By Cal "Syruss" O'Leary
****Zppp plor blop portal sound***
As the smoke settles a familiar green portal can be seen fading away. From the smoke emerges four stalwart hooligans from Neden. Cevaris, Meatball, Al O’Leary and Nymbous were all being led by their enigmatic, charismatic and probably a few other "-atics" leader, me, the lovable Lord Syruss. While the boys and I are seasoned adventures and well adjusted to the strange and unusual, what was about to happen next certain struck us by surprise.
“OOOOOOOOOOOUch ouch ouch ouch!” I yelled as my horns retracted into my skull… I reached up only to find a smooth, beautifully bald noggin. Well, this is an interesting development I thought to myself.
“Um Boss?!?!?!?” I heard Meatball Baptise say from behind. I turned expecting to find my grotesque sentient meatpile (and friend) only to see a beautiful man standing before me.
“I am a real boy!” Meatball exclaimed.
Ok, something was definitely peculiar, I told myself, and this something needed to be figured out if we were ever to go home and be returned to normal. Instantly Siff noticed we were cut off from all magics, so we had no means to return to the castle until Sir Naj opened another portal and let us home. To which he said he needed some him time so I surmised we would have about four hours from noon till about 4 pm until he returned.
“Siff again I know you told me why we are here but if you can lay down some of the sexy exposition you do so well for the rest of the crew and loyal readers,” I ask Cevaris while looking longingly into the horizon.
“Readers?!? Who are you looking at?.....*sigh* never mind. As I explained to all of you before we entered Sir Naj’s portal, the Kal en Dral need my help again.”
“Ka en who?” Meatball interjected
“The Kal en Dral are a race of beings from another dimension that owe me a boon. Their dimension, however, has been cut off from the Realms for nearly two decades. I won’t be getting any boon if we don’t first get their dimension reconnected to ours,” Siff explained.
As he prattled on and on about the Kal en Dral being good and someone called the Kal ke Bain being bad he brought up something we all could get behind, a mysterious sightseeing contest where the winner would receive a prize. As we went to the game Warden as it were, they told us of all the amazing sites to see and to try to capture with these image retainers.
So we were off in a race against time and a race against Team Rel and Team Dani.
Along our sight-seeing tour Siff was busy marking areas where the Kal en Dral could potentially reconnect with the Realms. It was weird, these areas I could see some parts of the Realms. I saw Tao dealing cards at one location, Dresden in Neden working on some litigation paperwork, Malaki in Folkestone cooking things up and even XT in Grimloch doing…..you know what, that really isn’t pertinent nor do I think he would like me sharing about his special time.
We also captured images of these areas and as we met up with Rel’s team he also offered to help with our endeavour.
Hours passed and in these lands there were no goblins or bandits to worry about so it was a rather nice change of pace and an excellent time to eat some trail mix with my boys while taking in some seriously beautiful sights.
After four hours of amazing views and eight miles worth of walking we had found all but two things ...Honestly whenever Neden scores over 70% without accommodations I am impressed.
Team Rel, Team Dani and Team Neden all finished roughly at the same time. Rel and I had such a great time we were not really interested in “winning” per say as we both had alternative motivations for our hikes that day. So I insisted he pick first prize which was a lovely Fairy Door, I got this magnificent ceremonial dagger to add to my museum and Team Dani received a whole fairy house.
We waited until Sir Naj came to collect us and then we bid our friends a warm farewell.
All in all this was an extremely unique, extremely fun adventure that I am glad Neden took part in. I can not wait until the veil grows thin and we can breach and explore these lands again.
Until next time Loyal Readers
Love and Respect
Lord Sir Syruss O’Leary
x8 titles (one is certainly the Handsomest Demon title)