The Magical Quest (Part 2)
Finding Imoen wouldn't be as easy as finding Neriak, Halas knew this.
And though she was determined to defeat Rallos, she kept thinking
that this was only the beginning of her journey and began to wonder if
she would ever make it. "You? You wouldn't last..." Neriak's words
echoed in her ears. 'What if I don't make it?' she thought. 'What if
Tunaria falls beneath Rallos? What if...' Halas decided not to drown
herself in these optimistic thoughts. And before long, she realized
that she stood in an open clearing, the one Neriak had spoke about.
Halas whipped around looking for the centaur, but had no luck. 'Where
is it?' wondered Halas, getting quite upset. She plopped down on the
grass, weeping. "Now I'll never make it," she said to herself through
tears.
"Do not weep,
Do not cry,
The magic centaur
is near by." sang a cheery little voice.
"Who said that?" said Halas, whiping away the tears.
"Who spoke?
It was I
When I heard
your somber cry." again the little voice sang out his reply. By now
Halas was getting to her feet.
"Tell me then," she said, "Has Rallos been this way?"
"Yes, my child,
He has come,
Taken all of them,
Everyone." the little voice chirped. Then Halas saw it. It was a
lovely finch, perched high up in a tree.
"Hurry, girl,
Be quick do not stay,
For Rallos and his men,
are coming this way!" Sang out the little bird. Before Halas could
hide, Rallos and his men came towards the clearing.
"So, you plan to overthrow me?" said Rallos in a cold voice, so cold
and horrid that Halas was frozen in place. Her largest fears seemed to
stand right in front of her, all of them, here, now. After taking long,
terrifying glances at Rallos, Halas let her eyes wonder to one of his
awful looking creatures, half man half octopus. Then her eyes fell
upon the struggling buddle and it's feet: it was Neriak. They had
captured him! Halas curled up her fists, this was too much.
"You will never rule over Tunaria." said Halas bravely. Any one would
have to be to hang around Rallos longer than wanted.
"What?" he said, fire rising in his eyes. "I WILL be leader!" He
cried, which shook the forrest. Then he leaned in close to Halas and
whispered, "And you, tyrant, will be the first to go..." Halas tried
to look brave, but even a fool could she that she shook form fear.
"Bag her!" Rallos ordered, and try as she might, Halas could not
escape the octopus-man's grasp as he wrapped her up and her had
Neriak. For that instant Halas wanted to be anything but a hero,
because she knew that all she was headed for was trouble.
Finally, after a lonf bumpy ride, they took Halas out of the bag
and loaded her onto a boat. Observing carefully, Halas quickly
noticed that Rallos wasn't in sight, but Neriak was sitting opposite
her, on the other side of the boat. The octopus-man tied her hands
beind her back and sat her down on the boat and ordered the other
creatures to row off the shore. They started moving.
"Where are you taking us?" asked Halas, yet again bravely. The
laughed loudly, and then the octopus-man spoke, "To the Black Isle."
'To the Black Isle.' Halas had heard of this place. It was where
Rallos used to, well now does rule. It was said to lie out north of
Tunaria, in the Sea of Darkness. Halas knew that it was on that isle
that Rallos's dark castle stood. What else was there, she did not
know. But by the looks of these creatures, Halas didn't want to book
any trips there.
After much rowing and shouting, a large island could be seen in the
distance. "The Black Isle," Halas mumbled to herself. It was rather
large. Feeling quite uncomfortable, Halas tried to shift her hands in
a different position, but all that did was tighten the rope and scape
it against her soft, delicate wrists. She looked over her shoulder to
see how they were tied, but it was not use. She knew nothing about
how to untie ropes, let alone unting them when they're beind your
back.
Then the boat stopped with a jerk. And the strange men scarmbled
off, dragging Halas and Neriak behind them. They each let out cries
of pain, as their backs and sides hit the hard earth, and no doubt
left many scarrs and brusies. Although the cries were very loud, they
were ignored. When they had walked about twenty feet, the men stopped
and pulled Halas and Neriak to their feet and beofre them stood the
largest, most dark building Halas had ever seen. She could only stare
at it for a momen, however, because the men quickly pulled them inside.
Unsurprisingly, the inside was just as big, the ceiling reaching up
for several feet. There wasn't much in the first room, just a black
carpet leading to a massive throne and one or two long tables on the
sides, but the creatures took them off to the west of that and threw
them down into a dark, slimy room, which Halas immediatly thought was
the dungeon. They then untied the rope, the shut the large door behind
them. There was only one lit toarch, the others must have gone out,
due to how cold it was. Halas hugged Neriak and thanked God that
they were both alive, and together. They didn't see any other
life, but as they looked behind them, a long hallway extended, so long
that the end looked like only a little black spot. And sounds seemed
to come from there, so Neriak and Halas thought it wise to sleep in
the first room for tonight, and explore the rest tommorrow. After all,
they would probably be staying for a while.
