He instinctively knew he was no longer on Earth. It was more than just the unrecognizable nature surrounding him. There was an awareness in his body. Standing there in the lavender grass, with the sunlight on him, it sensed how different the natural laws that governed this place were. 

“It worked, right?”

“IT DID. CONGRATULATIONS.”  Kleymon said congratulations flatly, as if it was the first time he had ever said the word.

“UNFORTUNATELY, DEEP IN THOSE TREES ALL AROUND US IS A VERY LARGE GROUP OF DANGEROUS CREATURES.” He said this as if it was a daily occurrence to him.

“WHAT? WHY DID YOU BRING ME HERE THEN?”

“THIS WAS NOT MY INTENTION, DAVID. BUT AS YOU KNOW, INTENTIONS RARELY CREATE THE REALITY YOU DESIRE.” The words came out with a venom. He already knew how to get under David’s skin. At this moment, though, the dig was nothing compared to the fear rippling inside David’s chest.

“A..Are they going to attack, or? What should I do?”

“DAVID. COULD YOU GIVE ME POSSESSION OF YOUR BODY FOR A MOMENT?” 

“What? I don't understand.”

“I CAN HEAR THEM KNOCKING ARROWS AND CHANTING INCANTATIONS. VERY SOON THEY ARE GOING TO TRY TO ANNIHILATE US. YOU CANNOT USE YOUR ABILITIES, BUT I CAN. GIVE ME CONTROL. IT WILL ONLY TAKE A MOMENT.” 

David hesitated for a second, but his fight or flight was much too powerful for anything longer than that. 

“Fine. Do it.”

Just as he said the words, a storm of arrows flew from the forest and balls of fire the size of cars blazed towards him.

Then, there was darkness.

.

.

.

His hands felt the smooth sharpness of grass under him. Something coated his face and his eyelids felt heavy. Slowly he opened them and saw that the sunlight was gone. 

*COUGH* *COUGH* The air was thick with heat and almost impossible to breathe in. Swirling in the wind were tiny gray specks, almost like dust, no…ash. He hastily got up and saw the cause; the entire forest that had been a hue of green and brown was now charcoal black, a wasteland of trees and brush burnt to a crisp. The clearing of lavender grass David stood in was unaffected; there was some control in Kleymon’s destruction.

“Jesus” He muttered aloud.

“DO NOT WORRY. YOU WERE ONLY GONE FOR A FEW SECONDS.”

“You…you did this in a few seconds?”

“YES AND IN TIME YOU WILL BE ABLE TO DO SIMILAR THINGS. AND IN MORE TIME YOU WILL DO FAR GREATER THINGS.

FOR NOW THOUGH, WE NEED TO LEAVE THIS PLACE. YOU WILL HAVE TO OPEN ANOTHER PORTAL DAVID.”

“Somewhere safe this time?”

“YES, NOW CLOSE YOUR EYES AND IMAGINE A DARK CAVE WITH JAGGED ROCKS HANGING ABOVE YOU. DEEP IN THE DARKNESS YOU SEE…”

Out of a polished stone floor, a lavender colored grass sprouted. The tip of the grass connected to the palm of a hand. The hand was human shaped, but not made of flesh. It consisted of an uncountable number of orange flower petals that vibrated like a bee's wings. 

The owner of the hand also had the form of a human, a very large one, however, its entire body was made up of the same orange petals. It sat with its legs crossed on the stone floor, and appeared to be in deep concentration, though it was impossible to know for sure. 

“They are gone.” The voice of the petal creature was light like a leaf in the wind. It seemed ill-fitting in the white stone room with the lavishly adorned man standing behind it. The man was clothed in a white tunic with an overlapping pattern of suns that hedged the bottom near his knees. On his back he wore a thin blue cloak with the same pattern on the ridges. His wrists gleamed with golden bejeweled bracelets. He was a large man but certainly not fat, and had a sun dried face that looked like it scowled at adults and children alike.

“Of course they are! The Niven are a reserve force. Sending all 200 for a single creature? Thoroughly unnecessary. You Petalmen have one job and are useless at it. Why the Count listens to anything you say is a mystery to me.” 

“You misunderstand, General.”

“No, I believe I understand your incompetence perfectly well, Petalman.”

“We have told you many times not to call us that, General. We share no similarities with poisonous creatures such as yourself.” The petal creature's voice was louder now, like a flowing river. 

The general responded with a smirk.

“Really? Then why is it you Petalmen only accept payment in coin? Would you not prefer something less tainted by man? Perhaps I will pay you next with a summer rose, or fresh spring water.”

 “You do not pay us, General. If you did, we would not recommend that course of action.”

“Is that a threat, Petalman?” A small orange flame sparked to life from his palm. Unnoticed by the general, the flame began to drift away to his right, until eventually all of it was gone, and a man in the doorway held it in his hand.

“Tell me General Halding, when you ate that Simey, and gained its ability to manipulate the flame, did you also gain its intellect? Did you become a beast?” The man in the doorway approached slowly until he was face to face with the general. He wore similar garb, only his cloak was golden and he wore no bracelets. 

“Count…I…uh”. The general started to sweat profusely, likely due to nervousness, along with the heat from six orbs of fire that had begun to rotate around his head.

“That must be what happened. Otherwise I cannot fathom why you would continue to use your ability in this castle when I have forbidden it.”

“I..uh… it will not happen again Count!” He practically shouted it as the orbs edged closer to him.

“If it does, you will be ashes. Do you understand, General Halding?”

“Yes! Yes I understand!”

The orbs dissipated into nothingness, and the count turned to face the petal creature. 

“Tell me of the situation.”

“We…underestimated the new creature's connection to the land. Every life that was sent to it is gone.”

General Halding became ghastly white. 

“All dead? The entire Niven force?”

“Yes.”

The count’s chiseled face did not react, no appearance of rage or surprise, only a slight twitch of his mouth. Neither the general nor the petal creature wished to remain in the room any longer.

“General Halding!” 

“Yes, Count!”

“You will do 2 things. You will alert the guards of the outer wall to detain any strange creatures attempting to enter the city. You will then personally go with the Petalman to where this all took place and thoroughly investigate. Let no one else know of what has transpired today.” 

“I will go immediately!” General Halding briskly walked out of the room with the petal creature close behind.

The Count’s rigid steps echoed uniformly through the stone corridors of the castle.

1,106 SUNS! That is how long it took me to bring some measure of stability to this damn place. And in one day all of that comes crumbling down.

He opened the intricately carved double doors to his study. 

The entire Niven Reserve Force given to us, gone. I will have to have words with their chieftess. She will not be happy.

The count bypassed his desk and went to the open window of the study. From it, he could see almost all of Solun. The setting sun shined on huge palaces of white stone and ramshackle plaster houses all jammed together. A chaotic beauty. 

He jumped out of the window. A few seconds before his body hit the ground, huge wings of blue fire emerged from his back and he surged forward just above the heads of a crowd in the Solun marketplace. He heard a jumble of voices in the crowd speak.

“Look, it's Count Balisk!

“He really does hold the power of a shadebringer.” 

“Where is he going?”

“I wanna have wings like his!”

A calm came over him and he climbed farther into the sky until he was far above the city. He would enjoy this flight before he must tell the chieftess his news.