Born of Gods

Chapter 6—Into The Unknown

His head hurt, his elbow and eyes too, almost impossible to say which hurt the most. He stared at the person standing above him, flushed with a smile as she saw him. They were clearly in the woods, the birds chirping assured him, also the bug that flew endlessly across his eyes assisted in the assurance of that.

“Are you alright? We've been here for about twenty minutes. You and your bro must have hit your head badly or something. He woke up only a moment ago himself.” Cynthia said as she held Mike up to his feet, as he stared at the world around him, and mixed emotions stormed their way in him. Even as he so much wanted to scream his lungs out, the place was beautiful. No doubt. Nothing could take that away, it was magical.

There was something about this wonder, mystery world that was just beyond beautiful, the air was too light but in a very good way. The sky was blue, and one could say “So what? That's pretty normal” but that wasn't the same with this world. He felt that Phil, Cynthia, Garrett, Sarah and—s**t what were there doing here!

“It was only Phil and me that the old man-demon took through that creepy door, how did you all get here?” Mike asked staring at the whole place like he was looking for something. Maybe he was.

“Trust me when I say this, we might have preferred the old man who at least spoke very nicely. The two guys who came after us at your home were a lot meaner than anyone we'd ever seen, killing us seemed like an easy task for them.” Sarah continued to explain how they all ended up the Patterways’ home and how the two very “ungentlemen” had almost killed them.

Garrett ran to Mike and embraced him tightly, crying on his shoulder like a six-year-old girl. “Phil told me everything, I'm so, so, so, sorry, I can't even imagine how you feel now.” Sarah was about to join Garrett in embracing Mike, but Mike wasn't even half ready to address his feeling. He had very big issues to deal with and wasn't sure if he'd get out of them alive.

“Thank you very much, right now we've got so much on our plate." He said tenderly, but firmly, as he wriggled his way out of Garrett's embrace and cleared his throat loudly.

“Starting with the obvious, we need to know where we are and as crazy as this world seems, we've got to be somewhere, no one’s nowhere, physics would teach you that. Wheresoever this place we are, is, I know I sound cuckoo as hell, magical or something else. Whatsoever it is, we don't know s**t about it, and you all know how much I hate not knowing about things.”

“When I came here, I saw you all unconscious, I manage to come down this rocky hill we are on top and saw that there's a pathway. It must lead somewhere where people live, so we are not in the middle of nowhere.” Cynthia walked in circles as she spoke, and seemed to be thinking the hardest as to what happened.

“Sometimes it's better to be in the middle of nowhere than to be seen by the wrong people. Trust me, the people we saw back at your home were so bad that walking through that devil's door felt like going on a vacation trip.” Sarah said, raising her shoulders high as she spoke. The fear in her voice didn't help lift the spirits of her friends.

“Whatev—” Mike's speech was cut short as they heard the loud sound of running footsteps coming their way, there were rocks all around so they all were alerted. As if they rehearsed it, they all ran to hide behind trees, wild plants growing, just about anything. What would happen to them if they died, no one would ever know what happened to them, they would all become those stories people hear that bring wonder to the mind of listeners.

It was a girl, she was about sixteen, and was pretty. She had very long hair and spoke to herself as she knelt beside the lying old man that they had all forgotten about. The man was unconscious so they had even forgotten to check if was breathing or not. Can't blame them they were all pretty shaken up with all that had happened, also, the man living wasn't really high on their priority list. You couldn't expect them to just care if the man breathed or not, wait, was he even a man?

“Please, please don't hurt me. Don't hurt any of us. Please, we were—taken here against our will. Please, send us back.” Josh, Cynthia’s brother, said as he came out from behind a tree and went on his knees. He was also shedding a lot of tears and gasping loudly.

“Boys don't cry, especially if you are a son of a god. Rise to your feet and help me with my grand—wait—where is your brother. Incendus said he had two sons, that was what grandpa said.” The girl said looking at Josh with her bright blue eyes, that almost screamed the words: I don't trust you.

“We are not sons of anything, we are just innocent teenagers who got kidnapped and human-trafficked to this world if that makes any sense,” Phil said, with his hands raised, as he came out of his hiding spot. Immediately, the rest came out, all keeping their hands raised. Even Josh had his hands in the air too.

“Why are you all raising your hands? What happened to grandpa? What? Who are you all? Where are the sons of Incendus? Where?” The questions she yelled out received no reply, all she could see was fear in the eyes of all of them. And then she felt pity for them, especially for the fat boy. “Is this raising of hands act supposed to mean something? Help me out. Please.”

Mike wanted to ask her if she hadn't ever seen a movie, but he cautioned himself against it and kept his mouth zipped.

With her, motioning theem to take their hands down, they took down their hands and their quickly beating hearts regained normalcy. The girl went on her knees beside the man she called her grandfather and muttered words to him that no one could hear. She held his shoulder tightly still whispering inaudible words, but Mike thought he heard her say, “I told you not to go, I told you.”

She looked tough, pretty and very girly, but she was tough, Mike knew that. Something about her commanded respect.

She was perhaps half an inch shorter than Mike, perhaps more. She had a slightly curvy body shape and her face impeccably suited her whole stature. Her physique was wonderful, Mike found her so attractive and her admirable confidence added to it all. He had known her for three minutes but he was certain she was a “complete package”. He was certain she was. A very complete package for him.

She smiled as she looked at Mike and the guy almost had the wrong impression until he saw she was looking at both him and Phil. Moving her laser-sharp gaze from one to another, she chuckled and looked down at the old man. “How could I ever think you'd come back without getting what you wanted, or in this case, who you wanted. Alas, the sons of Incendus are here.”

“Sons of what? We have never heard this of Incendus you speak of.” Cynthia voiced as she had begun to explain to the girl all that happened, starting from how they had discovered the cave and how they saw the old man. Cynthia spoke for more than fifteen minutes, Mike chipped in three times, to help her, though clearly to get the mystery girl's attention and have those pretty blue eyes on him. It was crazy that he lost his parents less than an hour ago and getting a pretty girl's attention meant something a lot to him.

Shifting her pointed index finger at both Phil and Mike, she said, “You know it's a shame you both don't know your father. Now I can't assure you that you'd like what you'll see, but it won't hurt to see your father.”

“Sorry to break your bubbly theory but we are cousins and not brothers,” Phil said, his words seemed to have put the girl in confusion as she looked at her bare hands and shook her head.

“That can't be true, Incendus told Grandpa that he had two sons and that the sons of Incendus were one and the same, in looks and energy.” She exhaled forcefully and motioned to Phil, “Assist me in carrying my grandpa, let's head into the village.”

“Where are you taking us?” Sarah asked calmly, speaking for the first time since they saw the mystery girl. She was breathing normally which was a positive sign that she was still holding on to her wits, that deep fear hadn't made her go crazy.

“I don't know, I guess I'll take you all to the Tower, there are many unoccupied rooms there and, um,” she said pointing at Garrett, “someone tell this boy to stop crying. Boys rarely cry in Nothumbra.”

Mike was really confused, he knew he couldn't possibly understand anything that was going on but everything got more confusing. New questions started popping in his head, though he had quite a few that were very much unanswered. How did the girl find them? How did such a place exist? If the girl knew they were the sons of whatever they said, why had the old man been asking questions? All those questions added to the torture he was facing, to his pains. His parents had died and he hadn't even had the time to start grieving or to know the killer. And with the way things were going, he wasn't too sure he'd ever had the time. And that was beyond painful.

This wasn't the first his extreme cautiousness had saved his life, it had always been one thing that had assisted in surviving alone. And just moments ago, it saved his life. He had cast a transportation spell, to go from the boys’ room where he hid Darcose‘s body to the hotel room where that brave woman slept under the influence of his spell. He hadn't just come, he had transported to the hotel room and remained invisible. And then he saw thirty Full-stars, looking at the dead bodies of the people their lord had earlier sent to kill him. He also saw the brave woman who he had decided to take to her son, dead, a long sword was still standing erect in her stomach.

He had immediately transported himself back to where Darcose’s body was. Layton felt so much pity for the woman, she had died for something she didn't even understand, such a brave soul killed by a stupid soldier annoyed that he couldn't kill his target. He knew how bad it was to lose a parent, Layton had lost both so he knew that feeling quite well. Layton's Dad according to his mother's story which had changed over the years, had died in a fight in Taria before he could even touch his son. Knowing his mother wasn't a darling and also a notorious liar, Layton didn't believe the story, he had learnt not to believe anything his mother told him, he had learnt that very early in life. But he didn't lose his father, in true sense, he never really had a father. At least, he never had one he knew, so can you lose something you don't know and had ceased to exist before you were even born?

He knew he couldn't spend a lot of time in this realm, they would report back to Dacarius and within the hour Dacarius would locate him. And he mightn't come out victorious this time. They would come prepared for him and his chances of survival would be a lot slimmer than it was already. And survival wasn't something Layton took lightly, his mother had taught him when he was very young that survival came first, and he had many experiences that had gone further to become eye-openers for him.

He remembered his mother, sitting him down and explaining trans-universal travels and teaching him spells. His mother loved him, at least a little, she had even increased her love for him when she saw that he had outstanding energy and could do great things without even casting spells. Unlike her, he could make a portal and not always wait for Dacarius to provide one That meant he wasn't just a burden she had to carry because no one would have him, he could help her in the clandestine missions she went on for Dacarius. Layton could make her accomplish missions faster, kill for her, and therefore get more money for her. And to Rachel Clarke,

more money meant more pills and booze. Life couldn't have gotten better for her when she has pills in her hands and booze hot in her throat. Though he had never stopped missing her since she passed away, obviously because she was the only family he ever had. The most reasonable part of his mind always told him that he was way better off without his mother. What stung was that he knew it was true.

He held Darcorse’s corpse in his hands and truly hoped it'd help him in what he wanted, which was a portal. A portal to Castor, the realm which held four lands: Nothumbra, Santonia, Lamania and the dark land, Taria. He was fine wherever he ended up in, as long as it wasn't Taria, and Lamania wasn't a fun place to be. Even with the spell he wanted to cast, he had many doubts and many things could go terribly wrong. He could die casting the spell, he could cast the spell and get caught in time—that also meant death, eventually. Or he could get the spell right and end up in Taria, and that, once again, also meant he'd die. Many things could go wrong, but still, he had to do it, he had to cast the spell, if he did he might die but if he stayed on earth, he'd die, no doubt. Any attempt made towards surviving should never be taken lightly, no matter how feeble it was. He had cast a spell that portals in the past, but that had never been without his mother, as well as providing one expecting Taria whom she would poison. She had always been his guide when it came to making portal. The spell involved was too complicated for any seventeen year old.

Looking at the deceased Darcose, he felt bad, he had ended the man's life partly because he wanted to use the magic in his body to make a portal. The killing of the seventeen-year-old girl was just an excuse, a very good one though, but still an excuse. Darcose had done many horrible things in the past, and Layton had hated him for it, warned him about them but he had never thought of killing him. Why now? Layton felt so selfish.

He remembered the girl, one of the kids that ran through that portal that he was almost certain they knew nothing about. He wishes the portal hadn't fizzled out, he'd have gone through it himself and not have all his energy drained. The girl was pretty, and he refused to believe he liked her, he didn't have the time for relationships and had never indulged in any. All the time he had been intimate with a girl had been plain—not complex, simple. He'd give them some money and they'd do anything he wanted. Though he was also convinced they'd have s*x with him happily without any payment. Layton was very handsome and incredibly attractive. That came with more satisfaction than just a smiling face when staring into a mirror.

He held Darcose and started chanting some words loudly, words he was only half sure were correct. He continued and smiled as he felt about every bit of magic in Darcose come slowly out of the corpse, he continued chanting the words. He did so for about half an hour before a circular portal appeared. It wasn't nearly as fancy as the one he had seen in the house earlier, it was more like a tear between earth and Castor. It was small but Layton managed to wriggle his way in, he screamed in pain as he got through the portal. It was very painful and he hoped nothing was wrong.

It wasn't a perfect portal but it would take him to Castor, he hoped, and that was all that mattered. Even as he was in pain, and was “travelling”, he still thought of that girl, how her smile would be because she hadn't been smiling when he saw her. He wondered if she'd like him, she had looked back, after all, maybe she didn't even notice him. She'd probably hate him, he also wondered what her name might be, she looked like a Taylor or a Brenda, no, not a Brenda. Definitely not a Brenda, an Amy maybe. He also wondered whether he would have allowed Darcose to kill her—he had ordered their death after all. He would have stopped Darcose, he had only wanted to scare them with the death order to see if they were hiding something. Also, his reflexes were twenty times faster than others, he could have stopped them before they made a step towards the door.

All these thoughts filled his mind as he went into the unknown.