Scenario Dreams 2, Part 4: The Return of the Guardian

 

The trip through realities gave me a bit of time to think about my quest. The only reason I was able to complete the last mission was pure luck. How was I ever going to find the out of place element in such a large place such as middle earth? Through all my thinking I neglected to pay attention to my speed and how close I was to the exit. With no time to react I exited onto a nice wooden floor and skidded into a cabinet, effectively removing all the dishes from their shelves onto the floor. Slowly I sat up and shook my head, observing the damage. It was true; I had pretty much completely totaled the fixture. Looking around I took note of where I had landed with such a ruckus. Apparently I had landed in a small kitchen, well not so much small as short, it would have been a pretty close fit if I had tried to stand up. Crouching down and stepping over shattered dishes I exited the room, entering into a long hall with a round green door at the end. Such a strange place, I didn’t recall being here on my last journey. Suddenly I saw the door start to open. Not knowing what to expect I decided to call out a camouflage potion so I could tell whether the impending company was a friend or an enemy. Softly I chugged the small vial and ducked into a corner.

            The door opened completely and then shut. It appeared that no one had entered. Just as I was about to cancel the potions effects a merry laughter filled the hallway. A small hobbit appeared out of thin air, still laughing to himself. He took off his cloak and started down the hallway slowly. Now that he was closer I could tell that this was none other than Bilbo Baggins, whom I had met the last time I was in this reality plane. I was about to cancel the effects of my potion but decided that it would be wise to let him deal with one shock at a time; he had yet to see the mess I had accidentally made of his kitchen. I moved to the side as he walked past me and into the kitchen.

            When he entered, Bilbo stopped for a second and shook his head, “Bother, the cabinet had to choose now to give out. I guess I’ll have to take my other dishes.” Without even bothering to avoid the broken plated on the ground he walked over to the other side of the kitchen and started packing some other dishes into a bag. I decided I had remained hidden for long enough and spoke, removing the effects of my invisibility as I did.

            “Long time no see old friend.” I said as I walked in slightly arched. Bilbo reacted with a great deal of surprise, throwing one of the plates he had in his hand into the air, where gravity took hold and sent it to join it’s fallen companions.

            “Who’s that?” he demanded as he spun around. He noticed me and stared for a good five seconds before his look of surprise slowly turned to a smile. “Why, I do believe that’s Jay isn’t it?” he said to no one, addressing me soon after, “Its been over 50 years and you haven’t aged a bit, how are you after all these years?”

            I smiled and started to sweep the dishes into a pile with my hands. “It’s been 50 years?” I asked rhetorically. To tell the truth from the way Bilbo looked I didn’t think that I had come back too much after we had last met, he most definitely did not look fifty years older.

            We didn’t have much time to chat before we heard the door open again. Bilbo seemed panic stricken. “Oh dear, some troublemaker must be trying to loot my house now that I’ve announced that I’m leaving. Quick, Jay, take this and sneak out, meet me at the edge of the shire then give it back to me. I will try to ward off the intruder.” With that he took a small ring out of his pocket and jammed it onto my finger before I could do much else. I looked at it confusedly for a second before I remembered the significance of the item. I was about to take it right back off when Gandalf entered the room. He stood there for a minute looking in our direction.

            “Well, it’s been a long time, Jay. I’ve been wondering where you had disappeared off to.” He said.

Bilbo stared at me, the look of pure bewilderment on his face. “What happened?” he said aloud, “By logic you should be invisible and escaping. It’s too late to let someone guard it for me. Give it back now!” I gladly took the ring off at this. Even though for some reason I was completely unaffected by it I didn’t like the idea of wearing the ring of Sauron.

            “Now Bilbo, are you so attached to that ring that you would hire someone to sneak it away from me? Are you really going to leave without even cleaning up the place for your nephew.”

            Bilbo looked very annoyed from this remark, “I didn’t hire him! In fact he’s the one who made this mess. Now give me that!” He said as he snatched the golden band from my grasp and put it in his pocket. “I have no time for idle chitchat, I must be on my way.” He picked up his still mostly empty sack and headed toward the door.

            “Bilbo,” Gandalf said, raising his voice, “leave the ring.”

            “Why should I? It’s mine, I found it fair and square when we went on that adventure.”

            “There is something wrong with that ring, I don’t know what it is right now but you have to trust me on this one, leave it.” The old wizard said. I, of course, knew exactly what was wrong with it but I decided to keep my mouth shut, I didn’t want to interfere more than I had to.

            After much convincing Bilbo finally gave in and dropped the ring on the floor. The expression on his face as he did this could very well be compared to the face of one saying goodbye to a very dear friend. He seemed a little relived as he exited the door and went off into the night.

            Slowly I got up and went toward the door myself, ready to really start my quest. Gandalf had sat down in a chair and was occupying himself staring at the ring on the floor and puffing on his pipe. He looked up at me, “You’re leaving too? If you’ve no place in particular to go could you keep an eye on our mutual friend, I fear he may come back for this and he seems to trust you quite a bit.”

            Seeing as that the direction of Bilbo’s travels was as good as any I agreed to this request.

            Just as I was about to step out Gandalf spoke up again “Oh, and one more thing before you go. I’ve been thinking about this for the past years. Hide your wings. The likelihood of someone who could actually see through your disguise in this age has decreased drastically. I guess I was just a bit paranoid the first time I met you.” Dropping his reminiscent tone he looked up and smiled thorough his pipe, “Well, have a safe journey and be sure to visit again before another fifty years pass.” I nodded and grinned back, quickly turning and running into the darkness of the night, my wings disappearing and my clothing returning to normal.

            A few minutes of running passed before I caught up to Bilbo. “Hey, you’re not leaving me are you?” I said as I slowed to a jog.

            “What? Oh you, changed again did you? Ah, I’m about used to it by now. What do you mean leave you? I wasn’t planning on you going in the first place.”

            “Please? You forgot to bring any food and I’ve got plenty.” I said as I silently called up an everlasting apple behind my back. Though I was getting better at calling items without much notice I still couldn’t believe I was actually pleading to go. To tell the truth it really didn’t matter as far as my quest was concerned, but Bilbo had really leapt before he looked.”

            “Food? Oh yes forgot about that one. Okay you can go, what have you got?”

            I showed him the apple. He looked skeptically at it and took it from my hand, taking a large bite out of it. The apple, as was its nature, regenerated and looked as if nothing had happened to it.

            “Wow, that’s some apple there, how long does it last?”

            I shrugged and kept walking beside. We talked for a while before setting up camp a bit outside of the shire. The night was clear and cool and the stars shone brightly in unfamiliar constellations. Sleep came easily to me that night. Before I knew it the sun was shining again and a beautiful melody was echoing throughout the lands. I looked over and saw Bilbo still asleep so I decided to get up and see what the source of such a song could be.

            I left camp as silently as I could and walked in the direction of the music. It wasn’t before long that I saw a lone girl standing by the river. I sat and listened a little while longer before she noticed me and turned around, immediately doubling back and running into the woods before I could get a good look at her face. I felt that I had to find out who this mysterious girl was so I followed until I came upon a small cabin.

            As I stepped up I couldn’t help but notice how nice the place was. There was a small garden in the front and the trees around gave a perfect lighting effect. While I was standing there another figure stepped out of the house. He was quite a bit shorter than me and had a long red beard. He seemed rather jolly a fellow and skipped up to greet me.

            “I was wondering when I might see you here, Jay” He said as he shook my hand. Needless to say I was quite perplexed by having a complete stranger know me by name. “Don’t tell me you don’t recognize me.” he jested, “Take a good look at my face, ignore the other stuff”

            I followed these instructions, though I was still quite confused. His face looked old and wise, but through the beard and wrinkles something looked very familiar about him. He looked like… me!

            “Ah, good job, it appears you finally figured it out. How’s it feel to meet yourself and not even know it?”

            “But… how, why… what’s going on?” I stammered for a bit longer before he decided to explain to me.

            “Sorry to give you a scare, I’m on vacation right now and thought it would be funny to see how you would react.”

            “I get vacations?” I asked, becoming a little more comfortable talking with another version of myself.

            “Not for a while yet, but the vacations you get when you are given one are awesome. The Ellimist placed my wife and I at the very beginning of this reality plane, thus we were actually incorporated in the stream of events. Almost every aspect of our physical appearance has changed so we wouldn’t recognize ourselves in case we were in a book but its still neat to be able to spend so long with memory and some of my powers.”

            “Wait, I thought that we weren’t supposed to go such a long time with memory or powers, that’s why it’s put into dormancy whenever we go back to normal life.”

            “That’s why it will be a while yet before you get a vacation. Besides, if I go too far out I’ll lose all my powers until I come back. We have a relatively large range of places we can go but it will probably be a long time yet before unrestrained vacations. In this place though I am known as Tom Bombadil. Kinda funny name, don’t you think?”

            I chuckled slightly; this was a bit of a new concept to me but kind of nice to know. There was a bit of a lull in the conversation before I noticed him examining my jacket closely.

            “You do realize that that outfit is not going to work here don’t you?”

            “What’s wrong with it?” I asked defensively, this happened to be my favorite set of clothes.

            “Well nothing’s really wrong with it but in the words of Link, ‘You could only really pass of as a clown or something here’. Why don’t you go ahead and change it?”

            “Change it? What do you mean by that”

            Bombadil let out a short but loud laugh, “You still haven’t figured out how to quickchange? Well usually I would keep quiet when asked about one of my abilities but this is one that you really must know. Okay this is really quite simple and it will work on both your shoyru form and your human form. Just close your eyes for a second and concentrate on how you look, then slowly change the image in your mind to a different style of garb, as a shoyru use this to change color. When you open your eyes you will find that you are actually wearing what you imagined. Try it now. Think of something… woodsy.

            The concept seemed simple so I decided to try. I closed my eyes and followed his instructions. I felt myself begin to change a bit and then it stopped. When I opened my eyes I was wearing a forest green tunic with dyed blue leggings. Around my waist a leather belt with a silver buckle was wrapped, a small hunting dagger attached to the side. My nice shoes had changed into leather woodland boots. The outfit actually felt quite natural.

            Bombadil looked over my garb carefully and finally nodded, “Very good, there’s just one thing missing that would make it look perfect.” He then reached up and put his hands over my ears. There was a sensation not unlike that of changing forms on the side of my head and he let go. “There that ought to do you. Come take a look at yourself.” He led me toward a small pool of water. When I looked into my reflection I saw that my ears were now softly pointed on the ends, like those of a middle earth elf. “There, the look actually suits you quite well. You best be going on your way though, no doubt you are on some important mission.”

            I started to walk away, agreeing with him on how the look suited me. Even if I did run into someone who could sense my hidden power they would be less likely to stop me if I looked like an elf. Just before Bombadil entered his cabin again a thought came to mind. I turned around and asked in a loud voice so he could hear me, “Hey, who is the Ellimist anyways?” I had been thinking of it for a little bit off to the side, the fact that a mess in the RP’s weakened him was a bit confusing to me.

            A little bit surprised by the sudden question Bombadil turned around. “The best analogy I can put to him is that he is a janitor of time. He still needs a mop, that being you, and there still is a higher power over him. Don’t worry about the subject too much.” With that he disappeared into his dwelling.

            I was a little bit insulted being compared to a mop but with a little imagination I guess that’s what I was, the one to clean up a mess. Logically it did make sense now that this was explained to me; there is only so much a janitor can do about a mess with just his hands. I decided to also take his advice on not worrying about it too much and ran back to camp, where I was greeted by a large pan of apple slices being prepared over a fire, drizzled with a few spices.

            “Ah there you are, I was wondering where you went off to.” Bilbo said as he walked up to stir the simmering apples. “Sit down, have a bit to eat. It’s lucky I packed my spices before the party.” He paused for a moment, “Thought it also is lucky that you had something for me to put the spices on. Here, still good as new.” He grabbed the everlasting apple from a cutting board on the ground and tossed it to me.

            “So, where are we going after breakfast?” I asked as I took a dish from the sack and took a few of the apple slices.

            Bilbo sat down with his own plate and took a bite before he replied, “I'm going to try to take the same path I went on my big adventure, hopefully get all the way back to the Lonely Mountain.” I halfway choked on my first bite as he said Lonely Mountain. For a moment I thought he was referring to my friend Lonely. “The spices aren’t too much for you are they? There really isn’t anything but sugar and brown sugar there.”

            I swallowed and took another bite, a bit more carefully this time, “No, they’re really are quite good. Just went down the wrong way.” We finished our breakfast after a while and went on our way.

            The next few days were spent on the road going toward the last homely home. We stopped at a few spots of importance of Bilbo. He really didn’t seem as energetic as he once was, wanting to sit down and rest every hour or so of walking. The trip was scenic and pretty much uneventful before we heard the sound of falling water in the distance. As we slowly approached the most beautiful city I had seen thus far became visible.

            “Its Rivendell!” Bilbo exclaimed in joy. As we approached a great number of elves came to greet us. They sang quite a bit; lively, cheerful songs; and took us to one of the dwellings. Bilbo for once seemed completely relaxed and content. It was getting a bit dark so the inhabitants invited us to feast with them and spend the night. I was starting to get a bit worried that I might get caught up in the activities and forget my mission, like I had done last time. Nevertheless Bilbo and I accepted, telling them that we would have to be on the road in the morning though. Bilbo seemed a bit depressed by the thought of leaving but said nothing.

            The night was awesome. The entire village gathered together as if we were important visitors. We sang and ate wonderful food. Bilbo and the others exchanged tales of adventure while I just sat back and listened with a smile. As the night went on Bilbo told his stories in more and more of a nostalgic tone. The stars again were bright in the sky and the moon full. The festivities continued long into the night. I had quite a few of the inhabitants ask me where I was from. I was able to evade the question pretty effectively by saying that I was simply a traveler. When it was all coming to a close the elves of Rivendell showed us to our rooms. Bilbo and I slept in comfortable beds and slept in late the next morning.

            When I awoke I saw Bilbo sitting in a chair looking at the scenery outside. “Ready to go?” I asked.

            In a slow and peaceful manner Bilbo shook his head. “No, I’m not going right now. I feel tired. This is a peaceful place and I think that it would be best if I stayed here just long enough to regain my strength. You go ahead, I’ll meet you at the Lonely Mountain. Don’t forget to take your apple, I’ll remember to bring food next time.”

            I nodded and exited, leaving Bilbo to his rest. I was a bit sad that he wouldn’t be coming but glad at the same time that I could resume my mission. I wanted to leave as quietly as I could, I really didn’t want to bother the kind elves more than I really had to. I made sure no one was following me and went on my way. Before I could get outside the city limits though a wounded and tattered elf emerged from the bushes.

            “Thank goodness I made it here.” The elf said as looked up at me, “I come from the mountains on the edge of Mirkwood. A messenger from Lake Town recently came and told us of an imminent threat at Lonely Mountain. A strange white hired man with powerful magic has invaded. He has forced the people into submission and says if they displease him at all he will wipe out all of Middle Earth. From the magic he has shown we have no doubts that he is capable of such a task. Please help us!” The elvish messenger collapsed on the ground, overcome by weariness.

            This was a bad situation. Slowly I picked up the wounded messenger and took him back to the heart of Rivendell. The inhabitants set immediately to tending to his wounds and restoring him to health. It seemed strange to me the description he had given of the invader, White haired man with powerful magic. Surely Saruman hadn’t done such a thing; the treacherous white wizard of this reality plane tended to go about things in a more secretive manner as I had remembered reading about. When the messenger came to he told his message to the rest of Rivendell. The head elf, Elrond, pulled me aside after the tale was told.

            “Jay,” he said, “though you disguise it well I can see that you are a person of great power. I don’t know if we have the resources to face the one whom the messenger speaks of. If you could please go in our place we will provide you with anything you would need. Can you do this for us?”

            “That would be no problem at all.” I said, “I don’t need any supplies but I thank you. I must leave immediately.” Honestly I was curious as to why Saruman would do such a thing at this point in time.

            “I wish you good luck and a safe travel then. We will remain as we are unless further word is sent to us.” Elrond said as he turned and went back to the messenger’s side.

            I started to jog toward the Misty Mountains. As I reached the first ridge I started to get a bit nervous. That messenger had looked quite beaten up. What kind of danger had he faced here? My hand fell to the dagger by my side and I felt a bit better. Then again he seemed to be unarmed and even If I got into major trouble I could always use one of my Guardian powers. Deciding not to waste any more time in thought I jumped into the air and landed on the top of the ridge. “That was easy enough…” I said aloud to myself. It seemed I had spoken too soon. The path I was on was riddled with malicious creatures, mostly just goblins but the number was tremendous. Wasting no time I ran with all my speed toward the next cliff. The entire mountainside was filling with these vile creatures. I jumped up the cliff only to meet another army of goblins, this time a few orcs and trolls mixed in. My pace stayed steady and I jumped into the air, bouncing of the head of one of the orcs before rocketing into the air again. The process continued the rest of my trip in the mountains until I finally reached the edge of the dark forest Mirkwood.

            Even though I was away from the goblins I still couldn’t slow down. The forest as well was no place for a lone person to be, even with all my abilities. I ran through the forest dodging trees and jumping over large streams. Ahead of me a wall of giant spiders was forming. With hardly a second thought I called out a cutlass in each hand and long jumped into the air, spinning as I progressed in mimic of the move Ninjay had performed against the giant tree-like monster. The smart spiders fled but the more stubborn ones held their ground in order to attack. The wall fell to my tornado of silver blades and I landed back on the ground, not even hesitating to look back. Many wargs watched from the side and some gave chase but at my velocity I outran them easily. Finally after a couple of hours of constant turmoil I arrived on the other side of Mirkwood and so much closer to the Lake Town, where I was going. I looked down on the silver blades in my hand and dissipated them.

            Once I was well out of the forest I sat down and rested. Spending hours running for one’s life is very taxing on the body. It was only in the moment of resting that I thought of something… I wasn’t really an elf; I could have flown over the mountains and the forest with ease. I nearly kicked myself at this revelation, I guess I had gotten used to this place more than I realized. “I guess that’s why Bombadil decided to stay here on vacation, it really is a nice place.” I said aloud to myself. After resting for a bit I looked in the direction of Lake Town. On the horizon by the lake thick black smoke billowed out. “That doesn’t look good.” I said as I jumped up and called out a water scarab, running toward the smoke.

            When I arrived the town was in hysterics. People were throwing buckets of water on houses and throwing wet blankets over patches of flaming dry grass. Without a word I ran to the center of town and raised my scarab to the sky, shooting a sharp stream of water into the air. The water spread out and was caught by gravity, coming to the ground like a heavy rain. Many minutes of this deluge passed before the fire settled down and the people came back into the town.

            “Thank you for saving our town strange one” I heard a voice behind me say. I turned around to see an elderly man, probably in his 70’s or 80’s. “The white haired wizard became angry with us. He said that this was a warning. All we did was send a messenger to speak with him. The man must be stopped.”

            “I can confront him and hopefully bring the town out of fear, what is the wizard’s name?”

            “He told us once, but my memory isn’t as sharp as it used to be. I think it started with an ‘S’.”

            “So it was Saruman.” I thought to myself. “Don’t worry, I’ll go there right now. I am familiar with the area and hopefully he shouldn’t be too much of a problem.” I told the man.

            “I must warn you before you leave though,” The old man said, “from what little I have seen of his power he seems to be as devastating an opponent as Smaug, the last of the great dragons whom I slew about fifty years ago. We wish you good luck and pray that you shall succeed.”

            That last statement about him being greater than Smaug shook my confidence a bit. Nevertheless I knew I had a job to do. These people were in trouble and my mission could wait. I started to walk toward the Lonely Mountain. It seemed somehow larger than I remembered. The front entrance was open and unguarded so I sat down and started a fire to prepare lunch before I went in.

            A golden vortex opened up beside me and Ninjay stepped out and sat down. “Hey, salmon, my favorite.” he said.

            I looked down at the shoyru who was taking a good portion of my fish. “What are you doing here?” I asked, slightly irritated by him inviting himself to my lunch.

            “Well,” he replied between bites, “the Ellimist tells me you are close to your target so I decided to come along and help with the transfer.

            “Saruman is my target?” I asked in a perplexed manner, “But he’s native to this reality plane.”

            Ninjay shrugged and finished off his salmon, “He didn’t say anything else. He just said, ‘The Guardian is close’. You don’t suppose we have to take care of another slorg do you?”

            I laughed out loud, “Lets hope not, I hardly journeyed around here for days on end just to be a pest controller.” I took a last bite and stood up, putting out the fire, “Lets get this over with so we can get to the last problem.

Ninjay stood up as well and drew his RB katana from it’s sheathe. “I’ll go in back. You can distract whatever it is and I’ll sneak up and strike it.”

Slowly I walked in and looked around. There was no sign of activity anywhere. Apparently Saruman felt quite confident in his abilities and left himself unguarded. I made my way toward the chamber where Smaug had once resided and stepped back in surprise as I saw my foe. Rather than an old wizard dressed in white there was a young looking man in a black trench coat. His hair came down almost as long as the coat and was kept in perfect cords down his back. At his waist rested an extremely long katana, one I now recognized as the Masmune. “Sephiroth.” I said under my breath.

The figure sneered at me. “Finally one of you wretched elvish people remembers to call me by name. I would have thought that burning that little town by the lake would be warning enough, but it appears that they are as foolish as they are cowardly.” He narrowed his eyes a bit, “You’re hiding something aren’t you. There are more.” Within a split second he drew his Masmune and blocked Ninjay’s strike.

Ninjay recoiled from the block and flew over beside me, “He’s better than I expected. Its almost as if he knew exactly where I was.”

“So, they send a tiny assassin as well. I must say I underestimated their idiocy.” Sephiroth said as he held out his hand. A cloud of fire formed around us. Wasting no time I switched to Guardian form and called out a thyoras tear to block the attack. Ninjay simply disappeared without a sound and reappeared right in front of Sephiroth, taking a quick swing.

Sephiroth blocked the attack again and countered, only to hit thin air as Ninjay disappeared again and reappeared right above him. He barely had enough time to dodge as the Realitybreaker fell toward him. The two started a fierce battle, Sephiroth running into many close calls. “It appears you are more than just assassins.” He said between blocking and counterattacking, “Scatha told me I might run into some resistance but I never expected to be attacked by a midget dragon.” He s sneered as he got a solid blow on Ninjay, who was sent spiraling back toward the wall.

<Distract him,> Ninjay thought spoke to me, <I have a plan.>

I nodded in his direction and picked up a small stone, throwing it and hitting Sephiroth in the back of the head. The rock simply bounced off his hair causing no damage. He turned around and looked at me, “What was that supposed to be?” He asked, “You could have at least thrown a halfway decent attack but a rock? You’re even more foolish than the townspeople.” He sheathed his sword and held his hand up, about to attack.

“How’s this for a decent attack Sephiroth?” Ninjay shouted in out direction, “Lightning Ball”. Something that looked like a small yellow rubber ball appeared in his hand. He threw it with great force and hit Sephiroth in the back. The ball exploded in electrical force and almost completely disabled the surprised Sephiroth. He lowered his hand and fell on his knee, electricity still running through him. Ninjay jumped up into the air and held his Realitybreaker downward as he plummeted to the ground, stabbing the golden blade into the back of Sephiroth. Sephiroth scowled as he started to glow in a golden light and he disappeared from view, returning to his own reality.

Ninjay sheathed his katana and wiped his brow. He looked at me in a bit of a strange way “A rock? That was the best you could come up with?”

“It worked didn’t it? By the way, how did you switch locations like that so quickly?”

Ninjay shook his head at my remark but replied anyways, “I don’t know exactly on the disappearing thing, it seemed almost natural to me. I guess I could call it a… flitport perhaps. In any case, we need to be going back now.”

I nodded, “Well, we’ll only know for sure Sephiroth was the only thing here if the Ellimist gives us a ride back. I don’t really want to leave only to find out we aren’t really done here.”

Almost as if on cue a blue vortex appeared in front of us. Taking a deep breath to recover from the last battle we both jumped in. The trip back was calm and it wasn’t long before the exit became visible. I made sure to keep an eye on my speed this time and entered right after Ninjay.

“He’s back!” I heard Lonely say as I landed.

Malee, who was still resting in the corner opened one eye and stood up, letting out a yawn as he stretched. “Good, it’s almost over.”

Norvil, looked up from the chemistry book he was reading in the other corner and replied to Malee, “Really it wont be over until we take out the cause of this. We don’t want to go through the whole thing again do we?”

Malee snorted and walked over toward me, “I guess Norvil’s right. I any case, where are you going now?”

I thought for a second to the last journey. “Lets see… It actually was the place you were at, Malee; alternate Earth.”

Malee seemed to brighten up when I said this, “Can I come then? I really would like to talk with Flame again.”

I nodded, seeing no problem in that, and turned to the others, “Are you all going to be fine here?”

Lonely spoke up, “I’ve no problem with that. You probably better leave before you wake Bremen though.”

I looked up toward the roof of the temple to see the green and blue fire draik sleeping on one of the arches. Chuckling to myself I opened a vortex directed at alternate Earth. Malee calmly walked in and disappeared. I couldn’t help but think of how much he had changed since I had last met him as I jumped in after.