Author's Note: This story is based on the War of the Lance/ Dragons of Autumn Twilight series. They are the only books I have read from the Dragonlance Chronicles. Therefore, I do not know what happens to Raistlin later nor do I know about Crysania. Raistlin is my favorite character and will have a large part in this story.
That said, enjoy! R&R!
"Do you think he really loves me?" Jenna's dreamy voice rang out for the fifth time in ten minutes.
I tried my very best not to groan in frustration, but I had been listening to this drabble for an hour. It isn't that I don't have any love my roommate; we've actually gotten along much better than I could have hoped for my first two years at Yale, but I was attempting to write my term paper which needed to be finished within the next few days. And she wasn't helping.
"Can you turn that off?" I asked unkindly. She was watching some sappy black and white movie where the woman who looked like Barbie and the love of her life were bound to get together in the end.
Jenna clicked off the small television. Then she sat up in her bed and turned her big, dreamy eyes to me. "Do you think he really meant it, Aless?" she asked again.
I sighed and clicked the save button on my computer. Running a hand through my wavy brown hair, I turned to her and studied her intently, mentally summing up her situation and trying to come up with an answer that wouldn't completely crush her heart.
Here was the dilemma: Jenna and her boyfriend had been dating for two months. Jenna was still virgin. No big deal, so are a lot of people. But her boyfriend plays basketball for Yale and has a bad reputation for screwing girls and then dumping them. But Jenna wasn't putting out, and I believe that is the reason that he very recently said those three deadly words: I love you.
"Do you really want the truth?" I asked. She nodded her head eagerly, but I knew I would have to water it down and then she would still get mad at me. I can't help it that I don't like to sugarcoat things. "Ok, here goes. No, I don't think so. I think he just wants to get in your pants."
Jenna's eyes immediately lost their sparkling wonder. Her lips pressed tightly together and the corners tugged downward suggesting a frown. Guilt began to bob its ugly head in my chest.
"I'm sorry, Jenna," I apologized. I folded up my laptop and stuck beneath my mattress for safe keeping. "I'm gonna go to my dance class and then I'm going shopping. Can I get you anything?" She didn't respond, so I grabbed my bag and headed out the door leaving Jenna to solve her own problem.
Now when I said dance class, I wasn't lying. I am dancer, but an unconventional one. No, I'm not an exotic dancer for all you whose minds are in the gutter. I am a belly dancer, and there is a fine difference between the two. Not to toot my own horn, but I'd been involved with belly dancing for many years and I was getting quite good. I also used it because it helps tone your muscles and keeps away the dreaded "freshman fifteen." It also gave me better muscle control which is helpful for dancing in the clubs.
But regardless of what kind of dance I take or why I take it, I went to class and it ended only an hour later. I decided that under no circumstances was I going to go back to the dorm and listen to more of Jenna's problems. So I made the decision to waste my time in the little downtown village window shopping. After all, a college student like me doesn't really have much money to burn on unnecessary purchases.
Now I'm not a big fan of the big city of New Haven, which is the city Yale is near. Instead I prefer to shop in the older part of the city where little antique furniture and pottery stores line the streets. And this is where I was, window shopping and making myself walk away from adorable little trinkets and jewelry that I knew could break my bank account, when an unfamiliar store caught my attention.
The broken, splintering sign above it read Inn of the Last Home: Exotic finds from all Places on. I had walked through here several times a year and definitely didn't remember a store named that. Puzzled, I squinted at the name and found that there was a word missing on the end. Yet as I looked closer I saw the rough outline of a K. Shrugging, I began to walk away. But, as fate would have it, my curiosity got the better of me and I walked into the little shop to explore.
I pushed the door open and found that it was even smaller than I first thought from seeing the outside. There were rough looking wooden shelves that lined one wall and were stacked with the strangest assortment of items I had ever seen. There were glasses on display labeled Glasses of True Seeing that sat next to a large collection of night-blue bound books. Hung on another wall was an odd collection of staffs, armor, and weapons. One staff was wooden with a strange blue crystal on the end. Another was wooden with a golden claw at the end that clutched an orb. There were malevolent looking swords and horrifying horned helmets.
The final wall was papered with maps from foreign lands that looked nothing like what I'd seen of Earth. A long glass counter stood in front of the wall that served as a display case for valuable items. Resting on top of the glass was a dirty, bent wizard's hat that made me think of Harry Potter. I approached the hat and case, wondering what sort of strange business a hat like that had in a store like this.
Once again my curiosity got the better of me and I decided to take a closer look at the hat. Not that I found it interesting, but I thought it looked pretty funny. I reached out to pick it up, but my actions were cut short when a man's voice broke the silence.
"Ah, there's that blasted hat! Never can remember where I put the thing!" I whirled around to find an old man dressed entirely in white grumbling to himself. He abruptly snatched the hat off the counter and placed it on his head. He hadn't appeared to have noticed me. That is, of course, until I started laughing at him wearing that stupid hat.
"I say, do I know you?" He asked me, stroking his long white beard.
"Uh, no sir," I replied, startled into good manners and politeness by his stern gaze.
He eyed me thoughtfully for a moment then shrugged. "Are you sure? Ah well. Then it's only proper we introduce ourselves."
"Alessandra," I offered politely. Ok, so it's not a name you hear everyday but that's a lot of the reason that I like it.
The old man beamed at me. "A pleasure to meet you, Alessandra. And my name is…well, it's…oh, give me a moment, I'll come up with it…"
I couldn't help smiling at the crazy man. He reminded me of one of my relatives, elderly, nice, and completely losing his mind. As I watched him struggle, a sparkle of light caught my eye. I looked back down to where his hat had been sitting on the display case. A shimmering gold necklace glimmered where it had apparently been hiding beneath the hat.
I could still hear him murmuring, but only vaguely. Time seemed to stop as I held the necklace in my gaze. It was amazing. The thick braided chain glimmered silver and gold and led to a blazing pendant. It was a diamond shaped pendant that seemed to be both silver and gold at the same time while not yielding to a more dominant one. Atop the diamond sat a fearsome golden dragon. Its mouth hung open to reveal pointed teeth that looked like they could cut my skin even though they were just a golden figure. Two clawed arms reached around the sides of the diamond as though protecting a beautiful treasure. And I understood why the moment I saw what lay in the center of the pendant, guarded by the dragon. Five brilliant little jewels shone with such intensity that I could feel power radiating from them. I eyed them all and took in their colors, which reflected off the glass of the display case. Red, green, white, blue, and black.
One word came to mind: Divine.
That was all I could think as I saw the mighty dragon and the jewels it guarded so fiercely. There was beauty, power, and purpose. It evoked such emotion in me that I nearly had tears in my eyes.
"Fizban!" I heard the old man shout happily. The word wrenched me from my near trance. I caught my hand in midair as I was reaching out for the treasure. Swallowing hard, reluctant to turn my face away, I looked back at the old man. "My name is Fizban." I followed his finger to where it pointed on his shirt. A rusty, would-be golden name tag hung sloppily and read Innkeeper: Fizban. I took that to mean he owned the place.
"I say, do you own this place?" Fizban asked me curiously. I gave him a look that matched somewhere between confusion and disgust. Not that I'm arrogant, I just don't always have patience for those of extremely low IQ, like Fizban.
"No," I replied quickly. I turned my back on him and continued studying the strange necklace. This time I reached out to grab it. The moment my fingers closed around it I had the strangest sensation that I was meant to have it. It was made for me. I lifted it to my face in order to study it more closely.
"Are you sure you don't own this place?" came Fizban's voice. "It's rather nice. You're not a thief are you?" he asked suddenly, studying me suspiciously as I held the necklace.
"What? No!" I denied his accusation quickly.
He crooked a finger at me. "Well you had best not be! I don't take kindly to thieves!" After another stern glance Fizban walked over to a wall and plucked a plain wooden staff from it. He murmured, "Wonderful place! Just wonderful!"
He remained quiet for a moment (not that I really listened when he did say something) and was content to study the shop as I studied the necklace. I tried not to groan when he spoke again. "Who do you suppose owns this place? It's not good business to leave a store unwatched with so many dangerous people around. I think I'll tell them that."
I turned back to him and frowned when I saw him narrowing his eyes in suspicion once more. What was with this guy? Then I did something very unusual for me and decided to be helpful. "Excuse me, sir, but I think this is your shop. After all, your name tag does say 'Innkeeper.'"
Fizban frowned and glanced down at his shirt. He quickly looked up smiling widely. "So it does! I guess this is my shop. Are you a thief? Are you going to steal that?"
"No, sir!" I said again with a little more force. Then I made a split-second decision that was known to destroy college students like myself. "I was actually wondering if I might buy it from you."
I began to pull out my wallet, but Fizban waved his hand carelessly. "No, no, no. I wouldn't hear of it. You reunited me with my shop. You keep it."
I bit back an unkind reply about the minds of the elderly and decided to stay with my gracious, polite manner. Through my life I've learned the value of faking your emotions and pretend to be something you're not in the right company. "Are you sure? It looks very valuable."
"Everything has value. It just depends on who's looking at it," came his soft reply. His sudden change of manner and intelligence startled me. I looked up at him to find his eyes no longer lost and confused, but strong and sure. I couldn't help but smile.
"Thank you, sir. I'll come back to see you some time," I promised softly, though I wasn't entirely sure why. Then I slipped the necklace around my neck, grabbed my bag (which held my wallet and keys) and started towards the door.
"No thanks are required, Alessandra. Perhaps we will see one another sooner than you might think."
I didn't stop to ponder his words. In fact, I wasn't really sure that I heard them at all. Instead I pulled the door open while studying my new possession and was met with a scene that I wasn't prepared for.
I fist noticed the change in the smells. The world I knew smelled like gasoline, steel, and rain. Instead I caught the distinct scent of fire, something I hadn't encountered since my youth when I built bonfires with my grandfather. Yet there was also something else in the air. I couldn't identify it at first, but it soon became clear to me that it was not welcome to me. Unfortunately for me, it didn't take me long to realize that I smelled (and felt) death in the air.
I glanced up in alarm. My first thought was that I had stepped into a movie, maybe something like Lord of the Rings. It was a ravaged town thick with fire, depression, death, and evil. I saw tree stumps that must have been large enough to hold houses, and hundreds of tents and armor and swords. Swords? Something was definitely wrong. The US hadn't used swords for over a century.
It was then I realized that this was real. I glanced around in horror, praying that I wasn't in mortal danger. During the frantic searching of my eyes, I spotted a sign. It had only a few simple words on it, but they chilled me to the bone.
Solace, Territory of Lord Verminaard
What the hell happened!
Sorry the first chapter may be a little long and boring, but it will only get better. The companions will be a part of the next chapter. Hope you liked it. R&R!
