Chronicles of Luness: The Grey Phoenix

The Chronicles of Luness

Book 1: The Gray Phoenix

The Cloud Golems were brewing a storm. They had no choice. The master that enslaved them were making them create the perfect storm, and it was going to be the perfect storm: Hurricane strength wind, basketball-sized raindrops, and enough lightning to make an electro-giant explode. The storm was heading towards the Magic lands, many, many miles away. Their target was the Golden stronghold. As the storm headed towards the stronghold, the area was evacuated. The only people who didn't was the king and his army, for they knew who started the Super-Storm. The door to the stronghold was ripped off, and the Cloud Golem army marched in. The Grand Hall was chaos as the two most powerful armies fought each other. A cloaked figure made his way up the stairs and into the room where the first part of his plan would take place.

When he reached the room, there was a figure looking out at the chaos.

“I know why your here, and I won’t let you take one of the only things that will start the Spell.”

“King Grancho, I have heard much about your bravery, heart and strong fighting skills. One of the reasons I chose to get this relic first was because I want to destroy these myths they have come up with for you.”

“I have hidden the things vital to awake the gray Phoenix. There is one that you will never get. For if it dies, so does the Phoenix. Besides, what makes you think those are myths?”

“Because I don't believe that someone as dumb as the Gold Golems can afflict such fear and respect.”

With that, King Grancho snapped. He pulled out his ChargeBlade and leaped at the cloaked figure. The cloaked figure easily stepsidded the charge and pulled out his IceBlade. With every ball of fire that was fired from Grancho’s ChargeBlade, five ice balls were fired from the figures IceBlade. Suddenly, the figure muttered a word and the room instantly covered in ice, entrapping Grancho in ice.

“It's like this Grancho. I don't like when the child is praised for something the parent did.”

“Stop talking riddles.”

“Fine, I will talk clearly for you. I don't like the fact that the Golem species are praised for their courage and strength when us humans created you with those qualities. That is the reason why I enslave the Golems. To show those that are afraid that we can overpower you and that we are smarter than you!”

The figure pulled out what looked like an ordinary key and muttered a few words. The key started to glow and hovered to Grancho. Suddenly, Grancho started to wince as he felt the pain the key was forcing upon him.

“What is this?!”

“It's a Soul Key. I just took away the kingly powers from your soul. You’re no longer as strong nor as powerful as you once were. Now to enslave the Gold Golems, and continue my march onward. And to find the items that you so foolishly hid. Whoever has the necessary item will die.”

“You afraid to take me on?” Grancho bellowed.

The battle suddenly froze as the soldiers stood gawking. The Cloud Golems, because they never thought their master was stronger than even Grancho, and the Gold Golems, because they never thought their fearless leader could lose against some figure in a cloak. The Gold Golem archers suddenly pulled their bowstrings and aimed their arrows at the figure’s heart.

“If you want your leader to live, I suggest you drop your weapons.”

They all did as he said.

“Good, you are now my servants that will listen to whatever I command. If any of you even dare to think a dark thought against me, I will send my Soul Key to kill your king. Do we have any objections?”

None of the Golems did anything.

“Good. Now, does anyone know where the Gray Phoenix is located?”

## Chapter 1: A New Journey

The last two things I never expected to hear or see was A.) that the boss wanted to see ME! Or B.) that HQ was being attacked. I'm going too far, let me introduce myself.

My name is Jhogaslon, or Jhog, (pronounced Yog) and I am a Dragonslayer. We are basically the leaders and protectors of the world. ( pretty cool right?) It was started by a man by the name of Goldon the Great, in the Age of Magic. That was when the Malevolents, (The really evil people.)were given the okay to kill as many people as they wanted.(I know, really stupid choice.) So Goldon and his company decided to stop the Malevolents by tracking them down and killing or imprisoning them. Eventually, their group expanded immensely, so Goldon decided to talk to the dragons to see if they have a solution. The Dragon King decided to make them a legal Bounty Hunter Empire,(more on that later,) and give them the right to expand and take down criminals.

So that’s the history of the Dragonslayers. Now let's get on with our story. (which will be told from my point of view, so you have more of my awesomeness to listen to.) It started with me dreaming. Why was I dreaming, you ask? Because I was sleeping. I was dreaming a lot of dreams. One of our abilities is to make whatever dreams we want, except when they are prophecy dreams. That was the one I was having first. It started with fire. I was riding on a big red dragon. There was a Gold Golem riding in front of me, and a girl behind me. I was in my Battle Armor and was clutching a huge sword, and I mean it was huge. If there was a map on swords, this sword would need an atlas to cover the handle and an entire volume of atlases to show the blade. Anyway, I suddenly felt the urge to jump off the dragon. Not a fun idea. I jumped, which was kind of dumb of me to do. I landed on a Cerbian Griffin, who charged towards a battle. The scene suddenly shifted, and I was on a cliff, fighting what appeared to be a Mud Golem with furry arms. I was fighting him and nearly got knocked off a cliff. That's when the voices came. It wasn't like a whisper or a mutter or something only I could hear, it was a loud booming voice, as loud as thunder, and it said: “DO THE RIGHT THING!!!”

That was when I woke up, drenched in sweat and wondering what day it was. I checked my calendar and almost freaked. It was Mission Day, the day when all the Dragonslayers get up at the crack of dawn to exercise and get assigned missions, which meant I was late, really late. I was basically lightning getting on my uniform and heading to the Mission Center. When I got there, I saw my trainer, Justaw, glaring at me, and holding my Mission folder.

“You’re late.”

“Nice to see you missed me.”

“You’ve got a good one. BS mission.”

“BS?”

“Boss Secretary Mission. You have to be the boss’ assistant for the day.”

“Oh I thought it stood for bull sh…”

“No, not that.” He intervened quickly.

That's when I decided a little begging wouldn't hurt. I dropped down on my hands and knees and started kissing his shoes.

“PLEASE, DON’T MAKE ME GO THERE. THE BOSS HATES ME AND EVERY TIME HE SEES ME, HE THROWS HIS BATTLE AXE AT ME!”

“Calm down, drama queen. The boss is out in the field today, so technically you are out in the field. You're just killing really tough monsters. He's waiting for you in the Weapon Center.”

So I walked towards the Weapon Center. There were Dragonslayers preparing for their mission on the field. And there he was.

His real name was Grayson, but everybody referred to him as Gray. He had been the leader of the Slayers for 50 years. His grey, nearly white hair was neatly combed back, and he held his signature battle ax in one hand.

“It's nice to see that you’re here, Jhog.”

“Always in the mood for a battle axe to get thrown at me,” I joked, he didn’t look amused, I managed to cover it up though,

“Well, it's always good to get a little extra sleep. I merely slept too much. What are we hunting today, sir?”

“We are after a group of runaway Dirt Sharks. It seems that they need a little bit of reminding about who they're dealing with.”

So, after we formed a plan, we started out on our journey. It was fine, up until the point where a Dirt Shark tackled me from below. Now, it may have sounded like I was screaming my head off, but actually, I was emitting a high pitched scream to confuse the Dirt Shark into letting me go. Sound convincing? I didn't think so. Gray didn't believe that either. When that guy finally let me go, it was because Gray cut off its head.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING? TAKING A NAP? GO AFTER THE REST, OR YOU AND MY AXE WILL HAVE A LITTLE TALK!”

And since I didn't want to have that talk, I took off running. I actually did a pretty good job, I killed 17 of the 20 Dirt Sharks there. Suddenly, the 3 left turned towards me and pulled out what looked like stone whistles.

“Take one more step, and you will have to mess with our leader, Razorjaw.”

I didn't actually believe them. So I took another step forward. They blew into their whistles. No sound came out, it must have been a dog whistle. I lifted up my sword, but I heard a rumbling, and this tough Dirt Shark with a flaming sword leaped from the ground towards me. I avoided two of the three fireballs that shot towards me. But as I just said, I missed ducking one and it hit somewhere where nobody should be hit. The Dirt Sharks’ leader stepped forward and put on some brass knuckles.

“So you wanna hurt my people, huh punk? I'm going to teach you a lesson you will never forget.”

“Nobody teaches my Slayers a lesson.”

That was when Gray decided to help me. The leader turned towards Gray and pulled out his wicked-looking sword,( lucky.) The two battled it out for a while. (I don't even want to try to describe it because it would take too long.) eventually, Gray managed to twist that sword right out of the leader’s hand. He reared back and yelled, “The guardians are more powerful than those that they guard!” And threw the sword into the lead Dirt Shark’s triple hearts. The three Dirt sharks behind me gasped in horror and when I turned around, I saw the three running away towards the woods.

“And keep on running! Tell your race that if you guys ever feel like breaking our rules again, you'll be hunted down and be one of the extinct races!”

That was basically how my morning turned out. We headed out to the desert next.

“Why are we out here sir?”

“We are here to question a Sand Hermit. He has obtained something that we need to confiscate if it's dangerous. When we get there, you will keep watch and I will question this Hermit.”

We arrived at a house that looked very poor in quality, it’s walls were straw bricks while the roof was made of dry grass and mud. Gray knocked on the door and waited a few seconds. After those few seconds passed, he kicked down the door,(which looked to be the most durable part of the house since for some reason it was made of sandstone.) I heard shouting and clanging in the house and I decided, hey, maybe it would be best if I stay out here.

Gray came out a couple minutes later, covered head to toe in sand. His usually neat hair was messed up so now he looked like a mad scientist.

“Time to go, Jhog.”

While we were heading back towards the HQ, Gray actually talked to me, and it wasn't insulting.

“Jhog, there was a reason I assigned you to BS mission.”

“And that reason is?”

“Because I wanted to give you your Quest in person.”

My jaw hit the sand when I heard that. (Not really)

“Could you tell me what the Quest is, sir?”

“You will be responsible for the search and protection of King Grancho, of the Gold Golems. During this Quest, you will take him to the Shepherd Lands. Then take him to the city of Oxlot, and finally get him the protection of the Wizard’s League.

## Chapter 2: The Attack (with an awesome robot-Mud Golem fight scene.)

Your Quest starts as soon as we arrive at the HQ.”

We climbed a big hill to the top to see the unthinkable. The HQ was being attacked. Everywhere we looked, we saw Golems battling Dragonslayers. At the center of the battle was Justaw, battling a Mud Golem. My mind instantly went to the prophetic dream and the part where I was battling a Mud Golem. He looked the same as in the dream, but he didn't have the furry arms.

“Gray, is the blade swinger still in good condition?”

Gray suddenly looked where I was looking and his eyes widened when suddenly knew what I was thinking.

“Great idea, Jhog. Yes, it is in good condition, but the key is in the Armory. We will take the secret tunnel.”

He headed towards an old apple tree that has been in bloom since I could remember. He knocked on the trunk, and an old woodpecker with a cane hobbled out.

“Good to see you Gray, and at a good time too. My back was getting sore from all this sitting. Would you mind telling me the password?”

“No, I wouldn't. The password is Garharga.”

A door in the trunk swung open, and Gray walked into the doorway, I followed after him. We walked down a set of staircases and I decided to ask a couple of questions to Gray.

“So Gray, why do we have secret tunnels?”

“You probably think that the HQ was never attacked before. We did it as a last defense and evacuation route. It was during the War of the Undead when the Skeleton King invaded the rest of the Land of the Living. His first attack was on the Dragonslayers’ HQ. When he arrived, we were virtually wiped out. When the war was over, we decided to rebuild with couple tricks up our sleeves so that if we were ever attacked, we would have a way of escaping without getting noticed. It's up here.”

Suddenly, Gray ran down a different tunnel and I had to sprint to keep up. When I got there, Gray was standing in front of a wall with a sword carved into the front. Gray took out his sword and held it in front of the sword. The wall suddenly opened up after three minutes, and we were in the Armory. It's basically like the Weapon Center except we use it for armor, heavy-duty weapons, relics, magical weapons, confiscated enchanted armor, etc. Gray went over and grabbed the key. I was just about to go back into the tunnel with Gray when a glimmer caught my eye. I looked at the back of the Armory, and there it was.

It was the sword from my dream. It was double-edged with a wooden crossguard, but the blade was made out of diamond-encrusted iron. But out of all, the handle was the greatest. It was made out of gold, with a Phoenix carved into the hilt. I grabbed it by the beautiful handle and lifted it up. Suddenly, Gray turned around to see me holding the sword. There was a moment of silence, while Gray seemed a combination of confused and in awe. I decided to speak.

“Why are you looking at me like that, sir?”

“Because you are holding the Sword of the Phoenix. That sword could never be lifted, except by one. This means the prophecy is coming true.”

“What prophecy?”

“The prophecy goes like this:

When the lightning, Earth, and dragons are captured,

The hero shall arise,

To defeat the serpent of fire,

The wizard shall arise,

To bring back the Dragon Lords,

The Pet and Master shall rise.

But the Shepherd of Darkness shall destroy the Grey Phoenix.”

There was silence as I processed all this.

“So I'm in a prophecy, and I'm supposed to rescue the Cloud Golems, the Gold Golems, and whatever it means when it says the dragons.”

Suddenly, the whole room started shaking. We both took off running towards the Tech Center(FYI, that's where all the nerds and geeks hang out.) when we got there, Gray headed towards the Heavy Weapons aisle. I heard him mutter to himself.

“Let's see here, Apple, ant, bat, barn, ah here it is, blade.”

He pulled out a remote control and plugged the key in, that's when we went all the back outside,(if I even wanted to, I won't tell you the journey back, because it would be a waste of pages and ink. It was basically going inside, but reverse.)

When we returned outside, we went back towards the grim sight of the battle. Justaw looked like he was losing the battle against the Mud Golem.

“Now watch this, Jhog.”

And with that, he pressed the ON button. Suddenly, the huge statue of Goldon that's on the dome of the BC, (Boss Center,) started to vibrate, then the statue actually stood up. It pulled out its swords and jumped off the dome onto the Mud Golem. The Golem turned around just in time to see the statue slicing off its arms, (and by just in time, I mean I wanted it to pay by actually seeing the statue cause it pain,) the Mud Golem screamed in pain, then he picked up a bunch of mossy stones, and he shoved the stones into his chest. Suddenly, the holes where his arms used to be started to shake, and the stones started to popping out of the holes, forming furry arms. I suddenly realized what I just did.

I had created the monster from the prophecy. The Mud Golem suddenly screamed and ripped off the head of Goldon’s statue. The statue crumbled into bits, and there was nobody left to delay the Golem. It jumped onto the dome and pulled out a staff. The staff shot out a bolt of lightning, and suddenly a vortex appeared, and a person stepped out of it.

He was wearing a cloak made out of wool, so I thought he was or used to be a shepherd. His hood blew off by the wind, and I could see his red, almost brown, skin. His eyes were a green, almost yellow color. His nose was so deformed, it looked like a squashed mushroom on his face. But that wasn't the worst, he had scars so bad, it looked like he had caterpillars on his face, they went from down from his collarbone all the way up to his forehead.

“Get down!”

Gray suddenly tackled me down to the ground.

“What was that for!?”

“Because that person is the most wanted and most dangerous man in the world. They call him, The Red One. He is wanted for an uprising against the Wizard’s League, the murder of the king of the South Water Elves, and the destruction of the North Water Elves’ Water Palace. He must have been the one who enslaved the Cloud and Gold Golems.”

The Red One’s appearance silenced the battle. Suddenly, he pulled out a Soul Key and muttered a few words. They must have been spells. The crowd of Dragonslayers collapsed to the ground, and the Red One spoke.

“Hello, Dragonslayers. You obviously know who I am. But for those of you who are stupid enough not to know, I am the Red One. But I am known by other names as well: Shadow King, Logchopper, and, my favorite, the Shepherd of Darkness. You, as well as the Cloud and Gold Golems, are my slave army. You will follow my every command if you don't-”

Then, a Dragonslayer, whom I knew only as Blade, had the guts to speak up.

“You'll do what!? Huh, what you gonna do? Take our souls?”

“Well well, it looks like we have a volunteer to show you the punishment.”

He floated down to the ground in front of Blade. Suddenly, he pulled out a sword and chopped off his left leg.

“That is the first penalty.”

Then he chopped off his right leg.

“That is the second.”

Then he grabbed Blade by the hair, and, (try to keep your lunch in.) pulled his head right off his neck.

“And this, my slaves, is penalty number three. Now, do we have any questions?”

The Slayers did nothing to anger him. So he said,

“Good. Now, all of you get your weapons together. Tomorrow at sunrise, we march to take the Water Elves’ land.”

“Jhog, come on.”

I felt Gray tugging on my sleeve. We sneakily walked down the hill. When we got to the bottom, I knew Gray was stuck with me. We hiked for a while without much conversation. Night fell, and we decided to make camp in a Rock Turtle shell. That's when the conversation started.

“Hey, Gray, who is that old woodpecker from the apple tree?”

“That's one of my oldest friends. His name is Trundall. He was a zombie I rescued from a wizard that was trying to turn him into an ant. Afterward, we had many adventures together. But as all zombies have to do at one point or another, he started to rot. So I turned him into a woodpecker and made him the guardian of the secret tunnel.”

“But why is the password Garharga?”

“Because that is what his zombie name was. When I turned him into a woodpecker, the Spell had what we call the ‘Rumpelstiltskin effect’ he can't remember his name until it is spoken to him, but he can remember everything else. I'm going to take first watch. I'll wake you up in four hours.”

He left the shell. And I was alone, more alone than I have ever felt. I felt more afraid than usual because every sound I was convinced it was the Red One coming for me until the sound showed itself and I felt like an idiot for not thinking about what was causing the noise. I was just starting to doze off, a stick snapped somewhere in the darkness, and it wasn't just a rabbit or bear snapping a stick, it was loud and I could hear leaves crumbling as whatever was coming towards me got closer.

Suddenly, I heard breathing in the shell, and it wasn't me who was breathing. I heard a voice.

“PYROCYNA!”

And a flame filled the inside. And there standing before me was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen. She was tall, with blonde hair, and one of her eyes was hazel, the other green. When she saw me, she pulled out a longsword and lunged towards me.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY SHELTER, RED ONE FOLLOWER!”

“Your shelter? I and my boss found this first.”

“WHAT! THE RED ONE IS HERE? WELL, I WILL JUST HAVE TO GET RID OF YOU! TENGLROT!”

And ropes shot out from her hands and bound me tight. She extinguished the light and put a gag in my mouth.

“Now, you are going to help me kidnap your master, whether you like it or not. If you make any noise of any kind to alert him, your head will be chopped off so quickly you will still see your body collapse to the ground.”

So after a while of us being quiet, Gray came back.”

“Jhog! Jhog! Where is that son of a donkey? HEY Jhog, IF YOU WON'T GET YOUR LITTLE BUTT OUT HERE, MY AXE IS GOING TO PLAY THIS LITTLE GAME OF HIDE AND SEEK, OH AND IF YOUR PLANNING ON SCARING ME IN THE SHELL, YOU GOT ANOTHER THING COMIN TO YA!”

He climbed inside the shell, and the woman heaved a huge boulder,(it was the size of my head! I mean seriously, she said she was gonna kidnap him, not kill him!) at Gray’s head. The rock hit him on the side of the head. And, believe it or not, he didn't show any signs of pain. It just seemed to anger him more, because he pulled out his ax and lobbed it into the darkness, hitting her cloak so she couldn't get away. Gray said

“SHOW YOURSELF, OR I WILL LIGHT A FIRE MYSELF, AND YOU WON'T LIKE IT.”

The woman started a fire, and Gray gasped.

“Wizard Princess Katrina!”

“Gray?!”

The two charged towards each other, and Gray pulled her into a huge bear hug.

“Gray! It's not safe here, I have taken a hostage, a slave of the Red One.”

“Hmmm, I see. And was this ‘slave’ in here when you took him?”

“Yeah, why?”

“BECAUSE THAT ‘SLAVE’ IS ACTUALLY A FREE DRAGONSLAYER. HE IS ALSO THE PHOENIX’S HEIR!”

“Oh, I'm soooo sorry.”

“Well, it isn't me you should be apologizing to.”

She dragged me out of the shadows and untied me.

“Listen, I'm really sorry. It's just, I've been assigned by the Wizard’s League to find and protect King Grancho.”

“That's who Jhog is supposed to find and protect. They must have purposely done it so you two could be partners. Jhog, this is Katrina, she is the Wizard Princess. Katrina, this is Jhog, he is the smartest, bravest Dragonslayer that I have had the privilege and the honor of working with.”

We both shook hands and did our greetings. Then, with help from Katrina, we got a fire going.

“So, what are we having for supper, because I can't just summon food. That's just too advanced.”

“We have honey rolls, along with the steak.”

“Mmmm! That sounds delicious!”

So after our late dinner, we decided that one person would keep watch, while the others slept, they would wake each other up, after two and a half hours, Katrina took the first watch, because, “women are always the laziest” or so she claims. As soon I lay down, I started to fall asleep, and it was a prophetic dream.

## Chapter 3: The Dream Clarifies Itself,(by also adding more confusing stuff)

I was running away from a huge hoard of Dirt Sharks, with Katrina by my side, and I'm guessing it was King Grancho behind us. I could hear the Red One shouting at the Dirt Sharks saying,

“GET THEM, YOU MUD REPTILES! DON’T YOU WANT A CHANCE AT YOUR FREEDOM? GET JHOG AND HIS DUMB, IDIOT PARTNERS!”

The Dirt Sharks suddenly morphed all together into a giant shark and took off into the ground charging towards us. Just as the shark made of Sharks was about to get us, the scene shifted. I was holding my sword towards mummies, and Katrina was behind me knocked unconscious, and Gray, with an arrow in his shoulder. A mummy charged towards me,(and don't get fooled by those monster movies and myths, mummies can run very fast when they want to.) I somehow blasted a fireball at it, and instead of turning to ash, it exploded into a Spider Rider, (which are zombies riding on giant spiders. How they do that, I have no idea.) the spider charged and it’s rider swung a decayed and rotted sword towards me. I ducked, and I heard the clang of metal against metal, I looked up and saw the tiny woodpecker Garharga holding a tiny sword and blocking every blow of the mummy’s sword as if he was as small as him. Suddenly, the scene shifted, and I was in the Water Elf palace, (North or South, I have no idea.) the inside was a battle scene, Water Elf against Fish Golem. In the center was, guess who, that Mud Golem with rocks for arms. Yep.

The Red One’s face suddenly appeared and he yelled, “DO THE RIGHT THING!“ and he lunged towards me, and I woke up.

## Chapter 4: The Choice.

I woke up to find Katrina and Gray looking down at me.

“Why is everyone always looking at me like I am a new Golem Species?”

“This time, because you were talking in your sleep. Was it a prophetic dream?”

“Yes! But I'm afraid it didn't make things easier.”

“Why?”

“Because now we have to decide where we are going to do. The dream showed me we have  three choices: to rescue the Dirt Sharks, to continue on our way to rescue Grancho or to stop an attack on the Water Elves.”

“The Water Elves are in danger?!” Gray said.

“Yes. Just like every other species in the realm. The Red One is planning on using a unit of Fish Golems and Dragonslayers from the Aquatic Battle Department on getting the job done.”

“Wait,” Katrina said, “We still have to rescue Grancho, and I'm not quitting it for nothing.”

Everyone was in silence as we thought of a solution. Suddenly, the idea dawned on me.

“We have to go into two separate things to do this. We are never going to make it in time to prevent all of them.”

“But who is splitting up with you?” Gray asked.

“Katrina will go with me to rescue Grancho. Gray, you will go to free the Dirt Sharks.”

“Hold on a second Jhog, you want him to go on his own?! He's just an old man. With experience.”

“Calm down Katrina. I have my ways of getting help.”

Gray suddenly started to whistle a cheerfully dark song that I recognized as, the Land of the Dead’s national anthem, and a burst of light appeared in front of us, and Trundall flapped out.

“I got your call. What's wrong?”

“I need your help. Ready for another adventure Trundall?”

“Of course I am. It's been decades since I last left that old tree.”

Gray turned to us and said,

“I want you both to be careful. It may not be your first quest, but it may be your last if you aren't careful. Katrina, I want you to teach the language of magic to Jhog. And Jhog, I want you to teach the ways of the sword to Katrina.”

We promised we would. Gray then said,

“Well, I guess we are ready. Trundall, you ready for a long journey?”

At that question, Trundall got a look of anger in his eyes and said,(I say said, but it was more like shouting.)

“You never told me we were walking to the destination. I thought we were going to ride a dragon or teleport or ride a Dirt Shark or something other than walking.”

Gray ignored him and started walking towards where the Dirt Sharks live. Trundall groaned and flapped towards him, and heard him shout towards our direction,

“Make sure you don't kill each other. We wouldn't want to end up with two dead prophecy heroes, now would we?”

## Chapter 5: The Language of Magic

So we started our trek towards the desert. While we were walking, we talked and learned a little about each other,

“So Jhog, why do you have such a weird name?”

“Well, I looked up the meaning in multiple books and it means either one of two things. In the language of magic, it means Sea of Peace, but in the Runes, it means Peace to Those Who Suffer. I like the first option.”

It was basically like that until we reached a big obstacle: the Swamps of Grogaria. They were only a couple mile long in either direction, but in some spots, the mud went up to your shoulders. Not to mention the creatures that live in the swamp, there were Mud Leeches that hid in the mud for an unsuspecting host, and Tree Golems who stole your supplies for themselves. But the worst above all of it was the rulers of this swamp. They called themselves the Swamp Witch Brigade. They were known by anybody and everybody, they stole your supplies to sell back to you at an unfair price, they sneaked Mud Charms into your tent so when you opened your tent, mud would flood out onto you and the Mud Leeches would suck your blood in a matter of minutes, and if that wasn't enough they put spells on you so it looks like endless swamp. As you could imagine, we didn't want to enter that pit of nightmares until the next day when the only thing we would have to worry about would be the Mud Leeches. We made camp for the night on top of an Oak tree. That's when the lessons started.

“Okay, Jhog. Do you know anything about magic?”

“No.”

“Good. Because we are going to start from where I started. Magic is everywhere, in all different forms. We are the only creatures that know more than one form of magic. Among others, we know physical magic, mental magic, animal magic, life magic, elemental magic, and the hardest of all, time magic. We are going to start with elemental magic. I want you to start a fire in the palm of your hand.”

I held my hand out and I tried to think back to when Katrina used magic against me. I remembered the word she used to light up the shell and said,

“PYROCINA!”

And a fire started in my hand. But it shot out towards the leaves, and I heard Katrina gasp and quickly say,

“REFUSICA!”

And the fire went out. Katrina turned towards me and, instead of looking furious, she looked excited.

“Nice work, Jhog. But that spell was the wrong grammar. The correct spell would be PYROT or Fire burn, what you said was PYROCINA or Fire Shoot. Your next test is to create a ball of water the size of your head and get it to shoot towards me. Here's a hint that will help you: most of the words of magic are based on Moon Runes.”

Actually, as luck would have it, I knew most of the Moon Runes. I knew more than, (in my opinion), any other Dragonslayer in the HQ.

Now, just in case you were wondering about this, I'll tell you the full history of the language of magic, or magic for short. It started with it being the written language of the Malevolents who just took a bunch of words from the Ancients’ spoken language and mixed it with complicated Dark Magic called Hisswaree, and voila, a new language, (but if I were the Ancients, I would be pretty mad that someone based and even stole words for their language from mine.) so when the Malevolents died, the Ancients, seeing that a dark and powerful dark magic was open to falling into the wrong hands again, added to the Hisswaree Enchantment a Light spell known as Drachun, (and if you're wondering how I know these spell, when the lessons were over I had Katrina translate them into the language of BORING!)

So back to me attempting a spell, (before we get this into a history book, and not an awesome action novel.) I thought of the word for water in Moon Runes, which would be Hydro, and thought of the perfect way to say the spell, I prepared myself for the mess I was possibly going to create and said,

“HYDROCYNA!”

And a ball of water formed in my hand, and I pointed it towards Katrina, expecting it to shoot towards her, but the water ball trembled, and shot at me! Dousing me with water, I shook off the water, I could hear Katrina laughing at me.

“Now that is what you get when you almost light our shelter and give away our location to the Mud Witch Brigade. That was almost correct, ALMOST. When you do a spell against a specific enemy, you have to add the person’s name, it should have been HYDROCYNA KATRINA and the ball would have found my heat of magic in me and shoot out towards me.”

“I have no idea whatsoever, what you just said.”

“Don't worry about it. You’ll learn eventually.”

We broke some branches off the tree after that to make a dinner fire. Katrina pulled out the raw steak and turned to me and said,

“Do you think you've learned enough from our lessons to make a fire to cook our steak?”

“Yeah, I can certainly try.”

I turned towards the campfire, held out my hand and said

“PYROCYNA!”

The fireball shot into the wood, and the fire ignited a huge bonfire. Katrina pulled out a frying pan and put it on the fire. She put the steaks in, and in minutes, the meat was ready. That was when we heard giggling, and it sure wasn't ours. Katrina looked at me, and shouted out into the darkness,

“Whoever is out there, we mean no harm.”

“Sure you don't, but what about us. We mean lots of harm, and in the worst possible ways. Get out of our Worship Tree, or you will be punished by the Mud Witch Brigade.”

“We'll get punished either way, for we broke branches off your sacred tree.”

Just then, we heard a bunch of voices say “PYROCYNA,” and we saw at the base of the tree, hundreds of Mud Witches, all uglier than the last, we suddenly heard a voice say

“STOOOOOOP!”

And we saw another Mud Witch step out of the darkness. She was actually beautiful, with raven black hair, put in a complex braid. She had yellow eyes, almost as yellow as a corncob. She was wearing a dress that looked like she had woven it from dry grass, and she was barefoot. She stepped towards us, and said,

“I'm sure there’s an explanation for this accident, will you two normal folk please explain yourselves?”

“Yes, we will. It is, as you say, an accident. We were just trying to get some sleep before we head into the swamp in the morning.”

“And why did you decide to camp in the top of a tree?”

“Because we didn't want your crew playing dangerous jokes on us. We are just trying to get to the Gold Desert so we can rescue King Grancho.”

When Katrina said that, the witches eyes light up with excitement.

“Is there an evil loose on this land?”

“Yes, an evil wizard, whom we only know as the Red One. He enslaved the Cloud Golems, the Gold Golems, and the Dragonslayers.”

The witch turned towards the other Mud Witches and said,

“You see! This evil is enslaving races. Before you know it, we will be enslaved for our powers too.”

She turned towards us and said,

“I will accompany you, so our race isn't enslaved. One more thing, we sense that dark things are about to happen in the future. My name is Morina, and I am the Witch Queen. You will stay in our tree for the evening, so my rebellious followers don't play any jokes on you that may delay the quest. Oh, and one more thing, don't even think about trying to escape because I will accompany you, whether you like or not.”

## Chapter 6: The Journey to Terraris, (and you will freak when the dragon shows up.)

Gray knew that Trundall was going to complain, he just never knew he would complain THAT much. At first, it was just stuff like ‘my wings hurt.’ To things like ‘we should hitch a ride to a couple of Dirt Sharks to get to Terraris. OH, WAIT, THAT WOULD BE THE DUMBEST IDEA EVER.WHAT WAS I THINKING?’

“Trundall, if you don't shut up with your complaining, I'm going to kick you so hard, there will be a boot stuck in your butt so far up it will look like you have a boot for a tongue.”

That comment made Trundall quiet for awhile. Gray called camp because he was getting tired. Trundall pulled out a mirror that looked like it was made of gold. Trundall asked,

“Do you think we should check on the kids?”

“It looks like we don't have a choice. Bring out the Soul Mirror.”

“Already have it, boss.”

Gray took the mirror out of Trundall’s wings and said,

“SHOW ME JHOG AND KATRINA.”

It teleported Gray to the top of a tree on the edge of a swamp. Jhog and Katrina were asleep. Jhog suddenly woke up and saw Gray there, he jumped up and hugged Gray and said,

“What are you doing here? I thought you were on the road to warn the Dirt Sharks.”

“I am, I'm simply looking through a magical relic. Tell me, why exactly you are sleeping in a tree?”

“It’s terrible. We are being held hostage by the Mud Witch Brigade, and their leader, Morina, wants to join us in our quest.”

when Gray heard that, his jaw dropped.

“Are you telling me, that the Witch Queen wants to help you, and you don't want that to happen!”

“Yes.”

“WHY!!!!!!!”

“Because she’s a witch.”

“That doesn't change anything. She's a powerful enchantress who you need as an ally if you want help to destroy the Red One. Morina is known for being extremely powerful, even kings and the Wizard’s League are afraid of her. I don't care what the reason is, you will let her join you, and you will let her help you. And if you don't, and I hear about it, you will be fired and exiled from the Bounty Hunter Empires for as long as you shall live, and even when you are in the Land Of The Dead.”

Jhog was horrified when he heard that, he considered his options and told Gray,

“Hey, if you want me to let Morina join the team, fine, it's Katrina I'm worried about, she seems to really not like witches.”

Gray knew that was a lie, but decided not to call Jhog out on it. Gray suddenly froze as he heard something over on his side of the mirror that sounded like footsteps. He turned to Trundall and said,

“Would you mind checking that out?”

Trundall looked disgusted and said rather rudely,

Oh, sure, I'll do all the dirty work, would you like anything else ‘master’?”

“Trundall, just do it.”

Trundall flapped off, muttering to himself insults Gray could clearly hear, but Gray decided against confronting him. He turned towards Jhog and saw a Mud Witch behind Jhog, about to stab him.

“JHOG, BEHIND YOU!”

Jhog ducked, but not quick enough, because the Mud Witch managed to stab him in the shoulder. Jhog cried out in pain and pulled out the Phoenix Sword. He quickly slashed off the Mud Witch’s head. The head gave off a shrill scream, and the body collapsed, dead. That was when Trundall came back. He dug into Gray’s back with his talons and said,

“Gray, we gotta go. It’s the Dragon Hunter Squad.”

“Why didn't you tell me!?” Gray yelled panickily.

(The Dragon Hunters were the bounty hunters that specialize in hunting down dragons and Dragonslayers. They almost managed to hand Gray into a crime lord known as King Freeze. Gray managed to get away, and he knew they would love to get Gray into their hands again.) He turned to Jhog and said quickly

“I have to go. I'll contact you as soon as I get somewhere safe. Stay on Morina’s good side, and please, don't start any fights. Gotta go.”

Gray discontinued the spell, leaped into the air, and yelled,

“EXPANDUS TRUNDALL!”

Trundall magically grew to the size of a moose and flapped towards Gray. Gray climbed onto his back and said,

“Now, westward to Terraris!”

Trundall soared to the west, and Gray heard a voice shout towards them, and it said

“SURE, YOU CAN RUN, BUT YOU CAN'T HIDE. WE'LL FIND YOU, AND YOU WILL PAY FOR BEING ON THE BAD SIDE OF THE RED ONE.”

Gray and Trundall continued flying for a while until they were so tired, they couldn't keep their eyes open a second longer. Trundall landed, and Gray checked where they were. To their luck, they were only a days length away.

“Trundall, go cut us down some logs with that huge beak of yours, I'll scout the perimeter and make sure our ‘friends’ aren't close on our trails.”

Gray headed towards the woods where he was to be scouting. As soon as he was in there, he heard branches snapping, he pulled out his sword and said

“If anyone is out there, show yourself!”

And an old dragon hobbled out of the shade. Gray knew, from spending years with dragons, that it was a female.

She was a dusty brown color, with horns that reminded Gray of a mountain goat. Gray noticed her tail and saw with horror that half of it was bitten off. She was limping, and Gray saw that her hind legs were ripped off, showing bone, muscle, and flies.

“Hello, dragon”

“And hello to you, Dragonslayer. What might your name be?”

“I am Gray, and you?”

“My name is Grenaldra, the queen of the dragons. As you can see, I am very injured.”

Grey’s eyes nearly exploded when he heard that.

“What are you doing here, your highness?”

“My kingdom was attacked by Cloud Golems. A wizard who called himself the Red One appeared, saying he was there to enslave our race. We fought back, and nearly everyone escaped unharmed. But as I just said, some were injured, my personal guard died trying to protect me. A Mud Golem attacked me as I escaped. I'm slowly dying right now, and that's not the worst part. I recently laid an egg, and now I'm asking you if you will raise the dragonet  inside it.”

Gray thought he was going to drop dead when he heard such an important promise.

“What is the young dragon’s name, because I heard it was customary for the dragon to be named before it was hatched.”

“That is correct. I have thought up Añade when I was escaping, and I want you to call him Flame. He can never know who his family is, or why he was given away. I had a vision he would be doing important things if he didn't find out.”

And with that, Grenaldra collapsed to the ground, and Gray was positive that the queen of the dragons was dead.

Gray heard Trundall say,

“Hey, Gray. Maybe you want to come out, or are you just playing a trick on me?”

“I'm coming! Keep your pants on!”

Gray picked up the egg the dead queen was holding and settled off back towards the camp. It was a whole lot harder with such a fragile object, but Gray did it. He saw Trundall flapping about with his weapon, The Sword of the Woodpecker. Gray walked out of the darkness, and he saw Trundall gasp with surprise, and Gray said something that neither he nor Trundall, would ever forget,

“We have to go now, it's not safe here for the Prince of Dragons.”

## Chapter 7: The Sphinx of Gold, (and yes, it's back to My point of view)

When I killed that Mud Witch, I didn't expect Morina to be watching, but she was. As I killed the Witch that was trying to kill me, I heard clapping behind me, then Morina decided to show herself to me by saying,

“I never did like that Witch, too ugly and mean. You probably think I'm angry at you, but I'm not. I'm actually grateful because I've heard lots of her trying to assassinate me.”

“Your Highness.”

“Yes, how may I assist you?”

“Why exactly are you trying to help us? It doesn't seem like something a Mud Witch might do.”

“Yes, you're right. I've never wanted to be the queen of the Mud Witches, I've always wanted to be an adventurer. Going on quests, stopping evil villains, and slaying monstrous beasts was my dream. But my parents had other ideas. When I was about to go on my first quest, they pulled me aside and put an enchantment on me that prevented me from going on quests or even leaving the swamp for long periods of time until the Mud Witches wanted me to go. So I hatched a brilliant countering to it if I could become queen than nobody could tell me when to go out. I could command the Mud Witches at my disposal, and here I've been, just waiting for the day when I could finally go out and help everyone. Believe me or not, it's the truth.”

And from the deepest, most compassionate part of my heart, I felt sympathy for this Witch that just wanted to help the world. I woke Katrina up, then turned to Morina and said,

“You can come with us. I won't give you any trouble about you being a Mud Witch, and if Katrina does, I'll give her some trouble. We are leaving right now. I don't care about the dangers, we have a Mud Witch on our side that can help us navigate the swamp.”

Katrina looked towards Morina and then held out her hand. After a couple seconds, Morina leaned forward and shook her hand.

“So, Morina, what's the safest way,” Katrina asked.

“We will need to go around the very heart of the swamp if we want to get out as safely as possible. It will add a couple of hours to the long trek, but it will be worth it.”

Okay, I don't really want to talk about us getting prepped, just because it will waste some ink and paper, (I promise, this is one of the last times I skip parts in this book.) While we are at it, I'll tell you some history. You're probably wondering why we keep on referring to the Golem species as man-made species.

It started like this. In the Age of Magic, the Dragonslayers were losing the War of the Undead to the Skeleton King. We had tried everything we could think of: spells, magic creatures, evil dimensional beings from different universes. That kind of stuff. But one day, a Dragonslayer had an idea: if we could create life, we could create an army so powerful, nobody could stop us. So he started to experiment. After five years of isolation in the Brain Realm, he made his prototype: the Golem. Now, I know you think that all Golems need some fancy name like, the ’Fish Golem,’ or, the ‘Sandwich Golem,’ but actually, they were the offspring of the Golem falling in love with all these different things, (I know, who falls in love, marries, and manages to get rocks pregnant!? Super, super sick move, Golem.)

So, now that I have educated you with some history, and the fact that that was the point where Katrina and Morina were finished getting ready, We can move along with our story.

We headed towards the southeast, where there was a secret passage only the Mud Witches knew about. On the way, we were talking to pass the time.

“So, Morina, why didn't your parents want you to be a hero. I think it would be nice for the Mud Witches to be known for their awesome heroes rather than doing evil and mischief.”

“My parents believed that to be powerful, we needed to look out for only ourselves, a belief in our group known as Strength in One. That belief says that only Mud Witches are the most powerful, and no one else has ever had a good idea. Do you have any other questions for me?”

After that, we were silent as we thought about what Morina had said. After a few hours, Morina said,

“We have officially passed through the swamp. We will enter the Golden Desert by tomorrow afternoon. We will keep camp here, where it is forbidden to do any wrong to anyone.”

We set up camp for the night, and we got our plan: Morina would keep watch, because she says that Mud Witches don't  need to sleep, if anything were to happen, she would wake Katrina, because she knew more Magic than me, and they would leave me to dream prophetic dreams that I have grown so fond of. (I was using sarcasm there, I really hate to see the future.) And that was exactly what I was going to have.

It started like this: I was fighting a group of Tree Giants, with Katrina bleeding really bad at my left, and Morina wielding a pair of Chakrams at my right. Suddenly, I heard a high pitched whistle, and Trundall and Gray flew in.Instantly, the scene shifted as it tends to do with my dreams, and I was at the ruins of the Gold Stronghold. King Grancho was surrounded by Sand Scorps. (Which are basically giant scorpions that walk around on two legs and tend to fight with battle axes.) Gray and a Dirt Shark charged towards the battle, a Sand Scorp turned around and thrust his ax blade into the Dirt Shark’s chest. The Shark collapsed, dead and Gray let out a scream and charged towards the Sand Scorp. The scene shifted, and I found myself in a grove of oak trees. Gray was there, and he was handing me an egg. Suddenly, a hand thrust out of the ground and grabbed Gray by the ankle, tripping him. As soon as that happened, a horde of zombies jumped out of the ground, leaving me and the egg surrounded. I heard the Red One say,

“DO THE RIGHT THING!”

The zombies jumped towards me, and I woke up.

I woke up to see Morina staring down towards me. I shouted with exasperation,

“Why do I always wake up to find someone staring at me! I mean, am I just that attractive when I sleep that you have to sneak up on me! I mean, what's the big deal!?”

“I'm sorry to disturb you, but I heard you talking in your sleep, and I thought it was you having a prophetic dream. What was it about?”

“Well, I'm not sure. With the others, I always had some choice, but this one seemed to just show me stuff.”

“I see, did you know that prophetic dreams appear in two distinct forms: Choice prophetic dreams, and Consequence prophetic dreams. We only know of the two forms, we don't know any patterns, but it looks like it gives you choices in the Choice prophetic dreams, and it shows you what is going to happen now that you made the choice in Consequence prophetic dreams. Was it Choice, or Consequence?”

“I believe it was Consequence. And I know what is going to happen.”

“Will you tell me?”

“Sure. We will get attacked by Tree Giants, but Trundall and Gray will rescue us-”

I stopped because I saw that Morina’s facial expression changed when I said, Gray. She put on a look of excitement, but her eyes revealed a world of romance, and I knew exactly why she had that facial expression:

Morina was in love with Gray.

And I'm just not talking about puppy love, I'm talking about the kind of love that is talked about in movies and stories. The kind of love that only someone can imagine, but not realize that that could be a reality. I asked her a question, and that question was,

“So, how do you know Gray well enough to be in love with him?”

“It was when I was a teenager, he was a young man, almost 20. I sneaked out of the swamp to go on an expedition, but I ended up surrounded by Swamp Thieves. I tried my best to get out of the situation on my own, but there were too many, too many for all of them to fall for my charm. They took me prisoner and made me do grueling work for them, along with all their other slaves. In that small time I worked for them, I knew what pain and torture truly felt like. I was on the brink of insanity, but he showed up. They claimed he was a spy for them, but I never believed that. He was too kind and compassionate to the slaves to work for them. He saw me, and I knew he was in as much love as I was with him. We decided to free all the slaves and put an end to the Swamp Thieves reign once and for all. The plan ended up to be a huge success, with all the slaves escaping, and the Swamp Thieves king dead by Gray’s ax. We knew after that that we would never see each other ever again, so I offered him a potion that would make him age much more slowly. He drank it, and his hair turned a lustrous silver color. After that, I went back to the swamp to live my life with grace and compassion. I only seem mean because I don't want the other witches knowing that I experienced love with an outsider. Please don't tell any other Mud Witches you know this, it could get me in big trouble.”

We then both heard a voice that was as smooth as silk say something in the darkness. The voice said,

“Oh, he won't. But what about me?”

And we saw a figure stalk out of the darkness. I could tell it was a sphinx, because of the cat body. He was as tall as a full grown mustang, wearing the clothes that a criminal on the run might wear, one eye was, surprisingly, a bright pink color. The other eye was covered up with an eyepatch. He was carrying a weird weapon, it was like a staff, but with large hooks on each end facing opposite directions. So if you run at him from either side, you'll get impaled. But that wasn't the weirdest part. The wildest part was, he was made of solid gold. I heard Morina give a gasp, and she said,

“Stay away from that sphinx, Jhog. That is  Pepito. He’s a Gold Sphinx, the last of his kind. They were a race of thieves and murderers. What do you want, Pepito?”

“Relax, your highness. I appreciate what you've done for me, letting me live in your swamp, but I could get in as much trouble as you if I keep this secret. Maybe if you were to offer me with something, I could forget this whole ordeal.”

“Okay, Pepito. What do you want?”

Pepito’s face lit up with greed when she said this. But it took him a long time to decide, and my feet were getting sore. Finally, as I was about to sit down to rest my feet, he decided,

“I want you to get me the staff of the Ogres. I've always wanted one of their vicious War staffs, and now I have someone willing to get it for me. Get it to me in three hours, or I tell your little secret. I gotta go now, stuff to steal, people to kill. Ciao!”

He disappeared back into the darkness, leaving me and Morina standing there. Suddenly, Katrina woke up. And as she looked around groggily, she said a hilarious thing,

“What did I miss?”

(Okay, so it wasn't that hilarious, but it was at the time.)

## Chapter 8: The Kingdom of the Ogres

So when we explained to Katrina that Morina’s life depended on us trying to negotiate with a tribe of murderous thieves to give one of their war weapons to an also as murderous thief that’s threatening her life with a ‘personal situation’. You can believe she freaked out.

“SO WE NEED TO HELP A MADMAN STEAL A WAR WEAPON FROM A WHOLE KINGDOM OF MADMEN, JUST SO MORINA DOESN'T GET KILLED?! THAT IS THE DUMBEST IDEA EVER!!!” I looked at her with exasperation, and said,

“Look. We need to help her, we only have three hours to find this kingdom of ogres. Morina, how do we find it?”

“It's not exactly a kingdom. The tribe of ogres is a traveling kingdom. It's just so big that people call it a kingdom of ogres. If I'm correct, and I usually am, then the tribe should be accessible through Mass Summoning.”

When Katrina heard that, her eyes bulged out, and she screamed even louder,

“As if it isn't bad enough that we have this mission, now we have to do one of the hardest spells ever to bring this kingdom to us!! How can this day get any worse?!!!!!”

“Actually, it gets much worse. When we summon them, they will demand a war of blood. We’ll have to face their greatest warriors before they even think about letting us see their king to beg for his friendship.”

I thought Katrina’s eyes were about to pop out of her head when she suddenly took a deep breath and very calmly said,

“Well, since I have all the dangers thought out, I have thought through all the ways we could die. I found out that we currently have a 40 percent chance of surviving. IF that is, we can even do this spell.”

“Well if you're that afraid, I can do it by myself.”

Morina stepped forward as she offered to do it. Katrin, with a look of horror on her face, said,

“Why would you volunteer to do something that you know close to nobody has ever done? No. If you want to do this, then I'll help you.”

After that, they did the spell. And since it was still the middle of the night, I accidentally fell asleep, so I won't be able to explain the spell to you. But while we're at it, it's time for a little bit of history!

I think we will talk about the Bounty Hunter Leagues and Empires, since alllllllllll the way back at Chapter One, I promised to talk about it later. Well, later is here! Sorry about me shouting, it's just that the Bounty Hunter Leagues and Empires are my favorite topic to talk about because sooooooooo many people have twisted up lies and plain old myths with it.

So, before the Age of Magic, in a period known as the Simple Age, there were no forms of government, so if someone stole from you, you were on your own. Really bad, until a brilliant inventor arose.

His name was Dralkon. He grew up as just a measly peasant, working to make sure he had enough crops to get just enough money to buy as much food as he could get for his family. but that all changed. A rival farmer was jealous at his good luck, and he decided to do something about it. He stole all his crops and animals, destroyed all his farm equipment, stole his money he had saved up, murdered his family, and burned down his house, barn, and other hospitable places. Seemed real bad, until Dralkon decided to get revenge.

His first attempt wasn’t very good. He was caught trying to put magic poison, which is like regular poison except the fact that as soon as you drink it you instantly turn into a ghost and banished to the Land of the Undead, into the rival’s glass of milk. The rival threatened to lock him into a Soul Key and sent Dralkon away.

So this is the point where I would've given up at revenge and cried myself to death, but Dralkon was tough and courageous, and he knew that in order to get revenge, he would have to think like revenge. He spent the next few decades of his life training with the Night Warrior on the ancient art of stealth, training with Forest Fairies on Plant Magic, and learning everything he could from an old, peaceful Necromancer. When he was done, everyone was jealous of what a big ninja master he had become. So he decided to hire and train all these regular civilians to be a super ninja army, thus the Bounty hunter League known as Assassins Revenge was born. (By the way, this League is still in business, they are all a bunch of jerks.)

After that, when Dralkon had finally killed his rival and got all of his property, people wanted to do different things, since Dralkon had just changed them into an army of farmers, so they left Dralkon to teach others THEIR ideas and beliefs and to train them to have the skills necessary to become hitmen for hire. Then the Age of Magic came, and Goldon was born. The Bounty Hunter leagues and Empires changed forever thanks to the Dragonslayers.

The Bounty Hunter Leagues and Empires have their own social status as following:

There are three King Leagues that are known as Assassin’s Revenge, The Army of Gold, and Fate’s Choice.

Then we have five Silver leagues. These are average leagues that include the Dragonslayers, Doom’s Hand, and Earth’s weapon.

Then after that, there is the Stone League. Ah, the Stone League, the losers of the world that include groups with very few people, little popularity, and no involvement in world-end-saving events.

After that, there are the numerous Empires that are working. These are like the Leagues, except that they are bigger, have no social divisions, and hire people that are jerks who are jealous of people in the Leagues, even people in the Stone League! I mean, come on. It’s not worth being in the lowest league and never be known by people. But that’s my opinion.

Well, we can finally continue on the main adventure, because at this point, Katrina and Morina were almost done with the Mass Summoning, and I woke up to the sound of lightning. I saw them in the middle of a swirling vortex made of pure electricity. They both had glowing eyes like they were possessed or something. Their lips moving while they were reciting a spell that I couldn't hear above the crackling of lightning. Then, a black hole appeared, and started spewing forth Ogres, buildings, weapons, some weird looking animals, and a huge drum. Morina and Katrina both shook their heads, and I could see that their eyes were back to normal. The spell died down, and I heard a deep booming voice say,

“WHO DARE SUMMON THE TRIBE OF OGRES, THE FIERCEST CREATURES OF ALL THE LAND? THE CREATURES OF TERROR, THE CREATURES WHO ARE KNOWN AND FEARED BY ALL LEGENDS.”

And a giant ogre stepped forward while his companions started picking up buildings and other things that fell from the hole and started constructing their city again. I turned my attention towards the huge ogre and said,

“We do. I am Jhog, master of the art of blade fighting. These are my companions, Morina, the Queen of the Mud Witches, and Katrina, master of the art of magic. Who are you?”

“ARE YOU INSULTING ME BY NOT EVEN KNOWING WHO I AM!?”

“No sir, I just am not familiar with your species status in the world.”

“I AM KING BLADO THE BLOODY, THE LORD OF LIGHTNING, THE KING OF KINGS, THE EMPEROR OF ALL PAIN, BLOOD, AND TEARS. WHY DO YOU SUMMON MY TRIBE TO THIS SWAMP?”

“Because, with all due respect, we were hoping to get one of your famous war staffs, please.”

“WHY WOULD YOU ASK OF SUCH A DANGEROUS WEAPON THAT MY SPECIES WERE GIVEN TO WATCH OVER! ARE YOU MAD! DO YOU WANT TO DIE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

So I had to explain to him the whole story of why we needed a war staff, (of course excluding the love story of Morina and Gray) and at the end, the ogre looked very angry, but he said,

“I’M SORRY TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR PROBLEM, QUEEN OF THE MUD WITCHES, BUT I CAN’T JUST GIVE YOU A WAR WEAPON THAT WOULD ENDANGER OTHERS. YOU CAN EARN ONE BY TAKING ON THE CHALLENGE OF HEROES, BUT THAT WOULD BE DANGEROUS. IF YOU WERE TO DIE THEN WHOLE MUD WITCH SPECIES WOULD DIE OFF.”

“I understand why you would advise against it, but I and my companions would like to try this Challenge of Heroes.”

King blado shifted around uncomfortably and turned around and said,

“WE HAVE HEROES WHO WOULD LIKE TO ATTEMPT THE CHALLENGE OF HEROES. WILL THE OGRE ARCHITECTS PLEASE CONSTRUCT THE ARENA AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE, THAT WOULD BE VERY HELPFUL. EVERYONE ELSE, HEAD TO YOUR HOMES, MAKE WAY FOR THE ARCHITECTS AND HEROES.”

The Ogres all cleared the streets as they listened to the king’s request. King Baldo turned to us and said,

“I WOULD LIKE YOU TO JOIN ME AT MY PALACE TO ARM YOURSELVES, BUT TO ALSO EXPLAIN TO YOU WHAT IT IS YOU HAVE JUST AGREED TO.”

## Chapter 9: A New Member Joins our Team

We were all silent as we headed to the Palace of the Ogres. When we got there, we were faced with a huge moat with mean looking lizard-like things in it, Baldo turned to us and said,

“I’M SORRY FOR THIS INCONVENIENCE, THE OGRE CIVILIANS HAVE NOT YET BUILT A DRAWBRIDGE, AND WE HAVE A RARE SPECIES KNOWN AS ALLIGATORS LIVING IN OUR MOAT. WE WILL WAIT AT THE ARMORY AND I’M SORRY TO SAY YOU WILL HAVE TO TAKE THE COMMON CIVILIAN WEAPONS WE HAVE THERE. I’M SORRY TO NOT BE ABLE TO OFFER YOU ANY OF THE ROYAL WEAPONS.”

We then headed to our left and found a bunch of tough looking huts with soldiers sitting around, playing some weird game that involved cards and miniature statues of some real-life species, and some mythical species. King Baldo saw me staring and said,

“WELL, IT SEEMS LIKE YOU WANT TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY OUR GAME. WELL, TELL YOU WHAT, YOU BEAT ONE OF MY OGRES AT THIS GAME, AND YOU CAN PICK ONE OF THE WEAPONS I CARRY AROUND. SOUNDS GOOD?”

I considered how badly I wanted to learn this game, (and I really wanted to play it, the way they seemed so confident in what they were doing wanted to do it and become that confident.) and I said,

“Well, Your Highness, you have a deal.”

“GREAT! Graon, TEACH JHOG HERE HOW TO PLAY MARGARIA!”

A tall and lanky ogre walked ran in and said,

“Of course, Your Highness, consider Jhog taught and a master. By the time I’m done with him, he’ll be so good that he’ll even be able to stand the likes of even you, Your Highness.”

The king turned to me and said,

“WELL, I LEAVE. I NEED TO SEE HOW THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE ARENA IS GOING. Graon WILL TAKE CARE AND TEACH MARGARIA TO YOU. I WILL BE BACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. GRATON, GROTON, MAKE SURE QUEEN MORINA AND KATRINA ARE COMFORTABLE.”

Katrina and Morina were whisked away by two ogres that led them to a path on the right. I focused all my attention towards Graon and noticed that he didn’t have the usual characteristics of a regular ogre. First off, he had huge ears, probably as big as my palms, regular ogres usually have ears the size of a pinkie. He also was a lot taller than the other ogres, but not as tall as Baldo. I decided to ask him a question,

“Graon, I’ve already noticed that you look a little different than the other ogres. Why is that, not to be rude or anything.”

“That’s all right. I’m used to getting asked that question. I’m only half-ogre. My father was in the ogre Royal Army, and he fell in love with a Troll he was supposed to kill. He spared her, and they lived in secrecy until Baldo’s other guards found out about this lie. When he was away to get some fresh mutton, the guards stormed the cabin my father built with his bare hands, they burned down the house, stole all the valuables, and killed my mother and sister. I only survived because my father was on his way back to the house when he heard my mother screaming. He killed all of them, and went to the Tribe of Trolls and begged for sanctuary from the ogres hunting him. The King Troll took pity on him, and let him and me live with them for as long as possible. Baldo grew furious when he heard this, and went to the Tribe of Trolls for a raid, and killed every last Troll, he imprisoned my father but enslaved me. I’m now awaiting the day when I will be able to escape from the prison and be free.”

I was grief-stricken to hear the sad tale, and I knew I had to save him. I quickly said,

“Graon, is it possible to earn your freedom?”

“Yeah, I have to be in a Challenge of Heroes, but I can’t challenge the beast by myself. Why?”

“Because I’m going to set you free. Would you like to enter the Challenge, and join my quest to save Luness?”

“Of course I would! I wouldn’t give an opportunity like that up. You really want me to help you save Luness?”

“Of course, you look like a courageous, tough, strong, young Half-Ogre.”

“Oh, please. I may be the only one you see now, but there are more like me, we are called Trollgres. Not the most original name, but it works. It looks like King Baldo is coming back. Don’t worry, I’ll lie and say you won.”

King Baldo arrived and asked,

“SO, HOW DID IT GO. JUDGING BY HOW THE TABLE IS CLEANED UP, YOU MUST HAVE FINISHED IT EARLY.”

“We are indeed done, Your Majesty. Jhog has beaten me, he has learned all our strategies to our awesome game.”

King Baldo turned to me, and said,

“I’M GLAD TO HEAR THIS, BUT IT ALSO BRINGS ME TO GREAT PAIN TO TELL YOU THIS, BUT YOUR COMPANIONS, ALONG WITH GRATON AND GROTON, HAVE DISAPPEARED. WE HAVE FOUND A NOTE THAT SAYS YOU HAVE TO BEAT THE CHALLENGE IN ORDER FOR THEM TO BE SET FREE. OUR ANCIENT LAWS STATE THAT YOU MUST HAVE AT LEAST ONE COMPANION TO JOIN YOU, IN CASE YOU GET INJURED OR KILLED. DO YOU HAVE ANY REPLACEMENTS ON HAND?”

I turned to Graon and said,

“I have a replacement. I want Graon to be the substitute for me. We have really bonded, so now I want him to fight alongside me for his freedom. Will you let Graon free if he helps me win?”

King Baldo took a couple of seconds to consider this, then said,

“WHY NOT, I LIKE GAMBLING, THE ODDS ARE ALWAYS IN MY FAVOR. SO HERE’S THE DEAL: IF YOU WIN, YOU GET A WAR STAFF, YOUR COMPANIONS, AND THE FREEDOM OF GRAON, BUT IF YOU LOSE, YOU AND YOUR FRIENDS HAVE TO BE MY SLAVES. DO WE HAVE A DEAL?”

Baldo held his hand out towards me. I considered my options: A.)disagree and lose the friendliness of Baldo, B.)agree and possibly get me and my friends enslaved, C.)agree and die in the Challenge, D.)run away screaming and hope I make it. Since A, and D didn’t look very appealing, I decided to try B and C. I looked up at Baldo and said,

“I have thought about it, and I agree to your terms.”

And I shook his hand. He turned to a different Ogre and said,

“PLEASE GO GET THE TRUNK CONTAINING MY ROYAL WEAPONS. WE HAVE TWO CHALLENGERS AGAINST THE BEAST.”

The ogre started to shake with either fear or excitement, and said,

“The Challenge is still on!? That’s great! I’ll go tell the others! And then I can tell the Beast Caretakers that the food wasn’t a waste, and, and…”

After that, he just started talking in an uncontrollable babble. King Baldo grunted, and the ogre remembered what he was supposed to be doing, and ran off towards the Army Barracks. Baldo turned towards me, and said,

“I WOULD LIKE TO TELL YOU WHAT WEAPONS YOU WILL BE CHOOSING FROM. YOU PROBABLY DON’T KNOW WHAT ANY OF OUR WEAPONS ARE, OF COURSE. SO I WILL TELL YOU WHAT THEY ARE: FLAMING CHAKRAMS, DOUBLE-BLADED WAR AXE, DARKNESS DAGGERS, BONE SWORD, OR MY PERSONAL WAR STAFF. WHICH WILL YOU CHOOSE WHEN MY PEASANT COMES BACK?”

I thought about each of those, and I decided that I was going to go with my Phoenix Sword. I pulled it out, and said,

“As you can see, I have my own weapon. I am the Phoenix’s Heir, and I will wield the Phoenix Sword.”

King Baldo gasped with surprise and knelt down to the ground. The other ogres saw him kneeling, and saw the Phoenix Sword, put two and two together, and knelt down when they realized who I was. King Baldo said,

“I’M SORRY FOR KEEPING YOU LIKE YOU ARE AN ORDINARY CIVILIAN. I DID NOT REALIZE THAT WE HAD A FUTURE HERO SUMMON US. WE HEARD ABOUT THE TROUBLE THAT THE RED ONE HAS GIVEN LUNESS, BUT I’M AFRAID OUR TRADITIONS ARE TOO STERN. YOU NEED TO BEAT OUR BEASTS BEFORE WE CAN GIVE YOU ANYTHING. GRAON, WHAT WEAPON WILL YOU PICK?”

“I shall pick your personal war staff, Your Majesty. I won’t give up the opportunity to perform with a weapon of legends. Not as good of legends as the Phoenix Sword, but still pretty good.”

Baldo stood up, along with all the Ogres that were kneeling, and he said,

“WELL THEN, IT LOOKS LIKE WE HAVE SOME CHALLENGERS TO TEST. EVERYONE TO THE ARENA!!!!!!!”

All the other ogres gave a cry of victory, and they all headed to the arena. Graon said,

“Well, looks like we’re heading to the arena. Come on, I’ll show you where it is.”

## Chapter 10: Slaves to the King, (back to grey’s view)

Grey wished when he chose his path to Terraris that he knew that they were bringing in a prince of dragons with them, otherwise he wouldn’t have chosen to cross into Scavenger territory. He knew that if they found him, along with the prince and all his magical items, they would kill him, take the egg, and sell all that magic on the black market. His only option was to disguise him, Trundall, and hide the egg and go straight through the Scavenger Base. Trundall was less than pleased when he heard Grey’s plan, but he was for some reason more accepting since the egg came into their possession. He agreed to disguise himself as a ferret with magic. The plan was that Grey would pretend to be a traveling trader, pretending him and his ‘ferret’ were there to trade with people and get through the Base as quickly as possible. He pulled out his Animal Totem Pole and pointed it towards Trundall. As the gem in the eyes started to glow, he started to say the spell,

“I, JAYSON GRAYSON OF THE DRAGONSLAYERS, CALL UPON THE POWER OF THE WILD TO DISGUISE THIS WOODPECKER AS A FERRET. SLEPTAR REWGAR HELDRA!!!!!”

And as soon as he uttered those last words, there was a flash of light, and Trundall was standing there, looking exactly like a ferret that would match what Gray was imagining for his disguise. Trundall looked around, and said,

“Am I going to pretend not to be able to talk? I’m all about getting through here to get to Terraris, but I don’t like having to pretend to be a dumb, speechless animal.”

“That’s okay Trundall. I’ll just say you were zapped by a rogue spell I tried that gave you the ability to communicate with us.”

“What about you? If you don’t remember, you aren’t on good terms with the Scavenger King.”

“Relax Trundall. Just watch this.”

Gray pulled out what looked to be an old stick, but Trundall gasped when he recognized it.

“YOU STILL ARE HOLDING ON TO THAT STUPID STICK ALL THESE YEARS!?”

“Hey, don’t yell. You’ll disrupt the baby’s sleep. And it’s not a stick. It was a wand that Morina dropped when she had to flee on our last time seeing each other. When I see her again, I want to give it to her as a sign that says that I still remembered her after all these years. It also has a bit of magic that’s in it.”

“What kind of magic?”

“Disguise Magic.”

Gray then pointed it towards himself, and said,

“I, JAYSON GRAYSON CALL UPON THE THIEVES OF THE NIGHT, THE OUTLAWS OF DAY, AND THE SHADOWS IN BETWEEN TO PUT ON THE CLOTHING OF A TRAVELING TRADESPERSON FROM THE TRI ISLANDS. REKWAPT TREPTAR GORDLA!!!!!”

And there was another flash of light as Gray was disguised as a tradesperson, even having the intricate headdress of the Tri-Islands. He opened his main bag, put all his magical items in there, opened his secret pouch, and put in it the egg, the wand from Morina, the Magic of the Wild Pole, and his Battle Axe. Gray turned to Trundall and said,

“Trundall, could you wrap yourself around my neck. I know a lot about of ferrets, and the neck of a human is the perfect resting place for them.”

“I don’t think I’ll like it very much, but okay.”

Trundall climbed up Gray’s sleeve and rested himself around Gray’s neck where he said,

“Forget that thing I said before, it’s just like perching on a shoulder, except it provides more comfort.”

“You’ve been a lot calmer since we obtained the egg.”

“I know. It’s just because I don’t want the baby dragon hatching to hear me shouting at you. That wouldn’t look good for us, especially since it’s royalty.”

“That’s a good reason Trundall. Start acting ferrety, there are Scavengers coming this way.”

And that part was true because Grey could see Scavengers coming down from the top of the nearest sand dune. They were riding Sand Snakes and wearing their usual colors of Sand Yellow, Dusty Brown, and Cactus Green. Grey stopped walking when they neared him. The one on the left said,

“What business do ya got with the Scavengers, trader?”

“I am a traveling tradesperson, originally born in the Tri-Islands. I am here on my usual route around the Western Desert area. Do we have permission to travel through your main city? We need to travel through it to reach the North Water Elf city.”

“Unfortunately, the Red One has recruited us as his royal guard, and we have the right to enslave you. You will come with us to our leader, or you will die.”

Trundall turned and whispered in Gray’s ear,

“I think we don’t have a choice. Besides, going there, we can just escape like we usually do.”

“Yes, I know, but the baby dragon doesn’t deserve the reputation of being associated with criminals who run away from our troubles. We are going to go with them, and hope for the best.”

Suddenly, Trundall said,

“What if we were in another disguise.”

“Right here?! The guards will take our relics.”

“But what if we knock them out, and use the Disguise Magic to make you look like a royal Ambassador of the dragons. They can’t arrest an Ambassador, or the Dragons will pull out of the Scavenger-Luness Trade Agreement, and they need the minerals they receive from the dragons.”

One guard walked towards Gray. Gray suddenly punched the guard, knocking him out cold. The other guard started running towards the Sand Snakes, but Gray picked up the spear the other guard was holding and threw it towards the other guard. The spear impaled the guard through the gut, and the guard dropped dead. Gray pulled the wand out of his bag, and said,

“I, JAYSON GRAYSON, CALL UPON THE SHADOWS ONCE AGAIN TO FIX THE DISGUISE BROUGHT UPON ME. THE ENEMIES HAVE DISCOVERED MY IDENTITY, SO I ASK YOU TO CHANGE MY OUTFIT TO LOOK LIKE THE ROYAL AMBASSADOR OF THE DRAGONS. REKWAPT TREPTAR GORDLA!!!!!”

And there was a flash of light, and Gray was dressed like he was royalty. It even had the royal insignia of the dragons, 3.5 inches from the center of the belt. Gray strode over to the Sand Snake, and let it hear his breath so it could tell he wanted to ride it. The snake blinked three times, the sign that it was allowing Gray to ride him. Gray turned to Trundall and said,

“Do you want to switch back? The Scavengers will believe that the Ambassador received a woodpecker as a gift.”

“Nah, I’m good. Besides, it’s much more comfortable to lounge about as a ferret then perch as a bird. What are you going to say when they ask why you have one of their Sand Snakes?”

“I’ll just say that we were riding on our way here, we saw a robbery where two of the guards patrolling were murdered, they killed our horse, so we rode on one of the Sand Snakes to get away.”

After that, it was silence as they rode on their way to the Scavenger base.

Now might be one of the good times to educate you guys on the Scavengers, because I know you’ve read books with similar creatures called scavengers, so I’m here to say, they’re not the same Scavenger.

Back during the War of The Undead, the Skeleton King’s influence was huge, and, no kidding, he determined where you were to go when you died. After a while, a group of humans got together and decided to abandon their species and become members of the Undead. So they traveled as far as they could, to the very edge of the Western Desert and convinced the Skeleton King that they wanted to help, which actually was a pretty stupid decision because they had to be tortured on to become full-fledged Undead. They were first put in a room that only had a limited air supply in it, which doesn’t sound bad until you realize that they had 20 full grown humans in that room all sharing that limited air supply. So they peeled of metal strips from the walls and made oxygen tanks, which they attached by shaving their hair, braiding it, and tying it to both ends of the tank. They next had their faces shoved in a vat of boiling lava, yeah, not a lot of people survived after that. To conceal their hideous faces, they crafted some pretty freaky masks and attached them to their air tanks. After that was the last and final part of the torturing: they were hanged by their ears above a moat filled with acid. Most survived during that, but they became partially deaf, so they built their own hearing aids, and installed them in their masks. After that, the Skeleton King decided he had enough fun torturing, and made them his personal minions. And since then, they have always been one of the Undead’s allies.

So now back to the story. When Gray rode into the Base, the first thing he noticed was how loud it was. The Western Desert was usually a place of tranquility, with even the slight breeze being considered noisy. When Gray arrived, he heard moaning and groaning from what looked like slaves as they hung above the Base’s welcome gate, there were Scavengers building with regular wood, instead of carving the houses out of their traditional sadstone. He approached a Scavenger, and asked,

“Why are you guys building with regular wood?”

“The Red One needs the sadstone to construct his Staff of Mercy, so he can lead us and the fellow allies of the Undead on a march against the Water Elves. Why do you ask? And why are you here? The Red One specifically told the Dragons that they were still getting their sadstone.”

And then a voice above them said,

“Because he is not the real ambassador. He is a runaway Dragonslayer in disguise. Scavengers! Seize him!”

And the scavengers grabbed Gray by the shoulders and forced him to the ground. Gray looked up and saw the Red One standing over him.

“I’ve always wanted the legendary Gray as my slave.”

And that was when the Red One stomped on Gray’s face, knocking him out.

## Chapter 11: The Trial Begins, (don’t worry, nobody dies)

So when I thought that the trial was going to be easy, you better believe it was tough. Some of Baldo’s Ogres suited us up with their traditional armor and pushed us into the arena. It was an oval shape, with the diameter measuring around 20 miles. There were seats all around the wall, with about 200 Ogres in each row, going up 5 rows. In the largest seat in the top row was Baldo. He stood up from his iron throne, and said,

“CITIZENS OF THE TRAVELING TRIBE OF OGRES, I GIVE YOU OUR CHALLENGERS TO THE TRIAL. THE HALF TROLL- HALF OGRE DISGRACE, GRAON,”

And when he said Graon, the crowd started throwing fist-size stones at him. Then Baldo said,

“STOP THAT. HE IS A CHALLENGER, SO HE WILL BE TREATED LIKE A CHALLENGER. ANYONE WHO THROWS ANOTHER STONE SHALL BE SENT TO BE EXECUTED. CONTINUING ON. OUR PARTNER FOR GRAON IN THIS TRIAL IS THE PHOENIX HEIR HIMSELF: JHOG!!!!!!!!!!!!”

And he shouted that part so loudly and deeply, that it sounded like an ancient beast awakening from its slumber. The crowd cheered and screamed when they heard my name. Graon and I stepped onto the platform in the center of the arena. Baldo said,

“AS YOU CAN SEE, THERE ARE NINE DOORS RINGED AROUND THIS ARENA. ALL OF THEM HOLD A MONSTER YOU WILL HAVE TO SLAY. SOME ARE TOUGHER THAN OTHERS. YOU WILL PICK A DOOR AND FACE THE MONSTER CONTAINED INSIDE. BEAT IT, AND YOU WILL GO FREE.”

I looked around the arena and tried to guess which monster was behind which door.

Door number 1 I could hear panting and the occasional growl. With my enhanced smelling, I could smell a woodsy, almost damp smell. I concluded that Door number 1 had a Cerbian Wolf behind it, (basically like the monster Cerberus, but in wolf form).

Door number 2 was covered in slime. I heard hissing in it. I smelled a disgusting reptilian smell mixed with a desert smell. I thought it was probably a Draconake, (a giant snake with a scorpion barb on its tail).

Before I could see what was behind the other doors, Graon said,

“We would like Door number 5.”

Baldo said,

“A GOOD CHOICE, TOUGH BUT CUNNING. WITH ENOUGH STRENGTH TO MAKE YOU JEALOUS. DOOR NUMBER 5 IT IS,”

And an Ogre opened a door. And Baldo said what it was that Graon chose,

“A CERBIAN GRIFFIN!!!!”

And I instantly regretted not deciding quick enough.

A Cerbian Griffin is a lot like a Cerbian Wolf, but with a few differences. The first difference is that it is a griffin, not a wolf. It has three eagle heads. Its wings are strong enough to start a hurricane. And now we were trying to kill one.

The three heads gave a shriek of bloodthirst and looked towards us with one of its heads. Graon whispered to me,

“Do you know any ways to kill a Cerbian Griffin?”

“There are many ways: you could cut off all three of its heads, or you could stab its heart, but the easiest way is to befriend it. I’ll handle this, you just stay back. Griffins and Ogres are close enemies, even half-Ogres like you.”

I stepped towards the Griffin and said,

“I bet you just want someone to help you. You don’t deserve to be killed like this, killed just for entertainment. But I can help you.”

The Griffin gave me a suspicious glare like it was saying, how do I know I can trust you? I pulled out the Phoenix sword and said,

“Because I am exactly like you. I am a noble person that doesn’t deserve to die in this way. We don’t belong here. Help us, and we can help you stop people from slaying your kind.”

The heads started to argue like they didn’t know what to do. I heard Baldo say from up above,

“YOU ARE UNDER ARREST, JHOG, AND GRAON, FOR TURNING THE GRIFFINS TO YOUR SIDE, AND FOR THE ROBBERY OF ONE OF OUR WAR STAFFS. SEIZE HIM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!”

And while the guards were rising from their seats, the Griffins turned to us and looked at us with some trust, like they were trying to say, we will trust you. Fail us and you’re dead.

And they bowed their way of saying we were allowed to ride them. Graon and I climbed onto their back. With a whoosh, we were up in the air.

While we are flying, it’s time for a history lesson!!! I think today, we will cover the basics of the War of the Undead because there have been a lot of mention of this event, but you don’t know what it even is or why you should care about it.

It started with the Great Skeleton Election. It was the first time that the Undead was shown to be an official, democratic country, and people were excited. Millions flocked to the Land of the Undead to participate in the election. The final candidates left after two weeks were John Skull, and Mexar Ribone. John was raised from the plains that the Buffalo Bats controlled. He had witnessed firsthand the negatives of a Dictatorship and wanted to prevent that from happening with a powerful nation like the Undead. Mexar, on the other hand, was raised by a powerful group of Necromancers still loyal to the Dictator known as Gilgar the Finned, of the Water Elves. Mexar loved the idea of absolute power over anything that the people wanted, and the election was the first time Mexar deceived everyone. The election was a landslide, with Mexar receiving 500 thousand votes, against John’s 45 thousand. Mexar was now the new ‘President’ of the Undead.

He destroyed all of the other branches of government, killed all Undead who opposed him, brainwashed new Undead members to worship him, and raised an army to control all of the world.

He seemed to be invincible, with taking all desert and country areas and cutting off all communication with the other kingdoms.

This angered pretty much everyone. The Wizard’s League sent an emergency note asking all kingdoms to send their best warriors to also train in the art of magic. There were many kingdoms that sent some, but ultimately it was the Dragons, Humans, Water Elves, Dragonslayers, and Dirt Sharks that sent the most. The Shepherds, Mud Witches, and Tri Islanders remained neutral. During the bloody fighting, there were many species that were born to fight on the side of their creators. All the Golem Species were created to fight on the side of the Living. Creatures like the Spider Rider and Mummies were created by the dark magic of the Necromancers belonging to the Undead.

After a couple weeks of fighting with these new species, it became apparent who won, the Golems were just too strong for the Dark Creatures to counter.

After 2 months of fighting, the Living managed to capture Mexar and win the War of the Undead. 221 died on the side of the Living, and 547 Undead creatures were destroyed.

So, after all this time we spent flying, we found a good spot to land, so we are ending the history lesson for now. And as we were landing. I saw the person we went through all this trouble to help.

## Chapter 12: The Quest Continues, (finally)

We landed, and I glared at the Sphinx of Gold known as Pepito, holding a War Staff that belonged to the Ogres.

“So while we were out there, almost killed to help you, you go and steal it yourself!?”

“Yes. I needed someone who knew magic to Mass Summon the Kingdom of Ogres, someone brave to distract Baldo, and someone who knew how to distract them while I snuck in and stole the War Staff. I have your friends, sorry I just needed the leverage in case you got cold feet. They’re over there behind that Oak tree. And as thanks, I give you- drumroll please- the exact location of King Grancho of the Gold Golems.”

My jaw dropped when I heard that. I excitedly said,

“Where is he?”

“He’s at the Mud Witch camp. While waiting, his conditions became…how should I put it? Troubling. He decided to search for the two bodyguards that were supposed to accompany him to get the Gray Phoenix.  He followed the trail to this swamp, and he was captured by the Mud Witches who are going to melt him for his gold as soon as the moon is at its peak. The moon is currently three-quarters of the way up, I’d give it about 3 more hours until they melt him, so I suggest you better untie your friends and hurry over there.”

“Thank you, Pepito.”

“It’s nothing.”

I went over to the group of Oak trees and found Katrina and Morina both tied up. I went over and sliced the ropes off with the Phoenix Sword. Katrina charged forward and gave me a hug for some reason. Morina said,

“I heard about the Mud Witches capturing Grancho. We must hurry if we are to rescue him. I see you made a couple of friends while Pepito kept us here. Why don’t you introduce us?”

So, for a while, we introduced ourselves. Graon and our new Griffin pet, which I named ‘Yolax’, met Katrina and Morina. After that was done, I said,

“So, don’t you think we should be hurrying to save Grancho from a fiery death then sitting here talking to each other?”

“You’re right, Jhog,” Katrina said. We all got prepared for the possible violence that would happen to us returning. We all climbed onto Yolax, and I said,

“Yolax, would you mind flying us to the Mud Witch base. We need to save someone, and we only have three hours.”

Yolax rolled his eyes, like as if he was saying I could get you there in three minutes. And we all climbed onto him. He took off with a whoosh, and we were in the air. I started thinking about what Pepito meant when he said that Grancho was looking for bodyguards to help him get the Gray Phoenix.

Like Yolax thought-told me, we were there in less than three minutes. We all climbed off of him, and I patted him on the head and said,

“Thanks, Yolax. You can go wander around. Don’t get into any trouble, and be there when I whistle for you.”

He looked very proud of himself and flew off. I turned to Katrina, Morina, and Graon, and said,

“Well, Morina do you have a plan?”

“Why me?”

“Because you know the Mud Witches best.”

“Well, we would need to get me to our tree, the very same tree you two slept in the other night. They would have to listen to me when I’m up there or they would be violating sacred Mud Witch law and would be exiled to the deepest part of the swamp.”

“Okay, everyone. You heard what Morina said. Get us to the tree, but don’t kill anyone.”

Of course on our way they tried to kill someone, but luckily I heroically saved them by grabbing them by the ears and LITERALLY had to drag them all the way there.

The plan was simple: Graon and I would provide the distraction, while Katrina used magic to lift Morina into the tree. I saw they were giving the signal from their base at the tree. And we begun our distraction.

Graon staggered from the woods, screaming like he just saw his childhood fears, and headed towards the group of Mud Witches. They saw Graon and gasped when they saw a sword wound going through his stomach.

“Where did you get this wound?” one asked.

“From the warrior that’s taking over this swamp.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” said a different one.

“The only thing remotely close to a warrior in this swamp is the

Sphinx of Gold, and he owes his life to us. He would never take over,” said one that looked like she had moss for hair.

“Not the Sphinx of Gold. The Dragonslayer named-“

That was my cue

“ME!” I yelled. I jumped into the middle of the fray and saw Grancho

hanging on a spit. He looked at me with a very withering look and slowly nodded for me to continue with my performance.

“I am taking over this swamp. Already I have cursed you!”

The Swamp Witches gasped, and pulled out their wands.

“Why have you cursed us? We gave you nothing but kindness.”

“Kindness?! KINDNESS?! You were trying to kill me, and now you try

to kill the king of the Gold Golems. Well, I have someone who has something to say.”

That was Morina’s cue, and she timed it perfectly. She lit fireballs

from her hands, and the top of the tree illuminated. The Mud Witches looked up and saw her. One witch came forward and said,

“Well well Well. Morina, I didn’t think you would join these

trespassers. Your parents were right about you.”

“No, don’t you see? These are the Heroes from the Prophecy! We must

step up to help not only ourselves, but all creatures Magical or not. I will be going, and if you are all to full of moss in your brains to comprehend the danger, you can replace me with one of your own. So, what’s it gonna be?”

In all retrospect, she should’ve seen that they all hated her, probably

because even her own parents hated her. In short, we, including King Grancho, were sprinting away from the Swamp for our lives. We hopped back onto Yolax, and in 30 seconds we were in the air heading anywhere away from the swamp. I guess Graon decided to try and lighten the mood, because he said,

“Well, that failed.”

And we spent the rest of the night silent, each of us lost in our own

thoughts. Not really knowing where Yolax was taking us.

## Chapter 13: Prison Break

Gray was having a bad day. Since the Red One had enslaved him, his

life was complete misery. He didn’t know how the Red One treated slaves before, but he had hoped that he was as kind as some slave masters.