Two - Nor Hell Nor Fury

Etrius sat in the back of the humvee, staring out of the window to the dreary grey scenery, and had been doing so for hours. Why couldn't they just use a chopper? Why? Oh that's right because I've got some old fart is using me, to get him some glory. Meanwhile Etrius remained in a shit hole. Etrius wished he had a cigarette, it eased the tension.
"I can see the mountain sir!" the officer was driving, and had to shout over the loud engine.

Etrius leaned forward to get a view through the front view. The mountain had been massive in the photo, but seeing it in person was truly astonishing. It wasn't tall, but immeasurably wide, it already almost blocked out all view from the front screen. Etrius slid the sword over his back; it looked like only a few more minutes before he had to climb that monster.

Etrius had, had to climb harder obstacles, but with all of the bigger ones he had safety equipment, in fact on almost all of those climbs he'd used at least safety ropes. But still, how hard could it be? It turned out that there was a deep, but not wide, chasm, something Etrius would have to jump over.

Etrius wasn't able to look down half of the abyss, it was just so dark, and the sun on this world was so weak. Barely any light made the landscape visible. The humvee pulled over a few feet away from the edge. As Etrius surveyed the mountain, the officer was loading an assault rifle, placing on a scope to replace the iron sights, loading individual shells into a magazine before slipping it into the rifle, and finally, switching the safety switch from on, off and then back to on.

As Etrius observed the mountain closer, it seemed impossible for him to climb, he was middle aged, wasn't he supposed to be calming down and stuff like that? He outstretched his hand across the chasm so that his fingertips rubbed scraped against the rock; it crumbled easily beneath his fingers. This was going to be much harder than he had previously thought. Not only that, but the mountain was riddled with cracks and crevices, one wrong move could set up a chain reaction, ultimately leading to his death.

Etrius walked back a few yards, and then sprinted to the colossus, He slammed into the mountain, but the handhold of rock he'd grasped was crumbling. Slowly he moved his left hand up and grabbed another handhold. The officer had stopped temporarily to watch the old man climb a mountain that people half his age would call a challenge, but looks could be deceiving. While Etrius was climbing quite quickly, the more he moved upwards the harder it took to grab another hand or foot hold. One more, he kept telling himself, just one more and you'll be up.

His joints were starting to get stiff, and a few times his fingers weren't strong enough to hold onto the rock, resulting in a perilous, but slow, slide down a few feet. After what felt like months, Etrius grasped the rock at the peak, barely able to pull up his weight with both of his arms. He wasn't breathless, but exhausted. He felt like he had just ran a marathon. Etrius' blue eyes shone against the little light source parted through the dense clouds.

The diameter of the construction must have been huge; Etrius could have fitted two large houses in it. Seeing the castle in person was amazing, he wondered how medieval men in Etrius' dimension had built one with their bare hands. Up close Etrius could see all of the aging the castle had to endure. He was no archaeologist, but even he could see that the castle had to have withstood centuries. He wondered why the exterior was so similar to castles in their world.

He confidently swept inside the building, to reveal a completely bare room. It was enormous, yes, but only cracks and centuries of decay were held inside these walls. A beam of light illuminated a small column in the middle of the room, when Etrius sealed the door behind him, he immediately felt chills at the back of his neck. He spun around, to find nothing lurking in these walls. Faint whispering began to emanate from the walls.

Etrius couldn't make out what they were saying, but goose bumps were perking up all over his body. What was going on? Who was saying that? Etrius was slightly tempted to call out for the whispers to stop hiding like a bunch of wusses. But the confidence evaporated faster than it had come, the whispers were … goading him. He couldn't tell what though. He just knew that it was saying something to him.

Etrius' eyes slowly widened, he could feel something a presence, it made him want to run out of the castle screaming, but something made him proceed. His conscious? His will? All he knew was that the column was coming into focus. Etrius fingers started to tingle and a few times involuntarily twitch. What was going on? Who built this castle? How had he, in less than a day, be persuaded to run blind into a different dimension?

Those questions lingered with the mutterings from the walls, Etrius was getting butterflies, but a scarlet, dusty book resting mid page on a platform on the column caught his attention. The writing inside contained strange symbols, unlike anything he's ever seen. Complicated writings were scrawled all over the book, the same symbols weren't on the cover, instead lay a strange pattern of brown rectangles and a white circle in the centre of the pattern.

Etrius stopped at the pillar, surveying the book. He wasn't sure whether or not he should touch it, but the whispers were getting louder, he could almost make them out now, he just wanted to leave, to get out of this place and as far away as he could. His fingertips barely brushed the surface of a page before he heard something sniffle in the darkness on the other side of the room.

A pair glowing yellow eyes were now staring across at him, acting on instinct Etrius swept up the book and sprinted for the door. He could hear the thing close behind him, not daring to look over his shoulder to see what it looked like. He burst through the door, he felt relieved, but heat washed over him, he looked back and saw his view dominated by a thick fire.

Etrius sprinted to the edge of the mountain, the fire was getting closer, nothing for it. He leapt off of the edge, he could hear the officer yelling below, and the book was safely tucked in his arm for the entire fall. He hit the ground with a thud; everything felt like a truckload of bricks had just been dumped on him.

Etrius felt terrible, he was quite sure that everything in his body needed replacing, but now when he was focusing on what he had just done; he knew what the whispers had been saying. Just three words over, and over again. 'The Wise One,' Etrius just wanted to sleep now, fight the thing later. Even in his head the words sounded stupid.

Gunshots echoed around him, Etrius forced his eyes open to see the book lying just a bit away, flecks of his blood on the cover.
"ARGHHH!" the officer was being torn apart by- By what was unmistakably a massive green serpent, glowing yellow yes with horns.

If Etrius were to call it anything he'd call it a dragon, but a description would point to an enlarged snake with horns. Dark green scales rippled all over its enormous body, it was wide as a tree trunk and it was huge, Etrius couldn't think of any word to describe it, it was a big as … well, a massive green serpent. Rows of jagged spikes were erected every few inches; the spikes were about as tall as Etrius' wrist to elbow.

The officer's corpse lay in a pool of blood, but the rifle was intact. Etrius dived for the gun and fired at the beast. It screeched in agony, but it was only wounded before clicks were sounding from the rifle. Etrius had no time to check for magazines on the officer. He threw away the gun and thought rapidly. It was only a matter of time before the dragon attacked again; it was already attempting to get up.

If only he had another weapon, wait. He did, how could he forget the long, sharp, serrated sword on his back? Etrius evaluated the scenario. The only way for him to kill it would be to find a place where it couldn't attack, and he could finish it off. Hacking and slashing would do no good; he doubted whether he could do anything before it swatted him away.

Driving away would do no good because it was much faster than him. Think! If only he could revert back to when he had been climbing the mountain … Wait ... Climbing! He would climb it, and stab it to death. It sounded crazy, he ran through years of experience, but this was the only way with a ray of hope beaming down in his existence. He only had so much time before it could fight again.

Etrius dashed madly to the serpent, this had success written all over it. He ascended it's neck using it's green scales as handholds, he doubted whether it liked having humans jump onto it's back and stick their hands into its body, which was why it feebly tried to shake him off when, each shake was stronger than the last, he didn't have long. When he got to the top, Etrius knew he didn't have much time to act.

But then, of all the moments, it reared its scaly body vertically, as it did so it let out a sorrowful pained cry. It's hide wasn't designed to withstand bullets. Obviously, because of this being a different dimension. Taken by surprise, Etrius could only yelp as the beast raised itself. Relying on instinct he stabbed his sword into the monster's flesh, Etrius held tightly onto the handle as the blade slid down the body going down faster and faster.

He yelled insanely, the only thing he could see was blurry green, he was going down so fast, it was more thrilling than any roller coaster he had ever been on, he could say that for sure. He gritted his teeth to block out his fear, this was nuts! Blood spurted into Etrius eyes, but he had no arms left to wipe it off and the sword needed little direction to handle through the brute, it cut cleanly and easily.

Ultimately it gave a final earsplitting roar when Etrius reached slid down the bottom, relying on the curve between it's upper body and it's torso on the ground, to not fall to his death. The serpent crashed to the ground with an immense 'crash!' Vibrating the ground beneath him, and denting the stone on impact. Etrius ripped the saber brutally out, the entire blade had gone into it.

Looking across, Etrius saw that the sword's fine line must have gone in between it's rib cage for him not to have gotten his sword snagged, which would have been fatal for him. The wound oozed blood down it's lilac scales and creating small puddles underneath it. He stared down at his handiwork disbelievingly, that was by far his greatest (and strangest) career moment. Etrius holstered the sword and walked for the humvee, he tried to suppress what he had accomplished, but this was the most epic thing he had ever done, slid down a massive green lizard thing while simultaneously killing it. Incredible!

He was so optimistic it was like the past few months had never happened, nothing could ruin this moment of glory. Slowly, very slowly he started to smile, he never thought he would again but there he was grinning like an idiot.

He grabbed the dead officer by the legs and heaved the corpse toward the vehicle, at dead weight the body was a challenge, especially with Etrius' dwindling body mass. Whether he liked it or not he was getting old, there was no way he could keep doing this. Yeah, no the grin was gone and replaced with the normal 'Etrius' scowl, slapped and slathered across his face.

Etrius was more likely to die on the castle project than on any other operation but he couldn't shake off the feeling that before The General's goons had shown up at his door, he would have tried to legally kill people again, illegally kill people, or just fuck it and off himself. The were no words to describe how much that thought haunted him now, he was being a hypocrite yes, but now that he really had time to focus on it he wouldn't have been able to do it.
No matter how committed or willing he had been, life was just simply too short to-

Etrius sighed deeply, almost dropping the body. He sounded like The General, all melodramatic and shit. Was this what age did to you? Make you some sort of person to be laughed at and spend your 'golden years' in shame? Damn! He couldn't escape it! He didn't want to turn into The General, but there was something going on inside him. No one had ever told him in human anatomy class way back in middle school.

They just said you get middle aged, you'll have a mid life crisis and usually … bam! School though, that seemed like a very long time ago, it had been before combat had taught him a life lesson. Etrius couldn't remember anything from those days. Etrius snorted, he hadn't bothered memorising the best years of his life.

He felt like he had just missed a great opportunity, why had he ever thought that joining the military would be a good idea? The body was starting to reek, Etrius used the collar of his uniform to cover his mouth and nose as he dragged the corpse toward the vehicle. The further he dragged it, the further away the humvee seemed to be. A few feet away from his destination he collapsed onto the gravel, this used to be so easy. Where had it all gone?

Again, Etrius took the ankles and heaved the body into the humvee. Time to get the hell out of here.


Dr. Romanov was waiting eagerly for the return of Etrius; he wanted a blow by blow account about everything he saw. Romanov was in the science wing, where all of the scientific experts in the Castle Project were researching. It was a large room with a wide desk attached to all of the walls except for the wall with the door, a shelf under the desk was lined with multicoloured books.

The room was packed with scientists, people in lab coats and wearing spectacles. Romanov himself was one of the lab coated – spectacles wearers, but he was different. Unlike the others he was a bit younger than the rest of the experts, around his mid-fifties; he had shoulder length hair, a grey toothbrush moustache and a foreign accent. Romanov was quite tall and skinny and was fully committed to his work, no close friends or family. Yes, he was quite different to the other scientists.

The first successful manned mission to the castle made him grin with excitement. It would end up with months, or years of studying but Romanov liked it that way more work, more things to discover. Not only that but one soldier lived and one died! It would be fascinating to perform an autopsy on the corpse and interview the survivor. Not to mention the 'dragon,' oh yes this would be exciting !

He felt that it was an honour to work on the project, an opinion felt by many of the scientists. The General had already called him to tell him to come to his office to have a look at some sort of artefact; he said it was a book. Romanov was finishing his research as quickly as possible; he was fervently going through all the possibilities on what the book could mean. This could be the most significant discovery in human history.


Yet again, Etrius went down the white walled corridor of the facility, this time however people were walking through the hall as well as him. This turned out to be a downside though. Etrius' uniform was covered with dragon and human gore, he had a blood-stained sword on his back, and was carrying a mystical red book, so people stared at him. It was starting to get a bit aggravating, wait hadn't he passed here before?

How couldn't he be sure, every damn thing looked the same! Not one sign or even a noticeable feature to know where he was, now that he was standing around looking either way figuring out which way to go everyone was staring at him all the more. He wished they would stop, no seriously!
"What the hell are you looking at?" Etrius challenged a lab coated person who had looked back at him.

The man walked faster down the hall, afraid to talk to Etrius. His body was sore too, the fall made him feel like he had been beaten up by a gorilla and been forced to walk.
"Etrius?"
Etrius swung around to face the person who had spoken. It had been a few months, but Lloyd hadn't changed a bit, he was just over the average age for an elite soldier, late forties.

No nothing had changed, not his short, dark brunette, his five o'clock shadow flecked with white, his battle hardened face, his lean and muscular figure, or his graceful stance, always ready for a fight. Lloyd always had an air of reluctance around him, not sulking, but just accepting without a second opinion.
"Nice to see someone I know," Etrius shook Lloyd's hand.

"What's with the blood, and I thought you were discharged," Lloyd smiled, but as usual it didn't reach his eyes.
"Reinstated, and I just went to the castle. Do you know where The General's office is?" Etrius tried to say this as quickly as possible as though this would soften the impact; he didn't want any awkward questions, besides the last thing was to stand around talking while his bones melted.

"Yeah, I know where it is. I'll show you," Lloyd continued down the corridor with Etrius alongside.
Good old Lloyd, of course he remembered what pissed him off.
"I didn't think you'd work for The General, you hated him," Etrius never thought he would see Lloyd working for The General voluntarily, or maybe he'd been kidnapped like Etrius.

"I got unlucky, with a lot of strings attached," Lloyd's voice was normally a bit louder than a whisper, but this time he was even quieter, and was determinedly staring ahead.
Etrius opened his mouth to ask what he meant, but then he remembered that Lloyd didn't pry at him with annoying questions so he kept his trap shut.
Still he hated secrets, especially with people he knew. Etrius had picked up that it would be unwise to snap at Lloyd, but he couldn't help but clench his knuckles.

The rest of the walk was in silence, apart from Etrius gritting his teeth occasionally, which Lloyd politely ignored. Lloyd never like to talk, why should he start to now? But Etrius was overwhelmed with curiosity and was about to ask what was going on, but then The General's familiar wooden door stood out amongst the deep white.
"Thanks Lloyd, I'll talk to you later," Etrius was bitter and disappointed that he never got ask Lloyd, but that could wait. For now at least.

"Good luck," Lloyd opened the door for Etrius.
"Etrius, what happened?" The General was curious, but wanted to contain it as much as he could, for fear of intimidating Etrius.
"Look shut up and listen," it felt so good to snap at The General, it gave him a small warm feeling, "I got a dead body in the trunk and I want to get him to a morgue before he ruins the humvee."

"What, did the officer die? What happened?" The General repeated.
Etrius could feel the hate now, he was trying to minimise his temper ever since he started going to the castle, but he didn't want to explain what happened, why he couldn't at least sit down on a chair. It made no sense to have an office without more than one chair.

"Is there something I could sit on? My bones are killing me," Etrius could feel his legs going numb.
The General left and brought back a seat, he didn't care where he got it from he just wanted to rest. Etrius collapsed onto the chair and passed the book over to The General.
"What's this?" The General was studying the book remaining puzzled as he studied the symbols.

"Thought you could tell me," Etrius cared about the mystery of the castles, but what would anyone else care about in his situation? Nearly getting shredded by a gigantic serpent, falling off a mountain and being able to walk after that. Or a stupid red book? Etrius hesitantly started explaining exactly what had happened. Afterwards The General called someone to collect the body from the humvee, and also Dr Romanov, if anyone would be able to tell them about what the book's significance it was him.


Romanov's fast walk down the hall had turned into a jog; he just couldn't wait to see it. By the time he reached The General's door he was out of breath and panting, Romanov hunched over a wall, panting heavily. Once he regained his composure, Romanov stepped in to see something he didn't expect. A man as old as The General, sat in front of him, with a blood-stained sword hanging in between his shoulder blades, a red covered book with shapes on the front cover, and blood swept across him.

It could only be Etrius, the man who had gone into the castle, The General had warned him to be extra careful and polite, he had said that Etrius had a nasty temper, and a mistrust for everyone.

"Hello, I'm zee scientivic lead of the Castle Project, Dr. Romanov," he held out his hand and made an attempt to smile, until he saw Etrius' face slowly cringe.
"How do you know my name? Have we met?" Etrius questioned suspiciously turning around to face him.
Romanov caught a glimpse of The General; he was shaking his head vigorously.

"Err … Ze- zee General has told me all about you," Etrius swung around to The General who seemed to be sliding down his chair, "I- I mean vell, n- nothing bad, just vot you were going to be doing, a- and your history."
Every word Romanov said it made the condition worse, The General was still sliding down his chair, Etrius looked more and more incensed, and Romanov was going slightly red around his cheeks.

"Tell Romanov what you told me," The General was tried to change the subject, as he straightened himself up.
"You tell him," Etrius growled before making for the door.
Romanov put his hand on Etrius' shoulder stopping him ("Get your hand off me"), "Relax I just need the vartefact and your svord for research."

Etrius twisted his face more; he dropped the book on the ground and stabbed the saber through the carpet, scraping Romanv's shoe, before he stormed out. Romanov lightly face palmed himself and sighed. Clearly, he was less than pleased in Etrius' attitude.
"Well … he grows on you," The General was trying to excuse Etrius, but he was clutching at straws.

Romanov picked up the book and studied it, "Fashinating," he muttered.
"Can you see what language it is?" The General wanted to know what they were dealing with.

"No, no," Romanov flipped through the pages seeing that all of them contained the strange writing, "I saw a few symbols that slightly resembled some ancient cultures, but if it were bvased off of that language the rest of the symbols conflict with it. I'll need more data for anything conclusive. Could you get this sword out, please?"
The General slid the sword out, bloody Etrius, that carpet must have cost a fortune. Romanov didn't notice The General's grimace, he was focusing entirely on the book.

"Here, Doctor," The General handed over the blade which Romanov accepted after putting the book on The General's desk.
Romanov inspected the sword from different angles; eventually he sliced a small cut forefinger and examining the cut. Romanov inspected the cut, while The General was questioning Romanov's mental stability.

"What are you-"
"Just seeing iv the 'dragon's' blood does anyving different," Romanov had expected The General to ask something of this nature, understandable.
When Romanov had stared at the cut for a few minutes and not seen anything remarkable, he resumed surveying the saber, he couldn't help but feel a little bit disappointed about the cut.

"Later, could you send the body up to the surgery for an autopsy. And the sword to forensics?" Romanov requested.
When Romanov was satisfied with the eye level examination, he departed leaving The General alone.
Nothing was ever boring with Etrius, The General thought, all the time he was doing something unexpected and dangerous.

The General slowly sat down on his chair and opening up his laptop to file a report. He sighed, what was the point in filing it? He'd just get off the hook again as usual; he was too much of a valuable resource to give up just like that. He had to follow his own rules, The General tapped away on his keyboard, describing the situation and what Etrius had done for what felt like the millionth time.

The General lit a cigar and puffed out the smoke, watching it dissipate from the fan. Smoking always relaxed him, something he needed at his age. Sometimes he amused himself with settling down somewhere, but in the end he convinced himself that this was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life. He was uninterested in anything else, perhaps he'd finish the castle project and-

No, the castles were just the beginning; he knew what was to come next. This culture not only had to be analysed and understood, but also to have humanity's best interests satisfied. Steadily The General finished the report, word by word he slightly exaggerated what happened so that the incident would sound serious, but he knew that the chances of that would be less than slim.

The General believed that the Forward Operating Base already had a shortcut on their keyboard to report one of Etrius' temper flairs.