It was Halloween and I was waiting for Jakob and Lance so we could
go Trick or Treating. Not to mention Hannah, who was, as usual, half an
hour late. The doorbell rang and I almost cussed when I tripped over the
fur-trimmed seam of my costume. I was dressed as Queen Amidala from Star
Wars Episode 1. I was hoping it'd be cold out. My costume was too hot for
Georgia in October. I pulled open the door, grabbing a handful of candy
bars. Illuminated in orange light from a plastic pumpkin stood Jakob,
Lance, Lance's little brother J.C., and Hannah. Jakob's friend Adrian was
right behind them. Jakob was dressed as Anikin Skywalker with that string
that ties at the back of the neck dangling down. He still looked like Harry
Potter with the perfectly round glasses and his messy light brown hair.
Honestly, all he was missing was the scar! Hannah, one of my best friends,
was a teenybopper with chin length brown hair. Lance's paladin costume
consisted of a green plastic light saber, a camouflage T-shirt, and a
vampire cloak. Adrian had an awesome vampire costume. We set out.
We had been out for about half an hour when Adrian had to go home. At some point, we had started talking about diabetes. Hannah said she'd die if she had diabetes because she was addicted to sugar. After that, every time she threatened to get greedy, we'd yell, "diabetes!" and she'd shriek "No, No!" like a two-year-old. We were approaching one of the longer side streets of the neighborhood. The main street was lit by streetlights but this side street was pitch black. I remember thinking "this is the kind of place where anything can happen. And it is Halloween." As if reacting to my thoughts, a lighting bolt sizzled down from the cloudless sky and struck the pavement in front of us. It widened in to a silvery expanse about seven feet tall and five feet wide. "What is that?" Hannah asked.
"I don't know, but it looks kind of like one of the portals in a sci- fi movie." Jakob answered.
"But we're not in a sci-fi movie" I said, slightly desperate.
"Could've fooled me. With Queen Amidala and Anikin Skywalker we look like we just stepped out of Star Wars." Lance said.
"Quit it. Should we go through or not?" Jakob said, silencing us.
"I'm going." J.C. said and jumped through.
"That answers that. For me anyway." Lance said, resigned, but under the resignation lay a hint of excitement. I looked at Hannah and Jakob. "Let's go." I said. We walked nervously through. It felt like walking under a waterfall without getting wet. Then the falling started. It felt like we had been at the highest point on a roller coaster and the track had been yanked out from under us. It seemed to last forever. Then it just stopped. We were in a field of some sort. I said, "let's not do that again." I held my head in my hands trying to dispel the dizziness. "Kick A--! That was cool!" Lance said, "Like Batman, only better!"
"Get down!" Jakob yelled. We fell flat on our stomachs just in time. Something that looked like a purple fireball went right over us. I looked up to see a monster with green scaly skin, red beady eyes that seemed to look through you, and huge bat-like wings. "No one stands in my way!" the monster screamed in a surprisingly human voice.
"Look over there!" Hannah yelled, pointing.
"Great. We're stuck in a battle between an ogre and a necromancer." Lance said.
"The only place I've seen this happen is Diablo II." Jakob commented. The necromancer was a tall man in long black robes. Necromancers are sorcerers that can summon the dead to fight. The only places I had even heard of them were Diablo II and the Diablo II based Dungeons and Dragons game. "Paladin, I seek your aid." The necromancer yelled. It was only then that I noticed that the sword Lance was holding was no plastic light saber. Apparently he to had just noticed. "Kick A--! It's the ripsaw flamberge, the sword I have in Diablo II!" The collar on his cape seemed to have disappeared and now it looked more like a cloak then a cape. "Paladin!" said the necromancer again; more desperate this time since he had just narrowly avoided another fireball hurled his way. "He's talking to you, Lance." Hannah said.
"I'm no paladin." Lance said.
"You've got a sword, now use it! " I snapped as I ducked yet another fireball. He took a few practice swings and said "Just like in the game!"
" But this time it's real." I reminded him. He took a deep breath and charged toward the monster sword in hand. At first it looked like he was going to kill it, but he had to dodge a fireball at the last second. The monster laughed contemptuously at the shallow cut the blade had left. "I've got you now!" it cried but Lance wasn't done yet. He held the sword over his head and brought it straight down, leaving a deep gash in what, I think, was the monster's stomach. Green blood flowed from the wound, drenching Lance. He barely jumped out of the way in time to avoid the carcass crashing down. Jakob shook his head. Lance's black hair was still styled the way it was when we were at school without a single hair out of place. The necromancer was walking towards us. He was wearing light chain mail over a black tunic and pants. "Thanks. That thing had already consumed more then ten people." The necromancer said. "I was afraid that I'd be its next victim." Lance's face fell.
"You mean, you don't know what it was?"
"Not a clue. Right now I've got to track down my little sister." He sighed.
"Where's J.C.?" Hannah asked.
"J.C., get over here right now!" Lance yelled. J.C. stuck his head out of a clump of bushes.
"Is the monster gone?" He asked, climbing out and dragging a girl behind him. She looked about eleven or so, and had pulled her brown hair up into a ponytail. "Let me go! I don't need to be rescued. I 'm a paladin!" she yelled.
"And pigs fly out of my butt. Ally, get over here!" The necromancer said crossly. "This is my little sister, Ally. She thinks she's a paladin." He continued, grabbing Ally's wrist. "Oh, by the way, my name's Cain."
"I'm Lance, this is Jakob, the hyper one's Hannah, and the b---- in the red dress is Krissy." I tackled him. He shook me off.
"Krissy, Lance, cut it out." Jakob said crossly.
"Isn't there a paladin who usually takes care of this kind of thing?" Lance asked Cain.
Yes, but Palistar has been attempting to deal with the portals like the one the monster came through." Cain replied. "Ally, leave the carcass alone!" She had pulled out a knife and was stalking the dead monster.
"Take that! And that! I've got you!" she yelled.
"My brother Jonathan would be loving this." Lance said.
"I shudder to think of what world that came from." Cain said, "It had the most magic resistance I've ever encountered. I'm strictly a spell caster. I'm horrid with weapons. Ally is better with a sword then I am."
"You're kidding!" J.C. said, "Ally, watch out!"
"Eeeeeeeee!" She screamed. Another portal had opened right behind her. The roar of thunder was deafening even though there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Out of the portal came a creature we all recognized. With its scaly red skin, dragon-like body and multiple heads, it looked like something out of Dungeons and Dragons. "Hydra!" Ally yelled, stating the obvious.
"Sorceress! Ice!" Cain yelled. It took me a second to realize he was talking to me, but then, I can't describe it. I just knew what to do. I held my hands over my head, and a sword of ice emerged from them. It flew through the air and hit the ugly thing in the chest. "Arrrrrrrrrrr" it went as it crashed to the ground. Immediately Ally came out of where she was hiding behind Cain and began stabbing at it. "Ally." Cain said frowning.
"Yaaaaaaa" J.C. yelled charging at the monster. Then he whined "ouch!" when he tripped over one of the hydra's many heads.
"J.C.," Lance said, "how many times do I have to tell you? Don't charge dead man-eating monsters!"
"They make quite a pair, don't they?" Jakob whispered pointing at J.C. and Ally. I snorted.
"Do you know what's causing the portals?" Lance asked.
"Palistar thinks it's the Griswalder. It's said he lives in the core of the labyrinth. Since no one has ever made it to the core and got out alive, we don't know for sure. The labyrinth is filled with deadly monsters. His ultimate goal is to take over the world. He's made several attempts already, but just when Palistar had him cornered he retreated into the labyrinth. Some force bars Palistar from entering." Cain said.
"Maybe I could enter." Lance said.
"Don't count on it." I said, laughing. Then Lance said something that shut me up quickly.
" The Griswalder has created a portal to his doom. We'll take him down." How could he be so stupid? Apparently, Cain thought the same thing.
"Are you sure about this? When no one has escaped alive? When the labyrinth is such a maze that even if you survive you'll get lost? I wouldn't be caught dead in there!"
"I would! I'd kill the Griswalder! I know where the labyrinth is." Ally said.
"Jakob, Krissy, Hannah, J.C. Let's go!" Lance said.
"Wait a sec. Another portal's opening!" I said. Within seconds a brown haired boy had come out and the portal had closed.
"Jonathan!" Lance and I said simultaneously.
He blinked and said "where the H-l am I?"
"The portal pulled you into an alternate universe that's a lot like Tristam in Diablo." I said, "We came through another portal."
"Kick A--!"
"Lance has decided that we're going on a suicidal mission into a deadly labyrinth to kill the Griswalder."
"Cool!"
"You're exasperating."
"Thank you. What's that?" "I guess I'll go along." Cain said, "someone has to protect Ally."
"Then we're all decided. Ally, lead on." Lance said
After we had been walking several hours we found the entrance to the labyrinth. It was, quite literally, a hole in the wall. A pitch black one. As we walked in I muttered to Hannah "Why are we doing this again?"
"Because we didn't want to be alone with a decomposing hydra." She hissed back.
"Krissy, can't you make light or something? It's pitch black in here." Lance said. I concentrated on a light and a ball of light appeared in my hand. I kind of tossed it towards Lance and it hovered near his head. We were in a chamber of some sort, and it seemed empty. Suddenly, I heard a scuttling sound. Coming out of the darkness were these huge scorpions. They had to be six feet long! There were hundreds of them! "There's too many! It'd take a hydra to deal with them all!" Lance said.
"Like the one Krissy killed?" Jakob asked. Already a multi-headed form was appearing in the center of the room.
"Lance, watch out!" Ally yelled. While he had been backing away from the ones in front of him a scorpion had sneaked up behind him, tail ready to strike. Faster then lightning, Jonathan burned it up with a fireball.
"I never thought that would actually work." He said, surprised. The hydra was fully formed and cooking scorpions right and left. You'd never know I had killed it a few hours ago except for the gaping hole in its stomach.
"Glad it's not flaming me." Hannah muttered, ducking a ball of fire aimed at the scorpion behind her. I nodded. She had voiced my thoughts exactly.
"Hey, look what one of the monsters dropped!" Jonathan called. Ally whistled.
"It's a long battle bow."
"Over here are some arrows." J.C. called.
"Let me see." Hannah said, taking the bow and an arrow. She pulled back the string and released. The arrow flew as true as if she'd been doing it all her life. The only scorpion we hadn't felled dropped to the ground. Finally the room was empty of monsters. Well, live ones at least. Corpses littered the ground, and J.C. carefully avoided them as he attempted to open a small chest. Cain knelt down next to him and pressed one of the ornate carvings around the edge. The chest sprang open, revealing a small enameled bottle filled with red liquid. Lance picked up the bottle and slipped it into his pocket. "This may come in handy. It's a healing potion, I think."
"Looks like it." I agreed, "are you convinced that this was a bad idea yet?"
"Heck no! Besides, how are going to get out of here if we don't open a portal?" He had a good point, but that didn't keep me from wishing for a way to get home without entering further into the labyrinth. *
"Weapons out." Jakob said as we walked through the doorway into the next room.
"Ahchoo!" Ally sneezed. We had walked into a musty library. It was empty of other living creatures, but there were plenty of scrolls. Most of them were written in Latin, and Cain said they were basically scientific papers proving that making a portal through space and time was possible, but Jonathan found one that was different. It was headed "Mana Shield."
Cain's mouth dropped open. "It's a spell scroll! I never thought I'd actually see one!" This scroll also was written in Latin except for the heading, but the words seemed to glow; it was as though they held so much power that they just radiated it. Cain gently took it from Jonathan. "This is a spell scroll, which is basically a powerful magic spell woven into a piece of parchment. When it is read out loud it activates and releases the spell."
"Palistar said they're super rare, 'cause most of the sorcerers that were strong enough to make them got killed by the Griswalder." Ally chimed in.
Cain brought his hand close to the paper and there was a bright flash. "It's fresh. The caster must be nearby." By that point, though, Lance was completely ignoring him. His attention was on J.C., who was racing toward the door on the other side of the room. "Sword ready, he stepped in front of his brother and opened the door.
"Zing!" A throwing dagger flew at his head. He ducked, and it stuck in the wall behind him. "What the -" A tall woman stood in the doorway in front of us.
"Hello, Cain, Ally. Sorry about that. I assumed you were another one of those monsters."
"No harm done." Cain said, "Guys, this is Crystal Fire. She's an accomplished sorceress in addition to being one of Palistar's best friends. She's been exploring a way to control the portals."
We had been out for about half an hour when Adrian had to go home. At some point, we had started talking about diabetes. Hannah said she'd die if she had diabetes because she was addicted to sugar. After that, every time she threatened to get greedy, we'd yell, "diabetes!" and she'd shriek "No, No!" like a two-year-old. We were approaching one of the longer side streets of the neighborhood. The main street was lit by streetlights but this side street was pitch black. I remember thinking "this is the kind of place where anything can happen. And it is Halloween." As if reacting to my thoughts, a lighting bolt sizzled down from the cloudless sky and struck the pavement in front of us. It widened in to a silvery expanse about seven feet tall and five feet wide. "What is that?" Hannah asked.
"I don't know, but it looks kind of like one of the portals in a sci- fi movie." Jakob answered.
"But we're not in a sci-fi movie" I said, slightly desperate.
"Could've fooled me. With Queen Amidala and Anikin Skywalker we look like we just stepped out of Star Wars." Lance said.
"Quit it. Should we go through or not?" Jakob said, silencing us.
"I'm going." J.C. said and jumped through.
"That answers that. For me anyway." Lance said, resigned, but under the resignation lay a hint of excitement. I looked at Hannah and Jakob. "Let's go." I said. We walked nervously through. It felt like walking under a waterfall without getting wet. Then the falling started. It felt like we had been at the highest point on a roller coaster and the track had been yanked out from under us. It seemed to last forever. Then it just stopped. We were in a field of some sort. I said, "let's not do that again." I held my head in my hands trying to dispel the dizziness. "Kick A--! That was cool!" Lance said, "Like Batman, only better!"
"Get down!" Jakob yelled. We fell flat on our stomachs just in time. Something that looked like a purple fireball went right over us. I looked up to see a monster with green scaly skin, red beady eyes that seemed to look through you, and huge bat-like wings. "No one stands in my way!" the monster screamed in a surprisingly human voice.
"Look over there!" Hannah yelled, pointing.
"Great. We're stuck in a battle between an ogre and a necromancer." Lance said.
"The only place I've seen this happen is Diablo II." Jakob commented. The necromancer was a tall man in long black robes. Necromancers are sorcerers that can summon the dead to fight. The only places I had even heard of them were Diablo II and the Diablo II based Dungeons and Dragons game. "Paladin, I seek your aid." The necromancer yelled. It was only then that I noticed that the sword Lance was holding was no plastic light saber. Apparently he to had just noticed. "Kick A--! It's the ripsaw flamberge, the sword I have in Diablo II!" The collar on his cape seemed to have disappeared and now it looked more like a cloak then a cape. "Paladin!" said the necromancer again; more desperate this time since he had just narrowly avoided another fireball hurled his way. "He's talking to you, Lance." Hannah said.
"I'm no paladin." Lance said.
"You've got a sword, now use it! " I snapped as I ducked yet another fireball. He took a few practice swings and said "Just like in the game!"
" But this time it's real." I reminded him. He took a deep breath and charged toward the monster sword in hand. At first it looked like he was going to kill it, but he had to dodge a fireball at the last second. The monster laughed contemptuously at the shallow cut the blade had left. "I've got you now!" it cried but Lance wasn't done yet. He held the sword over his head and brought it straight down, leaving a deep gash in what, I think, was the monster's stomach. Green blood flowed from the wound, drenching Lance. He barely jumped out of the way in time to avoid the carcass crashing down. Jakob shook his head. Lance's black hair was still styled the way it was when we were at school without a single hair out of place. The necromancer was walking towards us. He was wearing light chain mail over a black tunic and pants. "Thanks. That thing had already consumed more then ten people." The necromancer said. "I was afraid that I'd be its next victim." Lance's face fell.
"You mean, you don't know what it was?"
"Not a clue. Right now I've got to track down my little sister." He sighed.
"Where's J.C.?" Hannah asked.
"J.C., get over here right now!" Lance yelled. J.C. stuck his head out of a clump of bushes.
"Is the monster gone?" He asked, climbing out and dragging a girl behind him. She looked about eleven or so, and had pulled her brown hair up into a ponytail. "Let me go! I don't need to be rescued. I 'm a paladin!" she yelled.
"And pigs fly out of my butt. Ally, get over here!" The necromancer said crossly. "This is my little sister, Ally. She thinks she's a paladin." He continued, grabbing Ally's wrist. "Oh, by the way, my name's Cain."
"I'm Lance, this is Jakob, the hyper one's Hannah, and the b---- in the red dress is Krissy." I tackled him. He shook me off.
"Krissy, Lance, cut it out." Jakob said crossly.
"Isn't there a paladin who usually takes care of this kind of thing?" Lance asked Cain.
Yes, but Palistar has been attempting to deal with the portals like the one the monster came through." Cain replied. "Ally, leave the carcass alone!" She had pulled out a knife and was stalking the dead monster.
"Take that! And that! I've got you!" she yelled.
"My brother Jonathan would be loving this." Lance said.
"I shudder to think of what world that came from." Cain said, "It had the most magic resistance I've ever encountered. I'm strictly a spell caster. I'm horrid with weapons. Ally is better with a sword then I am."
"You're kidding!" J.C. said, "Ally, watch out!"
"Eeeeeeeee!" She screamed. Another portal had opened right behind her. The roar of thunder was deafening even though there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Out of the portal came a creature we all recognized. With its scaly red skin, dragon-like body and multiple heads, it looked like something out of Dungeons and Dragons. "Hydra!" Ally yelled, stating the obvious.
"Sorceress! Ice!" Cain yelled. It took me a second to realize he was talking to me, but then, I can't describe it. I just knew what to do. I held my hands over my head, and a sword of ice emerged from them. It flew through the air and hit the ugly thing in the chest. "Arrrrrrrrrrr" it went as it crashed to the ground. Immediately Ally came out of where she was hiding behind Cain and began stabbing at it. "Ally." Cain said frowning.
"Yaaaaaaa" J.C. yelled charging at the monster. Then he whined "ouch!" when he tripped over one of the hydra's many heads.
"J.C.," Lance said, "how many times do I have to tell you? Don't charge dead man-eating monsters!"
"They make quite a pair, don't they?" Jakob whispered pointing at J.C. and Ally. I snorted.
"Do you know what's causing the portals?" Lance asked.
"Palistar thinks it's the Griswalder. It's said he lives in the core of the labyrinth. Since no one has ever made it to the core and got out alive, we don't know for sure. The labyrinth is filled with deadly monsters. His ultimate goal is to take over the world. He's made several attempts already, but just when Palistar had him cornered he retreated into the labyrinth. Some force bars Palistar from entering." Cain said.
"Maybe I could enter." Lance said.
"Don't count on it." I said, laughing. Then Lance said something that shut me up quickly.
" The Griswalder has created a portal to his doom. We'll take him down." How could he be so stupid? Apparently, Cain thought the same thing.
"Are you sure about this? When no one has escaped alive? When the labyrinth is such a maze that even if you survive you'll get lost? I wouldn't be caught dead in there!"
"I would! I'd kill the Griswalder! I know where the labyrinth is." Ally said.
"Jakob, Krissy, Hannah, J.C. Let's go!" Lance said.
"Wait a sec. Another portal's opening!" I said. Within seconds a brown haired boy had come out and the portal had closed.
"Jonathan!" Lance and I said simultaneously.
He blinked and said "where the H-l am I?"
"The portal pulled you into an alternate universe that's a lot like Tristam in Diablo." I said, "We came through another portal."
"Kick A--!"
"Lance has decided that we're going on a suicidal mission into a deadly labyrinth to kill the Griswalder."
"Cool!"
"You're exasperating."
"Thank you. What's that?" "I guess I'll go along." Cain said, "someone has to protect Ally."
"Then we're all decided. Ally, lead on." Lance said
After we had been walking several hours we found the entrance to the labyrinth. It was, quite literally, a hole in the wall. A pitch black one. As we walked in I muttered to Hannah "Why are we doing this again?"
"Because we didn't want to be alone with a decomposing hydra." She hissed back.
"Krissy, can't you make light or something? It's pitch black in here." Lance said. I concentrated on a light and a ball of light appeared in my hand. I kind of tossed it towards Lance and it hovered near his head. We were in a chamber of some sort, and it seemed empty. Suddenly, I heard a scuttling sound. Coming out of the darkness were these huge scorpions. They had to be six feet long! There were hundreds of them! "There's too many! It'd take a hydra to deal with them all!" Lance said.
"Like the one Krissy killed?" Jakob asked. Already a multi-headed form was appearing in the center of the room.
"Lance, watch out!" Ally yelled. While he had been backing away from the ones in front of him a scorpion had sneaked up behind him, tail ready to strike. Faster then lightning, Jonathan burned it up with a fireball.
"I never thought that would actually work." He said, surprised. The hydra was fully formed and cooking scorpions right and left. You'd never know I had killed it a few hours ago except for the gaping hole in its stomach.
"Glad it's not flaming me." Hannah muttered, ducking a ball of fire aimed at the scorpion behind her. I nodded. She had voiced my thoughts exactly.
"Hey, look what one of the monsters dropped!" Jonathan called. Ally whistled.
"It's a long battle bow."
"Over here are some arrows." J.C. called.
"Let me see." Hannah said, taking the bow and an arrow. She pulled back the string and released. The arrow flew as true as if she'd been doing it all her life. The only scorpion we hadn't felled dropped to the ground. Finally the room was empty of monsters. Well, live ones at least. Corpses littered the ground, and J.C. carefully avoided them as he attempted to open a small chest. Cain knelt down next to him and pressed one of the ornate carvings around the edge. The chest sprang open, revealing a small enameled bottle filled with red liquid. Lance picked up the bottle and slipped it into his pocket. "This may come in handy. It's a healing potion, I think."
"Looks like it." I agreed, "are you convinced that this was a bad idea yet?"
"Heck no! Besides, how are going to get out of here if we don't open a portal?" He had a good point, but that didn't keep me from wishing for a way to get home without entering further into the labyrinth. *
"Weapons out." Jakob said as we walked through the doorway into the next room.
"Ahchoo!" Ally sneezed. We had walked into a musty library. It was empty of other living creatures, but there were plenty of scrolls. Most of them were written in Latin, and Cain said they were basically scientific papers proving that making a portal through space and time was possible, but Jonathan found one that was different. It was headed "Mana Shield."
Cain's mouth dropped open. "It's a spell scroll! I never thought I'd actually see one!" This scroll also was written in Latin except for the heading, but the words seemed to glow; it was as though they held so much power that they just radiated it. Cain gently took it from Jonathan. "This is a spell scroll, which is basically a powerful magic spell woven into a piece of parchment. When it is read out loud it activates and releases the spell."
"Palistar said they're super rare, 'cause most of the sorcerers that were strong enough to make them got killed by the Griswalder." Ally chimed in.
Cain brought his hand close to the paper and there was a bright flash. "It's fresh. The caster must be nearby." By that point, though, Lance was completely ignoring him. His attention was on J.C., who was racing toward the door on the other side of the room. "Sword ready, he stepped in front of his brother and opened the door.
"Zing!" A throwing dagger flew at his head. He ducked, and it stuck in the wall behind him. "What the -" A tall woman stood in the doorway in front of us.
"Hello, Cain, Ally. Sorry about that. I assumed you were another one of those monsters."
"No harm done." Cain said, "Guys, this is Crystal Fire. She's an accomplished sorceress in addition to being one of Palistar's best friends. She's been exploring a way to control the portals."