‘Whoa…..what’s that?!’
As Finn glanced over at Max and Tala, he noticed they both had huge grins on their faces. Looking up again, there were now two of the winged creatures circling the sky above them. And they appeared to be gliding closer to the ground.
‘Are you ready for your tour of the land?’ said Max, laughing.
‘You don’t mean…..on them?’ exclaimed Finn, pointing towards the winged beasts that were now almost upon them. Closer now, Finn could see that the large animals looked like…..well…. dragons! ‘No….that can’t be,’ he said aloud and Max let out another hearty laugh. Then, more gracefully than you would expect with their size, the large dragons landed. Both gave their wings another few flaps, tossing sand up from the ground, then folded them by their sides and started making growling noises. Each blew either steam or smoke from their large nostrils.
‘Don’t be shy,’ said Max to Finn with a large grin still on his face, ‘Meet Aazer and Flix.’ As Max strode down to the animals, he began patting one on its side. At the same time, Tala had wandered up to the other one and began chatting to it. She held her hand up to its large mouth to feed it something. Max too had taken something from his satchel and was offering it up to the dragon he’d motioned to as Aazer. It was the slightly larger of the two beasts and was dark red in colour mostly, whereas the one Tala was feeding was black with yellow streaks down its large back. Both animals however, had what appeared to be some kind of saddle strapped to their backs.
‘C’mon say hello,’ said Max as he waved Finn closer. Apprehensively Finn walked closer to the large beasts and just as he reached Max, Aazer reared his head up in the air and let out a huge roar. Finn jumped so much he fell flat on his backside. Much to his annoyance, the next thing he heard was an uproar of laughter from Max and Tala.
‘Yeah thanks for your concern,’ said Finn feeling his cheeks turning red.
‘Don’t worry, this pair are as friendly as you’ll find a dragon can be. It’s the wild, untamed ones that you need to watch out for, but you’re safe enough round these parts. C’mon, off yer backside and let’s take you up,’ said Max as he held his hand out to Finn.
As Max lifted Finn off the ground with the littlest of effort, he glanced at Tala then said with a wry smile, ‘I presume you would rather fly with Tala than holding on tight to me?’
‘Erm…yeah… if that’s okay with Tala?’ said Finn rather sheepishly.
‘Yip fine with me,’ said Tala flashing a smile at Finn that made his heart skip just a tad faster. ‘Let’s get going then,’ she added and skipped around the side of Flix. As she did so the large dragon crouched down and made its back as close to the ground as possible. Tala grabbed part of the saddle, then swung herself up and on Flix in one clean sweep. ‘C’mon then, what you waiting for?’ she shouted to Finn. Max at this point had mounted his dragon in the same manner, so Finn shrugged his shoulders and headed around Flix where Tala was offering her hand down. Finn grabbed it and heaved himself up. At one point he thought he was going to fall straight back down on his backside again, but between them they somehow managed to scramble him up onto the saddle, tight in behind Tala.
Without warning Flix leaped forward into the air, expanded his large wings and with a whoosh they were off into the sky with such speed that Finn felt he had left his stomach back on the ground. Without seeing anything else obvious to hold on to, Finn clamped his arms so tightly around Tala that he thought he must have been hurting her, but all she did was laugh.
Soon they were soaring amongst the clouds, and when Finn looked down he could see forever and ever. Suddenly out of nowhere Max whooshed by on Aazer, then drew up beside them, their large tails nearly touching. ‘Enjoying the view?’ shouted Max.
‘Yeah, it’s incredible,’ shouted Finn, as loud as he could, as it was so noisy with the wind and the sound of the dragons’ large wings flapping.
‘Give him the tour Tala, then I’ll meet you down at the falls,’ shouted Max and without even waiting for a reply he swooped away in the opposite direction and was quickly lost from sight.
‘Might as well start with the Woodland Kingdom’ said Tala and with that Flix suddenly dived down from the clouds for a few seconds, then straightened up once again. Looking down, Finn could see what looked like the largest forest he had laid eyes on. It spread for miles and miles and was so thick and condensed that it was almost impossible to see through the top layer of the trees. After another ten minutes or so of flying they eventually arrived at the edge of the forest.
Far off to the right Finn could see a strange looking sight. There was a cluster of what looked like very tall trees, however they appeared to have had all their branches chopped off and at the very top of them, was a large, flat, round looking kind of platform. ‘What on earth are they?’ asked Finn.
Tala glanced towards what Finn was referring too and winced. ‘That’s a bad place Finn, you don’t want to go there. That’s the Queen’s treetop prison — a terrible place where no one returns from. It’s impossible to escape from it. There’s no way of climbing down and during the day it’s scolded by the two suns, which will either eventually burn you to death, or more likely frazzle your brain first, leaving you delirious and likely to fall to your death. Most prisoners take the less painful way out and leap to their death as soon as they’re placed there.’ Tala paused as if about to say more, but then decided against it and fell silent.
Finn stared off to the prison platforms and could just barely make out some shapes or even bundles of something lying on top of some of them. Nothing appeared to be moving. It sent a cold shiver down his spine and he hoped to himself what he was seeing was not bodies.
‘That’s where the portal is, do you remember?’ shouted Tala over her shoulder, pointing to somewhere in the distance in the opposite direction from the prison. As if taking Tala’s comment as an order, Flix swooped off towards where she had pointed.
Glad to be flying away from the treetop prison, Finn now stared off in the direction Tala had pointed and saw the rocky hillside where he had initially arrived with Max. It was even more recognisable due to the large waterfall which came shooting over the steeper part of the hillside and the mouth of the cave that concealed the portal.
‘Yes, I recognise the big waterfall,’ shouted Finn in reply, ‘it’s hard to forget the first time you travel through a portal into another world,’ he added jokingly.
Tala laughed out loud, ‘Yeah I guess so. Well if you think that waterfall is big, wait till you see where we’re going now.’ Tala turned and gave Finn a sly grin.
Chapter 20
Eric couldn’t really be sure how long he’d been in the dungeon as the constant darkness didn’t help his bearing on time. He’d dozed for a while, sitting against the back wall, but he didn’t stay asleep for long. It was deeply uncomfortable and thinking about all that had happened, didn’t exactly make him feel sleepy. Scared more like. However, eventually two guards had arrived at his cell, unlocked it and ordered him out.
Bron had shouted ‘good luck’ to him and said he hoped they would cross paths again. The guards then frogmarched Eric on another winding route through the castle, until finally they stopped outside a large wooden door. One guard had opened the door and said ‘Get in’ while the other roughly pushed Eric through the doorway. Stumbling forward, he collided into a wooden table in the middle of the room.
‘Now, now,’ came a shrill-sounding, old voice. As Eric glanced round to where the voice had come from, he saw a small old lady rising up from a chair. Her hair was a horrible, orangey colour, shortish, but a bit wavy on top. She had sharp features, a long, pointy nose and jagged eyebrows. But the scariest thing about her was her eyes. They were completely a greyish-white, no pupils or colours and yet she seemed to be looking directly at Eric. It was extremely unsettling, he thought.
‘That’s no way to be treating our guest now is it?’ said the old lady in a slightly sarcastic manner, glancing towards the guard before
turning her gaze back to Eric. As she did so, a smile appeared on her face which did nothing to make her any less scary, as it only showed off a mouth full of the most horrible, brown-black teeth Eric had ever seen. The two guards looked at each other and laughed.
‘Now then my child, the King has instructed me to erm……gather some information from yourself,’ said the old lady in her croaky voice and with a sly-looking grin still on her face which Eric didn’t take as a good sign. ‘But I’m sure you will answer anything I ask of you, truthfully and without us having to involve these animals,’ she sneered and grinned towards the guards, who again just laughed to themselves.
‘Yes of course,’ said Eric, feeling more scared by the second. ‘I’ll answer whatever you want me to, but I don’t know what it is you think I know, as I know nothing of any importance.’
‘Yes, yes, of course not my child,’ said the old lady. She was now right up so close to Eric he could smell her rancid breath, which was so bad it nearly made him sick. She placed an icy cold hand onto his cheek, and stared into his face. As she did so, she appeared to grow in stature. Her greyish eyes almost looked like they were swirling around as they now gazed down upon Eric. ‘But just to be on the safe side, we might be better doing it the other way.’ With that her head rolled back and she let out a shriek of laughter. Seconds later the guards had joined in and were laughing away with the old lady too. As suddenly as she had started laughing, she stopped, her face now full of menace. She barked out an order to the guards. ‘Hold him still.’
Before he could react, two sets of powerful hands grabbed hold of Eric. One guard wrapped his large arms right around Eric from behind and the other took hold of his head in a vice-like grip. He tried his best to wriggle free, but was no match for the much larger and more powerful guards. As he realised it was pointless trying to escape, his attention went back to the old lady who seemed to have gone into some kind of trance. She now stood perfectly still with her gaze pointing slightly up, towards the ceiling. Suddenly something appeared in her right eye. It was jet black and moved like it was some kind of liquid, moving around in different directions yet still staying as a whole shape. As Eric watched, transfixed by the shape, it moved towards the corner of the lady’s eye. As it did she raised her old, wrinkly hand and rested her forefinger on her nose so that the tip of it lay beside the corner of her eye.
The black moving shape then started to creep slowly out of the corner of her eye and slide down and around her finger. Any trace of it in her eye vanished as the last bit came out and slid down her finger with the rest of it. Her head then dropped a little so her gaze appeared to be on Eric again. An evil-looking grin flashed on her face once more.
‘Don’t worry my child this won’t hurt a bit……………….or maybe it will,’ she added as she roared with laughter.
Sheer terror started to shoot through Eric’s veins as he watched the old lady’s finger move slowly towards his face. He tried with all his might to wriggle free from the guards’ grip, but they were just too overwhelmingly strong and no matter how hard he tried they didn’t budge a single bit. The guard holding his head moved his grip slightly and suddenly his large fingers were down over Eric’s face and wedging open his left eye making it impossible for Eric to shut.
As the old lady’s finger touched on his face just below his left eye, the wriggling black thing that had just come out of the old lady’s eye starting moving towards Eric’s. As it touched his skin it felt cold and wet. It slithered its way towards the corner of his eye, before the tip of it raised up slightly, only to dive down and burrow into Eric’s eye. Eric let out an almost inhuman scream as he felt the thing work its way fully into his eye. The lady took her finger away with a most satisfied look on her face, and watched the black object wriggle upwards towards Eric’s brain as she knew it would.
As the shape disappeared from sight in Eric’s eye, his screaming stopped abruptly and suddenly, both of his eyes greyed over, just like the old lady’s.
Chapter 21
Finn couldn’t believe what he was seeing. After flying around for what had seemed like a few hours they had finally touched down on solid ground about ten minutes ago. And for that full ten minutes, Finn had stood on the same spot gaping at the wonderful sight before him. The five falls, Tala had called it and it was indeed five waterfalls all close together, however their sheer size and beauty made it a spectacle Finn had never come close to seeing before.
The largest of the five waterfalls must have been as big as a skyscraper thought Finn, and the noise it made when it hit the water at ground level was incredible. This waterfall was joined by two smaller ones on either side of it, still large in their own right, but dwarfed next to the middle fall.
Finn counted four separate rainbows spread over the different falls and it made for one of the most scenic sights he had ever seen. The huge volume of water that was tumbling down, was then being carried away in one of the widest rivers Finn had ever seen too.
Max and Aazer had already been waiting at their meeting spot when Finn and Tala had arrived. Max had been happy to let Finn take in the five falls for a while as it certainly was a spectacular sight, especially when seeing them for the first time. However he knew time was of importance so they had to talk soon.
‘Finn,’ Max shouted, snapping the young lad out of the trance he was in admiring the view. ‘Come over here, we need to talk.’ Max waved Finn over to the set of small boulders that he was resting upon. Finn finally turned away from his vantage point at the edge of the river, walked over to where Max was sitting and took a seat next to him on one of the boulders.
‘This place is incredible,’ said Finn.
‘Yes, it sure is boy, I’m sorry I can’t let you enjoy the scenery more for the time being, but we really need to discuss what the Queen said to you so we can plan our next move,’ replied Max.
Finn knew that the Queen probably wouldn’t want him to be discussing what was said, but his gran had told him to trust Max and during their short time together he had already grown a fondness for the large fairy. He also didn’t trust or like the Queen very much so his mind was made up rather easily, and he began to tell Max exactly what had happened in the Queen’s chambers.
Max sat in silence and listened to Finn. When he had finished recounting the events within the Queen’s chambers, Max pondered over them for a few minutes, thinking to himself. Finally he stood up and motioned towards the chain that Finn wore underneath his shirt, ‘May I see the Straize?’
Finn pulled the chain out from under his top and held up the red gem part of it that everyone was referring to as the Straize. Max raised his arm and cradled the Straize gem between two of his large fingers. He stared at it for a few seconds as if transfixed by it, then blinked his eyes, let go and turned away from Finn. ‘Best be keeping that hidden out of sight Finn. A lot of people would be willing to do pretty much anything to get their hands on that. I’m a little surprised the Queen didn’t take it from you when she had the chance. She must have a reason and it won’t be for your good either.’
As Finn covered the gem under his top once again he questioned Max. ‘What exactly is this Straize Max, and why’s it such a big deal?’
Max let out a little laugh, then a big sigh and said, ‘Yep I guess it’s time you found out a few things. Well starting with the Straize stones we need to go back to a time long ago. You see, dragons are just like any other animal, in the sense that although you have tamed ones like Aazer and Flix here, there are many more that you would class as wild. And believe me, a wild dragon is a very fearsome thing. However, long ago there was one dragon that shall forever be remembered as the most fearsome one of all and during that time he wreaked havoc on every civilisation that lived on our planet.’
Max paused for a second and stared out at the large falls before continuing. ‘ He was known as The Straize, which comes from an ancient language that translates nowadays to ‘Black Death’. The name was mainly due to his jet black colour, an
d death was what he brought when he paid you a visit. This dragon alone was responsible for killing hundreds, probably thousands of people, never mind animals or the damage he did to buildings and villages. Many warriors, sometimes small armies were sent to slay him but none returned alive. The dragon seemed to be invincible. One day, after an attack on a pixie village by Black Death, among the many victims was the wife of a little known then pixie warrior by the name of Hawker. Hawker had been out hunting that day and had arrived home to find his wife slain by Black Death. Their only son had been with Hawker and was thankfully unhurt, but Hawker vowed by the side of his dead wife that he would find and slay Black Death once and for all.
Although Hawker’s son was nearly of age to look after himself, he had his brother’s family look after him while he was gone. The pixie people wished him well and respected Hawker for his courage, but silently thought he was crazy and was heading to a certain death. How could one pixie defeat such an adversary when small armies had not even come close to doing so?’
‘Pixies?’ exclaimed Finn. ‘Pixies are real too?’
‘Oh very real my boy,’ laughed Max again, ‘and closer to home than you realise.’ he added as he winked at Finn. As Finn opened his mouth again, ready to ask another question, Max raised his finger motioning for Finn to be quiet. ‘Hear me out boy, then you can ask all the questions you like, okay?’ Although Finn was bursting to ask what Max had meant about the pixies being closer to home than he realised, he bit his lip for the time being and nodded his head for Max to continue.
‘Hawker was not seen again for a long time and was pretty much assumed dead by all, bar his only son Stedd, who had never given up hope for his father; when slowly, whispers started to travel through the lands that the great beast Black Death had been slayed by a lone warrior. With the rumours growing, hopes were raised with them. However no one seemed to actually know for sure, and tales told of the slaying were either second-hand or made up for entertainment.
The Other Side Page 7