When I opened my eyes, Maular was staring at me. I turned to the left and saw the other three looking at a path that led through the mountains, but beside the path, a burning fire was visible. If someone were to fall from the path, they would not survive. I found it a little weird that someone would build a path through the mountains with both sides on fire. My shirt inside my blazer was completely red; I looked down at the watch, which only had five hours left. I must have slept for a while when we landed. I could feel in my body that the blood had dried from some of the injuries, which had stopped the bleeding, but that feeling like infection is on its way will only make the pain even worse. Dried blood isn't exactly something to lean on, as the injuries can easily reopen.
"I...I no longer take you." Maular said
"Why not? Can't you fly over the mountains and drop us by the village?" I asked him.
"He can not do such a thing; there is a barrier over the mountain. If he were to pass it, the three trials of his life would start, and we would fall from the sky to our death." The Mage commented, whom I still haven't asked what her name is.
"What does that really mean?" I asked
"It means that the trials would show the death, sorrows, and suffering of dragons to Maular, something too dangerous for anyone to see, even suffering from all sides is shown in the trials, without the one responsible for it even knowing the damage done to the other side. That is why the landing was here. He cannot go further because there are dragon watchers; if we keep flying, they will kill us because of the princess."
Why does everything we do end up in bad news? Walking on spikes sounds like an even better idea than trying to walk to the other side. We need to keep moving, though.
"Okay, We will walk on the bridge of path shit with both sides burning in flames not even close to the wall of the mountains."
It made me wonder how the girl knew so much when the golden dragon, speaking weirdly, just sat there silent. I got up slowly from the ground to avoid reopening any wounds and walked to the Maular, who started to walk away from me.
"I will be back," I told the three before following the dragon, which had distanced itself from the group.
When we were at a short distance, he told me:
"Be...Carful! Someteng is camin for yu soon?
I didn't get what he meant by that, but I do remember the words in the beginning when we arrived here by the demon to get rid of Jacqueline and Fierna. Does the dragon know something?
"Who or what should I be careful of?" I asked him to be more precise.
"I do nut knaw, I can onli feel it!"
Well, Maular wasn't a jokester with any evil intentions except that he doesn't like Rieven. I should rethink the choices I have after I hopefully recover.
"I leave!" Maular uttered and flew up into the sky without even looking back at us with appreciation. Well, it's 1-1 on helping each other out, so I can't complain about that.
After watching the sky for a minute, I noticed someone from a distance wearing a black cloak; it looked like they were looking at me, but there was no reaction. I turned around and walked back to the other ones, but turned around to look at the black cloak, but whatever it was had disappeared into thin air. I joined the group, and we walked up the two meters of stairs that led to the bridge, which had flames burning on the sides. It did get a little warmer on our path as we kept walking, as I had hoped nothing would happen on the other side.
After walking for a couple of minutes with the Mage helping me out as support, the fire on the sides turned red, and a human-shaped figure climbed up from the fire in flames with a big line of fire behind it blocking our path.
"It had been a long time since someone tried to pass the walking path. All I have encountered is the death of dragons that have passed the wall above the mountains, but to get someone to pass the path of their own will is something that makes me very interested. I want to welcome you to the Trials of Olronig. My name is Olronig, the Demon Ruler of the Right or Wrong of suffering." The figure uttered.
Even if it doesn't have a face at all, because it is completely in flames, it felt in the air that the Olronig might be smiling right now.
"Eh! Olronig, what exactly is it that you want to do in the trials of right or wrong?" I asked it.
It walked up close to me, and I had to back away as Olronig suddenly stopped and said:
"The trials are meant for my amusement of seeing others suffer and, in a slow manner, die in front of me. Nobody who has traveled over the bridge has ever been able to travel through it, as they die on the first attempt."
I looked down at my watch; 20 minutes had passed for nothing, and we needed to hurry on our way, as every minute was vital.
"Okay! Sounds like a fun trial. So what do we have to do?" I asked it to get this crap over with.
"Oh! Someone feels that it has to hurry to the other side. The leader of the pack will have to conduct the first trial, and then the second trial will begin immediately after you have made a decision. The third trial is something else that I will not mention until you pass through both trials. What you see in the trial is not possible to change, as it has already happened. You will see the happenings of things you only see in your nightmares." Olronig and a snap of a finger echoed in the air as everything became black, and suddenly we were in the middle of the streets of The Old City in the center of Stockholm.
Killeh and Rieven looked around in awe as humans walked past us in the night.
"Where are we?" The Mage asked.
"Well, we are in the old city in Sweden, Stockholm, we are in the human world where no creatures in the darkness exist," I responded.