My Keep Story [Chapters Five & Six!]

[freakazoid]

Oh, and Mathias, you should probably run while you still have both legs.

Love it! Can't wait to see what happens.

[LightningRip]

Write some moar!!

[PaleoMage]

LOL. Thanks. I guess I should write some more...

Woo! Second page!

[PaleoMage]

Allllright.
I plan to get back to writing this after everything from the crash is sorted out and I've fixed the currently-posted chapters. Quite a mess, those.

[PaleoMage]

Alrighty. First chapter since the crash!

Chapter Five

Splash!
Whump! Whump! Whump! Whump!
Mathias dashed away from the water as the shark pack burst from the bay and flew towards him, slapping onto the sand. Just as he managed to escape, however, he tripped- tripped, of all things- and fell to the ground. If it hadn’t been for the spell he’d thought to reinforce his traveling boots with, the shark that then caught him would have damaged his foot beyond repair. As it was, the teeth only just punctured it, causing some painful cuts but otherwise not doing any harm.
Of course, that doesn’t really matter as long as I’m being dragged to a watery grave, Mathias thought. He was surprised how clear his mind was, given the situation. In fact, he managed to remember the incantation for his favorite stunning spell- however, a shrieking battle cry broke his focus, and the spell rammed harmlessly into the dead whale.

Paradox dove at the shark as it struggled towards the water, Mathias in its jaws.
Shrieking another ear-splitting battle cry, the Raznak slammed into the shark, digging into its flesh with his claws and tearing at it with his beak. The shark let go of the boy and thrashed around on the sand, snapping at Paradox as it hastily made its way to the water. Paradox harried it every step- or rather, flop- of its journey, even after it had reached the water. The great bird circled the bay, harassing any shark bold enough to breach the surface.
However, there were consequences for annoying Ebbene sharks.
One of the great fish erupted from the water, opening its jaws as it reached its attacker.
But the jaws did not close.
A blast of magic slashed through the air from across the water, slamming into the shark. It fell, drops of blood flying from its side, as Paradox hastily retreated away from the water. The other sharks turned to focus on the new attacker- and promptly dove under the water.
“Well, what do we have here?”
The voice was not unkind, but it wasn’t concerned either. In fact, if anything, it sounded amused.
Mathias looked up to see a man in a brown traveling looking down at him. His expression confirmed that he had indeed found the incident humorous. He reached down to help the younger mage stand up, and spoke again as he did so.
“You’re going to need those clothes washed, I think. They’re positively covered in wet sand.”
As the strange magi pulled Mathias up, he looked down to examine his clothes. The man was correct; there was plenty of sand stuck to and inside his clothes.
“You’re right,” he said, grimacing. The man laughed.
“Don’t worry. I and some friends of mine are renting a house in a nearby village while we keep an eye on the sharks.”
“Keep an eye on the sharks?”
“Yes, they’ve been on the wane recently. I’m sure you’ve noticed, though; why else would you be here?”
“I have. Well, that is, Thane’s heard reports. He sent me here to find out what I could. He wanted the report of a magi rather than the hearsay of local fishermen,” Mathias explained. The stranger’s expression seemed to darken for a second- but the moment passed, and for all Mathias knew, he might have imagined it.
“Well. Come with me, and we’ll see about getting you washed up.”

***
Mathias scrubbed his head with the towel, becoming more and more worried by what he was hearing.
“So he knows?” The strange voice pulsated with anger.
“No. He simply knows that something isn’t right with the sharks.” This was the voice of the man who’d saved him.
“What’ll we do with him?” Another unfamiliar voice.
“We find out that the sharks are dying of a mysterious sickness, tell the boy about this, and send him back to Thane. He shouldn’t bother us again.”
“Are you crazy? We obviously have to kill him!”
Mathias’s eyes widened. The angry one obviously didn’t have as strict a set of morals as others.
“We would be inviting other magi to come poking around to see what happened to him. Honestly, I’m sure Thane will notice if his little scout doesn’t come back.”
I have to get away, Mathias thought. I have to get away NOW!
Quietly retreating to his room, he pulled on his newly-washed clothes. He inched the window open (These dark magi- as I assume they are- aren’t very careful with their hostages…) and peered down. He extended his palm towards the ground and began to grow a vine.
“Hang the other magi! They’ll just assume he was taken by sharks. But the boy must not escape. We can take no more risks- we already left his window unlocked.”
“And I forgot to cast a sound barrier spell.” This was the neutral speaker.
“NITWIT! Now he knows! We have to kill him now!” The angry one had become positively furious.
Come on… Come on…
The vine crept farther and farther up the wall. Finally, mercifully, it reached the window, and Mathias began to descend as quickly as possible. He circled around to the shed where his creatures were resting and tried to open the door, but it was locked.
Well, in their defense, they took one precaution, Mathias thought grimly. Rapping on the door as silently as he could- that is, without notifying his enemies that he’d escaped- he whispered through the door.
“Leafwing! Paradox! Tonad! We have to get out of here!”
Sleepy trills and growls.
“We have to get out now!”
Tonad’s head punched through the door. The Brontotherium blinked sleepily for a second, then set about ripping the door off its hinges.
“Good boy,” Mathias said, patting the creature’s head.
Soon, all three of Mathias’s companions were outside the shed in the cool evening air, and Mathias surveyed the group. He was inclined to find out if Paradox could carry him- he’d heard Raznaks had once been ridden into battle- but as he couldn’t know how far his companion could carry him, he decided riding Tonad would be much more prudent, if not as comfortable.
As the magi heard the sound of hasty preparations emanating from the house he’d just left, he leapt onto Tonad, and the small group- three magical beasts, one human- fled into the sunset.

Some parts of this could flow a little better, but... Meh. Maybe I'll change it later. Anyway, as always, comments and critique are appreciated.

[PaleoMage]

Chapter Six

Mathias grimly hung on to his steed, taking in his surroundings. There probably wasn’t another village for miles, and night was setting in fast. Worse, Mathias had not managed to reclaim the tent materials when he fled from his captors, so now he was stranded in the desert, at night, without even a shelter.
Granted, magi preferred to traverse the desert at night, but they would come armed, accompanied by powerful companions. If the bandits that frequent the desert were as common as they were said to be, Mathias didn’t stand much of a chance.
If speed weren’t an object, I’d have brought Crag or Cleft, Mathias thought. The Amphipteres would quite literally be in their element here, and could probably defeat any foe foolish enough to bother them.
The magi’s heart skipped a beat as he saw a light in the distance. A village, perhaps? No, it wasn’t possible. If anything, it was likely to be the camp of a group of bandits or merchants. However, as Mathias got closer, he realized that the light was emanating not from a campfire, but what appeared to be a large, gray rock.
That’s strange. Why would a rock have a light source inside of-?
The rock moved.

***
As his companions searched the village, Frederick sat at the table in his rented house, trying to figure out what to do now. The boy had escaped, yes, but unless he was crazy enough to ride into the desert, Nash and Omar were sure to find him eventually. Omar wasn’t particularly bright, but Nash would be quite able to think for the both of them.
Frederick sighed. He had joined the Brotherhood to help people out of the way of his supposed allies, but so far he’d failed miserably every time. Why had he risked bringing the young magi back to the house? Yes, the others were supposed to be out buying more supplies, but it was still a crazy idea. They could have come home early- as they did, to Frederick’s horror. That hadn't ended well. At least he'd managed to distract Omar from his silence spell...
I’ll have to tell them he probably headed straight back to the Keep. Hopefully they’ll be happy to let me go after him on my own. In the meantime, I can only hope he hasn’t run into anything dangerous.

***
Mathias watched in utter horror as the “rock” stood up and looked around. He could see now that it was a bone dragon. Fire burned inside its empty eye sockets and in its ribcage. Its wings were aglow with flames, and a single ball of sparks sat at the tip of its tail. It leered down at him, hissing menacingly.
For a long moment, both parties stared at each other. Then the dragon opened its mouth wide, summoning a ball of fire.
“MOVE!” Mathias shouted. Tonad was all to happy to comply, dodging the burning orb faster than you would expect the creature to be able to. The bone dragon roared and charged forward.
“Turn around and run!” Mathias urged his steed. The Brontotherium whirled around and charged off. Mathias looked over his shoulder to see the dragon dashing after them. He could only hope that it wouldn’t start to gain on them.
As the boy lay flat on his companion’s back and gritted his teeth, an idea struck him.
“Hey, Tonad, I think we could use some rain right now.”

[PaleoMage]

Come, on people. Please read this. Or if you are reading it already, let me know.

Chapter Seven


At Tonad’s bidding, rain hissed down from the sky, striking the bones of the skeletal dragon pursuing them. The creature yelped in pain- or at least shock- as the drops assaulted its inner fires. Mathias smiled slightly as the gap between the pursuer and the pursued began to widen. “Alright, stop for a minute,” the magi said. His mount slowed down a good deal, but did not stop entirely.
“Good enough.” So saying, Mathias raised his hand, green magic flitting around his fingers. A jagged mound of stone suddenly shot up from the sand, striking the dragon’s lower jaw. The dragon staggered, dazed, but did not fall.
“Oh, well. I suppose that means we’ll have to keep the water on, won’t we?” Mathias said, patting his Brontotherium on the head.

***
Frederick squinted at the clouds in the distance. They appeared to be rainclouds, but this was impossible; the Etain Desert never saw rain in springtime. Only in the middle of winter was a single drop seen.
“Perhaps… Perhaps I’ve found him,” the magi said aloud. “Quick- we must get to those rainclouds,” he said, mounting the Solar Hippogryph at his side. The creature made an odd noise that was half-winny, half-shriek, and darted off across the sands.

***
Somehow, Mathias was starting to feel sorry for the bone dragon. It halfheartedly lurched after them, miserable in the heavy rain and dizzy from the boy’s blow.
“I think we can stop the rain now,” Mathias said. Tonad snorted.
“I know. But can’t you at least turn it down a bit? The dragon’s utterly miserable, and so am I. Besides, I doubt it really wants to chase us anymore; we can summon rain to aggravate it and large heaps of stone to batter it.”
The Brontotherium gave no response, but the rain began to let up. However, it was soon clear that Mathias had been wrong about the bone dragon; its pride offended, it doggedly stomped after them.
“Brilliant,” the magi said. “Just brilliant.” Turning away from the beast for a second, he noticed something galloping towards them.
“Well, Tonad, that’s either our salvation or our doom coming at us. I’m inclined to think it’s the latter.”

***
Paradox’s feathers were absolutely soaked. He could fly no longer. He would simply have to take his chances on the ground with the dragon, as Mathias and the gray creature were doing. Gliding towards the ground, he noticed a bird-like creature galloping towards Mathias through the rain. A memory flitted through his mind of the frenzied escape from the house with the warm shed.
An enemy.
Giving an alarm call to the green draconian flying beside him, the bird swiftly spiraled down to the sandwiched magi and steed, hitting the ground running. With a bone-chilling battle cry, he challenged the oncoming rider.

***
“It would appear I played my part a little too well, old friend,” Frederick said to the Hippogryph. He tugged on the creature’s neck feathers, and it stopped obediently.
“We’d better not do anything that could be interpreted as hostile, or there’ll be the devil to pay. In fact, we're probably about to pay him anyway.”

Please remember to tell me if there's anything I could have done better.