Escape from Celestial

by Tony Johnson

  The other warrior looked at Malorek and then down at his warrior brother, knowing he had to choose to help him or go after the murderer. Seeing his friend reaching his hand toward him, looking to be consoled in his final moments, the warrior couldn’t find it within himself to give chase.

  This is my chance to escape, Malorek knew. Before he jumped out the window, he looked back at Grizz, who was looking at the one-armed, headless body lying in a pool of blood on the floor.

  Everything had happened so fast, but Malorek wouldn’t forget the image he saw next. As he looked back at Grizz’s face, he saw the little Dwarven boy smile. It was a quick, satisfied smile, one the boy quickly tried to mask with a serious face, knowing he shouldn’t be happy someone had just died, but he was. Malorek couldn’t help smiling in return, knowing he ended the life of a man who brought him and many others so much pain and misery.

  Then he jumped out the window and ran across the rooftops, distancing himself from the group of warriors now on his tail.

  Chapter 53

  Just as everything around him had slowly faded away, reality returned in the same slow-motion way. Grizz realized he was back in mid-air, falling to his death. The birds, crickets, wind, and everything else began speeding back up to real-time.

  What’s going on? he wondered, but he felt a strange sense of power running all over his body, reassuring him. The armor covering his body quickly turned into hard, brown stone. His stomach dropped as he plummeted the rest of the way to the ground.

  Unexpectedly, he wasn’t killed upon impact. The rock-coated armor covering his body saved his life when he hit the earth next to the dead Sabertooth. He stood up with barely a scratch on him. In an instant, the protective stone covering him disappeared, leaving him like it was something from his imagination.

  “Are you okay?!” asked a panicked Willis, who was jogging over to him from underneath the broken overhang of the cliff. He arched his lower back and pressed his hand against it. He was moving slowly from having been rammed into the rock cliff and was still trying to catch his breath since it’d been knocked out of him.

  “I don’t know,” answered Grizz, who was still trying to make sense of everything that had happened. I thought for sure I was going to die.

  Copper crouched low to the ground and cautiously sniffed the Dwarf. The direfox was experiencing a mixture of fear and curiosity of Grizz’s newfound powers.

  Near Grizz, Ty regained consciousness. What was that? the Elf asked himself, trying to shake the cobweb-like feeling out of his head after being knocked out. I think I just saw some sort of vision.

  Steve and Kari ran down the hill and into the campsite repeating the same question Willis had asked, “Grizz! Grizz! Are you okay? What just happened?”

  “I’m fine,” he told everyone, now all in a group.

  “You controlled the element of earth,” Willis elated, thinking maybe the Dwarf didn’t know. “Your armor was covered in rock. You saw it too, didn’t you, Ty?”

  “No, I just came to a moment ago. All I saw was Grizz standing there next to the broken rocks and Sabertooth’s body.”

  “I saw it,” Steve said. “Grizz, Willis is right. You controlled the element of earth.”

  “I know, but I’m not sure how it happened. I’ve never been able to do that before. All I know is I was falling and then for a split second my surroundings seemed to slow down to a stop and everything turned white. Instead of blacking out, it was like whiting out. I know it sounds silly, but that’s the best way I can explain it,” he said, trying to explain it as thoroughly as he could so he didn’t sound like a madman. “I felt a rush of power and adrenaline flow through my entire body. Then, like a dream, I had this vision of-”

  “A boy and an orphanage,” Steve interrupted. “You were in it too, weren’t you?”

  “Yes,” Grizz said, puzzled as to how the warrior also knew about his vision. “That was exactly how my foster father was killed. All the details in the vision were accurate, but I wasn’t watching the event unfold like I had experienced it previously. This time I could see and hear everything, as if it was centralized around Malorek. I could tell everything he was thinking and feeling. I felt all his emotions.

  “I’ve never experienced anything like that before in my life. It was like a hyper-realistic dream. It was so vivid. How did you-” he began to ask Steve, but Steve interrupted for a second time.

  “I saw it too. Exactly as you described it.”

  “I did too,” mentioned Ty.

  “Me too,” Kari added. “It was the Hooded Phantom, wasn’t it? That was his life we were watching. I don’t know how I knew. Somehow, I just did. When I saw him, even as a baby, I felt a sense of evil coming from him. It was the same feeling I got when I saw him for the first time in the courtyard standing over the crowd back in Celestial.”

  “Yeah,” Steve agreed, “I felt it too, and, now that I think about it, I got that same feeling whenever I was around Silas. Granted, it wasn’t as strong as the feeling I got from the Phantom, but it was still present. I can only describe it as being able to feel darkness.”

  “What in the world are you guys talking about?” Willis chimed in. “Seeing an orphanage? Feeling darkness? I did not see whatever vision it is you all apparently saw.”

  “You didn’t see a boy grow up and kill two other kids his age, and then kill two adults and a warrior when he was older?”

  “No!” proclaimed Willis, confused beyond belief. “You guys sound crazy! All I saw was Grizz falling and his armor covered in rock.”

  “Try it again, Grizz,” Kari pleaded.

  “Yeah, see if you can cover your armor in stone again,” encouraged Ty.

  Instead of doing what they asked, Grizz had another idea. He walked over and reached down between the rubble, pulling Skullcleaver out of the cliff’s debris. He turned back to the group, held up his weapon, and mentally willed it to turn into hard rock.

  The five watched as brown stone surrounded the bulky head of the weapon and traveled all the way down the metal shaft. Then Grizz willed his armor to have the same hard surface as easily as he did the weapon.

  Steve, Ty, Kari, and Willis touched the stone and saw it was real. Grizz stepped back and swung Skullcleaver. It made a loud “whoosh” sound as it cut through the air.

  “It’s the same weight it usually is,” he announced. “Despite the heavy rock encasing it, I can move Skullcrusher around as easily as before. It’s like the rock adds no weight to the armor or the weapon, but I can feel that my attacks and armor are stronger.” He raised his hammer and smashed it down, causing a tremor to shake the ground around them.

  “Let me try something,” said Ty. “Put Skullcrusher on the ground.”

  Grizz followed the command, but the stone covering disappeared once he released his grip on the weapon, revealing its regular shape.

  “Keep your hand on it, so it stays covered in the element, and I’ll try to lift it,” Ty proposed.

  Again, Grizz obeyed, eager to learn more about his new powers. With Skullcrusher covered in rock, Ty tried to lift with all his strength, but he could barely make the weapon budge. “It’s heavy,” he grunted with a red face and veins bulging, immediately letting go. “For me, the stone has weight to it. That’s awesome that it doesn’t make it any heavier for you, Grizz.”

  “King Zoran had ability over all five elements,” Steve told Grizz. “Can you control fire, wind, water, or lightning?”

  Grizz stood there for a moment, looking like he was trying to think hard, but nothing happened. “I don’t think I can,” he said. “All I feel is the power of the earth all around me.”

  “You must be one of Alazar’s elect who inherited the elemental spirit of earth that Zoran had. It’s just like Mr. Sep told us. Can you move the broken parts of the cliff?” Steve asked, pointing to where they surrounded the body of Sabertooth. “In the King’s Tower, both Zoran and the Hooded Phantom mentally controlled some of
the stone debris without even having to touch it.”

  Grizz looked at the pile, even raised his hand, and lifted his palm, trying to control them, but nothing happened. “I feel like it’s possible, but not now. I’m tired. I think using these powers has drained my energy. We can work on it more tomorrow. I need rest,” he staggered and suddenly looked pale. The rock encasing his body disappeared.

  “Wow, I guess you are tired,” said Ty, supporting the Dwarf’s weight so he wouldn’t fall over. The five walked back to their campsite, where the dead body of Captain Griegan lay.

  “I didn’t like the man, but it’s sad to see him gone,” Grizz admitted. “He had a son who now has to grow up fatherless.”

  “We should bury him,” Kari recommended.

  “Let me do it,” Willis said. “He was my captain.”

  “We’ll help,” said Steve, picking up the broken body. “We don’t have a shovel, so we can’t dig a grave, but we can place the fallen rocks over him.”

  While Grizz rested and Copper slept next to him, Steve, Ty, and Kari entombed the deceased captain. Willis went out into the forest where Griegan had been keeping watch, found the captain’s sword and shield that he had dropped after being attacked by Sabertooth and laid them across the warrior’s chest before they enclosed the last couple of rocks over the body.

  After the burial, they joined Grizz and laid down to go to sleep. Charting the moon in the sky, Steve figured there were still four hours left before the sun rose. He was exhausted, but he couldn’t sleep. His heart was still beating with adrenaline from the fight with Sabertooth, and he kept thinking back to the vision he had seen.

  What does it all mean? His mind raced with questions. Why did Grizz, Ty, Kari, and I see the early life of the Hooded Phantom, but Willis didn’t? How was it that Ty was unconscious and saw it, but Willis was awake and didn’t see it? Who was the person that abandoned Malorek at the orphanage? I still don’t understand how the Hooded Phantom and Silas can both control their elements. How did they both harness the element of water?

  Steve thought about the name Malorek. It’s ironic. In one of the old languages, the name ‘Malorek’ meant ‘evil.’ I know I’ve seen that name recently, but where?

  It only took a moment before he remembered. The name on the plaque under the lion in Hunters’ Den! The Hooded Phantom killed that animal! Did he use his elements to kill it? When did he even obtain his elements? He didn’t have them in the vision. I wonder how he got them.

  The more Steve stayed awake thinking, the more theories he came up with that offered explanations to his questions. Maybe only those of us who grew up without our parents can see the visions? I don’t know if Willis is an orphan, but Grizz was in the orphanage. Ty and Kari are orphans too and my parents abandoned me. It’s too much of a coincidence that the four of us are the ones who saw the vision. It has to mean something.

  With no answers, and with his body and mind too tired from the fighting and thinking, and, no longer needing to worry about getting eaten in his sleep by Sabertooth, he slept comfortably for three hours until Grizz woke everyone up.

  “It’s a new day!” the Dwarf said joyfully, casting off the cloak he was using as a blanket. “The sun is coming up, the sky is clear, and the birds are chirping! We’ll be in Serendale just in time for dinner. After we get done filling in Commander Krause on everything that’s happened in Celestial and the Evergreen, I want all of you to come to my house and meet my family. We’ll have a large meal, and I should be able to convince one of the local innkeepers to give the three of you,” he pointed to Steve, Ty, and Kari, “free lodging until we figure out what the next steps will be against the Phantom’s army.”

  “Someone’s in a good mood today,” Ty whispered to Willis while rubbing the sleep out of his eyes.

  “Indeed, I am!” exclaimed Grizz, overhearing the Elf. He took the food bag from Kari and was handing everyone the last of the perishables.

  “Here you go my four-legged friend,” he said, tossing Copper a slice of cold ham. “Let’s go! We can eat while we walk.” The burly Dwarf was already heading out of their campsite and towards the path. No one was reluctant to follow. His pure joy at the knowledge of being able to see his family later infected the group with positivity.

  “Don’t worry, we’re right behind you,” Ty called out. “We’re as eager to get out of this forest as you are.”

  “How long have your wife and you been together?” Kari asked later in the day as they walked along the path. She was excited to meet the family that seemed to make Grizz so happy.

  “About ten years,” he said, smiling while thinking back on the good memories. “What about you two? How long have you been dating?” he asked looking from Steve to Kari.

  Steve waved his hands in front of him and hid a smile at the thought of him and Kari being in a relationship. “No, we’re not together.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry,” Grizz apologized. “It’s just that you are always walking next to each other, and then you were the one who went to console her at the Den when she was emotional,” he explained to Steve.

  “Ha, don’t you think they would be good together, Grizz? That’s what I’ve been trying to tell them,” Ty smiled and nudged his brother with his elbow, trying to give his brother an opportunity to ask out Kari.

  Steve stared down at his feet, blushing, while an equally embarrassed Kari asked, “How did you and your wife meet?” trying her best to change the subject.

  Grizz happily recounted the story. “I was twenty when I moved to Serendale. I was trying to get a fresh start on life. I didn’t know anyone in the city. I was running my blacksmithing shop, and Jules was working at the school. We passed each other on the street every day walking from our homes to our jobs, but I could never summon enough courage to do anything more than smile at her, even though I thought she was beautiful.

  “There was one night I was eating dinner at my favorite tavern, the Flowing Fountain and she happened to be there too. She was dining alone, so I mustered up the courage to walk over and introduce myself.

  “She explained that she was supposed to be meeting someone there for a date, but he never showed. When I heard that, I was shocked. I told her, ‘That guy made the biggest mistake of his life if he was a no-show to a dinner with you.’

  “She invited me to eat my meal with her, and I ended up buying both our plates. Over the next couple weeks we both found ourselves leaving for work a couple minutes early so we could spend a little bit of time talking to each other. Eventually, I asked her out on an official date and promised I wouldn’t stand her up,” Grizz smiled reliving his memory. “That date led to many more, and it wasn’t long before we eloped.

  “Jules is pregnant with our third child. Our oldest, Liam, is eight. Nash, who is five, was born with a disease, so he has trouble walking. Just before I left to go to Hunters’ Den, he was doing really well at learning to walk with crutches. We hope that someday he’ll have normal use of his legs.”

  “When is she due?” Kari asked excitedly. It was the third question in a row she had asked, but she was too happy for Grizz to care about being over-inquisitive.

  “About four months from now,” Grizz answered with a smile larger than any the heroes had seen in the brief amount of time they’d gotten to know him. “More than halfway there! I’m excited! I haven’t felt the baby kick yet, but I’m hoping I’ll get to when I get back.”

  “I can’t wait to meet them. It seems like a great family you’ve got,” the Halfling beamed. She could tell Grizz loved his wife and kids by the way his eyes shined when he talked about them.

  “Thanks. They are,” he boasted. Hanging from the cliff last night and believing he was going to die and never see them again made him want to sprint all the way to Serendale and give his entire family one big hug and tell them how much he loved them.

  Willis, who had known Grizz for a while and had never seen him this happy, thought about using the Dwarf’s s
tate of emotion to try and figure out more about the man’s mysterious past that everyone in Serendale had wanted to prod out of him.

  “So, if I hear correctly, you grew up in an orphanage?” Willis asked.

  “Yes, I want to know more about that,” said Steve. “Last night, I realized everyone here grew up without their biological parents, except for Willis I’m guessing,” Steve looked over at Willis and saw him nod. “I find it odd that only the orphans saw the vision.”

  Much to Willis’s surprise, Grizz began to open up about his life before Serendale and how he ended up in the Celestial orphanage.

  “I was born to a prostitute in Twin Peaks who had no idea who my father was. Chances are he was some no-name commoner who wanted a pleasurable night. She was a good mother though and did her best to take care of me even though I wasn’t something she had planned for her life.

  “When I was young, we were out shopping on a weekend. She saw a necklace that she mentioned was pretty. Her nameday was later that month, and I had been saving up my allowance to buy her a present. I didn’t have enough for the necklace, but the local merchant knew my mom and I weren’t in the best financial state, so he was willing to let me pay with what I had and pay the rest once I got the money. So, in the middle of the night before my mother’s nameday, I snuck out of bed. I’d made arrangements with the merchant to pick up the present so my mom would be surprised.

  “While I was out though, my mom noticed I was not in my bed or the house. She was worried so she went down the street calling my name. She almost ran into me, but I hid behind a vendor’s cart so she wouldn’t see me with her birthday present. From behind the cart I watched a man sneak up, stab her, and take her coin purse. She wouldn’t have died if she wasn’t out looking for me.”

  Grizz then talked hurriedly, and everyone could tell he wanted to end the story as quickly as possible. “I gave the warriors the description of the man. They were able to find him, but, apparently, he had a valid alibi saying he was not in that part of town at the time. Although, I believe he got a friend who was a warrior to vouch for him, even though it was a lie.