There were so many footprints that Aralt soon realized that he would have just about as much luck in the middle of the busiest street in the village trying to find his own footprints. "Dragonsbreathe!" he muttered disgruntled. "I don't have time to check out all of these caves." But soon it was evident that he wasn't going to be able to do this the easy way and resigned himself to start exploring each cave with every twist and turn. After several hours of searching and just before he was ready to give up thinking that maybe he did have the wrong caves after all-- he heard it. At first he wasn't sure what the noise was, but as he approached the direction it was coming from, he realized that what he was hearing was laughter. The laughter of a Dragon! "I knew I was right," he silently congratulated himself.
As he was listening, the rat started to read the Dragon another joke... "Okay Dree. I have a good one for you. What did the left eye tell the right eye?" The Dragon shrugged his shoulders and shook his head. "I don't know, what?" he asked. Snickering Drat answered, "Something between us smells." It took Dree a few seconds before he figured out the punchline and started to laugh.
Drat and Dree both looked at each other before Dree answered. "My name is Drai'ochtluan but you may call me Dree for short. This is my friend and aid to King Dulbbe, Drat. What is a Dragon Herald might I ask?" Aralt wasn't ready for that question. He had been the Dragon Herald for so long that all of the Dragons knew him and what he did. Why didn't this one? "Why, I announce the Dragons arrival and help to keep the understanding that has long been in place between Dragons and all of the other fae to also include the 'Outies'," answered Aralt. "How is it that you have never heard of me? Where are the other Dragons so that I may talk to them instead?" Aralt asked while thinking that this young Dragon must not be very bright.
Quickly offended Aralt replied, "I need no help finding my way rat" as he turned around and stormed from the caves. Drat followed him to make sure that as he left the caves and he was indeed headed south. As Drat watched, Dree had quietly followed. "He is going to be mad when he finds out there aren't any Dragons in the caves to the south, isn't he?" asked Dree. "Yuppers," replied Drat. "But that should give us plenty of time to tell the others that he has seen you and what happened. We should head to the council hall." "Great and on our way there I heard a new joke," snickered Dree as they started towards the village. "First I say... Knock, Knock... and you say 'who's there'..."
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Even for important events (such as the weekly meetings) individual Wsyps have been known to be late or even sometimes sleep through the meeting. Resulting in one of their favorite pranks which is leaving behind the sleeper who fell asleep during the important meeting. It usually requires everyone sneaking out quietly at the end of the meeting so the sleeper is not awakened - again why the Wysps enjoy doing it. As a matter of fact, this happened the night of the "strange occurrence" that made the Wsyps leave the cave and hold their meeting in a bush where Aralt stumbled in to them. Later, when the Wsyp (who had been left behind) found the others to complain about being left behind, he mentioned that when he woke up, his stomach was rumbling because of the cooking smells he thought he had dreamt. Ah, but was it a dream? Is there someone (or something) behind that portal that is blocking the rest of the cave? Allspice (or Al to his friends ) loves to cook. Little do others know about the magic he puts into his cooking which involves him getting up real close and personal with everything he bakes. One of Allspice's favorite things he loves to do is to bring out the music hidden in the cooking.
BUBBLE..BUBBLE...POP...gurgle...Bubble...BUBBLE...POP... When he felt the rhythm, he would begin to bang on the pot with his wooden stirring spoon. Slowly the drum-like noise, drifting up the chimney, would grow louder and louder. Then he would start to blow on a kitchen funnel hanging by the cooking pot, adding the music of a horn to the simmering beat. Gradually, as the melody of the brew continued, he would step on the bellows he had handy to keep the fire glowing to add a whish of steam to the sounds his cooking was creating.
Allspice knows what ingredients that one element of magic requires and how rare they were to find. But ohhhhh, the sweetness that one addition makes to anything he cooks always makes his meals be the best and hardest to resist in his kitchen.
The council meeting broke up as soon as everyone learned that Aralt had managed to leave Meen behind. With him disappearing the Dowager immediately sent Meen to warn Drat that the Herald may be heading towards the caves where Drat and Dree were supposed to be hiding out. Awena also wasted no time and went directly to her library to find the Dragon's Return prophecy to see if there might be a clue to reveal what Aralt's power over the Dragons might be. As she sorted through the many prophecy scrolls, more than once she thought that they should have some sort of index to be able to find the one she was looking for faster. "Once this is over, I will have to meet with the staff to figure something out," she told herself as she put another scroll aside in her search for the right one.
Normally Efem would almost dread having to enter the Sacred Grove to talk to the ancient trees but not this trip. Since learning they could speed talk, she hoped they would respond quickly to her requests for knowledge that only they knew from the roots of the Realm's past. "I hope that the Ol' Yew is not asleep," she thought as she approached the mighty tree. As she stood next to it and looked upon it's shiny green foliage, Efem was awed by a random thought of how much it must have seen during its life cycle. "I remember my mother bringing me here to see the Yew when I was a young sapling and the Yew was ancient even then." As she silently waited for the tree to notice her so she could ask her questions about Aralt the Herald, Efem was contently lost in her own memories of the past. "One of the stories of the ages and I don't know where to start," thought Snoop as he sat at his desk in the Bellwether and tried to put quill to parchment. "I promised the Dowager that I would not print anything that would give Aralt a clue as to Dree, but I have to print something!"
It was his pile of the Herald newspapers that came crashing down from a shelf and just missing hitting him on the head that made him think... "Herald! That's it! I need to write about what we know about Aralt the Dragon Herald. That way I won't give away what we know about Dree. Plus I can get the word out that he has returned. This will be a terrific article!" Right away Snoop was lost in his writing and not even wondering any longer if Aralt might have found the caves where Dree was hiding.
"The council members truly do not understand what is returning and the power I hope to re-claim when "She" returns," thought Aralt to himself. Now Aralt was familiar with the many caves in and around his own home and on the out-skirts of the Village but he wasn't aware of any caves located under the so called Baron's mansion. Maybe he shouldn't have gotten rid of that Pkysee just yet he thought as he continued walking down the path leading out of town and hopefully in the direction of where he figured the Baron's home would be. Since Aralt lived in the opposite direction and had no previous reason to explore this part of the countryside before, it made sense to him that this should be the way to go. "It can't be much further down the road surely?" grumbled Aralt as he pulled out a small rock that had worked it's way into his shoe and was rubbing his toes the wrong way. He had been walking (which wasn't his favorite way to travel) for quite a distance and was getting hot and miserable when he spied something blue flashing ahead. "There! It flashed again!" he said to himself turning his head slightly to catch the glimpse of blue in some nearby bushes.
"We can't drop the stick while standing in some bushes to decide who has to be the leader at the next meeting," one of the Wysps was complaining. "It's got to be in a cave where it's harder to not get hit when it falls. Besides, if we are all in the bushes and the stick hits the bush which hits some of us, then who has to be leader? We should just go back to the meeting cave instead of being here!" Aralt just could not figure out what the problem was. "I would think one of them would want to be the leader and tell the others what to do," he thought. "Wysps are so strange." It was also surprising to Aralt to see so many Wysps together at one time like this. They were usually solitary in planning their next bout of mischief. "It's unusual that they seem more concerned about what they were talking about instead of finding me as a lone walker on a path," he wondered confused. "I can't believe that things have changed that much since I have been gone. Their favorite choice of things to do has always been to prank someone out alone." Aralt wished he could get closer to hear more as his curiosity was now tweaked but he was afraid of making them scatter and disappear. As they continued arguing, all he could hear was a few scattered words but what he heard had his attention. When they complained about a "portal" and "blinding light in their cave" it made Aralt wonder. "Were these the same caves that are under the Baron's house?" he asked himself. After all, that seems the direction they were coming from if he was heading in the right direction to get there. Backing up slowly as to not startle the Wysps while they kept arguing the fine points of dropping a stick, Aralt found new energy and resolve to find those caves hidden below this Baron's house. Once he was far enough away from the Wysps, Aralt quickly turned around and immediately began his trek up the path and to where he hoped were the caves.
They are the blue Wsyps and even though it is dark outside, they prefer to have their meetings in caves where others could not sneak up on them. After all, sneaking up on others was part of what they did. It was during their weekly meeting when it happened... "Next on the agenda is deciding what to do about the Borrower, Arnie, who harassed one of us recently and also threatened to put a Wysp in a magical bottle," spoke the Wysp who currently was holding the leadership stick. This Wysp was the last one to be hit by the leadership stick. Whichever Wysp who was hit with the stick when it was dropped from the ceiling of the meeting cave at the end of each meeting had to be in charge at the next meeting. It was a show of pride among the Wysp's to be able to say that they had never been in charge. It was during the discussion of what to do about Arnie when a flash of light temporarily blinded them all and a Portal appeared blocking the path down further into the caves. The Wysps tried to go around the portal but in failing that they then decided to leave the cave before something else disturbed them in their plotting of revenge.
Since he also lived in a cave instead of under a bridge, he was not required to have a question to ask of any traveler trying to cross. Instead he just wanted someone to talk to as talking to himself was getting boring. Somehow he always knew what the other part of the conversation would be about before it started. "If you don't know what that strange noise is, how would I?" he answered himself. "Maybe I should check it out. It might be someone else to talk to instead of you," again he told himself. (As you can tell - this troll did not get out very often). He got to the entrance of the cave (the same one the Wysp's were having their meeting in earlier) but by now the sounds were causing the walls to shake and the stalactites to occasionally crash to the cave floor causing the Troll to think twice about checking out the inhabitants of the cave. "They must still be moving in... I think I will come back after the noise settles down a bit," both parts of the Troll decided at the same time as he turned around and went back to his cave. "It will be good to have a neighbor I think."
"I have the Nytemares watching the remaining patches, but so far none of them have seen anything out of the ordinary. Several of the known flower patches appear to have every flower blossom picked but none have been found on the ground. Whoever has picked them has also taken them but for what purpose we have not been able to find out," reported Scarlet. It will be several more days before others in the Realms realize that something was happening and even Aralt would be just as surprised as everyone else.
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