Cyrus had news for us that was important. Sylvia's body was entombed in the Necropolis and we had to locate her remains and capture her spirit in a Knowledge Crystal.
"Ew," we said.
Cyrus smirked. "Well, seems being a hero isn't as glamorous as you thought?"
I shook it off...
When your main method of crowd control is a puking frog, you quickly get over the squick. :p
Us three - me, Grace and Chris - fought our way down to the bottom of the tomb we thought was where the resting place of Sylvia Drake...
And found her as a Wraith. She was not happy to see us.
Needless to say, I destroyed her with the Ninja Pigs. I felt bad but realized that she was undead and needed to be put to rest. I absorbed her spirit in the crystal, but I felt her mind touch mine.
"Look, guys," said Christina, plucking two badges from the dust. She handed one to me and one to Grace. "Prospective badges! This is what I used to take the enrollment tests in Dragonspyre. With them we can enroll you in the Academy!"
Professor Cyrus was willing to accept the idea of us enrolling in an exchange program with Dragonspyre. He took the crystal from me and enchanted our new badges to allow us access to the Necropolis's portal. We took it and presented ourselves to the guide.
"Your first course for enrollment requires you to go to the Hatchery and speak to Castamir Silverdrake to learn about Drakes."
I rolled my eyes. I wasn't surprised that a world called Dragonspyre had dragons involved.
"We aren't scaly, if that is what you meant," I giggled. We introduced ourselves. "We're here to learn about Drakes."
"You probably want to get powerful in a hurry, just like the others," he said. He then continued without waiting for our answer. "Well, guess what? The Titan Army destroyed everything and took all of the books about the way of the Drake. I can't teach you much without my books, can I?"
"Perhaps we can recover the books for you, Rra Silverdrake," said Grace.
"Hmmm, good idea," said Castamir. "How about this? If you go and defeat the Titan Army, you can recover the stolen books. Bring them back and I'll you the ways of the Drake."
"Good to go," said Christina. She turned to me. "Come with me."
"What the heck?" I said, seeing fellow students of Ravenwood fighting the Titan Army. "What is..."
"Part of my cunning plan to stall Malistaire and distract his mooks," said Christina with glee. "Don't worry, these students are all advanced level and were itching for something better to do than Wizard vs. Wizard dueling in the Arena - some of the new duelists were complaining about unfair level advantage and I took the change to get the professors to send these high-level guys and gals on a field trip, with a little help."
"Are you insane?" I cried. "Even if they can fight back the Draconians, Malistaire will get suspicious of all the Ravenwood kids here! He might suspect something's up!"
"Nah, I know what I'm doing," said Christina, winking. I shook my head - Chris can be such an enigma at times... (Brief story explanation why there are other players in Dragonspyre. Actual explanation - it's an MMORPG, get over it. Oh, and these guys were fighting for the entire time we were here the first time. That battle was going on FOREVER. :p)
We did our own battles - it took a while but we defeated enough Terrorwing Warlocks to recover the books. We returned them to Castamir.
"Those overgrown geckos?" I laughed. "No sweat!"
"You didn't get all of the books though," said Castamir, showing the pages of the books we collected. "These only cover the behavior and temperament of Drakes. Dragons are violent and dangerous and Drakes will be friendly if treated well. Everyone knows that!"
"Ugh," I said. "So now what? We didn't find any more books!"
"You're still eager to learn?" he said. "You're certainly nothing like my past students. If only we had more books."He mused on it a while then came up with something. "Wait, I have an idea! Throughout the Hatchery we have statues of the greatest Drake from our history. Go to each of the statues and read the inscriptions on the pedestals. They will tell you of our history. Come back and tell me what you have learned."
But we found the statues and read their inscriptions. I won't bother reciting what we read to you as it's dry reading, but I felt immensely enriched by the history of this dead world.
"I understand," said Grace. "Just like my secretary is key to my survival, the Drakes are the key to the success of the Dragon Riders."
"More! More!" I cried. "I wanna learn more! Tell us about the Dragon Riders!"
The man's mustache twitched and I knew he was in his element. "Go talk to Tomar Skyblade, in the tower nearby. He might tell you more."
We headed into the tower and found the ghostly warrior there. I approached and bowed. "Tomar Skyblade. I want to learn about the Dragon Riders."
It was like a switch was flipped in him and he harped on the glory of the days of his riding. I knew we had struck a chord with him.
"Thank you, Rra Skyblade," said Grace, bowing. "We will never forget what you told us."
I knew I sure wouldn't!
Castamir was shocked that Tomar talked to us and told us about his drake, Kimerith Windhammer, who was in a tower nearby. We found his soul was in a Knowledge Crystal. He greeted us majestically. "It's been a long time since I have seen a living human. Welcome."
We talked a bit and Kimerith asked us to find his reins to rekindle his memories. Sadly Tomar did nto have them. We decided to see if Castamir had any idea where they were.
"We need to find Kimerith's reins, Rra Silverdrake," said Grace. "Do you have them?"
"No," said Castamir. "The reins of the Drakes were stored in our museum which was raided by a foul ghost called the Collector. They must be with her."
"We'll get them back," I said. "Let's find this ghostly thief."
We found her and Christina had some trouble as the thief was Balance-element, but we got rid of her and her Magma Men clones. (Grace got an athame called Thornblade of the Hoarder. Before the Shadow Weavers showed up, this boss was called The Hoarder. But now... well, you'll find who holds the title eventually. ^_^)
"We have the reins," I said. "Let's get them back to Kimerith."
"Now I ask you take me to see Tomar himself," he said. "Please take the Knowledge Crystal which has my soul and give it to Tomar."
"Okay, be patient," I said, carefully removing the crystal. He faded away...
But returned when I found a crystal pedestal and placed the crystal on it. Kimerith and Tomar were reunited and I smiled at the good deed.
"Well met Kimerith Windhammer!" cried Tomar, smiling. "It has been too long and I have missed you greatly." He turned to us. "You see, Sierra and Grace, it's never quite clear who holds the reins when you are a Dragon Rider."
I suddenly blushed as I realized that the relationship between a Dragon Rider and his Drake was so much like that of a boy and girl who were in love. "Well, we'll go talk to Castamir now."
 |
| Guess what? Yep, that group of players is STILL battling those Kyanite Lancers. *sigh* |
"Now you must study the ways of our people," said the guide. "Go north to the Crucible and talk to Zanetta Stormbreaker to begin your lessons."
I was a little antsy - when could I get into the Labyrinth? I shook my head and sighed.
Patience, Sierra...
[To be continued...]
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