Through the Portal

William blinked his eyes open the next day and turned his head, smiling as he saw he was up before the others. He started to push himself up, but was quickly pinned down. Katherine lay on top of him, looking panicked. As he tried to speak, she covered his mouth and brought her lips to his ear.

“Quiet,” she whispered. “Don’t move.”

He stared at her with wide eyes, not understanding. Suddenly, the light from the sky was blocked out by a dark shadow. He looked up and was glad the hand on his mouth kept him from screaming. The shadow in the sky was just that: a shadow. However, it had the form of a dragon. Its head turned towards the ground and he could see red eyes glowing as it searched for something. It had a malicious feeling to it and he somehow knew it was looking for them. He felt a cold sweat forming on his forehead.

Katherine squeezed her eyes shut, her heart pounding. She kept her hand firmly on his mouth and bit her own tongue. Even without looking at the creature, she could sense its malice. She held completely still. It seemed like it took hours for the creature to pass over them and fade into the distance, but her logical mind told her it was only a few minutes. She slowly removed her hand and rolled off of William. She lay on the ground, for a minute, feeling exhausted.

“Is it gone?” he whispered, not daring to speak in a normal tone. His eyes were still fixed on the sky where the monster had been. He thought his heartbeat must be louder than his voice and wondered if she had heard him.

“It’s gone.” She closed her eyes and breathed a sigh. The air above them shimmered for a second.

“What was that?” His voice was still quiet.

“A shadow wyrm.” She swallowed. “They fill you with terror when they draw near. If one gets too close, you can die of the fear.” She took a deep breath and sat up, but her head was spinning. She put her hand on it, trying to steady herself. “I think it was looking for us.”

He sat up, finally starting to recover. “Why didn’t it find us? We’re out in the open.” He ran his sleeve across his forehead, wiping away the beads of sweat that had formed.

She gave him a weak smile. “I used a cloaking spell. It wasn’t easy, but it kept us hidden from view.” She took another breath. “I’m going to need a few minutes to recover, now, but I don’t think it will come back this way any time soon.” She looked at him. “Sorry for attacking you like that, but cloaking spells are tricky and that thing has sensitive ears. I couldn’t risk you giving away our location by moving around or talking.”

“It’s fine. I’m fine.” He looked at her. “What makes you so sure it won’t come back?”

Katherine shrugged. “It already searched this land and found nothing. When you’re looking for something, do you often recheck one place before checking all the others?”

He nodded in acknowledgement of the point. “Why was it looking for us?”

Katherine looked down, not wanting to answer, but knowing she couldn’t avoid it. “The shadow master must have realized I brought you back.” She sighed. “Maybe, he thinks you’re important or, maybe, he just wants to capture me.” Her tone indicated she didn’t believe it was the latter. “Either way, we’ll have to be more careful. We can’t risk being caught and I can’t hold cloaking spells like that for very long.”

“Who is the shadow master?” he demanded. “What kind of a title is that?”

Katherine smiled, a bit. “I know it sounds like a bad villain from a fairytale, but we prefer not to use his name, lest he hears it and you draw his attention.” She looked at William. “All you need to know is that he’s dangerous and he is looking for you. We’ll need to find some cover, today, so that means a lot more walking.”

He sighed and looked at the sleeping group. “Should we go ahead and wake them?”

Katherine shook her head. “They can sleep a little longer. Let them rest while they can.”

William nodded, glad to let them keep their peace for the moment. Before long, however, everyone started to stir. They were cheerful when they first woke up, but the obvious fear still resting on William made them all a little anxious. After eating a quick breakfast and refilling their water bottles, they started on their way in strained silence.

Meredith matched William’s pace, so she could talk to him. When she did, it was a low whisper. “Is everything okay? You and Katherine seem a little freaked out.”

He took a breath. “We just have to keep moving. We have a lot of ground to cover and it will be a long day.”

She knew he was holding something back, but he didn’t seem to want to talk about it, so she didn’t push the subject.

William repeatedly looked up throughout the day, fearing he may see a shadow blocking the sky at any moment. He wondered what it would be like to die of fear and knew he never wanted to find out. He felt something in his hand and looked down to see that Josie had taken it. She smiled up at him, always confident in his ability to protect her.

He did his best to return the smile and gave her hand a squeeze. “How are you doing, kiddo?”

Josie shrugged. “I’m okay. How are you?”

He gave a brief laugh at how loaded the simple question was. “I’m alright. Don’t worry.” Around midday (or, at least, what he felt was midday, since it was difficult to tell without a sun) Meredith spoke up.

Her voice nearly made them jump since they had all been silent for most of the day. “Don’t you think we should take a break, soon? We can’t keep going like this all day if we don’t stop for lunch.”

Katherine looked at her and frowned, gazing out over the moss-covered hills, as though trying to determine something. “Alright, but it has to be brief. We can’t stay in one place for too long.”

Little Josie gratefully took a seat by the water and picked a mushroom, glad for the break. She didn’t want to complain, but all the walking was really hard on her, especially since she had to keep up with the pace of the older ones.

“Why not?” Meredith demanded of Katherine, growing tired of running from an unknown threat. “What’s got you so worked up, today?”

The twins looked to Katherine, hoping for an explanation. They had sat down by the stream and were having their own lunches.

Katherine shook her head. “You will not benefit from being told more. It’s best if you just trust me, for now.”

“Trust you?” Meredith stared at her in indignation. “How can we trust you when you don’t tell us anything? We barely know you, after all.”

Katherine gave her a cold gaze. “Yes, but, in the brief time we have known each other, I have rescued you and your friends three times.”

“Three? How do you get that number?” Meredith demanded.

William was the one who answered. He was sitting by himself and eating. He didn’t even bother to look up as he spoke. “She saved us from the police officer, then from the ground wyrm and, this morning, while you were sleeping, there was…something else.” He suppressed a shudder at the memory.

“What exactly did you see, this morning?” She spoke, slowly, looking at William, now. “What could possibly be so terrifying that you can’t even talk about it?”

William thought about it for a moment, then looked at her. “Trust me; you’ll know if you see it.” He couldn’t bring himself to talk about the creature. He got the feeling that, if he did, the wind might carry his words to it and it might find them. He looked over at Josie, who was listening to the conversation, but not really understanding. The thought of her being harmed by the monster scared him more than anything.

Meredith sighed, seeing where his gaze fell. “I’ll accept that answer, for now, but I expect one of you to tell me about it at some point.”

Katherine nodded. “I will be happy to explain everything once we get to the palace.” She stood. “And, on that note, we should head out, again.” She looked around, making sure there was nothing coming towards them. “Make sure your water bottles are full, so we might not need to stop again until we are out of these hills. I don’t like all this open ground.” She looked up at the sky.

Meredith had sighed when she heard Katherine, once again, promise to explain everything at the palace. She was beginning to feel like they were never going to reach that place. Even so, she stood, without argument, and filled her bottle.

Soon, they were walking again, but no one seemed energetic. On top of the strain of running from an unknown danger, they had all grown rather tired of the monochromatic surroundings. In order to see any color, they had to look up, and even that grew tiring. Therefore, Josie squealed with delight when she found a red flower, poking up through the moss.

Katherine breathed a sigh of relief when she saw it. “We’re getting close to the edge. It’s just another mile or two.”

That cheered everybody up and the pace quickened, as they were all eager for something new. They became even more cheerful when they saw the number of flowers increasing as the mushrooms decreased. Here and there, they even saw patches of orange grass. Nobody cared to wonder why it was orange, since that seemed fairly normal for Mirra.

William saw what appeared to be a lot of gold shimmering in the distance and pointed it out.

Katherine nodded as she saw it. “That’s where we’re headed, the Fire Woods.”

He thought to comment on the odd name, but stopped as he felt a shiver run down his spine. He looked around, trying to figure out what had caused it and his heart stopped as he realized what it was. Behind them, a dark shadow blotted out some light from the distance and it was moving closer. “Katherine…”

But she was already looking in the same direction. The others felt the same sense of dread and seemed to be paralyzed, for a moment. Finally, Katherine found her voice. “Run.” When they didn’t move, she began pushing them. “Run!”

They obeyed, dashing to the forest at a full sprint. Once again, William had to lift Josie onto his back to carry her as they ran towards the trees. They crossed out of the black moss and into forest grass. Now, only a field stood between them and their destination, but the shadow grew closer. No one dared to look back, but they could sense it. Josie buried her face in William’s shoulder and squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to know what the monster was.

“Just a little further!” Katherine called, trying to encourage them, “Move faster!” She was just behind the group, making sure they kept running at full speed. She looked at the forest, praying they would make it to cover. She knew the shadow creature wouldn’t be able to enter the trees.

As they grew close, the name of the forest began to make sense. The trunks of the trees appeared to be made of pure gold, while the leaves were red. The grass was orange, but dotted with red flowers. The whole wood truly seemed to be on fire.

“Faster!” Katherine shouted, realizing they weren’t going to make it in time. She could already feel the shadow on her back. As they reached the edge of the forest, she turned and raised her hands. A blinding light shot out of them, making it impossible for the children to look at her. The shadow creature gave a deafening shriek and disappeared in a puff of smoke.

William breathed a sigh of relief as he felt the presence fading. He realized Josie was crying and reached back to lay a comforting hand on her head. “It’s okay. We’re safe, now.”

Meredith looked at Katherine. “Why didn’t you just do that in the first place?”

Katherine’s arms dropped to her side, then she hit the ground, out cold.

“I guess that’s why,” Henry commented as soon as any of them were able to speak. He looked around. “We should probably get her into the woods. She seemed to think they were safer.”

Meredith frowned and nodded, feeling a bit guilty for getting annoyed at the girl. She remembered how weak Katherine had been after facing the ground wyrm and realized this creature must have taken even more effort to dispel. “Can you two carry her?” She noticed that William was too busy comforting Josie.

The twins nodded. Henry picked up her legs and Jake grabbed her shoulders. Together, they got her into the forest and the others followed.

“Do you think it will be alright to lay her down here?” Jake asked, looking around. He saw no immediate danger and knew they wouldn’t make it very far like this.

William nodded, setting Josie on the ground, now that she was a bit calmer. She continued to hold on to his hand, but he was able to rub his neck, which she had squeezed nearly to the point of breaking. “We have no choice. We need to rest and we have no idea where we are going until she wakes up.”

They nodded, accepting the wisdom of his words as they gently laid their guide on the soft grass. Henry looked at her, for a moment. “She’s not dead, is she?”

Meredith nearly panicked at the thought, but Jake pressed two fingers to Katherine’s neck and shook his head. “She’s alive, but she’s out cold.”

There was a collective sigh of relief and they all took seats around her, waiting for the girl to wake up and tell them what should happen, next. Meredith sighed as she looked at her. “What was that thing, anyway?”

“A shadow wyrm,” William replied, taking a breath. “It was sent to find us.”

“Who sent it?” Meredith asked, her gaze shifting to him. At the moment, he seemed to be the most knowledgeable of the group.

William shrugged, hesitant to use the title Katherine had mentioned, for fear of sounding silly. “She was a little vague about that part.”

Meredith rolled her eyes. “She’s always vague, isn’t she?” She frowned at the sleeping girl. “She brings us to this crazy place and expects us to just do what she says with no real explanations. Now, she’s gotten us in quite a pickle, hasn’t she? We’re lost and she’s taking a little nap.”

“That doesn’t really seem fair to her,” Henry commented. “I mean, she has worked very hard to protect us and I’m sure there’s a reason we’re here. She acts like we’re important and she’s rescued us four times, now.”

“She wouldn’t have to rescue us if she hadn’t brought us here in the first place.” Meredith sighed again, not really feeling passionate about the argument. She was still trying the shake off the fear the shadow creature had filled her with and anger seemed to help, a little. “We should just leave her here. It would serve her right.”

“It would get us killed,” William pointed out. “We need her, whether you like it or not.” He looked around. “For now, we just need to rest here and wait for her to wake up.”

The others nodded and Jake smiled as he looked at the forest. “At least, it’s not black or white.”

There was a general consensus from the group on that statement. They fell into a tired silence, not knowing how long they would have to wait.

They were just beginning to relax when a threatening voice came from out of the trees. “What are you doing in our forest?”