Alan couldn’t believe what he had agreed to do. The Harandel had said, “Alan, there is a chest called the chest of Apora Kalypso. It was created for Shanarkus’s army in the sixth age. This ancient relic is the only thing that can save your kind. It lies in a different realm, but we can get you there. You must retrieve it.”
The job seemed pretty straightforward. Go find a treasure chest. In fact, it was too easy to be true. Andrew asked, “What’s the catch?” The purple Harandel arched his neck backwards, then said, “The catch is that the chest is protected by Shanarkus’s new lieutenant, Antrosel. Yes, you will have to face him. That is what he meant. He knows that it is our only choice.”
They didn’t quite understand this. Why did it have to be them? Alan asked, “Why us? If you’re as powerful as you say, why don’t you do it yourself?”
The red Harandel replied, “Alan, the Master returned the power of creation to us, but we still, to this day, do not have the power to directly interfere with anything.” Alan believed him, but Andrew had a feeling that there was something else that he had left out.
The only two humans there looked at each other. A moment later, they nodded. Andrew said, “Alright…tell us what to do.” The red Harandel said, “After we transport you to this place, you will have to look for a fortress. That shouldn’t cause any difficulties as it is the only one on the planet and do not worry, it is a suitable environment for humans. Oxygen, and water are rather abundant. Then we need you to sneak in. Rest assured, we will guide you. Then you must avoid the guards and get into the vault which contains the chest. Hopefully you can get it back without having to face Antrosel. We wish you luck.”
Alan stepped forward, “Just one last question, what are your names?”
The purple Harandel said first, “I am Loridos.” The red Harandel took over, “I am his brother, Rodilos.” Alan couldn’t believe that the strongest beings in the world ad such ridiculous names. He almost laughed, but restrained himself due to the fear of being incinerated.
Later Alan and Andrew were escorted by Rodilos to what looked like a crop circle. “Are you ready?” asked Rodilos. Both the men shook their heads, but the Harandel didn’t seem to notice.
Andrew expected something to happen. A flash, a defeating blast…something. Alan looked down and was shocked. His feet seemed to slowly melt away, but it didn’t hurt. In reality, he was being transported to the other world, bit by bit.
The exact second this reached their eyes, their vision went dark.
When they opened their eyes, they were blinded by yellow light from the planet’s sun. Alan and Andrew got to their feet, helping each other up. They took in their surroundings.
The humans were standing in a desert covered with what seemed to be grey sand. There was a bright, yellow sun in the sky. A few red hills were at the horizon. There was no sign of the fortress though.
They had been there only a while, but were already sweating and extremely thirsty. Andrew suggested that they head towards the hills to higher ground and try to locate the fortress. They agreed and forged ahead.
Alan still had his watch. They and been walking for seven hours with barely a few breaks. The sun had hardly moved across the sky. He may not have been an astrophysicist, but knew that all planets weren’t they same. Their years and days may be much longer or shorter than earth’s.
After what seemed to be an eternity, Alan and Andrew reached the hills which were much further away than they appeared. Actually it had been five hours. They were completely parched. Andrew yelled, “Water.” Rodilos had said that water was abundant on the planet. Was it meant to be some cruel joke?
They walked into the shade of the hills. There was a cave nearby. Hoping that they might find an underground stream, Alan and Andrew ventured in. A few feet in, the walls of the cave seemed to glow. The reached the end, but there was no water. At least it was cooler. They leaned against the wall and sat down. Then a familiar voice said out of nowhere, “Alan, Andrew, there is water behind the cave walls. They are extremely thin…you can break them.” This voice definitely belonged to the red Harandel, Rodilos.
The two men stood up and walked over to on of the walls. Alan picked up a sharp stone lying nearby. He slammed it against the wall with as much force as he could. There was now a small hole in the wall through which water gushed out. They drank as much as they could and sat down again.
A while later Alan and Andrew walked back to the mouth of the cave. The landscape hadn’t changed much, except a white egg shaped craft was flying, just a few feet above the ground towards a tall cylindrical structure, that was the same colour as the sand. The fortress had appeared from nowhere.
Rodilos’s voice sounded again, “You must enter that fortress. Once you get close enough, I will tell you how.”
It took Alan and Andrew another hour to reach the fortress. They had even rolled in the sand to camouflage themselves.
Once they were there, Rodilos had told them to simply place a hand on the structure to open a passageway. Generally only Antrosel’s warriors could do that, but now they could too, thanks to the Harandels.
Alan and Andrew entered the brightly lit corridor. The moment they entered, the entrance closed itself. The passage was white, extremely smooth and completely circular, like the inside of a pipe. Alan took one step and fell. He could barely get a good grip. Andrew wasn’t faring much better.
Eventually they managed to figure out that it was easier to slide down the corridor than to try and walk. As they moved on, the corridor split into several others. They glanced through one and saw one of the egg shaped ships, just hovering there. They kept heading straight, the chest was probably at the centre of the fortress. Alan couldn’t help wondering, as he kept sliding, as to what kind of creatures might use such a passage.
Alan an Andrew eventually slid into a circular room. Its walls were lined with what looked like bows and arrows. Except the arrows were already notched though no one was there. Andrew had to remind himself that they were on a different planet in an entirely different universe. There may be similarities between things here and back home, but they weren’t the same. For all he knew, they might be naturally growing vegetation that looked like bows and arrows, used the way we use flowers.
They kept going for a few more minutes. Alan was surprised that his watch was still working, despite what it had been through.
Finally, they got their first view of the fortress’s inhabitants. They were snake like creatures, with long black bodies. Instead of a head, their bodies separated into two necks. At the end of each was a speaker shaped structure. The entire creature reminded Alan of headphones.
Luckily, they hadn’t been noticed. They kept sliding down the corridors till they became too tired to go any further. What they hadn’t realized was that they had entered a passage that sloped downwards. The lack of friction prevented them from doing anything to save themselves.
It was only when the slope got too steep to escape that Alan and Andrew noticed it.
It wasn’t too long before the tunnel turned into a freak slide.
The two of them screamed, not realising that it could attract unwanted attention. Luckily most of the creatures had been summoned by Antrosel to the courtroom.
At last, it ended. Alan and Andrew were thrown into another passageway. This one had a flat floor, which they were grateful for. This one, unlike the others was brown and seemed to be carved of stone.
At the end of the tunnel, illuminated by an eerie while light from above was the chest of Apora Kalypso.
Alan took a step forward, but Andrew pulled him back. He said, “Do you think the chest will be left here without any defences?” Alan shrugged. He hadn’t considered it.
Andrew had pocketed the stone that they and picked up in the cave. He took it out now and threw in in front of them. It immediately exploded. Great. They had come all this way, only to see the chest and return, empty handed.
Alan said to himself, “Rodilos, help us.” Andrew placed a hand on the wall and tried to see whether he could enter a parallel passage and re-enter at the spot where the chest was. No such luck. The Harandel’s powers didn’t seem to work in this chamber.
Rodilos’s voice echoed through the corridor, “I should have seen this. Only Antrosel or one of his guards can walk through this chamber and return alive.”
An increasingly regular feeling returned. Disappointment. Now what were they to do?
At that very moment, a single creature, like the one they had seen in the other corridor, slithered into the chamber.
Its heads turned towards them and it made a hissing sound. They didn’t understand how it could see them without eyes, but there was no time to worry about that.
Alan did the only thing that seemed sensible at the time. He punched it. The other head turned towards him too. Andrew grabbed its neck and tried to strangle it.
It took them a while, but they managed to subdue it.
The creature’s heads turned towards the two humans. It said, “You will die.” Alan and Andrew were puzzled, how did it know English? Rodilos, as always was there to explain, “I have granted you the power to understand the language of any creature in the world. A small favour.”
Andrew was trying to kill it by banging its head against a wall, when Alan said, “Stop. I have an idea.” He continued, this time addressing the creature, “We’ll let you go…if you retrieve the chest.” It hissed, “Never.” Alan sighed sympathetically, “Alright Andrew, kill it.” “Wait,” it yelled, “I’ll get it for you.”
They watched as the creature just slithered towards the chest, unharmed. It used its two heads to grab the chest, then slithered back.
Alan took the chest. He tried to open it but couldn’t. “Now let me go.” said the creature. Andrew lifted it by the neck and flung it back into the white corridor.
Andrew was sure they couldn’t climb up. Maybe moving the chest would make a difference and they could open an entrance in the wall like before. He was right. A circular hole, large enough for them to climb through, opened up in the wall.
Alan held the chest tight as he and Andrew slid down the corridors. They had tried to open more entrances in the wall, but they just entered a different passage.
Eventually they reached a part in the corridor that sloped down again. They were afraid that they would end up back in the same chamber, but instead they slid down into a bowl shaped room. They reached the bottom, but couldn’t climb back up. The corridor that they had entered through was too high. There was also another one, slightly lower, but still too high.
The tried to open an entrance below them, but nothing happened. Rodilos wasn’t giving them any useful advise now either.
A while later, to their horror a single guard snake came in through one of the corridors. Soon several followed. There were at least two dozen of them. They didn’t have fangs like the snakes of earth, but if one of them got to their necks, it could definitely strangle Alan and Andrew to death.
They punched and kicked the first few away, but they quickly recovered.
Now they hoped they couldn’t understand the creatures’ language. Some threats made by them are too sickening to mention.
Alan had the courage to fight, but his limbs refused to obey his command.
Just when it looked like they were going to be overpowered, a voice sounded throughout the room and time seemed to slow down. The voice was the same as the one that had emanated from the green light in the cavern when they had faced the troll possessed by Antrosel. It said, “Let me lend you my power, Alan and Andrew. I am Crendorkus and I have realized your importance in the time to come and that your souls are pure. I can help you, lend you my power, with your permission.”
It was almost funny that a governing force was asking a human’s permission. Alan and Andrew yelled in unison, “Just do it!”
The next set of events were spectacular. Alan and Andrew each had been encased in an aura of green light.
The creatures were pushed back by an invisible force and the two men began to levitate. They rose above the animals. Alan moved his hand in which he was holding the chest and a bolt of green energy shot our from his hand. The moment it hit one of the creatures, it was incinerated.
Andrew tried too with the same result. Within mere minutes, all the creatures were gone.
They had been floating in mid air when a creature, different from the others entered the room.
“What are you?” Alan asked, his voice amplified by Crendorkus’s power. The creature chuckled, or at least that’s what it sounded like. It said, “I am Antrosel.”
A few previously missing blanks were filled. The troll’s features had been morphed by Antrosel’s spirit to mimic this creature’s. He had been trying to make the troll as similar to his real body as he could.
Antrosel had a long, jackal like snout, horns and frightening fangs. It also had a tail with three fingers with deadly claws. Its four muscular limbs had razor sharp talons.
Worst of all…he could breathe fire. Antrosel bellowed, “You defeated me because of that stupid host of mine. You cannot defeat me alone.”
Andrew was terrified, but didn’t want to show his fear. “We aren’t alone. Lord Crendorkus gives us his power.” Antrosel stepped back and growled. Alan used this moment to blast a bolt of green energy at him. It didn’t kill him, but it was effective in injuring him.
The two men, who had never possessed such power before were having trouble controlling it, but were trying their best.
The duel was pretty much a stalemate, until Alan discovered a handy trick. He pointed both hands at Antrosel and willed another burst of energy. Instead of a single blast, there was now a continuous stream of green energy.
Andrew copied his friend’s action and too fired a beam of green light at Antrosel who tried everything in his power to protect himself. He tried creating a shield like he had in the cavern, but it shattered. He even tried breathing fire at it, but nothing happened.
At last, smoke started coming off of Antrosel and his body began to burn. He trashed around and howled, but they kept going. Alan and Andrew didn’t stay to see the end. They willed to be flown into the other corridor and they were.
They had exhausted the power lent to them, so instead of flying, slid down the corridor until they reached on of the crafts.
Alan placed a hand on it and an entrance opened, I to which they climbed. There were no seats, so the just sat on the floor. Nor were there any controls, which meant they weren’t getting out of there too soon.
“Fly already.”, Alan yelled and the ship’s walls turned transparent. They watched as the wall in front of them dissolved and the ship shot through it, escaping the fortress.
Despite all odds they had done it now, they had got the chest.