"Connery?"
A pair of small claws were scratching at his face. "Connery, wake up."
Connery moved his tongue inside of his mouth and tasted nothing but salt. Then he noticed that his clothes were all damp. The small Knight groaned and opened his eyes. The sun was shining directly overhead, and Alleia's and Itise's forms were bending over him. "Uhhggg. Where the hell are we?"
Itise helped him to his feet while Alleia explained. "If I remember my geography, I think we are on the Island of the Lion's Head."
"How do you know for sure?" asked Connery. He suddenly had a strong urge for a cup of fresh water. The salt in his mouth was beginning to produce too much phlegm.
"Oh, I dunno," replied the young Dragon. "Maybe because of that giant stone lion over there." Connery turned his gaze and followed her pointing paw. Towering above the rest of them was a small mountain in the shape of a lion's head.
With a few more grunts of pain, Connery moved away from Itise and looked around. He smiled when he saw his Spear lying twenty feet away. As he hobbled over to the Dragon weapon, the thief deactivated the magic of his Crest. Something popped once in his back when he picked up the Spear and popped a second time when he straightened again. "Geez! I'm gonna feel that one for a while."
"So now what?" asked Itise. "I mean, we have no way of getting off of the island. What are we supposed to do?"
Using the Dragon Spear for support, Connery made his way back over to his two companions. "First we wait until I get all the feeling back in my body. Then we make our way over to that." He pointed to the Lion's Head with his left hand.
"Are you sure about this, Connery?" asked Alleia. "What if there is a monster in there?"
"I can handle it," assured the thief. Itise stifled a laugh, and Connery looked at him. "Do you find something funny?"
"Look at yourself," said Itise. "You couldn't beat an insect right now."
"Ha ha," snapped Connery. "Very funny. Now lets just get moving." With that said, the little thief limped off in the direction of the Lion's Head. Itise and Alleia looked at each other and ran after Connery.
Nothing. Scorn seethed with fury as he looked at the empty chamber. The scrolls had said that information of the Stones would be found in the Lion's Head, but there was nothing here. Power raced through his body in preparation to destroy the Lion's Head completely. The monster's human guise slowly began to disappear as deathly, gray scales appeared where skin used to be. Scorn suddenly halted his transformation when he heard voices coming his way. The Demon Dragon reversed his transformation and soon a tiny fly was hovering in the air.
Moments later the infernal White Dragon Knight and his friends entered the room.
"I told you this place would be empty," said Connery as the three of them entered the small stone walled room. There were no windows and no sign of furniture. The room was empty except for more of the strange writing on the wall.
"Maybe," answered Alleia. "But I'm still getting a funny feeling from this entire place. Almost like its hiding some sort of secret."
Leaning heavily on his Spear, Connery walked over to one of the walls to examine some of the glyphs. From the first floor to this room on the fourth level, the entire Lion's Head was filled with strange glyphs on all the walls. Some were pictures, but most were just some strange language. The thief just stood in front of the wall for several minutes staring at the writing on it.
"Connery?" asked Alleia. "Are you okay?"
Connery waved his hand slightly in response. He lifted his hand and began tracing the dashes and lines that made up the writing on the wall. Two lines down connecting to a circle. Next came a dash followed by wavy lines. The thief continued to trace the glyphs. He suddenly stopped and turned around to his friends. "I understand!" he cried.
"Understand what?" asked Itise.
Forgetting about his injuries, Connery started to run around the room looking at the walls. "The glyphs aren't a language, they're a map!" The thief returned to the walls and started to trace the glyphs faster than before. "They're a map to the room, and..." Connery found himself standing almost where he started. His finger stopped on a single dot. The glyph suddenly sank back into the wall. There was a slow grinding noise as a small section of the wall near Connery pulled out like a stone drawer.
Connery reached inside and pulled out a stone tablet. Alleia landed on his shoulder and looked down at the the piece of stone. "How did you just do that, Connery?"
"It wasn't that hard," he said simply. "I just looked at it from a different perspective. I stopped trying to understand the glyphs and just looked at them with a clear mind."
Alleia shook her head. "Sometimes you amaze me, Connery."
"The best things come in small packages," replied the thief with a smile.
"What does the tablet say?" asked Itise.
Connery gave it a quick skim. "It appears to be written in a fairly old style of the common tongue. I think it says something about some sort of Stones." He studied it for another couple of minutes. "It says:
Woe to those who seek the Stones of Resurrection. Created by Althena
to trap Chaos, the Stones are the seals that must never be broken.
Six Stones for the colors of the rainbow, one for the color of all,
and one for the color of not. Eight in all unlock the power of Chaos.
By order of Althena herself, if the Stones are ever found again,
they are to be destroyed so that the power Chaos may never be released.'"
Connery stopped for a moment and stared at the tablet. "That last part was added on, and there seems to be some parts missing. It's almost like they were erased from the tablet."
"Probably said where to find some of these Stones," said Itise.
"I think you're right, Itise," answered Connery. "We'd better keep this thing with us until we can get back to Vane." The thief handed the tablet to Itise, who placed it inside the remains of the pack on his back. As they filed out of the room, Connery kicked the stone drawer shut with this left foot. The drawer slid back into the wall with a loud crash. Suddenly, a green circle above the area of the drawer burst into light. When Connery opened up his eyes there was no longer a flat circle on the wall, but there was fist sized, green sphere floating in the air. The thief quickly snatched the Green Stone from the air. "Oh crap!"
"What!?" cried both Alleia and Itise as they ran back into the room. They fell silent when they saw what was in Connery's hands. "Ah hell," muttered Itise.
Connery shoved the Stone into his pouch and grabbed his Spear. "We'd better get out of here and figure out how to get off of this island." The other two silently nodded and followed Connery out. As he left a fly began buzzing around his face. With a flick of his wrist, Connery batted the fly away.
In too much pain to change form, Scorn just lay on the floor of the tablet room. "There are Eight, not three!" he said out loud before blacking out.
"That should do it," said Connery as he gave the rope one last tug. "How's your end Itise?"
Standing behind the small raft the two of them had made from the washed up remains of their ship, Itise was tying the last of the planks together. "I'm done here. I think we're ready to go. Where's Alleia?"
Connery gave the make shift mast one last look over. "I sent her to gather what food she could find. She should be back soon."
Just then the White Dragon came flapping in from the inner shore. There was a canvas sack in her paws. "This is the best I could do," she said breathlessly. "Just give me a minute." She released a long sigh, set herself down in the sand, and fell asleep.
Connery chuckled as he looked into the bag. The sack was filled with an assortment of different fruits. He tossed the sack onto the raft and carefully picked up Alleia. "Ya know, I sometimes forget how young she is. She matures so quickly it fools you." He placed the young White Dragon next to the sack of fruit and grabbed his Spear. "Let's get a move on. That fruit ought to last us enough."
"Enough till what?" asked Itise as he and the small thief pushed the raft into the water.
The raft coasted into the sea and the two of them leaped onto the small craft. "Till we reach Zaback. It shouldn't be too much longer if we get a good wind."
Itise wiped his forehead and crossed his legs. He looked up into the clear blue sky as he spoke. "I dunno where you're coming from because all I see is the sun, no clouds, and no wind."
Connery gave his young friend a large smile. "Watch and learn, young grasshopper." The thief shuffled over and sat behind the small mast and sail. Resting the butt of his Spear a little behind his body, Connery began to focus his energies. "Torrential Winds!" shouted the thief. Strong winds flew from the tip of the White Dragon's Spear and into the sail. The small raft took off with the speed of a dragon in the direction of Zaback with joyous laughter in its wake.
"Put out those fires!" shouted Ruby. Everywhere she looked Vane was in flames. Calling on her power over fire, the Red Dragon of Althena was able to take one of the bigger conflagrations and shrink the flames. The mages were quick to put out the remains of that fire, and then quickly turned to fight another one. Earlier that morning, Hades Army forces had appeared out of nowhere and attacked. The Chaos Dragon had appeared and Ruby had taken to the air to battle him. Carla had stayed on the ground to lead the other mages and soldiers. "Will somebody find Carla! I need to see her now!" she shouted again.
"The Premier hasn't been seen since the attack started," answered a Vane soldier from nearby.
"WHAT!" cried Ruby as she spun around. She winced as pain shot through her right shoulder where Arlax had scored a hit. "What do you mean!?"
The battered soldier started playing with a dent in his armor as the Red Dragon stared him down. "Well... umm. She disappeared at the start of the battle, and none of us have seen her since."
Ruby closed her eyes and stretched out her senses. The runt wasn't anywhere in the floating city. Ruby opened her eyes slowly. She took several steps to her right and looked down. There on the ground was the Star Dragon's Crest. "Carla..."
Pain. There was a throbbing pain in her temples. She opened her eyes to find herself in a darkened chamber. She was lying on the cold, stone floor. All her joints cracked as she slowly got to her feet. She began brushing the dust from the dark purple dress she was wearing. She stopped a moment and stared at the dress. It was of fine cut and made of velvet! Her cuffs and hem were trimmed in a light blue with a silver threading. Where could she have ever found such a nice piece of clothing? Then another thought hit her. "Who am I?" she whispered out loud.
"You are the Sorceress of Chaos, Carla," said a voice from behind her.
"Ca... Carla." It sounded familiar. Carla turned and looked at the owner of the voice behind her. A tall man was standing not five feet from her. Long, purple hair fell over his shoulders, and he stared at her with deep black, almond shaped eyes. He was clothed in a mixture of black, blue, and purple leathers. "Who are you?"
The man smiled thinly. "I am Arlax, my lady. We are allies and minions of our great Master."
"What? Who?"
He raised a finger to his mouth. "Ssshhh. Can you not feel his power within you?" He raised a hand, and suddenly Carla was aware of a power flowing throughout her person.
She opened her right palm and a ball of purple, black, and blue energy appeared there. With a thought she banished the energy. "Why am I here? Why can't I remember anything?"
Arlax put his arm around her, and they started to walk. "Our Master has been imprisoned by the Goddess Althena. We were trying to free him, when her forces tried to stop us. You were dealing out punishment to all of her puny mortals, when one of them struck you down with the power of the Goddess. He was a man known as the Dragonmaster. The forces of Althena had captured you for a time, but you were eventually able to free yourself and escape. I and my brothers found you nearly dead. Let me help you remember." He placed a finger on her forehead. There was a sudden jolt of pain, and then her memories returned in one large rush.
The Chaos Sorceress slowly pushed Arlax's finger from her head and smiled. "Thank you, dear Arlax. I remember clearly now." She took several steps back. There was a dark flash, and her old clothing disappeared. It was replaced by a long, sinewy, black dress. The dress clung to her body, and the hem fell across her feet. The threading was plainly purple, and a blue stole was wrapped around her neck and shoulders. She gave the Chaos Dragon another smile. "Now where can I find this Dragonmaster?"