3 Chapter 3: A plateau in the sky...no it isn't, colored blue...still no

One elkedon trekked up a large road that led directly into a town. It was a merry jovial town, people all walked around outside talking and carrying on with business, the atmosphere was nice. Riding the winding trail that led up to the plateau on an elkedon was well worth the ride and the warbeast was properly controlled now that Arthur was not in control.

"Well we've reached it," said Leneus and he slipped off the elkedon and held it still for Arthur to slide off.

Arthur gently slid off the elkedon and landed on all fours, everything going down from his butt felt very numb. He had been atop the elkedon for the better part of a day and the sun was slowly beginning to wane at eventide. The only thing that allowed him to ride up to this point was the exceptionally long rest he had got after he fell into a river yesterday. Leneus supported Arthur to rise and they stood.

"What's going to happen to this guy?" asked Arthur nodding at the elkedon which snorted in response.

"We're taking it with us," said Leneus, as if that was the most obvious answer in the world.

"Evenin' Len!" said an armored guard coming up to them as they approached the Sky-Blue Plateau Town.

"Good evening," Leneus replied in kind.

"Good beast you got there," said the man.

"Stole it from an army," said Leneus chortling and the man laughed as well.

"Check them in Bardo!" called out another voice from behind, a petite man, still sizing up to the man called Bardo in height came up wearing lighter armor.

"Wynn, good evening," said Leneus acknowledging the newly arrived guard.

"Who's the boy Leneus?" asked Wynn.

Leneus pushed Arthur forward surprising him and Arthur smiled a somewhat forced smile.

"On the orders of the lady," said Leneus. "This here's Arthur Halo."

"Is he the dungeon master?" asked Bardo and Wynn proceeded to examine Arthur curiously.

"Yes indeed," said Leneus. "Our lady has spend a lot to bring him in."

"Well, Sky-Blue Plateau might become a little more famous," said Wynn.

"It is a beautiful place," said Leneus. "Wonder why more people don't come."

This was a statement that Arthur quite agreed with. The plateau was beautiful, trees cropping everywhere, filtering the necessary amount of sunlight onto the town, even the weather was well off, a cooling breeze would blow through every once in while, it was very relaxing and picturesque especially with little flower gardens all the houses appeared to have and it was set in ordered manner.

"Shall we proceed?" asked Leneus nudging Arthur who was lost in his own thought.

Arthur quickly nodded and they together with the elkedon which Leneus led walked into the town, walking through the cobbled streets, Arthur noticed that all the houses were built in a similar fashion and most houses were one-storey. For those houses that had a second storey, they were all grouped together away from the entrance, further in with a larger garden and yard. On the way to their destination many people waved at Leneus, offering their greetings. Leneus appeared to be well known in the town, exceptionally well known, almost everyone acknowledged him as he passed by. Perhaps these were the perks of being a dragon. Arthur looked at the tall Leneus and for a second imagined him in a traditional dragon-like form but he couldn't land the face, the face ended up too much like Leneus' human face and Arthur snickered.

"It is a beautiful town master Halo," said Leneus mistaking Arthur's snicker. "I'm glad you're enjoying it."

They walked past a traditional fantasy-world like cafe with small white wooden fencing, inside which flowers of various variety bloomed, some of variety which he didn't even recognize. The cafe itself was remarkable with an open space situated with several chairs and tables where men and women alike sat chatting away. Several of them wished a good day to Leneus as he came in leading an elkedon, as the elkedon passed and they sighted Arthur, they all threw a curious look his way. Arthur smiled back weakly and then sped to be covered by the elkedon and Leneus again.

"Everyone seems to know you here Leneus," said Arthur trying to ignore the curious gazes that he had suddenly been alerted to.

"Why yes, it's home master Halo," said Leneus as he chortled out another greeting jovially.

They walked the cobbled path, very noticeably with an elkedon and finally arrived at a forkroad. Before them a few steps away was a huge mansion and Leneus motioned for Arthur to wait there whilst he turned left and went into what appeared to be the horse stables. After a few quick words with the man that attended to the stables and a transaction of whatever was inside a bulky red small clothe sack he left the elkedon there next to the nervous man who gently tried patting the elkedon only to be shrugged off. Leneus came back to Arthur looked ahead to the large mansion situated right in front.

"Are you sure about leaving that thing here?" asked Arthur with concern as he watched the man who they had left the elkedon to gently try to approach the warbeast after he was shrugged off again.

"I thought Loggs would be here," said Leneus with a frown. "He knows every trick in the book with animals of any size."

"Should we take it back?" asked Arthur.

"No...no, just let it stay here for now," said Leneus nodding. "I'll come pick it back up later if Loggs still isn't here."

Arthur shrugged in response and then he paid closer attention to the mansion few steps away from him. He could hardly believe that this place was where he was going to live now. Both in his previous world and this world, a mansion-like house had been all but a very impossible dream of his, though not so impossible now.

"Is this it?" asked Arthur scarcely daring to believe it himself.

Leneus let out a burst of laughter. "This here's the mayor's house master Halo."

"Oh..." He was not quite sure on how to proceed the conversation at this point.

A homely, beautiful woman wearing a stained dress, showing signs of age on her face and the occasional grey hair stood in the big mansion's garden, trying to control a very hyperactive boy.

"Nice evening, Mrs. Grovesworth," said Leneus stopping for a greeting.

"Leneus, you're back!" said the woman, she turned to look at him, surprise evident on her face.

The boy too stopped playing and turned around as well.

"Uncle Leneus!"

The boy yelled out as he ran to Leneus with a toothless grin. Leneus knelt down as the boy ran through the opened gates and right into Leneus' arms. Despite being, Arthur wagered, ten maybe a little less years old and on the slightly chubby side Leneus easily scooped up the boy.

"Hello Zy." Leneus joyfully ruffled his stubbled, and slightly scaly face on the boy who appeared to be tickled.

Arthur stood back and watched in amusement until Mrs. Grovesworth's attention turned to him.

"You must be the falling star that Leneus was talking about?" said Mrs. Grovesworth coming to him with a gentle smile.

"Uh...falling star?" Arthur questioned.

"Forgive me, don't you know?" asked Mrs. Grovesworth with a light frown.

"I don't know anything about a falling star," said Arthur and he suddenly looked skywards somewhat tense, could a star actually be falling, improbably as it might have been in his world, it was a definite possibility here.

He let out a sigh, there appeared to be nothing falling from the sky, a few birds making their rounds but apart from that and the clouds, very little littered the sky. After playing with the boy for a short while he watched Leneus put down the boy and eventually all attention was on him.

"Who's the big brother?" asked the boy.

Arthur tried his best at a gentle smile thought it was very stiff, "Uh...hi, my name is Arthur."

"Arthur," the boy tried, and he had apparently got the pronunciation right as well.

"Do you want to play?" asked the boy with a huge grin and Arthur froze, he wasn't that good at getting along with kids, he had very little friends on earth especially as a child and he was brain dead here in this world for the best part of the years he had lived.

Arthur looked down with a smile, not quite reaching his eyes and wondered on how best to reject his offer when Mrs. Grovesworth came to his rescue.

"That's enough playing today Zywen, go inside, your father will be coming soon and you have classes tomorrow so make sure you get all your homework done," said Mrs. Grovesworth and Arthur watched with amusement as Zywen's face scrunched up and then finally turned red.

He let out a huff and walked back into his household with an attitude but once he was at the doors he turned around.

"Bye uncle Leneus, bye big brother Arthur," said the boy and Leneus waved back happily while Arthur stood there with a stiff smile.

"Bye," he let out softly with a sigh after the boy had gone in.

"When's Mr. Grovesworth coming?" asked Leneus.

"He should be here soon, he went with Loggs to that beast-point, Hagan is there as well," said Mrs. Grovesworth.

"Oh...no wonder," said Leneus. "I didn't see Loggs in the stables."

"Well take care," said Leneus and he turned to walk away, Arthur nodded slightly at the woman and he too followed Leneus.

He walked faster to catch up Leneus' stride. "Hey, Leneus, Mrs. Grovesworth, that lady she said something about a falling star?"

Leneus looked surprised for a moment after he had stopped walking and Arthur overshot him by a step.

"Oh...that," said Leneus with a chuckle. "She was talking about you, her ladyship Allura, she's the one that first referred to you by that name."

Leneus grabbed Arthur's right arm and opened his palm, there in his palm was the seared runemark of the cloud with a tail.

"This runemark, whoever this runemark appears on is the falling star, it's what her ladyship said," said Leneus. "So master Halo, when she was talking about the falling star, she was referring to you."

Arthur nodded his understanding. "I thought she was talking about an actual falling star."

"Hardly," said Leneus. "Only powerful mages have the power to call forth falling stars, none in this town except maybe her ladyship."

Arthur looked skyward again, his danger senses were totally askew from what he could feel, his danger senses had after all been trained on earth and this world easily defied common sense on several different levels and several other senses as well but what could not be done when laws of physics itself could be defied with sufficient power.

"Come on now master Halo," said Leneus pulling ahead whilst Arthur was half expecting a meteor to come flying in.

Arthur looked around the homely town again and nodded in satisfaction then he approached Leneus and walked with him. Soon the buildings faded into greenery and trees and to the side he saw a waterfall, much more powerful and much bigger than the one he had previously jumped down. He looked at the river that connected to the waterfall and thought back upon the route that they took.

"This waterfall, does it by any chance connect to that river I fell into yesterday?" asked Arthur.

"Very astute master Halo," said Leneus. "Indeed it does, this river runs around cuts across the Larcallis Union and rounds around Clovent Kingdom and flows across the Sky-Blue Plateau to a waterfall, it's the longest river I've ever seen."

"So then that waterfall previously..." said Arthur faintly. "That was this as well?"

"Yes, of course," said Leneus. "This river makes five waterfalls in various locations but this here is the largest and strongest, there's no hope of survival if you fell down here, you would be crushed before you reach the bottom."

Arthur reached the edge of the plateau and looked over the brick and concrete fence set around, he suspected, to stop people from falling and he gulped, he could not see the bottom. The concrete and brick fence made an arch atop the waterfall at a height from the crashing water, it looked like an opened gate and Arthur could not imagine how it would be possible to build something like this but there was always magic.

"Heaven Falls, best hope you don't jump down this one master Halo," said Leneus smiling faintly.

"Yeah...hope," concurred Arthur absentmindedly as he heard the loud sounds of falling, cascading water.

As he was trying to gauge the depth he felt a hand on his shoulders and he jumped.

"Come on now master Halo," said Leneus. "Climb up onto the wall."

"Wh-what?" croaked Arthur hardly believing his own ears.

"Onto the wall, master Halo," repeated Leneus. "We need to cross this river."

"Wher-where's the bridge?" he asked as he looked over once again and felt a cold sweat on his forehead.

"There's one a little further up the way we came from but I assumed you wanted to see this," said Leneus. "Do you want to walk back to cross the bridge?"

Arthur looked back the way the came, further down the river, it ran parallel to the path from the town but their gap slowly widened. He looked at the raging river and then the cascading water and then imagined himself falling for a second and his stomach roiled but he clenched his fist.

"No...no let's cross here," decided Arthur nodding strongly.

"That's the way master Halo," said Leneus. "Conquer your fears."

"Not fears Leneus, myself, I want my body to obey me," said Arthur strongly. "I don't want it to obey my fears."

"An important step then I believe," said Leneus and he helped Arthur get up onto the wall.

It was quite a tight walk but something a human with decent hand-eye coordination could make.

"No need to worry master Halo," said Leneus from behind. "I'm here, you will not fall and even children make this walk on days, it's quite a view from atop the arch."

Arthur climbed the circular arch letting out a hollow chuckle. "I bet."

He heard slow footsteps behind him and he himself with slow footsteps moved forward and stood atop the arch and then, then he made the terrible mistake of looking down.

"Oh dear lord," said Arthur faintly and his legs felt weak, he would sooner die of a heart attack than the fall.

"Look forward master Halo," said Leneus gently grabbing Arthur's shoulder. "It's good that you wanted to see the view from the top, but first time viewing generally have this effect on people."

Arthur nodded and stared straight forward in accordance with Leneus' words and then thought back to two times prior he had fallen into water on two seperate days, would it be hat-trick, would he fall into water for a third day consecutively, would this be his end? He gulped and wiped the sweat coming down from his forehead and despite the cool temperature, he felt extremely hot. He gently stepped over the arch, his stomach threatening chuck everything he had placed in there upwards and outwards. He clenched his teeth and swallowed the rising bile and with another step he was over the arch but not yet out of danger.

"Quite the view then, wouldn't you agree master Halo," said Leneus from behind and it was all Arthur could do to nod.

They landed safely back on the ground and Arthur had half a mind to lose all his dignity and kiss mother earth whilst prostrating himself but he withheld and took in a deep breath.

"Where are this so called dungeons, Leneus?" asked Arthur and Leneus smilingly led the way.

He was led up to a large, dense shrubbery, thorns on one side, growing fruit on another, all very green, it was a beautiful sight, only sight though. The shrubbery was a like a wall, exceptionally tall and very wide, not to be precise it was like a fence, a very tall fence. Touching it would likely kill the person, surmised Arthur. He swore he could identify poison ivy in there, whether it existed in this world or not was another matter. Leneus paying no heed to Arthur's thoughts gently brushed a part of the shrubbery aside to lead a pair of steps and they both stepped into the shrubbery for the world outside to all but seemingly disappear. There were wide steps adorned with graying limestone, sidled on either side by trees in a beautiful formation and it led up to a tower, a gigantic tower, quite old from the looks of it and it seemed to extend into the sky.

"Welcome master Halo," said Leneus bowing a little, "to Blue Lands Dungeon."