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THE MIDDLE TIMES

AuthorHouse

Contents

The Land Of Ice.................................1Powers That Be..................................31The Sentinel....................................53Guard of Hentår............................71Endearments.....................................93The Pact........................................105Dead Wood.......................................121The Mist........................................129Watchers in the Sky.............................145The Snye........................................157Informal Messages...............................175The Sleeping Truth..............................193The Crown of Shadow.............................215The Tournament..................................229Upon Air & Unexpected Tides.....................249Torrent in the Skies............................265The Gavel of Elrahõn.......................277Of Wings and War................................289Lord and Master of Maximus......................307Erefin the Great................................319The Dracon Agzônth.........................339The Sky Opens...................................357End of an Era...................................377

Chapter One

Out of the fiery depths far beneath the ground, something evil travels through shadow emerging for spreading its darkness and its treacheries upon us!" The Grand Grenelvin Lord Lôfland of Belesdon mumbles uneasily aloud before awakening abruptly from his restless slumber. He rises from his bed and gazes outward from Caisle Loren westerly unto the full moon settling upon the horizon. Far away from the Grenelvin ruler's despairing gaze and the realms of the westerly lands of hughemen growing rampant by the treacherous seeds of conspiring war over succession, Lôfland's grandchildren face a dangerous journey deep beneath the icy cold lands of the far northeast. The family of elves from Grenwood Ford, Ûz-Dum dwarfs' Sir Timlikâdam along with the Pixy Imps Rebo and Botalla with Botalla's yearling Dondar, who was transformed into a Gargorc by the goblin ruler Nifere, are sliding helplessly upon the ride of their lives traveling through an icy underground cavern miles away from their known lands. During the beginning of the ice slide escapade an encounter with the giant poppy flower made everyone fall asleep except Pixy Rebo and Botalla, who seem unaffected by the flower's potent pollen sleepy side affects. Rebo and Botalla cleverly use Dondar's claws against the sides of the ice tunnel for slowing their periling speed thus keeping the others atop the animal pelt for protecting their skin from the harshly cold ice. The ice shavings fly back through the icy tunnel behind the group as Rebo struggles holding Dondar's claws against the sides of the ice tunnel.

"Botalla, I do not know how much longer I can keep doing this."

"Please keep trying Rebo. It is not the first time the tunnel's design caused an increase in our speed." Botalla bravely coaxes also tiring from the latest need to slow their speed down. "At least the ride is smooth and straight now. We seemingly passed the sharp abrupt turns."

Rebo sighs exhaustedly. "I understand Botalla. It only takes one abrupt turn if we gain too much speed and off someone goes from the pelt." He watches the ice shavings fly away from his grip upon Dondar's hand and disappear in the darkness of the tunnel behind them.

Suddenly, the ice slide escapade ends with a sudden bump at the end of the path propelling everyone out of the tunnel's mouth out across an icy floor in the middle of an unbelievable grand icy chamber. The wild ride ends as everyone stricken by sleep lies scattered about the ice chamber's floor no longer protected by the cold resistant wooly animal pelt. Dondar slowly spins to a stop upon the icy floor. Botalla release her grasp of Dondar's chest and sighs heavily. "Oh, I am so glad that ride is over Rebo." Exhausted, she exhales deeply and collapses on top of Dondar.

Rebo quickly releases Dondar's forearm, stands atop Dondar's chest and gazes around the spectacular ice chamber. Illuminated by a single blue flame the ice creates a magical wonderland unseen by many eyes especially his. "What a wondrous place Botalla." He steps off Dondar and nearly loses his footing upon the icy floor but cleverly manages extending his wings to lift off the ice floor with one quick flap. He zings upward marveling at the ice formations as Botalla whispers for him to return below. Rebo nears the very distant high ceiling and spies many jagged and deadly looking ice formations pointing directly downward at the chamber's floor. "Oh, these ice dangling spears cannot be good, not at all." He whispers silently while noticing the sound of his reverberating wings growing louder as he ascends to the highest point of the ceiling. The jagged icicles vibrate worrying him so he descends down to two icy ledges below him to his left. He passes the highest ledge and hovers over the lowest ledge. The reverberation of his wings seems less here. Hovering over the lowest ledge, he discovers a very tall door that seems made entirely of ice bearing a marking or symbol. He flies back up to the highest ledge and discovers two more tall ice doors side by side. Rebo tries landing on the ledge for investigating, but his landing momentum makes him slip and slide past the two icy doors altogether eventually sailing off the other side of the ledge back into the air. Rebo shoots off the ledge and drops quite rapidly. Whimsically, he skillfully regains his flight and swoops down towards Botalla. He notices the worried expression on Botalla's face as she weeps over Dondar's limp body as he lands upon the ice floor and slides or crashes as the case may be into Dondar. Rebo bounces off and backwards but catches Dondar's wings stopping his slide. Finally standing upright, he lays Dondar's wing down upon the ice floor while remembering how strange his silhouette looked from up above. A little frail Pixy weeping atop a larger grey flying Gargorc whose wings spread outward as if lying there dead. Rebo courageously smiles across at Botalla.

Botalla, with her large sad eyes looks over at her yearling Rebo. She shakes her head nervously as her eyes' tear. Slowly she confesses her fears. "I cannot wake Dondar. It has been many hours. Why will they not wake up?" She fights back her tears staring across at the others lying scattered about the room upon the frigid ice floor. "Rebo, we must wake them somehow. We must! They will freeze lying upon this cold icy floor."

Saddened by Botalla's expression of dread, Rebo helplessly nods. "Their skin is not like ours. Their skins are soft and fragile." The chilly air of the cavern makes his breath visible. "Do you see our breaths Botalla? It is just cold enough in here to make our breath visible. Botalla, I noticed danger above on the ceiling."

Botalla stares up at the ceiling. "It appears like the ceiling is covered by daggers of ice!" She glances worriedly around at the others upon the floor. "Our kind does not travel to such places as we are in now Rebo. No flowers bloom this far north in the snow bound fields. The dangers here are different, perhaps the predators are also, so best we keep a sharp listen for odd sounds."

Rebo nods and agrees. He practices blowing his breath out from his mouth. "This is fun seeing my breath. I never thought about it before. It seems like I am blowing...