Outside Hell

by Milo Spires

  Dracus pointed at the glistening light of his portals entrance that was behind him, and then said that he would take them all over fifteen trips to where the path turned its last bend before the Jahunti Witches cave up above. Then he would walk with them past it and once they were save, and when they were around the next corner, he’d summon a new portal to take them to Sarhl.

  Jonyk and everyone liked the plan and then Jonyk hurriedly rounded up the other villagers and raised a meeting where he’d told them about their pasts, and that they’d a new prince called Dracus. Everyone was ecstatic and was going to do a party until they’d heard about Vrakug trying to kill him and destroying the planets. Then with white faces Jonyk had told them about the escape plan, and as a result none of them had any wish to stay.

  Then after a couple of hours had past and as the last group of ten people including Janus and her family had stepped out of the portal in Sarhl; greeting those who’d just arrived in another portal moments before, they all hurriedly set about digging a hole to sleep in for the night.

  Dracus reluctantly kissed Janus goodbye not knowing when he’d see her again and then also said farewell to the villagers and her family. Janus was in tears though not knowing when she’d see him again, and after spending many years without him whilst he was incarcerated in jail, she’d wondered if this might be the last time that they’d be together. In response Dracus had placed his warm fingers on her lips to stop those words and others similar from following too, whilst he’d reached in and then kissed her deeply. The passion from them as their tongues that had intertwined and their bodies pushing into each others with hands sliding, had threatened by it very nature to consume them.

  Then as her floodgates broke Dracus told her that after he’d finally killed Vrakug, and that it might take some years for him to become strong enough to battle him, or to raise a plan to get rid of the evil leader, that from then on nothing would ever keep him from her.

  A second past and then as he’d given her his last kiss, and Janus’ mother had given him her latest blank that she’d just finished making, something that he could wrap himself in entirely with dark earthly colors and the distinct and pleasing scent of Janus all over it, he’d stepped back into clear ground and summoned the portal.

  Once inside he’d given it the grim destination of where it had to take him and then him and the portal vanished.

  When it had reappeared he was there in the evil lords forbidden room. The room that he’d only ever gone in once before and was lucky that he’d gotten out of it when he had, because Vrakug had appeared by magic outside the door. The evil lord with spittle spraying from his lips had furiously asked him what he was doing there. Dracus had kept a calm face and whilst shitting himself inside if the evil bastard didn’t believe him, he’d pretended to be looking for other rooms to clean. Vrakug had furrowed his evil eyebrows in response whilst possibly wondering if the little toad was bullshitting him, and then he’d simply told him that if he’d ever seen him near the room again, he’d kill him. So not wishing to be caught in it for obvious reasons, Dracus stepped out of his portal and crept stealthily forwards looking all around him and listening for the slightest sound. Then once he was sure that he was safe, he’d summoned another portal to escape by and set about his task.

  He’d taken the evil lords horrible red glowing orb that was leering back at him from a desk in the dark shadows of the room, and then whilst being almost overcome with the stench of the lord’s body odor hanging like a dead mist in the air, he’d placed it inside his new portal and vanished. Then a second later when he’d reappeared he was inside the lords study, only now he knew that really it was his parents but he hadn’t time to be concerned with such thoughts and pushed on with his plan. Then whilst glancing around at the thousands of spell books that his parents had owned, and after summoning a new portal, he’d placed the orb inside it and filled it with as many spell books as he could fit inside too. Then once he was happy that there was only enough room left for him in a tight crouched position above the stuff, he’d summoned the spell that he knew lit a candle, and with it set fire to the rug beneath the desk.

  The thing had taken a little time to get going but after he’d blown on it several times, the flames then rushed off into the room consuming everything in their path.

  Dracus not knowing the future but sure as hell realizing that the past would probably haunt him for many a year to come, then waited until the flames had roared up all about him and whilst the dark shadows of the room then danced vehemently, he’d leapt inside the portal and vanished. This time though as he’d thought of the place that it should take him, and then told the portal hoping it would be able to reach that far, he’d said the planet five thousand light passes away, called the Earth.

  *****

  When Vrakug had finally awoken from his deep and twisted sleep by a spell that was watching over him in the former king and queen’s huge bed, he was laying there in the soft sheets dreaming of being reunited with his father soon. Only as his mind had cleared and then whilst rubbing his eyes he’d wondered why the spell had awoken him to darkness, suddenly his nose had twitched a few times and his brain had said, ‘smoke’.

  Instantly he’d sat up and then as he’d looked over the end of the bed and realized to his horror that there were clouds of thick black smoke pouring into the room from underneath the bedroom door, he’d panicked.

  Thrusting the sheet back and leaping up, he’d summoned a spell to take him outside to the entrance where the portcullis was. Then as he’d appeared and looked up and seen that the whole castle was in flames, and that the Skylark beast’s were inbound flying down towards him breathing out flame throwers, he’d realized that the castle wasn’t invisible to them any more.

  Then as he’d held his hands up and tried to summon the powers from the orb and sensed that it was no longer in the castle, and when he’d seen the broken stones from Dracus’ knife that were on the floor behind him, and read the sign saying Leanorisque Castle shining back at him, he’d screamed.

  A moment of confusion had past and then after realizing that he had to save the spell books from the former king and queen, Vrakug suddenly disappeared and then reappeared inside the study. Only he was unaware that Dracus had lit the fire in there first, and that the inferno in the study was of great magnitude. When he’d reappeared he was surrounded by savage flames and was viciously burnt by them. Then as his heavy metal looking greasy hair had caught light and at the same time his hands and face had literally melted, and with but a second to save himself he’d vanished, only this time as he’d flown through time and space, the evil bastard was in intense agony.

  Seconds later when he’d reappeared he was standing in the evil forest far away from the vicious skylark beasts and the castle. Then after he’d patted out the flames on his head where his hair had been, and then blown them out on his hands too, Vrakug was furious. Only aware that the Skylark beasts were still active until morning, he’d no choice like young Dracus had all those years before, and ended up sleeping in a hole. Vrakug had to crawl around on his hands and knees rummaging through the blackness, with the occasional bug crawling across him that was food for the young boy, but at the very sight of them had made Vrakug belch, whilst he’d found a hole. Then once he’d crawled down into it and was also immensely glad that a towering Ekari beast hadn’t found him, he’d laid there headfirst in his hole with blood building savagely in his brain. Then as he’d thought about who would have the gall, and the temerity to have done such a thing to him with no clear answers coming, suddenly morning came.

  Only later that day and when he’d awoken all crumpled up in extreme agony with his legs almost vertically above his head, and realizing that the deep thoughts of revenge and swelled bloody brain had made him pass out, he’d crawled out of the hole and cast a spell. The spell had summoned a window that had appeared in front of him, and showed Dracus the night before summoning a portal. When he’d seen the little bastard doing it, he’d been
completely shocked.

  In all the years that he’d known him and had him in the castle, he’d never known that Dracus had understood magic. Then he’d reasoned that if he could understand magic, that the little conniving fucker must have been from a family of magician’s, and not just a villager as he’d always thought.

  A moment past and then Vrakug had a thought.

  Dracus was about what age he’d asked himself? Then as he’d added the years together, suddenly it had clicked in his sick mind that the little bastard was about the same age as the baby that he’d been looking for, with the crest on its back. He was also mad because he’d realized that his death hounds had sat outside the castle howling up at it trying to tell him that the baby was inside the castle. He’d sent them out daily into the wastelands to search for the child and was always furious to see them returning empty handed, only to sit there howling up through the crimson red mist at him.

  Vrakug was so angry at that moment that he’d turned around in the forest, and with his fists glowing crimson red, he’d suddenly blasted the hideous trees in all directions around him. Then as he’d grown tired, the evil lord had collapsed to his knees and then screamed, only the scream was so loud that is was heard some miles back inside the Jahunti witches cave too, and in response they’d cackled. The cackling had started low and soft, and then as the wind had strangely picked up across Eldor, and they’d held their arms raised up to level with their shoulders, the skies as if night then turned to darkness once more and with it daytime vanished. Then as bolts of lightening chased across the sky striking into one another, forking down burrowing deep to the ground, with massive clouds of dust exploding up into the air from them, Vrakug heard the terrible thunderous sound of the Parchaka killers coming his way.

  The evil lord realizing that the witches were sending them to kill him, and that the Skylark beasts were again, even though it should be day and that they don’t ever return until night, were in fact hurtling down from the skies towards him, he’d vanished. Seconds had past and then when he’d reappeared he was outside the castle again, only as he’d cast a spell and from it the fires had suddenly disappeared, leaving the building with its impressive towers, massive draw bridges and heavily fortified ramparts restored to its former glory, he’d rushed inside. Vrakug headed straight through into the spell room hoping to see that the spell books were restored again, and if they weren’t and without the orb, he knew that he’d have to leave Eldor else risk the Skylark beasts killing him. Only once he’d turned the shiny antique door handle and opened the heavy timber door to see that the books were still nothing more than piles of black ash before him, he’d screamed.

  Then as he’d heard the Skylark beasts smashing through the roof, and also felt the heat from their flames engulfing the castle once more as they’d searched for him, he’d vanished.

  Only this time he didn’t reappear in Eldor.

  Chapter 7 – Meeting Rex

  When Dracus’ portal had appeared on the Earth, he’d no idea what he’d find when he’d opened the door to it. Would the planet be full of beasts that his father the black mass in space had placed there to help destroy the place, and if so, then would they be the same as in Eldor, or far worse?

  When he’d cautiously pulled by the tent like door on the portal, he’d found as soon as he’d stepped out that he was treading in something long and green that he’d never seen before. Then as he’d looked up and seen something silver above him that was glowing in the sky in the shape of an eye, he’d panicked and leapt back into the portal.

  His first thoughts regarding the strange thing above him that was washing the long green stuff around his feet in its eerie luminescent glow, was that it could be a monsters eye. He’d reasoned that the beast, which would be of colossal size, might have seen him and then be readying itself to gobble him up.

  A moment passed and then after realizing that he wasn’t gobbled up by it, he’d cautiously pulled back the tent like door again, and stole another peek up at it.

  Dracus had laughed inwardly after he’d finally realized that it was some sort of planet, and that it hadn’t offered any immediate threat to him in the slightest. Then as he’d knelt down and felt the long green stuff that was underneath him, he’d smiled, and like a big and soft gorgeous duvet, he’d face down sprawled himself over it.

  Then as he’d turned around and lay there looking up into the sky, and after being bedazzled by a shooting star as it had raced across the skyline, a moment past and then a soft breeze ‘that didn’t stink of death’ gently caressed his skin as it had past across him. Only as his mind had become heavy with thoughts of Eldor again, and then after racking his brains for an hour trying to come up with a plan to save his people with nothing concrete to show for his thoughts, he’d cursed and then decided that he’d come back to it later.

  Standing up he’d decided to bury Vrakug’s orb instead.

  Then after a few hours later when the job was done and he was sure that it was down so deep in the earth beneath him with rocks on top of it too, and then more earth to level the ground so that no one would find it, he’d returned to his glistening portal to do some spell reading.

  Dracus rifled through the pages of the first one and literally scanned every line, repeating the words back at himself again and again until once he’d learnt that book of spells off by heart, he’d started the next. All the while and in between books or every other book he was learning his surroundings, and taking in the views that yielded to his surprise, no dangerous beasts in the slightest. There were streams, undulating hillsides, trees that were scattered here and there, and strangely warmth from another planet that had appeared, burning fiercely similar to the asteroid in Eldor. He’d been confused by it at first because it had only seemed to come, once the monsters eye had gone to bed.

  Then and after a few weeks and as he’d finally closed the last book of his parents that he’d taken from their study, Dracus had felt a strange feeling inside of him like a huge amount of electricity swirling around in him. Only with it, and rather than it trying to consume him, he’d felt at one with the power and was able to control it. He’d actually realized as the next few days had past too, that it must have either been the powers from his parents waking up, because he’d reached as they’d requested in their message, ‘a manly age’, or that it was simply because of all the spells that he’d just learnt to cast.

  In his mind though and with no more books to read, he’d wished that he hadn’t set light to his parents study and that after he’d arrived on the new planet, he’d the balls to return to the castle and stolen more books. Only he wasn’t stupid and in truth he’d fully known the reason that he hadn’t. If the evil bastard had appeared whilst he was there, then Vrakug might have killed him or imprisoned him again in the shit. Still though the spells that he’d learnt had put a massive smile across his face and then from them, even though not all of them had done cool stuff when cast, some of them had actually helped him realize and formulate a plan for revenge. A way that he and his people could finally be free from the tyrannical, evil bastard Vrakug’s reign forever.

  Dracus had realized that if he’d found a being of equal power to Vrakug, someone that was just as evil as him and that he could lure this said being back to Eldor, and in a fight it would hopefully kill him, then they’d be free of Vrakug’s reign forever, only he was aware that the plan had a massive flaw. He wouldn’t want to do that unless he was sure that he could then get rid of the new evil bastard, else he’d only be replacing one tyrant for another. Dracus had cursed at the plan realizing that it was actually a really dumb one, and then moments later started thinking about another.

  After the monsters eye had risen and then been replaced by the burning rock a few times, something weird happened within him. He’d felt as if the energy from the spells were aiding him or an outside source was helping him, to find the answer that he was looking for. In his mind not long afterwards he’d suddenly realized his old plan of luring a beas
t there wasn’t that bad at all. It just needed an extra bit adding to make it flawless.

  When the two evil bastards were battling each other, he’d appear next to them from a portal and summon another portal that they’d step inside and vanish. He’d give it the coordinates first of where it would take them, and also it would have to be his new style of portal, the one that he’d just learnt how to cast from his parents spell books. A portal that was twice bigger in size than his normal one, and that could be laid down on the floor like a trap. The two evil bastards would step into it whilst they were throwing punches and then disappear. The co-ordinates of where it would take them he’d have to work out, but wherever it was he’d have to be damn sure that it was far enough away, so they couldn’t get back.