The camp seemed surprisingly unruffled; they had suffered some casualties but the priests had the injured well in hand. The soldiers were at their ease; Kiernan and Simeon were in the large command tent, leaning over stack of maps, steaming drinks at their side and discussing the next course of action.
Unsurprisingly, they were horrified:
“Coaltongue’s statue? That enormous one? Alive? How?”
Quickly, I said:
“Let me start at the beginning…….”
I related all that had happened; Simeon, ever the Loremaster, was fascinated:
“So, this Festival of Dreams is something that your city has practiced for years? And the trilliths are dreams from the dragon Trilla? Faden, has anyone made a connection with this ritual and the trillith? It seems very coincidental….Do we know just where the dragon is supposedly sleeping?”
I looked at him, mildly exasperated:
“Simeon, you of all people have a very good indication just how I’ve been spending my time; about eight months ago, I arrived at Seaquen, a fledgling mage struggling with the magic in my spell books. Since, then, you’ve had a detailed account of what I have been doing and when; how I have been spending my time, how I have been learning what little magic I know and just what sort of research I have been doing; now, when do you think I have had the time to study or ask the questions which you have just posed?
In fact, I have been asking you the same type of questions you’ve just asked for months!”
He looked a little chagrined as he realised just what he had said:
“Apologies Faden, yes of course I am aware how you have been spending your time; it’s just that this is so fascinating. In all my time of study, I have never heard of something like this; dreams that take form. What a fascinating concept.
However, this study is something for the future; what are you going to do now?”
Longhelim replied to that:
“We have to wait; our presence at Summer’s Bluff would be a distraction more than anything else; as Faden has already said, something seems to have affected Drudge, making him the only person capable to defeating the statue. Ultimately, I think it will come to pure brute force. Both John and Felix stayed behind to heal the ranger and hopefully John will be able to make both himself and the priest invisible; hopefully that will be enough of a defence to keep them safe.
Faden also made Vigilance invisible so the trillith have lost their main target. Somehow, he’s still holding back the majority of the trillith horde. We couldn’t hurt the statue but it can hurt us very badly and very quickly; more importantly, it has that powerful ability of being able to summon Vigilance at will; if we stayed, we would just become an added burden to the healers.
Now, onto another matter; how did things turn out between you and the Ragesians?”
Kiernan replied to that:
“Well, as per your instructions, we engaged as little as possible and bearing in mind that this was an expeditionary force, there were remarkably few casualties; it seemed as if the Ragesian forces were reluctant to engage us; so, for some time, we just glared at each other across a field although there were a few skirmishes here and there. Then, of course, after that first day, they began to withdraw; now we know why.”
We continued to answer questions as well as ask our own but after a little more time, began to feel some anxiety as none of the others made a return.
Then, Longhelim asked me mentally:
“Should we go back? I am beginning to get concerned.”
I replied:
“No point; as we said to Simeon, our presence will make little difference; we cannot hurt the statue; Gods know, we tried; I cast everything at it and you and Victor hit it as hard as you could; and did nothing. Don’t worry, I think that win or lose, they’ll be back.”
Although in reality, it was only a brief period of little time, the waiting felt much longer, especially as there was no mental communication from John; that meant that he was either far too busy or dead.
We had all left the camp and were anxiously looking in the direction of Gate Pass.
Then:
“They’re back!”
It was Victor who saw them first but that changed very quickly; a few moments after, even I was able to distinguish three figures moving towards us; Drudge was running; there was no mistaking that loping stride; Felix and John were flying. Vigilance, in the form of a stag, was with them.
Our reunion was joyous; there was lots of hugging and back slapping. Drudge, thankfully, was now normal size and the others looked bruised and battered but able to move around.
Eagerly I asked:
“So, what happened? Drudge, how did you get so big? Did the statue get destroyed? What happened to the Trillith?”
Drudge just grinned and replied:
“It was Metamorphosis; as I was at the bottom of that shaft, I heard a voice in my head: Take my Boon it said. After that, I suddenly felt a jolt of magic and became enormous. Then, I just beat up the statue.”
John looked at him a little quizzically:
“Hold on! It was a little more involved than that. I think you’re skipping a few things. Faden, you’re going to write this down aren’t you?
Right, this is what happened:
After you lot scarpered………”
John stopped at that point as this time, both Victor and Longhelim looked levelly at him.
Clearing his throat, he continued:
“All right, all right, after we all decided that your presence at Summer’s Bluff was more likely to be a liability as opposed to an advantage…….?
“Better”, Longhelim said steadily.
John resumed:
“Drudge found that he couldn’t touch that thing with his bow, so he drew his axe; you should have seen his first blow! It took the statue’s head clean off! Then he smashed the Torch as well!”
I frowned:
“One blow! That’s it! All right, you weren’t that long, but if that’s all it took……”
John was shaking his head:
“Ummm, that didn’t stop it at all; the headless torso was still happily trying to smash Drudge into little pieces; I think its head was just there for decoration; in fact, if anything it made things worse because when the head came off, a figure flew out of it; it was armoured and masked, carrying two scimitars. It tried to slice Drudge into pieces but had about as much luck as Victor and Longhelim had against the statue; I couldn’t help but laugh at that; little taste of its own medicine; anyway, after that, it decided to give that up as a bad job and came after Felix and I.”
I couldn’t contain myself:
“What did it look like?”
John replied:
“It was as I described; an armoured figure; I couldn’t see its face; it was wearing a full helm; but judging by the fact that it came out of the statue, it must have been a trillith; but one of the named ones; it didn’t look like one of the primeval ones. This one seemed far more developed, like Vigilance or Metamorphosis.
Anyway, it was trying to turn us into diced carrots so Felix and I had to turn invisible, which left it to its own devices until Drudge had had enough and basically stepped on it. That was pretty much the end of him….or her……it.”
Victor spoke then:
“And the statue?”
John took a drink from a canteen that I had offered to him:
“I was getting to that; Drudge took it on; it looked very odd at first, basically, this headless thing the size of a small mountain fighting a titanic Drudge; anyway, the fight settled into a pattern; Drudge would approach it; oh, before I forget, that was something else; imagine the enormous Drudge, striding in the air and even more importantly, doing back flips, summersaults and swerves to avoid blows as he closed on the statue…..all in mid-air. I am never going to forget that! I’ve never seen anything like it…..and we’ve seen some very strange things recently.
Anyway, Drudge would charge in, thump the statue with his axe; it would hit back and then move away but not before Drudge gave it a good thump as it retreated. Every so often, Drudge had to stop to either allow us to heal him, or heal himself but when he did that, the statue would pick up a house and throw it at him. Yes, you heard right; it picked up houses and threw them. The trillith must have been watching the dragon do that.
A couple of times that was very awkward because we were next to Drudge and although it couldn’t see us, the house was so big we were covered in rubble anyway. So we got trapped. That was really annoying.
That went on for a while; the statue seemed to be single-handedly trying to destroy the whole district; not only was it picking up houses to throw but it was also wading through them as it moved away. Drudge and it moved so far that Felix even had to teleport us next to the ranger at one point; that was one of the most annoying bits because as we arrived, a house landed on top of us.
Anyway, we were just wondering how much more of this we were going to take; it was getting very dangerous; finally, Drudge made one more charge and smashed the axe into the statue again and it just toppled over; there was this very strange…..difficult to describe it; like a scream, but with no sound, yet you could definitely hear it in your mind; there was also something like a bang, but again, one could only feel it in the head; I think it must have been something to do with the trillith; anyway, the statue stopped glowing and moving. Drudge smashed it up!”
Breathlessly, I asked:
“So, what happened then?”
Drudge shrugged and replied:
“I went back and got my bow.”
John shook his head again:
“No, Drudge, again, the story was a little different; you actually smashed it up several times before you did anything else.”
Longhelim nodded and said:
“Good thought; we’ve had bad experiences with things coming back after we thought they were dead.”
John continued:
“We all helped Felix from under a load of rubble; he’d been stuck under the last house the statue had chucked at us; then Drudge turned back to normal size, which was the greatest indicator that the statue was well and truly dead…..we hoped. It was then the Drudge ran back to get his bow and then we joined him; after that, Vigilance turned up again and told us that now that the Festival of Dreams was over, he’s managed to compel the nightmare trilliths to go back underground; but that he won’t be able to hold them forever.”
We looked at each other. It had been a very close run thing; if the nightmares had managed to come this close to taking a foothold on the surface world then they would be trying again very soon.
Longhelim spoke to everyone:
“This is going to need some careful thought and decisions; we need to go back to camp and speak to Simeon and Kiernan; Vigilance, would you be so kind as to turn into your human, or orc form, I should say.
There is much to discuss.”
Unsurprisingly, they were horrified:
“Coaltongue’s statue? That enormous one? Alive? How?”
Quickly, I said:
“Let me start at the beginning…….”
I related all that had happened; Simeon, ever the Loremaster, was fascinated:
“So, this Festival of Dreams is something that your city has practiced for years? And the trilliths are dreams from the dragon Trilla? Faden, has anyone made a connection with this ritual and the trillith? It seems very coincidental….Do we know just where the dragon is supposedly sleeping?”
I looked at him, mildly exasperated:
“Simeon, you of all people have a very good indication just how I’ve been spending my time; about eight months ago, I arrived at Seaquen, a fledgling mage struggling with the magic in my spell books. Since, then, you’ve had a detailed account of what I have been doing and when; how I have been spending my time, how I have been learning what little magic I know and just what sort of research I have been doing; now, when do you think I have had the time to study or ask the questions which you have just posed?
In fact, I have been asking you the same type of questions you’ve just asked for months!”
He looked a little chagrined as he realised just what he had said:
“Apologies Faden, yes of course I am aware how you have been spending your time; it’s just that this is so fascinating. In all my time of study, I have never heard of something like this; dreams that take form. What a fascinating concept.
However, this study is something for the future; what are you going to do now?”
Longhelim replied to that:
“We have to wait; our presence at Summer’s Bluff would be a distraction more than anything else; as Faden has already said, something seems to have affected Drudge, making him the only person capable to defeating the statue. Ultimately, I think it will come to pure brute force. Both John and Felix stayed behind to heal the ranger and hopefully John will be able to make both himself and the priest invisible; hopefully that will be enough of a defence to keep them safe.
Faden also made Vigilance invisible so the trillith have lost their main target. Somehow, he’s still holding back the majority of the trillith horde. We couldn’t hurt the statue but it can hurt us very badly and very quickly; more importantly, it has that powerful ability of being able to summon Vigilance at will; if we stayed, we would just become an added burden to the healers.
Now, onto another matter; how did things turn out between you and the Ragesians?”
Kiernan replied to that:
“Well, as per your instructions, we engaged as little as possible and bearing in mind that this was an expeditionary force, there were remarkably few casualties; it seemed as if the Ragesian forces were reluctant to engage us; so, for some time, we just glared at each other across a field although there were a few skirmishes here and there. Then, of course, after that first day, they began to withdraw; now we know why.”
We continued to answer questions as well as ask our own but after a little more time, began to feel some anxiety as none of the others made a return.
Then, Longhelim asked me mentally:
“Should we go back? I am beginning to get concerned.”
I replied:
“No point; as we said to Simeon, our presence will make little difference; we cannot hurt the statue; Gods know, we tried; I cast everything at it and you and Victor hit it as hard as you could; and did nothing. Don’t worry, I think that win or lose, they’ll be back.”
Although in reality, it was only a brief period of little time, the waiting felt much longer, especially as there was no mental communication from John; that meant that he was either far too busy or dead.
We had all left the camp and were anxiously looking in the direction of Gate Pass.
Then:
“They’re back!”
It was Victor who saw them first but that changed very quickly; a few moments after, even I was able to distinguish three figures moving towards us; Drudge was running; there was no mistaking that loping stride; Felix and John were flying. Vigilance, in the form of a stag, was with them.
Our reunion was joyous; there was lots of hugging and back slapping. Drudge, thankfully, was now normal size and the others looked bruised and battered but able to move around.
Eagerly I asked:
“So, what happened? Drudge, how did you get so big? Did the statue get destroyed? What happened to the Trillith?”
Drudge just grinned and replied:
“It was Metamorphosis; as I was at the bottom of that shaft, I heard a voice in my head: Take my Boon it said. After that, I suddenly felt a jolt of magic and became enormous. Then, I just beat up the statue.”
John looked at him a little quizzically:
“Hold on! It was a little more involved than that. I think you’re skipping a few things. Faden, you’re going to write this down aren’t you?
Right, this is what happened:
After you lot scarpered………”
John stopped at that point as this time, both Victor and Longhelim looked levelly at him.
Clearing his throat, he continued:
“All right, all right, after we all decided that your presence at Summer’s Bluff was more likely to be a liability as opposed to an advantage…….?
“Better”, Longhelim said steadily.
John resumed:
“Drudge found that he couldn’t touch that thing with his bow, so he drew his axe; you should have seen his first blow! It took the statue’s head clean off! Then he smashed the Torch as well!”
I frowned:
“One blow! That’s it! All right, you weren’t that long, but if that’s all it took……”
John was shaking his head:
“Ummm, that didn’t stop it at all; the headless torso was still happily trying to smash Drudge into little pieces; I think its head was just there for decoration; in fact, if anything it made things worse because when the head came off, a figure flew out of it; it was armoured and masked, carrying two scimitars. It tried to slice Drudge into pieces but had about as much luck as Victor and Longhelim had against the statue; I couldn’t help but laugh at that; little taste of its own medicine; anyway, after that, it decided to give that up as a bad job and came after Felix and I.”
I couldn’t contain myself:
“What did it look like?”
John replied:
“It was as I described; an armoured figure; I couldn’t see its face; it was wearing a full helm; but judging by the fact that it came out of the statue, it must have been a trillith; but one of the named ones; it didn’t look like one of the primeval ones. This one seemed far more developed, like Vigilance or Metamorphosis.
Anyway, it was trying to turn us into diced carrots so Felix and I had to turn invisible, which left it to its own devices until Drudge had had enough and basically stepped on it. That was pretty much the end of him….or her……it.”
Victor spoke then:
“And the statue?”
John took a drink from a canteen that I had offered to him:
“I was getting to that; Drudge took it on; it looked very odd at first, basically, this headless thing the size of a small mountain fighting a titanic Drudge; anyway, the fight settled into a pattern; Drudge would approach it; oh, before I forget, that was something else; imagine the enormous Drudge, striding in the air and even more importantly, doing back flips, summersaults and swerves to avoid blows as he closed on the statue…..all in mid-air. I am never going to forget that! I’ve never seen anything like it…..and we’ve seen some very strange things recently.
Anyway, Drudge would charge in, thump the statue with his axe; it would hit back and then move away but not before Drudge gave it a good thump as it retreated. Every so often, Drudge had to stop to either allow us to heal him, or heal himself but when he did that, the statue would pick up a house and throw it at him. Yes, you heard right; it picked up houses and threw them. The trillith must have been watching the dragon do that.
A couple of times that was very awkward because we were next to Drudge and although it couldn’t see us, the house was so big we were covered in rubble anyway. So we got trapped. That was really annoying.
That went on for a while; the statue seemed to be single-handedly trying to destroy the whole district; not only was it picking up houses to throw but it was also wading through them as it moved away. Drudge and it moved so far that Felix even had to teleport us next to the ranger at one point; that was one of the most annoying bits because as we arrived, a house landed on top of us.
Anyway, we were just wondering how much more of this we were going to take; it was getting very dangerous; finally, Drudge made one more charge and smashed the axe into the statue again and it just toppled over; there was this very strange…..difficult to describe it; like a scream, but with no sound, yet you could definitely hear it in your mind; there was also something like a bang, but again, one could only feel it in the head; I think it must have been something to do with the trillith; anyway, the statue stopped glowing and moving. Drudge smashed it up!”
Breathlessly, I asked:
“So, what happened then?”
Drudge shrugged and replied:
“I went back and got my bow.”
John shook his head again:
“No, Drudge, again, the story was a little different; you actually smashed it up several times before you did anything else.”
Longhelim nodded and said:
“Good thought; we’ve had bad experiences with things coming back after we thought they were dead.”
John continued:
“We all helped Felix from under a load of rubble; he’d been stuck under the last house the statue had chucked at us; then Drudge turned back to normal size, which was the greatest indicator that the statue was well and truly dead…..we hoped. It was then the Drudge ran back to get his bow and then we joined him; after that, Vigilance turned up again and told us that now that the Festival of Dreams was over, he’s managed to compel the nightmare trilliths to go back underground; but that he won’t be able to hold them forever.”
We looked at each other. It had been a very close run thing; if the nightmares had managed to come this close to taking a foothold on the surface world then they would be trying again very soon.
Longhelim spoke to everyone:
“This is going to need some careful thought and decisions; we need to go back to camp and speak to Simeon and Kiernan; Vigilance, would you be so kind as to turn into your human, or orc form, I should say.
There is much to discuss.”