Fred, Astra and Alexander: Into the Mist

His other worry was that, for all the mages' efforts to appear benevolent, he did not entirely trust them, and he trusted Alexander least of all. After all, the six of them had not been given a choice as to whether they wanted to take part in this mission; they had been kidnapped. He could understand the logic that said that you could not bring anything with you into the Dream Realm, but why could they not have been provided with clothes after their arrival? After all, the astral mages wore hooded cloaks and probably had further apparel underneath those cloaks, so surely it should have been possible to attire them as well. And why had they initially been put in chains? Was it that the mages wanted to assert right from the start that they were the masters and that the six would do as they were told? It seemed, though, that they had no choice but to co-operate, if they were ever to be returned to the real world, since none of them knew how to do so witthout the mages' help.

Rousing from his reverie, he noticed that the three bridges had now diverged enough that the other two groups were no longer visible. Nor could he see any of the islands that had been visible earlier, perhaps because the party had been above the worst of the mist when standing on the first island, but had descended a little to reach the beginning of the bridge. Apart from the path for a short distance ahead of them, all that he could see other than mist were Alexander just ahead and Astra at his shoulder, for the way was just wide enough for them to walk two abreast.

They had been walking for a minute or two now, so far in silence, but now Astra asked: "What would happen if one of us mis-stepped and fell from the bridge?"

"You would probably die, unless you were skilled enough and quick enough to create another bridge for yourself with your light. Do not make the mistake of thinking that you are totally divorced from the 'real world' here, and so need not fear coming to any harm. If you die here then you will die there too. It is true that here you do not have the usual bodily needs. You do not require to eat or drink or urinate, you will not feel too hot or too cold, and you will not tire or need sleep. But you are not invulnerable, and there are forces and beings here that can harm you."

1. "Tell us about them," Fred said. "We seem to have set off without having received any proper briefing about what we can expect to face."
2. "So how will we recognise this dragonbane when we find it," Astra asked.

Add New Option

Go Back

View Forward Story Tree
View Back Story Tree