by Shawn Muller
“No idea, but where ever we are it’s not on Earth that for sure.”
“Damn right there,” Max said
“Let’s get the fuck out of here before more of these little green bastards find us.”
I pulled out my hand drawn map to see if I could figure out where we were. It seemed as if we were in a forest called the Elven Forest. If that was the case then there should be a road of some sort close to the river I crossed earlier. We set off in the direction I had come from and reached the gurgling river after a few hours march. Turning west along the river, Max and I forced our way through the thick undergrowth. By now the forest was gloomy as the sun began to set.
“Which way now?” Max asked
We had come across a well-travelled dirt road, hard packed from the constant foot and horse traffic - foot prints and horse manure that covered the dusty surface confirming this.
“Well, according to the map, there should be a town not far south of us called Traders Pass. I think we must head that way and look for shelter for the night. I don’t like the idea of spending the night out in a foreign forest with little green men after me,” I explained.
“Fine by me,” Max replied.
We headed off once more in the failing light towards the unknown town of Traders Post, both of us looking dirty and bedraggled from the journey and the combat we had faced. I had tried to wash most of the blue blood off of myself, but the sweat caused by the humid forest allowed dust to cling to my skin and hair. Max looked equally grimy and dirty with the whites of his eyes shining from underneath the brown dust which covered his face.
He flashed me a quick grin before he turned to face back up the road. The sounds of horses riding towards us silenced the few birds in the area that were getting ready to nest for the night. I stepped off the road to give the body of horsemen enough room to ride past us.
The horsemen rounded a bend and rapidly closed the distance before they reigned in and surrounded Max and I. They were not threatening in any manner and none had any weapons drawn. The horsemen all wore metal breastplates over chainmail hauberks. Faulds protected their upper thighs with a bright blue hose under than which was tucked into black riding boots. Most of the men wore gauntlets, a few wore thick leather riding gloves but all had a brightly polished sallet covering their heads.
A finely dress man wearing a full metal suit pushed his way through the circle of horsemen which surrounded us. He was closely followed by a grizzled looking soldier whose armoured fist was enclosed over the hilt of his sword.
“Sire, we must not dally. It grows dark quickly,” The grizzled soldier spoke to the younger man.
While their accent was strange and like nothing from Earth, I could make out what they were saying.
“Nonsense Jeroch, Traders Hope is but a short rollicking gallop farther down the road,” The young man replied.
“Tis true Sire. However I must advise against stopping to speak to strangers who are clearly well armed.”
Max and I shifted uncomfortably under the scrutiny of the armed men surrounding us.
“Ah my dear Jeroch tis precisely for that very reason why we must stop, they are clearly not from here and I wish to learn more,” the young man said as he gestured in our direction.
“Very well Prince Marcus, I shall be watching them very closely,” The veteran soldier relented eventually.
“Greetings strangers,” Prince Marcus said in a deep, authoritative voice.
“May I enquire as to whom you are and where you come from?”
Confused as to the generous greeting by the prince, we straightened and introduced ourselves.
“My name is Robert Mueller and this is my companion, Max Smith. We are from, how do I put this, a very faraway place. Perhaps not even from this world as crazy as that sounds,” I explained.
“That is a tale for you to explain to us indeed. However your strange accents and clothing do give rise to you being foreigners from a distant land, but from another world? That is most certainly impossible,” The nobleman said.
“I am Prince Marcus, ruler of the Northern realm of Eire, which is part of the greater Curixeus Kingdom, ruled by my brother, King Dwyne. I am actually nothing more than a governor for him,” Prince Marcus concluded with surprising venom.
Max and I glanced at each other before Jeroch approached the prince.
“Prince Marcus, we best make haste towards Traders Hope before sundown,” He urged the Prince.
“Yes Jeroch, you are right. Please, would you and your companion care to accompany us to Traders Hope?” Prince Marcus offered. “I wish to hear more of your tale. Perhaps my court Mage is able to fathom out if you are indeed from another world as you so claim.”
“Your offer is too kind Sir, but we do not have horses with which to follow you,” I replied
“Jeroch, please provide an escort for our guests,” Prince Marcus ordered.
“I shall await you within the inn at Traders Hope,” Prince Marcus said
With that he spurred his horse on which responded by galloping off down the road. The prince’s men quickly followed him leaving Jeroch and three other men watching over us.
“Shall we proceed?” A gruff Jeroch asked of us.
“Lead the way,” I said gesturing for him to walk ahead of us.
Jeroch clicked his horse into a slow walk with his three men directly behind us, almost herding us as we made our way down the road towards Traders Hope.
Jeroch was not one for small talk and any attempts by Max and I beginning a conversation with him was met with terse replies. Instead I learnt more about Max. At first it seemed that we had more in common than just being military men. We were both career soldiers within the Special Forces units of our respective armies and I had actually met him once before on a training exercise in England. But most important was the way in which both of us had ended up in an unknown forest.
“So he literally picked you up and threw you?” Max asked me.
“Yep, that bald old man looked me in my eye and said ‘Your wish is my command.’ Next thing I knew I was looking up at the trees,” I explained to Max.
I could feel the escorts eyes on my back as they listened in, and I noticed now and then as Jeroch turned slightly to hear better.
“Yeah well, that bastard caught me while I was drunk in a bar. Swear he spiked my drink cause I passed out somewhere. Before I knew it BAM! I’m being chased by those little green men.”
“Excuse me. Did you say little green men?” Jeroch asked as he instantly pulled his horse to a stop.
“Yes sir. If it wasn’t for Bob, they would have skewered me too,” Max confirmed to Jeroch.
“I had a run in with them too. But somebody shot them full of arrows while I was hiding in the river,” I explained.
“This is most disturbing. I must warn the prince immediately!” Jeroch said with urgency.
He spurred his horse into a gallop. The poor beast reared back so far I thought it would roll over before it managed to right itself. All too soon we were eating Jeroch’s dust as he disappeared around the bend.
Turning to look back at our remaining escorts, I shrugged my shoulders and continued on towards Traders Post.
“Guess that’s bad news huh,” Max commented.
As sunset arrived, we approached a low walled estate - inside the boundary walls was a huge, rectangular building four stories high with many windows opening up along the walls. It had a red, Roman style roof, with tin rain gutters around it and gargoyles on each corner of the drainpipes.
The clanking and ringing of a blacksmith’s hammer could be heard coming from behind the building mixed with the odd low and bray of farm animals. The gentle evening breeze brought about the wondrous smell of farm fertilizer freshly produced by the animals. As we neared an iron gate which stood open to the road, stable hands rushed forward to take the horses from our escort before leading the beasts around the back. A pair of guards stood at the main entrance and ushered us in while they exch
anged greetings with our escorts.
A large, portly man stood talking to the prince just inside of the doorway of the inn. His red hair was starting to recede but he made up with that with a full beard. He had rose red cheeks, a merry face and could easily be mistaken for Santa Clause. I was half expecting to hear a “Ho! Ho! Ho!” any minute. He wore loose-fitting brown trousers held up with suspenders over an immaculately white button-up shirt, and large, white apron around his ample waist
“Truly Sire I have not heard of any goblins attacking the merchants who pass through here,” I overheard him tell the prince.
“Perhaps they are a small band, too weak to attack a caravan and prey on lone wanderers?” Jeroch suggested.
“It matters not the size of these, vermin, I want them hunted down and chased out of my lands,” Prince Marcus said vehemently.
“We all know the lengths my sister would go through. It would not be the first time she has sent goblins into the forests to disrupt my trade income.”
“It seems to be very coincidental that two complete strangers from a so called ‘other world’ were attacked by these goblins,” Jeroch said as he saw us standing at the doorway.
“The thought has crossed my mind too my old friend. Yet there is something about them that I cannot place, I sense that they will be most useful to me,” Prince Marcus said.
He looked deeply at Max and I while trying not to squirm too much under his powerful gaze.
“Smoothie, what say you?” Prince Marcus asked of a cloaked figure that stood behind him in the shadows.
Smoothie stepped forward and pushed the dark blue hood back revealing a plump, bald headed man. Red cheeked, Smoothie spoke in a quiet voice.
“Sire, I wish to learn more as to where they come from before I form an opinion,” he said with a slight lisp.
“Very well then Smoothie. Take your apprentice and put up the protection wards as per the norm. Jeroch I want you to post double guards tonight,” Prince Marcus ordered.
“And find Farpae, he is to watch over our guests. Perhaps tie their swords in their sheaths with the visitor’s string,” Prince Marcus suggested.
“In the meantime, what is for supper Meinjies my friend?” Prince Marcus asked the fat inn keeper.
“I have prepared for you a scrumptious dinner my Prince! Roast duck, roast venison, sweet dumplings and honey coated breads filled with the ripest berries my lads could find. And to top it off, I have opened up a casket of that fine red wine you so graciously left for me,” Meinjies said drooling as he spoke about the dinner he had prepared.
He clearly enjoyed his cooking, and if the smell that was wafting from out the door was anything to go by, it was as good as he had made it sound. The smell of the roasted meats mixed with wild spices and the hint of a wine wafted heavily passed my nose. The lingering aroma of cinnamon made my stomach grumble in anticipation for the upcoming feast. The past few hours of fighting for my life had left me starving.
“Lead the way my good man and I shall introduce you to the two strangers that I have met not far up the road from you,” Prince Marcus said.
Stepping back, Prince Marcus extended his arm and waved for Meinjies to lead the way to the dining hall.
While Prince Marcus and Meinjies entered the room, Jeroch issued out the orders to his men, who in turn sprang into action. A squad of six men set up a perimeter watch around the building, while just inside the door another squad of six took up position. The rest, about forty-four in total headed up the staircase to where the rooms were, to unload their equipment and clean up before they joined the prince in the dining hall to eat.
Smoothie and another figure dressed in a long cloak stay behind and walk outside. Both were in fact dressed in dark blue robes with strange symbols stitched into the fabric. They started chanting in a strange language, waving over the door way with what looked like an intricately carved walking stick before moving on to the heavily barred windows on the ground floor and repeating the process. I asked a guard what they were doing and he explained that they were the prince’s battle mages and they were putting protection wards around the building to warn us if there were any intruders during the night.
Deep in thought, I followed Max and the soldier up to the second floor to where our rooms were. Thanking him as I stepped into the room, I saw that the windows were also heavily barred from the inside. Asking him about this, he replied that goblins sometimes try to raid the inn during the winter, and the bars were there to prevent them from entering the building. We dropped off our back packs, leaving them on the beds before we made to follow the soldier back down the stairs and into the dining hall. However the soldier stopped us first and tied a thick red string around the hilts of our weapons and our sheaths.
“Tis to prove that you mean peace, breaking the string is a declaration of violence and the punishment could be death should a serious crime be committed in the process,” he explained as he led us back to the dining hall.
“Hey Max, you notice the amount of protection that they are going through here?” I asked him.
“Yep, the soldiers aren’t drinking anything but water it seems,” he replied as we were led to the prince’s table.
“Ah, gentlemen welcome. Please sit down.” Prince Marcus greeted us as we sat down at the table with him, Meinjies and a few other people including one of the mages.
“Meinjies let me introduce you to Robert Mueller and Max Smith, who, as you can see by their clothes and hear by their accents, are not from here. But before we hear their amazing tale as to where they come from, let me introduce you to the rest of my retinue. Jeroch, to my right is my general and right-hand man. To his right is Smoothie, odd name I know, my high mage, specialising in the water elements. Then there is Farpae the soldier who showed you to your room, Jeroch’s second in command, and finally we have Meinjies, my long-time friend and owner of this fine establishment.” Prince Marcus introduced everybody to us as we shook each person’s hand in turn.
“Now, as we sit here eating this fine meal prepared by Meinjies, please tell us your interesting tale,” he asked us.
I started off by introducing myself as Bob, explaining where I came from, how I got there and what it was that I had done in the military. Max followed with his story, which was pretty much, the same as mine and by the time we had finished telling it, all the soldiers and our table sat around us with their mouths wide open.
“This is unbelievable! Sir, you cannot believe these two men, they may be spies from your brother or sister!” Jeroch exclaimed.
“Yeah, well you’re not the only one. We were just as shocked as you are to be here,” Max retorted.
“Describe this old man you say formed the portal,” Smoothie asked in a whisper.
“He was bald, had a few liver spots on his pate, small build and was only about five feet tall, wore a copper coloured robe tied with a dark brown rope belt around the waist, and he was strong enough to pick me up and throw me through the portal. And he smelt faintly of lemons,” I described the old man to Smoothie.
“Sire, I believe these two. The person they describe is my old teacher, but he disappeared before I had finished my apprenticeship. We thought him dead, but it seems he merely teleported himself to another world,” Smoothie stated.
“Even so, this does not mean we can still trust them your honour,” Jeroch defended himself.
“Look, guys, sir, I don’t blame you, and if I was in your shoes I would not trust us either. As it is, Bob and I only met this morning, so we don’t even know each other, other than the fact that we come from the same world and fought against each other in a military exercise,” Max said, holding his hands up.
“And for all intended purposes we don’t know why the hell we are here on your world, or how we will get back to our own,” I added.
“Sir, if I may,” Farpae spoke up. “Perhaps we should give them the benefit of the doubt and give them a chance to prove themselves.”
“And how do you propose th
at?” Jeroch snapped.
“Let them join my company and train under me. Then when we have our next practice warfare against the prince’s brother, we can see how well they hold up against the orcs. It will also allow Smoothie more time to ascertain if they are lying and to find out more about this portal to their world,” he suggested.
“Farpae that is a sound idea, they shall be under your responsibility then and should they do any harm, you shall answer for it. Am I clear?” Jeroch asked.
“I do sir. I feel that they mean us no harm and they are what they say they are visitors from far away.”
“Good, well done Farpae for your insight,” Prince Marcus declared.
“I hope that our trust in you will not be betrayed gentlemen?” Prince Marcus asked us seriously.
“Sir, we are not looking for any trouble. We are in an unknown world and don’t know why we are here, what our purpose is and if we can find a way to return to our own home world,” I explained to the prince.
