The Argonian Maid?...Nope!

Bravil..

when I entered the city through the gates I, well..I was left wondering a bit. From outside it looked not as shacked as it did now when I saw the earthen streets, the wooden houses. Some houses were built with stone and did only conribute to the poor facade of the city instead of lighten the mood.
The only few buildings which were at least a bit like the one in the emperors city, giving the flair of a city and not a run down town, were the curch, the guild halls and at least the castle grounds.

Especially the gardens had me caught. Maybe it was the rundown city around, but they looked even more beautiful then the garden district in the imperial city.

When I stood there, there was nothing bad on my mind, the sun lightened the garden beautiful, reflected by the stone walls of the castle and I bent down to sniff on a flower...I was pounced by an angry khajiit.

What is it with me and khajiits?

"Damn Argonian will not eat my flowers, not again, stupid stinking lizard keeping their claws away from my garden, beautiful garden"
I lay on the ground, trying to collect myself with the khjaiit still shaking me, maybe trying to get my skull loose or whatever.
"Ssstop that furball I just wanted to sniff, not eat them" but when I could not loose his hands, now holding a bit stronger with the seconds ticking away I caught his tail with mine, giving it a hearty squeeze.

Never knew a cat could jump so high straight from all fours without a run up.

And what colourful words he knew to describe my ancestors mating with slugs and exactly in what positions and which vegetables they used in different orifices..there I had to rub my ears, checking my fingers if I had started to bleed my brains out.

"Maybe you should stop with that language or your precious plants will all wilt with that foul speech" and there he stopped hopping around, still petting his tail and instead throwing me a poisonous glare.

"Foul, foul...me? You! You damn lizards! Afraid of working and doing petty thieving, plucking out all my preciouuu..huh? Wait a moment, you are new here?"
Do you wonder why I took a step back, or rather a couple of them?
He got that strange gleam in his eyes like all the other cats had, when he realised that I had feathers and..can cats see colours? Or was I just another shade of gray to him?
I think most of them at least have to see some colours or it would be difficult for them to live in human based cities, but maybe that is the explanation why some of the more wealthy cats are clad in such a hideous atire.

"Uh I well...I arrived this morning, half an hour ago, maybe also an hour? But I swear i did not want to harvest from the garden. I wandered the streets and everything was so bleak and then I saw these gardens and was bewitched because it looks so unearthly, much more beautiful then the imperial garden district....yes that is exactly what I thought. I just wanted to find a nice peacefull place to rest, why would I destroy the only place in this city which is worth giving this pile of wood and mud the status of a city instead of a settlement?"
During my speech I was steadily inching away, but also the khajiit kept following me but at least no longer attempting to pounce and strangle me.

"It is so nice to know someone who cherishs beauty like me. You are not an ordinary li..argonian, are you? Quite different with all the feathers,, and this nice colour. Rarely I heard of an argonian not having this horrible red or green which is a real eyesore. I am really sorry that I have attacked you so precipitantly, but there are some of your kin who seem to enjoy harvesting and destroying what I brought up with so much care"

"Could you..maybe, give me a bit more room?" asking him uneasily to grant me more space which seems to make him aware of his 'stalking'
"Oh., oh sorry...where do I have my manners? Last night I tried to catch the culprits,maybe the loss of sleep is catching up with me. So you said you are new here?
Maybe I can show you around a bit. Normally I would work in the garden but during the night no one brought chaos to my gardens so I have some hours to spend.
But I also had no breakfast because of my nightly watch, would you accompy me to the Silverhome on the water? It is one of the nicer etablishments here."


This is how I came to sit at a table in the inn 'Silverhome on the Water'.Maybe not really on the water and also not silver, but compared to the other houses and this lounge I saw when walking through the city, the Silverhome is golden.
And maybe, I also felt a little bit at ease because the owner Gilgondorin was an altmer...and he was kind.

Sure, he had that high and mighty air around him like any altmer seems to have naturally, and he also was not too happy because of some other stuff, but he was nice enough.
These rough kind of nice where your older siblings seem to ignore you but in the end they share their food with you.
They just do not want to look too nice for others.

"So, Dro'shanji..thank you for your invitation" I was fidgeting a little in my seat, picking at the plate of sliced fruits, my second breakfast that day, while the cat was starring at me again "..but why?"
"Oh..because..I think you are interesting and I can talk with you about my gardens" sipping that disgustingly bitter brew he let me trie before he patted me good heartly laughing on the shoulder when I scrunched my snout because of the taste.

---------------------

We ate, we talked...Gilgondorin joined us after a while because Dro and Gil knew each other rather well. Dro brought Gil plants from the gardens, Gil cooked with some of them and others, well others were for his own pleasure, painting...
Because of that I got my first real job, at least the one I could remember.

I helped serving and cleaned the inn and Gil got some free time for himself. It really was balm for his mood, he even smiled sometimes..mind you, not when his guests could see it. I slept in a small chamber, a storage room but it was clean and dry and also warm.
Gil let me see some of his paintings and he is rather good with all the brush and paint thingie.
Life was good for a while, for what could I wish more?

I even had some free time to wander outside of the city and harvested some plants for Gils kitchen.Nothing grand but his mood spiked everytime I came back with something for him.
Nice guy, he really needs a kind hearted man or woman. He´s always alone and if not working in the inn he is painting.

But good times never last and after a week, things happened.


--------------------

Dro came into the inn for his lunch and he seemes nervous,this time he did not want to talk about it.
When I visited him later in the evening the garden was...a bit ungroomed or rather, overgroomed.
Flowerbuds lay on the ground, shrubs had lost nearly all leaves or were cut down to half their size and Dro...he jumped with a howl when I greeted him.
"Oh oh oh...it is you...by the nine" like a deer in the night..yeah he looked like a deer in the night when the bushes rustle.
"What exactly happened here?"
"Oh I ...well...things..I fear the time when I have to go to sleep, the shadows...everywhere and that to me, to me it happens...a khajiit and a thief, a good thief, a really good thief. Why ..I never did anything bad..well nothing too bad. I only took from the richer one and ..maybe also gave some to the poor!" he was fidgeting, running in circles, looking left and right and to every shadow.

With him acting like a frightened kitten we made it slowly back to the silverhome where I got him some warm mead and my bed roll in the storing room to sleep through the night.
I sat with him until he fell into a fitfull sleep, murmuring about shadows with empty eyes.
I knew where he lived, but that he is a friend was not enough for me to go to his house and take a look at the 'shadows'.
It frightened him and he was not easily frightened, but I knew where I could find help.

During my stay at the Silverhome I had also met other regulars beside Dro. One was a member of the mage guild and we got on rather well.
Henantier, an altmer...I seem always to find a way with them..or most of them.
So I made my way to the mage guild.It was still early enough so I could hope for Henantier to still be awake and work on his experiments.
Experiments are his life, even after everything that happened that night...


When I asked for him I was told to look for Kud-Ei, the head of the Bravil Guild Hall.
It was a bit hard to find her in the mass of rooms and turning points , but when I found her I only could utter a few words to her.


"Could you tell me where Henantier iii.." and I was grabbed and ushered into the next best room. The sleeping room of a guild member.
"What do you know about Henantier, who send you, who told you, what do you want..I will not give him up without a fight" she hissed, backing me up to a wall and tipping her clawed finger against my chest until I though she might break through the skin and dig further through the flesh.
"Stop it, damn it! I need to find him because of Dro...Dro'shanji, the gardener. Something happened and I wanted to ask Henantir for help"
Her claw stopped midway, she blinked "Oh, I know him.He sometimes sells herbs to me. His plants are the best..why does he need help,an infestion of bugs on his plants?"
"No well, there is something strange around his house, he is talking of shadows and such things" I tried to explain to her, but she silenced me…

"So you do not think he..maybe..drank too much,no? Well I think I could help, but first you need to help me..follow me and I will explain.This is no place to talk about such serious matters"
We walked out of the hall, down the street and entered a house.
She acted as if something grand was up..and it was.

She explained that she would help me if I would enter her friends dreams and help him to get out.
What could be so bad about dreams?
I would find out soon enough.

It was a bit hard to find sleep because...well..imagine that you would not know what awaits you, a strange amulet around your neck, a mage beside you sleeping and the uber-mage watching you both.

Imagine how nice it was to 'wake up' naked in front of Henantier.
I nearly ran away, but stayed because Henantier just stood around murmuring and I searched the chest of drawers in the room for the first things to wear.
It was a dress and oddly enough really comfortable.
I was thankfull that no one would see me in such a thing and after I ripped of the extra cloth for more movement I could take a good look on my surroundings for the first time.

For the dress to fill out better I missed a bit of mass, but lets not talk about clothing matters..

First the most disturbing thing was the light. The dull throbbing red and the next thing the walls which looked like a cave trying to swallow the house...and the portals, the portals....yeah...I still get the shivers when I think back how I walked to the one in the bedroom and traced the markings which seemed to pulse somehow.

I had no idea what the signs meant, but I felt drawn to them even when Henantier walked dream smitten to me and started talking about he missed something,he lost somthing..did not know what and where and he had to find it.
After a couple of frustrating tries to get him to listen to me, explaining things rather fruitless with hands and feets...and tail... I started to search the house for something useful. It was quite a hinderance to not be able to talk..but maybe not, I think it would have fallen on the deaf ears of a dreamer anyway.

Was it strange i then found my bottomless pouch on my belt when before I had nothing?
You are stark naked, put clothes on and tadaaa..your knapsack is there like out of thin air.
I ransacked the drawers and started to stuff things into the pouch before I realised that it should not be here.
But there also was nothing else in the pouch then the things I had found in the house until now.

First I was not too concerned with looking through the house.Sure the light gave me the creeps, but when I walked down the stairs and also the light changd, and wanted to enter the rooms downstairs..let´s say that I got much more paranoid when I found witching circles drawn with blood, body parts, bones...blood everywhere.
How could Henantier do such things and was it his doing, or was there someone...thing else?
And there was this humming, like something big breathing...a beating heart?...a voice.
I think it was a voice, whispering, and I felt encouraged instead of frightened.

Yeah you hear something, like someone whispering over your shoulder and instead of feeling angsty you feel..good…aaaabsolutely normal.
No matter the blood, I took flasks and alchemistic gadgets, ingredients, tiptoeing around the blood on the floor and rummaging through boxes and barrels.
It was just a dream,right? It was not real, or? I could not soil myself with blood and gore that was only dreamed? But it still felt as if I could.
It still felt slimy and real..cold and clinging to my fingertips when I dipped them into the blood, fascinated with it.

And the front door..I nearly laughed because it looked like the entrance to a cave, the wood, the stones...

But even if I had laughed it would have died as soon as there was a scratching sound behind me and when I looked back..there was something and nothing.Like the blurry lines you see during a very hot summer day when you look to the horizon, over the road, ripples on the water just harder to see if you do not know where to look.
I got the feeling of something drawing nearer, wanting to touch me and I stumbled back against the front door.

Blinding light, that is all what happend the second I touched the door and somehow fell through it. For a second and a lifetime there was only light, nothing else. I could not even call it light and when I fell out of it, there was nothing, just for a second and a lifetime absolutely nothing.

And I felt strangely calm.

Until I landend head first in cold water, just catching myself in time on my hands to avoid a meeting of snout and rock.

I was in a freaking cave, and the door back out was not there, just a cave ...with water.
So what was I to do?

There was a strange pod and curios as I am I opened it to find a flask,for what I did not know, packing it with the other things in my pouch.
Henantiers dream, or ...whatever was there had only one way open for me.

I walked into the chilling water, or better to name it dream substance like water?....a dream that feels so damn real.
But at least it was clean, cool water and not some murky,smelling liquid.
What also puzzled me that I could see...in a cave, without any source for light.
So when I could no longer feel any ground under my feet I dove and felt as if in a storm.
Not that the water was streaming or anything, but I just could dive deeper and deeper and the walls were so close and everything looked the same.
How long would I be able to hold my breath, was that even a needed option in a dream?
When I saw another strange container in the tunnel I began to have difficulties to tell where was left, right, upside or down.
Everything felt as if it was spinning and I was caught in the middle of it, maybe even the centerpoint, the arbor of a tumbling world.
When I was at the deepest point and the tunnel went up again, I wondered for a moment if I would take the wrong side to go up again.
But when I broke through the surface..oh boy.

The dive seem to have robbed me a good amount of my strenght, stumbling forth. But what brought me to my knees was when I saw the sky. Around me the ruins of a tower, so long gone that grass was growing on the ground and some lonely bushes..and a starry, burning sky. No normal sundown but...something else.
Flames, flames everywhere and screams, the smell of burning wood and flesh, strange moving creatures, only shadows ..
The next time I blinked everything was over, instead of sand and stones under my hands I could feel the gras again, but still the smell lingered in my imagination.

There was a glowing ball hovering some metres in front of me under the remains what has once been the ceiling of the ground flour. Something told me to get it, but when I took the next step there were the flames again and something big towering over everything, sketching a shadow over the meadow.
Gasping for air I fell out of the scene I was pushed into, only to be thrown into the next one when i took another step.
A dungeon, the floor littered with so many bodys in different stages of decaying that you could not see the stones under them.
And then while I was still gasping, moving forward I nearly drowned in a stream, burning and made of blood, feeling how it burned, cooked away my flesh and blindly I grabbed for a light, shimmering in the distance as my fingers closed around the pulsing, warm sphere.


Do you puke in reality when you puke in a dream?
I landed hard on my knees, heaving, wheezing, coughing...throw in some more words if you want.
And there I was on the floor of Henantiers house, shaking and the images still flashing in my mind, fluttering away when I tried to fix my mind on one.
Something big,evil..but there was also the promise of safety, someone with the air of a god, but not less frightening.
The way back up the stairs went on for hours, at last that was what it felt like, scrambling on all fours becausee I was still shaking so bad .. and then the glowing ball flew straight into Henantier before I could do anything.
He stopped blabbering for a short while, but that was all.

The constant flow of worried phrases out of Henantiers mouth was what made me go up from the floor when I thought I should have had a longer lay in.
Can you fault me? I was tired, so tired and aching.
But also something else forced me up, something urged me on and when I sat up, something fluttered by, but when I looked back, wanting to catch another glimpse, there was nothing, only a slight glimmer in the air, like dust in a ray of sunshine.


I questioned my sanity, why did I agree to help? Hell yeah, just a dream, only a dream,what could be so difficult, dangerous..just a dream..hah!

So...next door.I just took the one directly in the room in front of me and "bamm"- darkness.

Hey you, what about touching that nifty shimmering portal, you get instant darkness, just add your sweat o´fear and whisk thoroughly.

I thought the last one was bad, this was worse...


There was only darkness, no walls, no up and no down and I just stood rigid, afraid to fall...because that is what happens in a dream, isn´t it? Only darkness or somewhere high up and then you are plunging to your death, awakening shortly before you hit the ground..but would I wake up, or....it did no longer sound so irrational that I could..maybe..die?

But then there was this shimmer around me again, fluttering around me like a non existing butterfly and with the falling sparkles a stone floor got visible. But all too soon the sparkles ceased to exist and angry red shimmering crystals came into existence.
I really did not like the look of them, but they just changed in brightness and did nothing else.
When I went forward, there was again such a strange container that looked not manmade.
I first thought maybe something manufactured by the Dwemer, but it was slightly different.

A torch...ok...what to do with a torch and without something to light it?
But before I could ponder the question longer a red beam shout out of a brightly shining crystal which got dull afterwards, setting the torch on fire and making me 'Eeep'.
Now I knew that I would not like the crystals...nope, not a chance.
When the crystal went dull an other light shimmered into existence...far, far away in the pitch black darkness.

Wary I shifted nearer to the edge of the platform I was on, peering down into the darkness which just went on and on and...was there something moving deep down?
For a second it looked as if there were bodys moving deep, deep down. Something..snakelike, coiling, shifting..and then everything was just blackness again.
Just jumping down and looking what was down there was not an option!
But slowly the light from the sphere so far away spread out.

Now I could see stones floating in the air, one by one they went visible as if fog was blown away by a breeze, making them visible. Maybe the light was wind, blowing away the darkness.
Something else got visible, pillars.
Unfortunately(hah..how could it have been else? ) the stones were so sparingly dispersed..not even the most agile khajiit could have jumped some of the distances, only a mage with the neat magic tricks..and I was not one, had not the power.

Well..maybe..in a dream when you concentrate enough, things happen the way you need them.
Warily I went to the first stones which hovered near the platform..and I smiled when I saw that the light made more steps visible as wide as the beacon could send its streams of light.
But it only could ease the churning feel of dispair so much,because the steps were barely big enough for me to stand on them, hovering over endless darkness without any visible support.
So I just send a small prayer to whoever wanted to hear me out and jumped, claws screeching as I tried to get more grip on the stone. The damn shitty little stones were acting like wood floating on water


With gnashing my teeth my body went rigid, trying to keep balance with 3 limbs and my tail..my lovely little tail. Without it I would have had real problems.
Now that I knew what awaitened me I straightened up and then...run..just run as fast as one could, more jumping than anything else and hearing rumbling, the splintering of stones which were tumbling down in the darkness behind me while I went forward, the only way open for me.
And then fumes, thick green fumes filling the space on the only bigger boulder there,making me teary eyed when I had hoped to find a bit of peace, running again and stopping out of breath a couple of stones later.

I had not stopped to look for any traps, maybe I should have, maybe it would have been my death, falling down because these trice cursed stones crumbled under me.
Still shaking and gasping for breath with burning lungs I hugged the stone with all free limbs, blinking back tears because the torch was so near my face that the light hurt my already itchy eyes...damn fumes.

There was a soft humming and then a face appeared in the stone I hung on for dear life...a grandfatherly stony face with many wrinkles, smiling at me.
Days ago I would have been frightened, but now was just not the time, much more strange and horrible things had happened and ...it was a nice smiling face..not biting me or anything.
The humming came from the stone and somehow I came to understand the stone. Yeah dreams, crumbling paths and talking stones, why not?
He told me somehow it was so long ago since he had someone hug him, nice company and he was sorry that everything was so scary.
That was something he could not change, but he would stay in his place until I felt better again, introducing me to some of his grandchildren, little marbels of rock which would maybe grow into something bigger later on, rolling on his body as if gravity had no meaning to them, playing chase with each other..

After a bit of rest, still clinging to the rock, listening to the soothing humming I felt better and went on, beeing a bit more secure to jump and look out for traps, avoiding a couple of fuming traps.
My luck got dented when I neared the pillars, having the floating stones as a fundament and a big copper firebowl in the middle
"Jump!" an urgent whisper, an order I had no time to question as I gazed at the fire beacon, jumping and hanging on to one of the handles at the bowl, hot handles which burned my hand.
Before I could make my discomfort heard with a scream, a bang sounded behind me, like a sword clashing against stone. I could not find a better hold, looking to the side for a way out of the situation, while my hand was slowly cooked.

I took hold of the torch with my teeth, the pain from the hot handles was much worse then the discomfort of the flame from the torch so close to my face and if the situation would not have been so dire, I would have lost the torch when I saw how blades fell down from between the pillars, dashing hard against the stone and getting pulled up before they fell down again.
Just as the blades got pulled up again I teared a bit more of my luck, jumping and running, feeling how the blade grazed the end of my tail feathers as it came down again.

Blind for the moment I stumbled forward, triggering more of the toxic traps, but this time I was fast enough to hold my breath and just ran on until I reached the beginning of a pathway.
A real, strong stonefloor, or at least it looked like one, guarded by small pillars on both sides but first I just curled up where I landed.
Ground that did not crumble or blow out poisoned air, it felt like heaven.
No matter that the throbbing pain of my burned hands made me weep, I was safe for the moment and it felt good.
Gripping the torch with my tail now that I was relatively safe, I tried to dig through the pouch at my belt, everytime I moved my fingers the pain spiked, making me unable to move my arms for a while.

The burnt area stretched painfully, hindering my movement, but I got a grip on one of the flasks with the pinkish liquid which had helped me before.
It tumble out of my hands as I pulled the cork out of it with my teeth, but that didn´t matter. I bathed my hands in the puddle on the ground, feeling how flesh and skin grew and knitted back together, healed.
I could breath much easier, it is puzzling how pain, no matter where, can make it hard to breath.
I just wanted to stay where I was, resting,sleeping.

But that was the problem, I was sleeping, I was dreaming and had to go on.

Now that my hands were healed I could search much better through my bag, grabbing another flask with the liquid which would give me a push of life force.
It tasted a bit different then I remembered, but made me feel good, even better then the last one I had drunken. Or it was just because the pain went away completly that I felt this way.


For how long I cowered there I can not say. I was weak at that time and it felt like that maybe everything might break at the next moment and I would tumble into the depth of the darkness all around me.
I just wanted to stay there just a moment longer and the next on too..until someone told me to go on.
A tiny voice started to urge me on to continue my journey even when I rather would not.
“Dreams tumble and dissolve when you stay too long in one place”

And when I looked back to where I had been I saw how the darkness creeped forward. Slowly but visible when you hung your eyes on one point and waited, waited until the darkness swallowed it, fog creeping nearer. Fog that might kill me on contact without the chance to fight.
Another nearing future I would rather have liked to avoid.

So I pushed myself up on leadlike limbs.
“Run and don´t look back”
The magic words, just like when you are hanging on for dear life over a cliff and you are told not to look down.
But there was a tone to that voice which allowed no oppose…and so I ran.

When I decided to head that advise to run there was one step and then the other until something struck me, an energy, a feeling of power when you see the finish only metres ahead and you push yourself, feet thumping on the grund and muscles taut like a bow string, flinging yourself forward with eyes only for your goal.

Something swished behind me, a high thrilling sound, whistling of arrows, angry screeching birds of prey.
There was no time to stop, not even the thought to do so as I ran through the alley of pillars,feeling how the ground vibrated under me and maybe also fell into darkness just moments after my feet left it.

Only some more stones to jump, the row of pillars had ended just like the safe looking stone floor and I was left with the wobbly stones, nearly breaking my ankles when they shook and seemingly threw themselves from side to side like a wild horse trying to shake of a rider.

Time decided against me as the darkness flew nearer, flaring next to me like a breaking wave, taking light with it.
And there I was in a race between me and the darkness, who might reach the glowing ball first, a woken up predator…or I.
Falling into nothingness, or hanging on to light, hurling myself forward because there was no other chance.
Steps gone, darkness gushing up to swallow the light and myself, reaching for it, only eyes for the light because otherwise there would be nothing.
And as the waves of darkness broke over me, my hand closed over the ball of light which exploded into harsh brightness.
Maybe the light was worse than the darkness, not in the same way as the darkness but not better than it.

When all that suffocating brightness was drained I dared to open my eyes, blinking and again laying on the floor near the bed in the room where Henantier walked in circles, babbling nonsense.
I rolled onto my back, the light wavering out of my hand and soaring over to the highelf and becoming one with him.
I had the urge to throttle him,shake him,beat the guar umpa out of him for the situation he brought onto himself..and I had the luck to step right into the steaming pile of umpa he heaped up.
But instead I used all the anger to turn to my next goal, the next portal..the next pile of umpa to dig through.

I was battered, but not enough it seems.
But what happened next made me loose it.
Oh how wunderfull, a stone floor and there is even light..and there.. oh gosh.. a stone floor and one of these strange containers..what is in it I wonder…oh jolly..

AN EMPTY SCROLL, ARE YOU KIDDING ME YOU * BLEEPBLEEPBLEPP * !!!

I somehow obtained that nervous ticking eye lid,holding the empty scoll between my hands.

“Hum, what is that mysterious ticking noise?!”

The voice lets my whirl around and there is a ticking sound, the ticking sound similar to my rhytmic ticking eyelid.,..and a strange pale man with greasy black hair, standing there and looking around without seeing me, looking for the ticking noise.

Mumbling “…mumble mumble over here mumble mumble over there..catching…” he looks around, then swaying to the ticking and starting to sing while I just can stand there and gaped at the display.

You will surely think I lost my mind…I think I did because then strange people started popping up…first only that old geezer with the bright shining robes, then younger people chiming in, singin and one started shout fighting with the greasy gal…

But when the crazy old coot jumped stark naked between them, swinging his ding dong around while singing, I took my leave.
I think no one ever saw an argonian ran so fast.
Arrows flew but never hit me…my I really was fast…I just ran while the singing went on in the same volume, trying to get to the light as fast as possible.

I better should not have looked back because…that..strange old man was jumping and twirling behind me, singing…NAAAKED, shaking his dingeling like bells with a dead snake attached.

“HUUUUG WAAAAARTS!!!”


I reached the light just when an explosion went off, throwing me through the dream I was in and straight through Henantiers bedchamber into the next wall, leaving a dent.
But it was pure bliss because there were no longer people singing.

Only the twittering of little blue birds, flying around my head. The silly grin on my face made him a bit worried, leaning over me.
I really must have looked like umpa when it pulled him out of his stupor.
But hey, there went the light and I started giggling a bit.

Ok..one door left, on with it.
How could that turn any worser?
Henantier was his little old self again, at least he did not drool on the floor and I went downstairs, greeting the skeleton laying on the table, still giggling and went on, touching the door and swooosh..there I went again.

Oh nice, once there were no stones, no darkness. The blood on the walls did not fazzle me, what is a bit of blood when you had someone swing their wrinkly ding dong into your face.
What a surpirse, again a strange container but that time there was at least something usefull in them.
Sword, club, a staff, armor..nice.
Everything went into my pouch except the light armour. Did I mention that I like green, it goes so well with my blueish feathers. Then I went up corridor, expecting again some darkness.

But instad I found something…well..it looked like an arena, bit old..broken walls and pillars and there were stairs,leading up to the second floor. A red sky..hm..but nothing else.

Strange….

Warily I creept upstairs, looking for traps, monsters..but there was nothing..and that was really strange.

So I just reached for the glowing ball and there I saw a boy in strange clothes standing at the opposite side of the arena, looking at me. But it was just a glimpse before I was sucked out of the dream.

A tad dissapointing after all the things that happened before.
But just when the glowing ball zappend into Henantier, he got the light back in his eyes.

You know…that sheen that shows that someone has something other left in his head than hot air…or umpa.

I spare you all the blabla until he woke us up and I was back in reality.
And I tell you, it was so satisfying to punch him square in the face when I stood up and he started blabbering to me, offering me a couple of scrolls for all the work.

I saved his damn ass and he wanted to buy himself out of it with scrolls?

“Ok I want membership in your exclusive club so I am better suited if the next idiot pops up and drags me through the umpa, am I clear?” rounding up on the damn female lizard who wanted to save her friend from trouble and spare him.
Anyone else would have been kicked out of the guild and the shining golden rod there…
“Is his golden rod so good that you bend the rules for him? I get membership and all the help I need, got it? If he once again drags me or anyone else into trouble because he thinks he does not need to heed the rules then you do not need to worry because I myself will end his trouble”

God I was fuming, but somehow ..yeah I think they wanted to keep their lovey dovey and all the trouble he got them into quiet and sweap it under the carpet..that is why she allowed a nobody like me without magical training to join the guild.
And it was great, if I had known how much I would learn…

Or how that damn lizard would bend the rules and that elf..it is unfair how things get visible and totally clear AFTER you had to fight with all the problems.
No, she did not tell me that I could have died in there, I bet she knew that and that is why she needed some monkey to do the tricks for her.

But I would not let her live it down..or him. They would pay for everything.Not just with some stupid paper scrolls.

After Kud-Ei healed the broken nose of her plaything I went back with them for the paperwork. It was already late afternoon the next day, having spent the night and early morning in a dream and Dro´was beside himself when I got back to the Silverhome.

------------

I love the Harry Potter Puppet Pals..and yes I also know that it is not strictly like the game, but hey...that´s FF!