I followed Wyninn through the forest trying to move between the shadows and with some kind of underbrush partly between me and the direction we were moving. It was hard but the goal of the exercise was to naturally blend in and make it harder to spot me. Wyninn Adnala was moving fast and with grace, he often disappeared from sight only to tap me on the shoulder and point out some animal or herb.

He had the coolest panther as his companion and they shared a telepathic bond, a perk from the ranger class I was told. It normally traveled with us but today we were alone.

It had been a month since I came to live with Aldrin and when I was not training in the forest with Wyninn my magic studies took up most of my time. The smile on Aldrin's face when I finally felt the magic energy in our surroundings made me swell with pride. I had been training with crystals first, just to get the feeling for magic. It was like having a new sense when I closed my eyes, this was the natural way of learning magic Aldrin had told me. The other way was to dump a lot of attributes in intelligence and choose the mage or druid class. You still needed the classes later for higher levels of spells but this told us that when I turned thirteen I would at least have 13 in Intelligence the minimum to feel magic. I was now learning my first spell magic missile, it was an easy spell that just created a ball of energy that you sent at your enemies, at higher levels you could create more missiles and target one or spread them out.

I felt a touch on my shoulder and froze in place as Wyninn had told me to do, he pointed at two rabbits. I nodded to show I had seen them, slowly i took my bow and strung it, notched an arrow and took aim. I let loose and it flew true but the rabbit didn't die, my bow didn't have the power to kill it in one hit. Wyninn's arrow nailed the other rabbit to the tree, I drew my dagger and went to finish the job. My first kills had been messy, not used to the sights of blood and taking life, sure it was just a rabbit but it was still hard the first times. We took them with us and moved on, my teacher had told me to stay quiet until we made camp or returnd back to the base.

We were searching for more tracks and I found some but I could not place what kind of marks this was, so I waved at Wyninn.

Wyninn came over and I pointed, he bent down and checked them. I watched on with interest , then he pointed at me and made a sign to keep watch or keep searching. He had introduced hand signs but I was just begining to learn so I often made mistakes.

I started to serch for more tracks and I soon found some, the problem was that it was a lot of tracks and from what I could see there most be at least five different sets, they were all heading to a small clearing just up a head. I went back and pointed to were they went and Wyninn nodded, when I turned to follow the tracks he broke the silence.

"No, we will not follow those tracks. We are going to return back to your uncle."

"Why? What were those tracks?"

He was constantly scanning the area, while we spoke.

"Hobgoblins, and they are bad news."

"But they do not live here on West island, how did they get here?"

" Exactly, we need to report and get more people."

We turned and started to make or way back to the garrison. We traveled fast for the rest of the day, and when dusk came I was breathing heavy and could no longer keep up. Wyninn was looking worried when we stopped, I could see he wanted to keep going but I needed rest. It was around four miles left.

" Wyn you can keep going, I will rest here."

" That is not a good idea Elric, if something happens while I'm gone, your uncle would have my skin."

"Well, what if you help me hide first."

I searched for a good spot and found a big firtree, I pointed to the tree and Wyninn looked it over.

"Can you climb it?"

"Of course I can."

We went over to the tree and he gave me a rope from his bag.

" When you have found a good branch tie this around you, make sure the rope is over your chest and under your arms. If you fall asleep you won't fall down, make sure to have a knife close at hand if you need to cut the rope."

I took a breath the started to climb, when I was around six meters from the ground he told me it was enough and that I should find a good place to sit.

"I will be back sometime after dawn, be quiet and keep your wits about you."

"Ok, I will, you be safe."

I heard a low grunt, which I took as a laughter. Then I was alone, I tied the rope around my chest and the tree as I had been told, and settled down to wait for his return. Time slowly crept by and my eyes grew heavy, and before I knew it I was a sleep.

The sound of a roar woke me up, and if not for the rope I would have fallen down. In the distance I could see flashing lights in all colors, lighting up the darkness. The lights were coming from the garrison southeast from me, but roars and what sounded like fighting came from northwest. I tried to get a look around me but the tree branches were in the way. I pulled out my dagger and cut the rope.

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What am I to do? Can it be the rangers that are fighting? But if that's the case, then what is making that roar. It was no bear that I could tell from the sounds it was making. Should I stay here, but what if it's not the rangers, will the best come here when it's done?

I felt the panic start to set in and I was scared, I tried to steady myself with the breathing exercise Aldrin taught me. After maybe fifteen minutes I finally felt calm again.

The garrison was under attack so I could not go there, and there was fighting maybe one and a half mile away, but I didn't know who was fighting.

I need to know who's fighting, if it's the rangers then I will just hide and wait, if it's not them then I need to run. With those thoughts I climbed down and started to sneak my way over.

-half an hour earlier at the garrison-

Aldrin was running down the stairs while casting a shield of protection on himself. The alarm had sounded just a moment ago, something was attacking from the tunnel. Just his luck that an attack would come while he was stationed here, it had been something like 30 years since the last attack. Most times it was just some monster taking the wrong turn in the maze of tunnels that stretched out under all of Fevris, some say the maze covered the whole world not just this continent.

He arrived at the third gate and saw that the soldiers had grim expressions on their faces.

A lieutenant came over to him.

"Sir, we are under attack and have sounded the alarm."

"I'm not deaf or blind lieutenant, what's the situation? Who are we fighting?"

" The first gate had been breached, everyone on duty at the first gate was taken by surprise, almost none made it back to the second gate.

We are holding the second gate and it seems that the dwarven smith you had working on the gate is having the time of his life, he could probably hold the gate alone if he does not get tired. And the enemy is a mix of deep orcs and hobgoblins, but we do not know who cast the spell that blew the gate to splinters."

Of course Thorgrim would be on the front lines when the enemy were orcs.

" Have you started the wards on the second gate?"

" The mana crystals have been placed, Sir"

"Good then I will head over to one of the arrow slits"

The tunnel that led down to the maze was walled off in three places, the only openings were the arrow slits, gates and the pipes sticking out at the top, they were used to pour all manners of alchemist mixtures over the enemy. And from the third gate he could see a dwarf running around with a spear stabbing orcs and hobgoblins through the arrow slits.

"Captain, dark elves are attacking the walls"

Aldrin turned just in time to see a soldier running from the walls that surrounded the entrance to the Maze. He turned his gaze to the walls, there were few soldiers left on the battlements after the alarm rang, must of the soldiers had run to man the gates in the tunnel. The few that was left would soon be overrun.

" You soldier see that dwarf over there at the second gate?"

Aldrin pointed at the soldier then at Thorgrim, the soldier gave a nod.

" Good get word to him about the dark elves, and that he is in charge here in the tunnel."

He saluted and ran towards the second gate.

"Lieutenant you and the soldiers here are with me, let's drive the dark elves from the walls."

-Elric-

I was slowly making my way through the forest towards the battle, lucky the elven part of my heritage helped me see in the darkness as long as there were some source of light. It was not perfect but it helped. I had covered about a mile and could hear that I was getting close, I saw that the forest would soon give way to a clearing, so I lay down and crawled my way forward. There was a bush just ahead of me and it should give me some cover. So under the bush I went, to my surprise the air was getting colder and I could see the frost on the bush I was hiding under.

When my head was through the vegetation I could see the combatants, my eyes almost fell out of my skull. The clearing was littered with dead bodies of orcs and hobgoblins most were frozen, and opposite from my position there was a small hill. And a stream crossed the clearing making a pond beside the hill. And in front of the small hill was a creature of legends, a dragon. The dragon had silver scales that made shimmer in the moonlight. It was huge at least 35 feet long, and it's head must have been 20 feet over the ground. It's enemies all lay dead except for two elves, a magic user and a fighter.

The mage was surrounded by a protective field of magic that stopped the breath of ice, the silver dragon was unleashing on them. The fighter was not so lucky and was starting to move slower, it spelled his doom. A claw came crashing down on him, he tried to dive to the side, but the claws almost cut him in half, I almost threw up right there at the bloody sight, but was too scared to make a noise, so I swallowed it down.

The spell caster had not been idle and a hail of fireballs bombarded the dragon, but it covered itself with the wings. But a burst from the ground sent a spear made of earth forth and that hit the dragon in the chest. The dragon started to fall but caught itself, it was badly injured.

"Help me, distract the mage."

A feminine voice suddenly sounded in my head, it was in pain and it took me just a moment to realize it was the dragon.

"Why should I do that? She will only eat me. And that of course all depends on if I can distract him."

She had now erected a magic shield of her own. And the mage was throwing spell after spell trying to break it.

"Idiot child, I'm a silver dragon and we don't eat children. Help me with the dark elf."

" You can hear me? Did you say dark elf? I thought the orcs were your army?

Aldrin had told me a little about dark elves, they lived in the maze, keeping big slave armies and their society was cruel.

" No, I was attacked. They sent the orcs and hobgoblins first, to tire me out"

"Well first tell me how I should distract him, my bow can at most hurt a rabbit so I don't think it will help here."

" Figure something out, I just need him to lose his concentration for a moment. Hurry the shield won't hold"

I started to crawl backwards, trying to get myself as far away from the clearing that I could. Stupid dragon, break his concentration she says. What do I have that can break a wizard's concentration? Wait a moment,Thorgrim always made fun of Aldrin about how he lost his concentration when I was a baby. Could it work?

I looked over to the dragon it was struggling to keep the mage at bay, it was now or never. The magic shield was about to fall. I stood up and started to run towards the mages back, he didn't hear me over the sound of spells. The stench of blood and gore was overwhelming. As he started to turn around with a raised hand, I realized that he must have felt my presence, I fumbled with my pants and got my willy out. And when I met his eyes, all my courage and urine left me and I stood there frozen with my willy in hand, splattering his mage robes with pee. The spell in his hand fizzled out as his eye grew in shock, not registering what was happening, but the anger that quickly followed when his mind had finally processed what I was doing, told me I was about to die. I closed my eyes, hopefully it would be over quickly.

A sickeningly crunching sound made me open my eyes, the dragon's jaws had closed around the mage in front of me and I could feel her cold breath wash over me. I fell on my ass, I had survived and was going to live. She raised her head and chewed on the dark elf before swallowing.

"Well done child, a bit orthodox but well done indeed. You might want to cover yourself."

I stood and pulled my pants up, still in wonder how I had survived. I looked at the dragon noticing the wounds covering her body, the hole in her chest still leaking blood. She carefully lay down on the ground.

"Are you going to be okay?"

" Probably, but it will take years to recover."

"Years? But my father said that the constitution attribute helps us to heal. And you probably have a ton of it."

" Haha foolish boy, it's my scales and wings that will take time to heal."

I had forgotten that regrowing limbs could only be done with powerful spells or potions. She had lost a lot of scales, and I guessed that they followed the same principle.

" So what were you doing here in my clearing?"

Crap, I had forgotten about Wyninn and the garrison. What had happened over there, I started to worry. She saw it and asked, quickly I told her what had happened.