Excitedly all of us went ahead for the ride picking up Pegasus for ourselves. The trip started along the coasts of Empyrea and moved into the lovely intricate places. It seemed like we were in heaven. Empyrea had it all undoubtedly securing this place: the most enchanting one in the entire universe.
But that thought was short lived when we went deeper exploring other parts of Empyrea, and we had reached the netherworld. It wasn’t placid as the rest of the place. There were vicious creatures, and merciless people led their lives ruthlessly in those parts.
The river Isis divided Empyrea into five parts.
We began our journey from the southern part of Empyrea which was known as “Dinolaya.” It was a ruggedly barren surface.
As we entered Dinolaya, we noticed that several of the tree trunks are leafless just as thick as the other trees, but gray and bare.
Suddenly a large leaf flew near my Pegasus, I caught it and examined. I was amazed because it looked majestic and reflected my own image on it. In excitement, I shouted at others to check the leaf. But the people next to me was not paying attention. With confused eyes, they were staring something else another side.
All of a sudden, there was a trumpeting noise that echoed throughout the place. Cleo twisted herself and looked at one of the gray tree trunks. Riveted, she slowly stood up on the flying Pegasus, as if to get closer to it. She raised her head, looking up the length of the trunk. She looked higher. And higher. And higher. Cleo's jaw dropped, her head fell all the way back, and she looked even higher, above the tree line. Then she realized that's no tree trunk. That's a leg of a dinosaur. The ground shook as they walk, their bellowing filled the air.
From above, leaves and little branches showered on Cleo. Utter amazement fills her face, then her mouth breaks into a giant smile then a laugh. She simply can't believe her eyes. Her laugh becomes raucous and euphoric.
A long necked dinosaur cranes down to peer at laughing Cleo. The huge head stops inches away from Cleo. Cleo, awestruck, stares and then let out a long, sharp, Wowwwwwwwwwwww - a combination of a laugh and a shout of joy.
We were surrounded by the herd of grazing long necked massive dinosaurs. They stand on their hind legs to get at high palm trees, then drop gracefully down on all fours to chew. In the ground, baby dinosaurs scamper around the adults, eating leaves that drop from the larger animals. Some other were drinking water in the river Isis by lowering their long heads, meeting their own reflections in the still water.
Osiris looked like a proud parent showing off the kid and introduced the long necked dinosaur as Apatosaurus. The trumpeting noise was nothing but that of Apatosaurus, the tall and long-necked dinosaurs.
We flew in the middle of thousand moving long necks and petrified at the sight of the dinosaurs but Cleo was laughing out loud, she was indeed taking in everything, both the good and the bad in her stride and enjoying every second of the ride.
Before leaving the herd, we turned and looked at it again. It's beautiful, the whole herd of dinosaurs crosses the river, maybe a hundred that we see in a quick glance alone.
suddenly Mysterio excitedly shouted; Cleo! Look what we have here. Cleo's eyes expanded in her extreme amazement, her eyes shined and her face crinkled into lines of joy when she saw the flock of flying dinosaurs Quetzalcoatluses riding by our side. These were the 8feet flying dinosaurs, it looked like a bird with iridescent green plumage and red underparts and had an impressive wingspan of 15 to 25 feet.
But what was strange about them was their body proportions, they had ridiculously long legs, necks, and beaks.
The Pegasus slowly flew down, and once we landed, the Compsognathus surrounded us. These were the tiny dinosaurs that looked like our cats with just 2.5 feet in height.
Cleo was so naughty and daring after getting down from the Pegasus because she ran and plunked herself on a Triceratop. Now, these were massive dinosaurs, 26–30 feet in length and 12–15 feet in height, they weighed anywhere between 6–12 tonnes and they had a huge head with two large horns, there was a smaller horn on the beaked snout, another one on the bony frill which was above its neck.
The triceratopses were moving towards the river for their water intake, Cleo was enjoying her ride giving moving commands to the dinosaurs as if she were on a horse. The joyous ride came to an abrupt standstill when the ground began to shake violently, we could hear the ground beneath cracking, it was almost like an earthquake, and the sound became louder. Cleo fell down as the triceratops shook its body vehemently and darted towards the river. I carried the child and moved toward shelter, after a few seconds what we saw was a nightmare. We saw an enormous foot crossing our way, and that was the foot of Tyrannosaurus, the giant dinosaur, it was humungous and said to be the cruelest dinosaur, it would go to any lengths to devour its prey, and rightly earned its name as the king of dinosaurs.
We covered most of the places of Dinolaya and learned that the dinosaurs were the dominant terrestrial vertebrates. They were in huge numbers with many varieties. We staggered in disbelief that these creatures still lived in Empyrea. These were said to be more violent, but the surprising part was the dinosaurs we saw in Dinolaya were calmer. The Emperor Mysterio’s brother Tyrant Seth ruled Dinolaya with his army, dinomen.
Dinomen were vigorous and muscular hunchbacks with rough dino skin, and like some dinosaurs, they even had sails on their back, and some had tails like that of the dinosaurs. Their five finger claws were sharper than iron blades and looked bizarre. Their language was dink, which did not sound like a language, it was more of a roar.
They weighed over 700kg, and their weaponry consisted of bizarre axes, javelins and a flat bow with high accuracy against human-sized targets nearly up to 10 meters. These weird people along with their bizarre weapons made Cleo hold my hands tightly.
After this thrilling encounter, Emperor Mysterio took us to “Sorgamia,” the western part of Empyrea. In their language Empii, it stood for heaven, and it derived its name because of the beauty it encompassed. Huddling into the exuberant verdure of Sorgamia, the beautiful waterfalls inland was paradise, and it stood at 265ft in height. The waterfall resembled the ones in the fairy tales. The water broke into tiny droplets forming a mist and fell like soft silk. The sun’s rays played along adding an unbelievable shade of peace and beauty. While our eyes feasted on everything magnificent, we wanted more.
The cold water sprayed on us while the Pegasus chariot flew near the waterfalls. It was such a tremendous feeling to witness the fall with murky clouds surrounding us. We felt like we were in heaven.
Once the Pegasus chariot crossed the waterfall, it closed its wings and out came the feet. We loved the natural environment of Sorgamia. Pegasus stepped into the lovely forest of Sorgamia. The trees were huge and filled with exotic flowers. Gorgeous butterflies were everywhere, and cute little birds welcomed us with their sweet humming voices. It was so peaceful.
A few minutes later the leaves and flowers fell on us like a welcoming shower. We looked up trying to understand where did that come from and to our surprise saw gorillas, chimpanzees, baboons, and orangutans jumping from one tree to another. Mysterio said they were on their way to their camp.
When we were engrossed in the beauty of Sorgamia, suddenly a group of dark-colored people who looked like headhunters surrounded our Pegasus chariot with their Spears and arrows. They were peculiar with dark black skin, wearing a lot of seashell ornaments, they wore them on their ears as studs, on their neck like a chain, on the head like a cap and like bracelets on their forearms. Their attire was the wooly mammoth’s and wooly rhino’s skin.
Pitheceus Babi, the nephew of Mysterio ruled Sorgamia. We had a grand welcome with ritualistic drum beats. After entering the camp, we were offered wooden thrones to relax. Meanwhile, all the vathroos in the camp gathered near the cauldron, ignited the fire and surrounded it forming a circle, joined their hands a¬¬nd danced to the music of bone flutes and drums. Mysterio said it’s their way of worship. These people take their food o
nly after a pyrolatry, the fire worship to their sun god, Emra.
After their worship, they served the food to their king, not to Emperor Mysterio but to his nephew “Pitheceus Babi” and later to every one of us. The food was different. They tend to use less fresh meat and more spices in their dishes. There was grilled meat, tasty succotash, soups, smoked fishes and they also baked and squashed corn, peanuts, avocados and bananas into a smoothie which was tastier and healthier.
After that delicious feast, we started our trip to the northern part of the Empyrea. But, this time we weren't flying, we sailed in the pure river Isis in the boats. The river Isis was so majestic, more than majestic I would say it's so mysterious because it also had the marine creatures like breaching blue whales, dazzling dolphins, and shiny stingrays. And, with the purity of it, we didn't look like sailing, it looked like we were flying in the magical boats. Cleo leaned in the boat and got enthralled by seeing the lovely aquatics in the visible river. All the way she was playing in the river with her hands and enjoyed her ride.
Soon, we reached the Northern part of Empyrea known as "Nagamalya". We again on boarded in the Pegasus chariot and started our tour. The region is small in size but had many different types of terrain, ranging from bare rock to rainforest. Nagamalya is the home for the critically endangered venomous snakes. It is believed that the region would have the population of 4,30,000 snakes, each of those snakes was of different color and size. We witnessed a snake for our every 5step.
The great Pythons and anacondas hanging on the trees were swaying with their heads merely a foot above our heads. My chancellors with mixed feelings asked about the gigantic Titanoboa, then Mysterio showed one of its kind stretched out on a warm ledge in the afternoon sun, admiring its beautiful new coat. Its new coat was splendid, it was darting its big blunt-nosed head along the ground and twisting the fifty feet of its body into fantastic knots and curves licking its lips thinking of dinner to come.
They will be very quick to strike after it changes its skin, warned Mysterio and turned the Pegasus chariot towards west.
At the west of Nagamalya, the Pegasus chariot flew over endless sand dunes, and then in the distance, we saw them, the new tombs which were more different from our Mastabas(Tombs), they rose out of the sea of sand in distinctive steps. The people in Empyrea believed that to be the stairway to heaven for the dead ones to achieve the afterlife. They called it, "Empramids".
Later when we entered the rainforest, our eyes were locked into the group of bizarre humanlike 7feet tall snakes which had two hands and two legs, our hands started shivering.
Later, Mysterio introduced them by saying their name as Nagas. They aren't the snakes. They were the people living in Nagamalya along with snakes. Their skin tones were like those of the snakes, and even they had the same elliptical snake pupils. Same like snakes they were of different color tones and patterns, and also at a specific period, they shed their skin like the snakes. The language they spoke was not intelligible, it was Nagali. These people worshipped the snakes as their god.
The Emperor Mysterio’s niece “Kraity Wadjet” ruled Nagamalya. Speaking about her appearance, she was stunning to look at, she wore a golden five headed serpent ornament crown over her head and was ruling Nagamalya by lying on a giant pink colored snake on the banks of river Isis.
Our next stop was the place with massive sculpture, the Falconnia. When we were about to enter Falconnia, we saw a group of unique birds flying in the sky alongside us. They were said as falcon birds They are a mix of white and red colors, and they could grow more than 6feet in height with an impressive wingspan of 15 to 20feet.
The heaviest among them weighed more than 6000 kilograms, it had four wings and a feathered tail, and the first two wings could spread up to 15 to 20 feet and the next two up to 3 to 4 feet. They had large sharp claws with a meter length and had an average neck & legs.
The Pegasus chariot halted before the massive 90feet height gigantic sculpture, which stood in the coasts of Falconnia. Emperor Mysterio explained about that contain my excitement and at, this eastern part of the Empyrea was “Falconnia”, and the name falconnia was derived because of this gigantic rock present here. This huge cluster of rock forms resembles a falcon, where one rock was the wing, the other the head, and one other the tail and all together it looks like a sculpture of the massive falcon bird, but it was not a sculpture. It was just nature’s gift, said Mysterio.
I was stunned looking at the massive sculpture examining each part of it. I couldn’t contain my excitement and blurted, ‘Nature's beauty needs to be admired”, but I didn't get any response. When I turned back the troop was nowhere to be seen.
Suddenly the plants behind me swayed and I heard a rustling sound, I latched onto the sheathe on my hip tightly and turned slowly.
Whaaammm!! Abruptly a Phorusrhacid appeared in front of me. It was the clade of a large carnivorous flightless bird. It was nearly 3 meters in height and its head was 71cm long with a wicked and curved 45cm beak. Its powerful beaks were capable of crushing the skulls of their prey or puncturing them through the bones. These were capable of running at unbelievable speeds and could split the skull of smaller animals with their beak.
Its eyes locked into mine and I took my sword from the sheathe and swung it towards the Phorusrhacid but it easily bent its head, caught the sword with its beak and threw it the other side. I slowly retreated to escape from my predator but I had nowhere to run and was left with only the falcon rock to turn to. I felt the predator nearing me and was counting the minutes sure of feeling its sharp beak on my head.
At that very moment, I heard someone roar right behind me and it was a relief to see the same fear that I experienced moments ago on my predator’s face. What I saw was an enormous shadow of a four-legged body to my right and guessed it must be standing on the wing part of the falcon rock above me. The four-legged body lunged forward and chased my predator down.
It was a saber tooth tiger, 8feet in length, its sharp curved tooth missed tearing the flesh of the Phorusrhacid in a feather gap.
I was thanking my lucky stars that the tiger did not see me and indeed saved me. I slowly escaped from that place and searched for my troop but they seemed to be nowhere. My heart was bumping more in fear and suddenly a blood stank hand touched my shoulders from behind, i hollered in fear by thinking i have stuck with another disaster but luckily its Prince Horus, son of Emperor Mysterio. By seeing him, i had a moment of relaxation but fear onceagain took in me when i noticed his dress filled with the feathers of Phorusrhacid, it looked like he rolled with the bird.
I asked what he is doing in the forest and where did my troop went. With a calm smile on his face he replied, Just hunting birds and gave me a Phorusrhacid feather taking from his dirty dress.
When i was about to say my experience with the Phorusrhacid to him, I spotted my troop and Mysterio was helping Cleo to sit on a 10feet massive wooly Rhinoceros. Terror stricken, I rushed there and tried lifting Cleo from the rhino but she hesitated to get down and continued to play on the Rhino by holding its horn.
The darkness that enveloped Falconnia didn’t stop with these creatures, and there were some heinous people living with curved upper teeth like saber-tooth tigers and with thick folded muscular skin like those of the rhinos. They were called ‘Rhinorios,' each of them looked weird carrying a trident, a three pronged spear. Raila was the language spoken by these people.
Mysterio’s son, Horus ruled Falconnia. He was similar to his father in his mannerisms and attitude showing the same love and reverence. We had conflicting thoughts about Empyrea witnessing all the beauty and the dark side at the same time. No one knew how to react to the situation. Cleo was a little frightened, but she remained very inquisitive and excited.
Later we picked Falcon birds and moved to Armania,
The central part of Empyrea was “Armania.” It was the place, where the emperor’s castle was built. The river Isis surrounded Armania, almost entirely separated from the
other lands. Only a narrow causeway preserved a link to the banks of Falconnia.
The castle was right in the middle of the forest. The falcons slowly flew down and showed us the playful elks which were seen everywhere in the woods. Though they stood tall all of 8feet, though massive, they were a sight to behold with their lovely antlers and body structure. There were different types of deer, moose, and antelopes, each one more peculiar and attractive with different antlers.
Near the river, Cleo spotted a mystical golden light in the woods and forced the Falcon to stop and got down. Mist swirled throughout the place, she stepped on to the majestic green grass and suddenly felt a golden light on her face. To her surprise, she saw two unique magpie birds with shiny blue and red feathers flying before her. Cleo's eyes widened because it was breathtaking.
Scepters of Empyrea Page 4
