by Sam Ferguson
“The Crystal! THE CRYSTAL!” The elf went into a rage, shouting and blabbering in words Jonathan didn’t understand. He started to back away, but the hallway sealed off once more as the magical stone barrier returned. The elf sneered at Jonathan then and shook his head slowly while wagging his finger and making a clicking noise with his tongue. “Naughty, naughty little thief. You are more clever than the others. They went up the stairs. Up and up they went, never finding their way out, but you are more clever. You are a sneaky little thief. Sneaky, sneaky!”
“I’m not a thief!” Jonathan shook his head and grabbed at his hair with his hands. “I was told to come here and get the master’s bow. I was told to look for clues about the crystal.”
“The crystal will HARM you! It will harm ALL of us!” the elf shouted.
“I know that,” Jonathan replied firmly. “But there is an elf, a wicked elf, who is seeking the crystal. He wants to use its power to hurt others. I have to stop him. I was sent to stop him, and I need that bow!”
The elf paused and cocked his head to the side. He stared at Jonathan for a long while. The young warrior didn’t know what to do. If he reached for his short sword, he was sure it would make the elf attack with his magic. He had no other way out but to convince the insane elf that he was telling the truth.
“Listen to me,” Jonathan said in as calm a voice as he could. “There was a stranger, a tall man with green robes and a foreign symbol. He looked into my mind with his magic, and he took my friend. He is the one who told me to come after the bow. I haven’t met the master, but everything else is true. I am here to stop a wicked elf from obtaining the Astral Crystal. I have lost many friends along the way. Please, I am telling you everything I know.”
The elf stood silently for a moment, and then he straightened up and nodded once. “Very well then. Take the bow.”
Jonathan took a step forward. “What? Just like that?”
The elf nodded. “Jaeger took the Astral Crystal to the north. He hid in a city in the forest. You will find what you need there.”
“So you believe me then?” Jonathan asked as he took another couple of steps.
The elf nodded. He snapped his fingers and the way to the hall was clear once more. “The stranger you speak of is Reshem.”
“You know his name?” Jonathan asked.
The elf nodded. “The master knows Reshem, and I know the master.”
Jonathan moved in and took the bow. “What city should I look for in the north?” he asked.
The elf shook his head. “I am uncertain. The crystal warped my mind, and it damaged my soul. I was not allowed to know. If it helps, Jaeger is a gnome. There are not many of his kind in these parts. Ask around, and perhaps you may find clues as to where he went. Tell him that the crystal is being hunted, and he will know what to do.”
Jonathan nodded. “Thank you,” he said. Not wanting to miss the chance for more information while the elf was calm and more lucid than he had been so far, the young warrior asked another question. “What do the writings say?”
Yaen smiled. “Most of them are wards. The rest are spells left here by the master to help me in my quest to protect the bow. When you take the bow, the magic will fade. The watchers will know. They will come.” Yaen’s eyes filled with tears. “Some of the writings are to remind me what happened, so I can tell the champion of Jaeger. They keep my mind straight when I read them. You must find Jaeger. Otherwise, everything that happened here will be for naught.”
“What happened here?” Jonathan pressed.
The elf’s eyes blinked, pushing the tears out over his wrinkled cheeks. “We worked with the master to hide the crystal. It was too close to the border to be left alone. If Atek had found it, it would have meant the end of Terramyr. So, we stole it and ran away, but Atek sent his demons after us. They tracked the crystal’s scent. They found us. A great battle ensued. So great was the magic used by both sides that the very earth was rent and this canyon was created. The master subdued the demon, but not before its evil magic had infested the Astral Crystal. The powerful gem then pulsed, gave off an explosion of magical energy in an effort to cleanse itself. The master didn’t know that would happen. Jaeger was off scouting possible routes to the top, so we could escape the canyon. I was nearby. The dark magic assaulted each of us, and amplified by the crystal’s own energies, it harmed us all.”
“I’m sorry,” Jonathan said.
“Harmed…” the elf said again. “It HARMED us ALL!”
Jonathan closed his eyes and sighed in grief as the elf went into another fit of rage. The elf stomped and jumped about the room, tearing at his hair and shouting.
The young warrior hurried out through the hallway and down the stairs. He found Ziegler sitting cross-legged on the floor, but still trapped inside the cone. Jason was busily hacking at the outside of the cone, breathing heavy and sweating from his forehead. Ziegler looked to Jonathan and pointed. Jason turned around and offered a fatigued wave as he doubled over to catch his breath.
“I’ve been chopping at this since you left,” Jason said. “Not a scratch!”
Jonathan glanced back toward the stairs.
“I don’t suppose your little elf friend is going to let Ziegler out now is he?” Jason pressed.
Jonathan walked toward him and shrugged. “Actually I kind of forgot to ask about it.”
“You forgot to ask?” Jason said.
“It’s not easy talking to a mad person,” Jonathan said defensively. “I mean, one minute he is calm, and the next he is threatening to kill me. I got the bow, and I know where we need to go, sort of.”
“What do you mean sort of?” Jason asked.
“He said we need to go north, into the forest.”
“That’s a big help,” Jason quipped.
Ziegler stood up and a smile crossed his lips as the magical cone dissolved.
“Thank you,” Ziegler said.
Jonathan whirled around to see the elf standing there and smiling.
“You should go, they are coming,” the elf said.
“They who?” Jason asked.
“Don’t know and don’t care, let’s move,” Ziegler said.
“Come with us,” Jonathan said.
“He’ll slow us down,” Ziegler said pointedly.
The elf shook his head. “No, the bow has left the safe room. There is no time now. Go. Go before they come. I will handle them. Yes, I have been waiting for them. Soon I shall rest at last, and the master will be pleased with my work.”
Jonathan glanced to Ziegler, and then back to the elf. “He knows of the master,” he said.
“What?” Captain Ziegler said.
“Tell him something about the master, tell him something good that has happened recently,” Jonathan said. “If he won’t come with us, then at least let him know that he hasn’t been waiting here in vain
Ziegler nodded. He walked up to the elf, who put his hands up defensively at first, but then Ziegler leaned down and whispered something into the elf’s ears.
Jonathan watched as the elf began to cry and smile. Then he hugged Ziegler.
“Thank you, thank you for that,” the elf said with a bow. “I see that Reshem has chosen the right champions for the job. You will finish what we started so terribly long ago. Now please, you must run. They will be coming soon.”
Jonathan then glanced back to the stairs. “You said the other thieves went up? Where are they now?”
The elf’s eyes hardened. “Thieves! YES, there were thieves. Oh they were wretched SCUM! Thieves came to take it, but I tricked them. I did my job. None of them could have it. They went up. Climbing up and up, never to find their way out. Never. NEVER!”
“I think we lost him again,” Ziegler said as he returned to the others. “Come, we should go. We can’t help him, and we need to be on our way.”
The three of them rushed out and leapt to the stone bridge. They darted across, back toward the river bank as fast as they could. Ziegler was still
grumbling about being trapped when something launched out of the river behind them.
Jonathan turned around just as the whole stone bridge shook. A massive creature with two stubby legs and a long, fish-like tail complete with a large fin stood up on the bridge. It didn’t have any arms. Its body was like a catfish, only much, much larger. It turned its wide, flat head and grinned with its swollen lips as its eyes found Jonathan. It opened its mouth and spewed out a milky liquid.
Jonathan jumped back just as the pungent ooze hit the stone where he had been standing. The stone began to smoke and hiss.
“Run!” a voice called out from the stone dwelling. Jonathan only caught a glimpse of the elf leaping out onto the bridge and running toward them before the massive fish-monster advanced and blocked the elf from view.
Jonathan and the others ran down the bridge, with the fish-monster snarling behind them and throwing his foul acid at them. Then, there was a massive clap of thunder. Three bolts of lightning descended from the sky. The fish-monster made a strange squealing sound, and then his body disintegrated.
The trio turned back to wave their thanks to the elf, but he only shewed them onward.
“Run, you fools! Those who watch have come, for they see all! They have come to harm!”
“That elf is crazy,” Jason said.
“He was here with Lysander,” Jonathan said. “I imagine if you had spent thousands of years fighting demons, you might go crazy after a while too.”
“Let’s move,” Ziegler commanded.
Several more fish-monsters leapt out from the water. Each time one appeared, the elf would cackle and howl in delight.
“Now I will harm YOU! HA HA!”
Thunder echoed off the canyon walls as lightning came down from the heavens in angry flurries of silver and yellow flashes. Demons hissed and bodies were severed, but none chased after Jonathan or the others. They were all honing in on the crazy elf.
Once they reached what Ziegler thought was a safe distance, Jonathan turned back and watched from behind a large boulder part way up the northern slope. The elf was retreating to his home now. Jonathan smiled, knowing that the elf would be safe in there. Another two fish-monsters emerged from the water and tried to get at the elf, but he cut them down with more lightning. Then, just before the elf went inside, he looked up right at Jonathan.
“Tell the master that I served well!”
Jonathan nodded and whispered. “I will.”
“I kept it safe, just like he said. Yaen never fails the master!”
A voice boomed through the canyon floor, shaking not only the land, but bubbling the water and causing the river to bounce in spots, as if it suddenly began boiling.
“YAEN!”
Stones fell and slid down the slopes. A tall column of rock in the middle of the river cracked and twisted before falling to splash into the water. Several fish-monsters came to the surface of the water, but none of them moved toward the elf.
“I have been waiting for you, Yaen,” the thunderous voice called out. “I have been watching, and listening for you.”
“Well come on then,” Yaen shouted at the water. “Come and take me if you can.”
“I will devour you, Yaen,” the voice replied. The other fish-monsters began slapping the surface of the water with their tails and fins.
“Harm me! Yes, come on!” Yaen called out fearlessly as he continued to pummel the fish-monsters with lightning.
The green, murky surface of the water bubbled up, and then broke as a creature rose up from the depths.
“By the gods, what is that?” Jason whispered.
The creature’s head was as large as the mound of stone that served as Yaen’s dwelling. As it rose up to stand on its legs, it towered over the elf and laughed wickedly. It looked much like the other monsters, with black, slimy skin covering its back and a silvery set of scales across its torso. Its head was wide and flat, with a mouth flanked by four sets of thick, whip-like whiskers. Unlike the others, it also had arms. Four of them. In two hands it held massive clubs, while the other two were empty. The water slicked off of the demon, nearly creating the illusion that it was raining where he stood.
Yaen stood tall and sent a series of lightning bolts at the monster.
One after another the lightning slammed into the monster’s chest, sizzling and crackling upon impact, but nothing happened. The giant fish laughed and bent its head just a bit toward the ground where Yaen stood.
“Your attacks may work on my children, but not on me, foolish elf. You should have known that I would find you.”
Yaen laughed maniacally and put his hands up to the side of his head. Jonathan couldn’t be sure from this distance, but it looked like the elf was teasing the monster the way that kids did to each other with their waggling fingers and stuck out tongues. Then the elf turned around and wagged his bottom at the creature.
Jonathan shot Jason a look, but his brother only shrugged.
The giant monster raised its clubs.
Yaen stopped teasing it and ran inside the large mound of rock.
The clubs came down and whacked the stone dwelling with an unstoppable force. The stone cracked and splintered, but as it did so, light poured out from the cracks and the giant monster recoiled away from the mound.
“You tricked me!” the giant monster yelled. “No! NOOOOO!”
Jonathan could just make out the sound of Yaen’s laughter before the entire mound of stone exploded in the most blindingly brilliant display he had ever witnessed. The light enveloped everything in the canyon floor. The water around the mound evaporated in an instant. The smaller fish-monsters flopped about and then were overtaken by an ethereal blaze that consumed them by the score as it rolled outward in a massive shockwave from the center of the explosion. The giant monster fell over backward, but the shockwave consumed him with white and blue flames before his body hit the ground.
Then, an instant later, all the light and heat were sucked back into a singular point where the mound of stone had been. A ball of intense, white fire roiled in the air for just a few moments, and then it winked out of existence.
“What in the fires of Hammenfein was that?” Ziegler said as they all remained still, staring at the now dry river bed. Yaen’s stone dwelling, as well as the land bridge and several nearby columns had been entirely disintegrated in the explosion, yet there wasn’t even the tiniest bit of shrapnel anywhere near the trio.
“I don’t know, but all I am going to say is that I told you rainbows are lucky!” Jason said.
Had they not still been in shock, Ziegler and Jonathan might have laughed at the joke, but instead they sat there watching the empty scene for several minutes until they saw the first sign of water from upriver making its way down into the blasted riverbed once more.
“You have the bow?” Ziegler asked.
Jonathan nodded and indicated the wrapped bundle. “There are arrows too,” he said. “I felt the quiver when I carried the bundle down.”
Ziegler nodded and patted Jonathan on the shoulder. “And you said you know where to go?”
“He said the gnome went north,” Jonathan said. “Apparently he took the Astral Crystal deep into the forest.”
“Great, so we aren’t sure where to go, or who to look for, and the crystal is closer to our enemy than us,” Jason said. “Anything else?”
Jonathan shook his head.
“Let’s find a way up and get our supplies and then move along,” Ziegler said. “For now we’ll head to Shuldern, see if we can learn more about what Brykith’s followers planned on doing there. Then we can ask around if they know anything about a gnome traveling to the north from Lysander’s Peril. The dwarves keep good records, they might have some clues for us.”
“So none of us are going to talk about the giant fish thing?” Jason asked.
“We’ve all seen a giant troll before,” Ziegler said. “It’s not much different.”
Ziegler’s tone showed that even he didn’t believe his
words.
Jonathan unwrapped Lysander’s bow and slung the quiver over his shoulder and kept the weapon in hand. As he did so, he felt a strange sensation in his mind. It was like his head grew warm, and hummed with some sort of vibration. He tried to shake it off, but he couldn’t.
“You all right, little brother?” Jason asked.
“Fine, just…”
A spark of white light appeared suddenly in their midst. It started as a small spot no larger than a pebble, then grew to reveal the shape of an elf.
“Fear not, for it is I, Yaen, the keeper of demons and slayer of the Gar of Apoleese.”
“Yaen?” Jonathan echoed.
“The slayer of what?” Ziegler asked.
The ghostly form held up a hand to silence them. “I have only little time, but I wanted to thank you all. After Jaeger escaped the canyon, the master and I were plagued by demons for centuries. Only by creating the shrine and keeping the Master’s bow inside were we able to devise a plan wherein the Master could escape and seek the help he needed to cleanse himself from the effects of the Astral Crystal. I drew the demons to me, and I have been dealing with them ever since.”
“But then why didn’t the demons attack us when we arrived?” Jonathan asked. “Why wait until we were leaving?”
“Using my magic, I tricked the demons into believing that the bow was the Master. So they hunted it. When they drew close to the shrine, I trapped them below the surface. They were unable to emerge until the bow was removed from the shrine.”
“Then why give us the bow?” Ziegler asked.
“It was the Master’s wish. He said that the day would come when a hero would come to retrieve it. On that day, I was to be ready to deal the final blow to the Gar of Apoleese. He was not the first demon to attack us, of course. The master and I slew many of them together, but the longer the master and I remained here, the weaker we became. So, I set my trap and the master escaped so that he could recover. I imbued the shrine with as much of my magic as I could, that way I would have a reserve of magical strength when the day of reckoning came. Of course, the master did the same, as you already saw with the writings on the walls.”
“You have been waiting for me?” Jonathan asked.
