At last, he reached the roaring fire. He stood up slowly and looked around. As it turned out, the pillar that the scroll was on top of was now in the middle of that fire, and there was no safe passage across. Teryn sighed. He had come too far to fail now.
Just great. What am I supposed to do now?
What do you think? Cast a spell of fireprot and walk through the flames, Terwain replied. An image of an old man shaking his head formed in his mind. Be careful, though, they probably have an alarm on that scroll.
Teryn hadn’t actually asked the Sage Mind for assistance, but he was glad for it all the same.
I guess that makes sense. Well, here goes.
Teryn made a few odd gestures with his hands and cast his spell. He walked through the flames, marveling at the fact he couldn’t feel their heat or intensity, right up to the pedestal. He prayed for protection from the Trebors, and he cast another havealooksy spell to see if there were any magical traps. Not finding any, he reached up slowly and touched the scroll.
Immediately, a blaring alarm sounded, notifying all the Trebors to Teryn’s position.
He quickly swiped the dragonskin scroll from the pedestal and made a beeline for the trees. He thought for sure he’d lose them with his invisibility, but the hulking creatures followed him anyway.
It was then that Teryn noticed his ring had fallen off his finger earlier while he was casting the fireprot spell and he’d been running by completely unprotected.
“Help!” Teryn cried out in desperation as he ran for his life.
“I'm on my way!” Talon cried out in response.
Teryn ran as fast as his feet could carry him. Behind him, he heard the growls and guttural shouts of the Trebors as they raced after him, weapons whooshing and clanging in their giant hands as they sped through the trees.
He tried to gauge how far away they were, but the forest was considerably darker now that he’d just spent a few minutes staring into a fire. He stumbled on a root and fell to the ground, knees and elbows scraping against the dirt.
The young mage scrambled back to his feet, but he knew he wouldn’t make it to safety. Not now.
He pulled out his glow-sword. His fingers trembled as he fumbled for the switch in the dark, then it burst into life, illuminating his surroundings. A massive creature hissed at him and reared backward in the eerie blue light, then advanced once more. It was a Trebor, and the thing made the Maktuul from earlier look tiny.
Teryn gulped down a knot of fear and tightened his grip on his glow-sword. Then another six Trebors joined the first one and they all attacked at once.
Teryn screamed as he slashed violently at the Trebor closest to him. He ended up cutting off its leg with a low, quick swipe. Then he waved the blade high in the air, slicing deep into the creature’s abdomen. The great beast howled and clutched at a smoking black line that had formed there, then staggered backward and fell to the ground.
Teryn tried to slow his breathing. Two of the beasts were down, but there were far too many left for him to take out, and he was already growing fatigued from the teleport spell, the running, and the little fighting he had already done. He needed to remain calm if he wanted to make it out alive.
He made another slice at one of Trebors, but the creature swerved out of the way and his blade went singing through the air as his sweat-soaked hands let go of the handle and the blade went flying through the air.
Teryn’s heart lurched and he braced for the end. One of the Trebors lurched forward and smacked him with its clawed hand, cutting a swath into his chest.
The young mage was flown backwards several feet and fell to the ground with a thud, the wind forced out of his lungs. He feared his death was imminent.
At that exact moment, a shining ray of hope entered the field. It was Talon come to the rescue. Teryn, delirious from the pain of his devastating injuries, could barely even smile in response.
“Don't worry, I'll get us out of here!” Talon shouted.
In one quick motion, Talon picked up Teryn from the ground and slashed at one of the Trebors. Teryn heard a low howl from the beast as it fell to the ground under Talon’s assault.
Then everything went black.
* * * * * * * * * *
Teryn woke up to find himself once again on the peak of Mount Malabohr, his chest wounds miraculously healed. He looked around briefly and found that Talon and the Great Dragon were both watching him.
Feeling much better, he sat up.
“How'd we get here?” Teryn asked.
“Well, I fended off a few of those Trebors and the rest of them ran for it. Then I gathered you and everything else up and I used Coontan's teleporter to get us there, and then here,” Talon replied.
Teryn looked confused. “Why didn't you use it before?”
“Because it uses up a lot of energy cylinders, that's why,” Talon explained. “I can’t just teleport whenever I feel like it. There are rules in place.”
Teryn slowly nodded. The motion hurt, but he pushed past the pain. “You say you gathered everything up. Does that mean you retrieved my glow-sword and my ring?”
“Always worried about your own stuff first,” Talon chided him, shaking his head. “Sword yes, ring no. It’s over by the Great Dragon.”
“And the dragonskin scroll?” Teryn pressed, a faint glimmer of hope detected in his voice.
Talon looked at him for a second grimly, and Teryn’s hope faded. “Of course!” he exclaimed, bringing back Teryn’s hope and joy. “That look was just a joke to see how you’d respond. I was waiting for you to wake up before I gave it to him.”
Teryn’s face erupted into a broad grin for a moment,
