The Battle of Death Mountain: Staging

[Tom Marvolo Riddle]

Each step I took brought my wand slashing this way or that to disburse the larger obstacles from my path. Just one more that drove home the nature of this place. Annoyance flickered across my face despite my resolve to hide it. I had found nothing of worth that I could bring back to Hogwarts for breeding. Planting… maybe but not much else. What an insufferable land!

Wiping the ash from my face and hair I move back to the camp that I had broken off from, wand clutched tightly in my fist. Not even a decent ever burning salamander had blocked my way. Just lifeless ash and stone. How the Gorons found themselves at home here I could only imagine but for human life or near human life like myself- it was an unfortunate mix, like adding quills too early to a boil removing potion.

Anyone with a lick of sense would know to stay away, and yet here I was.

I pushed past a Goron sentry with a nod after he took only a moment to recognize me, or was it a she? Hard to tell. Few had any definite features with which a trained could focus on to tell the different. I had come to realize since first meeting the creatures that tracking their scars and inventory would have to do in place recognizable features.

Several more strides pulled into the camp proper as the leader himself departed and I was met with the appearance of several more humans. Or as human as was discernable from a first glance. One was adorned with what appeared to be a leather robe…- no a duster that was so common with the yanks. Guess even the Omniverse suffered the Americans. The second of such individuals was less placable. I didn’t miss however the numerous weapons that were strapped to him.

Odd, were these the ones we had been expecting to meet up?

While I was proof that underestimating someone by appearance was in general going to result in a low life expectancy; these people didn’t look to terribly impressive, even with the tall one with a staff.

A walking stick or a true staff, like the Celtics once used?

“Nealaphh!” I gave a warning call more in hopes of attracting attention to the newcomers than the being himself, “It seems to be as the Gorons said. No other means up than the main path or by flight.”

Burning almonds of emerald turned in my direction and inclined its head.

Indeed. In your absence, though, the first of our party have arrived. Its words rippled across my mind. Distinctly alien enough that I could distinguish it from my own, but that didn’t stop my own from responding in kind. I never could get used to it. God save me if Nealaphh ever figured out how to imitate the ‘sound’ of other’s thoughts. Slip them in…

I shuddered and filed the thought away for further research.

Legilimency still remained outside my reach here but it was on my list. That among many other things.

The longer I was within the Omniverse, (that name…!) the more I’d come to realize Nealaphh’s main complaints, and the validity there of, rang true. So much of my power had been diminished while other potentials strung in front of me like a carrot hooked as bait in front of a horse. The carrot ,sweet as it was, that would catch the horse unaware of the prickly thorn underneath, and then I would be trapped here. Truly tapped. Beholden to a power that did not truly believe in freedom.

The question was, was I any more free with Nealaph than I was with Omni?