“He’s not a freak, just a really old dork, lighten up,” Felicia dismissed with a wave of her hand.
“Whatever, do you guys really think we’ll need weapons?” Chuck asked.
“We? Are you going too, Chuck? You don’t have to go, you know,” Josh told his friend.
“I know, but you’re my team captain and my friend. I told you I always got your back, and I keep my word.”
“All right, you guys wait here. Chuck and I will be back in a bit. Make sure you’re ready to go.”
The two young men went back home while the rest of the teens started unpacking their gear and sorting out what they would need. Phil and Felicia put on the stiff leather hauberks and greaves they wore for the D&D games and the renaissance fair. They also strapped on small, round bucklers made of oak that Phil made in woodshop to their off-hand forearm.
Felicia buckled on a slender rapier she often fenced with, while Phil donned a heavier broadsword with which he trained and fought mock duels in his western martial arts club.
They each slung a quiver of carbon fiber arrows on their backs and checked their compound bows. They then stuffed their hiking packs with food, clothes, rain gear, small dome tents, and various other camping supplies.
Chase put on his dark cloak and strapped on several knives just as his character wore in his game and packed his backpack. Gabe owned a chain shirt and dropped it over his head, packed what he needed in a spare pack the twins had brought, and gripped his mace tightly in his hand.
Ted basically looked like Ted but in a dark blue cloak with some sort of mystic symbols sewn into the thick material with silver thread. He clutched the old tome in one hand and held a polished, ornately carved wooden staff with a crystal embedded in the wood at the top in the other.
Chuck and Josh returned just as the others finished arming and packing. Josh wore football pads, helmet, and held a hockey stick in his left hand while Chuck maintained a white-knuckled grip on an aluminum Easton baseball bat.
“All right, are you guys ready?” Josh asked the younger kids.
“We’re ready. Here, Chuck, use you can use this shield and sword Douglas loaned us,” Phil offered, handing him a teardrop shaped wood and metal shield along with a plain but very sharp longsword. “There’s also a chain shirt he wears to the fair. You are a lot bigger, but he’s a lot fatter, so it should work. Josh, I think this claymore would be a little better than your stick,” Phil suggested, handing him a huge sword that had to be wielded with both hands.
Josh hefted the massive blade, took a few steps back, and took a couple practice swings. It was heavy, but he was strong and able to swing it about with relative ease.
“Cool, thanks,” Chuck and Josh both said gratefully.
Chuck slipped the chain shirt over his head. It was a little short in length and a bit loose in the stomach, but it would do.
“What if I get hit in the legs? I don’t have any armor there,” Chuck observed, looking down at his denim-covered legs.
“Don’t worry about it. You probably won’t get hit in the legs and besides, you don’t have any vital organs there anyway,” Chase assured him.
The group of young warriors opened the door and walked toward the portal.
“So, Chuck, what made you do this seemingly insane quest?” Chase asked the big football player.
“Like I said, Josh is my best friend and I got his back. Besides, if it wasn’t for him I would have never gotten accepted to the University of Oregon.”
“You’re going to college?”
“Yeah, I got a scholarship for football.”
“What do you plan on studying?”
“I don’t know. I was thinking forestry maybe. It sounds pretty cool,” Chuck replied.
“Forestry is actually an excellent idea. I think it would work out well for you,” Chase said supportively.
“Yeah? You really think so?”
“Definitely, some day you might be able to find Bigfoot and return to your people.”
“You little smart ass, I’ll clobber you!” Chuck threatened, hefting his sword a little higher.
“Oh look, it’s our turn,” Chase shouted and jumped into the portal after his friends.
Chuck took one deep breath and followed closely on his heels. Ted let out a sigh, shook his head, and jumped after.
CHAPTER 4
The portal raged wildly out of control. Drew thought it might well expand until it sucked the entire house into itself along with his friends. Chase sprinted to the door and tried to wrest it open, fighting against the intense vacuum created by the portal. He knew he had to do something.
If I can fix the circle, I can bring it back under control, he thought.
Drew grabbed his chalk and crawled toward the breach, hoping he could repair the drawing and push the salt at each side of the division together to close it once again.
As he stretched out, fighting against the invisible grasping force that threatened to pull him into the maelstrom, he touched the chalk against the wood floor and pressed hard, trying to remake the line. Unfortunately, the wood was wet from Gabe’s flask of water and resisted his efforts.
That’s when a wispy blue tendril of ethereal substance wrapped around his outstretched wrist. Drew felt as though he were being stretched like a rubber band and about to snap. He looked at his outstretched hand, and his fingertips looked so far away from him he could hardly make out the individual digits.
It suddenly felt as though someone had released their grip on his feet and he shot forward through an azure passage of time, space, and dimension. The unmovable force of solid ground abruptly halted his freefalling vertigo. Drew rolled and skipped across the dirt, stone, and pine needles carpeting some unknown forest.
He knew he had stopped moving, but as he stared up at the evergreen canopy, he saw that the forest was not so immobile. The green treetops, along with the grey and white pieces of visible sky, whirled high above him. He fought down the queasiness in his stomach and the trees slowly came to a stop. He turned his head left and right and saw nothing but forest and pinecones. Drew stood on his feet and looked at the swirling portal several yards away.
“Holy crap, it worked.”
He cautiously approached the portal hoping to return to his world, but as he got closer, he felt an invisible force repelling him. The closer Drew tried to approach, the more he was repelled—like trying to push together the same poles of two strong magnets. He felt panic starting to suffuse his body as he began to realize that he might be trapped here.
“It’s ok. Chase and the others will come for me. Crap, if I had the book I could probably get myself back. Ted has the book and he can read it better than me. He’ll know better what to do anyway,” he assured himself as the sound of his own voice calmed his nerves. “Ok, what is my situation? I have clothes but nothing warm, no weapons, no food or water, and no shelter.”
He felt his pockets, reached in, and pulled out his lighter and a pocketknife. The lighter was one of those good windproof ones that campers and crack heads preferred. The pocketknife was a Swiss Army model that his dad had gotten him for his birthday.
“I have fire and a tool. Primitive man existed and flourished with far less.”
The sound of snapping twigs alerted him to the presence of someone—or something—else, and it was coming closer. He whirled about and came face to face with a dozen warty creatures standing a little over three feet tall with skin ranging from yellow to dusky-red.
“Whoa, goblins!” Drew shouted, more excited than afraid.
The creatures held their weapons menacingly as they drew forward. “You wizard, come through magic gate?” a red skinned goblin demanded to know.
“You can talk! I mean, you can speak my language,” Drew exclaimed.
“I talk common very good. You come with us. Go see Master. You be no trouble or you get thumped. No magic or you get thumped. No run away or you get thumped,” the goblin warned.
“I can’t go, my frie
nds will be looking for me,” Drew tried to explain but the goblin was not about to listen to his protests.
“You argue you get…”
“Let me guess, Thumped? Yeah, I think I see the pattern here despite its complexity,” Drew responded.
Drew was starting to get worried. All he knew about goblins was what was in his D&D books, and he had no reason to think the two would correlate. D&D was a game and entirely fictional, but this was real.
Unless he was dreaming. If he were dreaming, then all the rules of the game would apply because everything in this world would be entirely based on his own knowledge. Except that everything felt much more real than any dream he ever experienced.
The goblins were drawing closer, apprehensive but intent on capturing him. Drew decided to make use of their nervousness. He slowly picked up a dried pinecone and pulled out his lighter, carefully keeping it concealed in his hand as much as possible. He pushed the button on the lighter, engaging the tiny magneto, and produced an invisible, extremely hot flame.
“Stay back, foul creatures!” Drew shouted as he held the pinecone aloft in front of him. Foul creatures indeed, he thought, as he got wind of the pungent odor coming from the goblins. “I am a powerful wizard. I created this portal and traveled from another world. Come any closer, and this is what will happen to you all!” he shouted in his most menacing voice, which was not terribly intimidating given the fact that it cracked several times.
Drew held the lighter to the back of the pinecone, causing it to burst into flames. He held the flaming, sparking, popping tree dropping in front of him threateningly. The goblins appeared neither frightened nor even impressed with his display. The only reaction he got was a club thrown at him at rather great velocity and accuracy. He turned and raised his shoulder while ducking his head as the projectile struck him hard in upper left arm.
“Ouch, son of a bitch!” he cried out in pain.
The goblins began their advance again and Drew tried the only thing he could think of.
“Look, a dragon!” he shouted, pointing behind the goblins.
To his amazement, every goblin before him actually turned to look. Drew wasted no time to gloat at his cleverness and the stupidity of goblins. He turned and ran into the woods as fast as he could, slipping the lighter back into his pocket. Drew heard the angry cries of the duped goblins behind him. He chanced a glance over his shoulders and saw them starting to give chase, but his legs were longer and had the power of fear propelling him like a strong wind filling the sails of a ship.
The terrified young man turned his head back around to watch where he was going. He did not want to end up like one of those stupid bimbos in a cheap slasher flick who trips over everything while looking at the machete-wielding maniac chasing her at a slow walk.
He had just enough time to register the sudden appearance of another half-dozen goblins as they sprang up from the bushes directly ahead of him. Strong, sinewy arms wrapped around his legs as they pulled him to the ground, piled on top of him, and shoved his face into the dirt and fallen pine needles. The goblins quickly trussed his hands behind his back and rolled him over. Drew looked up and stared into the angry face of the red-skinned goblin that had spoken to him just a moment ago.
“We surround you. You think we be stupid, but you be stupid,” the goblin spat, then laughed at his own cleverness in capturing the wizard.
“I’m stupid? You’re the one who looked,” Drew shot back.
Drew knew he had pushed the goblin too far as the creature drew back his club and brought it down hard on the top of the young boy’s head, plunging his world into darkness.
**
Josh, Phil, Felicia, Gabe, Chase, Chuck, and finally Ted, arrived in the alien world dizzy and disoriented. The trees and ground spun crazily before their eyes. Gabe fell to his knees and threw up.
Ted clutched the book tightly to his chest as if it was a floatation device and he was lost in the raging sea. He turned just in time to witness the portal that had brought them all here vanish out of existence with little more than a spark and small pop.
As everyone was getting his or her bearings back, Josh walked over to Ted. “Where did the portal go?”
“It must have dissipated once the book came through,” Ted guessed.
“Then how are we going to get home? Can you make another one?” he asked, frightened at the thought of being trapped in a strange world.
“Only Drew can open the same portal back to where we were. If I opened one, I have no way of knowing where it would take us. I could assume it would be in our world, but it might dump us out at Stonehenge or in the middle of the Australian outback, or another world altogether for all I know.”
“Ok, we came here for Drew anyway. Does anybody see him? Drew!” Josh shouted, cupping his hands around his mouth, spinning a slow circle as he shouted for his brother.
“Quiet, you idiot!” Chase hissed. “You don’t know who or what may be around here.”
“There’s no one here but us and maybe Drew somewhere close by. Drew!” he shouted again.
A rustling in the thicker bushes several yards away answered his call.
“Drew?” Josh asked, somehow certain it was not his brother. “What the hell is that?”
The goblin raised himself up from the brush he had been hiding behind, quickly followed by several more of the gangly creatures. More rustling betrayed the presence of at least a dozen of the creatures surrounding them about thirty yards away.
“I think those are goblins!” Ted exclaimed, obviously afraid yet excited.
“What do they want? Do you think they know where Drew is?” Josh asked.
His answer came from the yellow-skinned goblin wielding a shortsword. “You surrender or get thumped like other wizard,” the goblin ordered.
“You have Drew? Where is he?” Josh demanded, hefting his huge sword.
“Wizard taken to Master. You go to Master or get thumped,” the goblin threatened again.
“If that little freak tries to thump me, I’ll crack his ugly little head open,” Chuck declared.
“Should we go with them?” Josh asked, not really liking the idea of being at these creatures’ mercy.
“Goblins are evil and notoriously untrustworthy,” Phil answered. “I don’t think it would be a good idea.”
“You can take us to your master, but we will keep our weapons,” Josh told the goblin.
“You drop weapons. You prisoners,” the goblin responded.
“What do we do?” Josh asked.
“If we go with them we’ll probably find Drew, but we won’t be in any position to rescue him,” Phil responded.
The goblins started to advance. “You come now. You drop weapons or get thumped!”
At that moment, the forest erupted into pandemonium. An arrow suddenly protruded from the throat of the lead goblin, dropping him instantly.
“Attack, kill the humans!” the goblins screamed and rushed forward.
Without thought, Phil and Felicia started launching arrows from their powerful bows into the charging mass of goblins. The force of the speeding missiles was enough to send the razor edged tips clean through the backs of the smaller creatures.
“Oh my god, what do I do?” Chuck cried in panic.
“Simple,” Chase responded, “you put the pointy end of your sword into the bad guy. You use your shield to keep the bad guy from putting the pointy end of his sword into you. I realize it may be a bit more sophisticated than the rock-tied-to-a-stick type of weapons you are accustomed to, but it should be simple enough for you to understand,” Chase explained sarcastically.
“Yeah ok, got it.” Chuck strode forward, holding his shield out in front of him.
“He’ll never make it,” Chase muttered and disappeared into the woods amongst the chaos.
An ugly goblin charged at Chuck swinging a crude club. He intercepted the blow with his shield and swung back with his sword, nearly cutting the smelly creature in two.
; “Hey, this is like catching hockey pucks and high-sticking a guy that gets too close to the net!” Chuck exclaimed, confidently seeking out a new opponent.
Josh swung his huge, two-handed claymore with deadly effect, cutting down any goblin unfortunate enough to come within his long reach. The twins stood side-by-side, launching arrows until the goblin’s proximity forced them to drop their bows and engage them with their swords. If the goblins thought they had caught an advantage in pressing the archers into melee, they were about to be proven very wrong. Brother and sister flew into a deadly dance of swinging steel, chopping and thrusting with their blades in a display of skill the other humans lacked.
One goblin singled out Gabe, who was holding his mace in one hand and clutching his Bible to his chest in the other. Today would be the first time his devotion would save his life instead of just his soul.
The goblin ran forward and hurled a nasty-looking dagger straight at the terrified boy’s heart with fantastic accuracy. Gabe let out a shriek, closed his eyes, and held his bible out on front of him. He opened his eyes when he felt the blade thunk heavily into the holy book. His now open eyes filled with rage as he beheld the sacrilege.
“You little son of a bitch; look what you did to my goddamn bible!” he cursed in fury. “And you made me curse! And blaspheme!”
The goblin was unfazed by Gabe’s curses and accusations. It strode purposefully forward, pulling out a second wicked dagger as an evil grin spread across its face. Gabe lashed out in righteous fury with the steel-headed mace and connected solidly with the goblin’s lumpy head. The goblin fell to the ground with a sickening crunch as the pious young man realized what he had just done.
“Oh my god, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he pleaded, not knowing what else to do.
Ted’s mind raced, desperate to figure out a way to help. He lacked the strength and fighting skills of his friends and was shocked that even Gabe had brought down an enemy. As more of the goblins advanced on him and his friends, he threw his powerful mind into the task as he did with his calculus and science problems. He was a wizard when they played D&D, but he did not know any real spells. Or did he?
The Portal Page 5
