The Dim Light

Chapters

The Day I Saw a God's Smile
Land of Ash, Heart of Gold
The Desolate Realm, the Ruined City

The Day I Saw a God's Smile

Chapter 1

“Son, hurry up, it’s time to go to church!” Dad shouted from downstairs, his voice brisk and anxious. “Aren’t you ready yet?”

“I don’t really want to go today dad. I’ll do my prayers tonight, okay?” I called back from my room, yawning and pulling on my trousers and T-shirt. “I don’t think I’ll be struck down if I happened to miss just one day.”

I could hear my dad about ready to shout at me, but my mother’s voice beat him to it. “Honey, just let him have the one day off.” After a few moments my Dad grunted in response and shortly afterwards the door slammed shut.

I put my belt through the loops and tightened it, then flopped back onto my bed. There was a whole day to work with, but what to do? I hadn’t skipped church before, but I knew that there were quite a lot of shops still open. Maybe the shopping mall would be worth my time?

Reaching into my pocket, I quickly grabbed my cell phone, flipping it open. After fiddling with the buttons, I pressed call and placed it next to my ear, waiting for someone to pick up the other end.

*Ring*Ring*Ring*Ring*Ri*“Hi there, it’s Tamara, who’s calling.” came a feminine voice over the line.

“Hey there Tamara, it’s Aramil.”

“Aramil, what’re you calling for right before church?” A feminine voice said, the tone quiet and almost secretive.

“I’m not going to church today. I wanted to know, do you want to hang out at the mall?” I asked, rubbing the back of my head with my empty left hand.

“Do you happen to have a cast-iron explanation for how my immortal soul won’t go to hell if I miss church?”

“Well no but...”

“Then it’s a no. Sorry, but you’re going alone today, like it or not,” she muttered, punctuating the last four words with healthy patches of silence, then hung up on me.

“Well then, I guess that went smoothly,” I sighed, flipping my phone shut and tucking it into my pocket. Truth be told, I can’t really say I expected anything better than that anyways. She’d always been extremely strict on the topic of church. Then again, so was I usually, but for some reason that I can’t even begin to explain, I felt like going to church was somehow counterproductive to my faith. Crazy I know, but it just felt right.

I continued to lie on my bed for a while, pondering what I would do. Go to my friend’s house? No, they’d all be at church. Play a few video games? Once again no, I’d rather do homework, sad that I don’t have any. Go to the mall? You know, I guess that it wouldn’t hurt if I went there. Sure I’d be a peculiar customer, but they could handle that. So with a plan in hand I stood up, grabbed my wallet and jacket, and left the house.

The bus started to roll away from the stop, leaving me and a couple of Goths on the malls walkway. I just walked over to the mall, the Goths sticking next to me. They were dressed to the hilt in patchwork clothing that seemed to be entirely crafted from cannibalized outfits, and even had eye shadow on, but were chatting up a storm, wide smiles plastered onto their faces. I let myself be swept into their group, and before I knew it I was in a café, the lighting dark and the feeling somber. The grins on the others face had fallen by now into a sort of tight lipped smile, their voices now making calm conversation. As they walked straight to a table, I headed toward the café’s counter.

“What do you serve here?” I asked the works lady, her garb similar to the Goth groups.

She looked me up once, twice, then asked, “Mundy?”

“Excuse me?”

“Are you a Mundy?” she repeated.

“What’s a Mundy?”

“Mundane person, and besides, you answered my question with yours.” She said, pulling out a small menu, it’s cover red leather, and proffering it to me. “Here’s the Mundy list.”

“Can I see the non-Mundy list?” I asked, pushing the list back.

“You sure? Some of the things get rather crazy.” She replied, raising an eyebrow.

“Why not.” I smiled, grinning. “Having an iron stomach does have a few benefits.”

She said nothing in reply, but rather handed out a second menu, this one covered in black leather, a picture of a glowing blue five pointed star on the cover.

I took the menu from her and walked over to the table and sat down, opening the menu and flipping through it. I immediately understood why she was saying I was a mundy; the writing on the menu was absolute gibberish to me, with tons of little runes replacing the usual alphabetical letters. After a moment of trying to puzzle it out I gave up and closed the menu and slapped it down on the table. “Gaaah, I don’t understand any of this!”

“Need some help then?”

I bent my head all the way back over my chair in order to see who was talking to me. It was a middle aged man, dressed inside a grey suit with flyaway white hair covering his head and face. After soaking in the upside down image of the man, I worked up the ability to respond. “I guess so, if you don’t mind.”

He walked to the other side of the table and plopped down, then picked up the menu and started scanning it’s pages. “So then,” he muttered, eyes still glued to the menu, “what do you like to eat?”

“I guess I’d have to say I like spicy food if forced to pick something.” I shrugged, leaning backwards into my chair. “Not too spicy, but semi-hot food is my preference.”

“Well then,” he laughed, a broad grin spreading over his face, “why don’t we order you what I like to call the crazy contraption?”

“The what?”

“It’s a weird combination of sushi, squid, hamburger, and they somehow even add cornbread. They put a bit of red pepper paste in it, and it all rolls together to make you one delicious meal!” He said, still smiling.

I stared at him open mouthed, then shut it and gulped as a platter was suddenly placed down in front of me. It was covered in tiny little sushi pieces, a collection of meat stuffed inside a wrapping of cornbread, with dried seaweed surrounding the whole creation. I couldn’t see the red pepper paste, but one sniff of the platter told me that it was somewhere within.

“So then, guess I’m going to have first pick?” he asked, and when I merely nodded meekly in response, he picked up one of the sushi pieces and popped it into his mouth, chewing on it slowly.

I waited until he swallowed it, and, after seeing how he hadn’t yet died from eating the monstrosity, I hesitantly picked one of the pieces up and lifted it to my mouth. You can do this! I thought, then nibbled into the sushi. My eyes shot open in shock. The cornbread, even though it wasn’t meant for this purpose, hadn’t been flavored with honey or butter yet, making it the equivalent of sweet breadcrumbs. The meat inside was mostly hamburger, but a little bit of squid flavor poked through, along with a slight hint of fish. Wrapped inside the seaweed, the little bunch of food, along with some red bean paste that was somewhere within the concoction made for a tasty meal, albeit one that was absolutely crazy.

After a moment of silence, the man beside me swallowed and said, “So how is it?”

“It’s, well, good I guess.” I mumbled, taking a second one.

He burst out laughing. “Evidently it is if you want more. Let me guess, it was weird, but still good?” I just nodded in response. “Well then, remember this; while something may at first look unsavory, it may turn out to be worth the while. But,” he mumbled, watching a man walk by with a hamburger stuffed in a giant McDonalds box, “the opposite is also true.”

We continued to eat in silence, and, once the platter was done, the waitress came over to our table and put down a little board. “Here’s your bill.” She said, wandering over to the Goths table, all of them busily writing with one another.

As I reached out for my wallet the man said. “Nope, don’t worry about it.” And dropped a wad of cash on top of the bill. “You gave something weird a shot, and even let me join you, so meals on me.”

As he stood up I blurted out, “Um, hey, do you want to hang out together today?” Once I realized what I had said, I blushed scarlet and clamped my mouth shut, looking straight down at the table.

I heard the chair clattering on the floor, and smiled wanly. Meet someone who seems nice, need a friend for the day, and scare him off in se“So where are we going then?”

My head shot up quick as a wink, and saw the man standing next to me, smiling warmly. “What did you have planned to do today then?”

“I don’t really know what to do, I’ve never been here on a Sunday, most of the shops I go to usually are all closed for church.” I replied, sighing.

“So you’re a highly religious type then?” he asked, scratching the back of his head as I stood up.

“I’ve never really considered myself as being overly zealous, but maybe I am.” I replied. “Still, doesn’t mean I have to hurt everyone else by forcing them to follow my god, right?”

“Sometimes following a god isn’t a bad thing.” He sighed, then smiled and looked around the mall. “So then, what do you like to do?”

It had been one of the weirdest days in my life. I had just met an older man, had food that seemed to come from secret cult, had played inside a game arcade with someone who could hands down beat me in any shooter there was, had a game of chess, and felt like I had suddenly gained an eccentric uncle. After we had spent about three hours hanging out around the mall, we went to an open aired food stall, a few plastic tables surrounding it, and bought ourselves a couple of hotdogs.

“So then,” he said, crossing his left leg over his right, blowing on his Frank slightly to cool it down. “had an okay day so far?”

“I’d have to go with yes…” I replied, taking a bite from my hotdog. “But,” I said around a small mouthful of food, “I must say, somethings been bothering me since I met you, and I just realized what it is.”

“What?” he asked, raising an eyebrow, taking a chunk out of his own frankfurter.

"You remind me of a person in a book." I said around my mouthful of hotdog.

"Who?" he asked, displaying a great ability for one liners.

“A guy named Fizban actually.” I sighed, swallowing my hotdog and looking him in the eye. "You have the same type of flyaway hair as he does, and your suit looks like the same shade of grey as his robes. Heck," I chuckled, smiling slightly, "You're even the same age as he should be." As I continued to sit there and watch him I expected shock or confusion to spread across his features, but instead he smiled and quickly gulped his food.

“You know the Dragonlance chronicles?” he said, his eyes sparkling in wonder.

“Well, yeah. Everyone else seems to love the Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, but I always enjoyed reading Dragonlance. Dragonlance just seemed to click with me; the characters, the world setting, the plotline, all of it. I guess that it just keeps drawing me back to it, even though I'm not a big fan of fantasy.”

The man sighed and leaned over the table to me. “…What if I told you that it was all real?” he asked quietly.

“Could I call you crazy then?” I asked, rolling my eyes as I took another big bite of my hotdog.

He laughed and slowly stood up, leaving his hotdog half eaten on the table. “Do you want me to show you?” He asked, holding out his right hand to me, smiling slightly.

I stared at the hand, and two different thoughts suddenly started fighting for control in my head. On one hand, pardon the pun, I wanted to laugh, to shout at him, to ignore him for acting crazy. On the other hand I wanted to take the hand, to let myself believe, if only for a moment, that I could actually travel with him to the land I had read about.

“Do you swear you’re not going to try anything funny?” I asked, looking straight into his eyes, putting my hotdog down.

His smile grew bigger as he responded, “I swear.”

My eyes searched his for some hint of dishonesty, but I couldn’t find any. Gulping, I looked down at his hand, and, feeling for some reason like I was about to embark upon the greatest adventure of my life, I reached out and took it. As I touched it swirling darkness erupted from all around us, tiny beacons of light scattered throughout the void, and then we were gone, both of our hotdogs still lying on the table, partially eaten.

Land of Ash, Heart of Gold

Chapter 2

I felt constricted, stretched, crushed and torn all at once, as if a giant had both sat on me and started pulling me limb from limb at the same time. I tried to scream, to make any kind of sound, anything to prove that I existed in this giant void, empty except for the sensations of pain and the light pressure from somewhere on my body. My brain started to fail, the pain slowly disappearing as I began to lose consciousness…

And then we were out, ejected from some horrible version of apparition. My eyes were shut tight as I emptied my stomach onto the ground that I was standing on, falling down onto my knees as I promptly ejected my recently eaten hotdog from my stomach. A soft splatting sound reached my ears as I puked repeatedly, my brain now pounding with a horrible migraine, meaning that whatever I was on wasn’t stone anymore. After the last dregs of acid left my mouth I groaned through my burning throat and slowly opened my eyes. After they fully opened my jaw fell open, an amazing sight greeting my eyes.

I was kneeling on a hill of blackened grass with dead, twisted trees dotting the hill. The grass was coated in ash, seemingly undisturbed until I came to this hill. The sky overhead was covered in black and grey clouds, the horizon a dark stain that stretched on for miles. The only landmark, other than the hills that dotted here and there, was a ruin of what was probably a once great castle, now no more than a pile of shattered black stones. I didn’t speak, no, I couldn’t speak about this.

“Horrible isn’t it?” said a voice from behind me.

I spun my head around to see the old man standing beside me, his face grim. He wasn’t in his grey suit anymore, but rather inside a flowing set of grey robes, a big grey hat on his head. In his right hand was a giant staff, flames dancing along the tip.

“Who are you?” I asked, still slightly dumbstruck by everything that had happened.

He sighed and turned to me, his face a remorseful grimace. “You know who I am.”

“Yeah, yeah I do.” I muttered, and I did know. I had just described him less than five minutes ago, but that didn’t mean I had to accept what my senses told me. But then, as I regained my senses, my head suddenly shot up, and, quickly struggling to my feet, I turned my head to him and yelled, “WHAT THE HELL JUST HAPPENED!”

Fizban sighed as I screamed, then touched my shoulder and gently pushed me back down into a sitting position, then walked over to a tree and propped his staff against it. He turned again and scanned the hill, then walked over to a stump and sat down upon it, closing his eyes as he sighed deeply. After a moment of sitting on the stump, still as stone, his eyes opened and the surroundings shifted, the tree’s became good and whole, the grass became green, the sky cleared and the castle was suddenly whole again, standing proudly against a strong summer breeze.

“Am I…….am I in Krynn?” I asked, and Fizban’s only response was a curt nod from the stump, his eyes now focused upon the castle in the distance. I just stared at my surroundings. It was unbelievable, I was sitting inside the world of Krynn and it wasn’t a dream...But what about…

“Am I…dead?” I asked softly, staring at my surroundings with a new sense of fear and apprehension. Everything may look shiny now, but it had been a wasteland less than a minute before…

“No, you’re not dead. In fact,” Fizban said, sighing slightly. “You’ve never been better.”

I stared at wizard sitting before me, my brain now starting to figuratively fizz. I wasn’t dead, a god that only exists inside a book had just dragged me off to his world, and I had skipped church for the first time ever. I think that was sufficient for what I did next; flopping on the ground and starting to gurgle and foam at the mouth.

“Really, does every mortal have to react like this?” Fizban groaned. After another minute of my foaming I felt a hand touch my shoulder, and I slapped as hard as I could at it, trying to knock his hand as far from me as possible.

“Why the hell did you bring me here!?” I growled, grinding my teeth in fury. Fizban’s eyebrows rose in surprise, then fell again as a wan smile snuck up upon his lips.

“Because people don’t believe anymore.” He chuckled, pointing to the land around him. “Yes, we are in Krynn, but you must be wondering, where is everyone else? Why are there no animals? In short, you’re silently pondering what happened to the world.”

I blinked a couple of times as he said that, then realized that he was speaking the truth. I was wondering what had happened to everything, but my predicament had pushed all of those thoughts from my mind.

“So then,” I asked, “where is Takhisis? Gilean?”

His small smile disappeared, a frown of discontent replacing it. “…My siblings…they’re…”

I waited, leaning slightly towards Fizban, new fears starting to infest my brain. Was I suddenly drug into a war between gods? Had I just become a tool, or maybe even bait, to use against the other gods?

“…Dead…”

I could feel the wind rush out from me, almost as if someone had just smashed my stomach in with a mallet. “D-Dead?” I asked, my tongue tripping over the simple word.

“Yes.” Fizban answered, his eyes closed, leaning heavily on his staff for support.

For the umpteenth time in less than half an hour my mind was reeling. Gods, the freaking gods died. What the hell was I supposed to do against an enemy like that? I’m going to fight something that killed Takhisis the Dark Queen and Gilean the Gray Voyager? Has he gone insane!

“So then,” I growled, my head facing the ground. “I’m going to be your puppet against a creature that killed some of the strongest gods in existence?”

“No, I doubt any mortal could defeat a foe li-”

“THEN WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT ME FOR!” I screamed, jumping to my feet and grabbing him by the scruff, shaking him back and forth. “IF I’M JUST A FOOLISH MORTAL, THEN WHY IN HELLS NAME AM I EVEN HERE!?”

Fizban just stood in my hold, calmly looking me down at me, his eyes staring straight into mine. “You’re here to save what’s left.” He whispered.

I just stood there, feeling all of my rage slowly drain from me. My grip on his scruff loosened and my hands fell to my side. I just couldn’t muster the strength to stay mad at him anymore. Hell, I couldn’t muster the strength to do anything anymore.

*plip* *plip*

I felt strong arms embrace me, holding me tightly to a chest, yet their strong embrace was still gentle, caring. I could feel the rush of emotions wash over me. My anger at Fizban, my hatred of my own damn stupidity, my fear of what I had suddenly been drafted to do, and, most of all, the pain I felt at losing my old life. I had such a good life. I had friends, a family, a girlfriend, even money and status were in my old life, yet, out of the billions of people who had lived inside that damn world, I, I had to be chosen, all because I hadn’t had the maturity to let go of those stupid fantasy worlds. I guess they’re right; clinging onto a dream is just stupid.

I let my tears fall upon the ground, and slowly circled my arms around the person holding me, still crying. I could feel my legs going limp beneath me, but the arms around me held me upright, one of the hands gently stroking my hair.

“It’s all right.” Muttered a voice into ear, but it wasn’t Fizban’s voice. It was a feminine voice.

I pushed against the hug, strength once again surging to my limbs, only to be met by the weirdest sight I’ve ever seen. Before me stood a dragon, but not the usual quadrupedal kind that’s so popular back home. No, this one was a bipedal dragon, standing around seven or so feet tall, and its scales, its scales! They were some weird combination of both pink and copper, making a weird color closest to painted wood. I couldn’t tell, but for some reason it seemed to be female.

“What…what are you!” I stuttered, backing up from the creature.

“I’m a dragon.” She said simply, shrugging and pulling me back into a hug, her claw once again stroking my hair. “But you already know that. Why don’t you ask what you really want to know.”

I went stiff, then slowly relaxed as I got used to her presence and realized that she carried no ill will towards me. “I…I want to know…what you need me for…” I whispered, letting myself continue to be stroked by the dragoness.

Fizban sighed. “Alice, do you mind letting go of him now?”

“Nuh uh.” Alice said, sticking out her tongue.

“Could you at least settle for only holding his hand right now? There are important things to talk about right now.”

“Fiiiine.” Alice said, letting go of me for a short second then immediately snatching my right hand in her left. “But I get to hold the hand.”

I stared at the two of them for a while, then coughed and asked, “Okay, more important question then, why is she so clingy?”

Alice gasped, then bopped me on the head with her right claw as Fizban laughed slightly. “She’s a Prismatic dragon Aramil. She is both a pink and a copper dragon. The reason she is so clingy is because all pink dragons have an extremely high love for physical attraction.”

I looked over to Alice who was stroking her cheek with her fore-claw and straining her eyes as far from me as possible. “Umm…” she mumbled, “he means that we have really high libidos.”

“Huh?” I said, then, looking down at our connecting hands, my face flushed scarlet and I squeaked out a surprised, “Oh!”

“Yeah…” Alice mumbled, then turned around as her eyes filled with little diamonds. “But your name’s Aramil! That’s such a cool name!”

“Oh, thanks.” I choked, balking under her sudden enthusiasm. “Second question, why is she here?”

Fizban scratched his head, then said simply, “She’s the last person from Krynn.”

I looked between the two of them, then shook my head and queried, “And why am I here?”

Fizban’s face broke into a wide smile. “I was wondering when you’d get around to that. What you’re here for is to be a missionary.”

“A what?” I deadpanned, my eyes narrowing into narrow slits, my mouth becoming a straight line.

“A missionary.” He continued, whirling his staff through the air. As he whirled the tip about, the ground around us all started to revert to its old form, as did the rest of the world, quickly shifting back to its almost black appearance. “This world is crumbling, and it isn’t because of some disease or vile miasma. No, it’s because there is no more belief, no more trust. This world has been forgotten, cast aside as a dream, a fantasy that doesn’t exist in the world proper.” Fizban let his staff’s butt hit the ground once again and began to lean upon the stick. “Only one person has clinged onto the belief besides Alice, and that is you.”

I could feel my legs turning to jelly again. What the hell is going on? I’m just a regular boy who likes an outdated fantasy novel, why would anything as important as the god of all good come to find me?

“And while you may be wondering how you drew my attention, I cannot say myself.” Fizban continued. “But I can say this; you are far more important than you have ever thought. First of all though, I must destroy that pesky enchantment upon you.”

As Fizban brought his staff up once more, only to point it at me, I let go of Alice’s hand and started backpedaling as fast as I could, easily putting another couple of meters between us before he shouted, “Menghalau!” I knew a little Indonesian because the spells in Dragonlance have the language in them, but this word eluded me. Disarm, Dismiss?

“Dispel.” Fizban said, putting his staff down and dropping down to his butt, sitting heavily on the ground, sweat running down his face. Alice was still standing next to him, and her face was shining in what seemed like joy or maybe even ecstasy.

“So that’s his real form!” she squeaked excitedly, looking down at the exhausted wizard, who nodded slowly. “YES!”

“What do you mean is th-” I started to say, then froze as I spotted my own hand. It wasn’t the usual peach skin with five digits anymore, but rather a purple scaled claw with four digits, the pinky mysteriously disappearing. My breath started to labor as I began to pant, and, looking at the rest of my body, my breathing stopped entirely. My body was now extremely similar to Alice’s, with purple scales covering my arms, legs, chest, and the rest. I had even grown a strong purple scaled tail that now swished between my legs. I quickly reached up and touched my head and felt

pliable skin, smooth short hair, and slim lips. The rest of my body had changed, but my face was still the same. Hello, Aramil.exe is out of order now was my last thought before slumping down to the ground, my eyes rolling into my head.

I awoke to a sea of darkness, smothering my ears, eyes, and mouth. I struggled for air, but an invisible cushion pushed so hard upon me that no air entered. I began to feel light headed when a giggle sounded from above me. Suddenly the cushion lifted and air flooded into my mouth while light dazzled my eyes. I coughed a few times as I regained the ability to see, and Alice filled my vision, her smile inches from my face.

“Finally awake handsome?” she asked playfully.

Shit, I’ve got another girl on my tail. Why do they all mark me as a target?

“Umm, yes, now can you get off of me?” I asked with far more calm than I felt.

“Fine, but don’t expect it to last.” Alice pouted, clambering off of me and standing up.

I sat up and looked at the two beings before me, then asked the only question that came to mind. “WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME!”

Okay, asked is being rather flowery, I guess it’s more like demand while shouting as loud as I possibly could.

“I broke the enchantment upon you.” Fizban panted, still sitting upon the ground. “You had been enchanted to look like a normal human. I believe that it was only breakable because you were out of your own world. On Earth I doubt that it would have been possible to shatter it. Then again,” he said, looking at my face, “maybe I changed you, but incompletely. With such little power I have no clue which one is right, but either way, you are now unique, the only human who has a dragon’s body.”

I slowly rose to my feet and stood before Fizban. I looked down at him and growled, my new body suddenly giving it a much more animalistic quality. “What am I going to do now? How do I get home?”

Fizban sighed and slowly, shakily stood up. “You can get home,” he said, still working for air. “Once I have enough power to transport you both worlds and change your body back.”

“How long will that take?”

“It isn’t length of time that is the problem, it is the amount of faith. Until people believe that I exist, I can’t use much more magic.” He panted, sliding a bit down his staff.

“Will I be able to go back to my world, or will I be sent years into the future?” I asked, my voice still rumbling.

“If you can establish a following to me, then I believe that I could do all of that and even erase your time of working for me if you so wish. I can repay you for your efforts, but until I once again have people who believe in me, then it is beyond me.”

I looked myself up and down, then looked at him and asked another question, this time with a much kinder tone. “But are dragons common there, and even if they are, wouldn’t I stand out like a sore thumb?”

I felt a sudden weight upon my head and a tug at my waist. Grabbing the weight on my head with my right hand and the item on my waist with my left, I tried to lift them both away. My head felt a hard tug, then something slipped off of my whole skull, while the item in my left claw simply slid right out of some container. I brought both items before my face and saw a weird collection of martial items. The first one, the item I had in my left hand, was a sword. It had no hand guard except for a weird eight pointed star, and was built out of some weird material that seemed to glow from within. The other object though, it was what really surprised me. It was a helmet, but a helmet of a dragon’s head, and, looking at Alice’s face, one that was of perfect likeness to a real dragon. The amazing thing was, the scales of the helm were the exact shape and color of the scales that now covered my body, making it seem like an extension of my own body.

“Every paladin needs a blade and companion, and I wouldn’t dream of sending you into an unknown world without any means to defend yourself.” Fizban said, still leaning on his staff, but he had now slipped so far down the staff that he was practically hunched over. “The blade can only kill the truly wicked, otherwise it is merely a metallic plank, and its edge will disappear. The helm will perfectly mirror your face underneath, so unless you decide to remove it of your own accord, you can pass through anywhere as if you were a normal dragon.”

Alice finally stepped forward and picked Fizban up, then walked over to the stump and set him down. “Paladine,” she said in a scolding tone, “I know you want to help him as much as possible, but casting so many spells will destroy you before he can do anything. Next you’re going to say that you want to go with him!”

Paladine, right, I almost forgot that his real name is Paladine, Skyblade, the Platinum Father, and even Dragonlord. Is he stuck looking like Fizban because he’s so weak?

Fizb…Paladine chuckled at Alice’s reprimanding and rasped, “No, I was actually hoping you’d go with him.”

Alice’s face grew ecstatic at the exact same time that mine fell. “yes Yes YES!” she squeaked, jumping up and down. “It’s been so long since I went anywhere!”

F…Paladine tapped his staff to the ground and another portal appeared. “Aramil.” He said, looking me straight in the eye. “Remember, while I may have pulled you away from your home, I am a god of good. I have only brought you here because it will result in good, and even if you don’t see it now, you will be glad that you have come.”

I rolled my eyes and stepped forward to the hole, putting the sword back into its sheath and placing my helmet back upon my skull. “And you remember this,” I said, pointing at Paladine. “I will try my hardest to bring back your faith, but only because I remember what you did in Krynn over the years. If it wasn’t for my previous image of you I’d have refused here and now. Also, where are we going?”

Fizban smiled as Aramil pounced on me from behind. “Equestria.” He said, then was gone.

The Desolate Realm, the Ruined City

Chapter 3

I tumbled out of the portal, rolling head over heels for a couple of feet, before finally stopping with my face firmly planted in the ground. I heard a light giggle come from behind me as a slender arm reached under my chest and bodily lifted me from the ground. The glint of pink around my chest was the only warning I needed to know that Alice had decided to steal yet another moment to cuddle.

Seriously, only known her for fifteen minutes and she’s already become more clingy than my girlfriend.

I flailed about for a minute, vainly trying to get myself out of her grasp when she laughed again and let go of me, causing me to stumble a few steps forward. “Alice, do you mind if we actually got to work instead of you just trying to cuddle me?” I asked only to groan in frustration as her only response was to renew her giggling. I decided to ignore her for the moment and instead focus upon where we were.

We were in what looked like a fantasy version of a middle-age city, complete with impossibly tall castle and enormous houses filling the street. The surprising part wasn't the old world décor though, but the fact that it was ruined old world décor. The castle had chunks of it missing, small streams of smoke pouring from the holes, and the houses around me were in ruins. While not destroyed to the point of being rubble, ceilings were missing huge chunks of thatches, and most of the street was partially on fire. The whole city was in ruins, and I got a distinct feeling that we weren't about to be received with a warm welcome.

“Aramiiiillllllll!” Alice whined, jumping on me from behind and throwing her arms around my shoulders, hugging me to her chest. This time I just went limp, groaning in my mind as she rubbed her head against my crown.

“Are you two lovebirds going to stop cuddling anytime soon or are you just going to stand there?” called an imperial voice. My head whipped towards the origin of the voice only to freeze in surprise and alarm.

Standing not twenty paces ahead of me was a creature, its body a weird conglomeration of both insect and equine. The creature had the rough form of a horse, but its body, the color of polished onyx, was filled with holes, forming jagged limbs that reminded me sickeningly of Swiss cheese. It’s face seemed to be more along the lines of a human however, it's mouth only protruding slightly from the head, it's eyes yellow with feline slits for pupils, and aquamarine hair falling down its entire face. A jagged horn and ripped wings also adorned the body, making the final product one of the weirdest creatures I had ever seen. As the creature called out to us Alice's grip on me grew firmer, her arms pressing me tightly against her chest.

“No!” I spluttered, once again struggling to free myself from Alice’s grip. “We’re not dating or anything!” to which Alice only gasped playfully and let go of me, pretending to sob softly into her hands.

The creature before me raised her eyebrow and chuckled slightly, rolling it’s eyes. “Yes, of course you’re not dating.” It said, sarcasm dripping from every word, then began to walk off, throwing the last of her words toward us from over her shoulder. “Now then, I suppose that one or both of you are humans and if so, then I do suggest you follow me.”

I looked at Alice, she looked at me, then we both dashed off after the insectoid pony.

We had been following the pony for around twenty minutes before we had reached what seemed like our destination, the ruined castle. It was a grand structure that was a blend between a medieval European castle and an extravagant English cathedral, but it had been freshly ruined, just like the town around us.

During our walk throughout the town, we had passed groups of what were definitely ponies, but different from the ones that lived back home on Earth. To start with, they seemed sentient, using tools, strategically moving items from scattered areas of destruction to organized piles, and, most of all, TALKING to one another. They were all talking to one another, acting like humans who had just survived a horrible storm or some other type of natural calamity. The other big thing that caught my attention was how they were all techni-colored. I don’t mean just strange versions of the usual white, black, brown, and grey that most horses and ponies were, but they were even green, yellow, pink, blue, and orange to name a few. They were the weirdest creatures that I had ever seen, excluding myself and the insect horse before us.

All through our trip to the castle Alice had been strangely quiet, her eyes absorbing in the chaos from all around us. Her mouth had stretched into a grim line, and I can’t say I blamed her. I hadn’t noticed a single creature who was actually hurt beyond the minor scratch or scrape, yet I felt ready to hurl at the sight of all this misfortune, all this pain that surrounded us. I had been hoping that the creature that was still leading us would give us some kind of information about what had happened, but after her first few comments she had stayed surprisingly silent, electing, it seemed, to let the scenery from around us do the talking for her.

As we started to enter the castle I finally worked up the guts to ask the creature in front of us. “Ma’am, I wanted to know, what is your name?”

She threw me a haughty glance from over her shoulder along with a sly smile and said, “Peasants like you will refer to me as Queen Chrysalis.”

“So then Chrys-” I started to say before the creature before me threw another look at me from over her shoulder.

“No, Queen Chrysalis.” She interrupted, her sly smile becoming a small frown of disapproval.

“So then, Queen Chrysalis, where are we and how do you know about humans if I don’t know about you? Do Humans exist in this world? And, for that matter, what are you?” I asked, forcing myself to say the servile title of Queen to a creature I knew little to nothing about.

Her expressions shifted from their usual mask of haughtiness and instead showed a wide variety of shock and surprise. “You don’t know about us? Really? Every other human seems to have at least found out what we are by now. How did you last for so long with no clue about what we are?”

“Last what now?” I asked, my face also screwing up into a picture of pure confusion. “I have no clue what just happened to me besides a storybook character coming to life and throwing me into this world in order to become a missionary. He said something about Equestria, is that what this place is called?”

Chrysalis’s feature’s fell back into a their usual haughty frame as I spoke, and she looked forward once again, leading me and Alice, who now was smiling broadly and holding back a giggle with her handclaw?, further into the castle.

“This place is indeed called Equestria, and no, humans do not naturally leave here. We have, however, experienced an influx of humans arriving in Equestria due to what seems to be a chess game.”

“How does chess bring humans to another world?” I queried, scratching my head.

“Because this isn’t a mortal representation of chess, but rather a chess game played by the very gods, each using one piece, with Equestria being the board. Now, I don’t know who sent yo-”

“It was Paladine. He goes by many titles, but I believe that he would enjoy being called Paladine the most.” I interrupted, eliciting an annoyed growl from the Queen in front of me.

“Be that as it may, I do not know who sent you, nor do I truly care as long as you restrain from causing the wide scale destruction and pandemonium that the rest of the pieces have been causing recently.”

I looked around at the ruined walls, the freshly burned tapestries, the clawed up carpets, and the torn walls with my mouth hanging open. “You mean to say that the reason this city is in ruins is because of humans? Humans!? How the hell did humans cause this much destruction without arms?”

Chrysalis laughed derisively, saying, “Just because they were sent to a new world does not mean that they suddenly became cripples.”

“Arms is a shortened version of armaments, a word which here stands for guns.” I explained, sighing.

“…Oh…” Chrysalis said as Alice finally busted out in a fit of giggles, crossing her arms around her chest in laughter.

“So then, how did humans cause all this mayhem if we didn’t have guns, or am I the only one who had to make do with a sword?”

Chrysalis shook her head once, then went back to talking in her haughty tone. “They didn’t have those so called guns that you seem to all talk about, but neither were they truly human anymore. All the humans on this world have been changed into new creatures, at least all that I know of. Does that answer your question, or do I need to make it simpler for the simple minded peasant?”

I ground my teeth together in frustration, then whispered, “No, I understood what you said. My other question is why you brought me here?”

Chrysalis stopped at a door, then pushed it open. “Because there are wounded people, and, human or not, we need all the help we can get.”

The room beyond was horrifying to behold. It was a ballroom, grand and opulent, something befitting the status of a king or queen, but it had been wrecked just as badly as the rest of the castle, parts of the floor being broken clean through, showing floors further down, and one wall was patched up with giant rolls of cloth in order to keep out a draught, but even this wasn’t the despicable part of the room. The despicable part was what the grand room had become, a giant war hospital. Assortments of creatures were spread out on the floor before me, to include anthropomorphic cats, more insectoid versions of Chrysalis, bulkier looking ponies than those I had seen in the town, and even gryphons.

As I absorbed the scene in front of me, I felt something come over me, some kind of undeniable power forcing me to assess the situation. I asked the simple question, “Where are the worst wounded?” but it didn’t feel like a simple question at all, but rather the most important thing that I would ever say in my life.

She pointed a hoof at a line of creatures, mostly gryphons and stallions, and it was obvious why. Their wounds were compound fractures, open cuts, third degree burns, and even someone with their innards piled outside of their body. I rushed over to the first one, a stallion with a huge gash in his flank, and saw his eyes, both of them glazed over in pain.

I reached down to the wound and touched it, then felt a sudden rush of power emanate from my hand. It pushed from my hand into the wound, and I could see the gash closing slightly, changing from a possibly fatal wound to a simply painful one. His eyes lost their glazed quality and stared straight into mine. His lips, so strange to me, seemed to mouth ‘Thank you’ before he fell unconscious.

I didn’t know what had just happened, nor did I much care, but I knew that there were more people who were in extraordinary pain, and, human or not, I needed to help them. I don’t know why I had to, but I did, so I began the grueling task of trying to heal a line of grievously injured creatures.

I sat on the ground, my feet pushed out in front of me, my back to the wall. I had just worked for over an hour forcing myself to cure the wounded. I don’t know exactly how I did it, but after the patient number forty I had gotten the gist of my power; I had a well of energy within me that I could exert over living creatures, and the energy within me would dwindle as it was transformed into pure life force. The pure force would then cure wounds upon whomever I was exerting the energy upon.

As I sat with my thoughts I saw Alice walking towards me with a butterscotch colored pony. I suspected it to be a mare by the curves of it’s flanks and the following eyes of all the stallions.

As Alice reached me she jumped on me and gave me a great big hug saying, “Hey, Aramil, lookee here! I just met her, but she says she’s an emergency nurse for Canterlot castle.”

“The one we’re in right now?” I asked, smiling as Alice’s words confirmed my suspicions.

“Yep.” Alice grinned, sitting down next to me. “She said she wanted to know who had helped all the emergency case patients and so I brought her over here to meet you.”

“How do you do ma’am.” I said, raising a claw to her. I immediately blushed as I realized she had no hand to except it, but, to my great surprise, she put her hoof in my claw and shook it, somehow firmly grasping my hand without the aid of any digits.

“I’m doing good, thank you.” She said, a tiny smile playing on her lips. As she shook my claw I noticed her eyes running along the curves of my body, but what for I prayed I’d never find out.

“I brought you something.” She continued, pulling a small one ounce bottle full of a blue liquid from seemingly nowhere with her teeth and proffering it to me. “It seems that humans use items like this to replenish their magic. I think they called it a mana potion.”

“Mana potion?” I said, taking the bottle and twirling it around in my hand. It looked like a regular bottle, but the liquid inside seemed to glow from within, as if it truly did hold it’s own variant of magic.

“Yes. I don’t know why it helps, but I did follow a recipe based off of their own creations and it’s worked before, so I didn't see the harm in giving it to you.” Butterscotch said, smiling. Just then Chrysalis and a couple of hooded figures walked over to us, joining our little group.

“So then,” Chrysalis said, grinning devilishly, “how does our human like the grueling work of a common doctor?”

“In all honesty I don’t think I had to do much. It seemed more like I just channeled the will of my god through me, using his power to heal everyone. Compared to the doctors who actually have to get their hands dirty, I feel like I haven’t done anything.”

Chrysalis blinked in surprise at my response, and I took the break from being interrogated to lift the bottle to my lips, but immediately realized an oversight I had just made.

“Umm, do you all promise not to freak out?” I asked, putting the bottle down next to me.

The rest of the group, Alice included, just looked at one another before bursting into laughter, clinging onto one another for support. “I do believe that we’ve seen everything that could possibly amaze us ever.” Butterscotch choked, panting in pain.

“Don’t say I didn't warn you.” I muttered, taking my head by the neck and pulling it up.

I heard a collective gasp sound from everyone around me, and even what sounded like a retch of pure nausea when Chrysalis said, “Umm…don’t you think that’s a bad idea?”

As the helmet finally cleared my crown and my real face was revealed, my sweaty hair sticking to my head, I grinned at the now stupefied Chrysalis and said, “No, not really.”

Everyone but Chrysalis had suddenly lost control of their jaws, their mouths hanging wide open, Butterscotch panting once again. Was she still laughing? As everyone else froze in surprise, I felt Alice lean in towards me and then heard a small whisper in my ear, “Way to break it to them slowly, genius.”