Chapter 2
I woke up the next morning rested, and feeling ready for anything. I wrote a short note and placed it on top of the old journal that I had recorded my adventures in, saying that I'd like it if Trixie could add her own views to it while I was gone so as to add more 'color' to the literature, and then stuffed a new and empty journal into my bag as well so I could keep track of what I found. I weighed the note down with the same pen I'd used to write the note and then slung my backpack over my shoulders and took hold of my staff from where it leaned against the wall next to the door.
Not wanting to waste what magic use was left in my staff I chose to walk to Everfree forest (which took a few days at the pace I chose), stopping briefly in Ponyville to see how it had changed since I had last been there. The name of 'Ponyville' was no longer accurate. It was no longer a village, but a large town, just bordering being a small city. Few of the buildings that had been rebuilt after the Canterlot defense still remained, though a number of them had been preserved for historical purposes, such as the Sugarcube Corner (which was run now by Pinkie Pie's children and grandchildren) and Twilight's rebuilt library, and both of which still saw use from the public. A number of Ponies and Humans waved or pointed when they saw me. I waved back to be nice, but I didn't really know anyone that lived there now.
I could have headed into the forest directly, but I felt the need to go to Fluttershy's place first, if only to pay a sort of last respects in case the Zebra legend was wrong or I never found this 'Necro Walk'.
To my anger, Fluttershy's house had seemed to have been almost ignored by all except the wildlife, which lived housed many, many birds. It was leaning hard to one side and its colors were faded. The area behind her house where she had once kept chickens was overgrown and the chicken coop itself had collapsed and vines had overgrown it until it was unrecognizable. Had I not known what it was to begin with, I'd have never guessed what it had once been. I clenched a fist and walked closer to the house.
The tree that had stood outside of the front of her house that we'd once all rested under was still there, but it was gigantic now, as if Fluttershy being buried beneath it encouraged it to grow taller and stronger out of a desire to preserve and protect her remains amongst its roots.
“Hey Shy.” I said to the tree, placing a hand on the smooth trunk. “I guess you really are a tree now, eh?” I chuckled, but my expression was sad. “I'm sorry that I didn't visit more often. I guess living as long as my kind does often makes us forget that not everyone has all the time in the world, ourselves included. It feels like only last week that I was young, strong, bold, and green at magic. Now when I look at myself in the mirror I barely see that young man anywhere in the face before me. I miss you.” I patted my hand against the tree and then headed for the forest's edge. Before entering I stole one last glance at the collapsing house and then entered the dim treeline.
I came to the now-overgrown path that once had been the way to Zecora's house not too long after entering, thinking that just as I had stopped at Fluttershy's house, I'd also stop at Zecora's.
It still being daytime, birds chirped and warbled, squirrels chattered in on the branches above my head, and occasionally I heard the sound of something large and bulky pushing its way through the forest brush, but I saw none of what made these sounds as I was not looking for them. Instead all of my attention was focused on the what little of the path that remained before me. In places trees were starting to come up, and I stopped to pull them up and toss them to the side. In others the rotting trunks of trees that had fallen had to be moved or climbed over, and in one irritating incident, I came to a patch of thorn bushes that had grown all across the way and I had to burn them down (or tear them up, but I chose to burn them because even after all these years I'm still a bit lazy and like to burn things), but eventually I reached my destination, and then immediately wished that I had not.
Zecora's house in a way was in even worse shape than Fluttershy's, but then Zecora's place had been carved out from an actual tree, whereas Fluttershy had just had grass on every relatively flat surface. After Zecora had abandoned her house to the whims of the wild, the tree had eventually died and began to rot. With no one to apply preserving chemicals to it or to kill the insects, it turned into a rotted-out husk that no longer resembled a dwelling place at all other than the various belongings she'd had that were not made out of material that would decompose. Most of these were broken or filled with rot from the tree when they were not sealed.
One particular unbroken and sealed bottle caught my eye and I lifted it from the soft decomposed wood, leaves, and other things plant and rubbed the bottle with a sleeve. The contents looked like a bubble-ridden yellow-orange gel. This looks awfully familiar...where have I seen this before? The bottle had a rounded bubble-shaped bottom with a slender neck and was small enough to fit in my pants' pockets. I set it back down and searched the rest of her things.
In a way I felt like a grave robber, but Zecora had often said that the dead had no need of worldly possessions, and said that she would leave her door unlocked when she left her home one last time for any who might need what she had. Really, I didn't need anything (or so I believed), but if someone ever did come along who might, in a few short years what was hardly visible might have become invisible, So I dug through the soft rot-filled bowl that had once been a Zebra's home, and piled them all together in the center where the only thing that might fall on them from above would be leaves or perhaps bird droppings (or the droppings of a careless Pegasus. Yuck! Why did I have that thought? I shook my head rapidly in hopes of shaking the thought away.
Once that was done I once more picked up the small bubbly bottle and sat on the forest floor and examined it again. Blast it! I know I've seen this stuff before! What is it?! There was a pony's skull and crossbones on the bottle, as well as note below it that read 'DO NOT DROP!' Hmm. It'll probably come back to me eventually, but in the meantime it would be a bad idea to leave this here if this so dangerous. If someone or somepony came along that could not read English (or Equestrian, perhaps), they might drink or mishandle this. I stuffed it into my bag, taking care to put it in the middle of all my clothing where it would be least likely to get cracked or break, then re-shouldered my bag and continued deeper into the forest according to a map I'd studied while waiting for Trixie to return. If I continued going straight for the next forty minutes I'd find my way to a black spire of rock sticking up from the forest floor. A footnote on the map said that it would be a little taller in total height than me. The rock was used as a landmark, or perhaps a warning ward would be a better term. According to the palace librarian, apparently the last Pony to map out Everfree forest had seen that rock and took it to be an ill omen and ceased exploration at that point. There was roughly a mile and a half of unexplored territory near the middle of the forest at its widest point, but that did not include the rest of it.
My race had offered to fly over the forest with a helicopter, but something had gone wrong with the engine and the chopper crashed into the forest below. The radio had apparently been damaged in the crash, and neither the pilot, nor the guy that had gone along to take pictures had been heard from again. This incident had been what sparked an interest in hunting the Bloody Hooves: revenge. The hunters did not always come back (at the start they almost never did), but over the years the reports of missing Ponies and people that had gone into the forest had slimmed down. Until recently, that is.
A year and a half ago fifteen campers went into a reportedly safe area of Everfree to camp for a week. Two days after they'd set up camp a single one of their number came stumbling out of Everfree forest with a mad look in his eye, rambling on about their camp being attacked and that everyone else was dead. A week later the first of the ghouls were spotted and that had been when Luna put up guards outside of the forest. They learned, and now there's a new danger to contend with. I wonder if these ones will also leave me alone as their equine counterparts do? I wondered as I stepped over a large root attached to a hostile-looking tree. For a moment as I pushed one of its branches out of my way that another had reached out and tried to grab my shoulder, but when I turned to look I saw that it was only the wind blowing the branches of all the trees and I chuckled at myself.
I found the rock, but nearly missed it as I'd been forced to find a way around a few dense clusters of huge trees. You'd think with how old this place is that the trees would be more spread out! The rock stood by itself with no plants near its base, and not even and rotting leaves or animal leavings came near it. That's...odd. I thought as I approached it. As I walked closer to it I got a feeling of dread that reached all the way into my bones. I wanted to run the other way as fast as I could, but I resisted. Barely. Maybe it really is a ward of some kind. If enough of these were placed around this area, I don't think that anybody would want to go any farther!
I wrote my thoughts in my journal along with what I'd seen of Ponyville and Fluttershy and Zecora's homes, and then continued deeper in, noting several things that I saw as I went along, intending to fill in more of the map when I returned to Canterlot. There wasn't much to see, really. Trees, a few molding vines hanging from said trees, a number of dusty spiderwebs, large bugs, and stuffy air. Pretty much what you'd expect to see and smell in the oldest places of a forest.
What I did not expect was the near-silence. Other than a few buzzing bugs and leaves rustling in the breeze there was no sounds of wildlife at all. My footsteps were sounded very loud to me, almost as if I were stomping my way through the woods rather than taking simple steps. The ground was bare and dry though the air was warm and humid. In a way it kind of reminded me of my grandfather's old basement. Except my grandfather's basement I could have traversed blindfolded. If I get lost in here I'll have to fly out. If my magic will work here, that is. As Ponies had told me many, many times, the Everfree forest, when it had magic at all, warped it unless you had very, very good concentration. I was (unfortunately) easily distracted by sudden sounds or lights, so if I got into a sticky situation things might not go very well for me. As it stood currently, however, there was nothing to worry about.
I passed another black spire, felt the same familiar dread only a little stronger, made note of it as well as nearby landmarks, and then passed it as well. Five minutes after that spire was out of site the light went from dim to dark, and the forest ahead of me became pitch-black. Expecting something like this I had packed a flashlight and brought it out. When I turned it on, I wished that I had not.
“Dear Maker- !” I gasped. It seemed my theory was correct. In front of me stood what I assumed to be a sleeping Bloody Hoof. It slept standing up, snoring gently, head drooped downward, eyes closed. Behind it there were several more of various type and size, all sleeping. I swallowed and stepped as lightly as I could and aiming the flashlight at the ground so as to lessen the chance of waking them, circled around them. They might attack me, and they might not, but there was no sense in tempting fate.
I (to my relief) found a way around that group but quickly found another, as well as another three black spires which I passed with curiosity growing. What is with these things? If they're meant to ward off Ponies that enter the woods, they could have been placed further out! Most of them were well within the Bloody Hooves' territory, which began to make me wonder if the Bloody Hooves had originally been much closer to the center than this and they had been steadily moving outward, or if the spires were naturally occurring, or if they weren't so much wards as a statement of claimed territory. I suppose I could always ask one if I really want to know! I chuckled inwardly, and skirted another pair of sleeping cannibalistic Ponies.
“What are you doing here?” Came a hissing voice behind me. I turned and saw a face that did not belong to a Pony. A ghoul! I took a step back and it took a step forward. “If you came to die and walk eternal, then you're in the right place!”
“I am here looking for the Necro Walk.” I answered, a bit nervous. Seeing a Bloody Hoof was one thing. Seeing a red-eyed Human with its flesh drawn tight over its bones as if it had no fat or muscle beneath it was another thing. Its hair was wispy like so many of the cobwebs that hung from the trees and it stank like the corpse it was. It wheezed quickly several times, which I took to be laughter.
“Who am I to deny a dead man his last request? Follow me.” It led me through the woods, other changed Humans appearing and sleeping Ponies coming awake as we passed. My guide made no attempt to hide that we were passing them by, and soon enough we were surrounded by them. The ghouls frowned at me in disapproval, and the Bloody Hooves grinned and occasionally whispered something to one another.
We eventually came to a stop next to a huge black spire that had several symbols carved into it. One of which was the sun symbol that Zecora had on her flank. Another was my family's symbol.
“What???” I stepped closer to it and reached out a hand to trace the symbol with my fingers, not quite believing. The ghoul slapped my outstretched hand down. His skin felt like sand paper against mine, and his nails (or perhaps the bones of the tips of his fingers) left scratches on me.
“You really should not have come here.” He told me, and the others closed in around us. I gripped my staff with both hands and got ready to fight. He wheezed-laughed again. “Your magic will not help you here. Magic is a tool of the world of the living, and you are no longer there. You're in our world now!”
I backed away from them until the spire was at my back. The Spire was four times my height, but because of the trees being so much taller here it would still be concealed from those that flew over of this place. It was also, if I had to guess about eight times wider than I was.
The moment my backside touched the stone I felt as if my blood had frozen in my veins. This stone did not emit dread like the others did, instead it emitted nothing at all.
“The stone! It lights!” One of the Ponies yelled. I stole a glance at at the spire behind me to see that it was indeed glowing, but my family's symbol, as well as Zecora's and two others were not. I returned my gaze to my would-be killers. They had stopped advancing and now stared. “Kill him! Kill him before the path opens!!!” The ghoul that had led me shouted before lunging at me. I caught him in the face and shoved up. He was much lighter than I expected and I picked up his entire body a few inches of the ground. I spun my body and kicked him back into two advancing Ponies, who where knocked back. The other sixty or so charged. I'm a dead man, but I'd rather be damned than let them take me without a fight!! I readied my staff and readied a spell, only to have it fizzle out. I suddenly wish I'd brought a few guns! I thought as they grinned and also lunged at me; a wave of grinning red-eyed death. I swung my staff, no better than a bludgeoning weapon now, and yelled my family name as a battle cry.
“LIGHTHAND!” A grinding sound of stone-on-on came from behind me and I felt hands grab me from behind and pull hard. I was drawn back against- not the stone. I saw the BH's faces go from triumphant to terrified, and those that could stop did and ran the other way. The others sailed through the opening in the stone after me Terror? What the heck scares them!? I turned my head around and saw...nothing. Just black emptiness.
__ __ __ __ __
“So there are Humans there too.” said the young woman named Jackylin Darkwrist whose job it had been for the previous evening to guard the white spire. It had been her that had been present when the stone suddenly began to glow and filled the room with an almost-blinding light. Four symbols had lit up on the stone out of six, which meant that just two more travelers would have to come before the stones would connect permanently and her world and the Flipside world would be united as one.
And the sooner that happens, the better. Analysts speculate that at our current rate of consumption we'll run out of food completely on Gaia except for each other before the turn of the century. Those fool hunter corporations got us into this mess in the first place, and my finding the way back into the Mythica world has only delayed it. That world is full of things to eat for the moment, but that will only last for so long unless we take precautions, and since I'm not in a real position of influence, there's nothing I can do about that! She looked at the handsome and unconscious young man on the modest couch across the room. There was something familiar about him, but she couldn’t place him.
An odd thing, he had been much, much older when had seen him fighting the Bitter Biters on the other side, but as she had pulled him through the passage he had regressed in age until he was no older than she was. I've never understood magic very well, but it's the only explanation I've got. When he had come through the stone on her side he'd passed out, dropped his weapon, and fell limp. With some effort she'd dragged him to the other side of the room, and then the stone's opening resealed. She'd sent a notice to her superior, and then settled in to wait for whichever came first: Him waking up, or her boss showing up to deal with him.
It had nearly been thirty years or so since it had last opened, and it had been a Zebra that had entered the previous time. Upon her arrival she collapsed and died and had been dragged back into the Flipside world by the Bitter Biters before her father could do anything to prevent it. The time previous to that had not occurred for over three hundred years. For him to be alive and young and that he'd fought his way through the Bitter Biters meant might mean something special. He might know a way to open it without the other Blood-seal Bearers having to cross over. She thought as she watched the sleeping Human from another world. Depending on the state of his world's food issues, that could save our world!
He grunted and shifted, lifting an arm to his head. The stranger grimaced and blinked a few times. Half a moment later, the door to the room the stone stood in opened as well and her boss, with two armed guards, walked in as well. He nodded at the stranger and the two stood to either side of him and waited.
The stranger sat up and rubbed his head, and said a single word:
“Twilight?”
“No,” Her boss answered. “It's actually closer to mid-afternoon. It only seems that way because it's not very bright in here.” The stranger blinked a few times and looked around the room, squinting. Maybe his vision isn't very good. Jackylin Darkwrist speculated. The stranger looked at her boss, then at the two men standing next to him, and finally at her. “Who are you?”
“I could ask you the same thing. Is this the Realm of the Dead?” He asked. Her boss blinked a few times, and looked confused.
“Realm of the Dead? No, why would you think that?”
“In the world that I came from, some of the locals believe that at the heart of the forest that I just came from lies a place called the Necro Walk, and if you pass some sort of test that you'll be granted an audience with the deceased, or you can stay with them.”
“And I assume that is why you touched the stone on the other side?”
“No. I touched it because I was about to be eaten alive by a herd of cannibalistic Ponies we call the Bloody Hooves and wanted to have a wall at my back to keep them from getting behind me.”
“A good strategy. Now, answer my first question: what is your name?”
“My name is Jacob P. Lighthand the ninth.”
“Jacob Lighthand, eh?” H turned his head and looked at Jackylin. Jacob followed his gaze and he gave her the same look that she had given him when she had gotten a good look at his face: 'I know this person...who is she?' “Jackylin, I'm making him your responsibility until my boss decides what to do with him. Ask him questions, show him around, but do not let him out of your sight. Understand?” Jacob looked back at him with a questioning look. Jackylin nodded.
“Pray tell, sir, what is the name of this world? I assume I'm still on the Pony world that we call Mythica?” Her boss shook his head.
“No son, you're on Gaia. Mythica is another world entirely. Wait a minute, you crossed over to here from Mythica?” Jacob nodded. Her boss signaled to his two guards and the two of them marched out again without another word. Both Jacob and Jackylin watched them go, and then Jacob looked at her.
“What'd I say?”
“Probably nothing really important. He's always been abrupt like that. I could be in the middle of an important information update and he'd just suddenly walk out of the room as something occurred to him.
“So anyway, you said you're from Mythica?”
“Well actually, I'm from another world that we call 'Earth'. Given that Gaia translates from Greek into 'Earth' in my language, and you have a Mythica world here too, can I safely assume that this is an alternate Universe, then?” Jackylin shrugged.
“Heck if I know! I'm just a girl from Wales that's trying to make sure her family gets food to eat!”
^ ^ ^ ^ ^
I laughed, but she didn't. I had thought she was joking, but apparently not.
“What's so funny about that?” She asked, puzzled.
“I thought you were joking.”
“Uh, no.” I blinked, not sure what to say to that. I changed the subject.
“So...what's it like here? Most of our world, ironically given its name, is covered in water.”
“Ours is- well, I suppose I should say used to be covered mostly in jungle, but over the last four hundred years the jungles have been shrinking due to Human expansion. Whereas most of our world was about sixty percent jungle and and one large ocean and several freshwater rivers, now it's less than half of that. Unfortunately, as the jungle shrunk so did food availability and several nations went to war over it for close to forty eight. Hundreds of thousands died on both sides, but other than bringing down our world's population for a little while it accomplished nothing but wasting resources. Now we're pretty much right back to where we started. What about your world? How's food availability there?”
“Well, that depends on where you live and if you're allergic to anything. Every nation has their people that go without eating for a day or several days, and some are worse than others.”
“But your world isn't in a widespread state of starvation, is it?”
“No.”
“Ours will be soon. I recently found a way into our Universe's Mythica, which will put that off for awhile, but with our idiot governments in charge it's only going to be a matter of time unless we can get to your worlds too.”
We spoke at length on the differences and similarities of our Earths, laughing at some of them, but almost always the topic came back around to food again. Eventually, it made me hungry and my stomach growled. I hadn't really noticed the passage of time because there had not been a clock in the room, but when it did she asked if I was in the mood for an early lunch. I told her that I had brought my own food, and she didn't have to share any with me, but she insisted that I try some of theirs if only to taste if there was any difference, and I eventually gave in. I picked up my backpack off the floor and retrieved my staff. It was then that I saw that my hands were not as dark and rough as they had been. I looked at them, puzzled, but they functioned fine, so I put it from my mind for the moment.
It was not until we exited the room into a white hallway with several windows on one side that I saw my reflection and gasped and raised my empty hand to my face, touching it all over, not believing what my eyes told me. Somehow, someway, I had de-aged, and looked the same as I did all those years ago when I first entered Equestria.
When I asked Jacyklin about it she told me that as she'd carried me through the tunnel in the rock I had regressed in age. She had no idea how it had happened, or why.
I flexed my arms in the reflection, twisting one way, then another, snapped my fingers, did a number of other things, still not quite believing it. I know a hundred Humans and several Ponies that just might kill to be in my situation right now! My hair that had once been gray had regained its color, the wrinkles that had begun forming on my face were gone, a few scars that I'd gained over the years were also gone, and the one tooth that I'd chipped when I'd bitten a peach stone just after I'd turned forty five had repaired itself. It was as if all the years that had gone by had been just a dream. But I know better. I thought as I gazed through my reflection and up at the buildings above us.
We were on ground level (or at least it seemed that way. For all I knew we could have been up on a mountain somewhere) with a clear sky above us and the expected green grass on the ground leading away from the window.
“Are you going to stand there admiring yourself, or are we going to get some food?” Jackylin asked, mocking my actions. “You're not the only one hungry here. You just give me the excuse to leave my post. My boss wouldn't like it if I just let you wander around unsupervised even if he didn't tell me to keep an eye on you.” I apologized and she continued to lead me until we arrived at a four-way. She stopped there a moment and looked left and right as if she were lost, and then led me to the left. When I asked her about it she said that this building had two different eating areas, and they alternated from being opened or closed ever other week and she had been trying to remember which had been open this week.
Another three minutes of walking and the smell of something good cooking reached my nose and I inhaled deeply, savoring the scent. My mouth began to water and Jackulin looked at my look of anticipation and laughed.
“You've never had Dragon steak before, have you?” For a moment I winced, having been friends with a Dragon for quite some time, but then recalled that yes, I had indeed sampled Dragon before. It had been just after the siege had ended. The few hundred soldiers that had come along called back to the camp outside the Stone Arch Gateway that they were going to need help getting rid of all the dead Dragons, and that they had a great idea how.
A day later (and for several more days) we were enjoying BBQ Dragon fresh off the grill. I had been hesitant to try it at first, but the guy my parents had hired, William, had rolled his eyes and stuffed a piece in my mouth. I had been about to spit it out, but my mouth exploded with flavor and I chewed and swallowed, then asked for more. The Ponies had found our method of body disposal a bit horrifying, but it really had proved the fastest and cleanest way, and it prevented us from having to cut down half a forest to burn the bodies (instead we used coal and propane) and then dispose of tons of ash and bone. Spike had happened to smell it too, and he thought it was a good smell too until he discovered what it was that we were eating. Then his face paled considerably and he turned and quickly left. I apologized to him later for it, but he waved it off and said that 'everything needed to eat something' and explained that he was more concerned at the time of being added to the menu.
“I have, but it's been a very long time since I last ate it.”
“Did you like it? I can't imagine anyone not.” I nodded. There really had been nothing that came close, except perhaps bison meat, and bison fell short. “Then this is your lucky day! How do you like it? Rare, medium, or well-done?”
“Well-done, personally. I've never been too fond of meat being rare.”
“To each their own, I suppose.” Jackylin shrugged. “I always eat mine rare. My father liked it fresh and bloody.”
“Ick.” I stuck out my tongue a bit.
“My thoughts exactly,” She agreed.
The eating room was about the size of a gas station convenience store, and the air was thick with the smell of cooking Dragon. Putting Spike from my mind I took a seat at Jackylin's insistence and waited while she ordered out food. She got hers almost immediately, and began tearing into hers with her bare hands and teeth while waiting for mine. When it was ready she set hers down and carried what was left of her food along with mine back to our table and keep eating. I grinned, watching her. She reminded me of a kid I once knew that devoured pizza as if he were starving. My grin faded when it occurred to me that she really could have been, and I turned my attention to my meal and looked at the tray in confusion when I noticed there was no fork or knife. I looked around the room at several others that were also eating. All of them also ate with their hands, biting chunks out of their food. While I found it odd, it was no stranger than eating with chopsticks. I, however, had no intention of eating with my hands, especially since I'd not had a chance to wash them after going through Everfree forest.
I opened my backpack, which I'd taken off and set next to me after I sat down on a bench on my side of the table. I dug through it a moment, and then took out a Hobo's Knife (it's really just a larger and more convenient version of a Swiss Army Knife) and extended the fork and the knife and pulled the two halves of it apart. On the knife half there was also a spoon and on the other half was a fork, corkscrew, and a bottle opener.
For thirty seconds I cut into my meal and ate it in bite-sized pieces. After that I realized that Jackylin was no longer scarfing down her meal and I stopped and raised my gaze. She was staring at my 'silver ware'.
“What?” I asked. She looked up from them and looked at me instead. “Haven't you ever seen a fork and knife before?” I picked up another piece of meat and stuck it in my mouth.
“I've seen and used knives, but not that.” She said, pointing a moist finger at my fork. “Does everyone on your world use those?” I shook my head.
“Some eat using tools like these, but some prefer sticks, and some eat like you do.” I ate another piece. “This is really good, but it could use a little hot sauce.”
“Hot sauce?” She sounded puzzled.
“Yeah. You know, the juice of a hot pepper mixed with something like a marinade, but thicker?”
“What's a marinade, and- a pepper?! That's a plant!” She said, sounding apprehensive.
“Yeeaah...and?”
“Plants are disgusting!”
“.....”
“.....” I reached down into my bag once more and drew out a small green bottle and unscrewed its cap. I extended one finger from my empty hand and placed one clear drop on the end of it.
“Don't cry until you try.” I said, and extended my hand and finger out to her. She made a 'bleh!' sound and frowned at me. “Oh come on! It's not going to kill you! It'll burn your mouth a little, but this stuff is the milder bottle!” She crossed her arms and looked away. She's acting like a child! I sighed. “Have it your way, you big wuss.” I scraped the drop onto my knife and then dripped some more on my steak and spread it around before cutting another piece off of it. I then screwed the cap back onto the bottle and put it back in the part of my bag that held my food supplies. I then continued eating, smiling at the familiar burning sensation. I would have preferred the stronger stuff, but this was the bottle that I had taken out, and my stomach was demanding more food.
When I was finished Jackylin was watching me like she expected something, but that something, whatever it was, never came and I cleaned my plate off with no further conversation between us. “That was great!” I said, licking clean my eating utensils before putting them back together and dropping it back into my bag. “Thanks for the meal, Jackylin.”
“You're...welcome.” She sounded like she had intended originally to say something else, but changed her mind at the last second. “Anyway, would you like to see the rest of this place?”
“Sure.”
The complex was huge and took more than two hours for the tour to be completed. There were several areas that Jackylin did not have access clearance for and several other places that she was not allowed to take me into, but what I had been permitted to see I found to be rather interesting, and at times, a bit disturbing.
First was the nearest room, a security room. It wasn't anything special or different from the ones I my world: A few television screens, an overweight security guard who looked like he was in his later thirties sitting in a chair watching them and looking bored out of his mind.
“This is Percy. He's worked here for most of his life.” She said, introducing him to me. “Say hello, Percy.” Percy looked to his left and up from his seat at us. He grunted and then turned back to staring at the screens. “Percy is twenty eight.” I could believe it, but it was a bit of a stretch. I knew only one person who looked older than he was, and he was a second cousin of mine. He looked like (back when I was twenty three the first time) he was in his thirties when he was only four years older than me. Well, as Melinda once told me, different Reality, different rules. Maybe they age faster here than back home.
The next room was an infirmary. There was a nurse present, and two people being treated. One was a woman who had a black eye and an arm in a cast. The other had bandaged ribs and a broken nose. “These two are in here all the time because they're constantly getting into fights with the other employees. The woman is Sheila, and the man is David. They're siblings.” The two did indeed look similar, and both of them waved at us. “The nurse's name is Mina. Don't make her angry or you'll regret it!” Jackylin warned.
The tour also included a huge gymnasium that had a rock-climbing wall at the opposite end that extended up onto the ceiling, several work out benches to one side, an area in the middle that looked like it could be cleared for some kind of team sport, bath and locker rooms, a small fencing ring, and a number of other miscellaneous areas and equipments for other activities. I inquired as to whether I'd be permitted to use any of it. Jackylin replied that she didn't see why I would not be allowed. This pleased me. I had not been rock (or mountain) climbing in years, and I missed it.
Next was what I took at first to be some sort of training room. In size it was about three fourths as big as the gymnasium, and for some reason it was full of trees and was very dark to the point of it almost looking like it was night inside. Jackylin refused to go into any details, saying that if I didn't already know what it was that I was probably better off not knowing. I did not understand, but then a moment later I looked back when a scream came through the barred glass windows above it and I turned to see a person stagger out of the trees minus an arm that was squirting blood. On his other arm and extending over the hand was what looked like a short sword's blade. He wore some type of armor, but judging from how he was running it had not done him any good.
“The Hell?!” I exclaimed, hands gripping the bars and pulling myself closer in a futile attempt at a better look. The man ran down a stone path to a door and began banging on it with his one remaining arm, begging for someone to open the door and let him out. I looked at Jackylin, who looked at the man with pity, but made no move to go down to wherever the door was and open it. Half a moment later several dark figures also left the trees, moving extremely fast. Three were Humanoid, and two where quadrupeds. All of them shared one discernible trait: They all possessed red eyes.
“Bloody Hooves and Ghouls?!” I exclaimed a second time, once more looking at Jackylin, feeling sick. “Please tell me this is criminal execution.” Jackylin turned her back on the windows.
“You won't want to see this.” She said simply. I did not follow her advice and regretted a moment later when the hunters closed on the man and proceeded tearing him limb-from-limb while still alive and screaming for help that was not going to come. Some blood splattered on the window in front of me and then I turned away, feeling sick to my stomach and fighting the urge to empty out my lunch on the floor. A moment later the screaming stopped and the tearing of the meat became more audible. Jackylin started walking again without a word. I followed her, throwing a few more glances at the bloodied window.
“What in the Maker's name was that all about?!” I demanded, angry and still feeling sick several minutes later.
“Remember I told you that my world is starving?” The question was rhetorical. “That is a sport of sorts where the desperate enter one of those arenas and try to survive for five to ten minutes. The longer you last in it, the more food you're given as a reward, but you need to survive a minimum of five minutes or else the show hosts won't let you out. No one has ever survived for fifteen minutes, though many have tried.”
“That's- that's-”
“Horrible.” She finished, nodding. “Horrible and sick. But it draws the desperate in the thousands each day, and the gambling industry has made millions off of the contestants that die, and since the Bitter Biters, or 'Bloody Hooves' and 'Ghouls', as you called them reassemble the killed contestants after they've eaten their fill (if there's enough to reassemble,) the Arena Hosts never spend any money sending Catchers to the Warped Woods to get more.”
“Warped woods? So it's not called the Everfree forest in this Reality?”
“Everfree? Everfree is the Mythica version of the Warped Woods. The Warped Woods are in this dimension.”
That was something I just didn't understand. I had been in Mythica when I crossed over, and Mythica was the primary dimension. How had I wound up on Earth (or rather, Gaia)? Shouldn't the other stone (which I saw was white instead of black) have also been on Mythica as well? I wish Reality came with an instruction manual! I thought as we came to a door leading to a set of steps. We followed them down and she pointed out two restrooms to me as well as an office room for sign-up of contestants for the 'Nightmare Arena' as she named the room we'd seen from above. As we passed it several gaunt faces looked briefly at us, and one of them kicked me as I went by.
“You government types got it made! Food, a place to sleep, protection!” He spit on my shirt.
“I don't work for the government.” I objected.
“Save your breath, Jacob.” Jackylin advised. “He won't believe you. You're well fed and well-built. Anyone with eyes can see that. Come on.” She pulled on my left sleeve and we continued along. Up until There came the loud sound of heavy metal latches being undone through the wall. I stopped and looked at Jackylin. She nodded. They just sent int another person. This is wrong. I tightened my grip on my staff. Two years of magic at the rate I was using it before. More than enough to stop this. “No, Jacob.” Jackylin said, tightening her grip on my sleeve. “There's nothing either of us can do to stop this.”
“How much food is promised if you survive for fifteen minutes?” I asked.
“No Jacob! My boss will throw me in there himself if he finds out you got yourself killed in the Nightmare Arena because of a bleeding heart!”
“How much?” I repeated, slower. Jackylin sighed.
“Enough for a month for two people.” I nodded.
“Can you use any weapons you like?”
“As long as it's not a gun, yes.” I smirked.
“Is there a reward for killing them all rather than just lasting?” Jackylin stared at me, incredulous.
“Are you completely out of your mind? They nearly had you back at the Stone Passage, and now you just want to throw yourself to them again?”
“Let him, Jackylin.” Came Jackylin's boss's voice from earlier. “I'd rather see what our Other-world kin are capable of. If it gets out of hand I'll intervene, and don't worry, if he dies I have no intention of 'throwing you in there myself'.”
A few minutes later I stood outside the thick metal door to the safety of the building complex. When Jackylin's boss (who finally introduced himself as the facility director) announced that there was going to be a special-case contestant they brought the woman that had just gone out back in, and retrieved the blade weapon that had once been on the wrist of the previous contestant. I had been asked if I wanted any weapons, and I took a machete with me, though I doubted I'd need it.
The guy who'd spit on me watched from a window with the other contestants, though he was the only one that sneered. In answer to my question of 'what do I get if I kill everything' he said that I could have whatever I wanted within reason. He then went on to inform me that they had in captivity and several dozen Bitter Biters, the vast majority of them of the Humanoid variety. As I killed one another would be released from a random gate, and so on.
A ring of lights that encircled the mini-jungle went out and a voice over an intercom told me to begin. The machete strapped to one leg and staff in my other hand I calmly approached the woods and waited a few feet from the edge. Within seconds several sets of red eyes peered out at me from the cover of the trees. After twenty seconds of doing nothing I asked if they were just going to stand there hiding behind the trees all day or if they were going to fight me. A unison of angry snarls erupted from them and they broke cover, running at me the same way I'd seen them go at the now-dead contestant. I smiled as they came closer, not moving, not trying to escape. Two feet from me they leaped into the air and slammed against an invisible barrier. Confused, they bounced off and fell to the ground.
“Ha ha ha ha ha!” I laughed. “My turn!” I opened my empty hand and made a pushing motion straight outward. All of them were shoved back, tumbling and bouncing back into the trees again. Some of them were on their feet again in seconds and started charging me again while others seemed to have broken something when they hit the trees. I made a sweeping motion with my staff from the left to the right and and stopped the motion at the closest one to me. It was cut in half and blood oozed from the lower body and what had once been vitals fell down from the upper body of the Ghoul. The second closest I dispatched via beheading with the machete and I jumped to the side as the body fell to the ground, blood and some shreds of flesh clinging to the blade. The third slowed, hesitating, seeing that is was attacking alone now. While it hesitated several more came running out of the trees, one jumping up and over them like some sort of mutant cartoon kangaroo, followed by several more. One to replace one my foot! I thought as the numbers rose from the original seven to ten.
I stomped a foot on the ground and a wall of earth and metal rose from the ground and stopped in front of the first leaper. It smacked into it and fell back onto a dead tree, skewering himself on it. The other four landed around me. Using a blast of air I knocked them back and lifted myself into the air just out of their physical reach and then turned my attention to the forest. I couldn't see where the gates allowing them to enter were, but that was not important at the moment. The leapers jumped up again, and I simply moved and let them crash into one another and then, increasing gravity's pull beneath them (a trick I learned from Trixie. We had been trying to imitate her 'Attraction Distraction' implosive. We did not quite succeed.) to force them to the ground and pin them there. Moving away from that spot lest I be trapped there as well I positioned myself above the trees and snapped my fingers. A spark danced along my hand, then ignited into flames. I hurled a stream of fire down into the trees below me. Within seconds the room filled with smoke and I'd set fire to most of the trees, torching any and all of the 'Bitter Biters' that had entered it to pursue me, and the magically-induced fire continued to spread to the other trees. Covering my mouth with my shirt, I cut off the stream of fire and moved out of the smoke to observe my handiwork. I bet those Nightmare Arena hosts are going to be pissed at me! I thought with a new smirk.
Shrieks and roars of pain rose from the burning trees as more time went by and eventually someone turned the ventilation system up to maximum and sucked all the thicker smoke out and pumped new air in. This only served to encourage the fire to burn all the hotter and faster, killing more and more of the Bitter Biters as they were released. For a moment I glanced at the spectators, who stared between me and the damage I'd caused in silenced shock. By now the leaves that had once formed a canopy over the forest had all burned away and the fire revealed the room that had once been covered in darkness, along with the gates letting in more enemies. I wonder what my kill-count is? I think I've only been in here about four minutes, I hope I don't run out of these things before I hit five! Normally I did not like killing, but considering who my enemies were and what that people where dying for the entertainment of others, my conscience was willing to make an exception. Especially if it hurts their ratings!
I was surprised when on of the Ghouls sneaked up behind me and jumped up onto my back, digging her claws into my arms and biting hard into my staff arm. I yelled in pain and dropped the machete and began frantically punching her in the face, trying to free myself before-
“AAUGH!” -she tore it out of me. Blood poured from my injury and ran down my arm, staining my shirt and I nearly dropped the staff from pain. My attempts were useless, and other survivors began to surround me and my attacker on the ground, waiting for me to fall down to them. When my punching proved to be ineffective I focused my mind on the creature's eye sockets and dug my fingers into them. It had only one eye but I still managed to mangle it. It shrieked and tried to bite me again, this time going for my throat. I put my free arm in the way and it stopped and tried to shove it out of the way with its arms (it had gripped my waist with its legs). I tried teleporting to get loose, but it just teleported with me. Then I recalled something Twilight had several times warned me never to do: purposely teleport into a wall or into the ground. If I did that my body would go into it, whereas if you teleported with a general thought you'd appear next to or above or under something solid, whichever was safely available. Let's see if I can get this sucker's back stuck in a wall! Concentrating on my objective (because I myself did not want to end up stuck in a wall) I teleported gradually closer and closer to the wall until my would-be killer suddenly froze briefly and then fell limp, releasing me. I turned my head and looked behind me to see that the back of its skull, most of its main body, and one arm was fused into the wall, as was the back of one of my shoes.
I gulped audibly and removed my foot from the shoe, very grateful to whatever Deity or Maker had been watching out for me that had made sure that I'd not also had my foot stuck to the wall and returned my attention to the remaining Bitter Biters. Eleven. Well, eleven if you don't count the two still stuck to the floor. Those two glared up at me with their glowing eyes, teeth bared as best they could.
As I reached out a hand to finish off the last of them the deadbolts on the heavy door opening echoed in the room I hovered in and the door swung open and two armed guards stepped in, guns pointed at my remaining enemies. Behind them stepped in the Director. He surveyed the damage I'd caused and coughed once on the thin smoke (thin because the ventilation was still running at maximum.)
“Well.” he said. The Bitter biters looked from me to them a few times, and then threw themselves at the guards. The guards opened fire on them and mowed them down like grass under a riding mower until the last one stopped moving.
I landed and walked slowly to where the machete had fallen and retrieved it and slid it into the sheath, still messy. “Well, well, well. It would seem that our Other-world kin can use magic. Intriguing.” He turned and left the room. Seeing no reason to stay, I followed as well, ignoring the in-shock stares of all the would-have-been contestants and Jackylin. I stopped at the sign-up desk and asked if I could claim my reward now. The receptionist also stared open-mouthed at me and I had to repeat myself a second time before he heard me.
“Oh! Right, s-sure! He said you could have whatever you wanted, right?” I nodded. “What do you want?” I pointed a thumb over my shoulder at everyone else in the room. There were twelve of them, not including Jackylin.
“Give them all a months supply of food.”
Chapter 3
I exited the room, followed by a dumbstruck Jackylin. My staff's wooden bottom clunked like a walking stick (which was often what it was mistaken for, even with its strange coloration) on the tiled floor. For a few minutes we walked in silence, and then Jackylin grabbed my shirt and spun me around.
“What the heck was that!?” She yelled. I raised my eyebrows. After what her boss, the 'Director' had said (thought of with a capital letter because I did not yet know his name) I had thought that my performance had been rather obvious. “Do you have any idea what you've just done?!”
“Yes. Sorcery. Magic. Witchcraft. Whatever name you choose to assign to it.”
“No, no! Not that!” She paused and lowered her volume to inside-voice. “Although I am curious as to how you did that too- you burned down the Nightmare Arena's hunting trees and killed their creatures, and” she continued, beginning to sound as if she were scolding me. “not only that, when you were offered anything at all as a prize, you gave it away to complete strangers!” She became silent and looked at me as if expecting a reaction. I gave her one, but apparently it was not the answer she was looking for.
“And your point would be...?” She sighed.
“Are you a commoner where you come from, or do you hold some political influence?”
“Well, that depends on your perspective, and whether I'm on Mythica or on Earth, but I consider myself a commoner.”
“That explains it, then.” She looked up and down the halls (which were empty) and leaned in closer. “That was being broadcast live. The entire world saw what you did, including what you asked for as a reward.”
“Again, your point would be...?” I had to wonder why she'd leaned in closer when no one else was around. Maybe that's customary here or something.
“Almost everyone on this planet at least suspects that we're running out of resources as far as food goes. Some of them, mostly the rich and influential, are not worried about this at all because they have their own herds and the security to protect them from possible raids. Of this group, most of them are government officials, be they kings or presidents.
“Now, place yourself in their shoes: You're in power, you have absolutely no fear of going hungry because you have your own food supply. Even if your entire country turns against you, you have the resources to fight them off or simply wait for them to starve. Now, suddenly and as if from nowhere, this strange man appears and does what no one else has succeeded in doing: he killed all the creatures in a Nightmare Arena that were sent against him with a weapon that no other Human can hope to match and, on top of that, rather than take a reward that millions would kill their neighbors for, he chose and gave away one of the most valued resources on this planet to total strangers.
“Publicly, the people are probably going to love, or at least admire you, perhaps see you as some sort of Hero, or more likely, with your powers, a Chosen One sent to save them. Politically, you've probably just made half of those in power fear or hate you for making them look like exactly what they are: selfish and uncaring.”
“I still don't see why that's a problem for me. I came to your world not looking to change or save it, but rather to see a number of my friends that are now deceased. Now that I know that this is not the Necro Walk, but rather another world entirely, I have no reason to stay here. As the maker of my staff once told me, 'One world is enough to worry about.'
“More than that, my world can't solve its own starvation issues and our problems aren't nearly as bad as yours seem to be. I'd be of no help to you.” I began walking again, trying to remember which way it was to return to the white spire that seemed to be this world's version of the black spire rock in the Everfree forest.
“Do you even know how to leave?” She asked after she recognized the route. I was reversing the paths that she'd led me on. “The stone sealed up again after I pulled you through.”
“I'll figure it out.” I replied as we passed several large plants with large, two-pointed black leaves that smelled faintly of blood. My arm brushed one of the leaves briefly and I reached a hand down to it to scratch at the tickling sensation it left behind.
When we arrived at the room again the Director and his two guards were there again, though not for me this time. There were multiple others there as well, most of them appearing to be scientists. I watched them from behind for a few minutes, scratching my arm again where the leaf had touched me idly. Apparently the hearing of Gaia's Humans was much better than Earths because all of them paused and looked behind them to see where the sound had come from.
“Ah! The man of the hour!” A woman whom had been speaking to the Director and looked to be in her late thirties ( and dressed like a elementary schoolteacher from the early nineties) greeted. She crossed the room wearing ugly shoes that looked very uncomfortable and hugged me as if we were old friends. This is different. Normally a fake smile and an offered handshake is all I get. She tightened her grip. Woah! This woman is stronger than she looks! I can barely breathe! A few seconds later she released me and backed away a little so as to get a better look at me.
Her hair was mostly light brown but also had red highlights. Her eyes were- Gold? That's different! and reflected the light that landed in them, causing them to appear to glow like a dog's. She was a little taller than me- and her breath stinks-, was paler, and looked like she could use a nap.
“I don't mean to be rude, but who are you?”
“I'm this nation's current ruler!” She looked at the Director and frowned. “How long has he been here?”
“Less than a day, madam.” He replied.
“In that case” she turned back to me. “you confusion is understandable. I am queen Roxanne. I have been told by the Director that you can use magic and came to our world through the white spire rock. Is this correct?” I nodded. “Marvelous! Have you eaten yet?” I nodded. She looked disappointed for half a moment, but it quickly vanished to be replaced once more with her previous friendly demeanor. “That saves time then, I suppose. After all, we're not getting any younger, are we?” I fought the urge to laugh at the irony of her statement, given what had happened to me when I crossed over and instead nodded. “If you'll come with me, there are several things I'd like to ask you...”
An hour later after being escorted to her office in this building and going through first casual conversation and then to being asked many, many questions about our Mythica and my home world. I answered her questions as best I could, but from her obvious dissatisfaction concerning political system questions as well as the way her eyes narrowed when I told her I was not really anyone of importance as far as Earth was concerned other than just a name in a history book that she had been hoping to get something more out of me than that. Eventually she asked how I used magic. I told her that my people had yet to figure that out. Not a complete lie. She did not believe me.