First Death

Lionel answered Drindle. "I don't know where they are now."

Drindle turned back from the interior of the wagon. He spoke over his shoulder "Sit up here by me and show me where they were."

Lionel stood up to move toward the drivers bench. He stepped around crates and piles of rags in the messy cargo compartment to sit on the bench beside Drindle. When he stuck his head out side of the canvas wagon cover he could barely believe his eyes. The wagon was not pulled by a horse or any creature, but that was just the beginning. The wagon was floating in the air between the peaks of the Lonely Mountains.

"What should I call you boy?" the raspy, dry voice spoke.

Lionel looked around in pure surprise. The sky was the purest, beautiful blue he had ever seen. There were few airy, white clouds in the distance. He looked over the edge of the driver's bench and immediately sat down and held onto the bench. they were at least 1000 meters in the air.

"Heh.. Heh.. Hee.. Scared of heights are we?"

Lionel looked over to see Drindle smiling mischievously. "My name is Lionel."

"Eh, What kinda name is that? I like Ank better." Drindle said eyeing Lionel. "Now show me where these Gardgans were."

Lionel held tight to the seat and looked down between the mountains toward where his home was and pointed "There"

At his reply, Drindle pulled a small globe from his cloak. it looked to be clear glass with a green and white image just under the surface. The globe was not more than 10 centimeters across. As Lionel looked closer at the green and white image; he could see what appeared to be the Lonely Peaks in the glass globe. Drindle slowly spun the globe in his hand and the image inside the globe shifted to show a green plain. When that shift happened the wagon started to move quickly down the mountain in the direction where Lionel had pointed.

Lionel sat amazed as he felt only a slight breeze blow by him. They were moving too quickly for the slow breeze to be normal. The carriage descended quickly. Drindle watched his amazement and seemed to know exactly what Lionel was thinking.

"Ank, I have controlled the weather for more than 150 years a little bit of wind is nothing to mitigate." he said with his lips pursed tightly

Lionel sat staring at Drindle, "But, I thought you used the Weather Shrine" and was immediately cut off

"When you have lived for more than 10 centuries you get a little sick of people bothering you. So you make shit up. Heh heh." Drindle said with a crooked grin that didn't match his age. "We're here let me see where they went." the old man immediately got up and stepped out of the wagon. He stepped on to the air beside the wagon and slowly floated to the ground.

Lionel could make out where his shack was in the distance and spoke up. "There," he said pointing, "That's where they were." Drindle didn't move instead he breathed in deeply and his pale eyes emitted a soft glow of light.

while breathing out he spoke. "Ah, There they are. There are more than one hundred of them about 50 kilometers away. I won't be able to kill them all. Which one do you want dead, Ank."

Lionel was quite. As he watched the old man continue to breathe deeply, he could see the vitality seem to seep back into him. He sat there for only a moment before speaking. "I want the dark skinned gardgan with the yellow and black robe"

Drindle watched Lionel and seemed to study his face for a few moments before floating up into the air.

"I will be back and I expect my end of the deal. Stay with the wagon." as he spoke he flew into the distance towards the valley between the Lonely Peaks.

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Lionel sat on the driver's bench for a few minutes after watching Drindle fly off. He thought to himself 'What a strange old man' after reviewing what he had witnessed of Drindle thus far he couldn't help but picture a child trapped in an old man's body. the man was overly expressive more so than any adult Lionel had witnessed and to top it off he said he made up stuff just for fun!

Lionel sat on the driver's bench for what felt like hours. He began to grow bored. He looked around, and over the edge of the wagon. It was amazing, the wagon floated about a meter above the ground, he could have jumped down if he wanted to. After looking over the edge and all around in the distance his boredom returned. He looked in the cargo bay of the wagon and saw the boxes and rags from when he had just woken up.

Lionel took only a second to decide, and stepped over the drivers bench and into the cargo space of the wagon. As he looked around at the crates he had seen when he first awoke, he noticed something he hadn't before. In the back corner of the wagon there was a plain looking wooden box with runes inlaid into the top. Lionel couldn't make out what the runes said. He rubbed his hand across the runes and felt their indentations. They began to shimmer and seemed to slowly absorb light. The inside of the wagon began to grow steadily darker as the runes absorbed all traces of light.

Lionel could barely make out an outline of the box opening. There was an audible sigh, "Hrah" Lionel was startled and looked around. By that point the light was starting to seep back into the wagon.

The deep voice from before could be heard in Lionel's head. "Finally.. I missed you"