Chapter 2 - Andal

Rupert was not aware of his father entering his room or the fact that he was sleeping in his bedroom at home. He silently dreamt of another world. He looked around and was astonished by the natural beauty surrounding him. Lush and tall green trees surrounded him. The sky stretched high into the heavens exposing three moons, each smaller than the next one while the sun was slowly fading but still sharing it’s warmth. Surprisingly, Rupert thought he felt the warm sun rays touch his skin.

Rupert examined his surroundings and caught glimpse of a young girl about his age cooling her feet in a lake. She had reddish brunette hair and seemed to be enjoying her restful time in solitude during the last moments of sunshine before it set.

Rupert recognized this girl before but had never been able to get her attention. Many times he talked, shouted, jumped and even tried throwing stuff at her but was never acknowledged. After many failed attempts, he gave up trying. He didn’t understand why he had seen this girl before.

Breaking his thought, suddenly a streak of black light passed quickly through the sky, faster and brighter than any firework. Rupert turned around to investigate the suspicious light but the girl must have seen the same thing and had a running start ahead of Rupert into the forest.

A clearing opened not too far from the lake past a small patch of trees. In the opening stood a small wooden cottage with four ugly creatures and a tall dark hooded creature standing in front of a small wooden door.

Rupert and the girl ducked into the tall grass. Rupert didn’t know if he was really hiding from anything, since the girl seemed to be ignoring him. Could anyone see him? Was he dreaming, or invisible? If he was dreaming, there was no harm in playing along and seeing what his brain dreamed up. Out of curosity, Rupert poked the girl's arm. Alarmingly she whirled her head around, but looked past Rupert as if he wasn’t there and looked back towards the cottage. Weird and cool, Rupert thought to himself and kept hidden in the tall grass.

The cottage door opened and a small gray man opened the door. “Grumble,” the girl whispered under her breath tensing up.

One of the odd creatures pushed its way into the cottage while the others followed, including the tall hooded creature. The door closed behind them and instantly the girl shot up from the ground, running towards the cottage with Rupert right behind her. She tiptoed her way around the side of the cottage towards the back to peak her head into a small window. Rupert peered into the same window to see the old man being harassed by the unpleasant monsters that just entered, but couldn’t hear what was happening in the cottage.

Since it was his dream, Rupert decided to make an attempt to enter the cottage herself. He stuck one arm into the cottage when he noticed that the girl was no longer next to him. He looked to his left and saw her walk to an area covered by a few bushes and trees. The girl closed her eyes and suddenly a duplicate of herself floated outside of her body. There were TWO of her! Woah, this is a different, Rupert thought to himself. The first girl continued to have her eyes closed but the one that floated out drifted straight towards Rupert with a worried look on her face. Right when Rupert thought he made eye contact with her, she floated right through him.

He turned to look into the cottage and saw her standing inside the cottage, but no one seemed to notice her standing there. Rupert cracked a window open to hear what was happening. “Givv mee what uu hav ol’ man,” snarled one of the bigger ugly creatures as it grabbed the old man’s shirt, lifting him up from an old wooden chair.

The things were not pretty at all. Large scaled ears hung from each side of their huge misshaped heads and a layer of dark slimy goo covered their faces. Their eyes were small and barely visible past their dropping eyelids. “Gonchard, keep your foul breath off the poor man” the dark hooded creature coolly said.

Alone, the dark hooded creature’s breath and voice crackled and cooled the air around him. Rupert tried to see his face but couldn’t see anything but a black void inside the hood. Even the hands of the tall creature were unseen as they were covered in black gloves. “Now, Grumble. You have something I want,” the hooded thing said as it hovered to the right of Grumble.

Grumble shifted in the chair, not saying a word. “And, I think you know what that item is. If you give me that item, we will quietly leave,” the hooded creature said in an airy voice.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Grumble said folding his arms tightly. His feet were barely dangling above the floor with his body barely filling out the chair he was sitting in. Even though he was acting tough, Rupert could tell in his eyes that old man was afraid.

“Well then, I will search myself,” the hooded creature said, pulling out a small black bag and emptied it onto his gloved hand. Jewels of all sorts fell out.

The hooded creature poured the brightly colored jewels into a gold vase that one of the other creatures was holding. Immediately the vase started to glow and float from the ugly creature’s hands. The creature stepped back in confusion and fear of the mysterious floating vase that began to spin. Faster the vase spun and grew brighter. The jewels from inside started to spill out revolving around the vase faster and faster into a mini whirlwind. Oddly the jewels started to slow down and float mid-air; one by one each left the whirlwind to a floorboard a few paces away from Grumble. Each jewel stopped behind another making a trail. As soon as the jewels completed their line they quickly spun and disappeared into the vase.

‘There, open that floorboard!’ the hooded creature commanded, pointing at the floorboard as the vase settled. Before Grumble could react one of the smaller ugly creatures pushed him aside and ripped off the floorboard with its huge hands.

There inside the floorboard was a silk bag, which looked as if it was holding something round. The creature grunted and picked it up. ‘Open it’ the hooded creature said quickly.

The ugly creature looked unsure, but forgot his worry right after he thought it and ripped open the bag to unveil a brilliantly colored orb. Before the creature could be amazed at the colors, he experienced a strong pain. He dropped the orb, but not only did the orb drop, but his three-fingered hand. Rupert was about to get sick seeing the hand lay on the floor steaming as if it had been cooked.

‘The orb of Andal’ the girl breathed quietly while looking astonished. Rupert had almost forgotten she was still in the room standing next to the window. In amazement, she creped closer to the glowing orb, hovering very close to the angry one-handed creature.

The creature held its arm screaming in pain lunging for Grumble. Before the creature got its’ ugly one hand on Grumble, the hooded creature waved its’ hand. The creature flew up and hit the wall.

‘The orb of Andal…,’ the hooded creature squealed excitingly. It walked up to the orb on the ground and kicked the charred hand to the side.

‘You pick it up!’ the hooded creature angrily ordered Grumble. Grumble reached down and picked up the orb. The orb glowed even more brightly and its colors swirled faster within the round glass orb. Nothing happened, Grumble was able to hold onto the orb with no troubles, no reaction, no losing of his hand.

‘What is this magic?’ one of the ugly creatures shrieked. ‘You can't have it, it doesn't belong to you. And besides, your kind can never touch it,’ Grumble snapped.

‘Exceeept forrr one other…’ the largest creature snarled. ‘Say no more’, the hooded creature commanded and continued, ‘Chard, grab the orb.’

The creature that was called Chard seemed surprisingly smart enough to not grab the orb but to instead reach for Grumble. The girl jumped in the way of Gonchard. She made a pushing motion and pushed the large creature enough for him to notice.

‘What’s wrong with you?’ the hooded creature snarled. ‘Somethin pus meee,’ Gonchard said looking confused.

Immediately the hooded creature threw up some dust in the air and wildly looked around. The dust changed from black to pink. ‘A human girl is here,’ it breathed. ‘Find it!’ the hooded creature yelled looking back at Grumble and raced outside the cottage’s front door.

Knowing that she had been found, the girl immediately floated out of the cottage. ‘But, where do wee look? Wee don’t seee anyone,’ Gonchard and the three others said looking around confused.

‘Look for a body!’ the hooded creature sneered. “And destroy it!” The creatures reacted in glee as they looked around wildly for something to kill.

The girl’s body, Rupert remembered. He needed to do something to protect it. Rupert raced outside but didn’t see the girl’s body under the tree. Instead, he saw her standing in front of a tall bush, staring at it intently. Before he could react, the landscape in front of her changed. From the far off distance he could see lots of plants and a waterfall. The girl took a step and disappeared along with the strange scenery. Around the corner the tall hooded creature emerged. The hooded creature waved its hand over a few bushes and again Rupert saw the other world that the girl had entered.

‘A window was opened here.’ The hooded creature quietly said. The thing placed his hand over the flickering scene but wasn’t able to enter. ‘With Andal…’ it snarled as the portal closed.

Rupert carefully followed the creature back to the front of the cottage, to only see it become angry once again. Rupert wanted to investigate further when a flying big black dot suddenly caught the corner of his eye, catching him off guard. Without warning, what looked to be a dragon appeared flying directly towards him. Rupert jumped as it charged but unexpectedly leaped higher than he prepared, landing perfectly onto the black dragon’s back. He would have congratulated himself, but immediately Rupert felt something he hadn’t experienced before in any of his dreams. A painful hot burn scorched his legs, followed by a deafening blaring noise!

Rupert woke up instantly from his dream and sat up in bed, dripped in sweat. He didn’t know why it was pitch black in his room, since he set his alarm for 7 o’clock. Confused, Rupert reached over to turn off his alarm clock when he noticed that he wasn’t alone in his room. Three hooded beings stood around his bed, looking straight at Rupert. In a panic, Rupert screamed not knowing who or what they were. To Rupert’s relief at that exact moment, music and sunlight filled the room, and they disappeared into thin air.