The Last EleMage, Chapter One pt 2

Suddenly a warm moist gust of air, heavy with the scent of crushed grass, washed over his cheek and neck, and he turned to see that the foal was bending to whisper in his ear.

“You may want to take this chance to get out of the water, Apprentice EleMage.  Otherwise you will be . . . occupied for the next several hours at least.”

Following the direction of the foal’s gesturing nose, A`lanon saw that the mermaids were gathered together in a group near the center of the pool, occasionally glancing his way and giggling.

“I think you’re right.”  A`lanon said, and he pushed himself to his feet.  The mermaids saw him leaving, and they started to try to stop him, but he was able to reach the shore before they could get close enough to haul him back into the water.  A`lanon slipped the jar with the tear – which he had thankfully managed to hang onto – into his pouch, dried and cleaned himself off with magic, and then rounded on the foal.  The young Unicorn smiled at him and nodded.

“You caught me fair and square, A`lanon.  As agreed, you may take one of my hairs.”

“Thank you.”  A`lanon said.  He selected and carefully cut a single hair from the foal’s long tail, and then sealed it in another of his sample jars.  Then, once the jar was safely back in his pouch, he turned and bowed formally to the mermaids.

“And thank you as well, dear ladies.  You have aided me greatly in my quest, and I have greatly enjoyed our time together.  However, as with all good things, our time as come to and end, and I must now take my leave of you.”

The mermaids looked crestfallen.

“Do you have to go?”  One of them asked.

“I’m afraid so.”  A`lanon said.  “I am less than half way towards completing my Crystal, time waits for no man, as they say, not even an EleMage.”

Bowing again to both the mermaids and the foal, A`lanon turned and rounded the pool to collect his staff.  As he turned to wave goodbye one last time, he was surprised to see the foal standing behind him.

“I have to go home soon, too.”  He said.  “I just wish I had time to explore the caves in that mountain.”  He nodded towards the loan peak over the trees.  “I’m sure there’s something interesting in there.”

A hint of a smile crossed his face, and then he was gone, leaving A`lanon to stare after him curiously.  Obviously the foal had wanted him to go to the caves, but why?  And why be so coy about it?  After a few moment’s thought, A`lanon shrugged; it wasn’t like he had any pressing appointments elsewhere, so why not go spelunking?  Staff in hand, A`lanon turned upstream and headed for the mountain.

As he walked, the water in the river suddenly surged and leapt into the air, and in a moment a watery avatar of Kestranon was walking on the water beside him.

“Man, I can’t believe how lucky you are.”  The avatar said, its voice slightly bubbly and distorted by the water.  “Not only do you get two items in one go, you get a good-natured foal for a Unicorn!  When I was doing this I had to deal with a foul-tempered old stallion who would have been just as happy to skewer me – in fact he probably would have been happier to run me through.  It took three days of pestering and close calls, but he finally agreed to give me a hair in exchange for a ruby apple.  I’ll tell you what I had to go through to get the apple another time, suffice it to say that it wasn’t one of the highlights of my youth.”

A`lanon gave a noncommittal grunt, his mind wandering slightly.  The avatar leaned over and grinned at him from close range.

“Still thinking about that kiss?”  It asked, and A`lanon twitched slightly, which caused the avatar to grin wider.  “I knew it.  That was your first one, right?”

A`lanon shook his head.

“It doesn’t matter, since that isn’t what I was thinking about.  Besides, you know what they say about mermaids.”

The avatar’s grin grew.

“Yep, and it’s all true.  When I got my tear, I spent three hours telling jokes, doing imitations and pratfalls, and generally making an utter fool of myself to try and get a pack of mermaids to laugh.  I got some laughs, but not enough, so I eventually gave up and tickled it out of them.  That was more effective – not to mention more fun – but I didn’t get out of the water quickly enough.  I remember four of them converging me, and then the next thing I know it’s three days later and I’m lying on a deserted island beach in a rather . . . undignified state.”

A`lanon scoffed.

“I find that hard to believe.”

The avatar drew itself up.

“What?  You don’t think that I could be attractive to mermaids?”

“No.”  A`lanon said with a slight smile.  “I doubt that you were ever dignified to begin with.”

The avatar opened its mouth, but then froze.  After a moment it gave A`lanon a dirty look and then vanished with a splash.

It took A`lanon an hour to reach the foot of the mountain – which burst rather abruptly from the land with little more than a slight rising in the ground to herald it – and from there it took him another twenty minutes to find a narrow trail snaking up the mountain.  Half an hour on the trail brought him to a cave that penetrated deep into the heart of the mountain.  A`lanon stopped to consider the cave, telling himself that the foal might not have actually been giving him a hint, that there were all sorts of dangerous creatures that liked to live in caves, that even an EleMage could be killed and eaten – not necessarily in that order – but then he told himself that he didn’t have any better ideas, and entered the cave.

Darkness quickly swallowed him, so he reached back and called a few rays of the sun to his hand, creating a ball of light that hovered over his palm.  As he worked his way deeper in to the cave he probed ahead of him with his EleMage senses, but the cave was so deep that he couldn’t find the end no matter how far he stretched.  The one thing he did notice was that the air was growing hotter and thicker with noxious fumes rapidly as he went deeper, which made him wonder just what was waiting for him at the end of the tunnel.

The cave sloped down as it went, so after half an hour, by his reckoning he was getting near the center of the mountain, and was a hundred or so feet below the ground outside.  By that point the air was so thick with sulfurous smoke that he could barely breathe – as an EleMage he could withstand conditions that would kill a normal Human with ease, but the heat and fumes were pushing his limits by the time he saw the light ahead.

It was a dim reddish glow, but it shone on the walls and mage crystal formations glitter within the rock.  As he got closer the light got brighter until he no longer needed his Light-ball, which was a good thing as once he saw the source of the light his concentration slipped and the ball vanished with a slight flash.

The tunnel ended in a large chamber containing a massive lake of bubbling magma.  There was a stone beach of sorts that seemed to run around the lake, extending sixty feet out from the wall where A`lanon stood, however he couldn’t tell if it ran all the way around the lake since the chamber was so large that the far wall was lost to shadow and haze.  It was an impressive natural formation, but a quick sweep with his EleMage senses told him that there might be something even more impressive about it.

Something huge and alive was swimming in the magma.

In fact, it was swimming his way.

Near the stone beach the magma suddenly bulged upward nearly fifty feet.  The molten stone and flames formed a gigantic reptilian head that considered him through foot-wide eyes that blazed like forges, and tasted his scent with a tongue like a demon’s blazing whip. 

A`lanon froze, and the creature considered him for a minute, then a leg longer than A`lanon was tall, thicker than most tree trunks, and tipped with claws longer that spears rose from the magma and onto the stone beach.  Another leg followed a moment later, and the creature began pulling itself out of the flaming lake.  It was so large that it had to pull its body out sideways along the beach, curling with the curve of the lake – in fact it was so large that it actually looked a little cramped on the wide (to A`lanon) stone shelf. 

It looked sort of like an alligator, only its head and mouth were short and wide rather than long and thin.  Once it was out of the magma its skin darkened from a brilliant red/yellow/orange pattern to char black with glowing red lines, making it look like a creature made of half-cooled lava.  It’s most distinctive feature, however, was the twin lines of scarlet flames that began just over it’s now-smoldering eyes and went clear back to the almost invisible tip of its distant tail – lines of flame that marked the creature as being a very old King Salamander.

A`lanon was completely frozen, his brain having seized up in shock at the sight of the Salamander, however when the massive flaming beast gave a low hiss like water droplets hitting a hot skillet, he suddenly remembered a passage he’d read long ago.

Royal Salamanders are the First Creatures of the Fire Element, and as such are amongst the oldest and most noble creatures in the world – just ask them.  They live by a strict code of manners and etiquette, which is the only reason they will speak with other creatures at all, rather then just incinerating them on sight.  A Royal Salamander will always allow a visitor to make the first move, but if they make the wrong move or are too slow about it, then the Salamander with reduce them to a pile of fine ash without a second thought.  Those who find themselves facing one of these ancient creatures must use this opportunity to convince the Salamander that they are polite enough that it would be rude to incinerate them, and interesting enough that it would be worth speaking with them.

Hastily A`lanon bowed as deeply as he could, until his head was nearly level with his knees.

“Hail, Most Ancient and Noble One of the Flames!”  He said.  “I beg your pardon for intruding upon you in this manner.  I am A`lanon, EleMage Apprentice to EleMage Master Kestranon.  I humbly offer my respects to you, Lord of the Molten Stone, and wish that your life my be long and full.”

A`lanon was sweating from more than just the heat; he couldn’t remember exactly the proper way to address such an old King Salamander – though he could clearly remember the penalty for seeming rude – so he decided to fall back on one of Kestranon’s sayings: ‘When in doubt, over do it.’

The King Salamander hissed again, only this time the sound was more thoughtful than annoyed.

“Kessstranon, ehhh?”  A`lanon heard through the EleMagic.  “Vvvery wellll, EllleMage Apprenticcce A`lllanon.  I willll ffforgivvve.  Raissse your hhhead.”

A`lanon stood and respectfully inclined his head to the Salamander.

“I am grateful, Great Son of the First Fires, for your mercy and generosity.  May I assume that you have heard of my Master?”

“You may.”  The Salamander said.  “Kessstranon came to me sssome time ago when hhhe fffirssst came to thhhessse partsss to offffer hhhisss ressspeccctsss.  Telll me, whhhat bringsss hhhisss Apprenticcce to me today?”

“I am currently engaged in the ancient Crystal Rite of the EleMagi, Great One.”  A`lanon said.

“Ahhhhhh, and ssso you desssire one offf my ssscalllesss, isss that it?”

A`lanon bowed again, only this time not nearly as deeply.

“I realize that one so lowly as I has no right to ask for such a boon from one of your nobility, however perhaps there is some task I might perform, or object of your desire that I might bring that would compensate you for the loss of one of your magnificent scales.”

The Salamander considered for a moment, but some instinct told Alanon that he wasn’t considering what to have A`lanon do, but rather whether A`lanon would be able to do what he had in mind.  Eventually he reached his decision and nodded.

“Vvvery wellll, I hhhavvve a tasssk that needsss done.”  He inclined his head at the magma lake.  “My poolll hasss been coollling thessse lllassst fffew monthhhs.  I thhhink sssomethhhing mussst be wrong deep under ground, hhhowevvver I do not know whhhat or hhhow to ssstop it.”  He looked at A`lanon.  “I hhhavvve lllivvved hhhere fffor more thhhan a hhhundred lllifetimesss offf men.  I do not relllisssh thhe thhhoughhht offf hhhavvving to fffind a new hhhome at my age.  Sssolllve thhhisss fffore me, and you willll hhhavvve your ssscallle.”

A`lanon felt his heart sink.  There were a number of possible solutions to the Salamander’s problem, but he knew they were all beyond his abilities.  The simplest would be to just enhance the Fire power of the magma, however that would be just a temporary fix, and since the lake was so large is was doubtful that anyone less than a Master EleMage could pull it off.  The best solution would be to find the root of the problem and fix it there, however that not only ran into the same problems of power and scale, but also into the one of subtlety to fix the problem without making it worse.

Still though, he decided after a moment’s thought, it couldn’t hurt to just look, and actually seeing the problem might clue him in as to a solution he could implement.

“If you will wait just a moment, Great One, I will attempt to diagnose the problem.”  A`lanon said.  Dropping to one knee and pressing a hand to the stone to better connect, A`lanon allowed himself to slip into a light trance to extend the range of his EleMage senses.  Then, extending a tendril of EleMagic into the stone, he began feeling his way through the rock, following the contours of the magma lake.  By following the natural grain of the rock he was able to at least get an idea of the structure of the lake and the surrounding stone, and from there he was able to begin narrowing down probable causes.  Finally, after an uncounted number of minutes he found the problem.

Still in his trance he spoke to the Salamander.

“It looks like the main channel feeding magma into your lake has caved in.  There are a few minor passages that are still open, so they’re staving off the cooling for now, but they’re just not up to maintaining a lake of this size.  The current they produce is too slow to circulate the magma properly, so the far side of the lake is cooling while the nearer side stays warmer.”

“Can you fffixxx it?”  The Salamander asked.

A`lanon poked around the cave it a bit more, then returned to his own body.

“No.”  he said, standing up and looking up at the Salamander.  “Maybe if I was stronger, but I’m just an Apprentice, so there’s no way I can do it alone.  However, there may be a way if you’re willing to help me.

“The passage is just wide enough for you to crawl into, provided you’re not claustrophobic; however the situation down there seems pretty precarious.  The debris actually seems to be holding the rest of the passage up, so moving it carelessly is just asking for trouble.  My idea is that I merge my consciousness with yours so that I can accompany you down; then, using my EleMage senses and maybe a touch of EleMagic, I will be able to guide you to the stones that are safe to move.

“You have to understand, this is a long shot at best.  We may end up dropping half the mountain on our heads; in a worst-case scenario we could even do something that will trigger an eruption that could wipe out all life for miles.  If you’d rather not take the risk, then I will find you a new home so that you don’t have to.  The choice is yours, Great One.”

The Salamander considered, then nodded.

“We willll attempt your plllan.”  He said.

A`lanon nodded and sat on the ground.  Focusing his energy inwards he detached a portion of his spirit and tied it to his mind via a thin tendril of EleMagic; then he pushed the piece of spirit out of himself like an immaterial kite and guided it to the Salamander.  There he allowed the spirit shard to enter the flow of the Salamander’s thoughts and emotions until it became one with them, yet distinct from them.  This created an odd duality of A`lanon, as he was still fully aware of his own body, yet he was also watching though the Salamander’s eyes and looking down on his own miniscule form.

I’m ready.  A`lanon told the Salamander through the spirit shard once he was sure the spell was set properly.

Then let us begin.

The Salamander turned and slipped into the magma like an alligator entering a river, and once he was fully submerged he began to swim down to where A`lanon said the opening of the blocked passage was.  He swam like a gator, too, A`lanon noticed; slithering through the magma and paddling with his tail, using his legs and head like rudders to steer himself down to the relatively small opening in the rock wall of the lake.  Though the passage was narrow, the Salamander wedged his head in, gripped the stone with his claws, and began dragging himself through the tunnel.

It is uncomfortably close in here.  He commented.

I know, but it gets a little wider in a bit, so please hang in there.

After a few minutes they reached the collapsed portion of the tunnel.  Due to the heat many of the rocks had partly melted and fused together, but with the Salamander’s abilities as the First Creature of Fire that was little more than a nuisance.  A`lanon would use his EleMage senses via the spirit shard to find weak spots in the blockage, as well as pointing out what places shouldn’t be messed with; then the Salamander would spray a narrow stream of magma from his mouth, and with the heat of his own inner Fire, it had little trouble melting the stone.  A`lanon would then use the spirit shard as a relay to guide and shape the melting stone into a sort of grid work that would allow the lava to flow freely, but without robbing the tunnel of the stone’s support; he had to be careful doing that though, since the EleMagic drained a little of his spirit as he used it he ran the risk of accidentally depleting the spirit shard and leaving the Salamander to fend for himself down there.

Though there were a couple close calls, they managed to restore the magma flow, leaving only the task of helping the Salamander back blindly out of the narrow passage.  They managed that as well, and the Salamander gratefully turned and swam back into the open lake.  While he enjoyed being out of the cramped tunnel, A`lanon made a quick check to ensure that the slight current in the pool was picking up enough with the restored flow.  Once they were both satisfied, the Salamander turned and pulled himself back up onto the beach while A`lanon detached and recovered his largely depleted spirit shard.

Once his spirit was back where it belonged, A`lanon opened his eyes and climbed a little shakily to his feet, leaning slightly on his staff for support.  He bowed slightly to the Salamander.

“I believe that should solve your problem, Great One, though if you have any more problems, please do not hesitate to send for me.”

“Thhhank you, young one.”  The Salamander said, honoring A`lanon with such a casual address; still though A`lanon couldn’t help but notice that he seemed distracted by something, and that he seemed to be shifting one front leg as though it was bothering him.

“Is something the matter, Great One?”  A`lanon asked.

“It isss nothhhing.”  The Salamander said, then he sighed slightly.  “It ssseemsss that whhhen I wasss backing out off thhhat tunnelll, sssomethhhing became lllodged under one off my ssscalllesss.  I cannot reachhh it, and it isss bothhhering me.  Woullld you be willlling to hhhelllp me yet again?”

“Of course, Great One, it would be my honor.”

Following the Salamander’s direction, A`lanon soon found the offending piece of debris near the First Creature’s right elbow.  Though the Salamander’s hide was far too hot to touch, A`lanon was able to use his staff to pry the object free, and it fell to the stone with a hard clatter.

“Ahhhhh, thhhat’sss better.”  The Salamander said, shifting his leg.  A`lanon, however, had bent to examine the object, and he was rather surprised at what he saw.  Pulling out his handkerchief and folding it to give him protection from the heat he reached down and picked up the misshapen lump of stone.  The rock itself wasn’t particularly interesting, and with a little work with his hands and the EleMagic he soon brushed it away; what was interesting was the roughly two inch crystal inside the rock that practically glowed in his EleMage senses with Earth power.

“It’s a diamond.”  He said, examining the irregular octahedral shape of the crystal.

“Thhhat woullld not be to sssurprisssing.”  The Salamander said, backing up to get a better look at the gem.  “Thhe ffflllow off thhhe llliquid Fffire sssometimesss carriesss thhhem up fffrom thhhe deep earthhh.  To me thhhey are nothhhing but a nuisance, but assss I recallll, you willll require one fffor your Rite.  Take it withhh you thhhen, withhh my thanksss for digging it out off my hhhide.”

A`lanon bowed.

“Thank you, Great One; you are too generous.”

“Not at allll.  Assss I sssaid, I hhhavvve no ussse fffor thhhem, ssso it isss sssimpllly one lessss rock fffor me to worry about.  Sssame fffor your ssscallle; thhhere are many alllong thhhis beachhh thhhat you may take withhhout bothhhering me in the ssslighhhtessst, ssso fffeelll fffree to take your pick.” 

The Salamander considered him for a moment, then spoke again.

“You ssseem ready to fallll down and melt, young one.  Ifff you were not an EllleMage you woullld have already sssuccumbed to thhhe hhheat and fumesss off thhhisss plllaccce.”  He inclined his head back over his shoulder.  “Onccce you hhhavvve your ssscallle, I recommend you take the ssside passssage out.  It isss a lllittllle sssteeper, but it isss ssshhhorter, and thhhere ssshhhoullld be a ssstream and a grove off treesss nearby whhhere you may ressst and recover.”

A`lanon bowed again as he slipped the diamond into his pouch.

“Thank you, Great One; I believe I will do that.”

The Salamander nodded.

“Thhhen I wissshhh you wellll, young one.”  He said, and then once more he slipped into his magma lake and vanished.

Sighing in exhaustion, A`lanon started along the beach in the direction the Salamander had indicated.  Sure enough it wasn’t long before he found both another tunnel sloping up towards light and fresh air, as well as one of the Salamander’s shed scales.  It was char black with one jagged red line crossing it, about the size of a small serving platter, and roughly oval in shape, though one side seemed to have been trimmed off a little short.  As he collected the scale, Alanon noticed several round objects lying nearby that he didn’t recognize; there were a half dozen of them, most about the size of his fist, though there were two the size of grapefruits.

A sudden surge in the EleMagic cause A`lanon to turn in tome to see the Haze of fumes in the hair behind him coalesce into a seven foot tall replica of Kestranon’s head.

“Seriously, kid, there should be a limit to the amount of shear dumb luck one person can have.”

“There is.”  A`lanon shot back.  “But you and I share ours.  You got the shear dumb, and I got the luck.”  He grinned at the giant head – who gave him a dirty look – but before Kestranon could respond A`lanon picked up one of the odd round objects and showed it to him. 

“What are these?”  He asked.

“Royal Salamander droppings.”  Kestranon answered.

Grimacing in disgust, A`lanon threw the dropping away.

“Look out!”  Kestranon yelled, his eyes widening and following the arc of the dropping.  On reflex, A`lanon threw himself to the side and covered his head with his hands, which proved to be a good thing as the dropping hit the stone right about then and exploded with a massive fireball.  A wave of heat and pressure passed over A`lanon, and had he been standing he undoubtedly would have been seriously hurt; as it was he lost about an inch of his hair and received a profound ringing in his ears.  Thankfully the fireball was short-lived, and A`lanon was soon able to raise his head to look at the blackened and broken stone where the dropping had landed.

Kestranon’s giant-head avatar had been blasted apart by the pressure wave, but he rapidly reformed it and immediately began yelling at A`lanon.

“Which of us got the shear dumb, again?!”  He shouted.  “Those aren’t snowballs, you idiot; seriously, don’t go chucking things about like a monkey when you have no idea what you’re doing!”

“Well how was I supposed to know Salamander crap explodes!”  A`lanon shouted back, though in his case it was partly to hear himself over the ringing in his ears.  “I’ve never seen even a normal salamander before, let alone a Royal; and I’ve certainly never played with their crap!”

Kestranon sighed, and an outsized hand to match the head formed from the smog and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Alright, listen up, cause I’ll only say this once.  Salamander droppings, be then from normal salamanders or Royal Salamanders, contain pure distilled Fire power inside them.  breaking one open will release that power, giving you an instant fire under even the most adverse conditions.  That’s mostly what normal salamander droppings are used for – fire-starting, that is – but Royal Salamander droppings like these are exponentially more powerful; they’re used as weapons or to start backfires to fight brushfires and the like.  As you saw, they’re quite powerful and quite dangerous; that being said , they’re also quite rare, which translates to quite valuable.  You should take a few along in case of emergencies; if you can’t find a use for them then you can always sell them – they’re worth twice their weight in gold, just so you know.  They’re perfectly clean, so you don’t have to worry about that, however just be careful not to blow yourself up.”

The smog head dissipated back into the ambient haze, and A`lanon picked himself up off the ground.  He collected the scale and the remaining five Salamander droppings and slipped them into his pouch – it was a little tricky getting the scale in, however he was able to jimmy it though the mouth of the pouch, and from there the enchanted leather easily held it despite its size.  That done he headed for the passage, stepping gingerly around the blasted stone where the dropping had exploded.

As the Salamander had said, this second passage was shorter than the first, but it was also a good bit steeper so the going wasn’t actually that much easier or faster.  Still though, the promise of a fresh mountain spring and a quiet grove of trees to rest in kept him going.  After half an hour of plodding up the slope, the only light being the Light ball he’d formed from the glow of the magma below, he suddenly found himself facing a wall of tangled wood.

It looked as though he’d reached the end of the tunnel, but the exit was blocked by fallen trees and brush, like a flash flood or tornado might leave behind.  There was no light coming through the block that he could see, and he couldn’t shift the debris when he tried, however he did discover a small opening between tree trunks that looked like he just might be able to squeeze through.  Since he didn’t want to turn around and go back to the Salamander’s cavern and then go back up the other passage if he didn’t have to, he decided to go ahead and try to worm his way through.

Slipping his staff into the enchanted pouch to free his hands he slipped through the gap into a claustrophobic little passage that twisted and turned without any semblance of logic; in fact it wasn’t really a passage so much as a series of gaps between trees that just happened to sort of line up.  Crawling through them was an exercise in contortionism, patience, creativity, and his lexicon of swear words.  His larva-like wriggling though the mess of trees brought him up and to the side, relative to the tunnel entrance he’d come from, and he got the feeling that the mass of fallen trees was curved away from the mountain slightly, thought what could cause that he had no idea.

Finally he began seeing light above, and after some more spine-bending twists he managed to force his way into open air and pull himself free.  He was covered in scratches and his clothes were torn in a dozen or more places, but he was free and out in the open again.  A glance around showed him that he was standing atop a massive pile of dead trees, which itself was perched on a wide ledge well up the mountain slope.  He was in the middle of enjoying a deep breath of fresh air when a sound behind him caused him to turn. 

When he did he froze.

He suddenly realized that he wasn’t standing atop a random jumble of fallen trees, but rather on a deliberate construction.  The trees had been uprooted, striped, and then woven together with branched and brush stuffed into the openings to fill the space.  It was almost exactly like what weaver birds would do with little sticks and twigs, only on a larger scale.  Much, much larger.

He was standing on a Roc’s nest.

What’s more, when he turned, he suddenly found himself nose-to-beak with the owner.

The only thing that saved him from being eaten then and there was that the Roc was as surprised to see him as he was to see it.  it had probably been sleeping peacefully when the sound of him forcing his way free of its nest had woken it up.  It had raised its head to see what the sound was, and suddenly realized that a tiny little Two-Legs was practically standing on its head.

The two of them stared at each other for a moment that flowed past like cold molasses, then the Roc opened its beak and screeched.  The blast of sound was a physical force at that distance, and A`lanon was knocked backwards off the edge of the nest.  He landed hard on the stone some twenty feet below and slid to within inches of the much longer drop from the cliff edge; it was only raw instinct that allowed him to use a touch of EleMagic to keep from getting killed by the fall – dealing with the Roc would take a little something more.

As the massive bird lifted itself out of the nest and started to move towards him, A`lanon frantically threw a tendril of EleMagic at it and touched its mind.

“Wait!”  He said, both verbally and directly to the Roc’s mind via his EleMagic tendril.  “Please wait, I’m an EleMage!”

The Roc froze in surprise at the touch and the words; all creatures had an instinctive knowledge of, and respect for, EleMagi, though how they would act on that was up to them.  In this case it was a little chancier since Rocs were the First Creatures of Air, and so were far more intelligent than your average animal.  If this Roc wanted to eat him, then he was tomorrow’s bird droppings no matter what he did. 

Still, surprise stopped the Roc again, and A`lanon used the opportunity to keep talking.

“Please, I’m deeply sorry to have intruded on your home like this.  I was trapped in a cave behind your nest and it was my only way out.  Please, I mean you no harm.”

The Roc clicked its beak, then settled back warily on its nest.

“Are you really an EleMage?”  It asked, and A`lanon detected a distinct feminine note under the screeching of its voice.  “I’ve never seen one before.”

A`lanon nodded.

“I am, though technically I’m still an Apprentice, and not a full EleMage.”

“I see.”  The Roc said.  She ruffled her feathers slightly, and A`lanon noticed that they were a dark mottled grey, rather than the striking black-and-scarlet that Rocs usually wore.  His heart skipped a beat as he realized what that meant.

Rocs’ bright plumage announced to other Rocs that they were ready and able to mate; once they’d paired off and a clutch of eggs was laid, both parents would loose their decorative feathers and use them to insulate the nest, growing blander feathers that blended in with the surroundings of their nest instead.

Basically, he’d almost climbed into the nest of a brooding mother Roc – usually a recipe for a quick death – but it now looked like he might actually manage to survive.

“I see.”  The Roc said again.  “Very well, I suppose I won’t eat you.”

A`lanon sighed, rose, and bowed respectfully.

“Thank you.  My name is A`lanon, by the way.”  The Roc simply clicked her beak, so A`lanon continued.  “I realize this is bold of me, however I am currently in the middle of the EleMage Crystal Rite.  Is there perhaps something I could do for you in exchange for a single feather?”

The Roc cocked her head and clicked her beak.

“What could a Two-Legs, even an EleMage, do for me?”  She asked, though A`lanon thought he detected a touch of something in her voice, like she was concerned about something but trying to hide it.

“I don’t know.”  A`lanon said.  “Is there anything you require, or a task you would like done?  I lack the knowledge and skill of a full EleMage, however if it is within my power I swear I will give my all to whatever you require.”

The Roc spread one wing and began preening the feathers as she thought.  Seeing the wing spread caused A`lanon to realize that this mother Roc was small for her kind – her total wingspan was probably only around eighty feet or so.

Suddenly the Roc raised her head with a determined click of her beak.

“Very well, there is something you may be able to do.”