We rode for a couple of hours, Brienna ahead of us in the darkness, the sound of her horse’s hooves scraping the hard dirt the only sign of her. I wondered if she was scared in the darkness but then realized she wasn’t. I don’t think she was scared of anything. Then I wondered if she even could be. Was she real? Or was she programmed to have this personality? Did she think and feel or was she a robot? I wondered if any of them were real. This was all so confusing.

Leomorn,Varris, and I rode together and I wondered about them as well. Did they have a backstory? Was it all just preprogrammed script? Maybe it didn’t matter. I just wanted to go home.

“Won’t the King be worried about her?” I asked Leomorn as we rode along. “Won’t he send his men to look for her?”

“He knows she was going to come with us,” Leomorn said.

“What? He let her come.”

Leomorn gave me a sly look. “I didn’t say he let her come, just that he knew she would. He knows his daughter. Headstrong and relentless. She has a mind of her own. He will let her accompany us. If things get too dangerous for her I will send word to him.”

We rode on, the darkness surrounding us, the sound of owls and scurrying critters just off the road all around us. I’d never been a fan of the dark, but knowing an undead skeleton, or something worse, could pop up at any moment made a chill crawl down my spine. Finally, after what seemed like years since my butt had gone numb from the saddle, we got to a small village with a Main Street that had houses and buildings on each side that looked like something that would have been built in Europe during the middle ages.

We all four tied our horses to a pole in front of one of the buildings. It had torches lit on the wooden porch that fronted it and there was a cacophony of shouts and calls you’d associate with a drunken party coming from behind the windows. “Are the horses going to be ok here?” I asked Leomorn.

“They’ll be fine. When we need them, they will come if we call.”

I bet they would.

We went inside the building, the sign out front had an outline of a woman with horns protruding from her head. She was holding a beer mug up, wooden liquid falling into her mouth. The Devil’s Wench. I wondered why this was the next step in the main quest.

Inside it was dimly lit with candles and oil lamps burning sporadically throughout. It smelled like stale beer and moldy bread and other things that were probably not very hygienic.

I looked around and it seemed to be standing room only. There were people everywhere. No one seemed to care that four more had joined the party.

Varris motioned and said, “Follow me, I see an old friend.”

We pushed through the crowd and made our way to the back of the room. The whole place would have been small and cramped with only a few people inside but there were so many that it was hard to get through.

Varris led us to a table with a few men sitting at it and no room for us to sit down. He leaned into Leomorn and said something and Leomorn made a face like he’d been told something ridiculous. Which I’m sure whatever Varris had said had been.

Varris gestured with his hands and Leomorn grudgingly pulled some coins from his pocket. One by one the men at the table got up and took a coin from Leomorn, except for one. We sat down in the now-empty spaces.

Varris made our introductions to the man who had kept his seat. “Everyone this is Farmar. Farmar this is everyone.”

The man was a dwarf, like Varris, only not as handsome or clean-shaven. He had a bushy beard and thick eyebrows, and I couldn’t quite tell where his nose hair stopped and his mustache started.

“Pleased to meet you, everyone,” the man named Farmar said. “What brings you out on a night such as this?”

If it seemed strange Varris was traveling with a party of humans, no one noticed it.

“Did you hear about the attack?” Varris asked, peeling off a piece of bread from a loaf that I was sure I saw mold on.

“Which one?” Farmar said. “The dragon or the army of the undead? The attack on the humans or the attack on the elves?”

Leomorn said, “The elves were attacked?”

Farmar nodded. “Think everyone’s heard about it. That’s why the place is busy. Everyone getting drunk before the world ends.” He slapped Varris gleefully on the back and took a long swig from a mug he was holding.

“Who, or what attacked the elves?” Leomorn asked. “Was it dragons?”

“Aye,” Farmar said. “Heard it was two of ‘em. And there was a man riding one of them.” Farmar took a long pull of his beer, leaving the froth all in his mustache and beard. His face got heavy and the joy went out of his eyes. “The Dragon Mage has returned.”

Brienna scoffed. “How would this drunken fool know anything about any of that?” Farmar shrugged as if Brienna’s opinion on the quality of his information couldn’t matter any less to him.

“He knows,” Varris said.

“How would he?” Brienna demanded.

Leomorn put his hand on hers. “If Farmar says the elves were attacked, then they were. If he says the Dragon Mage has returned, then he has. That would be the answer to a lot of questions.”

I kind of agreed with her. “Ok, but who is this Dragon Mage?” Gary’s book had said something about all of this but I needed to figure out what to do next and how to do it. If there was some guy riding dragons and attacking cities and castles that seemed like the place to start.

Leomorn said, “The Dragon Mage is someone like you. An heir to the Mages of old.”

Farmar raised an eyebrow at me and Varris nodded and waved his thumb at me like I was the winner of a million-dollar prize.

Leomorn continued. “We need to find out who the Dragon Mage is and what he’s up to.”

Farmar said, “Well, whoever he is he obviously wants the staff.”

Leomorn nodded solemnly. I had no idea what they were talking about.

Farmar cast a side-eye to Varris, “And the orb.”

Varris took a drink of a beer that had been left on the table. “Let him have it I say.”

“Please explain this all to me,” I said. “Who is this Dragon Mage and what does he want? A staff? What about the orb?”

Everyone at the table shushed me. “Not too loud,” Leomorn whispered. “Don’t mention the Orb. It’s a sensitive subject.”

“One that can get you killed,” Varris said.

Something I wanted to avoid.

Leomorn looked around the room to make sure no one was listening. I don’t think anyone not sitting next to us could have heard anything over the crowd noise. Then he told me the story.

In the past; 1000 years or so ago, there had been dragons in this world. They weren’t benevolent or malevolent; just regular wild animals that could fly, breathe fire and ate their steaks still mooing. Men put up with them like they did any predator, especially ones that could burn them to a crisp. They killed a few here and there, and of course, dragons killed men, but I got the feeling it was about how people in the real world felt about sharks. Don’t try to pet them and you’ll probably be ok. But of course, that changed. One day, a young mage decided that wasn’t good enough. This young man was studying to be a powerful mage at basically this world’s version of Hogwarts. Only this version of Hogwarts didn’t play around. They took their magic seriously here. This young man was cast out of the Mage College for dabbling in the “dark arts” as Leomorn put it. I had no idea what that meant, but figure it didn’t matter since this was all just backstory for the game. So the college kicked him out and what does one do when they get kicked out of college besides drinking oneself into oblivion? Well obviously after that then you have to take revenge. So that’s what this guy did.

The mage studied dark magic for years after that. He studied under others who had been cast out or cast aside by the wizarding community. He became proficient in dark magic. Then he decided he needed the dragons to conquer the world.

No one knew much about the dragons. Just that they seemed to live in the mountains. So the Dark Mage went into the mountains. And for years no one saw him.

Until he came down… Riding a dragon.

The Dragon Mage, as he was now known, had tamed the dragons with an orb he had stolen from deep in the mountain. One that the dragons got their lives and power from. How and where he’d gotten it from were a mystery.

But he still wasn’t the most powerful being in the world. Not yet.

The Elves had magic, too. And they tried to stop him. Then, using the dragons, he attacked the elves and stole a powerful staff. Their most powerful. And with those two magical items, he was more powerful than anyone else.

He flew on his dragon and attacked the Mage College. He killed all the Mages. Then he conquered army after army and kingdom after kingdom. Till there were only three kingdoms left. One human, King Marvick’s ancestor. One Elvish. And one Dwarven.

The three kingdoms stood together for one last stand. They knew they were going to be wiped out completely.

But another Mage showed up. A powerful Mage who had been the Dragon Mage’s tutor. The man who had banished him. He’d been the only survivor of the attack on the Mage’s college. The legend was he crawled out of the wreckage of the College and walked to the battle. Tough dude.

The battle commenced. Men, dwarves, elves, dragons, and the undead army the Dragon Mage had raised all fell during the battle.

The Mage and the Dragon Mage fought hard, their spells killing and destroying. But finally, the Mage drove the Dragon Mage into the mountains. No one knows what truly happened up there. But there was an eruption. A massive volcano rained lava and ash and fire down on the valleys below.

And no one ever saw a dragon again.

And then I showed up. And the dragon right behind me. All part of the game. I just needed to figure out a way home.

All of this seemed pretty intense. But I guessed that was the point. The game was written to make the player really feel all the emotions of being in this world. And with Leomorn leaning in and whispering this story to me, I felt it.

When he was done we sat there solemnly.

“Wait,” I said. “So the Dragon Mage is back? But who is it?”

They all shrugged. “We need to find out,” Leomorn said. “It takes dark magic to rule over a dragon and lots of it. We must travel to Aerilon. To the Mage’s College. They will know who this dark mage is.”

So another step forward then. Find the new Dragon Mage, figure out how to stop him. But how?

“What then?” I asked Leomorn.

“After we find out who he is we will travel to the Elven city of Felranlon. They have the staff.”

Varris laughed. “And what will we do there? The elves are perfectly capable of defending themselves.”

“We’ll ask them for the staff,” Leomorn said.

Varris and Farmar both laughed this time.

“And you think Rhothomir will just give it to you, old man. A human.”

Leomorn stared at Varris. “We have the Mage’s heir. The one who can use the Orb and Staff together to defeat the Dragon Mage.”

Varris was still chuckling. “Look, no offense, Leo. I saw the kid shoot the dragon. Hell of shot. But most of that was blind luck.” He turned to me, “No offense kid, but you don’t seem like someone that could take down the Dragon Mage.”

“None taken.”

Leomorn said, “He is the Mage’s heir. He can use the orb and staff to defeat the Dragon Mage. If not then what is our alternative? Sit here and get drunk?”

Varris took a huge gulp of the beer. “Seems like a good idea to me.”

“That’s your anger at your father talking,” Leomorn said.

Varris sighed. “You’re probably right. Oh and speaking of that bastard, do you think he’ll just hand the Orb over to you, Leo. A human?”

“I’ve known your father for a long time, Varris. He will understand the time has come to act.”

“I doubt that,” Varris said.

I had to admit I was a bit lost. Varris’s father had the Orb.

“Wait,” I said. “Just so I’m getting this straight. We need to get the staff and the orb from people who won’t give it to us, then use them to defeat the Dragon Mage?”

“Yes,” Varris said. “And they’re as likely to give it to you as they are to whoever this Dragon Mage is, no matter how nicely you ask. Which means, they won’t give it to you or anyone else, no matter what.”

“But why do the Elves have the Staff and your father, whoever he is, have the Orb.”

Farmar’s mouth fell open. “You mean you don’t know who this is?” he asked me gesturing to Varris.

I shook my head.

“Don’t,” Varris said and took a sip of beer.

“This here is the youngest son of King Vordroth Grimhorn,” Farmar said. “The king of the dwarves.”

I made an I’m impressed face. Varris shook his head. “Ex-son if you ask him.”

I looked at Leomorn. “And the King was going to have him hung? Wouldn’t that have been, like, a big problem. Hanging a prince?”

“That was Morivant’s and Erick’s doing. But luckily it didn’t happen,” Leomorn said.

You could say that again.

Varris said, “I’m not a prince.” Dwarves don’t have princes’. My brother is heir to the throne and that’s the end of it.”

“So couldn’t you just ask your dad to give us the Orb?” I asked Varris.

He laughed so loud people looked our way to see what was so funny.

When he stopped laughing he said, “Look, kid. You may not know this but Dwarves and Elves hate humans. In fact, they hate each other too but that’s a different story. But more than they hate each other, they really hate men. Those two Mages, the original Dragon Mage and the Mage that stopped him were human. The Dwarves and Elves didn’t really appreciate the whole try and conquer the world fiasco. So when it was all finished, the Dwarves took the Orb and buried it deep in the mountain where no human would ever find it, and the Elves took their staff and locked it away where no human would ever find it. And, since Dwarves don’t use magic, and Elves have their own, you can guarantee this new Dragon Mage is very human. And you look human, too. So no, they’re not just going to give you the Orb or the Staff. No matter how nicely Leo askes for them.”

Varris took a big sip of beer, then when the cup was empty he took another from the table that the men who’d been here before us had left.

“And another thing,” he continued. “As far as I know we can’t even touch the Orb or the Staff without getting burned alive or something like that.”

Leomorn nodded. “That’s right. Only an heir of the Mage who defeated the Dragon Mage can touch the Orb.

“I could,” Brienna said. “I think Varris is right. We don’t need the boy.”

Boy? I was as old as she was. Oh, and I was real. So why was I “boy”?

Leomorn spoke softly to her. “We’ve been through this. It has to be the heir of the Mage.”

Brienna huffed at him and got up from the table and stormed out. Or tried to but it was made difficult by the crowd. She stormed off as best she could with a bunch of people in her way.

“Just great,” I said. “I’ve got to defeat a Dragon Mage and I’ve never even been in a fight. Well, except for today. With the skeletons. That was my first fight.” I’d been surprised I hadn’t been killed. I was wondering if that streak was going to continue.