Reaver

Chapter Five

The rush of bitter cold mist rose up from the edge of the waterfall's bejeweled pool as I stepped forward and looked around with a wary eye.

The great pool before me started aqua at the edges only to grow to a deeper azure in its deep depths. Smooth gems surrounded the edges in a rainbow of colors, each seeming to faintly give off a light from its center.

Mana stones whispered my inner self.

This was the second step of the trials placed before me, but why in this mystic place did the feeling of evil permeate the air?

It came in thick rolling waves, seeping into the air like a poison.

Inhaling deeply, I gagged at the heavy stink of free magic that rolled over my tongue. There was something wrong here and it made my scales curl at the thought of what it could be.

Beside Olc magic the Black Bloods practice, as forbidden as it was, free magic was much, much worse and was the sole bane of all natural magic in the world. It corroded the users soul and body when used. Tarnished the very earth beneath ones feet until it could never be saved. There was no cure to anything touched by free magic.

I was rarely afraid, but I did not want to face what was within the cave ahead under the waterfalls. It was ancient and more powerful than anything I have ever come across in my life.

Those two things never went well together very well I had learned recently.

"He awaits within...has waited eons for this moment, go to him, fair queen," whispered the Mysts surrounding me.

Stealing myself against what was to come I stepped forward cautiously into the warm pool of water for there was no other way to get to the cave I knew that laid beyond its falls.

Warm water caressed my calves with each step I to forward. Each ripple against a leg gave a gentle jolt of magic from the mana stones beneath me feet, steeling me against the nauseating whiff of free magic that grew stronger.

Suddenly the moment my feet touched deeper in the water my entire body shook as the power was drained from me and enchantment with its bright rings binding around my body.

It was like I had been struck by lightning.

"What the-!" before I could finish my word, a spell was cast, and my bare self was dumped ungracefully into the deepening water of the pool.

Smoothing wet hair from my face in an angry swipe, I growled at the giggle that echoed hollowly in the distance.

Do not get mad, control it. You know that you can. Gritting my teeth I stood slowly on shaky mortal legs, no longer a dragon, who had not bared such weight in a while.

Being unsteady was not a feeling I relished. Shaking some of the water off of my body I looked around for something that could be used as clothing. Finding nothing suitable I stepped out of the pool cautiously and was once again flushed with power as the enchantment was reversed.

Smirking suddenly as I know knew it was a boundary enchantment.

I conjured a long fine tunic and sat at the edge of shore to catch my barings before stepping back into the water.

However, as I reached for the tunic it could not cross the water so I could put in on.

I looked at it disbelieving.

"Really? Double damn it!" I smacked the water and started to trod toward the shore on the other side where a stone slab stuck out next to the waterfall, almost like a basking stone.

All my weariness faded the deeper the water beneath me became, but the stench of free magic drew worse as I finally reached the edge of the stone slab.