Stories from RhyDin & The Rings

Lindy slammed open the door to her apartment in Old Temple, sighing as her TRASH poster fell off the wall and fluttered to the ground. “Figures.”

Life had not been going great for the petite brunette.

Starry-eyed Lindy had moved to RhyDin six months ago to be with her boyfriend. Her family had frowned and scowled, but Lindy was determined.

After three months of living together, she had caught him in their bed with some other chick. So that was the end of that. It was also the end of living in an apartment that was bigger than a postage stamp, had reliable water and electricity, and didn’t come with a creepy landlord that ogled her no matter how many layers she wore when she left the building each morning.

The city life had lost some of its shininess, but Lindy wasn’t deterred. In between helping customers at her job at Crazy Eddie’s T-Shirt Shop, she had a lot of down time. A lot of down time. She had used it all, almost from the moment she had entered the city six months ago, to learn about RhyDin’s greatest sport: the duels.

She ate up the challenges, the titles, the twists, and political intrigues. She swooned over the list of Top 10 Hottest Male Duelers in Teen Dude magazine and admired to be like the female duelers featured in Metropolitan magazine.

Her zeal for the sports (and her dreams of one day becoming a dueling star so her boyfriend would come crawling back to her and she could spinkick him in the face like Ms. Koyliak) had only increased when she actually got up the nerve to visit the dueling venues. Mr. The Anvil was so nice! Xanth actually talked to her. THE Andrea Apple told her she could come by her gym for an autograph.

O-EM-GEE!

The only problem was she sucked!

Like majorly, royally sucked. Sure, she had beat Ms. Andrea in a fist fight, but that had seemed like a fluke. Or maybe Apple had just gone easy on her? She wasn’t sure.

Regardless, even Lindy’s enthusiasm could only sustain itself so far as she faced loss after loss. But she absolutely refused to give up on her dream.

She shuffled sideways into her small apartment. That was the only way to get between the door, couch, and kitchen table. Then she dropped the giant tome she had picked up at Magic Mike’s Quicky Magic Shop on the small table.

It had come with a guarantee to make dreams come true! Sure, there was a little star and a length footnote disclaimer to go with that, but Lindy ignored it. She had dreams. She even had a little bit of magic since she was part elf.

Now she just needed some help to make them come true.

“Tail of newt.. errm,” she frowned. She couldn’t afford a newt tail. Rat tails had been on sale: 2 for 5 silvers! So she had bought two of them. She dumped them into the aluminum pot on her heating plate. Lindy normally cooked ramen in it.

Tonight, she was cooking a spell.

Sure, she had been absolutely creamed by Rena in her first magic duel. And she had only been able to afford a very old copy of Magic for Beginners. And she had been forced to buy some “replacement” ingredients because some of the requested stuff was just waaaaay too expensive for her. But she was convinced it would work out anyway!

“Okay, so tail of newt. Check! Let’s see. One more ingredient.” Her finger, smudged with coal dust from an earlier addition to the spell, traced across the page of the spell book with the heading “Good Luck” written across the top. “Ah.. the packet of luck.”

Lindy took that from her purse, handling it carefully. It had cost all her money! This is why she hadn’t been able to afford the real tail of newt. She had splurged on the packet of luck instead. Magic Mike’s assistant had reassured her that the rat tails would work just fine, but there was no way the spell would work without the packet of luck.

He had even given her a discount!

Holding her breath, she dumped the packet into the pot and then stirred it counter-clockwise five times. Now it was time for the incantation:
“Oh magic brew
I trust in you
Give me good luck
Don’t make me suck
You know I need yah
In Outback, Annex, and Arena!”

She gave it one more stir as instructed and then stepped back, eyes wide.

Nothing happened.

Lindy frowned, leaning over the pot to see what it was doing. Impatient, excited, frustrated, hopeful, and fearful she reached out and poked at the mixture. POOF! A cloud of magic erupted from the pot and flew out the open window towards the heart of Dragon’s Gate.


“YES!”

Well, something was surely in the air.

Invisible to blue eyes didn't mean undetectable by any means. Stepping foot through the door into the Annex last night had felt different to Arla right off the bat. She felt the smack of.. something.. and went on dancing away like usual. "I sense strangeness," went unsaid. Arla instead held her tongue and continued her business. Whatever was in the air didn't seem to affect her typical hyperactive self.

The same certainly couldn't be said about the otherwise reserved magician once she was in the rings for her first and second duels! As if Arla wasn't already a bouncy purple and blue ball of energy as it was, her ADHD definitely appeared to intensify threefold. Singing songs outside of her typical preference mixed with the songs she grew up with. Something about this strangeness finally sent her losing record of one win and four losses right into a brick wall. Good riddance!

Her dancing was inconsistent during her duels, a rarity to Arla and a sure sign that something was amiss. She suddenly felt *aggressive,* totally unlike her. Most strange to her was the feeling of deep seeded loneliness. What the hell was Xanth doing on her mind? Their first meeting had just been a duel that ended with her very first victory in her preferred sport - magic - with humor and nothing more. It had been fun and games in a ring called Wedding at Lady Sadie's calling. That's all.

This troubles Arla. She comes to dazzle with her duels. If she wanted romance? That's what the inn is for. Dear lord, she hoped this would only be temporary.. She has her day job to focus on. Not this.