Enchantyon, Enter The Arcane: The Jörd In The Ice

Chapter Two: The Dark Place

Trouble would not take too long to find them after all as they found out. The very next morning, one of their wagon's back wheels got itself wedged in some rocks when they were passing over a small stream of hot spring water that cut through a section of the grassy, tundra hills they were in.

"Forget it." Said Jorry, letting go of the wagon's wheel. "She's not going anywhere."

"Well, we can't just give up." Bandle patted one of the bison pulling the wagon, urging her and the other bison beside her to keep pulling. "Come on, girls. Don't give up on me now. Just one more try...heave!"

"Give it a rest, Bandle." Said Misfit. "It's time to try out some magic."

"I don't think that's a good idea. Kroff was telling me that these two really hate magic."

"They hate magic? They're just a couple of bison, Bandle. What they hate, is being kept away from fresh grass at any length of time."

"Don't take it from me, Kroff is the one who told me. Said they get skittish whenever they see someone using the stuff." In the Age they lived in, Bandle was one of the few without any kind of magical ability to his name, so it would normally be odd for a couple of village bison to be completely unfamiliar and skittish towards magic. However, these pair were wild ones before the village got a hold of them, so they wouldn't have grown up with it like the other village bison, which was just Bandle's luck.

"Sorry, Bandle, but we're going have to try anyways." Said Jorry. "Don't want you getting into more trouble with your dad for being late to this meeting."

"...Alright, fine. Just let me undo the bison from the wagon first. I'll hold onto them after that so you two can do your thing."

Once the bison were untied, Bandle led them a few ways away from the wagon and watched as Jorry and Misfit literately worked their magic. Bandle always loved watching people using their magic—casting incantations and showing off their spell-work. Neither Jorry or Misfit were that bad at either; the two of them went to the magic school in the Jördlands to learn it. He watched as shimmering, blue smoke gathered around the wagon's wheels as it lifted up in the air.

"There we go," said Jorry. "That's more like it."

This was when the bison started to make a fuss; they began trying the yank their reigns out of Bandle's hands as they groaned and whined. Bandle told the others to hurry up with the magic, but even after the wagon was put back on the ground, the bison are still in a panic.

"Oh, brother." Said Misfit, as he tried to help Bandle calm the beast down by stroking its fur. "All of this noise just for some magic? We didn't even do anything loud or showy."

"No..." said Bandle. "You're right, Misfit, the magic shouldn't have bothered them this much..."

"That's what I'm saying. I mean I know you said your brother told you they were skittish, but this is...a bit much."

"You know what...I'm starting to think this isn't the magic at all that's spooked them...this is something else."

"Something else? Like what—"

"RAAAWG!"

Out of nowhere, a gang of three goblins appeared above them out of thin air screeching and roaring their heads off, and landed right on top of them. Bandle got tackled to the ground by the largest of them and a mad scuffle began the two began as they traded blows, fighting to put each other down as quickly as possible. Then other goblins began appearing. Goblins were not known for terrifying shows of magical force, but the ones that had descended upon them seemed to have no problem going toe-to-toe with both Jorry and Misfit. The glimpses that Bandle did catch of them showed him that they were in for a fight, and he wasn't liking how their odds were looking.