This is part two from a story I was writing a long, long time ago.

The material contains reference to copyrighted material owned by TSR and now Wizards of the Coast. Disclaimer, blah, blah, blah.

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Ahh, open plains, hilly fields, open sky. Wherever that thing took us, it’s got to be better than that cave. Telrin inhaled and exhaled deeply. The smells of wet grass, a few trees, nearby animals, and something else wafted down
to him.

Something was wrong, something was out of place. All of the scents were there, but none of the sounds. Everyone tensed as the field went completely silent. A high pitched scream filled the air as a huge blaze of fire streaked overhead. It hit with the force of an earthquake. Half of the group fell down to the ground, but Telrin doubled over in fiery pain.

The ground ahead of them bulged upward as if a tunnel was being dug through it at an incredible speed. It was heading straight for him. Telrin’s eyes widened as it approached. He tried to jump out of the way, but the thing altered its path toward him. An explosion of light and power erupted from the ground beneath Telrin. He writhed as it fused with his very soul. He cried out in agony and delight. He sought only to release what power he had, not gain more. The light whirled away, forming into two coherent beams. They twisted around each other, each finally slamming into one of Telrin’s eyes. A hellish screech filled the air. Telrin collapsed, glowing, to the torn ground.

The pain, intense pain, was searing through his soul. It searched out every fiber of his existence, and then burned through each one of them.

He got up slowly, turning to face every one of his friends. He saw everything through a shifting orange and red haze. It blocked certain details, yet enhanced others. Telrin could discern everyone’s magical abilities at a glance. Telrin couldn’t even look at Illent Des because of the brilliance of his sword.

“Telrin, your eyes!” gasped Zet.

He had guessed as much. He discovered from the others that his eyes had turned to a boiling, churning fire color. He decided to tend to more important matters, and ran toward the source of the earthquake.

What he saw broke his fiery heart. A manta-like wooden form lay broken on the ground. It was the size of a small sailing ship, with a trail of burnt ground behind it. Telrin could hear the wails of pain, although no one else could. He went over to the crashed Smalljammer, a child of the Spelljammer itself. His hands touched the purple “skin.” It was still warm, losing life fast. Anger and burning pain filled Telrin. All he could think about was the broken space sailing vessel. He screamed out in defiance.

“What in Cerin’s heaven!?” What Nym Zoland saw amazed and feared all of the people gathered. Red light, filled with power, glared out of Telrin’s eyes and enveloped the craft. Red, hazy light, thicker near the tears and breaks, seemed to lessen the tension in the air. The light seemed to turn into a magical, heatless, flame. As the fire dissipated, a now red Smalljammer rose gracefully into the air, seeming to hover above and to thank Telrin. It shot away, streaking red fire behind it, to fulfill its destiny. Nym dared to ask the question. “What was that, Telrin?”

“An injured friend.” Telrin sighed as he heaved his backpack onto the ground. “And a gained ally.”

*****

The Smalljammer streaked through wildspace, speeding towards the wall of the crystal sphere that enclosed the solar system. He prepared to open a portal and let the phlogiston, the liquid that the universe was mad of, envelop him and cleanse him. Instead, a blue tunnel opened up before him, surrounding him and blocking out wildspace. The walls were seemingly made of energy, moving and crackling with incredible magical force. A branch of the tunnel sped by him, revealing to him an entire section of the massive network. The tunnel opened up ahead of him, and he pushed his speed to full throttle. The tunnel disappeared when he left it, revealing a world below. He decided to descend into a mountain range to rest. His incredible discovery plagued him with incredible questions.

*****

After resting, Telrin dared to explore his new boundaries. He knew that he must be alone, so as to not frighten his companions. In an instant, he was enveloped in flames, and transported into the middle of the forest. Telrin was shocked and wonder-struck at his own power. He suddenly became angry, angry at the responsibility now resting on his shoulders. Flames shot from his hand, red as the sun. They began to consume the trees in front of him. A great fear for the rest of the forest filled him, and instantly the flames were gone. He realized that his power seemed limitless, that it could be a link to realizing his wildest imaginings. Telrin sat down with a sigh, and let his imagination run wild.

“You know, you should really learn to control that.” Telrin started at the sudden appearance of Flard Snet, one of his companions.

“How did you get here?” Telrin had thought to be far away from camp.

“I was meditating, over there, when I heard the crackle of flames. Then I saw you set fire to those trees. Can you imagine what would happen if you lost control of your powers? We would all be toast.” As usual, Flard was afraid of too much power.

“Flard, look at you. You have the power to control the elements, you can control what everything’s made of. You can completely destroy your enemies without a single stroke of a sword. Not only that, you can vary your creation, the very spell, each time you cast it. Do realize what you could do if you let your imagination run wild? You could become the most powerful member in our party, more powerful than even Illent Des!” Telrin urged Flard to let go and run
wild.

“If I had that much power, I would be as corrupt as that Greyhawk dragon. Don’t you know that those kind of dragons are extremely neutral?! They LOVE people. Yet this one, this one would have destroyed any person without a second thought. He was corrupted by something. You, me, even Illent Des could get corrupted if they got drunk with the amount of sheer power that they had. That must not happen, at all costs.” Flard was extremely calm, as if he was reciting a lesson that was old and filled with spider webs.

“Listen to yourself, Flard! You’ve unwillingly become the ‘Saint of all Heroes!’ We need to let go to discover ourselves, yet we also need boundaries. Do you realize what that thing was back there? It was a Smalljammer. A space ship. Not only that, it was a child of the fabled Spelljammer itself. It was ALIVE, Flard. The power that I received came from it, though it was somehow changed and magnified. I suppose I should try to control my urges with this power. Thank you, Flard.” Telrin was truly enlightened.

“I should thank you, Telrin. I’ve been afraid of a myth for a long time, and now I’m free. I’m truly grateful, friend.” They clasped hands, realizing for the first time that they were not alone.

*****

“I will find the Spelljamming ship with or without you, Silver.” The mage, aqua and orange hair waving about, was furious. The hard-headed fighter refused to go into the cavern. He was afraid of the magic forces that he didn’t understand.

“OK, I’ll come with you. Just try and avoid casting that weird magic on me. It chills me to the bone.” A fear translated into ferocious demands is still a fear.

“Good. If I’m right, it lies in that cave.” Ever since he had donned the purple cloak, he had had a sense of where the ship was located. The strange color shift, from a midnight purple to a fiery red, intrigued and mystified him. Trident the Orange would get to the end of this mystery if it killed him.

As he entered the cave, new thoughts occurred to him. What if this Spelljamming ship was a Smalljammer, a child of the mysterious Spelljammer itself. What if this Smalljammer could travel between dimensions trough tunnels of magical energy? What if this Smalljammer had undergone some radical change recently, mentally and physically? Not once, as these thoughts entered Trident’s mind, did he question their origin, nor the unusual brightness of his cloak in the dark cavern.

The cave opened up into a vast cavern, with a ceiling higher than he could see. Below the opening of the cave tunnel into the cavern, the floor dropped to a depth that would have to be carefully navigated. What was in the center of the cavern, though, truly amazed him. A fire-red manta-like ship rested on the floor. The color moved with the same slow pulse as his cloak did. He scrambled down the wall, excited at his discovery. As he moved closer to the ship, it seemed to awaken and to notice him. He knew the shape, the shape of a Smalljammer. How had he known this in the cave? It was just one of the mysteries that doggedly pursued him. When he approached, the fires of the ship and the cloak seemed to slow to a more peaceful pulse, calming with a forced control. He touched the ship, and suddenly his mind split. Coming from the Smalljammer, a sense of feeling–fear, yet final recognition. The feelings weren’t
a total consciousness, just a presence. He clambered up the side and into the ship.

“This is trouble. All of this is big trouble.” Silver Clash, the mighty warrior, sighed as he entered the space craft. When they entered a room at the front of the ship, Trident the Orange knew what he had to do.