A Fantasy Story Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

Island of New Beginnings

            Hello there listeners and welcome back to our late night radio broadcast. We welcome back our guest, Van, who has recently got knocked out by a real live dragon. Now the last time we had Van here, he had fallen through a kitchen wall of a castle made of solid marble.

“Gezz; my mind has the strangest thoughts sometimes” I thought to myself.

            Indeed I have been properly knocked out cold again and once again I am exhausted to the point where I can’t even move. My arms and legs feel as if they have been bound to one hundred pounds of concrete, which made me wonder why I didn’t sink down into the water I floated in as if I was a piece of driftwood. The oceanic sounds calmed my nerves immensely and helped me gather my scattered thoughts.

            First things first; I need to open my dreary eyes so I could see where the hell I was. Slowly, I squinted them open and saw a few clouds high above that glowed pink and orange as the sun rose up over the horizon. They looked lovely as ever before while they painted a picture of another fantasy story in my mind; one of them looked like a boat which reminded me of Kat and her crew.

“No way, I got separated from them when that dragon whipped my ass. Are they alright?” I asked myself trying to look for their ship, hoping they would be close.

            Struggling to see what’s around me, I saw that the boat disappeared and in its place there was an island with two big mountains.

“This is just great. Lost again and separated from the only people who might have been able to help me out. Perfect” I said relaxing back down into the water, tired and exasperated.

            With closed eyes, I wondered about the next thing on my mind; why did I get visions of death, so vivid and extreme that I would actually believe that I had died. At first I couldn’t make any sense of it, but as time went on I began to unexpectedly understand what happened. Video clips of my life flashed before my eyes, showing me the time I drank that weird blue serum in the Ravenblood castle along with what I remembered from when I learned about Nostradamus and fortune tellers.

“Could that serum have given me the power to see the future? And if so, what else could it have done to me? Why fortune telling? Didn’t it say something like magic booster or magika rather?” I questioned myself trying to make heads or tails of it all.

            I clenched my hands and started to move my legs around in hopes that I would be able to move around soon.

“Oh yeah, that reminds me” I remembered that I had cut up my hand in a half-witted escape plan.

            Those hands were heavy at first so I took my time bringing them in front of my face. However as I inspected them I could not find any cut marks on them at all; just the silver and blue ring I got from Kat. Once again I was baffled to come up with an explanation and once again the answer was given to me by an assisted source through a flash back of a biology class, teaching me about how organic cells can heal themselves; I also saw the same vial of blue serum that I had drank.

“I see a pattern here. That blue stuff must have boosted all my natural magic that earthlings have. Just like when a mother can turn superhuman when her child’s trapped under a car or when there is a human as smart as Stephen Hawking. So that means I could be super strong, intelligent and with some martial arts training I could… I’m Batman!”

This epiphany through me into a wondrous world, where I fought crime in a black cape and spoke with a raspy voice. I was in the middle of taking down the Joker with some awesome batarangs when I was interrupted by the memories of my life back on earth; who I had left behind in a selfish act so I could look for an adventure on my own.

“My parents must be so worried about me. And all my friends” I said, scoffing at myself.

            The truth being that there wasn’t many people that I’d considered to be a friend. There were many people whom I knew about and who I would talk to at school, but when school ended and everyone else got together to hang out or go to a house party, I remained alone. So many times I have sat at home, working on my homework, wondering what the other kids my age did outside. However I can’t blame them too much when it was I who had the most homework to take home at the end of the day; spending hours each evening, trying my best to complete the assignments on time and with a good enough grade to make my parents happy.

“That’s right! I do have physics homework that needed to be done for tomorrow… Balls”

            Under water currents began to carry me towards the island now and as I drifted there I began to hear something unusually familiar; someone was playing a ukulele nearby. My body had rested long enough now that I could move with ease and allowed me to look around for the musician. What I saw was a wooden canoe floating towards me and someone inside with his legs hanging over the side allowing his feet to be in the water. We got closer and closer to each other and then he noticed me floating alongside him.

 “Hello there! What you think of this beautiful mornin? It’s nice yeah?” I heard him say with a Caribbean accent.

“Yeah it is pretty nice today”

“Eh? You sound like you’re not from around here my friend. What you doin in these waters like that anyway?”

“Oh you know, just thought I’d take a morning swim to clear my mind after last night”

“Ah yes, must have been a pretty wild night then. I mean if you resort to swimming in shark infested water”

“Well when you spend all night fighting a dragon with a night sky shark, everything else just seems trivial, ya know?” I said in a clam, mono tone voice.

“Mmm, I hear what you’re saying. But you can relax now because it’s a new day with new beginnings” He had said taking a brief moment from playing his ukulele.

            He wasn’t wrong about the day being new, but I still worried about Kat’s team and whether or not they got away safely.

“Say, what’s your name anyway? My friend” he sang along with his tune.

“I’m Van; you?”

“What! You don’t know?” He replied sharply ending his song.

            Great; more people who I have to learn about.

“Sorry, but I really don’t know”

            He leaned over the boat to take a better look at me. His black hair spiked up over his blue bandana and he looked over his awesome shades at me as if that would jog my memory.

“My name is Ace Lovely, and I am the star player for the Bowakka Blues”

            Ace paused for a moment to let it sink in that I’m in the presents of a celebrity, but his efforts were in vain as I was from a completely different dimension. Ace groaned and leaned back into his canoe in disappointment.

“Hey listen, I’m sorry I don’t know you, I really am. But you see I’m not exactly from around here” I said trying to sound sympathetic.

“I can see that you’re not from around here. The question is; where are you from?”

            Ace suddenly put me on the spot and I couldn’t decide whether or not I should tell him the whole truth or lie. I didn’t know how well people would react to a person from another dimension and I didn’t feel like chancing it.

“Who me? I… I am from... Coronach?” I said hoping he would take it and leave it.

“Hmm, sounds like a chill place. I might have to swing by there and show them what a Z-G player looks like” Ace chuckles light heartedly.

            His laugh must have been contagious           because soon I too was laughing with him.

“Hey Ace, can I ask ya something?”

“Shoot”

“Can ya drag me to the nearest land mass so I can dry off? My limbs are a bit numb”

“Haha I’ll do you one better, I’ll take you to my place and give you a good homemade meal! How’s that sound?”

 “Dude, you got a deal”

            Now I know what you’re thinking; you’re thinking that Ace let me onto his canoe and we paddled back to the dock where everything is good and wonderful and amazing. If that’s what you thought, well then you are wrong. What really happened was Ace’s canoe was too small for two grown men to ride inside, so I hanged off the side of the it and he paddled to the sandy shoreline where a rouge cod tried to mug me for all I had. Welcome to Bowakka, the friendliest island in the southern hemisphere.

“I told you to watch out for those fish man, they’ll charge you like a torusdillo”

“I don’t even know what a torusdillo is!”

“What?... Never mind, let’s just leave the fish alone in the water and it will leave us alone on the land where we’ll move on”

“Fine, maybe I’ll even dry off a little on the way to your place. Awe what is this?!” I said looking at the state of my clothing.

            My leather jacket had been shredded by something clawed, barley hanging together by a few threads just like my pants and even my runners where missing their souls. The only thing that wasn’t damaged was the sword strapped to my back, which I’m pretty sure saved my body from suffering too much damage when that dragon slammed me into those rocks. Peculiar that I can’t remember putting it back in its scabbard before taking a few swipes at its tale. I took a breath of relief however when I found the goggles still in one piece, hanging around my neck. I was still apart of Kat’s team.

“Damn that’s poor luck. But no need to worry, I can lend you some of my old stuff for the time bein”

“Thanks, I’d appreciate that”

“Ain’t no problem, now let’s get going. I can hardly wait to show you my village” Ace said jaunting excitedly to a walking path that led further inland.  

            He seemed to be pretty happy to have found me and tell me all about his village on Bowakka. He told me about all the people that lived there; from the fishermen to the clothing and rug store that offered Ace his own brand of clothing, and the temple where he and many others pray to those who offer them guidance and strength when in need. Ace prays to the warrior who invented the earliest form of Z-G; a sport that Ace has devoted himself to be the best at since he and his brothers were little kids.

            I followed Ace’s lead through the forest that we had to go through in order to get to the village. He continued on with his stories about the village but there was something that kept distracting me. Noises like a kid giggling came from the trees and I kept looking around to see who it was.

“Do you hear something Ace?” I asked looking around at the trees.

“I hear lots of things out in these trees. There are birds, dogs, bugs, lizards, frogs. You know all sorts of things”

“Hmm I suppose so” I said trying to convince myself I wasn’t being followed.

            As we exit the brush a mysterious creature laid fast asleep right in the middle of the road, almost blocking our path. The creature looked like a super-sized wolf to me, with red and black fur.

“Awwe! Isn’t he cute?” I said as I watched the dog sleep peacefully in the sun.

            Ace tried to tell Van not to get too close to the beast for he did not know what it was. Despite his efforts Van had awoken the mysterious dog and started to, what appears to be. Babying it. With slurred jargon he spoke to the beast, asking it “who’s a good boy” and “who wants to play”. Soon after Van had found a reasonable sized fetching stick for the game they were about to commence.

“Van! What are you doing?!”

“I-I just wanted to play with this dog for a little bit” I said thinking that perhaps I did something wrong.

“That’s no dog I’ve ever seen before. I don’t even think it is a dog”

“What?! But just look at him. He acts just like a dog and his tails wagging all over the place. Come on”

            I looked back and the dog, wolf, beast thing suddenly stopped and stood still, almost as if it was a robot that suddenly turned on. Remembering what I learned from horror movies that involved monster that turn, I drew my sword in preparation to the battle we were about to get into. The dog’s eyes began to glow red and smoke seeped out as it looked at me with the intent to kill.

 “Ace! Be careful, I don’t know what this dog can do… Ace?” I asked looking around for my friend.

“Just leave him Van and run!” I heard him yell from a distance behind me.

            Van couldn’t believe that Ace would just run away, leaving him to fight the hellhound on his own. However once van saw it grow another two heads and spewed into combustion, he too took Ace’s lead and ran away like a little girl who just spotted a spider.

“Shut up! That thing isn’t natural!”

“I didn’t say anything!” Ace said.

“I know! Just keep running, it’s catching up to us!” I yelled back seeing the dog, who moments ago was a friendly husky with a love of fetch, clawing closer and closer as we ran down the forest path.

“We should split up!” Ace suggested.

“What!?”

“That way it will confuse it and might leave us be”

            He didn’t give me much time to really think about my options, but when there is a monster hot on your heels, options tend to be limited.

“Ahhh-Alright!” I said before diving into a fine shrubbery.

            Soon after, I realized that Ace’s idea was stupid. Not only did I not know what was in the forest or how to navigate through it, but the dog decided my cuts of meat were more appealing as we ran hysterically through the flora. Goggles protected my eyes from the branches that reached out and smacked my face while I ran away from my patent pending doom.

“If only I had some open room to properly fight this thing” I said to myself.

            Van soon got his wish.

“Really?”

            After tripping over the log that was right before a rather daunting cliff side.

“Wait-Wha?”

            Van tripped and tumbled what seemed like miles to him, down the hillside with the hellhound hot in pursuit. He slammed into trees, bashed into boulders, and at one point was bludgeoned with a cactus. His anger began to build up pressure within himself until Van decided to regain his balance and footing, gracefully grinding to a halt right before the ground. The hellhound collided into Van with such extreme force that the ground shook. Fortunately for our hero he was able to get his sword out right before the hit and he tossed the giant beast up and over his head, sending it flying into the meadows which lay at the foot of the hill. Van casually walked down and towards the battle ground, watching the beast tumble and thrash about the grass covered land.

            Confused and hurt the hellhound arose to its feet looking for his prey. Van stood vigilant and cantankerous right before its face, looking down upon it as if it was a disgusting insect ruining a picnic. Once the hellhound recognized him it let out a loud roar as red hot fire spewed forth into the cool air. Van just stood there focused solely on the one objective he saw in front of him. It was up to him to stop the beast right here before anyone else got hurt and before the entire island went up in flames.

            Let’s just hope that Van can keep his cool and not get burned as he escaped the oven and is now in the frying pan. “Oh yes, I’m writing that one down”