Chapter Eight

Friends

Two hours later found me at the top of Thormac's tower. Thormac was the wizard who was obsessed with making staffs more powerful and a tiny breed of scorpion. His three scorpions it seemed had escaped twice at different times; sending both me and Parrea on a wild bug hunt to return them again.

Adrilor had explained the full situation to Thormac, and had also included some of his life history - that he had been employed as an undercover agent by King Arthur to spy on Lord Iowerth. He had been dismissed before breakfast earlier that day, for the King had thought his skills were no longer necessary.

"Mayhap the King dismissed me for my friendship with you." The elf added.

"This spell that the old man puts his victims under... it may not be that difficult to execute." Mused Thormac. "It could just be a strong memory loss charm."

"If it were a simple memory charm, the victims would still be able to die." Answered Adrilor.

"True, true... Has anyone actually proven that the victims are immortal once under the spell?" Asked Thormac.

"No, I don't think so..." I trailed off.

"So perhaps if we approached a victim, and intentionally killed him he may wake up in the small town of Lumbridge exactly as he was before the enchantment. He just might..." said Thormac, more to himself than anyone else.

"So... whose going to be the first to wander into territory overrun by noobs, cannons and a magical old man just so they can kill a friend of theirs?" Said Parrea, unhelpfully but realistically explaining the idea.

Inwardly, I sighed. It seemed like a dead end. With a muttered excuse about getting some food, I descended the ladder into Thormac's living area. I reached the bottom, and rested my head against the ladder. I wanted this all to be over now.

"Hey Zanaman, wasup?" Came a cheerful, yet concerned and achingly familiar voice behind me. I turned, and looked into a lightly tanned face surrounded by messy back hair, green eyes standing out as they always have. I stood there for a minute and stared, finding my voice soon after.

"Kryarn!" I shouted, and jumped on him, ecstatic that he was alive, and well it seemed. "Yeah hi dude, its...me." said Kryarn, his voice sounding surprised a little.

My shout had brought the three on the roof down. Thormac and Adrilor stood aside; it was obvious they had no idea who Kryarn was. Parrea stared, a look of shock imprinted on her pale face.

"You're... alive..." she said quietly, almost in a whisper. Kryarn held his arms open, and she ran into them. I felt a sharp feeling, not pain, I don't think anger but it was like anger... Jealousy? No. Never jealousy. I looked away from the two embracing, and my eyes found a shadow, sitting in the corner of the room, placidly observing his surroundings. I smiled. My relief was greater than my instinctive dislike.

"Kysin"

The shadow nodded. I was about to ask him to explain, or someone to explain what... no, how they were both suddenly in this tower when they were supposed to be dead... but Adrilor spoke. Though his voice was quiet and light, it contained a quality that made all else stop and listen to it. Such was a gift of the elven kind.

"Who are you, both of you, to enter Thormac's tower uninvited. You are obviously friends, and good ones I would deem. I believe that there is some tale to your presence, such that bears telling. But you may want rest, first."

"Rest is right. I've been running since Lumbridge I think. So..." Kryarn trailed off into silence.

"Both of you?" said Thormac, squinting in the dimly lit room. He sighted Kysin. "Ah yes. There are rooms below the tower. The table there is enchanted to create whatever food you may need. As soon as you are both rested, please ascend to the roof and tell us all."

"We should talk now, rest later." Came Kysin's deliberate voice.

Kryarn looked startled. "We've been running flat on since when, and he still can go without sleep? Well well well. Good for you, Sinnerguy. As for me, I'm done. I'm going to bed. Talk later."

With that he descended the ladder downwards. Parrea made to follow, but changed her mind and stayed. We all turned towards the shadow in the corner. Kysin looked exhausted, his strength and endurance being far less than Kryarn's. I think it was only his pride that kept him from objecting to rest.

"Are you sure you don't need rest, Kysin?" I asked politely.

Kysin just looked at me, his face more blank and unreadable the Lumbridge castle walls. The awkward silence hung in the air until Adrilor destroyed it, "You both have something to add to the tale of your adventures I think. I now urge you to rest, as we will not hear anything until you are both ready, unless it is urgent." Still without speaking, or making any sound at all, Kysin moved out of the corner and dropped down onto the ground floor.

"Well, there really isn't much we can do until they wake up, but I wouldn't mind one of you explaining who these people are. I mean, they're in my tower and all..." Thormac broke the silence. The three of them climbed the ladder onto the roof. I stayed below, and checked my friends list. Kryarn was on, and so was Alkir. I added Kysin and Adrilor; both names turned up as offline. I assumed that none of them wanted to be found, seeing as they were both spies.

I stared at my friends list for a little longer, and watched as another name flicked 'online'. Within the next half-second I was messaging him.

"Hawkfeather! Where have u been! Where r u now?"

At about the same time that I messaged him, I received a question back. "Where's Varrock? What happened?"

I answered, "I'll explain everything; just get to Thormac's tower now."

"I don't have runes though they're all in the bank" he replied. "And the banks are... buried."

Well... "Don't run whatever u do. Go to Al Kharid, Edgeville, Canifis..."

"Wait its ok I got a dragon ammy. Im going 2 Karamja."

Excellent. Hawkfeather was a good friend, a warrior like myself. He was a pretty good fighter, better than Kryarn even but didn't have Kryarn's infuriating personality and lack of common sense. Whether Hawkfeather was his real name or not, I didn't know. Many people had strange names in Runescape. There were so many... some were composed entirely of numbers. Beside them, Hawkfeather seemed a very normal name to have.

I remembered the countless number of times we had gone hunting together. Dragons in the wilderness of all different colors, the ancient but powerful living dead within large barrows in southern Morytania, the massive insect known as the Kalphite Queen... We had been everywhere together. Basically inseparable once we were both online at the same time.

We had met during Castlewars, a pretend game where players fought under the banner of either Saradomin or Zamorak, and attempted to capture their opponent's flag while destroying their opponents at the same time. He had been for Zamorak, I had been for Saradomin. Both of us had entered the Guthix portal, which placed us on random teams. We were a similar level combat-wise, and spent the entire time attempting to beat each other up. None of us actually won; I killed him, he came straight back and killed me before I could heal myself properly, I came back and the fight began again...

At the end of it we both went on the same team, and had been friends ever since. Hawkfeather was a born leader, a strategist who had an almost elvish gift of making himself heard and obeyed. Although our Castlewars teams were often weaker than our opponents, we always managed to win thanks to his planning and leadership. With him helping... this war would be so much easier. He'd take charge, and he'd work everything out, make us win. Such was my faith in him, though not ill-founded.

The sun was glowing with a pale light, illuminating the towers and activity in the ranger's guild. Kryarn and Kysin were refreshed, and recovered fully from their journey. Hawkfeather had arrived and been introduced. Apparently he already knew Kryarn... but then, most people already knew Kryarn. We were once again located on the roof, with Adrilor asking Kryarn and Kysin to explain everything, from Nora's house till now.

"Well, I was fighting all these noobs and standing there holding the gate shut, with them poking sharp things into my back, noobs are like kids you know - shouldn't be given sharp toys cause they can hurt others..." Kryarn was talking, explaining exactly what happened when I interrupted.

"Yes we know all that, but what happened after the mysterious old man enchanted you?"

"Well I dunno really. God those noobs are strong, and one of their mages actually knew how to cast entangle! A level 20 noob mage how awesome is that? Anyway I was counting the seconds and the old man put his finger on my head and I blacked out I think. Anyway next thing I know is I'm in Lumbridge and Kysin, he's is telling me to hurry up, we're moving. And then we were moving. I was real tired through the whole thing but Kysin wouldn't stop, he just ran faster. And there's me trying to catch him... Not easy you know, catching Kysin here. And it's all dark and then it's light again and I'm like fully lost now but Kysin's still running and we get to the church place in that village back there, you know, the one with all the old guys in white dressing gowns I forget the name... And then for the first time since Lumby Kysin walks. And he walks all the way out here. And then we stop and see you and... yeah..." Kryarn lamely finished his versions of the story.

Well, at least it was short. I guessed that we would be sitting here for the next few hours listening to Kysin now. In the same, deliberate tone Kysin used always except on one occasion, he explained how he had successfully entered Burthorpe, and dismantled the cannon. He was explaining where he put the cannon stand when a crow flew off. There were always crows around Thormac's tower, didn't like to think why. As soon as Kysin had revealed where he had hidden the cannon stand, a crow flew off and away. I didn't think much off it at the time; I don't think any of us hardly noticed. Except Adrilor, who stared after the crow as it flew away, a look of confusement on his fair face.

Kysin had finally gotten to the part where he was sprinting through the heroes guild, when Helemos had killed him and sent him straight to Lumbridge. His slow, hypnotizing voice rolled into the gathering darkness, taking us on a journey far from Thormac's tower, deep into Zamorak's land the wilderness.