Dragon's Heart

Chapter 5

By the time Matthew, Sally, and the Prince had re-entered the main chamber, it was too late. The ruby had been stolen right from the glass display case. "Oh no....this is very bad...." Matthew muttered. "I always feared that this day would come." lamented Tobias. "Ravenswood has struck again. Look at the rune lock; it is now powerless." "How do we know it was him, though? That ruby could have been taken by anyone." Sally countered. "No....this is too obvious. That lock was being fueled by magic, and Ravenswood and his minions are they only people I know who possess the power to strip other people or items of their magical capabilities. The Star of the Shadows.....it must still be in his grasp. It's what he used against my father to gain the upper hand when he attacked the castle many moons before." Tobias mused. "Wait," Matthew said. "Your grandfather used magic to drain the dragon of its life a long time ago. Your father, presumably, had magic abilities too, but they were stripped of him by the Star before he was slain. Does that mean you know magic, too, like they did?" "Yes," Tobias responded. "To be honest, I was initially planning on revealing it to you two later on, as a bit of a surprise. But I am afraid that now, the situation has become much more dire." 

"So what now?" Sally asked. "We HAVE to get that gem back. The kingdom depends on it." Tobias replied. "Sure! Come on, sis, it will be an adventure! Besides, I was hoping we would find something to do while waiting for the mages to finish constructing that portal. Seems like it ended up being a lot more high-stakes than originally thought." Matthew added. "But how? We don't even know where they went, or where to even start looking!" Sally protested. "Actually, yes, we do." Tobias went to a nearby shelf, pulled out a scroll, and laid it out on a table, telling the two siblings to gather round. "It looks like a map," Sally noticed. "Yes. This is a map to the formidable Mt. Doom, the dragon's resting place. Normally, I would suggest rushing towards the Dark Raven's castle, raiding it and retrieving the ruby right then, but I am ashamed to admit that I do not know the location of his headquarters, nor do either of my ancestors." Tobias responded. "Remember, my grandfather passed before Ravenswood even came onto the scene, and my father did not go to Ravenswood's castle; Ravenswood suddenly attacked his castle. To him, Ravenswood came out of nowhere. However, we do have the next best thing. My grandfather, before passing on, created this map to Mt. Doom, documenting the perilous journey that he himself had taken so long ago. It was brought back to our archives for safekeeping, and we all hoped we would never have to use it. I suppose we were wrong. So our best bet is to head to Mt. Doom, hope we can beat him and his crew there, and then intercept them when they reach the peak."

"I do have to warn you, though, it will be a long and arduous journey that will likely take us multiple chapters." "Multiple what?" Matthew asked, sounding a bit confused. "Don't worry. Somewhere out there, there is an individual who knows what we are talking about. For now, study this map carefully." Tobias instructed. "Whoa.....some of these destinations sound pretty cool. The Cave of Riddles? The Sea of Myras? The Frosty Forest? I can already tell we're going to have a good time." Matthew commented. "Yeah.....you do that. I'm going to stay here, where I don't have a chance of dying, thank you very much." Sally snarked. "Oh, really?" Tobias said. "Well then, I suppose you can sit here, and get incinerated to bits when the Dragon of the Ancients performs its strafing run over the landscape....." "Yeah, you really have less of a chance of dying out there than you do in here. Hate to put it like that, but...." Matthew said. Sally gave in and reluctantly agreed. "Okay, fine. At least I'll have gone out trying to do something about the situation." She sighed. "Where do we go first?" "First things first, I will be going with you two. I believe my magic can be of use. And in terms of our foremost objective, the Cave of Riddles is the first landmark displayed on the map's linear path. Coincidentally, I do believe that place is located somewhat near Bradenshire." Tobias replied. 

"Then it's settled! Everyone all in?" Matthew asked, reaching his hand out into the center. Sally and Tobias also reached out their hands and touched his, although Sally was much slower. 

"Brilliant! Let's go save ourselves a kingdom!"