To the Unknown

I’ve been debating your future. Or more specifically, when my past affects your future.

I think you know enough of my memories to get at least some idea of who I was. Am. I am not what I was, but my thoughts are still my own. Mostly. I’m sure most of my memories are somewhere in the ether, void, or wherever they may be stored when I’m not in my natural form. Or whatever form I took when my story in Drak Bar’s Boulders ended.

I know I didn’t have legs, arms, or even a head. Just me floating around, interacting with just a few people, but only those that knew how to reach out to me. You wouldn’t have seen me, felt me, or known I existed.

You may have felt a strange sensation, a sudden chill, or a brief gust of wind. But, you’d likely think that was just a feeling, a ghost, or weird weather. One of those may be close, depending on your definitions.

This memory isn’t fully intact, there are definitely gaps, but I’ll just write down what I know. I may remember some details as I write, but they could also be fantoms.

I had been spending more and more time around my castle. My leather bag was more of a leather parchment by this time, but it still provided a place to be from time to time. I was growing weary of fighting. Not that it was difficult, possibly more the opposite.

The weariness was more about the end result, which really wasn’t changing. Evil and the dead still ran throughout the Boulders, seemingly to no end. Most of the gods were on my side, wanting to clean up the planet.

I’ll mix those two pretty much at random, planet and Drak Bar Boulders. In my younger memories, I thought there was more to the world than the Boulders, but I was wrong. The map I told you about is based on those younger memories. I left out the size of the area on purpose. Mainly because I don’t remember how big of an area it was. I don’t think it was the size of Earth, but it may have been. Maybe Mars. Certainly larger than the moon, but I could be mistaken.

I do know it took some time to traverse the land in search of whatever my bag said I needed. We didn’t have airplanes, but we did have ways to travel a slight bit slower than airplanes. Maybe car speeds. Of course, that was me. Most of my army relied on animals and feet. And most of those feet had bad shoes, just like me when I was younger. I can’t really say I ever found a pair of shoes or boots that I would have been happy to have, but they were definitely better than a piece of wood with leather straps. At least a little.

It was one of these journeys to the edge of the land that wound up being my last. I was sitting comfortably in my castle when my parchment started yelling. Whispering may be more accurate, but the rest of my sentient equipment was bored, and echoed loudly to me it was time to go somewhere. Anywhere.

Some may have thought my age slowed me down, but it was more my mind. My body worked fine, thanks to magic healing. I didn’t have hair of a single color, but that wasn’t really new. When you see things, hair color goes away. I guess.

To say this journey was a single destination would be a bit misleading. It started over the ocean and crisscrossed the land a few times. This is where my memory fades. I know there were many stops and many battles, but they blurred together quite a bit. It seemed the parchment was just leading us in circles.

That’s what we thought. There was definitely a pattern. Or at least a sequence. Alarm clock would be more accurate.

I think you already know Drak Bar woke up, what you don’t know is why and his state of mind.

The latter is very similar to a toddler being woken up. I was going to say early, but I’ve yet to see a toddler wake up happy. Much like teenagers, most adults, and seniors. I just think humans don’t like waking up, but certainly are happy they are awake. Happy asleep, happy awake. Not happy between those states.

Dragons are no different. It just takes them longer to wake up, in your reference frame.

I wouldn’t say he was intolerable, but unhappy isn’t really the right word either.

The final place I went was supposedly the cave my mother visited to ask Drak Bar for a child. Full circle. Even though I’d been there before, this time was much different.

The cave was completely empty. There was the requisite dirt and rocks, but nothing living. Or nothing small and living.

We followed the paths to the rear chambers, but the paths were different. The chambers were different. As we went deeper, crystals began to show in the ceiling. We were able to turn off our mage’s torches.

If you were curious, we didn’t have flashlights like you have on Earth. Not even torches or lanterns, really. What we had came from magic and resembled a floating ball of light. I may have described these somewhere else on this site. They were definitely useful, but someone had to think about them all the time or they’d disappear.

And when you see a bunch of crystals that look like they’re on fire, concentration wanes just a little. The fires were all sorts of colors. Green, red, yellow, blue, white, any color you can think of. Even black. You may be wondering what black fire looks like, but it’s just that. You wouldn’t really see it in the dark, but when the other colors are glowing, it’s easy to see. And the flame edges are bright silver or white or blue or green or, you get the idea.

When we reached what seemed like the last chamber, the crystals were flowing onto the walls as well. The shadows were dazzling. But the dirt was even more interesting.

Or it looked more interesting. You’d expect just brown, crumbly stuff. All those dancing colors will change that. And the dirt was very soft. It was almost like walking on a thin layer of memory foam, if I bring some Earthly substance into my memory.

It was also as disconcerting as you might think. Why would dirt feel like that. Wet dirt maybe. Or just dirt filled with magic.

Take your guess. And we’ll see if you’re right next time. It’s a bit late and my eyes are droopy. I guess it’s time to be grumpy. Maybe.

Still Not

To be honest, both of these endings are being written before you see them instead of directly on the website. I may or may not upload them at the same time, but that’s something for the future to tell.

Why is a question you may ask. It’s a question you should be very familiar with, really. There’s a saying about asking the five why’s. That isn’t a very good saying, really. It’s a start, but you should ask why until you find the source you need. The final answer. Many times, that takes more than five. Sometimes many more. It just depends on the complexity of the system you’re dealing with. And, yes, I consider most social settings to be systems, just as human bodies are. I think you’ll learn more about that sometime when Aushlin feels like telling you a little more about your history. Ask why he’d tell you. Then again. And again…keep going.

As for that spongy floor. That wasn’t dirt. I really wish it was. I hope that’s enough for you to know that it wasn’t a vegetation of any sort. Processed vegetation maybe. I’ll just say we found all the animals that should have been in the rest of the cave. And they’d been there a while.

Thankfully, when you fight many undead and other creatures that cause nasal fatigue, your sense of smell is greatly buffered against that smell. But, your eyes don’t seem to get the same benefit.

If you think that’s unpleasant, just remember my boots were sentient.

I didn’t have much trouble moving to find actual ground to stand on. But that was a small area in the back of the chamber. Feel a bit of sympathy for the ones in my army that had to make do in that muck. And for my boots. I doubt they ever recovered.

Come to think of it. I wonder whatever happened to all my sentient equipment. Someday, I may get that answer.

Your first why should be pretty easy to answer. I’m sure you’ve already figured out I’m not on the same planet as you are. At least I don’t think I am. It is very plausible my wanderings in space were really just in this system as it’s traveled over time. Wouldn’t that be interesting. To you. Disappointing to me. Was I traveling on what you call Pangea.

Unlike the other times we’d been in this cave system, there was a new opening after this chamber. It was definitely smaller than the tunnels that led us here. I could still walk upright for the most part, but I do remember some grumbling from my helmet as it scraped some of those crystals. For the record, those crystals were very securely mounted. My helmet was also very strong and didn’t damage, but it still didn’t care for the interaction. For that memory to still be here, I must have heard quite a bit about it during that excursion.

I’d love to tell you the tunnel was a long, grueling adventure, but I’d be stretching it a bit. I remember it being some time, but not really grueling. It did lead to another chamber, then another tunnel. The ground become more dirt-like as we went along. And it angled up more and more as well. It felt like we were running in circles.

Okay. We were walking in circles. But more of a helix than an actual circle. Where we wound up is something I don’t have the ability to put into words. I would say there are few that can.

You’ll remember Drak Bars Boulders was surrounded by cliffs at each edge. No one had ever climbed to the top, and even those with flight couldn’t get to the top. At the highest level I could fly, the top still looked as far away as it did from the ground. And even with my eagle eyes I had trouble making out what features on the ground were people.

I think you already know where we wound up. On top of the cliffs. And they were taller than any of us could have imagined. Or you. We were well above the clouds. Very few ventured very close to the edge to look down, but the view out was something to behold. Puffy clouds here and there, splatches of color for trees and dirt, and the vast ocean to one side. I would say I could see all of the region, but I know that wasn’t true. I couldn’t see the cliffs straight across.

The air was very clear. And easy to breathe. At least I don’t remember anyone passing out from lack of air. There were definitely some weak knees and wide eyes, but most were able to move about easy enough.

What wasn’t easy was finding out why we were there. My scrap of leather had disintegrated during that last journey. Which, in hindsight, is probably very telling. My journey started with that leather satchel. And my journey on that world ended with its demise.

I could have said my journey ended, and if I was writing this as a novel, I may have said just that. But, here I am.

Without a map to guide me, I decided to walk away from the cliff’s edge. There was vegetation up here, but it was short and tough. There wasn’t a path really, but the plants only allowed passage in certain areas. More due to how they grew than anything making a coherent path. Keep that in mind.

After what would have been a few miles on Earth, we came to a cleared circle. There was still vegetation, but it was more like a grass than a shrub. And circle is the correct descriptor. What I hadn’t noticed was the thinning numbers in my army. I was of the thought they simply turned back as our journey progressed. Or set up camps along the way.

You see this on Earth with how cities are formed. There were those that saw the mountains and decided they’d much prefer to settle without entering them. You could say these cities at the base of the mountains were settled by cowards. I’m not saying that’s correct, but why not keep going when you set out to go farther than you did. I’m sure there are those that saw the monetary benefit, but you can still call them what you wish. Towards cowards.

By the time we entered the clearing, the we part was an exaggeration. The reality was it was myself and my children.

And then the gods showed up. Not just a couple. Not just the ones that liked me. All of them. The large clearing was suddenly quite small.

I did start to wonder about my army. What really happened to my loyal followers.

That’s a question that remains with me to this day. Maybe that’s why I make sure the best teams I create on Earth are kept together as much as I can.

As for what happens, you’ll read that later. Unless I decide to put them all out at once. In that case, just keep reading below. But for me, it’s cranky time.