Magic Portal (Legends of Llenwald Book 1)

by DM Fike

  She had inadvertently aimed right at Avalon.

  Avalon pitched forward as a razor shard ripped through her right side. Her body flushed with warmth, as if someone had smothered her in a blanket. Then pain. Stabbing pain. Needles and knives and searing pain spreading from the wound.

  Time slowed to a crawl.

  Avalon moved her hands to touch the wound, but it seemed to take forever, seconds lasting minutes. When she finally got close to the bleeding, her fingers bumped into something. No someone. Gauntlets hovered near the wound, pulsating with electricity. Something else was glowing too, just behind her. The ice shard that had pierced her hung oddly midair, as if suspended by a master puppet, with little droplets of her own glimmering blood surrounding it.

  “Do not worry, Avalon,” a voice whispered in her ear. “I am here.”

  “Kay,” she whispered. Her own voice sounded faint, as if spoken through a long dark tunnel. The tunnel closed around her vision.

  Kay’s arms wrapped around her from both sides, holding her steady. His arms were blurry somehow, as if they had been drawn with chalk on a sidewalk and come to life. His gauntlets cupped the midair ice shard into his palm. Kay hissed something through his teeth. Her core temperature cooled, as if engulfed in an autumn breeze.

  “It will be over soon, Avalon. Be strong.”

  With great force, he pushed the ice back toward her stomach.

  The pain before was nothing. This was true pain. Avalon felt as if her whole body tore apart, came together again, then shred into pieces once more. She tried to scream, but rising mucus from her esophagus cut her off. She could not move, could only hear Kay’s reassuring words cut across her consciousness.

  And then it stopped. She fell to the ground—or Kay placed her there, she wasn’t sure. Pointed rocks and prickly weeds stabbed her cheek. Kay slumped over beside her.

  “You’re safe,” Kay whispered, his voice not far away from her ear. It was the last thing she heard as blackness overtook her.

  CHAPTER 10

  AVALON COULD HEAR voices somewhere in the periphery of her consciousness. Two people arguing, one lower-pitched, one higher. Then silence. Slowly, something lifted her shirt sleeve and rubbed the bare skin underneath.

  “Oh yeah!”

  A sharp pain split into Avalon’s arm, causing her to jerk upright. Vimp flipped backward into the dirt, barely missing getting smacked in the face. Soothing her arm, Avalon saw two distinct puncture wounds, blood trickling out.

  “Well, one out of two ain’t bad, Vimp.” Nobody threw more wood into the campfire. “Not every bite is worth its bark.” He had little bits of reeds stuck in his frazzled green hair, and his purple clothes were rumpled and torn. One sleeve had been partially ripped open, and she could see two band-aids underneath the fabric. Beyond the narrow ring of light cast by the fire, dense forest trees loomed, their branches arching toward the heavens. A single bright star managed to twinkle through the forest canopy.

  Avalon scooted away from them, clutching her injured limb. Everything came back in a rush: the woman posing as a federal agent, her magical attack, Kay saving her from an ice wound that had torn a hole in her gut. She had lost consciousness. Now she glanced at the trees crowding around her, no idea where she was.

  “Evening, sunshine.” Nobody bared his crooked teeth as Vimp perched on his shoulder. Vimp’s fangs gleamed in the firelight.

  “What do you want?” she demanded.

  “Do we really need the clichés again?” Nobody reached under his cape. Avalon tensed, but instead of withdrawing a weapon, he retrieved a worn purse with a red flower pattern. He retrieved a bottle of aspirin from inside. His fingers fiddled with the bottle, but it refused to open. “Ah, Sadus curse these childproof caps. Here, you do it.” He threw it at her.

  She dropped the bottle, picked it up, and then hesitated as she held it.

  “Well, go on.” Nobody snapped his fingers. “I’ve got a headache. From saving your sorry butt, I might add.”

  Avalon pushed the bottle cap down so the two arrows on its rim aligned. The cap popped off, and she placed two pills in her palm. Re-closing the bottle, she cautiously offered Nobody the pills. As soon as he took them, she scooted back away from him.

  “Thanks.” Nobody grabbed a plastic baggie, filled it with water from a metal canteen, and placed the two pills inside. As he slid the bag onto his forehead, he let out a sigh of relief. “Ah, that hits the spot.” He closed his eyes as if sinking into a bubble bath.

  “Ee. Ee,” the dark blue demon agreed, leaning over to put his own head on the bag.

  Avalon shook her head at their lunacy. She ached all over and couldn’t understand why her former attacker acted so casual. “Where’s Kay? What have you done with him?”

  “Oh, for yuck’s sake,” Nobody grumbled, letting the plastic bag plop to the ground. “He’s right here, you walking bag of predictability.” The gremlin shifted to one side, and Avalon saw the back of Kay’s head amid the pine needles.

  Avalon cried out and scrambled over to Kay. He still had on the Fantasma uniform pants but no shirt, and his gauntlets were gone. He lay on his side, wings splayed like banners from his back. He did not move or even appear to breathe, so Avalon put her hand over his mouth. When humid breath hit her fingers, a weight lifted from her weary body.

  She discovered two fresh puncture wounds on his arm. She glared at Vimp. “It bit him too.”

  “Ee!” The creature crouched shyly behind Nobody.

  “Vimp isn’t an ‘it,’ not unless he’s been messing around in veterinarians’ offices again. Vimp is most definitely a ‘he.’ And of course Vimp bit him. How else were we supposed to wake you guys? You’ve been out tepid the better part of a day.”

  “You kidnapped me,” Avalon stated.

  “We saved you,” Nobody corrected. “Desert Rose would have hauled you someplace you do not want to be. Trust me.”

  Avalon recalled that Nobody had called Agent Brimestone by that name. “You know her?”

  “I know of her. She is the daughter of very powerful people. Legends. Most young ‘uns her age rebel by dating someone their parents don’t approve of. She went the less-traveled path and became a mercenary for hire.”

  Avalon connected the dots. “So someone hired her to find you?”

  “Someone not too happy with me,” Nobody boasted. “I’m sure he’d love to get his hands on you and probably this fairy here too with his fancy time reverse magic thing-a-maggigy. I had no idea anyone could do that. So cool!” Nobody leaned forward eagerly like a kid hearing his favorite bedtime story. “You wield lightning too, don’t you? Can you show me?”

  “What? I…” Avalon remembered that strange sizzling in her gut, the voice urging her to use it. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  Nobody clucked his tongue in disbelief. “Uh, yeah you do. First the whole lightning on top of the roller coaster, then again with Icy Hot. You trying to tell me you didn’t do that?”

  “I-I don’t know.”

  “You at least know if you’re human or not, don’t you?” he mocked.

  Avalon stiffened. “Of course I am.”

  Nobody’s eyes brightened. “Well, that’s good to know.”

  Avalon turned back to Kay. “When will he wake up?”

  “Don’t look at me.” Nobody shrugged. “I’m a gremlin with dark magic. I don’t know the positively charged end from the negatively charged end of a battery. That’s all you.”

  Dark magic. Lightning magic. Statues coming to life. Green-haired gremlins. The weight of everything that had happened in the last few days hit her in a rush. Her aches intensified and she felt dizzy. She leaned her head back against a tree to steady herself.

  Nobody clucked sympathetically. “I know this is a lot to take in. We can get through some of it here, slowly. But first, relax, ok?”

  “Relax?” Avalon managed to breathe.

  “Let’s try something normal. Vimp, get the cube.”

&n
bsp; “Ee! Ee!” Vimp squealed, pouncing into the darkness outside the campfire light. He returned with a colorful cube in his paws. He gleefully placed it on the ground in front of Avalon.

  Avalon leaned away from the demon. “What does he want?”

  “What do you think? He wants you to mix up the Rubik’s Cube for him. He loves a challenge.”

  “Oh yeah!” Vimp said.

  Although demonic in appearance, Vimp reminded Avalon more of a small child than a mystical creature, begging her to play with him. Avalon took the Rubik’s cube, noting the jagged edges made by fang marks. She went to work twisting. The cube became a mess of bright colors. She tossed it to an eager Vimp.

  With amazing speed, Vimp’s small paws flew around the puzzle, shifting this way and that. Avalon couldn’t keep up with his speed. He paused once and giggled, showing her a solution of the puzzle in which the Rubik’s cube was almost back to its normal state, except for a different colored square in the middle of each side. His mittens became a flurry once again and within seconds, he had completed the puzzle, all sides showing only one color.

  “Rubik’s,” Avalon said. “Like the turtle.”

  “Actually, this is Vimp’s normal state. I thought a turtle might be a little more acceptable to a human than, say, a devil with a pointy tail.”

  “So you’re the beggar who planted Rubix… or Vimp… or whatever in my car?”

  Nobody nodded. “I needed to keep tabs on you.”

  “To kidnap me,” she accused, “like Desert Rose.”

  “Not like Desert Rose,” Nobody insisted. “Notice how I don’t have you at gunpoint.”

  “But you have me captive in the middle of nowhere, and Kay’s hurt.” She backed ever so slightly away from him again.

  Nobody lifted his arms in surrender. “I get it. You have trust issues. Let me help you with that.” He reached into his cape, withdrew a jingling object, and threw it at her. A set of car keys landed by her sneaker.

  “My car is parked down that little trail. See?” Nobody took a small flashlight out of his purse and shone it down a dirt path, outlining the shadow of a car. “You can leave at any time. Drag Winged Wonder along with you. I certainly don’t want him.”

  Avalon stood to do just that. She managed to push Kay onto his back and lift him up by the armpits. She hauled him a few inches before his wings twisted underneath his body. Fearing she might rip them, she paused.

  Nobody saw her hesitate. “Or, you can choose door number three, and I’ll help you.”

  Avalon scowled at him, angry at herself for wanting to hear more. “And how will you do that?”

  “I know a guy,” Nobody said with confidence.

  “I know lots of guys,” Avalon retorted as she pushed Kay back on his side and tried to fold his wings in a way that would stay off the ground.

  Nobody snorted. “Ha. Good one. No, I mean, I know a healer, an Aossi who might be able to help him.”

  “Ah-oh-she?”

  “Aossi,” Nobody confirmed. “Not a human. One of us. Haven’t you noticed all the pointy eared people?”

  Avalon’s heart quickened. Nobody might hold the key to unlocking Kay’s memories. “Where exactly are you from?”

  “Llenwald.”

  “Never heard of it.”

  “Surely you’ve heard a fairy tale or two.”

  “Those are true stories?”

  Nobody stoked the fire with a massive stick. “Probably not, but they were based on encounters between humans and Aossi a long, long time ago, passed down through your history. We have our own stories about humans too, when you guys came over to Llenwald. I guess you could call them human tales.”

  “Where is Llenwald?”

  “Not here. Somewhere else.”

  Avalon put Kay back down in the ground but kept on her haunches, trying to follow the thread of this conversation. “You mean, not here in the United States?”

  Nobody shook his head.

  “Not in the Northern Hemisphere?”

  Nobody cocked his head to one side. “I’m not sure what that is.”

  “Half of Earth.”

  “That’s it!” Nobody exclaimed. “Not from Earth.”

  Avalon sat down in the hard dirt, legs numb. “This is not funny.”

  “It’s not a joke. Earth and Llenwald were two separate places, not even close to the same plane of existence, and ne’er the two shall meet. But for some reason, no one knows why, portals opened between them several millennia ago. Aossi migrated to Earth, humans stumbled onto Llenwald. They mingled on both worlds, and boom, fairy and human tales are born.”

  “You hopped over in one of these portals?”

  “Do I look like some ancient dude?” Nobody made a face. “We’re talking centuries and centuries ago. Those portals are long gone. Aossi got sick of humans on Llenwald—sucking up our resources, causing wars, multiplying at a much faster rate—and decided enough was enough. Powerful magic wielders closed those portals. Unfortunately, the damage was done. Humans, like any good invasive species became a fixture on Llenwald, yet another warring force on an already divided land. More pockets of people to fight, pillage, and repeat.”

  “So there’s no way back to Llenwald now?” Avalon’s head spun trying to keep up.

  “Wrong again! Because despite the best efforts of the Aossi, once you open a door, you can never fully close it again. There is a way to re-open the ancient portals, and that knowledge is available to a handful of resourceful Aossi.”

  “And you are such a person?”

  Nobody patted his chest. “Indeed, I am.”

  “And you want to bring Kay over to Llenwald to this Aossi healer friend of yours?”

  “Sadus, no,” Nobody choked. “My guy lives on Earth, not too far from here.”

  “And you will help him, help me, out of the goodness of your heart?”

  Nobody tapped his forehead in thought. “Sure, let’s go with that.”

  Avalon stared down at Kay’s wings, which had fallen back to the ground, catching shimmering reflections of the crackling campfire. She didn’t have a lot of options. She knew she had to help Kay, but what could she do? She couldn’t take him to the nearest hospital. Even if she could drag him to the car and speed away, she wasn’t sure if Desert Rose would show up again. And maybe this healer could also help with Kay’s amnesia.

  “Fine, let’s go visit your ‘guy.’”

  “Sweet!” Nobody raised his hand, waiting expectantly. When she didn’t immediately know what to do, he said, “It’s a high five. This is your custom, not mine. Give me some skin.”

  She half-heartedly slapped her palm against his.

  “Perfect. Now”—Nobody curled his fingers into a ball—“fist bump.”

  Avalon ignored his hand. “Grab Kay’s legs. I’ll get his torso.”

  “But what about the rest of the deal? Doesn’t it go high five, fist bump, knock elbows, clap hands—”

  “Yeah, no one does that.”

  “What about shaking on it?” Nobody spread his arms out wide and spasmed his body so hard that the reeds in his hair fell to the ground.

  “Just get his legs.”

  “You’re no fun,” Nobody muttered, but he did as he was told.

  They managed to wrangle Kay down to the dusty car and place him in the back seat. Avalon made sure his wings would not get squished under his weight, then adjusted a few seatbelts around him for good measure. Nobody doused the fire, and they made sure to grab everything from the campsite.

  “So who’s driving?” Nobody asked.

  “I still feel a bit dizzy,” Avalon admitted. “And I don’t know where we’re going. Maybe you should?”

  “Sweet! I drive like I color.” Nobody opened the driver’s side door. “Outside the lines.”

  Avalon elbowed him out of the way before he could get into the car. “Changed my mind. I’ll drive. Just tell me where to go.”

  CHAPTER 11

  NOBODY WANTED TO travel north across th
e Idaho border, but they didn’t make it very far before Avalon noticed the car’s fuel gauge at empty. She pulled off the highway into the nearest gas station, hissing at Vimp to stay out of sight on the backseat floor. The car emerged out of the darkness into the glaring bright lights of a small 24-hour store. She pulled up to the pump as far away from the front door as possible so as not to draw attention.

  She exited the car, opened the gas tank and put the nozzle into the car before she realized she didn’t have her wallet.

  “What’s with you?” Nobody asked as she frantically patted her pants pockets, pulling out her phone and car keys.

  “My purse,” she moaned. “It was in Desert Rose’s car. It had my driver’s license, my cards, and my money.”

  “Ouch. Well, kiss all that goodbye.”

  “Do you have cash?”

  “American dollars? Sure, I got that.” He reached into his purse and displayed a mangled wad of $100 bills.

  Avalon gasped as he tried to give her five of them. “You don’t happen to have smaller bills, do you?”

  “I could tear one in half.” He held one up, preparing to rip.

  “Nononono!” Avalon waved her arms helplessly.

  Nobody laughed. “Sorry, couldn’t help myself. I’m not that big of an idiot. And no, this is all I got.”

  “Just give me one.” She snatched the crumbled, slightly greasy bill out of his hand and tried to smooth it. “This won’t raise suspicion at all.”

  “Hey, can you get some candy while you’re in there? One of those chocolate bars these places always have. With the nuts inside. And a Cokey Coda.”

  It took Avalon a beat to realize he meant a brand of soda. “Okay, anything else?”

  “Oh yeah!” Vimp yelled from deep within the back seat, his yellow eyes glowing in the dark.

  “And a hot dog for Vimp. It doesn’t matter how disgusting it looks. He’ll eat it.”

  Avalon went inside, used the facilities, and bought the requested items, disgusting hot dog and all. She chose an energy drink for herself and paid in advance for the pump. Thankfully, the tired gas attendant didn’t care when she handed him the $100 bill.