by JH Terry
XVI: A Yellow-eyed Creature
Tom and Akemi travelled down the portal towards a place unknown to both. For a couple of minutes they were traveling down without any sign of an end to the portal. However, as they were traveling down, something strange was occurring, unknown to them initially. The portal was turning from its smooth steel qualities into a rougher, warmer texture with the colors of yellow, red, and black on it.
Just as they were approaching the end of the portal a scream could be heard – it was Kate. The shock of Kate’s scream caused Tom to abruptly stop the movement of his body with his feet, jabbing into the side of the portal, followed by Akemi, who was behind him. It was then that Tom noticed the change in the texture of the portal.
“Peter, Kate, where are you?” screamed Tom. Yet, there was no reply.
A sudden movement was felt throughout the portal, a movement of restricting muscle. Then, several movements could be felt throughout the portal leading into the seemingly infinite climax, which felt like an earthquake. The portal wanted them to continue to slide down.
Once the earthquake climax was completed, Tom said to Akemi, “What is happening?”
“Several portals are lined with certain parts as the portal’s end becomes closer and closer within reach,” said Akemi. “These parts tell what type of portal it shall be. This portal is made of a reptilian texture that constricts and has several colors in it referring to something poisonous. This portal leads only to one thing, a poisonous reptilian creature at its bottom.”
“Reptilian creature?” asked Tom. “Peter and Kate.”
“We must travel down, Tom,” said Akemi. “We cannot stay here forever.”
“What about this portal, what to do about it?” asked Tom.
“Do not worry about it, I will cut into it with my sword,” said Akemi. “Therefore it shall be one less foe. Now, GO!”
Tom slid down as Akemi had dictated. As he approached the end he looked with his eyes filled with horror at the sight before him. He could see two yellow eyes at first, then its head, full of evil. Tom stopped sliding down the portal with his feet out of the sheer horror of his find. It was six yards tall and looked ravenously hungry.
Suddenly, a rumble was ascertained from within the portal. Looking back, Tom could see that it was Akemi coming down, her sword cutting a muscular portion of the portal and grinding against the metal part above the muscular part above her, and an ocean of blood behind her. Before Tom could respond in time, Akemi pushed him out of the portal with her feet onto the smooth dirt ground below the portal as she flew up in the air towards the creature, with a trail of blood behind her, and her sword, now red-hot for its friction when cutting along the portal’s metal part, in her hands as if ready to strike a single blow. Tom fell onto the ground, slightly bruised and knocked out temporarily from the fall. The portal howled and collapsed due to Akemi cutting it, sealing it from any future travel.
The creature, a fifteen yard long snake with the various colors of black, brown, and yellow decorated upon its body standing six yards in the air, saw Akemi coming towards it. Akemi’s sword was so hot that it was red in appearance, but however it did not seem to bother her. It was as if she was in such a preoccupied state that the hotness of the sword was unable to be distinguished by her mind. However, unknown to Akemi was that this snake had the power to hypnotize any creature it chose to. Knowing its own ability to charm any creature, it looked straight at Akemi, its eyes moving in such a way as to entice Akemi to come near in a trance and to let her be eaten by it. However, as the snake tried to do so, as she came closer and closer to it, it noticed that something was wrong - she would not budge. As if some inner necessities in her mission to free Altium of its dangers were enough for her to avoid the charms of the snake. Within a moment’s time and a single blow from her sword, Akemi cut the snake into two halves from its head down to the ground by six yards.
However, as Akemi came down upon the ground, the snake was beginning to recombine its two halves from its bottom up, fusing Akemi’s sword into its body.
“Impossible!” yelled Akemi.
Akemi, frustrated, then cut along the snake horizontally upon its bottom. However, the various discs formed by Akemi’s cutting recombined to its base as if by a magnetic force, making the snake even angrier at being mutilated so many times.
Akemi, realizing her lost cause, ran over to Tom to help him off of the ground as the snake was recombining. Tom had retained some consciousness by the time Akemi came over. Luckily, he was all right with only a few bruises and not covered in any blood.
“Tom, quickly,” said Akemi hurriedly.
Tom looked in Akemi’s direction and saw behind her the snake recombining to its original form. “What happened?” asked Tom confused.
“Nothing finitely helpful,” muttered Akemi.
They ran quickly to the only safe place in the cave, a rocky boulder as the snake became its original form. They made it into the enclosure just before the snake could enact its revenge. They stood just within the boulder when Tom started to feel queasy. Akemi looked at Tom, noticing something was wrong.
Akemi responded quickly readying her sword with her right hand. She then brought out her sword as if to strike behind Tom as she pushed Tom slightly forward with her left. However, as she did her sword was stopped by another sword that, if slightly lower, would have penetrated Tom’s back, held by Norbis. Tom lunged out to help, but saw Peter and Kate gagged and tied upon a wall that was unable to be climbed upon, six yards into the air.
“Akemi!” exclaimed Tom as he pointed out Peter and Kate.
“Do not worry, Tom,” said Akemi, “Norbis and I have to have a little chat before they can come down.”
“Yes, it could be called that, couldn’t it, AKEMI!” said Norbis in a slithery, high-pitched tone and a laugh. Suddenly, Norbis removed his sword from its embrace with Akemi’s and lunged out at her with his sword. She adverted his blow, causing, from the extreme heat created, a spark to be generated. They continued like this, Norbis on the offensive and Akemi on the defense. Concentrating on the blows, Akemi did not notice that the ground was slowly breaking apart, being littered with circular, bottomless holes. Soon, Akemi and Norbis were out of the boulder and fighting under the crafty snake’s view. Tom climbed up upon several boulders, trying to reach Peter and Kate, hoping to cut them loose. Tom reached a level twenty feet into the air, where Peter and Kate were. However, Tom soon remembered about the snake, but luckily the snake was not entranced with his presence but that of Akemi and Norbis. Tom hid behind a boulder.
Tom, seeing that Akemi did not realize that the snake was watching her, called, “Akemi, the snake!”
However, Akemi could not hear him as she was concentrated on her fight with Norbis. Looking at a cave wall, Tom could see that on it there was something sparkling. Looking to the snake’s hood and focussing his eyes, Tom saw that it was one emerald in the centre of the hood with four rubies around it in a diamond shape.
“Four rubies and an emerald?” asked Tom puzzled. “But there are no emeralds for the Diamond of Quarduiz, and Akemi said only two more rubies were needed. I had better get them just in case.”
Seeing that the snake was concentrated with Akemi, Tom waited for when it would be close enough for him to jump onto it. As the snake approached Tom, without viewing his presence, and as Tom was about to jump onto it, the snake lunged out at Akemi on the ground below.
Sensing a disturbance upon the air, Akemi looked out of the corner of her eye to see the snake approaching. Akemi then kicked Norbis in the abdomen away from her. She flipped into the air backwards and landed on a thin strip of ground between two circular holes. The snake was approaching her at a very fast speed. A millisecond before it was to arrive, Akemi jumped to her right-hand side to another part of ground landing on her feet. As she did so the snake fell into the deep unknown below.
Sensing something was near, Akemi lunged out behind herself
at Norbis, who had hoped for a surprise attack. Norbis dealt her blow, now having his share of defensive strategies. However, Norbis was calm and collected. He was gaining over Akemi.
Tom came out of his shelter behind the boulder and looked down into the abyss below the ground, trying to see where the snake fell to, but he could not see the snake at all. “I guess it is gone into the depths below.” However, just as he said this, the snake, viewing Tom’s presence, returned from the abyss and lunged out at Tom. Tom sought refuge underneath the boulder he had been at before as the snake hit the wall where he had been standing. It battered against the boulder, hoping to dispose of it so that it could eat the tasty morsel behind. After it had been doing this for a few minutes the boulder finally broke into two. Looking at its find, the snake saw that behind the boulder there was nothing. Slightly confused, the snake looked around but saw nothing. Suddenly, a thump was felt upon its hood – it was Tom! He had sneaked away as the snake was pounding the boulder unrecognized, coming to another spot in the cave higher up the wall and jumped onto its hood.
The snake moved its head from side to side, trying to propel Tom off of its head, but Tom would not budge as he took off one by one the gems from the snake’s head. As he did so, the snake’s strength seemed to be diminishing. Soon, Tom pried off the last gem, the emerald.
“I’ve got them!” said Tom to himself as he placed the gems into his pants pockets.
However, at that moment Tom had let go of his grasp upon the snake. The snake sensed his vulnerability and threw its head backward, propelling Tom’s body towards where Akemi stood. It then turned around and rushed out towards the two of them, seeing them as two bodies in one gulp.
At this precise moment, Akemi was beginning to lose her balance at the edge of a circular hole. Norbis suddenly stopped fighting her. He stood and watched as Tom and the snake made their way towards her. His eyes glowed brightly red as he watched for her to fall to her doom in the abyss below. Looking to her side, Akemi saw Tom flying in her direction and the snake with its mouth open, showing in full view its enormous fangs. Suddenly, a smile was viewed upon Norbis’s dark red lips that were brought into view. Norbis leapt onto a ledge away from Akemi yet closer to Tom and the snake. He readied his sword to cut into Tom with his sword to make sure the boy would not make it through this momentous event.
Collecting herself mentally, Akemi quickly devised a plan. She took her sword in her right hand and lifted herself by placing the flat side of the blade against Norbis’ back. The force caused Norbis to be propelled downwards to the hole and her safely onto the ground. As she was turning around she lifted out her hand and quickly grabbed onto Tom bringing him out of the path of the snake. Before anything could be done, Norbis fell into the hole, and the snake grabbed a hold onto him, causing both to fall into oblivion.
Akemi slumped onto the patchy ground. Due to the force of the fall she became unconscious. After a few minutes she awoke to to see that she was near the boulder enclosure that she and Tom had been at before. She looked to see that the floor was nearly all gone and there was no one in sight. However, she soon heard a small noise upon the cave air. Looking up to where Peter and Kate were at before she saw Tom was lying on a boulder and using a sharp rock to cut Peter loose. Once Peter was free, Peter grabbed onto the rope holding both him and Kate. Peter’s weight caused the rope to tear away from the wall around Kate, and both slid down the smooth cavern wall. Tom moved away from the boulder onto the cavern wall and slid down as well. Soon, they reached part of the cavern floor that was still with ground. They then walked carefully around the small space of ground that was left of the cavern floor to Akemi at the boulder.
Once they reached her, Akemi stood up and said, “Come on quickly. We must hurry before the other creatures are awaken.”
“What others?” asked Tom.
“I did not know it before,” said Akemi, “but this is the ancient city of Yerub. It was founded thousands of years ago by the ancient Kalak people. They built this palace with the strongest defenses possible then, animals they created and domesticated. However, in time, these animals turned against them, causing the Kalaks to be destroyed and forgotten in time by many. Throughout this place there are traps and such evil things that even your imagination could not possibly dream of. If we are quiet, and smart, we might be able to get out of here alive.”
“Might? Is there any other way of getting out of here?” asked Kate.
“No, the portal is closed and the abyss below will kill anyone who falls into it. However, don’t worry. I shall lead us quickly through here to safety.”
“Why did the snake not die when it fell into the abyss below?” asked Tom.
“It did not die because it did not fall into the abyss. Luckily its magnetic force to the cavern was so strong that it could fall into the abyss below. That is why I want to leave from here as quickly as possible.”
“Of course,” said Tom. “Let’s get out of here then.”
“We have no other choice. We might as well tag along,” said Peter.
“Come along then, quietly,” said Akemi. “Remember to follow me.”
Akemi pushed against a boulder, causing it to open to view a long stone corridor that did not seem to have an end. Along its sides there were pillars with fire to light the way forward. It was very bleak and there seemed to be a desolate air within its expanse. Peter, Tom, and Kate were behind Akemi, following her every footstep. As they passed through some of the boulders of the cave fell down closing the passage back to the home and security that Tom, Peter and Kate knew so very well. Now before them the only certainty was the precariousness they would have to encounter for the remainder of their adventure.