The dark side of magic

Started by Lady Jenn, November 11, 2011, 04:35:55 PM

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albatross

Aurora looked around when they entered the throne room again and took in all the events unfolding before her eyes. There was so much excitement she felt as though they'd missed out on something.

When Stormrider welcomed them back she returned his smile. "There was a unicorn!" She blurted out quickly then looked to Marash when he was introduced and gave him a shy smile and a little bow of her head.

She looked from Marash's red eyes to Queen Elena and stared at the fairy queen for a moment. "Imirk's mom is gorgeous," she whispered to Tea before looking back at the group and smiling a bit.

Lady Jenn

"Us fae age in a much different way to humans," Tae replied with a smile. "Our females in particular can seem so young at even a great age you'd think we had stolen the fountain of youth or something,"

"Imrik and our two library searchers have discovered the same thing in slightly different ways," Stormrider said with a smile. "The enemy have gained access to a power source thought long since lost to history, its why the elementals seem so strong."

"And we know where it is too," Imrik said. "I didn't see it myself but a guard let it slip to one of my scouts and Meren found a scroll from a few centuries ago which confirmed its location."

albatross

Aurora looked around, unsure if she should speak or not after Imrik spoke. "So, if you know where it is does that mean we can all go and," she paused as she tried to form the words in her mouth. "And put some sort of protection around it? Or destroy it?" She asked.

In her thinking, she assumed it would be better to be destroyed so the evil magic users wouldn't be able to use it against them and against innocent people, like the people of that town.

Lady Jenn

"In theory yes," Stormrider replied. "But the enemy are unlikely to have left it unguarded. That's where Elena and Marash come in handy. They can offer us forces better suited to this kind of attack."

"They'll undoubtedly have air defences," Marash said. "They may not have dragons on their side but there are plenty of other airbound magical creatures they can use, my dragons have become expert at fighting their airborne allies."

"Marash's dragons will lead the attack from the air and Elena and the rest of us will attack it from the gound," Stormrider continued. "They will have to fight us on two fronts or risk leaving one of our forces to destroy the power source unopposed."

albatross

Aurora nodded, looking between the two dragon leaders and the queen of the fairies. "When do we leave then?" She asked and looked between the three of them.

She was scared that they were going into a battle but she knew if she could just focus and be careful she'd be able to hold her own with what Meren had taught her in just their short time seeing if she did have magic powers or not.

Lady Jenn

"As soon as possible," Stormrider replied. "We can't guarantee there won't be another attack if we sit around twiddling our thumbs for hours. You need the least preparation so you may as well stay here and get to know Elena better if you want." He and Marash left the tower to prepare the dragon half of the force, Elena leaping off Marash's shoulder and landing delicately on the ground.

"A pleasure to meet you three," She said to Muroe, Barkeley and Aurora. "My son has told me all about you."

"All good I hope," Barkeley said with a slight laugh as he bowed to her. "He certainly had nothing bad to say about you."

"Well he knows I could kick his butt without even trying even at my age," she replied with a slight giggle.

albatross

Aurora watched them leave to prepare before she turned her attention to Elena when she addressed them.

"It's an honour to meet you," she said, bowing her head slightly in greeting to the queen.

She smiled at Barkeley's comment and laughed at Elena's reply about her son. "He was very pleasant and spoke highly of you," she said with a smile.

"Boys know better than to talk ill of their mother's in every species it seems," she grinned.

Lady Jenn

"I've beaten creatures twice my size before so someone Imrik's size is a walk in the park for me," she said, hearing a grown from where Imrik was sat. "You know I love you really."

"My sister Nara is out there somewhere," Imrik said. "She's a general in the fae army. Look for the female fairy carrying a shield and a particularly nasty looking spear with warpaint covering her face. She's easy to spot."

"I have four children," Elena said. "Imrik and Nara are the oldest though, the other two only join us in battle when we absolutely need them." The noise from outside seemed to be increasing. "Sounds like the army is nearly ready, either that or the dragons are bickering as usual."

albatross

Aurora looked to Imrik and felt sorry that he seemed to be worried for his sister, she glanced towards the window then walked forward to see what was going on.

She peered outside, tilting her head as she observed the dragons preparing to go fight the evil magical users.

She frowned after a moment and turned to look at Imrik. "How often have you had to use your younger siblings in a battle?" She asked curiously.

Lady Jenn

"Very rarely," Imrik replied. "Me and Nara are trained fighters so we can be used whenever we have to fight. One of my other siblings is a healer and the other can form incredibly strong forcefields. They're more useful if we have to defend something than if we're on the attack."

At that moment Muroe noticed five huge dragons hovering in the air. At first they looked the same as the other dragons around them, but they had more exotic markings across their scales. The one nearest the tower was the colour of sand but had unusual blue streaks running across some of its scales.

"With dragons like that you have to wonder how Marash's city remained hidden for so long," Muroe said, a note of awe in his voice.

"Most of the dragon cities were lost when Stormrider retreated from the human world," Kara said. "Some, like the Crystal Dragons, refused to desert humanity or any of the other races. Others either received the order too late to react or chose to stay in the cities they had established, like Marash did."

albatross

Aurora looked up to notice the dragons and stared a moment. "You have to wonder what else is really out there," she mumbled to herself, since she was so new to all of this it was a lot to take in.

And she also didn't know what was a big deal to everyone since it was all so amazing to her.

She rested her head against the window then turned her gaze to Muroe. "Do you think anyone is gonna get hurt?" She asked quietly and kept her eyes focused on his face.

Lady Jenn

"Its almost certain people will be," Elena said. "Stick with me, Imrik and Barkeley, there's enough fighting ability between us three to keep you safe. Even Meren and the Seer are coming."

"I'm a better fighter than I may appear," Meren said. "I carry many weapons hidden under my cloak, I rarely get to use them though."

"I think we're ready to go," Elena said, seeing the commotion outside die down. "You have two choices on how to get there, you can ride one of the dragons there or my fairies have an underground route there but it requires certain magical...tricks to take you through there. Its up to you."

albatross

Aurora looked to Meren. "I want to go with you. You can teach me how to control that stuff I did so I can put it to use," she said with a light smile.

"I'll go whichever way Meren's going," she said and looked back towards Elena then back to Meren.

"that is if you're willing to teach me on the way there," she said as she worried her bottom lip.

Lady Jenn

"I can try my best," he said. "Just stick by me and Barkeley, you'll be safe by us."

"Imrik, go with the dragons," Elena said. "You know where they need to go better than we do." Imrik nodded, heading outside and to where Marash and Stormrider were waiting, followed closely by Kara who transformed into her own dragon form. "Our tunnels start from just outside the gate, we'll take a few of the ogres with us, that'll help us survive the fight."

They led them down towards where the tunnels were, various fairies and ogres joining their group as they reached it, Nara's recognisabe shape moving among the group, towering over the other fairies. They reached a tunnel entrance that seemed too small for anyone but a fairy to pass through.

"Anyone who doesn't want to join this fight turn back now," Elena said. "Because the spell I'm about to cast isn't being dispelled till we've reached our destination."

albatross

Aurora smiled at him. "Thank you," she said with a nod of her head.

When the group began to move she kept close to Meren, wanting to learn what she could from him before they reached their destination. She glanced around for Barkeley then reached back and grabbed his hand so she didn't get separated from him.

She was tempted to grab Meren's hand to make sure she didn't loose him either but she really didn't think he was the type that enjoyed holding hands, much less with a human like her.

When they stopped at the entrance she glanced to Elena as she spoke then turned around and looked to see if anyone stepped out of line.

Lady Jenn

"Are you sure about this mother?" asked a tall fairy who was stood next to Aurora, one look at the camoflage on her face revealed it to be Nara.

"I'm the only one who knows how to cast this spell properly," Elena replied, "so we have no choice."

She raised her ahnds and began saying something under her breath. Her hands started to glow and within an instant everyone but the fairies blacked out. When they came around Barkeley realised that they had been shrunk to the size of the fairies, even the Ogres had shrunk.

"Woah," Muroe said as he stood up slowly. "That has to be one of the weirdest experiences of my life."

"Now, follow me," Elena said, heading down through the tunnel entrance in front of them.

albatross

Once the fairies blacked out she looked around and frowned when she realized she was so small. "I'm short...er," she mumbled and looked up.

"A lot shorter," she pouted and kept a firm hold of Barkeley's hand as they began to head through the tunnel entrance.

"Meren, what other tips can you give me about controlling my power?" She asked. "Should I do that thing I did with the rock to the things there that will be attacking us?"

Lady Jenn

"That should work," he said as they entered the tunnels which were lit by a string of torches on either wall. "Don't try killing anything though, I'm not sure you're prepared for that quite yet." Fairies were all around them, some armed with sword, some armed with spears and the occasional bow-armed fae moving among them.

"There are portals ahead of us," Barkeley said, falling back to where they were after speaking to Elena and Nara. "That way our journey to the site takes less time than it ordinarly would. They all lead to the same place so don't worry about which one you take."

On the other side of the portals was a large flat plain which led up to a deep chasm where the fountain the power was being drawn from was hidden. The dragons hadn't arrived yet but the fairies and ogres were already forming up into a battleline. Nara and Elena at the front with Barkeley and the Seer.

"Come on," Meren said, leading her through the crowd of fairies to where the others were waiting when the spell suddenly wore off, the ogres returning to towering over the fairies. "Something tells me these fairies are stronger than their size implies," he said, smiling at the site of Barkeley gripping the hilt of his sword tightly in anticipation. "You can borrow one of my weapons if you want," he said to Aurora. "I've got plenty to go around."

albatross

She shook her head quickly then though better of it and held her hand out. "just a knife or dagger or something to defend myself with," she said.

She didn't like the thought of having to get that up close and personal with whatever was going to be coming at them.

She looked to Meren, a little scared. "If I were to focus on these things and thought of knocking them out, just leaving them unconscious, would that work?" She asked.

Lady Jenn

"Sure," he replied. "You've got me and Barkeley to guard you so don't worry. Ah, I think the rest have arrived." He saw the small but determined shape of Imrik land beside followed closely by the huge shapes of the dragons, Stormrider, Kara and Marash leading them.

"The dragons will start the attack," Imrik said. "Although they can attack the fountain if they need to its easier to attack it from the ground. When you hear Kara's roar that's our signal to go." The dragons moved, heading over the hill in front of them and within moments the sounds of battle beyond their sight. After a few minutes there was a loud roar.The ogres moved first, fairies parting to allow the immense creatures easy passage as Meren threw Aurora a small knife covered in intricate runs.

"That will protect you," Meren said. "Now we had better get going." The army moved, the sound of Nara and Elena drawing their weapons audible above the sound of marching feet. They stopped at the top of the hill to see an impressive sight: the dragons were dealing with the few bits of airborne resistance with ease, while the Ogres seemed to be cutting through the ground forces with ease.

"Nara," Elena said, "take the main force and help the ogres. Barkeley, Meren, Aurora, you and I will take my Royal Guards and head for the fountain." Suddenly it became obvious that around Elena were a small group of golden armoured fairies armed with deadly looking longswords. "Get ready for my signal," the Queen said as Nara lead the rest of the fairies headed down the hill in front of them, some launching into the air to get around their height disadvantage.

albatross

"thank you," Aurora said to Meren when he threw her the dagger and held it tightly in her hand. She kept looking towards the sounds of the battle and chewed her bottom lip, praying none of the dragons or fairies would get hurt or worse today.

She looked towards Elena when she heard her name and gave a nod, she watched Nara lead the rest of the fairies down the hill in front of them and clenched her jaw.

She had to resist the urge to run after them, her fingers flexed on the knife in her hand and she looked back to Elena, urging the woman to give the signal soon so they weren't just standing there.

Lady Jenn

"What are we waiting for?" Barkeley asked as he watched Elena survey the fight without moving, almost seeming to ignore those around her. Suddenly a smile played across her lips as there's was a sudden flash of light followed by an explosion.

"There was a magical barrier between us and the fountain," she said with an air of quiet determination in her voice. "I sent a third force of fairies to deal with that and make our path to the fountain a little easier. Stay with me, Meren and the Royal Guard should be able to deal with any threats who come near us."

She started heading down the hill, the guards and the others following her down. From where they were they could see Nara and one of the ogres easily dispatching anything that came into range of them, clearing the path to the fountain and forming a formidable blockade to any enemy forces that attempted to approach.

albatross

Aurora looked at Elena when Barkeley asked her the question and then looked back towards the fights, hoping to see something she'd been missing as they stood back and continued to survey the battle.

When there was a sudden flash and an explosion she flinched and stared then smiled a bit at Elena's words and gave a nod as she explained what she'd done. Her eyes moved to Meren when they were about to go down the hill then headed down, keeping close to him as she glanced to Barkeley to make sure he was still close as well.

As they neared the fountain she felt as though this whole ordeal was going to be a piece of cake. With Nara and the ogres forming a blockade between the enemy and them and with Elena, Meren and the Royal Guard it appeared it was going to be a walk in the park.

Lady Jenn

Just as they were within sight of the fountain the ground suddenly shook as a huge reptile place itself between them and the fountain.

"Giant Basilisks," Barkeley said with a grimace. "If there was one thing we DIDN'T need right now it was one of them."

"Leave this to me," Stormrider said as he landed in his human form, his sword gripped tightly in his hand. "I can deal with this easily, you worry about getting to the target."

albatross

When the ground began to shake Aurora slowed down and looked around to see what could be causing it then fell back when the huge snake appeared in front of them.

She picked herself up quickly and dusted her self off, still gripping the dagger tightly in her hand.

After Stormrider said he'd handle it she looked to Meren and Barkeley and watched the Basilisk as it's attention was focused on Stormrider now. "Come on!" She said and took off again, she kept a wary watch on the Basilisk as she ran past it, making sure she didn't draw it's attention from Stormrider to her. Once she was past the Basilisk she saw the fountain and continued to sprint towards it.