The Time Stone

by Jeffrey Estrella

  “I wish we had time to explore all of this.” He thought to himself but remembered that they were on a quest and time was of the essence. Drax looked at Broad with a somber look as if expecting that what Broad was up to was not what he himself was anticipating.

  After having checked into the hotel, Drax sat in his room holding a cup of scotch on the rocks and sipping it as he looked into the picture framed photo of a young woman with brunette curls and a tanned complexion, she wore gold earrings and pearls, and a naval uniform. He sighed as he shed a tear drinking his alcoholic beverage, “damn, Christina. Why did I let you go?” He dropped the frame face down and finished his drink. He rose and walked into the bathroom to freshen up.

  Later that evening, Drax walked out of the hotel smiling and dressed in a colorful tropical shirt with trees and skies, a mountain top, and he walked about in the wilderness of this new town, below the yellow sun and dark blue sky, a warm summer breeze and white clouds streaked across the endless sky. He stepped into another cab and rode to the far end of the other side of town as he held his golden compass. At the far end of the other side of town, they arrived at their destination and Drax looked up at a tall stone structure with turrets and long towers, resembling a castle, tall and dark even in the midst of day with tall clouds gathering around it. The cab stopped and Drax popped up happily as he paid the driver and grabbed his supplies, his compass in one hand and camera in another.

  “Wow, this sure is something.” He smiled as he snapped some photos up into the skyward blue. He felt something suddenly bump against his leg, “ouch” he yelled and looked down. A small dwarf-sized man ran past him yelling “excuse me” he hugged Drax’s leg and then tried to run off quickly running from something.

  “Wait who are you?” He looked down confused and saw the man look up, a full head of dark carefully combed hair, similar shirt to his own, and oriental complexion.

  “Who the heck are you?” The small man responded grunting.

  “I’m Milton Drax” he spoke gingerly.

  “I’m Roy… Roy Biggers. You look like you got a fortune in gold bullion.” He snorted as he tried to run off.

  “Well I do alright” Drax nodded as he grabbed onto his small new friend.

  “I am known as Pelador Pequeno.”

  “Little fighter is a great name. I like it.” Drax said.

  “That’s right, I know martial arts and boxing,” he screamed chopping air with his small hands.

  Drax saw that he was anxious to get moving as there were several uniformed officers chasing him. Drax saw this and pushed Roy behind him. As the officers approached, Drax gulped with a stern look masking his fear.

  “Freeze, give us that little thief” they uttered in Turkish.

  Drax responded in the same language “be calm gentlemen, he is with me. I am a big businessman from America. How much does he owe?”

  The officers explained to him it was a small amount by Drax and his corporate American standards of high wealth and posterity. Drax agreed to pay that amount back from the store owner that Roy stole from and the officers let him go. Drax sat on the steps of the castle-like structure with Roy and talked to him about his life and found out Roy Biggers was born in Turkey and was a sultry soul who was orphaned at a young age and abandoned and turned to crime to get by.

  “I bet you have a lot of impatience” he smiled sitting with his hands on his knee bent up on the steps, “I can see you can’t sit still.”

  “Just nervous, got the shakes” add Roy “but thanks for bailing me out.” He shook his head nervously.

  “I always wanted to tour this place.” Drax added. “It’s a castle isn’t it?”

  “It sure is. It is something big and special.” Roy said.

  Drax saw that Roy was kind of slow. Drax got up and smiled. “Can you show me more in the castle? I want to take some pictures for work.”

  “We can’t, it’s closed.” Roy said.

  “Yeah but you can tell me if there is another way in.” Drax said as Roy looked up at him suddenly still and as if stopping the apparently endless shifting of his eyeballs.

  “Yes, there is” he nods and smiles, “I like you. You’re a good friend.”

  The two men nod in recognition to one another and walk off towards the entrance of the structure, a giant wooden doorway twice the size of Drax’s tall and muscular frame. Both men did not notice there was someone watching them who was as curious as they are and tall and stealthy.

  Nearby in the castle perimeter, Drax and Roy were confronted by a padlock on the tall wooden door.

  “It’s locked” said Drax in a slow and patronizing tone.

  “That is not the end.” Roy smirked and pointed up to a small window and arched portal about sixteen feet above, too large for a man of average height but perfect for Roy to fit into. “I can travel in small places, like in the war.”

  “Oh cool, what do you think we should do?”

  “I’ll climb” he shimmies up the stone wall grabbing each large stone block and making his way towards the window quickly in a matter of seconds and getting in.

  “He’s good” said a slight female voice from behind him and as Drax turned he saw a slender young woman with chestnut brown hair and blonde highlights standing beside him with her hands on her hips and sleeves of her white button down shirt rolled up to her elbows and front tied revealing her belly and unbuttoned toward the top and she had a pair of knee cut jeans on. “Very good” she added.

  “Who are you?” Drax spoke. “Marina Swift” she spoke slow and out of place in the touristic setting. “You are an American businessman, aren’t you?” She asked.

  “Milton Drax, I’m an attorney from America.” He smiled as he held out his hand but she kept her poise and tilted her head in curious amazement. “I’m on vacation” said Drax. Then suddenly the padlocked wooden door revealed a smaller door within its frame opening from within and Roy stuck his head out.

  “Come on Mr. Drax” he yelled, “the plane, the plane… inside this small wooden plane.” He gestured to Drax to crawl into the small doorway. Drax looked around behind him and then ducked down and inspected it thinking he could fit in and he crawled in. He found himself in a dark room with some sunlight peered in and visions of cobwebs and dust covering the candelabra, chandelier, and furniture covered in drapes and glistening in the light. Drax was followed in and soon turned to find the young woman from outside who had crawled through the plane.

  “Miss Swift?” He uttered.

  “Yeah, I just wanted to keep an eye out. You might need my help.”

  “Hmm” he smiled and turned with his entourage into the darkness of the tall interior structure. The light suddenly popped open and Roy ran towards them suddenly with a smirk.

  “I got the magic touch” he laughed as the walls and lighting fixtures lit up.

  They walked in and to a back room where Roy showed them into a secret passage he revealed behind the pantry in the large fading kitchen area. He turned a lever and a door opened revealing cupboards and behind it another door with a small stairwell deep into the darkness below. In stunned silence, the duo of Drax and Marina followed Roy down the long narrow stairwell with no railing and Drax felt like he was descending into the depths of one of Dante’s Inferno’s nine levels. There was a hot white light with blinking red at the far end of the corridor before them. The stairway seemed never ending and curved down. Finally, they landed and within seconds a bright light became active at the far end of the corridor before them, nothing else, so they wandered into the opening about four to five meters wide at the end of the corridor and the light grew wider. Drax felt shivers going down his spine. He extended his hands into the darkness lit by the hot white lights and blinking red and there was a slight humming sound, a noise like a vibration instrument pluming in the distance.

  “What is this place, really?” Drax asked.

  “Strange and mysterious place” said Roy. The noise was louder as they approached and synchronistic to
the lights in the former distance now coming up before them. Their perception of the light grew around them to envelope them and Drax saw the source of the light suddenly before him, an alter extending along the entire length of the meters long room and he saw it had some odd symbols in some language he was not aware of. There was an indentation shaped like a pentagonal object. Lights suddenly surrounded the alter blinking brightly as if on for a very long time.

  “What is this?” Said Marina, who identified herself as Roy’s sister. She held close to Drax out of fear. She was worried about her brother but also for her new friend. Drax figured as much and assured her it would be alright. He was mesmerized by the object before them.

  “I wish I knew”, Drax responded to her previous question and looked at the object curiously and felt his hands grasp the warm air before the glowing lights. Drax saw sudden images appear as the light reached his eyes, he saw an image of his mentor Broad Staffnight holding a pentagonal shaped green emerald and beasts of immense power flying around killing people in the central square. He lowered his hands together before the lights on the keyboard to the indentation and pressed on it, his hands glowing in the stream of lights, a strange sound continuously emanated with the lights stringing along in harmony like notes on a melodically scale and sounding deep along the traditional scale. The images changed before Drax’s eyes to four images in a row far enough to be recognized but he did notice one was him and they were in some kind of ceremony with medals and honorary dignitaries nearby he recognized, the mayor of Chronix Bay, the president of the United States, local governors and statesmen. “Hmm.”

  “Cool, like do re mi …” Marina began and Drax looked at her with a smirk.

  “I think it’s a high tech piano of sorts.” Drax said.

  “Piano?” Asked Roy confused.

  “Honey, that’s a music maker but it looks ancient.” Said Marina.

  “This is interesting…” Drax lifted his brow and then he raised his head looking up in shock as suddenly the room began to shake as a tremor activated the room in massive movement. Drax turned to his companions and ran up with them in hand. They headed up the stairwell back where they came from. As they exited the castle, they looked up at the sky and saw beams of light fly up and through the air around the town morphing slowly into three gruesome and ferocious beasts one a dog with three heads, another an eight-headed dragon, and the final one a large amphibian long-necked creature. They land on various grounds and buildings and begin a terrible rampage amongst the city.

  “What is that?” Screamed Roy.

  “Oh no, it’s beginning.” Drax said.

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

  In the hotel room, Broad looked at a screen popped open from a metal briefcase arched up, Mark and Elizabeth at his side sitting on the bed. A shadowy faceless figure sits on the screen in an obscure background and emits a low-pitch crinkled voice, “the last time is soon approaching. If we do not commit the full cycle by the eve of the next cycle, the last time, we will lose all hope of securing our position for the future.”

  “We will prevail, my lord. We have the object.” Broad says gesturing to a box before him on his lap. “It took some doing but we managed to retrieve it from the ancient one you sent.” “We will control the divine right of space and time.” Said Broad. “We will make the difference today.”

  “Be wary” the voice continued “there is one amongst us who disagrees and will betray our midst.”

  “Let none be the wiser capable of stopping us now or forever in time.” They laughed excitedly.

  CHAPTER 62

  BOOM! The ground shook more and more as one intense bombardment after another kept following as the bombings followed by another series that decimated the infrastructure of the town, rubble from the buildings falling to the ground, concrete spread on various levels, and the roads were soon littered with fallen blocks and building pieces of glass and plaster. There were several beasts approaching and spitting flames and causing chaos in their rampant wake throughout the town. The cars careened off the road and passengers screamed in agony. Pedestrians wandered around running in all directions screaming at the immense horror as some watched the falling debris crush their contemporaries into bloody messes on the sidewalk. The sounds of pain and fear were permeated throughout the air. The three beasts roamed the town landscape rampaging stores and breaking through glass windows and stomping the stone cobble walkways as they roared in the mist menacing the populous and attacking with biting and scratching motions to the various citizenry. As Drax and his cohorts ran through the crowds, Drax recognized his coworkers coming out of a cab nearby the central square near a statue of Hermes of Greek myth. He saw Broad Staffnight holding a box with an object and as he opened it, Drax began to walk faster towards him stretching out his hand. Roy and Marina looked at him curiously. Drax began to run and Broad turned and saw him as he grabbed the item in the box and held it out in his clutched hand, a green emerald pentagonal shaped object.

  “You traitor.” Screamed Broad recognizing it was him who would betray them as he had left them and now was running to them in pure putrid shock and horror. But however fast Drax ran towards his mentor, he could not run fast enough. His vision he saw in the castle had come true and now Broad stood before him with his arm extended up in the air twisting his hand holding the object. A beam of yellow swirling light emitted from the object twirling in both directions in the glistening sunlight, as the five orbs in the center of it were shine brightly. A portal vortex bursts open in the sky above them.

  “Oh” screamed a woman running as the dragon jumped up and swooped down reaching with one of its heads and snapping at her swallowing her whole. The beasts moved quickly as they drew close to the vortex spiraling wildly.

  “Our destiny will soon be complete” said Broad.

  Mark’s eyes widened and his hands clasped before him with joyfulness to that end he could maintain himself. “I can’t control my form any longer. I must join my people.” He yells and transforms himself to his natural form where his brown dark furry wings and snout appear tall form, and hooves, feet, wings, and hands.

  “How do you do that so well?” Said Liz.

  “I have been here a very long time.” He flew off towards the other beasts. And the four of them recognized one another for a brief moment and stopped their assaults and danced around in a circle.

  Drax stood still as he saw them and how they interacted apart from their attacks on humans, they were peaceful together if not for a brief instant. He thought if only the world could act like that. Then he saw Broad and Elizabeth nearby and the mystifying object in their hands. Broad moved closer with Elizabeth behind him wearing the body armor like him and holding an arm canon. She fired it up into the air towards the beasts, a heavy white fireball projectile emerged and split the air in half as it hurled up burning the hot flesh of whatever form it came in contact with. With a stern look she fired again and again. And as they approached the circle of beasts, the vortex came closer tethered to the object by the stream of light and the air around it roaring brightly. The sinister duo smirked wildly as they approached the creatures above oblivious to their approach. Drax saw this, something snapped in him, and he felt sorry for the beasts that were being targeted. As they were being burned by the weapons blasts coming from Broad and Liz below and seemed helpless in their attempts to defend themselves against such advanced technology, he realized he had to act to help them. He saw how they could live in peace like people and possessed some form of intelligence. He knew he had to stop Broad and Elizabeth as he saw them firing up at the beasts who in turn hurled around in a maze of confusion before figuring out how to retaliate. He then ran to them. Roy and Marina ran with him as well. The movements at the time seemed slow to Drax as he ran to Broad as he was holding the object and Broad approached further causing the vortex to spin closer. Satyr noticed the vortex approaching and spun out of the circle and flew out
of its range as he roared so loud the air shook and the structures that remained trembled high up. The vortex subsumed the three beasts that did not make it in time as they fell within its range once it came close enough. Drax ran to Broad and jumped up tackling him to the ground causing him to drop the object. Elizabeth backed up in shock as the two men wrestled on the ground. She saw the object land on the ground a few feet away and reached for the object but Roy ran over and grabbed it first. Liz then angrily tried to kick him. Roy moved and Liz tried to hit him numerous times with her fists and feet. As Roy dodged each blow tiresomely, he fell back and was about to be stomped by her high heel.

  Marina ran over and punched Liz in the jaw knocking her back, “you leave my brother alone.”

  Drax and Broad wrestled on the ground back and forth “you fool, Milton. I trusted you.”

  “I trusted you too, old mentor.” Said Drax as he gained the upper hand and rested atop his foe swinging his arm back and looking at the glaring regret and eagerness in Broad’s eye as he punched Broad in the face rendering him unconscious, the vortex faded after consuming the three beasts transforming them into balls of light and sucking them into it, the portal fading as the beam of light tethering it retracted into the object.