At World's End Page 3

  Several families were in a panic, and they were using all means available to them to help their children escape a similar fate as the other boys before them.

  Zac’s father did not elaborate much of this to his son, mainly because he did not want to frighten him. However, he did not give his son much information about his destination or what he was to expect once he had left the kingdom.

  Inside the courtyard of the king’s residence, there was a large pit constructed that remained ablaze with fire unceasingly. This was the sacrificial pit, and captured boys would be thrown into the pit as prayers and chants to the gods for victory and mercy were incarnated.

  The kingdom had been threatened by distant invaders from another kingdom who had initially sent emissaries to the king—all of whom met their deaths.

  A war was consequently declared, one that was needless and unnecessary to a majority of the people in the kingdom because they did not even know their enemy. However, the King had done an excellent job of drumming up support for the defense of the kingdom from a “heathen” population that knew nothing but destruction.

  The king’s own scouts had informed him that a large armada of ships was heading for the kingdom from the large continent to the east—an armada that was exclusively crewed by black people—a race of people who were completely unfamiliar to the peoples of the kingdom.

  The King took advantage of this uncertainty and unfamiliarity between his people and the enemy to instigate them into conflict. The future of the kingdom now remained in the balance.

  In the house, Zac had started to feel dizzy. His father carried him from the kitchen to a small guest room where there was only a single bed.

  “This is the last time I’ll see you, for now,” he said to Zac once he had set him on the bed. “You’ll travel with Dolores, and I’ll be seeing you when this war has been won.”

  Zac felt too tired to reply. The concoction that he had taken was having some effect on his body.

  A strange effect.

  He felt that his father was leaving him too soon, but he could not seem to muster enough energy to inform his father. A deep headache had developed, and he was feeling tingly all over his body. As his father was speaking to him, he could barely hear him, and his vision was getting affected, too, seeing his father appear in twos and developing a blurry sight.

  Zac had no idea that when he awoke, he would be in for the biggest surprise of his life.

  Chapter 5

  The distinct sound of crows overhead jarred Zac from a deep sleep. He struggled to open his eyes; they seemed welded shut at first, and he felt a strong breeze blowing him back to consciousness.

  The first thing he saw when his eyes finally gave way to his will to see was the azure blueness of the sky and the puffy whiteness of the clouds. A strong breeze was blowing directly into his face, and he opened his eyes to realize that he was literally in the sky.

  He was lying on top of a large blackbird which was fluffing its feathers and crowing like the nearby crows. The world around them was a clear, blue sky dotted with clouds, and the sun was blazing in the direction they were coming from.

  The bird’s large feathers made a loud, fluffing sound.

  “Hey,” Zac started to say, but realize that his own voice was muffled and constrained. He was unable to speak.

  His hands reached for his mouth, and he was shocked that he had a beak instead of a mouth. Now that he observed himself a little more closely, his entire body was covered in feathers!

  “Hey!” He tried to shout, but no words came out. Instead, his voice seemed muffled and restrained, almost as though he was supposed to crow instead of speak.

  He tried getting on his feet on top of the large bird that seemed oblivious that he was awake, but he quickly sunk back to his knees, unable to trust his balance.

  They were moving fast through the air, and from what he could tell, they had been flying for a long time. He threw a glance at the crows flying alongside the big bird, noticing for the first time that they were flying very high up in the sky, an unusual altitude for crows—and birds, for that matter.

  Just as he was about to attempt to shout again and try to understand the conundrum he was in, he noticed that the large bird had a large wound up the side of its leg. It was a gashed wound, a large one—one that could only have been caused by a large, sharp weapon.

  “Hey! Bird!” He tried to shout, but it was in vain.

  The other crows were cawing loudly now that he was awake, and they seemed to be chattering and jabbering at each other despite the fact that they were in mid-air. He counted four crows in total.

  Zac was unsure whether this was his father’s way of getting him out of the kingdom. There was a law in the kingdom against teaching and using children for magical purposes. Yet his father had violated an express law for reasons that he still could not understand.

  The fact that he had feathers and a beak on himself was an indication that some sort of magic spell had been used on him.

  Or was it the porridge-like substance that Father’s friend fed me? Zac wondered as they soared through the air.

  After a while, it started to get cold. Really cold.

  And it was not just the strong, passing wind. The temperatures had dropped almost suddenly, and the crows excitable and louder chatters seemed to confirm this.

  The big bird let out one large audible crow, shimmied its feathers and seemed to adjust its body position, then changed its flying direction. Its large, yellow beak pointed downwards, and Zac suddenly felt his body being lurched forward and free from the bird.

  “Argh!” Zac tried to shout out from the sudden change in direction, but he did not have a mouth.

  The bird started to descend rapidly down, the other crows following suit.

  Zac tried to shout out once more, but it was an otiose attempt. His grip on the large bird was completely loosened. He could not hang onto the smooth and slippery feathers on the large bird.

  Almost inevitably, he felt his body lurch forward, and he was completely thrown off the large bird. The wind was gusting by by him so fast that he could barely make out any other sounds around him.

  As he plummeted head-first towards the Earth, he noticed the way the sky changed from the fluffy white clouds and eventually into a clear space. The faster he fell and the quicker the wind prattled past him, the colder it seemed to get.

  Zac had lost total control of himself, and he knew that only the hard ground would break his fall. He wanted to scream—to shout, but it was impossible.

  As they approached the earth, elements of civilization started to appear—cultivated and parted lands, landmarks, and large columns of smoke. The earth was coming faster and faster towards his face, and he braced himself by closing his eyes.

  In the midst of the descent, the large bird dropped faster than Zac, getting below him in mid-air in order for him to cushion his fall right on its big back.

  The landing turned out to be better than Zac would have expected. The large bird landed on its feet, thundering on its great, scaly limbs with Zac struggling to cling onto its back.

  They had landed on a sandy beach, with the ocean waters breaking into large waves nearby.

  The bird let out a large crow, with the other birds landing on the ground shortly after. They surrounded Zac, who had now dropped off to the dirt.

  The birds encircled Zac, screeching as though they were performing some type of ritual. Then, they made a final, loud, screeching noise and took up their wings and flew away.

  Zac’s heart was still beating quickly, and the sudden fall from the sky had made him nauseous. His head was spinning, and he was in a bit of a panic as he had no idea where he was.

  However, he gathered himself, rising to his feet and casting a glance to the sky. The birds had already disappeared into the clouds, out of sight. He also noticed that the feathers on his skin started to fall and fade off by themselves, and he could feel himself regaining control of his mouth.

  I
t was important that he understood where he was. His father had not given him much information, and he had no idea which part of the world he had flown to.

  He turned around to start walking inland.

  But his way was blocked by a towering, sky-high ice boulder.

  Chapter 6

  Zac started up in the sky, surprised and confused at the same time. A heavenly body similar to the sun was shining somewhere up in the clouds, and he was standing on a beach. Yet there was a large ice boulder right in his way.

  When he examined more closely, he realized that the ice boulder stretched all the way to the horizon on both sides. There was no immediate and apparent way of getting around it.

  Am I going to have to climb this? Zac thought to himself, looking behind him at the sight of the clear, blue sea. He could see no way forward or backward. He was trapped between a sea and a large ice boulder.

  The feathers that were on his skin, and the beak that was his mouth, had now fully disappeared. He was a normal human being once more, but that did not console him much.

  He decided that the only way he was going to stay alive was by climbing the ice boulder and getting to the other side. He still could not understand why his father would sanction such an ungainly departure from home to a location of which he had no idea.

  The ice boulder was freezing cold when Zac put his hand on it. He looked up to its heights, wondering how he was going to climb it. It was a smooth column of white ice, rising almost to the clouds, like the fence around a giant’s house.

  Just as he was contemplating the best course of action for himself to take, the ice right in front of him started melting rapidly.

  So rapidly that it seemed to be boring a hole through the boulder. As Zac stood there watching in incredulity, the ice in front of him melted away and formed a cave-like dome, a doorway through it.

  Without hesitating, and leaving the crashing waves behind him, Zac walked into the hole, his heart beating very fast. He was unsure what was going on, but he had already seen enough to be certain that the world he once knew was no more.

  The inside of the boulder was extremely cold, and there was a hissing noise as the hole melted away the ice right to the other side. Zac crept through it quickly and emerged on the other side, right into the embrace of a short old man.

  “Huh?” Zac gasped in surprise, losing his footing and landing comfortably on the arms of the old man.

  “Zac, my boy,” he said in a loud booming voice, propping Zac back on his feet with his surprisingly strong arms. He was holding a wooden cane in his right hand. “I’m glad you’ve arrived safely.”

  Zac was unsure what was going on. Once he gained his composure, he studied the man standing in front of him, as well as the surprising landscape behind him.

  “Who are you?” Zac asked. The old man had a long, white beard and blue, intrusive eyes that were buried in a scraggly face. He wore a large, white overhanging coat.

  They were standing on the snowy ground, several inches thick because of continuous snowfall. The entire landscape before Zac was an utter surprise because it was a continuous ice sheet spreading into the horizon. A strong wind seemed to be constantly blowing, and it gave the entire place the appearance of a landscape hit by a blizzard. Apart from the old man standing before him, Zac could not see any other color before them but white.

  “Where am I?” Zac asked.

  The old man stared back at Zac with a frown. “Your father wouldn’t even tell you. Did he?”

  Zac frowned as well. “Tell me what?”

  The old man seemed to shut his eyes, as if in disappointment, then instructed Zac, “Follow me.”

  He turned around and started walking in the other direction. Zac was unsure of what to do—what had just happened. He stared behind him, noticing that the hole that had developed in the ice boulder had now disappeared and was replaced by a sheet of ice.

  The old man was walking away slowly and steadily, and Zac realized that he had no choice. He raced up to the old man to join him.

  “Who are you?” Zac asked. “At the very least, you can tell me that.”

  The old man turned his deep blue eyes in Zac’s direction, and the young boy felt the eyes bore into his body.

  “You’re my grandpa, aren’t you?” Zac asked.

  The old man smiled, taking his eyes off Zac. “Call me ‘Grandpa.’”

  Zac felt slightly relieved. “Dad said that I was coming to visit you. I’m glad I’ve found you. How did you find me, anyway?”

  The old man was trudging along slowly. His coat was sweeping behind him, like a wedding dress, and it made an invisible trail on the white snowy ground.

  “Your father told me that you’d be along,” said Grandpa.

  “How?” Zac asked. “He didn’t come with me.”

  Grandpa smiled. “There is a special way for us to communicate despite the distance.”

  “Where am I, anyway, Grandpa?” asked Zac, stumbling on some ice and almost losing his footing.

  “Be careful,” said Grandpa. “It has been snowing for six days straight, and as you can see, there has been a very heavy snowfall.”

  Zac nodded in agreement.

  “This is the South Pole,” said Grandpa, “our home.”

  Zac frowned. “I thought that our family originally came from Atlantis.”

  Grandpa frowned. “Is that what your father has told you? Shameful of him to say.”

  Grandpa seemed to shake his head to himself, silently muttering to himself as Zac felt more confused than ever. He sensed that there was some kind of problem between his father and his grandfather, but he could not tell what it was.

  “Dad told me that you and Grandma used to live in Atlantis,” said Zac. “Then you left.”

  “That’s true,” said Grandpa, as Zac noticed a small countryhouse appearing out of the whiteness in the distance. Grandpa continued, “Atlantis was once where your grandmother and I lived, but it was never home to begin with.”

  “Where’s that?” Zac asked, pointing.

  “Home,” was the solitary response from Grandpa.

  Zac was slightly surprised. He was looking around, but apart from the small house, he could not see any other signs of life or indication that somebody else other than Grandpa might be living here. “Do you live here alone with Grandma?”

  Grandpa stopped short of his tracks, grabbing Zac by the shoulder and bringing him, too, to a sudden halt. The wind was blowing almost quicker now, and more snow was getting into Zac’s eyes.

  “Huh?” Exclaimed Zac.

  “Listen to me carefully, “said Grandpa, his eyes had widened, and he had a very exasperated look on his face. “This happens to be a very dangerous place, and you’ll be doing yourself a very big favor to not leave that house again once you get in it.”

  Chapter 7

  The inside of the small cabin house turned out to be another big surprise for Zac. He could not seem to go long before he stumbled onto something that he had never in his life seen before.

  From the outside, the small cabin house was a small space—a bungalow occupying not more than a few square feet; however, the inside of the house resembled a castle, complete with a miniature moat that led to the living sections of the house.

  The sheer size of the house completely surprised Zac. From the foyer, as Grandpa closed the front door, he could already tell that the entire complex must have at least one hundred rooms. There were at least five floors in the house.

  “How is this possible?” Zac asked.

  And there was more.

  The house was much warmer than the outside, and there were loud, thundering sounds coming from somewhere above—in the upper floors of the house.

  “What is that?” Zac asked.

  Grandpa removed his large white coat and hanged it by the door. It was dripping wet.

  “Do you live in this house alone with Grandma?” Zac’s questions were endless.

  Grandpa did not answer. Instead, he gingerly
walked into a dark room that turned out to be the living room, leaving paddled footsteps in his trail on the garnished floor.

  Zac followed, walking through the dark room, and he could make out the silhouette of horned animal heads on the walls, furniture, and heavily draped windows.

  The door at the far end led to a surprisingly well-lit kitchen that was sparkling white with a beautiful wooden dinner table in the middle of the room. There was a large black pot steaming at the far end of the room, surprisingly similar to that he had seen in the home of Dolores.

  However, the main thing that caught Zac’s eye was a graceful old woman tending to her cooking on the kitchen counter close to a picturesque window. She was slicing through a number of vegetables on a chopping board, and when Grandpa and Zac walked in, she dropped all she was doing, hastily wiped her hands on her apron and signaled for Zac to come to her.

  “Come here, son,” she said in a croaky but satisfied voice, “We have been waiting for you.”

  She walked over to Zac and clutched him in a strong embrace, surprising the young boy with the strength that she had.

  “I realize that you don’t know us,” Grandma said, nodding in Grandpa’s direction. Grandpa had taken a seat at the dinner table and was just starting to pore over a newspaper. “But we were there when you were born. We watched you grow up until we left.”

  “Sit down, son,” she said, “I’ll whip up something for you to eat. The journey here must have made you hungry.”

  Zac took a seat next to his grandfather, who was engrossed his newspaper.

  “Are there other people here?” Zac asked.

  “Yes, this is a large village,” said Grandma.

  Grandpa looked up from his newspaper momentarily. “Probably the biggest village in the world.”

  “Does it always snow in the South Pole?” Zac asked quizzically. Grandma was rapidly whisking something in a bowl that was out of sight for Zac, but he felt confident that he would not be presented with a questionable porridge-like substance.

  “Yes, it does, son,” said Grandma. “Non-stop.”