Chapter 2

Grim knew not to panic. There had to be a simple answer for this.

He scanned the giant trees, yet nothing was recognizable. It was certainly nowhere he had ever been before. The forest was cold and eerily quiet. He sat and thought things through.

The last thing he remembered was Aunt Patrice calling his name. He was going to hide the stones before he was caught with them.

‘Young gentlemen don’t play with stones that whoosh you away to bizarre places’, he could imagine his Aunt saying. Of course, with the others gawking at him from the attic staircase there was no chance of keeping the stones secret now.

Grim sighed and looked around.

If he got back.

The same colored stones encased in the brass fingers sat in a neat circle before him.

What had he done? He put his hand in the center of the circle.

Nothing.

He stood up.

Still nothing.

A whirring sound interrupted his investigation. Grim craned his neck to find a giant structure sailing far above the trees. It was a sleek wood and metallic ship attached to the underside of a massive elongated balloon. At its aft end were propellers moving its great hulk through the sky. Grim sucked in his breath as he watched it go by, slow and powerful, like a whale.

Beside it flew smaller ships with a similar design and turbines that propelled them with ease around its great bulking weight like an escort.

Grim side-stepped as he watched, kicking the stones askew. The air ships soared toward a snow-capped mountain in the distance upon which he could see a great city with a large castle-like structure.

He exhaled.

Flying air ships.

Grim scanned the trees, wondering what sort of land he’d come to. He’d never of heard of flying galleons.

Then he jumped.

A person stood at the edge of the clearing. It was a girl close to his own size and age. She looked similar to their neighbor, Ming, with tanned skin and almond-shaped eyes. She wore a long, midnight blue dress with a white cape around her shoulders. A thick leather belt entwined her waist with pouches and odd gadgets hanging from it. Strapped across her head were goggles, not much larger than his own. Everything else would have appeared normal about the girl except she had bright purple hair that stood on end, in a higgledy-piggledy sort of manner. Grim could just imagine how quickly Aunt Patrice would pounce on her with a brush.

The young girl opened her mouth to speak and the words that came out were from a foreign language. Yet what was even more peculiar was that Grim completely understood her.

“Hello,” said the girl.

He tried to figure out how he was able to comprehend her. He wasn’t sure how to respond.

“Hi there,” Grim finally said, and his mouth dropped open. The words that came out of his mouth were in the same foreign language.

“MynmisTreena,” said the girl. She spoke rather fast and peered into the forest. Her hands and feet fidgeted like she needed to go to the bathroom.

Grim followed her gaze into the dark woods, but found nothing there.

“I’m sorry, what did you say?”

“MynameisTreena.”

Grim blinked. “A little slower, please.”

The girl giggled. “My… name… is …Treena.”

Grim nodded.

Much better.

“I’m Grim.”

“What-a-funny-name,” she said, a little slower than usual, but not by much. “I once met a man who had an odd name. He was from the Southlands. They’re strange down there. Are you from the Southlands?” The girl sucked in her breath only at the end like she was rushing to get it all out at once.

“I don’t know where here is,” Grim said. “What language are we speaking, and you talk very fast.” Grim tried to casually kick the stones into a little pile behind him. He needed them to get back and didn’t want this girl fiddling with them.

She giggled, exhaled, and then spoke at a pace that might be considered more normal, but not by much. It was like listening to chipmunk-speak. “This is the Forest of Nothingness,” she said and glanced behind Grim’s legs. “And what do you mean ‘what language’? There is only the Common Tongue. Well, except for The Unseen. They speak a language of their own.”

This was all proving a bit much: stones that hurled you to strange lands, flying air ships, mysterious languages, and spiked purple hair.

“The Unseen?” he asked.

“Yes, the ‘Not Humans’,” Treena said with a definitive nod. “But you can see them if you wear these.” She pulled her goggles over her face. She looked around the forest and then jumped as she focused on Grim once more.

Grim looked skyward for more airships, but the skies were still, as were the trees. There were no birds or forest creatures around, making the woods uncomfortably quiet.

“Did you see the dirigible?” Treena asked.

“You mean that flying air ship?”

She nodded. “You’re not from around here, are you?”

Grim shook his head. “What country is this? Are you alone here?”

“I’m with the Resistance,” she said. “We’re fighting for our freedom. I’m not sure what a country is, but this land is in the Dominion of Simeon Manor.” She pointed to the snow-capped mountain.

“Then this isn’t Earth,” he muttered. He rolled his eyes after he said it.

Duh. Obviously.

“Earth?” asked the purple-haired girl. She looked puzzled. “What is that?”

“Never mind.” He was about to ask about the funky hair when a squealing sounded in the distance. A look of worry swept across Treena’s face as she paled. She looked like she was about to make a run for it.

“We must go! The Syndrone comes!”

“What is the Syndrone?”

“A creature of flesh and metal. It eats your soul!” The strange girl peered into the woods and shuffled her feet. The sound was inching closer. “We must go now!”

“I have to go back,” Grim said. He only hoped he knew how. 

“Where?”

“Home.”

Treena’s lips twitched. “I must go now. Bye Grim!” She then hitched up her dress and dashed into the woods.

The sound of trees being ripped from the ground swept towards him as the Syndrone, or whatever it was, barreled through the forest. And a hideous black bird with a jagged beak was perched in the branches studying him with one yellow eye — a mechanical one that protruded like a telescope. It squawked with a wretched voice that Grim knew to be an alert to whatever was rushing towards him. The Syndrone would be coming for him.

Grim had a thought. It was quick and sudden. He rearranged the stones in reverse order: black, blue, purple, red, orange, yellow, green. It was the only thing he could think of.

And now, at the edge of the clearing, a thing of lumpy flesh and metal parts with red eyes appeared. It screeched and launched at him with sharp metal prongs for hands. Grim closed his eyes and slammed his hand in the center of the stones. A scream edged its way up his throat just as the thing was about to strike.

The sensation of whirling colors and strange symbols flashed about him.

Grim found himself back in his own attic once more. The scream died on the edge of his lips and came out more as a small squeal.

The others were now standing around him, gawking and mouths open. Sam pushed the glasses up on his little nose and smiled.

Rudy put her hands on her hips. “What the —”

The twins pushed forward before she could finish. “Cool trick!”

Ellen looked into the chest, but said nothing.

Grim snatched up his glasses and put them on. The chest looked empty once more and he noticed the others couldn’t see what was in there. They likely couldn’t see the stones either that he knew were still in a circle on the floor. He coughed while he kicked them askew. He couldn’t let any of them face that thing in the forest.

Aunt Patrice’s voice split the air from downstairs. “Grimwald! Door!”

“Stay here,” he said looking at Rudy, and took off down the stairs to greet an older gentleman dressed in a frilly, gray suit with a beard that closely matched. He wore a tall hat, upon which were resting a pair of goggles, not unlike his own.  He carried a silver walking stick.

Grim just stared at him for a moment. The man didn’t blink.

“Good day, young master,” said the man. “I am inquiring after a woman named Patrice. Does she live here?”

He left the man standing there and ran towards the kitchen. “Someone at the door for you, Aunt Patrice.”

“Who is it?” she asked. 

He shrugged his shoulders.

Aunt Patrice looked at Grim. “I was going to ask you what you would like for dinner, but you seem a little pale. Perhaps liver will perk you up.”

“Aw, man,” Grim moaned.

He then left Aunt Patrice to see to the door. He ran upstairs to find the others. Grim ushered them quietly out of the attic before Aunt Patrice would suspect something. He herded them into his room.

Grim had barely spoken a word when he was interrupted by Aunt Patrice’s screeching voice once more.

“Grimwald!”

Again?

He rushed to edge of the stairs. “Yes, Aunt Patrice.”

“Grimwald, your parents will be home in a moment. There is something very important we need to discuss with you.”