Portals to Maestosia

Chapter 4: Dangers and Havens

All of a sudden, all of the noise and chaos stopped. My eyes were still shut tightly, refusing to open as I realized how hard my heart had been pounding. I felt my whole body pulsing along with it in pure fear.

"We're here, Holly," Zoriken said after a few silent seconds. My mind felt foggy and I took another few seconds to remember our purpose for coming here. I heard him heave a sigh as I felt him bring my rusty goggles down so that they rested around my neck. I finally decided to open my eyes, only to find out that it looked like we were still in the middle of nowhere.

Thousands of dark, towering trees surrounded us, looming over us like the intimidating shadows of giants. The strong, familiar smell of blood returned to my nose, and I immediately gagged. Looking around, I saw that there were dead bodies were everywhere. Everything from seemingly innocent civilians to medium-sized dragons lay still around us.

"Why did you bring us here...?" Ben whispered, his eyes wide in both pity and disgust.

"Well, uh, here's the thing about these 'portals.' You see, um, I never know exactly where they will bring us. Do-do you have any i-idea how huge Maestosia is? We could have been brought literally anywhere," Zoriken rambled, his words so quick that they began jumping over each other. For the first time, he actually seemed scared.

"What happened here?" I worried, stepping closer to investigate a nearby body. It was the body of a child, with pointed ears and untied shoelaces. A small yellow butterfly alighted on his tiny, cold finger. My heart sank as I thought of the innocence lost. No child ever deserved to die. His  light brown hair and boyish freckled cheeks reminded me so vividly of how much I missed my lost brother, even if I only remembered a few distinct things about him.

Zoriken brought forth a map from the small leather backpack I hadn't noticed he had been carrying. Ben hovered over his shoulder and inspected it with him.

"The Firebend Forest. Is that where we are?" Ben pointed, and the scientist nodded.

"Ah, yes, I remember this place so fondly as if it were yesterday," he said wistfully, looking into the distance. "This place used to be a bustling, cheerful haven for all. The people here used to throw the wildest, most colourful festivals. Once a year, they would burn the tallest tree at the very centre of the forest with an eternal fire. It wouldn't set the rest of the forest ablaze, though. It would just stand there for the rest of the year, acting as a sort of flaming beacon for them- a reminder that everything was peaceful and under control. But now... it looks like the Vixens have destroyed everything... and everyone." Almost everything around us was a dull charcoal grey. The only other time I saw Zoriken look this melancholy was when he mentioned his lost daughter. I wondered how old she was, and if she was just as insane as he was.

"Why have you been to Maestosia before?" I asked.

"When I tried to time travel to save my daughter," he started, "Chronowind stole my time machine and tried to kill me. It took me years until I could figure out how to get back to earth, using portals. I'm just lucky I escaped before they murdered me."

"So where exactly do we need to go?" Ben inquired softly, shuffling his feet in anxiety. I could tell he wanted to get out of here as soon as possible, but something in me told me that we had seen nothing yet compared to the horrors that lay ahead of us.

"Unfortunately, the real core of Maestosia is miles away, across the Etherblue Seas and up the Prioviolet Mountain. I'm out of magic, so I can't just conjure another portal. My time machine would double as a teleporting device if the Vixens didn't take the damn thing," Zoriken muttered before looking down at me. "And no, Holly, you can't just teleport there. Your green button teleporting ability only works within a 100 foot radius."