Chapter 7: Through The Gate
Aaron and Sofia exchanged a look. Aaron glanced down at the dagger at their feet. It floated on the lake's surface, as if it was made of wood. The blood moon's light reflected on its hilt, obsidian dark with beautiful groovy lines. They flowed on the hilt's polished surface, leading the moonlight toward its shiny steel blade.
Aaron squinted at them, and made out yet more runes. One looked like an inverted V, the other looked strange. An upside down hanger was the closest thing Aaron could compare it to.
He shot the witch a dark look. "I'm not paying your stupid price."
Sofia crossed her arms. "Neither am I."
The witch chuckled. "Puny humans, I offer you the gift of pure happiness, yet you scoff at it as if it were nothing."
"Your 'gift' is poison," Aaron said in a flat tone.
The witch looked at Sofia. "Would you rather die than see your mama again?"
Sofia scowled. "I only get to see her 'when' I die. So go ahead, do your worst."
The witch sighed. She turned to Aaron. "What about you, mister paranormal investigator, are you willing to choose death over a life with your sister, where you have a happy, loving family?"
"You killed my only family," Aaron growled at her. He looked at Sofia and his expression softened. "I'm not giving up any more of my people."
The witch chuckled. Her chuckle soon turned into a soft giggle, her giggle into a full blown laughter. She threw her head back and laughed louder under the moonlight.
Aaron's rage began boiling again. "What's so funny?" he asked, his breathing growing shorter.
The witch's head snapped toward them. Her laughter immediately seized. She approached Aaron and smirked at him. "Al can lead you back home if you wish." She looked at the bracelet in his wrist, then at Sofia's pendant. "For a price, naturally." Al the crow cawed playfully.
Aaron ground his teeth. "No way! That's the only thing I have left of her."
"Then stay here and play with spiky. After the blood moon, his hunger only gets worse," the witch replied. She turned to Sofia and raised an eyebrow at her. Al cawed, its eyes glued on Sofia's pendant.
"Fuck you!" She clenched her pendant. "I'd rather die."
The witch's brows began creasing. The blood moon fell behind the gigantic statue, its light faintly reflecting on the lake's surface.
"Anytime now," Sofia whispered to him.
Aaron reached for his bracelet and slowly pulled it away from his wrist. The witch turned to him, her eyes widening.
He gave Sofia an apologetic look. "Sorry to do this to you S."
He knelt and picked up the knife. He held it firmly, pointed at Sofia's chest. She faced him with her head held high.
"Do you trust me?" he asked.
The witch chuckled.
Sofia nodded.
Aaron took a deep breath. His hands began shaking. He could barely hold the knife straight. "I want you to know, I'll always think of you as family."
Sofia stared at him, unblinking. "Do what you have to do," she said in a flat tone.
He looked at the witch and showed her the bracelet, still in his trembling hand. "This will be my guide, right?"
The witch gave him a wide smile. "Think of it as a torch."
He nodded. "Then catch it!" He quickly turned and threw it far into the lake's darkness. The bracelet made a splashing sound then sunk deep into the lake. "Aha! It worked!" Aaron screamed.
The witch stretched a hand after the bracelet. "No!"
Al cawed. The bird took flight and went after the bracelet.
"Bring it to me! Now!" the witch screamed.
Aaron turned to Sofia and nodded.
Sofia immediately crouched then swept her leg in a circular motion. She caught the witch by surprise and swept her off her feet. As she fell, Aaron drove the dagger into her stomach, pummeling her to the lake's surface. She bounced against it and gasped, as Aaron wrenched the blade out.
Aaron pointed at the purple portal, the one with the familiar runes. "Run there! Now!" he screamed at Sofia.
The witch's eyes darted toward him. She gave him a murderous look.
Aaron met her eyes. Their flame faded, the blue barely visible. "You said we had to pay a price, you never said it had to be us."
He plunged the knife at her chest and twisted before she could stop him. The witch screamed, and the lake's surface exploded into thousands of jets, shooting the water into the sky. The statue began crumbling, and the portals started twisting.
Aaron quickly snatched two bracelets off of the witch's arm and ran after Sofia.
She had already reached the gate and waited for him, panting. Aaron reached her and handed her one of the bracelets. "Put this on."
Sofia gave him a hesitant look. "Are you sure about this?"
"This portal has the same runes as the ones in the first rock," Aaron said as he put on his bracelet. "If we're lucky, it'll take us right where we started. The bracelets have magic in them, they may help with the portal."
Sofia nodded then placed the bracelet around her wrist. "And if we're not lucky?"
He gave her a nervous smile. "I told you, suicide mission."
He shot a quick look at the witch. She was slowly sinking underneath the lake's surface, blood spreading around her. Al let out a loud screech then jumped out of the water, jets following its explosive flight.
Sofia cracked her neck. "Fuck it, let's do this!"
The gate screamed, twisted, and threatened to collapse at any moment. Aaron's mind raced. 'This is it! The moment of truth!'
He felt a hand reach for his and jumped. He looked aside to see Sofia, smiling faintly at him. "Ready or not, we have to go."
Al crossed half the distance between them in two blinks. The bird was getting dangerously close to them.
He held her hand firmly. "On my signal, we jump," he said.
She nodded. "Together."
The image of Peter's bloody corpse flashed before his eyes. He couldn't let Sofia die on his account. 'She mustn't suffer the same fate.'
The crow flapped its wings and aimed its sharp beak at them.
Aaron took a deep breath.
"Coatoan!" he screamed.
They jumped into the portal. Their bodies were instantly pulled into it, warping and changing as the gate twisted. Aaron couldn't breathe, nor could he think. He could only feel the pain of his body morphing, twisting with the gate's motion. His muscles tore apart as they got sucked deeper into the vortex. As air no longer reached his brain, Aaron's eyelids grew heavier, and the pain slowly receded.
He knew he made the wrong move when he attacked the witch, but there was no turning back.
Despite the twisting and warping, Aaron's hand never let go of Sofia's. 'Together,' he thought for the last time, before his eyes completely shut.
***
He opened his eyes and took a deep inhale. His heart pummeled his chest. He took short panicked breaths. It took him a second to remember what happened. 'Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit! We didn't die?'
His head snapped aside as he remembered Sofia.
He sighed in relief when he found her lying next to him, on the grass. A boulder stood before them, with the same familiar runes engraved into it. The blood moon had disappeared, replaced by faint sunlight.
"Where are we?" he whispered. His head throbbed lightly. His legs hurt a little.
His left arm, however, hurt the worst. He looked at it and let out a loud yelp. He touched it, as if it was a foreign body part, unable to understand it.
His hand had disappeared, replaced by a mechanical looking one. It gleamed a shiny bronze color despite the faint sunlight.
He could still move his fingers on command, twist his hand and move it freely. Yet, it wasn't his, and its metallic look wasn't the strangest part about it either.
His forearm changed as well. He basically had a bronze gauntlet, instead of a hand. The gauntlet's arm was split into three distinct rings, each neatly stacked against the other. Inscriptions, similar to the ones the witch used for her magic, were written on the rings.
Sofia gasped loudly as she jumped up. She looked around, inspected herself then turned to look at Aaron, eyes wide. "What? We made it?"
Aaron smiled. "Looks like we did!"
Sofia looked around, excited. "Holy fuck! That was insane, dude! Where are we?"
"No clue! Looks like the woods, again," Aaron said. His eyes still glued on his new arm, his gauntlet. "Do you feel any different?"
Sofia turned to him, frowning. "Not really," she said. She followed his gaze and finally noticed his hand.
"What the…" she leaned forward and took another look. "What's that?" she asked.
Before Aaron could reply, a bush before them rustled. Their eyes landed on the source of the noise. They quickly scrambled to their feet.
They were in a forest with tall trees. Sunlight beamed down on them, but only a few rays made it through their thick branches, and the early morning fog.
Yet, they saw what approached them.
"This is definitely not Mirkwood," Sofia said.
A lizard the size of a dog approached them. It had green scales, and walked on four beefy legs. Two long fangs protruded from its upper lip. A deep purple liquid dripped from them, hissing as it hit the grass.
Sofia took a loud gulp. "Are we in hell? This thing looks like a king cobra with legs!" She shivered.
Aaron's eyes remained glued on the beast. "Wherever it is, it doesn't look friendly."
"We run?" Sofia asked.
"No!" Aaron replied. He looked at the beast. It was slowly approaching them, its forked tongue slithering at them. He knew he should fear the thing, but he didn't. He looked at it with a strange determination.
"Portals and magic," he whispered.
"Huh?"
"Let me try one thing, prepare to run if it doesn't work," he said.
Sofia took a step back, ready to haul.
'Come on, don't disappoint me,' Aaron thought.
He pointed his new arm at the beast. The rings hummed, a song he knew only he could hear.
"You think it can do something?" Sofia asked.
"Just… Gimme a second," Aaron said through gritted teeth. He focused on the runes in the rings. Most of them were foreign to him, except the inverted V that he'd seen before.
He looked at the beast. It was two feet away from them. It hissed then bared its fangs at them.
"Shit! Look out!" Sofia screamed. She shoved Aaron aside then jumped the other way.
The beast opened its mouth and spit a mouthful of purple liquid at them. It hit a bush behind them and turned it to putrid smoke in seconds.
Aaron and Sofia exchanged a terrified look.
He turned his attention to the beast and pointed his hand at it. 'Please do something! We can't let this thing kill us!'
And the gauntlet obeyed.
The rings turned to life and spun. The inscriptions shone a bright blue light. They turned at head spinning speed until they cracked to a stop. From where Aaron stood, he could see two runes aligned with each other. The third ring, however, was blank. They represented a V with two points on top, and a diagonal Z with a curved line on top.
His fingers twitched, then a strong jet of wind exploded out of his palm. It hit the lizard head on and splattered it on the ground. Blood spurted out in all directions. The blast turned the beast to mush.
It looked like a bug, squashed by the hand of God.
Aaron looked at his gauntlet, his mouth slightly ajar. "What the-"
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GoodHunter
GoodHunter Let the adventure begin!
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