The Void Hunters (Realmwalker Book 2)

by Jonathan Franks

  Kerring turned away from the cairn and toward the group of fairies gathered behind him.

  “Bome was one of our best,” Kerring said. “He could almost sense where the flash fires would start. I can't count how many times he diverted fires that were heading for the city. He was brave and he was skilled.”

  He turned back to the cairn. “Bome,” he said, “you have fallen today and we honor you.”

  Kerring placed a stone atop the cairn and flew above it. Each of the two dozen other fairies did the same, a somber procession placing a stone on the cairn and hovering above.

  When everyone was finished, Kerring addressed them once more. “Our times are always shorter than we'd like. Remember Bome and the example he set for us. All of us are better because of him.”

  The fairies of The Savannah flew away from the grave of their fallen comrade and back to their lives.

  chapter 9

  Gen was sad to leave The Highlands. The area was beautiful. Its gentle rolling hills were blanketed with soft, purple flowers that gave way to green grass. Thousands of large gray boulders were scattered across the land. Songbirds flew around them, ignoring the fairies as they traveled and wooly creatures that reminded Gen of a hybrid between sheep and Guinea pigs wandered across the terrain, grazing on the grass and the flowers.

  The border to The Valley took Gen’s breath away.

  “Wow!” she breathed.

  The soft green and purple landscape of The Highlands gradually gave way to a brown, rocky terrace that descended a very long way. The floor of The Valley far below was a ribbon of green grass on either side of a sparkling river. It went on in either direction as far as Gen could see.

  “It’s so beautiful,” she said.

  “It’ll be dark in a couple hours. We won’t reach Wuhr before dark but let’s plan on getting there tomorrow.”

  “Wuhr is a city in The Valley?” Gen asked.

  “Right. It’ll be a good place to resupply and get a little rest before we get to The Void,” Herron said.

  They had decided to skirt around The Marsh. The Chamber of the Heart was on The Valley side and they all agreed they would much rather travel as much as they could through the Realms. Traveling to The Marsh from The Foothills meant they would have to traverse the entirety of The Marsh inside The Void to reach the Chamber. Entering The Marsh from The Valley meant they could reach the Chamber in one day rather than three.

  They ate lunch and rested on the vista overlooking The Valley. Nobody else complained about needing to stop so Gen soldiered on. Gen was getting accustomed to flying all day but she still got tired.

  “What’s Wuhr like?”

  “It’s supposed to be quite lovely,” Herron said. “I’ve never been there, myself.”

  “I thought you’d been everywhere!” Gen teased.

  Herron gave her a half smile. “I try. But, no, not everywhere. I don’t think it’s even possible to go everywhere. There are more Realms that I can count. I can name a couple dozen pretty easily but they go on and on. We don’t even have them all mapped out yet.”

  “Some say there’s an infinite number of Realms,” Shae said.

  “Do you believe that?” Hope asked.

  “I like the idea of it. It’s a beautiful idea: traveling, flying and flying and flying and always going somewhere new. I want to believe it.”

  “Where I’m from,” Gen said, “it’s a planet. It’s a sphere. Like when you look at the moon, how it’s all round. So if you go and go in a straight line you’ll eventually end up back where you started.”

  “That’s amazing!” Shae said. “Can you see it curving like a ball?”

  “No,” Gen said. “I think it’s something like twenty five thousand miles around. You don’t really have miles, do you?”

  “We have miles,” Herron smiled. “But they’re scaled to us. We have feet and inches.” He held up his fingers a little ways apart. “I’d call that an inch. But on the other side of the Bridge, in your world, your inch was many, many times larger than that.”

  Gen said, “That makes sense, I guess, since we have a common language and all that. I see what you mean. When I was at my human size, I would say you guys were about four inches tall.” She held the palm of her right hand up and the palm of her left hand face down about four inches above it. “Yeah, that’s about right.”

  “What’s it like to be so tall?” Shae asked. “I can’t even imagine in. Every time you take a step you must boom all over the place!” She stood up and stomped around with her feet wide apart. They all laughed.

  “It feels just like being this size, except everything at this size feels so effortless. I think it has something to do with how little mass we’re moving around.

  “I don't understand something,” Gen continued. “You have a sun and a moon. You have sunrise and sunset, and moonrise and... moonset? Is that a thing? Anyway, how does the sun go up and down if your world isn't round?”

  The other three fairies looked at each other blankly, then they all burst into laughter.

  “I have no idea,” Shae laughed.

  “Nobody's ever been all the way around the world?” Gen asked.

  “Never heard of anyone trying,” Herron said. “Maybe that's what eat should do when we get back. We'll be the first fairies to travel all the way around the world.”

  He turned to look at the sun. “We better get a move on.”

  They geared back up and flew down into The Valley.

  -

  “Molly, it's time for dinner!”

  Molly ignored her mommy. She was having far too much fun to waste time on anything as boring as dinner.

  She flew her dolls around her room. She and mommy made wings for them out of construction paper, then she'd carefully colored them in and attached them to the dolls with elastic hair ties.

  The Ken doll said in a very deep and stern voice, “Okay, girls, it's time to go. Let's go to The Valley!”

  “Okay!” she shouted and she zoomed them off and ran them around her room.

  “Oh no! Look out!” She set a stuffed rabbit in front of them.

  She nodded the rabbit's head and it said, “No! You can't get past me!”

  “Oh, yes we can!” She grabbed one of the Barbie dolls by the hair and whipped her legs at the rabbit, who went tumbling off the bed. She cheered. “We did it! No one will ever stop us!”

  “Molly,” mommy said. Molly didn't even hear her come in. For someone so big, mommy could be awfully sneaky. “It's time for dinner.”

  “I can't go have dinner, mommy! Can't you see? We're trying to go to The Valley!”

  “The Valley can wait, sweetheart. Come on. Let's go eat.”

  “Did you make any pancakes for Shae?” Molly asked.

  “Oh, yes,” mommy said. “Your imaginary friend has a double stack of imaginary pancakes at the table, right next to your seat so you can eat together.”

  “Goody! Let's go!” Molly dropped all four dolls to the ground and ran out the door.

  “Walk!” Mommy called behind her.

  “Yes, mommy.” Molly slowed down and held onto the bannister as she went downstairs. Her knee still hurt from when she fell down the stairs yesterday and she did not want her other knee to hurt, too.

  She sat at the kitchen table. Her plate was already made for her: chicken already cut up, peas, and a pile of Goldfish crackers. She looked at Shae's seat and the double stack of pancakes was steaming hot.

  “More butter?” she asked Shae.

  “Mm hmm!” Shae answered.

  Molly pretended to butter the imaginary pancakes.

  “More syrup?” she asked Shae.

  “Mm hmm!” Shae answered.

  Molly pretended to pour syrup over the imaginary pancakes. She ate her chicken and her Goldfish and mostly ignored her peas. When mommy looked at her, she ate a couple, then whispered conspiratorially to Shae, “Just to keep mommy happy!”

  Shae nodded firmly once, then went back to eating her hot, butte
ry, syrupy pancakes.

  “I would have eaten pancakes, too, mommy,” Molly said.

  “I know, sweetheart, but tonight we are having chicken.”

  “It's okay. I like chicken, too. I was just saying I like pancakes, too! Don't Shae's pancakes look delicious?”

  Mommy smiled that grownup smile, the ones most of the grownups seemed to get when she talked about Shae. She couldn't understand why they were like that. After all, she was sitting right here.

  “Two more bites, then get ready for a bath,” mommy said.

  “But all that's left is peas!”

  Mommy said, “And you need to take two more bites.”

  “Okay,” she grumbled, and speared a pea with her fork. She stuck it in her mouth.

  “That was not a bite.”

  Molly frowned. “May I have a spoon, please?”

  Mommy gave her a spoon. Molly could actually eat peas from a spoon, but she couldn't make them stay on the fork. She ate what she knew would be two mommy-approved bites and pushed her chair back. “May I be excused, please?”

  “Good manners,” mommy said. “You may. I'll be up to start your bath in a minute.”

  Molly turned to Shae, who was also done eating. “Come on, Shae, we have to take a bath now.” Then she and Shae ran upstairs and got undressed.

  -

  Wuhr was just as beautiful as The Peak. The fairies here were just as nice, and the Walkers' house was even nicer. It was two stories with a kitchen and a living room on the ground floor and four bedrooms upstairs. Shae and Gen went to get dinner for them, leaving Hope and Herron behind to unpack their gear.

  “Was Shae right?” Hope asked.

  “About most things, yes,” Herron said. “About what in particular?”

  “Can you hear us having sex?”

  Herron laughed. “Yeah, sometimes.”

  “Sorry,” Hope smiled. “But not that sorry.”

  “It's okay,” Herron said.

  Hope finished unpacking her own pack. Her equipment, food, and gear were spread carefully in a neat row on the table. “So what's going on with you two?”

  “What?” Herron stopped unpacking Shae's pack. “What are you talking about?”

  “You've been acting a little weird since we left The Peak. Actually, that first night, Gen and I thought maybe something was, you know, going on with you two.”

  The tips of Herron's ears flushed slightly. “She… It's complicated.”

  “Is it now?” Hope's interest was piqued. “In what way?”

  “That night, the one you're talking about, she followed me back to my tent.”

  Hope hopped up and sat on the table. “Go on.”

  “Nothing happened. But she said that it would. She predicted it, I mean.”

  “Interesting! Do you like her?”

  “Yeah, she's fine.”

  “That's not what I meant,” Hope said.

  “I know what you meant. She is very attractive, yes. And I am attracted to that bubbly, giggly naiveté she seems to have. It's so at odds with what it must be like, having the future in your head all the time,” he said. “I think it's that aspect that I find so appealing.”

  “Well, she's foreseen it. You may as well get it over with,” Hope grinned.

  “You think she really has?”

  “You think she lied to you?” Hope asked.

  Herron didn't answer right away. He went back to unpacking Shae's gear and laying it out on the table. “No.”

  Hope slid off the table and started unpacking Gen's pack. “Me, neither.” She started laughing.

  “What?”

  She laughed harder, tried to say something, but was laughing hard enough that she couldn't form the words. She wiped her eyes and finally managed to choke out, “Wing rot…”

  A little later, Gen and Shae returned with food. They ate and shared stories. They asked Gen a lot more questions about her world, and they finally convinced her to start telling them about Star Wars.

  -

  They made good time the next morning. When they stopped for lunch, Herron guessed they only had another hour or two left until they reached The Marsh. They ate quickly and pressed on. They ascended to the top of the steep hill at the top of The Valley and they saw a gray nothingness spread out before them.

  “This is it,” Herron said. “I think we just cross like a normal border.” He approached the border, where the patchy grass of The Valley abruptly ended at a solid line of grayness. Then he froze and listened. He drew his sword and turned quickly to his left. Once Herron drew his sword, Gen and Shae drew their own blades and Hope nocked an arrow in her bow.

  Three creatures approached them. They had shiny black skin and had posture similar to gorillas. They ran on all four limbs but they hunched over more like wolves. Their faces were practically featureless - no eyes, ears, or nose - except for their wide, tooth-filled mouths. They hissed and ran at the fairies.

  Hope released several arrows at the one in the lead. Two glanced off its hard, smooth skin, but three more sunk into its large, blunt head. It squealed and ran at her. She shot it another four times and it collapsed, seven of her arrows pierced through its head. The wounds oozed with a thick, blue fluid.

  The other two creatures continued to charge. Hope dropped her bow and drew her sword. She and Herron charged ahead to meet them. One of them leaped onto Herron, knocking him over. Hope swung at the other and sliced it across its thick, muscular forearm. It swung at her with long, black claws and she ducked away.

  Shae jumped into the air and swooped down at the one on top of Herron. She opened a long gash down the back of its leg and it whirled on her and leaped into the air. Shae tried to dodge backwards but it reached her. It grappled her and grabbed at her wings. It couldn't get a solid hold on them but it managed to slow them enough to send itself and Shae crashing to the ground. Gen ran at it from the ground and stabbed at it with her sword. It pierced the creature's abdomen and it shrieked and got to its feet.

  Herron was in the air and positioned himself over the creature. Shae adjusted her position and kicked at the monster. It turned its head toward her and growled and Herron took advantage of its distraction to dive straight down on it, driving his blade through the creature's shoulder. It collapsed, hissing weakly. Herron shoved his boot into its face and twisted his blade free. The creature went limp.

  Hope twirled behind the creature she had engaged and kicked behind her at the back of its knee. It buckled and the creature went down. Herron and Hope dispatched it quickly, then they examined the monsters.

  “I've never seen anything like it,” Hope said, trying to catch her breath.

  Herron was still breathing heavily and simply shook his head.

  Shae and Gen flipped one of them over. Gen's initial impression was close. They looked like faceless gorillas with shiny black skin like a killer whale. They had wide mouths crammed with several rows of sharp, pointed teeth.

  “Wow,” she said.

  “Yeah,” Shae said. “This isn't good. They're coming through the border into the Realms. I wonder if they're doing this everywhere.”

  “This makes it even more important that we succeed,” Gen said. “We need to do this.”

  “We're bound to face far worse in in there,” Herron nodded toward the curtain of grayness.

  “I know,” Gen said. “But we don't have any choice.”

  “You always have a choice,” Shae said.

  “You know what I mean.”

  Hope took Gen's hand. “Are you ready to go in there?”

  Gen nodded. Hope looked at Shae, who nodded, then at Herron. He looked back at her.

  “We might never come out of there,” he said.

  “I know,” Hope said.

  He held one hand out to Gen and the other hand to Shae. They each took his hand and the four of them, hand in hand, stepped out of the Realms and into The Void.

  chapter 10

  “What are they doing here?” Jeegan asked.

&nbs
p; “Unknown,” Sage said.

  Jeegan looked into the reflecting pool and called forth the projection once more. Four fairies killed three black praps and then they joined hands and entered The Void. One of the fairies had unique wings, very unlike her companions. All four of them had wings resembling those of insects, rather than the leathery bat wings Jeegan - and all pixies - had.

  Sage asked, “What would you like done about them, Voidmaster?”

  “Nothing,” Jeegan answered. “Three more Realms were just given to us. We have more surface now, more contact with the fairy Realms. I'm sure we're going to have more fairies randomly wandering into The Void. If the praps don't get them, I'm sure something worse will.”

  He focused the projection on the fairy with the different wings. “Something's disconcerting about this one.” He studied her image. “That will be all.”

  Sage bowed and left the Voidmaster's chamber.

  “What are you doing here, Genevieve?” Jeegan asked, then dismissed the projection.

  -

  Gen, Hope, Herron, and Shae stepped into The Void. It felt like crossing any other border. There was ground beneath their feet. The temperature didn't change noticeably. The odd thing about crossing into The Void was the curtain of gray. It was like staring into a dense fog, except there was no moisture in the air and visibility didn't drop off over any distance. The fairies could see each other quite clearly, but nothing else was visible. They saw the stone ground but there was no horizon.

  Without letting go of Hope's or Herron's hand, Gen looked back over her shoulder. The Valley was no longer visible. Behind her was the same grayness that was in front of her.

  “Should we try to go back, just to make sure we can?” Gen asked.

  “Good idea,” Herron said.

  They released their hands, turned around in place, then clasped hands again. They stepped forward and remained in the gray blank space.

  “Oh, god,” Gen said, trying not to panic. “We're stuck here! We can't go back!”

  “Calm down,” Herron said. “We guessed this was going to happen, or the fairies from the three Realms that disappeared would have come back out at some point. The Oracle was sure you'd be able to bring these Realms back. That'll bring us all home.”