The team stood, petrified in the center of their newly-renovated home, staring at the dragon's head that lead its long, grey, scaly neck as it slithered through the splintered wood planks lining the edge of the opening. The creature's enormous head reached Mike at the opposite end of the room. Mike sat on the floor, his bare chest expanding and contracting with fear as it peeked through his vest at the monster in front of him. The dragon slowly stretched open its jaw to reveal its spear-like teeth that glistened with a mysterious slime that dripped from the roof of the dragon's mouth to its tongue before letting out a bone-rattling roar just inches from Mike's face.
Within seconds, Mike felt a tingling on his skin. He looked up to see individual strands of hair pulled upward lightly and was quickly, but smoothly hoisted into the air. When Mike lifted his chin, he saw the white bearded face of Emperor Aldour. The emperor sat on the scaly back of the colossal dragon, his hand raised toward Mike.
"You're coming with me, Mr. Kroon!" the emperor shouted as he pulled Mike toward the dragon, placing him on its back, his limbs bound by the emperor's telekinesis spell.
The crowd of seven stood at the foot of the dragon, angrily crying out to the emperor to relinquish their companion. They slammed their fists, stomped their feet, and readied their weapons and magic. Lindsay grabbed her sword from the rack, Ray's hands sparked with flame, and Kerry raised a stick of dynamite.
"What do you want with, Mike, asshole?!" Michael yelled.
"Is that any way to speak to the emperor?!" The emperor replied. "If you must know, I found my personal chef attempting to poison my food so I had him executed. It was... very amusing. Bloody, but... amusing. Now I need someone who I can trust... or manipulate, rather, to make my food. So I'll be taking him with me and there's nothing you can do about it!"
The dragon's mighty wings stretched upward with a crackle and flapped downward, thrusting itself into the sky as the emperor laughed maniacally over Mike's screams. The whole ordeal was over as quickly as it began.
"Come back here, you son of a bitch!" Michael yelled at the emperor, followed by a strong punch on the wall to his left. "God dammit!"
"So like... did that happen or...?" Ray asked.
"What the fuck was that?" Barbara continued.
"So... what now?" Kerry asked Andrew hesitantly.
Before Andrew could respond, Michael cut in with gnarled, "Grab your gear. We're getting Mike back. We'll end up starving without him. You know it and I know it. So let's go!"
Everyone in the room just stared at Michael with wide eyes. He stared back at them, his brow furrowed.
"Gear up! What the fuck are you waiting for?!" He screamed.
This jump-started to team into a frantic dance of each member sprinting around the cottage, running from weapon rack to bedroom to wardrobe to weapon rack once more. With everyone running around, gathering supplies, Michael, casually sauntered between the six other members to compile his armor, weapons, and survival equipment.
At last, everyone was in place, lined up in the main room, facing the hole in their wall. Michael, who was clad in his iron bracers with the artful engravings, fur pants and leather boots, walked back and forth, surveying each member's attire and weapons. They all stared at the burning, sapphire eyes of the grizzly bear headdress perched on top of Michael's head as he took tormentingly slow steps from one end of the line to the other, his gaze gliding from head to toe of each member.
He scrutinized Andrew first. Andrew had put on a newer leather chest piece with many more overlapping pieces all buckled together with various belts. The armor left his arms exposed to showcase his exceptional muscles from forearm to shoulder. At Andrew's side was his heirloom steel mace, freshly polished. Next, Michael surveyed Barbara. She had just put on the armor she had worn to the pub the night before. Her iron chest plate, though plainly weathered, still managed to reflect a vague glare onto Michael's face. Over her bare right shoulder, he saw her quiver, filled to the brim with her specially, self-crafted arrows.
Following Barbara's inspection was Lindsay's. Michael spared no time inspecting his bride-to-be from head to toe. He admired every inch of her attire, from her ruby-red locks, down past her storm-cloud-grey eyes. His gaze meandered past her collarbone, down toward her breasts, which peeked out from her white button-down that was missing the top three buttons. She wore no chest armor either. This worried and excited Michael, for if she were to be confronted, she was in greater danger, but he also didn't mind his fiancé showing off what she had, at least for his enjoyment. Thankfully though, both arms were quite heavily protected, in addition to her shield, which had been newly polished and emblazoned with her family crest. His "inspection" continued to follow every curve of her figure, down past the utility belt around her waist, past her hips to her legs, clad in tight leather pants, and lastly to her fur boots. With a wink and a nod, he parted eyes with Lindsay and moved on to Kerry.
Kerry had chosen his strongest chest plate, comprised primarily of ebony metal with a hint of gold detail. On his head, Kerry wore a steel-plated helmet that draped chain mail from the neck opening. As far as weapons went, Kerry's iron greatsword rested on his back and he wore several sticks of dynamite draping from his shoulder and some smaller bombs hanging from the belt, but Michael noticed something odd.
"What's up with the staff?" Michael inquired, quizzically.
"What about it?" Kerry responded.
"What is it?"
"Oh, it's just a little project I've been working on. It's a conjuration staff. I'd just finished crafting it, so I thought I'd take it on a little field test."
"All right then." Michael ended, turning to Ray and Dylon. "Aren't you two just adorable?"
Because they were both mages, Ray and Dylon had both chosen plain black robes with a dark blue trim and they each wore their hoods up. It appeared as though they had intended to match. They did not.
"What's the deal, Ray? No armor?" Michael asked, concerned for his friend.
"What am I, a bitch?" Ray knocked on his chest, which let out a hollow, metal clanging.
"What about you, shorty?" Michael asked Dylon. Dylon simply knocked on his chest as well, letting out the same metal clangs. "All right. I guess we're set to go. Lindsay, look ahead and see what you can see about what's gonna be going on."
Lindsay obeyed and bowed her head, concentrating on feeling the air around her. She breathed in and out slowly and evenly, relaxing her mind and soon, she saw it. At first things were hazy, but cleared up as time went on. She saw a castle. There was an army of men all dressed the same. She saw pair of legs laying down, blood flowing toward the toes.
"What do you see?" Michael asked her.
Lindsay explained what she had seen.
"One of us dies?" Kerry asked in disbelief.
"Who is it?" said Dylon.
Lindsay started to answer but was cut off.
"Don't spoil it!" Michael said. "It'll just be easier if we don't know. Now come on. Let's move."
The team left through the gaping hole in their wall. As they wandered down the dirt trail to the town below, they each took a look back at their home and sighed, hoping they could all return home safely. Strolling through the street, the group passed several stores and vegetable stands where some vendors called out to them, "Off on another journey?" and "You'll need some fresh meat to keep you from going hungry on your trip."
At one point, about halfway down the street, the wind picked up and Ray was blinded. He had been hit. He quickly grabbed at his face and pulled off a sheet of paper. Looking at it, he saw it was a bounty poster.
To all able-bodied men and women of this kingdom!
The town of Medafead requests that Hellman's dungeon
be cleared of any unholy spirits.
There have been many disturbances with the undead
and we would like them to cease.
A hefty reward will be paid to the person(s)
who can successfully accomplish this task
-The People of Medafead
Ray was close to simply tossing the paper to he ground, but he thought about his potential reward and shoved the bounty into his pocket. Ray's love for completion was equal to his love of breathing and he was not about to pass up such an easy prize. With this, he jogged up further so he could catch up with the rest of the team at the edge of the village. The group exited through the main town gate and the whole world seemed to open up in front of them. They breathed in the fresh Spring air, beheld the mountains to the west, listened to the bubbling of the river to the east, and simply absorbed the scope of the space around them in the grassy plains.
"Ok, guys! Lets go get that skinny little bastard!" Michael exclaimed and the team jogged off away from home, away from Boxton, and towards the vast openness of the journey ahead of them.
To Be Continued...