Chapter 2

Doug sorted the pages out, but it took a little time to get them into the correct order. Once he got them in order, he started reading the journal.

Varden was not an average child, but it was not his looks that made him special. From his dirty blond short straggly hair and hazel eyes, he was a small child that was on the scrawny side. It was that he had amazing luck that he took for granted. For him, it just seemed like things always seemed to work out his way.

It all started when he was 9. It was a warm summer day, and the smell of breakfast was still hanging in the air the smell of bacon and eggs, and the smell of fresh bread.

Being a 9-year-old boy, he didn't always do as he was told, and staying away from something just made it all the more attractive. His dad had told him in the nearby foothills was a cave and that he was to stay away from it because it was dangerous.

At first, he told himself that he just wanted to find it so that he wouldn't accidentally go into it. He wasn't a bad boy, but he was very curious, and nothing ever really scared him.

So, the journey starts as he dug out his explorer's pack that he kept hidden in his room. His mom had found it several times and she had gotten rid of it each time, but he always found it and reclaimed his loved possessions. There was a flint and some paper, a small knife, and a small torch and for good measure, he kept a snack just in case. With this, he felt like there was nothing he couldn't do.

He wore a small water skin at his side. He loved to look the part as well, so he put on his explorer's outfit shorts and a rugged-looking shirt. He assumed he was ready for anything that he ever came across.

In his backyard, he found the perfect walking stick which made him feel like a real explorer. Having a walking stick he thought that any real explorer needed one. It would help if you needed to reach something or poke at something or just walk with it.

He walked along in no hurry looking at everything and watching the bees going from flower to flower. Seeing an ant trail carrying pieces of food back to their nest. He used his stick to swipe at the tall grass as he walked along. He was slowly making his way through the meadow. He was in no hurry and just looking at everything. He noticed a hawk swoop down grabbing a mouse and flying away with it in its claws.

He slowly made his way across the field playing more than really trying to get there. At the end of the field was a small forest. There were a lot of game trails through the woods. Since Varden was forbidden to go in it, of course, he knew the way to get to it. He wandered through the woods in no great hurry, he wandered several trails and found nothing of interest. So, he decided just to go back to the cave and explore it.

On his way to the mouth of the cave, he noticed drag marks and they led straight into the cave. He knew that something big had been dragged through, but he was unsure what. So, he followed the marks. The entrance was nothing special Varden looked in carefully and then stepped inside. He got out his torch and flint and lit it. Varden had practiced this a lot, so he was very good at it, and it didn't take long to get it started. As he looked around the entrance, he looked for tracks, there weren't any the only thing he saw was the drag marks. Exploring farther he noticed a web it was a humongous web the fibers were the size of his fingers. He liked bugs but this web looked big to him, and he wanted to look around the cave more. From the darkness the eyes were watching him they were small and red, but they were watching and waiting.

Varden followed the drag marks, he followed them down the chamber into a tunnel as it split, he was able to see which way to go. So, he continued to follow it after following it for a while there was a tunnel several feet off the floor. Varden climbed up and into the hole being sure to be as quiet as he could. It was a short tunnel then it opened up into a large cavern. He carefully looked into it as far as he could it was complete darkness except what his torch lit up. All he could see was some stalactites and stalagmites and boulders. As he stood there, he heard the sound of water dripping in a lot of little puddles. But as he listened, he also heard the sounds of scrambling little nails on the stones. There was one thing that he thought was weird it was the sound of very heavy breathing.

Being as careful as he could he made his way to the floor trying hard not to make a sound. He just had to see what was in there. Looking down from the tunnel he saw he was only 2 feet from the cavern floor, so he carefully worked his way down to the floor. As his foot reached the cavern floor, he breathed a sigh of relief because he hadn't made a sound. As he stood there, he heard some squeaking and the sounds of little feet on the stones using the torchlight to see he looked and saw a large rat carrying a small hunk of meat. He stood there and watched it scurry away, he knew that there was something in there and it was very large.

Just then Varden heard two rats fighting over something and a loud GRRRAHhhh. His heart leaped from his chest, and he stood perfectly still. As he stood there, he started thinking the sound didn't sound like anything he had ever heard before. He knew it was not a bear or a wolf. All he could tell was it was big and now he heard snoring, whatever it was it was asleep. He thought that he should get out of there before he is seen, but it was sleeping, and he really needed to see just what it was.

Varden struggled with this question, and he knew he needed to either go see or just leave. He knew that staying was not the right thing to do at all. As another snore sounded off, he crept farther in he had propped the torch so that he was not carrying it, but it was still lighting the area just enough for him to see. Moving as carefully as he could he crept around the rocks toward the sound making sure not to step on anything including the rats that were there.

He slowly made his way across the chamber, staying behind the rocks that were there the light was getting darker as he moved farther from his torch. Then suddenly he slipped on something and nearly fell making some noise, not a lot but a lot more than he wanted to. Luckily, he only heard another loud snore, and it was loud and close. Whatever it was it had to be just on the other side of the rock that he was standing behind. Then he saw it the thing that he had slipped on was slightly glowing and he felt himself drawn to it. He felt a need to get it and have it. As he reached it, he saw what was making all the snoring. It was a large dragon, a very large dragon, but it was sleeping.

Varden slipped the stone into his pocket and started moving away from it making sure not to make another sound. The one thing that his dad told him was never to wake a sleeping dragon and he had noticed that it had claws the size of his arm. Varden was not stupid and seeing the dragon scared him, but he kept his head and quickly and quietly got moving. He heard the dragon only stir once on his way out of the chamber. On hearing it move he froze in his tracks until it started snoring again.

Varden was excited when he reached the torch once again. He grabbed it and quickly started into the small tunnel. He wanted out of there as fast as he could, but he still knew he needed to be silent. Varden let out a sigh of relief as he hit the floor out of the tunnel. Looking back at it he could tell that the dragon would just barely be able to fit through the passageway that he had just climbed through. Then he heard a loud RRRRRRRRRRRRooooorrrrrr and saw a bright flash and black smoke. He knew that it was no longer time to be silent it was time to run. It was not hard to find his way out of the cave and as soon as he was out, he buried himself in dirt and leaves. His father had shown him this technique. saying that it might help him if he gets into trouble.

It was less than 10 seconds after he had gotten hidden, that the dragon had emerged from the entrance. It was even bigger than he thought as he had seen it curled up sleeping. The dragon was dark green with black mixed in on its scales. He would be hard to spot until it was too late if that is what the dragon wanted. It took flight as soon as it cleared the cave. Varden watched it carefully making sure not to move until it was out of sight. He got up and slipped into the woods where he could hide out of sight but kept moving toward home. Varden thought to himself that this was more adventure than he wanted. A thought hit him he still had to tell his parents. Now he started to cry, he remembered that he was told not to go anywhere near the cave by his dad and he knew that he had no choice but to tell them even if that meant that he was going to get punished.

Varden, thinking this way had slowed his pace, and now he was not in such a hurry to get home. Now it was starting to get late, and he didn't want to get into trouble for that too, so he hurried through the field. As he made it home his mom and dad were already looking for him and when they saw him the first question was where have you been? Varden didn't lie and on hearing that he disobeyed it made the dad very mad, but he kept his anger in check so that he could explain everything.

At hearing about the dragon that was in the cavern, and how you had to crawl through the tunnel that was in the cave. Parron quickly gathered the rest of the men from the town and set off after the dragon. They wanted to cut it off before it made its way back into the cave where it would be harder to kill. Varden was left there to wait to be punished till later.

By the time Varden was eighteen, he had many more fun and dangerous adventures. He had managed to collect quite a wide variety of treasures. But there were a few times he had lost his treasures and nearly lost his life. On his eighteenth birthday, Varden decided to go into The Lucky Tavern to celebrate. He had been in there several times to fetch his father when he was late for dinner. This was the meeting place where the officers and the men met when they were off duty. He walked in and sat at the end of the bar that was nearest to the door.

There were about thirty-five people in there at the time, scattered around at tables and at the bar. Varden knew almost all of them. It was a small town and Varden was always getting into mischief, so he knew just about everyone except there were at a back table that he had never seen before. He sat there and studied the four men the first thing that stood out was that there were in dark brown robes. Looking that them he could tell that they were not like monk robes the style was different and a monk robe was always kept clean and tidy. Even if it was getting old it was never allowed to get tattered looking.

The four men sat in the back and whispered to themselves. The other thing that Varden noticed was that every now and then they would stop and look around the room and then go back to whispering among themselves.

At another table, he noticed that there were 6 sailors wearing their blue uniforms. He knew that they were sailors by their dress, but he had never seen these six before. Out of the six of them, 2 were smashed and the other 4 were trying to get them to sober up so they could go back to the ship.

Looking around the bar it was mostly filled with town guards from his father's company. After all, this was the usual place where they went on their time off. Nothing had attacked the town in a long time, so the guards had a lot more time off to do as they pleased until the next practice or duty that they had.

The bartender came over and said "What would you like Varden? It is on the house since it is your birthday."

Varden smiled and was totally surprised he hadn't noticed the bartender even come up to him. "How about a tankard of mead." Varden didn't usually drink but this was a special occasion and he figured that it wouldn't hurt anything.

The bartender left and returned a minute later with a tankard of mead. Varden smiled and thanked him and said, "Hey what do you know about the group of sailors over there?"

The bartender replied. "They are off the ship in the harbor it's called the Windstruck."

Varden turned back to the sailors and took a closer look at them he hadn't noticed this earlier that one of them was easily a foot and a half taller than the rest of them and that was while they were sitting.

The bartender went off helping the rest of the people at the bar leaving Varden there to drink his mead. As Varden was sitting there he overheard a conversation. It was the captain of the Windstruck he was telling the bartender about this little island that was in desperate need of people that could fight. The town is being attacked by creatures from the outlying areas "I heard that they are willing to pay a great deal to save their town." the captain stated. "Well, I have seen the riches for myself, and they are loaded, and it was such a beautiful place, but it was slowly being destroyed." he continued.

Varden listened carefully to his every word, he was enchanted and excited by the tale and the prospect of an adventure. As he listened the captain talked about the peerless journey to the island and the occasional dangers that he had faced there. The captain was only able to describe a little of the island that he had seen, and that other people had explained to him. The main thing that he was able to describe was the shore where he usually landed. He quickly went over a few places that he was told about. Among those was a swamp and some mountains and a large castle.

When the captain finished Varden asked "Where is the island located and how long does it take?

The captain replied "The island lies to the northeast of here 15 days away provided that the weather is fair and in our favor. The island is called Giant Island."

Puzzled Varden asked "If it is such a small island why do they call it that?

The captain answered "Legend has it that there used to be a group of giants that ruled it. They went from place to place destroying everything and taking everything, they wanted. Collecting all forms of treasure and taking the people as slaves to use as they saw fit. It was also rumored that some of them would even eat the captured people. Personally, I don't think it was just a rumor, and now a giant is so rare that I haven't heard of anyone ever even seeing one.

Varden asked, "What happened to all the giants?"

The captain replied, "I am not sure one day they just disappeared, and no one knows exactly why."

Varden asked, "Just how much will it cost for passage to the island?"

The captain said "It will cost you 20 silver pieces to get there. In advance."

Varden asked, "When are you leaving for the island?"

The captain thought for a moment then said. "The Windstruck will be fully loaded in 2 days that is when we set sail."

"I will have the money for you then," Varden said.

The captain just nodded and then said, "Don't be late, we will not wait for you."

Varden was ecstatic for the first time he would be on a real adventure where he had a real chance that he might be able to do a lot of good to help a lot of people. This thought just hit him and made him a little sad for the first time he will be away from home. Up to this point in his other adventures he had strayed away from home but always found a way to make it home every night.

The next day Varden spent his time getting ready for this perilous journey, he was hoping that he was doing the right thing, but he was so excited that nothing else really mattered at this time. He sold all the treasures that he had collected through the years so that when he arrived in the new land, he would have money to get the things that he would need. The only things that he did not sell were the Jem that he got from the dragon on his first adventure he kept around his neck for luck and it seems to never let him down, and a small golden bowl that was special to him, but he was not sure just why.

Varden waited until he was ready to leave before telling his parents that he was going even though they could both tell something was going on. After he told them they desperately tried to stop him from going so far away into such a dangerous place. Even as they said it, they knew it would do no good, but they had to try.

When it was time, they all walked down to the ship. As soon as they got there the captain came out to greet them.

"Greetings to you all and do you have the money for passage?"

Varden simply said "Yes." and handed over the money.

With a smile "Well then climb aboard we are ready to set sail." the captain said

After hugging and kissing his parents goodbye Varden climbed aboard the ship. Their eyes were filled with tears as they watched him board the ship, they both wanted to stop him, but they knew that he had to do this to grow and become a real man.

Parron pulled the captain aside and told him. "You better take care of my son, or you will find every port in the kingdom will be closed to you."

The captain knew exactly what that meant, and he quickly replied, "Yes sir." and nodded he knew that he had the pull to make it happen. He quickly made his way on board so they could launch.