The Quest

In which I meet two prodigiously stupid people who intend to take me on an adventure; and, worse, expect me to enjoy it.

A Story With a Dragon In It

By the Supreme Gamesmaster Yddisac

 

Chapter I: The Quest

 

I was relaxing on the quad when I heard that a dragon had kidnapped Princess Merowyn. No one told me, of course. I simply overheard the swirling rumours and felt the tension in the air. The normal sounds of the university’s courtyard, loud jokes and hearty laughs, were gone, replaced by half-murmured conversations and an occasional nervous chuckle.

I was surprised the kidnapping would have such an impact on us. I thought it was clear, at least among the educated, that the princess was a figurehead, but people were acting like their aunt or cousin had disappeared. In fact, Professor Megeret, who was supposed to be teaching divination, spent most of her lecture that day on a near-hysterical rant about “this disastrous abduction” and how the princess “must be so scared, I can’t even imagine” and how “the barbarians who did this shall get their just desserts, for the king shall have their heads, mark my words.” My Gwendian Runes professor opened his lecture by complaining about her histrionics.

I determined to ignore the issue, but the issue refused to ignore me. I first realized something was off when I saw a seven-foot-tall man with enormous shoulder pads and a claymore scaring off customers at a local bakery. He looked at me and his scarred lip twisted a bit. I couldn’t tell what emotion he was trying to convey, but I quietly absconded all the same.

More grizzled sellswords filtered in as the days passed, followed by knights who rode horses and wore polished white armour and had squires that carried their standards around. I couldn’t tell who was more annoying. The mercenaries carried their weapons around everywhere and leered at me as I stood in lines, but the knights blocked up the roads and launched ten-minute tirades at shopkeepers who didn’t serve them just so. Once, when I was trying to buy some bread, I got caught behind an indignant knight while some mercenaries ogled me. I gave up on the bread.

The plague of adventurers spread like wildfire, and soon the whole town was infected. That was fine for my female classmates, who thrilled to see so many handsome and exotic men, but for me it was all inconvenience. The university thus became my sanctuary. I stayed on campus as long as I could. For a time, I was safe. The only news of the outside world came from gossiping students - easily avoided by hiding in the library - and Professor Megeret’s tangents, which were depressingly frequent but endurable. However, the peace was not to last.

One day Professor Vanus, my elderly enchantments professor, told me to visit his office after class. I was puzzled, and, I confess, slightly alarmed. I’d done very well on his last test and paid attention to his lecture; but I was no dedicated enchantress and did little to distinguish myself in class. Possibilities swirled in my mind on the approach; had someone accused me of cheating?, had I somehow botched an assignment without knowing?, had I tread onto some restricted ground, found a restricted book, cast a restricted spell?

All my expectations were confounded, however, when I found Professor Vanus conversing with two men: a tall, handsome man in fine clothing, and a stocky young man with dirtier clothes and an unkempt beard. A knight and his squire, I realized. As soon as I opened the door, all three men looked at me. I froze.

“That’s the one, then?” asked the tall man.

“That’s her,” said Professor Vanus. “Come in, Allicis!”

Reluctantly, I edged into the room.

“Er - Professor Vanus,” I said, “surely it can wait until these two have finished their business?”

“You are our business!” said the shorter man. My stomach plummeted.

Professor Vanus hobbled up between me and the knight. “Allicis,” he said, “these are Sir Gerrick Herguldin and his squire, Bergin. They are here, as you’ve no doubt surmised, to attempt a rescue of Her Royal Highness, Princess Merowyn.”

“What does ‘surmised’ mean?” Bergin tried to whisper.

“Sir Gerrick,” said Vanus, determined to save Bergin from embarrassment, “this fine young lady is Allicis Malbair. She is perhaps my most gifted student, and I’m confident she’ll be able to help you on your quest.”

I tried to protest, but all I actually said was “eep.”

“I see!” said Sir Gerrick. He stared at me for a while, sizing me up. Then he said, “Excellent!” I tried to say something again and only came out with a noise.

“Allicis is a fantastic enchantress,” Vanus said, “the best in her class by far. Professor Alasgar tells me her understanding of runes is also superb. In fact, she is above the mark in all branches of magic - except divination and transfiguration, but neither of those will be of particular use to you.”

“Most excellent!” said Sir Gerrick. “I could not ask for more in a magical assistant!”

“With her help, you’ll be able to take down that sorcerer in a jiffy!” exclaimed Bergin.

Sir Gerrick approached me, his eyes shining. “What say you?” he said. I shrank back and made another noise.

Professor Vanus again came between Sir Gerrick and me. “Perhaps you had best explain to the young lady what you wish her to do?” he said gently.

Sir Gerrick blinked. “Ah! Yes! Of course!” He paced back towards his squire, then dramatically turned around and cleared his throat.

“As you no doubt know,” he said, “Her Royal Highness the Princess Merowyn rul ti Zandorfyl was abducted a fortnight ago by a dragon. The dragon was acting under the orders of a sorcerer known only as Ghall.” I had gleaned that much from Professor Megeret.

“Several knights and knights-errant have gone to save her, but to no avail. Ghall’s charms have repelled all who stand in his way.” I doubted a sorcerer would use charms - hexes and jinxes seemed more up a sorcerer’s alley - but I didn’t bother correcting the animated knight.

“I decided to fight magic with magic,” said Sir Gerrick. “So I came to the university to ask for help, and they recommended Professor Vanus, and he recommended you, to help me!”

“Oh,” I squeaked. I turned to Professor Vanus. “Why?”

“Well, I can hardly go,” said Professor Vanus. This was true, I had to admit; his cane would rather get in the way. “So I thought I’d best ask one of my better students to go instead, as a sort of extra-credit assignment. With your skills in enchantment and abjuration, you were the best candidate by far.

“I’ve spoken to your professors,” he added. “If you choose to accept this quest, you will, of course, be excused from classes for the rest of the semester. And since the quest will push your magical skills to an extreme beyond your fellow students, you will, of course, receive an A+ in all your classes.”

I said “Oh” again.

“You shall not, of course, be in any lethal danger. In all probability you will never see the dragon or sorcerer Sir Gerrick means to fight. But you must accompany him to the tower, for he tells me of a magical seal on the gate that you must open. By his description,” he said confidentially, “it sounds like a layered Bressa-Cadwainn seal, quite within your abilities.”

This was, I had to admit, true; I’d learned to cast and crack Bressa and Cadwainn seals in my first year.

“Once the knights have entered, you may simply return here,” Professor Vanus said at a normal volume. “But even if you are not in mortal peril, it should be quite an adventure all the same.”

Now that last line was very telling of how Professor Vanus had misjudged me. I was by no means an adventurous girl. I was not brave enough to confront my fellow students on the quad, let alone a sorcerer who could kidnap princesses and command dragons. Expecting me to like an adventure was like expecting a manticore to like flying - unlikely to work and rather dangerous. But while I was not adventurous, I was keenly rational, and I knew what sort of acclaim taking Sir Gerrick’s quest would bring me among the professors. If they were willing to let me skip their classes for this quest, they must think highly of it indeed. Their respect would open many, many doors to me.

I like to think it was that rational part of me that convinced me to go. It might simply have been the definite way the men acted after their pitch. Professor Vanus clapped me on the back and Bergin bounced about and Sir Gerrick smiled like I’d already consented. I hope no small part of me secretly yearned for adventure. To be honest I doubt that interpretation, but if you’d like to go with it I won’t stop you.

Whatever the reason, I agreed to go on the quest. My decision received little fanfare; again, everyone was already acting like I’d agreed to go, so actually agreeing didn’t have much impact. I went back to my dorm and packed my things feeling positively happy. I’d get to skip divination for a semester and turn my C in it into an A+!  As I went to bed that night, however, the full implications of what I’d agreed to set in. I shivered beneath my covers. I wished for sleep to relieve me of my terror, only to dream of glowering dragons and twisted curses. I resolved that, first thing in the morning, I would go to Professor Vanus and tell him I’d changed my mind, that surely any other student would be better qualified than I for an adventure, that I was flattered for his attentions but I’d take my chances with Professor Megeret, likely as she was to fail me for refusing to help her beloved princess.

But as soon as I left the dormitory the next day Sir Gerrick was on the steps. His eyes shone brighter than his armour when he glimpsed me. “Can you ride?” he asked immediately.

Caught off-guard, I answered, “Yes, but not well.”

“We’ll take breaks often, then. Come on!”

He grabbed my arm and pulled me away. I meant to leave him, but I found no opportunity to do so. He continually looked back at me and talked to me about how wonderful the quest was going to be. I waited, hoping I’d find some opportunity to slip out of his sight, but nothing of the sort presented itself. Somehow it was only once we’d left campus that I realized I was on a one-way road. I wanted to go back - I wanted more desperately to go back with every step I took - but I couldn’t find an opening to do so. And before I knew it Sir Gerrick was helping me onto a small brown horse and explaining, almost too quickly, pointers about riding I already knew. I was dizzy; I thought I was about to throw up; but Sir Gerrick set the horses on their way, and soon, the campus had receded over the horizon and there was nothing but open field around us.

Reviews

[Marcus Parks]

These are my notes as I'm reading, if something's not clarified that should be, please let me know!

The voice of this narrator is active and engaging right from the getgo, and starts off with a pretty grabbing statement, all things considered.

A man with "shoulder pads" and a claymore? Is he a high school football player? (Note the snarky comment about using the words shoulder pads to describe a piece of armor)

By the time he starts talking about the sellswords moving in, it'd be nice to have at least a bread crumb of info about our narrator, since we're going to assume he's at least one of the protagonists of this story.

You give a confusing picture of the narrator's gender. In one passage we assume it's male because of the "my female classmates" statement, but then later in the passage about going to visit the professor of enchanting, it's stated "I was no dedicated enchantress" enchantress is a female variation of an enchanter.

"I hope no small part of me secretly yearned for adventure. To be honest I doubt that interpretation, but if you’d like to go with it I won’t stop you." This section has an error with tense and the second sentence doesn't seem to make sense.

"Whatever the reason, I agreed to go on the quest. My decision received little fanfare; again, everyone was already acting like I’d agreed to go, so actually agreeing didn’t have much impact. I went back to my dorm and packed my things feeling positively happy." This seems like a contradiction. The tone I get from her is that she's not happy, evidence supports from previous sections, at least she's not exactly enthused.

Overall, it's interesting enough to catch attention, although it feels a bit rushed into. There wasn't much insight into the characters to give much comment other than what I've already said. But that might change in later chapters.