<div dir="ltr">By Kamau and myself, Happy New Year!<div> </div><div>After finishing the training in energies, Kasaima and the others made camp. A fire was built and dinner was served. “How long does it take to be a mage?” asked Aldwin. “And, it isn’t opposed to Eli, right?” “It is a lifetime of learning. You’ve barely started. And no, it’s not,” said Nyein, with some annoyance obvious. “I hate that argument. Magic exists in the world and is no different than any other aspect of it. Those who condemn the use of magic might as well condemn the use of fire. Just like fire there is no ‘good’ or ‘bad’ magic. What a person does with the ability is what makes it good or bad.” Aldwin nodded, but looked very relieved. “Thanks for that. Some folks think it’s from, well, you know. Anyway, I wish I’d been able to do more. I just got a tiny bit of light in my hands. I think. You did a lot better Reed.” “I’m not sure I’ve got much to brag about.” “It’s far better for you to find it a little at a time,” Nyein counseled. “And if you do have magic ability it is better to know it early and get some help. One of the best examples of that actually also underscores the answer to Aldwin’s question about a follower of Eli and magic. The Sondeckis are a clan of mages dedicated to Eli. We have a few in Metamor. They have a natural talent for magic and if they are not trained to control it that power will drive them insane and kill them. For those people it is a case of learning to use magic or die.” Aldwin nodded slowly “You mean Matthias? I’ve heard some of the tales about his adventures. Amazing, some to the point of being hard to believe.” “While they are not part of our mage guild I can assure you that he and the others are well respected for their ability.” “I never realized how hard it was for folks to use magic. It takes a lot of skilled training.” said Reed. “That it does,” said Nyein. “It can be learned, but like any other skill it takes practice and the availability of a teacher. People will think that just saying magic words or drawing glyphs is enough.” “Why do those things work?” asked Aldwin. “Well, for a large part, because someone *thinks* they will work. They know they’re saying special words or making a special drawing, so they put some energy behind it and off it goes! Mind you, magic words and glyphs were discovered slowly over the years. They were found to be more effective at getting magic to do something specific, though the why is still unknown. Of course, this is what also makes them so dangerous. People use them and don’t understand them. It’s like lighting a fire and having no way to control it.” “That is an apt description, Nyein-san,” said Kasaima. “From what I understand of it, the Curse is a good example of magic gone awry. What happened to poor Talo is another.” Talo sighed, but then looked focused. “How Kasiama-san send Talo home?” Nyein smiled. “That’s an excellent question!” Talo beamed. “You mentioned you might be able to help him at your home. Why not here? The Gate he came through is here.” “The Gate he came through is closed. Gates are mighty efforts in magic, and they rely on being fed magic to operate properly. Given the sheer amount of magic in this valley, it’s not surprising to find a Gate here. There’s likely more than the one. But to reactivate that one would take more power than I’m able to wield. It must have been building reserves for centuries, but without someone to focus it, they simply dissipated instead of returned. It’ll be centuries yet before it will build enough reserves to safely reopen. If I were to try and simply drain the energies of the Valley to force it open I’d almost certainly die and the Gate would still be closed. “However, I can sense Talo’s energies, as all my kind can. Because of this, a group of us could open a temporary Gate to Talo’s world and return him there safely. The more people who work on a spell, the greater it can be. But it also takes greater focus and a lot of preparation. There’s also no guarantee that it will send Talo exactly where he wants to go. We can be sure the destination point is somewhere safe, but to really attune to a specific location takes knowledge of that location.” After Nyein translated Talo nodded. “Yes, Talo understand. Can go home, but may be far from clan. Talo will be happy anyway.” Kasaima smiled. “I’m glad. For now we should rest. I think another three days and the carpet will be ready.” *** Once again Talo briefly opened his eyes and closed them, thinking to himself how restless a night he was having. He ignored the pain in his back, believing it to be sore muscles from the combat exercise earlier in the day. His dreams were troubled with visions from his earlier life where there had been encounters with dragons. While some had been tense, and even a couple ending in combat, most of the time it was simply a matter of the Kobolds showing their great respect to the dragons. Even on this adventure, when they had met the dragon mage, he had been very careful to show due respect, even though the dragon seemed to dismiss it. His dreams and remembrances were suddenly interrupted by a shiver that ran through his entire body. Half-awake, eyes still closed, he took his usual posture by reaching for his tail and drawing it close to him for additional protection from the cold. But as he did so something felt drastically wrong. He slid his hand up the length of the tail; that also seemed disproportionate to what he expected. When he reached the end, however, his eyes popped open in surprise. In the dim light of the pre-dawn hours, he could still clearly see the spade at the end of his tail. “Huh?” Talo exclaimed but this came out as a low deep throated rumble. He immediately attempted to Spring to his feet. But the result of this was for him to tumble over onto his back. He immediately rolled to his front and placed all four of his clawed feet on the ground. Slowly raising himself to a standing position he looked in disbelief as he now towered over the rest of the party causing him to once again give the same rumble he had upon awakening. Both the sound and the sudden movement awakened Nyein who sat up, eyes half open. “Talo, what’s wrong? Were you having a bad…” The apprentice mage fully opened his eyes only to see not the sky but only a set of dark golden scales above him. Now, fully awake, with eyes wide, he quickly followed the scales up to where they terminated at a large draconic head. He let out a scream and one word. “Dragon!” This was more than enough to awaken the rest of the party who were quickly on their feet but just as quickly frozen in shock and disbelief. “Where?” Talo asked in a voice much deeper than his usual one. He quickly snapped his head around from side to side and then, looking into the sky and uttered, “I don’t see any dragon.” Only the bat mage beneath him understood the draconic in which he spoke. “You, you are,” he whispered more than said. “I am what?” the former Kobold asked now bending his long neck about, bringing his body into view. “I… I, ah no, can’t be. I am not of that blood.” “It would seem that our Kobold friend is not immune to the curse as others like him would seem to be,” Kasaima said calmly. “I would suggest you remain still for now Talo-san. One step and you will be upon your companion.” Lowering his head to where he could see his forelimb, he saw Nyein just as the Oni had said. “I shall not move until you are away from me Nyein.” The bat apprentice needed no other persuasion to quickly extract himself from beneath the massive beast. “Talo-san, I know little about the Curse, but I would suggest for now that you might sit or lay down until you have a greater sense of your new body.” “He’s right Talo,” Trey said “For now just rest. For all of us it takes a little time for our mind to catch up with our new body. In your case, perhaps a bit more than most. You will see that after that, you will be able to move about just as you would in your old body.” “But how?” Reed asked, still in shock. “We have been days changing, but Talo changed overnight.” “Everyone changes at their own pace,” Trey answered, looking back to the dragon. “Oh, and do be careful about flying at first,” Nyein added. “While your body knows naturally how to fly you will still have to learn how to direct that natural ability.” “Fly?” the new dragon replied, unconsciously extending his wings “OH! Wings? I can fly?” “You most certainly can and will,” the bat answered, but seeing his friend raise his large wings added “With wings that large you have to be aware of who and what is around you. One flap of yours and you would create a sizable gust of air strong enough to topple some people.” Talo nodded and kept his wings close indeed. Trey helped Reed and Aldwin prepare a breakfast while Kasaima examined Talo. “Hmm…interesting…” “What do you sense?” asked Nyein. He was trying to use mage sight to see what had happened to his friend. He suspected Kasaima’s talent was related. “Something that doesn’t make much sense. There are lines of energy coming from within and they have strengthened his world’s energy signature. But the Gate’s energies should have dissipated. I’m not sure how they could have coalesced in him like this. Usually that only happens with hyacinths or crystals.” Nyein started, then looked around and found Talo’s purse–still full of gems. “Like these?” Now that he really looked at them, he could see they faintly glowed with magic! “Yes, those would do nicely. Indeed they *did* do nicely. I wish I’d known of them before. Even now their stored energies are fading as they feed into Talo. This Curse is truly a strange thing to interact with energies in such a way.” He looked at Talo. “May I take one? I want to make it into a key.” Talo nodded. Kasaima took the one with the most energy left and held it above the others. From them he drew the remaining energies and sealed them into the one. It glowed bright enough for all to see. “There! That will help! A key we can use to unlock your door.” “Couldn’t you use it and the energy in Talo?” asked Aldwin. “I mean, the Curse is supposed to be irreversible, but if you use the energies…” “If I use the energy, it will kill Talo. They have become part of him and to remove it would be to remove his very life essence as well. The Gate would open, but all that would go through is a corpse.” “Oh. But how did the Curse get into those energies anyway?” “When the Curse came into being, it twisted itself around the very magic in the Valley,” said Nyein. “The Gate absorbed the magic and the Curse, so when it was expelled it must have been completely mixed together. We know for a fact that anyone who tries and mess with the Curse ends up on the wrong end of it regardless of species. All you need to do is look at Rorlyn for an example of that.” “Rorlyn? He’s the large gryphon I’ve seen over the Keep isn’t he?” Reed asked. “As a gryphon I’d say he fared pretty well.” “Yes, being a gryphon isn’t the problem,” Nyein continued. “He is a powerful mage and thought he had found a way to protect himself from the curse. When he discovered it was taking him, he fought against it as it was making him avian. He lost the battle against it and in the process caused the curse to combine the eagle form he was becoming with the lion form he was using as part of his plan to protect himself. It also used the energy he had released to greatly increase his size. He is now too large to enter most dwellings and, along with this, he can not change to a smaller, more human size.” “Talo always be dragon now?” the transformed Kobold asked. “Talo know it a great honor to be dragon but Talo no like being so large.” “I can’t say for sure Talo,” the bat mage replied. “I would think that for you, seeing you were changed in a more normal way, you can become smaller. I’m just not sure how much size you can lose. I’ll work with you later to see what we can do.” “But, wait, if you transferred the energies, does that mean you’re cursed too Kasaima-san?” asked Trey. Kasaima smiled. “Yes. I can feel the oddness of it within me. I cannot say how long or how it will manifest. Nor am I particularly worried about it. Do not fret either, Trey-san or Talo-san. My duty is to help others, and I do not mind that it sometimes requires sacrifice. Once we finish breakfast, we can resume our training.” The Oni smiled at the new dragon, “And for you that will mean learning to use those claws, teeth, tail and wings as weapons.” “Shouldn’t he be able to breathe fire?” Trey asked “Best not to attempt that,” Kasaima quickly replied “I would not like to see uncontrolled dragon fire released in a wooded place like this. No, the natural armor of a dragon along with his size makes him formidable enough for now.” *** It had taken him three days, but Yuèliàng finally made it to the Valley. He wasn’t sure if his quarry was still here, though. Following the road, he first reached a place named Lorland, but while they knew of Gwayn (who, apparently, tried to sell rugs there to the annoyance of everyone), they had never heard of the oni. A few hours walking took him to Euper and Keeptown. He was amazed by the architecture and the diversity of people. One merchant, a dog, stood out somehow. “Excuse me sir, a rug merchant I met on the way said there was a new, unusual creature in the valley. It met the description of an oni back home. Would you know anything about it?” “Rug merchant? That wouldn’t be Gwayn would it? That fellow would hock his own mother if it’d earn him coin!” PTEW! “Gives me mouth a bad taste just thinkin’ on him! But aye, he was here and gone since. Changed out folks too. Some Keepers went with him–gods know why! Fellow’s likely ta get ‘em in trouble. But a creature? Hmmm. I seem to recall some story from the Jolly Collie about somethin’ big and red bein’ there a couple days ago. Don’t rightly know much about it. I’m still tryin’ ta adjust myself. Would ya care for one of me wares?” Yuèliàng felt he owed the man that much, and purchased a ceramic rabbit from him. It was well-made and could be seen as an auspicious sign since his clan symbol was the rabbit. He went further in and found the Jolly Collie. “Hey there! If yer lookin’ fer yer friend, he’s off in the wilds!” Yuèliàng turned to see a person in guard’s uniform smiling at him. “What?” “A big red fellow. Yer cloths remind me of him. I guess you must have just missed him. He seemed ta be in a bit o’ hurry, but Misha says he’s alright, and I’ll take Misha’s word. It’s been nigh three days since he’s been there. Trainin’ some folks with him I hear. If you hurry, you’ll be able to catch him in the woods that way afore he leaves.” “Thank you so much! You’ve no idea how much this means to me!” “Glad ta help out! Ain’t got nothin’ ‘gainst for’ners, mind, but some folks is best off where they belong.” Yuèliàng simply nodded and ran off. Destiny favored him, but he wasn’t going to press his luck. --[Next Part Below]-- </div></div>