Ice Cream for Dessert

The cold, dark realm of Nedren materialized around me. Wind whipped around me as I surveyed my surroundings, and adjusted the insulation enchantment that surrounded me. This world was much as the legends described; from nearby, Nedren looked more like a floating island than a simple disc in the sky, as it appeared down on the surface of Forill. Dark pillars sprouted here and there from the yellowish stone.

And the island was covered in Nedrenites. Swarms of them.

I walked to the edge of the smooth, stone platform, and leaped across the small distance between it and Nedren. The Nedrenites, tall, thin, and black, continued to shuffle around aimlessly as I walked between them. Although they gave no indication that I was anything out of the ordinary, I was acutely aware of the differences between us. My shapeshifting abilities could only do so much; I retained the general body proportions of a human, so while I had the hard, black skin and glowing purple eyes of a Nedrenite, I was at most two thirds their height, and I failed to emit the same orbs of purple light that swirled around true Nedrenites.

As I cautiously proceeded through the skeletal humanoids, I conjured memories of the mountains of Forill, and began to gather mana--

Well, I tried to gather mana. None came, though. It felt...cut off, somehow. I reached for the plains--again, nothing. Then, finally, the rivers. With a rush of relief, I felt their mana flow into me. I had that, at least.

Walking between the jagged stone pillars, I scanned the skies for any sign of the great dragon Aephos, lord of Nedren. I had come here to gather information, and hoped to avoid conflict as much as possible.

At one of the shorter pillars, I stopped to examine the purple fire that danced on its top. It was in a strangely artificial-looking shape, with four shorter spikes at each corner, and a taller one in the center.

Then, as I looked, strong, claw-like fingers closed around my arm. I looked down to see a Nedrenite's hand gripping me, and tried to pry it off, but the owner of the hand was much stronger than me. Calling up my mana, I cast a spell intended to push the Nedrenite away in a blast of ice, but I had never been much good at cryomancy, and all that happened was a bit of frost formed on the Nedrenite's fingers. It simply grabbed my left arm as well, and drew back its right hand to brush the ice off. Then it replaced its right hand, but kept the left in place.

As I tried to think of something else I could do, a flash of brown appeared at the top of my vision, and I looked up to see that a rooster had appeared out of nowhere. It stood in front of me, glaring with its violet eyes--

Wait.

Surely that story wasn't true, too? It was widely regarded as a myth, but some spoke of a Nedrenite rooster, the true lord of Nedren. He was known as Dorrec Bachawk, and was said to delight in tormenting the people of Forill.

"Hello, Kadsraft Kyd!" cackled the legendary chicken. "You're just in time! Aephos will be waking from his nap soon."

"OK," I said. "I'm fairly certain I know who you are, but you're a figure of legend! How do you know who I am?"

"Oh, I've been keeping track of you for years, Kadsraft. I have a bit of history with your family. Did your mother never tell you of the time she stole ice cream from me?"

"She-- What? How on Forill did that happen?"

"All I wanted to do was sample some Kyd ice cream, but Kireen insisted on making popsicles of my Nedrenites. And then she helped that nasty elemental raid my palace, too! But never mind her. I would've gotten away with several schemes if it weren't for you meddling Kyds, so I'm going to make sure that you don't cause any trouble for me. As soon as Aephos wakes, you will become his dinner! Maybe he'll have some ice cream for dessert! Hahahaha! Ba-CHAWK! Emera, bring him to the Roost."

As Bachawk disappeared, I struggled against the Nedrenite's grip, trying once again in vain to conjure some substantial cryomancy, but the Nedrenite retained its hold, and I was teleported to the roof of a tall building. The chicken was already there, his glowing eyes visible as he perched on the head of a slumbering dragon--Aephos.

Bachawk leaned down to the side of Aephos's head, and after a second, he began to stir. Bachawk teleported down, and the dragon opened his eyes, and sat up.

"Aephos!" crowed Bachawk. "The young Kyd is here--and of his own accord, even! We can finish him once and for all, before he gives us any problems. Now, eat him!"

Aephos leaned forward and opened his jaws, releasing a purple vapor. As the dragon's breath washed over me, my skin began to sting sharply. The Nedrenite, which had continued to restrain me until this point, quickly drew its hands back, evidently also feeling the effects of the mist. As soon as it released me, I started running, but Aephos pounced, pinning me down. He opened his mouth again, leaned forward--

And then, as I stared, terrified, at my impending doom, the world dissolved around me. It transformed into a chaotic mass of amorphous something, easily more malleable than my own form. I was buffeted around in this place for an indeterminate amount of time, before it began to take a stable shape once more, and I was deposited in a snowy forest.

My skin still burning, I looked around desperately for water that I could wash myself in. Fortunately, there was an ice-covered pond not far to my right. As I hurried over to it, I reached for the mana of the mountains, and this time, it came surging into me. The ice shattered as my spell brought a rock crashing through it, and I jumped into the water.

Although the pond was literally freezing, the enchantment wrapped around me kept me, if not warm, at a merely uncomfortable temperature. Some water spilled into my mouth, and it stung in strange way that couldn't be explained just by the temperature. I closed my mouth, and splashed back out of the pond. Shivering, and spitting out the tingling water, I walked through the blanket of granular snow to lean against a tall tree. As I stood there, I pondered what had happened. How had I gotten to...wherever this was? Was it something about the nature of Nedren, which was connected simultaneously to all parts of Forill at once? Or maybe Aephos’s breath had the power to alter perception, and none of this was actually happening.  If it wasn’t the latter, I was very lucky--even if I couldn’t figure out where I was, I had escaped with very little harm, and had learned about Nedren--and my family, if Bachawk was to be believed--in the process.

As I considered all this, I picked at the bark of the tree, and a piece snapped off in a way uncharacteristic of bark. Bringing it out in front of me, I saw that it had made a clean, smooth break, and when I scratched it, a piece peeled off, as if the bark was made of wax. As I examined it, though, I noticed that it also had an unusual smell. Rather than bark, it smelled like...chocolate?

I put a claw-like finger in my mouth, and, sure enough, it tasted just like chocolate. I knew, of course, that the basis of chocolate grew on trees, but I was fairly certain that it was just the fruit--and, anyway, the environment here was completely wrong. This place was seeming stranger the longer I stayed here.

I popped the rest of the chocolate bark into my mouth. Shifting back into my more usual human-like form--I didn't want to be seen as a threat--I set off through the woods to search for signs of civilization, and to see what else I could discover about this area.

Before long, I came to a clearing in the forest. In it were houses, and between the houses walked a number of strange, white humanoid beings, the likes of which I had never seen or heard of before. I quickly transformed into a rock-like form, and crouched behind a tree.

Getting another look at the creatures, I saw that they were shaped like humans, but had no variation in color, even their clothing solid white. And, as one walked close to me, it looked distinctly like it was made of ice cream--a dessert that I had seen quite a bit of, seeing as my family specialized in it.

I morphed into an approximation of the ice cream people, a went out to see what I could learn from them.

That night, I stared up the sky, frustrated. Although these people were hospitable, I could glean no useful information from them. I recognized none of the locations they spoke of, and they seemed confused when I mentioned the places I knew. Wherever this place was, it must have been very far from my home, or else very isolated. Not that this was incredibly surprising--after all, I had never heard of a place made of candy.

I looked at the stars, suddenly realizing something. I had been feeling like there was something strange about the sky, and now I knew what it was: Nedren, which appeared the same from every point in the world, was missing.

I knew for sure now that I was no longer on Forill.