The Quest for the Gem

[DoS Archive]

Date: 1/16/1998 9:29 AM Eastern Standard Time
From: Tawny Drgn


The dungeons of Sankur were dank and damp, and Emer had been held here past remembering. Her only wrong had been shifting to her dragon form in the maketplace in Tavernal. Timing, it seems, was everything. "And timing has never been my long suite" Emer muttered to the cold stone walls. The Mage of the king of this strange land had spent months trying to discover how she transformed from a small golden haired women into her dragon form. She had
been forced to drink foul liquids and they had taken pieces of her hair, and her skin. They had stripped her bare, and taken a whip and lashed her until she lost conscieness. Today,though, would end this farce and release Emer from her prison. Today, she was to die.
Emer sat in the straw, the holey blanket barely covering her shivering naked body. She had tried to change, late at night after the guards had past her heavy steel door. IT seemed that something had turned in her, and the dragon form eluded her. She looked up from her ruminations and spied the small grey mouse that had been her only companion through her pain and humilation. It scampered over to her and burrowed through the straw, it's head
emerging from a tear in the blanket. She put out her hand, and the small creature climbed on to it. She held it up at eye level and stroked it's head with one finger. The mouse cocked it's head, it's small squeeky voice chittering at her. "I know, my friend, this is my last day." A tear welled up in her eye, threatening to shatter her calm.
The mouse hopped to the floor and ran towards the small chink in the cell. It paused half way there, turnin to chitter wildly at her. Emer smiled, " I can not fit in your hole, Greymantle." Emer stopped, "atleast I do not think I can."
Emer shut her eyes tightly and forced her mind to the place where the shifting took place. 'Think small this time, very, very small.' With her eyes shut tight, Emer could not see the slow change takin place. She seemed to shimmer and her form grow indistinct. And then something snapped in her mind. She opened her eyes in a dark space, a small opening of light danced before her eyes. She scampered towards the light her small grey furried feet
carryin into the room. Greymantle hurried over to her. This time as he chittered she could almost understand what the mouse said. He turned and ran to the chink, pauseing at the opening to wait for Emer to follow.
She followed him through my small winding passages, finally arrivng in a warm larger cave in the stone wall. A light and muffled voices came from another chink between the stones. The two mice poked their heads into the room.
One man stood near them, holding up in his hand a gem hanging from a light golden chain. "How does it work, Tegid?" the stranger asked. The King's Mage chuckled. "I took it from another dragon when I killed it. It's a useless bauble, take it if it suits you. It has no special properties." The Mage shruged. "would you like to see the Dragon woman? I am having that abomination destroyed today." The other man nodded, and set the gem on the table
near the fireplace. Neither man noticed the chian falling over the edge of the table, the gem following to land on the soft carpet.
Emer scampered out of the hole to the gem. Great sadness gripped her heart as she realized that Blaise had been killed by this evil mage. Murdered because he was, like her unique and different. She turned to chitter a goodbye to Greymantle, and then lay her small body on the gem. Emer could feel the power rising, calling to her, twistin her in the way that she had thought she'd lost.
By the time her escape had been noted and the alarm raised, Tawny Dragon had lept from the Mage's balcony, her strong unused wings beating harder with each stroke.
Taking her away from this land of evil, leading her home to RhyDin.
~tbc~