The Stealth Glider

The Never Ending Quest - Episode 42794

The "concealment" spell was a magic that made the caster invisible and inaudible. This would be the most useful spell for Checkers to cast, and would give her time to get out the cave, or attempt to attack the dragon, the two most logical things for her to do. If that is what she had done, he had a counter to it.

You, who are the shade of air
And from whom I cannot hear
a single sound, I now declare
shall shine and sing to please my ear.

Belboz clapped his hands together twice - and nothing happened.

Belboz glanced around the room. Checkers' spear lay on the ground near the stand. He walked to the passage that led out of the caves, and saw something glinting on the ground. He recognized the medallion. Checkers may have dropped it when fleeing. He had a few minions who could help with that. Wartha, station yourself at the entrance of the cave. There may be a meal for you there, he signalled silently to one of his servants. Finally, he would try the spell of location. It would exhaust his ability to cast spells for a time, until he could get a night's rest, but it would be worth it.

Belboz closed his eyes and concentrated on his memory of Checkers and Astra.

Within ten seconds, the thought came like a flash, "Astra is under the stand where the book is kept, along with the ink and paper." And indeed there she was, in a deep sleep. But there was no sign of Checkers.

Now, magic spells follow their own rules. Some spells, like the ones that move objects, work the same on all objects. Other spells, like the ones that implant suggestions into the minds of intelligent creatures, have to be relearned for each particular creature's mind. The location spell fell into the second type of category. For living creatures, the spell had some things in common with RADAR detection. Each intelligent creature had its own signature. A human had a signature that Minestus could find easily, and it was rather large. Although he had never cast a locate spell to find a Glider, it stood to reason that Checkers would have a similar signature to Astra, but a bit smaller. This was not the case. Checkers was in fact effectively transparent to the 'location' spell, having a signature the was similar to a moth's, and therefore nearly impossible for Minestus to detect. While there was a Glider-specific version of the location spell, it remained hidden in the book.

So where was Checkers?


When Astra collapsed, Checkers held her hand to Astra's neck, and detected a pulse. The look on her face was more peaceful than she had seen in days, so she decided to leave her be. But Belboz would surely come! She now dreaded to face him. Something was terribly wrong, and she just wanted to be alone for a while. She fumbled around the book stand, and found the one of its sides could be removed, exposing a cavity with some paper, pen, and ink - and it was large enough to drag Astra into, although it was not large enough for them both of them to fit. She grabbed a bottle of ink, a couple of sheets of paper, and a pen, and tossed them into her pouch. She removed the medallion and placed it on the book. Within a couple of minutes, she was able to push the unconscious Astra into the cavity and replace the board. It would not be much protection, but it would be better than leaving her in the open, for what she feared was coming.

He next instinct was to fly to the cave roof and hide there, and observe what Belboz's reaction would be from a concealed spot - but she still could not fly, and although an excellent climber, there just were not enough crevices to allow her to climb up to the ceiling. She grabbed the medallion and started to run for the passage to the outside of the caves - and then realized that was probably the first place Belboz would look. Now she head a low rumble from the east, but it was not Belboz. It was the sign of a much larger creature. The dragon was coming! Where was her spear? Never mind that. Just hide! She left the medallion on the floor, scampered to the nearest wall, and looked for a dark patch. She now saw that she had left her spear by the book, but she did not know if she had time now to grab it before being seen. She did not take the risk. She was going to try to hide. Her wings were dark, and if the dragon did not look directly at her, she might blend into the rock. It was worth a try, anyway.

She now was on the perimeter of the wall, about two-thirds of the way between the passage leading outside and the passage leading to the arsenal when the dragon burst into the room. She froze, defenceless, and curled into a ball, low to the ground. As long as he did not come near her part of the room, she stood a chance.

She took a quick peek out of her protective covering, and saw the the dragon transforming himself into the mage! The mystery of Belboz's odd behaviour had now become clear. Had he caught site of her? No. He was now saying a little poem. So he thought that she had cast a spell and disappeared? She wished that she could. The mage now started to look around the room. Please, not here! Nobody here but us harmless rocks, thought Checkers. She tried to think as little as possible, as Belboz might pick up on it. He is going to the other side of the room! He sees the medallion! But Belboz paused, concentrated on something, and did not leave the room. Instead, he moved toward the stand with the book. He lowered his head and closed his eyes. Checkers had a few choices, none of them without drawbacks. She could dash into one of the dark passageways to the east. If the rope ladder were still there, and she could make it into the elevated passages, she could hide and either wait for Fred, or maybe even find a weapon and catch Minestus/Belboz unawares. It was dark there, though, and she would be going into the heart of the dragon's lair. Another choice was to grab her spear, and stab a distracted Belboz. Of course, she only had one chance to try, would not be able to use a flying dive to build momentum. If Belboz looked up before she could grab the spear, the fight would be over. An even more forlorn hope was running to the outside of the cave, through the passage that led outside. Belboz was between that passage and her, and getting by him, even though he was now distracted, was the least likely of her choices to be successful.

Checkers chose to

  1. attack.
  2. sneak into one of the dark eastern passages.

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6/13/2004 3:08:13 PM

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