Adventures of John: Death of Magic
Chapter 5: On the Road
As it turns out I was really lucky that I had saved up all that extra time in my talisman. After five days of following Merida, nothing had yet to happen. The blue sky was still above us, the green earth below us, and a lot of trees around us. My best guess was that we were now somewhere in Eastern Europe, as we had crossed through the Dragon's Pass two days previous. My good old friend the black dragon didn't make an appearance, for which I was grateful. I still hadn't revealed my presence to Merida, and I wanted to keep that a secret for as long as possible.
"All right, I know yer there." Unfortunately, it looked like the secret wasn't going to actually last much longer. "Ye've been on me tail fer days now and I haven't caught sight of ye in all that time. I'll admit that yer good, but I'm better. So show yerself before I send a few arrows after ya."
I had been resting my eyes in the arms of a nearby tree at the time, entirely invisible. "Alright alright little miss warrior princess, I'm coming. You didn't need to wake me up." I had been spending the days as the same falcon while during the night I slept nearby, utilizing my Smash Mouth psychic alarm clock to make sure she didn't leave without me. I plopped out of the tree then, armored boots hitting the ground. I dismissed my invisibility charm gradually, allowing my armored form to slowly fade back into existence. "Here I am, your constant shadow. I guess I wasn't as sneaky as I thought I was."
"King John? Why on earth were you following me? Don't you have business back in Arendelle?"
"Business?" I laughed. "You act like I actually have a job. I'm the King Consort. You know what that means? It means that I get to sit there and look fancy for the people. I don't really do anything important unless there is a war going on. I suppose I help run the academy, but that's about it. I fell in love with a queen, but that doesn't make me a king. Besides, being out here is far more fun than staying in a stuffy old castle."
"You still 'avent answered my question." She glared at my, a dagger in her hand that I didn't remember seeing her take out.
"No need to threaten me. Not that your threats mean anything. World class sorcerer, remember? Well, multiverse class really, but you don't understand that concept."
"I don't like how yer talking to me. I'm not stupid."
I laughed at that. "No, just uneducated."
"I'm out of here." She shook her head and turned to leave.
"Not without me you're not." I teleported in front of her, blocking her path. "I plan on being there when you find Hans."
"And why is that?"
"So I can stop whatever devious scheme that lunatic is plotting," I replied. "You don't know him like I do. Hans is a power-hungry sociopath. He will not let anything stand in his way. But I've stopped him before, and I will stop him again. So lead on bounty hunter. And when the fighting starts, you'll be glad that your bow isn't the only thing standing between you and whatever than maniac has planned."
"I doubt it." She reached up and leaped onto Angus, riding off.
"Sometimes skill just isn't enough," I whispered. "Sometimes you need a little magic." With that I vanished, transforming into a stream of golden dust that swirled forward, following the horse and its annoying rider.
. . . . .
After another day of following her I finally realized the answer to what had been bothering me. Merida's strange method of finding Hans had been bothering me the entire search. What was she following? How did she know where to go? It turns out that the answer was actually quite literally right before my eyes. Breathing in deeply, I closed my eyes and allowed myself to see the world in a different light.
In our own world, a world where magic is all but dead, when I look through my spirit vision nearly everything is dull and grey. The only color is the faint outline of ley lines and everyone's barely visible aura. But in this world where magic was still vibrant, still so very alive, I looked and was blinded by the sheer immensity of what I saw. The trees and all of the other plants sparkled like emeralds with green light, while each stone had its own brown earthy tone and every animal shone with light, a the glorious blue of a distant ley line visible from miles away. This world was so alive in a way ours hasn't been for millennia.
And amidst all those brilliant lights, all that wonderful hidden magic, was a trail of blue sprites spreading out before us. Their tiny faces grinned at me as I saw them, and I laughed, opening my eyes back to the ordinary world. "Of course!" I laughed.
"And what is it you are blabbering about now?"
"The willow the wisps!" I replied. "That's how you've been tracking Hans! But how are you getting them to lead you to him? I thought they were only supposed to lead you to your fate."
"I make my own fate," she replied. "And right now my fate is to find this criminal and take him down. Once that is done I will have a new fate to chase after."
"Looks like I'm not the only one here with magic after all."
. . . . .
"So what do you usually do for fun?" I asked, lounging on a cloud that flew alongside Merida and her steed. "Other than firing arrows into the sunset that is."
"Are you usually this much of a bother?" she asked, glaring at me.
"Not really," I replied, transforming my cloud into a beautiful white horse. "Just when I'm bored. Which I am now. We've been traveling for days and the Wisps won't stop grinning at me. It's actually starting to get a bit creepy. When do you think something exciting will happen?"
"Is that exciting enough for you?" Following the direction of her finger, I saw there was a band of rough-looking men climbing down from a short cliff and blocking off the road.
"Get off your steeds and give us all your gold!" the lead thug, a large man wielding an axe that looked like it weighed more than I did, shouted. The other thugs brandished weapons of their own, all just as deadly. For an ordinary person, that is.
"I suppose it might be somewhat entertaining," I sighed. "If Rapunzel were here she could probably get them to become our best buddies, but she's not here right now, so I guess we'll just have to do this the old fashioned way." I slid off my horse, pulling out an elegant blade and pushing my cloak out of the way, revealing the golden armor beneath.
"Looks like we've caught ourselves a lordling here!" the lead thug laughed. "Rough 'em up boys." The first one to move forward jerked to a stop with a scream, an arrow through his knee.
"If you want to keep meeting a far worse fate, I suggest you run now," Merida stated plainly, another arrow already nocked to the string of her bow.
"I'm not letting you have all the fun!" I exclaimed with a laugh, lunging forwards.
I quickly abandoned the sword, swinging with my fists. It isn't very often I get to face enemies so idiotic and weak that I can take them out with only my fists. Plus they were humans. They may have been scum, but they still had souls. I didn't want to kill anyone if I didn't have to. An axe swung towards my head and shattered on impact, its wielder staring at the broken haft in shock until I thumped him on the head, taking him out for the count. I grabbed the heads of two more men, smacking them together before tazering a fourth with my pointer finger. Merida was also somewhere around, as I spotted three men with arrows in various gruesome places and caught sight of her using her long sword to duel a man wielding a pair of scimitars. Before long the only foe left to me was the leader, who seemed far less fearsome now that his lackeys were taken care of.
"What are you?" he asked, fear in his eyes.
"I'm John the Adventurer." I pointed my fingers into the shape of a gun and pantomimed shooting him, a burst of electricity shooting out of my fingertips and sending him to the ground frothing at the mouth.
"You enjoying yerself?" Merida asked, pulling her sword out of her opponent's chest.
"Yep. Nothing better to get the blood flowing then some good old fashioned fisticuffs."
. . . . .
"This is it."
"Really?" I asked, staring at the town below. "This ramshackle place? Hardly seems like the place Mr. 'I'm so perfect' Hans Westergard would pick to spend his exile. There must be something valuable here that he wants. Though I can't imagine what he could find here."
It was a shanty town, little more than a few rotting sheds and worn down old shops crowded up against the side of a mountain. The only buildings that didn't look like they were going to fall apart were two large buildings, one in the center of town and the other the outskirts. I assumed the building in the center was the inn, made of far stronger and less rotted wood then the rest of the town, as well as being the only building to have more than a single story. Other than the fact that the second story was leaning dangerously, it didn't look too unstable, unlike the broken stone building next to it which must have been the old town hall. The building on the outskirts must have been a chapel of some sort, as the single-story building had a steeple with a large cross. It looked like the only people in town able to afford repairs were the priest and the innkeeper.
"Ready to investigate?" Merida asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Of course," I replied. With a wave of my hand my clothing changed slightly, my crimson cloak becoming a dull tattered brown while my golden armor transformed into dull steel. "Let's find us a mad prince."
. . . . .
The townsfolk milled about, displaying the image of normalcy. They worked in their gardens and their shops, generally going about their everyday business. They tried to seem normal, but it was a ruse, and a poor one at that. Their eyes flitted between Merida and I, their movements were too fast. They were frightened, frightened out of their wits. But why? Had Hans done something to…?
A guard marched down the street and I froze in my tracks. My clenched fists shook as I saw the guard, and spreading my gaze across the town saw several more. "Impossible…" Unlike the malnourished townspeople these guards were healthy and fit, their wiry forms taunt with power. They wore brown leather armor, overlaid with plate of a dark steel that possessed a faint blue sheen. This armor was accented with silver ornamentation of various designs, but all of them had the same silver emblem of a rose, prominently displayed on both their armor and finely-crafted blades.
At the far side of town, carved into the mountain's face, was a massive door, the same emblem brazenly displayed, with several guards standing watch outside. "Impossible."
"What is it?" Merida hissed.
"It's the Rose," I replied. "But how? How did the Rose get here?"
"What is this Rose and why is it so important?"
"The Rose an organization dedicated to a single purpose: the death of magic."