by T. S. Hall
Up ahead, a large figure temporarily blocked out the orange glow. Allora’s jaw dropped when she got a glimpse of a fifteen-foot-tall man roasting something on the fire. The figure moved slightly, illuminating an equally large woman, who was sitting on a boulder on the other side of the bonfire.
“Giants,” Sas whispered.
“Really? No way!”
“Yeah, and they be aggressive,” Sas said, scanning the area around the woods. “They not exactly the nicest of Sonorans.” The furry, normally confident creature seemed flustered. He paced in quick steps in the very small area behind the tree. “How did they even get here?” He stopped moving and knelt down. “I need you to stay here while I take care of these two.”
“You can’t take those on by yourself.”
“Please, Allora. I need you to be staying out of sight. If these giants get ahold of you, they will be smashing your body against those boulders, and you’ll be dead in a second.”
Sas took off to the right, silently moving up to the edge of the forest. Allora scurried to the left, trying to get closer so she could hear them. The muffled voices became clear, and she could see the distinct features of their faces. The male giant had a large nose, protruding forehead, sharp chin, and long black hair pulled back into a ponytail. He wore a leather vest that had a long brown sash across his chest, tight leather pants, and no shoes. The female had softer facial features, dark-brown eyes, longer black hair that hung around her waist, a black, one-shouldered tunic, and brown leather pants. The foul odor Allora had smelled earlier was the remains of a deer that was rotting in the field next to them. The male giant was barbecuing one of its legs.
“Bod, if you burn that leg, I kill you,” the female giant said. “I like meat rare.”
Allora swallowed hard.
“Whatever, Mot,” Bod said. He pulled the deer leg out, ripped the meat with his large, grimy teeth, and chomped down. He chewed, swallowed, and threw the leg at Mot.
She took a bite, spit it out, and threw the leg back at Bod. It hit him in the head, and he fell back into the fire.
“You terrible cook,” Mot replied, getting up from the boulder. “You burn everything.”
“One more complaint and you go back to Sonora.”
“I think that’d be a great idea,” a voice said from the edge of the forest. It was Sas. The two giants reared up and growled. Sas had to leap out of the way of a flying boulder that Bod had flung. “Now we don’t have to do this. I don’t want to be hurting you.”
Bod laughed, his booming voice echoing through the forest. “That cute little warlock.” He lifted another boulder and tossed it toward Sas, who simply stepped out of the way this time. Then the giant charged him, swinging his bulky arms. Sas ducked, rolled between Bod’s legs, and jumped onto the giant’s back.
“Come on, giant man. We don’t have to do this,” Sas said, clinging to the giant’s neck. The giant swung around in circles, trying to pry the warlock from his back. “You know you’re not supposed to be here!”
The giant got to a tree and slammed his back into the trunk, which knocked Sas from his back, temporarily stunning him. It was just enough time for the giant to grab hold of his ankle and swing him around his head. Sas focused some hadrons and launched a burst into the giant’s face, blinding him. Bod released his ankle, launching Sas into the air. He landed hard in the dirt. Bod stumbled around, blinking profusely as he tried to get his eyesight back.
“Bod, stop. We are not monsters,” Mot yelled.
The giant was furious and charged at Sas, who was still trying to get his footing. Sas sidestepped, but Bod’s swinging arm clipped him and knocked him into a tree. Sas’s expression changed drastically. His eyes were narrowed, his lips were smashed together, and his fists were clenched and shaking slightly. Sas charged forward, ducking Bod’s arm and striking the giant in the gut. Bod winced at the pain and swung his other arm. Again Sas ducked and struck the other side of his abdomen. The next salvo of hits dropped the giant to his knees.
Allora came out from behind the tree when she could tell things were escalating.
“Wait, Sas. Don’t!” Allora screamed.
Sas glanced back at her. “Stay out of this, Allora.”
Noticing that his opponent was distracted, Bod grabbed Sas by the ankle. He lifted him up and then slammed him into the ground.
“Bod, that’s enough!” Mot screamed. She smashed her foot onto the ground, causing the earth to quake and knocking Allora to the grass.
Bod pulled the warlock above his head, and then received a jolt to his back. Numerous grappling hooks wrapped around his upper body and legs. Then a salvo of odd, clear balls hit him. They expanded, covering him in glue. It looked like an enormous cluster of grapes. The giant dropped Sas, who fell hard to the ground as the giant’s incapacitated body rolled to the side. Gnomes sprang from the trees, dropping out like a pack of animals.
“I sorry about that. We were sent here to protect this area. Bod can get little overprotective.” She went back to the fire and sat down on the boulder. Allora joined her, while Sas kept his distance, maintaining eye contact with Bod.
“Who sent you here?” Allora asked.
“I did,” a familiar voice said from the skipper at the edge of the clearing. Milly walked toward the fire, still clad in her tight, black battle suit. “I see that everyone has met already.”
“Milly, why wasn’t I told you be bringing giants in?” Sas asked, obviously perturbed.
“I’m sorry, Sas. I didn’t have time to tell everyone. It was a last-minute decision after Allora stumbled on Ben’s memory orb.”
Sas’s eyes went wide. “Oh.”
“You never said a warlock is a part of group,” Bod said, sneering at Sas, while still covered in balloon glue.
“You be in my area, ugly,” Sas said, eyeballing the tall creature.
“You want to go again, hairball?”
“ Sas, I think it’s time you go get a com bracelet,” Milly said, slightly pushing back on the warlock. Sas kept eyeballing the giant as he pushed on her hand. She quickly pulled a strand of hair from Sas, who yelped. He rubbed his belly and backed up, while Milly crossed her arms.
“OK, OK. I go,” Sas said, leaping into the air and out of sight into the night.
“Bartimus,” Milly said, sparking the balloon glue that surrounded the giant. The strange material contracted, and formed into small white balls on the ground. “Thank you again for coming here on such short notice. I’m going to need you to get everyone set up with the perimeter defenses.”
“Affirmative,” Bartimus said, making a gesture to his team, and leaping back into the canopy.
“What was that all about?” Allora asked quietly as Bod and Mot began arguing in a different language. Bod was waving his arms and grunting emphatically until he gave up and sat down hard on the fallen log. The ground shook when he landed, splitting the wood.
“Warlocks and giants don’t exactly get along,” Mot said.
“That’s understatement,” Bod added.
“Thanks, you two, for coming so quickly,” Milly said, looking up at the two tall creatures. “I hope that the gateway trip wasn’t too much trouble.”
“We took extra cautions when we ported through, as you told us. I think we are out of detection.”
“If Sas was caught off guard, then I think that you two did very well. Make sure to stay out of sight of any humans in the area, and also make sure to go see Bartimus at the perimeter line. I need you two to get com bracelets as well. Any outside threats need to be neutralized immediately upon detection.”
“Prisoners?” Bod asked.
Milly looked at Allora and then back at Bod, who nodded.
Mot knelt down and placed her right hand toward her left shoulder with her index and middle finger pointed out, which Milly mimicked. Then the two giants ducked into the forest with long strides. Milly extinguished the bonfire and went toward the woods to retrieve her hovering metal plank. She sparked it and
instructed her daughter to get on the back and hold onto her stomach. Once the clear screen encased them, it lit up slightly green, illuminating the forest in infrared.
“Hold on,” Milly said as she turned her grip on the forward handles and lifted the hovering vehicle into the foliage and above the canopy. The skipper accelerated at an alarming speed. Allora clutched tighter as the skipper traveled over two hundred miles per hour, hovering slightly above the trees, then heading west toward her home.
Five
PERIMETER
The September air was hot and humid. Allora wiped her forehead with a sleeve as she laboriously trudged up the steep incline. Her legs were burning, and sweat covered her body. The sun was inching up to its highest point, scorching the area at ninety-five degrees. The wildlife didn’t seem to notice. Deer jumped across the path, and the wildflowers looked as healthy as ever. A butterfly fluttered by, while a bird chirped in the distance. Tanner stopped underneath a large pine, slouching into blades of grass. Allora joined him, followed by Dax and Katie.
“Is it me, or is this hike a lot longer than your mom said it was going to be?” Dax said, taking a sip from his water bottle.
“Well, when someone gives you a very exact map of where we can and cannot go, it gets a little tricky,” Katie said, grabbing a water bottle and taking a swig. “I just don’t understand why there are certain areas that are off-limits. Maybe she has some strange monster chained up out here.”
“Or maybe she’s just reverting to her old paranoid self,” Allora suggested.
“Whatever it is, I could care less,” Dax said, getting up from the grass. “I just want to get to the watering hole. It’s freaking hot out here!”
Allora laid back into the grass. A bee circled above, surveying the ground below. It found its target and descended, landing on a dandelion. Unaware of his surroundings, Tanner moved his hand, knocking the bee from the flower. It flew erratically, repositioned, and then struck at its target, stinging the back of Tanner’s hand. He flinched, snapping his hand against his thigh and smashing the bee. A red bump formed, lifting the skin. The bee dropped to the dirt, dying at the hands of a much larger foe. Allora watched the bee struggle as it lay on the dirt, twitching with its last breath.
“You all right?” Tanner asked, noticing Allora’s quiet reflection.
“Yeah, just fine,” she replied, snapping back to reality, getting up, and continuing the trek.
A cool breeze blew through the field. Allora closed her eyes and felt the wind brush against the light sweat that covered her face. Dax and Katie hiked on ahead, leaving Tanner and Allora alone.
“Did Swan ever get back to you about the Eye?” Tanner asked, breaking the silence as they walked beside each other on the short, grassy trail.
“No,” Allora responded, kicking a small rock into the field. “He just kept saying that he is trying to gather more information.”
“Well, it brought me back from the dead. I guess that’s something.”
Suddenly they heard a terrified scream. Katie was nowhere in sight. They rushed ahead, unsure of what to expect. The field had abruptly stopped, falling off down a sheer cliff face to the river below. As Allora and Tanner got to the cliff’s edge, Dax had his arm outstretched, reaching for his sister’s hand. Katie was clinging onto a small outcrop with her feet hanging over the abyss.
“Help me! I’m slipping,” she screamed, her fingers turning red as they pressed against the rock.
“Hold my feet,” Dax ordered, clearly panicked.
Tanner grabbed his ankles as Dax reached for his sister. The veins in his face popped as he lunged for Katie’s hand. She tried to grasp his wrist, but she slipped.
“No!” Dax yelled as Katie dropped off the cliff.
Tanner, Dax, and Allora could only watch helplessly as Katie’s body fell over a hundred feet. Down below, sharp boulders protruded from the rapids. There was no way she would survive the fall. Just as Katie’s body was to hit the whitewashed river, the blond girl froze in midair above the rapids. Her eyes were wide, staring down at the river as it sprayed her face. She swiveled her head, searching for an explanation. They raced down the dirt path, skidding through the brush and vines. When they got to the bottom, Katie was still frozen at the top of the rapids.
“You alive?” Allora yelled, cupping her mouth.
“I think so.”
Then Katie was released and splashed into the river. She bobbed through the rapids, trying to swim toward the shore. Dax grabbed a branch, wading through the shallows, and extended it out into the rushing river. Katie caught the end of the branch and held on as Dax pulled her into the eddy. Gaining her footing on the slippery rocks, she hugged Dax tightly.
“What were you doing?” Dax asked, helping her up onto the bank.
“I was spinning around and didn’t notice the cliff,” Katie said, ringing the water from her hair.
“How did you stop?” Allora asked.
“No idea.”
A branch snapped in the canopy of the trees, and pine needles fell down into the brush. They spun around, searching and listening intently. A shuffling sound resonated to their right. A shadow scurried between trunks. It was small—about three feet high and skinny.
“We know you’re in there,” Dax said.
Out of the branches flew a pinecone that smacked Dax in the forehead. He stepped back, unprepared for the attack. Something giggled and retreated into the woods.
“Hey!” Dax said, rubbing his forehead. “Try that again, you little twerp. I dare you.”
Dax was bombarded by a barrage of pinecones. He put up his arms, trying to shield himself from the flying objects. He stepped back, slipped on the rocks, and crashed into the eddy. A chorus of giggles followed.
“Gnomes, assemble,” said a voice from across the rapids. A short man jumped over the river, landing at the water’s edge. He was wearing a green-and-brown jumpsuit, army boots, a cutoff shirt, large leather gauntlets, and a green bandana that was tied tightly on his head. Two leather straps crisscrossed his chest, knives contained within their pockets. Upon his request, identical-looking men dropped from the canopy, filing into evenly spaced rows on the bank.
The leader of these small men walked up to Allora. “I do apologize. We gnomes like to joke around from time to time.”
“Hi Bartimus. It’s very nice to see you again.”
“You as well, your highness,” He responded, bowing cordially.
Dax got out of the water, his clothes soaked.
“I thought that you guys were supposed to have pointy hats and live in gardens,” Tanner said.
“Common misconception by creatures from this planet,” Bartimus said. “Perpetuated by our love of vegetables.”
From the ranks of the short men lined up on the bank came the sound of crunching.
“Yollie!” Bartimus yelled. From the back line, one of the gnomes dropped a piece of radish. Bartimus turned back around. “Follow me.”
Bartimus led them through the woods and down the riverbank toward an open field. At the edge of the trees, Allora looked up to see a strange contraption hidden within the branches. Bartimus pulled out a small obsidian square. He pressed down on the sides of the object. From the ground, a door opened, and a large metal ball lifted up from the hole. The object spun on an axis, and multiple black pyramids rose up out of the metal ball. A few feet away, another sphere rose from the ground.
“Milly wanted you guys to learn about our perimeter defenses,” Bartimus said. “These things are called automatic defensive detection sentries, or ADDS. They are used to combat any unauthorized infiltration by Sonorans.”
“How does it work?” Tanner asked.
“Sensors detect high levels of hadrons and deploy when skimmers, skirmishers, skippers, or other types of craft come within a certain designated perimeter boundary. We have deployed these things all over the woods. It took all summer, but Milly was very insistent on getting these things in place, especially after your run-in with
those skimmers.”
“What about those things in the trees?” Allora asked, pointing to the camouflaged disc hanging above the canopy like a satellite dish.
“That is a perimeter shield, also known as a port inhibitor. I’m sure that you can deduce that it will make it impossible for anyone to portal into the area.”
“Or out of it,” Katie said. Bartimus nodded. “I guess we won’t be making a quick escape if something goes wrong.”
Bartimus walked down into the forest, where five gnomes were placing a large metal octagon onto a metal plate that was connected to a long, skinny metal rod. At the end of it was a large gray orb cupped in a basket like a catapult. Once they placed the octagon into the contraption, one of the gnomes pressed a button, and the catapult descended into the ground. Allora noticed that there were five identical holes, which housed additional catapults. The gnome pressed another button, and sliding doors shut the holes. Then the gnomes covered them with leaves.
“That is a catapult system that launches five surface-to-orb destruction systems, or SODS,” Bartimus said, shaking his head. “Let’s just say you don’t want to be in the air when this thing goes off. It will focus on a mercury- or hadron-powered aircraft, but the blast radius can knock out anything with a shielding system.”
They toured the rest of the defensive network that the gnomes had set up, and then Bartimus sparked a large tree trunk. He rotated his palm and then put his hand into the tree and twisted something inside. The ground next to the tree split down the middle, and two sides slid open. A light illuminated a staircase. They descended into a room with large wooden beams holding up the dirt. Inside there was a control panel with a large screen and four smaller screens on either side showing images of different parts of the town.
