Saving Scorch

Once upon a time in the land of Atheria, there was a princess Nea and a princess Lulu and they went on the most amazing adventures. No sooner had Princess Nea, Lulu and Wahl walked away from Ella’s enchanted Well than they overheard the news that Scorch had been kidnapped by the ogre King Bealock of Gozdur. 

“We’ve got to save Scorch!” Nea said to the others.

“Yes!” agreed Lulu. 

“Wahl will you come with us? Will you help us save Scorch?”

Now Wahl wasn’t sure what to do. He just found out that if he wanted to learn the truth about his long lost family he would find it out through Princess Nea and Princess Lulu. Yet Wahl was an ogre and King Bealock was the ogre king. If he were to help them, it would mean making enemies of his fellow ogres. And Wahl actually knew the king and many, many other ogres across Atheria. 

“That was the dragon that almost burned down Ubbin!” Wahl said, referring to the time when the ogre’s had captured Sparland Castle but then were chased away by Scorch all the way back to their home. 

“Well, not really,” Nea said. 

And she explained that the plan that day with Scorch was to get back Sparland Castle from the ogres by having Scorch pretend to attack them.

“We know that Bealock doesn’t want to save Atheria. He wants to use the purple crystal for himself.” Lulu said. 

And Wahl knew that was true because Wahl. Wahl had actually been the ogre who found the purple crystal when it fell from the sky. When King Bealock found out that he had it, he took it from Wahl. 

Wahl knew that the princesses had good hearts and that he could trust them more than he could trust King Bealock. 

“Ok, I’ll help.” He said.

“Don’t worry Wahl, we’ll do whatever we can to help you find your family.” Lulu said, giving Wahl a big hug. 

As they traveled down to ogre country, they started to plan how they were going to rescue Scorch. While they hiked, a hawk appeared in the distance!

“It’s Ryla!” Nea announced.

Ryla flew around their heads, circling a few times then slowly descended. In her claws she held a small vial. When she got close she dropped the vial into Wahl hands and found a nearby perch to sit on. 

“I see you adventurers have found each other.” She squawked. “You will need that vial if you are to free Scorch. It is a gift from O’lah of Ubbin.”

“O’lah? Of Ubbin?” Wahl asked, recognizing that Ubbin was another ogre city in ogre country. 

Ryla ignored the question, “I know this might be asking a lot of you, Wahl but you must trust the good inside of you and inside of others. There will come a time when a lot will be asked of you. You will need to trust your heart. You will need to have faith. And princesses, you will need to trust in Wahl, he will lead you both to the next crystal. It has not been found with someone of pure heart.”

Nea & Lulu just looked at each other. Before they could ask Ryla any questions, she opened up her wings and flew away. 

“Now I must go, there is still much work to do. Do not lose hearts my young keepers.”

When Wahl looked at the bottle he noticed a nicely written label on it - Moonshade Pollen - and a note from O’lah.

“Princess Nea & Lulu, I was told that you would need this soon. Do you remember the Moonshade flowers in Skyrabia and what happened to Princess Aria when she breathed them? I saved some for our adventures and was told by Ryla that you might need some soon. Be careful not to smell them because they will put you right to sleep and there’s enough pollen in this bottle for a whole village! - O’lah.”

“Well, let’s keep this handy for sure.” Said Lulu. 

Wahl put it in his pocket and the adventurers continued on their way, thinking of a plan for how they would rescue Scorch.

Nea and Lulu had magic capes that allowed them to turn into ogres. But since they used them before with the ogre king, they knew he’d be able to recognize them. So they came up with a better plan. 

They would wear the ogre cloaks, but have Wahl pretend to have captured them and take them to the ogre jail. Wahl also pointed out that ogres liked weapons so they picked up some crazy metal tools and weapons to bring with them and say these were to help arm the ogres in battle but they would really use them to free Scorch and protect themselves. As soon as Scorch was free, they would fly themselves out to safety.

As they got closer and closer to Gozdur, they started to get nervous and weren’t sure their plan was going to work. What if Bealock didn’t believe them? What if Wahl decided to help the ogres instead? The princesses were so nervous.

And then it happened, they walked into Gozdur with their cloaks on - just like they were real ogres. Wahl took them into Bealock’s castle easily and most ogres didn’t think twice about it. 

“Where’ve you been?” asked the guard with a slight growl. “Found any more stones?”

Wahl just shook his, “No, but I found some ogres and weapons the king might be interested in.”

The guard looked at the ogres, not recognizing them, but not too worried either. He let him through without any more questions.

“Wahl!” snarled an ogre dressed in battle armor. “Come back with treasure for the king!” 

“Well, general, I have some weapons here,” he said, pointing to his backpack.

“We could always use weapons!” said the general. “There is a battle brewing!”

“And a few prisoners!” 

The ogre general looked surprised. “Ogre prisoners? You know we don’t lock up them up, we just torture them!” 

He let out a belly laugh that turned into snorting. 

“Don’t be fooled, they’re not really ogres, they’re pretending to be ogres with magic.”

The generals eyes widened. “Magic! Oooh, I love magic! Can you show me?”

“It’s best not, these two are much more dangerous then they look.”

Princess Nea and Lulu made scary faces, which on their own faces would not have looked very scary but on their ogre faces were very intimidating!

The general backed up. 

“Lock them up! Put them in one of the empty cells. And did you hear, we captured The Destroyer! In fact, tell Zrog to take a break. He’s put in a long shift today.”

Wahl, Nea and Lulu walked down to the dungeon and told the guard at the post that he could take a break. He walked off, leaving the three adventurers completely free to rescue Scorch.

As soon as the coast was clear they walked over to Scorch. Scorch, however, did not like the looks of three ogres getting near him and started to breath in, ready to unleash a large fiery breath. Realizing they still looked like ogres, Nea and Lulu quickly pulled off their cloaks, revealing their true selves. 

Scorch settled down.

“Don’t worry Scorch,” Nea said, “Wahl is a friend here. Like O’lah.”

Who is this O’lah they keep talking about? Wahl wondered. And why did her name sound so familiar. 

“This isn’t going to work!” Lulu said trying to cut his shackles off with a saw. “The metal is too thick.” 

“There’s always the key!” said Nea walking over to the wall where a ring of keys was kept. “Zrog must have left his key ring.” 

They systematically tried every key on the ring but without success. 

“We can’t give up now!” said Lulu. “There’s got to be a way.”

Wahl walked over. Scorch flinched. 

“Don’t worry, I’m just going to pick the lock!” and he got down next to Scorch and pulled out two small pins he kept in his pocket pick the lock. “Something I picked up from an elf along the way.”

Click!

The first cuff fell off, then Wahl went to the second cuff. Only as soon as he started to pick the second cuff they heard a noise. Someone was coming to the jail cells. 

“Quick, Lulu! See if you can put them to sleep with your magic flute!” Lulu pulled out her flute and played the magic tune. 

[Calming tune]

From the hallway they could hear the ogre gruffing. 

“What was that!” they said and started heading towards them.

Nea slammed the door shut. “Quick! It didn’t work, we have to hurry.” 

Click! The other shackle came off. 

“I have an idea,” Wahl said. “Put on your cloaks, Scorch you need to grab them, and break through the back door, leave me here and I will meet you all at the edge of the Scattered Woods later tonight.”

The princesses put on their cloaks and Scorch did as he was commanded. Scorch broke through the back door and out of the dungeon. As he made his way out of the castle and to open air, ogres with spears started chasing after him. Wahl pretended to be chasing after them as well, but kept a small handful of Moonshade Pollen in his hand as ogres came close. Then at the best time he discretely threw pollen into the air which put them all to sleep.

When they were far enough out of sight and safe, Wahl immediately laid down next to the other ogres and pretended to be asleep too. And when the ogres awoke, Wahl told them that he had warned all of them of their magic and that this must have been a ploy of theirs from the beginning - to rescue Scorch the Destroyer. He was going to go after them, no matter what and bring them back to Gozdur in chains! 

However, when he left Gozdur that night, he met up with Princess Nea, Lulu and Scorch on the edge of the Scattered Woods. Scorch was so excited to see them he took them on a night time flight all over Atheria. High enough to see the entire land, but low enough to avoid the sky kingdom of Skyrabia. 

And he didn’t even think about taking them home, in fact, Scorch ended up taking them back to his own nest, where he could be very very safe among the mountains on the Morren Peninsula, just on the other side of Tortura Bay.

Even though they were all safe, they all felt a little uncomfortable. What they didn’t know was that they were all three about to stumble upon something very important. 

The end.