“Banana!” Royston roared without hesitation, rushing to the weapons table with a chuckle of glee, though halted suddenly as a blue flash sparked as his fingers made the connection with the yellow fruit.
“Seriously?” King Lorian blinked in surprise, looking from the banana to Roy in confusion. “That was put there as a uh… Joke.” Roy grinned in response.
“Obviously.” He chuckled, praying his cheeks weren’t as red as they felt. “Who in their right mind picks a fucking banana as a weapon. Amoirooiitt?” His sentence punctuated with a flick of the wrist, discarding the banana that promptly vanished into a bright blue flash. “What the fuck?”
“Ah.” The King blinked in surprise. “I forgot.” Roy followed the King’s wide-eyed stare down to his own hand, before nearly falling over in shock. The banana. Was back. “The fucking fuck!” Roy shrieked, launching the fruit out of the skydock exit, then gasping in relief, not noticing the bright blue flash from beyond until he raised his hand to wipe the sweat from his forehead and in doing so, nearly poked his eye out with the banana he had just discarded. For the second time.
“So, I may have had the Royal Magi imbue the weapons with a retrieval enchantment. I didn’t think he’d actually due the banana.”
“A what?” The Keegan grunted from behind, startling the King, who glanced at the huge man with an expression of repulsion.
“Retrieval enchantment.” The King repeated, watching as the monstrous man picked up the axe, the blue flash erupting at his touch before he turned and threw the weapon with surprising skill into the stone wall, with so much power that it embedded itself in the rock. The Keegan held his hand forward with fingers outstretched as the weapon seemed to glitter, dispersing into blue orbs then vanishing, only to reappear grasped within his waiting hand.
“Sweet.” He rumbled with an evil grin.
“So, this mage.” Royston spoke up, his eyes still locked on the banana. “He can undo this, right?”
“Yes.” The King spoke quickly. “Well, no.”
“What?” Roy blinked.
“Technically he could, undo it.”
“Technically?”
“If, he was still with us.”
“What?”
“Moving on.” Danda Lorian gestured dismissively, stretching each hand towards each of the exit routes. “What is your choice?”
“Skyship.” Jay piped up, eagerly stepping towards the skydock.
“Skyship?” The King frowned, glancing at Pete and Sazabelle who shrugged in response. “No, the Skydock is the launching pad for the Draconis.”
“Draconis.” The Bone Baker repeated dumbly, his features paling. “As in. Dragons.” The King nodded sharply. “Nope.” Jay blinked as he spoke, stepping quickly in the other direction, then walking directly into the black vortex that seemed to wrap around his skin like inky fluid, before he vanished entirely.
“Little man make bad decision.” Pete sighed, though followed in Jay’s wake, curiously pausing before the vortex to take a deep breath. Then he was gone.
“Go.” Saz commanded Hank, the massive wolf moving without hesitation into the portal, quickly followed by his owner.
“See’ya on the other side.” The Keegan rumbled, stepping through into the unknown.
Fuck this. Royston thought to himself, quickly deciding that even the promised gold wasn’t worth the risk. No amount of gold was worth this shit. He turned, placed the banana on the ground under the curious stare of King Lorian, carefully, hoping that the enchantment would only activate when thrown.
“What are you doing?” The King frowned.
“Gotta uh, take care of something first.” The door was beside the route that the King was expecting him to take, therefore his movement towards the exit did not raise any alarm bells. He moved slowly, keeping his movements casual as to not alarm the other man… Right up until… Now! Roy turned to run, just as a blinding blue flash formed right before his closed fist, the bastard banana solidifying before him then falling down directly underfoot. With a startled yelp, Roy slipped, spinning through the air into the waiting vortex. Everything went black.
Pete frowned.
“Where is short fat one?” He turned and began counting the members of his little group again, just in case the other man was indeed so unnoticeable, in a chubbily-average sort of way, that maybe he had simply just overlooked him. “One.” He pointed at the hideous monstrosity that had accompanied the chubby man, some sort of sub-human, or perhaps mutant. “Six.” He pointed at the scrawny mage that had a perpetually angry expression. “Three.” Finally, to his friend, the little firecracker female.
“That’s wrong.” Saz snapped, looking expectantly at the portal.
“Is not three?” The woman paused, meeting his eyes, then shrugged.
“Fair enough.” She replied, just as the chubber stumbled forward from the portal, gasping for air before slamming face-first into the strange black rock beneath his feet with a sickening crunch. “Nine.” Pete grunted, counting the final member of his new little family, grabbing him by the back of the neck and lifting him back onto his feet with relative ease, despite the man’s impressive girth.
“Now is not time for sleeping, chubby man.”
“Sthneeping!” Chubber blinked in shock, wiping the blood from his nose, then startled as he realised he had just wiped his face with a banana. Strange little man. “Fuck Thnake!” He squealed, launching the little fruit out into the darkness, though as before, a blue flash, then a grunt as the banana popped out of the air to collide forcefully with the back of chubbers head. Chubber blinked, then groaned, resignedly plucking his ‘weapon’ from the ground and holding it in limp fingers. Only then did he take a look about himself. “What the Thnuck?” He lisped, his nose squealing with each inhalation.
“Is the inbetween.” Pete explained simply. “Is nothing, and everything. All at same time.” He looked about at what appeared to be a solid black that surrounded him in every direction. A darkness that appeared both solid, and empty, in a way that made you dizzy if you concentrated on it for too long.
“What is this place?” The angry mage asked.
“Little man stupid?” Pete asked. Clearly he had just explained what this place was.
“It’s the Inbetween.” Saz spoke with a bored tone.
“Is what Pete said?” Pete grunted sourly.
“No one really knows what it is.”
“Is the inbetween.” Pete exclaimed in exasperation, throwing his hands up to purvey his annoyance.
“Here, time is… Different. You can move sideways, backwards, even alongside or above the linear timeline, by-”
“Way to many big words.” The Keegan growled, scratching at his hideous face. “You know the way?” Saz sighed, then nodded.
“Follow me.” She began to move off, though spun as she noticed Jay begin to walk upward rather than forward. “Stop that.” She snapped, grabbing the man by the wrist and spinning him back down to the… Floor? Was there even a floor here? It was just empty black beneath their feet. For all Pete knew, they were flying.
“I didn’t mean to-”
“Move forward.” She snapped again. “Move in any other direction, and you may emerge at the right place, in the wrong time. Jay groaned.
“Dragons would have been better than this.” Pete nodded his agreement, then, whilst concentrating profusely on moving forward, took a single step in the right direction. A sigh of relief left his lips. The last time he had been here, he had accidentally emerged out into a date earlier than his own birth. His family were indeed alive, his tribe as strong as ever, but his direct relatives were not to be born for hundreds of years. Sure he could have taken the risk and attempted to use the inbetween to travel forward in time, but that could also put him further back, or even sideways in time, which as he understood it was… Well, he didn’t understand it at all. So here, he had remained.
The group walked in silence, each locked within their own thoughts, likely inspired by the oppressive black of their current surroundings. Black that sometimes seemed to dance with a billion colours, until with a gasp a head snapped towards the vivid outburst, finding nothing there at all. After a while, Pete realised the strange displays were not of a physical being, and instead, somehow came from within. As if the lack of colour that surrounded them induced an almost hallucinogenic effect. He blinked groggily.
“That one.” Sazabelle called, pointing at a white slither of light off in the distance, Hank the wolf leading them forward as if he knew exactly where to go. Pete frowned. In fact, perhaps he did. Before long, Pete found himself before the shimmering inky portal, glancing briefly towards Silence as she nodded her approval. Pete stepped through. Immediately, the darkness vanished, heat and blinding light momentarily disorienting the muscle-bound warrior. He was vaguely aware of his companions emerging into the space around him, shaking his head in an attempt to clear the rapidly fading fog. But it wasn’t fast enough.
“Move, you die.” A voice growled, freezing Pete in place as he felt the tip of a pointed blade press against the back of his neck.
What should our companions do? Attack, or allow themselves to be captured? Who are these mysterious assailants? What am I having for dinner tonight? Why am I asking so many questions? Even I don’t know.
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