Chronicles of the Eight Realms

Chronicles of the Eight Realms

Book One: Dragons Among Us

Written By Thaumus the Bard

Chapter One:

There weren't always dragons in the Valley. At least, not since the Eldritch Crusade many years ago when they were hunted and persecuted due to a lack of trust with the dragon kin. Had there not been a division in where their loyalties should lie, then the sightings of dragons would not be such a novelty today. But alas, the days of dragon sightings have ended, well, until now, and it is yet to be seen if this will be good or bad, but this bard is betting that it will be a bit of both.

Strange rumors were trickling in from the eastern realms, rumors of giant winged lizards darkening the skies. Most people scoffed and attributed these rumors to the wild imaginings of the mountain folk meant to scare others from venturing too close to their mines, but some of these rumors seemed a bit too detailed and a bit too familiar to simply be the ravings of a drunken dwarf. So much so, that there was to be a gathering held at the Guild’s behest, the largest gathering of adventurers in the Guild’s history. From far and wide, and all across the seven realms west of the Sacred Mountains, adventurers thronged to their nearest guildhall, for the Guild had a foothold in every realm. The Guild was going to use telephonic magic, with very little lag, so that the announcement would be as close to real time as possible.

Just outside of Oakenheart, the capital of Mirenia, stood a trio of adventurers…Hoo, Lani and Emory.

“Do you think he will show, Hoo?” Lani asked.

“Um” Hoo started to say as he looked awkwardly at the ground, then down the main road and across the Bridge of Etherium, pretending to be lost in thought.

“What’s the matter, Hoo,” Emory teased “cat got your tongue?”

“Don’t tease him, Emory.” Lani chided as she twitched her feline ears, although she secretly enjoyed Hoo’s discomfort around her. She knew he liked her, and, well, she liked him too.

Just when Hoo thought he wasn’t going to be able to take anymore of this awkwardness, he saw their fourth and started waving frantically. “Over here, you slow poke!” He called out to Eli.

Elyot King, or Eli to his friends, but known to everyone else in the Guild as the Penguin King. The cool guy but without the too cool for you attitude, and he wielded a magical living shark sword like no other. “What took you guys so long?” he quipped.

“Hahaha, Eli, we are the ones who have been waiting.” Hoo shot back.

“Yeah, sorry about that, Sharky was being stubborn” he claimed as he looked sideways at his dangling sword.

“I was not being stubborn, I was merely being hungry”, the sword replied a bit huffily.

“Well come on, let’s hurry, we don’t want to be late!” Hoo said over his shoulder as he took off to join the line of people trying to get through the main gate to Oakenheart.

A half hour later and the four friends were still waiting in line to enter the city.

“Whyyyyy is it taking so long??”, Emory complained, “at this rate we will NEVER make it to the guildhall on time! What a day to leave my rune of teleportation at home!”

“You would only get us into trouble, you know we’re not allowed to use magics to get into the city”, Eli replied “hey Lani, can you use your far-sight to see what’s going on?”

“Yeah, sure” she started to say, but stopped when she felt a feathery hand touch her shoulder.

“Save your magic, I’ll fly on up and see what’s going on, then I can also speak to the guards on a timeframe.” Hoo told her softly.

Before she could object, he was off in a flash of feathers, with her ears twitching in excitement and a skipping to her heart.

“Hmmm, what’s this, is somebody blushing?” Emory asked, as she was always in the mood for some harmless teasing.

Lani quickly turned away, “I-I don’t know what you are talking about!” she said, ears still twitching and heart still skipping.

Hoo wasn’t gone for long before returning with a scowl on his face. “That was a wasted trip, the guards wouldn’t say anything, not about why there was a holdup or a timeframe for entering the city.”

No sooner had those words left his mouth when there was a commotion up towards the gate, screaming yelling and people turning around and running back towards the bridge, quickly followed by loud rumbling and a roar that shook the adventurers to their core. There were calls and shouts for sounding the alarm, thunderous explosions and flying debris, billowing smoke and flames, and then…the dragon…rearing its scaly head above the city walls before sending a long blast of flames at the scattering crowd.

“WALL!!” Emory shouted as she lifted both of her arms up in front of her, producing a wall of aether just before the flames reached them, and even though they suffered no damage, the dragon heat was still nearly unbearable.

“Wow, Emory, that was close…good job saving our bacon!” Eli cheered.

“Aaawww, so who’s blushing now?” Lani whispered teasingly to Emory.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m just hot from that dragon fire!” They both looked at each other and started giggling.

“What’s so funny?” Hoo asked them.

“Oh, nothing.” they both replied before bursting into more giggles.

Before Hoo could reply, there was a thunderous roar followed by a short scream. The dragon was on the hunt, and there was plenty of food running around out in the open.

Hoo stood up calmly, and looked at his friends. “Well, it’s now or never. Someone has to stop that dragon.”

The four friends nodded in agreement, briefly clasped hands, then set off to save Oakenheart and the people who lived there.