Drakthar wakes up groggily, his vision still blurry. Looking around, he notes he is in an unfamiliar place. The bed he is lying in is surrounded by a desk and bookshelves, like what someone would have in their usual bedroom, but Drakthar has never had a normal bedroom, so the concept is foreign to him. He begins to wonder whether this is an infirmary or a library.
As Drakthar leans up to get a better look around him, he feels a sharp pain in his stomach. Glancing down he notices the bandages on his torso and right arm, marking where Sharn was able to slice him.
Never one to let himself be bothered by something as inconsequential as mere pain, Drakthar continues to sit up, preparing to leave the bed and further investigate his surroundings. Just as he is about to get onto his feet, the door opens.
Drakthar sees Kali walk into the room and watches, as her expression turns from carefree to panicked.
She rushes over to the bed and puts a hand on Drakthar’s shoulder, gently pushing him back towards the bed, “Don’t, just lay back down. The wounds Sharn gave you were severe; you shouldn’t be walking around”.
Drakthar gives in and lies back down in bed.
“And you were way too reckless back there if you had lost your arms… or… or died…” Kali’s tone changes from angry to distraught.
“I didn’t,” Drakthar states plainly, honestly more than a little annoyed by Kali’s hysterics.
She slowly starts to calm herself down before asking, “If something had happened, how could I fight you again?”
In response, Drakthar starts to stand up again, declaring, “I can fight you right now”.
“NO!” Kali frantically pushes him down again, shocked he would propose something so reckless.
“We can fight after you regain your strength,” she adds, wanting him to focus on resting.
“Now, please just get some rest,” Kali gets up, and starts heading towards the door.
“Fine…” Drakthar mutters under his breath, but loud enough for Kali to hear, setting her at ease.
Drakthar tries to take her advice, but can’t fall back asleep. After stirring around restlessly in bed for an hour, the door opens once again. This time, it is the man he recognizes from the front gate.
“Do you mind if I sit?” The speaker asks him, gesturing towards the chair at Drakthar’s bedside. Drakthar nods.
The man settles in before explaining, “Let me formally introduce myself, I am the Speaker. I am the voice for all of the immortals here who are unable to speak for themselves. I have the ability to read their minds in order to convey their thoughts. Before he died, Sharn had some particular thoughts about you; do you wish to hear them?” Drakthar once again nods.
The speaker continues, “While Sharn was out on his mission of rooting out the Cult of Chaos from the desert, he was also keeping an eye out for anyone who was worthy enough to join us in immortality. For a long time, he encountered no one that he deemed qualified by his high standards; no one until he met you and your companions. Eventually, he determined that you alone, Drakthar, were worthy enough to join our order. As he died, he wished for nothing more than for you to take his place and become one of us”.
Drakthar takes a while to process everything he has been told. He’d never pondered an opportunity like this before, so now he was unsure about what to do at the moment.
“Can you give me some time to think it over?” Drakthar asks the Speaker.
“Take all the time you need. I will return for your answer when you are ready,” the Speaker rises from the chair and strides out of the room, closing the door behind him.
A few seconds later Kali rushes into the room almost slamming the door against the wall.
“What did he ask you?” Kali asks, breathing heavily from having sprinted into the room.
“He offered me the opportunity to become immortal,” Drakthar confirms her suspicions.
“And what did you say?” Kali asks, breathlessly waiting for a response.
“I told him I would think about it,” Drakthar gives her the answer she had barely dared hope for and the tension she’d had to this point rushes out of her in relief, still able to try and convince him what to do.
“I don’t think you should do it, I wouldn’t want anyone to be able to read my mind. I wouldn’t be able to express my emotions as well without words,” Kali rapidly states her points to try and sway him.
Drakthar doesn’t say anything back to her; he stares at the opposite wall thinking over what he wants to do.
“Do you know what you are leaning towards?” Kali asks, gauging her chances.
“No,” Drakthar responds plainly.
“If you care about what I think, you should turn him down,” Kali stands up and exits the room, frustrated that she couldn’t get through to him.
Later in the day, the Speaker returns and once again sits at Drakthar’s bedside.
“What are the ramifications of becoming immortal?” Drakthar asks, wanting the entire picture before making a decision.
The speaker explains the costs, “You would lose the ability to speak. I would, in turn, be able to read your mind, and you would communicate through me. Additionally, you could only leave the island for missions, which are determined by me”.
“So immortals can only carry out missions while they are off the island; they can’t pursue their personal agenda?” Drakthar seeks to clarify.
“No, they cannot,” the Speaker makes it clear what his role would be.
This information is all it takes for Drakthar to make up his mind.
“I will have to turn you down, I don’t wish to throw away my dream for immortality. My only desire is to become the strongest warrior to have ever lived, and becoming immortal would stop me from seeking out and killing those who stand in the way of that dream,” Drakthar declares his intentions.
The Speaker stands abruptly and curtly replies, “Very well, I will let you stay here for another day in order to heal, and then you must leave this island,” frustration poorly masked by his words.
“Fine,” Drakthar is not bothered by the man’s tone.
“One more thing… and I only say this because Sharn was so fond of you… watch out for the one with the light brown hair in your group. Associating with someone like him will only lead to your destruction,” the Speaker warns him before heading for the door.
“Wait, Xander? What do you mean?” Drakthar calls out after him, not able to understand what the Speaker is talking about.
The Speaker doesn’t respond to any of his questions, almost slamming the door behind him on his way out, deciding against it to maintain some air of dignity.
The moment the Speaker leaves the room Kali rushes in.
“What did you decide?” She asks, eagerly anticipating a favorable answer.
“I turned him down,” Drakthar gives her the news she wants to hear.
Kali tries to hide the excitement on her face, but Drakthar can tell how elated she is that he declined.
“If it’s any consolation, I think you made the right decision,” Kali nervously tells him.
“Thanks,” he responds plainly. She leans over and hugs him awkwardly; unsure if this should be an action she should be taking.
Kali stands back up and scurries out of the room, almost in embarrassment from her spontaneous hug. As soon as the door closes behind her, Drakthar sighs. He starts to ponder how he got himself into this mess, how he is going to deal with her, and the cryptic warning the Speaker gave him about Xander.
The next day Drakthar and Kali depart the island, the wooden gates slammed behind them as if to convey that they would not be welcomed back.
Drakthar begins to walk, subtly limping down the bridge. Kali notices and offers, “I can help you if you want”. She starts to grab his arm attempting to put it over her shoulder so she can help him walk. Instead, Drakthar wriggles his arm free and starts to speed up, completely masking the limp.
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“Okay… I understand,” Kali mumbles quietly, her words dripping with disappointment. She follows him from a distance, not wanting to somehow offend him further.
At the other end of the bridge, they see the usual couple of tents set up, Kayde and Fore sitting around a fire eating what must be their breakfast. Kayde looks up from his food to see Drakthar with Kali trailing some distance behind him. His eyes light up as soon as he sees them.
He quickly stands up, almost spilling all of the food off his plate.
Putting down his plate he rushes over to them, “Thank god you guys are back. It’s been horrible since you two have been gone”. While Kayde is distracted by his returning friends Fore scrapes some of Kayde’s food of his low hanging plate, unbeknownst to anyone.
“What happened?” Drakthar asks, slightly in shock, worried something happened to Xander and Gwendolyn.
“They’ve been in their tent the whole time, I’ve had no social interaction at all. I mean, I had Fore,” Kayde signals down to the wolf, “but he isn’t much for conversation”.
Fore looks up joyfully at Drakthar and pants, his tongue slightly stuck out.
Drakthar subtly rolls his eyes at the melodrama and walks past Kayde, grabbing a plate of his own and scooping some of the rice and beans Kayde was cooking onto it.
“Hey Kali, how's it going?” Kayde makes sure to ask her when she passes by. Instead of answering him, Kali walks past him, her head still sagged towards the ground, not hiding her mood well at all.
“Oh, yeah! You had a fight didn’t you?” Kayde remembers, not one to care about smaller stuff like that.
“I did,” Drakthar responds in between shoveling down his food.
“You know, you look pretty beat up, did you lose again?” Kayde asks, observing Drakthar’s condition.
“No, I won,” Drakthar informs him nonchalantly.
They hear shuffling from one of the tents, when they look over they see Xander and Gwendolyn exit, their hair slightly mussed up as if they had tried to fix it sloppily before greeting the others.
“So, you won? I hope everything we did to prepare was useful,” Xander comments, wanting his effort to have been of use.
“Yes, I definitely would not have won if it was not for the training we did, so I would like to thank you as well, Kali, for all you did to help me,” Drakthar turns to Kali, taking her by surprise.
“Yeah… no problem,” she responds, her face suddenly brightening a bit at the praise.
“So now that everything is settled, how the hell are we getting out of this place. Xander smashed the bridge, remember?” Kayde brings up their next move. Xander cringes at the memory of breaking the narrow bridge into the marshlands with a tree.
“You broke the bridge?” Kali states incredulously, aimed towards Xander.
He defends himself slightly, “I did, but it was only to get us all out of danger”.
Kali sighs, “It doesn’t matter, I know of a dock near that bridge. I use a boat there to go to and from the marshlands. We can use that”.
Kayde stands up and states, “Great, Kali, lead us to the dock. Let’s get out of here,” in a determined tone.
Drakthar’s eyes remain on Xander throughout the conversation trying to notice anything off about him, something that would make sense of what the Speaker told him. But there is nothing other than the man he considers his brother. He decides the Speaker must have been mistaken.
As they stop for the night, Xander and Drakthar collect wood to fuel the campfire.
Drakthar looks over at Xander, picks up a branch, and adds it to the pile in his hands, working up the nerve to get advice on something he never thought he would need to, “I think I have a woman problem”.
“Oh, is something wrong with Kali?” Xander asks, trying to see where his friend is going with this.
“I think Kali might have romantic feelings towards me, and I don’t know how to deal with that. I’ve never concerned myself with stuff like this before, and you have…” Drakthar explains, reluctantly but also earnestly seeking Xander’s help.
“I can’t tell you what to do if I don’t know what you want,” Xander points out, not sure what Drakthar considers a problem.
“I don’t understand,” Drakthar has only wanted one thing, to be the strongest warrior to have ever lived.
“Do you like her?” Xander asks, trying to get to the root of it.
Drakthar takes a second to think. He readjusts the firewood in his arms before answering, “She is a mighty warrior and a great training partner”.
“I don’t know what to say. If whatever is going on is something you don’t want to be involved in just tell her. But, if it were me, I would figure out how I really feel first, and then act on that. Maybe you like her too, but you just haven’t realized it yet,” Xander suggests, causing Drakthar to cringe.
“This conversation has gone on long enough,” he walks back to the camp, leaving Xander alone in the woods.
Back at the camp, Kali and Gwendolyn are alone after Kayde decides to take Fore for a walk.
“Are you doing alright?” Gwendolyn asks Kali, now that they have some time to themselves. Kali furrows her brow, confused by what Gwendolyn could mean.
“What? Why would I not be alright?”
“You know… your life just changed a lot, your entire life’s purpose was taken away ... that kind of thing can make a person not alright,” Gwendolyn clarifies, thinking that much was obvious.
Sadness makes its way back into Kali’s eyes; her short travels with the others have been just enough to keep her mind off things, “Oh… yeah. You shouldn’t worry about me, I’m strong”.
“Oh I know, no one is going to become the guardian of the fountain of luck without being tough as hell,” Gwendolyn compliments her, having witnessed her strength in that fight.
“Thank you,” Kali is eating up all the flattery.
Her mind wanders back to Gwendolyn’s previous question, “Maybe I’m not doing as well as I thought,” she admits.
Gwendolyn pulls her in for a hug, “If you ever need to talk about it, I’m here for you”.
“Yeah, thanks,” Kali appreciates the sentiment. She pulls out of Gwendolyn’s hug just as she sees Drakthar return to the camp, his arms full of firewood. He drops it next to the fire completely ignoring what he saw between Kali and Gwendolyn.
After traveling for most of the following day, they finally reach the docks Kali mentioned.
“Here it is,” Kali comments, excited when she sees the boat. Sitting on the edge of the dock is a large net.
“Put your armor and stuff in here, so that it won’t drag us down if we capsize,” Kali tells the rest while pointing towards the net. Gwendolyn takes off her breastplate and Drakthar what is left of his sand dragonhide armor, and they put them in the net along with Kali’s armor.
The group puts the net in the middle of the small boat to center it and get in.
Kayde kneels down next to Fore, “Hey, we are leaving now. I know this place is your home, but do you want to come with us, buddy?”
Fore sits on the dock for a bit before barking and jumping into the boat. Kayde smiles as he gets in and promptly sits down beside Fore, rubbing his head while they others begin to row.
Their rowing slows down as they see pairs of very familiar beady, yellow eyes looking up at them. The lizards from before are staring up at them, skulking just below the waterline.
“Get ready to fight!” Drakthar commands the others as he raises his oar, prepared to take a swing at any lizard that attempts to jump out at them.
The lizards are smart enough to know the best way to deal with those foreign to their domain. Instead of jumping up, they begin to ram the bottom of the boat, shaking it back and forth.
Before they have a chance to react, the lizards manage to flip over their boat, throwing the five of them into the swamp’s murky waters, the same waters that are littered with bloodthirsty lizards ready to tear them apart. As the boat flips, Fore jumps off the side, agilely landing on one of the lizard’s heads and clawing its eyes out. He springs off the head and jumps back towards the boat and gracefully landing on its underside. He snarls down at the other lizards with not a single drop of water on him.
A lizard swims at Drakthar, quickly finding its skull bashed by his fist. He is the first to get his head above water. He looks around for others but doesn’t see anyone. Just as he is about to dive back down, Kali and Gwendolyn surface, desperately gasping for air.
“Are you two okay?” Drakthar shouts in order to be heard over the sound of the torrid waters. Both of them give a sort of confirmation. They grab onto the side of the capsized boat to give them a reprieve from treading water.
Lizards swarm them swimming towards the boat, trying to break it in two so that their prey no longer has a means of escape. Kali and Drakthar desperately kick at them, trying to keep them from the boat.
Gwendolyn looks around; there is no sign of Kayde or, more importantly, Xander. Not knowing what to do she starts to scream his name, desperately wishing his head will pop up above the water.
“Calm down!” Drakthar tells her as his foot collides with another lizard.
“We need to stay calm to work through this,” he reiterates while fighting back against the endless stream of predators.
“Kali, handle this; I’m going to dive back down,” Drakthar warns her before ducking beneath the water again. He swims down and, near the bottom, finds Kayde being pulled down by two lizards. He swims to them and palms each of their heads, squeezing with such strength that he crushes both of their skulls, causing their blood to ooze out and spread into the water.
Drakthar then grabs a hold of Kayde and hauls him up to where the others are. Once above water, he throws Kayde onto the capsized vessel. Fore licks his face while he coughs up some swamp water.
“That was close,” Kayde comments light-heartedly as he comes to.
“Let’s flip the boat,” Kali suggests, prompting Kayde to grab Fore and slip back into the water. They all heave and are able to get it back right side up.
Kayde and Fore climb into the boat, while the others remain in the water. Gwendolyn desperately starts to duck her head underwater, trying to find Xander anyway she can. All she finds are the murky depths of the swamp, and she slowly starts to sink into the water; having been raised in the desert she is not a strong swimmer.
Kali pulls her up and forces her into the boat.
“Please find him!” Gwendolyn begs, exhausted from exerting herself so much and the stress of the situation.
“I’m working on it,” Drakthar angrily responds, he himself frustrated that he is unable to find his closest friend.
While Drakthar and Kali dive repeatedly looking in every direction for Xander, fighting off any pesky lizards while doing so, Kayde spots something in the distance.
“Hey, it’s the bridge,” he points ahead of them.
“I think there is something on it,” he squints seeing a mass lying upon it.
Kayde uses the scope on his rifle and realizes what it is, “It’s Xander!”
Drakthar and Kali quickly get back into the boat and row relentlessly towards the bridge. They knock into the side of it to see an unconscious Xander lying next to the net full of their armor.
Drakthar gets out of the boat and shakes Xander, “Xander! Xander!” He remains unconscious. Drakthar immediately starts to rhythmically press down on Xander’s chest. He takes a break to tilt his head back and breathe air into his windpipe.
Gwendolyn gets off the boat and stares in horror, her mind starting to contemplate the possibility that Xander will not wake up. She starts to mutter, “please” again and again, wishing for him to pull through.
A wave of relief washes over Gwendolyn as she sees Xander start to spit up water. He gasps, inhaling as much air as his lungs will take in. Drakthar takes his hands off Xander’s chest, finally able to relax for the first time after the boat flipped.
Gwendolyn goes over to Xander and holds him as tight as she can, “Don’t ever do anything like that ever again”.
Xander feels her tears reach his shoulder; he wraps his arms around her, assuring her, “ Don’t worry, I won’t”.
“I love you, I don’t ever want to lose you,” Gwendolyn tells him; still overwrought with everything that happened.
“Yeah… I love you too,” Xander can only reply as she pins him down against the bridge.
“So ... how did you end up here?” Kayde asks, interrupting the two of them.
“As soon as we flipped I grab a hold of the net so you guys wouldn’t lose your armor. It pulled me down, to the bottom; I dragged it for a while before seeing the posts from the bridge. I gave everything I had left to get high enough to see out so I could teleport myself and the bag onto the bridge. It looks like I succeeded,” Xander explains while continuing to hug Gwendolyn.
“Next time, abandon our armor; your life is more important,” Drakthar demands breathlessly, still panting from fatigue. They all compose themselves and continue down the bridge, leaving the marshlands behind them and ready to move on to whatever challenge they will face next.