Journey to the Unknown

by Jaclyn Cadell

  "Well, you can start out by standing up," she said with a grin. "We are traveling to Yesenia and we need food for the journey. Could you prepare us a pack of your excellent cheese and wine to take with us? I will accept that as full payment."

  The man jumped for joy and rushed back to the kitchen. They resumed eating while they waited for the man to return. He came back in about 15 minutes with a pack which he placed on the table. "Here is cheese, wine, bread, and some meat. I hope that you have a pleasant journey and arrive safely."

  When they were ready to leave, they thanked the man for his courtesy and he thanked them for fixing his head. Emett picked up the pack and they resumed their journey toward Yesenia.

  Chapter Two

  Emett and Alison had traveled for about 30 minutes when they were approached from the rear by a wagon loaded with farm produce. As it drew up beside them, they stepped back off the road to allow the wagon free room to pass. The elderly man driving the wagon halted his draft animal, which looked somewhat like a cross between a mule and a zebra. The man said, "Good day, Sir and Lady. May I offer you two a ride in my humble wagon?"

  "Thank you, sir. My lady and I would be grateful for a ride." Actually, they didn't need the ride, but Emett wanted an opportunity to gain some information about the country from a local resident. Playing the part of the courteous and considerate male, Emett helped Alison into the wagon and then joined the both of them at the end of the driver's seat.

  The man said, "My name is Alex Small. And what are your names, if I may be so bold?"

  "I am Emett Darius and the lady is Alison Amabel. We are passing through and know very little of this neighborhood. Do you live around here?"

  "I am pleased to meet you, Emett and Alison. Yes, I live on a farm about 5 miles from here. I am headed into Peron to sell my wares to the local food broker. How far are you going?"

  "We plan to travel to Yesenia, but we are sight-seeing as we go. We have no particular schedule to keep. How far is it to Peron?"

  "We should be there within the hour. Taryn, here, will pull us along at a pretty good clip. Won't you, Taryn?"

  "I will do the best I can, Master Alex," answered the draft beast.

  The farmer chuckled and said, "Taryn never wants to commit herself when it comes to work, but she does a good job of taking care of her business."

  Emett and Alison were dumbfounded when the animal spoke. However, the farmer acted as if this were no special event, so they didn't want to look foolish by over reacting. Both simply grinned at the farmer's words, and Alison changed the subject before they got into trouble. "How are the crops doing in this area. We haven't seen many farms near the road, so we don't have any idea of that."

  "You aren't tax collectors, are you? No, I guess you aren't, since I never heard of a female tax collector. Well, the rain has been moderate and..."

  The draft beast interrupted with, "MASTER ALEX! LOOK! DEMONS!"

  Alex immediately did something that neither Emett nor Alison could see, and the reins and traces dropped from Taryn. She was free of the wagon and stepped away as she seemed to sprout spikes all over her body. Alex took up a stout cudgel and climbed to the ground. Emett said, "Alison, you fight from here; I'll fight from the ground." He leaped out to cover his side of the wagon as Alison turned to face to the rear from a standing position on the seat of the wagon. Up there, she could see a lot better.

  They were surrounded by dozens of little beings who looked like men, but were about 3 feet tall. They were dressed in red leather and carried bucklers and double-bitted battle axes. The demons were closest in front, and Taryn charged into the line of the creatures. She struck right and left with her spikes and "killed" as many of the demons as she could reach.

  Alex struck all of the demons who came close to him, but he was wise enough not to go charging in among them. His arm with cudgel was long enough that the demons had considerable difficulty getting close to him. But one of the demons had a bright idea and hurled his ax at Alex. Alex was hit by the ax, but not by the cutting edge; however, he was knocked down and stunned by the weapon.

  Alison happened to see this and reacted without thinking. She was already holding her staff in her left hand in preparation for hurling fire balls, so she was ready to point her finger at Alex and shout, "BE CURED!" This may not have been particularly elegant medicine, but it worked. Alex immediately recovered and was able to beat off the demons who attacked him.

  Meanwhile, Alison turned her attention to the rear of the wagon and started hurling fire balls at the demons in her sector as fast as she could pick out a target. Flame seemed to be erupting everywhere, but it was hardly slowing the demons. In desperation, she asked, "Hat, what more effective spell can I use?"

  Change to ICE BALL.

  Alison started shooting balls of cold at the demons instead of heat, and these seemed much more effective. Any demon struck by an ice ball froze in place, and a second ice ball caused the demon to shatter into a multitude of small pieces of what looked like ice chips. Whatever it was, it was effective.

  Emett appeared to be having a ball! He was jumping about and swinging his pole ax with gay abandon. It was slicing demons into pieces every time he struck one. They simply could not withstand the strike by the ax, there was so much strength and speed behind the blow. Emett was actually swinging his ax with one hand more often than he was using two hands; he was simply strong enough to swing and control the pole ax with one hand.

  Emett caught sight of the demon-in-charge. He was about 4 feet tall and wearing a fancy headdress. Emett started working his way toward the leader and clipped him into two pieces with one swing of the ax. Suddenly, there was a flash of darkness, if there could be such a thing, and all of the demons disappeared. Alex, Taryn, and Emett made their way back to the wagon, and Alison cast a spell of general restoration.

  Taryn was refastened to the wagon, and Alex and Emett climbed aboard. Alex told Taryn to get moving and turned to Alison. "Lady, I had no idea that you were such a powerful sorceress! Please accept my heartfelt thanks for what you and Emett did to save us. Taryn is a powerful fighter, but I doubt that we could have survived without your help. What can I do to repay you?"

  Alison looked at Emett, and he nodded. Alison said, "Alex, I am going to tell you a story that you will probably not believe, but every bit of it is true." She told Alex of what had happened to them since they had been transported to this new world. "We don't know how it happened, but here we are. You saw what we can do, so there is not much more that I can say. We don't know exactly who we are, but we have been told that we will be the new rulers at Yesenia. Can you enlighten us?"

  "That is truly an amazing story, but I see no reason to doubt it. A little less than 20 years ago, Lord Taos appeared on the scene. We know nothing about him, but he has amazing magical abilities. He marched in with an army of demons and other strange creatures behind him and took over the whole country, even the whole world, for all I know.

  There was a rumor that two children, a boy and a girl, from the two major ruling families disappeared just after he showed up and took over. We all assumed that they were taken by him as hostages, but maybe you two were those children and were spirited away to return later to rescue us from Lord Taos.

  For the last 15 years, life has been hard and getting harder each passing year as Lord Taos has consolidated his power. Rumor has it that he is about to become all-powerful and rule this world forever. If that is true, then I fear that we are doomed! I hope, in the name of all that's good, that you two can defeat him and return us to the happy times of 20 years ago."

  They continued to talk as they rode into Peron, and Emett and Alison learned a lot of localized information that was not available from the magic hats. For one thing, they learned that, at their present rate of travel, it was going to take them over 2 months to get to Yesenia. This was alarming news, but they didn't know how to speed up their rate of travel.

  It was getting dark as they pulled into Peron, so Ale
x decided to look up the food broker tomorrow. He had figured on staying in town over night, so he was not inconvenienced by the small change in plans. He drove them to an inn where they took rooms for the night, with Emett and Alison sharing a room. They were used to sharing accommodations while they were out camping, so this was no hardship.

  They ate supper in the common room with Alex that night. Alex treated them to the meal in partial payment for the fighting that they had done that day, so they were able to save some of their meager resources to pay for their trip.

  They were just about ready to return to their rooms when the door burst open and a man ran into the room. He shouted to all and sundry, "MONSTERS HAVE ATTACKED THE TOWN! THE TOWN WATCH NEEDS ALL OF THE HELP THAT IT CAN GET! GRAB YOUR WEAPONS AND FOLLOW ME!"

  Emett, Alison, and Alex ran to their rooms to retrieve their weapons and ran out the door after the shouting man. He led them to a part of town where there was a major fight going on. By now, most of the town watch had been killed or seriously injured, and the remaining few were surrounded by a ring of monsters. These monsters looked like humans and were standing upright so that they could swing bardiches (a kind of pole ax or battle ax). Their lower legs were shaped like a goat's and they had the head of a ram.

  The bardiche is a wickedly effective weapon in the hands of an expert, and these monsters were experts, indeed. The poor men of the town watch did not have adequate shields to deflect the bardiche, except if they were very lucky. Emett roared out to everybody to get out of his way and give him room to attack.

  Emett began swinging his pole ax as he had against the demons that afternoon. It almost looked like a scythe cutting through a stand of wheat. Alison wondered if Emett's shout had anything to do with the way he was able to cut through the defenses of the monsters. It was truly amazing! Emett was able to cut down 23 of the monsters while only suffering minor cuts and nicks. A few of the monsters tried to run away, but Alison was able to cut them down with fire balls. Once the fight was over, Alison cured all of the injured, but not dead, humans who had been fighting the goat-men monsters.

  Once the fighting was over, Alison asked her hat if Emett's shout had made any difference in the fight.

  Yes, it did. Lord Darius's voice has special properties that can magically confuse the brains of his enemies. He should always shout very loud when going into battle.

  Alison lost no time in relaying this information to Emett. He verified the information with his hat and asked if his shout had any other properties.

  Yes, it does, but they will only come with experience. Nevertheless, be sure to shout very loud whenever you enter battle.

  Emett and Alison finally got to bed that night, but they were so wound up from the fighting that there was no way that they were going to get to sleep any time soon. However, they did find a way to occupy their time, but they nearly shook the bed apart before they finished.

  The next morning, Emett asked Alison about birth control. She answered that she had consulted her hat, and she had learned of ways to control her fertility by magic, so that she did not need to keep taking birth control pills. Alison told Emett not to worry, she would not get pregnant until after they were officially married. Emett was relieved that he had one less thing to worry about.

  They bid goodbye to Alex after breakfast and resumed their trip to Yesenia. Emett was going to try an experiment the next time he had to fight. Last night, following the fight, he had picked up two bardiches. Emett was going to try fighting with one in each hand the next time. If it worked, he would have a tremendous advantage. Carrying the two bardiches was something of a nuisance, but he would put up with it.

  Following the fight, Alison had picked up something that would probably be even more useful in the long run: she had picked up some gold pieces that had been dropped by the goat-men. The hat had pegged the exchange rate at 200 to 1 over the copper pence, but they would have to find a money changer to make the transaction.

  They had walked several miles from Peron when they decided to stop for a break. They were nibbling on some of the cheese from the pack when Alison told Emett about the gold that she had picked up. None of the townspeople seemed to know about the gold being carried by the goat-men, and they speculated that this was true because this was the first time that the townspeople had ever defeated the goat-men. They resolved to visit a money changer at the next large town they came to.

  They had resumed their walk when Alison heard some very faint cries for help. She looked around, but could not pinpoint the source of the plea. She walked a few steps further, and the cries began to fade. Alison called to Emett to help her find the source of the cries, so they looked around. Emett looked down to see where he was about to step and saw what was begging for help.

  There was a tiny human-like creature near his foot that was caught in a spider web. The spider was approaching and was sure to reach its victim in a very short time. Emett reached down and picked up the creature before the spider could get to it. He held the creature up close to his face and saw that it looked remarkably like an elf in a child's picture-story book. Emett said, in his quietest voice, "Hello, do you understand me?"

  "Yes, I do, you big oaf! I appreciate the rescue, but you don't have to shout at me!"

  Emett couldn't help laughing at this answer, and the small creature covered its ears and looked to be in pain. Emett moved the creature away from his face and called to Alison to come take over. Maybe, she could talk to the creature without hurting its ears. Alison took the creature in her hand and turned her head away before talking to it. Alison said, "You are a beautiful creature, what are you?"

  "I am an elf, of course. I thought all of you humans knew about us."

  "No, I'm afraid that neither Emett nor I have ever encountered an elf, before. It is a pleasure meeting you. Where were you headed when you ran into your difficulty?"

  "It is certainly a pleasure to meet you, given the current circumstances. I was headed home from work when I stumbled into that damned spider web. I know that I should have been watching where I was going, but I was distracted by the present I was planning to buy for my husband's birthday. If you will put me down now, I will grant your wish and continue home."

  "I don't have a wish that I want granted, right now, but thank you for your offer. Where shall I set you that would be the most convenient for you?"

  "WHAT? YOU DON'T HAVE A WISH? ALL HUMANS HAVE A WISH! WHAT'S YOURS?"

  "I'm sorry to disappoint you, but I just can't think of something appropriate at this time. Could I get a rain check on that wish thing?"

  "I don't know. What's a 'rain check'?"

  "Oh, I'll bet that is a piece of slang that never made it here. It means that I would like to put off collecting on your offer until some other time. Would that be possible?"

  "Yeah, I think so. What's your name?"

  "I'm Alison Amabel and my friend is Emett Darius"

  "OK, I'll spread the word around among the elves that we owe a wish to either Alison Amabel or Emett Darius. When you think of something you want, just contact an elf and give him or her the message."

  "That's very nice of you. How do I contact an elf?"

  "Elves are everywhere. All you have to do is say 'I'm Alison Amabel and I want to collect on my wish rain check.'"

  "Thank you. By the way, what's your name?"

  "I'm called Desideria. But you don't need to know that to collect on your rain check."

  "That's not the reason I'm asking. I just want to know the name of someone I like."

  "How thoughtful! Please put me down, and I'll be on my way. I am already very late."

  "You know, Emett, this is really a strange place, but you sure do meet some interesting people!"

  "Yeah, I agree. And, one of these days, I'm going to remember to ask somebody what this place is called."

  "Why don't you ask your hat?"

  "That's a good idea. Hat, what is the name of this country and world?"

  The country is called
"Magicktopia" and the world is called "Home."

  "Thank you."

  You are welcome.

  Chapter Three

  "Hat, I feel very dirty, and I need a bath. Where can I find one?"

  You and Lord Darius should be very careful of your surroundings, especially you, Lady Amabel. You are very vulnerable without your staff. I would recommend that you use your cleansing spell whenever you feel the need to remove dirt, sweat, etc. It would be much safer.

  "OK, I'll follow your advice, but we both like to swim. Is there a place nearby where we can safely do that?"

  Now, that is a different question from you question about bathing. Yes, there is a local swimming hole at a stream about 200 yards to your right. I will guide you to it.

  "Emett, Hat knows of a place where we can safely swim. I'm dying to get out of this dress and plunge into a pool of cool water. Are you interested?"

  "I sure am! Besides, I always like to see what you're hiding under that dress."

  Alison made a mock frown at him and stuck out her tongue. Emett grinned and asked, "Is that a promise?"

  Alison led the way to the pool, guided by Hat. They disrobed, an easy feat for Alison, since she only had to shed her boots and socks and pull her dress over her head. She jumped into the pool of sparkling, clear water to a depth almost up to her breasts. Emett was right behind her, since it did take him longer to get his Wellington-type boots off.

  Since he knew the depth from where she was standing, Emett knew that it was safe enough for a shallow dive. He surfaced behind her back and reached around to grab her delectable breasts. He let her struggle for a while in vain, then dunked her. She broke loose under water and came up sputtering and blowing water all out of proportion to what he had really caused. "I'll get you for that!" she informed him, and his answer was, "I hope so!"

  There followed a fierce water fight with splashing and laughing to match any they had ever done before in their previous lives. They spent about an hour playing in the pool before they decided to resume their trip after they had eaten a snack. Alison climbed out of the pool immediately, since she was near their clothes, but Emett had wound up on the far side of the pool and had to walk across to get out beside her.