Chapter 7

"Exiting the Realm of Nago."

Kent literally jumped when he heard the voice, stumbling a little. He looked around, worried that someone had managed to sneak up on him. It was something his friends back home used to do all the time.

There was no one around.

"What did you say?" Kent asked the empty air.

"Exiting the Realm of Nago."

Nago was Kent's last name, but he decided that there were other questions that needed answering first.

"Um … who are you?"

"We are your guide," the voice responded.

It was a feminine voice, but it lacked any emotion whatsoever, sounding almost robotic.

"My… guide?…"

"That is correct."

"What… is a guide?"

"A guide is an entity assigned by the Curators to follow and assist Rebirthers."

Well, that much was obvious. As the voice was new, it must have had something to do with his rebirth.

"Was that rude man I met before a Curator?"

"Correct. However, he is not a man. Or a woman. Gender is not something that exists among Curators. It is also quite inappropriate to use such language when describing someone of a Curator's position…"

"Then what about that other vision I had? The one I had right before waking up here?"

The guide did not respond. Apparently guides were not actually helpful.

"You are mistaken. We are very helpful. But we do not have the particular knowledge required to answer your inquiry."

Okay, so these guides could read thoughts. Kent wasn't really surprised. Why should he be? With so many new and unusual things happening to him in such a short period of time, why should one more new and unusual thing be surprising?

He found he was a lot more calm and collected than he had been when he'd first woken up. He must be adapting to all the weird things happening to him.

"Well, Guide, where are we? Is that something you can answer?"

Kent spoke with more of an edge to his words than he had intended, but the guide seemed unfazed.

"It is something we can answer, yes. We are currently in the world of Aenos. It is a world where things exist that typically would only be found in works of fiction on your planet. Books, movies, animated television programs, things of that sort. Perhaps there is some ethereal interdimensional bleed that slips into the minds of those of your world. We do not know. Regardless, our specific location is the western country of Verastis."

Things that can only be found in fiction? What kind of world was this? Kent looked around as if expecting to see something completely out of the ordinary. However, as far as he could see, nothing seemed any different from Earth. The only thing worth noting was the cave he had just exited. And Earth certainly had its share of caves.

"So what is this cave?"

Kent turned around to look at the tunnel from which he had just emerged.

"It is a cavity in stone, formed through erosional forces."

Not exactly a helpful response.

Studying the opening, Kent could see the cave was actually quite large. The tunnel narrowed as it went deeper, but the entrance itself was big enough to fit a truck. A large truck. The opening was also unusual. It looked like a natural rock structure at a glance, but upon closer inspection small, intricately detailed carvings were visible covering every surface of the entrance.

The carvings almost looked like some form of writing. If so, it wasn't something he could understand however.

"What I mean," said Kent, "is what exactly is this cave? And what does it have to do with me and how I arrived in this … Verastis?"

"This cave is the Domain of Nago," said the Guide. "It is, of course, named after you. Though the native residents refer to it as The Holy Gate."

"So, it's named after me? Why? Just because I woke up here? And why is it called The Holy Gate?"

"You are the owner of this domain. Therefore it is named after you."

Though the voice was still robotic, Kent thought he detected a note of annoyance. Was that even possible? The guide continued.

"It is referred to as The Holy Gate because of a local legend. And thus, the locals who believe in that legend continue to refer to it by that designation."

Hmm …

Kent wanted to ask about the legend, but talking to this guide was turning out to be an exercise in frustration and exhaustion. Besides, ever since he had stepped foot out of the cave he'd felt drained, as if a day of extremely hard work had finally caught up with him.

Turning his attention away from the cave, Kent examined the rest of his surroundings. The mountains before him were very tall and snow-capped, stretching to his right and left as far as he could see. They seemed to circle around the basin he was in, forming a sort of cradle. Just to the left of center, was a monstrous cleft in the mountain range, with what looked like a vast open sea beyond. Kent considered the peaks capped with snow, guessing these were many thousands of feet tall. Perhaps tens of thousands of feet tall.

From what he could see of it, the sea was a beautiful blue green, light shimmering off distant waves. Kent's home on Earth was near the coast, so seeing the water was a comforting sight.

From where Kent stood, he saw the basin-like valley was full of life. Plains stretched in front of him, covered in vibrant green which ran up to the foothills of the mountains. On those foothills were many trees. In fact, other than the swath of plain right in front of him, a large forest filled the majority of the valley. Even from this distance, with his higher vantage, Kent could glimpse a few paths winding through the valley. Whether they were game trails, or made by men, he didn't know.

Nestled in the trees off to his right, Kent could see the silhouette of what he guessed might be a cabin, though from the hint of red glow from that direction he thought it might be made of brick. He felt a pang of nostalgia. He'd always enjoyed visiting his grandparent's cabin back on Earth.

Smoke rose from a chimney in short puffs. Someone was obviously home. With no other options immediately apparent, Kent set out toward the small building.

After a few minutes, he entered the edge of the forest. Walking among the trees, he saw the forest was not actually very dense. Though there were many large trees, the area beneath those trees was mostly clear of underbrush. As Kent got closer to the cabin, the forest opened up, and he found that the building stood in a clearing. The cabin before him was unlike any he had ever seen before. This building was much larger than any regular cabin he was familiar with. The red glow that had initially drawn his attention was now gone.

As it turned out, the source of that glow hadn't actually been the material from which the cabin had been made. In fact, the cabin looked as though it had been carved from the trunk of a single giant tree, though Kent couldn't see any other trees around that were even remotely close to that size.

"Now what do we have here?"

A voice spoke the words calmly, but firmly.

Kent stopped in his tracks. He couldn't see the source of the voice. In fact, as he looked in the direction the sound had come from he saw it stood empty, at least in terms of things that could talk. There was only a small pit there, bare except for a gray pile of ashes, surrounded by the three of the sort of log benches you might expect to see around such a fire pit.

"It's interesting that you were able to find this place, but are not able to see me. I would have assumed that, since it's the same basic magic, you would have been able to see through both, if you had been able to see through one."

An area above the benches began to ripple as with waves of heat, though the fire pit was not not burning. Suddenly, with a pop, an old woman appeared from the distorted air.

Kent took a step back.

"What are you?"

"Ah, how very intriguing!" said the woman. "And interestingly enough, that is exactly the question I wanted to ask you. I suspected something was different about you when I saw you approach here. And you certainly confirmed those suspicions when you spoke just now. I have lived a very long time, very long, but this is the first time I have met a talking wyvern. Talking dragons are one thing–but I've never even heard of a talking wyvern."

"I'm sorry, a talking what?"

"So interesting! Are you not even aware of what you are?"

Kent had, admittedly, forgotten there was anything currently strange about him. His body had been, well, just his body. His legs had carried him as he walked, and his eyes had seen what there was to see around him. There had been so much on his mind, he had simply disregarded questions about his body. Perhaps that had been part of how his mind was coping, by ignoring the things it couldn't quite process.

"I am a human," said Kent. "Or at least I was…"

The young man figured he had nothing to gain by lying to this woman. Maybe she could even help him.

"I'm not really sure what is going on, to be honest."

"Yes, it does seem apparent that's the case."

For some reason, the woman looked rather amused by all of this.

"Well, why don't you have a seat over here and tell me all that you know."

She gestured to one of the logs beside her, then reached down and gathered up several pieces of wood which she threw into the pit. Though Kent could swear there had only been cold ashes there, a flame instantly leapt up. The woman proceeded to throw more wood into the fire.

Kent had not noticed before, as all he had been doing was walking, but the shape of his body was such that it made it difficult to take a seat on the log. He eventually succeeded, but this was the first time since he had arrived in this place that his body felt awkward and unnatural to him.

"Now then," the woman began, looking directly at Kent. Her skin was coarse and wrinkled, baggy beneath the chin where it wobbled as she spoke, and she looked like she was far older than anyone could actually ever be. More like an animated corpse than an actual person. "Tell me where is it you came from, little wyvern."

Kent didn't actually appreciate the diminutive, "little," but he wasn't about to quibble with the only real person he had spoken to all day.

"Well, I woke up inside a cave near here. Just before then I was–urk!"

Kent was cut off by a sharp stabbing pain in his chest, followed by a spurt of blood from his mouth. He coughed the red liquid into the dirt. At that moment, his heart felt like it was on fire, burning him from the inside out. Kent had never felt anything this agonizing before. His vision narrowed, until all he could see was the fire pit directly in front of him.

A bright light appeared at the edge of his tunnel vision and the pain immediately began to fade. He turned, and saw the woman seated beside him had her hand raised toward Kent. The light was radiating from her palm. It reached out to him through the air in a solid beam.

"Well, I must say, that��s a particularly nasty curse you've got there."

The look of amusement didn't leave her face, even as Kent was in agonizing pain.

"This sort of curse is usually used by Dark Masters who don't want their 'loyal' subjects flapping their gums about something or other. I had no idea it could also be used on beasts."

"I'm not … a beast," Kent said between gasps of breath.

"Yes, yes, so sorry. I apologize. Despite appearances, you do seem to act rather human. Therefore, I assume the one who put this curse on you also changed you into a wyvern. Unless, of course, everything you have said to me is a lie. But for some reason I'm inclined to believe you, even though it goes against my better judgement."

"Thank you. I guess."

By this point, the pain had nearly subsided completely. What the granny had said seemed to be the only logical explanation. Everything had been going completely wrong ever since Kent had met that Curator guy.

"But, really, you can't blame me. It is quite hard to believe a simple human could become a being as great as a wyvern."

"Are wyverns that special?"

"Oh, yes, yes indeed! You have heard of dragons before, correct?"

Kent nodded

"Well, wyverns are a distant cousin of dragons. However, unlike dragons with their serpentine shape, wyverns have limbs and ligaments to support their bodies, and are nowhere near as massive in size. They actually hold nearly as much magic power as dragons do, but are not required to use as much of it simply to get around as dragons do."

The woman paused to throw another small log into the fire.

So magic exists in this world, Kent thought, though with everything he'd been through, that shouldn't come as a surprise. And apparently he was supposed to have a lot of it. How come he didn't feel any different?

"Unfortunately, because of The Decimation, which happened many years ago, there are not that many dragons or related beasts anymore."

The woman had produced a carved pipe from somewhere, and was now puffing away on it. As she spoke, the smoke curled and twisted in odd ways, until it eventually dissipated.

"The dragons, it must be said, were a noble species. They were said to have been protectors of Aenos. Though they never intervened directly in the wars of lesser beings, they nonetheless acted as judges and moderators of various conflicts. Wyverns, on the other hand, were much more mysterious. So seldom seen, that average people still argue about whether they actually existed or not."

The woman took a long pull on her pipe.

"But you knew when you saw me that I was a wyvern. If wyverns were just things of legends, then how could you be so sure?"

She blew all the smoke out in a long exhalation. The smoke twisted upward like it had before, however, this time Kent made out shapes, armies of men wearing armor and holding swords facing off against beings with horns and wings. The armies clashed as the smoke continued to whirl and then dissipate.

The woman looked at Kent with a wide smile.

"Well, that's because I'm not your average person, little wyvern."