War for the Skies (completed) (Book 1 of the Heroes of the Realms series)

Chapter 6

His office was another wooden cabin with the skull of a dragon sticking out of the top of it. It was blue, decorated with red wooden shields on the sides. The roof was of iron as far as I could see.

He opened the door and we stepped inside. A red wool carpet lay in front of a burning fireplace, with a painting on top. A small wooden coffee table stood in between two leather chairs. The bottom half of the walls were wood. The top half were stone.

He sat down on one of them and gestured me to sit on the other.

I sat down.

"The Mountains of Despair..." he muttered to himself.

"Yeah," I replied.

"No, no. They're not supposed to be there. They're in the Cursed Lands... if this is so... our situation might be worse than I imagined..."

"What? What situation?" I started to get worried.

"The people of the Cursed Lands... they started to leak into your world, but I didn't expect it to be this severe. They sent dark troopers to hunt down specific Heroes they thought would've tried to stop their plans," he explained.

It clicked into place. The dark sheet, my mother screaming. My mom had died because I was in that house.

"That's the reason the Mountains stretch for so long. It's actually not in your world. That's why it isn't in any map," Coach continued.

"Wait. If my dad knew about this, why did he only summon the storm there? Where we're at risk?" I asked.

"He didn't. He programmed the storm to strike whenever it sensed the power of a Hero in the Storm Plains. But then, somehow the Mountains of Despair leaked into that place, and since the storm was programmed to stay there, it continued staying there," he replied.

I didn't understand how you program a storm, but I went along with it.

"But how?" I asked.

Coach stroked his beard and stood up. He paced around the room, not letting go of his beard. Then he threw his index finger up. The only thing missing was a lightbulb on his head.

"There is some sort of gateway," he said, sitting back down. "When you reach the Storm Plains, some sort of... portal, transports you to the Mountains of Despair, all the way in the Cursed Lands... but that means..." he trailed off.

"That means what?" I asked.

"We need a mission to see what's going on immediately. Tomorrow, after capture the flag, we will go to the Treasure Hall and order a mission. If it is what I think it is, then we might all be doomed," he said and went to another room in his office.

I was left staring awkwardly to the fireplace.

I went to his door and said, "I'll be leaving now, coach."

"Okay, your cabin's on the right. It has clouds above it," he said from inside.

I stepped outside.

I looked to my right and saw a white cabin with gold highlights, with white clouds floating around it. I couldn't make out many more details in the dark. I started hobbling towards it when I smelled fire.

Not like any fire though. This smelled like burning... death.

I looked around to see the source, but obviously nothing since it was so dark. I decided to follow the smell. First I went right, and then the smell started to fade, so I went left. Then it started to fade again, and I turned back toward the woods.

It started to get stronger. I ran towards the woods quickly, in case a wildfire started I needed to act quick before too much burned down. At the edge of the woods the smell was strong I had to pull my T-shirt over my nose.

I ran through the trees but saw nothing. I saw the clearing ahead. Still nothing, but the smell was really strong. I stepped into the clearing.

Smoke started curling towards my face and my eyes got watery. I stepped away and tried to see the fire. Nothing.

It was as if the fire was materializing out of nowhere.

Then I realized what was going on. I took a few steps and the world around me faded into a dark forest.

Another gateway. I assumed it was the Cursed Lands, since the floor was just like the Mountains of Despair. Dark rock.

But this time I was in a forest, which was burning with flame the color of the night sky. I saw a few dark figures pass and started to step back, just in case I needed to warp back to the human world.

I grabbed a fallen branch and marked 'X' to where I was standing, so I found out if I was close to the gateway. I took a few steps forward, but never got too far away from the 'X' on the ground.

The forest fire seemed to grow. I could barely see anything due to the smoke, and couldn't even breathe. I started to walk back towards my 'X' when I heard a scream from behind.

A man with grey skin and a black robe looked at me like he was going to cook me on the forest fire, then eat me. I started to run towards my 'X.'

"Close the gateway! Don't let him escape!" he screamed.

I looked back and saw a guy playing with a remote.

This is bad, I thought.

I willed the winds to push me faster.

"Quickly!" the man said to the dude working on the remote.

I found my 'X' and just as the man said "Done!" I leaped into the human world.

I looked behind me and saw a flash. I heard a "Noooo!" from the other side as the gateway shut down. I breathed heavily as I took in all of my surroundings. The sun was starting to come up.

How long was I gone? It had barely been a minute in the Cursed Lands. Does time work differently in other realms?

All of these questions crowded in my head when I heard a bell sound from the camp.

I looked around. Skylar was meditating again, and when she heard the bell, she went straight for the camp, without even noticing me.

I steadied my breathing and got up.

I looked down at my body and noticed I was still wearing my ragged clothes. I started groggily walking towards my cabin to change. Then I remembered, we would play capture the flag.

Jeez, this was getting better and better.