The Dragon Rider Chronicles – Into Another Realm

Chapter 1

I was on a camping trip with our youth group when I was sucked into Narnia. Among the group was our youth pastor, Michal, and Bret. Bret was our wilderness man, and anything to do with the woods or nature you asked him.

Supper was the usual camping fair; hot dogs, potato salad, and beans. Sometime in the night, I excarnated myself from the tent, climbing over the others to get out. Never mind that I forgot about the opening on my side of the tent.

I shivered when I reached the tree line and felt an electrostatic charge tingle across me. I felt the goosebumps on my arms and the hair stand up on end. A shiver aliped out before I brushed the whole thing off, thinking it was just the chilliness in the air. After appealing nature's call, I looked up and saw that the campfire had been restarted. "Well, that's weird," I thought to myself. Michal or Bret must have restarted the campfire for some reason. I couldn't have been gone that long. Nervousness started seeping in and I decided to hurry back and see what was up. Hopefully, I wasn't the cause of it. Hopefully.

As I got closer, I could see the outline of two large objects highlighted by the campfire light. At this point, I was starting to get really confused. For a minute, I thought one of the ranch horses had found a way to open the gate and followed us to camp. That was impossible of course, since, number one, the corrals were on the other side of the fence line, and number two, the gates were barbed wire. Of course, I wasn't thinking that though, since it was o-dark-thirty. I kept going.

"Well Jacob, you seem to have a way with animals, maybe they missed you," I muttered under my breath as I kept watching. If I had my head on straight, I would have remembered the gates were barbed wire. The other thing I should have asked myself is how someone managed to sneak out of the tent and start a fire without making a sound.

None of these thoughts crossed my mind, and as I started to hear voices as I crept closer. I could hear words, but I couldn't understand anything. I knew one thing though; those people were NOT anyone I knew from church. SNAP!

My heart leaped into my throat and my stomach took a plunge to the center of the earth. I froze as the twig broke under my foot. Something was left in my head because I had enough sense to drop to my belly and stay quiet. If it wasn't for that darn twig, I might have managed to get away.

Luck just wasn't going my way tonight. Three agonizing minutes later, the voices picked up again. This time I could hear them. One of the voices was sweet and clear, like a quiet babbling brook. Whoever it was had obviously been raised in the upper crust of society. The other one, when it spoke, sounded like a combination of an Alabama crawfish farmer and an English schoolboy.

There was a scraping sound and a light grunt as a large shape rose off the ground. I could see from the low glow of the fire that it was a horse. My brain was still in shock mode, with the logical half of it screaming to find cover before I was discovered.

Like a train, logic barreled through the freeze and I realized that they had heard me. It was either fight or flight, and I sure as heck wasn't going to fight. Get out, now.

Nervous.

Run.

Flee.

Scram.

I was already nervous, but now my palms were starting to sweat. All I could think about was getting out of there, fast.

I dropped, managing to turn my body around and start scrambling out.

The only thing rushing through my head was stealth. Don't get caught, don't get caught, don't get caught…

I thought I was sneaking. The panicked had deluded my perception and I was as loud as rustling leaves. For what seemed like eons I crawled, eventually getting my feet under me as I started going from a crawl to a run. But no, my lack of stealth skill picked that minute to rear its ugly head.

The minute I got to my feet, a huge warhorse reared up in front of me. I turned white as a sheet and my heart leaped into my throat when I saw him coming down at me. The only thing that ran through my mind was fear. If it wasn't for those hooves coming toward me, I would have frozen on the spot. Fortunately, I started backpedaling rather rapidly.

And then the twig's brother had its revenge. My foot caught on a root, and I fell straight onto my back. Of course, in my panic, I yelled and waved my arms wildly. This only brought me over faster and everything went back when my head slammed into the ground.

When my eyes finally opened, I just laid there dazed for a minute. That had to have been it. I mean, I had a dream about flying the Iron Man armor once. I could smell hear the roar of the thrusters. So, this had to be a dream. Anything else and I wouldn't be able to process it. All I wanted was to wake up to a breakfast of bacon and hot French Toast.

...

My eyelids slowly opened to the view of Bree standing over me. For half a second, everything was back to normal and I thought a horse had made its way into the tent. Bree stunned me back into reality. "Hwin, Aravis, the lad is awake. From the make of his strange clothes, he is certainly a foreigner. Come over and see." While Bree was talking, my brain was busy trying to comprehend the fact that a horse had just spoken English. The next thing I did was completely predictable. I started screaming my head off. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean any harm! HELP! Why is a horse talk! Horses shouldn't be talking, it's impossible!"

I started to scramble backward before I rubbed up against a log and then a wave of dizziness slammed into we like a squall. "Oh, bloody heck, I feel like there's an angry bull in my head."

"Calm down lad, we're not going to hurt you. If anything, we want to help you." Replied Bree. Bree nudged me with his.

I heard a snort and the boy spoke up.

"He may be a warhorse and everything, but he can be soft as a kitten."

I jerked my head to the right and stared at the boy. I asked the kid, "Who the heck are you?"

The kid's grin was one of the cheekiest I've ever seen.

He looked at me and replied; "My name's Shasta, what's yours?"

I looked at him for a second before replying. "Umm, Jacob. The name is Jacob. Look, I have no idea how I got here or where I am. I just want to find out how to get home."

A feminine voice, sounding timid and almost childlike, spoke up. "I fear I do not know of this land called America. Considering what we're running from, the only ones that would now such things are the reclusive mages in Archenland and Narnia. The hike is long though, and we must cross through Tashbaan yet." "Hwin, don't give away our plan, we don't know if we can trust him!"

The owner of the voice was the young woman I had heard earlier. The voice was dotted with a thick accent, African with a hint of Moracin in it.

I let out a muttering sigh underneath my breath. "Ok, look," I spoke up. "You don't recognize where I'm from and I don't recognize where you're from. I will admit it was suspicious how I sneaked up on you. I am so sorry for that, more than you'll ever know. But maybe if we sit down and talk we can straighten this out."

Bree looked at me for a moment. He seemed to give a nod, and if it was possible, what looked like a coy smile. "I don't know about the rest of you, but I say we should listen to him." "I agree with Bree," replied Hwin. I detected some warmth and a little less hesitation. I think she was warming up to me.

We all settled into the campfire. Bree and Hwin bedded down next to each other. I sat across from them with Aravis and on my left and Shasta on my right. Shasta grunted as he got up and lobbed another log on the fire. I shrunk back somewhat from the burst of embers. My mouth was watering, and I had to swallow and clear my throat before I could go on.

...

"Alright, there's not much to say. You already know where I'm from. I don't really know how to put it. Some friends and I were on a camping trip when I had to get up in the middle of the night. In retrospect, the campfire should have been a red flag. Obviously, I wasn't thinking straight."

Shasta put on that cheeky grin and chuckled lightly. "Let me guess, you snapped a twig at that point and, well, we know the rest."

I rolled my eye without thinking and smirked at him. "Ha-ha, very funny Shasta, you get the big red cupid doll. Yeah, pretty much," I replied.

Bree spoke up next. "Well, my boy, it is obvious from your tale you are indeed no threat. It wouldn't be proper for you to try and find Narnia on your own. No, no, no, not at all. You will accompany us. Besides, you're much more likely to get through if you stick with us. Now Aravis, we were about to hear your tale when this lad landed in our midst. Please, continue your tale."

Shasta butted in. "Hold the cart a minute, though. What's a 'big red cupid doll?'"

Aravis got the slightest of smirks on her face. "Well, Shasta, if you ask him nicely instead of butting in, he might explain it. Now then Bree, shouldn't we start with your and Shasta's journey so far."

Bree shook his mane out as he replied. "Broo-hinny-hoo-ha. I hadn't thought of that. Yes, we ought. Very well then, if all are ready, I will begin."

I put my hands up in the surrender gesture and shrugged "Hey man, I wouldn't even dream of stopping you." My face took on a smirk and a lopsided grin. I hadn't even started to process all the yet. Matter of fact, I was still in the denial phase and listening to everyone else's story would give me an escape. I didn't have to confront the terrifying reality of what had just happened.

For the next half hour, Shasta told how he had been found as a baby, saved by Arsheesh the fisherman and raised by him. We talked about what America was like, the general geography of Narnia, Calormene, The Northern wasteland, Archenland, and the Lone Islands.

When they were about to recount their story, Shasta spoke up. "Shouldn't we hear Arvis's story. After all, they might send someone from her household after us and then they could trick us before we would know what happened."

Bree had a looked eminently pleased, like a tutor who had just been outsmarted by his pupil. His voice was pouring forth with an iron tone of confidence. "That is a very logical idea, Shasta. Perhaps we should. What does our new acquaintance think?"

My daydream of listening to Bree and Shasta's story was slammed up against a brick wall as I was yanked back into reality. I glanced around rapidly for a minute. "Ah, err, wait, what?"

Hwin snorted a horse laugh. "My dear boy, you look about as lost as a lovestruck wood faun."

Ok, that one was just embarrassing. I looked around for a minute and said; "I agree with Bree. After all, from what you and Shasta have told me, you two are practically fugitives. Your only hope is to make it to Narnia. I have to make it because it's the only way I'm getting home. Assuming someone does come after us, they undoubtedly have friends in Tashbaan."

Bree furrowed his brow for a moment before replying; "Hmmm. I see what you mean. Send someone ahead of us and make it nearly impossible to get through."

"Well, we have a plan," Shasta said with a laugh. And with that, we all settled in to hear Arvis's story.

...

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