Typo Alley~F Part One

"Come in, come in!" the dwarf says. I enter the dark tunnel and watch nervously as Aiey closes the door. I only just met her a few days before. She seems friendly enough but I don't know.

"Why have you brought me here?" I ask when we arrive in a spacious room carved out of the ground. There is a table in the middle of the room with a map and a few other articles on it. Around it are seated several other people of various races. There is an old man, a hobbit, and a Mage. I can tell this by the distinctive band that that he is wearing around his head. It has a sapphire set in the front of it.

"We are trying to get to the bottom of the raids on Hybury, the village that we are sitting under right now. Ordinarily we don't work with Hobbits because most of the trouble that they have is minor, but today we are dealing with something far more dangerous than the Hobbits, or even you can imagine. Even we can't deal with the it, but we are going to do everything that we can. I hope it is enough.

"But come, I am being rude. This hobbit is a very wise person. He may not look if, but he he is quite wise and quite old. He is one of the most unusual among us. Then again the Author doesn't choose people who seems likely to be able to be useful to us."

"The Author?! How do you know him. We were sent by him into this world. That doesn't really matter much now though. We lost our companion, Katya. She was the one who had the instructions for us from the Author."

"What? How did that happen? I can't believe that. AnInstruction Typo has never been killed before. They have died of natural causes, but never been killed."

"She was shot with an arrow. We were spotted by a knight with several followers."

"That is unfortunate. I think that I know what your quest should have been. You were obviously meant to come here and meet us. I will let my companions explain the situation to you. Their names are Borin the wise, Wet the ancientest hobbit, and Cros the Mage."

"Greetings," Bornin, the old man says. "I am sorry to hear about the loss of a fellow Typo, but I am afraid that it is not prudent to dwell on such matters. Not only would that be hard for you to converse without bringing much sadness, but it would frankly be a waste of time. I am afraid that we have little time for recriminations. This is not the for vane speech. We have a plan to make. Our first order of business will be to inform you of the situation at present. I regret to admit that even right now we have little time to educate you about what is going on, but I will do my job to the best of my ability.

"Now, about seven months ago we were on our way south and west. We had just finished a visit to Aiey's homeland. We had no clue as to what was about to occur. We hoped to travel to the Kingdom of Gothriande. We have used it as our headquarters for a number of years. However, before we entered Gothriande we sojourned in Hybury. During this two week period we discovered that all was not well here. The villagers had no idea that trouble was brewing, but we stumbled upon a group of raiders in the area. We soon lost track of them however.

"Subsequently we continued on our journey to Gothriande. There we regrouped and formulated a plan of action. That was the last time that Aiey heard from the Author until just today when she was told about you. The Author was vague as usual, but we soon found out the we needed to head back toward the mountains and to Wet's home.

"After that we laid low for a long while. It took us a long time to get back on the trail. I regret to say that we didn't do a very good job. About three months ago the raids started. We didn't see them as being very significant, but we did try to take action to try to stop the raids. Only one person was killed in the first raid. After that the killing virtually ceased. We suspected that one of the hobbits went missing, but we can't be sure. If this is the case then the raiders did a superb job of framing it to look like an accident.

"After we tracked down the raiders again we began to monitor their activity, whenever we deduced that they were going to strike we made an attempt to prevent them. Most of our actions were and still are indirect. Within the past month there has hardly been a raid. We were easily able to thwart it.

"Now, this is when I come to the important part of our escapade. We were constantly monitoring the enemy camp, but most of the time there was little activity. We were unable to find out anything more than a few snitches of conversation. Eventually we stopped trying to get into the enemy camp. Now, about two weeks ago we observed a party of three men come into the camp. We immediately grew more alert and attempted to ascertain the purpose of their arrival, though we had no idea how fatal our discovery would be.

"A day later Aiey discovered that they had had come from the west by following their tracks. Our final discovery occurred when Wet snuck into the camp at night and discovered several folders of paper that contained invaluable information. Over the course of the next few nights we were able to copy the information and piece it together.

"Our final, conclusive decision was that the leader behind the gang is a dragon. The dragon's origin is unknown, but we found that it is currently residing on an island. We aren't sure which island it is, but we have a general idea. What threw us off for a time was that they kept referring to someone named Chaise. We eventually deduced that Chaise is the name of the dragon. That is where we stand at present.

"My opinion is that the situation bleak. But I think that is a good sign that we have three more typos to help us. One Typo that we had as a companions was killed by an orc band. The chief stabbed him with a spear and then finished him off with his axe. His name was Bruce. He was an Elf. I think that it is a common thread four teams of four Typos to be sent out. At some point along the way one of them seems to die. It is a strange thing. Then again the Author and everything around him is rather strange."

"Yes, what Borin says is true," Wet says. "I have been working tirelessly to try and figure out what those raiders are trying to do. I was successful in finding out where the men came from which eventually led to the discovery of the dragon, Chaise. I didn't know at the time who chase was. I left that to Cros."

I look over at Cros, the Mage. I got the impression at first that he was sort of old, but now upon closer examination it looks like he is in his forties. He has a hint of youth about him, despite his gray hair. Up until now he hasn't said anything. I can't help but wonder why he hasn't spoken yet.

When he is addressed he sit up in his chair laying his hands on the armrests and clears his throat. "I am perhaps the most abstract member of this group, or rather team," he begins, taking a number of pauses as he begins to speak. "I never really do much fighting, though I do know a little magic, but Mage is more of a title. You need only use it for a formal occasions unless your speech is more sophisticated. In that case I am a very poor judge of people indeed.

"Now, to the address the thing I first brought up I must say that I don't really do much fighting, but I do enjoy getting intelligence. This is a job that many people would find boring and tedious, but one that I myself enjoy a great deal. It is my pleasure to wade through history books filled with genealogies of insignificant nobles and long lists of kings and officials. I have even come across detailed accounts of what has happened at feast hundreds of years ago. Mind you, these records are only for things like coronations of the most famous kings, but they are still tedious.

"But seeing as I begin to bore you with minor details I will get to the next thing I have to say. It regards the apex of my search for who Chaise is. The way I found out about it was by looking in the Library of Dragons. It is not, as you ah expect, in Gothriande, but in Zarukthûnd. That is a hidden dwarf kingdom on the eastern sided of the mountain range you came from. I didn't really expect to find anything there, but I had a book that I wanted to read that could only be found there. I nearly forgot about it amid all the other research, but I eventually rediscovered it and began reading it. I found a mention of a dragon named Chaise. It is an unusual name for a dragon so my curiosity was aroused. It was this that led me back to the library where I asked the clerks about it. They directed me to a Dragon loremaster."

"This is the point when the story becomes interesting. So, went to this man's house but he was not home. I was directed to a shop where he lived. I expected my stop to be short, but it was anything but. At this time it is key to remember that I had no idea about the raids in Arsham so I wasn't looking to discover anything interesting aside from why the dragon had a name like that. It was very unusual, you see. As I was talking to him I was interested by what he said. Most interesting thing that I heard from him was that Chaise was and still now is the most powerful dragon on the face of the earth, at least so far as influence goes.

"After this I forgot about the incident because the dragon was reported to be on an island in the ocean. Many months past until at length we returned to Arsham under the direction of the Author. When we discovered the note we were very alarmed of course and we were trying hot thing of any gorilla leaders on the continent that we heard of that went by the name Chaise but we could think of none. I began researching the subject extensively which required a great deal of traveling to do. All this took time. We were fools. I curse my memory now.

"Finally I thought of the dragon named Chaise! I was in s small town in Gothriande then, but I sent a pigeon with a note about the matter back to my friends here. Still though, even when I returned here my friends rejected the idea that there was any connection between the two since dragons don't use humans as their servants or even their slaves. Only a Dragon Master can tame a dragon, you there were no known Masters alive at the time. The facts didn't line up. That wast the long and short of it.

"The last episode began when we finally concluded that there were only two gang leaders of any consequence within two hundred miles and neither of them lined up. We were faced with only one option. We had to accept the fact that perhaps there was a Dragon Master. In that case he or she could control a dragon and gather an army of men. This was a frightening prospect, but it is the only logical conclusion.

"That brings us to the present day. The facts are not pleasant, but as the others have said, your arrival here in the Story World is encouraging. I only wish that the facts were not nearly as bleak as they are right now. I will try to make every effort that I can to make you feel comfortable, but right now it is a time for planning so there is room for comfort. Later on you shall need to be tough and strong. We have a momentous task that has been handed down to us by the Author himself. It will take a lot of effort to carry it out, and it isn't likely that it will be accomplished in my time, or perhaps even in your time, but I just want to make sure that you are prepared for the days to come for I perceive that you do not particularly like hard work."

"What do you mean. How could you know that I don't like hard work? What are you, a seer?"

"As a matter of fact I am. Would you care for me to recite the method in which I became a magician and the type of magic that I use or not?"

"Not particularly. I don't like magic. It seems too easy to use against an enemy I think it is the lazy man's way of fighting and doing simple tasks." As soon as I stop talking I realize the folly in my statement. I might as well have deliberately stepped on a hornets nest!

"Precisely! Which is why you should learn about it." Here we go! "It is quite evident that you have no knowledge of magic at all. If you did you would know that by using magic you have to expend a good deal of energy and thus it is just as hard, if not harder to win a duel using magic than not. In fact it is probably a good deal harder. Now if you care to learn magic well then it is more than worth it. It certainly gives you an advantage over opponents who don't know how to use it. The danger in it its that it can only be used sparingly and you better know what you are doing or else you might try to do something brash and end up getting yourself killed. Another thing that you need to note is that the more experience you are with it, the easier certain magic becomes.

"There are a few basic types of magic. The first type of magic is Basic Magic. It is raw and unharnessed so ordinary humans cannot use it. The advantage to it is that you don't run out of it like wand magic which depends on the power of the wand that you at using. The major disadvantage is of course that humans can't use and and even other being who are trained to use it become exhausted pretty quickly. The second is Wand Magic. It is essentially deriving magical power through the medium of a wand. It is very easy to use. Another manifestation of it is a wizard's staff. I think that it is the best to use to start off with. It is simple enough and you don't have to memorize any spells. Thirdly there is spell magic. It is a type of magic that is pretty well organized, but you have to be very well educated to use it and you have to be gifted with a good memory. It is the one where the most mistakes are made. You are also limited in what you can do. You have to rely on your physical strength to use it you have to know how much you can do and what spells are the most effective it is an art unlike wand magic where you can just say voila and what you want to happen takes place.

"Cros, I think that is enough. We all know that you are fond of rambling, but we need to get to planning now," Aiey says.

"Of course," he says nodding in agreement.