Chapter Ten: LORAR

I felt myself hit the ground with a resounding thud. If I'd landed on my feet, I would have instantly crumpled into a heap on the ground, but I ended up landing on my back—thanks mostly to the awkward angle at which my Sprite had thrown me into the first gate.

Speaking of my Sprite… I glanced around, trying to get my bearings, but I was all alone. No winged doppelganger psychopaths anywhere in sight.

I'd landed on a hard stone floor. It was a platform of sorts that had been built into the top of the hill over which the first gate had deposited me. Was this the reason the inhabitants of the planet had built this platform…or was it just sheer coincidence that the first gate happened to dump me right onto this stone platform in the middle of nowhere.

I looked up into the sky. I heard nothing but the rushing water of a nearby sky river, the soft pattering of raindrops striking the grass, the trees, the stone platform. I gazed up at the nearby sky river, watching it twist its way through the skies. I tried to sit up, but the wave of pain that rolled up from my chest was enough to send me crashing back down. I looked under my shirt at my chest, saw that the skin around my broken rib was darkened and discolored, similar to a bruise. That meant internal bleeding. I also started to notice how I was no longer able to get a full breath of air. I was beginning to make myself lightheaded as I breathed more and more heavily, trying and still failing to get a full breath of air.

There was a sudden rustling noise, coming from behind my head. I twisted myself around, looking over at the clump of bushes at the opposite side of the stone platform. The bushes continued to tremble for a few moments, until a red snake slithered forth into view. It was a cobra, and it also happened to be a giant… As it reared its head up, flaring the neck hood that cobras were most well-known for, it was nearly as tall as me. And it was not just abnormally long for a snake; it was also as wide as me, shoulder to shoulder, at the widest point of its body—and its neck hood could stretch to an even wider width than that. It was truly a man-sized snake.

Its mouth hung slightly open, just enough to reveal two curved, gleaming white fangs. Although they were not dripping with venom, as I thought they would, I knew that the venom was still there. It had eyes of midnight black, with irises of emerald green. Its scales were of a rusty red color, and they almost seemed to catch the daylight, glittering faintly as it moved. But most peculiar about this giant cobra—apart from its size—was the small, red and black markings that were streaked across its face, upper body, and neck hood. That was not natural coloring—that was paint. It actually reminded me of the war paint used by some of the Native American tribes…but how could a snake put war paint on itself?

Now, I've never had any fear of snakes, before…but if a giant, man-sized cobra stated slithering towards you? Would you remain perfectly calm? I thought not.

I had to get the hell out of here. I ended up rolling over onto my stomach. I let out a muffled whimper as I accidentally rested on my broken rib. The pain in my chest exploded outward like a star going nova, and my breathing difficulty seemed to increase fivefold. I think the rib may have punctured my right lung. My throat started feeling like it had water caught in it, causing me to cough uncontrollably. I tasted blood in my mouth.

I reached forward and tried to pull myself away from that giant cobra, but an invisible grip suddenly wrapped itself around my ankles, preventing me from moving. No matter how hard I strained, how hard I pulled, I could not move an inch. My ankles may as well have been chained to a boulder. Finally, my muscles gave out, and I collapsed into the stone platform, turning my face so that I did not strike my nose on the ground. I just wanted to lie there, nice and perfectly still, for the rest of eternity…but my new friend was not having any of that.

I felt the invisible grip lift from my ankles, only to feel a band of pressure descend around my lower torso. I could feel myself rise about an inch or so into the air, and I was turned over onto my back and laid back down onto the stone surface of the platform. I gazed up into the purple rainclouds, closed my eyes as I was overcome by a feeling of profound lightheadedness.

I opened my eyes and continued to gaze up at the clouds…only they were not violet. No, these clouds were of a bluish-white color…they were Skaian clouds, I realized. I looked down at myself, saw the golden pajamas that I was wearing, the golden streets below that I was currently flying over. I was back on Prospit's moon.

As I floated along, I noticed that there were no Prospitians walking the streets, which struck me as odd—the golden moon was always a very bustling place. I also noticed a difference in the climate… It was Skaia, I realized. While the radiance of Skaia was normally a calm and soothing presence, it was beginning to become blistering hot, and blinding to look at. This must be an Eclipse, just like Cruz mentioned, when the golden moon's orbit around Prospit sent it brushing through Skaia's outer reaches. He had told me that it was not a good idea to be outside during an Eclipse, and I was beginning to see why. I started heading back toward my dream tower, knowing that I had to get to shelter before things got too intense.

As I soared through the rapidly brightening skies of Prospit's moon, I had to gaze downward in order to shield my eyes. I felt the dizziness overcome me once more as I looked down…and, after the next time I blinked, I found myself back on the stone platform, looking down at my own feet.

There was a low hissing noise coming from the side, and I looked over, meeting the gaze of the giant red cobra, which was reared up over me, its fangs extended outwards. It looked down at me for several moments…then it began to speak.

"You sshall defile our landss no longer, underling sscum," the red cobra snarled. I wasn't quite sure how it was able to speak English…from the movements of its mouth, I actually don't think it was speaking English, but I was somehow able to interpret its speech as such. It pronounced each word slowly, more precisely, and its 's's were elongated, making it seem like it was constantly hissing when it spoke.

With that, the red cobra bared its fangs and struck down…only to be yanked back by an invisible force that seized it by the neck, causing it to miss me. "Wait," a deeper, raspier voice ordered from somewhere that I could not see. "Thiss creature iss no manner of underling we have encountered before… Hyperion hass ssent ssomething new againsst uss… Thiss creature musst be sstudied before we ssend it down death'ss river. Bring it back with uss…"

That familiar, invisible force picked me back up off the stone platform, causing my head to fall back towards the hard stone surface. Another wave of dizziness overtook me before it collided, however.

As my head fell back and I looked up to the skies, there was a sharp pain as the top of my head struck that hard stone surface I'd been expecting. I ducked back, seeing that I had just hit my head on the top of one of my dream room's windows. I was back on Prospit, once more…and I'd obviously made it back to the room at the top of my dream tower. I stepped back up to my window and gazed out across the golden moon. Skaian clouds were brushing the very tops of the golden moon of Prospit's tallest homes and towers, but my dream tower—and those of the other three Prospit dreamers—extended much further into Skaia's light.

I saw shapes moving in the clouds. As I watched more closely, the shapes grew sharper, and then they blossomed with color. The first cloud that drifted past my window showed me an image of my dead dream self, lying in someone's arms on a golden floor, his throat slashed open. The only part of the person holding him that was visible was the arms, as well as their red sleeves. Before I could really process that image, it faded away into the cloud, and another cloud drifted by to replace its predecessor.

This second cloud showed me Cass, and my breath caught in my throat for a moment. She was standing on a balcony of black and purple stone, looking out over a shadowy urban skyline. I think she was crying, but I didn't get a good enough look.

After the second cloud moved off and faded away, a third cloud passed my window. It showed me something very odd: Anna Carrero, standing in a gray stone room, talking to another Anna Carrero. Completely identical. What the fuck? The cloud blew away before I could process anymore of that.

The fourth cloud showed me my friend Tami Abramov, kneeling in front of a giant crystal that faintly glowed with a white light. She was playing an odd-looking violin—it looked like it was fashioned out of diamond, catching the light, making it seem like it had a glow of its own. As Tami played, the violin appeared to sparkle, and the giant crystal seemed to resonate in tune with whatever Tami was playing, glowing now with a bright cyan energy.

The next cloud showed me a symbol of bright amber light that was shining in a sky of violet clouds. It was a series of curved lines that appeared to make a likeness of a crashing wave—like those waves that you see crashing on the beach, as they curled over and imploded on themselves, only viewed from the side.

The next cloud to drift by my room's window showed me Gwen Twymann standing in the crow's nest of an old-fashioned ship.

In the seventh cloud, I saw a dark, shadowy figure, the sight of which caused my muscles to tense up. It was the Phantom that had haunted me all my life…and now it was coming to my dreams. "Stop running from me…" the Phantom spoke the words into my mind. Immediately I recognized that voice, but it was only a momentary recognition - I've never managed to hold onto it. Every time I try, it slips away. Within an instant I'd already forgotten.

After the Phantom spoke, the darkness in the seventh cloud resolved into an image of a giant red cobra staring down at me. Over the cobra's head, I could see a wooden roof, covered in small, dancing shadows cast from an unseen light source. As I stared into this image, there was a slight pain in my mind as I blinked once again. When I opened my eyes, I still saw the red cobra…but it was no longer staring at me through a cloud. Now, we were both in the same room, and the cobra was gazing down at me.

I was lying on a makeshift bed, composed of several blankets and what felt like animal furs. The room I was in was a small one, and it must have been located at the very corner of a much larger wooden dwelling, because it had two wooden walls. The interior walls were simply curtains of what seemed like some sort of animal hide.

I tried to stand up, but there was an invisible force pressing down over my chest and legs, preventing me from sitting up. As I tried to move, I noticed that the pain in my chest was now gone, and my body no longer felt like it was going to explode with all kinds of pain at the slightest touch. I was actually feeling pretty good…it was just this invisible force keeping me from going anywhere.

The red cobra hissed as it saw me wake up. "Father, the creature iss waking up!" it called out of the room.

There was a rustling as a flap in one of the inner walls was pushed aside by an unseen force—presumably the same one keeping me confined to the bed—allowing another giant cobra to slither inside, even larger than the first. While the red cobra was almost my height when it was 'standing up', this newcomer was easily two feet taller. This snake also had red scales, but it was a darker red than the smaller cobra—more of a maroon.

I tried to get up once again, but still to no avail. Finally, I realized that I was now able to speak without having my mouth fill up with blood, and I took full advantage of this. "What…what the fuck…?" was all I was really able to say at first.

"It sspeakss?" the red cobra flicked out its tongue and tasted the air, in a gesture of surprise. "Underlingss do not sspeak."

"None that we know of," the maroon cobra retorted, silencing the smaller snake with a glare. It then turned back to me. "What manner of creature are you, underling? Why hass Hyperion ssent you againsst uss?"

"Uh…you're…a snake. You, sir, are a giant fucking snake. Who talks. I am talking to a giant fucking snake…"

"You sspeak our language mosst sstrangely, underling," the maroon snake observed, giving a menacing hiss. "But I do not resspond well to inssults, sso choosse your next wordss carefully."

I took a deep breath, trying to force myself to calm down. "Alright, look… I have no idea where the fuck I am. What is this place? Who are you people? Are there more talking snakes out there? And I have no idea who the fuck this 'Hyperion' character is, but I definitely wasn't sent here by-"

"My name iss Burning Dussk, Chieftain of Clan Nathair, of the Western Fires," the maroon cobra introduced himself, cutting me off midsentence. He then nodded to the red cobra. "And you have already met Glimmering Sscaless, my sson. You are currently in the Warm Foresst of the Land of Rain and Riverss, after having been caught tresspassing on my landss. And now that I have given you ssome of the ansswerss you sseek, I expect ssome in return. What manner of creature are you?"

"I told you, I'm not an underling. Do I look like a fucking ogre?"

"You are neither Derssite nor Prosspitian," the maroon cobra declared. "What else can you be, if you are not an underling?"

"I'm a human."

"What iss thiss word, thiss 'human'," the red cobra asked, its pupils narrowing slightly in a frown. "What iss 'human'?"

"It's…it's me, I'm human…it's what my species calls itself…" I tried my best to explain, with little success. "Look, I'm not from here. I am from another world, which got destroyed, but me and my friends played this game, and POOF! I end up here, in the Land of…whatever the fuck it was. And now, my species is pretty much extinct, except for the…oh…eight us of who made it in here, and I'm having a conversation with a talking snake. I mean… I mean, just…gah, just fuck my life. Great, now I'm the one who needs another joint…"

"We found you on the platform at the top of the Sacred Hill," Burning Dusk, the maroon cobra, explained to me. "How did you come by it? You looked as if you had jusst been in a fight, yet there were no monssterss within miless of the Sacred Hill—we alwayss make ssure of that. How did you end up on that platform?"

I gave a quiet sigh, knowing by now that the only way I'd probably get out of here was to play the maroon cobra's game. "I played this game, like I told you, and my house got transported on top of some random mountain in this land. I got a little beat up on my way up to my first gate…but I made it, and I passed out as I went through. Next thing I know, I'm lying on that platform, waking up to Mister Scales over there," I gestured towards the red cobra with my chin.

"What iss thiss 'firsst gate' that you keep referring to?" Burning Dusk asked next.

"Honestly, I have no fucking clue," I sighed, quickly growing tired of all these stupid questions. "It's this portal that was hanging in the sky over my house. All I knew was that I was supposed to go through it…and so I did…and it just happened to dump me onto that platform. End of story. Can I go now?"

Burning Dusk chose to ignore those last few things I said. "Sso you are ssaying that, when you arrived on that platform, you fell from the sskiess?"

"Well… I mean, I guess technically yeah, I did fall from the sky, but-"

"Bring him," the maroon cobra ordered his son, abruptly turning away and absconding through the entrance flap.

The red cobra slithered back up to my side, tasting the air as he went. The unseen pressure on my chest and legs was lifted, only to be reapplied around my wrists, bringing them together like handcuffs. The force binding my wrists jerked me up to my feet and pulled me out of the room, forcing me to stumble after Glimmering Scales.

"How are you doing this?" I asked the red cobra, trying to shake my wrists.

"Lesser creaturess manipulate matter with their handss," Glimmering Scales replied. "We usse our mindss."

"You're…telekinetic?"

"You actually have a word for thiss?"

"First snakes are man-sized, then they talk, and now they can move things with their fucking minds…" I muttered to myself, under my breath. No wonder I felt more awake when I was on Prospit—my waking life was becoming more and more like a goddamn dream. Talking, telekinetic snakes? Come on… Before I could continue to speak, Burning Dusk cast me a glare, and I fell silent.

We headed down a hallway of sorts and into a large room with a long, rectangular table. A feasting hall, it looked like. I was pulled through the two large double doors set into the wall on the other side of the table, stumbling out into the night.

There were no stars and there was no moon…and even if there were, they would be obscured by the clouds. But it was the clouds themselves that glowed with a violet luminosity, bright enough to cast a very dim illumination over the land, almost as bright as moonlight.

I was in a village—there was no better way to describe the community of wooden cabins and buildings that occupied the top of the tree-covered plateau, in the middle of the forests, upon which it had been built. There were many smaller cabins, homes of the many members of this clan. There were dozens, hundreds of other giant cobras that inhabited this village. While most of them were going about their daily business, there was a good-sized crowd that gathered to watch as I was hauled across the village and up to the very edge of the plateau, where a bonfire of sorts had been constructed and lit, casting long shadows in every direction.

Five cobras sat in a semicircle around the fire, their bodies coiled up in tight circles, their necks and heads upright. They hummed in harmony with one another, swaying gently in unison, their forked tongues flicking in an out of the air. Their scales were a milky gray color, and their eyes a pale blue.

"Honored Elderss," Burning Dusk, dipped his head down low to the ground in respect to the old snakes sitting around the fire.

"Flame," the gray cobra sitting in the middle returned the bow. "Why have you dissturbed our meditation?"

"Troubling matterss, Elderss," Burning Dusk replied. The chieftain glanced back at Glimmering Scales and gestured for him to come forward. "Pressent the human creature to the Elderss, my sson."

Glimmering Scales dipped his head down to the ground and slithered forward to the council fire, tugging me along behind it. The invisible force around my wrists pulled me down, forcing me to kneel. I looked across the fire as the five elder cobras regarded me with a measure of curiosity. "The myssteriouss underling that I disscovered on the Sacred Hill hass regained conscioussness," Glimmering Scales reported.

"It claimss not to be a thrall of Hyperion," Burning Dusk explained. "It claimss to have come from another land, a land not of thiss earth. It wass brought here by the power of the Sky Flame. It fell to uss from the sskiess, and the Sacred Hill wass where it firsst sset foot upon our landss."

I decided not to point out the fact that I arrived on that hill by falling flat on my ass while passed out. Didn't quite have that same kind of heroic ring that 'setting foot upon our lands' had. And while this would normally be the time for me to interrupt with some sort of snappy remark…something about these old, gray cobras gave me the feeling that I should probably be respectful to them. And so, for once in my life, I kept my mouth shut.

Still, though…it was kind of irritating, how these giant snakes just started jawing on about me like that. I mean, come on… I'm right here! Whew, okay…deep breaths, deep breaths…just do yourself a favor and keep your trap shut… I breathed in deeply, doing my best to repress the surge of irritation that was threatening to boil over.

The gray-scaled elder look right at me and said, "The creature believess itsself to be the hero of legend?"

My eye twitched.

"Okay, I'm standing right here! I can hear every word you're saying!" I exclaimed, my irritation finally reaching its melting point. I started to speak further, but even before I could continue, a new thought occurred to me, something I remembered the White Queen of Prospit telling me in a dream. "You're the consorts, aren't you? The native inhabitants of my planet. The ones I'm supposed to-"

"Your planet?" Glimmering Scales gave a sharp hiss, his eyes narrowing into slits, his neck hoods flaring. "Jusst who do you think you are to-"

"Ssilence," Burning Dusk snapped.

"He sspeakss our tongue?" the elder on the far right observed, surprise evident in his voice. This was something they did not expect. The elder then tasted the air with his tongue and turned to look straight at me. "You sspeak our tongue?"

"Well, one of us is speaking someone's language without knowing it, might as well be me," I shrugged. I think, by now, I'd actually managed to move past the whole…you know…the fact that I was now in a world inhabited by giant talking, telekinetic cobra snakes. At this point, I was just sick and tired of being kicked around—by Sburb, by the underlings, and now by my own goddamn consorts.

"Thiss meanss nothing," the first elder on the left spoke up. "There iss nothing to prove that this creature iss not one of Hyperion'ss-"

"Stop! Stop calling me 'creature'!" I finally blew my top, throwing my caution to the winds. I pointed straight at the elder who had spoken last. "I'm sure you have a name; would you be offended if, instead of referring to you by your name or title, I just decided to call you 'creature'? Oh hello, look at me, I'm a giant talking snake! Watch me as I jack myself off with my own brainwaves-"

Looking back on it… I mean, I shouldn't have yelled to begin with, but looking back on it… I really should have just bitten my own tongue after I asked the elder if he would be offended by me calling him 'creature', because after that I kind of…well, I went on a bit of a roll. I don't think I've ever gone off on someone like that before in my life—it took an apocalypse and multiple severe beatings to make me this unstable.

By the time I ran out of breath, I noticed that none of the gathered cobras were even listening to me, anymore. They were watching my hands, and the obscene gestures they were making. I fell quiet, and saw what the cobras had seen—my wrists had been bound by Glittering Scales's telekinesis, but now they were free. Somehow, I had broken the hold over me.

The five elders all huddled in close—they only had to extend their heads towards the elder in the middle, leaving the rest of their bodies coiled up in their places around the fire, before withdrawing. "We have removed tonguess for sslander less vile than what you have jusst uttered here," the first elder to the left hissed. "Know that your life hass only been sspared by Fate…and even then, it iss likely that ssparing you now iss only a posstponement of the inevitable."

"Our sstoriess, passed from generation to generation, foretell the coming of a hero of legend, known only as the Knight," the first elder to the right, who appeared to be the oldest of the five, explained. "It iss ssaid that thiss Knight iss a persson of great power, great enough to rival even Hyperion himsself. If there iss anyone who sstandss a chance of defeating the mighty Denizen…it iss the Knight."

The grayish-brown-scaled cobra in the middle of the semicircle picked up where his fellow elder left off. "We do not know when the Knight will come, or which clan he will hail from, but the Sacred Hill was ssupossedly where the Knight would enter thiss world, which wass where you were found. And there iss a way to find him when he arrivess—the Trial of Legendss. There have been many who claimed to be the Knight of legend in the passt. Each one of them undertook the Trial of Legendss, and each one of them died trying to complete it. They died becausse none of them were the true Knight," the elder declared. He then looked over at the chieftain and gave a single nod.

Burning Dusk slithered towards the fire, moving right in front of me, stretching up to his full height of what seemed like seven or so feet. "We found you tresspassing on the Sacred Hill, an offence punishable by death. However, there iss evidence that sseemss to point to you possibly being the Knight of legend…and it iss the opinion of our honored elderss that thiss evidence iss genuine. Therefore, it iss my judgment that when we are greeted by the coming dawn, you shall be taken to the Forbidden River. There, you will undergo the Trial and prove yoursself a living legend…or a not-sso-living imposster."

The elders returned to their meditation, and Burning Dusk ordered me back into the building where I'd been brought from.

"Do not think that my father hass sspared your life, underling," Glimmering Scales said to me as he escorted me back into my room, stopping at the entrance flap. "No one ever ssurvivess the Trial of Legendss."

"I was getting a vibe like that, yeah," I sighed, sitting down on my bed of furs. I looked up to the red cobra. "Any advice for me?"

"Yess," Glimmering Scales bared its fangs in what looked like the cobra equivalent of a sneer. "Assk for a nice funeral pyre after you die." And with that, the red cobra withdrew from the entrance flap, leaving me alone with my thoughts.