The Prophecy of the third out of Drokothar’bekisnhlekil

The time of the prophecy was at hand. That is, at least, what his brothers had told him.
Bajor’s hardened leather cuirass was heavily marked by pushing through the heavy thickets along the secret path known only to him and a select few from his monastic order. He cradled the focus of their collective purpose tightly to his barrel chest in his strong, well developed dwarven hands. Though his mission was difficult, and he most likely will pay dearly for what he needed to do to successfully carry it out, he had succeeded at the impossible. He had spent years building up her trust, months plotting the ultimate heist, and days second-guessing the whole thing. It needs to be done he kept reminding himself to stave off his guilty conscience. The time of the prophecy was at hand, a celestial alignment occurring only once in the life of his kin, perhaps twice in that of the older races of the most venerable elves or dragons. In order to save the world he resigned in the knowledge this needs to be done. After all, prophecies don’t fulfill themselves.
Through the wild tangle of branches, tall stone shapes began to rise from amongst the trees. Breaking into a clearing with a little effort he let out a strong breath to recompose himself, taking the opportunity to appreciate the circular ring of standing stones fully. He had only been here twice before, both times at night, neither with anything more than flickering torchlight to illuminate the ring cairn stones. In the late evening light of a clear autumn day, he took the opportunity to examine the awe-inspiring monolith. Massive upright granite stones formed a rough circle with polished white limestone lintels bridging their tops capping the whole in a continuous unbroken ring which almost appeared to glow and hover above them in the sunlight. Rising in the center of which, from a disc-shaped pedestal, was a singular pinnacle covered in runes, glyphs, and symbols along the length of all four sides. Similarly, the hub of the circular pedestal was dominated by deeply carved representations of the same mysteriously arcane script.
Standing outside the cairn a man and child half his size, clothed in simple, long brown robes, were in the process of busily binding together a ladder. Bajor cleared his throat and called out to them, “Brother Thomas! Brother Flynn!”
The two of them stood up to acknowledge him with a wave before they resumed work. It took the dwarf another minute or so to cross the distance of the field. As he approached them, the taller man he called Brother Thomas asked, “Do you have it?”
“Yes,” Bajor replied, “she will be none too pleased that it is gone but I managed it.”
“We need to place it upon the middle pillar in the circle before the sun begins to set.” Piped up the three-foot tall man next to him, the one called Brother Flynn. As Bajor began to reach into the sack he had been cradling in his arms, struggling with the awkwardness of its contents, his two companions waited anxiously. He revealed to them an elongated amber sphere so large it needed to be held in both hands. Upon seeing it Brother Thomas said, almost in a whisper, “You are sure it is the right one? The prophecy was very precise that it needed to be the first of the three out of Drokothar’bekisnhlekil nestled in the comforting eastern fires.”
“Of course it is the right one,” the dwarf responded, “do you think me a fool?”
“If we don’t have the correct one the results would be disastrous!” Flynn taunted with an almost musical crescendo on the disastrous part. The two looked unnervingly at the short ginger haired Halfling who wiped away his grinning smile and recomposed himself with an air of seriousness.
“What I mean to say is that the ritual will not work if even one of these markings is wrong. Or the standing stones are misaligned. Or you grabbed the wrong egg by mistake. That’s all I was saying, you know, disastrous?”
Brother Thomas carefully took the artifact from Bajor. He peered into it. Beautiful, like a solid golden jelly hardened around some undefined shape within. For several seconds he was awestruck by the aesthetic marvel he beheld. So enraptured by the object was he that the first word of his response was barely a monotone whisper. “No.”
Noticing his reverie he seemed to snap out of it, looking at his companions with strong conviction and in his most impressive voice he continued, “no, we may die from the resulting explosion as the aether rips through time and space leaving nothing, not even our bones, for others to find!”
“Oh.” the dwarf and Halfling said simultaneously, staring at one other.
“That and it took me the entire day so far to ensure everything is aligned and set properly so if a backlash from us attempting to open the summoning circle doesn’t kill you, I will.”
“Now that I do believe,” Bajor exclaimed as he chuckled slightly to himself and gave the Halfling a soft friendly elbow to emphasize he was not believing a word of the threat, “though I know not which I would fear the more!”
The three chuckled and it helped to relieve some of the nervousness and channel the building excitement each felt as they set about carefully positioning and securing the ladder so they could reach the top of the pinnacle.
“Still,” Bajor continued as he held one side of the ladder with both hands, “could we not have simply asked her for it? Explained things to her, about the prophecy?”
“And risk her refusing our request?” Thomas asked as he braced the opposite ladder leg. “No Brother Bajor, that is simply not an option open to us.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“I have faith. Faith in what we are doing now and that we are the ones to do it at this place, at this time, in this way.” Thomas responded as Flynn made his way up the rungs with surprising agility considering the size and weight of what he carried compared to his rather diminutive nature.
“Faith is not something that comes easily to my people. My clan taught me to have faith in experience. In the well-forged ideas perfected over time and practice. There is honor and pride in such things. This whole thing, however, this prophecy, makes us nothing more than thieves.” the dwarf stated.
“After today we will have many titles that history will bestow upon us. Thieves, betrayers, wizards, priests, and prophets among them. That is if we survive. If we don’t there will be none who will remember what we tried to do here today.” said Thomas.
Listening to the banter between the two of them Flynn looked thoroughly offended. He spoke up, a hint of incredulity in his voice. “I am not a thief! I am a purveyor of waylaid items and a master wealth relocator thank you very much!”
“Come on Flynn,” Thomas said as he held one end of the ladder in a white-knuckle grip, “It is time to place it on the central spire.”
Already a step ahead of them Flynn had managed to remove the object and was busy lining it in place on a three-pronged cradle they previously mounted atop the pinnacle. After a few seconds, with a squint of his left eye to ensure the setting was lined up correctly in place, he removed a tool from his belt. As he began to bend the prong closest to him with the tool there was an audible snapping sound as the object locked into its mountings.
Flynn immediately noticed the object begin to emanate a dim, though definite, white glow that was growing in intensity. The Halfling came down the rungs of the ladder so quickly he didn’t notice he was still carrying his tool until he reached the ground.
“What is it, Flynn. What’s wrong?” asked Thomas.
Suddenly two vivid shafts of coruscating light sparked to life and shot out from the object. The light struck the rim of the disc at two distinct and separate points, each one illuminating a symbol along with its edge.
Frantically Bajor removed the ladder to toss it off into the forest beyond the cairn while Flynn began measuring the distance between the now oscillating beams using the length of the tool he had used before and shouted, “The distance between them is twelve and a third from the trident looking thing to the one that looks like a giant with four arms!”
Thomas had already taken out a pestle and mortar from his backpack and looked feverously through a small book looking up the proportions and ingredients needed from the measurements Flynn had given him. By the time the others joined him he had taken out the components from the many containers in his pack and was busy pounding and grinding them with the pestle into a clear jelly, then separated the jelly into three equal portions.
“Now what?” asked Bajor.
“Flynn, take these and put them under the light by the trident symbol. When they turn the golden amber hue of the object moves them to the other beam, then we wait until they turn red as blood. Once that happens we eat them and wait until the beams come together. We will only have seconds to say the ancient words from the cylinder. If it all works out the way it is described in the prophecy then we will have summoned a savior to stop the end of the world. If it doesn’t…” he trailed off not able to contemplate the alternative.
“Disastrous.” chimed in Flynn as he picked up the mortar and placed it under the first ray of shimmering light. As they waited Bajor spoke up.
“So without the moon or stars in the sky where does this light come from?”
Thomas answered smiling, “I try not to think about it too hard, but from what I see the light currently shining on the bowl comes from the moon and is focused through the egg.” He pointed to the ghost-like moon barely visible in the clear blue pre-dusk sky above. “As for the other light, it originates from a realm in the stellar house of Perseus, a giant the prophesy calls Arp Zzo, a giant so massive and hyper that he will explode in a burst of light and align with the light of the moon at the time of fulfilment a few minutes from now.”
Bajor could not hide his bewilderment, “How can a giant do that? I have fought many alongside my clan defending the mountain halls of Grililath and when they die they fall over, giants do not explode into light. It’s simply not possible.”
“Be that as it may, when those two beams of light meet we will know what version is the truth. It matters only that we have faith in our actions, not in understanding them.”
Flynn clapped his hands together and exclaimed, “Looks like it’s changed color guys!” As the three peered over the bowl, sure enough, the jelly had become a golden amber hue. Brother Thomas moved it over to the second position and almost instantly the radiance of the beam shimmered, then pulsed a few times before returning to a steady stream. Recovering from the blinding flash of the pulse he quickly removed the mortar and placed it on the circle away from the beams as he wiped at his eyes trying to bring his vision back. Between the spots playing across his vision left over from the unexpected brilliance, he saw that all three of the amber jellies had turned blood red.
“Well, this is it.” He handed a portion to the other two and taking the last in his hand declared,
“May fortune smile upon us the bold! Bottoms up!” Then swallowed it.
After a few moments, when it was clear Thomas was not going to fall over dead from poisoning, the other two followed suit. As the edge of the sun touched upon the trees of the far horizon they watched in silent anticipation as the two beams drew closer and closer together. From his backpack Brother, Thomas took out a scroll case and unfurled its contents. They had practiced the strange words and actions of the ritual in secret before, this time it would be for real. The alignment was moments away when a loud roar echoed from someplace miles distant. All the normal forest sounds that were so loud only moments before ceased and an oppressive silence, like the feeling just before a violent storm strike, emanated from deep into the forest through the tangled trees to the stones of the cairn. There was no turning back now.
She was on to them, but there was no time for fear, there was no time to think. The prophecy was at hand and the beams merged to coalesce into a single oscillating point of light. They began to say the words together.
“As the conjunction of the moon and Venus in Virgo as Jupiter rises opposite the sun in Pisces, Mars holds court in the house of Libra and Pluto resides with Leo as Saturn remains trine in Sagittarius.”
The light beams disappear but as they do the egg atop the pinnacle glows brighter and brighter until it matches the brightness of the sun itself.
“This universe both mobile and immobile is permeated by you our savior in all battles of the World. When assailed by enemies and in the time and place where life is in peril you are generated in the fullness of time and born according to the flesh.”
The outside of the egg begins to crystallize, releasing as it does a dark mist that begins to rise from it and fall in upon itself in thickening waves.
“You did live on this earth before and are the one who has the power to make the heavens, hells, and earth do bend a knee.”
In a sudden implosion, the egg has transformed into a pure white crystal and the mist has begun to churn into a vortex of primordial power. From deep within the center of the vortex a shadowy scaled and winged creature grows more and more into focus as it begins to emerge from the horizon.
“As your power floods the gates of the ether and is transmitted upon this rock to defend against the malignant enemy we call for you to return before us for our salvation!”
In the sky above the pinnacle the outstretched wings of a dragon shone radiant in the last light of day as its wings beat once then twice with a power and grace that captivated the trio of summoners who, now finished their part in the ritual, looked upon their saviour with mixed expressions of excitement to fear and terror.
Brother Thomas was the first to speak to his stunned companions, “See my friends, we needed only have faith!” Without stopping he raised his hands in the air towards the creature and excitedly yelled, “First of the house of Kin, we have followed the prophecy we have called you here as our savior in our greatest time of need.”
The creature, however, appeared to have other plans. After a loud, almost defending roar it reared it’s horned and scaled head with razor sharp teeth and tilted its massive body with even sharper claws and the golden scaled monstrosity beginning to fly down at them with maw agape gaining speed as it rushed towards them.
It was not going to stop!

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