The Dragon's Apprentice

by Ben Marble

  "You know, while we are surrounded by armed dwarves you could be a little less happy about it." Xander looked back at their escort, though the Dwarves kept their faces as blank and emotionless as before. "We really don't want to break these, but we risk irritating the elves even if we don't. Just great."

  "Well, I know I would be upset if someone ruined a perfect prank that I set up. I vote we see if we can reprogram them first before we do anything. If they keep functioning correctly, they can't blame anything on us." Michael hesitated for a moment. "Doesn't that mean we will get some kind of backlash ourselves regardless."

  "Well, let's see what we can do." Xander levitated and floated onto the edge of the field. Despite the fact he wasn't on the field proper the two golems charged him immediately. Xander Levitated higher, and the golems both stopped under him. The two golems started jumping up at Xander trying to grab him by his foot. They would have caught him if he had not been quickly ascending. Each golem could jump a good twenty feet up in the air, which kept Xander up high.

  "I have bad news for you Xand," Michael called up. "Thank you for bringing them close enough for me to examine, but whatever whammy the elves used, I can't decipher it. Elf magic is just weird."

  "I was afraid of that." Xander looked down debating what their next move was. "I'll be there in a second." Xander tried to leave the area over the field but ended up hitting an invisible wall. He reached out and touched it with his energy and found that the shield was tied directly to the golems themselves. Whatever kept the golems locked to this area, kept everything else locked in as well.

  "I think I have a problem Mi...." He was cut off as a sudden blast of wind knocked him back about thirty feet, which ended up being a good thing as a golem was suddenly launched into the space he had been inhabiting.

  "Sorry, I didn't have time to warn you." Michael was watching the golems, and sure enough, one leaned down and the other stepped onto the waiting hands of its twin preparing to be launched up again. This time Xander was ready for the golem missile and managed to get out of the way, but as levitating was great, it did not allow you to move at the speed true flight would. Michael took the field and suddenly the golems stopped. They seemed to confer for a moment, then they both charged Michael. Michael himself levitated up and joined Xander in the air.

  "You had to come in and join me?"

  "Well, can't let you have all the fun and I thought it would divide them. One on one rather them both on you."

  "Let's see what we can do to stop them." Xander flew down and landed. As the two golems started charging him, he heated and ripped the ground in a large burst of energy. Molten rock came up and wrapped itself around the golem's legs, while the weight of the golems sunk them immediately to their waists in the lava. Michael stepped in and used a big burst of energy to cool the magma as soon as the golems were half buried. The left both golems encased and stuck from the waist down.

  "Well, we didn't break them per se." Michael grinned at the two struggling stone figures.

  "No, we did not. Now how do you plan on leaving the field while we are shielded in?" Xander leaned against the invisible barrier at the edge casually.

  "Oh, I didn't notice that." Michael knocked on the shield and cocked his head. "Umm... the dwarves are laughing. That's not good is it?"

  "No, it is not." Both turned to see the golems pushing down on the ground around them. Rock started cracking slowly and the golems started extracting themselves. "I think we have a couple of problems."

  "I'll solve one of them." Michael strode forward and funneled his energy at one of the golems. After a moment he stepped back and looked at Xander. "I think we have another problem."

  "Joyous," Xander turned and funneled his energy at one of the golems to see what Michael was seeing. Almost like the golem itself has been coated in invisible oil, his energy seemed to slide right past the golem instead of focusing on it. "Yeah, that could be a problem."

  "Umm... Xander, the dwarves are taking bets on us." Sure enough, when he looked back Xander saw gold coins being exchanged between the members of their escort, and they were now standing at the edge of the field. "I miss Rorshk."

  "We can't blow them up directly with our magic. We can't leave. The Golems are made from some sort of enchanted obsidian. All we have is tilled dirt." Xander gave a grin to his friend. "I'm saying we are at pure destruction point. What do you say?"

  "I say this is good manure filled dirt, and I have no clue how the elves managed that with magic, and sure. If we are going to get hate mail from the elves let's earn it." Michael gave an answering wicked smile and started summoning fire. Both apprentices shielded themselves as the golems finished breaking free.

  With a swish of air, Michael’s fireball flew past him and caught the first golem straight in the chest. The golem itself was knocked back a step but had no damage to show for it. Both stone figures started to charge.

  Xander split the other direction from Michael and noted now both apprentices were on the ground, the golems split off as well. "Bet I destroy mine before you destroy yours!" Xander called.

  "You’re on!"

  His vision suddenly full of charging golem Xander put all his focus on his stone enemy. He would have to trust that Michael could take care of himself. He reached down into the earth with his energy and a bunch of angled stone spears rose up between him and the stone behemoth. Xander used a gust of wind to help him suddenly shoot out of the way of the golem when those spears shattered as the behemoth charged right through them.

  "The elves couldn't have made you small, nothing is impressive unless it tops eight feet." The golem, of course, didn't answer back, it just continued to charge him. Luckily despite its magic nature the stone monstrosity still took a moment to stop and change direction. This meant that Xander had a chance to dodge and keep ahead of the animated creature for now. Eventually, he would run out of energy, and at the rate, he was casting that would be sooner than later.

  Trying a new tactic Xander summoned a blanket of water and drenched the golem. As soon as the monster was completely wet, he froze the water hoping that some had penetrated cracks in the figure. There was a chance he could use the quickly expanding water to crack it. Still, it had no effect other than making the stone creature, an icy stone creature.

  The golem charged again and with a huff of wind and a lightning bolt Xander flew back and attacked at the same time. He managed to knock the golem down, but it started to get back up again quickly, once again without showing much damage.

  "Xander, if three thousand years of erosion hasn't destroyed these things, do you think some ice and lightning will" Michael was throwing wind blades at his adversary which slowed it enough for him to keep ahead of the brute.

  In the moment that he distracted Xander, Xander's monster had recovered and was coming at him again. "Michael, you're a genius!" He now had an idea.

  The golems had spent three thousand years tilling a field. This had been all done underground where the elements had not touched them. This meant that the assumption they had walked in with that these creatures had spent three thousand years without any damage was patently false. The golems had been sheltered.

  Xander started calling more wind. He worked on turning it into a funnel that picked up as much of the soil as possible. This was challenging because the whole time he did this he was pushing away from the golem and keeping as far ahead as possible using separate gusts of wind. Loud booms and cracks of lightning told him the Michael was still fighting away in the background behind him. He prayed this paid off.

  As soon as he had a funnel that was almost as full of dirt as air, he focused it around the golem that was fighting him. He channeled more energy and worked on making the wind move faster and faster. Moisture was important as well because it would make the dirt and dust stick to the stone, making the small particles of sand and work and do their job. This did have the effect immediately of stopping the golem in its tracks. Xander did not know if this was because the small
dirt storm blinded it, or because the wind made it plant its feet to keep from being knocked over. Either way, his spell slowly started to work.

  Stone normally eroded over hundreds of years of wind and water dragging sediment across it. Xander was trying to recreate this but on a magically enhanced level. Instead of mere wind or water, each grain of sand or dirt was being propelled by magic along with the wind around the golem. It took a few moments, and to Xander, if felt like hours, but suddenly the golem started to wear away. Little grains of the Obsidian that made the stone creature up first started to break off leaving tiny pits on its massive stone frame. As those little bits of stone, still holding the enchantments of the golem, started to join the wind cloud and wear it as well, bigger and bigger chunks started to tear their way out of the stone figure. After a minute or so, there was suddenly a large crack, and the golem burst into millions of stone shards throwing Xander back with the explosion. He would have been killed if he hadn't had his shield up. As it was, he was driven into the ground with a force that knocked the wind out of his lungs.

  Looking over he saw Michael had taken note of his success and was creating his own mini windstorm. His fellow apprentice was pulling as many shards of the now shattered golem in, and it looked like he was about to let it loose on his enemy.

  The golem attacking Michael at the death of its companion decided Xander was the bigger threat. Instead of chasing after Michael, it turned with all speed and charged at Xander. Xander used what was left of his energy to put a large energy shield in front of himself, but that was all he could manage. He felt the Golem hit his shield and struggled to keep it up as the stone figure started pounding at him.

  "Michael, get him. Sandstorm him now!"

  "I might kill you, no!"

  "If you don't, I'm dead anyway. Just do it!"

  Xander continued to push energy into the shield as the dirt and stone surrounded him and the golem. He extended the shield around himself the best he could but had to keep most of the strength up from where the golem continued to pound at him. Random bits of stone and dust managed to breach the shield and small cuts started to appear on his skin from the few that came through with some force behind them.

  Because of the stone bits Michael had picked up this golem was wearing away a lot quicker than the one Xander had destroyed. Xander noticed this and hope helped him pour some more energy into his shield. This did not stop a rock chip from flying across his vision and cutting him across the forehead, causing blood to flow down into his eyes blinding him. After what seemed several hours a blinded and struggling Xander focused all his energy on the front of his shield as the second golem exploded.

  Laughing at the fact he was still alive Xander felt the world go dark and he lost consciousness.

  Nightfire

  Brianne watched over Xander as he slept. The dwarves had brought him and Michael back unconscious and beaten about the time she had awoken. Her two new patients had not been that badly injured, but both had pushed themselves to the limits of their endurance. The dwarves carrying them were babbling excitedly in their strange rocky language, so she had no idea on what had happened. Whatever it was the short folk seemed very happy and that boded well for the whole group.

  There had been a tense moment when the two had been returned. Rorshk had finally explained a bit of what happened but seemed worried that the apprentices might take offense at the fact Michael and Xander had been injured while enjoying their hospitality. For a few seconds Brianne was sure that Sierra was going to pick a fight with the dwarf. In the end, she drew in a long breath and said that if the "two idiots" had picked a fight with a couple of statues that wasn't the dwarves’ fault.

  Ember seemed to be healing very well with the extra attention from the dwarves. Brianne was not sure if the medicines they used were drawing out something she could not sense, or if the herbs just had some nice healing properties. In her opinion, Ember could open her eyes any time now.

  The room itself had been nice and comfortable. The dwarves had made sure they had food to eat at any given time they were hungry. Other than the guards there had been little or no interruption or invasion of their privacy in any way. It was good as with it just being her and Sierra someone needed to be awake while the other slept, and the last thing they needed was an additional problem while their numbers kept falling. It would not be long before Xander and Michael would be back up to speed. Xander would probably take a bit longer as he had been the one running through caves and exploring while everyone had rested up until they ran into the dwarves.

  The dwarves had been nothing but pleasant since they had arrived. It took Sierra's whispered warnings to keep her from getting too comfortable. Just because the dwarves were friendly did not mean that they could not turn on the apprentices if they were given the right reason. If that happened, they had no backup plan at this point and would be hard pressed to defend themselves given the state of their group.

  Brianne kept with her job. She would spend an hour with Ember speeding along what healing she could. Then she would check and make sure Michael and Xander had not developed any issues before continuing with her main patient.

  It had gone on this way for a good day since the return of Xander and Michael and the monotony of her job was not lost on her. There were worse things. Sierra and Rorshk spent a good deal of time talking quietly off to the side on his visits, and while nothing seemed serious, she could tell Sierra was walking on egg shells. The other apprentice had always wanted to be the one in charge, now she had her taste of it. Brianne hoped that it left a bitter taste in her mouth since Xander was proving to be just fine at making decisions and leading them.

  Lost in thought she almost did not notice the next time Rorshk returned. If Sierra had not stood and greeted him the old dwarf could have stood there for several minutes and she would not have noticed. She almost jumped out of her skin when Sierra's voice cut through the chamber.

  "Rorshk, good to see you again!" Brianne was always surprised at how well Sierra could sound happy to see someone, even though she knew that her friend was less than pleased. The old dwarf had dropped by at least once every couple of hours to check up on them. Brianne was wondering if the dwarves ever slept and realized that there was the full possibility that they might not.

  "Mistress Sierra," Rorshk gave a small bow. It had been a lot of sudden respect, bows, and being referred to as "Mistress" since the return of Michael and Xander as well. Whatever they had done had bought a good deal of respect. "You have a visitor.”

  She watched as Sierra cocked her head and studied Rorshk carefully. "I assume it's not one of your council or they wouldn't be announcing their visit. Who have you told about us?"

  Rorshk growled. "We haven't told anyone. The gentlemen, and I use that term loosely, knew you were here when he arrived. I will talk to you after he has left. Let me re-assure you, you are under our hospitality. We will allow no one to attack you while you are under our protection and our roof." The old dwarf tugged his beard and hesitated. "I do ask permission to be here during the meeting, if you will grant it. I will sit still and be quiet."

  Sierra looked over to Brianne, and Brianne nodded her assent. If this was making the dwarf nervous it might be a good idea to keep him nearby. They needed to extend some trust with all the dwarves had given them. Sierra nodded to the dwarf and he grinned and bowed back. Rorshk then barked some orders at their guards in dwarvish and they all snapped to attention and readied their weapons before suddenly fading into the background. Brianne blinked as it seemed the dwarfs simply disappeared. There was not a single whisper of energy to indicate magic had been used.

  As soon as the dwarves disappeared Rorshk stepped outside and barked a few more orders. Shortly he returned with a man that Brianne had never seen before. As soon as they entered the room Rorshk broke away and stood next to the door still and silent. He did not fade, however, making sure that the stranger knew he was standing by.

  This new figure was muscular in a
way she had only seen on bodybuilders and wrestlers. He had close-cropped black hair and a short beard. A square chiseled face with two dark eyes held a no-nonsense expression, and he slowly took in the whole room.

  "Brianne," Sierra didn't take her eyes off the stranger. "See if you can wake Xander, Michael, and anyone else if you could." Brianne understood that anyone else meant Ember, but that was not likely to happen. She went and shook Xander and Michael awake, they would not be at a hundred percent but should have had enough rest to function by now.

  "That's completely unnecessary," The stranger had a brisk Australian accent. "I have no desire to pick a fight right here while you are under the protection of our mutual friends." The words were friendly, and some of the sternness seemed to fade from his face as he spoke. The figure walked over to the table and looked back at Sierra, "May I?" he waved his hand at the food.

  At this point, Xander was awake and watching the exchange quietly and she had Michael groaning his way to consciousness. Michael seemed determined to not wake completely and kept trying to roll back over. Brianne finally gave up and turned to watch what was going on as well.

  "Sure," Sierra watched as the man sat and took a loaf of bread and started ripping small pieces out and chewing them. "I don't believe we have met, and how did you know we were here?"

  "Oh, we've met." The man took another bite and grinned. "You gave me and my apprentice a good fight. You all had a couple of good tricks up your sleeves, including that dragon eyed friend of yours."

  "I prefer Xander," Xander stood up and sat across from the dragon, almost challengingly. "And that means you would be Nightfire. Can I tell you it's a relief that chaos dragons name themselves so predictably as our dragons?"

  Nightfire stopped chewing, regarded Xander and swallowed. "Your dragons? I'm pretty sure if you examine things you belong to them more then they belong to you, and chaos dragons... I like that." He reached over and grabbed a fresh loaf of bread. "Now, I'm not here to pick a fight, like I said. I would like to have a few words with you and I will leave you alone."