Chapter 97 - Trouble

"I guess we will head back to the isle of dragons for now." Zell said. "But I have questions before we do any rituals."

"That sounds reasonable." Qamra said.

"Go get some clothes on and we will leave." Zell said.

"Right, forgot about that." She said, laughing as she left.

Zell waited as Qamra went into her home and got dressed. After a few minutes she exited her home in her toga with a bag.

"All good now." She said smiling. "I have all of my belongings with me so there is no need to ever come back." She looked around the jungle clearing where she had spent the last few years of her life and sighed. "I don't know if I will miss this place but it has been home and I have feelings about it either way."

"I can understand." Zell said. "I left similarly when I left my kingdom on my grand adventure. Now that seems so distant, like a fading memory."

"Funny how life changes like that." She replied. "I want to teach you another spell. One from your tale you are familiar with already. The spell of teleportation. No gems, rocks, or stones required. Teleport stones are just preprogrammed spells grafted on a gem. The spell itself exists independently of the stones. The reason stones are used is because the spell is complicated."

"So, we can just teleport back to the dragon isle?" Zell asked. "That would be a useful spell to have."

"Yes, although the trip with your flight magic is no problem." Qamra said. "This will give you other options of transportation. The spell I will teach you is teleportation via portal. When done correctly the spell will open a portal connecting the point in which you stand with a point that is within your mind. First to cast it you must think of the place you wish to travel. Let that image be the only one that inhabits your mind while you cast the spell.

Next you want to picture both spaces bending together as if folding ends of a paper. Next picture a door and open it in your mind, while making a circular motion with your arm."

Zell did all of the things that Qamra instructed him to do and successfully created a portal to the isle of dragons. "Wow, I can see the island through the portal!" Zell said excitedly. He had created the portal at the edge of the island where he had learned to cast his spells. Currently there were no dragons standing there it was clear.

"Looks like a successful cast." Qamra said. "Most cannot grasp the complexities of this spell. Very impressive to have cast it on your first try. If you wanted to cast a spell that just teleported you and did not create a portal, instead of a door you would have pictured a hole, and you would have to have jumped into it."

"I see." Zell said, nodding.

"I will go through first; the portal will close as you use it." Qamra said, as she leaped through. She landed on the other side and waved to Zell signaling that she successfully made it to the other side.

Seeing her wave, he jumped in as well. As he cleared the portal it closed behind him as she said it would. "Wow, we made it back so fast." Zell said. "Let's head to the house of black and meet with Sid and Obsi. I have questions and they have answers."

"Lead the way." Qamra replied. "I have never been here before."

The two of them walked the short distance to the house of black and found it empty inside.

"I guess they are still out collecting the ingredients for the ritual." Zell said, trying to explain their absence. "We can wait in the great room for their return." He said while leading the way.

As they entered the great room, they found it to be in disarray as if a battle had been fought in the room.

"What happened here?" Qamra said, surveying the room. "You don't think something happened to them, do you?"

"I don't know." Zell said. "We should check the town, just to be sure." Zell rushed out of the house and Qamra followed him closely. He rushed down to the center of the dragon's city to find not one dragon. The house of elders, the streets, everywhere was void of life. "Could I have messed up the portal spell? Brought us somewhere else?"

"No, you did it right." Qamra said. "Something is wrong here. I don't know what happened, but I cannot sense any dragons anywhere. I can feel the energies that they left behind, but I cannot find them. It is as if they are no longer on this planet."

"You don't think the gods did something to them do you?" Zell asked, with a worried expression. "They said the gods wouldn't directly interfere with this world, so it has to be something else right?"

"There is a chance." Qamra said. "A small chance, but still a chance that a god could have found a host. I don't know who would give their body and soul over to a god. It could have only happened to someone that was suffering and near death."

"So, if a god found a host, what do you think they did with the dragons?" Zell asked. "I mean Sid has a mark just like mine. He should have had the power to defend the others and stop whatever god did this."

"I don't know what to tell you." Qamra said. "I can just tell you that there are no dragons here."

"Even that policewoman is gone." Zell said. "This is troubling."

"Let's search for clues." Qamra said. "You search the elders' chambers, and I will search out here. Yell if you find anything.

"Will do." Zell replied as he entered the elders' chambers in search of any clue. There were no signs of conflict that he could see. Everything was as it should be, nothing was out of place. It was just empty. There were no elders nor any servants or attendants.

During his search he found a small object sitting on one of the elders' chairs. He picked it up and was surprised at what it was. It was a small golden pocket watch with beautifully intricate engravings. It has a long golden chain attached to it. Zell opened the face of the watch, and it was just a normal everyday clock. He had never seen any of the elders ever pull out a timepiece, so he pocketed it and kept it to show to Qamra.

He continued to search for another hour but came up with nothing. He pulled out the watch and looked at it again before putting it back in his pocket and heading out to find Qamra. When he first exited the building, she was nowhere to be found so he sat down and waited for her return.

Another hour passed before he saw Qamra strolling down the street on her way back. He could tell she had nothing in her hands, but he hoped she had found something.

"Welcome back." He said as she approached. "Did you find anything?"

"Nothing." Qamra replied. "I find it all strange. The only signs of a struggle we found was the great room in the house of black. Everyone else seems to have just vanished without a fight. They are immortal dragons though; they should have left some signs of a struggle if a battle occurred."

"I found this." Zell said as he took the watch out of his pocket.

"A pocket watch?" Qamra asked. "Did it belong to one of the elders?"

"I never saw them with a timepiece." Zell answered. "But it was just laying on the seat of one of their chairs. I cannot be certain if it belonged to them or not. All I know it seemed to be out of place. It was the only thing out of place. It has to mean something."

"Let me see it." Qamra said as she reached for the watch. Zell gave it to her, and she started looking it over. "Oh, there is a tiny inscription on it. It's so small I can see how you missed it. It reads to my best friend Zell slash Gary. What is that supposed to mean?"

"It could only mean one thing." Zell said with a look of dread on his face. "A watch symbolizes time and only a god would know about my past life as Gary. It has to be the reborn god of time and space; I can't believe he would come after me again after I had to kill him the last time."

"I remember you telling me about that." Qamra said. "How you literally had to break time and space to defeat him, but you did it at a much higher level than you are now today."

"Yeah, if I have to fight him again it may be trouble." Zell said, looking at the mark on his hand.. "This mark might be my only hope."