Chapter 9 – the wanderer
Later that night I was woken up briskly by Razor. "Hurry get ready! The orcs have picked up our sent, their only about an hours ride from here. We must move," said Razor.
"Ok, let's move out then. Ready there Sirius?"
"Yea, yea I'm ready let's go," stated Sirius. So I and Sirius climbed on Razor and he stretched out his wings. I could feel the wind blowing against me as we kept on rising.
"So where will we find the wanderer?"
"He rest on an island in the middle of a lake a little east of here, so we should be there before sun rise," stated Razor. No one talked for the rest of the fly; we were all away in our own thoughts. As we the sun started to rise I could make out a vast body of water. "We are almost there; I will ask you two to be nice and respectful to the Wanderer if you want his help. As a fair warning he is a little crazy, hasn't seen any humans for almost one thousand years."
"Great, we about to meet the man who will determine the out come of our journey and he is crazy," I said sarcastically. Razor started to fly on downwards too the little island with one little house on it. Razors foot finally touched the ground.
"You two go on, I will be back shortly. I'll go see where the orcs our. And remember be respectful." And with that Razor was up in the air flying away.
"Ok, let's do this." Sirius nodded and I walked up and knocked on the door. About a minute later still no answer. "Wonder if he's home?"
"O...I'm home," came a noise from the side of them. There stood an old man wearing a brown long cloak with a brown hood on. In his right hand he held a long wooden staff with gems incrusted at the top of it. "You can call me the Wanderer. And I know what you seek, but to get the scroll you will half to answer a little riddle of mine....hehe."
"Ok, what's the riddle?"
"First yous will come inside and we will have tea while I ask you the riddle. Now come on." So we followed this strange old man into into his house. There was a bed in the top right corner, with many bookshelves with mysterious books. Hmm...Hermione would like those books. "Now sit down while I pour us some tea." So I and Sirius just sat down at his small circular table as he put a cup of tea in front of us. "If you can answer three correct riddles you will get the scroll."
"What! You said we only had to answer one riddle." I said anger boiling inside me. Sirius must have noticed because he reached out his arm and clasped me on the shoulder.
"We'll my mistake then," said the chuckling old man. "But you will still answer three. And I will let you choose from three different categories."
"Sounds like Jeopardy," I said lamely. But Sirius and the wanderer either didn't hear me or choose not to ask.
"You can pick mystical creatures, the land of this world, and gods of the universe," said the old man.
"We'll seeing has I don't know much of this land and the gods, I pick mystical creatures for five hundred," I said jokingly. Yet again they both ignored this or chose not to ask.
"Hehe, first question," said the old man. "This graceful creature has a lions head, goat's body and a serpent's tail."
It was the first time Sirius spoke up, "That would be a Chimera."
The old man clapped his hands together excitedly, "Very good." I wonder how Sirius knew that but I decided it didn't matter as long as we got it right. "Now this creature has the power to destroy all vegetable and animal life with its look or breath. Only the weasel is safe from this creature. And the only way to be killed was from a cock's crow."
"Haha...that's a cockatrice or known as a basilisk. Had to fight one my second year," I said proudly.
"Hmm....two right that's the closet anyone has ever got. Hehe...but I'm sure yous won't get this last one." Said the laughing old man. He was starting to irritate me. "This creature or demon as some call it, guards the portal you seek. And only with his death and the three relics can you take the portal. It is made of fire and rock, breathes fire and carries a huge whip made of fire."
I sat there stunned; I had no clue what this demon was. I looked over at Sirius to see almost the same blank expression. "I believe I can answer that," said a voice from behind me. I turned around to see Razor.
"No, no!" said the Wanderer. "You can't help them!"
"I don't believe that was in the rules!" shouted Sirius.
"Very well, but you only get one guess," said the wanderer smugly.
"This demon as many refer to it is called the Balrog. So I believe you owe us a scroll," said Razor comely.
"Fine, take the scroll, but get out!" said the Wanderer.
"With our pleasure," I spat out, as bowing ever so slightly. The wanderer thrust the scroll into my hands as we walked out the house.
"We will stay on the island tonight. The orcs wont dare cross the lake, they hate water," said Razor. "Now lad open the scroll and tell us where each relic is at."
"Well the earth relic is located in a forest east of here. And then from there if we head south east to some volcano we will locate the fire relic. And the ice relic is on the mountains where the portal is located. So I guess tomorrow we will head for the forest for the earth relic."
"Yes that will be a good idea lad. The forest is about a three day fly from here. It's best we get our rest."
"Yep, good night Razor, Sirius," I said.
"Good night Harry," said Sirius. I thought he hasn't said much since that talk we had a couple of nights ago. I'm sure something is bothering him, but what? Well ill give him some time to see if he talks to me about whatever is bothering him before I ask. Once again as I shut my eyes the pretty face of Hermione came floating in my head.
"Rapcha, the humans are across the lake on the island of the wanderer," came the general's reply.
"So these humans think they can find the relics and take the portal. HA! I we will set out to the only location we know of a relic. We will ride south east to the volcano of Karakan. Where we will wait in secret for the humans after they get the relic, if they can manage to defeat Gorgon, who guards the fire relic. Wolf Riders we ride!" said Rapcha.
A/N – sorry for any mystical creatures information that was incorrect. But I tried my best and I think the website I got the info from is correct. Anyway hope you enjoyed chapter 9.