by Eddie Patin
From his perspective through the opening in the huge trees, Jason could see the first crude hut he'd hid behind before, as well as a few more yurts here and there in the muddy clearing. The bottoms of the crude dwellings' rough-hewn wooden walls were permanently splashed and stained with mud, and the ground throughout the entire village was a trodden mess of huge footprints.
There was some sort of raised structure a good distance into the tribal-looking buildings; a kind of a stage that was wide and decorated along its edges with bones and hand-made rope. In the center of the stage was another smaller, raised platform—like a giant-sized coffee table made from wilderness-scrounged wood. Several metallic items sat stacked on top, glazed with mud and red algae from the storms.
Behind the coffee table thing were several thick wooden stakes with crossbeams. Loose ropes hung from those.
Two of the stakes each held a slumped, bound body. They were small compared to the ettins.
Humans.
"Holy shit..." Jason muttered, wishing again that he'd thought to bring binoculars.
Who the hell were those guys?
They were obviously dead, slumped over in weird ways that a living man wouldn't allow without pain. Their strings were cut. From way back outside of the village, Jason couldn't make out anything about the dead men other than the fact that they were very dark; probably dressed in black.
The equipment on the table before the dead bodies was also impossible to discern, but some of it was obviously metal ... or plastic. There were hard lines and complicated shapes. They could have been guns or who knows what.
Could those people be other planeswalkers? Other troll-hunters like Jason and the Reality Rifters? This was an exclusive job, after all. Could they be from a team that had come before Jason and his friends ... and failed?
Possible, Jason thought.
Bad things could definitely happen in this line of work. So far, there were a billion times it seemed where Jason could have had a bad turn of luck and been wiped out. It was that way with all of them. Morgana could have been killed on her cross. Riley could have been shot to death one of those times that his phase belt had saved his ass. Jason could be dinosaur shit by now for sure. He could have been killed many times over by those minotaurs, or shot by the Nothrix Reapers, or ripped apart by gargoyles, skewered by skeletons, fried by the necromancer, or drowned in an ocean of beer. Hell—there was that second encounter with the troll that he'd barely gotten out of by outsmarting it enough to let him get enough distance to—
"Jason Leaper 934," a rumbling voice said.
Jason jumped, adrenaline flying through his body like an electric shock. His trigger finger jerked, and he would have fired off his rifle if it had been on the trigger.
"Holy shit!" he cried, turning and looking down at Gliath. The sleek black leopardwere was standing in the bog. His feline head level with Jason's elevated body. Gliath's armor harness was caked with mud and his yellowish-green eyes stared at him impassively. "Oh God—Gliath! It's good to see you, man."
The Krulax gave the barest nod, glanced up into the tree towering over them, then looked back at Jason again.
"Ranaja told me to find you," he said. "He believed that you could help rescue them."
"Ah ... he's right!" Jason said. "I've seen some pretty weird shit, but I've been all over, rifting this way and that and through time." For some reason, he'd expected Gliath to be impressed by that, but the leopardwere's face stared back at him without emotion, listening intently. "I followed the giant—his name is Voro, by the way—to where he freaking flew up to his floating castle! And then, after one of the storms, the castle was gone!"
"I believe the castle is moving with the storms," Gliath said.
"Yeah!" Jason said. That made sense. It was wild and unbelievable, but it made sense in such a crazy world. "So that would mean that now, since it's no longer in the clearing to the east, that it must be deeper into the forest to the south; where the horizon's black?"
Gliath nodded, scanning their surrounding as Jason talked.
"I came from the castle, Jason Leaper 934," he said. "The giant has a collection of cages—glass or crystal cubes—where he keeps prisoners."
"Pets," Jason said. The ettins had been talking about pets. The other Reality Rifters had no idea that Jason had been comprehending the brutes. The ettins had been searching for more pets for Voro. "Riley and Morgana are pets," he said.
Gliath looked up, peered at the sky, then back again. "That stands to reason. What will we do? How can we save Ranaja?"
Jason took another long look at the village then carefully slid down to the bog from his perch on the roots. He looked up at the tall leopardwere. Gliath was seven feet tall in his 'warrior' form.
"Let's find the castle, Gliath," he said. "If we can find it, I can probably rift us up there. Then, we can find Riley and Morgana and somehow get them out."
"The giant..." Gliath rumbled. "This 'Voro' is very strong. We cannot fight him."
"Sure we can," Jason said. "If he can burn, I can kill him. You remember what I did to that huge stone golem, right?"
The leopardwere narrowed his feline eyes for a moment, then nodded. "I do remember, yes."
"I'll do the same to him, except in lava. It'll be okay."
With that, Jason and Gliath both hiked around the perimeter of the village—giving the place a wide berth—and headed south, deeper into the boggy woods. Jason turned his radio back up again. He drank some water even though he wasn't thirsty. He checked his OCS from time to time to confirm their heading.
Whenever there was a slight opening in the tree cover, he could see that they were indeed heading toward a black sky horizon.
Dread began to build up in his guts. Jason felt the fear, but also excitement. He had to get his friends back—had to save them—and he felt closer than ever now to actually accomplishing something toward that aim.
Jason had noticed as they walked that Gliath's big shotgun was gone. He still had his Glock 21—pretty choked up with mud in its holster—and his big knife, but no long arms.
"There," Gliath said suddenly, pointing with a long, black-furred finger.
Jason spotted the floating fortress. He was amazed at the sight of it. Its massive marble-smooth bulk hovered another hundred feet or so over the tops of the towering trees, and blotted out the bright, cloudy sky.
"Do you want to get more weapons from home?" Jason asked.
Gliath shook his great feline head. "There is no need, Jason Leaper 934. When we breach the castle, we will have to face harpies and the giant. I believe that I can never be a match for Voro—he will kill me without effort, given the chance—and I am not concerned about fighting harpies with my natural weapons or my Blessed Warblade. The bird women are weak."
Jason blinked.
"Harpies?! Like ... women with wings for arms and taloned feet?"
"Yes."
Wow, Jason thought. He felt like he was gradually making his way through DnD's Monster Manual.
The leopardwere's certainty about not standing a chance against Voro was chilling.
The floating castle was spectacular. It was just as mind-boggling seeing it now as it was the first time. Jason eyed its smooth, odd architecture and off-shoots, bridges, and satellite buildings seemingly leading to nowhere. The fortress seemed somehow different, but Jason couldn't understand why.
They continued their approach until they were almost under it.
Then another storm came.
"Shit..." Jason muttered, looking toward the woods ahead of them to the south as black clouds boiled out from the trees and rolled toward them like the goddamned Nothing from 'The Neverending Story'. "Storm coming in," Jason said.
"I see it," Gliath said, crouching down. His long, black tail began swishing back and forth behind him.
Several seconds later, they were in the thick of it. Visibility had dropped to almost nothing. It was pea-soup, but black pea-soup. The wind stung Jason's eyes and pelted his face
with mud and grit and bark. He felt something wet and sloppy drape across his nose and cheek, then reached up and pulled off a clump of red algae strands, tossing it to the ground.
Blue light caught Jason's eyes and he felt a flood of terror that the giant was coming down.
When he looked up, he saw several glowing blue balls descending—swirling together in formation—from the castle high above in the tumbling, tearing darkness.
"Will-o-wisps coming in!" Jason shouted above the noise of the storm. He looked at Gliath and saw that the leopardwere was already watching them, his big silver-edged kukri in one black fist. Gliath was ready to rock.
"I recommend you use your slug gun, Jason Leaper 934," he bellowed through the gusting winds. "They can be pierced by normal means."
"Good to know!" Jason shouted back then shouldered his rifle.
There were five that Jason could see, all spreading out as they descended toward the bog. He aimed at one that was sweeping downward through the dark, vaporous sky in a long, lazy arc. Lining up his sights on the glowing, blue ball—about the size of a cantaloupe—Jason waited until it was heading away from him with no lateral movement for a moment...
He carefully squeezed his trigger. The AK boomed in the storm. After the fireball at the end of his muzzle, Jason saw the blue ball burst like a balloon. The weird skin of its glowing, crackling body sizzled and sparked blue motes of light all over, then all of the pieces drifted to the ground, dimming more and more until lost in the maelstrom.
"Yeah!" Jason shouted. He felt a thrill pass over his whole body and grinned.
Aiming carefully, he figured that he had time to kill maybe one more before they reached the ground. He put his sights on another, led a little, got too excited, then missed. Shaking his head, Jason let out his breath, relaxed, then focused again...
He popped another will-o-wisp with another boom of his rifle.
"Do not shoot me, Jason Leaper 934," Gliath bellowed, stepping forward with his kukri as the other three closed the distance.
"Okay!"
Jason let the leopardwere finish them off, ready to take a shot at another one if he could do so safely. Gliath seemed very confident and fought just as strongly. As the three blue balls came in without a sound other than the crackling of electricity, the leopardwere exploded into motion. The edge of his otherwise black blade shined like a mirror's edge against the glow of the strange creatures as it flashed through the darkness. One of the will-o-wisps was suddenly split in half, crackling and sparking and listing to one side. Jason felt a buzzing that raised the hairs on the back of his neck. The dead will-o-wisp's brilliant skin lost its glow quickly, fading to a thin, grey substance like and reminding Jason of a paper lantern set on fire. It tossed around on the wind and drifted down to the bog through the storm.
Gliath attacked a second one after a bright, thin streak of lightning arced from its round, luminous body to the leopardwere's left arm. Whatever it did seemed to just piss Gliath off, because he swung at it with a furious speed that couldn't be dodged. The will-o-wisp was cut in half just like the previous one.
The final blue ball came whipping around Jason and Gliath from another side. Before Gliath moved in front of him, Jason snapped up his AK, aimed quickly, and fired off two shots. One seemed to nick the creature along its side—creating a white streak along its brilliant blue surface—then the other one punched through the middle.
As the creature deflated and dimmed, falling to the whims of the vicious wind, Jason's attention was heartily grabbed by another bright blue light coming from above.
He looked up and paled.
Voro was coming.
He was coming!
The primordial giant was overhead, descending with his arms held out to his sides and the wind whipping his scant clothing all around. His turquoise-blue skin was just as luminescent as the will-o-wisps and just as crackly. His statuesque body made him look like a huge god coming down to earth. His eyes burned fiercely like yellow stars. The center of the giant's chest pulsed with crimson red light as if his mighty heart was so furious that it was radiating power through his flesh and bones. Jason saw the bottom of Voro's sandal soles. They were clean.
Fear washed over Jason.
He felt a strange, tingling sensation, starting from his brain—right there in the center of it—expanding outward to his skull, down his spine, then out into his arms and legs; hands and feet. It felt a little like coming back from unconsciousness, or like waking up while in a deep fever and feeling your whole body buzzing...
"Look out! Shit!" he shouted, which made him feel his lips again.
Jason tore his eyes away from the descending titan and looked at Gliath. The leopardwere was swooning. His eyes were rolled back and he was swaying, arms and legs wobbly and waving. He dropped his blade into the mud.
Double-shit.
Without looking up at the giant again, Jason pulled up his OCS, navigated through the screens as quickly as he could, then opened a rift along the third and fourth dimensions a full mile to the west. He rifted with a snap.
The instant he could see solid ground on the other side—not too high or too low or opening in the middle of a colossal tree—he shouted to Gliath, "Go!"
The leopardwere didn't respond. Jason bull-rushed his feline friend into the roaring, blazing portal. Gliath fell through to the other side as the giant drew in closer, nearly at the ground. Jason rushed to follow, paused, picked up Gliath's Blessed Warblade, then dove through the rift to the other side.
As soon as they were through—landing in a random, otherwise-quiet area of boggy forest—Jason released his hold on the rift, hoping against all hell that he'd close the gateway before Voro reached them and followed him through...
The rift collapsed in on itself with a pop.
Just before it did, Jason saw an intense blue glow brightening from above...
Then, they were in quiet.
Hell—there wasn't even a storm where they were. The storm was a mile to the east. Looking that way, Jason could see that the sky was dark and angry, but they were outside of it.
Damn. That was close.
He looked down at Gliath, who lay sprawled on the muddy bog. Then, he crouched down to rouse him. Jason shook at the leopardwere's muscled form. He noted that Gliath's fur felt slick a lot like a cat's, but it was also thicker than he would have thought.
"Gliath! Wake up!"
After a minute or so of shaking, he did.
Gliath cracked his yellowish-green eyes open, yawned largely—showing his long, white fangs and big, pink tongue—then stood, stretching.
"Thank you, Jason Leaper 934," he rumbled. "We have escaped?"
"Yeah. Look. The storm's still going. Let's watch." Jason pointed to the violent sky in the east. He handed Gliath's blade back to him.
Then, pulling up his OCS again, Jason adjusted his existing coordinates to move three quarters of a mile back to the east so that they could watch the scene under the castle from a quarter-mile away.
Gliath yawned again.
Jason rifted as planned. As the portal whirled and roared and spit sparks. Both he and Gliath watched its center. When it cleared, Jason could make out the glowing blue form of the giant and the many colors of strange fire swirling around him. With great strides, the giant seemed to be exploring the area around the castle—probably looking for them—with two more will-o-wisps orbiting around him several yards away.
"The will-o-wisps work for the giant," Jason shouted over the roar of the portal.
"Yes," Gliath replied.
In time, the giant returned to the area directly under the floating castle—out of sight from Jason's perspective because of the tree canopies over his destination rift—looked up, and slowly rose through the air as if moving by thought. The will-o-wisps followed.
A minute or so after Voro had disappeared off-stage, the storm quickly cleared, leaving Jason looking at an unremarkable area of boggy woods again. The clouds rolled back to the south like
living black vapors.
"Wow," Jason said. "Let's catch up before the castle moves. You feeling okay now?"
"I am. Good plan."
He and Gliath exchanged glances, then Jason led the way through the portal, stepping three quarters of a mile in a single step. Once through the roaring, whirling rift, Jason made way for Gliath, who followed, then he closed the portal.
They both looked around for a moment.
The coast was clear.
Shouldering his rifle and dropping his OCS back to his side, Jason hustled toward the flying castle. Gliath followed. The floating fortress of white marble was still there; a great shadow in the sky above the forest canopy. Without going all the way to stand directly under the magnificent structure, Jason paused next to the exposed roots of one colossal tree. The leopardwere stopped with him.
Oddly enough, if felt like the castle wasn't in the exact same place as it was then they'd escaped a while earlier.
Did it move?
The castle also looked a little different. Jason couldn't quite put his finger on it, but it seemed that some of those bridges and outer buildings were ... shuffled around.
"What the hell...?" he muttered. "Did it...?"
Gliath looked down at him after the question went unanswered for a moment. "Did it what, Jason Leaper 934?"
That was crazy. Then again, it was a floating castle that had very obviously moved before. He'd seen it in one place before where it had disappeared after another black storm.
Nothing about this should surprise you, he thought.
Jason raised his OCS, used the scanning laser, and took a reading of an area halfway up the castle with crenellations. Using that distance, he started a process of trial and error to input coordinates for a good destination rift that would get them up on the exterior walls; somewhere where they could hopefully find a way in.
I can always make a way in, Jason thought.
