(eng) M. R. Mathias - Fantastica 01 by Taerak's Void

Author:Taerak's Void [Void, Taerak's]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty

Braxton was confident and hopeful they could find and destroy the Sapphire of Souls until he heard the story of what actually happened to it.

Braxton, Vinston-Fret, an elf named Sorrell, along with Thaelos, Debain, and the Rockheart brothers, sat around a firelit clearing not far from the stone table where they'd met earlier. Vinston-Fret told them the story his father had recounted to him many times.

"The group found the mouth of a large river on the northern side of the peninsula. They entered the Wilderkind there. My father told me they started along the river's edge on foot, for four days, but were attacked by a band of wood trolls who killed four of the humans and my grandfather. The survivors traveled northwest for three days where one of the humans was bitten by a poisonous insect and became very ill. They decided to go back to the river and followed it upstream. They continued northward, deeper into the Wilderkind.

"A day later, the bitten man went mad and killed the mapmaker, and then himself. Not far from the river, they came across an ancient structure. The proximity to the river is estimated by the fact that when my father escaped, he only had to run for half of a day west before he found the water's edge. He told me the structure was manmade. But by that, I am sure he meant made by intelligent beings, be they human, elf, dwarf, or something altogether different. He said the stone work was ancient and crumbling, but intricate. Symbolic runes had been etched into the stone surfaces. It was while they were exploring the remains of this place that they were attacked by what my father described as a wooden dragon.

"I asked him about this creature many times, and he told me that it was huge and that it's body blended so well with the forest that, if it sat still, you could pass right by it and never know it was there. He swore its skin was like bark, but its body was shaped like a dragon, only it had no wings he could see. That creature killed and ate them all, including my grandfather's brother, who carried the Sapphire of Souls in his pack. My father said the creature ate him with two crutching chomps, and then swallowed him whole, Sapphire and all. My father hid among the fallen columns of the ruins and watched until the creature went into a hollow where it curled up and lay perfectly still.

"I asked him if any of them had wounded the creature."

Vinston-Fret smiled and rolled his eyes. "I must admit, I've been wanting to go after this thing all my life. I asked these questions of my father in preparation for the very quest we mean to set upon. His answer was that, after several blows with a heavy axe wielded by one of the hardiest humans, one blow made it through to flesh, and the creature did bleed red. If it is still alive, I think it can be killed.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.