18
Welcome to Hell
The air is heavy and thick, causing my lungs to seize in the first moments on the black sands of Oriziah. There is a beach with crashing waves in the distance and the rattling of strange creatures somewhere in the background. Above, the dark-red sky is covered with beautiful stars and two orange moons. It’s icy cold, despite there being no wind at all.
My lungs catch up to the change in pressure, but my limbs are shivering uncontrollably.
I don’t get the chance to examine more of this world, though, because the shadows a few yards away begin slithering.
The portal didn’t place me on the balcony as expected. Instead, I’m out in the open, on the ground between two large rocky mountains. Vulnerable. Alone. And I have no idea where to go.
The hair on my arms rise slowly. I swallow, fear pulses through my limbs, and that’s before all sound halts.
I can no longer hear the strange buzzing or crashing waves.
Air rushes over my skin, and I spin to see what caused it just to have a nightmare come to life before my eyes. The darkness is thick, and all-consuming and yet somewhere I can see it slithering. Coiling, ready to strike.
Black magic swirls and hisses, pooling together until it gathers into the form of a massive beast towering over me.
I stumble back a step, limbs now quaking for an entirely different reason.
Red eyes blink in the center of the shadow’s head. The monster doesn’t immediately attack, and I wish that were good news but instead, it turns its head to watch as two more shadow monsters form behind him. He was just waiting for backup.
I can’t breathe. I don’t know where to go.
My mind clouds with panic. I try to remember my defenses. I have my obsidian blade and a few potions—but I have no idea if they would work on these things.
Without missing another beat, I whip out the blade and hold it out. I hope these things don’t notice how much it trembles in my grip, but I get the feeling they’re not concerned with my attempt at defense, regardless of my terror.
They glide toward me, spreading out so they’re surrounding me. Cornering me.
They click and hiss to each other, and I press my eyes closed tightly. My life doesn’t flash before them; I’m too terrified for that. I just brace for the pain.
The hissing rises to a crescendo, closer and closer.
Until a deafening roar pierces the air around me. My legs buckle, and I fall to my knees in the sand so coarse it’s painful, tiny particles starching at my skin like glass. A new beast rises behind me.
I can feel it.
The rumbling of ancient magic. The crunch of powerful steps, shaking the ground.
A blast of magic blows my hair forward, and I almost fall face first into the uncomfortable sand. I peek up to find the shadow beasts shrinking back, almost as if—cowering.
They hiss and grumble, hunched over near me.
The new beast steps even closer, sand crunching beneath their taloned feet.
Tears stream down my cheeks.
My muscles clench in anticipation as the monster reaches me. But instead of carving into my flesh, the talon-tipped hands gently grab me by the waist.
I gasp as my body is jerked up and leaves the ground. Leathery wings flap three times, and then I am dropped onto a stone platform only feet above the shadow beasts.
Still panicked beyond all reason, heart pounding so hard it hurts, I look up to find myself on the balcony I’d first assumed I would arrive on.
And a High Orizian, with pale leathery wings, paces in front of me.
19
