The leader of the House of Fate and Flames teleported Ferrisdae and I next to a cave high up on a mountaintop. A sudden chill passed through me, a hard contrast from the beach we were just on, before my jacket’s climate control magic kicked in. The air was a little thin up here, but nothing we couldn’t handle.

  Before us was a large swathe of verdant green with several blue lakes and rivers dotted throughout. Birds flew across the horizon, preparing to nest for the night, and I could make out a field of colorful flowers in the distance. It was mostly pink and red with a large stripe of white across it. This certainly didn’t look like a place anyone would call Mount Rust.

  Unlike the other portals, this one showed no sign of a settlement around it. At most, there were the remnants of an old road that went north down the mountain and out of sight. Where we were now looked like it could have been some kind of campsite, but nothing more than that.

  The longer I looked at it, the more I felt that this was very familiar.

  “I’ve been here before,” I announced as I narrowed my eyes at the scene.

  “Well, good for you,” Teladora replied before slapping me on the back. “I gotta get back to my team. We’re heading straight east with all speed. I heard the little miss here has some quick transport, so we’re going to go extra fast so we can clear the path for you. Not that we’re the only ones, but we are the best so we’re looking forward to the opportunity to prove it against these other chump teams.”

  “Thank you,” Ferrisdae said with a smile. “For the ride and clearing the path. I know teleporting so much is pretty taxing.”

  “Pah,” the floating Gnome said, waving a dismissive hand. “Not every day someone like me is turned into a ferryman. Kinda low stress, you know? I can’t see myself doing it long-term, but it’s not bad as a one-off thing. Anyway, have fun, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

  Without any fanfare, Teladora flew away, leaving me alone with Ferrisdae.

  She turned to me. “You’ve been here before?”

  “Not here, here, but yes,” I replied with a nod. “Both of my meetings with the Dungeon Master were here. The first time back in the blizzard, and the second time when I took Tabs and Dalsarel to see him and Himia. I remember thinking that the scenery was transcendent, and that I would have enjoyed the view if it weren’t for the circumstances we were in.”

  “We could take a moment now,” Ferrisdae offered. “No one will know if we take a few more minutes. Maybe a half an hour or so.”

  I detected an ounce of worry in her voice that she was doing a good job of masking, but I knew her too well now. No doubt Tabs had talked to her at some point to explain that I had run myself ragged. Ferrisdae could have probably intuited that herself, though the information coming from my wife meant that she would actually act on it rather than simply keep an eye on me.

  “No, the plan is already being set in motion,” I declined with a shake of my head. “We deal with the Dungeon Nexus here, and then we head to Wolten Heights in as fast a Skymirror Carriage as you can make.”

  “I think I can surpass Moose now, at least. Especially if it’s just the two of us again,” she said, trying not to sound so excited about it. “I still haven’t evolved Skymirror Carriage into a variant spell yet, though I’ve been using it enough that it shouldn’t be long, but I feel stronger after we made it through that blockade. It should be more than fast enough to get us there without needing to call in a portal expert or something.”

  “Ferrisdae?”

  “Yeah, Badger?”

  “You already gushed about this to me,” I said, looking up at my junior. “If you want to be excited, then you don’t have to tone it down just because you’re with me.”

  “If I don’t, you’re going to get annoyed,” she told me, putting her hands on her hips. “Are you not? Is that not your whole thing?”

  “It’s just us two here, so I don’t need to keep up my usual diplomatic persona,” I replied as I turned around to look at the cave.

  “Okay, then I’m really excited to see how fast we can go with just the two of us when we’re allowed to go flat out,” Ferrisdae said with a grin. “Can I cast the spell to make something with the top down? I know that leaves us exposed, but the path is going to be cleared for us and I want to feel the wind in my hair.”

  “Sure, kid, if that’s what you want,” I chuckled. Indulging her once wasn’t going to be a terrible problem considering the lengths everyone else had gone through to help us.

  The cave was large enough that we could have ridden the Skymirror Carriage inside if we had wanted to, but it would have been tight for the twin horses the spell summoned. We entered, both of us putting on our Darklight Goggles in order to see. There were sconces for torches or other types of lights, but they were all empty.

  We followed the winding path as it led us higher into the mountain. It went in a spiral pattern for far longer than I expected, and for the first time I realized that Keith Carr had a method of teleportation himself. That was knowledge that didn’t really matter in the long run; I just couldn’t see him being a patient enough individual to take this path over and over again.

  After nearly twenty minutes at a steady pace, we made it to a large cavern where the temperature dropped considerably below freezing. Ice lined the walls and ceiling, and we had to have passed at least ten feet of it to get into the room itself. The portal sat in the middle, this time not in the floor, though it was still oriented horizontally instead of vertically. All we would need to do is touch it to go through.

  That was the least interesting thing in the room. Around it was a massive Silver Dragon, coiled almost head to tail around the portal without touching it.

  The sight of it made me hesitate, putting a hand out to stop Ferrisdae before she passed me. My hand moved to the crystalline sword at my belt. I didn’t pull it just yet as Silvers weren’t generally the kind who attacked on sight, even if all Dragons were territorial of their homes.

  “They’re dead,” Ferrisdae remarked.

  I frowned as I looked at the creature’s chest. It wasn’t moving, nor was there any air flow caused by its breathing. A Dragon this size would have easily caused wind in a cavern this size.

  Himia appeared in front of us, her head bowed in respect towards the corpse. “This is Iluxtranemal,” she explained in a hushed tone. “When Keith Carr was at his lowest, she vowed to protect him against himself and this world he found himself in. At first, they were friends, but they became more than that once he got his bearings and stopped being so self-destructive. It also helped that, once she transformed into something humanoid, she was stunning. According to him, of course. She perished about a year before he disappeared.”

  If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

  A memory of CC going on a tangent about how her father loved Dragons but wasn’t something called a scalie, which I was starting to understand the meaning of despite my best efforts not to think about it. Either way, it seemed like the Dungeon Master really was his father’s son.

  “That’s terrible,” Ferrisdae said sadly. “The only time I interacted with Keith Carr was with the Dungeon Master’s version of him in the story dungeon so I really only know him as a creepy lecher, but losing someone like that is still terrible.”

  “He did spiral for a few months, throwing himself into his research in order to forget the pain,” Himia replied. “I believe it was during this time that he made the most progress on the device that took him out of this world. It was a hard time.”

  “It seems like neither of Carr’s kids had a very healthy relationship with him,” I stated, finally letting my hand slip off of my sword’s pommel. “The Dungeon Master’s recreation depicted him as a complete and utter womanizer despite him saying he had a lot of respect for the man, and CC… I suppose she probably liked him a lot before he said all those things about her was his biggest regret, wasn’t she?”

  “Not exactly a great thing to say about your kid,” Ferrisdae said, frowning.

  “Keith Carr was the object of CC’s attention,” Himia answered. “She tagged along with him wherever he went, and his words coupled with his absence was clearly devastating to her. I will not say anything untoward about the man himself, but he had his rough patches the same as anyone else. Iluxtranemal was his balm when the worst of his past traumas came calling, though I understand that it did not make things easy for any member of their little family.”

  A moment of silence passed as we looked over the Silver Dragon’s corpse, but I started walking before it could become too long. No matter how messed up or tragic their family was, we still needed to stop CC. Ferrisdae hesitated for a couple of seconds before following me. There was nothing stopping us from reaching the portal, and we walked right in.

  It deposited us in a freezing tundra of snow and rocks. A storm was raging, creating a veil of white all around us. Ferrisdae immediately activated her Snow Globe ability from Oristrella’s blessing to keep the blizzard away from us. It was larger than it had been the last time I’d seen her use it, but then again she was more powerful.

  Ahead of us, a stark black against the white storm, was a gigantic tortoise. It loomed over our tiny frames like a mountain itself. The beast looked like it could have climbed over the walls of New Frausta themselves, if only they could bear its weight long enough to do so. Several large, tower-like spikes emerged from its shell.

  It looked down at us with stony eyes, and this time I did pull my sword. Tapping my buckler against my chest, it expanded into my full shield as I took up position in front of Ferrisdae. A flash light caught my eye, and I looked over its head to see a shining, metal sword sticking out of the apex of its shell.

  “Wait a minute…” Ferrisdae muttered, barely heard over the storm.

  The creature roared, and the wind blew away all of the snow in our vicinity, revealing even more rocky terrain.

  “That’s a Titantoise!” she exclaimed, suddenly excited.

  I scowled, having never heard of such a creature, and tilted my head so I could see her out of the corner of my eye. “Don’t be so impressed. Right now it’s an enemy!” I shouted back at her.

  “Mount Rust is not an enemy,” Himia stated, walking ahead of us. The monster—the Titantoise, apparently—snarled and snapped, but the Information Elemental raised her hand towards it. “Shhh, be still, big guy. Shhh, shhh. We are all friends here. Keith Carr sent us here. You are doing well to guard his secret lair.”

  “Secret lair?” I asked, arching an eyebrow.

  “It’s okay, it’s okay,” Himia continued, sounding like she was reciting something. “Everything will be okay. You’re such a big, strong tortoise. Everything is okay. I come with friends. You’ll let them in, won’t you?”

  We watched, transfixed, as the Titantoise was gradually calmed down by the Information Elemental’s words. It lowered its chin to the ground as its stone eyes watched her. Himia raised her hand as Mount Rust’s mouth closed, placing it on its nose. I knew she couldn’t actually touch anything, her body ethereal like that of a spirit, but it seemed to placate the beast regardless.

  Its eyes glazed over, and it opened its mouth again. This time, instead of a gaping maw, there was a wall with a door inside. Mount Rust ceased moving, becoming completely still.

  “We have to go inside that?” I asked despite the answer being fairly clear.

  “Yes, Mount Rust is both a creature and a secret lair,” Himia answered. “It is a recreation of an old friend from the second world Keith Carr visited, though they did not start off that way.”

  “But this is a Titantoise, right?” Ferrisdae asked, unable to contain herself.

  The Information Elemental nodded. “That is correct.”

  “And that sword up there,” she continued, pointing at the gleaming weapon jammed into the shell. “That belonged to one of Keith’s companions.”

  “That is another recreation, this time of a sword Alexis used,” Himia confirmed.

  “Otherwise known as Damandria?” Ferrisdae almost squealed, unable to contain herself.

  “What is—” I tried to ask a question, but I was quite thoroughly hushed. My junior shrugged off my glare.

  “Yes, that is also correct,” Himia answered.

  “Oh, that’s— Badger, it’s— Can you believe this?” Ferrisdae gushed, stepping forward and taking my shoulder in hand. She would have shook me rather violently if she had the strength for it.

  “Believe what?” I asked with a scowl.

  She gestured with her staff. “This is exactly like a scene from Of Dragons and Dungeons!” the Forest Elf exclaimed. “Damandria is the first friend that Mr. Frost came across in his travels, very close to the beginning of the first book.”

  “That’s the…” I pursed my lips. “The enigmatic guy, right? Who you said was antithetical to the setting?”

  “Yes!”

  “Didn’t you say he was the villain?” I asked to clarify.

  “Antagonist. Really, he did more good than harm, but the books don’t show him in that light,” she quickly corrected before pouting. “You still haven’t read it?”

  “I’ve been busy,” I said dryly, crossing my arms.

  “I suppose,” Ferrisdae replied, waving me off. “He was a very divisive character, as the story was following Damandria, or Alexis, at the time. They became quick friends, though, and he took her sword to climb a nearby mountain. But they met in a frozen tundra like this one, and there weren’t any. So he climbed a hill instead, and when he proclaimed it Mount Frost and slid the sword in like some kind of ceremony, the Titantoise woke.”

  “And now it’s a friend?” I asked with an arched eyebrow, looking at the massive creature.

  “Absolutely not. Not right away, anyway,” she laughed. “It chased them for miles before they managed to find a series of underground caves that they used to escape from it. The friendship part came later after the beast came under the mental effects of a slaver, and Mr. Frost saved it.”

  “Uh huh. So what you’re saying is—”

  “Of Dragons and Dungeons is the story of Keith Carr in his other world!” Ferrisdae announced before looking at Himia. “Is that right? He’s Mr. Frost, and he gave a transcript of his adventures to Norsky to write about?”

  “He did say something about a biography,” I muttered, remembering his words from the Logan Dome. I crossed my arms. “But what’s it say about him that he didn’t even let himself be the hero of his own story?”

  “I don’t know. Himia?”

  “We did not realize that they existed until Oristrella introduced them to the Dungeon Master, Master of Dungeons, but your deduction is correct,” Himia said with a smile. “Of Dragons and Dungeons is the story of Keith Carr and his trip to another world, if heavily modified. As for why he decided not to be the hero, that is still unknown.”

  I swear, Ferrisdae’s squeal of joy could be heard from miles away.