Cost of a Crown (Book 3)
Two Heirs
Chapter Twelve: Lost in Teleportation
Teela raised her staff.
Malkyn raised the Havoc Staff.
Dare, Raena, Kay-La, Danger Noodle, Keris, and Malkyn were all enveloped in the light of their combined magic.
The light swelled, becoming brighter. Then the magic shuddered, as if it were unsure. Like the power was receiving two commands and it didn't know which to follow. Then there was a sudden jolt and a flash, and each of the Masters and Warriors felt the inexplicable being of being pulled in two different directions.
Malkyn realized what was happening and eased back on his spell. Let go and let Sorceress Teela's teleportation magic take over.
But it was too little too late.
The damage was done and Malkyn felt the very real and tangible sensation of falling. He blinked his eyes and saw only empty air around him and an open ocean below him. Not the stone walls of Castle Grayskull that he just left, or the rock face of Snake Mountain that he was trying to teleport them to. He was out in the open, in the middle of-
SPLASH!
Malkyn sank beneath the surface like a stone.
He kicked with his arms and legs to try and get back up. But continued to sink.
His boots were too heavy, they were dragging him down. Letting go of the Havoc Staff, he let it sink as both hands grabbed madly at the clasps of his boots to get them off his feet before he ran out of air.
Struggling under the water to pry them off.
One boot was pulled off.
More struggling.
Then the other.
Malkyn resumed kicking madly, arms clawing for the surface.
His chest felt tight, and his lungs burned. His head started to pound. There was a pressure behind his eyes. His body desperate for him to open his mouth and take a breath. It took every ounce of strength he had not to inhale the entire ocean.
Finally, his head broke the surface!
Malkyn tried to gasp in a deep breath of air, but with the wet helmet covering his face, all he inhaled were the droplets of seawater dripping from the skull's mandibles. Using both his hands and still kicking his feet wildly, Malkyn struggled to frantically pull the faux-skull helmet off his head and get a clear, unobstructed breath of air.
It came off with a wet pop and he threw the helmet in his hast. It floated on the surface, bobbing away from him on the currents.
His long white hair flowing around him in the swells, Malkyn gulped in air. Taking breath after breath to refill his lungs.
Then he reached his hand down and called to the Havoc Staff. He didn't know how far it had sunk, or how deep the water was, but it took a while for the staff to arrive in his hand.
Sheathing the staff over his back where it would be secure and wouldn't be in danger of getting lost, Malkyn treaded water and looked around.
"Noodle? Keris?"
Neither answered him, and Malkyn didn't see anyone else treading water around him.
"Prince Dare? Other two…?"
He was all alone, surrounded by an expanse of rolling deep water. No land in sight.
…
Noodle landed on the ground with a loud, "Oof!"
He pushed himself to his feet and stretched. He didn't recognize where he was, but he knew he had to be back in the Dark Hemisphere. The sky was hidden behind a thick layer of dingy clouds that rolled in shades of ruddy-purple and red. Noodle grew up with that sky over head, he knew it well.
What he did not know was exactly where in the Dark Hemisphere he was.
The landscape was unfamiliar to him. No recognizable land marks. Noodle pulled out his com and found that it had weak signal. Which meant they were on some remote part of the continent where Dad hadn't set up many (or any?) cellular com towers.
Noodle slipped his com back onto his belt and looked for his sister or Malkyn. "Keris? Mal?"
Neither of them answered.
But someone else did.
"Hello...?" Called a voice from behind a large boulder.
Noodle looked to see Fork Lift come out from behind it. Wearing her full mecha armor, including the helmet. Wearing her full robotic exosuit she towered over Noodle.
"Can you see the others?" Noodle asked. "Did they land nearby?"
Fork Lift turned her head one way, then the other. Scanning the horizon for their friends.
They appeared to be in some kind of rocky landscape. Mostly dirt and boulders, no grass or vegetation. She saw a glow off in the distance that didn't look much like a sunset. A fire maybe? Or a volcano? She had never been to the Dark Hemisphere before, only heard about it through description. But this certainly fit the description. This had to be the Dark Hemisphere they were in and the Dark Hemisphere was dotted with volcanos.
But it looked like it was just her and Skeleteen's Warrior. She didn't see Dare, or Kay-La, or the others anywhere around them.
Reaching the forked arms of her mecha armor up, she unlocked her helmet and pulled it off.
She shook her head. "It's just the two of us." She told him. "We met before at the beach. That was you, right? Danger?"
"Yeah." Noodle confirmed somewhat distractedly. He climbed onto the boulder she came out from behind, hoping the higher vantage point would help him figure out where they were. It didn't. "Danger N. of the Houses of Kronis and Trydor. You can call me Trap Jaw II, or just Danger."
"I'm Raena of the House of Raenius." She reciprocated. "I'm also the Master known as Fork Lift." She held out one mechanized fork hand for Noodle. He glanced at it but did not shake. Raena lowered her hand, looking visibly disappointed. "Okay, so we're not gonna be friends."
Noodle glanced down at his arms and the bright red plate armor that covered them. "You don't wanna shake my hands." He told her. "You don't know what's under my armor."
"Okay…" Raena didn't know what one had to do with the other. "We're in the Dark Hemisphere, right. So, you know where we should go from here."
"I need to get back to Snake Mountain as fast as possible." Noodle informed her. "I don't know what you should be doing."
"Queen Teela wanted us to regroup and gather more Masters and allies." Raena reminded him. "If King Malkyn wants to help us, then Snake Mountain is where I wanna go too! Maybe Dare and Kay-La are already there."
Noodle made a noncommittal noise to indicate he heard her. He was squinting at the glow off in the distance. Definitely a volcano. If they were lucky, it was the volcano that was Snake Mountain, the glow being the lavafall from the serpent's mouth.
"We'll head that way." Noodle announced.
"Is that Snake Mountain?" Raena asked, noting that he was pointing to the glow she assumed was a volcano. Snake Mountain was a volcano.
"I don't know." Noodle confessed. "But there's only three other volcanos that are big enough to be seen from this far away. Even if it's not Snake Mountain, once we know where we are, we'll know what direction to head in to get to the real Snake Mountain."
It took them hours to cross the uneven and rocky terrain. Maybe even the whole day. Raena couldn't see the sun and didn't even know if it was getting darker because the sun was going down, or if it was getting darker because they were getting closer to the volcano where the noxious vapors with thicker and harder for the sun's rays to penetrate.
As they drew closer and closer, the terrain did not become any more familiar and Noodle had to admit that it was not Snake Mountain they were heading toward.
But it would still be a landmark. While the Dark Hemisphere was dotted with volcanos and gas vents that filled the air with smoke and blocked out the sun, making the continent literally dark, there were only three as large and luminous as Snake Mountain. Mount Barathrum, Mount V'ranthrum, and Mount Kro'Na.
Mount Barathrum held a portal that led to some kind of terrible and horrifying eldritch dimension with gigantic tentacle monsters. But that wasn't likely to be a problem because to open the portal, one needed a sorcerer with a questionable moral core, and a sapient living sacrifice. Neither Noodle or Raena were sorcerers, and neither planned to sacrifice the other to summon another interdimensional horror to unleash on Eternia. One was enough, thank you. Mount Barathrum was probably the safest of the three, and Noodle hoped that was the one they were heading for.
Mount V'ranthrum was a wide volcanic area with multiple vents and exposed lava flows and lakes. Skeletor once used the gasses released from Mount V'ranthrum's crown of peaks to try and block out the sun for the rest of Eternia, not just the Dark Hemisphere. (He was stopped by He-Man, of course.) It would be hard for them to breath at Mount V'ranthrum, because of all the gas vents. But Noodle would still prefer it over the third possibility.
Mount Kro'Na was the hottest volcano on all of Eternia, and since Snake Mountain had been occupied by Skeletor's loyalists for two generations now, Mount Kro'Na was where all the Snakemen tribes made their nests and creches to brood their eggs. Noodle might be a Snakeman by birth (by hatching?), be he considered himself Gar like Trap Jaw, the man who raised him. Maybe with a little human in the mix since Tri-Klops was also his dad. And Noodle had no desire to mingle with the people who abandoned him and left him to die of neglect and the elements just because he was born deformed. He'd rather get sacrificed to the eldritch demons of Barathrum, or choke to death in the fumes of V'ranthrum.
"By the Goddess, it's so hot I'm sweating in my armor!" Raena explained as they drew closer to the volcano.
Noodle only rolled his eyes. He found the heat rather comfortable. Being cold-blooded, a lot of human or similar mammal-dominated settlements were just too cold for him. Tri-Klops fitted his room and some of the common areas of Science Tower with heat lamps to make Noodle more comfortable, but Noodle honestly preferred the open and exposed lava flows of Snake Mountain to the artificial heat lamps of Science Tower.
"We like it hot, mammal."
Both Noodle and Raena turned to see that while Noodle was fantasizing about being sacrificed to demons, and Raena was sweating in her armor, two Snakemen had snuck up on them.
Coming at them from the side, from over a rise in the jagged and rocky terrain. The Snakemen had the high ground, and Noodle and Raena were at a disadvantage.
"I don't recognize you." Said one of the Snakemen, speaking to Noodle.
"Did you put your meat in that hard shell to protect the gooey center?" Asked the second Snakeman, pointing at Raena in her Fork Lift armor.
"What's wrong with your face?" Demanded the first.
"I sprained my jaw eating out your mom!" Noodle snapped.
Both Snakemen just stared at him with utter incomprehension. What in Serpos' flaming pits was a 'mom'?
"You're not from one of the tribes, are you?" Asked the first one again.
"He's kinda got the face shape of Rattler House." Said the second. "If you overlook the wonky jaw."
"Yeah, but he's got the yellow scales of Viper House." Argued the first. "And Viper House doesn't exist anymore."
At the mention of Viper House, Raena saw the corner of Noodle's eye twitch asymmetrically. She wanted to ask what that was about, but she could read a situation and knew that was not a good idea right now. That, and it wasn't really any of her business. If Danger wasn't willing to shake her hand, then he sure as hell wouldn't be willing to share his feelings in relation to his birth-race, or why Viper House in particular seemed to upset him.
"Where're you from?" The Snakemen demanded.
"Donno." Noodle shrugged, putting as much insolence into his voice as he possibly could. "We're lost."
"He means, who are your people." Snapped the other.
"O~oh…! My people…" Noddled nodded, exaggerating the motion. "That's what you meant." He planted his feet and lifted his chin challengingly. "My people are the Evil Warriors of Snake Mountain, loyal to King Malkyn of the House of Keldor, heir of Skeletor, and the rightful ruler of Eternia!"
Raena didn't know much about the Dark Hemisphere, how the factions were divided up, or how the power struggles worked. But even she knew that that was definitely the wrong thing to say. She didn't have Danger's insider knowledge, but she could read a situation and could tell that these Snakemen remnants did not hold any version of a friendly feeling for Skeletor or his forces that were currently occupying their ancient seat of power.
The two Snakemen blinked, as if taken aback or in disbelief that one of their own would openly and boldly admit to holding allegiance to Skeletor or his heir.
There was the beat of a pause.
Then the two Snakemen launched themselves at Noodle and Raena. Raena didn't even have time to put her Fork Lift helmet back on and one of her attacker's fangs nicked her cheek.
The Snakeman jumped on her, mouth open fangs out. Raena dropped into a controlled fall, using the Snakeman's own momentum to propel him over and off of her. But their faces did pass close together. Not enough for a full bite. No fangs sank into her flesh. But one fang did rake across her cheek, breaking the skin.
Raena's face was bleeding when she stood back up.
Noodle and the other one grappled on the ground. Necks and tails whipping wildly so that it was hard to tell where one Snakeman ended and the other began. The sounds of angry hissing filled the air and a mysterious rattling that no one was really sure where it was coming from.
Raena moved to try and help Danger, but her own Snakeman attacker came up on her again. She had her own fight to worry about.
As she turned her attention to defending herself and possibly saving her companion, a random through flashed through her mind for just half a second.
Raena hoped wherever Dare and Kay-La were, that they were doing better than she was.
…
Kay-La was dumped in a snow drift.
Shivering, she pulled herself out. Even when she stood on her own feet, her boots still sunk into the thick layer of snow up to her knees. She rubbed her arms with her hands and shivered. Her uniform was not designed for such frigid temperatures and lacked the fur-lined cape that other Masters liked to add to their warrior costumes. She needed to find shelter, or else she'd succumb to the elements very quickly.
"Mal!" Someone shouted.
Kay-La looked to see the Gar woman that was with Skeleteen pull herself up out of the snow.
The lenses of her visor swiveled as she scanned the immediate area for her companions. "What the fuck, Mal!? Where did you send us?"
Kay-La took another moment to look around again, hoping to see Dare or Raena. But she saw no one else. Not even Skeleteen or the Snakeman with the prosthetic jaw. It was just the two of them alone in the snow.
"Mal! Noodle!" She continued to shout.
"I don't think they're here." Kay-La called back.
The Gar woman wheeled around suddenly and assumed a fighting stance. Kay-La's knee-jerk reaction was to assume a defensive stance. But then both women shivered and hugged themselves in vain attempts to stave off the cold. Neither of them was dressed for this kind of weather.
"We need to get out of this!" Kay-La shouted to be heard over the frigid wind.
"Where are we?" The other shouted back.
"I donno."
Lifting her feet high to trudge through the knee-high snow, Kay-La closed the distance between herself and Skeleteen's minion. She closed her hand around the other woman's upper arm.
And quickly found herself grabbed right back, pulled off her feet, flipped, and pinned flat on her back in the snow with all the air knocked out of her.
"I'm trying to help you!" Kay-La shouted, throwing her hands up to try and block whatever hit might be coming. "You're blind right?"
"That's why I have this." She tapped her tri-lens visor. "And I don't take help from my enemies!"
Kay-La used her opponent's lighter frame to her advantage. Swinging both her legs up and catapulting her attacker forward. She rolled face first into the snow, while Kay-La was able to spring back to her feet.
"I'm not your enemy. I don't even know you!"
"I'm Keris of the House of Kronis." She snapped back. "I'm a lieutenant of King Malkyn, heir of Skeletor, and you work for King He-Man. That makes us enemies!"
Another chill wind blew between them and both women shivered.
Keris shivered audibly and rubbed her hands over her arms. "But I could be persuaded to work together in the interest of survival."
Kay-La closed the distance between them again and put an arm around Keris. "It'll be warmer if we share body heat."
They both shivered together this time. It was still too cold out. Even sharing body heat wasn't really enough.
"I hope the others are doing better than we are." Kay-La muttered.
…
Dare was tangled in vines.
In a tree.
Dare was up in a tree, tangled in vines.
Well, he told his Queen Teela he wanted to visit the Vine Jungle.
He just hoped that argument wasn't the last time he would ever see the parents who raised him.
...