Chapter 21
“He is awake! Quickly, call Elgar!” A gruff voice shattered my peaceful pain induced sleep.
I groaned. My eyes opened to a normal sized room. I breathed a sigh of relief. Without moving my head, my eyes darted around the room. The wall seemed to be made of some type of animal skin, and there was almost no furniture.
A small stool sat next to me. On it was only a wooden stick about five feet long. I hesitantly wiggled my fingers, and to my surprise, found that I could move rather easily. Carefully, I sat up. All my arms and legs seemed to be attached, and nothing appeared to be broken. Just as I was about to stand up, a man rushed into the room.
He was wearing a long, silvery cloak, and a band of gold was wrapped around his forehead.
“Ah, you are awake! You are the one that defeated the Eight Legged Menace, am I correct?”
“Erm, if you mean the spider, then yes.”
“Ah! And how did you do this feat?”
“I hit it with a shoe.”
He frowned at me, and shook his head slowly. “Ah, I was wrong. You work for the Pisces Empire, am I correct?”
I paled. How did he know? “Wait, how do you know that? Who are you?” I asked.
Suddenly, long black bars shot out from under the bed and clamped down around me. I reached to make a wormhole, but nothing happened. “What are these things?” I asked, struggling against the bonds.
Elgar frowned at me. “Ah, those are the legs of a Moonlight Moth. They repress your abilities.”
“Why did you tie me up, and where are my friends?” I snarled.
Elgar grunted. “Ah, you will meet your friends soon enough. And do not play games with me. You and I both know how the Pisces Empire is, am I correct?”
I nodded in agreement. “A pushy bunch of jerks who think they are entitled to the world because they can jump through pockets of time. All in all, a plague on this world. And multiple others, actually. What about them?”
Elgar staggered back in surprise. “Ah, you would speak such blasphemy even as one of their agents? You are, ah, not who you appear to be, am I correct?”
I groaned. “Enough with the ah’s and the am I corrects! And untie me already. I’m not your enemy.”
Elgar frowned. Carefully, he picked up the stick and poked the black constraints. Immediately, they rushed back under the bed. Edgar helped me to my feet.
“Just because I have released you from your constraints does not mean we are defenseless. If you try to fight us, we will put up a fight.”
I raised my hands in the air. “Don’t worry; I have no intentions of fighting you.”
Elgar nodded, and we walked out of the room. “What’s that room made of?” I asked.
“Bearskin.”
I gulped, and increased my pace slightly. Giant spiders I can handle. Bears? Keep those away from me.
I glanced down at my feet. It looked like I was standing on normal sized grass. “Hey, what’s up with this place? First the giant mushrooms, and then your eight-legged spider. Why is this grass short?”
A look of disgust flashed across Elgar’s face. “Ah, what you see is the job of the Pisces Empire. Once, we were one of the Pisces Empire’s greatest foes. We fought long and hard for many years, but one day, someone with your power brought their whole Council into our lands. They used some strange ability to mess with our world. The animals that we once called friends turned on us, and our power to control their size failed. They all became big, and we were almost destroyed by our own powers.”
I gulped. “Wait, so the Pisces Empire has a way to take your power away from you? And hey, you didn’t say ‘am I correct’ this time!”
Elgar rolled his eyes. “Ah, you are truly not an agent of the Pisces Empire. They would never let someone as naïve and foolish as you work for them. Did you honestly believe that sob story? You are too trusting. Our power is simply controlling the animals on this world. We might be able to do it on other time pockets as well, but we have never tried. The Pisces Empire just stepped into our lands, looked around, proclaimed us too weak to bother with, and burned down our capitals and lands along with much of our natural recourses, sending the creatures here into a frenzy. Then they left someone here to report back to them, and left. Now you see, am I correct?”
“You’re doing the ‘ah’ and ‘am I correct thing again’. This story seems a little more believable, but how do I know this one isn’t also a lie?”
Elgar grinned. “You’re learning. For now, you have no way to see if my story is true or fake. Therefore, you must take it at face value until you can prove it.”
I shrugged. “So why are the animals here so big anyways?”
Elgar frowned. “What are you talking about? This is normal.”
I thought back to the enormous spider. Right…normal. “So where are my friends?”
“We will see them soon. I must ask you; why have you come here? For if you do not work for the Pisces Empire, why do you have their power?”
“Long story. Let’s just say I’m not working for them by choice. To be honest, I’m not even sure why I haven’t ditched them. But whatever you do, never mention the Pisces Empire around my companions. And are you done with the ‘Ah, Am I corrects?’”
Elgar nodded. “A…erm, I see. I will do as you ask…for now. We’re almost there. Now, listen closely. I am taking you to the leader of our camp. If you are not respectful, you and your friends will be executed. Watch your words closely.”
The tent flaps in front of us parted, and a shriveled old hand waved me in. Elgar shoved me towards it, and I hesitantly entered the tent.
I poked my head through the flaps of the tent, and promptly got poked in the eye. I yelped, and someone pulled me through the flaps. Holding one hand over the offending eye, I looked at the person in the tent.
The only person in the tent was a boy of about ten years. He was holding a now obliviously fake wrinkled hand, and a large grin was plastered on his face.
“Ah, I think I have the wrong tent,” I muttered.
The boy giggled, and pointed at the stool in front of him. “No you don’t.”
For whatever reason, I suddenly agreed with him. I walked to the chair and sat down. He giggled again. “So, why have you come here?”
Despite the sense of calmness I felt, I still grimaced at his giggling. Did everyone here have some annoying habit? “I’m here for an army.”
Wait, why did I say that? Ah, it doesn’t matter. There was no way this little bugger would tell anyone anyways.
The boy giggled. “Why do you need an army?”
“Because the place where I come from is being attacked, and I have been sent on a mission to collect warriors for them.”
There was a faint alarm in the back of my mind, but I ignored it. It was just another mental fire drill.
The boy laughed once more. My eye twitched slightly, and the soothing, calm, feeling began to fade away slightly. “What makes you think we will give you an army? How do you intend to get one?”
“I would prefer to acquire one with diplomacy, but that doesn’t seem to work too well. I will do whatever is necessary.”
The boy laughed again, and I snapped. I opened a wormhole into the ground, and another one in front of his face. Instantly, the boy was blasted with several pounds of dirt. I closed the hole immediately, and suddenly, the calm feeling was gone.
Reality rushed into me, and I glared at the boy. He was lying in a dirty heap, but relatively fine. Casually, he brushed the dirt off and stood up.
“How did you do that?” he asked.
“It’s a long explanation. I opened a wormhole under the ground and…wait. I don’t need to tell you that. What are you doing?”
The boy looked surprised. “I’ve never met anyone who could avoid my power. How did you escape?”
I frowned. “You can answer my question first. How did you make me feel so calm? I was told that the power of your world was controlling animals, not some truth
magic.”
The boy smirked, and I glared at him. His smile vanished, and he shrugged. “Well, you were informed correctly. The power that the people of this world have is a slight control over animals. However, your mistake was thinking I was from this world. I’m sure Elgar has already told you about the foolishness of listening to everything you here.”
I grimaced. He was right about that. “All right, so where are you from and how did you get here?”
He tilted his head. “I think you have a rather good guess already. Why don’t you tell me what you think? I’m curious to see how much you can figure out on your own.”
“You work for the Pisces Empire. I’m betting that your town or whatever you call it doesn’t know this, and think you don’t have any powers.”
Another laugh from him and another eye twitch from me. “Not bad! You’ve almost got the whole picture. All you missed is the fact that we’re quite alike. Neither of us actually want to work for the Pisces Empire, but we do anyways.”
I stared at him. How had he figured that out? Unless Jenna spilled the beans or I talked in my sleep, there was no way he could have known. Elgar hadn’t had a chance to talk with him, so he couldn’t have told him. “How do you know that?” I asked him carefully.
“Oh, I’ll keep that little thing to myself. I have to have some secrets.”
I gave him a well-deserved gesture, which he ignored. “I believe it would be in our best interests to work together for now. Don’t you agree?”
I shrugged. There was no sense burning any bridges…yet. “What can I do for you?”
Another laugh. “I’m glad you see things the same way I do. We both want something done, and we can help each other. I heard you want an army. I can give you that.”
“And what would I have to fork over to get my grubby paws on something like that?”
“An assassination of sorts. I want you to get rid of the Pisces Empire’s pawn King, and everyone associated with him.”
Oh, thank my lucky stars. For a moment, I was worried that he would ask me to do something that would make me feel bad, or something dangerous. I thought he would even go as far as asking me to clean my room. But another assassination? Pfff. People are too cliché; what idiot even thinks these lame story lines up?
“You got yourself an assassin. You’ll have to give me some more detail though. And I have a few questions that need answering.”
For the first time, the kid looked surprised. “You took that rather well. I would have expected you to argue a little more…”
I shrugged. “I’m not a hero; I’ll do what I need to. The real world (or worlds) isn’t kind. Besides, he works for the Pisces Empire. That alone should be enough to justify sticking a shark object in him.”
“You work for the Pisces Empire too.”
“Your point is?” I smirked.
“Ugh. I see what you mean. So what are your questions?”
“Actually, I just have two. First, what’s your name? And second, where are my friends?”
“My name is Billy. And I’ll have your friends brought here immediately,” he replied.