by Oxford, Rain
We went back to the others. Nila stayed close, but out of reach. I think he was frightened enough of his new magic to keep away from me. Mordon was right; I was terribly unlucky before I learned control, and we didn’t need someone new to magic to have that power.
Sammy cried and thrashed in Mordon’s arms. Vivian took the baby bag from me. “I have some dried fruit in here for him to eat,” she said.
I tried to help her look, but the bag was bigger on the inside and filled to bursting. “Why do you have pliers in here?” I asked, dropping them on the floor.
“I’ve been looking for those for a month.”
Mordon sighed. “It’s in the inside pocket,” he said, passing Sammy to me before joining the hunt.
I looked into the baby’s huge, startled eyes until I heard a gasp.
Nila cried something in his language before lifting his bare foot. He had stepped on glass and his foot started bleeding profusely. Nano moved to help, but that startled Nila. Nila tripped and Mordon barely caught him. I saw Nila’s face as he gasped, paled, and then his eyes flashed red. I’m sure the room hadn’t literally caught fire, but a fire tornado forming around us was near enough. Nano took Sammy and tried to stop the fire, but I knew it wouldn’t work. Even though Nila was causing it, that was Mordon’s fire, and Nano wouldn’t be able to stop that. Mordon covered Vivian from the fire.
My first instinct was to stop Nila. I grabbed him and leaned closer to speak without yelling. “You have to stop it,” I said. And just like that, it stopped. The fire immediately died out. He looked at me confused, but his eyes didn’t flash any magical color. I let go and he stumbled backwards a couple of steps. “Mordon?” I asked. “Still intact?”
Mordon help up a small ball of fire before crushing it in his fist. “My fire is fine.”
Nila shakily looked at his hand. After a few seconds, he smiled. “Magic is gone. I am void again!”
He hugged his uncle until Nano started turning blue, and when he finally let his uncle go, he rounded on me. Mordon didn’t have a chance to stop him before he was hugging me to within an inch of my life. Tiny boy-king with a body-builder’s strength.
Luckily, Nila pulled away when I started making choking sounds. “Thank you, Dylan! You made me void again!”
“I really don’t know how,” I said. Vivian, who wasn’t injured from the fire, sat Nila down to pick the glass out of his feet. I pulled a bandage wrap out of my bag for him. “Mordon? What’s the reading?”
“It’s gone. Whatever was in him is gone, and it’s not in you, either. It just vanished.”
“I think that has become a recurring theme.”
“Now that things are back to normal, Nila, I need to borrow some of your guards. I need them to watch over these guys while I try to find someone,” Nano said.
“Oh, I got it!” Everyone looked at Mordon, who was holding up a bag of dried fruits. “Sorry.”
Nano handed Sammy off to Mordon to feed. Really, the baby never got put down. “Hey, Sammy is eighteen months? Shouldn’t he be talking yet?” I asked.
“He grunts, babbles, points, and understands us sometimes, but he hasn’t said any words,” Vivian said. “The pediatrician said it’s not anything to worry about.”
“Is he… slow in other development?” I asked. Apparently not in motor skills, because the piece of fruit he was about to put into his mouth instead hit me in the face. Thank god it was dry. “That wasn’t nice, Sammy,” I scolded. “Shut up, Mordon.” He couldn’t contain his laughter.
“How about we go get breakfast?” Nano asked.
I took Sammy’s bag and we all headed out of the room. Nano stopped to speak with one of the guards for a moment before taking the lead.
The dining hall was nothing delicate or elegant; it was huge and sturdy, just like the rest of the underground kingdom. Meats, cheeses, fruits, and drinks were spread out along the massive table. There were only a few people there already. Vivian was looking around with wild eyes, much like I probably did when I arrived on Duran the first time. Mordon was more conserved.
“What is the dining etiquette here?” he asked in Sudo.
“I don’t know. I have eaten here in public only once before, but it was with a different king. Everyone waited for the king to fill his plate, then parents filled their children’s plates before their own.”
People stood and bowed as Nila went to the head of the table. He sat, then Nano sat next to him and Vivian sat next to Nano. I went to sit next to Vivian, but Nila told me to sit on the other side of him. I wasn’t going to argue with him in front of his people. Mordon sat on the other side of me, still holding Sammy.
Nano did not wait for Nila, so we all just filled the plates in front of us. I was starving. The food was about what I remembered, not amazing but pretty good. Mordon was able to get in a few bites after giving Sammy some fish to play with. Once I found the water, I chugged two glasses of it.
Nila and I had a nice time catching up, and I told him I was impressed with how much better his English was. After we were all done, Nano said goodbye and disappeared, supposedly to Malta. Nila asked us if we wanted to see the kingdom and, of course, we all agreed.
We walked down the alleyways, over bridges, and around the castle. People were just starting at their jobs herding animals, transporting goods, setting up stalls to sell food, etc… The streets were clean, but fairly dark. Sparsely placed torches added a measure of safety, but I didn’t think Nila, the king of the entire world, should be walking around without his guards.
“How are things going topside?” I asked.
“Is good. Land is healing and I made forests and island in under city. People fight no more. They want another High King, but that not happen. I am only High King and I stay in under city.”
“Why wouldn’t you want to live above ground?”
“I like my kingdom. I like my guards. Goblins cannot live above ground.”
“So, why are we underground?” Vivian asked.
Nila explained in great detail about the war that destroyed the land above and made it inhabitable. I was so engrossed in the story that I jumped when the weirdest bark I have ever heard in my life interrupted us. I peered around in the dark hallway, but couldn’t find the source of the noise until Vivian screamed. She screamed so loud and harshly that I thought she had been attacked, but then I saw it.
The small creature huddled against the wall was about the creepiest thing I had ever seen. It had the shape of something between a mammal and reptile, and its skin was splotchy, sandy brown with a small ridge down its back. It had a short, stubby tail and a snout even shorter and stubbier. Instead of teeth, it had a flat beak, but from either side of the beak was a small, fang-like husk. Its head was fairly large compared to its body.
“Hello, there, little guy,” I said gently, squatting down to see it better. “You’re such a long way from home, aren’t you?”
It backed away with fear, then charged with a bark and thrust of its head. I didn’t retreat, so the creature recoiled to cower. It was shaking like a small dog, but was preparing to charge again.
“Is that a creature of Earth?” Mordon asked.
Nila and Mordon shared an expression of shock/horror. Vivian, on the other hand, relaxed when I proved to not be afraid of it. I looked at Mordon and tried to keep my expression reassuring.
“Yeah, you could say that. He is from Earth, but it’s even worse than that. This is a Diictodon, a reptilian creature from the Permian period. The Permian period is the last period of the Paleozoic Era, when the world only had Pangaea. It has been dead for over two hundred fifty million years.”
“Is it normal to know so much about extinct beasts?” he whispered to Vivian.
She shook her head. “That’s just Dylan. He would go to class half dead with injury or sickness, but if there was a prehistoric nature special or something on ancient scripture, there was nothing that could get him away from the TV. He could tell you if it’s male or female without looki
ng up its skirt.”
“Skirt? I think I’m confused.”
“He’s male, thanks for asking,” I said. They all stared at me. “Diictodons mate for life and live in pairs. Males are bigger than females,” I explained. When they continued to stare at me, I pointed behind them. “That one over there is smaller, so this must be the male.” They all looked to see another of the reptiles cowering in a corner. “Why are they not digging? Diictodon live in spiraling burrows.”
“Maybe they just arrive today,” Nila suggested, “or maybe they cannot dig in Dios soil.”
I nodded. “That’s possible. They look healthy, though, so they could make it.” Of course, I was by no means an expert veterinarian of ancient, extinct animals.
“Are they dangerous? If I let them live, they kill my people?” Nila asked.
“No, absolutely not. They’re herbivores, and very resilient. I think you would be fine to leave them be. If they’re the only pair that made it here, they will probably have babies and then they will die out without any others to breed with. They will make a few borrows and might be a bit pesky, but they wouldn’t hurt anyone. At least this pair and their babies can live out a comfortable life without having to hide from…” I trailed off as I remembered what else lived in their time.
“Dylan? What is it?” Mordon asked.
I stood up. “This is bad. This is very, very bad.”
“You said he was an herbivore,” Mordon said.
I looked at him and tried to school my expression, not for his sake but for Vivian’s. I wanted to keep her from worrying, but I didn’t want her unprepared. “The Diictodon is. However, if he’s here, what else could have found itself here? I always thought the Gorgonopsid was fascinating, but I don’t want to meet one.”
“Just because these two little guys are here, that doesn’t mean anything else from their time got here,” Mordon said.
I nodded. “You’re right. But how did they get here? How can a little ripple cause these two animals to be on another world, nearly three hundred million years after their extinction? Why them and what else?”
After walking for a few hours, Vivian had to find a rest spot. Nila left Mordan and me in a library with a guard watch over us while he took her back to the throne room. The guard just stood at the door and glared at us. At least I think he glared; it is hard to tell a goblin’s expression. We looked over maps, but neither of us could read the Dios language, Dego, so the books were useless.
“Can you use your book to translate?”
“I have never tried it for reading. Plus, I was only successful at it that one time and it gave me a massive headache. Is there something you need to know about Dios? Nila told me a lot about it before.”
Mordon sat Sammy down on the fur rug, but the child immediately started crawling away. Mordon ran after him and pulled him back. After a few minutes, he gave up; it wasn’t like Sammy could get out of the room. Mordon and I sat at the table.
“Well, I’m not much interested in the history, but we did not get to do much on Earth. What I saw was exciting… after the rain stopped. Here, we have seen a forest and a kingdom. I want to see more.”
“I told you this kingdom wasn’t like your father’s,” I said.
“No. It’s darker and older. My father’s is very extravagant and rich. I hate my father’s castle, but this place is kind of peaceful.”
“While we’re on the subject, we will hopefully survive this. So if you left your father for good, what are you going to do now?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I’ll settle down somewhere. Or maybe I’ll travel and take jobs as I need. I want to become a wizard, maybe work at a school. Maybe I can teach magic.”
“What about your last name? Your apprenticeship? Is your father going to hunt you down?”
“Well, since I am his only son, he probably will. Besides, he would never have given me my name until I took his position, which I never planned to do. I can break my apprenticeship with him and find another wizard to take me as his apprentice. Then I can file for an adoption name. I am really not sure what I will do about my father. He can’t really make me go back… I don’t think he can.” He looked less sure of himself. “I can’t go back.”
“If he tries, you can scare him off. Just speak English and roast him with your slightly warm fire. Don’t most sago call the Guardians ‘demons’?”
“Mama.” Sammy was standing beside Mordon, pulling at his shirt.
“Just a minute,” he answered. “If I go back to my father, he will marry me to some girl just for the power. I want my own life.”
“Mama!” Sammy demanded.
Mordon’s eyes went wide and he looked at Sammy. “Did you just talk? Your mother said you can’t talk. Was that your first word?” He picked Sammy up and held him.
I couldn’t keep the laughter in anymore. I probably should have tried to stay in my chair, but I couldn’t breathe over my laughing.
“What is your problem?” Mordon asked.
“He called you mama!”
“So? I guess that he can’t pronounce Mordon.”
“Mama is what babies call their mother!”
Mordon was speechless, possibly mortified. Sammy was innocently knocking stuff over on the table. The next thing I knew, he picked up a small quill jar and threw it at me. It hit me square on the head and it hurt.
“No! Sammy, that was bad!” Mordon scolded.
Sammy looked up at him with a confused expression.
“It’s alright,” I said as I sat back in my seat.
“No, it’s not. Sammy needs to learn not to hurt people. Sammy, that was bad. You hurt Dylan.”
“Mordon, he’s been throwing everything in his hands at me since we met. This time he didn’t miss. We need to be consistent with him. If you laugh every time he throws something at me, then you scold him when he hits me, you’re just going to confuse him.”
“Mama,” he cried again.
We both looked at him and he pointed at his diaper. Mordon looked like Sammy just slaughtered a puppy. He tried to hand him to me, but I backed away. “You suggested I didn’t touch him.”
“I was wrong.”
“No, I think you were right. I’ll walk you through it.” I dug through the baby bag and pulled out a diaper and wipes. “Lay him on the table.”
He did, and Sammy watched us expectantly. Luckily we found a trashcan and a pitcher of drinking water for Mordon to wash his hands with.
“I hope he doesn’t do that often, because I’m not doing that again.”
Mordon sat Sammy on the ground. The baby immediately stood up and walked off. “I wonder if there’s a leash in the bag,” I said.
This time, there was a warning; we could hear the ground groan. Mordon ran and picked up Sammy while I tried to get the baby bag off my shoulder, but the strap got tangled in my book bag. The goblin guard seemed prepared.
The ground started shaking when I felt a presence trying to press in on me. It was like an aura of hate and hunger and heat trying to push itself into me. My magic didn’t like that; the energy inside heated up and formed a barrier against the intruding entity. It was effective and the presence wasn’t able to get in. Finally, it gave up.
The guard wasn’t so lucky. Mordon brought Sammy over to me just as the guard, now possessed by the demon, created what looked like blue fire. The ground stopped shaking. I looked over at Mordon to see his fingertips were slowly changing into claws and his eyes turned black. I covered Sammy, still in Mordon’s arms.
Why didn’t the demon just possess Sammy when he had a chance? We have to get away. We have to get out of here.
We both held Sammy between us and waited for the demon’s attack. Time passed… Nothing happened. “Dylan,” Mordon whispered. “Dylan, you need to look.”
Chapter 6
Edward
I sat on a bench by the water and pondered the situation for as long as I could. I had no idea who here knew where the Stone of Iodus was, an
d I could find nothing in the books. The world was too large to search and without my magic, I couldn’t track it down. It was a rare occurrence that I couldn’t think my way out of a situation. Many times I have dealt with people that knew nothing of other worlds, but never had I dealt with a population that despised magic.
I reached into my bag to feel my deck of cards.
There was no indication it had rained at all that day, despite the storm I saw for myself that begun the night before. The sun was setting, but the people milling about didn’t head in out of the awakening dark. There was a loud cracking sound and I turned to see Cylo standing behind me, soaking wet with a confused and frightened expression.
“What happened to you?” I asked.
His legs gave out and he fell in the sand. “That statue in the library attacked you when you looked away. You disappeared. I tried to find you, but the rain… The storm got so bad and then the water got inside… there was something in the water.” His voice was shaky with shock and fear.
“What do you mean, something in the water?” I took his arm and guided him to sit on the bench. He was shaking, but I didn’t think it was from the cold water. In more than two thousand years of living, I learned that there was more in this universe than I would ever know.
He pulled up his pant leg, showing me an awful bite on his calf. It looked like a canine bite except for two particular punctures which looked like a snake bite. It had already stopped bleeding, but the bite was deep enough that it shouldn’t have.
“Something was in the water. It broke open the door and dragged me out of the library but all I could see was rushing water. I heard a sound… it was like thunder but there was no lightning. It sounded like it was coming from the flood and not the sky. I got my foot free and stood up… and I was here.”
“Okay. Help me find your friend so we can leave this place.”
We went back to the residential area, Cylo with an obvious limp. When we arrived at a particular door, he knocked, and the door opened to a petite young girl about Dylan’s age with large sapphire-blue eyes. She only came up to my chest and looked like I could crush her with a firm grip. Her thick, peach-colored hair flowed freely past her waist. Her white attire was a sort of dress that covered her front and back but was held together by thin golden belts and it did not hide her sides. Her eyes went from me, to Cylo, and then back to me.
