To the South...

Drat and Dree did not have to walk very far before they came across the Dowager, Griselda, and her son who were returning to the Baron's Mansion from the Town Council meeting.  Quickly they shared about their meeting with Aralt and how they had tricked him to explore the caves south of the village.  

Griselda sent them back to the cave and told them to stay there until she could send messages to the other council members to decide what they would do next.  ​

"What are you laughing at?" asked Griselda to her son as the rat and Dragon started back to the caves. ​

​​"Dree told me a new joke.  It goes something like this... Knock... Knock... and you are supposed to say 'Who's there?'"  The Dowager just shook her head and smiled thinking about how much of a kid her son still was. ​

"Dumb Dragon.  That one must have been hatched early otherwise what they are now teaching the young must have not stuck!" mumbled Aralt to himself as he headed south to the caves that Drat had told him about.  "Imagine me needing help from a rat.  I have forgotten more and have traveled farther than that rat could even imagine."  Soon Aralt's feet were again getting sore from all of the walking.

​"One would think that a coach or something would travel these roads a little more often," he again grumbled.  After walking a little more, Aralt decided to sit down on a log near the trail by where he had first overheard the Wysps.  "I wonder if those Wysps are still here?" he asked himself.  "It would make it easier if I knew which cave they were talking about that had the portal in it." 

As if by magic, a Wysp did appear!  "Ah, stranger.  Are you lost?" it asked Aralt.  Before thinking, Aralt growled, "That's twice in one day someone has implied that I am lost and don't know where I am going.  I will have you know that I have walked these hills long before your kind even turned blue."

Taken aback by how forceful Aralt growled at him, the Wysp flew back several feet to be out of the stranger's reach just in case he decided to try and grab him.  Seeing that Aralt was not getting off of the log, the Wysp decided to try a new approach.  "Can I help you find something then?  Wysps are known to be especially helpful to strangers in need," it smiled sweetly as it thought to itself 'right up to when I trick you'.

"Only if you know where the portal is," Aralt told him while digging another rock out of his shoe that was rubbing his little toe raw.  "Ah, that's too easy.  How about a nicer cave that has a waterfall in the back of it?" answered the Wysp.

It took a minute before Aralt realized what the Wysp had just told him.  It knew where the cave was!  This time thinking before he answered, the Herald decided that he would trick the Wysp into taking him to the portal.  "I don't think you even know what a portal is," he replied.  "So, I best be going on my way alone."

​This time the Wysp was the one who responded before thinking.  "Of course I know where the portal is.  I was there when it appeared and messed up our meeting.  It's over between those two mountains," he said as he pointed to two mountains nearby.  "We tried to enter it but we kept bouncing off if it, so we had to change our meeting place."

Smiling, Aralt soon had the Wysp mad enough that it would show Aralt where the portal and cave were 'just to prove I know what I am talking about'.  Shortly, they were entering the cave with Aralt following the glowing blue Wysp.  "It's right here.  See," as the Wysp hit the portal wall with a stick it had picked up off of the floor which bounced back from the invisible wall.  "Nothing can get through it and we tried."

Ignoring the Wysp, Aralt started walking towards the invisible barrier.  Now it was the Wysp's turn to smile as he expected the stranger to bounce off of the wall just like the Wysps did.  The surprise on the Wysp's face would have made Aralt laugh if he had been watching it as the Herald walked right through the barrier and disappeared.