(Sorry Seph, no more room)

Baneri snapped at Ith. "No, no, no -- not you again! C'mon, go away!" The other mage slowly and sadly crawled away. "Now, back to business..."

There, on the ground in front of the old man lay the three items. He stared intently at each of them for many long moments as he took in a deep sigh.

"You know, this is a terrible idea, Elbo..." the mage muttered, "do we really need to use these?"

The gathered few knew not why the old mage behaved like this, why he was complaining over these items; to them, it seemed as if they were normal objects, without much significance at all.

"We've talked about this, Baneri. It's the only way - you know that." Elbo replied.

The mage let out another sigh. Reluctantly, he picked up one of the three objects - a very dusty, and very old skull. Baneri blew the dust off and smiled to himself as he held the skull in admiration.

"You see," he began, "this is the Skull of Yoruk..."
Baneri looked around, disappointed at the very clear lack of knowledge from his gathered Knights. "Geez, do I have to explain everything? The Skull of Yoruk is THE source of all Deep Magic" Again, blank stares.

"Ugh - don't tell me that you all don't know what Deep Magic is! Torak's Tooth!" He took a long pause, and continued to speak again. "Alright, there are three types of magic in existence: High, Middle and Deep. High Magic is Creation, Middle Magic is Enlightenment, and Deep Magic is Transmutation."

Baneri, now annoyed by everyone's ignorance as to how important this actually was, turned around and walked a few grudgingly slow paces to a mysteriously dug hole. He stooped low over it and with yet another sigh, relinquished the Skull into the hole's depths. With a single fluid motion, the hole was covered over once more, and the Skull was now buried.

"Okay, a hundred thousand marks to the one who can tell me what the next item is...." Baneri waits for a response. When none is offered, he continues, "thought so... This is what we wizards call the Cube of Foundation. Say it with me, Foun-da-tion." The mage reached down as he said this, and picked up a small white cube, with dimensions of about one inch each.
"Very good. Now this... this is the where all people of the world draw the powers of Middle Magic. It is because of this Cube that we have learning and understanding in this place. Still following guys? Good."

Hex walked back to where the hole was just covered and covered over the spot with a small steel box. Inside this box he placed the Cube of Foundation.
"Ya ready to take notes again? This Cube of Foundation is responsible for one of our seventeen quintessential reasons for exisitence. Do not, and I repeat DO NOT mess around with the Cube of Foundation, please..."

Baneri trailed off, as if lost in thought. He stared back at the remaining item resting all alone in the middle of the floor.
"This," said the elf as he made his way back, "is the Coconut of Quendor; yep, you guessed it.. High Magic. Without this coconut," the elf continued, "the growth and evolution of life would cease to be."

Then, as Baneri finished his explanation, he solemnly walked back to the new location of the other two items. He raised the Coconut over his head and whispered something in his ancient tongue, which seemed to permeate through all living bodies as the sound rattled in their minds.
Moments later, an overhanging vine reached down and wrapped around the coconut, drawing it upwards and nestling it firmly above.

Seemingly satisfied with the way things were going, the old man nodded to the Gardener and quietly hobbled back over to the assembled Frost Knights.
"Please, tell me you know what the point of this exercise is..." And, with instantaneous second-guessing, the wizard shook his head - not wanting to get an answer in fear of it being the wrong one.

During this short dialogue, however, Elbo had not stopped working at the task at hand. Discreetly, he removed a familiar blue orb from a leather pouch and began reciting the text from one of Hex's personal scrolls: "In-placir... trae-ry...er...ramae-verisenc-ir...uh, well - whatever," the Gardener said, "...that should be how it's pronounced..."
But, before he could complete his sentence, the orb (earlier found to be called the Ramladu Orb) began glowing in an unusually eerie dark yellow hue and floated over to Baneri and the others.

*Meanwhile*
Lord Ith was still lurking not far away from what was currently transpiring. He watched intently as the Orb floated over towards the old elf, and breathed heavily in anticipation.

"YEEOWWWW!" Ith suddenly exclaimed. He'd just been on the receiving end of a surprise attack from Humphley and had jumped far enough to land just feet away from Elbo.
**********

"...mmm...MMM... I see. The union of Deep, Middle and High - to test the mind, body and heart. Your request shall be fulfilled, Lord Malaku. I will send these people on their mission..."

"No, Ith! Get out of here!" Baneri exclaimed, but it was too late. The voice of the orb echoed into what seemed like infinity as the Knights surrounding the orb all slipped into the spell's effect.

They then hurtled through a magnificent flood of color, where up became down, black became white and inside became outside. They all fell for hours; Andrew, Gamine, Rag, Elbo, Baneri, Tarelth, and... er, Ith.

Then, everything went blank. They floated in a mystic void, empty of anything and everything.

"Hey-ey-ey-ey" Baneri echoed, "you-ou-ou sure-ure that-at you-ou-ou said-aid..." but, he was denied the completion of his sentence.

Beneath them, there was an explosion of color racing towards them. They were not floating, they were FALLING. Wait, falling?!

"Aaaah!" they yelled, plummeting toward the ground. Then, nothing could be heard.. *THUD* They hit the ground with alarming speed, crashing and throwing dirt all over the place. Any other time, they would have died. Lucky for them, this was Tristan - and lucky for them, this was another plane of existence.

Baneri sat up and shook the grass from his hair. He looked around and took a deep breath in. The air smelled of teaberry, and the singing of strange birds rang from a distance. The others sat up, too, confused.

"Hex, what's going on?" Ith questioned, "Where are we?"

Baneri could only force a smile, "Why, we're in Tristan, of course. Couldn't you tell by the scenery?"

It was only then that the group realized the setting. The sky was of a bright orange glow, the fields were blazed with purple grass, yellow and blue trees stood mighty over the pastures as very odd yellow field mice scampered along the ground. Tristan was, beyond a shadow of a doubt, a colorful place.

But, the group's amazement cut short as the mage stood up and brushed himself off. "Hurry now, we must make our way to the path before nightfall. We've only a few more hours of light left."

And so, the other Frost Knights followed suit, gathered their bearings and trailed close behind the mage.

(I'll add on more soon, guys.)
-The Plumed Knight.-


AIM- CourtJester812
E-mail- Hex@frostknights.com
Neopets ID- CourtJester812
Dragon Court- HexadecimalCrsh

"I poobly inton aspindo." --Elbo Malaku