Dusty walked back to the village of Foolshope with a limp, she was returning from a quest to fight the dragon that was terrorising the townspeople. She had been promised one hundred gold pieces to slay the dragon and was returning to collect her reward. Dusty was a wizard, her job was to kill monsters and protect people, all for a lofty price of course. Dusty was a grey cat with an orange belly.
“Welcome back, Dusty!” The grizzly old shopkeeper said, “You're here for your money,” He dropped a bag on the counter.
“Thanks,” Dusty said, as she picked up the bag.
“I think you’re forgetting something,” The shopkeeper said. Dusty turned around and dropped the dragon's head on the counter. “Wait, I have one other quest for you, it pays a lot…” Dusty turned around, interested.
Henry and Max were riding in a carriage to the village of Foolshope after slaying a mighty orc. It was a tough fight but it would be worth it for the gold pieces. Henry was an archer, with a tabby coat, and rarely missed a shot, Max was a swordsman, he had a black coat with a white underbelly, and could carve his way through enemies like they were butter.
“Welcome back, Max and Henry,” said the old shopkeeper.
“Save it old cat,” Max said as he dropped the orc's head on the counter, “Where’s the gold?” The shopkeeper dropped a bag on the counter.
“Before you go, I have a quest that might interest you…”
Salmon was riding on horseback to the town of Foolshope after stealing from a royal family. The defences were useless against her genius thievery. She was heading back to sell the crown to an old shopkeeper.
“Took you long enough,” said the old shopkeeper. “You have the crown?” Salmon dropped the crown on the counter. The shopkeeper put a bag of gold on the counter. Salmon started leaving. “Wait, I have a job that might interest you… the others are in the Crimson Hotel. If you’re interested you should drop by there.”
Dusty, Max, and Henry were anxiously waiting for the other person the shopkeeper had told them would show up. After some small talk, it turned out that none of the cats knew the shopkeeper's name. The quest they had received was simple: steal a key from an old royal guard, put the key in an ancient ruin, and kill the monster lurking inside.
After what felt like forever, the final cat showed up.
“Welcome, I’m Max, this is Henry,” Max said, gesturing to Henry, “And this is Dusty.”
“I’m Salmon,”
“Welcome Salmon, what do you do?” Henry asked.
“I’m a thief, and you?”
“I’m an archer, Max is a swordsman, and Dusty is a wizard.”
After a night of planning, the cats were ready to begin the quest. Dusty left the hotel and found a person renting a horse and carriage.
“Nice horse you got there,” Dusty said, “How much?”
“Ten gold pieces a day,” The seller said.
“I need to buy it,”
“Not for sale,” The shopkeeper said and walked the horse away.
Dusty returned to the hotel.
“Did you get the horse?” Salmon asked.
“No,” Dusty said.
“Well then, I’ll just have to steal it, Max you distract the cat selling it. I’ll steal the horse.”
‘Right,“ Max said.
Dusty watched as Salmon stole the horse. Max walked up to the cat and inquired about it. Salmon snuck up behind them and hopped on the horse. She kicked the horse in the side, and the horse started running.
“Hey! That's my horse!” The seller yelled as Dusty, Max, and Henry jumped in the carriage.
“Does anyone know where we’re going?” Dusty asked.
“Yup, I got a map,” Henry said.
“How long?” Salmon asked.
“About two to three days,”
Dusty was getting bored sitting in the carriage, she had tried to play a game with the others but none of them wanted to play. It had been a single day since they stole the horse. Dusty wanted something interesting to happen.
As though Dusty’s thoughts had been answered, a lich stepped out from the trees. The lich was a walking skeleton. It had managed to acquire some robes and a staff. Its boney fingers gripped the staff tighter as it mumbled some words.
Like magic, twenty skeletons raised from the ground. The lich said something to them, too quiet for Dusty to hear. The skeletons walked towards the carriage, slowly dragging their feet as though they had forgotten how to walk. A bone-curdling scream erupted from each of the skeletons' mouths simultaneously.
Henry grabbed his bow and shot one of the skeletons in the head. It fell to the ground, dead. The lich bashed its staff against the ground, and the skeleton that had been shot stood back up as though nothing had happened.
Henry shot an arrow at the lich. It raised its staff and a purple bubble of energy formed around the lich, protecting it from the arrow. The arrow bounced off the bubble and flew back at Henry, who ducked. The arrow flew into a tree with enough force to knock it down.
Max jumped out of the carriage and ran towards the lich. He swung his sword down on the bubble surrounding the lich. The lich waved its boney hand and Max was thrown away by some magical force.
Dusty raised her staff and sent a pale blue bubble flying at the lich. It saw this and sent a purple bubble of its own to counter. The bubbles met in the middle and caused an explosion that wiped out the skeletons, turning them into dust. The lich stepped out of the smoke with a burnt arm, and its robes were torn, barely hanging onto its skeletal frame.
The lich ran forward and grabbed Dusty. While it was distracted, Max snuck up behind it and swung his sword down on its head. The lich turned to dust as Max’s sword connected with its head.
Max and Dusty hopped back into the carriage. Dusty had her fill of excitement for one day, curled up in her seat, and went to sleep. The next morning, Dusty was shaken awake by Henry.
“Dusty, we’re here,” Henry said. Dusty shot up out of her seat, stretched, and looked out the window. Dusty saw beautiful cathedrals with stained glass windows. There were huge mansions with lavish gardens and small homey cottages with wood panelling.
Dusty admired the city for as long as she could. The horse stopped after a few moments. Dusty stepped out of the carriage. Max and Henry stepped out of the carriage.
“Now, where’s this guard?” Max asked.
“According to the map, he lives over there,” Salmon said, pointing at a mansion with a large garden of weeds, seemingly not touched in years. The paint on the building was peeling off, and the accents had long fallen off, revealing piles of mould.
“There?” Henry said.
“Yup,” Salmon said.
“You would think he would be able to buy a better house,”
“Yup,” Salmon said as she walked towards the front door. The rest of the cats followed her lead.
The cats walked up to the door on a cracked stone pathway, it looked as though a thousand tiny meteors had crashed into its surface. Out of one of the larger cracks, came a snake. Dusty launched a fireball at the snake, turning it to ashes instantly.
“I don’t like snakes,” Dusty grumbled. The cats kept walking toward the door. Salmon tried opening the door, and found that it was unlocked, and the cats walked in.
“Be quiet and look for a key,” Salmon whispered. The cats nodded and walked off.
Dusty walked into a kitchen with cracked tiles, the cupboards were open, and the ingredients and equipment were thrown all over the kitchen. Dusty moved to the next room after looking around for the keys. Dusty had entered one of many living rooms.
The room was destroyed, the sofa had been torn to shreds, the tv had been taken off the wall and smashed, and the books had been thrown off the bookshelf. Salmon walked up behind Dusty.
“I found the keys,” Salmon whispered. Dusty screamed.
“Sorry, you scared me,” Dusty whispered.
“Let's get out of here before the guard wakes up,”
“Too late,” The guard said, walking into the room with Max and Henry held at the end of his sword. “Any sudden movements, they die,” Salmon slowly put the keys on the ground. Dusty dropped her staff.
“Let them go,” Salmon said. The guard let go. His body was shed as a snake would shed its skin, revealing a small stone golem. The golem grew in size until it hit the ceiling, the golem was made of stone rocks seemingly glued together. It had different ores covering its stone body.
The golem roared as it started running towards the cats, who expertly dodged.
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“I think that's the guard,” Dusty said as the golem ran into the wall. It shook its head and ripped one of its stones off and threw it at Dusty.
Dusty dodged and fired a bolt of blue lightning at Max. Henry shot the golem in the side, it turned towards him and roared. Max ran up behind the golem, jumped, and swung his sword down on the golem's head. The golem shattered into stone chunks.
“Dusty, what spell was that?” Max asked.
“A critical hit spell,” Dusty answered. “Also, we should get out of here before it reassembles itself,” The cats left the house and walked back to the horse. Salmon hopped into the carriage with the others.
“Where to next?” She asked.
“An ancient ruin,” Dusty answered, “Here,” She pointed to a dot on the map. Salmon left the carriage and hopped on the horse. The carriage started moving forward.
At the gate of the city, the cats were stopped.
“Open up, ” A guard said, “We’ve received a report of robbers trying to leave the city and we need to check for stolen items.”
“No problem,” Salmon said. Dusty opened the door of the carriage. The guard hopped in and checked every inch of the carriage.
“All clear,” The guard said. He walked out of the carriage and opened the gate.
The carriage went through the gate and onto the road.
“How far is it?” Dusty asked.
“About two hours,” Salmon said. After about an hour on the road, Dusty saw a stone statue on the side of the road. As the sun sank below the horizon, cracks appeared on the statue.
The statue shattered as more cracks appeared. Inside the statue was a creature.
“Gargoyle!” Max said as he jumped out of the carriage, Henry and Dusty followed suit. The gargoyle turned to Max and unfolded its wings. It flew just above the ground towards Max.
The gargoyle drew its dagger and dropped in front of Max, he swung his dagger and Max rolled out of the way. The gargoyle roared an ear-splitting sound that was as though a million trains were going into Dusty’s ears. The gargoyle charged toward Dusty.
Dusty shot a blue bolt of lightning at the gargoyle. The gargoyle moved its dagger to intercept the attack. Dusty quickly summoned a shield around herself as the lightning reflected off the dagger and flew back at Dusty’s shield. Dusty was thrown back five meters from the attack.
Dusty got up and threw a pale blue fireball at the gargoyle. The gargoyle moved to block the attack but missed. The gargoyle fell over and caught on fire. Henry shot an arrow at the gargoyle, hitting its head.
Max ran in with his sword and swung it down on the gargoyle's head.
“And stay down,” Max grunted as he stepped into the carriage. Dusty, and Henry, followed suit. They continued their journey to the ruins. After an hour the ruins were in sight.
The ruin was a collection of large stone arches, and a large mountain loomed behind the arches. A large door-like shape had been dug into the mountain thousands of years ago. Since it was created, no cat has been able to enter the mountain.
“Where does the key go?” Dusty asked.
“No clue,” Max replied.
“Take a look around,” Henry said. The cats walked around the stone arches for anywhere the key could fit.
“Find anything yet?” Dusty asked.
“Over here,” Henry said. Salmon came over after finishing her arch. Salmon grabbed the key and put it in the hole Henry had found. The key fit.
Salmon turned the key and heard a click. A small hole opened in the ground behind them and a bright yellow flame flew out. The hole closed after the flame had left the hole.
“Hello,” The flame said. “I’m your guide to enter the mountain. I was created to help guide travellers who want to trade in the mountains.”
“You do know that the last time somebody entered the mountain was thousands of years ago, right,” Max said.
“Woah, thousands of years! That was like a few minutes for me!” The flame said.
“Hey, what's your name?” Salmon asked.
“I don’t have one, back in my time, magicians didn’t name their creations,” The flame said.
“How about Plamen?” Dusty suggested.
“I like that name,” The flame said.
Plamen flew towards the mountain. The cats followed it.
“This walk will take a while,” Plamen said. “Hope you all brought energy bars!”
“Are you sure we can trust it?” Henry whispered to Dusty.
“Either we do, or we lose all that money,” Dusty whispered back. The cats kept walking at a steady pace for five hours before they reached the door.
“Here we are,” Plamen said. It lit the candle surrounding the door on fire. The sound of gears moving came from inside the mountain. The door slowly creaked open and the cats saw rows of small tents, each tent had a sign in front of it. The signs had the name of the shop and what they sold written on them with dry mud.
The cats walked into the mountain. Dusty paused in front of a shop that once sold weapons.
“Hey, over here,” Dusty called to the other cats. They came over.
“What did you find?” Henry asked.
“Weapons,” Dusty said.
“Ah, yes, I remember this shop. This is where I was created,” Plamen said. “They sold magical weapons that could kill anything.”
“Is it alright if we take some stuff, you know, for free?” Max asked.
“Sure,” Plamen answered. The cats walked into the tent and grabbed everything that could help them. Max got a shiny diamond sword with a gold hilt. Henry got a silver bow made of rhodium. Salmon got two daggers, and Dusty got an obsidian staff with a purple orb floating above it. As soon as she touched the staff, the orb changed to a pale blue colour to match her magic’s colour.
The cats walked to a shop with Target dummies out front. Salmon took the dummy on the left. She threw a blade at the dummy. The blade sparkled with neon blue electricity. It hit the dummy, and the dummy caught on fire. The flames were neon blue as well.
“Dusty, why are all your spells pale blue, and mine is neon blue?” Salmon inquired.
“If you study magic, your spells turn pale,” Dusty explained. “If you're just starting to use magic, your spells are neon. Also, the user's preferred magic type is the colour of all their spells.”
“Interesting,” Salmon said.
Henry fired an arrow from his bow. The space behind the arrow sparkled with neon purple as though the air was being forced out of the path of the arrow. The arrow hit the dummy and it went flying across the cave as though it was hit by a racecar.
Max swung his sword at the last dummy and the sword was suddenly covered in blood-red flames. Max quickly sheathed his sword. None of the other cats noticed this as they were too busy trying out their weapons.
“Where does that map say the monster is?“ Max asked.
“It just points to the mountain,” Salmon said.
A loud roar came from the cave to the left of the plaza.
“Guess we’re going that way,” Dusty said. The cats walked towards the cave. The cats walked around the cave for a minute before finding a button. Dusty pushed the button. A hidden door appeared in the wall, leading to a vast treasure room with gold piled up inside.
The cats entered the hidden room. A drop bear fell by the cats and roared. Salmon quickly threw one of her daggers at it, taking its head off. Dusty wrapped the head and put it in her bag. The cats started gathering as much gold as they could.
“This gold does not belong to you,” Max said, drawing his sword. “It belongs to me!”
“Max, what are you talking about?” Henry asked.
“And why is your sword blood red?” Dusty asked.
“I am the ‘monster’ who lives in this cave, and that drop bear was my pet,” Max said.
“Wait,” Dusty said, “Your sword, it's blood red. Did you study blood magic!!”
Without warning, Max ran toward Salmon, his sword raised. Salmon threw her two daggers at him. He froze in place as the electrical currents paralyzed him. One of the daggers fell off after a moment and Max ripped the other out with a grunt.
“Blood mages need blood for their spells!” Dusty yelled, “Don’t lose blood!”
Max touched one of the places the daggers hit and coated his finger with his own blood. Max waved his bloody finger around in the air. The blood moved off his finger to form the spell he was casting. Once the spell was completed, Max hit the rune to activate the spell.
“DUCK!” Dusty yelled. The cats ducked as a massive blood-red finger appeared above them. The finger spun around the room, never going lower than when it was cast. After a minute, the finger disappeared.
“You seriously think you can defeat me?” Max asked. “You can’t even hurt me!”
Max ran over to Salmon with his sword raised, ready to strike. Henry quickly drew an arrow and shot Max in the back. Max drew another blood rune, this time on the floor. He punched his rune again.
Wings formed behind Max. While he had been drawing the rune, Salmon had grabbed her daggers from the ground.
“Hand the daggers to me!” Dusty told Salmon. Max flew down and grabbed Salmon to prevent her from giving the daggers to Dusty. Salmon threw the daggers at Dusty.
Dusty summoned a shield to block the daggers. The daggers hit the shield and stuck to it. Dusty turned the shield around. She quickly grabbed a pocket knife and cut a rune into both of the daggers.
“Catch!” Dusty yelled to Salmon after Max had put her down. Salmon caught the knife and plunged it into Max’s leg. Max tried to use his blood magic but was slapped in the face by a floating hand that disappeared after slapping him.
“I just poisoned your blood, by the way,” Dusty said, “You can’t use your blood magic anymore.”
“I’ll just have to use someone else's,” Max said as he rushed towards Henry. caught off guard, he tried to run but tripped. Max raised his sword and activated the flames. He aimed his sword above Henry’s heart.
Max plunged his sword down, killing Henry instantly. Max tried to use Henry’s blood to cast a spell but was slapped by the hand again.
“Did I mention that it also blocks everyone else's blood?” Dusty asked, “So, you just killed Henry for nothing.”
“Well, I just have to kill two more,” Max said. He ran towards Salmon and tried to stab her. Salmon stabbed him with both her daggers. Max grunted.
Salmon ran, tripped, and was killed by Max.
“Two down, One to go,” Max growled. He ran towards Dusty with his sword raised high. Dusty stood where she was, and was killed by Max.
“Finally done,” Max said to himself and walked over to his golden throne.
“You forgot one thing,” Dusty said, appearing behind the throne after a few minutes. “I’m an illusionist.” Henry and Salmon appeared beside Dusty.
Dusty waved her hand and hundreds of copies of Henry, Salmon, and Dusty surrounded Max. The Salmons all threw their daggers at Max. The Henrys all notched an arrow and fired it at Max. The Dustys all cast a spell at Max. Max screamed in pain as all the copies attacks hit him at once.
The copies disappeared as Dusty waved her hand.
“Do you surrender?” Dusty asked.
“NEVER!” Max yelled as he charged toward Dusty. She waved her hand and teleported behind Max. Dusty mumbled an incantation and a blue ball of water fired at Max. Dusty waved her hand and a part of the floor rose beneath her and carried her up to the roof of the cave.
Max mumbled an incantation of his own and a ball of blood appeared behind him.
“Congratulations, you broke my blocking spell,” Dusty yelled from the top of the cave. Max split the blood into small bullets and threw them at Dusty, who ripped more of the ground out with her magic to block the bullets. She threw the ground at Max, who formed the blood into wings and flew out of the way.
Henry notched an arrow and fired it toward Max. Dusty drew a rune in the air and hit it, the rune flew towards the arrow and it attached to the arrow. Max turned and saw the arrow flying toward him. He was hit in the side and the arrow fired a bolt of lighting that paralyzed him for a moment.
Salmon threw her dagger at Max, who expertly dodged. Dusty drew a rune in the air and positioned her hand to hit it.
“Do you surrender?” Dusty asked.
“NEVER!” Max yelled and Dusty hit the rune. A sound capable of levelling mountains erupted from the rune. Dusty quickly formed a shield around Salmon, Henry and herself. The sound struck Max like a train and he went flying across the room.
Salmon and Henry quickly gathered as much gold as they could. Max ripped himself from the wall and drew a blood rune.
“IF I CAN'T HAVE MY GOLD, NOBODY CAN!” Max yelled as he hit the rune. Dusty, Henry and Salmon ran out of the mountain before it collapsed.
“You still got the drop bear?“ Salmon asked.
“Yup,” Dusty answered.
“Load of good you did in there, Plamen,” Henry said sarcastically.
“I was not designed for fighting,” Plamen replied.
The cats hopped back into the carriage and began the ride back to Foolshope. After five days on the road, with no interruptions the village was in sight. Salmon stopped the horse and the cats walked to the shop.
“Welcome back,” The old shopkeeper said. “Do you have the head?”
“Of course we do,” Henry said. Dusty dropped the drop bear head on the counter.
“Take good care of it, it took us a lot of effort to get you that head,” Dusty said.
“Where's our gold?” Salmon asked. The shopkeeper dropped the gold on the counter.
“I got another quest for you, if you want it,” The shopkeeper said.
“Give us a few days,” Dusty said. The cats left the shop.