the Hunt Continues

"Bloody, bloody, bloody!" he griped. "I knew that things would go to bloody crap once I saw that bloody group! Who do they bloody think they are???? I am the rightful Hunter here! Me. And did you hear that elf before it went? I knew those bloody freaks were bad news, didja hear what it said? It said that bloody dragons were its bloody brothers! It said it wanted to kill us humans! Baaah! Now we got more than just the Dragon to bloody worry about!" And on and on he grumbled, in part because he was truly mad at the strangers, but more so because whatever happened in that tunnel scared the bejeebers out of him, and Fred didn't like being scared, not one bit. Checkers, the true stranger in all of this ruminated on all that had come to pass within the last moments, the last hour, the last leg of her life; loss and gain were natural to life, scattering and gathering as well - but Checkers had no desire to meet so awful a fate. Astra fumed at her continuing inability to communicate, to scream or cry out or whisper, never in all her life did she feel so useless and she knew that the Dragon would pay.

Far from the trio, indeed, far from any of the four distinct groups of heroes and villain, the cause of the fey elf's demise stood and argued. Deep, deep in the roots of the Shreken, deeper than the rivulets and subterrannean streams, deeper than the upper-level lakes, the waters came together and coalesced into an underground sea. This sea, in turn, was connected through cracks within the earth to the eastern sea. And it was through these cracks that an intrepid group of magewarriors had come to hunt the Dragon of the Shreken.

"What the shade went wrong?" asked Lune.

"We hit the wrong one," answered Mera. "They were too close together, I knew we should've waited."

"Too late to be crying over crushed shark sacks," said Ondune. "We have to do it again."

"Are you nuts?!!?" glared Mera. "It took too much out of us just for that! We must rest, build up our strength, our reserve. Besides, our see- eye was destroyed, we need to send another up there."

"How many bugs we got left?" asked Timor.

"Two," said Naym. "I'll guide it up, I'm not as drained as you all."

And so the Atlanteans who had traveled so far, and who had used their magicks in hopes of completing the first leg of a great plan, rested from their labors. They did not pause long to contemplate the consequences of their "mistake" for though the loss of any life was not to be hoped for, the truth was that if their plan succeeded, the whole world would be a much better place (at least from the Atlantean perspective).

Naym did not rest, however, for he used his inner magicks to guide a see-eye, a construct of flesh and ether, in the form of an insect. He guided it through the cracks and fissures, up, up, and away it went. With it, through it, Naym was able to see the maze of caverns and tunnels. He saw places filled with greasy monsters and with old hags, with odd beast-men and awful undead things. Not a one paid any attention to an insignificant bug, and so the see-eye continued on its travels. Naym concentrated on dragon-scent, the spectral aura of draconis draconai. The Atlanteans knew that the four-legged was hiding under the guise of a two-legged, but with their heightened senses and abilities they would be able to know which of the two-leggeds was truly a dragon. Up, up, and away went the bug with the mind and heart of an Atlantean powering it.

1. follow Jarlath et al...
2. follow Tarin et al...
3. follow Fred et al...
4. follow Minestus/Belboz...
5. follow the Atlanteans...

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