The Portal

by Brock Deskins

  Phil parried an overhead chop from an axe-wielding orc, pushed the weapon aside and down to the ground, and brought his blade across the pig-faced creature’s throat. Dark black blood ran down the orc’s chest as it dropped its axe and grasped its throat. It backed away several steps, pushed into the orc behind it, and dropped to its knees. With a final spray of black, viscous blood, the orc fell forward, planting its face into the mud.

  Felicia was battling hard against two of the brutish monsters that forced her backward. Her skill and swift blade was the only thing preventing her from falling victim to the heavy weapons of her attackers. Ted sent barrage of magic missiles into one orc and dropped it to the ground. His companion balked at the sudden magical assault and got a foot of steel thrust through its heart as the price of allowing itself to be distracted.

  The massive ogre’s plodding stride finally brought it to the heart of the battle. In its lust to spill blood, it tossed aside two orcs standing between it and the puny humans that sought to do battle with it. The huge ogre swung its massive club, intent on crushing the young human that stood before it. Chuck brought his shield up and deflected it at enough of an angle that the force of the powerful blow did not shatter his arm. The club struck the shield with a loud bong that echoed over the din of the battle. Although Chuck managed to deflect some of the force of the club, it still struck hard enough to numb his arm up to the elbow and send him flying onto the muddy roadway.

  Josh swung with wild fury, trying to fight his way toward his fallen friend, but multiple orcs pressed him on three sides. Several blows landed, but failed to breach his armor. However, the next strike got through and cut a large bloody gash across his left upper arm. He could only watch helplessly out of the corner of his eye as the brutish creature stomped toward Chuck with evil intent.

  The ogre lifted its tree limb-sized club, intending to smash the human into the ground. Chuck rolled to the left as the club struck the sodden ground, spraying a wave of mud in both directions. Chuck brought his arm back over in a backhanded blow that landed across the back of the ogre’s hand and thick fingers. The creature roared in anger and pain as it lost its grip on its weapon. The enraged monster snarled as it lunged at the human trying to stand back up, his feet slipping in the slick mud.

  A magical arrow, burning bright with a supernatural flame and seemingly immune to the effects of the rain, sprang from the young wizard’s outstretched hand and buried itself deep into the chest of an orc that had just opened another deep wound on Josh’s right hip. The orc looked stupidly at the burning arrow and smelled the cooked pork scent of its own roasting flesh before falling backward to the ground.

  Chase sprang out of nowhere and thrust Biter deep into an orc’s back. He pulled his blade out and stabbed for the back of a second one, but the creature realized it had an enemy to its rear and spun to the side. Chase ducked as the orc swung its sword in a whistling arc that threatened to take his head off, and jabbed out again. His attack pierced the orc’s armor and stabbed it low in the stomach.

  The orc backed away from Chase and Josh so both humans could not attack it at once. It decided the larger human was currently less of a threat, so it kept its attention on the smaller one that had just wounded it. Besides, several of his brethren had the more heavily armored human pressed hard on three sides. He would claim this victory for himself.

  The orc and human circled each other warily. The orc knew he was stronger than the human, and probably more skilled in the use of its weapon from the way he watched his foe handle himself. He lunged forward and took a wild swing at Chase just to judge the human’s reaction. It was more of a feint than an attack, and just as he figured, the human overreacted and swung wildly in an attempt to parry. He lunged forward again, this time intent on skewering him if possible, but the human was quick and dodged to the side, rolled, and nimbly sprang back to his feet.

  The orc laughed at the human’s amateurish reaction and made a couple more feints to throw him off before moving in for the kill. He swung hard once, seeing the young human jump back and slip in the slick mud. The orc saw his chance and took advantage of the opportunity. He lunged forward again, knowing his foe would be unable to dodge away as he tried to regain his balance. However, instead of dodging again, Chase sprang up and flung a handful of mud right into the wide-open, excited eyes of the orc. The orc brought his thrust up short in surprise and sudden blindness. Now it was Chase who took advantage of the opening his trick had created as he thrust Biter into the orc’s heart. He jumped back as the orc fell over dead and darted back to help Josh.

  The twins finished off their opponents at nearly the same time and jumped to the beleaguered Josh’s defense. The young warrior was bleeding from several wounds by now, but the odds were nearly even as his three friends rushed in to give him a respite. He just hoped Chuck was doing all right.

  Gabe got to his feet and ran toward his friends just in time to see the monstrous ogre lose its weapon and grab Chuck. As Chuck gained his feet, he felt himself jerked from the ground. He turned his head and looked into the beady red eyes of the infuriated ogre. The ogre lifted the large man over its head as if he weighed no more than a small child, and hurled him several yards through the air where he struck the ground hard and rolled.

  The ogre was not yet through with its toy. It strode over and grabbed Chuck once again, lifted him to his feet, and tried to squeeze the life out of him. Chuck felt his armor digging into his lower back and stomach, as if he was caught in a huge vice slowly being cranked shut. He pounded futilely against the ogre’s thick forearms and tried to pry its arms off him, but to no avail.

  Gabe drew his mace and ran as fast as he could to try to aid his companion. As he reached Chuck and the ogre, he looked at his mace and the huge creature before him, and quickly realized that the fine weapon was likely insufficient to save his big friend. He closed his eyes and prayed to God to come to his aid. The young boy reached out, touched Chuck lightly on the arm, and bestowed his god’s gift upon him.

  Chuck felt a sudden renewal of strength flow through his body. The surge brought upon him a feeling of power he had never known, surpassing his normal strength by orders of magnitude. Chuck reached down, grasped the ogre’s thick wrists, and pulled them apart, breaking the creatures hold upon him. He dropped two feet to the ground but did not lose his grip on the ogre’s wrists. The ogre looked on in utter amazement as the smaller human forced its massive arms wide. Chuck stepped forward with his right leg, planted it firmly behind the ogre’s leg, and pushed forward in a move he often used in wrestling. Even with his magically enhanced strength, it still took all of his power to force the creature’s arms apart, shove it backward, and send it sprawling onto its back and into the mud.

  As the ogre turned to one side in order to try to regain its feet, Chuck lifted and shoved it in the direction it was already turning and rolled it onto its hands and knees. He leapt upon the monster’s back and hooked his left arm across its thick neck, grasped his own wrist with his right hand while pulling it toward himself with all his might. The ogre managed to stand and clawed at the human’s armored forearm in an attempt to break the stranglehold cutting off its airway. When that failed, it flailed at Chuck with its huge hands, but its thick arms and expansive chest would not allow it to reach back far enough to dislodge his antagonist.

  The ogre tried to roar in rage and fear, but it came out as little more than a gurgling growl and whimper. Its eyes bulged out from under its thick brow as it dropped to its knees and fell forward. Chuck refused to release his grip for several moments until he was sure the creature would not rise again. He stood up, panting from the exertion, and clapped Gabe on the back, breathing too hard to voice his thanks for the help.

  The last few orcs turned and fled, their courage gone with the death of the ogre and several of their comrades. Phil and Felicia ran back to their bows and put an arrow into two of the fleeing creatures before the last two disappeared into the woods.

  Chuck dr
opped and lay down in the middle of the road, not caring a bit about the rain or the mud. His lower back and stomach hurt badly from the crushing squeeze the ogre had put on him, and his left arm ached and throbbed.

  Josh bled from a half dozen wounds ranging from minor cuts to deep bloody gashes. Phil had a large cut on the side of his head where an orc caught him with the flat of its blade, and Felicia was having a hard time drawing a deep breath without wincing from a hard blow she took to her side.

  “Come on, we need to get off the road and into hiding before someone else shows up,” Ted wisely urged.

  Phil and Gabe helped Chuck to his feet, and they all hobbled off the road and into the trees. Those in better condition helped the ones who had a hard time walking on their own. Josh was losing a lot of blood and was starting to stumble.

  “This is good enough, I need to heal Josh before he passes out,” Gabe said as he took note of the surroundings.

  They gently lowered Chuck and Josh to the ground and made them as comfortable as possible, which was not very given all the mud and water left by the unrelenting rain.

  Gabe prayed over Josh first, and the others watched as the wounds began to close and stopped their bleeding. He repeated his ministrations over Chuck before treating Phil’s head wound and Felicia’s bruised ribs. It was not until he had healed the others that Gabe realized several of his own ribs hurt badly enough that a couple were likely cracked or broken.

  The party rested under the leafy bows of a large oak tree, partially shielded from the rain. Gabe managed to heal the worst of their wounds, leaving only a few bruises, aches, and pains. Josh would have a few scars to show off, but they had lived through another battle. Whether with the help of luck or fate, none could say.

  Chase looked around at his friends. “You know, we never had a problem with horses running off in our D&D games. What are going to do now? We have no food, no clothes, and no tents.”

  “We’ll have to go after them; they probably stayed together,” Felicia groaned.

  “How far do you think they went, all the way back to town?” Gabe asked, dreading such a long walk in any kind of weather, and doubly so in the rain.

  “I don’t know. I hope not, but we can’t go on foot without supplies. If that means we have to walk all the way back to town, that’s just what we’ll have to do. Drew will just have to hang on a few days longer,” Josh said with certainty.

  Once they felt able, the group began tracking the horses. Fortunately, the rain was letting up and the hoof prints were easily visible in the road. With luck, they would not be washed away any time soon.

  The prints eventually left the road, and they found all seven horses grazing on sodden grass. It had taken them three hours to find their mounts, so they decided to make camp right where they were. They still had a couple cans of camp fuel, so the tired, wet adventurers huddled around them for warmth while wrapped in their sleeping bags.

  CHAPTER 13

  Thankfully, the rain stopped that night and although the ground was still wet, at least they would not have to ride in the rain. They packed up, saddled the horses, and plodded their way back down the road toward Darkrell’s keep. For the next two days, they saw a few small patrols but easily avoided them as they made their way toward the mountains. By early afternoon of the third day, they came to within view of the foothills.

  “So what should we do now? Do we go east or west?” Josh asked, studying the range in the distance.

  “From the information we gathered in town and my rough guess of our current location, I would say west,” Phil recommended.

  “All right, west it is.”

  The party traveled west for several more hours, and they started to see people in the distance. Some rode horses, several of them pulled carts, but most figures were on foot. People, horses, and carts seemed to appear and disappear into the side of the steep-sloped mountainside. The group turned south and stayed hidden within the tree line until they could get a better view of where all these people were coming from.

  From their new vantage point, they could see people walking and riding through a narrow pass into a small valley. It was more of a deep draw than a real valley. The steep walls of the mountain securely surrounded a large keep or castle. Dozens of smaller buildings and houses were built around the imposing fortress. It was likely a town for the multitude of people supporting Lord Darkrell and his troops. A tall, thick wall protected the entrance, and only a single massive gate and portcullis allowed entry or exit to the castle and surrounding buildings.

  “I think we found it,” Chase whispered, even though they were hundreds of yards from the people on the road and hidden in the trees.

  “How are we going to get in there? And if we do sneak in, how are we going to get out with Drew?” Gabe asked.

  “I could try to climb the wall and throw a rope down,” Felicia suggested.

  “Those stones look too tightly packed and smooth to get any kind of grip, and too tall to throw a hook over. Plus, they probably light torches along the wall at night and keep a heavy guard. You can see several guards on the wall even now,” Phil pointed out.

  “Ted, do you have any spells that can get us over the wall?” Josh asked, turning toward the bespectacled boy.

  “Not over, but I think there may be something in here to get us past the guards unseen. Let me double check.” He unsoldered his pack, pulled out the book, and thumbed through several pages, quickly scanning the contents before finding what he was looking for. “I got it. I can cast a circle of invisibility. It only reaches out about fifteen feet, but if we all stay real close together, we should be able to walk right past the guards as long as the gate is open. I’ll have to study it for a couple hours before I’ll be able to cast it.”

  “Ok, we’ll go a little deeper into the woods and take a break then head out as soon as Ted is ready,” Josh informed the group.

  They led their horses further into the wood line and ate an early supper while Ted memorized the spell. Once Ted announced he was ready, they put the horses on a long tether in a small grassy glade. The group waited until the sun set before creeping as close to the gate as they could under the cover of darkness.

  “Ok, Ted, I think this is as close as we dare get. Go ahead and do it,” Josh directed.

  Ted spoke a string of incomprehensible words while moving his hands in a series of mysterious yet deliberate motions. At the conclusion of his casting, each member of the group suddenly disappeared right before each other’s eyes.

  “Hey, are you guys still here?” Gabe asked in a tremulous voice, frightened at the prospect of being alone.

  “I’m here,” Chuck replied, his voice coming from out of nowhere.

  Each member of the party responded, assuring each other they were still there and had not been magically sent off into an alternate dimension or something.

  “Hey, look at this, a disembodied hand,” Chase called out as he stuck his arm just outside the sphere of the spell’s influence.

  “Get in here, Chase, so we can get moving,” Felicia commanded.

  The arm quickly disappeared back into the area of invisibility.

  “Just remember to stick close, everybody. Chase just showed us what everyone will see if any part of you moves outside the circle,” Ted warned them.

  Felicia let out a gasp of surprise. “Get your hand off my butt before I cut it off, Chase!”

  “Fine, but you’d be real sorry if you found yourself in need of my talented hands.”

  “I wasn’t talking about cutting off your hand.”

  “How do you know it’s me? Maybe Gabe did it!” Chase said defensively.

  “It could not have been Gabe!”

  “You’re right, it couldn’t have been,” he agreed. “You have no sense of humor. Besides, you didn’t say anything when I touched your chest.”

  “That was my chest,” Gabe said quietly.

  “Now that’s just disturbing. You really need to lose weight, Gabe.”


  “I have lost weight! I bet I’ve lost twenty pounds since we started this so-called adventure!” Gabe cried out.

  “You didn’t lose it, it just moved to your butt where you can’t see it,” Chase shot back.

  “Nuh-uh, my pants are loose and everything!”

  “Will you guys stop it so we can get this done with?” Josh hissed.

  “Fine, just make sure Gabe keeps his derriere in the circle,” Chase said in a parting shot.

  “Why don’t you kiss my derriere,” Gabe mumbled under his breath.

  They walked in a huddled mass, putting a hand on the person’s shoulder in front of them. Felicia made Chase walk in front of her just in case he got any more silly ideas. The group carefully shuffled toward the keep, avoiding the occasional late night pedestrians. Just as Phil had thought, torches and braziers cast a flickering light all along the wall and in a wide lane in front of the gate.

  More than a dozen guards walked along the top of the wall, and at least four more stood watch on the ground near the gate itself. The group walked quietly, and even Chase kept his mouth shut as they threaded their way through the guards and under the stone arch of the open gate. They made it through the gate undetected with only one narrow escape when Chase stepped in a pile of horse droppings and cursed aloud. The guard standing nearby looked around but just shrugged his shoulders, possibly thinking it was one of the men above him walking the wall.

  Beyond the wall was a maze of stone and wood buildings with roofs topped by slate shingles. None of the streets ran straight, perhaps in an attempt to thwart any invading force that managed to get through the wall or past the gate. It was all fine and dandy for defense, but it made finding an easy path to the fortress much more difficult, not to mention making for a longer walk.