When the Walls Start Tumbling Down

Chapter 7

The monsters glanced nervously at one another, unsure whether to take his hand or not. Afta boldly shouted and grasped his hand with both hands, shaking it violently, "Hello, Enoch! I am Afta Kotze! Welcome to the inner world!" He released Enoch's hand and motioned his head towards him, speaking to the others like a mother to her small children, "Go on! Introduce yourselves!" Kerob stepped forwards first and quite professionally shook Enoch's hand, saying his name slowly and clearly. Roschind went next, hesitantly mumbling his introduction. Pharafet went last, "I am Pharafet Dakdae. Pleased to meet you," his large hand enveloping her small and grubby one. Enoch smiled and looked long at her features, almost entranced, deep in thought. Pharafet, expecting him to let go of her palm long ago, spoke, "Is there... something the matter," Enoch realized his actions and quickly released her, apologetically rambling, "Sorry! You just look... I think I've seen you before. Through the seal."   The monsters faces fell into a confused gaze, "You've been watching us through the seal?" Said the green one. Enoch was flustered, "N-No, not specifically you four, just your kind in general. I mean, h-how you went about your day and what kinds of things people did. I'm not g-going to just break a century-old barrier without knowing at least a little bit about the place on the other side of it, right?" He rambled on, slowly losing Afta's attention. He stumbled away from the group a little bit, sniffing the air as one might do for rain. Suddenly, his ears perked up, then pinned themselves back like a cats, and he crouched into a lower stance than before.  He shuffled back to the group, not taking his eyes off of the sky. "Guys," he spoke very softly but with intensity, "do you smell that?" Enoch stopped rambling, and the other three were suddenly frightened themselves. "What is it? Is it the Great One's guards?" Kerob asked, suddenly soft as well. Afta nodded, then a soft, very faint, almost inaudible humming was heard; the humming of a propeller. The three monsters scrambled to the bushes and rock formations, out of sight from whatever was coming to their location. Enoch stood in the middle of the clearing, unsure what was going on. Pharafet, without thinking, grabbed him around his waist and put a hand to his mouth, pulling him into the bushes to her hiding place, tripping him backwards and practically dragging him towards herself. The humming noise was identified as one of the inner-world's royal search drones that sometimes scouted desolate areas for situations such as the one our protagonists found themselves in. The four monsters carefully and sneakily peered over or through their hiding places to get a good look at their opponent, but Enoch knew nothing of this and tried to escape Pharafet's grasp quite noisily to see what in the world had caused such a commotion. He squirmed this way and that, tried to pry her hand from his mouth, and nearly got to his knees, when Pharafet yanked his shoulders like a misbehaving toddler. She readjusted her hand on his mouth and pulled his head close to hers, speaking in a deathly whisper in his ear, "If that drone sees us, we will be arrested for resisting its search. If that drone sees you, we will all die. Do you understand?" He very clearly understood, now sinking into her grasp, suddenly never wanting to be seen again. His face flushed, though he wasn't sure why. He wasn't embarrassed, if anything he was scared. Perhaps it was nothing.The humming soon dimmed and faded into nothing, and all was quiet once more. Afta bravely leaped from his hiding spot  and into the middle of the clearing, ready to take on the thing that disturbed them. Seeing no threat, he decided to search for his friends. He found Roschind and Kerob folded on top of each other, frightened to move, but scrambled off each other angrily when they were told the danger had passed. "You just had to flee to the same spot as me, didn't you?" Kerob scolded, adjusting his jacket. "Bold words coming from somebody who looks like Shrek," Roschind retorted. Nobody was sure what a 'Shrek' was, but Roschind was certain it was a horrible insult, and Kerob was definitely insulted. Pharafet and Enoch stood slowly, checking one last time to make sure they were okay to be seen, then made their way to the clearing. Afta and his ears perked back up cheerfully as if nothing had ever happened, "Well that was an exciting run-in with the guards, wasn't it?" Kerob pointed to the newcomer, "What happened to your... horns?"
"My horns?"
"The shiny horn things. On your head." 
"Oh! You mean my crown! It's right here..." Enoch touched his head, finding nothing but soft hair, "It- where did it go?" He, in a small panic, searched all around him, scouring the bushes he hid in and the rock he crouched behind. The monsters just stood there confused. "Crown? You mean like the thing royalty wear?" Roschind asked, feeling inclined, too, to search for Enoch's lost headwear. "Yes, the thing royalty wear. Now, please, help me find it," Enoch said, his voice becoming more and more pained. The monsters sprang to work in a hustle, rustling the thorny bushes and shrubbery until a lavender and indigo shine sparkles through the branches. Pharafet spotted it first, and picked it up carefully, making sure her nerves were calm, as not to accidentally melt the metal crown. Enoch saw her walking briskly towards him, very hesitantly holding the headpiece in her forefinger and thumb. A sigh of relief swept over him and he took the crown from her just as carefully as she held it, "Thank you. Thank you very much. I don't know what I'd do if I lost this." He put it in his jackets pocket and patted his hip. "Now then, Mr. Braver-than-life, why in the world have you decided to break the seal and join our side," Kerob questioned, the only one aware of the current gravity of the situation. Enoch went pale, suddenly aware of how stupid his actions had been. "I... it's a long story. A very long, very stupid story," He crouched down to a squat and put his arms over his head as if to hold himself, "Oh my stars, what have I done?" Roschind stepped in, "We'll have time for stories and self-loathing later! Right now, we should really get out of the middle of the clearing and into somewhere safe and hidden. Afta, is your newest dragon big and strong enough to carry us to the dance studio? I think She would help us." She, Enoch thought, Who is She? Afta smiled confidently, "Of course she is! Well, maybe for two or three of us. I might have to call Rukess, now that I think about it. He could probably carry the rest. I would have to fly the newest one, though. I don't trust her yet." Dragons ? Training them? Was Enoch hearing things? Surely, he thought, he must be joking. Then again, the turquoise monster before him did appear rather tattered and scuffed like somebody who dealt with giant lizards all day. While he was deep in thought, the monsters figured out their dragon-riding situation: Afta would fly the young dragon with Kerob and Roschind behind him, because neither Kerob nor Roschind had flown a dragon on their own before; Pharafet would fly Rukess with Enoch, because Rukess was Afta's personal, most trusted dragon and Pharafet had some experience in riding him before. Dragons are much like horses and dogs at the same time: they are quite loyal to you when treated with love and respect, but they are also have no common sense and must be practically herded to do something even slightly difficult (also they cannot eat grapes or apple seeds, but there are none of those in the inner world so this is just useless information, really). Afta inhaled for a solid thirty seconds, put his pinkie fingers in the corners of his mouth, and let out the loudest, most solid-sounding whistle Enoch had ever heard. It was met by a faint, deep whooshing that steadily grew louder. A crimson red dragon emerged from a dark storm cloud above, giving an astounding roar that rumbled the ground beneath the groups feet. The mighty lizard that had come to the rescue was Afta's dragon, Rukess. He would have been able to land but he had emerged from the other side of the anomaly, meaning he somehow had to maneuver his body almost in a 90° angle and not tumble out of the sky due to the gravity change. Rukess was well trained, but not that well trained. He circled a couple of times before landing with a clomp on the rocky earth, prancing around slightly nervous, taking care not to completely crush Pharafet's house. He let out a distressed howl-like sound, turning his scaled head left and right. He finally spotted his tattered master and was overjoyed, however, Afta looked more concerned than ever. Roschind, in a panic, asked him, "What's the matter? Why are you making that face? You never make that face." Afta rapped his knuckles against his scarred skull in frustration and groaned, "Ah, why isn't the little one here? We worked on this all morning! How did she forget?" Kerob, unaffected by the off-brand Steve Irwin before him in his zoology ways, concluded, "We can figure that out later! Right now, we need to get to the other side of the anomaly. Once we're there, we can figure the rest out." There was no objection, except for Enoch, "What, exactly, is an anomaly? Why does it seem like such a big deal?"
"That doesn't matter right now. I'll explain later, but right now, all you need to know is once you get about ten yards from that odd-angled ground, you need to jump immediately. Gravity will take care of the rest," urges Pharafet. Enoch began to protest, but Pharafet and Roschind took either of his hands and pulled him into a run. Once he was running steadily, they let go and sped up on their own. Enoch was about eight feet from the point where he was supposed to jump, when he saw Kerob go flying through the air above him, and sticking to the steep slope like he had when he first entered the world. He panicked when he saw the other three do the same, realizing he had to somehow break the laws of gravity and follow their precedent. As he grew nearer to the jumping point, he had made up his mind; he broke the thousand year old seal that separated two war-bound worlds, he nearly got caught by the king of a world of monsters' guards, and now was headed to ride a dragon in this new world. He didn't have time to be afraid. In fact, it was time to jump. He sped up slightly with a newfound confidence, and pushed off the ground below him.