Crown of Vengeance

by Stephen Zimmer

  He rested his arms across his knees, his right hand clasping the wrist of his left as he silently looked out over the quiet, grassy land. The breezes created gentle waves and undulations along its surface.

  Derek slowly released his hold upon Kent, his voice coming low and much more gently, “Okay? Are you with us now? Come on, keep your cool now. We are going to need you.”

  Though a few tears had escaped and left tracks down his cheeks, and although he choked back a couple of muffled sobs, Kent at last nodded in agreement to Derek’s words. Janus was watching out of the corner of his eyes, and he breathed a sigh of relief as he saw the reaction. Kent was still in a fragile state, but he was anchoring himself.

  “Sit down, and get your breath,” Derek advised Kent, gesturing towards the ground.

  Kent took a seat near to Janus’ side, and took several deep breaths as he struggled to regain his composure.

  “No matter what, we’ll have to deal with what we know, and what we have to work with,” Derek iterated to Kent, sitting down to the other side of Janus.

  Derek’s words made good sense. No matter what, even if they were somehow sharing a strange dream together, they found themselves in an entirely unfamiliar location. Janus was not quite ready to accept what his heart was telling him, hoping instead that a rational explanation would emerge at any moment.

  If Janus’ first impressions, those resounding in his heart, were accurate, the lands around him were located nowhere within the state that he and his friends resided in.

  The impenetrable fog that had covered their passage into this strange place was entirely dissipated, and Janus had no intimation as to how they could return back to the lake and the boat, much less his home.

  In other circumstances, the extraordinary hue of the sky above them would have been a thing of majestic beauty to gaze upon, and the strange, lizard-like animal an object of great fascination and interest. As it was, Janus was far too unsettled to appreciate the unusual sights.

  Even more daunting to their immediate prospects, they had no supplies of any kind, or even weapons.

  Until something, or someone, familiar manifested, they had to act as if they had been set into the middle of a foreign wilderness, without any foreknowledge of its contents or environment. They had already seen a representative of the local fauna, and it was not illogical to believe that there might well be other unfamiliar species lurking about, perhaps some that were very dangerous.

  At the moment, any signs of civilized society would be extremely welcome. An airplane in the sky, power lines, or even the sound of a car engine would be glorious music to Janus’ ears.

  The troubling prospects left him feeling very naked and highly vulnerable, as he sat in brooding silence with his friends on the grass, each of them trying to collect their thoughts together.

  Janus did not try to interrupt Kent, and nor did Derek, even when they noticed that he had closed his eyes, and that his shoulders bobbed up and down with silent sobs.

  The outpouring of emotion was no sign of weakness, nor any indictment of Kent’s strength or courage. Janus knew in his heart that Derek did not hold it to be such either.

  Kent had been fully and brusquely immersed into an incomprehensible and overwhelming situation when he had been separated from the others. If anything, Janus was astounded that Kent had not entirely lost his mind. The mere fact that Kent was holding somewhat together, albeit shakily, instead testified to a considerable strength within him.

  As Kent let his terrors and panic ebb through the sobs and tears, Janus contemplated Kent’s ordeal.

  Kent had entered this strange new place entirely alone when he had walked up the shore and away from the boat. He had endured a brief period where he had not known whether Derek or Janus would ever be reunited with him. For all Kent knew, he had been cast suddenly into an entirely strange place, and abandoned to face his fate alone.

  If there was one small comfort remaining to Janus, it was that he and Derek had not been severed from the sense and bonds of familiarity and friendship that they shared with each other. In an inexplicable experience such as the one that they were now facing, such bonds were a tremendous boon, if not vital.

  Janus knew that their bonds of friendship would now be about the only thing that they all could grasp onto. It was a very sobering realization, and it was abundantly clear to Janus that the welfare of the other two was indispensable to his own continued survival.

  Reaching over, he patted Kent gently on the back.

  LEE

  “It’s all around us now,” Lee observed with fascination.

  The fog had fully enveloped Lee, Ryan, and the entire restaurant. Looking behind him, Lee had been slightly unnerved to discover that he could not see the front facing of the restaurant anymore. There was not even a hint of it, walled off as it was by the opaque mists.

  “It’s so thick,” Ryan commented. “Think that you can even drive in this stuff?”

  Lee glanced over Ryan with an expression of disbelief. “Drive? Are you crazy?”

  “Probably,” retorted Ryan, laughing. “And if you are too afraid of a little fog, Lee … if it scares you too much, I would be glad to drive us out of here.”

  “Great idea. Turn my only car over to you,” Lee replied with a tenor of sarcasm. “Have your license with you tonight? Oh, I forgot … you don’t have one, do you?

  “Hasn’t stopped me in the past,” Ryan shot back, giving Lee a wink.

  “No, and one of those trips got you a nice visit to court,” Lee retorted. “We don’t need any more of that.”

  “Hey, with fog this thick, the cops won’t even be able to see us driving out of it,” Ryan said. “Don’t think they’ll take too much notice of me.”

  “Not until we find ourselves crashing right into a cruiser, at least,” Lee said, shaking his head. “That would be my luck if I ever threw you the keys.”

  “You have such little faith,” Ryan said, chuckling.

  “Not a matter of faith. I know you too well,” Lee responded, grinning widely.

  “That, you do, Lee,” Ryan concurred, laughing.

  “Well, what do you say? Instead of arguing about whether you or I drive, I think we should just wait this out for a little while back in the restaurant. If you are hungry, I can whip something up really quickly,” Lee stated.

  “It’d be lot better than standing out here,” Ryan replied.

  Lee and Ryan turned to go back to the restaurant. Lee was simply glad that he had only walked a few feet away from the building, continuing to be astounded at the sheer density of the fog. He stepped slowly, putting his hands ahead of him so that he did not walk face first into the façade of his restaurant.

  Lee had traversed only about four short strides when he heard the ground crunch beneath his feet. Looking down, he saw the unmistakable appearance of a forest floor beneath his feet, solid earth covered by foliage debris and grass. He took one tentative stride directly backwards, but the soles of his shoes met more soil, leaves, and twigs, instead of pavement.

  “What?” Ryan whispered at Lee’s side. He had drawn to a halt and was also staring down at the ground.

  Lee was confounded. He had walked those streets every day, and knew that there was nothing like what was now beneath his feet within any short distance of the restaurant.

  The ground that he could see slowly started to grow, and all of it resembled the initial patch. Bringing his gaze back up, he saw that the fog was beginning to dissipate everywhere.

  He took a deep breath, filled with tension as he waited for the fog to roll back and reveal the dark, starry firmament of a night sky. He knew that everything would be as it was once again.

  There was a simple explanation. He and Ryan had somehow gotten misdirected in the fog, to where someone had dumped a pile of excavated dirt and debris. Lee must not have taken notice of it during the day, which was not a surprise as he always had twenty things on his mind at once.

  To his amazement, everyt
hing around him was growing steadily brighter. Starting as a dim ambience, the light swelled considerably as the fog lessened in density.

  Lee knew that the overall illumination was already well beyond the capability of street lamps, igniting his sense of alarm again. His mouth fell agape as the fog thinned further and began to part. He looked up, awestruck, into the depths of a bright, midday sky, visible through a matrix of intertwining branches that belonged to a host of trees surrounding them; a breathtaking, blue-green sky, of a hue that Lee had never before witnessed.

  Lee began to turn around slowly, in complete circles, as it dawned on him that he was standing in the midst of a great forest. Rays of light filtered through the dense covering of leaves and branches overhead. The forest floor spread outward as far as he could see to the left and right, traveling up and around the slopes of large hills looming all about the bewildered two figures.

  “You seein’ what I’m seein’?” Ryan asked in a highly agitated voice. “Tell me you aren’t seeing this.”

  “If you are seeing a big forest all around you, and a weird sky, then we are seeing the same thing,” Lee responded in a low voice. His eyes darted in every direction, as he tried to find a modicum of sense in what he was experiencing.

  The forty-three year old restaurant owner and the sixteen-year-old youth stood in stunned silence for several more minutes.

  “So, what do we do now?” queried Ryan, finally breaching the impasse.

  “That is the question of the hour,” Lee stated. It took him another few moments to muster up the rest of his words. “Maybe we start walking. We should try to find out where we are, or if anything’s around.”

  “I don’t know. We don’t know this place. We don’t know what’s around here. It might not be all that friendly. We don’t know,” Ryan said, his words tumbling out more quickly from his trembling mouth.

  As stunned as Lee was, he still caught the tone and pace of Ryan’s voice, and looked over towards the youth with understanding. Ryan’s eyes exhibited the look of a frightened youth, certainly much more than the look of the hardened, street-smart young man that he saw himself as.

  “I am open to suggestions, we can figure this out together,” Lee said, keeping his voice calm so that he did not add any impetus to Ryan’s rising panic. He did not want the young man to become unhinged, and he sensed an acute danger of that happening any moment.

  Ryan paused a few moments before answering. Though Lee was anything but settled, Ryan finally seemed to draw some stability from the older man’s composure.

  “No, you are right. The top of the hill would be best. I can scale one of the trees there, and see if I can get a view of anything,” Ryan said, as he started off towards the slope that Lee had been eyeing. “See if I can find a road or buildings … something like that.”

  Lee strode briskly next to Ryan, as the two mounted the long slope and finally reached the summit of the broad hill.

  Near to the top, Ryan moved over to the base of a tall oak tree, which had strong lower branches extending out from the trunk just within reach of Ryan’s fingers. He jumped up, grabbed the branch, and pulled himself up in a smooth motion. He methodically navigated up the heights of the tree, climbing from branch to branch with little difficulty.

  Lee stood still on the ground below, a look of concern on his face as he watched the other’s careful progress.

  At long last, Ryan hugged the trunk of the tree as his feet rested upon one of the uppermost branches. His body weight caused a slight sway as he craned his neck to look out over the treetops.

  Lee waited pensively as he watched Ryan scan the horizons. Lee remained tense as he saw that Ryan’s expression remained unchanged.

  Finally, Ryan looked back down towards Lee and shook his head in frustration. “Nothing. Nothing but a lot more of this,” Ryan announced sourly.

  With a resigned sigh, he held onto the tree and rested for several moments, looking outward as Lee patiently awaited his return below.

  RYAN

  Ryan’s eyes drank in the uniform hue of the sky, bright and vibrant in the light of the sun directly over him. Though there was no sign of roads or buildings, it was a majestic vision.

  “Amazing,” Ryan murmured, shaking his head one more time, as he finally looked downward to begin his descent.

  His nerves were teetering on the edge. Only minutes before, he had been standing in front of a restaurant just off the downtown area. He was now peering from the top of a tall tree, atop a hill in the midst of a forest that spread out in every direction as far as the eye could see.

  Ryan had not gone more than a couple branches lower, gingerly bringing his weight to bear upon each one to make certain that they would hold his weight, when a dark shadow abruptly fell across him. His breath caught in his throat, as his eyes shot back towards the sky in alarm.

  Gliding along the air currents was a very large, winged creature. It had a long, thin body that was covered with a light growth of purplish fur. Broad, membranous wings protruded from its back. A short, thick neck connected the body to an elongated head that resembled a cross between that of a serpent and a bird. Two narrow legs were tucked underneath its body, each ending in grasping talons whose ends looked wickedly sharp.

  Ryan froze as the shadow from the animal crossed him and continued onward. It emitted a sustained, hollow cry that chilled his nerves.

  The only comfort was that the flying monstrosity appeared to have not taken any notice of Ryan, as it showed no outward reaction to the young man’s presence. As the creature glided into the distance, Ryan counted himself lucky and resumed his descent, quickly angling down from branch to branch with less caution and more urgency. He jumped down to the ground, bypassing one lower branch, and paced over to Lee.

  Lee’s face was one of sheer amazement, and his eyes remained fixed upward.

  “I don’t know what in the world that thing was, but it was big, and to be on the safe side, I am staying down here,” Ryan announced.

  “I think we’d better take things really carefully,” Lee said, his eyes looking about warily as if the forest would suddenly come alive with an array of menacing, unknown threats. “I think we’d better not assume anything. I think that’s the best thing to do right now.”

  “Let’s get going, and be ready for the trees, if you see anything at all on the ground,” Ryan responded. “I have no idea what that thing in the air was, and I wouldn’t be sure that we won’t run into even more creatures we don’t know about … ones down here that don’t fly.”

  “I wouldn’t be so sure about the trees either,” Lee commented, eyes widening, “Look!”

  He pointed towards the branches of a nearby tree.

  Ryan followed Lee’s gesture to find a small, furry canine-like creature staring quietly right at them. The tree that Ryan had climbed had been very close to the tree that this creature inhabited, and as his eyes met those of the creature he flinched reflexively in surprise.

  A ray of sunlight glinted off of one of the sharp talons by which the small mammal clutched the tree branch. Tucked close into its sides were a pair of dark, leathery wings. Its beady eyes, set back behind the length of its extended snout, seemed to be furtively studying the two humans.

  As if it now recognized that its presence had been discovered, it chittered excitedly and leaped abruptly from the tree, spreading its wings and gliding off into the depths of the forest.

  “No, we can’t be too sure,” Ryan agreed, unnerved further and finding himself growing more fearful by the second.

  “And we can’t assume that smaller is any less of a threat,” Lee added.

  “Have any more encouraging things to say?” Ryan curtly riposted.

  “Better figure the worst. At least things can only get better,” Lee replied dourly.

  Fully out of his element, Ryan was lost in a bizarre forest where the first two living creatures that he had set his eyes upon were entirely foreign to him. The specter of danger was palpably tangible
to his senses, whether it lurked in the trees, the sky above, or upon the ground.

  A freezing anxiety arose to grip him in the wake of his rapidly diminishing hopes. The feeling traveled through Ryan with a mildly paralyzing effect, and he felt as if the world itself was compressing him from all sides.

  LEE

  Lee saw the glistening forming across Ryan’s eyes, feeling immediate empathy for the deep plight of the man-child. He knew that Ryan’s fierce pride was straining to hold back any visible sign of weakness. Yet Lee also knew that something rigid and inflexible could be shattered in an instant when enough pressure had been applied.

  Lee spoke to Ryan in as methodical and reassuring a voice as he could muster.

  “We have some things to learn, probably a whole lot of things. We will simply learn whatever we have to know, to make it through all of this. There is no other choice, so let’s set our minds on this one. I have your back covered, Ryan. I’m afraid, and there’s no harm in saying so, but fear can’t stop us from getting through this unless we let it.”

  “And these creatures? Do we stand a chance in a world like this, where we don’t know the first thing about what’s around us?” Ryan responded, his voice strained and shaking.

  “Stop and think for a moment, Ryan. Remember, even in the world we are familiar with, the animals are stronger and faster,” Lee replied. “Even an insect can carry several times its own bodyweight. But there is one thing that took us humans to the top of the heap, so that we didn’t have to constantly huddle in fear, and hide from predators.”

  Purposefully, he slowly brought his right hand up, and tapped the side of his temple firmly to punctuate his words.

  “It’s this. Right in here. The mind. And we both still have that with us,” Lee said.

  “I don’t see how I do. I can hardly think right now,” Ryan retorted, staring downward.

  “Okay, then maybe it is best that we find something that we can put our minds to. We need to know the lay of the land, we will need water eventually, and we’d better make ourselves some kind of weapon,” Lee said, hoping that the simple logic of his words would find root in Ryan’s troubled mind.