Vegenrage: The Magic User (35 page)

Farrah is invisible, and they cannot see her, but it does not matter. Dragons have such great smell that they know exactly where she is and take no heed to their father’s warning, flying very fast right at her.

“Dragons and they are flying right at me. Can they see me?”

“No, Farrah, they can’t see you, but they can smell you.”

“Parnapp, what should I do?”

“You can rock and sock ’em with your fists. You can shoot lightning bolts at them or fireballs or magic missiles. Do whatever you want. Don’t ask me, just do it and do it fast.”

Farrah freezes, unsure of what she should do. The dragons are very fast, and she sees a third dragon, a much larger dragon, fly at her from the left, and then she sees a fourth dragon coming at her from her right. She starts to fly backward, not even thinking to summon Vergraughtu to consume all dragon breath, and the fastest of the young dragons is already on her with mouth open, ready to snag her out of the air.

“Wall of air, show your strength and block this dragon trying to invade my space.”

Emzwer is just about to Farrah, and his head drops like a boulder was dropped on it. His body follows his head as he falls toward the ground.

“Wow, Farrah, that was amazing. What did you do?”

“I created a Wall of Force trying to block the dragon from reaching me.”

“Well, that was awesome.”

“Thanks, Parnapp, but I don’t think I did that.”

Razcour sees his brother fall and flies to aid him. Emzwer recovers and flies upward toward his brother. He screams in pain and is shaking his head back and forth like he is trying to shake something.

Vegenrage’s invisibility vanishes, and Razcour can see him just below his brother’s head, on his neck. He has stabbed Emzwer with two spears deep into his neck and is holding on with these spears. He stabbed Emzwer with two other magical spears that are attached to his feet, holding him tight to Emzwer’s neck.

“Fly straight, Emzwer, and I will pick this tic off you.”

Razcour flies at Emzwer, ready to bite Vegenrage off his neck, but before he gets to him, Vegenrage shoots a magical dart from each hand that penetrated each of Emzwer’s ears, and now Vegenrage has magical reins on Emzwer. Just before Razcour gets to him, he pulls very hard on the right rein, turning Emzwer’s head to the right, turning his flight to the right and down as he follows the way Vegenrage pulls on his ear, which causes a lot of pain. Razcour misses by a lot and sees his brother fly below him, turning to the will of Vegenrage.

“Look, Parnapp, Vergraughtu, it’s Vegenrage. He is alive. He is here.”

Gannream has Farrah in his smell and knows exactly where she is. He is flying right at her and does not try to bite her but flies by her, swinging his tail when he passes her, hitting her like a baseball, and she is sent flying.

Farrah is immune to physical dragon attack, but the force of the attack still holds true. She is not cut or hurt physically, but she is flying uncontrollably through the air. This disorients her, and Mezzmaglinggla takes advantage of this, catching her in a magical net and flying off with Farrah snared in it.

Vegenrage see’s this and directs Emzwer to fly in pursuit. Razcour has caught up to Emzwer and is now biting at Vegenrage, trying to eat him right off his brother’s neck. Vegenrage grows his arms to massively large proportions. He becomes so strong like this that he can grab the neck of Emzwer with his bare hands and rip out chunks of scale and flesh like it was clay. Vegenrage starts ripping out the scales and flesh from his neck.

“Razcour, get him off me. Get him off me.”

Vegenrage is violently ripping the flesh from Emzwer’s neck and throwing it at Razcour as he dodges his attacks. Vegenrage rips deeper and deeper into Emzwer’s flesh until he reaches his esophagus and rips it out. He then reaches his forearm into the wound and shoots a magical force into the head of Emzwer, and it explodes. The body falls dead to the ground, and Vegenrage flies off, watching as Razcour watches his brother fall dead to the ground.

Razcour hovers very far away from Vegenrage, watching him in disbelief. This is the kind of power and brutality he never expected to see. He watches as his father fly from behind Vegenrage, and he hopes Vegenrage keeps focused on him so his father can make an attack. Vegenrage can see that Farrah has been caught in a magical net and knows she can use Vergraughtu to break free.

Mezzmaglinggla is flying with Farrah in tow, and Vegenrage is about to draw a Dimension Door to her when Mezzmaglinggla disappears through a Dimension Door of her own. Vegenrage turns to see Gannream flying toward him and prepares a magical force spell that will shred him. Gannream slows his speed to a halt and hovers many yards from Vegenrage.

“I see we did not give you the attention we should have.” Gannream gives a loud roar, and Razcour flies through a Dimension Door. “I will not make that mistake the next time, magic user.” Gannream flies away from Vegenrage and disappears.

Vegenrage tries to follow through the Dimensional Door that the dragons flew through, but they have protective magic blocking the route, and he cannot get a fix on where they went in time to follow them. He flies to the corpse of Emzwer and runs his hands along the still-warm dragon, trying to get visualizations of where they may have gone. Unfortunately, the head is gone, and he can’t get any significant knowledge to help him here. He flies back to the Mountain Creek Dragon lair and enters where the water exits.

This is an overwhelmingly beautiful place. There is a small growth of trees with lots of vegetation along the wide stream that exits the lair. This actually gives good cover, hiding the entrance to the cavern, but it is very large, and if you are looking for it, you will easily find it. There are lots of vegetation and small trees that grow for many yards entering the cavern. The earth slopes up along the wall to the left, about twenty-five yards, and then levels off to the large ledge of land, and this is where the cage is tucked away in the back wall.

He flies up to this ledge, very alert, and looks off the ledge to the wide space before him. The waterfall is to his left where the cavern begins, and then there is enough room for a dozen dragons to fly freely in this beautiful underground cave. The ground far below him has plenty of plant growth and small trees growing all around. The flowing water surely attracts lots of animals, which surely the dragons feed on.
That’s odd. There is no treasure here.
Nothing about these dragons’ lair is making any sense. Outside of a mother dragon raising her young, all dragons live alone and all sleep on their treasure. Everything here goes against everything Vegenrage has ever read about dragons. He does not feel the presence of any dragons, and if any were here, he would’ve detected them by now. He decides to do a little searching and explore the cavern.

Farrah finds herself falling. She can’t see anything except the white tufts of cotton smothering her. She has no leverage and can’t tell if she is right side up or not. By the time she tries to use magic to slow her descent, she hits the ground surprisingly softly because of all the cotton she lands on. This is not really a good thing because there is so much cotton. She is breathing it in her nose and mouth, causing her to panic. She is flailing around, buried under many feet of cotton and making things worse by struggling instead of calming down and taking things slow.

Farrah, use fire. Burn the cotton. Use your mind and use the fire.
These words are heard in her head, and she curls up in a tight ball, clearing the cotton from her mouth the best she can. “White cotton turning red, burning cotton turning to ash.” She extends her hands out, and a fireball grows in a circle from her, burning all the cotton. The fire burns outward from her body and works to the dirt walls, burning all the cotton and clearing the room. She is gagging and choking on the cotton that has clogged her airways and the smoke that has filled the trap she is in. She blows her nose and spits, trying to free herself from the cotton, then she starts gagging on the harmful smoke created by the fire.

She lies on the ground and tries to calm herself. It takes only a few minutes, and the pit clears of smoke so she can stand and regain her composure. The room she is in is pitch-black, and her spirits are lifted to see the head of Vergraughtu glow golden, giving off a warm light so she can see.

“Farrah, we are in a lot of danger. This is a cage meant to maim its host. You have survived the cotton designed to smother you.”

Farrah holds Vergraughtu high and turns, looking to see that she is in a pit and covered tightly some ten feet above her head. “If they wanted to smother me, all they have to do is take all the oxygen from this pit.”

“I fear there is many different ways this pit can maim you.”

“Farrah, Farrah!”

“What is it, Parnapp?”

“Remember the book Vegenrage made you keep from Alisluxkana’s lair?”

“Which one?”

“Here, the one I have right here for you. I think you are going to need its knowledge very quickly.”

Farrah reaches into Parnapp and grabs the book he so nicely has ready for her. “Oh yeah!
Tougher Skin
by Morlinvow.”

“Read it, read it fast.”

Farrah puts her hands on the book and begins to absorb the information inside.

“There is some great magic in there, Parnapp.” She puts the book back. She notices the walls start to move and realizes that tons and tons of beetles are coming out of the walls all around her.

“Parnapp, what kind of beetles are these?”

“They are flesh-eating beetles. Use the magic you have just learned quickly or they will eat you.”

“Turn my soft skin to granite-hard rock.” Her skin remains flexible like always, but it is rock hard easily able to prevent the jaws of the beetles from penetrating her skin. The drawback is that this does not protect her clothing, which Parnapp warns her about. The beetles move very quickly and are moving up her legs, and she casts another fireball spell, incinerating all the beetles. They just keep coming like before. She casts eight fireball spells before the beetles stop advancing from the walls. Surprisingly, the smoke quickly rises out of the pit so she can breathe OK.

“Parnapp, Vergraughtu, we have to get out of here. Do you know where we are?”

“We are in another of the Mountain Creek Dragons’ lairs. This is a pretty sophisticated trap, and they, fortunately for you, are after me. This is why they try coordinated methods of killing you. Actually, I honestly do not think they want to kill you for some reason. I think they want you alive.”

“What do you mean, Vergraughtu? Why do they want you? I thought you were like poison to the dragons?”

“In the hands of someone like you, I am. However, if they gain possession of me, I now will have to work for them. This increases their strength plus they gain my attributes. That means they gain all the breath attacks that I have consumed and much more. We cannot let this happen.”

“Well, not to put my life in more jeopardy than it is already in, but if you were once a dragon, why would you rather be in the hands of a human than a dragon?”

“It is a very long story, Farrah, and I will gladly show and tell you why, but for now, let’s work on keeping you alive.”

“That sounds good to me. What are we going to do?”

“I am going to rest now. When you really need me, I will be here for you. Vegenrage granted you the gift of pure magic, and it is time for you to use it. It is time for you to become the magic user you have wanted to be, and you need to do things on your own. The challenge for your life is set. Stop asking, and start doing.”

“Vergraughtu, Vergraughtu! Parnapp, Parnapp!”

Both of her companions have gone silent, and Farrah feels great loneliness as Vergraughtu’s head grows hard and the light fades, leaving her in silence and darkness.
Vegenrage, where are you? I need you.
She feels alone and scared and calls for Vegenrage in her head. She remembers when she was with Vegenrage and he said, “The hell with this. Are you ready to kill that witch?” And Farrah said, “Yeah, let’s kill that bitch.” She remembers that feeling of adventure and the security she felt from being with Vegenrage, and it returns to her. She gets confident and becomes bold. She remembers Vegenrage walking down the stairway into Alisluxkana’s lair with his arm on fire, lighting the way for them to see. The way he did things, she realizes, was not scripted. He was acting out of the necessity of the situation they were in, and she knows she can do the same.

She holds out her arm. “My arm is red–hot, glowing the burning flame light.” Her right arm from the elbow to the tips of her fingers bursts into rolling flames lighting up the pit. She looks up.
All right, dragons, it’s time to show you the real Farrah. Get ready because here I come.
Farrah puts the flame out. “I am stronger than any witch. Explode my fury onto these serpents,” and she thrusts her hands upward. The cap of the pit she is in flies off as her Wall of Force extends up and out of the pit. “I can fly like the humming bird.” She levitates very fast out of the pit, and she gets five feet up from the top of the pit and is stuck dead in midair. She cannot move, and three dragons are sitting in a pyramid around the top of the pit. Farrah can move her eyes around, and that is it.

The dragons are sitting motionless with their eyes closed. Finally, Gannream raises his head and opens his eyes. He motions his hand to Farrah, and she begins to levitate across the lair into a cage very similar to the one Vegenrage was previously in. The door closes and locks behind her. She feels a headache come on and feels nauseous, falling weak to the floor, and lies there feeling miserable.

Mezzmaglinggla and Razcour walk over toward Gannream, and they watch Farrah for a while, studying her every move.

“For being so small and fragile, they really can use powerful magic. How did they get like that, Dad?”

“I don’t know, son.”

“How did that other one escape from the cage? Can this one get out too?”

“She does have Vergraughtu, and there is no telling how many magical secrets she has unlocked.”