AN: And here is the next chapter folks. Once again, no beta reader, but hopefully I got the bulk of the errors cleaned up.
Once again I would like thank those reviewed last chapter: Darev, Philip Gipson, yellow 14, BlackRosefire, Nelo Akuma, Mecha Tails V666, Starwin, Kitsune6, The Crazy Talk Kid, shocklance and fergnerd.
Disclaimer: I do not own W.I.T.C.H. or D&D
000
Arc 2: Return of the Exiled Prince
Chapter 2: Will's Familiar Hunt
After getting back form her short vacation at the lakeside cabin, Will had gone all out in her training for the youth games.
The first thing she had done was learn the Lightning Sword spell from the scroll Yan Lin had given her for her birthday. It had been a little difficult, since it was her first second level spell, but Will still managed to get the hang of it after a week of practice.
Once Will had gotten the hang of a new level of magic, it made it easy for Susan to teach Will another second level spell called Blur, which would make it hard for people to hit Will with weapons or attacks spells.
To further bolster Will's mystic might, Susan also taught Will the first level spell Magic Missile, for long range attacks with the small energy projectiles it created and the zero level spell, Touch of Fatigue.
The last spell would be good if Will got in close and touched her opponents, leaving them feeling weak and moving more slowly.
Then there was of course, Will's Warlock training. Susan had been sure to have Will look over all the books give to her by Lord Hale and to go over Tomas' self made books, to look up a new invocation or two for the redhead to learn.
Will had been reluctant to read the books her now deceased father, but Susan had managed convince Will to look at them in the end. This was a good thing to, since Will found an invocation called Spider Walk.
This invocation would allow Will climb walls and ceils with ease, perfect for her use in the Labyrinth during the Youth Games.
All this magic training took Will three weeks to complete, but that still left her with one week and a month to focus on physical training, unless she could significantly increase her magic reserves to make learning a new spell or invocation worth the time and effort to do so.
During all this, Serenity had disappeared. She had left right after taking Susan and Will home from the lake, saying she was off to complete some sort of agreement Susan and the gold dragon had.
Will had tried to ask what Serenity meant by this by asking her mother, but Susan had kept quiet about the whole thing.
Will chose to just give up on asking about the matter and focus on her training. She needed to be as strong as possible to compete with the countless others who took part of the games, including her own friends.
Will knew it was just a friendly little competition, but her friends had told her to not hold back, because they would not. This was because it was for a mixture of both bragging rights and to test one's ability, you could not do this if you held back against your friends.
The group had all agreed to go all out during the games, and Will had not intentions of breaking the promise. Of course, she hoped they would be able to work together as some groups of friends did at the start of the final event, so to help thin the number of opponents until they reached the end.
Once this happened, the group would often have a final face off against one another and see who would be the victor of the labyrinth.
Though this was Will's hope, she knew should not count on this idea and made sure push herself to get as strong as she possible could.
That was why Will was trying to improve her skill with Soaring Blade right now. She would be better able to deal with almost any situation, if she could get a higher level of skill with the style.
As Will slowly moved in a pattern that would have been a series of attacks, she noticed two large shadows quickly fly overhead. Shortly after they passed by, Will looked up just in time to see it was Serenity and another gold dragon.
The second one was smaller then Serenity; but was still a large creature that one could ride on, if one wanted to.
As Will watched both dragons land in the castle courtyard, below the large balcony she was on, Susan came up form behind her and said, "Will, time to take a short beak from your training. There is someone I think you should meet."
Will looked at her mother curiously, but obeyed with out question and followed Susan to the courtyard.
000
When they arrived, Will noticed the new dragon was giving any person in sight a disdainful glare and seemed to be a bit annoyed. Serenity seemed to be trying to keep the smaller dragon inline with a few warning glances, but they were ignored by their target.
"I see you found him, Serenity. He looks very strong, but he seems a bit…unfriendly. How did you convince him go along with our agreement?" Susan asked, eyes the smaller dragon cautiously.
But before Serenity could respond, the smaller dragon roared out, "What agreement?! I demand to know why you dragged me here, mother!"
Will was shocked to hear this demand, she did not think this dragon could be related to Serenity. She was so kind and gentle and this other one was so…rude, to put it mildly.
"Kor! Behave yourself!" Serenity ordered and then looked to Susan with an apologetic expression on her face.
"True, many of my other children are better mannered then this brute here." Serenity started to say but stopped when Kor let out a growl and she smacked him over the head with her tail, before continuing.
"But considering how hard Will's life is going to be, I thought a powerful but hard to get along with partner would be better, then a friendly and weak one. Besides, he'll probably settle down after a month or two." Serenity explained to Susan, making it clear what Kor had been brought here for.
This clearly angered Kor and let out a powerful roar, before yelling at his mother, "How dare you! I will not be forced to submit to being some lowly elf's familiar!"
Serenity's first response to this, was giving Kor another powerful smack to the head with her tail, then proceed to verbally chew him out. "For starters Kor, Will is half-elf…" Serenity started to say, but Kor interrupted her.
"So instead being forced to bond with a useless unaging creature, it one that will die in a few hundred years? That makes it so much less humiliating!" Kor said in tone that was dripping with sarcasm. This got in another tail smack to the head before Serenity continued.
"Second of all, despite what you think, it is a great honor to be a worthy sorceress' familiar. The elves and our clan have been allies thousands of years and forming the occasional familiar link with one, proves that the alliance is still strong. Besides, it was agreed long ago my strongest juvenile aged child would be the familiar of Susan's first born child." The older dragon finished explaining and made Will look up at her in awe.
She was supposed to be partnered up with a dragon? For any spellcaster, this was dream come true. Dragons were powerful creatures after all, so they would make excellent companions if one needed a familiar who could fight along side them.
Kor was obviously less thrilled with idea and promptly stated, "I'm leaving. Go get one of my naïve siblings to be the one. I'm sure they would gladly follow the outdated traditions our clan had obeyed for far too long."
As Kor started to leave, Serenity moved to grab her son, but he used his tail to slap her in the face, just like she had been doing to him few minutes ago. This had been unexpected and dazed Serenity, leaving her even more unprepared for the cloud of smoke Kor shot of his mouth.
The smoke cloud was thick and black, making everyone in the courtyard choke and cough on it. When it finally cleared, Kor was long gone. He was a clever young dragon, using the cloud of smoke to prevent anyone form knowing which way he went, until it was too late to try and follow.
Serenity let out a sigh and said, "Let's head inside. It seems I have a bit to explain about Kor's attitude. He has reasons for his actions and I wish to discuss them, before we decide on what we will deal with the matter."
000
When Will heard Serenity say 'inside' she assumed the dragon meant a place that was meant to hold the large and powerful beast, not see the golden dragon changed into a elvin woman with long blonde hair, blue eyes, lightly colored skin and wore white robes; then enter the caste for the three of them to speak in private.
Serenity used the natural ability of gold dragons to change her shape to what she was now. But Will had not known this until after she had scene it, and it took the redhead a while to get used to Serenity's new form.
Once they arrived in Susan's office, they all sat down and had Serenity to explain why Kor seemed so hostile at being a familiar. The gold dragons allied to the elves were sometimes choosy about whom they joined with, but Susan had never heard of one whom out right refused, like Kor had done.
"So Serenity, why was Kor upset about this news? More importantly, why did you choose him to begin with? I know you prefer to keep your word and give Will a strong partner, but I'm sure you have had plenty of other choices you could have made." Susan asked, hoping to know the full reason for Serenity's decision.
"Kor has grown…wary of those who sought him for power. He truly is the strongest of those among his age group, but not just my own young, but of all the juveniles of my clan. This made many of the elves want him to be their familiar. Kor quickly grew to hate this and left to make his own lair when he became twenty-six." Serenity answered and made Will stare the gold dragon, since was confused as why Kor was called a juvenile if he was that old.
As if sense Will confusion, Serenity chose to clarify and said, "Will, we dragons have twelve stages of growth, based on age. Twenty-six to fifty is with in the juvenile stage. That was how old Kor was, when he left six years ago, making him thirty-two now and still well with in his age group."
While Will used this information as food for thought, Serenity continued telling Susan about Kor. "The reason I chose him was not only because of his strength, but in hopes of helping him to see he wrong about everyone being like those elves. The elder of my clan found out about this plan and said that if Kor refused, then there might be problems."
This news alarmed Susan and was about to ask what these problems were, but Serenity was prompt to explain before needing to be asked. "Such an situation has never happened before and many of the higher status elves had been offended by some of Kor's more rude rejections. The only protection Kor had, was from the agreement you and I made all those years ago. Since we could say he had been promised to another and that his attitude was his way to keep others from trying to make him choose them instead. If Kor's rejects Will, then the clan elders plan on making Kor pick one of the rejected nobles in an attempt smooth things over with them."
Susan knew this was serious then. Kor refused to be anyone's familiar, so if he were forced to be one instead of doing so of his own free will, it would be like he was a prisoner. That was not the reason for familiar bond and the dragon elders would not do such a thing unless they saw this problem possibly snowballing somewhere down the line.
"Will, me and Serenity have a lot to talk about, so why don't you go back to your training." Susan told her daughter. Will looked reluctant at first but she nodded her head left with out a fight, or so it seemed.
In reality, Will hid behind the door and listened in on the discussion, hoping she might be able to help in someway. Will blamed herself for this mess, even though she had done nothing. It was habit she had yet to break, despite her mother's best efforts.
"So Serenity, do you know where your son's lair is? If we can go there and tell him the whole story, maybe we can reason with him." Will heard her mother say, which made Will want to burst back in and say Kor should be left alone, Will restrained herself and continued to listen to the conversation.
"No, I'm afraid not. I found him hunting near the general area his lair is rumored to be in, but nothing exact. Even if his lair is in that area, it won't be for long, now that he knows of our agreement. If he is still the same Kor that I know, he is probably getting ready to move to a whole new location, to insure that he is never found." Serenity's voice replied, sounding very worried.
"Then we better try and search the area you found him and at least hope we find clues to the location of his new lair. If we don't find him, I would not be surprised if you're clan's elders ordered all the gold dragon hunt him down." Susan said in a grave tone of voice, making it seem that the last part would be VERY bad.
"That's probably the best course of action we have. His lair is supposed to be in the Gloomick Swamp. Not the usual location of preference for a gold dragon, since we prefer locations made of stone, like mountain caves and abandoned castles, but Kor probably wanted to insure he was left alone." Serenity told Susan, which was all Will needed to hear.
'I'll head there and find Kor myself. I'll tell him about what the other gold dragons plan on doing and then maybe I can help him out of this. At the very least, maybe I can get him to pretend to be my familiar until we can think of another solution.' Will thought, then headed for her room to pack for her trip for the Gloomick Swamp.
000
Two hours later, Will was packed to leave and hiding in the back of a cart that had just dropped off a shipment of food for the castle. Will would have preferred to go by horse, but Will needed to be sure her mother did not know she was gone for as long as possible.
Will planned on getting a horse or some other form of mount and supplies while in town, then head straight for the swamp. It would be easy for Will to have the money to do so, since her mother had set aside a small amount of money for Will's personal use.
It was made of monthly payments that were stored away in a special vault and have been gathering in size for years. Susan had started doing this many years ago, so that when she finally found Will; she would have lots of money to get what she wanted.
Of course, Susan never guessed that the money would be used by Will to go on a self-appointed mission to help a dragon avoid being forced to be someone's familiar.
When the cart had stopped, Will pulled up the hood of the cloak she was wearing and jumped before anyone saw her, quickly headed for the closest stable. Will got lucky in her search, since she found place that had something better then horses, griffons.
They were only for rent and not for sale though and had a collar to call them back after their time was up, but Will had enough money to rent one for a week and still be able to buy plenty of supplies.
When Will was ready to go, she noticed the number of guards on the streets were starting to increase in number, this made Will think her mother had noticed she was missing and starting a city wide search.
'Good thing I'm ready to go.' Will mused in her mind and got the griffon flying before anyone thought of stopping her.
It was as easy to control the griffon as it was for Serenity, so Will had not trouble flying the griffon to the swamp. Of course, once she got there, the hard part pf this quest would begin.
000
"Still no sign of her?" A worried Susan asked the guard who had come to report to her of the search thus far. She had gone to see how Will was doing with her training and to ask her opinion on the matter with Kor, but could not find the redhead anywhere in the castle.
"No my lady, though some of the men said they saw someone wearing the same colored tunic, pants and cloak your daughter often favors, leaving the city by griffon. Not a solid lead of course, but they thought they would report the sighting, just incase." The guard replied, then left to go check for more news from the search parties.
After the guard left, Serenity said, "She must have headed out to look for Kor. It is the only thing I can think of that would explain her sudden disappearance."
Susan could not help but agree, but she could not figure out why Will would do that. Will was not someone who sought power, so why did she leave to go find Kor?
"We better go out and see if we can track her down. If she is heading for the swamp, we should be able to catch her easily. There are few things faster then you in the air and if Will was the one on that griffon, we should catch up in no time." Susan said, just before a few another guard burst through the door.
"Lady Vandom, we just received word of bandit attacks at several near by towns and villages! They all struck at the same time and local troops are not enough to hold them off for long!" The guard reported and made Susan go pale. To have multiple attacks at the same time meant it was a rare attempt to organize a raid on a level that would be impossible to deal with, unless she got involved personally.
'Of all the times for this to happen! Will…please look after yourself until I can come after you. I can't abandon my duty, no matter how much I wish to find you.' Susan thought and then looked to Serenity.
"We will need to help those towns and villages before we go to look for Will and Kor. We better go all out and take care of them as quickly as possible." Susan told Serenity, who agreed and they both rushed out side so the gold dragon could assume her normal form and fly into battle.
000
Meanwhile, Will was quickly approaching Gloomick swamp. The griffon was able to fly through the swamp easily enough at first, but as they went deeper, it became too hard to maneuver thought the increasing number of trees and thus, made Will land the griffon on the muddy ground.
From there, Will rode atop the griffon, only dismounting when trying to see if she could find anything that might be signs that a dragon had passed thought the area. Will was unsure though, since most of her knowledge of tracking with still rather limited. All she could hope for was luck or fate would give her a helping hand.
Either one or the other (or possibly both) had a sick sense of humor, because the helping hand was not going to be a pleasant one. Just as Will got back on top of her griffon during her most recent track attempt, a wild black dragon, covered in scars, rose up out of a near by body of swampy water.
The sudden appearance of the black dragon sacred the griffon so much, it flung Will off and ran away. Will would have done the same, if not for the fact that thanks to Black Wing, Will had a deep fear of black dragons. She was frozen with fear and completely unable to defend herself, not that could do much against such a creature.
The black dragon prepared to bring its massive jaws to swallow the frightened half-elf whole, but as it did, a loud roar was heard and made both the black dragon and Will towards the source of the noise.
Both saw Kor charge into the area and let loose a stream of fire at the black dragon, who was rapidly retreating. Will was a bit surprised that Kor had scared the black dragon off, but she was not going to complain about it.
"Kor! Am I glad to see…" Will started to say, but was interrupted by Kor breathing another stream of fire at her feet.
Will jumped away and managed to avoid getting a massive hot foot, while Kor growled out, "Leave this place and never return. I am no one's slave, so don't bother trying to convince me I should go along with that bargain our mothers made."
The gold dragon then turned leave, but Will had not given up on her mission to help the stubborn creature avoid being the slave he did not wish to be.
"I'm not here to make you my familiar, I'm here to…" Will tried to explain as she chased after Kor, but got swatted by his tail and sent flying into a near by tree. The swat was a light one, so Will was not injured, but hitting a tree truck was never a pleasant experience.
It was getting very frustrating for Will to be treated this was by the one she was trying to help, so she decided to use a more aggressive approach.
Will quickly called on her Warlock powers and used her new Spider Walk invocation and climbed up the tree by sticking to its surface.
Will then leapt from tree to tree, until she caught up with Kor and the jump down onto the unsuspecting dragon's back.
"You again! Stubborn little pest! Don't you know when to give up?!" Kor roared as he tried to throw Will off his back by thrashing around.
"Look who's talking! The only difference is that you're not so little!" Will screamed out as she tried to hold on for dear life. Even with her Spider Walk invocation, keeping on Kor's back was not easy, but Will was determined to tell Kor her news, not matter if he wanted to hear it or not!
Eventually, Kor got fed up with trying to just throw Will off and decided to make her get off. He did this, by rearing up on his hind legs and tried to slam his back into a near by tree.
Will was too quick for Kor though and quickly jumped off his back and stuck to his wing. Kor stared at this for a moment, since he had been expecting Will to jump off entirely, not cling another part of his body.
"That explains how you managed to hold on to me up until this point, but this game ends now!" Kor growled and prepared to flap his wing outward, so to fling Will off.
Once again though, Will jumped to another part of Kor's body just in time to mess up Kor's plans. This time though, Will had jumped onto Kor's tail, not the best place to be holding onto when a dragon was trying to throw you off him.
Kor whipped his tail around, while Will was once again forced to rely on her invocation to help her hold, but this time it was a lot more difficult then when she had been on Kor's back.
After a few minutes and putting up a valiant struggle, Will eventually lost her grip and was sent flying off Kor's tail. Will's body slid across the muddy ground until she ended up in small near by pond.
After about ten seconds, Will rose up out of the water and looked very pissed. She had been roasted, pounded and now both soaked and covered in mud. The dragon was going to pay.
"Eat this you gold plated jerk!" Will yelled and fire an eldritch blast at Kor, which hit his left claw. It only stung him little bit, so hid did not really pay much mind to the attack.
"A Warlock huh? Not all that impressive of an attack, but I have seen worse." Kor said in a bored tone and started to walk away again, which only made Will angrier.
"I'll show you something impressive you think sculled lizard!" Will growled and fired barrage of eldritch blasts up into the air.
Kor saw the streak of pinkish red energy pass overhead and strike a large tree branch. At first, Kor paid it no mind, but then realized what was about to happen after it was too late. The wave after wave of energy blasts cut through the large branch and land on the top of Kor's head with a loud thud.
"OW!" Kor roared out and nursed the spot in his head that got hit. The trees in swamp were large ones, so some of their branches were pretty think and hurt if they were dropped form such a height.
Once the throbbing stopped, Kor spun marched over to Will while saying in an angry tone, "I assume you thought that was very clever. Well, now I'm through playing Mr. Nice Dragon!"
"Oh! So you call trying to kill someone who was trying to warn you about you're clan elders planning on making become a familiar, being nice huh? If that's so, then I hate to see you when the gloves are off!" Will yelled back, just As Kor got in front of her.
"I was not trying into kill you! I was just…wait. What did you say about what the elders were panning to do?" Kor asked, after realizing what Will had just said, but was still too shocked by the news to fully comprehend it.
Before Will could explain further though, both of them head roaring off in the distance. Kor looked to see the black dragon from before was coming back. This time though, he had brought a friend, a fellow black with a lot less scars then the first had.
"Get on!" Kor ordered and Will obeyed with out question. One black dragon was scary enough for Will, so she was not going to stick around to see how bad two were!
Kor ran as fast as could, knowing that he could not fly in swap with all the trees in the way. He quickly made his way to what could be called a small lake and called out, "Hold your breath for as long as you can!"
Will knew he was referring to her and took a deep breath, just as Kor dove into the murky water. Will could not see a thing, but trusted Kor knew what he was doing, as swam at speed well beyond any human could ever achieve.
About minute later, just before Will was about to be forced to let out her held breath, they finally surfaced. Will let out a loud gasps, as her lungs drew in the much-desired oxygen, then looked around to find them in some sort of cavern.
Several brightly burning torches lining the passageway, which Kor was now walking down, after climbing out of the water. "We should be safe in here. I have placed several spells that ward against evil creatures from entering the cavern and those two have yet to get past them." Kor said as continued his journey down the stone passage, with Will still on his back.
A few minutes later, they entered a large cave, with a small pile of gold on the far corner. Will easily guessed this was Kor's lair and that the pile of gold was the start of his hoard, something all dragons were famous for having.
'Guess this explains why it's so hard to find him, if his lair is hidden like this.' Will thought as she got off Kor's back, while said dragon started a fire in the middle of the large cave.
"We will stay here for a while until those two out side get bored and go away. In the mean time, could elaborate on what you were saying earlier about what the elders plan on making me be a familiar?" Kor asked as he laid down next to the fire, sounding a bit gruff, yet was still being a lot nicer then from before.
"I over heard both my mother and yours talking about how you…bluntly rejected several offers from elves and that it had upset of few of the high ranking ones. The only thing that kept those few from causing trouble was the promise our mothers made. Now that you rejected even that, Serenity said the elders of you clan plan on making you choose one of the elves you turned down, so to hopefully appease them." Will explained and noticed Kor was now looking both worried and angry at the same time.
"Those back stabbing…if I ever get the get the chance, I'll stuff their hordes down their throats! How dare they think they can force me into slavery! Just because those blasted elves safeguard the orb, they think they must bow down to them!" Kor roared in anger, while Will was confused at what the gold dragon was talking about.
"What orb? Is it something important to your clan?" Will asked, drawing Kor attention as if he was surprise as if he had expected Will to know what he was talking about.
"You don't know? Guess its because you have never live among the elves I suppose. I assume you have at least heard tales of the Dragon Wars, when both good and evil dragon fought to destroy the other, correct?" Kor asked Will, who nodded her head and allowed Kor to continue.
"As some of the those tales say, there were ten powerful orbs created during that time. Each orb controlled one of the ten main branches of the dragon species; gold, silver copper, bronze and brass for the good dragons and red, blue, black green and white for the evil dragons. Each of these orbs controlled the dragon its color matched and thus were used to end the war before all dragon kind was wiped out. Unfortunately, there were those who wanted to use these orbs to rule the world thus were scatted, while many fought to either protect or control them. The elves managed to gain possession of the Gold Dragon Orb and kept it in their care so to keep it out of the wrong hands. This was what caused my clan to forge the alliance with the elves, for mutual protection." Kor explained to Will who looked horrified at this information.
"You mean, you think the elves would use the orb just because one dragon refused to be an elf's familiar?" Will asked with a hint of anger in her voice, while Kor shook his head no and started speaking once again.
"No, but the elders and my clan are extremely grateful for the elves assistance in protecting the orb. Some of my clan become familiar as a way of proving that and is considered a great honor for both elf and dragon. But so many of the more annoying elves pestered me to bond with them, I swore to never join with anyone. This act might have the elders worried that the younger dragons might follow my example and that it would end the alliance when those dragon grew older and stopped the practice all together. I guess the elder do not want to risk the orb's safety and want to me to choose someone just to snuff out that possible idea in the younger generations of my clan." Kor explained sound very sad as he spoke these words.
After a moment of silence, Will stood up and said, "Then perhaps a temporary bond would help. Familiars can be dismissed after all, so you just pretend to be my partner until things have calmed down. Then I'll say I'm worried that I might be relaying on you're strength too much and I release you."
Kor looked at Will cautiously, trying to detect and hint of deceit in Will's words. He had grown weary of such reasonable sounding comments from those who wished to be his partner, yet detected nothing but pure intentions from the young half-elf before him.
'Perhaps there are those worthy of my strength…or is it that I'm worthy of theirs?' Kor thought and then grinned at Will and said, "Perhaps that would be a good idea, little warlock. Come, I'll explain how to form the familiar link as best I can."
With that Kor walked Will thought the process of forming their bond. What both did not know yet, was that their newly gained partnership was going to put work very soon.
000
Back in the swamp, the two black dragons tracking down 'allies' so to deal with Kor. Though both were the same size as Kor, they were much older and were mates. Kor had invaded their territory and had been trying destroy him ever since.
But Kor was very powerful and could defeat one of them with ease and two on one just barely even the odds. They needed to seek other creatures in the swamp to tip the scales, the Lizardfolk.
They were a race of humanoid lizards that rough seven feet tall, four-foot long tails and had green or gray scales. Most members of this race primitive creatures, but this tribe was a bit more advance then the norm.
It had learned to work metal, though not to level of quality human. The weapons still gave them some reasonable strength, so they would be of great use to the two black dragons.
Upon seeing the large creature enter the village, the tribe quickly got on their hand knees. They severed the dragons in exchange for being allowed to live in the swamp, so they were virtually salves to the pair.
"What do you require masters?" The Chief of the tribe asked, hoping it was not to take part of the raids on the near by villages, like the Barbarian tribes were doing. Those were the two black dragons doing, seeking to use the Barbarians to expand their hordes by looting the surrounding villages.
"The gold dragon has been allowed to invade our swamp for far too long. You are to gather your warriors and search for another way into its cave and destroy it." The heavily scarred black dragon commanded.
The tribe was visibly frightened by this command, but knew they must obey or be destroyed. "It shall be done our masters." The Chief replied and then stood up and started to gather all his warriors for the attack.
The black dragons knew the Lizardfolk would most likely be slaughtered by Kor, but they might still manage to flush him out into the open. Then they could hopefully take him by surprise and finish him off, once and for all.
000
Five hours later, Will was asleep next to the fire. She was tired from both the trip and forging the familiar link with Kor and needed a nap to recover her strength. Once she was rested, Will and Kor planned on heading back to the castle and explain what had happened to Susan and Serenity.
Kor was still awake and keeping watch over his new partner. He knew he would need to help the young redhead deal with her mother, since Will had gone looking for him without telling anyone, but that just made Kor respect the girl more.
'Brave little thing, I must admit. Mothers are scary creatures when mad and she willingly did something that will defiantly upset hers.' Kor mused, while he watched the fire burn, until he keen dragon senses heard something coming down the passage way on the far side of the room.
"Will, wake up. I think we are about to have company." Kor said as nudged the half-elf with his claw and then got closer to the small passageway. Will was bit groggy, but she drew her sword and got ready for the possibly coming battle.
"Any idea on who or what is coming?" Will asked, hoping it was nothing they could not handle.
"If I know those two black dragons well enough, they probably finally decided to order their Lizardfolk slaves to attacks this place. The wards at the main entrance won't stop the Lizardfolk, since they are not evil creatures and the group coming down this passage is probably just a distraction." Kor replied calmly, while started look nervous and glancing back at the main entrance.
"If they are good creatures, then why do they serve evil dragons? Shouldn't they be on our side?" Will asked while she kept looking back and forth between both sides of the cave.
"They are not good creatures either. They are what you would call a neutral species, neither good nor evil. They follow the black dragons because they rather live then turned into the black dragons' next meal." Kor explained, just as the first of the Lizardfolk came through the small passage.
Kor let loose a blast of fire from his mouth, taking out this first bunch of enemies, while Will started firing her eldritch blasts into the hole. This took out a few that were safe from Kor's fire breath and was keeping the first wave of Lizardfolk contained.
"When the second group appears, I'll need to deal with them since the main passage is wider then this. You'll need to try and contain this group off for as long as you can!" Kor instructed Will, and then unleashed another fire blasts into the passage.
"I don't know if I could hold them for long!" Will called out, as she fired another volley of eldritch blasts. She was surprised that Kor seemed to be so sure of the Lizardfolk's plan of attack, but she had feeling he was right.
"I'm not expecting you to hold them for long, just for as long as you can. Once it becomes too much for you, just head to where I am and get on my back. From there I handle melee combat, you use those blasts of yours for long range." Kor instructed, as he swung his claws at incoming Lizardfolk.
'Is it just me or does it seem trouble follows me everywhere? Or is it I find trouble? I'm not sure which.' Will thought bitterly in her mind, while keeping up her attacks. Just then, the Lizardfolk Kor had been expecting to come from the main entrance charged in.
"And that would be the second wave, must be every warrior in the tribe in on this attack." Kor said in a casual tone and dove into battle with the second group of enemies.
Will was starting to wonder if this was not the first time Kor had to deal with a small army attacking or was it he was just that sure of his strength. Of course, dragon scale was pretty tough and the weapons being used by the Lizardfolk looked crude. It was unlikely they would have any affect on Kor's hide.
'Me on the other hand…' Will thought as she ducked an incoming sword slash from one of her opponents. Will then quickly casts her Lighting Sword spell and the lighting bolt appeared in her hand. With both real and lightning weapon in hand, Will cut down the warrior, then waited for the next one to try and get passed her.
The Lizardfolk seemed to be reluctant to charge Will though, since they had not been expecting a second opponent in Kor's lair.
They knew that gold dragons had the ability to change their shape and were worried that maybe this was a second gold dragon in disguise. It was either that or she was a powerful ally of Kor's.
The fact Will was using magic was also what scared the Lizardfolk. Only a few members of the tribe could use magic, so they were not used to seeing magic in action.
"Why have you all stopped?!" A powerful voice demanded and the larger Lizardfolk Will had scene yet pushed past to the front of the group. This was the Chief of the tribe and unlike those who followed him, he was not scared of this girl who held lightning in her hand like it was a sword.
"Impressive trick little girl, but nothing I can't handle." The Chief said with grin on his face and suddenly, a scimitar made of fire appeared in his hand. The Chief of the Lizardfolk was Druid you see, so he was well equipped to handle Will's magic.
With his flaming scimitar in one hand and crude looking long sword in the other, the Chief attacked Will with great ferocity. The young half-elf was much weaker physically then the giant lizard warrior, but she was able to compensate with superior speed and agility.
Eventually though, the Chief's great strength gave him a small victory, when he knocked Will's real sword form her hand. The reason why this was only small victory, was because it shattered his own sword when he struck Will's.
This was minor annoyance to the Chief though, since he just dropped his broken sword and cast a second Flaming Scimitar spell, now having one in each hand. Will had to struggle to stop the twin flaming weapons with her lightning sword, but she was at least able to keep the Chief from actually hitting her with deadly burning blades.
000
Kor on the other hand, though having less trouble, still had his own problems. He could not even turn to check on Will, since so many Lizardfolk were coming down the tunnel that led to the main entrance.
They were so many of them, Kor's fire breath was of minimal use, making his needed to resort to his tail, claws and teeth for most of the fight. He was batting the lizard warriors aside like flies, but they just kept coming.
'Might have to grab Will and just make a run for it. These little pests are no real threat to me, but they can injure Will with these crude weapons of theirs.' Kor thought, while swinging his tail and sent two Lizardfolk flying into the wall of the cave.
As Kor got ready to starting breath fire once again, so to try and drive a few of the lizard warriors back, when he heard the sound of metal skidding across the ground. Kor looked over to see Will and one of the Lizardfolk fighting each other with weapons made of fire and lightning.
Kor was about to go help Will, when he realized that the Lizardfolk at both ends of the cave had stopped charging in and were keeping a close eye on the fight between Will and her opponent.
'Don't know what's going on, but I prefer it this way. Gives me a chance to think of an escape plan and how to grab Will, before these guys starting fighting again.' Kor thought and then kept a close watch on the battle before him.
000
After another five minutes, Will and the Chief started grow tired. With neither had been able to land a hit on the other and it coming down to who had better stamina at this point.
Will was still only using a single Lightning Sword, while the Chief was sticking to using two Flaming Scimitars. This was draining the Chief's reserves of mystic energy very quickly, but he had been hoping to have beaten Will by now.
'I must end this quickly, then lead my people against the gold dragon!' The Chief growled in his mind, while swinging his two fiery weapons at Will, who just dodged each attack.
Will was starting to get cornered, as she kept avoiding the Chief's attacks. The leader of the Lizardfolk thought this was to his advantage, since this would leave his opponent cornered, but the Chief was in for a nasty surprise.
The Chief swung his two Flaming Scimitars is scissor like motion; believing that the redhead was cornered. But he did not know of Will's full potential and had not expected her to leap into the air and stick to the wall with her Spider walk invocation.
The powerful reptile Druid was so stunned by thus, it left him wide open for Will to blast him with her Eldritch Blast right in the face, killing him instantly.
As the dead body of their leader collapses to the ground, the Lizardfolk turn tail and ran. In Lizardfolk society, only the strongest lead the tribe. That meant if this young girl was powerful enough to slay their chief, then they did not wish to face both her and the gold dragon.
As they retreated Kor said, "Nice work, did not think you would single handedly make them retreat by killing the big ugly one."
Will did not saying anything, since she was still trying to figure out what just happened.
000
The two black dragons waited near the pool that led to Kor's lair, expecting the gold dragon to come out so to try and attack any Lizardfolk that were out side his lair. When they saw the Lizardfolk coming running out of the water, both evil reptiles thought Kor would be close behind, but nothing came.
"Where is here?!" The more heavily scarred black roar out, as slammed his tail in front of the path a group of Lizardfolk. He and his mate wanted answers and he would have them now!
"The gold dragon had help from some sort of elf. She killed the Chief and several warriors, we had no chance!" One of the Lizardfolk explained in terrified tone of voice, just before the black dragon spewed acid upon him.
"One elf is what made you retreat! You fools better get back down there and kill them both or you'll be killed by us!" The female black dragon growled out to the Lizardfolk who did not get dissolved in her mate's acid.
The Lizardfolk were clearly torn between following the command or taking their chances here when all of sudden, two large shadows were noticed looming over both the two dragons and their reptilian salves.
"The only ones dying this day, will be you two." A female voice stated coldly and just as the two black dragon turned to see whom these two shadow belong to, they were attacked. The fight was over quickly and the two evil creatures now lay dead on the ground.
The Lizardfolk did not stick around to see this though. They did not wish to risk meeting the same fate at the hands these two new arrivals, who were now making there way towards the pool of water that led to Kor's lair.
000
Kor and Will were breathing heavily after their long fight. They were both hopping no more little surprises would pop up, but that hoped ended when they heard something coming towards them from the main entrance.
"Sounds way too big to be one of the lizard people." Will said as she picked up her sword and got ready for another possible battle.
"It is. In fact, I think it might be dragon, possibly two." Kor added and stood ready to unleash a blast of fire from his mouth if he saw anything with black scales come around the corner.
What did come around the corner was not what they were expecting though, it was Susan and Serenity; though Susan was as big as Kor right now, thanks to an Enlarge Person spell.
So naturally, Kor let loose his fire breath since he was still a little upset with them.
"Kor!" Will screamed out in horror, but Serenity was immune to fire attacks because she was a gold dragon and Susan had a few protective spells in place to render the attack harmless.
"Well…that a fine welcome for you're own mother. At least it seems you and Will are getting along." Serenity said as entered her son's little hideaway, while Susan shrunk back down to her normal size and ran over to check on her daughter.
"Will! Do you have any idea of how worried I have been?!" Susan exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around Will and squeezed her tightly.
"I…think I have…a rough idea!" Will barely managed to say, considering her mother's hug was making it hard breath. The redhead was wondering if her mother torn between being glad she was live or crushing her to death, because Will had never been hugged this hard before.
"You mind not killing my partner, I would rather not experiences the feed back of our link being broken, thank you very much." Kor spoke up, which made both Susan and Serenity look at Kor and Will in shock.
Knowing long list of question were about to be asked, Kor went about answer them so they could leave as soon as possible. "Yes, I am Will's familiar now. Since she came all this way to warn about the Elders' plan, I thought it best to go with a decent partner, instead of one of those whiny elf nobles. Worse comes to worse, we can just cancel the link once everything quiets down." Kor explained and got look of relief from his mother.
'That's good to hear. I know this was pretty much forced on you Kor, but trust, it has its benefits." Serenity said to her son, hoping to help smooth any problems Kor still had about this situation.
Kor said nothing and just went about placing a few last wards in the cave, to protect his small hoard of gold. After that was done, Serenity changed to her elvin form and Kor, surprisingly enough, changed into a small gray dormouse, so Susan could teleport them back to the castle.
Once back at the castle, Susan said to her daughter, "Will, since you helped Kor, I'll lesson the punishment I had planned for you little stunt about running off to the swamp."
Despite this being a good thing overall, Will was feeling scared of her mother's evil grin. The woman had such nasty little idea for the rest of Will's training for the youth games, ones that would make the redhead think carefully about doing something like this ever again.
000
AN: There you go, please let me know what you thought.