Trail of Flames

Compiled by talmid from June 2 to July 1 2021.

I'll be brief .

This is a multiwriter, including the Knights of the Olde Speach and another person by the name of nick888571, a good friend of mine.

From our finest writing skill, we present to you Trail of Flames. Enjoy!

It was a peaceful day in the village, and all was well. Geron was shopping in the markket. He loaded up huis bag with goodies and took it to the register. He payed quickly, eager to get home.

As he walked down the road, he wondered what would happen to the village. The Future-Seers told of grave danger to their planet, yet nobody knew what it was.

He shrugged his doubts away, forcing himself to smile. He reached his house, a two-story woonen masterpiece, and he heard a scream.

"The trail! It's burning!"

"What trail?!" Geron asked the person screaming.

"The Trail of Flames!"

"This was foretold," came  a new voice. It was their most famous Future-Seer, Fulmos.

"There will be great danger to this whole planet. The burning of the trail is a sign to the heroes of where and how to go. But even so, they must be ready for anything."

"W-what heroes?" Geron stammered.

The Future-Seer looked up at him.

"Why, the Knights of the Olde Speach, of course."

Who wants to go next?

-Drumr

### Chapter 2

By Dagget\_Dax 10-17-2014 11:33 PM

Dagget was slashing away at his Samuraizor-made dummy. He was very intent on proving his might to his fellow Knights, as he was a relatively new recruit.

He was in his castle(It's name just so happened to be Samurai castle, but all the other Knights had taken up the name "Sam" for his castle, much to Dagget's dismay.) on the Mountain of Ease, just off of Forbidden Valley. A messenger pigeon flew into the window of his training room, and it was smashed to bits by the edge of his Samuraizor.

"Oops! Oh, oh! Sorry, sorry!" He said to the bits and pieces leftover of the Pigeon, rebuilding it. "Target aquired; commence //: test. //: test complete. execute program //: "results"; You are a horrible person // continue // we weren't even testing for that." the Robo-Pigeon said in response to Dagget's rude action. "Fine, whatever." Dagget replied. "Can I have my message now?" he continued. The Pigeon huffed a mechanical huff and a piece of paper printed out of his backside. "Ew, who built a printer back there? I bet it was Sir Talmid..." Dagget breathed.

The Pigeon flew away, and Dagget began reading his debriefing. It read as follows:

"Sir Dagget, thou art to-- as thy present rank-- scout outh thine fairest fellow Knight's newethst assignment!

To investigate a mysterious TRAIL OF FIRE!

Thoust agency hast been requested to investigate this measly matter, but thine art the scout, so off be with ye.

Thine whilst find a artisan of olde, thy Future-seer, Fulmos. Thoust fellow Knight's... thinkest... that is, possibly.

-Your fellow Knights."

Dagget huffed. "Fiiiine..." he said, heading out on a brick-built Steam-powered starship to wherever he was meant to go. Wait, where was he supposed to go? "Oh, here it is... on the back of the letter!" he said.

(Um, this is... where others come in. Where IS the Trail of Fire? I need a little help, Drum )

### Chapter 3

By DrumR02 10-18-2014 07:02 PM

Drumr got the message at about 3:00.

It came via pigeon, and it stated of a Trail of Flames and troubling times. He checked the back of the message, and it said to travel to Nablo. *Great,* he thought, *my starship will be out of gas by the time I get there. Oh, well...* He went up a ladder on the far side of the room he was in and departed into the hanger bay of his fortress. Sitting there, looking brand-new, sat the Drummer, the biggest ship in his fleet he built.

He climbed on board, aware of everything surrounding him.

"Mac!" he yelled. "Prepare the ships Drummer, Cooltail and Flightrom for takeoff! Destination: Nablo!"

"Sir, the Flightrom and Cooltail are not ready for flight yet," the mechanic responded. "However, the Drummer is fully capable of this. I shall prepare it and once."

Within minutes, Drumr was seated at the head of his ship. As he tilted back the wheel and the ship started to warp, Drumr switched on the intercom. "Make sure the Valiant and its crew can join us as soon as possible," he said.

Then, without another word, the Drummer entered warp speed.

Soon, he came within sight of Nablo. It was a beautiful planet, with lush green and blue colors. He entered it's atmasphere, and the ship shook a little. He spotted out a nice landing spot, and headed over.

Then the alarm sounded. "Low power," it warned. "Low power. Chance of crashing: 94.7%."

"Uh-oh..." Drum moaned.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Drumr

### Chapter 4

By Dagget\_Dax 10-19-2014 12:55 AM

Dagget was snoring as loud as he could, and just about anyone within a parsec could hear him.

Suddenly his ship was passed by another ship going at warp speed! An extremely loud sound was heard as it zipped past, and Dagget screamed.

"I'M UP! I'M UP! I DON'T WANT TO GO TO SCHO-- Oo.. oh." Dagget stuck his head out of the window of the space craft-- because he's a Minifigure and didn't get the memo that air was a thing-- and yelled "WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING, YA SPACE SCUM!"

Dagget mumbled some not-so-flattering words about the warp-inclined ship and started heading to Nablo at warp/lightspeed/whatever himself-- he had been taking it slow so he could take a nap. Eventually he got there and just in time to witness a ship coming into orbit that he recognized.

"Wow! I can't believe it-- it's that rude pilot and his ship I somehow beat here!" Dagget said to himself, in surprise. After a few moments, it was clear to Dagget that the ship had low energy and there was a 94.7% chance it was going to crash! Dagget had to do something-- if he wasn't busy, that is.

Dagget hopped out of his ship and landed right on a small-ish fire, which he put out accidentally. "I think I just put out the Trail of flames..." he said, not very proud of himself... and then he lookd up and saw the Yellow brick roa-- Trail of Flames which could easily be mistaken for yellow brick because flames are sort of yellow, right?

"Oh, THAT'S the trail of flames." He said aloud. As he was looking ahead of himself, a big boom was heard from behind him right about where that ship would have landed.

### Chapter 5

By chewchew34 10-22-2014 09:49 PM

Sir chewchew34 rested lazily in a hammock on Nablo, his favorite vacation spot. It's lush green trees and glistening blue water always calmed him from the constant chaos that abounded within his head. He snoozed softly and soundly, swaying forward and back gently, a steady rythm. Which was then interrupted so rudely by a ship landing right close to where he was resting!

The sound jarred him awake and he opened a heavy-lidded eye and saw that it was another Knight! Had they found his hiding place? He hoped not... Upon further investigation, which is fancy for saying, "he looked at him for more than a second", he saw that it was the newest member, Dagget!

"Waz he doin' 'ere?", he groggily said. And then another, more painful noise shook his skull and made him cover his ears in pain, well, at least the area he was SUPPOSED to have them. The sound, which can be described as very NOISY, was an explosion, that came a few hundred yards from behind the other ship. Now this got Sir chewchew34 angry.

"WHAT IN THE BLAZES IS GOING ON!" He dashes towards a very surprised, and flustered looking Dagget, who was not expecting him.

"Oh! Sir Chewchew34!  Thou had no idea that thou was here!" he blabbered.

"Why're you talkin' all fancy like? No need to. And call me Chewie. I like it more than that *oficial* hooplah." he curtly responded.

"Oh... sorry uh... Chewie." Dagget  responded uncertainly.

"Now what was that explosion?" chewchew34 asked.

"Oh! That! Just some space scum who sped by me in Warp Speed. He deserved what he got, I think. And also, I have to report a Trail of Flames..." he pointed a yellow br- trail of flames.

"Oh that? I knew that was there..." chewchew said, scratching the back of his head and looking away. Then, a smoldering ball shot up from the wreck of the other ship! Looking at it more closely, Chewie could see it was the flailing body of DrumR! And he was on fire! Now THAT was interesting. DrumR descended rather quickly, falling into a nearby pool. (Who's next?)

### Chapter 6

By fffffplayer1 10-23-2014 07:06 AM

    Sir Strange Odd Shadow, the Peculiar Enchanter was sitting on a comfortable armchair in Sir Talmid's Castle. His armchair was close to the fireplace, it was actually the best spot in the room, which could be considered as some sort of medieval living room. Many of the Knights were there, too. Talmid's Castle was always the most crowded of all the Knights' Castles. Not only did Sir Thingguy often stay with him abandoning his own castle, but also Talmid was the most popular of the three Founders among the other Knights. He was the most active of the three of them, doing many great and courageous deeds. That made the other Knights, who often cooperated with him come closer with him. Thus, they would often pay him visits, often being once or twice a day each. The Castle had turned into some sort of base of the Knights.

    The other Founders were respected, too, but were less reachable. Sir Lukas had recently closed in to himself doing several things of himself, appearing only some times to give a speech of Random Ramblings, usually concerning what he had been doing the latest period. If you visited him, you'd probably find him in his office half-covered with parchments.

    On the other hand, Thingguy was quite active, too. However, when he ventured he would go alone and vanish for some months. No one heard of him during these periods. However, when he would return he would have many interesting stories to tell. He was a very good friend of Talmid's and always wanted to pass his time with him. He had practically abandoned his own Castle, visiting it only once or twice a year. There were already ghost stories being whispered about it.

    Shadow looked at the three throne-like chairs close to him. They were for the three Founders and two were taken. Talmid and Thingguy were talking about something and laughing.

    Shadow was an old man. He was respected by his fellow Knights and so was his opinion. Thus, he said:

"Are you sure it was a good idea sending Dagget alone?"

### Chapter 7

By DrumR02 10-23-2014 08:41 PM

Drumr swam to the surface of the pond, wishing he'd installed an extra fuel tank like he was planning on doing a few weeks ago.

Oh, well, to late for that now. He reached the surface and saw Chewchew34 and Dagget standing there, and they both looked very annoyed.

"Why did you crash your ship right there?!?!" Chewchew yelled.

"You almost hit my ship!!" Dagget complained rather loudly.

Drumr sighed. "Sorry guys, that warp drive started acting up, I couldn't control the darn thing! I really need to fix that..." he trailed off, looking at the massive burning heap of metal that was once his beloved starship. "Aww man, that was my best ship!"

"Well, it takes up NINE SQUARE ACHERS of proprity, so it's definately huge!" Chewchew yelled, although a little more calmly this time.

"Well, looks like one of us doesn't have a way off this rock," Dagget said rudely.

Drumr streched, showing his muscular form, but he quickly hid it. He didn't like showng off, even on accident. "Well, at least another ship of mine, the Valiant, is on its way. So soon I'll have a way off this 'rock'," Drum said.

"Say, Drum," Dagget said, "How many starships DO you have?"

"Oh, about three hundred seventy or so, bu-"

"WHAT?!" Dagget shouted.

"Anyways, when do we start?" Chewchew asked.

"Uh, how about, now?" Dagget said.

"Wait," Drumr said, "I'm calling reinforcements." He quickly pulled a comm out of his pocket and called Talmid and Thingguy. "Hey, guys," he said. "We got us a problem."

### Chapter 8

By Dagget\_Dax 10-23-2014 11:14 PM

Okay, i'm pretty sure the current (active) order is:

* Drumr
* Me
* Chewchew
* fffffplayer1
* Talmid
* etc.

So, I guess it's my turn!

Dagget stepped onto the Trail of Fire, and then took his foot off of it. He kept stepping on and off of it curiously.

Suddenly, a few horses galloped over a hill and smacked into Dagget, trampling him. They galloped down the trail, and then one came to a strict hault.

Dagget had lassoed one of the Horses with a rope from his seemingly-infinite use utility belt. He pulled the Horse in slowly, and it tried to get away. He finally got it off of the trail and tied to a fence, and he tried to tame it, but was thrown off.

He was thrown into Chewchew and Drumr who were talking about something briefly.

"Hey guys!" said Dagget, innocently. "I found a horse!" he continued.

Chewchew and Drumr got fairly upset and threw him off of them, and Dagget landed on his feet.

"Woah, that was cool!" He said in response to his minor feat that he thought was pretty neat. (Rhyme!) "Guys, guys, I know you seem a bit mad... but, seriously, look at your ship."

Drumr and chewchew looked at their ships.

"Now back to me."

They looked back at Dagget.

"Now look at your ship if it was me."

They looked at their ships and developed a slightly disturbing mental image of the ships being Dagget.

"Now back to me."

Again, they looked back.

"I'm on a horse." Dagget said on a horse, before it bucked him off.

### Chapter 9

By DrumR02 10-24-2014 07:55 PM

Drumr, though normally able to control his HUGE temper, hated the fact that Dagget had landed right on top of him. He threw him off, glaring at him. Then, Dagget had done something where he told them to look at their ships, then back at him. In the end, he got on a horse, and it bucked him off.

And of course Dagget hit him when he and Chewchew were talking about starships.

Ugh. Drum sometimes disliked new recruits for their meager knowledge, but he could say he barely knew Dagget.

So he just had to assume that Dagget was rude and, sometimes, quite obnoxious.

And now he had to go on the Trail of Flames, possibly without backup. Another ugh.

"So, let's go!" Dagget said.

"Wait," said Drum. "We must wait for reinforcements."

"Why wait?" Dagget said impatiently, stomping his foot on the ground.

"We can't take the Trail of Flames by ourselves! Are you nuts?" Drum said, struggling to control his temper again. It normally was very easy to control, even it situations worse than this. "We wait, and that's that."

### Chapter 10

By DrumR02 10-24-2014 09:50 PM

Drumr pulled out his phone and called a good friend of his.

The phone picked up, and he said, "Hey, Smart, I think I need you now."

He and SmartFlyingBrick had been friends since childhood, pretty much.

"Hey Drum!" came a voice from the other end. "I'm on the FlyingBrick right now!" The FlyingBrick was Smart's starship, even more impressive than the Drummer.

"Hey, buddy!" Drum said. "I need some help here on Nablo with a Trail of Flames."

"A trail of what??"

"Trail of Flames. It's something bad, I think."

"Hey, what're you doing?" Dagget interrupted.

"Calling backup," Drum said calmly.

"Whatever," Dagget said, wandering off to ChewChew to talk.

"Smart, I need you here. Our co-ordinates ar-"

"I've already downloaded your co-ordinates into my ship's datalog. New toy I have, lets me see your co-ordinates."

"Nifty. I want one," Drum stated.

"Now, I'll just import the co-ordinates from the datalog to the bridge central control computer, and I'll be on my way," Smart's voice said. He was brilliant, that was for sure.

"Smart, we have more KOTOS members coming, too, so we're not gunna be alone."

"Acknowledged."

"Okay, then," Drum said. "Let's hope this'll be enough." And he ended the call.

### Chapter 11

By Nick888571 10-25-2014 07:40 PM

Smart hung up the phone and went over to the  simple, utilitarian cockpit. Oh how uch he had toiled to make this hip of his dreams a reality!

He began to start up the FlyingBrick's systems and located the sight of the crash and trail in the ship's massive databse.

The ship's computer started up and said: "Course set. Transit to Planet Nablo with co-ordinates X:-4355346, Y:3456, Z:567892 will commence in 3...2...1!"

The ship's motor began to whirl and Smart listened with joy as he heard the myriad sounds of the  massive ship as it began to move.

As the ship began to move, Smart spotted on the radar a cluster of bleeps. A pack of extraterrestrial stromlings!

Smart then said to his robot friend Hiro: "Hiro, engage the ship's laser turrets."

Hrio: "Already done, sir."

Smart: "Send the X5231O beam at 'em."

One of the ship's turrets then released an extrmely large, but weak blast of imagination-powered beam of light.

The beam hit the pack of extreterrestrials and blew every one of them to smitherines. The imagination was then collected by the ship's vacums.

The trip continued peaceably thereafter, only a few stray asteroids and space trash interrupting the journey, until Goud was spotted. Goud was an extraterrestrial cyclops, Smart's nemesis, who wielded a large black club and had the power to hover and summon an army of small cyclopses. He was created by the Darkitecht to merley act as a beast of burden, but he was cunning, and soon became a dreaded foe of the Nexus Force. He could attack and destroy an army of sentinels with one swing of his mighty, magical club. He had humiliated Smart by blowing up one of his properties, which caused Smart to build the FlyingBrick.

Hiro: "Goud has appaered on the radar!"

Smart: "Oh bah. I've seen enough of him. Is there a way to evade him?"

Hiro: "I believe so."

The ship then sharply turned to the right and sped away. The ship then finally reached Nablo and found Drum, Dagget, and ChewChew in front of the "Trail of Flames." The ship then landed.

### Chapter 12

By talmid 10-25-2014 11:06 PM

In the castle on the property of Sir Talmid, Sir Talmid had risen from his seat and begun to pace the room, stroking his beard.  With him were the wise Sir Shadow and everyone's friend Sir Thingguy.  Sir Shadow had just presented a question, "Are you sure it was a good idea sending Dagget alone?" and Sir Talmid wished to answer him.

"I think," he began, when a loud thump resounded within the castle's inner quarters.

"T'was that?" Sir Thingguy asked.

"Indeed?" Sir Shadow repeated.

The Enchanter closed his eyes and focused on his enchanting powers to find the source of the noise, while Sir Talmid tried to focus on his sentence.  "I think," again said he.

He was interrupted by the thump again.

"At thy window!" Sir Thingguy exclaimed.  "T'is a messenger pigeon."

"Ah, yes." the Enchanter said.  "My powers tell me it is a messenger pigeon."

Sir Talmid grumbled, "Confounded messenger pigeon," and went to the window.  He opened it and the pigeon gave him a gift, then it flew to Sir Thingguy and gave him a message.

"I have received a message for you, Sir Thingguy." the robotic pigeon chirped.  "It is from Sir Drumr.  Says he: 'Hey, guys, we got us a problem.'"

"Mayhap he reveal what his received problem may be?" Sir Thingguy asked.

"No."

"Return to him and inquire of him what his received problem is!" the knight ordered.

"Right away."  The pigeon promptly left before giving Sir Shadow a gift as well, however the Enchanter merely shrugged it off, utilizing his abilities to become as slippery as a fish.

"Perhaps we should investigate the matter with Sir Drumr ourselves," the Enchanter suggested, "rather than play phone tag with the messenger pigeon."

"'Phone tag'?" Sir Talmid repeated.  "What is this?"

"Cease memory of it, if you please, I had a slip of the tongue." Sir Shadow said.  "Tongue-slips can be very dangerous to an enchanter."

"I agree with the Enchanter," Sir Thingguy said regarding Sir Drumr, "I suggest we do so."

"It shall be." Sir Talmid agreed.

And it was so.

### Chapter 13

By Dagget\_Dax 10-26-2014 12:03 AM

Dagget was looking at some of the buildings around the area pretty intently, wondering what he could make out of them.

Eventually, he dismantled an entire building and built some mechs, which he promptly painted the Sentinel white yellow and blue. A minifigure suddenly came up to Dagget and asked "Where's my house?"

"OOOHHH WOULD YOU LOOK AT THE TIME ME AND MY MECHS OUGHTA GO... UM... DO SOMETHING OVER HERE!" replied Dagget as he fled the scene.

Dagget walked over to where Chewchew, Drumr, and Smarty were talking somewhat about their gameplan.

Dagget interrupted "Whose the new guy?"

Drumr glared at Dagget and said "This is my friend, SmartyFlyingBrick and I would appreciate it if we weren't interrupted"

"Hi!" Dagget said to Smarty innocently. "I made some new friends!" continued Dagget, gesturing to his new Mech friends.

"Woah." the trio said in unison. "I know. I should've been an assembly-- I just liked smashing Maelstrom... maybe I should've been Paradox-- the perfect mix! Nah, too dark and brooding."

"Some Assembly smash more Maelstrom than Sentinel you kno--" Drumr pitched in and Dagget hushed him.

"So why are there so many people here now?? I thought *I* was the scout here! What's so special about a Trail of flames?" asked Dagget, a tad annoyed.

"Look, you should just let us worry about that." Drumr replied.

"Try sending your Mechs down a bit and see if they can come back and gather any information." Chewchew said.

"Gotcha covered, Chewy." said Dagget, running up to his Mechs and typing in some things to their little control consoles, sending them off down the direction of the trail.

Dagget proceeded to wander around the landscape looking for anything useful, as everyone else did their thing.

### Chapter 14

By fffffplayer1 10-26-2014 05:55 AM

    Sir Shadow found courage to get up from his armchair. His body was old, his bones pained and walking wasn't that easy. Almost regretting suggesting going to the action themselves the old man slowly stood up. Leaning on his staff, he made a few slow steps towards Sir Talmid and Sir Thingguy, who were already standing.

     "Young men, help me out here!" he called to them.

     Talmid quickly walked to him and supported Shadow, who grabbed his arm almost greedily.

    Meanwhile, Sir Shadow looked around in the room. The three female Knights of the Order, Lady Jonna, Lady Ruby and Lady (Comical) Crafty were in there, too, talking to each other. Looking at them, the Enchanter pondered on why there were so few women in their Order. They weren't like other Knights, brutal and stupid jumping into action before thinking. They were intelligent, noble Knights, who did not depend only on their muscles, but yet they still did not attract many women. Perhaps, though, they found the all-muscles Knights more attractive.

    "Perhaps, we would also need some female assistance in our quest! We don't happen to have many girls in our Order; let's not neglect them!"

### Chapter 15

By chewchew34 10-26-2014 01:22 PM

Chewchew, significantly annoyed by Dagget and DrumR by this point, having been landed on by Dagget, and then DrumR ruining his vacation, had clearly had enough. He pulled out a little cube and tossed it to the ground. It spread apart and formed a circular ring, which then flickered to life. In a violent blue flash, and little smoke, a portal opened up.

"Seeya guys later! Oh, hi Smart! Nice meeting you, for like, 3 seconds!", he yelled out. He then jumped inside the portal, it vanishing along with him.

Chewchew opened his eyes and found himself floating through a worm-hole, relics of the past and future floating by him. "Woah... This just like I imagined i-augh!", he began before being cut off.

All of a sudden he found himself on the ground, on the cold stone floor of a castle, surrounded by three women. "Why hello there my fair ladies!" He said, putting on his best "dashing" look, before realizing he was in the KOTOS Castle, and these were the Noble Woman of the Keep.

"Oh! Sorry! My bad!" Chewchew apologized, a little flustered, and singed to be exact. Noticing the tiny flames, he started to pinch them, putting them out as three other Knights walked in. "Greetings my fair lads! It has been quite some time..." he said, bowing to the group. "Dagget and DrumR ware having a slight predicament on Nablo, concering a "Trail of Flames"..."

### Chapter 16

By DrumR02 10-26 2014 07:47 PM

Drumr got about as annoyed as he could get, and that meant him picking stuff up and throwing it into other stuff.

Just as he had picked up a fifty-foof tree and was preparing to throw it into another fifty-foot tree, Smart said, "Don't worry, Drum. Things will work out in the end."

"How?" asked Drum, throwing the tree and causing a very loud CRASH. "Chewchew just left, and now he have to take on a Trail of Flames, and I don't know when help is coming! Should we just go on on our own?" he turned to his assembly friend. "You tell me how we can have any hope at a time like this! I've heard about trails of fire in books i've read, and they always have some super-bad stuff in it that even the Knights of the Olde Speach could, if not careful, lose against! How can three of us take on THAT?!"

Drumr was normally very upbeat, positive, and logical. But now he just snapped, and that NEVER happened ever before. Was he losing it? He stopped thinking of all the things he stood for and started yelling. How could he ever be a KOTOS member if he was like that? He was losing it, that was for sure, but maybe it was a one-time thing, he hoped. If he was to remain a KOTOS member, he had to get his A-game on.

"Okay, enough of that, he said, forcing the dark thoughts from his head. "We can win this, but we first must wait."

Then his dark thoughts came back, and he thought, *what is making me have such dark thoughts? If I continue like this, I'll be a total wreck!*

Then a dark voice spoke in his mind, "I am the Destroyer, and I will be your darkness on this journey. And you can't stop me!"

"Drum?" Smart's voice came. "Are you alright?"

Drum was on his knees, sweating like crazy, aware of the evil mind in his own.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Drum said. "But I got something evil in my head, and it said it was the Destroyer."

Smart's eyes widened. "Drum, the Destroyer is a powerful being that can morph shape into anything. It can also latch onto your brain, and it won't go away."

### Chapter 17

By talmid 11-01-2014 07:19 PM

"Sir Chewchew!" exclaimed Sir Thingguy.  "What art thou doing here?"

Sir Talmid, who was used to people popping into his property all the time, asked, "May thou be kindest enough as to repeat what thou stated?  About a 'Trail of Flames'?"

Chewchew did, repeating with a bit more knightly ettiquette, "Sirs Dagget and DrumR art in a slight predicament on the planet of Nablo, concerning a 'Trail of Flames'."

"As I have foreseen," Sir Shadow said, stroking his beard.  "Thank you for confirming my thoughts, Sir Chewchew.  Us Lads and Lasses were actually just on our way out, to see Sir Dagget and Sir DrumR and investigate this Trail of Flames."

"How did thou get here?" Sir Thingguy asked, looking at a cube shaped object in one of Chewchew's hands.  "Did thou use that?  Thou know 'tis against the rules to travel by portal!  It can cause madness!"

"I offers thous me humblest apologies," Sir Chewchew said, not in the slightest.  "I do not believe I am mad."

"That is what they say," the Enchanter said, making his way to the castle's door.  "Shall thou take my lead, now, Knights?  Usually I am the last one out, because my form is slow."

At this, the young, able-bodied Sir Talmid, Sir Thingguy, and Sir Chewchew, and Lady Jonna, Lady Ruby, and Lady Crafty headed for the door of the castle and were soon outside the castle and began to mount their loyal steeds: rockets. The Enchanter, alone in the castle and unseen by anyone else except for some bored Messenger Pigeons, did something magical that let him fly to the planet Nablo himself.  The rest of the rocket powered Knights would arrive as well shortly.

### Chapter 18 - The title of this chapter is ":P"! Don't you agree it is fitting?

By fffffplayer1 11-02-2014 05:59 AM

  As Sir Shadow started flying through space, he realised he had forgotten that in space there is neither oxygen nor pressure to neutralise the pressure caused by the air inside him, so he smashed! Without his help the Knights were doomed to fail and in the end all of them were smashed trying to stop the inevitable.

                                      THE END

Joking! That's not what happened!

    Sir Shadow was in actuality flying in space with a magical field around him protecting him. However, even in flying mode he seemed to be in pain due to moving.

    The journey was long and boring. Talmid and Thingguy were playing chess (don't ask me how, considering they were on different rockets!). The three girls were still talking. In an attempt to avoid stereotypes I will not mention what they were saying. Who am I to know all the matters that each and every girl is interested in? Yes, I know you might consider me as omniscient, but I only know half the stuff, not all of them! Wiz was playing battleship online on the Magical International Network, for which wizards still search for a shorter name similar to 'Internet'. Chewchew ~~was making evil plans on how to destroy the KotOS from the inside, because he truly was a spie sent by-~~ eer! I meant that he was playing his ukulele!

    However, some time they reached the vicinity of planet Nablo. They were passing next to the third satelite of the planet next doors, when suddenly a new rocket appeared behind them. It had the colours of blue and white, and there was a lamp of everchanging red and blue on it. A siren would be heard if sound could travel through space.

     "Do you know you are speeding?! Let me see your licenses!" was heard an angry voice from the peoples' communicators. . .

### Chapter 19

By DrumR02 11-05-2014 07:30 PM

Drumr looked through his telescope, hoping to see the KOTOS group aproaching, yet this yeilded no fruits as he saw nothing but stars.

"When will help come?!" he kicked a random rock across the feild they were in.

"Do not fret, Drum. Your brother Knights will be here soon," Smart said enthousiastically, yet even his voice wavered with uncertainty.

"They're not my brothers in any way. I've always been seperate, the odd man out. I'll never comepletely fit in," Drumr grumbled, looking away from Smart intently.

"Drum, you know you can fit in. You aren't the same as back when yo-"

Drum wheeled around, angry. "We will not speak of my past here, am I understood?" he growled.

"Whoa, what's so bad about your past?" Dagget's voice came from behind hm.

Drumr froze. If Dagget had heard, who was stopping him from telling the KOTOS group of Drum's conversation? Then the Knights would become weary and suspicious of him, and he'd have to run away again.

He shook his head. No more thoughts of this.

He looked through his telescope again, ignoring Dagget's question. To his relief, he saw rockets aproaching the planet, yet behind them he saw red and blue lights flashing.

Space police!

"Up there!" Drumr said. "There they are! I know those rockets! They're KOTOS rockets!"

He turned around, a smile on his face. "Our help is coming!"

Then he remembered the police. Okay. Maybe they would be a little while.

### Chapter 20

By fffffplayer1 11-11-2014 03:03 PM

    A man was standing on the top of a hill. His yellow eyes were gazing at the Trail of Flames. He was happy with what was happening. This would certainly draw him near! And then it would be the time to finish it all. The playing period had ended. Now, it was going to get serious!

    The man then saw some minifigures appear near the Trail in various ways. One of them even crashed with his rocket. The crucial moment was drawing nearer. The man knew the minifigures were Knights of the Olde Speech. And so was he.

    He waited... and watched. One of them left at some point. The other two, though, remained there. And then after a while the man sensed him. He was coming.

    "He is approaching!" he called to someone

    "He is, sir?" the other replied.

    "Indeed he is! Prepare for his arrival! We wouldn't want him to be lonely once he comes!"

    "Yes, sir!" his servant left.

    The man was alone. And in the absence of anyone to see him, he allowed himself a smile. But it was a wicked smile.

    "The game is on!"

### Chapter 21

By talmid 11-11-2014 11:18 PM

"Tis outrageous!" Sir Talmid raged quietly, uttering that utterance for the 8th time as the Space Police Man approached the 8th rocket in their little fleet of Knight-flown rockets, with Talmid in the 8th rocket, also the leading rocket.

The Space Police Man jetpacked over to Talmid's side, and he obligingly opened a porthole.  "May I see your license?" the Space Police Man said.

Still obligingly, and also grumbling to himself, Talmid handed the Space Police Man his license.

"Your name is Great Honorable Noble Sir Good Student Ay-kay-ay Talmid The Kind, Like a Sir?" the Space Police Man read.

"Aye." Sir Talmid said.

"That's shorter than what I got from Mr. Lucas' license." the Space Police Man said.  "It was full of seemingly random things."

"Thou refer to random ramblings?"

"Perhaps.  This will be a ten thousand coin fine."

"Behold!" Sir Talmid cried.  "Must I pay thee now?"

"I'm sorry," the Space Police Man said.  "I'm afraid I don't understand what you are saying.  I speak English or Danish."

"Alas, I am speaketh-ing in the English dialect, mayhap not thy dialect, but tis my dialect that I speaketh in."

"Sheesh.  You can pay the fine later."

And off the Knights went.  Actually the rest of the Knights had already gone on their merry ways while Talmid had to deal with the Space Police Man.  He tried to catch up to them but he was too slow.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Whence the Knights finally arrived at the planet Nablo, Sirs Thingguy and Lucas were the first of the arrivers to step on the surface.  The others were taking their sweet time and Sir Talmid was still too slow so he was not there.

"This is the planet Nablo," Sir Thingguy said.

"Alas, where is this 'Trail of Flames'?" Sir Lucas asked.

"Over here!" a voice called.  The two knights found its source, Sir Shadow the Enchanter, standing upon a ledge overlooking a fiery path.  "I believe this to be the Trail of Flames."

"Now where art Sir Dagget Dax and Sir Drum-r?" Sir Thingguy asked.

### Chapter 22

By DrumR02 11-12-2014 07:40 PM

Drumr ran over to the ridge where he saw the rockets land behind. As he drew close, he saw a minifigure- no doubt Sir Shadow- standing on it. He sprinted over and eventually reached the ridge. He turned to make sure Dagget and Smart were behind him, and sure enough, they were panting to catch up.

"Wait up!" Dagget panted.

Drum did not obey. He raced up to Sir Shadow, saying, "Sir Shadow! Here! Here!"

Sir Shadow turned, looking Drum right in the eyes. "Hello again, Sir Drumr."

Drumr looked behind Sir Shadow. He saw several other Knights, and as he watched, Talmid's ship landed. Drum inhaled sharply. Almost all of the Knights, if not all of them.

"Greetings!" he shouted across the plain. He was responded with waves and salutes and raised swords.

The Knights rushed toward Drumr and Sir Shadow. Talmid was the first, followed by Thingguy, Lady Jonna, and Chewchew.

Drum glared at Chewchew, and despite his normal kindness, he said to Chewchew, "Thou have no honor." He then smiled to Sir Chewchew. "But I find no doubt in my mind that thou will make up for it."

He turned to Sir Luke, who had just gotten there. "Anyone else coming?" he asked.

"Not that I know of," Sir Luke replied.

Drumr looked at all the assembled knights. They weren't an army, but they were the best in the buisness. "I hath called thou here today because of a troubling matter. A Trail of Flames hath appeared, and in legend they held many perils and only came in times of dire distress to whole galaxies. We will need all our strength to top this trail, and I have no doubt that we can stop  this arissen evil, whatever it may be."

He looked at the Knights, and they all nodded. Smart, who had just caught up along with Dagget, bowed his head as well.

Drumr turned to the trail.

"Let us destroy this evil, he said, and he walked onto the trail. It didn't burm him. He looked both ways. One was a dead end, to the other was the right way. He drew his sword, sharpended his senses, and led the Knights and Smart down the trail.

### Chapter 23

By chewchew34 11-15-2014 07:27 PM

Chewchew followed Drumr happily, his fellow knights with him. He drew one blade and kept his hand on the other, just in-case something were to happen. He looked around and ran up to Sir Shadow, asking "What is this evil we're searching for exactly?"

Whatever answer he had was cut off by a loud scream. They all turned around to see Jonna pointing at a giant slice of what looked like pizza. The Knights looked in the direction of her finger and saw an entire mass of them charging towards them.

Chewchew drew his second blade as the knights drew their own. Sir Shadow started to perform some sort of magic and cast an aura of protection around the Knights as they charged. Chewchew let out a yell and began to hack and slash the pizza into smaller bits, while Jonna cowered behind Sir Shadow (poor Jonna ).

The Knights swiftly defeated the Pizza, and gathered back around a tired looking Sir Shadow. He leaned upon his staff and breathed heavily. The effort had obviously drained him.

"Why pizza?" Dagget asked.

"It's Lady Jonna's worst fear Dagget." Chewchew answered. "She specificly doesn't like Peter the Pizza. Bad memories."

"Oh. The evil must be sending our worst fears after us to stop us!" DrumR exclaimed. Then out of nowhere, a loud THOOM! was heard. The Knights looked around, searching for the source. Off in the distance, a GIANT PIZZA MONSTER was stomping towards them. The Knights drew their pizza sauce stained blades and readied for battle.

"MY NAME IS PETER. AND I HAVE COME FOR YOU JONNA!!" the beast bellowed.

"Oh Brick..." The Knights all said in unison.

[To be continued]

### Chapter 24

By DrumR02 11-15-2014 11:39 PM

Drumr looked at the giant pizza monster, and he suddenly wasn't hungry anymore.

It was at least forty feet tall, with a giant club that smelled suspiciously of cheese pizza.

He cleared his throat and ironed his nerves. "ATTACK!" he roared. He and the knights barreled forward, and the giant was only fifty yards away when he blew slices of pizza out of his mouth.

Drumr had one thing to say after that: pizza out of the oven is warm, but pizza out of this guy's mouth must've been five thousand degrees. He rolled left to avoid more, and he saw Talmid reach the giant and start hacking at it. The giant roared. Drumr glanced back. Lady Jonna was hiding behind Sir Shadow, but the old enchantor looked drained, like all his energy had been sapped from him. Drumr looked  back and ran towards the pizza. He held his sword in one hand, and he reached into his bag on his waste. When he was ten feet away, Drum yelled, "DUCK!" and threw the grenade he'd made.

He didn't know how the giant survival, but it did. However, there was now pizza everywhere. Lady Jonna screamed from somewhere behind him.  Talmid was picked up and tossed aside by the giant, and he landed on the ground with a loud THUMP.

That made Drum mad. These were his friends. He yelled in fury and attacked the giant with all his rage. He was partly aware of Thingguy, Chewchew, Smart, Dagget, and Lukey behind him, but he had only one thing on his mind: Take down the giant pizza man.

### Chapter 25

By fffffplayer1 11-16-2014 07:35 AM

    "If you can't fight it... then eat it!" Sir Wiz said and made a step forward and then one more.

    He still seemed to have a difficulty walking, but taking into account his exhaustion one would think he was barely able to stand. Then, as he continues to walk a big slice of pizza is magically cut from the enormous slice of pizza, which pretends to be Peter the Pizza, because everyone knows that Peter is invisible. The slice flew towards his opened mouth and he ate it.

    "Not the very best I've eaten really!" he commented.

    As if on cue all his fellow Knights started cuttng slices and eating them. Only Sir Drum seemed to be too angry to hear and Jonna too afraid to approach, let alone eat. And as the Knights continued eating the huge slice of pizza seemed to grow weaker. But it wasn't too weak yet. With one hit of its tip on the ground, the soil under them was shaken and they all flew away. It roared angrily!

### Chapter 27

By Dagget\_Dax 11-18-2014 02:50 PM

"AAAAAAA" the Knights screamed in unison as the ground under them threw them into the air. Dagget tried to do a flip and land on his feet but he ended up landing straight on his back, as did most of the Knights. Nevertheless, they quickly hopped to their feet aside from Dagget, who hurt his back landing on a rock.

The Pizza sensed fear using it's BEE and WASP toppings. Suddenly the Knights realized that in the process of eating the pizza, they just got a mouthful of bees and wasps which they apparently hadn't noticed before. Most everyone's mouth was swollen, and it wasn't a very nice thing to have happen.

Anyway, the Pizza sensed the fear of the poor Lady Jonna, and began stomping after it. Dagget finally recovered from his injury and began running after all the others trying to protect the currently too scared to move Lady Jonna.

"If what chewchew said was true, I guess... I guess we're in for a pretty big whirl..." Dagget half thought half mumbled to himself as he ran after the Knights which somehow had seemed to gain the speed of "The Flash".

The Knights were slashing the Pizza and holding it off from Lady Jonna, but it spit a wave of melted cheese at them, and they were all trapped underneath it!

"Uh oh." Dagget mumbled to himself again and again, running to Jonna's aid. "Gaaah think think think. Geez, is she really that afraid of this thing?" he thought.

The Pizza stomped over to Jonna and roared in her face. "THIS TIME... PIZZA'S GOING TO EAT YOU!" the horrifying creature bellowed.

"How do you eat a pizza which is bent on eating you? I guess Wiz didn't think of..."

Dagget took a second to smirk as he thought his next line.

"CUTTING THE CHEEEESE...!" He yelled, as he jumped onto it's crusty back and sliced it into two pieces from the top, in the process cutting the cheese. Dagget, after finishing the deed, licked the red pizza sauce off his blade. He started cutting the other Knights out of the cheese(HAHA), and helped Jonna recover.

But it wasn't quite over yet...

### Chapter 26

By DrumR02 11-18-2014 07:15 PM

When Drumr regained conciousness, he was in the hollow surrounded by trees in every direction. First everything was fuzzy, then it began to re-focus.

He looked around. No one was near. He remembered the blast of the pizza man knocking him back, and he lost consiousness as he hit a tree.

He snorted. Some hero he was. First he crashed his ship, then he'd gotten knocked out, and now he was lost.

Yup. Real hero he was.

At best, the others had already destroyed the pizza-man and continued down the trail. At worst, they were trapped, or had lost the fight, or were eaten by the giant pizza man.

Drum stumbled out of the hollow. His left arm was badly wounded.

*I've got to find my way back,* he thought determinedly.

He heard groaning from a few meters away. He drew his sword, a scary three feet of iron, and advanced.

He jumped out from behind a tree, and gasped in surprize.

Smart was there, laying in the grass!

The brave assembly warrior looked over at Drum, pain in his face.

"Broken leg," Smart groaned quietly. "That'll set  me back a lot."

"Smart!" Drumr raced over to his friend, putting his good arm around him and helping him up.

"Ugh," Smart muttered, "hurts."

That's when Drumr heard something behind them. Then in front of them. Then- everywhere!

As he watched, horrified, dozens of black-clothed figures stepped out of the shadows.

"It's nothing personal," said one of them, "but we must smash you."

### Chapter 29

By DrumR02 11-18-2014 08:42 PM - last edited on 11-18-2014 09:12 by LEGOModerationTeam

Drumr was glad when the shadow people closed in. Sure, his chances were slim, even with Smart, but at least he understood fighting.

He raised his sword. He charged the nearest shadow warrior, who summoned a dark blade three feet long into his hand.

All around the clearing, every  shadow person summoned a similar blade. Drumr closed in still. Just as it looked like he was about to stab at his apponent, he rolled underneath the shadow-man, stabbed at it in the back, and it smashed.

He fought like a whirlwind, slashing and stabbing through the ranks. However, as he cut some down, more appeared.

"You are fighting for a lost cause," they hissed softly in usion. "We have blown you fifty miles away from your friends."

Drum looked at Smart, who pulled out a gadget. "Fifty-two point seven miles, actually," Smart mused.

"Thank you, Captain Optimistic," Drum said.

He got back-to-back with Smart, who was sitting down and had built a laser, and got ready to recieve the charge of the enemy.

### Chapter 28

By Nick888571 11-20-2014 04:12 PM - last edited on 11-20-2014 04:20 PM by LEGOModerationTeam

The enemy charged in all of their dark fury. A certain glint was in their eyes, unlike that ever seen before in a minion of the Malestrom. The shadow people approached in a great charge, each with a long, sturdy sword smelted in some great forge in the land of evil. In the meantime, Smart set about to building turrets to aid in the defense, and Drum helped out. The turrets were average, run-of-the-mill lvl. 3 Assembly turrets, but they proved quite a match to the shadow people, with 3 rounds being able to destroy one of the shadow people. Aided by the turrets and the amazing fighting skills of Drum, the shadow people were defeated, all save one, who was taken prisoner by Drum, for interrogation.

"Who are you, what is your purpose in an attempt to smash us?" said Smart

Intimidated by Drum's massive Sentinel gear, the prisoner talked, "I-I am Dako, and I was sent by my master, the dark Daimyo, who told my crew to defend the exploration of a "trail of flames" and to destroy all who stood in our way, especially Assembly members."

"Is that all?" replied Smart with a tone of indignation.

Then a surge of dark energy flooded into him and he spoke: "Not at all, fool. You may have defeated me and my crew, but an armada is approaching. 50,000 troops are coming to claim this land for darkness. Take fright, arrogant little "builder", for there is nothing you can do." Dako then died in a puff of smoke, leaving only imagination orbs on the ground.

"Well, we must somehow warn the others, shouldn't we?" said Smart.

"Yes, but how are we to escape this desolate place?" replied Drum.

"Oh, don't worry about that, we can just build a rocket from that pile of bricks over there." replied Drum.

In a twinkling, a two-man rocket was built from the assorted pieces worthy of any Nexus rocket. The two climbed into the rocket, and sped off to find the rest of the members of KOTOS.

### Chapter 30

By talmid 11-20-2014 04:49 PM

With the pizza defeated and the knights gathered and mostly composed again, Sir Talmid turned to face their little group and spoke: "Tis day is not a day of woe.  We have fought and defeated an enemy.  All of us were together then, and all of us are together no- wait a minute!"

Sir Talmid gasped.  "Sir Drumr and Smart are missing!"

Taking charge, Sir Luke ordered, "Search the area, if they are here I want them accounted for!"

Sir Shadow stepped onto a rock which he began to levitate under him.  The Enchanter surveyed the area from above while the knights searched the area below, with no luck.

"They're gone!" Sir Dagget cried, coming back with Lady Jonna and Sir Thingguy.  The two of them had done a quick sweep a bit farther out than the rest of the knights, who left no stone unturned but the two missing men were nowhere to be found.

"This cannot be good." the Enchanter said with a frown.

"Hopefully they're safe." Sir Chewchew put in.

The Enchanter turned to him.  "Safe is considered good in any right-minded culture, and I said this cannot be good, thus they must not be safe."

"Hey, I can hope you know." Chewchew grumbled.

"We must think realistically."

"How-eth can they vanish?" Talmid demanded to no one in particular.  He grabbed his hair and kicked at a rock.  "Ow."

"Will we have to go on without them?" Lady Jonna asked slowly.

"We may have to." Talmid muttered.  "Otherwise we could become two groups, a battle group and a search party.  We would be split."

Sir Chewchew jerked a thumb in front of Sir Shadow.  "Why don't we send the magic guy?" he suggested.

"There are actually strategic benefits to sending me alone." said Sir Shadow. "All of you, search for the missing knights, while I go into the trail of flames alone."

"That's not what I had in mind." Chewchew said.

"Let's not split up then." said Sir Luke quickly but forcefully.  "We are stronger in numbers, and right now we need to be as strong as we can.  We just lost two knights.  We have to consider they might be dead."

### Chapter 31

By DrumR02 11-20-2014 08:41 PM

As he flew over the forest with Smart, Drumr began to wonder if the knights had done the senseable thing and moved on without them.

Drumr winced. He had been in war, and in those dark times he had to sometimes admit that his fellow soldier- a friend, even- wasn't coming back if they dissapeared on mission.

Then it happened.

Five simultanious shots were fired directly at the rocket, and one hit the nosecone with three missed and the other hit the engine.

"We're still twelve miles from the trail!" Smart yelled against the winds.

"Based on what's going on, this ship may last another twelve feet!" Drumr groaned loudly so Smart could hear him over the roar of the wind.

Sure enough, the ship tilted port broadside to the ground, the engine blew up, and the two heroes found themselves falling to the ground.

"I hope you have a plan!" Drumr yelled over the wind.

"Sorry, Drum, but I don't!" Smart shouted.

Suddenly Drumr noticed something on Smart's tool belt. A grappling hook! They would need to time this perfectly, but...

"Smart! The hook!" Drumr screamed as loud as he could, making his lungs nearly burst.

Thank goodness, Smart understood. He pulled the hook from his belt. "Grab my belt!" he ordered. Drumr grabbed onto his tool belt, and just as the treetops shot past them, Smart grappled one.

The grapple slowed their fall, but did not stop it. They landed hard, though Drumr felt no immidiate pain, so he got up, his senses on high alert.

Then, as sheer bad luck would have it, at least ten thousand more shadow-men appeared from the trees.

"Not again," moaned Drumr as the shadow-men closed in.

### Chapter 32

By DrumR02 11-23-2014 07:30 PM

Drumr looked back at Smart. "Do you have a plan?" he asked.

"Not yet, but I'm working on it," Smart said.

Drumr drew his sword and desperately racked his brain for stalling ideas.

"Well, why did you seperate us from the other Knights?" Drumr asked, looked at the shadow-men.

One of them snarled at him. "You know you are powerful with a sword, and your assembly friend is also very useful to the Knights. Thedude7500 knows that without you, you cannot take down the Trail's evils. Your friends will fail, you will fail, and thedude will rise."

Drumr looked back at Smart, who had his back to a tree. Drumr then realised his friend was assembling something behind his back, but he had to go slowly so that the shadow-men wouldn't get susspicious, and he couldn't see it. Something told Drumr that whatever Smart was assembling was extremely dangerous.

Smart's face told Drumr to keep stalling for time, so he did. "So, why are you working for thedude anyways?" Drumr demanded.

"Why, we are getting payed. Why does this matter? You are to fall anyways."

Drumr looked back at Smart, who was starting to get up.

"Hit the dirt!" Smart shouted as he whipped the device out from behind him. Drumr, knowing just what his friend was capable of, quickly dropped to the ground, laying flat on his stomach. Smart activated is. Drumr realised that, in three minutes, with heavy wounds, and not being able to see his work, Smart had contructed a laser.

It vaporized everything as Smart swept it back and forth among the ranks of shadow-men. Within fifteen seconds, Smart told Drumr, "it's clear."

Drumr got up. No more shadow-men. But also no mre bricks nearby. Then Drumr saw something glowing.

"No way," he muttered.

The trail in front of them was glowing with fire.

Smart did calculations. "It doesn't run into the other trail where the Knights are!" he said.

"Then it must be destinty," Drumr said.

### Chapter 33

By fffffplayer1 11-25-2014 03:34 PM

    The Knights kept looking for quite some time. They were taking a break, some of them eating, some of them drinking (not necessarily water!!!), others just resting and Sir Shadow with Sir Chewchew fighting over why Shadow could or could not take the Trail of Flames alone.

    Wiz was moving his hand to stress his current point and wasn't looking where he was walking to.

    "SHADOW!" Chewchew tried to warn him, but to no avail!

    And lo! There he was Wiz Ardon the Wizard (or actually Enchanter) inside the Trail of Flames!!! Many Knights cried worriedly and they all turned to look. They didn't know whether this magical fire was dangerous to touch! Silence followed, as they all hushed to see if the old man would emerge out of the flames or not! A minute passed, then another! The Knights were petrified in their spots. Could this be really happening?

    Then, suddenly a voice came: "I shall be burnt to the final point! But I shall rise from my ashes, stronger than ever!!! Remember my words!"

    The voice of Shadow sounded outwordly, but this was just the sort of thing he'd do, so the Knights didn't pay much attention to the way he talked. But they waited to see what he'd do next. He was still inside the fire. At last, a point of the trail suddenly erupted in many flames of multiple colours and the Peculiar Enchanter appeared out of the explosion.

     Immediately, all the Knights started scolding him for worrying them! But Wiz did not try to defend himself, show remorse or just smile thinking of how funny this was. He actually looked a bit serious. He walked to the point where they had left their backpacks and sat contemplating.

Cont.

Cont.

    It was not long before something else happened. The ground started shaking! It was very subtle in the start, but it was there and some noticed it. Slowly, but steadily it started getting stronger and soon all the Knights felt themselves being shaken to the bone. Then, they saw the source of it all. A very musculae man twice the size of a minifigure with a wild look appeared. With every step of his, the ground shook. There must have been something superhuman in that, because even a man of that size couldn't really make the ground shake! And worst of all, he looked threatening!

    "I AM EGELATHUS, MASTER OF THE QUAKES! AND I AM HERE TO DESTROY YOU!!!" he shouted.

### Chapter 34

By DrumR02 11-29-2014 07:13 PM

Drumr walked down the trail with Smart, alert for any sign of attack. He had learned to always be cautious, to consider his surroundings.

He saw a blur of motion behind a bush, and he drew his sword. Now he and Smart advanced more carefully, Drumr looking around, Smart pulling out his Life Detector.

"I don't like this, Drum," Smart murmured, and even the brave assembly looked scared now. "We're on a huge hot spot. There are millions of living things in a two-mile radius of us."

"How many in a five hundred-meter radius?" Drumr asked.

"Fifteen hundred," Smart said, now a horrified expression on his face. "And every singe one within the two-mile radius is closing fast!"

In his life, Drumr had never really been scared. But now he felt extremely afraid. It just swept in and made him want to run away screaming. He wondered if this was how is friends around him felt sometimes.

"Can we take that many?" Drumr asked, his voice steady yet he was masking his fear.

"No, probably not," Smart said. That made Drumr even more worried. This trail was here for a reason. If they fell, then they would be failing their friends.

His fear instantly melted into anger. He and Smart *had* to succeed, or their friends would fail as well.

"They're closing from right and left!" Smart cried in warning.

"As soon as they break the trees, we run."

"What?!" Smart shouted.

The shadow-men broke through the trees.

"Run!"

### Chapter 35

By talmid 11-29-2014 10:42 PM

Sir Talmid did not usually feel fear, and he did not feel fear seeing Egelathus, Master of the Quakes, step from within the Trail of Flames to destroy them, as he said.

No indeed, fear he did not feel.  Rather, Sir Talmid felt tired.  He wanted to sleep.  He had just helped finish off a giant Pizza which very nearly finished him off, and now Egelathus, Master of the Quakes, would certainly finish him off if Sir Talmid dared take him alone!

So it was a good thing the Knigth was not taking on Egelathus alone.

Sir Talmid raised his sword.  Ready to charge, he ordered, "Attack the Master of Quakes!" though it came out hoarsely from his parched throat. With or without hearing it, his comrades and allies were ready for Egelathus, or so they all hoped.  Sir Thingguy and Sir Luke lead the charge, but before they got to within ten meters of the massive Egelathus' approaching form, they were thrown off their feet by a powerful shaking of the earth beneath them.  Shockwaves tore through the Knights' ranks with each of Egelathus' superhuman steps, not allowing them to aid in getting closer to Egelathus - rather, Egelathus was advancing on them!

Sir Talmid crawled his way over to Thingguy and Luke, who were trying to get to their feet.  Thingguy was able to rise, and as the distance between he and Egelathus closed, the Knight was able to swing his sword at Egelathus, but his unsteadiness hampered the strength of the blow.  It glanced, and then an arrow flew past Egelathus' head.  Sir Talmid turned to see Sir Chewchew farther back holding a bow he was attempting to reload.  It was amazing he could let loose even that first shot!

"HA HA HA!!!" shouted Egelathus.  "YOU CANNOT DEFEAT THE MASTER OF QUAKES!!!  YOU WILL ALL BE SMASHED TO DUST!!!"

"We need a plan!" screamed Sir Luke.

Sir Talmid then had an idea involving intertial dampeners.  "Get-eth to the rockets!"

### Chapter 36

By DrumR02 12-08-2014 06:52 PM

As Drumr ran down the trail with Smart, enemies behind him, he wondered if his life would EVER be peaceful. Probably not. He had never led a peaceful life, probably would never.

"What directions are they coming from?" Drumr demanded.

"Behind us! Only behind us!" Smart panted, clearly already tired of running.

Drumr pushed his friend in front of him. That way the enemy would have to go through him to get to Smart.

He then got an idea. In the old war, there was something called Probability Of Smashing, or POS for short. His idea had a VERY high POS rate, for him at least.

He wheeled around, drawing his sword. He could buy Smart a few minutes, but only that. There were hundreds of thousands of them closing on him. He was good, but not that good.

"What're you doing?" Smart cried out.

"Go! I can buy you a few minutes if I give them someone to hunt!" Drumr yelled.

"Drum! No! You'll be smashed for sure!" his friend had tears in his eyes.

"Go!"

And with that, Drumr cut down a butch of trees, quickly making them into a wall between he and Smart.

He heard Smart's voice behind the logs, "Drum! Don't do this!"

"I can buy you a few minutes! Trust me! I'll meet you down the trail! You may need the head start!"

The enemy came into spitting distance. Drumr charged. He felt renewed energy. He was fighting for the survival of his friend. A while later, Drumr risked a glance down at his watch. Ten minutes it had been! He headed towards his wall, smashing enemies left and right.

He reached the wall, opened the hatch on the bottem, climbed to the other side, and closed it. Smart was nowhere to be seen. Drumr took off down the trail, hoping his wall would buy a few minutes more.

### Chapter 37

By talmid 12-08-2014 08:58 PM

Lady Jonna, Lady Comical Crafty, and Sir Chewchew were closest to the rockets, however Sir Chewchew was too occupied with arming his bow to follow Sir Talmid's order of, "Get-eth"ing "to the rockets".  He manage to aim another arrow and he let it fly towards Egelathus.  It struck the giant being, and he responded with a bellowing, superhuman roar that blasted every knight backwards and overpowered the planet's gravitational pull on the rockets sitting on its surface as well.  Everything and everyone flew for a few seconds.

Sir Dagget saw only sky and trees and then the plastic hull of a rocket directly in front of him.  He screamed but his voice was cut off on impact when his head struck the rocket's nosecone.  He slumped to the ground and saw stars, but then he remembered Sir Talmid's instructions.  The knight shook his head and stood up, searching for the opening to the rocket's cockpit.  But it was nowhere to be seen on the fuselage!  Rather, the rocket was on its side and he had to climb over it.  Then he wanted to scream again, as he ran into another obstacle.  The glass canopy was closed and he did not have a key to get in, as he realized this was Sir Thingguy's rocket, and it was locked.

"Ugh." Dagget muttered.  He did not have time for locks.  He kicked the glass, shattering it and then maneuvering himself into an awkward sideways position inside the rocket's seat.  He flipped some switches to power the rocket up, and its computer hummed as the rocket started itself up. There was a roar as the engine fired once, and then it died down.  However the computer was up and running, and it automatically fired the rocket's antigravity thrusters to right itself and begin levitating above the ground.

"Now what am I supposed to do with this?" Sir Dagget thought as he aimed the rocket toward Egelathus', the Master of Quakes' big form.  Ram him, perhaps?  Or had Sir Talmid a more refined idea?

"Who cares," thought Dagget.  He gripped the controls and prepared for blast off.

### Chapter 38

By DrumR02 12-10-2014 07:37 PM

Luckily, Drumr had always been a fast runner. He bolted down the trail.

Still, it would take him a while to catch up to Smart. So he stripped off his armor to run faster.

The armor clanked to the ground. He stopped for a moment, looking at it.

"Heroes, even if they're pathetic heroes like me, don't need armor," Drumr muttered. "A hero isn't invinceable. A hero just has the guts to do what's right."

And he took off down the trail again.

In thirty minutes, he was cauught up to Smart, who was panting quite a bit and going pretty slow.

"Hey!" Drumr said.

Smart jumped ten feet up, litteraly, and bonked his head on a tree branch. He hit the ground, mumbling, "Ow."

He looked at Drumr. "Where's your armor?" Smart asked.

"I threw it away, so to speak," Drumr said.

"I won't ask; you're totally hopeless," Smart moaned, although Drumr knew his friend was joking. He smiled. Back to normal: joking around.

Drumr laughed and said, "Let's go see what this trail wants to show us."

He ran down the burning path, with Smart right behind him. At last, when even Drumr was out of breath, they were at a large generator. The trail stopped there.

"This must be important," muttered Drumr.

He suddenly saw twenty shadow men appear from behind the generator. So Drumr did the natural thing: he ran to the generator.

When he got to it, he heard voices coming from inside of it.

"I don't care! I want this generator guarded! So what if the Master of Quakes can't stop the Knights?" came a grumpy voice, deep and loud.

"But, sir, the Master of Quakes needs reenforcements!" another voice, even deeper still.

"This generator is what powers the Unstoppable Fortress, which the Knights are headed right towards! If this reamains running, they'll never survive it's defenses. If it is deactivated, however..."

Then, Drumr saw a hatch. With Smart behind him, he climbed in. And if their friends were going to survive, this thing had to go down.

### Chapter 39

By chewchew34 12-11-2014 09:23 PM

The Rockets rammed into the giant and exploded in a myriad of colors and bright flames. Luckily the Knights jumped out of the Rockets before the spectacle and watched it with amusement. Egethalus was smashed, and the fight over, thanks to the efforts of Sir Talmid. But one knight was missing! Alas! Sir Chewchew layed on the ground before the peices of Egethalus, out cold. The Knights rushed up to him and called for him to awaken, but he did not, for he fought another battle within his head...

**Inside Chewchew's head**

*"Where am I?"* Chewchew called out, into a thick mist. He was unaware of where he was, or what had happened to the other Knights. *"Sir Talmid?"* he called out. Instead of Talmid's calming voice, he got a booming one. **"Welcome to your head Chewchew! I have long been dormant, and the Trail of Flames has awoken me from my slumber! I know come to claim what is mine! YOU!!"** Out of the mist flew a dark object, which slammed into Chewchew. He tried depserately to rip it off, but it slowly started to envelope his body. *"Nooooo!!!"* he yelled out in vain, before his head was covered. Then, his mind went blank.

**In the Real World**

Chewchew's eyes shot open and he sat up. The Knights gathered around him let out a collective sigh. "We thought you were a goner!" Dagget exclaimed. "You were laying there and we tho- gahk!" Chewchew hand had shot out and grabbed his neck. He stared at Dagget, his eyes a dark purple, and black veins sprouting from them. He slowly stood up and then threw Dagget back, where he crashed into a rock. The Knights gasped in horror at him, and he let out a gutteral growl and threw his arms out, and The Knights were thrown backwards. Sir Shadow stood up and stared at him, Chewchew staring back. After what seemed like forever, Chewchew jumped into the Trail of Flames, disappearing, The Knights all got back up and went to Shadow. "What was THAT!?" Talmid asked. "He's been taken over by his darkness..." Sir Shadow said, a grim look on his face.

### Chapter 40

By DrumR02 12-15-2014 08:01 PM - last edited on ‎12-15-2014 08:12 PM by LEGOModerationTeam

Drumr never knew that a whole generator could be shut off this a single press of a button. But across the large room he saw a button labled **OFF BUTTON**.

Sadly, it was guarded by three men in full black armor with wicked swords in their hands. Two more men sat in chairs next to them. They were probably the ones Drumr had heard talking. All five men noticed the two intruders.

Without any words to each other, the knights charged Drumr and Smart. Drumr drew his blade, which was apparantly creepy enough to them that they stalled, but only for a moment.

However, during that moment, Drumr skillfully lunged underneath one of the men and stabbed at his back. To his surprize, the blade cut through the armor like paper. The man smashed instantly.

One down, four to go.

The men at the table stood up. They both drew small two-foot Roman-style short swords.

Faster than they could react, Drumr leaped in and slashed at one, smashing him. The other one went down a few seconds later.

Two left.

Drumr wheeled around to find.... smashed minifigure parts.

Smart was standing behind them, a laser in his hand.

"Two outta five ain't bad," he said.

"We gotta push that button!" Drumr hurried to the button, pressing it.

"Off button pressed. Power shutting down. Generator self-destruct in tee minus one minute," said a robotic voice from somewhere around us.

Realizing where they were, the two heroes scrambled for the exit hatch. Drumr heaved it open, and they both climbed out. Although exhausted, they started running from the generator.

"Which way to get to the Knights?" Drumr shouted.

"Left!" Smart yelled.

~to be continued...~

~cont.~

An hour later, Drumr's fist slammed at Chewchew's face, knocking him out cold.

What had happened was Drumr and Smart had found the Trail of Flames and ran along it, to find Sir Chewchew running along with bulging purple eyes. Sir Shadow had appeared behind Chewchew, his voice warning Drumr not to trust Chewchew. So Drumr had knocked him out.

Sir Shadow reached him, and the old enchanter had been at jogging speed, which had amazed Drumr. Talmid and Thingguy appeared behind him, and upon seeing Chewchew unconsious, they had spotted Drumr and Smart. The rest of the Knights appeared behind the hill.

Drumr had never felt so at home with friends. There were bear hugs and Welcome Backs all around. All the while Sir Shadow kept his eyes fixed on Sir Chewchew. Eventually the commotion died, and Drumr and Smart exchanged stories with the other Knights.

Drumr explained how he and Smart had fought the strange shadow-men who worked for thedude up until the point  where they got to the generator, where Smart took up the story. He explained how they had found their way back after destroying the generator.

Then Sir Dagget, Sir Talmid, and Sir Luke explained how they had defeated Peter the Pizza and then fought the Master of Quakes.

After that, Smart rigged a special prison for Sir Chewchew so that he wouldn't attack them anymore. The cage was rigged to float alongside the Knights so they didn't have to carry it. Also, the metal was indestructable.

After that, all the Knights praised Smart for his geniousness, and Sir Luke called a toast to them all being together again. Then they set up camp and called it a night.

### Chapter 41

By fffffplayer1 12-20-2014 08:57 AM

  Two wicked yellow eyes watched the Knights as they camped for the Knight. He found the reunion annoying. Not that it really changed his plans, but he found emotions irritating. He heard someone moving behind him.

    "You sent Egelathus, Verdon?" he asked.

    "Yes, sir! You told m-" the man replied with fear.

    "I *know* what I said! You don't have to repeat it!" his cold voice was coloured with anger "You sent that idiot thinking he'd do anything? I wanted you to weaken them, not warm them up! And especially him!"

    "It won't happen again, sir, I assu-" the man said terrified, but he was interrupted again.

    "I know it won't! You will have one more try!" he told the man and the latter seemed to be relieved. He smiled wickedly at his ignorance "Go fight them yourself! And don't bother to come back unless he is smashed! Which I doubt you'll succeed!"

    The man was desperate now. His mouth was gaping open and utter fear was reflected on his eyes. Verdon realised what he was being sent to, but he knew that if he did not obey his master a worse fate awaited him. And so with no other word, Verdon turned around and left for his unavoidable doom. . .

### Chapter 42

By DrumR02 05-30-2015 07:23 PM

The Knights woke in the morning to a hot, humid air. It was a kind of climate the Drumr hated. He preffered cooler weather, and it slowed him down to fight in hot weather.

Everybody was sweating by the time they packed up everything and started moving down the trail again. There was no wind, and the sun was beating down on them like a hammer.

After a few minutes, they came to a hill. Suddenly, as they were climbing, Shadow cried out, "Look out!"

A man hurtled down the hill, a sword in his hand. His eyes burned with hate and something else Drumr knew, a feeling he had had many times.

Fear.

Drumr drew his sword, and heard the ring of nearly a dozen other swords being drawn.

The man still charged, and he seemed to be aiming at Shadow, though Drumr didn't know why. He stepped to intercept, but he was being worn down by heat.

The man swung his sword and disarmed Drumr the first blow. He hit Drumr with the sword and knocked him back onto the ground, bleeding from a wound in his arm. The man charged at Shadow, who cast an incantation, and a sheild appeared around him before the man could swing his sword.

Drumr got back up, sputtering dirt out of his mouth. The other knights had begun to surround the stranger, who did the only thing he could think of: he hit Dagget, who was standing close nearby, and knocked him out cold, bleeding from a cut on his forehead, then ran through the gap.

Drumr, having been in a war, knew that the wound wasn't deep enough to smash Dagget, but he would need medical aid.

The other knights knelt down beside Dagget to see how he was doing. Sir Luke and a couple others gaurded Sir Shadow, and Drumr saw Sir Talmid run after the man into the woods.

Picking up his sword, Drumr followed as fast as he could.

to be continued...

-Drumr

### Chapter 43

By drumr2 05-30-2015 08:22 PM

Drumr shot into the woods, as fast as he could, racing after the man. He knew what he had to do.

He caught up to the man after two minutes, and Sir Talmid was nowhere in sight.

He pinned him up against a tree. The man struggled, but couldn't break free. Drumr said, "You don't have to do this. I can keep you safe from that scary master."

The man froze. "How can you gaurantee that?" he spat. "My master is unstoppable. He will rip me to pieces."

"If you believe you will lose, then you will. Stop believing that!"

The man shook his head. "You don't understand."

Drumr just shook his head and said, "You have a name and a mission, am I right?"

The man inhaled sharply before saying, "I am Verdon, and I have been sent to smash Sir Shadow of the Knights of the Olde Speach."

"You will fail if you do that," said Drumr.

"My master is worse," warned Verdon. "He can smash all of you Knights if he wanted too. He is one of the most powerful beings you will ever know, and quite possibly the last."

"Verdon, why don't you come with me, and you can aid us in our quest?" Drumr knew that this was the right thing to do.

Verdon brightened. "I suppose, it's better than getting smashed right now.

Then Talmid stepped out of the trees. Before Drumr could say anything, Talmid said, "I heard it all. Don't worry, I agree that it was the right thing to do. Now let us head back."

In a few minutes, they reached the others.

And by the looks of it, Sir Talmid and Sir Drumr had a lot of explaining to do for Verdon being in the middle of everybody.

### Chapter 44

By fffffplayer1 05-31-2015 04:15 PM

    Sir Talmid explained about Verdon, while Sir Drumr's injury was tended. Yet, Sir Shadow did not seem as ready to accept Verdon's change of mind as the others.

    "*Who* is this master that you speak of?" he asked after Talmid was finished.

    Verdon looked at him warily, especially when Sir Wiz sniffed him.

    "My master is my master! He is the Master! I have no name for him!"

    "Did he send Egelathus, too?"

    "Yes!"

    "What does he have to do with the Trail of Flames?"

    "Come on, Wiz! Don't be so harsh on him! You can see he's frightened!" Lady Jonna spoke.

    "His fear is no reason to blindly trust him or forget he just attacked us. All I see is the servan of a cruel master that fears of the punishment his failure will bring! Tell me about the Trail"

    "Na... nothing! He just came because he knew you'd come to inspect it!"

    "But he seems to feel remorse for his actions!" Lady Ruby said after some of them left Verdon to discuss.

    "His only regret is that he became the accomplice of such a dangerous man. For himself not for others! If you noticed, he still calls that man Master! He still holds power on Verdon! If he came now and called him to his side, Verdon would go! And if that man is who I think he is, he does have the power to keep people under his command!"

    They were all surprised to see Sir Shadow being so harsh. He usually was not like that. But they were more shocked to hear he had an idea of who that Master was.

    "You know who's after you?" Sir Luke asked.

    "It's only a guess!"

    "Who do you think it is?" Jonna enquired.

    "A man from my past that I wished not to see again, but knew I would in the end!"

    He said no more.

    The Master smiled from afar. He knew what had happened. Verdon had done better than he expected. No! It was the Knights who had been more foolish! But he knew! Just like Wiz Ardon, he knew Verdon was his servant still. The two of them always understood better. Especially each other. . .

### Chapter 45

By DrumR02 05-31-2015 07:12 PM

After his wound was tended, Drumr and the rest of the Knights of the Olde Speach continued down the trail of flames. They traveled for a few hours, until finally Sir Luke called a rest

They had gotten into a mountain pass, and Drumr was very worried that they might be ambushed. For one thing, there were caves everywhere large enough to hold several thousand soldiers, and there could always be men on the mountains.

Sir Luke, Sir Talmid, Sir Shadow, and Lady Jonna started talking about what to do next. Everybody else did their own thing for a while.

After a few minutes, Sir Talmid came over to Sir Drumr and told him he was to patroll the area with Sir Dagget and Sir Chewchew.

Drumr led the group around the perimeter, and he was about to go report back when he saw movement from a small tree line on his right.

He whispered to the others what he saw, and ordered Dagget to go and fetch help. Something told him that this was more than a theif.

He drew his sword and faced the tree line when he heard branches breaking and leaves crackling. Out of the trees came at least two hundred shadow-men.

Then the worst thing possible happened. The Destroyer again took control of his mind, and he cruppled to his knees, unable to move. It was all he could do to keep the Destroyer from completely taking him over.

"Drum!" yelled Sir Chewchew. Drumr managed to lift his head and, to his horror, they were closing. He wasn't sure that Chewchew could take them all, and Sir Drumr was completely useless.

Chewchew yelled a battle cry, and charged the shadow-men. They made swords appear in their hands and faced Sir Chewchew.

The fight had begun, and Drumr was lying useless on the ground.

### Chapter 46

By talmid 05-31-2015 11:49 PM

Having sent Sirs Drum, Dagget, and Chewchew on patrol, Sir Talmid awaited their report, and in the meanwhile, after a short discussion with the groups' other leaers, he sat down to meditate.  Eyelids shut, his senses tuned to nothing but the motions of his mind, the knight pondered the meaning of all that had happened thus far.  They had an enemy they did not know, with minions without faces drawn from shadow.  And an accomplice, Verdon, upon he the wise Sir Shadow did not bestow his trust.

Then the sound of battle was upon the camp.

"To arms!" Sir Talmid heard Sir Luke shout, and he jumped to his feet, unsheathing his sword and twisting his head around.  Creatures of shadow had materialized out of the walls, all around, and were closing in on the resting knights, but they were quick to respond to the threat.

*What of Sir Drum, Sir Dagget, and Sir Chewchew?* Sir Talmid thought, but he was not able to worry about them now.  The shadow men had caught them split and tired, and they were weaker when separated.  Still, the knights were skilled and able bodied.  Sir Talmid turned to the shadows' nearest advancement, and once within range he brought his sword to bear.

Metal met with shadow, and before materializing weaponry of their own many shadows were removed from the air.  The remaining shadows drew tangible swords, battle axes, bows, and arrows.  Sir Talmid could take on many, but one shadow seemed particularly skilled with a sword, and required all of Sir Talmid's attention.  The other shadow men went past the duel, interested in surrounding and engaging the other knights.

"At last we fight," the shadow's voice hissed like a whisper amidst a wind's howl.  "I have fought with many of my kind in preparation for our fight, to procure the honor of defeating a leader of our enemy.  The Knights of the Old Speech are our enemy."

"Thou can attempt an attempt to defeat me," Sir Talmid said through grit teeth, "but I doubt thou art truly prepared for a defeating us all."

### Chapter 47

By DrumR02 06-01-2015 09:06 AM

Sir Drumr was still imoblized on the ground when the shadow-men managed to knock down Sir Chewchew. They held swords over them, and it was all over. They had lost.

They were escorted into the tree line (though Drumr had to be dragged, as he couldn't walk). There were a couple of caves beyond the tree lines, and Drumr realized they were leading them into one.

Then a miircle happened. Sir Drumr was let free of the evil mind in his own, and he grinned his wicked I'm-going-to-get-you-and-you-can't-stop-me grin.

He had expierience with this shadow-men, and he knew how to beat them. He flipped over the one behind him, and the men released him with a startled yelp. He landed on the one holding the swords of Sirs Drumr and Chewchew and smashed him.

He threw a sword sword to Sir Chewchew. The fight had again begun, and this time Drumr was in it.

Faster than lightning, he took his sword and slashed down the shadow-men. Sir Chewchew was near the front, and hacking his way to Sir Drumr. Drumr was surprized that Sir Chewchew couldn't hack them down as fast as Drumr could, and then he realized: he had expierience fight them, and no other man in the group, save Smart, had th smae experience.

After a few minutes, the shadow-men were finished. The last one ran away screaming. The two knights raced back to camp, to find that it was a war zone. Smart and Dagget were unconcious. Talmid was in for the fight of his life, and the rest of the knights were in a circle, protecting Dagget and Smart.

Chewchew ran to help the others, and Drumr leaped to help Sir Talmid.

Sir Talmid was dueling with a shadow-man nearly as good as he was. Sir Drumr leaped to Talmid's side, startling the shadow-man. Sir Talmid used this to his utmost advantage, pushing the shadow-man several feet in the direction of the rocks in front of him.

Together, Sirs Drumr and Talmid forced the shadow-man back into the rock, where Drumr disarmed him and Talmid smashed him with a single swift blow from his sword.

Never saying a word, they leaped into the rest of the enemy, already being crushed by the other Knights. Smart and Dagget had regained conciousness, and Smart was shooting the shadow-men with a small laser, and Sir Dagget did the same.

After a couple of minutes, only one was left, which was smashed by Sir Luke, who claimed the honor of finishing off the appononent. The whole group cheered and yelled and stomped their feet in victory, and Dagget and Chewchew shot arrows into the sky with their bows.

By now it was nearly night time, and the group made camp and settled in. Sir Drumr however knew he wouldn't be able to sleep, and volunteered for first watch. Soon Talmid came to take his place. Drumr went and got some sleep.

In the morning, they set out again, and by the time they stopped for lunch they were begining to escalate a snow-covered mountain. They all knew by the way things looked that it was going to be a trecherous journey over the mountains.

"Not much father!" yelled Sir Luke, leading the group as it escalated the steep mountain. "We're almost to a resting point!"

The path was narrow and very slippery. On their right was a drop-off, on their left a cliff face.

Finally they reached the small cave they ad singled out as a resting point, halfway up the mountain, and stopped. Everybody was freezing, and rest was required. So Sir Dagget took watch and the others got some rest.

### Chapter 48

By talmid 06-02-2015 06:48 PM

Like before, they rested undisturbed, though not exactly uneventful. In the fourth hour, on Sir Universe's watch, the knight thought he detected motion under a ledge farther down the mountain.  A streak of pitch black darker than the night.  Shadowmen, of course.  By daybreak all the knights knew they were being watched, and Sir Thingguy advised everyone to to watch themselves, and to make periodic head counts in case anyone got snatched. Sir Shadow and Lady Ruby took the rear guard, the former stating that as a master of enchanting, he could not be nabbed so easily, and just in case something did happen he would not be alone without Lady Ruby.

They kept Verdon close to the front, where almost everyone could see him.  Many times the procession had to advance in single file, edging along the cliff face and a multi-story drop to a lower canyon.

Up ahead, a cloud of fog appeared.  Already visbility was poor, Sir Luke noted from up front, and with the fog things could only get worse. He gave the order to stop, and the march halted.  To Sir Seton next to him, Lukesaid, "Go back and ask Sir Shadow if he has any tricks up his magical sleeve to remove this fog.  Or perhaps give us an overhead view of this location."  He narrowed his eyes, not able to discern what lay inside the fog.  "This is the perfect place for an ambush."

Sir Seton nodded, and headed backwards to group's rear.  But after walking past the last of the knights, he realized that Sir Shadow and Lady Ruby were not there!  The knight gave a cry of alarm before almost fainting.

"They couldn't have fallen off," Sir Talmid pondered, as news spread.  "Or could they have?  I seriously doubt it, not them, not us.  We're not that clumsy."

"Then they must have been captured." Lady Jonna said. "They could have been captured and held back in one of the caves."

"We have to go back for them." Sir Drumr stated.  "We can't leave them, if they are really captured."

"I like it better than going through the fog." Sir Luke said.

All voted in favor of no knight left behind.  Back down the mountain they went, down the single-file way and back to the wider path where caves lay.  There were three of them here, all looking dark and deep.  They knew nothing of them or where they went to, or if they were separate or joined farther back.

Sir Talmid made another counting, and all the knights except those missing were still there.  He stepped forwards.  "I'll go in." he volunteered.  Many other knights stepped over to join him.

"We shouldn't all go in," Luke said, "in case we get trapped.  But to not spread ourselves too thin we should split into two groups; one will stay outside and guard while the other checks the caves one at a time."

"And we'll report back every five minutes." Sir Talmid added.

With that, Sir Talmid and those who joined him, Sir Drumr, Sir Dagget, Lady Jonna, Sir Shard, and Sir Blaze all entered the first cave.  They held torches, but also their swords, so as not to be caught unprepared.  The first cave was shallow, though, and after searching all around it they found it to be empty.  They returned before five minutes, reported to Sir Luke, and went into the second cave.

This cave was narrower but longer, and at one point it branched off into two paths.  They searched one, which came to a dead end, before returning back outside, then they went back in for the other path.

This path entered into a large chamber full of wooden equipment, carts, and wagons, and there was also an exit to the other side of the mountain, Sir Talmid estimated by the length they walked and the light he could see reflecting in from that path.  But there was also another path to explore.  If there were signs of people here, there could be more in there.

"We'll search this path," Sir Talmid said, "then return to the others, unless...." he let his voice trail.  Sir Shadow and Lady Ruby could be there, and if they were in there, they would have to fight.

### Chapter 49

By fffffplayer 1 06-03-2015 07:20 AM

    Meanwhile, while the Knights of the Olde Speech searched for their friends back in the caves, they did not realise Sir Shadow and Lady Ruby were still in the front at the fogged part. But let's go a little back in time to understand what happened.

    "Go back and ask Sir Shadow if he has any tricks up his magical sleeve to remove this fog" Sir Luke said to Sir Seton "Or perhaps give us an overhead view of this location"

    Naturally, Sir Shadow did not hear them in such distance. But at the same moment Sir Shadow started having a bad feeling. He had not seen the fog, yet, nor did Ruby who was behind him. They kept walking after the other Knights.

    Sir Seton was coming to bring Sir Luke's message, but Sir Shadow and Lady Ruby did not see any of that. On the contrary, they saw all the Knights keep going. And then they saw the last one in front of them, Dagget, disappear into the fog, which they just now noticed.

    "I do not like the look of this fog! And I have this growing sensation of something bad happening!" Wiz told Ruby.

    "But don't you have something up your sleeve to get rid of the fog?" Ruby asked.

    Wiz looked inside his sleeve "I indeed do, but why did the others not ask me, too? Something is odd here!"

    He raised his arms and focused on the fog. Nothing happened.

    "This fog seems to be magically enhanced! It will not dissipate or part! We have to pass through! And we must find the Knights! Quick!"

    Then, the old man started running surprisingly fast and without showing any difficulty that indicated the need of a staff for walking. Ruby started running after him into the fog.

    However, soon he came to a stop. When Ruby caught up with him, he was not panting!

    "There's been some devilry here! They couldn't have gone further than this point, but they are not here! We need to go back! The Knights of the Olde Speech have disappeared!"

    Yet, as they started going back they seemed to be covering a distance longer than the one they'd done before and the fog was still around them!

    "The fog couldn't have spread so much in this little time!" Ruby said.

    "We seem to have fallen into a trap! It's a magical fog, it seems and I jumped right into it like a fool!"

    "What do we do now?" Ruby asked.

    They could barely make out each other's figures, there seemed to be no way of escape if the fog extended eternally both ways and there was always the chance of falling into the cliff next to them.

    "Let me think!" Shadow told her.

    They stood there for a while, as he thought. At some points he seemed to mutter something to himself, while at others he seemed to cast some incantations perhaps to check something.

    Then, all of a sudden he shouted "Duck!"

    "Shadow, I honestly don't think it's the time for this!"

    "No, the verb! Du-" he tried to say, but then a piano fell upon him.

    "Ohh! The verb!" Ruby realised her mistake as the piano smashed into pieces on the ground (and Shadow).

    Before she could help him, though, Shadowmen slided down the cliff face and others climbed from the cliff ledge (the other cliff). Now, Ruby was alone against twenty Shadowmen. . .

### Chapter 50

By DrumR02

06-03-2015 09:56 AM

Just as the Knights were about to charge into the back of the cave (and might find emptiness), Lady Jonna had an idea.

"Didn't Smart put tracking devices on everybody just in case anybody got lost?"

Sir Talmid replied, "Yes, I believe so. Why?"

Sir Drumr stated, "He did?"

"Yes," Sir Talmid told him. "While Verdon was being discussed, he put tracking devices on everybody."

"That's Smart for you. I should've known he'd do something like that." Drumr said.

Lady Jonna continued, 'Well, why can't Smart just have a look at the tracker thingie of his?"

"It's a lot better than going through cave-by-cave," agreed Sir Shard.

And so it was. The group headed out of the cave.

"Back already?" said Sir Luke. "I assume it was empty?"

"T'was not fully checked," said Sir BLaze, "But we have something better to do than check every cave."

Sir Luke narrowed his eyes the slightest bit before saying, "Go on."

"Smart has that tracking device if you recall," said Sir Dagget. 'Well, we just use that, and it's so much easier than searching every last cave."

"we shall give it a try," declared Sir Luke. He nodded to Smart, who stood in the middle of the group, and he pulled out a small device.

"They're in the fog!" gasped Smart.

The whole group was shocked. How had that happened? Sir Shadow and Lady Ruby had to have been snatched! They were in the back of the group!

But there was no time for questions now. And so the group, led by Smart and Sir Luke, advanced the fog cautiously.

"I can't pick up where they are in the fog. It appears to be magical," warned Smart. "And I'm reading weird signals on my life detector. Keep your weapons drawn, and your senses sharper than iron."

The whole group nodded and drew weapons before cautiously advancing into the fog.

### Chapter 51

By fffffplayer1 06-03-2015 02:28 PM

    Meanwhile, inside the fog, Lady Ruby unsheathed her sword just in time to smash the first Shadowman that came near her. However, in the short time it took for this to happen, four more had come around her.

    The Lady Knight started blocking attacks furiously, but some attacks still hit her. For now, the swords just bounced off on her chain mail, but even that would break eventually. In the meantime, three more Shadowmen joined the fight while the others surrounded them taunting Lady Ruby. They knew there was no need for more of them to engage in combat. No matter how talented the girl was she couldn't take seven different opponents at the same time.

    Someone grabbed her sword-arm, but she just used that arm to punch him. The Shadowman let go and retreated, because he had also been hurt by the sword. Another took his place. However, this gave the chance to the others to achieve a blow on her. Three swords fell upon her and the two managed to pierce her panoply. She was injured.

    The woman yelled due to the sudden pain the cold blades caused her. At the same time, she felt the Shadowmen grabbing her two arms and raising her above the ground, while someone else took her sword. The Shadowmen did noy smas her. They wanted to play with their food.

    Yet, all of a sudden, Sir Wiz emerged from the splinters of the wrecked piano.

    "Aha!" he shouted "Now, I realise that the flaw of the Transfiguration Law of Hambton can be avoided, if we condider that the magical energy required is equal to the final object or animal complexity plus the original object or animal complexity raised to the power of two!"

    He seemed not to realise the existence of other people around him and to be talking to himself. They couldn't see it, but his eyes had a look that indicated a mixture of tranquility and madness.

    Two Shadowmen decided they were being threatened by the presence of the mad enchanter, so they started running towards him.

    However, as they approached, Sir Shadow spoke again, still loudly: "No, Descartes! Still, that doesn't mean you can doubt a square has four sides!". While he said that he raised his hands and flames erupted from it towards the Shadowmen burning them.

    Everyone had stopped to watch what the Enchanter was to do. The Shadowmen seemed afraid to approach him. Wiz started walking, to Ruby's terror, towards the cliff ledge with big slow steps.

    "No, I can't have tea, right now, I am studying the magical properties of feet!" he announced to someone only he could see apparently "And anyway, I don't drink tea! Perhaps, you could lure me with some other beverage!"

    One more step... and then another... and one more and then Sir Shadow fell face first towards the bottom of the canyon and apparently his doom. . .

### Chapter 52

By DrumR02

06-04-2015 08:38 AM

At the last second, Smart leaped for the foot of Sir Shadow, who was falling off the cliff. Sir Blaze rushed to help him, while the rest of the knights engaged in combat, hacking down anybody in their way.

After a few split seconds the Shadow-men were defeated, and the battle won.

Lady Ruby's injury was treated, and several Knights, including Drumr, guarded the group from any threats that might befall upon them.

Smart was working on trying to get Shadow back in order, but it was slow going.

"I need vast amounts of technology. Magic would be so much easier," Smart stated solemnly.

All of the sudden, Wiz bonked Smart on the head and kicked him backwards, saying, "Oh, for reasons bestowed by the ancestors of fairies, I must remind you that the cube root of seventy is ninty."

He then proceeded to fall onto the ground dramatically. "Oh, you hopeless young elves these days. Can I get some tea? No wait, I don't drink tea. Only in the morning do I eat waffles. Hold my coat, good sir..."

"He's randomly ramblling!" decreed Sir Luke.

"For how many ramble minutes?" joked Sir Dagget.

"Ow... that staff is hard," stated Smart, rubbing his head. After a brief moment, he injected a sleeping antidote into Sir Shadow, and after that Smart worked in quiet peace.

Eerybody else made camp, and Drumr and Sir Blaze were selected to keep watch. Smart was still working, furiously refusing to get rest until his work was done.

In the morning, Smart was stil working, and they had to stay there yet aother day to let Smart do his work on Sir Shadow.

On the second day, Smart still hadn't slept, and he had eaten very little. Finally Sir Luke pulled Drumr aside.

"Sir Drumr," said Luke, "He needs rest. Do you recall that thing that he used to make Sir Shadow go to sleep?"

"Yes, sir. I can give some to him," Sir Drumr said.

Drumr quietly went over to Smart and said, "How's he doing?"

Smart didn't hear him. "Gotta redirect the bootstrap dimension files... No, wait, that would mess up the primary directive..."

"Smart!" yelled Sir Drumr. Still his friend did not hear him.

"This is odd..." Now Sir Drumr knew something was wrong. He slipped another vial of Antidote out of Smart's pocked and was about to inject it in when his friend turned to him.

"You can't! I've done so much! I'm nearly done! Give me one more day! Maybe two! PLEASE! I'M BEGGING YOU!" he screamed.

Drumr injected the antidote, and Smart was out in seconds. He put him in one of the tents, and let him rest.

The rest of the day was peacefull. When night came, he got a little rest, then got called out for second watch.

Then he got this feeling. It was hard to explain, but he knew something wasn't right. There was great evil here, something they could not hope to stop.

He ran to camp screaming, "SIR LUKE! WE MUST LEAVE  NOW!!! A GREAT EVIL IS UPON US!

he ran into Luke's tent, and Sir Luke wasn't there. Drumr ran around the camp, rousing the other knights to search. Finally Sir Talmid cried out, "Here he is!"

Sir Luke was lying on the ground. Drumr though maybe he had been attacked when suddenly he got up and started rambling like Sir Shadow.

"Oh no.... Not our leader..." Drumr said.

Lady Jonna turned to Sir Talmid and said, "Until such time as Sir Luke recovers, you are our leader now, Sir Talmid."

"Alright," said Talmid. "We're going to go back down the mountain. I want a head count every thirty feet. Sirs Drumr, Dagget, Blaze, and Chewchew keep wach on everybody, two of you in front and two in back. Dagget and Chewchew, you're in back. Drumr and Blaze, you're frontal guard. I want sharp senses, everybody! Those infected with this rambling sickness, Smart, Shadow, and Luke, are to be carried by several people and given a regular injection of the antidote. Now, LET'S MOVE!"

### Chapter 53

By chewchew34 06-05-2015 12:40 PM

For all the Knights knew, Sir Chewchew was better now, and the darkness that had invaded his mind had fled. The Dark Masters servants had been defeated so far, but much had happened. Throughout this entire time though, Chewchew had not changed ot gotten better. In fact, he was still as evil as ever. But his facade was working *perfectly*. The Knights didn't know any better, and Chewchew, or the darkness invading his mind, thought that was perfect. So it went along with the plan, looking for the perfect time to attack and ruin the plans of the Knights, all for his new Master.

**In Chewchew's head (again):**

"Why are you doing this to me!? And why me?" he asked desperately, losing hope quickly. Within the recesses of his brain, Chewchew lie broken and weak, unable to regain control. It was as if chains of darkness were weighing him down. A dark voice, rich with evil and ill will. ***"Don't fret my dear servant! You are only going to be an instrument in your friends' down-fall!"*** The voice laughed, echoing inside his mind and making him cower in fear. ***"Your friends have gone too far, and now you will be the one to betray them, and bring them to their doom! But don't worry, I will grant you immense power and wealth when the deed is done! But if you don't comply... you'll be smashed."*** The voice laughs wildly and leaves his brain. Chewchew is shivering and can't think. His only thought is that he has to do what the Master wants, or he gets smashed...

**In the Outside World:**

Chewchew body carries along as always, making no physical reaction to what is going on within him. But it knows what the Master wants, and as the Master leaves, giving him his instructions, Chewchew smiles deviously and purple flashes through his eyes once again.

### Chapter 54

By DrumR02 06-08-2015 08:23 AM

The trek down the mountain wasn't much easier than the trek up. It was narrow and slippery. For much of the journey, they had to walk single-file, very slowly.

Finally, Sir Talmid called a rest in a cave. It was getting dark. So they went inside a rather large one, and got some rest.

Sir Drumr woke up at midnight and couldn't fall back asleep, so he decided to get a little fresh air. He checked on those infected with the sickness. It pained him to see his oldest friend in such a state, but he had to carry onwards.

Sir Drumr was surprized to see that Sir Talmid was also getting fresh air outside. He seemed to be depressed.

"Tell me, Sir Drumr, will this ever end?" he muttered without even looking at Sir Drumr.

"Tis' something I cannot tell, as we have lost Smart to the sicknes-" his voice trailed off to realise that this news was making Sir Talmid more depressed.

"You're wondering why I seem depressed," Sir Talmid said. Drumr nodded. Talmid laughed bitterly. "You should see your face then."

"I promise you, Sir Talmid, that if I can I will cure them. I swear it by anything." Sir Drumr said, hoping to make Talmid feel better. Talmid merely nodded.

"We need Smart back," Sir Talmid muttered. "He might be able to get a cure for them."

Sir Drumr went to get some sleep, as he might need it for the voyage ahead.

That night Sir Drumr was in the fog again, in a dream. "Drumr...." a hissing voice said his name.

He spun around. He would have sworn it was behind him.

"Drumr...." He spun around again, drawing his sword. It vaporized in his hands. "Put that thing away..."

"Drumr, If you wish to see your friend cured, come to me, and bring Shadow. In trade for Shadow, I will give you the antidote."

A vial popped up in front of his. It held blue liquid in it. All the sudden there was a man in front of him. The Master.

He kicked Sir Drumr off the sliff, and he fell. At the last moment he woke up.

He looked up to see Sirs Talmid and Blaze holding down Dagget, who was randomly rambling.

### Chapter 55

By fffffplayer1 06-11-2015 03:01 PM

    The next day, they continued descending. However, soon they came to a stop. Dread filled them now. Desperation could not describe what they felt.

    A fog much like the one they'd met higher lay before them obscuring and closing the passage.

    "What are we going to do now?" Lady Jonna asked.

    "I don't think it would be wise to start going up again! We can't keep changing direction every once in a while!"

    "But can we get into the fog?" Sir Dagget asked.

    "Do we have any other choice?" Lady Crafty replied.

    "Rolling down the cliff!" Thingguy suggested, but even he didn't seem to believe it.

    "Into the fog then!" Shard announced.

    There was a moment of silence. As if sensing this would be the greatest moment for nonsense, Sir Shadow suddenly got up.

    "Has he been injected?" Sir Talmid enquired.

    "Just now!" Shard who had been of the ones carrying him replied.

    "The poison! I am fighting the poison! It stops working! My brain activity is increased now!" Wiz told them.

     "What is he talking about?" Sir Drumr wondered.

     "He's talking nonsense, don't bother!" Shard told him.

     Then, suddenly Wiz seemed to have just noticed Shard. His eyes goggled and he grabbed the Knights' shoulders "Chewchew is evil! Just like the teddy bears! Destruction is coming! The teddy bears wanna rule!!!" he exclaimed in a quite upset way "On another thought, I would appreciate the consumption of this preparation you call cookie!" he was now calmer and his eyes were hollow again.

    "What was that for?" Crafty asked, who was next to them.

    "The cake is a lie!" Shadow said.

                                         ~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

    Meanwhile, somewhere else on a snowy cold and very tall mountain, Sir Shadow stood watching the valley below him. Perhaps this was his spirit that was in this location, or perhaps he was at two places at the same time. Who could know?

    Sir Shadow looked at his surroundings. He was at one of the highest points of the mountain and snow was everywhere around. It was actually snowing, so snow was on his hair, beard and clothes, too. At points where the ground was revealed under the snow, he could see it was made of some dark gray-black rock. He was alone.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

    Below him, he could see a green valley split in two by an orange line. That must have been the Trail of Flames. He was surprised to see it end at one point of the valley. Then, after some minutes of examining he realised it was growing, coming towards the mountain he was on. In the distance, he could see some other mountains. Those were not as tall and had no snows, but a thick myserious fog lay all over them.

    He then noticed he was derived of his staff. It was then he wondered how he had come to this place.

    "Greetings, Wiz!" another voice spoke.

    Correction: He was not alone! Another figure stood upon the mountain on a rock a little higher than him. Through the thick snow, Wiz couldn't make out any details, but he was sure who it was.

    "So, it's you! I thought it would be! You have a new name now! The Master! I don't like it! It sounds too... narcissistic! Yet, it suits you in a way! You do want to be the master of all!"

    "Where are your manners, Wiz? Sir Shadow I think they call you now! You don't even greet me!"

    "I do not greet people who I am not happy to see!"

    "Ts ts ts! You misbehave, my dear friend! You shouldn't speak like that to your friends! Do you speak like that to these Knights of Olde Speech? But I do wonder, are you looking healthier, Wiz? Last time I met you, you were an old wrinkled rasin that could barely walk one metre!" he laughed at this.

    "Why have you brought me here?"

    "All in good time, my friend!"

    "I am not your friend!"

    "Very well then! Play time is over, Wiz! Let's talk!".

### Chapter 56

By DrumR02 06-16-2015 09:29 AM

As they were climbing the mountain, Drumr thought he heard creaks and groans, from both in front of and behind them. The other Knights heard them too, because they were looking around nervously.

As they continued up, they heard more and more and more, until eventually, quite a ways from the fog, thousands of shadow-men jumped in front of them. They looked behind them to see thousands more.

They were trapped!

Then Sir Shard muttered, "What in the world...."

A huge shadow covered the valley. The others wouldn't know, but Drumr knew exactly what it was. He smiled and siad into the radio on his belt, "Open up, Gentlemen."

And the mountain exploded around them, sending Shadowmen everywhere. They flew off the cliff as it collappsed under the guns of the Valient. The huge ship fired on their ranks, tearing them up. They didn't stand a chance. All of them fell off the mountain, both in front and behind.

"That was really great and all, but now there's no way to get into that blasted fog," mumbled Sir Talmid.

Sir Drumr smiled. "Oh, I wouldn't be so sure about that." Ropes decended from the Valient and the Knights climbed on board. From there they took off towards the cloud, and little did they know it- the other Sir Shadow with the Master, and possibly the last flight of the Valient.

### Chapter 57

By talmid 06-17-2015 01:57 PM

"A ship?" Sir Talmid exclaimed incredulously once they were inside.  "We get to use a ship?"

"Yes," Sir Shard said, "and we'd better start using it now!"

All of the knights were seated inside the *Valiant*'s cockpit then, as the Shadowmen began to regroup and melt into each other; a large, black mass like smoke began to pillar from the mountain's remains upwards towards the Valiant.

At the helm, Sir DrumR gave the *Valiant* more power, ascending faster and faster above where the Shadowmen could reach.  Then he switched a lever to full, pouring power into the primary thrusters and sending them far away from the blasted mountain, considering all meanings of the phrase "blasted mountain".

The imposterous Sir Shadow grinned to himself as he removed one of the Valiant's wall panels, in the ship's sensor room.  He had become an egomaniac ever since The Master had provided him - and him only!  He was so special - with the power of light-bending and illusion, and now, impersonating the great Sir Shadow himself, The Imposter felt beyond giddy.

The Imposter could grin all he wanted, and no one would notice with his light-bending illusion in place.  To the rest of the knights, he would be undetectable by their eyes.

But he also knew that the Valiant would be able to see past his guise. The Valiant was a machine, with sensors able to "see" beyond his trick of the light.  That was why he was now in the Valiant's sensor room.  He'd already opened up the access panel he would need to get inside to disable the Valiant's sensors.  The gullible Knights would not be able to detect him that way.  His plan was flawless.

Suddenly, footsteps.  The Imposter was about to remove a section of wiring when Lady Ruby entered the room.

"Hey, Sir Shadow," the knight said.  "I just wanted to say thanks, for back at the mountain."

Distracted, The Imposter removed a few too many wires, and with a disheartening noise of a power drain, the Valiant was plunged into darkness.

### Chapter 58

By fffffplayer 1 06-18-2015 07:16 AM

    "Wait!" Ruby remembered something "When did you get better? Get rid of the sickness?"

    'Sir Shadow' looked at her wincing.

~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

    "So, what do you want?" Sir Shadow, the one on the snowy mountain demanded.

    "Ooh! But what I've always wanted! To destroy you! Well, not always! Ever since I saw you didn't want to join me! We both know, Wiz, that there are only the two of us who possess such powers in this time or perhaps any time! If you oppose me, I have to destroy you first! Until now, I've been playing! Now is time for the check mate! You have come here with your friends! Very foolish of yours! You know I can hurt them now! Look at them they're heading here now!"

    The Master was right. A spaceship was crossing the skies leaving the fogged mountain, which seemed to have been... blasted. It was heading for the snowy mountain, probably following the Trail of Flames, whose end was now hidden by the mountain itself.

    "And then why have you brought me here? I know all of that!"

    "I ask you to come to me! The real one, not your spirit! Without your staff and without your friends though these wouldn't make any difference anyway. Come for the final battle! Otherwise, your friends will suffer! One by one, you'll see them gone!"

    To stress his point, he moved his arm towards the flying ship and it changed direction, going downwards. The ship was falling. . .

    Shadow woke up. He was in pain. There was a thunderous noise of crashing around him. The metal walls around him seemed were wrecked at several places. Flames were everywhere. Through holes in the walls, he could see what used to be the interior of the Valiant. It was in a terrible state. Other Knights were conscious and trying to help the rest, or trapped under something, while others were unconscious.

    Shadow was in what seemed to previously have been the storeroom. In his delirious state, someone must have placed him in there.

   Sir Shadow thought of what the Master had told him. He couldn't let his friends be hurt. He wanted to help them now that many of them must be injured due to the crash. However, he was sure the Master wouldn't approve of this. Plus, this was the best time for him to leave when no one had his attention on him.

    With a wave of his hand, the ceiling flew off and Wiz got out of there. He jumped from the roof of the crashed starship and landed on the ground. Then, he started his long and lonely road. . .

### Chapter 59

By DrumR02 06-18-2015 08:21 AM

"Talmid! Take the helm!" Sir Drumr yelled as he raced back to get to the sensor room. Why had he installed that room in the first place? Should've just made it inaccessable to anybody but him. As a matter of fact it had a lock, he had forgotten to turn it off.

The ship was falling faster and faster. That's when the ship tipped onto its side. He began running on walls ans everything went flying. He saw Shadow and Ruby there. "Hey!" Drumr yelled. "Lock Shaodw in confinement! There's a room back there, impenitratable to any magic!! Get him into it!

Lady Ruby nodded, calling Sir Shard to help, and they hauled Sir Shadow into the room (again using walls as walkways)

Sir Drumr made it to the sensor room. "1000 Meters, Sir," the computer hummed.

"Computer! Find me flaws!"

"Calculating..."

"There are several flaws in your area. I am able to fix a few, but beyond that you must fix them."

Drumr worked furiously as the ship tumbled everywwhere, but the ship was falling too fast and he wasn't working fast enough.

"500 Meters."

"Where's Smart when you need him?" mumbled Drumr.

"He's right here." Drumr turned, and ther stood Smart. Not the infected Smart, but the normal one.

"How..?" for a second Drumr forgot about the ship.

"You need me. I am here. Now where is the problem?"

Smart worked quickly, and after thirty seconds, announced to Drumr that the ship was ready.

"Two hundred Meters."

Drumr raced across the spinning towards the cockpit. Talmid was there.

"Move," he ordered. Talmid moved, and Drumr started setting the ship back up. "Sensors online. Primary weapon systems online. Primary boosters online."

Drumr pulled the lever back.

"100 Meters."

And the ship pulled up nd away from this place. Drumr remembered to press the sensor room lock button, so that nobody could get in.

### Chapter 60

By DrumR02 06-18-2015 07:07 PM

"Well, this is going to take forever to fix..." mumbled Drumr.

"It's not as bad as it looks. Most of the Cockpit is in place. Your design with two armor layers was briliiant. We can fix most of it simply by peeling off the outer layer of armor," Smart reminded him.

Of course! Smart had helped him build it, so he'd remember this.

"Dagget," said Drumr, "Hand me that sheet of metal you're sitting on."

Sir Dagget tossed the sheet towards Drumr, who snapped it into place in a hole in the wall.

"Smart, welder," Drumr commanded.

This went on for many hours, with Smart and Drumr fixing the ship while the others helped out in various ways. Some looked around the perimeter. Others raced about, gathering the things that the two fixers needed.

After many hours, Sir Luke, who seemed to be better now, called it a night. The Knights rested in the mostly fixed hull of the Valient.

The next two days were very annoying. Much of the wiring had been short-circuited, destroyed, or fryed. Smart and Drumr had toscrap everything they could (though Drumr always kept spare electronics in the back).

Five (very annoying) days later, the Valient once again took off into the night with Sir Drumr at the helm. Smart sat nearby, watching power levels and keeping radiation at bay.

He was keeping track of litterally the whole ship at once, racing back and forth between panels to keep at bay radiation leves, power surges, and basically everything.

After two days (during which time Smart slept a total of five hours), Drumr set the ship down again. By now they were out of the mountains and in a sunny grassland. They'd make all final repairs here.... anywhere but that dreaded mountain pass.

### Chapter 61

By Nick888571 06-19-2015 08:55 PM

And so the *Valiant* landed. Everyone emptied out of the ship to look around. The grassland was a relaively flat one, with only rolling hills to disrupt, and in the far distance, there was a grand range of snow-capped mountains. As it turned to night, the crew of the *Valiant* decided to rest after a hard past few days. Everyone slept soundly, except for Smart, who had a terrifying vision. First there was the sound of the clash of arms and exchange of artillery fire, then he saw a great frigate, clothed in the strogest iron, of the such that used to be found in the world of Aquae Catabrii, before that world was destroyed by the forces of Gratius, the viceroy of the maelstorm in that region. Upon that ship was a crew of Cantabrians, all dressed in their traditional sky blue uniforms and armed with muskets that shot balls of obsidian-iron-titanium. There were 50 of these such ships. And facing these ships were 100 great frigates of Gratius, each clad in titanium-iron, stronger than that of the Cantabrians, and manned by stromling pirates, the numberof which was too great to count. As well as those, there were additional smaller craft, of single gunboats and submarines. The Cantabrians were sinking many of the enemy's ships, but 19 soon fell prey to torpedo submarines. Out from behind the Cantabrian forces, however, there came a fleet of 5 Nexus Faction small starcraft, 1 of each faction + 1 extra Assembly. Smart was in one of the Assembly, the *Cohesion*, and was carrying a load of bircks and 2 other members of his faction. The ships landed on the *Cantabria*, the flagship of the fleet, and everyone set about his appropriate business. The Senitnels rejuvinated the Cantabrians, and pushed them forward with acts of bravery. Paradox set about hacking the enemy systems. The Venture Leaguers procedded to attack the enemy's smaller craft individually.

Finally the Assembly members set about repairing the ships of the Cantabrians and building artillery. Then, upon one of the Mealstorm ships, the Cantabrians and Nexus Faction members watched in horror as a flaming 2 X 4 flaming red, orange, then yellow, brick was mounted upon a special catapult. One of the Cantabrians shouted: "A MISASOGI!!!", and then through the air came an uneartly piercing cry, the likes of which no one aboard the Cantabrian ships had ever heard. The brick came down with a mighty crash into the *Cantabria,* and went through the ship into the sea below. The enemy ships loaded more and more of these onto catapults and hurled them at the Cantabrian ships. The battle was lost. Everyone ran for their lives. Luckily, Smart, and the rest of the Nexus Force Faction members escaped, with a few Cantabrians. Aboard one of their starcraft, they questioned the Cantabrians about the flaming bricks. "They are Misasogi", they replied. The Faction members inquired as to what these were. The Cantabrians replied: "They were fashioned thousands of years ago in the first Maelstorm incursionsby an unkown power. They came down from the sky like meteors. They are bricks, imbued with the pure essence of fire. However, they pose no threat to minifigures alone, for the spirit inside them is intangible and contained. It is strange how they were used as ammunition, although we assume that the enemy used a spell to invoke the firey essence of the misasogi and make it tangible. They were collected and buried all across the universe in great mounds by civilians in the belief that they would improve the fertility of the soil." Then in Smart's head there flashed an image of the Trail. The bricks of it, were they not eerily similar to those Misasogi? And in one of the hills in the grassland, was it a bit too rounded to be natural? The answer would have to come in the morning.

### Chapter 62

By DrumR02 06-19-2015 10:46 PM

"You remember this place, do you not?" Drumr said to Smart.

"How could I forget? T'was one of the worse defeats in Nexus Force history! You were there! You remember!" Smart retorted.

Drumr winced. He did remember this place. He had hoped he would never come here again.

But fate had led him here.

"What's going on?" Sir Talmid demanded.

"There is a great evil here. One that we are powerless to stop."

The maelstrom man smiled from afar. Drumr and Smart had returned. He remembered those two annoyances, but soon they would be no more.

"Shall we attack yet, sir?" a minion on his right asked.

The man smiled. '"Let em' have it. They must not reach the Dark Forest!"

The Knights were camping, enjoying the peaceful nature of the grasslands, when they heard noises from over the hill behind them.

"What be that noise?" asked Sir Luke, standing up and drawing his sword.

"Sounds like an army," commented Sir Shard.

Drumr got sick, and Smart answered, "Because it is."

And over the hill came hundreds of thousnads of both Shadowmen and maelstrom, as well as the dreaded Misasogs on wheels.

Drumr gasped and yelled, "INTO THE SHIP!!!"

The heroes retreated, enemies pouring after them like lava from a volcano. The crews of the Misasogs began to load their weapons.

The Knights poured into the ship, and Sir Chewchew quickly hit the button to close the door.

Drumr raced to the helm and started diverting all power to forward thrursters.

"HANG ON TO SOMETHING! THIS IS GUNNA BE A BUMPY RIDE!" he screamed as the ship lurched forwards, and as they fired the Misasogs missed their shots, creating huge smoking craters in the ground.

Drumr punched it to full warp, and the ship shot forward about a mile in half a second before crashing into a hill.

### Chapter 63

By Nick888571 06-20-2015 09:21 PM

The *Valiant* crashed with a mighty thud heard for miles around. Outside the ship, a little minifigure looked in amazement at the wreck. The crew emptied out, each coughing with dust and smoke in their mouths.

The small figure asked, “W-who are you? I’ve never seen figures as tall as y-yours. C-come with me, i’ll give you shelter in my cave.”

Sir Drumr replied hastily, “not so fast, little man. Who are *You?*” And he pinned the man down with his sword of mighty iron.

“I-I am Durinfrith, son of Durinthrith, a dwarf of Agdania.”

“Agdania?”

Sir Luke shouted into the crowd around him, “Do any of you know of Agdania?”

Smart answered, “Agdania is an ancient Dwarvish settlement. It is somewhat small, the size of a small town. It used to be a great mining settlement, and they used to supply the Nexus Force with metals for weapons and such. But it was then raided by the Maelstrom and was devastated. The Dwarves locked themselves inside what was left to try and keep themselves safe, and have never recovered since.”

“Then what is this dwarf doing out?”

Durinfrith then explained to Sir Luke that, “I was sent out as a scout to see what was going on outside, after we heard your blasted ship coming down. Here, please, do follow me into our town. We will give you shelter. I see from your equipment that you are not maelstrom and evil, and so you are very much welcome in our settlement. We have not seen your kind for a hundred years.”

And so Durinfrith lead them into Agdania.

It was an overwhelming place, Agdania. The door was an inconspicuous camouflaged rock. But when inside, there was a massive hall, with a main staircase down, flanked by massive columns, each exquisitely carved, and two lanes on either side, above the staircase's lower level, with alcoves containing statues of the Agdanian’s heroes. It was empty.

Sir Drumr asked, “Why is no one about?”

Durinfrith replied, “It is banquet time.”

Durinfrith then led them down the staircase and through a long arched corridor to a room with a large wooden table, with dwarves seated all around, eating vigorously, and a throne of green-tinted stone at the head of it, with a dwarf dressed in dark green robes wearing a golden headband with a sapphire inset, stone-faced.

Durinfrith said to he that sat on the throne: “My Lord, these few had their ship crashed into the nearby mountain. They have come and I have said we will give them shelter. As you can see, they are not of the Maelstrom.”

The man on the throne addressed the multitude before him, “I am Grondar, lord of the Agdanians. Even though you may not be of Maelstrom, we are not the most partial to strangers. Introduce thyselves and tell to me all that has happened to you and thy reasons for being here in our land.”

Sir Luke began by introducing every Knight. “Thank your, your Highness. We are the Knights of the Old Speech, an association of warriors created to defend and protect all from the evil forces that be. I shall introduce each of our merry band: Sir Talmid, Sir Dagget, Sir Chewchew…… and finally Sir Drumr and his friend Smart.”

Each bowed to the King.

Sir Luke, aided by Drumr and Talmid, told the King of all that had happened to them so far.

“.....And so we stand before you, Lord Grondar of Agdania.”

The King responded so “I see. Thou art here upon accident and in no way mean harm to us. Very well, I shall give you shelter as you desire, until you wish to leave. Master Talin, find rooms and food for each of the visitors assembled here, and lead them to them.”

And so the stalwart band was led to stone rooms, each appropriately furnished with amenities and a plate of food. Sir Drumr had a conference with Sir Luke, and told him that when the *Valiant* had crashed, he had seen the Dark Forest not too far off. The two remembered how the Maelstrom that had attacked them before they took off on their last flight said that they must never reach it. They decided to ask the King about it the next day.

Sir Luke and Sir Drumr approached the King early the next day and inquired as to the Dark Forest. The King told them that it was “A place most evil. Few enter. Fewer leave.”

But Sir Luke and Sir Drumr replied “but we must enter it, the Trail has led us to it!”

“We admire your fervor, but we reiterate our warning: many have perished there, and it also supposedly casts a spell of insanity upon most who go there.”

“We shall leave for the Dark Forest imminently,” said Sir Luke to Sir Drumr quietly.

“Yes, Sir,” replied Sir Drumr.

Sir Luke and Sir Drumr roused everybody from their slumber and told them of what had occurred, and that they were leaving for the Dark Forest very soon. Everyone hastily made ready what they had left from the *Valiant*, and set off for the Dark Forest, bidding farewell to the Dwarves of Agdania, and Sir Drumr, who stayed behind to fix the *Valiant*. After Sir Drumr promised he would join the fight as soon as possible, Sir Luke proceeded to lead them across a hilly plain to the entrance of the Forest.

“Here is where we meet Destiny,” Smart mumbled to himself.

### Chapter 64

By DrumR02 06-21-2015 11:10 AM

The Valient wasn't looking so good. There was dust everywhere, as well as a hole in the wall. He had little metal, and although the dwarves were helping him, they didn't know much about starships. They often asked seemingly dumb questions, but Drumr was (luckily for them), rather patient and understanding.

He worked for three days on the hole alone. Of course it had not been the hill that had caused the damage; it had  been flattened. It had been a Misasog that had managed to hit the *Valient* right before takeoff.

He grunted. Beyond that, there were damaged circuits everywhere. This would take a long time to fix, especially by himself. Even worse, one of the primary cannons had been hit, and so he would have to take another few days to fix it.

Luckily, the dwarves knew how big the dark forest was, and they told him. It would take the Knights quite a while to get to the end, as in a week or more. Good. That would be enough time to fix this hunk of junk.

A week later, the ship was nearly finished, and so Sir Drumr took it out for a test drive, merely flying around a little bit.

Now it was time to catch up to the Knights.

And he flew into the Dark Forest, not at warp so as to make sure he didn't pass them by.

### Chapter 65

By fffffplayer1 06-22-2015 02:54 PM

    In the meantime, shortly after the Knights of the Olde Speech set off for the Dark Forest, Sir Dagget noticed a lack of people. He counted heads and indeed they were minus one. He checked for faces and then came to the realisation of who was missing.

    "Hey guys! Where's Verdon?" he spoke breaking the silence.

    There was a moment when everyone looked all around searching for the man before they all realised he was missing.

    "When was the last time anyone saw him?" Sir Talmid asked.

    "I'm pretty sure he was there when we were talking to Grondar!" Sir Luke said.

    "He must have slipped off when we were led to our rooms!" Sir Blaze suggested.

    "Possibly! So, that means you were right, Sir Shadow!" Lady Jonna addressed the enchanter.

    "What!? Oh! Yes!" 'Sir Shadow' replied.

    "So, you think he has betrayed us?" Sir Sharp asked.

    "Why would he leave, otherwise, without telling us anything?" Lady Crafty made a point.

    Lady Ruby didn't listen to the rest of the conversation. She was watching Shadow. She had been doing so for the past few days. Something was off about him. Maybe it was the way he talked sometimes. Or it could be his sudden miraculous cure. Or his eyes! His certainly had something different. They made her uncomfortable.

   "You've noticed, too?" a voice whispered to her. It was Sir Thingguy.

                                         ~~~\*\*\*---\*\*\*~~~

    The real Sir Shadow was walking near the base of the snowy mountain, by the Trail of Flames. He could see the Trail turn just ahead of him and go around the mountain heading for a slightly distant forest. Soon he would come to the point where he would have to part with the Trail. This could be the end of this adventure for him.

    Verdon was watching Wiz from some bushes behind him. He had seen him leave when the ship crashed and figured the other one was fake. Thus, he left the group on his first chance. After some searching that took him a day or two he had found the old man.

    It seemed odd to Verdon. The man seemed to be taller than he remembered. He realised his back was not hunched anymore. That was indeed odd. But it didn't matter. Not anymore. Verdon pointed his bow and arrow towards Wiz.

    "Stop, insolent fool!" Sir Shadow spoke in a commanding tone halting abruptly.

    "How did you know I was here?!" Verdon asked frightened.

    "I'm an Enchanter for brick's sake! Now, Verdon, I understand you are a pawn of your Master, but try to save yourself and leave forever. You have not yet launched that arrow, so I don't blame you for anything! However, if you go on, I will not be that merciful! Now, be gone!"

    It was not that much the threat, but the command hidden in Wiz's words that made Verdon turn around and leave. He seemed to have some control on him. But not enough control for him to stay away the Enchanter thought bitterly. But it wouldn't mind soon enough. Defeated or defeater, whichever one Sir Shadow was, Verdon would soon be free of his mission.

    Afterwards, Wiz raised his arms shoulder height and then started flying. And flying he made for the top of the mountain. . .

### Chapter 66

By DrumR02 06-26-2015 10:07 AM

The Knights walked down the trail for many days, and all the while Smart watched Sir Shadow. Something seemed off, and he hada hunch that this was an imposter.

However he did not dare speak this aloud to anybody. Others might reject his opinion, or think that *he* was the imposter. And so he simply kept walking with the group, day by day.

Then one  night, they were ambushed. The group was sleeping, and all was peaceful, until they heard Sir Luke give the battle cry and clanging was heard.

Smart rushed outside his tent to see shadowmen everywhere, as well as the dreaded Misasogs and Maelstrom forces.

"TAKE COVER!" shouted Sir Luke as the Misasogs fired. Everybody scrambled to cover as the camp was torn apart. There were holes twenty feet deep in the ground, and all the tents were shredded. Doom appeared to be imminent.

And then came the *Valient*, ripping up the ground with its enourmous amounts of firepower.

"YEAAAAAAH!!!!" screamed Sir Drumr as the thrusted the *Valient* towards his enemies in a dramatic manuever, ripping them up with the powerful weaponry. Oh, how he loved to do that.

The Knights pressed their advantage, tearing apart the front line of the enemy. The enemy, realizing that they were going to lose, retreated.

Seeing that the tress were too thick to land in, Sir Drumr let down the ropes into the bay in the back and all the Knights climbed on board. A head count was done by the computer.

### Chapter 67

By fffffplayer1 06-29-2015 08:22 AM

     "Okay, impostor! Time to spill it out! I am bad cop and he's good cop!" Sir Shard said to "Sir Shadow".

    "Eeer! Shard! I don't think you're supposed to tell him you're bad cop and I'm good cop! Actually, we didn't even say we'd use this strategy!" Sir Blaze told his brother.

    When Sir Talmid had asked for someone to question the impostor, Shard had instantly volunteered himself and his brother.

    Shard seemed to be surprised by this. He opened his mouth without speaking for a second and then said with the same threatening, yet slightly pompous way "Nevermind that! I was actually intending to do that to test you, Blaze! Now, let's see what this 'Shadow' has to say!" when he said Shadow he bent two of his fingers in each hand twice, in the known gesture ~~of bunnies~~ that means supposedly"Would you like some water?"

    "Yes, thank you!"

    "Well, you can't have any! Now, who are you?"

    "But I am Sir Shadow of course! Member of this noble order of Knights!" the man said with his voice exactly the same with the actual Wiz's.

    "Right! I believe you!" he repeated the gesture "You see what I did there?! That means I *don't* believe you! Who are you?!" he grabbed the man from the shirt.

    "Shard! If this is official, shouldn't we be using the Olde Speech?" Blaze interrupted.

    "Thou are indeed correct, my kind Sir Blaze! We shalt do so henceforth!"

    "Splendidly, my courteous brother! Wouldst thou like to continue, or shalt I?"

    "If thou allowest me, I shalt make an effort on this noble feat!"

    "That is quite fine with me! Please, do continue!"

    "I wilt! So, thou most treacherous impostor, what hast thou to say to defend thy case?"

    "I can understand none of this nonsense!" he said.

    "That is only proof that this very man hath no relation to our very own beloved Sir Shadow! Thou art condemned now, foulest impostor!" Shard decided.

    "Quite right so!" Blaze agreed.

    "Condemned?! Why is that so?!"

"Sir," said the computer, "Sir Shadow is not on board."

"What are you talking about? He's right there!" said Sir Dagget, poining at Sir Shadow.

"I am not wrong. Sir Shadow is not on board. The man you are pointing at is nobody I have ever seen, Sir Dagget."

"The computer isn't lying," yelled Sir Drumr. "Lock him in the unpenitratable cell!"

Sir Shard and Sir Blaze nodded in usion and took the imposter down to the brig.

    "Because thou speakest the noble Olde Speech not!" Sir Shard explained.

    "What is this Old Speech anyway?"

    "But we art the Knights of the Olde Speech! Thou cannot ignore such basic information, even as an impostor!" Sir Blaze exclaimed.

    "Really?! I thought it was Knights of the Molten Peach! Perhaps, I should start reading the briefing pad. My boss says... Hey, I see what you did there, but you won't sneak any other information out of me!"

    And indeed after that, the impostor only looked at them smiling mischievously and did not reply no matter how much Sir Shard jumped up and down in fury yelling at him. In the end, Sir Chewchew entered the room.

    "Sir Shard, Sir Blaze" he said "Sir Thingguy sent me to replace you guys. He thinks you should rest a while!"

    Shard was ready to protest despite the fact he was red with anger and he was still holding a tuft of hair which he accidentally pulled out of his head. Yet, Chewchew was ready.

    "Sir Thingguy said that if you protest, I should tell you that's an order!"

    "Very well then!" he grumbled and left together with Blaze.

    Once they were out, Chewchew's innocent expression dropped and he smiled evilly to the impostor.

\*\*\*

    Sir Drum was flying the Valiant over the forest of dark green leaf trees. He had been doing so for a while anticipating news concerning the impostor. Smart, Sir Talmid, Sir Luke would come at times and occasionally some other Knight, but they had no news. He was starting to get bored.

    Then, something happened.

    "One non-Knight has exited the ship Valiant" the female voice of the computer announced.

    Drum's first thought was *At such a height and speed, what was her doing jumping from a spaceship?* But then the word non-Kinght sank in and he realised the dreadful possibilty that could be true.

    "Which non-Knight?"

    "Non-Knight #273-B41" the computer replied.

    "Is his name Smart?"

    "No". . .

### Chapter 68

By DrumR02 06-29-2015 09:04 AM

When Sir Drumr left Smart to pilot the ship, he went to the back to see how the interigation was going.

Sir Shard said, "All we could find out was that he is deffinately not Sir Shadow! He does not know Olde Speach!"

"Step aside. Once you learn all the tricks of this interrigation room you can suck whatever you want out of your apponent," Sir Drumr said, stepping into the room. The other two Knights right next to him, he began the interigation.

"I'm going to start this off easy. What is your name?"

"Sir Shadow, of course!" the impotster insisted.

"Who are you working for?"

"I serve the Knights!"

"I do not believe you!" Sir Drumr led Sirs Shard and Blaze over to five chairs lining the walls. All of them were stuck into the wall and had... seatbelts?

Drumr went onto one and strapped in, before gesturing for the other two Knights to do the same. As soon as they did, he flipped open a small glass panel behind his chair. There were numbers there.

Punching in a seemingly random code, it flipped up, and there was a big red button there. He pressed it, and the top of the ship opened up in the room.

'Sir Shadow' desperately held on to the table, which was bolted on to the floor. "ALRIGHT, I'LL TALK!" he screamed over the noise.

Drumr pressed the button and the top closed. "Now tell us everything," said Sir Drumr.

And the imposter spilled out everything.

### Chapter 69

By DrumR02 07-23-2015 08:24 AM

Quickly stopping the ship and spinning it around, he set it to hover mode. He scanned the ground. The imposter had escaped! As he raced through the ship, Knights all around looked at him like he was insane and some said "Why are we stopped?"

Sir Drumr didn't have time to answer other than for one thing. He yelled as running, "THE PRISONER HAS ESCAPED THE SHIP!"

Everybody went into full panic, and Drumr noticed Sir Chewchew in the interogation room. He very quickly closed it, realizing that Sir Chewchew must be having his rage fit or something. So that took care of ChewChew.

He opened the bay doors, jumping out and with a movement very swift and un-knight-like, pulled out a tranquilizer and hit him in the back. The imposter crumbled to the ground.

After dragging him back into the interigation room with Chewchew, he locked the door and headed towards the bridge to blast off again.

And then he stopped.

Sitting there was a pool. He knew its name, he had seen it in pictures before. It was the Pool of Fortune.

Stopping the ship, he left a few Knights to gaurd, while others came with.

Sir Blaze asked, "So, umm, what are we supposed to do? Drink?"

"No," said Smart. "We must look at the reflections."

"WHOA!" said Sir Shard. "It says I might get an eye patch!"

"Evil?" Sir Talmid gasped. "Chewchew is evil! Big words in red!"

Sir Blaze looked in and gasped. "I see Sir Shadow walking in the plains behind us!"

Sir Drumr looked in. He saw an image. About a mile ahead of the Knights there stood great forces of evil. And the thing that he had felt inside his head. And he felt him again now. Telling him to give up. But Sir Drumr was not a quitter.

He had learned the thing he had wanted to learn: His destination. And his destiny.

After everybody had had a turn, Sir Drumr took to the helm and blasted off... but not towards the fight.

He was looking for an old friend.

### Chapter 70

By DrumR02 09-06-2015 06:55 PM

The *Valient* zipped across the plain, so fast that to an observer it might look as though a shooting star were hurling itself across the sky. The Knights on board clung onto the seats, some of them looking slightly green, while the starship made haste across the land.

At the helm, Sir Drumr was holding the throttle at the maximum speed below warp. Smart was beside him, keeping track of the ship's progress. As Drumr noticed the ship was closing on the target,  he pulled back on the throttle by about halfway, so that he could scan the land as he went past it.

Suddenly, as he was looking at the terrain around him, he saw a single man with a staff walking across the land.

"Sir shadow," Drumr whispered to himself.

He set the ship down, and the expeditionary force went out. It consisted of Sir Drumr, Sir Talmid, Sir Dagget, Lady Jonna, and Sir Sharp. The rest of the Knights stayed behind to guard the ship.

They caught up to Shadow, with Talmid in the lead.

"Shadow!" he said, falling into step beside him.

The Enchatner whipped around, anger burning deep into his eyes like a blazing fire. The group stepped back.

"I knew I should have trusted you'd follow me! But alas, I did not want you to! You were supposed to go on! He will smash you all now!"

"Sir Shadow," Sir Sharp said, "What's wrong?"

The Enchanter snapped, "For the safety of all the Knights, go back!"

"Never," said Drumr, stepping forward. "There's something you're fighting. I know he's probably dangerous, and I admire your courage. But we're a team. We do this together."

Sir Shadow slowly bowed his head.  "Very well," he muttered.

### Chapter 71

By fffffplayer1 09-10-2015 05:14 AM

    "Very well!" Sir Wiz muttered "So be it!"

    The Knights, of course, thought he was agreeing to their coming with him. But they were mistaken. Shadow was agreeing to his own thoughts. All of a sudden, the Knights found themselves unable to move.

    "I am sorry, but this is a battle I'll have to fight on my own! Do not worry! I will release you soon! Do not try to follow me! You'll find it impossible!" even though his face had the sadness of an old man, could he actually be less wrinkly?

    "Keep this for me, please, in case I return!" he placed his staff in front of Sir Sharp.

    "Goodbye!"

    Then, the man raised his arms to shoulder height and started flying. They were in front of the mountain on which the Master waited. Thus, the Knights of the Olde Speech watched their friend fly until he was a speck on the sky and then nothing. Sir Shadow reached the top of the mountain soon.

    There was snow everywhere and it was really cold, but Shadow's body only seemed to acknowledge the low temperature, but not feel cold. Shadow was pleased it didn't make his bones hurt.

    "My friend! You're here at last! Your friends surely are persistent!" the Master's voice was heard speaking jokingly.

    "Hello then! Let's just get over with this, I say!"

    "My my! Why are you so impatient? Are you looking forward to being smashed? But what is that? Is your beard actually shorter than it used to be? You must be the only wizard whose beard has shortened since he started growing it!"

    "Very funny!"

    "Well, let's begin then! Prepare to smash!"

    Wiz laughed scornfully at his opponent's self-confidence.

    "Don't be so sure!"

     Then, as if they were reading each other's mind, lightning emerged at the same time from Wiz's hand and the Master's staff clashing in the middle in an explosive result. The battle was on. . .