10 The Scholar's Window

A large silver-grey reptilian creature with large triangular spikes along its spine lay curled around a part of a giant stone cave. The creature was a dragon and dragons were proud, sleek, and majestic creatures full of wisdom. Except this one was apparently pouting and whining at his human companion.

"Renner! When are we going to get out of here and do something not boring?" The dragon whined at his erstwhile companion. His companion was at the far end of the cave sitting at a desk of most curious design, the wall in front of him was lit by white light that was only slightly dim. It gave off a comfortable glow that would remind one of the inside of a home lit by fire on a cold wintry night. The desk he sat at was not made with any wood familiar to man. It was shaped like a regular desk except for the ends which flare upwards with a curl as if an artist was exaggerating a last minute embellish on a painting, it was also blue-purple in color, violet but not quite. On one side of the desk was a stack of parchment and a few scattered books, the other side was relatively clean except for a few scattered quills and ink pens.

The man paused before giving a sidelong glance at the Dragon over in the corner. "Do not be so hasty Smoke, you know this is the punishment upon which we both agreed with after helping the child out. At least we are only stuck here for a couple of months instead of a couple of years. Ancient laws are ancient laws and the game must be played by the rules."

"The game is dragon shit, if the enemy does not play by the rules, then why should we?" Smoke huffed, a little bit of flame coming out of his snout as he did so.

"While I agree with you, if everyone was to decide not to play by the rules, it could very well mean the unraveling of the universe, besides..." Renner turned his head and looked at smoke with a sidelong grin. "Cheaters never win."

"Cheaters never win...loads of dragon shit there." Smoke swung his tail against the wall in irritation, while normally a regular cave would have exploded with that amount of force, strangely nothing happened. "I can not even destroy this wall, I am a powerful dragon! Useless!"

"Well to be fair, this is a prison created with the rules of the universe at play, I really do not think any one, but he could break this prison, albeit only when he has gained all of his powers." Renner replied his brow furrowed as he continued to madly scribble on a piece of parchment. He blew lightly on the parchment when he reached the end until he was sure the ink had dried before placing it on the stack of papers on the right side of the desk.

"That child?" Smoke said, "that is the greatest joke I have ever heard! They told him nothing! Not of his destiny, his path, who he is...NOTHING!" Smoke roared at the ceiling releasing a gout of flame which briefly scorched a spot on the ceiling before the marks disappeared just as quick.

"Calm yourself, there is nothing we can do right now. All we can do is watch the progress of the child and try to interact with the world around him. The letter we delivered to him may very well be the trigger that sets him on his path. In the meantime we can always check on the world from outside this bubble." Renner calmly stated. The manner in which he talked to the dragon bespoke of the many times he has dealt with his little outbursts of anger.

"Wait, what do you mean check on the world? Are we not trapped in this Godforsaken place?" Smoke was genuinely curious, although he had great knowledge of magic, he did not know everything. His scaly eye ridges narrowed as he stared at the Scholar in interest.

"Watch." That was all Renner said as he stood up from the desk he sat at for the past week. He walked to the center of the room before making complex hand gestures in the air, there was no chanting or any sort of weird sentence. He had mastered the basics of magic long ago and no longer needed cantrips when he cast any magic. In the air a bubble started to shimmer, tiny bright stars were emitting from it, disappear in the air shortly after. It expanded in size until it hung there in the air, a huge transparent silver bubble that took up a good quarter of the center of the cave.

"Renner, what is this?" Smoke tried to touch it with the tip of one of his claws, but it just went right through.

"This? This my friend is a window to the outside world, except we can only look, we can not touch." Renner smiled.

"You have done something incredible again! Every time we are in a bind you seem to be able to come up with incredible magic!" Smoke was enthused, with this he would no longer be bored, but Renner did not have to know that.

"Let us see what is going on inside his village at the moment, we need not check up on the boy. I am sure he is doing just fine."

xxxx

Alistair was not doing fine! His sword clashed with a handful of claws, a metallic sound like that of someone banging two very large metal tuners rang out and sparks flew in the air. Alistair was currently in a fight for his life against a large wolf-like creature, except it had fur of red and orange hues. It was also a lot uglier in his opinion. Nearby were the slain corpses of half a dozen regular wolves with light silver fur.

"Get off me!" Alistair shouted as he used his newfound strength to shove the creature away, it landed on all four paws before leaping backwards to create distance between it and him. The wolf-like creature growled at him with a snarl, it's eyes the color of sunset and looking at him with a fierce hunger and determination. With a strange sort of guttural howl it leaped at a nearby tree that bore many deep claw marks, strangely enough the tree bled a silver liquid instead of a normal green. The creature used the tree as a springboard, causing the tree to creak and groan while handling the force behind the orange wolf's leap. Alistair masterfully dodged it with a pirouette and swung his sword at the same time getting it right in the underbelly. The force of the creature's leap along with the force of the sword being swung and the blade's sharpness caused the sword to sink in and move along the underbelly eventually coming back out with the passing of the creature. It whimpered while in mid-air as it's blood sprayed everywhere, it's organs spilling out and splattering across the forest floor. It was dead before it even hit the ground in a cloud of dust and leaves.

Alistair leaned on his sword for support, he was tired out after spending the better half of two hours battling these wolves and that one strange looking wolf and three hours being stalked by them. He looked up at the trees and saw scant bits of moonlight shining through.

"It will be dawn outside the Wilderwood soon, I better find shelter," he remarked after wiping his blade clean on a relatively intact wolf corpse and then sheathing it. He had only been in the Wilderwood for three weeks, and after his encounter at the cave he noticed that more creatures were willing to attack him the farther he got. At one instance he was attacked by larger versions of the stone bunny he had seen when he first started his journey, those were the hardest thing to kill. They had a weak spot on their backs, but you had to get them to shift enough to expose it. Then he was attacked by some weird monkeys with horns and spiked tails, he had never seen them before, but they were relatively easy to put down.

After another hour of searching, Alistair decided to camp out in a relatively sheltered area that he found.

"It is not much, but it will do for tonight," he said while setting up camp. As the last rays of light disappeared, throwing the Wilderwood into darkness, he fell asleep dreaming of happier and simpler times at home.