The Magi: Memories

Part 5

Up the Mountain

(group is riding horses up the wide trail to the mountain. Henry is up front, Gabriella and Bruce are behind him. Behind them are Kain and Nanesse. Spike is taking up the rear.)

Bruce: Are we there yet?

Henry: No, but we’re close.

Bruce: Oh… How close?

Gabriella: Brucey, lean over here for a second.

Bruce: (pulls closer) Yeah?

Gabriella: (slaps across the back of the head) Shut up!

Bruce: (rubs his head) Was that absolutely necessary?

Gabriella: It’s called tough love, hun.

Spike: Hit him once for me!

Gabriella: Do it yourself! I’m not your lacky <can’t think of a better word>

Bruce: How about nobody hits him? That sounds good too.

Gabriella: Now you know we can’t do that.

Bruce: Yeah, I know…

Henry: Maybe you should save your energy for the task at hand.

Gabriella: Oooh… Ruining our fun…

Kain: Bruce, they only do it because you let them.

Nanesse: Yep, he’s just a big armored teddy bear.

Kain: Aren’t you a Jad Royal Knight?

Bruce: First class.

Kain: Then start acting like one!

Bruce: Yeah!

Kain; Demand respect!

Bruce: Yeah!

Gabriella: (goes close to Bruce) I’m sorry Bruce, you are a royal knight, and you should be treated like one. (puts her hand on his shoulder) But you’re forgetting one thing.

Bruce: What’s that?

Gabriella: (smacks him again) A knight doesn’t question authority!

Bruce: Damnit! I’m riding with Henry. (goes up to where Henry is) Did you see that?

Henry: No. But it sounded pretty funny.

(Insert more banter and picking on Bruce here. I’ll get to that when I’m finished with the initial writing. Henry’s horse stops, as do all the others)

Henry: This is as far as I can take you. The horses won’t go past the tree line. It’s only five minutes to the cave anyway.

(everybody dismounts. Gabriella walks up to Henry’s horse and pets it)

Gabriella: Are you sure you don’t want to come with us? It’ll be fuuun. And there’s no way you could be more worthless then Bruce.

Henry: No, I don’t want to make Katherine worry.

Gabriella: Fine. (flips her hair and walks away) Your loss.

(party walks away. Bruce “cracks a whip” so Gabriella smacks him again)

Henry: Good luck!

(party continues walking. Henry clicks and the horses follow him)

Henry: (looks over his shoulder) good luck.

(cut to party at the mouth of the cave)

Nanesse: Wow… Sure is dark. (looks to Kain) Do we have to go in?

Kain: (picks up a torch hanging on the cave entrance and sets it ablaze using magic, wooooo) We’ve come this far, no point in leaving now.

(they walk a bit, Kain and Nanesse in front. Bruce behind them. Spike and Gabriella are behind Bruce)

Bruce: (looking around) I can’t believe I’m doing this again.

Kain: Doing what?

Bruce: Yesterday I had to look through an old castle to kill a dragon.

Nanesse: (spins around and walks backwards) You killed it? Really?

Spike: What did you do? Run from it until it died from exhaustion?

Bruce: As a matter of fact, it fell on my sword.

(whooshing sounds are coming from up front)

Nanesse: (twitches her ears) What’s that sound?

(Something flies in front of Kain, he freezes. Nanesse looks up at Kain. He is standing completely still, a shocked look on his face. Some hair falls down in front of his face.)

Kain: Don’t move.

Bruce: Why? What’s there?

Kain: Blades.

Bruce: Where?

Kain: See for yourself.

(Bruce walks up to where Kain is and scrunches his eyebrows. Kain pulls Bruce back just as a blade slices some of his hair.)

Bruce: (eyes wide) Oh.

Kain: (looks back) Anybody else want a haircut?

Gabriella: What are we supposed to do now, Go back?

Kain: (feels the wall) There must be a switch or something.

Nanesse: (sees a faint outline of some runes) Found it!

Kain: (walks up and rubs Nanesse’s head) Good job. Let’s see… (rubs dust off the runes) Ice… and lightning… The hell?

Gabriella: What?

Kain: Runes. But they don’t have any atma in them.

Nanesse: So put some in.

Kain: Sounds good to me.

(puts his hands up to the runes and closes his eyes. Light comes from his hands and into the runes. Lightning thingies run through the walls. Chunks of ice follow)

Gabriella: Well that did something.

Kain: Doesn’t look like it changed anything though. (picks up a rock and throws it into the tunnel. Blades chop it into pieces)

Nanesse: (points under the two other runes) There’s an empty spot.

Kain: Lightning and ice… They don’t have anything in common… Except… (pulls out a knife and etches out another rune) Here goes nothing.

(Kain does the power thingy and water runs through the two lines left from the other runes. Grinding sounds come from the ceiling and tons of pickaxes fall to the ground. Kain starts walking)

Bruce: What did you do?

Kain: Ice and lightning both compound elements. They both require water to exist.

Bruce: Oh. Makes sense.

Spike: You have a lot of practice doing this, don’t you?

Kain: (smiles) Sort of.

(party walks into a large opening filled to the top with raw ore. A sign is posted on the wall. Bruce wipes the dust off)

Bruce: Storage A.

Kain: Don’t touch anything.

Gabirella: (kneels next to a pile) Is all this Caliburn?

Spike: Raw Caliburn. Worth twice its weight in gold last I heard.

Kain: (looking around) Now I understand why they chose this place. There must be enough ore in this mine to outfit an army. But why is it all still here?

Gabriella: Are you saying there’s some kind of conspiracy.

Spike: It better not be. This whole ordeal has wasted far too much of my time already.

(While they are talking, Bruce spots a treasure chest that’s semi-open, and something shiny glinting in the firelight. Bruce walks up to it. He begins to reach for it but stops to look over his shoulder to make sure nobody is watching. While he’s looking back, the chest opens its eyes <that’s right! It’s a mimic!> and looks up at Bruce. It smiles wide. Bruce turns back just as it is closing its eyes. Bruce reaches inside to pull out the contents when it sprouts teeth, opens its eyes and chomps down hard. Bruce freaks out. He smashes it on the ground a few times. He then runs around a lot screaming, and runs out of the room.)

Kain: What’s his problem?

Nanesse: Mimic got him.

(party chases after him)

Kain: I told him not to touch anything.

(Bruce runs into the next room. The floor is covered with earth runes all over the floor. As he runs past them, they light up. He stops at the far end, next to a pedestal)

Nanesse: (from the hallway): Hit the lock!

Bruce: (hits the lock on the mimic, which lets go of his arm and falls to the ground. He looks in his hand and it’s one gold piece) Just one? You piece of shit!

(Bruce kicks the mimic across the room which sets off the last rune on the floor. When the party gets into the room all the non-runed sections fall away, leaving only the lit up sections. Kain nearly falls into a hole, but stops himself)

Kain: What did you do?

Bruce: How should I-

Azriel: Well to start, he ruined my entertainment.

(on the side of the opening Azriel and Sarin (Dark elf, brown hair, taller than Nanesse) are sitting on a ledge. Party looks over to them)

Sarin: You bumbling oaf! Do you know how long it took me to carve those runes? All that hard work and nobody was killed.

Azriel: Sarin, I’ve told you before, our goal isn’t to kill them, but to test.

Sarin: Hmmph…

Kain: Excuse me.

Sarin: What do you want, Mage?

Kain: Oh I was just wondering, who the hell you people are, and why you brought us here.

Azriel: That sounds fair, but after what you did to me, I hardly feel the need to be fair.

Kain: Would it be better if I just apologized?

Azriel: (laughs) I’m afraid not. We’ll discuss this later, just get to the end alive.

Spike: How are we supposed get passed this?

Azriel: Ask Kain, he’s solved hundreds of these stupid things over the years. Until then, don’t get killed.

Sarin: Unless you really want to, that is.

(Sarin and Azriel fade into the darkness)

Gabriella: I’ve had just about enough of these people.

Spike: (looks to Nanesse) Why didn’t you just shoot them?

Nanesse: (frowns) You are a bitter hateful man.

Gabriella: (laughs) You’ve got that right.

Bruce: Guys! I’m bleeding.

Gabriella/Spike: Good.

Kain: If you guys don’t mind, let’s get back to the task at hand. Bruce, what have you got on your side?

Bruce: Umm… A bunch of tiles.

Kain: Do they have any markings?

Bruce: Yeah.

Kain: What do they look like?

Bruce: (points to the lit up areas) like those. Oh, and this thing (nods at the pedestal) has slots on the top.

Kain: Try putting a tile in a slot.

Bruce: Which?

Kain: pick one.

(Bruce puts the fire tile in the top slot. The corresponding section moves up. He pulls it out and it moves back)

Kain: Ok, now place the water tile in the-

Bruce: Ooo! I love these puzzles!

(Bruce puts the Fire tile in the bottom slot, moving the block towards Kain etc. He puts the earth in the left, water in the right, and wind in the center. The order isn’t quite right)

Kain: No, you have to put the-

Bruce: I can do this!

Kain: Fine, just hurry up.

(Bruce takes out the water and wind and switches them. All the blocks line up, making a bridge and opening the door at the end of the room. Everyone crosses)

Nanesse: I knew you could do it! (jumps on his back)

Bruce: I used to play with a lot of puzzles like that when I was a kid.

Spike: At least he’s good for something.

Kain: Ok, enough messing around, lead the way Bruce.

(about 20 feet into the tunnel Bruce sets off a tripwire. A log swings down, Bruce turns to it, and it hits him square in the chest. Bruce is knocked through the wall, light shines through the hole)

Kain: Wow, I never would have thought we were so close to the outside.

Nanesse: (looks out the hole) Or so high up.

Bruce: (hanging onto a ledge) Guys!

Spike: I guess he’s still alive.

Bruce: Little help?

Gabriella: Think should we help him.

Spike: I don’t know.

Gabriella: We might need a decoy later on.

Spike: True…

Bruce: If you leave me here, I swear I’ll come back and haunt you for the rest of your lives!

Kain: Do you really want him following you from beyond the grave?

Gabriella: I guess you’re right.

Nanesse: You still there Brucey?

Bruce: Not for long!

Kain: Rope.

Nanesse: Here! (takes a rope out of her cape)

Kain: (to Spike, hands him a section of the rope) Hold this. (to Bruce) Grab the rope!

(Kain and Spike hold the rope and brace themselves. Bruce climbs up)

Kain: You need to lose some weight.

Bruce: (at the top) I am wearing a full suit of armor.

(Bruce gets all the way up and the three guys collapse. Nanesse wraps the rope up and puts it back)

Gabriella: (looking at the broken wire) A tripwire? They set a tripwire? I’m insulted!

Bruce: (rubbing his head) It worked, didn’t it?

Kain: I’m getting sick of saying this, but apparently it bears repeating. Quit messing around.

Bruce: Fine! (gets up) Slave driver…

Kain: (walking away) I heard that.

(They follow Kain through the tunnel some more. They reach a dead end.)

Kain: You have to be kidding me! A dead end? Then why all the (turns around) traps?

(Kain is the only one left in the tunnel. Behind him a door-sized opening appears, spreading light all around him)

Kain: This is getting really old really fast. (walks through the door)

End

Part 5