“Are you guys seeing this?” I ask, hoping I am not the only one experiencing this strange phenomenon.
Shadow and the other two griffins begin chirping as they examine each other. “All three of you are glowing. It looks like someone doused all of you in orange fluorescent paint.” Shadow walks up to me as I lift my hand to wave it in front of my eyes. “Am I blue to you?” As I wave my hand around, it leaves a trail of blue as if I were smearing the blue light my body is emitting against the black background that is everything else. “This is by far the weirdest universe we have seen yet.” Shadow keeps looking back and forth from me to the griffins and himself. “I guess that in this universe light emits from the organisms inhabiting it.”
I stand and watch as the two griffins start to jump around and hover in the air. It is surprisingly beautiful to watch as the light they emit bleeds into the air around them, creating the appearance that they are leaving a trail of light behind them as they fly. It reminds me of watching Tron when the light cycles left their trail behind them.
I process our new surroundings as things finally start to come into focus. “I can see the ground now. There are hills over there.” Shadow chirps, and it seems that our eyes are adjusting to the way this universe works. The ground below us is producing a faint grey hue that is helping to make out the terrain of the land around us.
“This place looks like a desert plateau. There doesn’t seem to be any plant life; of course with no natural light it would probably be hard for any life to exist here at all.” I look around and notice the other griffins are nothing but orange blurs in the sky. “Get them back here, Shadow.” Shadow takes off and meets the two midair and gives them a talking-to that causes them to come back. “Sorry, guys, but we need to stay close for now. With such little light, there is no telling what we will find here.”
We walk around the grey lit plateau that seems to extend in all directions, and after ten minutes, I worry that this place holds no recruits for us. I turn to look behind us when I hear a low grumbling coming from Shadow and the two griffins. “What are you guys upset about? It’s not like there is anything here that can… What is that?” I stand in utter awe as a green, glowing dog-like shape slowly makes its way toward us. The griffins’ growling intensifies.
Shadow and the griffins do not hesitate and take off in the direction of whatever that glowing being is. I see the three of them dive, and before the creature can escape, the griffins have torn it to shreds without making a sound. “What are you guys doing? This isn’t the time to eat.”
I run toward what can only be described as a glowing orange mass with green bits flying about. As I get closer, I notice that there is a green hue shining behind a large rock formation off in the distance.
When I reach the orange mass, I look at Shadow, “Why did you run off like that? You know better than that.” He growls at me to let me know he was in control of the situation. I look down at the ground between the griffins and see something I was hoping never to encounter again.
“It’s a warhound, but that means…” I take off running for the green light behind the rock formation to get a closer look. I slow down as I get closer and make sure to use the rock to hide the neon blue light I am emitting. I press my back against the rock saying, “You three, get behind here and stay.” I peek out from behind the rock but hastily throw myself back behind the only thing blocking my light.
“We have a big problem. There is a whole Mortem Mangoner army camped out over there.” Shadow and the other griffins start to move out from behind the rock, so I throw my hands out saying, “No. You should stay back here. This rock is the only thing stopping us from being seen by the Mangoners. They could see us from a mile away with how bright we are glowing.” Shadow stops in his tracks and looks down at his own feet, letting out a frustrated growl. “We need to leave, now.”
All of a sudden, my hair is thrown back when a strong gust of wind hits me. Shadow and I turn to see the other two griffins starting to rise toward the top of the rock formation. “We have to get them down, and quietly.” I use Shadow’s left back leg and jump on to his back. We fly up to meet the other two griffins, and when we get to eye level with them I say, “You two are going to get us killed. Come down, now.” The two griffins start chirping, causing Shadow to rise a little higher. I feel Shadow hit my leg with his back leg and ask, “What?”
I follow his line of sight to see why the other two were freaking out. Off in the distance, there is a glowing green dome that I believe is another one of the crystal cages like I was put in the last time Cecilia and I ran into these guys.
The dome itself is not what bothers Shadow and the other two, but right in the middle of the green dome are five orange winged creatures that can only be one thing. “They captured griffins.” Shadow starts to descend, and the other two griffins follow.
“We have to leave. We will put everyone in danger if we get caught here. Let’s go.” I turn to walk away, but I feel my shirt being tugged on from behind. “What are you doing?” I turn to find Shadow has a firm grasp of my shirt with his beak. “We can’t stay here. If they have any Imago over there, then they will follow us back to Liferné.” Shadow lets go of my shirt and looks back in the direction of the caged griffins and growls. “You want to save them, so they don’t get fed to the Imago, right?”
Shadow chirps at me, and I know that there is no point arguing with him. “And how do you propose we get there without being seen. Glowing like this will make it impossible to sneak into their camp. Unless you find the dimmer switch on us, we have no chance of pulling this off.” Shadow frantically looks around for any solution to our problem. I watch him turn to the other griffins looking for help, but finding nothing. He looks back at me, and I say, “I told you there is nothing we can…”
Then I see it, or more accurately, I don’t see it.
“How did you do that?” I run over to the griffin whose front legs have disappeared. “Did you do something?” I touch where his leg should be and mud comes off on my hand, leaving a small hand-shaped orange glow in the middle of what appears to be nothingness. As the griffin’s leg starts to glow again, my hand stops glowing. “This could work. We’ll have to be fast, but this could work.”
It takes about twenty minutes, but I am able to use the mud from the puddle the griffin is standing in to cover all three griffins and myself. As I look in front of me, I see nothing.
“Could you guys chirp so I can know where you are?” Shadow chirps first, and I reach out to my side to feel his beak. The other two griffins chirp telling me that they are in front of me. “I have no idea how long this mud will hold, or if it will stay on when you guys use your wings, so no flying unless it is life or death. When we get to the camp, we stay silent the whole time we are there. No chirps, roars, or talking.” I can hear the griffins shuffling around, and now that my vision has gotten used to their silhouettes, I can tell where they are. “When we get in there, I want all three of you to make your way to the cage holding the other griffins. Get them out, but do it silently.”
Shadow pokes my side with his beak. “You have to go with them. They will need you to lead them.” He chirps, and I tell him, “I am going to try and see what they are doing here. I doubt they are camping in this luxurious location for a relaxing vacation.” I turn back to the other two griffins saying, “There are sure to be Imago here, so be on high alert. Do not, under any circumstances, try to fight them. We get the trapped griffins, and we leave. That is it. Shadow, I will meet you three back here, and then we can open a portal and go back home.”
I hear three chirps from my friends telling me we are good to go. We get to the edge of the rock formation hiding us, and we take our first step out into the wide-open area that will provide no shelter for us.
We quickly make our way to the edge of the camp, but with every step we take closer to the bright green-glowing mass, I can feel my old fears building up and have to fight the urge to quit now and just hide in my house. Every hair on both of my arms is standing up. I have to remind myself that we are invisible, that we are losing time to save Cecilia. But that fear has latched on to me…what if the Mortem Mangoners can see us? What if the Imago are near? Is that clicking I hear?
I snap to stop our convoy and to stop these questions; then I look up and realize I am about to get an answer to these questions, because two crystal men are coming our way. They must be on patrol. The two green, glowing Mortem Mangoners are about twenty yards away from us. They are moving perpendicular to us, so they should not run directly into us, but I am just praying that they cannot see us. I hear talons digging into the tough ground, and I snap my fingers again to make sure no one moves.
The two patrolling are casually talking to each other while they walk, but they do not seem to notice us. I see their green-glowing heads turn in our direction, but they just keep talking as they walk away from us.
I let them get about thirty yards away before I whisper, “Let’s split up. I will call if I need you, Shadow.” I can barely see them, but all of them take off for the glowing green cage to our right.
I take a deep breath before I head out on my own to see what I can learn. Every step brings me closer to the camp and causes the massive green blur to come into focus, and I can now make out actual shapes. Most of the camp is comprised of beds and chairs that the Mortem Mangoners are sitting on while they talk. There are a few buildings, but they seem to be simple four-walled structures that look like stables, and are most likely where the warhounds are held.
Now that I am this close, I can also see that most of the crystal men are sitting around small fires that cast out actual light. The fires are washing out the natural green glow that the black crystal barbarians produce in this universe. I will have to stay vigilant as I make my way around the camp and avoid that light or else I am sure to be seen.
When I take my first step inside the camp, I reach behind me and take my mud-covered Sica out. I am not a hundred percent sure my blade will cut through their crystal bodies, but I feel more confident with it firmly in my hands.
As far as I can see, the whole place is full of Mortem Mangoners who are just waiting for something. Most are either talking or sleeping, but there are a few groups patrolling the camp as they walk around and in between the various buildings.
I climb the nearest building to find a better view of this place. When I get to the top, I survey the whole camp and feel my stomach fall to my feet. This is not just some raiding party like we have faced before; this is their entire army. There are nearly ten thousand Mortem Mangoners.
Toward the middle of the camp, I see a large green, glowing structure that seems to be different from the others. Even though it is far away, I can tell that it is much larger and taller than any of the surrounding structures, and there are at least twenty Mortem Mangoners standing guard in front of it. If I want to learn anything about what is going on here, then I will start there.
The building is too far away to get there by using the rooftops, so I drop back to the ground and move from one building to the next as I get closer and closer to the central building. The mud covering I donned is doing its job perfectly. I can walk past most of the guards without raising any suspicions that I am here.
I finally reach what I think is the half-way point when I run into my first problem. There is a patrol group coming around, and they have warhounds with them. They might not see me, but the hounds will surely smell me.
I duck behind another building and hug the wall, as I try to avoid the warhounds by keeping the building between me and them. When I get to the other side of the wall, I look out to see if my path is clear.
“Not good,” I say as I run for the middle of the wall again. There is another group of warhounds and crystal soldiers coming that way as well. I back up to the wall, but as I use my hands to guide me back, I notice there is nothing behind me. I turn around and find an open window that might be my only chance of staying hidden. I do not hesitate and jump through it seconds before the two patrol groups pass by the building. I land on something soft that is giving off a light, yellow glow.
“Hay?”
I am now sitting in a closed-off room where the floor is covered in some type of hay. I have to carefully pick the hay off, because it appears as if yellow glowing strings are now floating through the air when I stand up.
I clean off, and then head for the green door in front of me. I quietly slide through and shut the door behind me as silently as possible. When I turn around, I am caught so off guard that I clasp my hands over my mouth to stop myself from uttering even the smallest of sounds.
The good news is that I was right about them keeping the warhounds in these buildings, but the bad news is that I am stuck inside one of these buildings, and now I am standing in the middle of a pack of them. There are nearly twenty warhounds sleeping around my feet.
Before I can panic, I try to find an exit. There is one door, but it is on the other side of the room. I keep searching and find another window that is not too far to my left. I choose the shorter path and start to slowly and quietly make my way to the window.
Thankfully the warhounds do not sleep near each other, which gives me enough room to move without having to worry about hitting one of them. I make it to the window without any problems, but when I get there, it will not open. I feel around the green glowing windowsill for any type of latch that might be keeping it closed. I find one near the bottom, but as I turn it, there is a loud creaking noise that reverberates throughout the room.
I freeze the moment the latch opens, and when I turn my head to see if the noise stirred any of my roommates, I see a few of the warhounds start to twitch, but none of them seem to have been roused from their slumber.
I let out a slow breath while I turn back to try and open the window. A low growl coming from my left immediately interrupts my exit plans. I turn my head, finding that one of the warhounds is staring right at me. I can see his green glowing head pointing right in my direction.
I hold my breath and steady my stance, trying not to give away my exact position. If it truly saw me, then this would be over by now. I silently watch as it lifts its nose and begins to smell the air in the room.
This is what I was worried about. I reach for my blade and get ready for the fight I was desperately trying to avoid. The warhound starts to growl louder, and I know that it has my scent. His incessant growling stirs the others and now nearly all of them are standing and sniffing in my direction.
I crouch down, putting my Sica between me and the warhounds that are about to attack, while simultaneously raising my hand to my lip in case I need Shadow to get me out of here. The hounds slowly close in on me and my heart is about to leap from my chest. Their foreboding barking and howling fill up the room. I hold my blade up high, ready to swing when suddenly the door to my left bursts open.
A Mortem Mangoner comes charging in the room yelling something in his own language. To my dismay, the warhounds ignore him, focusing solely on me. In frustration, the crystal man takes his arm and turns it into a glowing whip that he violently swings above his head creating a whirlwind of loud popping sounds. Every warhound in the room quickly turns its attention to the Mortem Mangoner who is now whipping the floor around him.
I quickly push the window open and jump out to find myself alone. I can hear the Mortem Mangoner using his whip to punish the dogs, and I use the distraction to get back to my target.
I run as fast as I can, using the shadows to keep away from the light produced by the fires, and try to reach the large building in the center of the camp. I am eventually forced to use the rooftops when I see that the front of the building is surrounded by small fires that will make the effect of my muddy exterior a moot point.
I climb to the rooftop of the closest building and search for the green cage. I want to make sure Shadow and the other griffins are still alright. I find it just as two Mortem Mangoners patrolling the cage suddenly get pulled down and stop glowing. I guess Shadow is doing his job and the griffins are safe for now.
I focus on my task again and see that, below me, there is a respectable number of crystal men patrolling around the base of the building. Going through the front door was never going to be an option today, or tonight, who knows what time it is on this dark world. I start searching for another entrance, which is when I find a window fairly close to the rooftop of the building I’m headed toward. I make it to the last building, and I check below me and find the road clear.
The gap is not too far, and I am only ten feet up. If I miss, I will be okay. I think.
I walk to the other side of the glowing roof before taking off running as fast as I can. I make the jump, and as I fly through the air, I pull my blade out in case I land in a bad situation. I hit the edge of the window and steady myself on the outer wall. I push on the window, praying that it is unlocked, and to my luck, it swings open. I slowly put my feet down on the green, glowing floor and find myself in a mostly empty room.
With no warhounds or Mortem Mangoners around, I walk across the room to a door, which I find leads to a second-level balcony. I see a set of stairs to my right that will take me to floor-level, but I quickly stop moving when I realize I can see my mud-covered legs.
There is a light coming from the first level, which illuminates my shape and could give away my position. I get on my stomach and crawl to the ledge looking over what appears to be a lobby, where five Mortem Mangoners are gathered around a black crystal table. They are using torches on the corner of the walls to light up the room so that they can see a piece of large parchment that has been laid out on the table.
I have no idea what they are saying, but the slamming of crystal fists and hammers on the table tell me this meeting is not going well. I watch as two of the Mortem Mangoners start to push each other, and then one of them turns his right arm into a sword, prompting the other to turn his left arm into an ax. They step away from the table and converge on each other, but before they can clash, a much larger Mortem Mangoner steps in between them, putting an end to their quarrel. The large one says one word, prompting both of the fighters to turn their weapons back to hands and return to the table in silence.
This must be their leader.
The leader turns his right hand into a spike as he moves over the center of the table. He pulls his elbow back, firing the spike like an arrow at the table. He pierces the large piece of parchment that was spread out on top of the table and my eyes focus on one word written out in large letters on the top of the paper.
I realize now that they are standing over a map. A map that has the word Liferné written on the top of it. I can see the battle plans drawn all over it. They are planning to attack Cecilia’s kingdom.
As quietly as possible, I slowly back up and head for the door I came through. I shut the door behind me saying, “I have to warn the kingdom. This army will eradicate everyone on the planet if we don’t prepare for it.”
I hear a faint clicking noise coming from above me and I instantly panic. The image of an Imago flashes before my eyes, but I quickly push the fear away. Instinctively, my hand goes for my Sica blade, but I let it go before I run to the window to open it so that I can begin my descent. When I open the window, I realize I was not hearing the clicking of the Imago’s feet above me, but the true source of the clicking is equally as terrifying.
It is beginning to rain.
I only leave my arm out of the window for a second, but when I pull it back inside, I see that the dried layer of mud is already beginning to run, allowing the blue glow of my arm to seep through. I look in the direction of the green glowing cage, and I see that there is a section missing now.
“They did it,” I say louder than I mean to. I keep looking, but I do not see any orange coming from that direction, so that must mean that they are waiting for me at the rock formation. I just have to get back there alive, but with this rain coming down, I will be like a large fluorescent blue blinking sign reading: “Here I am, come kill me.”
I start to whistle for Shadow, but I pull my hand away from my mouth. If I call him while I am still in the middle of the camp, there is no possible way he will get to me alive. There are too many Mortem Mangoners for him to get through. He will get killed if I do that. I take my Sica out again, because I know there is only one option for me. I must get far enough away to ensure the Mangoners do not hear me when I call Shadow.
I see that the edge of the camp to my left is the closest, so at least I know what direction I have to head toward. I push the window open again and hope I can make it back to the building next to me. I will not survive if I have to run the entire way on the ground.
“Here goes nothing.”
I take off running for the window using the ledge to launch me into the air. As I fly toward the roof adjacent to me, the rain quickly extinguishes my camouflage, and I start to light up like a florescent blue light bulb. I land rolling to my feet, but I already hear the Mortem Mangoners yelling at each other about the blue blur that just flashed in the sky.
I start bounding from roof to roof attempting to reach the edge of the camp. It only takes a few seconds before I hear footsteps and even some howling below me. They found me more quickly than I was hoping. The rain has all but washed away the mud that was keeping me hidden on this strange world.
I run as fast as possible, and when I reach the last building, I leap off the ledge to the ground below. I have to make it out of the camp.
I only make it a few more feet before two crystal soldiers impede my path. I never stop running, but right before we collide, I slide to my side and pull my blade around, slashing at one of the Mortem Mangoners’ left leg.
I swing as hard as I can and cleave the whole leg off from the knee down. The crystal man falls, but I know he can regrow it, so I quickly take my Sica and hurl it at the other guard while he is distracted. It hits in the center of its chest, and while it reels from the pain, I run up and do a spinning kick that takes the Mortem Mangoner’s head off.
I pull my blade out of the dead crystal man’s chest and immediately start running for the edge of the camp again. I see behind me that at least ten more Mortem Mangoners are coming my way, but they suddenly stop pursuing me.
When I turn back around to see why they stopped, I realize how far away I am from the edge of the camp still.
I can only stare off into the empty darkness as I say, “Sorry, buddy. I wasn’t fast enough.” I pull my Sica in front of me as I spin around yelling, “What are you waiting for?! Let’s do this!”
None of them move at first, but then slowly they begin to part as a large green light comes from behind and makes its way through the growing crowd of crystal murderers. I realize the source of the light is the larger Mortem Mangoner from earlier, the leader. He gets to the front of his men and then stands eerily still. No one is moving or saying anything.
I have no idea what he is doing, but suddenly he points right at me saying only one word. At first, I have no idea what he said, but then a slithering red glow behind him tells me all I need to know. The pulsating red glow is coming from an Imago that is slithering his way through the crystal men.
The Imago, whose body is glowing as red as its demonic eyes, wraps around the leader before standing up to laud its massive size over me.
“So, that’s what you said. Well, I’ve killed one of those before; let’s make it two.”
BOOM!!!!
BOOM!!!!
BOOM!!!!
I duck as three cries are launched at the gathered group of Mortem Mangoners. Two of the blasts destroy several of the crystal men, turning them into a green dust cloud. The third was aimed for the leader, but the Imago protected him by using his body armor to shield him.
“Shadow!” I look up and see three orange glowing griffins flying over my head. “Get me out of here!” Just before I turn, I see a wall of Mortem Mangoners coming my way, but what scares me the most is that the leader is just staring at me and not moving an inch.
“We need to go n…” Shadow swoops down grabbing my hand. I swing myself up onto his back and turn to see the two griffins who came with us firing a few more cries at the charging army. “Get them to follow us, now!”
Shadow roars, and the two griffins quickly come to meet us as we leave the glowing, green army behind. “Get us home!”
Shadow roars again, and this time the griffins they freed from the cage shoot out from behind the rock formation we were hiding behind earlier. When we all gather together in the dark sky, Shadow opens a portal that we fly through, depositing us over the forest near our base. The night sky is still black, but the large stars studded all throughout it tell me we are home. It only takes ten minutes to get to the mountain, and I am not sure I have ever been happier to see this place.
“Take us down, Shadow.” We all descend and touch ground smoothly. Captain is the first to come greet us, and I ask him, “How is the digging going? We brought more help.” Captain ignores my question, so I wave my hand in front of his eyes saying, “Did you hear me, Captain?” I turn to Shadow asking, “Can you help me get his attention?” I turn around to find that Shadow, too, is facing away from me, and in fact, every griffin around us is glaring into the forest that surrounds our mountain base. “What’s going on?”
Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.
Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click. Click.
I now know why none of them are listening to me. I search the tree line for the red eyes, and then I find them. Those eyes that tell me the devil followed us home, but this time I throw my fears aside and stand strong next to Shadow.
I move to the front of the griffins near me and stand between them and the Imago. “You are severely outnumbered! You don’t stand a chance!” I take my blade out and hold it high as I face the griffins and yell, “If we work together, we can take this Imago down! Just follow Shadow’s lead!”
I turn back around, instantly realizing that I spoke too soon.