Young Writers Society

I hold on tightly to the rock imbedded in the ground as I slip down the hill. My feet stop inches in front of Wold's nose. Oh my...that was close! We are less than a hundred feet from the top of the highest mountain around us; but the ground slopes nearly ninety degrees parallel to the ground miles below us. The climb is treacherous, and if I wouldn't have had my hand on that small rock, I would have fallen to my death, taking Wold with me. I hang on for a few moments before getting back up and crawling up the mountain slope.

"You better be more careful the next time," Wold calls behind me. "You could have killed both of us." I sigh and shake my head before apologizing profusely to her.

"I am so sorry," I begin. "As I grabbed hold of that seedling tree there my hands slid because of the new leaves and I began to fall. But fortunately I had the presence of mind to grab hold of a small rock. I still probably should have been a little bit more careful though." I hang my head in shame; but Wold softens after hearing my explanation and said there was no need to apologize.

"You probably couldn't have done anything to stop yourself. Don't worry about it."

I nod and again start to ascend the rocky crag. By this time I am a dozen yards behind RP. I try to hasten my ascent, but I gain little ground. Every few seconds he will send a miniature avalanche of shale down my way, forcing me to stop until it subsides.

At last I look up and see the crest through blurred vision. But there is also something else. Something strange; it looks to be some foreign object. It is too big to be a bolder. I stop and wait for my vision to clear. When it does I can see the thing more clearly. It emits a large blasting noise similar to a trumpet blast. In an instant Wold is in front of me howling with joy.

"Katya!" I exclaim in awe. "I that really you?" A tone of incredulity rings in my voice. I cannot believe my eyes. To think that she would just appear here out of nowhere after an absence of no less than two and a half days! "I can't believe you are here! How in the world..."

"Hahaha!" Katya laughs. "It is rather a long story. I will tell it to you later; but for now let this suffice: I have been with the author and he gave me a few gifts. For one thing he restored my elephantine memory and for another he gave me instructions one what we should when we're in Telepéthia—" Katya is just about to continue but she is cut off in mid sentence by all three of us who blurted out a torrent of questions for her to answer.

"What are the instructions and where are they?" RP, ever the leader of the party said.

Next I exclaim, "Oh! That's wonderful. Now you will be able to remember everything!"

Finally Wold asks her, "What did you say? What in the whole wide world is Telepéthia?"

"Stop, stop!" Katya exclaims. We all cease talking abruptly. "Alright. First things first. RP, you asked me about the instructions. They are in my brain. Telepthia is this place that we are in right now. It is comprised of two main islands. One has elves, men, and trolls and another has dwarves and haflings."

"Which one are we on right now?" Wold asks. "If we are on the one with dwarves than we'll probably find those dwarves that RP is looking for sooner or later."

"What dwarves are you looking for?" Katya asks flopping her ears to cool herself.

"We were hoping to find some dwarves in the mountains here, but to so far we haven't," RP says. "But that isn't very important right now. Continue."

"Okay," Katya says. "Well to be honest I am not sure. I don't know which is which and as it is we don't even have a map with us to see where we are. I wonder how you knew to come here."

"Actually we do have a map!" I say. "I have it right here. See." I hold the parchment up for her to see. "We are right here. Or at least that is our guess. Since the ocean is to the south of us and there is a pine forest that we were in at one point."

"Cool." Katya says. "My guess is that this is the island with the dwarves and halflings on it. I don't know for sure though. Oh, and there are also dragons living among some mountains on each of the islands. So we might have to be careful!" I shudder. Dragons are dangerous! I am afraid that my little bow won't be much help. I don't really think RP's sword will either.

"What are we supposed to do first?" RP asks. "What was the first instruction that the Author gave you? Should we keep heading west to the sea or should we go somewhere else?"

"We are supposed to head northeast." Katya stated simply. "The Author wouldn't tell me how long we are supposed to go in that direction though he said that we would come to some place by the name of Arsham ruled over by some halfling Paladin. He said that when we came to a town having to do with hight we would find a shop with the name Typo Alley over it! Apparently it has something to do with the Typo Alley that we came from! When we arrive he said we should talk to the owner of the shop I forget what he said after that now. But don't fear! The Author said that I would forget the instructions often along the way."

"Hah! What a cruel trick. It seems like something the author would do." Hmm...it seems as if RP has changed a good deal since we arrived here. Before he was nice, but now he seems to be a little be crude, and more of a leader.

"Well there isn't anything I can do about it." Katya says. "Now come on, let's get moving."

"Hold on a second will you!" Wold exclaims. "We just finished climbing that slope and that is hard enough. I don't feel particularly inclined to go right back down after a few seconds."

"I agree," I say. "We only have hardly had a rest yet today except for a quick lunch around breakfast. Now let's just sit and enjoy the view for a few minutes."

"Of course!" Katya practically shouts. How could I be so foolish. The only thing is I am quite a bit...bigger than all of you...and I don't feel very stable. The thin air is also making me dizzy. We might just want to go down a hundred feet or so to where those boulders are. They are a little bit more...stable than all this shale, if you know what I mean." The rest of us agree.

When we reach the boulders each of us (except of course for Katya) take a seat, or sprawl ourselves out, on one of the more or less flat ones. To the north and south a ridge extends several hundred feet above the other mountains. It is the largest of those all around us. It extends in either direction almost to the end of sight. We are sitting on the tallest part of it. As a result we have an incredible view of the entire region.

Off to the east I can see nothing but a series of humps sticking up marking many of the somewhat smaller mountains. In addition to this there are numerous ravines, gullies, and deep, wide valleys. The sight was almost as beautiful as the one I could see from the pine tree I ascended two or three days before. To be honest I can hardly keep track of what has taken place in the past few day ever since we came to Telptha or whatever this place is called!

I take a sip from my canteen and sigh in pleasure. It tastes so good! I wonder why it is that water always tastes better when you are thirsty and it is cold?

After sitting on the rock and rehydrating (not to mention looking at the scenery) Wold suggests that we get moving. RP readily agrees while I shrug and pick up my pack once again. For once RP doesn't lead the way. It is Katya who steps out in front with RP right behind her. Wold and I stick together in the rear about ten paces behind the rest. I travel with my pack on my back and my bow in hand to steady myself as we walk, or rather crawl, down the steep slope. In nearly half an hour we only make it to the foot of the slope we just ascended, across a bubbling brook about five feet across, and up another steep slope that rise nearly a hundred feet above the creek.

"Where do we head now?" Katya asks when we come to a fork in the path. Wold and I limp up to the crossroads breathing heavily.

"I say that we should turn left here and head north through that patch of woods." RP says. "It looked as if there was a gap in between two hills running east to west just a bit beyond that."

"Aright!" Katya responded energetically. "Well then let's get going." In fact, that is precisely what we do.