G
Grimoire
Guest
Original poster
As the sun began to set the cold started to creep in. In a matter of minutes the vibrant colors painted across the sky eventually diminished into blanket of pitch black darkness, but the silver moonlight from the full moon was enough to guide one's path. The road was barely noticeable and someone who wasn't familiar of tracking a path would have easily drifted off and gotten lost in the mountain’s forest. It was apparent that people had not walked on this road for years which seemed rather strange to the wanderer. No people, no houses...not even a damn bird was around to fill the air with some familiar noise. The only sound heard was the wanderer's footsteps as they moved in a fast pace across the rock and weed infested road. Puffs of vapor blew out from an empty void where normally a face would be but the lone figure's body was entirely hidden underneath a cloak. It took several hours before the stranger had finally reached the next nearest village which was located at the base of a dark mountain.
The wanderer wasted no time outside in the freezing weather and a pair of eyes quickly spotted a place to make a temporary home. The inn was smaller compared to those in the big cities, but as soon as she stepped inside the warmth within it was good enough to break the icy numbness in the stranger’s body. A hand lifted up so as to bring down the cowl from the cloak and finally exposing the lone figure...an image of a woman.
The woman clearly did not look like she belonged and could easily be singled out as the black sheep in the crowd. Those few who were still up and drinking took a glance at her and then rudely stared at her with both mouths and eyes wide open with sheer awe. She wasn't very tall but perhaps it was the blood red hair, almond shaped eyes outlined with black charcoal, and tanned skin that had caught the people's attention. These were physical traits of exotic foreigners that parents would tell their children in bedtime stories.
The woman was starting to get slightly annoyed by their welcoming reaction and before she could say anything a short plump man beat her to it, "Who are you?" he said with an uneasy tone of voice.
Great, she thought, haven't even taken three steps in and I'm already being interrogated by a…short-round-thing.
"My name is Raja Ali I come from the Far East...and who are you?" she asked with an accent that only a far easterner would have.
The little plump man was surprised that Raja Ali spoke his language but even more that she was as bold to question him being that the red head was the one that was out of place here. "My name is George Morris, this here is my inn and also the local pub," he paused to think for a moment, "The far east? You mean the desert lands? I didn't know such a place really did exist..." The other three men that were sitting at bar with George quietly spoke amongst each other. That was a typical answer she heard since only a few have dared to reach the far eastern lands and those that did never made it back. "Well," Raja sighed in a nonchalant manner as she strode towards the bar where George and three other men were, "it does." They all looked uneasy when Raja Ali took a seat close to them but finally settled down a bit once she ordered a drink.
After taking a couple of sips of her tea Raja Ali spoke up, "All of you looked very surprised when I walked in, don't you have many travelers coming through?"
All four men shot each other glances and George nervously began to wipe an already clean mug that was in his hand, "We haven't seen any people that are not from our town in a very long time," he said with much emphasis in “long.”
“How long?” Raja asked as she took another sip.
Another man with blonde hair answered, "23 years."
Raja Ali's face looked puzzled and the lonely road that she walked for hours on had finally made sense. "How could that be? Is this town haunted or what?" she asked.
A tall man shook his head and said, "Worse...a dragon."
All four them silently stared at Raja Ali while she quietly stared back at them for a minute. None of them were sure of what to say next.
“What kind of dragon is it?” she asked calmly as if the word “dragon” was something normal in her vocabulary...which in fact was.
“What do you mean what kind? What other kind are there? And how would you know what other kind there are?” the last of the four men spoke which was the youngest and looked a lot like the son of the tall one.
Raja Ali wasn’t in the mood to answer the latter question so she turned away from him and focused on George, “What color is the dragon?” she figured that would be a lot easier for him to handle.
George swallowed a large gulp of air and small beads of sweat began to form on his forehead which he brashly wiped off with the same rag he used to clean his mugs, “Red…a large red beast of a dragon!" he shuttered.
Raja Ali's jaw clenched as soon as she heard the word “red." Red dragons are one of the largest of their kind and wielded one of the most powerful of the elements…fire.
The young man spoke up again, “The dragon terrorizes our town once a month…it’s obsessed with…”
Raja cut him off, “Treasure: gems, gold, precious stones. Anything of high value and rarity it wants.”
All four of the men nodded and quietly said with much awe as if she were a sorceress who could read minds, “Yessss!” and nodded their heads.
A deep voice came forth from the tall one, “There is an underground mine at the base of the mountain where the men take turns to mine gold and stones, but after 23 years the mine has recently dried out. We are now doomed, the Dragon will kill us all with the mine gone since it expects its treasure the first day of every month…” they all stayed quiet for a moment perhaps they were thinking of how they should spend their last month of living.
“The dragon uses us as his slaves to get him his treasure…just last week we didn’t mine enough and the dragon…” George looked at the blonde haired man with great pity.
“What?” Raja asked with a hint of impatience in her tone as her eyes focused on the blonde haired man.
The tall man sitting next to him put a hand on the blonde man’s shoulder, “You don’t have to tell her, Matthew” the tall one said. Matthew gave him a weak smile and his eyes began to slightly water, “It’s alright Carter,” he cleared his throat while trying to hold back his tears, “He took my baby…Claire. She was a sweet lil thing…” and he finally broke down. Carter signaled his son to take Mathew to his room. As the two men walked away Raja asked more questions.
“Why don’t you all leave? Pick up your things and go?” she said.
“We can’t, we are his property just like his treasure…we are marked,” Carter then showed Raja a small red claw mark on his wrist, “he has this town under a spell. Those that are marked cannot leave and the worst is that our children have the mark too…even newborn babies are born with the mark…future generations are stuck here forever. We are bound to the dragon and if we get too far from it then will die...many have died already trying to leave,” he said sadly. Carter seemed to be the one taking the most interest on her and began to ask her questions. “You sound like you know about dragons and you’re from a land that we all believed was from myths and legends…who are you really? Or WHAT are you?” he asked.
Raja Ali stared down at her empty glass not wanting to make contact with either of the two men…if they only knew. “I’m not going to go in depth about myself, but what I can tell you is that…you people have no idea…but there is a lot more out there than just dragons,” said Raja.
George suddenly blurted out something that took Raja aback, “Help us! Please…you could break us free from the dragon’s tyranny…we don’t have much since the dragon hordes all of our valuables but we can give you horses and food, please, please, PLEASE!” he begged while clasping his hands together as if he were pleading to a god. Carter just stared at her but by the look in his eyes he was desperately saying the same thing.
Raja Ali didn’t know what to say…she didn’t even know these people! The plan was to there for a day and already they’re trying to send her off on a death mission to slay a dragon…a red dragon at that. “Horses cannot keep up with me and I don’t eat much food…not interested” she replied and took another sip.
George had a look of disbelief in his eyes and Carter stared at her in anger while he harshly blurted out his words, “Our children will be slaughtered if we don’t give him what he wants and we will soon exhaust the mine. When we do... we are TRAPPED HERE. We cannot leave. Are you willing to sleep peacefully at night knowing that you didn’t do anything to help innocent ones?” his voice was deep and cold.
Raja narrowed her eyes at him and matched his tone, “That’s none of my business. If you care about life so much then what about mine? Sending me off to slay a red dragon? There’s a chance,” she chuckled to herself, ”there is a VERY HIGH chance that I’ll be killed. Now what do you have to say about that?” she snapped. George had a look of shame and Carter’s eyes soften up a bit but his eyes still showed deep pain.
All of a sudden Raja Ali saw a painting drop in front of her. It was a portrait of a little girl with golden pigtails. Bright blue eyes and beneath them was a big smile on her face as she held onto a bouquet of flowers. It was a good picture of… “That’s Claire…she was only six years old when she was taken from me. Do you know how it feels to have the person that you love the most be taken away from you and not be able to do anything about it?” Matthew asked in a sorrowful tone.
Raja Ali didn’t say anything…because she didn’t want to bring up her past, but she knew what it was like to lose someone…in fact, many. Her eyes glanced at the picture again and couldn’t help but to pick it up and smile back at Claire…who was most likely dead…along with the rest of the children once the dragon finds out that there’s no more bloody treasure for him to horde. She put the photograph down and then growled, “Alright then! I’ll do it…I will get rid of the dragon!”
Instantly the men threw their hats up in the air and almost knocked Raja off her chair when they all hugged her. Most likely all the loud cheering was heard by the entire town.
“Alright already, ALRIGHT! Get off me!” she yelled as Raija Ali tried to shove them off but couldn’t help but to grin as she saw the happy faces from all the men.
After a brief moment of celebration Carter’s eyes were now serious, “I will arrange a small group of our best men, including my son and I…”
Raja shook her head “No need, none of you will survive. You will all stay here” she said.
George gasped, “How could you not accept our help? Please let them go with you. They can help in any way they can!”
Raja Ali knew that these men can’t understand the high risk and danger of fighting a dragon…none of them knew what it was like except for a mere handful. “I said no and that’s final” she said firmly. Raja wanted to add that someone else will actually be going with her but she was too tired to further prolong this conversation. The men will meet him tomorrow…if they thought she was weird looking then they haven’t seen nothing yet. A soft yawn came out of her mouth, for the normal person the amount of sleep left would’ve been too short but luckily Raja Ali didn’t require much sleep. She only needed a few hours and then was re-energized and ready to go.
It was rough for them to accept what Raja Ali had wanted but they eventually did. “When will you leave?” Samuel the youngest one asked.
“Tomorrow at dawn…I must sleep now, I need all the rest I can get” she said.
“I will pack plenty of food and supplies for the journey…how many days you think it will take?” George asked.
Raja Ali remembered looking up at the tall mountain and knew that the dragon’s cave would be at the very top. Dragons liked living at the highest point so as to keep watch of everything around them. “Perhaps three or four days” she muttered under her breath.
George gasped, “Three or FOUR days?! On the mountain by yourself?! But you’ll die from the cold!”
She waved her hand at him to brush him off, “I have my ways. Don’t worry about me” Raja Ali said as she got up which was a sign that this conversation was over. “Can I get a room?” Raja looked at George as she gracefully extended out a rough-calloused hand.
“Yes, of course!” George hastily took out a bunch of keys from his pocket and scrambled to find the right one to give her, “You’re room is on the second floor…first door on the right.”
Raja thanked him, said good night to everyone, and went to bed…it was going to be a very long day tomorrow. She just hopped her partner would show up in time…
The wanderer wasted no time outside in the freezing weather and a pair of eyes quickly spotted a place to make a temporary home. The inn was smaller compared to those in the big cities, but as soon as she stepped inside the warmth within it was good enough to break the icy numbness in the stranger’s body. A hand lifted up so as to bring down the cowl from the cloak and finally exposing the lone figure...an image of a woman.
The woman clearly did not look like she belonged and could easily be singled out as the black sheep in the crowd. Those few who were still up and drinking took a glance at her and then rudely stared at her with both mouths and eyes wide open with sheer awe. She wasn't very tall but perhaps it was the blood red hair, almond shaped eyes outlined with black charcoal, and tanned skin that had caught the people's attention. These were physical traits of exotic foreigners that parents would tell their children in bedtime stories.
The woman was starting to get slightly annoyed by their welcoming reaction and before she could say anything a short plump man beat her to it, "Who are you?" he said with an uneasy tone of voice.
Great, she thought, haven't even taken three steps in and I'm already being interrogated by a…short-round-thing.
"My name is Raja Ali I come from the Far East...and who are you?" she asked with an accent that only a far easterner would have.
The little plump man was surprised that Raja Ali spoke his language but even more that she was as bold to question him being that the red head was the one that was out of place here. "My name is George Morris, this here is my inn and also the local pub," he paused to think for a moment, "The far east? You mean the desert lands? I didn't know such a place really did exist..." The other three men that were sitting at bar with George quietly spoke amongst each other. That was a typical answer she heard since only a few have dared to reach the far eastern lands and those that did never made it back. "Well," Raja sighed in a nonchalant manner as she strode towards the bar where George and three other men were, "it does." They all looked uneasy when Raja Ali took a seat close to them but finally settled down a bit once she ordered a drink.
After taking a couple of sips of her tea Raja Ali spoke up, "All of you looked very surprised when I walked in, don't you have many travelers coming through?"
All four men shot each other glances and George nervously began to wipe an already clean mug that was in his hand, "We haven't seen any people that are not from our town in a very long time," he said with much emphasis in “long.”
“How long?” Raja asked as she took another sip.
Another man with blonde hair answered, "23 years."
Raja Ali's face looked puzzled and the lonely road that she walked for hours on had finally made sense. "How could that be? Is this town haunted or what?" she asked.
A tall man shook his head and said, "Worse...a dragon."
All four them silently stared at Raja Ali while she quietly stared back at them for a minute. None of them were sure of what to say next.
“What kind of dragon is it?” she asked calmly as if the word “dragon” was something normal in her vocabulary...which in fact was.
“What do you mean what kind? What other kind are there? And how would you know what other kind there are?” the last of the four men spoke which was the youngest and looked a lot like the son of the tall one.
Raja Ali wasn’t in the mood to answer the latter question so she turned away from him and focused on George, “What color is the dragon?” she figured that would be a lot easier for him to handle.
George swallowed a large gulp of air and small beads of sweat began to form on his forehead which he brashly wiped off with the same rag he used to clean his mugs, “Red…a large red beast of a dragon!" he shuttered.
Raja Ali's jaw clenched as soon as she heard the word “red." Red dragons are one of the largest of their kind and wielded one of the most powerful of the elements…fire.
The young man spoke up again, “The dragon terrorizes our town once a month…it’s obsessed with…”
Raja cut him off, “Treasure: gems, gold, precious stones. Anything of high value and rarity it wants.”
All four of the men nodded and quietly said with much awe as if she were a sorceress who could read minds, “Yessss!” and nodded their heads.
A deep voice came forth from the tall one, “There is an underground mine at the base of the mountain where the men take turns to mine gold and stones, but after 23 years the mine has recently dried out. We are now doomed, the Dragon will kill us all with the mine gone since it expects its treasure the first day of every month…” they all stayed quiet for a moment perhaps they were thinking of how they should spend their last month of living.
“The dragon uses us as his slaves to get him his treasure…just last week we didn’t mine enough and the dragon…” George looked at the blonde haired man with great pity.
“What?” Raja asked with a hint of impatience in her tone as her eyes focused on the blonde haired man.
The tall man sitting next to him put a hand on the blonde man’s shoulder, “You don’t have to tell her, Matthew” the tall one said. Matthew gave him a weak smile and his eyes began to slightly water, “It’s alright Carter,” he cleared his throat while trying to hold back his tears, “He took my baby…Claire. She was a sweet lil thing…” and he finally broke down. Carter signaled his son to take Mathew to his room. As the two men walked away Raja asked more questions.
“Why don’t you all leave? Pick up your things and go?” she said.
“We can’t, we are his property just like his treasure…we are marked,” Carter then showed Raja a small red claw mark on his wrist, “he has this town under a spell. Those that are marked cannot leave and the worst is that our children have the mark too…even newborn babies are born with the mark…future generations are stuck here forever. We are bound to the dragon and if we get too far from it then will die...many have died already trying to leave,” he said sadly. Carter seemed to be the one taking the most interest on her and began to ask her questions. “You sound like you know about dragons and you’re from a land that we all believed was from myths and legends…who are you really? Or WHAT are you?” he asked.
Raja Ali stared down at her empty glass not wanting to make contact with either of the two men…if they only knew. “I’m not going to go in depth about myself, but what I can tell you is that…you people have no idea…but there is a lot more out there than just dragons,” said Raja.
George suddenly blurted out something that took Raja aback, “Help us! Please…you could break us free from the dragon’s tyranny…we don’t have much since the dragon hordes all of our valuables but we can give you horses and food, please, please, PLEASE!” he begged while clasping his hands together as if he were pleading to a god. Carter just stared at her but by the look in his eyes he was desperately saying the same thing.
Raja Ali didn’t know what to say…she didn’t even know these people! The plan was to there for a day and already they’re trying to send her off on a death mission to slay a dragon…a red dragon at that. “Horses cannot keep up with me and I don’t eat much food…not interested” she replied and took another sip.
George had a look of disbelief in his eyes and Carter stared at her in anger while he harshly blurted out his words, “Our children will be slaughtered if we don’t give him what he wants and we will soon exhaust the mine. When we do... we are TRAPPED HERE. We cannot leave. Are you willing to sleep peacefully at night knowing that you didn’t do anything to help innocent ones?” his voice was deep and cold.
Raja narrowed her eyes at him and matched his tone, “That’s none of my business. If you care about life so much then what about mine? Sending me off to slay a red dragon? There’s a chance,” she chuckled to herself, ”there is a VERY HIGH chance that I’ll be killed. Now what do you have to say about that?” she snapped. George had a look of shame and Carter’s eyes soften up a bit but his eyes still showed deep pain.
All of a sudden Raja Ali saw a painting drop in front of her. It was a portrait of a little girl with golden pigtails. Bright blue eyes and beneath them was a big smile on her face as she held onto a bouquet of flowers. It was a good picture of… “That’s Claire…she was only six years old when she was taken from me. Do you know how it feels to have the person that you love the most be taken away from you and not be able to do anything about it?” Matthew asked in a sorrowful tone.
Raja Ali didn’t say anything…because she didn’t want to bring up her past, but she knew what it was like to lose someone…in fact, many. Her eyes glanced at the picture again and couldn’t help but to pick it up and smile back at Claire…who was most likely dead…along with the rest of the children once the dragon finds out that there’s no more bloody treasure for him to horde. She put the photograph down and then growled, “Alright then! I’ll do it…I will get rid of the dragon!”
Instantly the men threw their hats up in the air and almost knocked Raja off her chair when they all hugged her. Most likely all the loud cheering was heard by the entire town.
“Alright already, ALRIGHT! Get off me!” she yelled as Raija Ali tried to shove them off but couldn’t help but to grin as she saw the happy faces from all the men.
After a brief moment of celebration Carter’s eyes were now serious, “I will arrange a small group of our best men, including my son and I…”
Raja shook her head “No need, none of you will survive. You will all stay here” she said.
George gasped, “How could you not accept our help? Please let them go with you. They can help in any way they can!”
Raja Ali knew that these men can’t understand the high risk and danger of fighting a dragon…none of them knew what it was like except for a mere handful. “I said no and that’s final” she said firmly. Raja wanted to add that someone else will actually be going with her but she was too tired to further prolong this conversation. The men will meet him tomorrow…if they thought she was weird looking then they haven’t seen nothing yet. A soft yawn came out of her mouth, for the normal person the amount of sleep left would’ve been too short but luckily Raja Ali didn’t require much sleep. She only needed a few hours and then was re-energized and ready to go.
It was rough for them to accept what Raja Ali had wanted but they eventually did. “When will you leave?” Samuel the youngest one asked.
“Tomorrow at dawn…I must sleep now, I need all the rest I can get” she said.
“I will pack plenty of food and supplies for the journey…how many days you think it will take?” George asked.
Raja Ali remembered looking up at the tall mountain and knew that the dragon’s cave would be at the very top. Dragons liked living at the highest point so as to keep watch of everything around them. “Perhaps three or four days” she muttered under her breath.
George gasped, “Three or FOUR days?! On the mountain by yourself?! But you’ll die from the cold!”
She waved her hand at him to brush him off, “I have my ways. Don’t worry about me” Raja Ali said as she got up which was a sign that this conversation was over. “Can I get a room?” Raja looked at George as she gracefully extended out a rough-calloused hand.
“Yes, of course!” George hastily took out a bunch of keys from his pocket and scrambled to find the right one to give her, “You’re room is on the second floor…first door on the right.”
Raja thanked him, said good night to everyone, and went to bed…it was going to be a very long day tomorrow. She just hopped her partner would show up in time…