by Caleb Monroe
Shadow roars and the yellow griffin accompanying us takes off to open a portal in the sky. He circles back around and once he is back into formation, we all head for the newly opened doorway.
When we fly through the portal, we find ourselves in a not so unfamiliar universe and world. This universe seems to follow most of the same laws of physics that we are accustomed to, which always makes these trips a little easier to handle.
“Ready to do your part, guys?”
The three griffins spread out to form a triangle, and once we get about a mile and a half apart, Shadow begins to roar as loud as he can. A second later we hear the other two griffins do the same.
We learned after a few of these trips that just flying around looking for other griffins was very inefficient, but I noticed on Liferné that whenever Shadow roars, any griffin who is at most ten miles away comes searching for him. This led us to develop this method where we form a triangle and send out calls. If no griffin shows up or responds in two minutes, we move and repeat the process for about thirty minutes. After that time, if no griffins appear, we open a new portal and try again in another universe and world.
With no griffins to be found on this world, I whistle, and once our group is together again, we open a new portal and head for another destination. We repeat this process three more times until we finally get lucky. The plants in this universe are the size of two-story buildings, and the animals are all larger than eighteen-wheelers.
On our third attempt, Shadow roars; before our other two companions can do their part, we get an answer. Shadow races off in the direction of the call, while the other griffins struggle to keep up. Shadow flies low, having to bob and weave in between red wood tree-sized blades of green grass.
He finally slows down, allowing our friends to catch up when we get near a giant mushroom-type object. This thing has tentacles that are dangling down from it, making it appear as if it were an oversized jellyfish.
As I look at the tentacles dancing in the wind, I see why Shadow stopped. “There they are. There must be at least ten of them over there.” Shadow and our companions fly over to meet the griffins. When we get there, Shadow and the other two play with the new griffins as they fly in and out of the dancing tentacles. I let them have their fun for a while, but time is not on our side. I pet Shadow on the side telling him, “It’s time to see if they will help.”
Shadow lands on the ground, and I find a rock to sit against while he does his thing. It is the strangest thing watching the griffins talk to each other. Not only do they chirp and growl to communicate, but they also use their tails, move their ears, and cause the feathers on their mane to wave up and down. I am not exactly sure what Shadow tells the griffins each time we do this, but it always works.
After nearly five minutes, all the griffins come walking over to me. “Did they say yes?” Shadow chirps at me, so I say, “Then let’s send them to their new home.” I take out my Sica, because the blade and hilt of the sword are made from metals found on Liferné. The new griffins approach and acquire the frequency from the blade so they can open a portal and join up with the others.
“Thank you for helping us,” I tell our new friends as they go through the portal. I turn back to Shadow saying, “What do you say we try a few more worlds before we go back and get some rest before the big dance tomorrow?” Shadow and the other two griffins chirp at me, and the red griffin we brought along with us takes to the sky. He flies high into the air, making a large loop to gain enough speed to open a portal a few feet in front of us. Shadow and I walk up to the portal, but something is different.
“Do you see anything? It looks to be completely black in there.” I turn back to face the other two saying, “Stay right by our side when we go through the portal. If we can’t see anything once we get there, Shadow will open a portal back home.”
We all walk through the portal, and the moment we get across the barrier between universes, we all begin glowing as if we’re bioluminescent.
“This is going to be different.”
Chapter 4
“Are you guys seeing this?” I ask, hoping I am not the only one experiencing this strange phenomenon.
Shadow and the other two griffins begin chirping as they examine each other. “All three of you are glowing. It looks like someone doused all of you in orange fluorescent paint.” Shadow walks up to me as I lift my hand to wave it in front of my eyes. “Am I blue to you?” As I wave my hand around, it leaves a trail of blue as if I were smearing the blue light my body is emitting against the black background that is everything else. “This is by far the weirdest universe we have seen yet.” Shadow keeps looking back and forth from me to the griffins and himself. “I guess that in this universe light emits from the organisms inhabiting it.”
I stand and watch as the two griffins start to jump around and hover in the air. It is surprisingly beautiful to watch as the light they emit bleeds into the air around them, creating the appearance that they are leaving a trail of light behind them as they fly. It reminds me of watching Tron when the light cycles left their trail behind them.
I process our new surroundings as things finally start to come into focus. “I can see the ground now. There are hills over there.” Shadow chirps, and it seems that our eyes are adjusting to the way this universe works. The ground below us is producing a faint grey hue that is helping to make out the terrain of the land around us.
“This place looks like a desert plateau. There doesn’t seem to be any plant life; of course with no natural light it would probably be hard for any life to exist here at all.” I look around and notice the other griffins are nothing but orange blurs in the sky. “Get them back here, Shadow.” Shadow takes off and meets the two midair and gives them a talking-to that causes them to come back. “Sorry, guys, but we need to stay close for now. With such little light, there is no telling what we will find here.”
We walk around the grey lit plateau that seems to extend in all directions, and after ten minutes, I worry that this place holds no recruits for us. I turn to look behind us when I hear a low grumbling coming from Shadow and the two griffins. “What are you guys upset about? It’s not like there is anything here that can… What is that?” I stand in utter awe as a green, glowing dog-like shape slowly makes its way toward us. The griffins’ growling intensifies.
Shadow and the griffins do not hesitate and take off in the direction of whatever that glowing being is. I see the three of them dive, and before the creature can escape, the griffins have torn it to shreds without making a sound. “What are you guys doing? This isn’t the time to eat.”
I run toward what can only be described as a glowing orange mass with green bits flying about. As I get closer, I notice that there is a green hue shining behind a large rock formation off in the distance.
When I reach the orange mass, I look at Shadow, “Why did you run off like that? You know better than that.” He growls at me to let me know he was in control of the situation. I look down at the ground between the griffins and see something I was hoping never to encounter again.
“It’s a warhound, but that means…” I take off running for the green light behind the rock formation to get a closer look. I slow down as I get closer and make sure to use the rock to hide the neon blue light I am emitting. I press my back against the rock saying, “You three, get behind here and stay.” I peek out from behind the rock but hastily throw myself back behind the only thing blocking my light.
“We have a big problem. There is a whole Mortem Mangoner army camped out over there.” Shadow and the other griffins start to move out from behind the rock, so I throw my hands out saying, “No. You should stay back here. This rock is the only thing stopping us from being seen by the Mangoners. They could see us from a mile away with how bright we are glowing.” Shadow stops in his tracks and looks down at his own feet, letting out a frustrated growl. “We need to leave, now.”
All of a sudden, my hair is thrown back when a strong gust of wind hits
me. Shadow and I turn to see the other two griffins starting to rise toward the top of the rock formation. “We have to get them down, and quietly.” I use Shadow’s left back leg and jump on to his back. We fly up to meet the other two griffins, and when we get to eye level with them I say, “You two are going to get us killed. Come down, now.” The two griffins start chirping, causing Shadow to rise a little higher. I feel Shadow hit my leg with his back leg and ask, “What?”
I follow his line of sight to see why the other two were freaking out. Off in the distance, there is a glowing green dome that I believe is another one of the crystal cages like I was put in the last time Cecilia and I ran into these guys.
The dome itself is not what bothers Shadow and the other two, but right in the middle of the green dome are five orange winged creatures that can only be one thing. “They captured griffins.” Shadow starts to descend, and the other two griffins follow.
“We have to leave. We will put everyone in danger if we get caught here. Let’s go.” I turn to walk away, but I feel my shirt being tugged on from behind. “What are you doing?” I turn to find Shadow has a firm grasp of my shirt with his beak. “We can’t stay here. If they have any Imago over there, then they will follow us back to Liferné.” Shadow lets go of my shirt and looks back in the direction of the caged griffins and growls. “You want to save them, so they don’t get fed to the Imago, right?”
Shadow chirps at me, and I know that there is no point arguing with him. “And how do you propose we get there without being seen. Glowing like this will make it impossible to sneak into their camp. Unless you find the dimmer switch on us, we have no chance of pulling this off.” Shadow frantically looks around for any solution to our problem. I watch him turn to the other griffins looking for help, but finding nothing. He looks back at me, and I say, “I told you there is nothing we can…”
Then I see it, or more accurately, I don’t see it.
“How did you do that?” I run over to the griffin whose front legs have disappeared. “Did you do something?” I touch where his leg should be and mud comes off on my hand, leaving a small hand-shaped orange glow in the middle of what appears to be nothingness. As the griffin’s leg starts to glow again, my hand stops glowing. “This could work. We’ll have to be fast, but this could work.”
It takes about twenty minutes, but I am able to use the mud from the puddle the griffin is standing in to cover all three griffins and myself. As I look in front of me, I see nothing.
“Could you guys chirp so I can know where you are?” Shadow chirps first, and I reach out to my side to feel his beak. The other two griffins chirp telling me that they are in front of me. “I have no idea how long this mud will hold, or if it will stay on when you guys use your wings, so no flying unless it is life or death. When we get to the camp, we stay silent the whole time we are there. No chirps, roars, or talking.” I can hear the griffins shuffling around, and now that my vision has gotten used to their silhouettes, I can tell where they are. “When we get in there, I want all three of you to make your way to the cage holding the other griffins. Get them out, but do it silently.”
Shadow pokes my side with his beak. “You have to go with them. They will need you to lead them.” He chirps, and I tell him, “I am going to try and see what they are doing here. I doubt they are camping in this luxurious location for a relaxing vacation.” I turn back to the other two griffins saying, “There are sure to be Imago here, so be on high alert. Do not, under any circumstances, try to fight them. We get the trapped griffins, and we leave. That is it. Shadow, I will meet you three back here, and then we can open a portal and go back home.”
I hear three chirps from my friends telling me we are good to go. We get to the edge of the rock formation hiding us, and we take our first step out into the wide-open area that will provide no shelter for us.
We quickly make our way to the edge of the camp, but with every step we take closer to the bright green-glowing mass, I can feel my old fears building up and have to fight the urge to quit now and just hide in my house. Every hair on both of my arms is standing up. I have to remind myself that we are invisible, that we are losing time to save Cecilia. But that fear has latched on to me…what if the Mortem Mangoners can see us? What if the Imago are near? Is that clicking I hear?
I snap to stop our convoy and to stop these questions; then I look up and realize I am about to get an answer to these questions, because two crystal men are coming our way. They must be on patrol. The two green, glowing Mortem Mangoners are about twenty yards away from us. They are moving perpendicular to us, so they should not run directly into us, but I am just praying that they cannot see us. I hear talons digging into the tough ground, and I snap my fingers again to make sure no one moves.
The two patrolling are casually talking to each other while they walk, but they do not seem to notice us. I see their green-glowing heads turn in our direction, but they just keep talking as they walk away from us.
I let them get about thirty yards away before I whisper, “Let’s split up. I will call if I need you, Shadow.” I can barely see them, but all of them take off for the glowing green cage to our right.
I take a deep breath before I head out on my own to see what I can learn. Every step brings me closer to the camp and causes the massive green blur to come into focus, and I can now make out actual shapes. Most of the camp is comprised of beds and chairs that the Mortem Mangoners are sitting on while they talk. There are a few buildings, but they seem to be simple four-walled structures that look like stables, and are most likely where the warhounds are held.
Now that I am this close, I can also see that most of the crystal men are sitting around small fires that cast out actual light. The fires are washing out the natural green glow that the black crystal barbarians produce in this universe. I will have to stay vigilant as I make my way around the camp and avoid that light or else I am sure to be seen.
When I take my first step inside the camp, I reach behind me and take my mud-covered Sica out. I am not a hundred percent sure my blade will cut through their crystal bodies, but I feel more confident with it firmly in my hands.
As far as I can see, the whole place is full of Mortem Mangoners who are just waiting for something. Most are either talking or sleeping, but there are a few groups patrolling the camp as they walk around and in between the various buildings.
I climb the nearest building to find a better view of this place. When I get to the top, I survey the whole camp and feel my stomach fall to my feet. This is not just some raiding party like we have faced before; this is their entire army. There are nearly ten thousand Mortem Mangoners.
Toward the middle of the camp, I see a large green, glowing structure that seems to be different from the others. Even though it is far away, I can tell that it is much larger and taller than any of the surrounding structures, and there are at least twenty Mortem Mangoners standing guard in front of it. If I want to learn anything about what is going on here, then I will start there.
The building is too far away to get there by using the rooftops, so I drop back to the ground and move from one building to the next as I get closer and closer to the central building. The mud covering I donned is doing its job perfectly. I can walk past most of the guards without raising any suspicions that I am here.
I finally reach what I think is the half-way point when I run into my first problem. There is a patrol group coming around, and they have warhounds with them. They might not see me, but the hounds will surely smell me.
I duck behind another building and hug the wall, as I try to avoid the warhounds by keeping the building between me and them. When I get to the other side of the wall, I look out to see if my path is clear.
“Not good,” I say as I run for the middle of the wall again. There is another group of warhounds and crystal soldiers coming that way as well. I back up to the wall, but as I use my hands to guide me back, I notice there is nothing behind me. I turn around and find an open window that mig
ht be my only chance of staying hidden. I do not hesitate and jump through it seconds before the two patrol groups pass by the building. I land on something soft that is giving off a light, yellow glow.
“Hay?”
I am now sitting in a closed-off room where the floor is covered in some type of hay. I have to carefully pick the hay off, because it appears as if yellow glowing strings are now floating through the air when I stand up.
I clean off, and then head for the green door in front of me. I quietly slide through and shut the door behind me as silently as possible. When I turn around, I am caught so off guard that I clasp my hands over my mouth to stop myself from uttering even the smallest of sounds.
The good news is that I was right about them keeping the warhounds in these buildings, but the bad news is that I am stuck inside one of these buildings, and now I am standing in the middle of a pack of them. There are nearly twenty warhounds sleeping around my feet.
Before I can panic, I try to find an exit. There is one door, but it is on the other side of the room. I keep searching and find another window that is not too far to my left. I choose the shorter path and start to slowly and quietly make my way to the window.
Thankfully the warhounds do not sleep near each other, which gives me enough room to move without having to worry about hitting one of them. I make it to the window without any problems, but when I get there, it will not open. I feel around the green glowing windowsill for any type of latch that might be keeping it closed. I find one near the bottom, but as I turn it, there is a loud creaking noise that reverberates throughout the room.
I freeze the moment the latch opens, and when I turn my head to see if the noise stirred any of my roommates, I see a few of the warhounds start to twitch, but none of them seem to have been roused from their slumber.
I let out a slow breath while I turn back to try and open the window. A low growl coming from my left immediately interrupts my exit plans. I turn my head, finding that one of the warhounds is staring right at me. I can see his green glowing head pointing right in my direction.