The Other Side

by Alan Hotchkiss

  Finn looked like he was struggling to accept this new information and mixed with all that had happened and standing in the roasting hot heat of two suns he started feeling a little dizzy. Before he knew it he had slumped to the ground, landing on his backside in a kind of seated position. ‘Hey, you ok?’ asked Max as he took two large strides back to where Finn had collapsed. ‘Here drink this,’ he said unstrapping some kind of drinking container from his shoulder. ‘Trust me…it’ll help you,’ he added upon seeing Finn looking wearily at the leathery container.

  Finn took the container from Max and raised it to his lips slowly before taking a little sip just to try it out. The minute it hit his lips a lovely, tingly refreshing feeling rolled over his tongue and continued down his throat and into his belly. ‘Whoooaa what is that?’ exclaimed Finn, a large smile breaking out on his face. Max laughed and broke into a rare smile himself.

  ‘Not bad eh!’ he said, giving Finn a wink. “It’s called lexor juice—made from the lexor plant which is very rare and hard to find, but is worth searching for due to its special healing powers. It’s brewed into the juice that you just drank and most of us carry around a small amount just in case of an emergency, which this probably isn’t; however after what you’ve just gone through I think you deserve a little taste,’ said Max.

  ‘Yep, I agree’ said Finn, nodding his head in agreement.

  A strange yet not unpleasant feeling was travelling through his whole body, he felt….well… euphoric, which of course must be the lexor juice, but he had gone from feeling exhausted to now suddenly feeling like he had the energy to run all day long. Before he knew it he was back on his feet and marching on through the heat until eventually they stood at the edge of the dark forest. Finn gazed up high upon what seemed like the tallest trees he had ever seen, rising way up into the sky. There appeared to be thousands of them, some supported by trunks as wide as a house. Staring deep into the forest, straight ahead was an almost impenetrable darkness that certainly did not give off a welcoming or safe feeling. Reading the uncertain look on Finn’s face Max smirked and said ‘don’t worry lad, you’ll be okay as long as you stick close to me.’ He then took one of his large strides and headed straight into the dark forest.

  Finn stood still for a few seconds, his jaw drooping, still staring in awe and uncertainty at the forest, then decided it was probably best if he did what Max said and stayed close to him—so jogged off into the forest to catch up with his large guardian.

  Chapter 8

  Eric’s teeth were chattering together as he felt the effects of the bitter cold wind that was blowing. Dressed in summer clothes he wasn’t prepared or for that matter expecting to be walking around in winter conditions. As well as the bitter wind that was blowing, snow showers were coming and going frequently and the land all around as far as the eye could see was covered in snow and ice. Hugging himself in an effort to conserve heat and shivering almost uncontrollably, he was starting to think less about all the crazy events that had just taken place and just concentrating on trying to keep warm.

  They had been walking over the snow-covered ground for nearly an hour now and although Doogard had given Eric a large furry cloak to cover himself, it still wasn’t enough to stop the bitter cold from getting to him. ‘Not long to go now’ said Doogard looking at Eric shivering away.

  When they exited the cave, Eric found that it had been situated deep underground and that it had taken around half an hour and a steep climb just to finally emerge from the cave itself. From there they had worked their way along the bottom of a large icy looking mountain, which was where they were at the moment. ‘Once we move around this rock face, you’ll be able to see Alfheim in all its glory young master,’ said Doogard.

  ‘I just hope it has heating,’ chattered Eric, to which Doogard gave a hearty laugh.

  They hadn’t spoken much so far despite the fact that Eric had a million questions running through his head, it was just too cold at the moment he thought, questions can wait till my whole body has defrosted. Eventually, after walking for another ten minutes or so they left the mountain’s edge and headed into what appeared to be open land. Probably fields, but hard to say as the land was all covered by the snow, which was being blown so hard into their faces it was getting difficult to see ten yards ahead.

  ‘Can you see it boy?’ asked Doogard.

  ‘See what?’ shouted Eric struggling to be heard over the strong winds. Doogard let out another hearty laugh, ‘Alfheim, of course. Look it’s right there,’ pointing straight ahead as he spoke. Eric lifted his head slightly and tried to stare ahead despite the thick snow blowing right into his face. ‘I don’t see anything’ he yelled.

  ‘Ha ha….you will,’ chortled Doogard.

  However, it was nearly another five minutes before Eric started to see anything. First he could just make out some dull lights glowing through thick snow, which became clearer and clearer until suddenly he could make out the outline of what looked like some kind of enormous building. As they neared the impending building the snow and wind both seemed to ease up and the bitter chill even appeared to thaw a little. Eric stopped in his tracks and gazed up at what he could now see was an enormous castle. There were large turrets popping up high into the sky all over the place and various plumes of smoke drifting out of hundreds of chimneys, that must have been coming from cosy warm fires thought Eric.

  At the front there was a large drawbridge which was down at the moment, forming a bridge over a wide moat that appeared to surround the whole castle. Although the water that filled it appeared to be frozen over, so that wouldn’t be much use thought Eric.

  ‘Impressive eh,’ said Doogard looking down at Eric. ‘Welcome to Alfheim. Home of the Elves,’ he said proudly. 'C’mon let’s get in and get a heat,’ said Doogard as he patted Eric on the back, motioning to him to start moving again.

  As they started walking again, Doogard reached down and grabbed what appeared to be a horn of sorts that was hanging from a large, leathery type belt that was round his large waist. 'Let’s them know we’re coming,' he said in answer to Eric’s puzzled frown. He then took in a large gulp of air, put the horn to his lips and blew hard. The noise was loud and consisted of a seemingly random set of notes, some small sharp toots then some longer ones. A few seconds later however, it appeared it wasn’t as random as Eric first thought as he heard the same order of notes sounding out from somewhere within the castle. As they reached the start of the drawbridge, the large criss-cross iron gates that covered the main entrance to the castle began to lift.

  'You nervous boy?' asked Doogard.

  'A little' replied Eric, looking a bit apprehensive.

  'Yeah, you probably should be…you’re about to meet the King.'

  Chapter 9

  Finn and Max had been walking for about twenty minutes through the extremely dark and creepy forest. During that time Finn had felt sure they were being watched, every pore in his body could sense it and every time he thought he saw someone or something, they would disappear in the blink of an eye. Though some evidence was plain to see or hear, snapping twigs or branches moving as if something had just scurried out of sight. Having asked Max what other things lurked within the forest, he had just laughed and replied 'many things lurk within these trees Finn, some good, some bad.' Finn decided not to bother enquiring further, he wasn’t sure he particularly wanted to find out at this moment in time anyway.

  A short while later Finn noticed ahead in the darkness little flickers of light. As they came closer to the light Finn suddenly felt a shiver run right through his body and little sparkles of different coloured light flashed up all around him, then as quickly as they arrived they were gone again.

  'Whooa, what was that?' exclaimed Finn.

  Laughing a little, Max said 'sorry I should have warned you about that, it’s a protective invisible force field we have that surrounds our Woodland Kingdom, keeps out any unwanted visitors if you know what I mean.' He then gave Finn a little wink. As t
hey carried on walking Finn could see more and more lights with each passing second. Some were down low at ground level, however others travelled way up into dark treetops. Soon Finn began to notice little wooden huts or more like houses he thought, in the trees too. Wooden walkways weaved in and out of the large trees leading up to the houses and beyond. As they got closer Finn could see that the walkways and the houses went on for as far as his eyes could see. It was a little wooden city in the trees he thought with amazement. With the forest so thick no sunlight came through the trees and the only light you could see was the hundreds of what Finn could now see were wooden torches alight with fire dotted everywhere throughout this little treetop city.

  'Impressive eh' said Max as he looked at Finn standing in awe of the sight that greeted them, 'It’s about to get a little more interesting too.' Just as Max had said that Finn noticed one of the little houses’ doors opening and out poked a head, staring down at Max and Finn. As Finn squinted his eyes to try to make out the face staring down at him he became aware that more doors had opened and more and more faces were now staring down.

  'Welcome to the Woodland Kingdom.' The voice startled Finn as he was so distracted looking up at all the people in the trees he hadn’t noticed that down on the ground, right in front him there was now a large crowd that seemed to have appeared from thin air. The crowd were all gathered behind a lady to whom the voice that had spoken belonged.

  'My Queen,' said Max as he bent down on one knee. Finn looked around and wondered if he should be getting down on his knee too but already Max was starting to stand again after the Queen had made a small motion with her hand telling him to do so. The lady who turned out to be a Queen to Max’s people was now only a couple of feet from Finn. He could feel Max backing off a few steps and as he glanced back at the Queen’s face he had a sudden uneasy feeling, even on top of the nerves he had already been feeling. The Queen was actually quite young-looking for someone of such prominence, perhaps in her early twenties, sharp jagged features though, a small pointy nose and chin alike, short spiky jet black hair and strange ears. They were human- like, other than the fact that they were pointy at the top, the kind Finn had seen in various books and films growing up on mythical creatures such as fairies. The Queen’s eyes belied her otherwise youthful appearance as they were dark and deep and as Finn stared into them, they suddenly lit up and sparkled with a deep dark blue. As Finn held her stare his blood turned ice cold, he began to feel woozy, transfixed in some sort of a trance that he was unable to break out of. He couldn’t turn away from that searing stare. All around appeared to have become misty and it was now just Finn and the Queen standing alone. Her stare felt like it was going deep into his body as if searching for his very soul. Then, she blinked her eyes and it was over.

  Warmth flooded back into his veins, the mist was gone and the crowd and Max were all gathered around as if they had never left in the first place. Finn still felt a bit shaken however and as he tried to get himself together, he heard Max cough loudly and say 'Finn, the Queen is talking to you.' As Finn's senses snapped back into place, he glanced at Max then looked back at the Queen again. Her eyes no longer sparkled and although she was smiling, Finn did not feel it was a very friendly smile. 'That’s okay Max, I’m sure this must be very overwhelming for Finn. Allow me to introduce myself, for I am Venera, Queen of the Fairies and ruler of the Woodland Kingdom,' said the Queen motioning with her hands up towards the looming treetop city. 'And you my dear boy must be very confused and tired, you’ve been through quite a lot in the last few hours I understand?' Finn stood still, feeling very awkward with so many pairs of eyes, all staring at him. He shuffled around on his feet wondering what to say.

  ‘Anyway, understandable this all being rather, well…overwhelming,’ said the Queen, snapping her fingers. As she did so, two females, one older and one who looked about the same age as Finn darted from the crowd, gathered around the Queen and fell into place at her heels. Finn noticed that they too appeared to be human other than the fact that they also had pointy ears. As he glanced around at the crowd more closely he noticed that in fact everyone seemed to have this style of ears. He was also sure he had noticed some pairs of eyes sparkle blue like the Queen’s had, but when his eyes darted back to each person, it was just a normal pair of eyes staring back at him. The Queen’s voice spoke again, pulling his vision from the crowd to her once again. ‘Take Finn and see that he is fed and rested, then bring him to my palace so we can get ourselves…more acquainted.’ As she said the last part of the sentence she gave Finn another wry smile that sent shivers through him rather than making him feel more at ease. With that, the Queen turned on her heels and began walking away. As she did, the crowd parted almost instantly and left a passageway through them to which she walked, then disappeared into the darkness of the forest.

  Chapter 10

  As Eric and Doogard had walked under the large, cast iron gate into the castle it became apparent that their arrival had been expected, as there was a very large crowd gathered within the entrance courtyard. Unfortunately for Eric it was probably the most intimidating crowd he had ever seen, cranking his fear factor up to its maximum. The crowd was mostly made up of large warrior-like men, similar to Doogard. There didn’t appear to be a short one among them and they looked just as broad as they did tall. As Eric glanced through the crowd he noticed many of the faces were sporting large scars and marks and almost everyone appeared to be carrying weapons of some sort: swords, axes, spears and large daggers. This was definitely not a friendly bunch and to make matters worse, a strange silence had fallen over the crowd and every single one of them seemed to be staring at Eric. He gulped hard, suddenly feeling his mouth was very dry. Sensing the situation, Doogard said ‘Stay close to me boy, you’ll be fine.’

  As they began walking into the crowd it parted instantly down the middle leaving a clear path for them that led to god knows where thought Eric. As they walked, Eric kept his head down, staring at the ground in front of him rather than meeting any of the looks from any of the unfriendly sets of eyes that were fixed upon him. He may have been avoiding their gaze, but the crowd had started to find their voices again and Eric was picking up on some of the things being said. Snorts and chortles of laughter combined with comments of 'Ha, he’s only a boy.' Or 'That’s him is it, he don't look very special to me, ha ha.'

  One particularly large man stepped out from the crowd into their path, causing Eric and Doogard to stop abruptly. The man then shouted out loud so that all could hear.

  'Is this it? The one that we’ve heard so much foretold about, ha, I told you all that those witches have no power to see the future. They’re just storytellers with no real power, for my scrawny little wife could take care of this little maggot.' The crowd erupted into laughter and as Eric looked up, the man was staring right back down at Eric with a look of hate in his dark-looking eyes and sporting an evil kind of half grin that showed off a few blackened and rotting looking teeth. However, almost the second the grin had appeared on his face it was wiped off suddenly by a large hand belonging to none other than Doogard. The sudden and vicious looking blow had taken the man by surprise and he was knocked right off his feet and landed on his large backside.

  'SILENCE,' bellowed Doogard, and the crowd grew silent instantly. 'The next person that blocks my path or trades insults will find their tongue removed from mouth, UNDERSTAND!' cried out Doogard, turning around to look over the whole crowd. Heads turned from Eric and Doogard and began looking elsewhere or at the ground. Clearly Doogard was respected and feared amongst these ‘people’ thought Eric. However as they turned back in the direction of where they were initially headed, the large man that Doogard had struck had risen to his feet and was still blocking the path, staring at Doogard with a look of rage that, if Eric wasn’t already scared out of his wits, certainly would have had him so now.

  Doogard however, stepped up towards the man and put his face right up against his so that their large foreheads were almost to
uching and growled. 'You care to test me Riezgar?'

  Eric thought a fight was going to break out imminently, however after growling at each other for a what was probably just a few seconds but felt like more, Riezgar's face broke into that same wicked-looking half grin he had flicked only moments ago, however this time blood could be seen dripping over his horrible looking teeth. He then took a step to the side before saying 'Better not while the King is waiting for you, but I’ll take you up on that offer soon Doogard,' growled Riezgar.

  Smirking, Doogard calmly replied 'I look forward to that day Riezgar.' Breaking the stare between the two men Doogard looked round at Eric and said 'C’mon boy,' before advancing past the bloodied Riezgar. Eric didn’t need to be told to follow, there was no way he was hanging around here, so he quickly followed suit taking a wide berth around the growling Riezgar and followed Doogard, heading deeper into the castle.

  Chapter 11

  Finn had been escorted by the two females through the prying eyes of the gathered crowd, who had whispered away to each other as they passed further into the Woodland Kingdom. As they neared a particularly large tree that was as thick as any house Finn had seen, his guides headed right for it. Finn wondered why, as there was no way of climbing this enormous tree surely. However, as they reached it the older one of his guides held her hand up to the bark and appeared to lightly brush a certain part that had a thick knot in the wood. As she did so a flash of sparkling blue lit up the outline of a doorway.

  'Wow, how did you do that?' asked Finn in amazement.

  'Oh that’s nothing, just a little fairy enchantment,' said the lady who had opened the door. 'All you need is some fairy blood,' she added grinning. She then turned toward the tree and walked into the freshly opened doorway. Unsure what she had meant by her statement about fairy blood, Finn looked around at his younger escort who smiled at him then held her hand out toward the doorway gesturing for him to enter. Finn looked back at the doorway, then with a shrug of his shoulders he entered the tree.