C15 Chapter 15

The first part of the armor

Instead of starting the search right away, Dana used the opportunity to better get to know her new friends. She had long conversations with Rudi and Rufus, and she used the time to study the books in their library. She didn’t know a single one. She enjoyed it most when she leaned against a tree near a creek to listen to the nature around here. Hardly would she sit down that the animals of the area came by to talk to her. Each one of them had their own little tale to tell and Dana listened excitedly.

In the meantime, she had to take Rufus, who pushed her to do it, for a visit with Erogat. Rufus desperately wanted to talk to him, so Dana took the magician by the hand and together they stepped through the monolith. The greeting on the other side was literally exuberant …Dana had to watch out not to start laughing loudly. When Rufus saw Erogat, he ran towards him and catapulted himself into his arms. That went horribly awry, of course. He fell through Erogat and unpleasantly plopped onto the ground. In the end, Rufus proofed his good humor and they all had a good laugh about his actions.

Dana gave the book about the armor to Erogat and asked him to study it, helping her to locate the different parts. Then the two said their goodbyes because Dana wanted to visit her parents as well. That’s what she told them, at least. In all honesty, she just didn’t want to interrupt the reunion. Dana promised Rufus to pick him up that night and bring him back to the magical world of Rudi.

That night, once back in “paradise”, she enjoyed the peace and quiet of Rudi’s home. She spent a lot of time doing nothing and exploring the valley. The days were passing in the blink of an eye. Finally, when she admired Rudi’s ability to fly once again, she became painfully aware that she still had to search for the Armor of Obedience.

“Sooner or later, even the greatest things come to an end!”, she mumbled to Shari.

But maybe it was also the fact that Rufus and Rudi reminded her of it every day. Even Erogat put in his two cents and reminded her to get going, since they now had located all the locations of the armor. Before she got on her way, though, she and Shari should talk to Rudi again. He had some very useful charms and incantations for them.

“Here I am. What’s up?”

Dana looked at him expectantly.

“I wanted to teach you two very useful things. But Rufus told me that you are still too young for that. You know that with every year you get older, your abilities grow, new skills come in, more magical energy, and many more. Originally, I wanted to teach you how to read thoughts and how to transfigure friend or foe. But I can’t do that because you’re too young.

Instead, I will teach these charms to Shari who can then do them for you. Transfiguration charms aren’t to be used on oneself, because the charm would be interrupted by the transfiguration itself.”

“Why can you only teach Shari? She’s as old as I am?”, Dana mumbled.

“Shari and I are of the same kind.”

She looked at him in horror.

“The same…kind? But you’re a dragon and she is…a pixie!”

“You’re right, of course. But we’re both…mystical creatures. We don’t need to gather our magical energy. Our kind already has it. Shari is not aware of that since she’s got a connection to you. But she already owns them. That is our advantage compared to you.”

“Great, my tiny friend can do more than me! If Shari wants to, she can learn it…and when do I get a turn?”, she snarled offended.

“Maybe ten years from now. But you’re something special, so maybe sooner.”

Rudi smiled at her, as well as a dragon could anyway.

“Now leave us alone for about an hour. You can get going after that.”

“Well fine then. I guess it needs to be done!”, Dana thought.

She said her goodbyes to Rudi and Rufus, and of course to the animals. Then she grabbed Gomek and Shari, and with the help of the monolith they travelled to Erogat. He impatiently waited for them at the pentagram. After a quick hello, he presented them with a map at first and then described the route.

“…on the other side of the lake, there’s a secret tunnel, then the jungle, temple, and then on towards…”

He pointed his see-through hand to a part of the map. They listened patiently without ever voicing a single question.

“Understandable so far?”, he now wanted to know.

“Yes, understood.”

Erogat looked at her doubtfully.

“You are mad because Shari can do more than you!”

“It’s so unfair…”, Dana moaned and made a stubborn face. “…I try so hard and she …gets to learn everything.”

“Someday you will be able to do it, and then you’re catching up to her. Be glad that at least one of you can do that kind of magic.”

She wasn’t mad at Shari, she was just mad that she herself couldn’t do that kind of magic yet. But there was nothing to be done about that and they needed to get going anyway. They bid their goodbyes and then started their trip towards the lake.

They reached the lake the very next day. Dana took out the map and searched for a path to get to the other side.

“I don’t think we’ll find a bridge. It’s no-man’s-land on the other side. There’s never been a dwarf there before.”

Dana looked at Gomek.

“I don’t know a way either and Toben’s grandfather didn’t leave anything for us.”

Gomek had brought one of Nargot’s old journals. He took it out now to search for clues.

“No, there’s nothing in here. And there’s no path from the power plant, either.”

“Fine.” Dana looked around the shore.

“We go this way…” She pointed in the opposite direction of the waterfall. “…until we reach a creek or a river. Somewhere, there’s got to be something that fills up this lake.”

They got going tight away, always walking along the shore, until Gomek said: “Dana, look. The other side of the shore is coming closer.”

“It sure is. We’re almost there then.”

And after about an hour, they really found the river that sourced the lake. It was a tunnel that had unruly water quickly flowing into the lake. Dana guessed the opposite shore was about twenty meters away.

“It’s too far to jump”, she worried. “Only Shari can fly and for a bridge through the air…” Dana thoughtfully inspected the opposite shore. “Yes, it’s too far for that. I’m not strong enough yet.”

“How about we freeze it”, Gomek beamed because he had thought of it sooner than Dana. “We should be able to do that.”

“You’re right, I think I can manage.”

Dana positioned herself at the shore and stretched her arms out towards the water. She closed her eyes and concentrated on creating a bridge of ice leading to the other shore. It didn’t take long until the bridge was done and strong enough to carry them.

Dana was the first one to cautiously step on the bridge. Then she forcefully stomped her foot down on the ice. Afterwards, she turned to Gomek, laughing.

“Get over here! It’ll carry both our weights!”

Once they’d reached the other side of the lake, Dana worked on making the bridge disappear again.

“Why are you doing that? We need to get back there at some point.” Gomek was confused.

“If the ice breaks, it might drift all the way to the power plant and cause trouble there.”

“Oh, yes, that’s right!”, he coughed embarrassedly.

Once they’d liquefied the ice again, they began searching for the secret passageway. Dana pulled out the map and studied it intently.

“Here!” She thrusted the map towards Gomek and pointed her finger at a certain part. “That’s where we need to go. The tunnel is supposed to be there.”

She pointed at a location near the waterfall. He nodded in agreement. They followed the shoreline on the other side of the lake until they couldn’t move forward anymore. A solid rock wall stood in their way. They were now close to the waterfall and one could see the entrance of the power plant on the other side of the lake. Dana consulted the map again.

“The entrance must be somewhere around here.”

She pointed her finger at a certain location on the map. She looked around and slowly walked along the wall.

“Here! It must be right here.” She pointed at a place on the rock that was heavily grown-over. She performed a shrinking spell on the bush. But nothing than clean rock appeared.

Dana was irritated and mumbled: “Where is the door? It’s supposed to be right here.”

Her fingers desperately searched the wall. There was nothing there that could lead to the assumption that there was a passageway anywhere nearby. Then she tapped her finger on the map where the gate was located. Right away, a sentence appeared on the paper.

“Fire opens up this door”

“Of course, wild plants are burned down, too, sometimes. But since I shrank the greens, the door can’t open.”

So she flung a fireball against the rock, and who would’ve thought, the door opened.

“Quite handy after all, this map!”, Dana chuckled and stepped into the tunnel behind the door.

It smelled musty and everything was damp. There was neither bioluminescence nor another light source and so Shari had to make sure there was enough light. She didn’t like that one bit, and instead would’ve loved to fly ahead and explore everything.

The path led deeper into the mountain, drawing the pattern of a snake into the rock, and it led downwards steadily. In some areas, it was so steep and slippery that they had to help each other out. The last thing they needed right now was somebody slipping and possibly injuring themselves. That would mean the end of their journey right there. A short time later, Dana stopped abruptly.

“Can you hear that? Where’s that noise coming from?”

Gomek, who had stopped walking as well, concentrated on listening into the darkness. His face lit up.

“That sounds like it’s our waterfall.”

“Yes, you’re absolutely right!”, Dana agreed excitedly.

“It can’t be ours – it’s possibly the one Erogat talked about! But it might also be the one behind the tunnel where the jungle begins…”, she thought out loud. “…Well, you know! … where the high path starts … in the large cave.”

“Could be…”, he grumbled, “we’ll know soon enough.”

They kept walking in silence. After another bend in the tunnel, they saw a weak light shimmering in the distance. It seemed to be alive, and it glowed in all colors of the rainbow. The closer they got to the light source, the louder the rushing sound became. Finally, Dana knew where they were. Anxiously, she grabbed Gomek’s arm.

“We’re behind the waterfall. Only question left is which cave we’re going to.”

They hurried to reach the end of the passageway. It ended in a small cave behind the waterfall. Shari buzzed off into freedom right away. The little fairy despised the wet, dark tunnel.

Dana looked around. She carefully walked along the edge of the cave and looked down into the depth. They were several meters above the water.

“It’s too high up to jump”, she mumbled.

To their right, a steep rock wall rose upwards. There wasn’t a way there. To the left, there was a tiny path that led past the waterfall and into the open space. Expectantly, they followed that path. Gomek didn’t feel good about the situation. But he had to hurry after them or otherwise he would have lost them. The path hid them, leading them through bushed and over rocks, further on into the direction of the jungle. Not far away from the shore of the river. Dana looked around. Even though they had just left the path, it wasn’t to be seen anywhere.

“No wonder that nobody has found their way here yet. Those who don’t know it’s there can’t find it.”

Dana said it more to herself, but Gomek nodded in agreement.

“What do you think is waiting for us here?”

Dana opened the map again.

“There’s the building.” She pointed at an object in the middle of the jungle.

“And what’s that next to it? Looks like a village.” Gomek pointed at another part of the map.

“Let’s ask Shari. She can be the explorer.”

“Shouldn’t we be more careful? There’s always the danger above us.”

Both considered the cave, where the first vultures were already circling.

“Hurry, into the woods! They hopefully won’t be able to follow us there.”

They were lucky and weren’t discovered. They sat down on a tree stump and waited for Shari. At some point, the little fairy reappeared. Shari had really found the village. But what she reported about the inhabitants didn’t sound great at all. They were black Goblins. Dana had read about them in Rufus’s library. They were in no way peaceful.

“Make up a trick or fight? That’s the question here.”

She looked at her friends. Gomek was clearly leaning towards a fight. Shari, on the other hand, wanted to try out her new charm and thus voted for trick. Dana liked the idea as well and so Shari transfigured the two into goblins. Concealed as two native creatures from the area, they felt safe and got on their way.

But the first goblin they met still attacked them. Dana had him fall asleep by using her magic.

“Why didn’t it work?” Gomek shot Dana a confused look.

“Oh Shari, you little dreamer! Have you ever seen goblins taller than a meter?”

Gomek shook his head in amusement.

“But I haven’t seen any ever before. Shari must have been the same way. After all, she only saw them from afar”, Dana mumbled sheepishly.

“True enough.”

Once Shari had made up for her small mistake by trimming them to the right size, they kept moving. Now they were being ignored every time they crossed the path of another goblin.

Late in the afternoon, they reached a temple that rose into the sky in the shape of a pyramid. Almost swallowed by the jungle, it didn’t seem very inviting at all. Dana wondered how it was still standing after all this time. But there was nothing to do about it. They had to get in. Deeper and deeper they moved into the building. They cautiously climbed over roots and rocks that had fallen from the ceiling at some point. Suddenly, they heard a voice coming from the darkness.

“Finally, something to eat – fresh meat…that’s good.”

“Who are you that you want to eat us?”, Dana interrupted the less than polite address and tried to locate the owner of the voice in the darkness at the same time.

“My name is Tegla and I am the guardian of this temple.”

“Guarding the temple and eating people are two very different things”, Dana tried to bait the guardian.

Dana thought the conversation was most interesting. No, she wasn’t scared at all.

“Show yourself, we’re not scared of you. Maybe you can help us!”, Dana tried to lure her conversation partner out of the darkness.

“Ha, I know you’re searching the passage to the other caves. But that passage starts in here and I am guarding it.” The voice mocked them.

“So…are you helping us now or not?” Dana started to get impatient.

“No, this conversation is over, …now it’s time for dinner!”

Surprisingly fast, a gigantic spider moved from the darkness and towards the trio. But Dana had expected it and with just a wave of her hand the spider froze.

“Such a dummy. Instead of helping us she’s frozen solid now. Let’s keep moving. Where is that entrance now? We really need to find the altar room.”

Dana took out the map again, which was no longer showing the general area, but instead a map of the temple’s inside.

“Great.” Dana was excited. “This map is wonderful. This way to the altar.”

Again, she tapped her finger onto the map, precisely where the altar room was drawn in. Right away, another phrase appeared.

“Push the head of the lion”

“Ok, first find the altar room and then find the lion’s head. That seems manageable”, Dana laughed.

Thanks to the map, they found the room quickly. Finding the lion’s head took a bit longer. It was Shari who discovered it in the end. Bored from the search, she sat down on a rock opposite the altar. That’s where she saw a small bump on the underside. After taking a closer look, it turned out to be the lion’s head they’d been searching for.

Excitedly, she called for the others to join her. Dana was busy inspecting the lion’s head to finally grab it with all her might without hesitation, pushing as hard as she could. At first, nothing happened. Dana wanted to turn away in disappointment when suddenly the entire altar moved and an opening became visible. Shari, who had turned on her light, flew over to the opening and looked inside. A flight of stairs led down. Dana looked closer.

“Look at that, we can use this way. You two wait here. I must free our new friend from her icy prison. See ya soon.”

Gomek wanted to hold her back because he didn’t think it was the greatest idea. A short time later, she found Tegla and cautiously thawed her with a charm. Shivering with cold, she thanked her. “Iiiifff Iiii haahaad knooownn that you were a mamamagician, I wouououldn’t haahahave attacked youuu”, she stuttered sheepishly.

“Sadly, I didn’t have the time to introduce myself. But why are you attacking everything that moves?”

“I have been guarding this place for a long time, just like my family has, and theirs before them…forever, basically. Nobody was supposed to enter this temple. Only magicians were permitted entrance. Now you might understand!”, the spider replied sheepishly.

“Well done, only you attacked the wrong opponent. Keep going as you have been and protect the temple against intruders, just not us anymore!”, Dana cheered the spider up and then waved goodbye.

Afterwards, Dana turned around and went back to her friends. Gomek, of course, wanted to know how the spider had reacted.

“Friendly. It seems that one of my kind has long ago established the spiders as guardians of this temple. Unfortunately, they have forgotten who their employers are over time. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have attacked us. But now she remembers. I said it before – she’s our friend. Let’s go to the underworld now and see what’s waiting for us there.”

Dana was the first to set foot on the steps and then slowly descended into darkness. It should have been Shari who was supposed to fly in first and make light. But she had only caught a quick glimpse of the pitch-black darkness and then retreated.

“Coward!”, Dana chuckled and moved first.

At the foot of the stairs, there was light. Torches on the walls nearby were burning, starting automatically. Gomek, who had appeared by her side, wondered about that.

“How does that work? Torches who start burring on their own…can you do that?”

“No, not yet. It’s probably some kind of magic. Maybe I’ll learn it one day.”

Dana gazed around. They were in the middle of a room with eight corners. On one side, stairs led upwards. The other seven sides had tunnels leading in different directions. In the middle of the room, there was a stone table with eight corners; every sleek side was opposite of one passageway. On the table, Dana recognized a schematic image of the room and the tunnel that led to the next rooms. Each tunnel was marked with an extra description on the map.

“Gomek, look at this map: …it’s a plan of the area; where which area is and who inhabits it.”

Dana got immensely excited.

“If there’s a map like this in every room, one could make a map of all the tunnels in the entire mountains. We’d finally know how large it is and most of all who else is down here.”

At once, she contacted Erogat and explained to him in short words what she was planning.

“Good idea, a map of the tunnels. Brilliant!”, he beamed. “Send me the maps and I will try putting them together.”

Once that was taken care of, she turned back to the table. She recognized the scriptures. They were descriptions of where the tunnels were leading. Dana read out loud.

“…to the white goblins…to the gnomes…to the trolls…Oh look, this is where we need to go.”

Dana, who had also placed her map on the table, saw that the tunnel leading to the trolls seemed to be the same that was marked on her map.

“This is our path.”

“Are you absolutely sure?” Gomek shivered. “Trolls are supposed to be immensely dangerous.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll be ok.” Dana was positive about that. She stowed away the map and walked into the tunnel that was supposed to bring them to the trolls.

They needed many days to reach the trolls’ cave. On their way, they passed through three other rooms, or as Gomek had put it – intersection. Each time, they sent a new table map that was in the room to Erogat.

Once they’d reached the trolls’ intersection, Dana sent of another table map to Erogat. Dana was slightly confused. This room was different. Sure, it also had eight corners, but except for stairs that led upwards, there were only three other tunnels. Erogat presumed that the room was the corner of a labyrinth and by that logic also didn’t need more tunnels.

Dana accepted that explanation for the moment. If she managed to bring all pictures together in a giant image, that would possibly give an explanation. After mulling it over for a moment, she stepped up the stairs and opened the mechanism of the exit.

Cautiously, she pushed her head through the hole. It was pitch black and smelled musty. Shari, who was hoping to finally get out of the tunnels, zoomed past Dana without making light. Not a good idea. Dana heard only s screech and then…silence.

“Shari…?” She quietly called for the pixie. “…what’s with you? Where are you?”

No reply. Dana started getting anxious. Where could she be? She formed a torch from nothing and checked the perimeter. At first, she only saw rocks and rubble.

“The ceiling must have come down here!”, she mumbled and continued looking around.

Finally, she saw Shari. She was unconscious, lying on a pile of rubble. She didn’t move. Carefully Dana worked her way over to the fairy and examined her. Shari had gotten heavily injured. Gomek, who had materialized next to Dana, spontaneously suggested:

“The forefather’s stone…use that quickly! Only that can heal her.”

Dana looked at him. “Of course! That’s right…I almost forgot about that!”

She fumbled for the stone in her sack and then motioned it in constant, circular movements over Shari’s small body. After a short while, she started moving again, and slowly the life returned to Shari.

“Don’t ever do something stupid like this ever again! Flying into a dark room without light! Now you see what you get for that. We were so scared for you”, Dana cursed, but she was still happy with relief.

“Now let’s look for the exit.”

They spent half the day working through the rubble until they found a tunnel that led them outside. Finally there, our friends looked around. Man…this was a bleak region.

“Somebody has obviously in a bad mood here. Nothing’s not broken in this place. Almost everything has been destroyed.”

Gomek was right. Fallen and torn out trees were littering the ground everywhere. Impressive chunks of rock were thrown around haphazardly as far as they could see. There were deep crates everywhere.

“…as if a giant wild boar has torn through the ground!”, he mumbled, impressed. “If that was a troll?” He cautiously looked around.

Even the temple hadn’t been spared. Large chunks had come down and had been overgrown by weeds.

“Whoever did this…Let’s search this thing and then get out of here before the crazy guy finds us. Who knows how he’ll react to us. Maybe there was more than one even…plenty of them!”, Dana hypothesized and perplexedly studied the map.

“There must be a cave in the immediate perimeter, that’s our destination. That’s where part of the armor is supposed to be. But why is the dot moving on the map?”

Dana shook the map like that would solve the problem. But since that action didn’t do any good, they quickly checked their position and started marching ahead. They hadn’t gone far when they were distracted by loud noises. They climbed on a hill and inspected a small valley beneath them. Right there, a giant troll was vandalizing everything he could get his hands on.

“I think we’ve found him!”, Gomek grinned.

Quietly, he snuck after Dana. Far from the reach of the vandalizer, the three saw a trashed settlement. Probably the one of the troll. They kept a careful distance from the vandalizer as they approached the village. Despite the destruction, there were still families living there obviously, because they could see younger trolls as well. Dana turned around to Gomek.

“Let’s help the trolls. Maybe they’ll return the favor.”

“Are you insane? Did you get a good look at that chunk of beast? How do you propose to calm him down enough without hurting him?” Gomek desperately shook his head.

“Let’s find out what happened to him. Then we’ll see what we can do!”, Dana suggested now and ignored his worries.

“Shari, turn us into trolls … of the right size this time…Please!”

The small fairy did the best she could and it was more than enough. Dana and Gomek, now concealed as perfect trolls, walked around the valley and over to the remains of the small village. Once there, Dana tried to strike up a conversation with the inhabitants. It wasn’t easy. Despite the language barrier, she found out that the vandalizer had discovered a cave in the rocks. In there had been a chest with a magical ring. The usually good- natured troll had naturally put it on his finger. Afterwards he’d started to change. He kept growing more aggressive, until one day he’d destroyed everything.

“Maybe I can help you. We just have to get the ring off his finger!”, Dana assumed. The trolls looked at her in horror.

“None of us have managed to get the thing away from him. It not only makes him more aggressive, it also makes him strong.”

“Let me worry about that. I’ve already got an idea how to get it done.”

Dana and Gomek walked back to Shari. She was supposed to stay out of sight and change them back.

“What’s your plan?”, Gomek wanted to know immediately.

“Remember the snake. This time though, we’ll only shrink him, and afterwards you’ll keep him confined in a rune trap. With a bit of luck, he’ll lose the ring when he shrinks and returns to his normal self. Then I’ll bring him back to his original size. Everyone will be happy again and ready to help us.”

“Your optimism is inspiring.”

Gomek wasn’t convinced yet, but nonetheless he started working on the trap. After a little while, he was done with it. They cautiously moved into the valley, deposited the trap, and then sent off Shari to lure the troll over. He reacted promptly and ran after her, until he’d reached the trap. It snapped shut and he was caught. He raged and screamed and pulled his imaginary binds, but to no avail. He was trapped.

Now Dana started the action. She voiced the shrinking incantation. Immediately, the troll started growing smaller until he was only about the same height as her. Dana had long since discovered the ring that was now slipping from his finger and tumbled to the ground. Before the now very dwarf-like creature could react and pick up the ring, Shari had brought it over with a telekinesis spell.

“Well, my friend? Are we calming down now?”

The troll seemed irritated and asked in a faint squeaky voice: “What is going on? What happened and most of all…who are you?”

Once Dana had informed him, she was supposed to enlarge him again.

“I’m back to my old self. No more aggressions thanks to that dumb ring. Who knows what his actual purpose is. All in all, he’s not suitable for trolls.”

“Where did you get the ring? Can you show me?”, Dana impatiently asked the troll.

“Sure. Before you have me back to my size or after?”

“Right now!”, she replied.

“Follow me, then.”

Not thrilled with Dana’s decision to wait before enlarging him again, he marched off, leading them deeper into the valley. A short time later, they reached a rock wall that someone had driven a large hole into.

“I’m sorry. I couldn’t find the cave behind the wall, so I punched it in. I hope that’s no biggie?”

“No, it’s fine. Saves us lots of work”, Dana grinned.

After she’d re-warded the troll with his original size as she’d promised, he said his goodbyes and quietly murmured: “I think I’ve got a lot to make good on again.”

He happily trudged back over to the others.

“Oh man … he’ll be in for quite the talking-to from his people!”, Dana laughed. “Let’s go find out where our thing is.”

She unfolded the map again.

“Huh? The part of the armor is behind me instead of the cave now.”

Dana turned around and saw Shari sitting on the rock, staring at the ring, lost in her thoughts. Then Dana could see it clearly – the supposed ring was the object they’d been searching for.

“Shari, what you’re holding there isn’t a ring, it’s the headband … our first part.”

Gomek, who’d inspected the rest of the cave in the meantime, called his friends over to him.

“Look, what I’ve found! There’s a tunnel leading into another cave. And what did I find there?”

“Not sure, but I’m certain you’ll tell us in a minute.”

Dana looked at him questioningly.

“A monolith. We don’t need to walk back through the underworld.”

Shari immediately started howling in victory. She hadn’t been in the mood to crawl back to the below-ground tunnels.

“Before we go back, I want to talk to the trolls again. Wait for me.”

Dana returned after what felt like an eternity.

“Trolls aren’t vicious and aggressive as they said in the books I’ve read. They’re really nice creatures once you get to know them better.”

“Except when they’re wearing rings like this one…”, Gomek grinned and pointed at the headband.

“Technically not. They don’t know much about their past; neither who brought them here, nor why they did. But that’s over now, too. Let’s go back. Erogat is surely waiting for us already.”

Dana activated the monolith and in no time, they had returned to Erogat.