lost world within

there werent always dragons in the valley but for billions of years before their disappearance they ruled the skies and epic wars raged with all manor of creature now believed to be myth, it was time for their story to reemerge.

a group of hikers is exploring a mountain when they come across a waterfall not previously mapped so they explore and discover behind the waterfall is a cave, excitement fills them as they enter and start exploring. upon exploring they discover it goes deep very very deep having loads of side caves to explore later but they wanna see where the main one goes. after hours of exploring and seeing obviously signs of pre civilization all around they stumble upon a very large room all made of stone like the old dwarven tales with old burned out candles everywhere and a large golden box at the front of the room on an alter of sorts. the hikers examined the box and slowely opened it revealing 2 large stones, confused by this one of the hikers cautiously picks up a stone, nothing at first but after a min the stone starts to warm up a bit causing the hiker to put it back down and try the other one which has the same effect. the hikers feeling odd about this pack the stones up and decide to come back another day with more provisions and explore further but first wanted answers as to their prize. a low rumble starts like a very small earth quake so they decide to hurry it up. they find the stones too heavy to carry so they figure they will come back for them. as they are exiting the cave they hit an unseen force and stops them in their tracks and hear a loud voice in their heads "STOP there is no return, come back you shall not be harmed" upon hearing this they were all petrified discussing what they had just stumbled upon and since none of them could cross the unseen barrier they decided to listen and go back to the alter room. as they approached the alter they noticed an old man sitting in mid air waiting for them, he was clearly very old he had a white beard that reached down to his knees, ling flowing white hair as long as his beard and a large oversized flowing white cloak with a very large hood and a tall walkjng staff with a skull at the top and 3 large jewels in the eyes and mouth. he motioned for them to approach assuring them they were perfectly safe for now and started a fire for them as he was about to unveil a hell of a tale.when the hiker picked up the stone, a magical shockwave was released and felt by all magical creatures including the dwarves who had abandoned this section of the great halls to keep any and all lifeforces away from the eggs, dragon hatchlings can sence any life force outside their egg and feed on it to grow big to hatch so it was decided that if they were left in a great hall on the southern tip of the mountain region and all settlements moved north that maybe the eggs would lay dormant for good. they made every effort to cut the world off from the mountain and make it as difficult as possible to get to it. the dwarves start making their way back to the abandoned section to try whatever they can to stop what is going on, their king the great light wizard had performed a transport spell and appeared at the alterroom and saw the eggs gone.

"hello" he said, "my name is merlin, allow me to ease your curiosity before i start my tale and confirm yes i am a wizard and yes magic and magical creatures do exist, all you have ever known is about to change as the world itself is about to change, now which one of you bears the family name of Morgoth?" the hikers all look at eachother in astonishment, and one man raises his hand and says "i am Johnny Morgoth" the wizard looks at him and says "well met johnny, you have a great destiny about you for it is only a descendant of the morgoth family who could have picked up that egg and awoken the beast within" johnny who was stunned to the point of tears trickling down his cheeks, asked "so those were eggs? from what? we thought they were the coolest rocks we had ever seen in such an amazing place" the wizard replied those are dragon eggs, there was a great war billions of years ago back during the 1st age of this planet, we were already 3 million yesrs into life on this planet when the magic that holds existance together leaked into our realm and imbued itself into most things, magic became powerful enough to go from evolution to magical use from individuals and creatures alike, some were born of it and are very very powerful and others learn it. many creatures and races live with the world you have discovered that are completely unknown to you and told in myths and stories, such as myself and dragons, we are born of magic and use it at will in our own ways, others such as dwarves are birn with magic in them giving them greatly enhanced abilities but they cannot perform spells or use it at will. their magic is in what you see before you, their magical abilities are the ability to carve stone fast and efficiently and take anything of value from it and make amazing things and to be able to adapt easily to life down here, truly fascinating" johnny again spoke up asking "what did you mean by there is no return?" merlin replied " you cannot leave this cave until i set you free ensuring i get adequet time to explain, you will understand soon. now where was i? oh yes the dwarves are in their way here now and no worries, they are your allies, now that the dragons within the eggs have awoken, they must bring this place back to life and defend it at all costs. the mountains to the far icy north are about crumble down and the earth will shake quite alot and the dragons emerge from their magical prison and destroy all before them. all magical creatures will now have to emerge in hopes of saving this world."

another hiker named twis asked "how many different magical creatures are there? and what did you mean by youre safe for now?"

merlin looked at her and said "my dear have you not been listening? you have just unleashed a world of magic and death upon your world, i can only protect you for as long as you are within these underworld halls which thankfully spread throughout the world, but if dragons manage to get in themselves or their armies then all bets are off, now if there are no more interuptions ill continue."

the war raged for billions of years many races meeting their end due to it and others yet evolving and devolving in some cases, my race for example of wizards, there are a few of us left mostly in ruling positions, i myself am king of the dwarves of these mountains, dwarves are too emotional to properly rule themselves so before they fell to ruin they named me king since wizards are in complete control over their emotions, there are dark wizards also who rule over darker and slave races, they will seek to find these eggs and you to no end, death only awaits you down that route. when some of the races were corrupting this magic and using it to very dark ends , we fought back and there were great battles and losses on both sides, dwarves and elves forgot old hates and fought together with wizards and dire wolves and fairies and forced them into a tomb made of the mountain range with magical barriers similar to what you encountered but much stronger, but natural magic such as a baby dragon reaching out for its mother, is much stronger then any other magic such as a barrier, but it cant be directed as easily and therefore is more random where as i can focus my magic to a certain area effectively. im sure the elves and fairies are on their way as well, all allies thought elves can be a bit big in the head and stuborn but absolutely incredible at literally everything, and fairies, what can be said about them other then they are amazing smaller creaturies who fly and can carry immense loads many times their own size and weight and very very kind and helpful. anyway back to it, so we had the dragons defeated and imprisoned and their eggs far from any living thing, until now, fate has decided now is the time, i have been preparing for this for longer then your civilization has been evolved and now it is time. that barrier will hold true for some time yet but eventually and soon the dragons will break free and when that happens i dare not speculate what horrors will befall this world. anywho action must be had and we have much to discuss im sure and others will be here soon. any other questions?"

johnny speakes quietly "its like we are in a d&d game only we can just stop"

merlin looks perplexed "by heavens my boy whatever do you mean?"

twis replied "d&d is a game we all play where we, oddly enough as it seems now, play characters such as wizards and dragons, and all youre talking about, so this is truly amazing and also terrifying because we have some even small knowledge of what we are in for though im sure we know next to nothing of the truth"

merlin looked amazed at her and asked "do you mean to tell me that for fun you all pretend to be, well, me?"

they all noded

"oh gracious me" merlin said to himself

"well maybe this makes my job easier since they may just understand what im saying, it truly is the small things it truly is the small things" merlin said

as the group was going through story time you could hear a low rumbling starting somewhere in the distance, the hikers all looked not knowing what to expect, merlin said "its the dwarves, they are rushing here and repairing this section as they go making it once again ready for life and defense, the fairies will likely be next shortly after as the elves are quite far and it may take them a day or 2 to get here"

twis asked "so will we be able to go home at all to help family and friends?"

"yes yes all in good time but we are not there yet my dear" merlin replied

"so wait, will we be able to learn magic and help fight? maybe a chance to bring our characters to life?"

"perhaps my dear, that is for magic itself to decide and is also for another day. however do any of you possess any useful skills?"

"well we are all fairly good at travel and hunting with various weapons, a couple of us are fairly stealthy, one of us is a great bard, one of us cooks very well"

"very good very good, all will be useful and well used here soon"

"would any of you wish to see a sight that will take your breath away?"

"you mean other than a real wizard sitting here at a bonfire talking to us about all this?" twis said

"yes yes my dear, please stand and turn around, i shall alluminate the great hall"

merlin raised his staff and the entire place suddenly lit up as if a million candles had been lit at once and all 4 of their faces went blank with disbelief as they bore witness to the amazing architecture of the dwarves, the stone pillars rising up 200 feet holding up a massive seemingly unending ceiling , truly the greatest sight they had ever witnessed yet. twis couldnt resist the chance to celebrate this truly amazing moment and pulled out a joint and lit it up, taking a truly massive hit and passing it to johnny, "fucking wow bro" twis said

merlin noticed this and pulled out his pipe and lit it up, taking a truly massive hit dwarfing twis, and coughed it out and said "i prefer a pipe" and smiled

as the seconds passed the sound of approaching dwarves becane louder and louder, they could start to make out a small looking cloud gaining size and eventually taking form into a great dwarven hord including many charriots and dire wolves, the dwarves mostly seemed to be around 4 ft tall with wide broad shoulders and very muscular or fat, the dire wolves were much much larger than a normal big wolf from the outside, more the size of a moose.

the floor and walls started a low rumble, everything shaking, merlin looked down at his new companions and smiled, "this is a dwarven hord, quite the show eh?" merlin looked around as the hord came to a stop but the shaking did not, his look quickly became much more concerned as he closed his eyes and searched and searched and found the truth "maybe that was more dragon then dwarven, hmmmm bothersom" merlin then addressed the dwarves "fix this place up, it needs to be back to its former splendor"

"so whats next?" johnny asked "do we get to explore or get shown around to familiarize ourselves with the place?"

"i think thats a splendid idea, knowing this world may just save your life. plus oh the wonder we can and will show you along the journey, you are about to be introduced to a world within the world. i will asign you each your own personal fairy or direwolf for protection, help, and potential company should you be seperated from others, they will stay with you always and you will naturally develope the ability to speak to them very quickly, both are very intelligent, magical, great in a fight, and loyal till death."

johnny pipes up "could i possibly get one of each? i really would love to have friendships with both"

"my heavens me of course you can, i see nothing but benefit in that" merlin replied