11 Into The Unknown

Ulrik's arm was a band of iron keeping me anchored to his shoulder.I felt like a corpse- hollow and lifeless.I watched the fathomless dark cyclone inhale what was once a picturesque meadow and I felt empty inside.

Till all that emptiness was crammed with unadulterated terror when I remembered it was about to inhale me too.Ulrik ignored my tiny,fretful whimpers and ran like his life depended on it.

Which it did.He powered on as if the hounds from hell were snapping at his heels.

Looked more like the toothless green mouth of hell,but close enough.His feet ate up the distance and I'm sure even Bolt would have a hard time keeping up with him.

One second I was imagining being torn limb from limb inside the mouth of death coming for us and the next I was thrown into a steel wall.The back of my head bounced painfully off of it and my back felt like someone had hit me with a baseball bat.

"What the vagina Ulrik!" Wait,that's not a fruit.

Screw it,my brain feels like scrambled eggs right now.My ears were ringing like someone had rung a bell that my head was inside of.

Ulrik was two feet to my right,rubbing his forehead and muttering about the irrelevance of female reproductive organs in a moment like this.

"Why won't you watch where you're going?" I turned to see the wall we had run into and saw nothing but uneaten meadow before me.

I must've hit my head harder than I thought.I rubbed the offended spot and look behind me.

Alright, certain death still chasing us.

Check.

Pain from colliding with a steel wall dancing throughout my body.

Check.

Blissfully unaware expanse of flowers infront of me.

Check.

What is going on here? What did we run into?

I see movement in my periphery and turn to face Ulrik.His hands are infront of him and he's parting the air,stroking it,trying to grip it with his outstretched fingers.

I think his head got bumped worse than mine.I walk up to him cautiously,like you'd walk up to someone about to jump off a roof."Um,Ulrik,buddy are you ok?" I glance back at certain doom,"We kinda need to get the hell out of here,what are you doing?"

He knits his brows and frowns deeply.

"I cannot find the starter."

He's completely lost it.

"Ulrik,a starter for what?!"

I throw my arms out and my right hand connects solidly with a wall.My mouth falls open and I turn to face the open meadow.I stick my hand out gingerly and lo and behold I feel something hard and cold beneath my fingers.Except I see nothing.I stretch up as far as I can and I can tell it's much higher than my head,stretch my hands out on it's surface and feel along it's length.

I look even dumber than Ulrik did.

"What is this?"

"It is the gate that stands before the portal that is our only way out of here."

"Ok,but why is it invisible and why is it in the middle of a field of flowers?" He stoops and feels along the bottom of the 'gate'.

"It should not have been here,"

His voice lowers and fills with foreboding.

"Gargol's dark magic is shifting the forces that hold Opa together.He is gaining strength "

I look back and the black-green tornado hole is still chomping away at the ground.

"What does this switch look li-"

"Obviously,we cannot see the starter Judah." He interrupts rudely.

He continues fondling the wall."You know what I mean,let me help!"

I begin to stroke and fondle along with him.

This invisible wall is getting more foreplay than I've ever given to my ex boyfriend.

I hear a soft click and a relieved "Aah" a second before the wall comes alive.

It extends to about twenty feet tall and is the width of the meadow straight across.Pictures of the northern lights I saw on Discovery channel flit through my mind for comparison and the images are perfectly aligned with what I'm seeing now.Softly undulating ethereal lights pulse on it's surface,changing from turquoise to burgundy to pink and burnt orange.The lights shift and change against a background of sparkling crystal and the beauty of it hurts my eyes.

So I rub them.

"This is dope." I look at him with a dopey smile on my face,then it falters a couple seconds later when I recall our very dire predicament.

"How exactly do we open it?"

"How good are you with riddles?"

"Huh?"

"You'll see."

At that very moment ancient silver calligraphy appeared on the wall's facade,as if being penned by the Gods.The words were so elegantly and intricately written that I could barely decipher them.I scrunched up my face and crossed my eyes so I could read the first line.

'The more there is,the less you see.What am I?'

"Are you kidding me right now?" I asked the wall.

"We're about to be eaten by a big scary green hole and you're asking us questions?!"

Another question hurled at the wall with my hands waving angrily at it.Since it did nothing but flash it's pretty lights at me I aimed my fury at Ulrik.

"Is this for real?"

"As real as dolemite burns on the backside of queen sucrose" he confirms.

My head goes back and my face twists in confusion.

Say what now?

But that's an argument for another day.Right now we need to make that other day possible.

"Can you solve the riddle?"

"I might be able to if you would cease your inane chatter," he snaps at me.

I lift my hands in the universal sign for 'I surrender' and turn to watch the meadow being devoured.

A light bulb goes off.

"Ulrik,darkness!"

I grin widely.

"The darker it is,the less you're able to see!"

He looks at me with grudging admiration then uses his staff to write the word under the riddle in the same beautiful penmanship that's covering the wall.As soon as he finishes the final letter, the left third of the wall turns completely silver and the first line,along with Ulrik's answer, disappears.

"Yes!" I do a little happy dance that makes Ulrik sigh in resignation then I read the second one aloud.

"Walk on the living,they don't even mumble.Walk on the dead,they mutter and grumble."

I scratch my head,my newfound levity deserting me.

"Why would you want to walk on dead people? That's sick."

Ulrik, being Ulrik replies with condescension.

"I doubt this is literal Judah."

I roll my eyes,no shit sherlock.

"I know but,still"

I shake my head as if to clear it,close my eyes and massage my temples with the hopes that I'll have another epiphany.After two minutes of intense kneading I'd only given myself a headache and nausea from picturing people tap dancing on grumbling dead people.

"We're gonna be sucked into that thing aren't we?" I asked Ulrik.

His eyes were burning holes into the colorful wall and he didn't spare me a glance.The wind picked up and a bright yellow petal floated onto his snout.

He removed it absently and let it fall,still staring fixedly at the riddle as if to intimidate an answer out of it.The petal fell on his foot and he looked at it for a second then back up.Did a double take and looked back down.He bent and lifted the petal,then fisted it and grinned.

He really shouldn't do that.

"You really shouldn't do that,"I told him.

He ignored me and wrote his answer on the wall.

I edged closer to see what it was.

"Leaves?! The answer's LEAVES?" I exclaimed and push him on the shoulder.He doesn't move an inch.

Strong bastard.

Now the right third turns silver and the second riddle fades away.One more to go.

"A word you know,six letter it contains,remove one letter and twelve remain"

I look at Ulrik at the same time he looks at me.We turn to look at the dark mass coming for us in unison and it's no more than thirty feet away.The back of my gown and my hair are being pulled straight out behind me and we're both planting our feet to avoid being dragged backwards. I inch closer to him and start slapping his arm.

"Think,Ulrik think!"

He looks down on me indifferently as I panic and slap him till my hands begin to smart painfully.

"How exactly is this supposed to help me think?" He asks with an equally inquiring brow.

I groan and flop down on the floor,bracing myself with my arms to resist the pull.His pants are glued to the front of his legs and his ears are yanked back and yet still,he looks like an immovable...well, tree. The yawning mouth of death is getting closer and all I can think of are the glazed donuts I get every Saturday at Krispy Kreme.I usually get at least a dozen to last till Monday.

Wait, that's it! I jump to my feet and I immediately slide a couple inches back.

"Dozens! Write it,quick!" I yell at him as I desperately try to stay on my feet and place one foot infront of the other.He yanks me to his side and searches my eyes as if to see if I was serious.

"Do it!"

I shout at him and he uses his rod to write my answer.He bends his knees as the pull become stronger and my feet are lifted from the ground.I grip his arm and hang on as he digs his heels into the dirt.

I was right.

I smirk to myself as the middle panel turns silver and the last riddle vanishes.A tiny,blue dot pierces the wall in it's center and rapidly grows into an oval of mist and swirls that throb with white light.Behind us is only three feet of meadow and Ulrik's cheeks and lips are peeled back from his face,as are mine.He's struggling to keep us both grounded and I'm praying silently that I'll get to kiss the krispy kreme donut for saving my life.Scant seconds before we're swallowed whole the portal opens wide enough for Ulrik to jump through.

We land in a tangled heap on packed gravel and I push myself into a sitting position to watch the portal close.

"Are you injured?" Ulrik asks.

I lift my head and smile at him,glad that I lived to have this moment of rubbing his face in something.I solved two of the riddles and he only solved one.

"I'm smarter than you."

I laugh as his concern turns to annoyance and he flounces away.