Chapter 4

He then took my hand-I didn’t say anything-and started leading me through the thick trees. “So-”

“Wait. Wait. First off, tell me…” I looked around nervously. “What was that thing?” 

“Oh, that?” He smiled. “Kimera. They’re as common as rats, twice as dangerous. They taste amazing, though.” 

At that I gave a little squeal of disgust. “Ew! You seriously eat those things?”  

“Yeah, they’re a major food source for us. All the forests around here are crawling with the things; we don’t even need to farm them.” 

       I raised an eyebrow and wondered what kind of crazy dream-world-whatever I’d landed in. “Okay, okay, um…” It’s probably obvious that this place and this guy were unnerving enough but there were a few things I was dying to know. “Listen, just tell me: who are you, who is we, and where is here?” I snapped at him. 

       He gave a solemn nod. “Uh, in order, I’m Alex, we—that is, my people—are called Malinites, and here is Kendry.” Of course, two of those words held no meaning to me at the time. Seeing my confusion, he went on. “See, Kendry and Earth have always been closely intertwined-”

“What’s a Kendry?” I asked. He looked a little taken aback, like I’d just asked a really dumb question. 

       “Kendry is…this. This world—uh, dimension—no, I think it’s a planet—whatever. It’s the land we’re standing on. Kendry. Namely, the southeastern corner of it, a kind of country called Skyrek. The place you just left is Earth, right?” I nodded. “There’s a few…portals, I guess we can call them, which link the two. Well, there were. You just found one of the last remaining ones. But a long time ago, people would just move between the two. And my kind? We loved your kind.” 

“Kind. What kind?”  I asked. He gave a bright smile. 

       “Humans! We adore them! So many of our…names, our ideas, influences, everything, we borrowed from you humans and your world and your history and—okay, so it was mostly what we were able to scavenge from what you all dropped down here. We had to fill in some gaps. 

“Anyway, you probably know about some of the races that live here, they’re our allies that we’ve sent to Earth-you’ve probably seen them, you might even have names for them--” 

My mouth fell open, a look of idiotic shock as I figured out what he meant. “You mean…elves, fairies, mythical...whatevers, all come from here..? And they’re all real?”  

       “Whatever you’re calling them, yes and yes. Some have died out, of course, but all you need to worry about are just two races. Malinites and Kavarians, or Kavs,” he said. “We call them flies, ‘cause they’re not much better than real ones. They’re all crazy.” I saw one of his eyes twitch just a little. “Savage. And incredibly dangerous.”

“More deadly creatures? Fabulous.”

       “Don’t panic, though. If anybody around here’s going to be safe from them, it’s you. And of course, if everything goes well, we won’t be seeing too much of them, unless they’re dead. Anyway, my name, as I said, is Alex.”

“Alex what?” I asked. “Do they, uh, have last names here?”

“Yes,” He answered, pausing for a second. “Alex Vervain.” He glanced around and cracked another smile. 

“You can also call me Prince Alex.” 

“’Kay—wait, what?” I stopped in my tracks. A prince? No. Impossible. Though he was clean-shaven and young, he looked much too...messy. He was wearing jeans, for fuck’s sake. Prince? Really? Really?

I said the first thing that came to mind. “So you’re here to sweep me up and we’ll live happily ever after?” I snorted.

“Something like that,” he said. I guessed he was joking too. “Let me tell you about the flies before I tell you anything else. About, hmm...two hundred years ago, my kind had control over this entire country.”

“Had?"

“Had, yes. We kept the flies in line, they never bothered us much. Until they violently overthrew us, I mean,” he explained. "Hundreds were killed, including my ancestor--"

"--So you guys aren't immortal." 

       He gave me a bemused stare. "What? No. I'm twenty. Anyway, here’s why I care. My kind was banished-the ones that weren't killed-into the deadest, most miserable-looking wasteland in the country. The only wasteland in the country. It's called Oasus, and--” Alex suddenly darted behind a thick tree and pulled me with him. I opened my mouth to speak but he quickly shushed me, continuing in a whisper. "—And they police the forest that surrounds it. We're not supposed to be here. C'mon." I never saw a thing, but Alex led me a few more yards and finally spoke again.

        "This is where we've been trapped for two hundred years." He pulled back a few thick bushes and led me past them. "Welcome to Oasus." And instantly, everything around us had changed. There was no life beyond the boundary of the forest, a brown and cracked desert behind a wall of green. I looked back: lush greenery. I looked forward…dead, gnarled trees, dry, parched ground, little white bones everywhere. I stood just at the border, still head-tiltingly confused at the surreal effect it gave. As I noticed the small clusters of short buildings off in the distance, Alex went on like all of this was perfectly normal.

        “As you can imagine, we’ve been waiting for the chance to strike back at them. And waiting. And waiting. And for the last twenty years-since I was born-we’ve been raising an army.” He gave me a smug little smile and straightened up a bit. “I'm leading the rebellion."

“Good for you. And…” I somehow pieced together where this was going and silently begged him not to say it...

“Well, when I was born, there was this…oh, let’s call it a prophecy. It said a human, a woman, would arrive and lead us to victory over the flies. That human, of course, is you.”

"Yeah...no." It was my turn to laugh. “Look, your highness, thanks for saving me back there, but I don’t know you, I don’t know your…people, and I’m not going to put my ass on the line for your centuries-old grudge.”

He looked completely stricken as I said it. “Wh…what?“

“Bye!” I turned and started to struggle back through the greenery. I'd find a way back...or die in the forest. Whichever.  

        “Wait. WAIT! Please come back! I—I won’t go back without—please don’t go—wait!  You haven’t heard the best part!” He was stammering as fast as he could, following me, grabbing for my wrist. When I tugged it away, standing to glare at him, he fell to his knees.

“Hear me out. I’m begging you.” 

“Start talking,” I sighed, realizing he may well have been my only way out of this place anyhow. 

“Chastity. Don’t you want more power than you could possibly imagine? Don’t you want to be…almost worshipped by an entire race? A really, really nice palace to live in for the rest of your life?”  Making a desperate sales pitch, with a hint of desperation in his smile, he took my hand and said it one more time.  “…Well?” 

“Well,” I murmured. He hadn't mentioned all that...it really didn’t sound so bad. Maybe he was even telling the truth. He did look as though he’d cry if I left…

“…Okay, explain what it is I have to do,” I muttered. He got to his feet. He looked happy enough to kiss me.

        “Well, that's the beauty of it." I raised an eyebrow and he went on. "To be honest, you’re more of a…good omen than anything else. My father--King Octavian--is really superstitious. So is everyone else. If we have you on our side, at all, regardless of what you do, we win. What do you have to do? Absolutely nothing.”

        I never thought I'd see red eyes with a begging, puppy-dog quality about them.“Were you planning to give me a choice?” I finally said. “I guess I’ll have to-” I was interrupted by him wrapping his arms around me so tight I could hear my ribs cracking.

“You have no idea,” he said, “How much this means to me. To everybody. Me, especially...”

"...Good for you.”  

Chapter 3

He wasn’t…human. At all.

                That was my first thought. A young man decked in a long black coat had made his way into the clearing and was half-carrying me, one arm still extended and holding a silver, weird-looking gun. It awed me that he’d killed those creatures with a single shot, but only after I’d overcome the initial shock of seeing him. Again: Not. Human. His narrow (admittedly pretty) face was paper-white just like his pearly, shoulder-length hair. He gazed out of two narrowed, blood-red eyes and all over his face were thick, inky black lines, simple and symmetrical markings that looped and flowed down his neck. He flashed me a white, apologetic smile (no fangs, I thought with some relief) and started talking. Did I say talking? No, he started chattering, fast and confusing; in gibberish I couldn't understand. As I tried telling him that, he carefully set me on the ground, knelt, and reached into a pocket of his coat.

                "Hey. Hey. Creepy...goth...albino zombie boy. Tell me, nice and slow, where the hell I am,” I half-shouted, as if he'd understood me if I was louder. He looked up with a little smirk, said a bit more gibberish, and pulled out a bandage. He poured something from a little glass bottle onto it before carefully rolling up the cuffs of my pants and wrapping it around my gaping wound. Almost instantly, the pain began to fade. Good, I thought. He wasn't trying to kill me. Quite the opposite. As the wound healed in seconds with nothing more than a little scar, he helped me to my feet like a perfect gentleman, talking the whole time and making no sense. But he was smiling, and when I stood he got back onto his knees and kissed my hand. Despite all that had happened, I laughed.

"Listen, I...thanks, but who are you and do you speak English?" I tried, a little softer and a little slower.

                Finally, a word, a sound, which I understood: "Oh!" He seemed to be reminded of something, and pulled another bottle out, and offered it to me. When I hesitated, he tugged the lid off and drank a little of its pink contents before holding it back out. With a shrug I took a careful sip of the bitter stuff.

                "What was that?" I wondered aloud. I knew what I'd said, yet out of my mouth poured something completely unintelligible. With a squeal I clamped my hand over my mouth. "What the--" more gibberish sounds. “What did you do?!” 

                “That was to fix your voice," he replied. I gasped again. He still spoke that gibberish but I completely understood him. He seemed really freaking amused at my shock. “Relax,” He laughed again and just stood there, eyeing me. “It’s a…spell, infused into the water,” he explained.

                   “A spell…” I repeated in disbelief. It really would do no good to explain what was going through my mind, because it was pretty blank with confusion by that point.

                    “You should be hearing me talk in your language, right now. Are you?” His eyes were quizzical, darting left to right as if he were reading me. I nodded. “Good. A friend of mine made it, I'm no good at this stuff.” He shrugged and smiled again. “Now…your name?”

“It’s…Chastity,” I mumbled, still baffled. He gave me a wide, boyish grin and started looking closer at me. I stood stock-still as he kept scanning me with those unsettling red eyes.

“I love this color,” he murmured, grabbing a lock of my hair, sniffing it. I stared at him with a puzzled frown. “Auburn, is that’s what it’s called?”

“I…think?” He let my hair fall back down to my shoulders. He put two hands on my face, tilting it downward and gazing at me a little more. Not wanting to offend him and get my neck snapped, I went ahead and let him.

           “Green eyes,” he muttered to himself. I thought he sounded a little disappointed. “Well, you’re pretty, anyway. And…” he started running his hands down my sides. Some weird custom, I figured, but I backed away from him just as his hands reached my hips. He looked a little startled that I did, but a rush of pale pink formed on his high-boned cheeks. “I’m sorry…I just…” He went from flustered to serious again. “Right. Just follow me, I’ll explain everything.”

Chapter 2

                 It took me a minute to fully register what had happened. Once I did, the one coherent thought in my mind as I plunged down the well was something along the lines of OH SHIT OH SHIT WHAT THE HELL HAVE I JUST DONE. My hair whipped into my face and I could only stare and watch as that little circle of light at the top of the well got smaller and smaller. I was falling much too fast to claw at the wall and try to stop myself. I was about to scream when I was suddenly surrounded by light and blurring colors. That was when I did scream, at the top of my lungs, because I quickly noticed I was, somehow, falling out of the sky. The green blur I quickly recognized as grass, or forest, was coming up fast. I shut my eyes and curled up as best I could, freefalling, bracing for the pain…

                The tallest, bushiest trees broke my fall first. They were maybe thirty feet in height, brilliantly blue-green, evergreen-looking. I slammed into their soft topmost branches, probably taking several with me as I plunged. Desperate grabs for those only gave me fistfuls of needles.Next came the shorter trees, thick with strange blue leaves, wider, less like evergreens and with plentiful thick limbs, one of which I landed painfully on. I finally rolled off and fell another ten or so feet to the ground, landing hard on my stomach but thankfully on solid ground again and in one bruised and battered piece.

                Completely baffled as to how I’d survived that, I began wandering my new surroundings, half-terrified, half-fascinated. I was in a forest, plain and simple: dirt and dead leaves crunched beneath my feet; I picked up a twig and, inspecting it closely, snapped it in half. Still dazed and so confused, I moved forward, touching the clusters of tall, blue-green trees all around me. I grabbed some of the bark and chipped it off; it scraped my palm and crumbled it in my hand. It was real. This was all real. I wasn’t high, I wasn’t dead, yet how else could I explain this? I was standing in awe, gawking at the sky, the sunlight filtered through the leaves above me. This foliage went on as far as I could see.

                The forest looked like it went on forever as I wandered through it, in a trance. It was like nothing I’d ever seen. Every tree, leaf, stone, was in some bizarre shape or had some bizarre coloring I’d never seen in any plant back home. Some plants were moving, slithering, some-I swear-were glowing in broad daylight. I’d have been amazed at it all, but it honestly unsettled me, and the strange pit in my stomach only grew when I realized that I was completely alone. It wasn’t the complete lack of people either (though that was creepy too); I’d have expected to see some creatures, animals, bugs, this deep in a forest. It seemed as though it was only me and the shrubbery. Luckily, or..not, I quickly had a little company.

Crunch.

                There was a tiny clearing nestled in the forest, and my foot had fallen on another stick. This really wouldn’t have concerned me much had the clearing not been a tumbling, writhing, chattering nest of those…things. The creature that sent me plunging hundreds of feet apparently had a big family. They were just there, crawling, creeping, some sleeping in tangled-looking piles, others with necks extended to the lower tree branches. When they heard the stick, though, every single one of those soulless, beady little red eyes turned straight to me.

                “Oh crap.” I turned and ran before any of those birds could blink. Naturally, the most vicious of the bunch began running right after me, making terrifying noises and clamping down so hard on the hood of my jacket that I slipped out of it, stumbled, and never took my eyes off them as I ran from a chimera-thing for the second time in less than an hour. Some of the things had been satiated with tearing the jacket to shreds—they remained behind attacking it—but the smart ones, that is, the two or three biggest, stayed in hot pursuit.

                I wove through trees and barreled through everything else. Like before, only everything was more colorful and I was at least ten times more confused. Finally, another clearing—mercifully empty—and I stopped, leaning on a nearby tree, completely out of breath. My lungs felt like I’d taken a sledgehammer to them, my shirt and hair were dripping with sweat, I wheezed a little.

                They charged, and everything happened very quickly. One of their long, snaking necks reached for me and its fangs were inches from sinking into my throat. Another ripped into my leg, sending a stabbing pain all the way to my toes. Then, a deafening bang tore through the air and the three of them collapsed in a pile.

                Shaking and weeping at this point, I barely noticed the hand that helped me stagger to my feet. Once I'd calmed down, once the pain in my leg subsided a little, I took a good look at my savior and let out a gasp.

Chapter 1

I’d managed to escape a demon, crash-land into another world entirely, and become something just above royalty. All in one morning. Nice.

                On yet another Monday morning, I woke up to an empty house; nothing odd about that, my parents were both at work. I stumbled into whatever outfit I could find. Breakfast, brush my hair, grab my stuff, amble out the door. I hadn’t walked thirty feet down my block when everything started, when my life changed forever.

…Wow, that sounded silly.

                Anyhow, I had assumed it was my extreme sleepiness that was bringing on a hallucination of some kind. Because I could've sworn that standing right there, in front of me, was a…honestly, I had no idea what it was. At the time, I suppose I’d have described it as vaguely bird-like. Demonic might’ve been a better word, though. It was about a foot shorter than me, and quite a bit longer thanks to that long neck and tail. It had a beak, yes, but I saw the glint of fangs, inch-long and razor-sharp. The soulless-looking red eyes didn’t help things, nor did the dripping tusks. It had no wings, just this long, naked, writhing body balanced on long, stilt-like legs.

I quite naturally abandoned my morning grogginess and my natural response, of course, was to run--as fast and as far away as I could from that thing. Dropping my backpack, I turned and sprinted into the woods, mostly out of panic. I could've run into town, but of course I wouldn't have had any trees or stones to madly crash into. Which I did. Repeatedly. And that was before I noticed it had actually given chase. After a mad dash through thorn-covered bushes and gripping, clawing tree limbs, I ran into—slammed  into—the well.

                Everybody in town knew about that damn well. For decades it had just sat there in some nearby woods, unnoticed, unused. It had come into the public eye a few years before I was born, when a few local kids had jumped (or fallen) into it. No bodies were ever found, the well was boarded up, but no one had ever forgotten the story. I had no time to ponder it, though; that thing was coming up fast. My sneakers slipped on the mossy edges of the well, but I scrambled to the top just as it approached. The well was big-a good four feet in height-and I stood carefully on the moldy boards sealing it.

                It...growled at me, but despite those legs it looked like it couldn't climb. Not that it wasn't trying. It scratched savagely at the stones, leaving gauge marks an inch deep. I reached desperately for a tree limb above me.

                "What  are you? What do you want?  I asked in a still-disbelieving daze, as if it would answer. Those would be the last words I uttered in my hometown, on my planet, because as I said them I slammed my foot on the boards. The wood tore like paper, and with another scream, I went down.