by Janice Jackson
The mysterious old man threw down the last of his ragged garb, as he raced through the heavily wooded area beyond the Black Dragon Inn. His speed belied any sign of a wasted leper that he so recently appeared to Dora the head cook at the Inn.
He had once been Karl Strange's closest friend; that long lost friendship was the reason he had cast the spell on her, although he had contempt and hatred for Dora and her love for Karl Strange had made his spell-casting all the more enjoyable. He laughed at the mental image of the woman getting fatter and fatter every day, until she burst; it pleased him immensely that he held such power over these mortal beings.
His laughter could be heard reverberating off the valley walls, as he vanished from sight.
That night, after the moon had risen high into the sky, the old man sat alone in his cave, his mind filling again with pictures of the past. Old wizened hands reached into a small leather pouch he kept hidden beneath his shirt, gathering a handful of glittering stones he cast the contents down onto the stone bottom of the cave. In the pale light from his fire that glittered from the now broken stones, he saw himself as a young man, training to become a magician-warrior. He saw his old rival and friend, Karl Strange, his spells, like his charm, always performed to perfection. In his mind he saw once again a woman with long ebony hair, falling to her narrow waist in never ending waves. He saw once again those deep blue eyes and naturally red lips. His heart leapt as his mind remembered the object of his desire. The woman known as Kathleen Kelly, she was everything the old man had desired but she only had eyes for Karl Strange. Karnak and Karl had been close friends until the day he stood up for Karl at his wedding to Kathleen Kelly.
Kathleen and Karl had married in the year of the Fighting Dragon, the old man, known as Karnak Granger, had watched the ceremony from as best man his younger heart breaking as he watched the two young people kiss after their vows had been read aloud. He had played his role well that day. He shook Karl's hand and kissed Kathleen on the left cheek and wished them good fortune. But he crumbled inside as he witnessed their happiness, Karnak's smile that day was false, the box of jewels, he had intended for Kathleen if she had chosen him, given with false good wishes. They had looked so happy that day, Karl Strange looked so smug with Kathleen by his side. The young Karnak had wanted to kill them both. Karl Strange always had a way of winning the best things in life, while he, Karnak Granger, lost out even when it came to magic. White magic that is. Black magic had become Karnak's realm, a place that Karl Strange avoided.
He hated Karl Strange with all the powers in his body. The old man could not turn his mind from the racing thoughts that tumbled on after another in memory. The sight of Karl racing toward the heavy set woman in the courtyard of the Black Swan Inn had made Karnak's upper lip curl in hatred. One more time Karnak had to watch that do-gooder come to the rescue of a weaker human being. Karl Strange and Karnak Granger once close friends, going to the same schools. Loving the same drinks and womanizing and gambling, until Kathleen had come into their midst. Everything changed after that, until the bubble that had been their youthful friendship had burst and the hatred began. Over and over those days replayed in Karnak's mind, unnerving the wizard even more, in his sleep his lips curled in a sneer of contempt with the memory of Karl's powers being wasted on helping the non-magical people, with Karl Strange being once more a mage-warrior instead of a powerful magician.
Karl Strange and his young bride had searched for a long time before deciding to settle in Volante. They found the burned out shell of that had once been a stagecoach staging area and whorehouse.
"Karl, I believe that this place is where we shall call home." Kathleen laughed as she danced through the crumbling ruins.
"Kathleen, I swear that you have the mind of a wanton woman! I shall have to keep a close eye on you from now on!" Karl's deep resounding laugh echoing off the walls of the building as he twirled his bride round and round. The both of them stumbling on the broken bricks, bringing even more laughter from the young couple.
Karnak's hatred of Karl Strange was deep seated as jealousy colored the truth of reality. Karl was better at casting of spell than Karnak, better at getting women under his spell; but Karl's fatal weakness was his pity for those beings weaker than himself. Karl lacked the innate hunger for power that drove Karnak. Karnak believed in the magical powers that were there for the taking to use on beings weaker than himself. Where Karl Strange followed the ancient pathways, honoring life and respecting the property of others; Karnak believed that he could have whatever he took a liking to, whenever he want it. Karnak had little to no respect for the desires of others if they did not go along with his own wants and desires. Karl and Karnak had trained under the code of the Oak Magic, the ancient Druid ways, tied to the Dragon Mages. The first rule was to do no harm to others unless it was to protect the innocent from harm. But Karnak turned his back on that vow.
Karnak Granger wanted more for himself and he turned to dark magic in time. Unfortunately dark magic cost the spell-caster much. Each spell cast in the name of dark magic, something was taken from the wizard that cast the spell. Karnak sacrificed his beautiful good looks gladly to succeed in his wicked spells. Not all of his spells accomplished his aims. His spell to age Karl Strange only managed to extend his life beyond the normal span of years expected of a wizard. Instead of shortening Karl's life span, he now only aged a year for every fifty he lived. It cost Karnak Granger a winkle on his forehead. This reaction only caused Karnak to hate Karl even more; nothing seemed to harm the man. Even when Karnak Granger tried to kill Karl with his new creatures he called the Night Stalker, he only managed to destroy the woman Karnak loved and her child. Nothing seemed to touch Karl Strange.
Karnak got involved in the Mage Wars, but of course Karl Strange became a warrior-mage for the rulers of the kingdoms. Karnak's side lost skirmish after skirmish, finally Karl came face to face with Karnak, there on a mountaintop the two once friends fought. The mountains screamed in pain as they were slammed again and again with magic spells, then when all seemed lost forever, Karl Strange cast one more spell and Karnak seemed to vanish. Karl had called on the ancient Dragon Gods to protect the land and its people; they had answered causing the powers of darkness to vanish for a time.
Sadly the dark powers left behind the evidence of their passing. Ancient castles revealed the bodies of human sacrifices used to call up their dark powers. The piles of destroyed carcasses had to be burned lest they rise up and haunt the living. Many of the warriors had to leave the torture cambers for they became sick upon the viewing of the destroyed bodies. Karl Strange swore that day that he would forever hunt down the killers of these innocent people. Even then Karl refused to admit that his once-friend, Karnak Granger, had a hand in these atrocities. It would not be revealed to him that Karnak Granger had indeed been the instrument of the human destruction and carnage until it cost him his own family. Even then Karl would not blame Karnak for the creation of the night stalkers. Not completely anyway. Karl Strange knew too well the powers of darkness and how they could change any man, hadn't Karl himself nearly been caught up in that dark mysterious web? But his love of humanity had stayed those temptations, praise the Dragon Gods for that blessing.
So it was that Karl Strange had retired from being a Mage-warrior in hire to ancient kings of Volante, he took his family and fled to the Talos Valley from where there was no place to flee. Here Karl and Kathleen bought fifty acres of forested land with a ruined inn of it and began to create the Black Dragon Inn.
Karl had negotiated with the Dragon Kings for the right to use shed scales as the roofing on the inn, also use of the stray young dragon that he might kill for other meat. Kathleen had taken smaller scales and fashioned them into a breastplate for her husband. The other scales she had made into a shield to block dragon-fire. This came in handy many times in those years, she stopped creating such devices when she had born Karl a daughter, they called Moira.
Moira and Kathleen would only have a few more years to live, though they gratefully never knew this fate.
The thought of Karl Strange not even knowing that he, Karnak Granger had taken away the love of Karl's life made Karnak sneer even more. Karnak thought Karl had become blinded by the human race and would not even see what was before his own eyes.
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