Amanda Applewood and the Return of the False King: An Everworld Book

by Raymond Williamson

  “A loss that was. But I guess there’s other talking g’nolls out there to be had.”

  Fury welled up in her. It was the fury she felt when she read about people who abused their pets. She looked down at her fallen friend and in her head, she heard the whale song, at first it was faint and garbled, then it grew louder like a distant rumble you knew was about to become a violent thunderclap.

  “You monster!”

  “Now girlie. This doesn’t have to go hard,” he warned.

  “You really need to step away from my friend,” warned Amanda.

  “Or what?”

  “I have no idea what’s going to happen. But I can guarantee you. When it happens, you won’t like it.”

  With a sinister glare and his knife extended towards her, he crept forward and Amanda stepped back.

  Mirroring Amanda’s mood, the sky darkened as clouds appeared overhead. Thunder rumbled in the distance.

  Merrick looked up as the rain began to fall. He moved forward again.

  Fueled by her anger, she felt the power rising up inside of her.

  The clouds thickened as did her rage and the sky went dark as night; thunder roared and the rain began to fell so hard that Amanda needed to shout to be heard. “Drop the knife!” she commanded.

  Merrick wiped away the rain from his face, smiled a sinister smile and then he sprang at Amanda.

  The whale song raged in her mind like a Valkyrie battle-cry. A bolt of lightning crashed down from the sky, passed through Amanda and erupted from her outstretched hands. Merrick screamed in agony as the blast, drawn to the steel of his knife, struck him and threw him across the glade where he landed in a heap.

  Amanda rushed to the fallen g’noll and scooped him up in her arms. Without warning, the sound of whale song withdrew from her thoughts and as suddenly as the storm began, it subsided. Like a passage from the bible, the clouds evaporated and the sky cleared.

  “Pulse, where’s the pulse?” she screamed frantically, feeling around his throat for some indication that he was alive.

  Ribesal joined her. He pressed a rag into a ragged puncture on Igoss’s back. He pressed his head down to listen at Igoss’s chest. “He’s alive, barely,” said the g’blinken.

  Amanda poured out the contents of the physician’s bag onto the wet ground. “Can you use any of this?”

  Ribesal nodded and began to do what he could for Amanda’s fallen protector.

  She heard a noise and looked up to where Merrick had landed. Bewildered, the man rose slowly and staggered. She saw that his right arm was missing from below the elbow.

  “Run!” shrieked Amanda. “Run away, as fast as you can!” The song returned and the sky darkened.

  Ashen faced, Merrick turned and fled into the woods clutching his damaged arm close to his body as he stumbled away.

  When she could no longer hear him crashing through the underbrush, Amanda collapsed into the mud, trembling violently from exhaustion. Suddenly, she lost control of her emotions and began to cry with an intensity equal to the storm she had just summoned.

  Jade and Esmeralda

  The two green dragons wept from fear at the sight of the empty cave.

  “Mother will probably eat us,” sobbed Jade.

  “Yes. Eat us,” sobbed Esmeralda.

  They paced about nervously checking the cave repeatedly each time, hoping that the girl would suddenly be there. As the sky began to lighten the pair looked into the cave one last time.

  “We should go and search some more,” said Jade.

  “Yes, search some more,” repeated her sister.

  They took flight, violently flapping their wings to get aloft as quickly as possible. From high above the trees they could see to the horizon, but in the dense turquoise forest below them they saw only a sea of despair.

  The sun had reached its apex when Sarah finally felt safe enough to stop and rest. She and Jasper had run away from the cave as far as her legs could carry her, then they walked until the sunrise. An earthquake during the night had felled trees all around them, and she was quite certain that had she been alone, she would have been squashed by one of the falling trees.

  From the top of one of the many foothills, she took only the briefest respite while Jasper got his bearings before setting off again. She sat quietly and nibbled what she would later describe as a wild apple. While not related to any apple from Earth, it was a red and green fruit with white pulp and a sour apple like taste. Jasper swallowed a small rodent that was foolish enough to sniff the air while they rested under the densest canopy that he could find.

  “Will they find us?” she asked. Escaping, she realized was quite different from getting away and she worried about the punishment she’d receive if caught. She even wondered if the mother dragon would keep her promise. She’d broken hers.

  “They’ll try,” replied Jasper. “We’ve got a good head start and if we stay undercover, we should be safe.”

  Jasper was about say something but froze mid word; his slender maw hanging open. He put his scaly paw to his lips to indicate that they should be quiet.

  Careful not to make a sound, he gently coaxed Sarah to hide down deep into the underbrush. They laid flat under some ferns and waited. Sarah had no idea what unseen horror they were hiding from. And that made it worse.

  After a long silence, it started. A clucking sound. There was one at first but soon it was joined by others. Several clucking sounds. Her familiarity with farm animals immediately made her think of chickens. She was hiding from chickens. She started to rise to see the terrifying chickens and perhaps shoo them off but Jasper firmly grabbed her arm and pulled her down.

  Half rising, she saw them. A flock of beautiful blue green bipeds with flowing feathers, sharp hooked beaks and red crests on their heads. It took her a moment to realize that they were at least three meters tall with legs as thick as her waist. One of them was brighter and taller than the others. It had a magnificent red crown spotted all over with orange and yellow flecks.

  It cawed, and the air shook. A rooster screaming into a megaphone would not have been louder. Sarah instinctively covered her ears. Her sudden movement alerted the predators to their presence.

  “Run!” shouted Jasper.

  After a moment of hesitation, she bolted from under cover and sped off into through the woods. She could hear squawking and cawing behind her as she fled though the dense wood, leaping over fallen trees and occasionally tripping over the broken ground.

  Gradually, the sounds of the great birds faded but she kept running. She ran until she reached a stream and collapsed on the bank. Her breath ragged, she grabbed one of her puffers and squirted a triple dose into lungs. She looked around expecting Jasper to be right behind her. But she was alone.

  Fearing to make any noise at all, she found a place to hide deep beneath the underbrush. From inside her concealment, she lay shaking and frightened with bugs buzzing around her wondering what she should do next.

  Sarah lay in the bushes for some time. “Boom! Boom! Boom!” The sound of thunder brought her to attention. She peeked out from the bushes and saw nothing but clear sky.

  “Boom! Boom! Boom!” the ground shook.

  Cautiously she crept out from the bushes.

  “Boom! Boom! Boom!” the ground rumbled. Quieter this time.

  She climbed up the bank to see if she could see anything. When she reached the top, she could see the edge of the forest. A vast blue green meadow spread out to the horizon. “Boom! Boom! Boom!” the ground shook again.

  It took only a moment for her to see the where the sound was coming from.

  A band of giants were making their way across the meadow. Each of them wearing what reminded her of the samurai armor in the display case at Sensei Tanaka’s dojo.

  “There you are?” exclaimed Jasper. “I’ve been terribly worried.”

  “You’ve been worried? I thought those things ate you. And I was by myself,” she broke down and started to cry. She hugged Jasper tight
ly.

  “Shhhh. Don’t worry about me. I wasn’t in any danger. They’re too stupid and I’m too fast to be eaten by a titan-bird.”

  “You’d better be,” she cried. Softer this time.

  “Here,” he said. He held out his paws and showed her some nuts that he’d found. “I thought you might be hungry.”

  “Boom! Boom! Boom!” the ground shook.

  Jasper looked up. “That’s not good,” he said. “We should keep moving. Time is short.”

  Everett and Amanda

  Awkwardly patting her back, Ribesal sat by a roaring fire with Amanda; her tears still flowing like a waterfall, her breaths came in gasps. The other captive g’blinken were busy tending to Igoss who lay asleep under a pile of blankets, looking over towards their heroine with concerned expressions each time she bawled.

  “Am I interrupting?” asked Uncle Everett as he entered the camp walking beside the wolf.

  Amanda rose and stared at the two. Everett stopped and smiled.

  Amanda stared at the wolf and pointed.

  “Don’t worry about him. It’s just Trevor.”

  The shaggy beast approached, licked her face. After a moment, she relaxed and gave him a reluctant hug.

  Amanda was clearly still upset, Everett patted her on the back in an attempt to comfort her. The firelight cast uneven shadows all around, but when she looked at her uncle, she could see the relief in his expression. Suddenly, remember why she was in her current predicament, she crossed her arms and turned away.

  “What?”

  Turning back to face him, she stared incredulously at him.

  “You’re upset with me.”

  “Upset with you. You think that I’m just upset with you! I was upset with you when I walked across that bridge and landed here in Never freaking Everland. I became angry with you when a green nightmare of a dragon kidnapped my sister. Fury wouldn’t even come close to describing how I felt after having a thief put a knife to my throat.”

  Ribesal blushed awkwardly at the comment.

  “When I discovered that I have this curse coursing through my body, I felt a rage that could boil an ocean. But when that creepy old minstrel in a windowless van kidnapped me and then…then when I was forced to blow his hand off with a lightning bolt… There are no words that can convey the intensity of my anger with this whole unbelievable situation! And it’s all your, fault!”

  “I understand,” he said calmly.

  “NO!” she shrieked between sobs. “You don’t get off with an ‘I understand.’ I should be on an apple farm. Angry at my mother for leaving me on, well, an apple farm. But NO! Because you’re having marital problems with the queen of a magical kingdom. I can’t believe I just said that. Because of your martial issues, I’m here by myself wandering around Camelot on a quest to rescue my sister. Who, as I might remind you, wouldn’t need rescuing if her uncle wasn’t Gandalf the Grey? Damn! This sitch’ could only get weirder if Harry, Ron and Hermione decided to make an appearance in the middle of this GD nightmare. I swear if one more messed up thing happens; I’m going to snap.”

  “Gandalf was Middle Earth, Merlin was Camelot.”

  “You really think now is the right time to point that out? Didn’t you read any parenting books to prepare you for situations like dealing with emotional teenagers. Gawd! Let me spell it out for you…I’m fifteen going on hormonal and guess what? I don’t just have emotional outbursts like every other fifteen-year-old. Nooooo, every time I get scared or angry, Shamu the whale starts screaming in my head and I blow things to bits. You don’t want to piss me off Uncle Everett! Who knows what fresh hell I’ll unleash?”

  “Tea?”

  “What?”

  “Tea. Your mother told me that when you get overwhelmed you like a cup of tea.”

  Amanda huffed. “Sure, Earl Grey would be nice. Let’s stop at the next Starbuck’s.” Her tears flowed down her cheeks and

  she had trouble catching her breath between sobs. Amanda stared long and hard at the hapless wizard before storming off to find a place where she could sit by the fire. Alone.

  She smiled weakly as Trevor lay down next to her, placing his head on her lap like he’d done so many times before. The stroking of his fur eventually calmed her and the sobs subsided.

  “It’s not really his fault.” said the wolf.

  “Damn! You can talk?” She leapt to her feet and stared back at the wolf who merely licked his lips and continued to star. “You scared the hell out of me!”

  “You should try to control the swearing, it’s beneath you,” chided the wolf.

  “I know. You’re right. Mom says the same thing. I’m just so, so, I don’t know what I am.”

  “Ya, it’s a lot to take in. For the record, you’re handling it better than your uncle did.”

  “Huh?”

  “He was a total mess. One minute he was the chef of his own cool little bistro in Toronto and the next minute he was dealing with the loss of his parents and all of this. He didn’t cope well. I was sure that the Grimoire made a mistake in choosing him but he rose to the challenge.”

  Trevor chuckled, “I remember his first attempt to use the magic in the Queen’s kitchen. He was trying to impress her but he accidently blew out the wall. There was smoke and dust everywhere. She had him arrested and locked up in a cell for a week.”

  “What happened after that?”

  “He accepted his destiny.”

  “I don’t want a destiny. I don’t want to be Sabrina the eff.” she caught herself “Sabrina the teenaged witch. I just want to be

  a normal teenaged girl with body issues, first boyfriend problems, and worries about being invited to the big dance. I’m

  not cut out for this crap.”

  “Sorry kid, your grandparents have other plans for you.”

  “The dreams?”

  “They’ve started already?”

  “Ya. They’re getting more intense.”

  “They’ll get worse if you resist. Your Nana can be persistent.”

  “Ya,” Amanda fondly recalled memories of Nana. Always correcting, always prodding, but always kind and always loving. And of course, always persistent.

  “What do they want?”

  “When you get back, and you will, find your grandmothers sewing box. She left you a note and a task.”

  Everett had wandered over and cleared his throat.

  “After all we’ve been through, you never told me about that,” his tone was slightly cross.

  “It wasn’t for you. It was for Amanda. Even if I’d wanted to tell you, I’m sure that something would have stopped me. I know how the magic works.”

  “What did the note say?”

  “I don’t know,” said the wolf. “Now you two. Talk.” the wolf curled up at Amanda’s feet and she continued to scratch his head.

  Uncle Everett joined her on the log by the fire. He picked up a cup, blew on it to make sure there were no bits of camp dirt hidden in the corners and said a few words. He passed it to Amanda, “Earl Grey.”

  She took a sip. “I little more sugar would be nice.”

  “Here you try.”

  He took out the book from his bag and set it on her lap. “This is the Grimoire,” he said. “It helps guide the magic.”

  “No. I don’t want to. I don’t want any of this. Every time I use the magic something terrible happens. I think that I might have even killed someone. I’m not some emotionless movie heroine who can kill someone one moment and laugh it off the next. This is real Uncle Everett, and it scares me. I bring home stray kittens and rescue oil coated ducklings. I blew a guy’s arm

  off with lightning bolt. Don’t you get it? I don’t want to hurt anyone else. I’m scared!”

  “I won’t tell you that I know how you feel. No one could even suggest that they understand what you’re going through.”

  “How did you cope when this fresh hell just steamrolled into your life?”

  “I didn’t, not very well. When the d
reams started, I talked to someone about it.”

  “And?”

  “I got some standard B.S. about feeling guilty because I left my aging parents to take care of the farm alone. I didn’t buy it. Papa was a tank and Nana could work me into the ground. I tried to sell the farm and move on. They weren’t having any of it. After a while, real estate agents wouldn’t even bring people around to the haunted apple farm.”

  Amanda sniggered.

  “Then things got worse, the dreams came even when I tried to take something for them. The girl I was seeing left when I started having animated conversations with my father.”

  “Papa showed up?”

  “Just like Obi Wan Kenobi’s ghost. Everett, cross the bridge and follow your destiny,” said Everett, Amanda laughed.

  “I decided that I’d completely snapped by then. I didn’t trust my judgement; I had my partner buy me out. I came up to the farm with the intention of dealing with my guilt. Trevor tricked me into crossing over and here we are.”

  “But what I don’t understand, Nana and Papa are dead.”

  Everett shrugged. “I’m not sure if it was really them, or

  just the magic using them as some sort of an avatar to make the

  magic seem more familiar.”

  “What you said about the farm having a hold on you?”

  “Ya,” said Uncle Everett.

  “So enough about my experience, tell me about your dream.”

  “She was in it. Well, they both were. I was standing on a

  beach with crashing waves all around looking up at a giant stone monolith. Then I was in a pool of water and it felt like the magic was trying to take over my mind.”

  “Describe the tower to me.”

  “It was tall black rock as big as the TD Tower. In my dream it rose right up into the clouds.”

  “The Tower of Aion?” asked Everett to the wolf who sat up to listen.

  “Sounds like it.”

  “I think I’m supposed to go there. I don’t know why I feel that, but I do. What about the waves?”

  “The Tower of Aion is supposed to be on an island somewhere in the Great Sea of Tarsinia. But no one in living memory has ever been there,” said Trevor.