Skyfire Ablaze

As I approached the entrance to the Skyfire Mountains from the Overthere I noticed it was neither guarded by the local horde of Dark Elves from the outpost or the Sarnaks which infest the entire area, nor was it populated by those working on gaining battle experience. This seemed odd as I was told this entire landscape is usually covered by both friend and foe alike. I warily approached the arches, and as I came up the ramp, decided to pause for a moment and rummage through my pouch...ahahh, here it is, a Blood of Wolf potion. I was not taking any chances in this desolate and unknown area of my home continent, for I had heard horrible tales of death and treachery surrounding these mountains and its inhabitants.

As I stepped in to the Mountains I could make out the shapes of hideous beings in the farthest reaches of my sight, some looked like descendants of the wurms I had seen in Burning Woods, others looked much fiercer and deadly, some so fierce they were named by their own, with titles of Elder and Mature. If I could just find this elusive book, The Immortals, I could gain the trust of the Erudin librarian, and he would tell me how to continue on my search for the true and ultimate power monks could possess.
It was only a tale passed on by elder monks, but I had heard some of the elders conversing about its existence as a young initiate in the caste of Monks. I was determined to find it for myself. So I kept my distance from every hideous being in these mountains, which were profusely scarred by rivers of molten lava, and jagged rock formations that seemed to erupt from the black steaming surface that was home to these creatures. I ran near a wall like mountain, which at first glance seemed impossible to overcome, which I later confirmed to be so.

As I ran I couldn't help but shout aloud " I seek the book of Immortals"..."I seek the book of Immortals" my focus was great, and I was not going to let the fear and past stories of this place take hold of my mind. My shouting seemed to hold me steady in my search. As I approached an odd looking orb held by a mighty statue of a dragon I was hailed by a wolf who had somehow heard my shouting in the distance. I could see in his wolf form there was great experience and he seemed much older and traveled than I. He told me there was such a book recently discovered on the corpse of one of his defeated enemies, but with the intense heat, it had burned away a few short moments after it was found. I mustered up enough courage to reply with a plea for information leading to me finding or possessing another copy of this book. He told me that it was a rare item to be found with no particular value that he was aware of, and agreed to inform me of any findings, but if I persevered, I would ultimately find what I searched for.

The druid, in wolf form clearly seemed distressed as the lavawalker pursued him through the hills and valleys of the rock and lava laden landscape, he must have caught a glimpse of me as he ran by, panting and clearly out of both breath and casting ability. He soon asked me if I would help him with the unsightly beast. Although this creature was much bigger than I, and could have easily killed me many times over, it was so enraged with the wolf, that it did not even stop to rid itself of me, as I followed behind it, punching and kicking. This must have been an incarnation directly from hell for although severely wounded, and clearly on its last instances of life it still took a severe beating of several minutes for me to finally get its attention, as it stood there clawing at me from what seemed every direction, I noticed my own fatigue and health dropping dramatically, I evaded his blows with a well timed Feigning, a skill that monks learn early in their lives, and that has saved mine countless times, this time it worked quite well, for the monstrous encarnation left my limp body and continued its persuit of the now rested wolf. With a casting of what seemed to my arcanely ignorant eyes, a very powerful spell, a swarm seemed to appear out of around the wolf and engulf the lavawalker. The beast had no recourse as it swatted the air, its health was quickly diminishing and as it started to flee from the deadly swarm, I jumped up from my trance like state of death, and continued to instill damaging blows of fury. It soon was so wounded it could not even move, as its corpse toppled to the rocky ground the druid thanked me, and exclaimed that for my actions, I would be rewarded with that which I searched. I stooped over the now decaying body of the beast to discover within its possessions a book, it was the book of Immortals which I had come searching for. Although I was badly beaten and bruised, I had accomplished my task, in part thanks to the druid. The druid then cast a series of spells on us, and I could feel the life returning to me. As we sat there looking over the horizon, both regenerating, although he was not of my kind, we sat and simply had an understanding of each other's help. As we parted ways he blessed me with a few more incantations, and off I went at the speed of a wolf, both healing and much stronger than before.

Now I must travel to the far end of this world to visit the librarian in the mystical city of Erudin.