Chapter 5

Rayman woke up as the sunlight came through the window and hit his face. It was well into the morning. He and Neshae had been up most of the night. His brother had told him about things that had happened when they were growing up and Rayman convinced him to lead them to Helm Mountain.

D began to stir. She sat up in the bed and leaned against the wall. Rayman did the same.

"Morning." He said.

"Morning." She answered. "What time is it?"

"Don't know." Rayman said. "But I got Neshae to take us to Helm last night."

"So my actions did get us a guide after all. If I hadn't done that we wouldn't have gotten this room and I wouldn't have gotten attacked." D said.

"Hey! I was the one who convinced him to take us!" Rayman said. He wasn't trying to take all the credit and he knew she wasn't either. They were both just joking around.

D's eyes fell on Neshae, who was sleeping in the bed next to Rayman's. "Any idea when he's going to wake up?"

Rayman shook his head. "No. But when he does we'll get going."

D's stomach growled. "I wonder how long it's been since I've eaten." She said.

Rayman realized he was hungry as well. "I'll go get something to eat." He said, getting out of the bed.

"I hope you don't plan on getting it from that human in there. He'd probably charge you something for it." D said.

"I'll figure something out." Rayman said and went out the door.

He walked through the hallway and entered the room he and D had been in last night. A few men were still up. They stared into space as they suffered their hangovers. The bar keeper took a loaf of bread and a knife out of a cabinet behind the bar. He was about to slice it when he looked towards the door for a moment.

A drunken man had been on his way outside and fell asleep halfway to the door. The bar keeper climbed over the bar and began hauling the man outside. Rayman seized his opportunity.

He quickly took the loaf of bread off the bar and threw it into the hallway he had come out of, then sat at a table and stared into space.

When the bar keeper returned and noticed the bread was gone, he looked at Rayman. "Did you see what happened to my bread?" He asked.

"I might have." Rayman said. "But my friend and I need some breakfast. If you make us some, I'll tell you what happened."

"Done. Where did it go?"

"It left." Rayman looked out the door. It wasn't a lie. The bread did leave and he just happened to look out the door. If the bar keeper thought he meant that's where the bread went that was his problem.

"Thanks." He said and went out the door. He came back a moment later with another loaf of bread.

"Idiot thought he could steal bread from me and just sit outside the door." He then began preparing breakfast. He fried some eggs, bacon, and a couple buttered slices of bread. He put both plates of food on a tray and handed that to Rayman.

"Thank you." Rayman said and took the tray. When they left he would have to give the hidden loaf of bread to the man sitting outside. Rayman hadn't prepared for something like that to happen. He had planned to return the bread when the bar keeper turned around again, just like he had taken it.

When Rayman returned to the room he and D were staying in, she was still in the joking mood.

"If it took me bursting into flames to get this room, what did you have to do to get that? Kill someone?" she asked.

"No. I just tricked the bar keeper. Here you go." He said, handing D her plate. Conveniently enough, Neshae woke up as they were done eating.

"Hello, early birds. What did the bat miss?"

Rayman couldn't help but smile. Neshae had revealed that he was a little on the crazy side last night. "Not a thing. We've just been waiting for you to get up so we can get going."

"I'm ready." He got out of the bed and jumped out the window. "Bar keeper doesn't like me much. I'm going this way. Meet you on the other side."

"I thought vampires burst into flames in the sunlight." Rayman said.

"Not bursting, am I?" he said and disappeared around the corner. The sunlight theory must have just been a stereotype that had somehow gotten there through rumors spread by humans over time.

"Well, let's go." Rayman said and put a hand on the door knob. But before he turned it, he heard a voice outside.

"That's my bread!" the bar keeper exclaimed. "That little bastard tricked me!"

"Let's not go that way." D said.

"Yeah." Rayman nodded and turned around. They both climbed out the window as the door to their room opened and a furious bar keeper came in.

They ran around the corner and met up with Neshae. "Come on." Rayman said. He and D were laughing. It was kind of thrilling to run out of that situation.

"What happened?" he asked as he ran beside Rayman.

"Almost got caught." Rayman answered.

"Well, if we're going to get to Helm, we'd better go this way." Neshae said and made a sudden, sharp turn to the right, through an alley.

Rayman and D skidded to a stop and turned right behind him. The alley led outside the town and they were soon back inside the trees.

---

A group of four people walked on the desert sand. The girl had not returned to their meeting point as they had planned. Something happened to her and they were going to find out what.

Earlier that morning, they had split up to search for signs of her passing in every direction, one of them had found tracks going East, way off course, telepathically told the others, and they all went that way and found the tracks. Now they followed them on East.

"She was running." The first said. He was a young elf. He wore a sandy colored cloak for camouflage like all the others. A strung bow and quiver of arrows hung on his back as he looked intently at the tracks. "There aren't any from Tempistus. He must have been following her by air."

"He flew on the beast of a man." Said the second. He was a human. His hair was dark and short. His eyes were white and sightless, but he could see past time and space. The only problem was he spoke in riddles. "He can change, but would rather purify the sinned by forcing them into his clan."

"What he means," the third started. It was a human woman with gold hair and eyes. Her hair blew in the wind in waves like grain in a field and stood still by her shoulders. "is that Tempistus can shape shift, but he prefers to change men he considers 'impure' into his slaves. By doing this, he 'purifies' them, forcing them into his service." The woman was the man's wife and was able to translate everything her husband said, even when he spoke more clearly than usual and she didn't need to.

The fourth was quiet. His hair was dark and came to just above his shoulders. His skin was slightly paler than the others and his eyes were black. One hand stayed on the hilt of his sword, and the other up at his chest, playing with a small, gold charm on a small, gold chain. The charm was a simple letter "A".

Where are you? He thought.

They reached the edge of a cliff. The elf began telling the story based on the tracks, for new sets of tracks had appeared, normal sized and four times bigger. "She stopped here, nearly falling off the edge. She turned around, I guess when the beast landed. Then she started running again. She ran along the edge, this way. This part has turned to glass. He must have shot lightning or something else at her. It barely missed, but the tracks stopped here. She must have gone over the edge."

No. The fourth thought.

"She still lives." The blind man said. "In the body of another, in a world unknown to us, in the blackness of the mind, she is pursued by two enemies while a third is ahead and has with her, two friends, she searches for that which she has lost."

The wife translated, though there as no need. "She fell off the edge, but opened a portal to another world. I think he said her form was changed. She has bumped her head and lost her memory. And she is searching for the Snake Cross Amulet. It must have fallen off of her when she was falling. She has two friends helping her and two enemies chasing after her. I guess the third must be Tempistus, just ahead of her, searching for the amulet."

"Then let's go after her." The fourth said and held out his hand. He looked at the elf, whose strength was greater than that of a human's. "I may need you to help me walk after this. This will take some energy."

The elf nodded.

He then turned to the blind man and his wife. "Can you help me sense which world to open a portal into?"

The blind man held out his hand. The fourth man took it with his other hand. He felt the knowledge go into his head and created the portal. Wisps of yellow, white, and black gas appeared in a circle above the ground.

The fourth man lost most of his energy creating the portal. The elf did need to help support him. Then together, all four of them jumped into the portal after their friend.

---

The sun was beginning to set in the distance when Rayman, D, and Neshae decided to stop and take a rest. They had been walking for hours.

"We're almost there." Neshae said as he sat down against a tree, facing the way they had just come. Rayman and D sat against another tree, facing him.

"So what happened?" Rayman asked Neshae. "Where are our parents? How were we separated?"

There was a look of pain in Neshae's eyes for a moment and he looked at the ground. "That is difficult to say..." he started, then looked up at Rayman. "Dad--who is that?" he asked, looking past him.

Rayman stood up and turned around and D leaned around the tree to look. A purple fist shot at Rayman. He ducked and jumped behind the tree. Now, both D and Neshae stood up as well.

The fist went backwards toward its owner, Dark Rayman, but Neshae caught it as it went past him. Then he ran at the enemy. Rayman saw what was happening and ran after Neshae to try to stop him. Neshae was a vampire and hadn't had blood in a while.

"Stop!" Rayman called to his brother.

Too late. Neshae and Dark Rayman ran into each other and Neshae bit him. In moments, Dark Rayman was drained.

"Hardly any blood in that zombie." Neshae observed.

"Great. You killed him." Rayman stopped. "If we defeat him, he comes back even stronger."

The body dissolved into the orbs of light. D ran up next to Rayman as he started backing up.

"D, do you think you could do earth magic? We need to trap him somehow to keep him from following us."

D and Neshae backed up as well. The body completely dissolved and began reforming.

"I can try." D said.

Dark Rayman's body fully materialized. He stood up and shook his head. "That ass hole bit me!" He said. He wound up his fist, preparing for another blow.

Rayman gave D a sideways glance. Her eyes were closed, concentrating. He felt magic surging through her and then shoot at the trees around them.

Branches shot from the trees and wrapped around Dark Rayman as the fist was released. One branch caught the fist halfway between Rayman and Dark Rayman. The evil twin struggled to get free, but was unable.

"Thanks, D." Rayman said. "Now let's get going again before he finds a way to get out of that."

Dark Rayman saw the three turn and start walking away. He struggled with all his strength. The wood began to snap as he slowly began to get free.

Rayman turned around just as Dark Rayman lunged at him.

---

D turned around. It all happened in slow motion. Rayman did not have time to react. It was up to her. She dropped to the ground and put her hands on a flat stone. She concentrated, felt the essence of the rock itself, the personality of it. In doing so, she was able to convince it to shoot up around Dark Rayman, lightning fast.

---

Rayman gazed in total shock as his life was narrowly saved by stone shooting from the ground around Dark Rayman. The rock changed around Dark Rayman until it was a sphere of polished stone on the ground. Even with his new strength, Dark Rayman would not get out of this one.

"Thanks for that." Rayman said as D stood up.

"Don't mention it." D said. All three of them turned around to keep going.

It was another half hour before they reached Helm Mountain. It wasn't big enough to be considered a mountain. It was only ten feet high. A large boulder marked the entrance to the final resting place of Kweniah.

Even though the sun set, making the shadows of the trees point left, the shadow of Helm pointed right, covering entirely a hole in the ground that was about twenty feet across. A veil of darkness covered the top of the hole, not allowing any of them to see more than three feet into it.

"In the shadow of the Helm..." Rayman repeated a line from the rhyme.

"Those who jump will never land, those who climb will never stand..." D repeated the next two lines.

"Must be some kind of bottomless pit spell to keep anyone from bothering her." Rayman said. "So lets not jump or climb down there."

"Those who call into the night must say the word that is right..." D repeated the next two lines.

"Well, it doesn't hurt to try." Rayman said. Then he shouted in the hole, "Hello!"

At first nothing happened. "I'll try again." Rayman said.

The wind picked up, startling all three of them. The wind blew the leaves together. The swishing and howling of the wind seemed to form words. The words said, "Who are you?"

"I am Rayman." Rayman said. Gesturing towards D, to his left, he said, "This is D, and," gesturing to Neshae to his right, he said, "Neshae."

The wind blew again, this time saying, "What do you want?"

"We need a way to get to the Desert of the Knaaren. We were told you could help." Rayman answered.

The wind blew once more, saying, "Password..."

"Okay." Rayman said to D and Neshae. "What do we say?"

"Repeat the last couple lines of that poem you just said." Neshae told D.

"Those who call into the night must say the word that is right." D said.

"Exactly. Maybe we have to take the poem completely literally. Maybe the password is right. We have to say the word that is 'right.'" Neshae said.

"Doesn't hurt to try." D said.

"Right!" Rayman called into the hole.

The scenery around them blurred into smears of green and brown and spun until it was all one color. Then that color turned completely dark brown and separated, then cleared. They were at the bottom of the hole, looking up at the sky overhead. The hole was only fifteen feet deep. Light shone down to a small cottage at the bottom of the hole.

"I guess we picked right." Neshae said and walked up to the door. He knocked. Rayman and D came up behind him.

Nothing happened. Neshae knocked on the door again. Still, nothing happened. He turned the knob and the door opened.

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" D asked. "That witch doesn't have a good reputation. If we break in, she could turn us into something, like one of her chairs."

"That's gotta be a horrible fate." Neshae said and walked in.

Rayman and D looked at each other, then followed him. The door closed behind them, submerging them in total blackness.

A door opened ahead of them. Their hearts were racing. Would she really turn them into chairs? A light came from behind the door, illuminating a woman in a black dress with a black veil, over her face. And features other than her silvery hair were impossible to make out through the veil.

"Please, sit." the woman said in an old, wise voice. Light came from seemingly nowhere. A table and four chairs stood in the middle of the room, but other than that, the room was completely empty. "I've been expecting you."

"You have?" D asked.

"Yes. Now sit." the woman took the seat closest to her.

Rayman, D, and Neshae all took places at the table. The woman began to speak again.

"I know why you have come. You seek the Snake Cross Amulet."

"If you know why we're here then why did you ask us before?" D asked.

"I like using wind magic. I use it whenever I can." She continued. "The magical item that you have been sent to search for is called the Snake Cross Amulet. And the evil you are racing to it is a powerful shape shifting sorcerer name Tempistus, meaning 'the storm.' He sees the world as 'impure' and wishes to destroy it and recreate it in his image. You must get to the amulet before he does."

"So will you teleport us to the desert?" Rayman asked.

"Yes." the witch answered. "For a price. And although most people would ask you to go on a quest for a favor or a great challenge that only few can pass, that can wait. All I ask is that when I call upon you three for a favor, that you will help me. Can you make that promise?"

"Yes." Rayman said.

"And how about the rest of you? Can you make that promise?"

"Yes." D said.

Neshae nodded.

The witch pulled a green stone out of her dress sleeve. It was cut into a hexagonal shape and polished. It almost glowed because of its vibrant color.

"Now," she said, "you must promise me through the stone. You must promise me that you will do me a favor when I ask for it." The stone glowed and the light around the room dimmed. "Touch the stone."

Neshae was the first to lay a hand on the stone. The light from the stone got brighter and the light in the room dimmed more. Then Rayman touched the stone. The green light brightened and the yellow light dimmed.

"Touch the stone." the woman told D.

D reached out and touched the stone. The light from the room completely turned black and the stone blazed as if it were on fire. Peridot colored flames leapt from the stone in the witch's hand, but did not burn neither her not the three. The flames caused the air to move all around them, making hair go wild.

The light intensified until the entire room was full of it and they thought they might go blind. Rayman closed his eyes.

Then it was over. Rayman opened his eyes and took his hand off the stone. So did D and Neshae. The stone was no longer green. The edges seemed black, while the heart of the stone gleamed violet.

"This stone shall hold all three of you to your word." the witch said. "It will also hold me to mine. But I cannot teleport anyone anywhere tonight. Getting you three down here took enough of my energy. I need rest. Not as young as I used to be. I will teleport you to the Desert of the Knaaren in the morning. Come."

The witch stood from the table and went through the door she had come out of earlier. They got up and followed her. On the other side was a hallway with five doors on either side and one door at the very back. It seemed strange, since from the outside, the house had seemed only big enough to hold one, maybe two rooms. The witch opened the first door to the left.

"D, this will be your room." she said.

D went through the door. "Goodnight." she said before closing it.

The witch opened the second door to the left. "Neshae, this is your room."

"Night." Neshae said and disappeared into his room.

The witch opened the third door to the left. "Rayman, this is your room." She said.

Rayman entered the room. The witch closed the door behind him. There was nothing in the small room but a bed. The wooden walls were the same in this room as they were in every other room of the house.

He got in bed, surprised by how comfortable it was. He fell asleep the minute his head hit the pillow.

---

He was a kid again. He had just turned thirteen that day. All he could see at the moment was the cake. It was in the shape of a sword. It had been Neshae's turn to pick the cake and he always liked his father's sword.

Neshae was next to him. His hair was shorter because his mom kept it cut. He didn't have fangs or bat wings. His mother was to his left. She had almost white blond hair that came halfway down her length. It made her green eyes stand out. She was also limbless.

Their dad was next to her. His hair was dark like Neshae's but stuck out almost like Rayman's. Around his neck was Rayman's old bandanna. His eyes were blue like Rayman's. He too was limbless. Around his waist was a thick, brown belt with a handle wedged inside. Rayman knew that the handle was to his father's fire sword. A sword that few people could use.

On the other side of the table were friends and family members. His old girlfriend, their grandparents, his and Neshae's best friends, the friend of the family, all of them limbless just like him.

They sang the birthday song that they sang for him and Neshae every year for their birthday. The lawn was green and cut. The pool had floating things in it that moved along the surface in the breeze. The branches of the trees swayed in the wind. The flames on the thirteen candles flickered, threatening to go out before the twins could blow them out.

Everything was peaceful. As they had every year before, Rayman and Neshae took a deep breath and blew out each candle. Then the cake was served.

It was a few months later now. The dawn sky lit up red as fire. Runes of prophesy danced over the clouds. A dark figure sent blasts of fire to houses, causing them to burst into flames. People were screaming. Rayman was running. His hand was gripped tightly by his mother's. It was the only way to keep him going instead of fighting by his father's side. Neshae had the other hand, pulling him along as well. Around his neck, was his father's red bandanna.

They crashed on a new planet. Neshae had disappeared. Rayman saw a door on the side of what looked like a mountain. He seemed to fly towards the door. It opened and the woman from before was inside, blackness surrounding her. Her hood was still up, obscuring her face as always.

"This is where you will find your past." she said. "Just be careful. Danger lurks within these walls. And pain. Your memories were erased for a reason."

A sudden image of a hand shooting at him from the other side of a river of lava jerked him awake. He looked around, confused for a second. Then realizing it was just a dream, he closed his eyes and went back to sleep.

---

It was light in the forest. Dawn had just broken over the horizon. A figure could be seen in the dim light. He was garbed in a black cloak and wearing a black hat that stuck out just short of his arm span on his head, not revealing any of his face except for his large, yellow eyes.

The figure walked through the trees until he found what he sought. It was a sphere of stone, Dark Rayman's prison. He held a hand over the stone and it dissolved back into the ground, setting free the deadly weapon within.

The evil twin had just suffocated. His body was dissolving into the hundred little lights and came back together. His eyes opened and he stood up.

"Thank you master." Dark Rayman said.

"Don't let this happen again." The dark figure said.

"I won't. I've gotten stronger since they trapped me. I probably could have broken free in a few minutes." Dark Rayman said.

"Good. Now go find Rayman. He must not get in the way like his father."

Dark Rayman nodded and turned around. He could sense Rayman's aura about half an hour's walk away. He was close.