Mistress' End (Mission)

"We had set out due south at 8:30 as soon as the sun was in the cloudy sky. Kai refused to navigate insisting playfully that she would get us lost. I wish she had navigated. Instead Wulfred navigated. He knew his way around the woods well enough and we trusted him. He was always reliable. But despite our best efforts we still got lost.

During our journey to and from the woods we encountered a large tree in the woods from which Orc bodies hung which we promptly avoided. Eventually we found ourselves by the coast having been turned around. As we looked out into the sea we saw an island off to our left, and we saw a pale white creature flying towards us in the distance. It did not take us long to figure out it was a dragon. We attempted to hide but to no avail. It approached us with malicious curiosity. Asked us our names, our purpose here. She introduced herself simply as Mistress.

She made us an offer. Leave one behind for her to hunt, and the rest of us could walk away. Wulfred volunteered, but none of us were going to leave him to die. We thought we could take it, that we could prevent her from inflicting death that day and all days forward. We agreed to stand and fight instead. We put up a good fight. She kept to the trees, she knew what her advantages were.
Evin fell first. He had survived one already but the third time she released her devastating Ice breath he didn’t stand a chance. I saw him freeze solid still clutching the healing potion I had handed him seconds before. He never looked scared though.

Then it was Avos. Mistress’s ice breath barely hurt him it was incredible. But she didn’t like that too much. Jumped down and tore into him with her claws and he fell.

Kai was next. She hurt Mistress the most which should come as no surprise. She also used her prowess in magic to keep us in the fight far longer than we should have been able to. Had it not been for her we wouldn’t have lasted the first six seconds.

Then it was just Wulfred and I. He stood between me and her trying to protect me even though he was already injured. I saw him put in some very good hits on her.

I went down. She reached around and sank her teeth into me from behind us. I think she did it just to taunt Wulfred. I blacked out.

I awoke what must have been minutes later but maybe only seconds. I was no longer on the forest floor though. Instead I was moving over the ocean. To my right I saw Avos. Still faintly breathing but unconscious. We were both being held aloft in the dragon’s claws. She was covered in blood and heavily injured from our fight. She was taking us somewhere. Probably to her lair as trophies. Avos may have been unconscious, but he could breathe water. I knew if I could just get her to drop Avos he might still live. But I had dropped my rapier when I blacked out. All I had on me was a shortsword I bought when we invaded the Sea Castle. I gripped in hand and waited for a moment where her claws were not as tight. She believed I was still unconscious, I didn’t have to wait long. I slung myself out of her grip swiftly leaping at a gaping wound on her belly I believe Wulfred left there. I sunk it deep in as she let out a final screech in pain before going silent and then we all plummeted into the sea.

I managed to grab Avos from her cold dead claws as her body sank into the deep, and I pulled him to the surface. With effort I was able to bring him over to the coast. I hadn’t expected to be dragging him to shore, but I also hadn’t expected that last attack to go so well so here we are. I brought us to shore and dragged him into shelter at the edge of the forest obscured by bushes to rest.

I just sat still. I felt I should cry but I couldn’t. It didn’t feel real yet. I kept thinking maybe Wulfred got away. Maybe the others were still alive and we could find them. But dragons don’t leave survivors behind. After an hour of ruminating in my own silence Avos finally awoke. I didn’t say much to him. He didn’t say much to me. What was there to say? We weren’t sure where we were but we knew it was a different part of the coast than we started at. We rested more as Avos got his strength back.

We agreed to move up the coast and just go home to the Last Chance. As we traveled I looked for the spot near where we fought so we could at least recover their belongings, give them a proper burial. I never found it.

We stopped for the night when we hit the maximum travel we had in us. We just decided fuck it and slept at the same time with no watch. We were awoken in the night by the sound of bells. A strange man that seemed to be floating appeared before us. I think he tried to turn us into sheep? Kept offering us bells with collars on them and told us to join his flock. We ran like hell into the woods. Got a little turned around and had to sleep in trees but the rest of the night there didn’t kill us.

We managed to find the coast again and simply followed it to the last chance. Though we did see something strange. A cave mouth on the coast the emitted a song of some kind that got louder as you got closer. It sung in Sylvan. A song of mourning. It was fitting. Also Avos could understand Sylvan too which was just strange I mean what’s up with that?

We made it across the river and up to the coast and to the Last Chance by 11:30 the next day."

*―Fidelius Alfawyn's adventure log*