At World's End Page 7

  Then, Zac saw the strangest thing. The Order magicians, who, for the most part, were fighting from the sky, pulled back their wands and started flying away into the distance, progressively disappearing from the sky above the battlefield. Zac saw that his father was among the last Order magicians to disappear from the battle scene.

  Then, the heavens opened—at first small, unnoticeable raindrops, to an outright outpour. The dark clouds above the battlefield that were threatening to wet the fighters had finally fulfilled its menace.

  Within minutes, the whole battlefield was awash with mud and puddles everywhere, with the invaders being dealt a blow. They were pushed back onto their ships, and the defenders of the island roared in the glee of their victory.

  However, Zac felt that their happiness would be short-lived because the invaders had lost a fight but had not lost the war.

  Zac started to move in the direction that he saw his father disappearing to, but his movements now seemed inhibited, and he could hear the constant din of somebody calling out to him. He could not understand what he was doing in Atlantis, back at home, but when he closed his eyes, he felt like he was going down a water slide that seemed to have no end.

  “Zac–Zac,” there was a constant voice in the back of his head, and he tried paying more attention to it. “Zac! Wake up–can you hear me?”

  When Zac opened his eyes, he saw the face of Valeria over him, staring into his eyes with a pained concern.

  “Zac–are you okay?” She asked. “Are you with me?”

  Zac tried to raise his head, but there was a knocking pain at the back of his head that made him lie back down immediately.

  “Ow,” he exclaimed, clutching the back of his head.

  “Sorry about that,” said Valeria, prying the back of his head to see that he was okay. “The side-effects of my magic.”

  Zac threw a glance around him, noticing that he was in the living room of his grandparent’s house. There were worn and old couches everywhere, and there were sets of unique furniture adorning the room that Zac had never seen before in his life. The floor was heavily carpeted in a thick, green and woolly rug, and there were strange portraits on the walls of people that Zac did not know. There were heavy awning green drapes to match the carpet concealing the snowstorm that was raging beyond the windows.

  “Where are my grandparents?” Zac asked Valeria, who was still standing over him. The concerned expression had not left her face, and she was observing Zac’s reactions intently.

  “Your grandparents haven’t returned,” she said. “I don’t know where they are.”

  Zac frowned. “What happened to me?”

  Valeria also frowned. “Don’t you remember?”

  “I remember something in that hallway upstairs, something that grabbed my leg,” said Zac. “Then I was back home. What happened?”

  Valeria sighed loudly, rolling her eyes. She got to her feet and disappeared into the next room for a few minutes, re-emerging clutching two steaming white ceramic cups. She handed one of them to Zac.

  “There’s something strange going on here,” said Valeria, kneeling on the carpet next to Zac while clutching her cup in both hands and taking a meticulous sip. “I’m not sure how to break this down for you or if you’ll believe me in the first place.”

  “Tell me what happened to me from the moment that thing grabbed my leg,” demanded Zac.

  “Well,” said Valeria, “I used my wand to teleport your body away from here. The teleportation only lasts a few hours.”

  “You can do magic? How come? In my kingdom, nobody is taught to use magic until the age of eighteen,” Zac complained.

  “I can do magic, and I teleported you to the one place that you want to be,” said Valeria. “Home.”

  Zac could still feel himself hovering in Atlantis, watching over the battles that would determine the fate of his home.

  “What was that thing?” Zac asked, remembering the stronghold that had his leg before he was teleported. “What was that?”

  “That was a monster,” Valeria said plainly.

  “Was it the same as the one you showed me earlier?” Zac sounded astounded. “Was it at the edge of the world, you said?”

  “You don’t believe it was the edge of the world?” Valeria asked.

  “I know that we live on a globe,” said Zac, “How can that be possible? And monsters—what the hell is going on in this place?”

  “I think your grandparents are keeping monsters in the upper floors of this house,” said Valeria.

  Zac frowned. “That would explain the strange sounds I’ve heard ever since I got here.”

  “But if I’m going to be even more honest with you,” said Valeria, “I’m not exactly a resident of this place. I moved here a couple of years ago.”

  Zac raised his eyes to look at her blue eyes.

  “I was in a similar situation just like you,” said Valeria. “My home was destroyed, and my entire family was murdered—but by virtue of being here, I managed to survive.”

  Zac’s eyes widened. “What are you trying to say?”

  “The moment you got to this place, Zac,” said Valeria, “is the moment that you started a new life because there is no going back.”

  Chapter 17

  Outside the farmhouse, darkness was starting to set in once more. The icy sheeting winds were accompanied by heavy snowing that added thicker layers of snow on the already-cramped ground.

  Inside the house, Zac and Valeria huddled closer to each other for warmth. It did not occur to either of them that a fire could be lit in the large, old-fashioned fireplace at the far end of the room.

  “What are we going to do?” Zac asked. “I must get back home; I must make sure that my father is safe.”

  Valeria gave him a half smile. “It won’t be possible to leave this place now that you are here,” she said. “Your own grandparents won’t allow it.”

  “Why not?” Zac asked. He seemed puzzled by the suggestion. “As far as I’m concerned, I’m a guest intruding on their space.”

  Valeria smiled wryly. “Your grandparents might not be the innocent people that you think they are.”

  “I’m starting to get an idea,” said Zac, looking at the ceiling of the living room. “You say that there are monsters living in the upper section of this house? How is that possible?”

  Valeria looked deeply into Zac’s black eyes. “I can tell you the full truth—if you want,” she said.

  She got to her feet and picked up her wand that was on top of the table. She flickered it slightly, and a big, black book appeared out of thin air right on top of the table above where the wand was positioned.

  “This is an important book,” said Valeria. “It is the thousand-history volume of this place. It’s available at the local library.”

  “There is a local library?” Zac asked. “Where are all these places?”

  “Everything is right here on the South Pole,” said Valeria. She skimmed through the pages of the thick black book, looking for a specific chapter, then put her hand to her lips to silence any questions from Zac.

  “Let me read this to you,” she said, her index finger keeping track of a definite part of the page. “This will answer all your questions.”

  She coughed a little to clear her throat—then she began to quote:

  “In the beginning, the land was inhabited by beasts and the most majestic creatures allowed by the gods to tread this land. The land was a paradise; there were no controls other than those enforced by nature, and all the animals could find peaceful coordination in the land. Then came the human beings. The most important part of human history, and perhaps the only important truth about where human beings came from can be answered in the Land of Ice. Very deceptively, in the future, this same region of the world will come to be known as the ‘South Pole.’”

  Valeria paused for a moment, noticing that Zac had a big frown on his face. His mouth was already bubbling with questions, and his eyes widened as though he h
ad seen something that Valeria had not.

  “Just remain silent and listen,” she said before Zac could speak up, “I’ve barely read anything yet. This passage has all the answers to the questions I’m sure you’re about to ask me. Be patient and listen.”

  “What kind of history is that?” Zac asked when he finally found his words.

  Valeria replaced the serious look on her face with a smile.

  “Just be patient and listen,” she said. “This passage will offer an explanation to everything.”

  Zac maintained a skeptical silence as Valeria sought the specific section in the book she had left off. Then she resumed:

  “The Land of Ice was the first human discovery of the Earth, and the first of them to make it that far from the rest of the universe fulfilled an ancient prophecy that human beings would finally get to the center of the universe. Many of those early humans settled in these icy lands, assuming that the Land of Ice was the actual center of the universe. However, not all land was ice in the Land of Ice, and there were significant sections for cultivation and other important survival activities. However, the coldness in this section of the Earth was demoralizing, and many humans migrated inland, building simple but sophisticated ships at the beginning that allowed them to spread to the rest of the world.

  But war was to come—the first significant conflict among human beings in the center of the universe. For those who migrated into the Earth from the Land of Ice, they set up their own kingdoms and their own zones of control, thereby disrupting a peaceful cycle of nature that had existed before their arrival. Worse still, the humans who had migrated into the center of the universe denounced the first settlers in the Land of Ice and any connection they had to them.”

  A loud crash from the upper floors above interrupted Valeria’s soft voice. Valeria looked up from her book, staring at Zac. Then, a second crashing noise, this time louder, and the evident sound of shuffling feet could be heard.

  Zac had a pained look on his face. “The monsters?”

  Valeria nodded.

  “I would like to get out of here,” Zac said, “perhaps to your place? But I need to wait for my grandparents.”

  Valeria remained silent for a moment.

  “How many monsters are up there?” He asked.

  “Probably hundreds,” said Valeria. “Who knows?”

  “I don’t get it,” said Zac. “Why would my grandparents be living here with monsters?”

  Valeria started to reply, but just as she was opening her mouth, a large shadow suddenly appeared at the doorway of the living room. The door was some distance from where Valeria and Zac were huddled up, but the shadow was so long it managed to get to them.

  “Grandma? Grandpa?” Zac called out but immediately comprehended his error.

  The familiar sound of heavy breathing and grunting that he had heard on his first night when he ascended to the third floor via the rickety staircases with his grandmother was audible.

  Zac immediately bolted to his feet.

  But it was too late to go anywhere.

  A large, green-skinned, yellow-eyed monster sauntered casually into the room.

  Chapter 18

  Zac immediately scrambled behind Valeria, who unflinchingly got to her feet. The big book fell to the carpeted floor in a heap, and Valeria was clutching her wand steadily in her right hand.

  The monster let out a disgusting growl, and upon closer inspection, Zac noticed that it was oozing a slimy fluid all over its body, leaving a smarmy trail in its wake.

  It opened its mouth, still moving forward towards Zac and Valeria, revealing a rotting set of yellowed teeth and thick, glutinous saliva dribbling from its hippo-like mouth.

  It let out a loud roar, a familiar bellow like the one Zac had heard earlier from the even bigger monster that had attempted to confront him and Valeria earlier on at the edge.

  “Let’s get out of here!” Zac said, starting to turn around to run in the opposite direction, but was surprised that Valeria did not flinch or move in the slightest.

  Instead, she took aim with her wand at the monster, and closed her eyes, chanting something to herself that was inaudible to Zac. The monster had closed in on Valeria, who was still standing calmly at the same spot.

  Zac closed his eyes, realizing that they were done for as there was nowhere to run nor anywhere to hide. He could not believe that his end had come in such a gruesome manner.

  Then, abruptly, there was a very bright flash of light, so bright that it was visible despite Zac’s closed eyes.

  “Hey!” He shouted in surprise. There was an equally loud sound to accompany the bright flash of light—the sound of thunder, and when Zac lifted his hands from his eyes, he realized that he was standing alone in the room with Valeria.

  What had just happened?

  He looked around, realizing that whatever had transpired had only lasted a few microseconds. There was no sign of a monster or any other presence near them.

  “W-what did you do?” Zac asked, his voice bordering on hysteria.

  “I zapped it away,” Valeria said, calmly. She had not moved from the same spot that she was standing, and her wand was still pointed in front of her at the exact spot that the monster had been.

  “We’ll have to get out of here,” Valeria said.

  “I can’t,” he replied, “I have to wait for my grandparents. I have no idea where they are.”

  Valeria turned to face him, placing her wand back on the table.

  “I’ll remain here with you, then,” she said, “I can wait here for your grandparents with you.”

  Zac nodded. “I appreciate that. But I must ask: Where are the monsters coming from?”

  Valeria returned to where she was sitting, retrieved the big black book from the floor and motioned for Zac to take a seat as well.

  “I’ll read it for you,” she said.

  When Zac was settled beside her, Valeria flipped through the pages of the book until she got to where she had been cut off earlier by the monster. Then, she resumed reading;

  “War broke out, the first ever recorded full-scale conflict between two groups of human beings. This only caused the human population to migrate even further throughout the world, thereby occupying every piece of land that was around the center of the universe, commonly referred to as the ‘North Pole’. The battle that was raging never ended per se, but it remained manifested in different types of conflicts that exist throughout history to the present days. The objective of the original dwellers of the Land of Ice was to enhance the togetherness of the human community. The wars ensured that the dwellers of the Land of Ice were isolated and forgotten about, and they decided to leave the center of the universe and wander back into the darkness. Many of them simply turned around and returned to where they came from, but there was a large community that remained in the Land of Ice.

  For those who returned to the universe, they brought word with them that they had indeed found the center of the universe. Seven kings of the universe mounted a collective effort to organize a large force that would come to the center of the universe and take over the Earth. However, this attack would never materialize because, just as the armies were reaching the edge of the Earth, they noticed that the land was being protected by several large animals roaming in the exterior, and a very large ice wall had been constructed, so high it was touching the clouds.

  ‘Who could have done this? Who could have erected this barrier?’ The seven kings would ask, but they soon got their reply. A tall-looking man with wings sprouting from his back would swoop from the skies towards the seven kings and their armies. He told them:

  ‘The Earth is the kingdom of the gods, and all her children that are dwelling there will not be harmed by any outsiders. The gods have named the center of the universe “The Garden of Eden,” and only the human beings living within its constraints would determine its destiny.’

  The kings ignored this strange person, choosing to attack the barrier instead, but with all
their firepower, they could not get past the large ice wall. Then, they had to face the strongest enemy of them all—green, slimy monsters in numerous numbers kept attacking the kings’ camps and slaughtered a great large number of people through the nights. They were mainly nocturnal creatures, and they swept through the camps, killing in a bestial fashion, and feasting on the flesh of some of their victims. Within a few days since setting off to conquer the center of the universe, the kings had lost well over half of their armies, and it was at that point that they conceded defeat and turned back, never to return again.”

  Valeria looked up from her book to be greeted by a skeptical look on Zac’s face.

  “So, what do the monsters have to do with my grandparents?” He asked.

  Valeria sighed. “I’m not going to claim I know anything, but I believe that the monster story as it is told in this official book is propaganda.”

  Zac raised his eyebrows.

  “In my time here,” Valeria said, “I have come to know that monsters are created by magic. So, the seven kings who were repelled by the monsters were not defeated by a supernatural being, but by the work of the people who were living in the Land of Ice.”

  Zac now frowned.

  “So,” resumed Valeria, “I believe that your grandparents’ ancestors might have been the very people who created the monsters.”

  Chapter 19

  “Where are my grandparents, then?” Zac asked. The story that Valeria had read to him had only made him more anxious, and he still could not fathom exactly what he was supposed to be believing.

  Valeria shook her head.

  “We need to go out there and look for them, then,” Zac said.

  “And then what?” Valeria asked. “What are you going to do, then?”

  “I have to go back home,” said Zac, “I don’t care if there’s a war. I doubt I’ll be any safer here.”

  “Didn’t you see what was happening back in Atlantis when I teleported you earlier?” Valeria asked. She had a concerned look on her face.