The lands of Medievia stretch far and wide, filled with excitement,
adventure and something new to discover every day. Yet, of all the places
in this vast kingdom, Medigo was in the most plain and ordinary spot
you could find. Not that is wasn't a beautiful spot, it was overlooking a
steep, green valley with a deep blue river flowing through it, formed
from a tall waterfall off in the distant mist shrouded mountains. It was
just that there are more exciting and interesting places he could have
been at.
But this was exactly what Medigo wanted - peace and quiet. He sat with
his back propped up to a tall oak tree and overlooked the scene,
smiling. He had made up his mind to take a break from all his adventuring,
from the hustle and bustle of the cities, the constant battling and the
trying to gain recognition. He looked up to the skies and watched the
clouds sail by slowly, glad to see the sky free of dragon-mounted
adventurers, and sighed, a happy sigh.
The silence Medigo was enjoying was abruptly interrupted by a loud
familiar crashing sound of trees being broken and uprooted. He sat up in
annoyance and felt a warm heavy breath on his neck.
"What the...?" he complained, turning around, "I didn't call for a dra..."
He stopped short as he looked up slowly at the gigantic ruby dragon
grinning down at him and he gulped.
"Er, hello Mr. Dragon, Sir," he stammered with a feeble smile, standing
up slowly.
"Human," the dragon growled in reply, flexing a clawed talon in the dirt.
"I see..." Medigo managed. Then ran as fast as he could.
Medigo ran down the steep bank of the valley in long strides, the
dragon soaring close behind him. He had managed to catch the dragon off
guard for a moment, giving him a small head start, but flying is definitely
faster than running and the dragon was closing in fast. He looked over
his shoulder for a second just in time to see the dragon about to
pounce on him with outstretched claws and he dove forward and rolled. While
this may have prevented the dragon from catching him for the moment, he
soon discovered he couldn't stop rolling and proceeded to bounce and
roll all the way down the side of the bank.
Finally he came to a stop as he fell off a small cliff and slammed
against the muddy bank of the river flowing through the valley. Desperately
trying to keep his head from spinning, he mumbled the incantations to a
spell, nearly botching it a few times and refreshed himself a little.
Standing up shakily, he glanced around quickly for his pursuer. The huge
dragon was soaring low over the water heading straight for him, leaving
him one terrifying second to notice a small cave opening in the cliff
face and dive towards it. The dragon slammed into the small cliff
sending off a shower of small stones and fell away in a heap. Medigo sat up
panting and watched the dragon lying there for a while. Abruptly, it
heaved itself up, and then turned to glare at him with hatred and murder
in its eyes, causing him to involuntarily shiver. Realizing Medigo was
out of reach for the time being, the dragon took off to wait for
Medigo's attempt to escape.
Taking the opportunity of being out the dragon's view, Medigo sneaked
out of the entrance of the cave. Quickly putting his fingers to his
temples he pleaded for the aid of another dragon. A small firelizard popped
into existence and snatched his money pouch. After a quick observation
it casually threw the bag over its shoulder and was about to dart off
again to wherever it came from when Medigo grabbed it harshly by the
neck.
"Hold on!" he yelled, "You can't just leave me here like this! I need help!"
The little firelizard gave him an evil little smile and replied,
"Fighting dragons is dangerous work," then turned to look at the dragon that
had just taken off. "If you can't afford the service, tough."
"Come on!" he pleaded, tightening his grip of the firelizard's neck.
"Sorry" it growled under its breath, prizing Medigo's fingers off its
neck one by one, "But no." And then disappeared. Medigo silently cursed
himself for spending so much money at the casino on Yellow Brick Road.
The dragon was circling far above now, every now and then he'd look
outside and see it fly over the valley and look down at where he was,
waiting. Medigo sat glumly in the middle of the shallow cavern trying to
think of a way out of his situation. He suddenly realized he was staring
at the river. Something about rivers triggered a memory in his mind,
something an avatar had told him when he was younger. "A dragon can't
track you in water." he murmured, and then smiled.
Medigo was splashing quickly through the shallow water at the edge of
the river under a shroud of tall trees when from far behind him he heard
a loud roar of anger as the dragon gave up the hunt. He stopped and
smiled in relief, he had escaped.
He was about to continue on his way along the river when he suddenly
realized he was no longer alone. The smile slowly slid off his face as he
saw the snarling faces of the small ogre party surrounding him with
spears raised ready. He sighed a very unhappy sigh.
Battered and bruised, Medigo was flung into a cramped wooden cage with
a thud. His hands were tied and he was gagged to prevent him from
casting magic. He couldn't wait to see what these cowardly ogres would do
next to a now defenseless mage. A chorus of loud squeaks answered his
thought and caused him to cringe.
Immediately the under-fed giant rats in the cage began to gnaw at him
frantically, the ogres outside taunted and laughed at him - from a distance.
Although he was in a very painful predicament, the only thing he could
feel now was anger. The perfectly peaceful day he had longed for was
just not turning out well, first chased by a dragon and now this, a
humiliating death from these pathetic ogres. In his mind he pledged to the
gods for a chance, to just give him a chance, no matter how small, and
he would do anything.
He wasn't sure if someone had answered him or not, but as one of the
frantically gnawing rats was climbing up his face it knocked the gag out
of his mouth. Medigo's rage and anger almost ceased in shock, but he
smiled grimly as it receded and almost spat the incantation out. Before
any of the ogres could respond, a loud crash resonated as a bright bolt
of lightning descended on a nearby ogre, hurtling him in the air. As
the ogres turned to run a massive ball of raging fire blew off the cage
door, hurtling burnt rats in the process. This was soon followed by
streams of acid which cut down the fleeing humanoid beasts.
A snarling challenge came from behind him, and he turned with what felt
like a blazing fire in him to face a huge ogre he had not seen earlier.
The ogre was already mid-swing with a huge club that may have taken his
head off, but adrenaline gave him quicker reactions, and he ducked in
the nick of time then followed with a short burst of frost shards to pin
the ogre to a nearby tree. Overflowing with rage he screamed out the
incantation in his anger and shattered the ogre with a searing lightning
bolt.
As Medigo stared at the shattered corpse, ligaments still pinned to the
tree, he suddenly realized what he had just accomplished. All around
him lay their corpses, so many that it surprised him.
"Did I do all that?" he asked himself in disbelief, then laughed, "I
guess I'm stronger than I think!" He smiled to himself and began to walk
off out of the forest. "Maybe today isn't as bad as I think it is." he
said to himself, but a moment too soon. A dark irregular cloud filled
the horizon and was coming his way, emanating a deep buzzing sound. He
stopped and looked at it with his jaw dropped open wide. It was a swarm.
He cursed an oath that would have shocked the sailors in Trellor and
ran, again.
As the sun was settling beyond the horizon as the fair citizens of
Medievia City see it, a poor excuse for a mage staggered and crawled
through the city gate. He was haggard and swollen from dozens of stings,
sores, and rat bites all over his body. Besides turning to glower at the
children that laughed at him every now and then, he kept his head down
and his back hunched. Finally, after a long trek to the guildhall, he sat
down at a table in the Guildmaster's chamber and put his head down,
mumbling in pain.
"Did you have a nice, peaceful day?" the Master asked with a grin.
"No," Medigo stated, "I did not. And you can see that."
"I heard you had a run in with an evil dragon today," he noted.
"Yes," Medigo replied sitting up a little to face him, "Remind me to
hunt down and torture a particular firelizard someday, like when today's
events have been pushed into a dark recess of my mind."
The Guildmaster's smile softened, "That bad, eh?"
"Without a doubt."
The Guildmaster turned to look through a shelf of papers and books
behind him for a moment to hide his grin. "Oh by the way, we had an
unexpected visit by a deity today."
"Oh, really?" is all Medigo could manage.
"Yes, apparently he says you owe him. He mentioned something about that
it could be anything."
Medigo looked up at the Guildmaster in disbelief.
"He left you these instructions on how to find a certain medallion in
the catacombs after you've retrieved a rare magical pair of gauntlets
from a dragon's lair. He suggests you may have to kill the dragon first
and..."
The Guildmaster turned around to face Medigo but found that he was gone
from the chair. Looking through his chamber doors he caught a quick
glimpse of Medigo running as fast as he could. Then he disappeared out the
guild entrance and into the night.
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