Part Four
Into The Vortex!
Skadi slammed her solitary fist into the wall, "Why two? We have thirty eight more!"
"Wait." Loki said.
"I want to know what is on the other side of the portal!"
"Just wait." Loki said, grinning.
"Beguile waiting!" Skadi roared, "Ten more, NOW!"
"Oh no . . . stop . . . don't . . ." The unpredictable, and unreadable Loki said sarcastically, as the ten rushed past him, and he continued to grin.
Lexington gasped in shock, the two monstrosities before him were unlike anything he'd ever seen before!
To describe them would be to describe several animals blended together. Their torso resembled that of a bear, they had long arms, half again the length of a human's, though their legs, which resembled the hind legs of a rat were better proportioned to their bodies. Their heads were round, save for the cropped ears that looked like two long horns atop their heads. They had empty, glowing, red eyes, each about the size of a baseball, and they were covered in fur, save for their pointy ears, clawed hands, and feet.
The two blinked, and began to hiss like rats, Dark Eyes and Alabaser drew their swords so quickly that had Lexington chosen that moment to blink, he'd have missed it.
The Headmaster, and Marshal drew their weapons as well, and one of the creatures, whose coat was black said, "Hold, flatlanders! Surrender now, and I will ask King Bok to show you mercy, and eat you quickly!" He seemed fairly confident, and his brown coated companion was grinning a monstrously sharp toothed grin.
Dark Eyes lunged forward, the unfortunate creature leapt behind its companion—who stopped grinning—and screamed, "Comrades!"
"Show you cowards, I will!" The Marshal roared, katana drawn he charged for the two pitiful creatures, who in turn charged . . . in the opposite direction, screaming.
"That is your great enemy?" Brooklyn sounded both relieved, and unconvinced.
"Cowards exist among all peoples, even Gargoyles." Headmaster said calmly as he, Alabaster and Dark Eyes sheathed their swords. "Those were probably scouts, someone should go get master Kisaragi, we must—" Lexington gasped in surprise as the vortex expanded, and another monster appeared!
This one was a little larger, and gray, he hissed and without warning charged for the Headmaster, leaping upon, and pinning him!
More enemies emerged, two tackled Alabaster, who was unable to reach his swords, and another ran for Almasy, but was intercepted by Dark Eyes, who threw himself into it, hurtling it several feet and into a tree which cracked from the force!
Soon the situation was chaos, Matthias and Hudson each had a foe to fight, Brooklyn, like Alabaster had two of the monsters pinning him down, and Bronx wrestled with yet another monster!
Lexington saw one come for him, he spun around and struck it with his tail, but he shouted in surprise as he felt the beast catch and hold onto his tail! He was then thrown into the air!
Thinking fast, he spread his arms and caught the wind, thankful that this monster was a strong one and could throw him so high in the air, he growled, his eyes flashing he dove now and used his speed to slam into his enemy, knocking the wind out of them!
Where were Goliath, Broadway and Angela? They could really use them about now! He leapt onto the next nearest monster, the one that had pinned the Headmaster, and punched it in the tooth filled mouth!
"Lex!" He heard Brooklyn shout, and turned in time to see another monster lunging for him, but with a shadowy flash the monster screeched and fell to the ground, unhurt but cowering!
The headmaster was standing now, his sword drawn again, and Lexington could see now that its slightly curved blade was as black as any shadow, the blade itself seemed to vibrate and emit shadow much the same way a torch emitted light.
The headmaster looked at the scene and shoved the weapon into the ground—which seemed to be enough to make the three monsters not attacking one of the others nervous.
The headmaster began to move his hands about as if he was speaking in rapid sign language, and he shouted, "Wishyah!"
The shadows of the night themselves seemed to wrap together to form a large, black wolf, or at least a very good imitation. It howled, Lexington saw the Headmaster moving his hands about more slowly, presumably controlling his creation as it reared up and howled!
The monsters all leapt back and hissed, Lexington saw Hudson put his sword away, and noticed Brooklyn was nursing his left shoulder, but Alabaster laughed wildly, drew both his swords and threw himself at the cowering monsters!
Lexington wasn't sure whether or not Alabaster had meant to kill them, for they broke and fled back into the vortex before his blades could catch them.
The headmaster swept his hands through the air, and his shadow puppet disappeared. He fell to his knees then and coughed.
"You overdid it." Alabaster scoffed, "I was a little afraid of it." Alabaster leapt into the portal after the enemy! Dark Eyes snapped something that sounded like "fool!" and leapt in after his brother.
The Headmaster chuckled, "I thought there were more of them, I panicked." He said, then he turned his head towards Lexington and said, "Thank you, if you hadn't helped me I may never have been able to cast my spell."
"Don't mention it." Lexington shrugged.
"Nice one." Brooklyn grunted, "But what was that thing?"
"Just a puppet." Headmaster said, getting up with some difficulty, and returning his sword to its scabbard, he said, "It's really quite harmless, only don't tell that to the rat creatures."
"Rat creatures? Is that what those things were?" Lexington asked.
"Our ancient enemies." Headmaster said. "If they're on that side of the portal in force it means we haven't any longer to wait for this Goliath, we have to go. I am sorry we could not negotiate an alliance." Without another word, he leapt through the portal!
"You needn't return, Almasy," Matthias said as he approached the portal, "If this is your world, then you're finally home."
"No . . . Atheia is my home now, there's nothing for me here. Besides, I've got to help Dark Eyes!" He didn't even look back as he dashed into the portal!
Matthias frowned at Lexington, Hudson and Brooklyn. "I am sorry cousins, I do prefer speech to violence, and if I could I would remain here and talk to you more . . . but I must join the battle, who knows how many are on the other side? Ah . . . could I ask you to find Kisaragi and bring him back here? We may not be able to hold them for long, we'll have to abandon the portal and it wont be safe for him after that."
"We'll bring him back." Lexington said, and Matthias bowed low and then leapt into the portal himself!
Brooklyn stood up straight, and said, "I'll help them."
"What?" Lexington gawked.
"I'll just help them hold their ground at the portal until you guys can find their friend, I'm not staying." Brooklyn said, "You saw how many of those rat things there were, I've gotta help."
Lexington nodded, "Yeah. You're right, I'll come too!"
"And if I go to make sure the two of ye don't lose your heads, who's going to be finding that marshal then?" Hudson asked.
"Bronx!" Lexington called, "C'mere boy! You find the guy and bring him right back here, okay?"
Bronx barked once, then turned and ran off, Brooklyn took a deep breath and said, "Ready?"
Lexington would be lying if he said "yes" he had no idea what was on the other side of the portal, how many rat monsters there were, but he did know that the portal was a danger to Manhattan as long as it remained open, and if the humans and gargoyles fighting in there were all killed they'd never be able to close it. Worse it seemed obvious that the rat creatures knew how to open it too!
So he just nodded to Brooklyn, and they both leapt into the vortex!
Lexington flew through the vortex and found himself in a very different place!
He took a second to observe his surroundings, they were in a cave, it was lit by torches and those torches illuminated a cavern full of rat creatures!
Hudson came in after them, and took no time to orient himself, instead, sword drawn he leapt into the fray!
Loki grinned wickedly, he had everything he needed now, and he snapped his fingers, the portal closed.
Skadi gave him a curios look, and he shrugged. "You will understand everything soon, teacher." He said, and then he turned away from the battle.
Loki heard Skadi scowl, then in the military code language of the rat creatures she shouted an order to fight only until she and he had left the cave, then break and retreat.
As soon as the two had left the cave, they let their human disguises melt away, and with their true bodies, took to wing and fled.
"You play an odd game, Loki." Skadi said coolly.
"Oh it's common enough in the end." Loki said easily, teasing his ancient teacher, whom he knew was magically determining whether or not he was lying.
He grinned, knowing that the fact that he had told the truth would confuse her, for betrayal was indeed a common enough game. "You may go to my father now if you like, tell him whatever lie you can concoct to explain your disappearance, but I will be at the human castle, fashioning a real alibi."
Skadi opened her beak to protest, but Loki soared away, ignoring the old crone.
He grinned to himself, everything was going too well . . . he'd brought new toys into the game, and gotten rid of that meddling Hijihiro, whom he believed had been close to learning his secret, given how closely he watched him every time he snuck into the castle!
Loki concentrated and let his body change into that of a beautiful female gargoyle, this one he knew would have no trouble getting past guards, be they human or gargoyle, he'd used this guise twice before. Once he reached the castle he would have to find someplace secret to revert back to his true body before taking human shape, but the excitement of infiltrating the castle was always fun.
The Rat Creatures feld, Lexington felt exhilaration run through him, he laughed and slapped Brooklyn on the shoulder, then said, "Sorry!" when Brooklyn flinched in pain, Lexington had forgotten that his left shoulder had gotten hurt just moments ago.
"They're retreating!" Almasy said, he laughed, "They probably don't know how many gargoyles we've got on the other side of the—" the boy's face fell a bit, "Eh, Headmaster, is it supposed to do that?"
The Headmaster looked at the portal, and sighed, "It must have timed out. Unusual, but not unheard of." He said. "I'll reopen it." He moved his hands in a series of gestures, as he had when he summoned his shadow puppet, and he said, "Italane kofuse korack torack!"
There was a pause, then he began again, and again he said the words, "Italane kofuse, korack, torack!" This time he sounded worried. The third time he sounded desperate, and the forth he was almost pleading.
"I can't open it!" He said in shock.
"Did it burn out?" Almasy asked.
The Headmaster shook his head, "It couldn't have done. Those blasted rat creatures must have found some way to seal it!"
"So open it." Alabaster growled.
"I told you, it's sealed! It's still there, but we cannot open it!" The Headmaster said.
Lexington looked at Brooklyn, he was the leader, and this had been his idea . . . "How do we get home?" He asked.
Brooklyn's shoulders slumped, and he gave Lexington a helpless look.
"Well lads," Hudson said calmly, "Ye wanted to help our cousins; it looks like we'll have plenty of time to do it."
Lexington felt his heart sink, it could be a long time before he saw a computer again . . .
To Be Continued . . .
Author's Note: I'd like to take this chance to thank all those who've read this story, and kindly decided not to shout profanities at me. That seems to be what usually happens when I write a story. It's quite refreshing not to have it happen here. What a great audience.
