by Perrin Briar
“Oh my God,” Zoe said. “Bryan. Look at this. It’s the same figure.”
Bryan looked with the air of someone who didn’t believe what he was hearing, his eyes drooping at the corners. When he laid eyes on the image, a visible shiver went through him.
“I think I just peed a little,” Bryan said.
“Someone—or something—has been visiting all these worlds,” Zoe said. “A black cowled figure. What could it mean?”
“Who could it be?” Cassie said.
“I’m sure I have no idea,” Zoe said. “But he must have been coming here for quite some time if it is the same guy.”
They all peered at the black cowled figure scrawled on the cave wall, a million and one possibilities going through their minds. None of them could prepare them for the truth.
ROSETTA and the family spent several days searching the rolling farmland for the Passage until Aaron finally hit upon the solution.
“Lady Maltese had parachutes made, and the dinosaur could fly, so why couldn’t the Passage be on the roof?”
It was crazy, mad, impossible, and yet they found no argument to be made for it not to be so. It turned out to be in the first place they looked: in the center of the world’s roof, like an upside down sink, the hole in the middle.
“Thar she is,” Bryan said.
“The only question is, how do we get up there?” Zoe said.
“Fly, of course,” Cassie said.
It took Bryan two days to teach Roland how to use the remote control device. Bryan had shaped it into a PlayStation controller, assuming it would be more intuitive for him to learn. He turned out to be wrong.
Rosetta and the family climbed aboard the T-Rex dressed in comfortable clothes, armed with a backpack each, full of the finest food from the town. The locals’ way of apologizing for their behavior of late.
The T-Rex growled and threw back its head when it caught sight of the family. The meal that had gotten away. Roland tapped at the controls like a pro. The T-Rex shook its head and turned away.
A set of low chairs had been installed on the T-Rex’s back. It looked pretty flimsy to Bryan. Each chair was set behind a vertebrate.
Roland pressed a button, and the T-Rex coiled up its powerful legs and leapt into the air. They ascended into the sky with a few flaps of the dinosaur’s wings, up to the ceiling. The T-Rex floated on a powerful updraft just below the Passage.
Rosetta and the family each shook Roland and Abigail’s hand and took turns to ascend into the Passage. They were old hands at it by now.
“I wouldn’t send anyone through this Passage just yet,” Bryan said.
“Why not?” Roland said. “It would be good for us to explore.”
“Trust me,” Bryan said, tapping him on the shoulder. “Give it another couple hundred years. Minimum.”
Bryan passed into the Passage. They were gone.
ROLAND pressed at the controls and lowered the T-Rex back to the field beside the town. The T-Rex would be of great use to the people. It could carry heavy weights and aid them in their rebuilding efforts.
Roland mounted his horse and trotted back to the town at a leisurely pace. He thought about the family and everything that had happened in such a short space of time. It shouldn’t be forgotten, he decided. But how to ensure the people never forgot?
They could build a statue to the occasion. He shook his head. Statues were too easily destroyed, as they had seen. It would need to be a song. He would get the minstrels to work on one. But no, not everyone could sing well. He wanted everyone to recall this story.
Story.
That was what it would be. A tale. A thrilling adventure about a family, a monster, and an evil ruler.
But how to begin such a tome?
He smiled. That was easy. The story would begin the same way so many of the most unforgettable stories began.
Once upon a time…
Underworld Ascending