And there's only
one door out."
"Well lets get going." Kyorn said, "And stay away from the tree. It might
summon another Dragon or whatever."
We walked towards the door, and went through. There was a long tunnel, much
like the one to the first room. We finally emerged into another room, which
was about the same size of the last one. There were three statues of
minotaurs blocking the door.
"I bet that when we get near them, they'll become alive, and kill us." Fin
said.
"This is a very strange place. No matter what crazy things you say, it just
might come true." Rashas said, pulled out his bow and shot an arrow. The
arrow flew straight towards the statue in the center. As the arrow reached
the statue, it put its arm up and caught the arrow, crumbling it to dust.
"Told you," Fin said, almost mockingly.
The three minotaurs started to advance. I, feeling stupid that I hadn't
bought a long-range weapon, unhooked my sword, and waited for them to get
to me. Kyorn and Reebus cast spells, and flaming swords appeared in their
hands. The walked up and stood next to me. Fin also pulled out a bow, and
shot at them. The minotaurs finally reached us, and the battle began.
Kyorn, Reebus, and I engaged one of the minotaurs in battle, while Rashas
and Fin shot arrows at it. We all slashed at the first one, and quickly it
fell, but not quickly enough. It managed to get a swipe off with its giant
axe, making all of us step back. However, Reebus didn't move in time, and
was knocked over with a slice across his chest. With another arrow from Fin
and Rashas, it fell to the ground, crumbling to dust.
The second one didn't even bother to attack. Instead, it dropped its axe to
the ground. Kyorn stepped up and slashed at the minotaur with his flame
sword. The blade slashed across the minotaur's body, but as the sword cam
in contact with the minotaur, the blade seemed to dissipate from existence.
"Damn short spell!" Kyorn shouted, and tried to run away from the minotaur.
But before he could, it reached down, and picked him up. It flung them
across the room at Fin and Rashas. They dodged out of the way, but the mage
crumpled against the ground. I brought down the minotaur with the next
swipe of my sword.
Fin and Rashas struck the final one in the legs, and it fell to the ground.
I chopped off its head with one quick stroke. The battle was finished, and
I ran over to Kyorn and Reebus. Before I got over there, I knew that they
were dead. I didn't even bother to go even closer. I saw that there was
nothing I could do to help them, so I walked back towards Rashas and Fin.
"Don't either of you die on me now," Rashas said.
"We'll do our best," I told him, "But we've been doing our best this whole
time, and look where it's got us."
We all fell silent, and continued to walk towards the door. We made it
there safely, and walked through the door and the long passage that
followed it. At the end of the passage, there was another room.
"I sure hope that this is the last," Fin said, and we all silently agreed
with him.
We walked to the edge of the platform that we were standing on, and looked
down. All we saw was darkness. A vast chasm probably filled with spikes at
the very bottom. If there even was one that is.
"I have an idea," Rashas said, and pulled out an arrow. He tied a rope to
the end of it, and tied the other end of the rope to a rock. Rashas fired
the arrow at the wall opposite us, across the chasm, and it lodged into the
wall. There was a faint red glow that surrounded the arrow, and then the
rock from the wall started to grow around the arrow, encasing it.
"How..."I started to ask.
"Magic," Rashas said.
I just nodded in agreement. Rashas started to climb out onto the rope. I
had done this type of exercise when I was training, and I hoped that I
still remembered it correctly.
All of a sudden, a strong gust of wind blew, and it knocked Rashas off of
the rope, into the abyss.
"Rashas!" I cried out. There was nothing I could do. I felt so helpless
because I couldn't save them. They were just dying, and I couldn't do
anything about it.
"Um... Rio?" Fin asked, "How are we supposed to get across?"
"We strap ourselves on." I said. "Do you have any rope?"
"Uh, sure," Fin said, taking his backpack off. "How much do you need?"
"Everything," I said. "We'll have to tie it around our bodies a few times,
and maybe even our hands and our feet. I just hope to the gods that we
survive this and a dragon doesn't fly up and eat us while we're crossing."
"Yeah," Fin said.
We tied ourselves to the rope with more rope, and started to cross. I made
it across safely, and untied myself.
"That was pretty easy." I said, "I would have thought it would have been
harder."
"Don't talk too soon," Fin said, "You never know what will happen until
we're out of here."
Fin was right, I did talk too soon. On the other side of the chasm, where
the one rope was tied, a huge stone golem was trying to rip the rope off of
the rock.
"Fin," I said calmly, "Don't look back."
"Why?" Fin asked. "Is there a giant stone golem trying to rip the rope
apart?"
"How did you?" I asked.
"I had already looked back." Fin answered calmly.
"Well," I said, wondering how one could have a sense of humor at a time
like this. "Just hurry up."
Fin made it across and untied himself just as the rope was torn apart.
'Well," Fin said, "That went over pretty good."
I just laughed, and headed through the door, barely noticing the rock that
landed a few feet away from me.
We walked down the hall, wondering what would be next.
"Just so you know," Fin said. "I'm not going to die at this next
challenge."
"Why not?" I asked.
"Because I'm better than you." Fin said confidently.
"Better than me at what?" I asked.
"Everything." Fin said.
"Well maybe a few things, but not everything." I argued.
"Nope," Fin said, "I'm better at you than everything."
"You mean 'better than you at everything'." I said, correcting him.
"Nope," Fin continued, "I'm better than you at everything. Besides, someone
will have to die. Someone has during all of the other ones."
"How do you know that someone won't in this one?" I asked.
"Because I'm smart," Fin said, "and I never won't be."
We walked into the room, and I looked around. There was nothing in the room
except the white platform that we stood on, and black floor past that. I
started to think that neither of us might survive this. At the other end of
the room was a large disk. Kyorn had told me that it was the disks that
granted the wish. I started to walk out onto the floor, and it crumbled
away almost as soon as I put my weight onto it. A large fiery creature
climbed out of the floor in front of the disk.
"How are we supposed to get past that thing?" Fin asked.
"You're the smart one," I said sarcastically, "You figure it out."
"Alright," Fin said, "Uh, you your waterskin at it. Maybe it will hurt it
because water stops fire, and it's water, and he's fire and...."
"Sure," I said, cutting him off. I unhooked my waterskin from my belt. I
cut a slit in the side of it, and threw it at the beast. It shrieked and
sank back a bit, but I had tripped, and fell through the floor. I could
feel my body burning. Fin used this to his advantage, and darted past the
beast. He reached the disk before it could catch him.
Fin held the disk above his head. "I wish that this fiery burning beast
thing was erased from this plane of existence."
The disk granted him his wish, and it disappeared. There was a faint
humming that came from he disks along with a faint blue glow. I felt
unconsciousness take over me. I tried to fight it, but I couldn't. I still
lied burning on the charred floor.
I awoke in front of the tower. Almost the whole town was there, watching
us. I tried to stand up, but I couldn't. The last thing I saw before I went
into blackness again was an elf girl with purple hair walking towards me.