They bring the child, a 5 yr old who was also a chosen hero, though she was scared, to the edge of the place where she once called home. But getting in was the problem, there was an evil wizard who kept this place trapped and out of time. And it was time to let everyone into the more peaceful era.
@internutter/challenge-04307-k289-ancient-nightmares -- Anon Guest
Four heroes stood on misty mountain's rise. Five if you counted the dragon doll that was intermittently alive. There was a scar, there, for those who knew how to look. Or, for those like Berrie, who had a magic monocle. A space of the world had been sewn up into a pocket of reality. Only findable by those who knew the trick of it. Only accessible once in a great long while.
Berrie pointed to a specific notch in the rock. "That's where I tripped. I fell in some water and got caught up on a log."
That, and Adventurers mistaking them for a monster, made it a lucky thing that they were still alive. Or, perhaps, fate had plans for them that would not let them die. Yet. Wraithvine had a personal objection to child heroes, but ze had to work with what ze got.
Berrie needed a place to belong that wasn't in Amity's arms or playing Dragons with Gikka. A place to call home, where she wasn't automatically a monster. And that, alas, meant defeating Noxillanimus.
Whose vile lair was just a day's journey away from the scar left by the bryg'haduun. They sheltered in Wraithvine's modest 'tower' that evening. They would find a back way in come the dawn.
Wraithvine did hir best to cook Berrie's favourites. A child that small and young needed emotional fortitude for what was doubtlessly an upcoming trial. One night of comfort and peace before a day likely close to hell.
Wraithvine, Amity, and Gikka would do their best to be sure it wasn't arduous for Berrie, but... they all had their limits.
Amity was built like a brick smokehouse. Stealth was not her forte. She did, however, possess a vicious brutality towards anyone who threatened her baby. The group got pretty far into the lair before the inevitable alarms brought them an army of goons and minions.
Wraithvine, Amity, and Gikka got captured. Berrie, small and using a thousand skills she'd had to learn from avoiding Adventurers, vanished into the crawlspaces and nooks in the stronghold. Not to be seen nor heard until it was too late for Noxillanimus.
Villains, evil overlords, and vile sorcerers all love a chance to monologue.
"I thought Adventurers had given up on attempting to thwart me," crowed Noxillanimus. "I do so love these fruitless visits. You should know that I sealed away my doom so that none there could reach me, let alone harm me." He laughed. "And the great Wraithvine hirself has come here with a teuf and a trash dragon. Too bad you didn't think to gain yourself a child of Tantalyrrus and a gift given them a shadow. Such a thing is impossible. I sealed away Tantalyrrus five thousand years ago."
He was so busy gloating that he never saw Berrie, never noticed Moxie, awake in their tiny arms.
He certainly did notice the gout of dragonfire coming from Moxie. He had just enough time to see the face of a child of Tantalyrrus, bent in an expression of rage and revenge. Just enough time to realise that there was no beating a prophecy of death.
Berrie ran to free their mother first, allowing Amity to tear the ropes from Gikka and Wraithvine alike.
Tantalyrrus was freed from being a bryg'haduun. Emerging into a world finally free of war. A world they could barely recognise, true, but also a world ready to welcome a city of monsters.
[Photo by Oliver Needham on Unsplash]
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