Chapter 21

“What or who is Balrog?” Rex asked, the name sounded quite ominous, especially if it was something that worried someone as big as Charr.

“Her be spider demon who live under Mountain, make babies who boys fight to be man.” Charr said. “No one seen it in many years, but it babies are big to kill young warrior who not fight well.”

“Then how do you know it lives that way?” Rex asked tilting his head a little. “No one has seen it in a long time.”

“Strong warriors who go too close to that part mountain not come back.” Charr replied. “I not want eaten by spider.”

“Well I have an idea” added Lizz, I know a way to get around that part of the mountain, we have to head more west, but I also know there is another problem that way, Shaitan. He is a bandit lord that constantly harasses trade caravans around eastern Bhutan.”

“So, either way we go, there is a possibility to death?” Rex asked sighing a little. This prompted a little arguing between Lizz and Charr over who was more dangerous, Shaitan or Balrog.

‘Let us talk young one, I can help’ said Fafnir to Rex.

“Well how about we make camp here, have a discussion and make a plan to move forward?” Rex added standing between the two. This stopped the arguing between Lizz and Charr and both agreed. Soon after that, all three companions worked on getting a fire going, Charr smashing some trees and breaking them up for firewood, while Lizz gathered leaves and sprinkled something over them from her fingertips which seemed to make them mould together to form blankets. Rex sharpened a stick and waded into the river to attempt to spear from fish to eat. After 10 minutes of failed attempts and much cursing Rex said quietly to himself, “Any ideas Fafnir? We need to eat, remember I die your plan is done.”

‘Humpf is that your attempt at bribery?’ he retorted, ‘I will simply fade back to the beyond and await another champion.’

“Well how long have you waited for me? Good luck finding anyone like me again” Rex snickered.

‘Seeing as this is going nowhere and I don’t want the land my father destroyed, also you are keeping me waiting with your failed fishing. Hold your hand under water and watch what real power is.’

Holding his hand under the water felt a little silly to Rex, but Fafnir has never led him astray yet. Once again he could feel warmth come from his armpit, down his arm and into his fingertips. Not a few minutes after that he noticed ripples appearing over the surface of the water, what is he doing? Rex thought.

‘What WE are doing, I cannot do anything in this world without you. You wanted food, now FEAST.’

All of a sudden, a huge shockwave came from his hand and shot out across the water. Soon, one by one fish started to bob to the surface of the lake. How did I kill fish without touching them? Rex said surprised.

‘Not dead, merely stunned. So only grab what you need and leave the rest. Greed poisons a man’s heart’ Fafnir added.

Filling his hands and arms with enough food for everyone, Rex did what he was told and left the rest. Leaving the water, he headed back with the fish to the campsite. Charr had stacked enough wood for the night and Lizz had the fire lit and bedding set out for the three of them. Dropping the fish next to the fire Lizz and Charr looked at him suspiciously, “How did you catch that many in such a short time?” she said.

“With help” Rex replied with a smile. Seeing the confusion on their faces made him chuckle a little bit. I will tell them in time he thought to himself, after Nessa he did not want to trust so quickly.

Seeing they were not going to find out the real answer anytime soon, Lizz and Charr looked at each other and shrugged, setting up sticks to start roasting the fish by the fire.

“So how are we going to get to Hale?” Rex asked sitting between Charr and Lizz. He shortly regretted asking because it brought on the arguing about who was worse, who had killed more.

‘We can go through Balrog’s domain, I will teach you how to fight like one of us, it will take another day to get close where she resides, listen well I will ensure you stand a chance if you must fight her, we have a score to settle anyway.’ Fafnir said to Rex.

Hearing what Fafnir said worried Rex a little, what was stupid enough to anger a dragon? A powerful one at that. The stories Rex had been told, all dragons left their physical forms behind over 500 years ago, that meant this thing was old. He would prefer to possibly fight a man over a spider demon that angered a dragon.

‘He is no man’ Fafnir said.

So now Fafnir is reading my thoughts no matter what I want. Great. What is that sound? Is he laughing at me, this is irritating.

“You still be there prince?” Charr said, bumping his arm seeing Rex glaze over like he had zoned out.

“Yes, just thinking. I think we should try and get past Balrog. I can’t explain it, but I have this feeling we will have a better chance than trying to get past Shaitan.” Rex said to Lizz and Charr. To his surprise they looked at each other for a minute, looked back at Rex and agreed.

“You sound like you know something we do not, after all, you are a Magnus, so if you can’t get us past, no one can.” Lizz said shrugging.

Great. No pressure. Fafnir is chuckling again, awesome, I get the dragon who is a joker.

Shortly after they had decided on their heading Rex decided a topic change to lighten the mood was needed. “Anyone got any good stories before sleep?”

At the everyone smiled. Charr was first to speak, he told of a time he went to fight a giant salamander and it ended up burning his bum during the fight. The story worked perfectly, everyone started laughing and seemed in a lot better of a mood.

“Time to call it a night” Lizz said.

Both Rex and Charr agreed, pulling up their leaf blankets Lizz had made, “These blankets are amazing Lizz” Rex added looking at it closely. When he looked up at her, Lizz smiled at him, blushed and brought the blanket up over her face. Charr bumped him a few seconds later, he then realised he was still looking at her covered up. Looking at Charr, he winked, rolled over and closed his eyes.

‘Time to train Rex’

Once Rex closed his eyes, he got the familiar feeling of being near Fafnir, opened his eyes and saw him curled up not far away from him. It never stopped amazing him how huge Fafnir was. He seemed to notice Rex looking because he tipped his head at Rex.

‘Come young Magnus, let us talk.’

Jumping to his feet, Rex walked over to Fafnir and sat in front of him. ‘Before you learn to fight, I will tell you why your family are our chosen for soul bound. Shortly after this place was created, we allowed all the dragons that had accepted our invitation to come, also allowing the clans and tribes that were their caretakers to follow them in. there was peace and harmony for almost 200 hundred years before a clan, you call them Bohl, started to do what they do best, fight between each other. This brought conflict in with the Fae who reside in Valen who wanted their fighting quelled. They then asked the mages for spells to help protect them, you can see how quickly it started to spiral out of control. It only took 50 years before the regions warred against each other, begging their dragon lords for power over the next, we are proud beings, a lot of us vain, so we agreed, imbuing chosen people to receive some of our gifts. I tried for years to prevent chaos before ruling that we would select a leader of the land. This man or woman would go through a trial to prove they deserved to rule. You will do the same thing if you wish to take your fathers place Rex, it is magical law that none can rule this place if they are not proven worthy. The first to prove this was a Fae from Valen called Dexus Umbra. He ruled for many years before power and greed poisoned eventually his heart and he started to bring forth ideas of starting to try and claim lands outside of Dracoterrum, if it was not for your great grandfather’s intervention, he may have succeeded in convincing the other lords. He challenged Dexus to a duel, Dexus had become sloppy with each passing year and he lost to him, Dractus Magnus cut him down. He then entered the veil of choosing and was successful. Seeing how pure of heart Dractus was, it was a unanimous decision from the dragon council that we would assist in keeping the peace, each new generation of Magnus that passed the choosing, we would speak with each other and decide who would share their knowledge and power with them, it has been that way ever since. I must say your family has done an amazing job at keeping the peace, if not for the Blood War your uncle started, it would have been almost 1000 years of peace under Magnus rule. Since malice and hatred has seeped into Dracoterrum, beings of death like Balrog were born and live. I chose you to help me bring peace and restore the balance to not only your new home, but my home.’

After hearing this the only thing Rex could think of was, “Why me?”

‘Because you remind me of myself and I see a lot of my own traits and beliefs in you, no other Magnus has been able to bring forth a part of their soul bound like you did with the crazak. I don’t know if that is because our bond is strong, or because it is because I am strong. I am certainly going to test how far we can push that limit.’ He said grinning.

‘First thing we will practice is focus, without focus, you will not be able to create or hold any ability I can provide for you, besides the abilities you have used by instinct, that is why you cannot hold on to those gifts for more than a few minutes. Close your eyes, focus your minds eye on yourself, control your breathing and tell me what you see.’

Odd request Rex thought, so he did what he was asked, controlled his breaths in and out making them deliberate and tried to imagine him looking at himself. “Nothing is happening” he said after a few minutes.

‘Open your eyes’ Fafnir said smiling.

Rex opened his eyes and could not believe what he was seeing. Looking down in front of him was none other than himself, sitting down legs crossed with his eyes closed. He also noticed he didn’t look like himself, what he saw was a bright light emerging from the inside of his body giving off light like a lantern, another thing that wasn’t right was the height he was looking from, he was a fair distance away. Looking around to gauge where he was looking from, he noticed that his hands and arms were that of Fafnir’s again, then it stuck him, he was looking through Fafnir’s eyes!!

‘Using my vision will certainly come in handy don’t you think?’ Fafnir chuckled, ‘This is the sort of connection we can share if you learn to focus, I must say this is quite an odd sensation sharing my form with yours’

“Now you know how I feel” Rex said laughing.

Rex closed his eyes once more and focused on himself, opening them and having his own form again. “That was incredible.’

‘That was nothing. I sense daybreak is coming, time for this lesson to conclude. Focus in your spare time, and take in your surroundings, remembering how to see through my eyes, tonight we will test how much you have been practicing and will try holding onto abilities.’ Fafnir said. ‘Travel safe young Rex.’

Opening his eyes, Rex was back. Sitting up he could see that the sun was just breaking the horizon. Looking around he saw his companions just starting to stir as well.

“Good morning, perfect day for a ride.” Rex said, then realised the only travelling he had done here was the help of the twins, “make that walk.”

Laughing at Rex, Lizz and Charr both stood up, Lizz destroying the blankets with a quick spell. Charr stamped out the fire and Rex packed his bag.

All 3 stood next to each other looking up the road that led along the base of the mountains and out of sight.

“Well staring won’t get us there” Rex said shrugging his shoulders and starting to walk.

‘We are coming, prepare yourself old hag’ Fafnir added, which made Rex chuckle to himself.