Jeram: I've read the myth myself and am in the middle of putting it together.

Midknight, that was completely awesome and annoying at the same time. I'll have to think of a 'new' adversary for my little one-shot now . I wonder if Butcher is planning on bringing in any more of the old Norse Gods...

 

I wanna see Jormungandr make an appearance. A snake big enough to encircle the universe has to be amazing.

 

Hell you could do it better then I could, roll with it anyway.

 

You... are such a fucking bitch, you know that? Cause I want to read that now. :\

Indeed. But speaking of Mimir...

One thought comes to mind; Dresden v Mim

 

Well, here's my go at number 10. Mab informs Harry that Oberon, the King of the Sidhe, has escaped from imprisonment, and must be found and stopped before he tries to reclaim power over both Faerie Courts.


---

I noticed the subtle changes in the air a moment after sliding the partially worn shirt over my head, the way the few droplets of warm water still clinging to my hair and dripping around my neck cooled over almost instantly. Blinking in surprise as my breath visibly appeared in the air before my nose I glanced around at the few windows on the Waterbeetle and grimaced at the frost gathering into place around them.

Almost before the voice spoke I knew who was to blame, and it came as little surprise to me that she was showing up now when Murphy had maybe ten, fifteen more minutes before arriving for our 'date' together.

"Knight Dresden." Mab's tone, chill and biting through the inhuman beauty contained within each note, greeted me from the doorway in which I had just emerged less then a minute prior. Turning toward her I gave my own more reluctant greeting. "Mab." my voice sounded like gravel in a mixing machine compared to hers, even if it wasn't somewhat raw still from the events with the former-Red Court not even two days earlier.

She smiled with what could be mistaken for pleasure or amusement on a lesser being. I knew it conveyed nothing but thinly concealed malice and took a step back to keep some distance between us. "Queen Mab." she corrected me in the same tone with that same smile, smoothly gliding through the air toward me.

As she did the temperature dropped another twenty degrees. I didn't have either Ebenezar's old staff or my blasting rod nearby even if I wanted to try and put up some kind of visible, physical warning for her to back off, and I took another couple of quick and long strides to keep the narrowing distance up.

"Listen, I know you're probably here to collect on my end of the bargain-- and I intend to keep my word regardless, but back the hell off and give me some breathing room here." I told her as sharply as I could manage at the moment. A broken laugh escaped her at that and I found out why a moment later when she gestured and I found myself on my knees and one hand before her. I barely had enough time to recognize my newly adopted posture to resist bowing my head to her.

It fairly well hurt me for it, too. My grimace descended to a silent snarl just to keep from staring at the floor as the muscles in my neck spasmed tightly. Above Mab stopped just out of my reach-- for all the good it did me even if I could have moved my arms anywhere-- and let out another strangely broken laugh.

"That is right, Knight Dresden, kneel before your Queen." she stated after a moment. For all the good having the title of Winter Knight, and the power that came with it, I was now learning the costs hidden within that deal as well. That said, I refused to allow my body to submit to her will any further than it already had.

The cold fire in my eyes met her own and she read the defiance left in place. Her smile grew a little sharper at the edges before vanishing altogether as she gathered a chair of ice and sat down before me in it.

It was only at that point that I noticed the thin slash mark running down the inside of one thigh and trailing to the knee. So close I was able to smell it. What in the hell is that scent? The color of the mark wasn't what I would have called blood under any definition that I had seen, and the edges were just a little to... distorted, almost like something she was wearing had melted into the flesh and vanished there.

"So you've noticed." she said. With another motion of her hand my taunt muscles relaxed and I fell to the side awkwardly, landing on my face. Score one for my ego. I grunted and pushed up to my knees and then up to my feet slowly, glaring at her. "What do you want?" I demanded, agitated but not wanting to be controlled like that again if I could avoid it. I hardly needed any reminding of Lloyd Slates state of being for his rebellious actions toward her.

"Something only you can give me, Knight Dresden. Something only a wizard could accomplish, and even then your strength in Winter could be an undoing in itself." she answered in the usual Sidhe manner. I grimaced and let out a low growl of warning. She gave me a sharp look and I found my body dropping again for an instant before she relented.

Her own warning delivered she continued. "Perhaps you mortals still have knowledge of his tale." I gave her a sidelong glance, my stomach tensing up for reasons I didn't yet know. "The tale of Oberon, King and fallen Lord of the Sidhe courts." It took a moment after she said that for my brain to process the information, and when it did I stared at her in disbelief. I had personally met the three different representations of the Sidhe Queens, but I had never heard of a King before, save the Erlking and even than his rule was over the Goblins.

"What does that have to do with your task?" I asked her. Mab gestured to the cut on the inside of her leg and spoke again. "Long before your Merlin came about, farther even than the Vampire Court's distention and separation into three, Oberon ruled over much of the Nevernever not already controlled by other gods." she explained.

"Eventually his arrogance and pride grew to match his power and Oberon challenged for the right to rule over other portions outside of our domain. He set about his own oblivion by seeking the domain of the Dragons and entering a short-lived war." pausing a moment as if in remembrance, her look became one of unconcealed malice at last.

"Ferrovax and his kin destroyed Oberon's followers and gave rise to our loathing of Iron in the process, for once defeated a cage of Iron was wrought like never before at the Dragon's command. With his magic the King fought dearly against his imprisonment and was, as the Romans would later learn from Ferrovax, crucified at the core of the mortal world." I frowned. All of this would probably be helpful in the long run, and it sure as hell redefined my understanding of the Dragon's innate strength if they could take out a guy of Oberon's caliber, but I somehow doubted wherever this history lesson was going would end on a pleasant note.

"Okay, that's great and all, but what's the point? What does it do with this task of yours?" I asked her flatly. I should have just shut up and waited because a moment after I spoke her body tensed up and a fury I hadn't expected spread across her face, and once again I found my body being crushed down into position from her will.

"Everything! Oberon has never ceased to be the King of the Sidhe high courts, and his power though diluted still lived on within us all and his wives the most, Mother Summer and Mother Winter. His boundary of Iron spread like a curse onto all of his children as it poisoned his strength and through he to us!" she all but hissed at me.

The sound sent a shiver down my taunt spine and I felt the first dribblings of something wet and warm running down from my eardrums in surprise. "This wound I now bare is the first sign that he is freed, Knight Dresden! Exactly where the wound was lined on the King so to does it appear on his descendants! Do you understand what that means?" It was harder to hear through the pounding of my blood as it ran down and stained my shirt in thick splashes, but I managed a stark grimace in answer as the signs of madness Mab had demonstrated in meetings past manifested again, and the chill in the air sank deeper toward the freezing point.

She stared at me with something I had never expected to recognize on one of the high courts faces again after another few moments. It was fear. Mab was more than just scared and angry, she was panicked at the thought that Oberon was free.

And for just a moment, my own frustration toward her and everything she had said held it's place. Then it was all swept away be a sudden, crushing realization of fear of my own as I understood the sheer power this guy commanded if Mab was reacting in such a way. Hell's bell's... I'm fucked.

---

Part 1, some edits completed.

 

It's good. Since this is a TGYH and not a story thread, I'm not sure if you're after a review, but I'll give one anyway.

Harry seems a bit off though. A bit too contrary/defiant - he's trying too hard to be difficult for no reason. Generally, in these situations, Harry has good self-preservation instincts. He knows when to stop pushing. If he pushes something beyond the point of reason, he usually has a reason - he's trying to provoke a reaction, or something like that.

He also seems too disinterested in Mab's tale. Even if it had no practical relevance, Harry is still a wizard, which means he's going to be a hoarder of titbits of information. Mab telling him this story is like a goldmine. He wouldn't stop her.

Finally, he seems a bit too dense. All that "what has it got to do with me?" stuff. Has he forgotten that he's the Winter Knight?

But yeah, it's a good intro. I would definitely read more if you wrote it.

 

I can't recall if Mab was capable of speaking by herself without killing Dresden by this point, could somebody clarify that for me?

 

In Changes she couldn't speak directly too him. She told him if she did he would fall to his knees every other word. Even after he fucked her and became the Winter Knight I don't think she was able to talk to him, she used the Leanansidhe as far as I remember. Not completely sure though.

 

During the actual fucking, she could speak with him. The Leanansidhe leaves, and then we get this:

And then she says "MINE" with her own voice three times during the act, which still has quite an effect, albeit not the bleeding ear business.

I wouldn't be surprised if she could speak to him in the future if need be - I don't think she's as angry with him as she was before (that's contingent on him still being the Winter Knight, though).

 

So it depends directly on her mood. If she's angry, he bleeds, if she's horny, he gets a boner. :awesome

 

Thanks for the review, Taure, I definitely appreciated it. I'll answer some of the points you raised for why I had Harry react as he did:

Harry's attitude: He's exceptionally weary and (IIRC) sleep deprived around that point before he was supposed to have emerged onto the Waterbeetles deck.

He's taken some pretty large mental assaults(Ebenezar's his relative, destroying the Red Court, being heavily responsible for killing Susan, so on and so forth) in a very quick period of time, and the realization that Mab is probably about to yank him off to do something exceptionally unpleasant as per their agreement so quickly after rescuing his daughter put's him on edge more easily.

And, as blazzano was able to confirm, Mab's voice and her own emotions at the time can sway his reaction to her. She's scared and angry yet attempting not to display that, throwing him further off his rational reaction toward the situation with his jumbled state of mind.


Interest\Denseness: I do confer you the point on her tale and the knowledge therein, however while Oberon's tale might prove useful in some obscure way down the road at that moment to his knowledge the King is still sealed up and imprisoned by Ferrovax-- so everything she's told him about Oberon is just a moot point where her task for him is concerned.

Even still considering how important it is to her and thereby whatever he might have to do Harry should have just shut up and listened-- if only up to a point. I'll probably edit over a few of his lines to remove some of the attitude and interruption.

He hasn't forgotten that he's the Winter Knight, but her stating that only he could do this task where she could not implied something exceptionally damaging to his moral ethnics-- like kidnapping a kid or something otherwise in a like manner.

He knows as the Winter Knight he doesn't have the freedom of choice to deny whatever it is and that just further upsets him to boot.


I think that's about it. Feel more than free to counter any of these with you own points again and I'll get back a response when I see it.

Thanks go to Bukay, kmfrank, LittleChicago, Loki, Luda, Moridin, Scribblerus, Red PittBull and blazzano (as well as Aekiel for first bringing up that useful point) again, and I'm definitely intending to write more on this.

 

Part 2. A little rough in the beginning, hoping that evens out as this goes forward. Sorry for the double post.

----

Slowly I felt the pressure against my body fade as Mab rose back to her feet. When she spoke her tone was quieter but no less harsh, and I warily brought up one hand and pressed it to my bleeding eardrums on the side closest to her. "Oberon is free within the Nevernever, Knight Dresden. Find him. Seal him away again." she ordered with a forced calm to her voice that failed to reach her eyes.

"... Why did you say it had to be me that did this? That only a Wizard could?" I asked her slowly. I saw a faint shiver run down her body before she answered me, a distant look coming into her eyes as memories of the past played before them again. "Ferrovax would kill me now-- for his own protection. His kind did not escape unscathed from Oberon's wrath, and weakened though we Queens now are if the King should draw forth his reigns again.. 'then his will be done.'" she quoted on a note that was exceptionally unpleasant to consider.

I swallowed as my own fear clawed away at my chest and every sense I had began screaming to find the deepest hole I could and hide there until this was all over. For a long moment I considered acknowledging the wisdom in such a course of action as pushing my head under the sand and waiting for the terror to fade away.

I mean, hell's bells, I'm pretty damn strong for a Wizard of the White Council but this fight was well above my power grade, and I had siphoned off a fair amount of that strength in my last battle. I could be reasonably sure not one of the others who were stronger than I was would step up and help out, even after demolishing the Red Court and forcing them to find a new excuse to loath me.

Before I could come to a final conclusion a loud knocking from outside echoed down and caught both of our attentions, and Murphy's concerned voice called down to my level "Harry? Harry, what's going on in there??" Mab looked off toward the sound before exiling the chair she had called and working toward the doorway. She stopped just inside of it and told me one last thing before vanishing back to Arctis Tor.

"You have seventy-two hours before the King's strength revives to what it once was, Knight Dresden. If that should happen... " without needing to finish she trailed off and faded from my sight about an instant before Murph came stumbling down and into the room right where Mab had just been.

Her face was concerned as she glanced around at the conditions of the area and my own form covered in blood. "My god, what happened in here?" she questioned in a tone of reprove and worry. As she looked me over I couldn't help the bitter laugh that slipped out of my lips as I realized something else, that this fight was going to be just like every other unfair one I had been forced into dealing with, and as I came to understand that I was able to draw on that strength to beat back the panic trying to shred me alive from the inside out for the moment.

I slowly pushed up to my feet and stumbled toward the bathroom to get cleaned up. Seventy-two hours. Hell's bell's, that's a short time frame... but so is life, and I'd never get another chance like this with Murphy if I passed it up now. I really, really wanted to take her up and go have a good time for the first time in what felt like years.

So of course I had to turn it down. "Sorry, Murph. It look's like we're going to have to postpone our time until later." I told her in an emotionless tone. She stared at me with confusion, surprise, and eventually disappointment as I passed before going blank. "Oh. Of course. Impending disaster?" she questioned neutrally.

"... Yeah. You could say that." I answered from the bathroom. "Okay." she said, and then repeated it as if trying to convince her self. "Okay. Good luck, Dresden. You know where to call if you... need any help." her tone betrayed her words as she turned and headed back up to the deck and outside to leave. Every fiber of my being wanted to go after her and stop Murph from leaving, to say the hell with this and just enjoy our time together.

And then the world would end because I didn't take action when I should have.

----

A short time later and my ears were dealt with, the bleeding contained, and I was standing inside Edinburgh. As I said earlier, it was improbable that anyone else on the White Council would help out. The exception to that rule was a man I had encountered and been at odds with from time to time, and the last time we had spoken he had forewarned me of the dangers of Demonreach.

I could have tried old Ebenezar, but frankly I had relied on him too often over the last few years, and I was still trying to wrap my mind around him being my grandfather. I knew Rashid had power and he was willing to at least consider helping out when it came to this kind of thing stirring up. It was worth a trip to try and convince him to give me a hand.

After wandering through the halls and past the occasional Warden in place I found Rashid's dwelling here and stepped through the open doorway, pausing just inside to knock with the end of my borrowed staff. Silence followed. I looked around uneasily as that silence stretched. Warily I tapped my staff again before stepping deeper inside and calling out "Rashid? Gatekeeper!" into the large room.

The man himself stepped out of the shadows toward the back of the room and regarded me with an equally wary stance, gripping an ornate gray staff in hand. "Doom follows you deeply, doesn't it Dresden?" he questioned slowly. What the hell was that supposed to mean? "Care to explain that a little deeper?" I asked him in turn. "Hnm." without answering he gestured to either side of me and the doorway soared shut behind my back and locked into position with no more sound than a soft rush of wind.

I gripped the staff tighter and began focusing some will into it just in case. Rashid simply shook his head and lowered his own staff before setting it aside and approaching one of the couches near the back wall. "I suppose I should welcome you to my abode, Knight Dresden." he stated in a soft tone that nevertheless cleared the distance between us easily. Hearing him repeat my title was a little unnerving. "So, welcome. If you'd care to release the Soulfire burning that staff and settle down we could begin discussing what brings you here." his tone didn't change in the slightest as he mentioned Soulfire and I exhaled sharply, wondering how he even knew about that before questioning why I had subconsciously delved into that source of power.

I slowly let go of my gathering energy and will and looked around for somewhere else to sit other than beside him him. He motioned toward another couch nearby and I took the seat a little rougher than needed, settling the staff across my lap in easy reach. He looked at me a little closer before making another note of... curiosity, I suppose, and sighing. "You seem to attract more trouble than should be mortally possible, Dresden. All of the battle's you have had to endure, the sacrifices made. And now this." he just stared at me until I cracked and glanced away first.

"How do you know all this?" I demanded. "What, your recent falling into Winters court? Or your succession from Hellfire? Perhaps you'd even care to know why Oberon has been freed after a hundred thousand years?" he questioned in turn. Warning bells began ringing in my head as he went from one to the next, and he let out a low laugh at my bewildered expression.

"I study more than just the Gates, Dresden. I look in on the Nevernever in ways you can not yet realize. I saw your... acceptance ceremony with Mab, as did most creatures who knew where to look." he explained. "Likewise, I have my own sources just as you have..." he paused once as though considering something different, then deciding against it. "... yours, to whom I speak and confide. The nature of one fire to another is easily scented considering the scar it gave me." gesturing toward his face where I knew he was burned his answer only opened up a new area of consideration. When did he encounter Hell or Soulfire? But Rashid pushed onward without giving me a chance to ask.

"To finish, the King Oberon was secured within a hallowed and hollowed section at the depths of the earth. The planets core was the perfect prison for all the metal at it's heart, but the space opened left it available to others who knew where the opening lay. I can not yet fully answer who has unchained him from that place, but I can answer why more easily." Rashid looked over his shoulder toward the shadows where he had seemingly emerged from earlier.

I followed his gaze and saw a pale ring of gem ran the length of the wall in a vertical loop. It looked like a summoning circle, but I had never seen or heard of one being placed in such a position. A flicker of motion within drew my attention to a black faced creature scarred with green highlights, yellow eyes looking out from sunken depths. Almost against my will I stood up and approached with slow strides, until only a foot separated me from it. I saw it resembled one of the sidhe once upon a time, but age and damage had not been kind to the features, and the once smooth skin was torn from the bone in many places. In others the skin was left scarred and battered, the muscles underneath jutting against the flesh sharply and standing out in unimaginable ways.

"Be wary what you touch, Knight Dresden!" Rashids voice cut through the stupor that had settled into place the moment I took in the sight of the creature and I realized with a start that my own scarred hand had risen toward the surface slowly. When the Gatekeeper spoke I just barely had half an inch before contact would have been made. Rashid stood at my side without my notice until now and looking down further I saw his hand wrapped about my elbow tightly to keep me from reaching all the way forward.

The yellow eyes of the creature seemed to glow brighter for a moment as if in frustration before I was pulled away and shoved into the couch facing away from it. Rashid took my former seat and looked me over. "That is Oberon in his current, newly freed form. No more a thing of beauty, forever marred by the Dragon's tongue and blade." he stated. "A mere image, a shadow I was able to capture before he was taken. You asked why Oberon has been freed? Because someone seeks to destroy both Winter and Summer, and the only way to do that is by erasing the Queens from power and instilling the one with strength enough to suppress the seasons."

----

Still not done. CC appreciated.

 

Another challenge, a faintly silly HP/DF cross, for anyone:

The train Dresden hears turns out to actually be the Hogwarts express - Dresden has ended up in limbo in the same place Potter did.

 

That sounds like the coolest way to start a HP/DF crossover that I've ever seen.

 

Yeah, I might hit it.

I can just see Dresden refusing to leave Voldemort there (assuming he looks like a normal, if undernurished child.) and bring him back into the world somehow.

 

IIRC he looked horribly deformed. Not sure though, then again he might see it as some sort of victim of some attack or something? Depends on what exactly it looked like, I guess.

 

^ well Harry Potter, who knew Voldemort very well, still had a strong urge to help that little ragged piece of Voldy's soul. I think Dresden would be chomping at the bit to save it, even if it is deformed

 

Especially if say, the author decided to alter that little detail because Honestly, Dresden would be far less likely to fall for it, considering his experience with things looking one way and being another.

 

Part III of Oberon Challenge.

----
My head was beginning to swim with confusion from all of the information I had received, not only from Mab but now Rashid as well. I was still tired as hell and my energy levels were approaching empty from the events with the former Red Court, and I only had roughly three days time to find and seal away a sidhe demi-god before he was returned to full-on-god status.

And apparently said demi-god has some sway over my intelligence, since I had nearly gone into a trance the moment I stupidly looked it's freaking reflection in the eyes. A bitter sigh escaped before I could contain it and I looked back up at Rashid, a simple question needing to be asked.

"Why?" I questioned. "Why would anyone care if the Fae Courts were thrown into disarray like that?" across from me the Gatekeeper leaned back and gave my form a slow once-over, and his response wasn't quite what I was excepting.

"When was the last time you slept proper, Dresden? I do not mean to insult you, but surely you are quicker to piece together these things on your own." he stated in a quiet tone. A frustrated grunt was my follow up.

"Maybe you missed a few things back on Earth while watching the Nevernever?" I shot back with a hint of anger coloring my tone. A brief silence followed that as Rashid closed his visible eye and moments later I felt, rather than heard, the whisper of power flowing from his month as he spoke to someone else.

Before a minute was gone his eye flickered back open and he gave me another considering once-over. "Hn. Perhaps you are right. It would seem you do have a valid reason for being so weary at this critical time." Rashid stated and stood up. "I can not offer you the help you no doubt sought by coming here, Harry Dresden." he added in that same quiet, neutral tone.

I pushed up to my own feet slowly and scowled at him, opening my mouth to speak when he brought up one finger in a silencing gesture. "Do not presume I can not give you aide in other manners. When you leave my domain you will find this trip has not been for naught." his voice came out surprisingly swiftly yet nevertheless still calm, even as his eye narrowed with a hint of his annoyance.

---

Stepping out of a hole into the Nevernever is rarely pleasant. Trespassing into an wholly alien dimension of it, one where the very air you breath, the sights you see, the entire world about you makes it well known that you flatly do not belong within such a space is much the same- only a thousand times harsher on the psyche and soul in addition to the physical unease.

Rashid had helped me out in the end after all. He had gotten me here, within the Dragon's Domain, something I was beginning to realize had to have cost him a lot more than he had let on an hour earlier. It was plain that mortal man, be it wizard or otherwise, was not meant to stand here and I could feel how unwelcome I truly was as an outsider.

The Gatekeeper had handed me a vial before I passed through the rift with a warning to drink it slowly before I came out on the other side, and I had listened and done as told and some of the ache in my body was less for it, a little more clarity to my mind now then before.

I tried to ignore the burning sensation in my veins that had replaced those things every time I took a breath of air. Like I said, alien dimension. I could have been breathing pure CO2 for all I knew about this place, and that little vial was keeping it from killing me.

"Okay, Harry, time to get a move on. This place is bad enough without just standing around looking like an appetizer to some wandering, hungry dragon." what can I say, I think unpleasant thoughts in unpleasant situations.

I set off in what I was assuming to still be the westward direction and where the distorted, made-of-light-and-metal semi-solid trees were less densely crowded. The sky overhead was illuminated with the hum of visible energy streaks in place of stars, flickering back and forth as if alive-- and probably were.

Eventually the damp soil beneath my feet grew firmer and turned to iron, and the freakish trees conformed solely to various metals that stood stiffly and firm in place. So far I hadn't picked up any other creatures around, and once the hum of energy faded with the ground and such I began to feel my unease rising to another level at the stillness and silence.

I had to call up a small flame for light after a few more minutes and soon enough was rewarded for that with the sight of a pair of large iron doors set into the sky horizontally, ten feet off the ground and apparently connected to... nothing. Just floating, as if that was perfectly natural.

"Dammit, did you have to violate the laws of physics even further?" I muttered quietly, hesitantly stepping closer and pausing beneath them. "But who decides what the laws are if not for those who created them?" a throaty voice questioned from deeper ahead of me.

I gripped my staff tighter and pointed it off toward the mystery speaker, smoke curling off it as tendrils of power seeped inward from my silently gathered will-- I wasn't about to be sucker punched once I realized how alone I was here, or rather the apparent effect of that.

The chances that no one else was around here when one of their sworn enemies was suddenly loosed again were slim to none. A figure stepped out of the darkness into the faint light from the still flickering flame in my spare hand, and I took a step back at it's appearance.

With the head of a dragon, the body of a snake, two leathery wings jutting from the back, and as it grew closer still a barbed tail, the gray bodied Wyvern tilted it's brown eyed head to one side and sniffed at the air twice in quick succession.

I had seen illustrations at Edinburgh before, but the sheer size of the creature was more than I had anticipated. Once it's lower body was coiled up under it like a snake studying it's prey, it still towered over me by two feet easily, just as wide across.

The wings alone stretched six feet across individually and slowly wrapped around it's middle almost protectively, and I saw that while the front was rough textured the back reflected my light cleanly and almost seemed to be polished stone.

"You... you have his scent in your blood, and yet... his as well. Deeper than blood. Etched harsher into your body, or..." the Wyvern puzzled slowly, still in that same deep rumble, and I put another few feet of distance between us as the staff creaked beneath the pressure my fingers were applying to it.

I was beginning to doubt how this was going to end when the doors creaked open and pale light radiated down, accompanied by a small group of hisses and snarls. The Wyvern blinked and looked up into the light before back down at me, and when it did I noticed the eyes had taken on another hue under that light.

They were red and glowing with malicious intent. I knew exactly what that meant, and I also knew I wasn't about to be filleted on the fangs starting to rise from it's maw. Thrusting the staff forward at the same time as it launched the upper body forward, I cried out "Pyrofuego!" and silently prayed the effort wouldn't drain what was left of my reserves down to nil in the process.

----

Yes, this is going somewhere. The Dragons shouldn't sit idly by while Oberons off galavanting about the world/Nevernever. Shorter than I expected, but... progress is progress.

Turning to shit yet or still of interest?