Chapter 11 Not in Kansas Anymore
What greeted us on the other side was something that would have had me running back to my own world, had I not a king to save.
The air felt different here. So different, in fact, that it made the back of my neck prickle like I could feel all the death that had occurred here at the hands of Demetrios.
Aster stood beside me, completely silent. His eyes swept across the horizon, and I followed his gaze to where a rising sun hung low in the sky. Its red light bleeding over a land colored only in shades of black and grey.
“No… no, this… this isn’t how it should look,” he said painfully, and my heart broke for him seeing his home like this.
I remembered in the early days after the Rift, seeing towns and homes ravaged by desperate people or damaged from myth attacks.
It hadn’t been an easy sight, but one that had gotten easier with time.
I reached out and put a hand on his arm, holding the apology that lay on my tongue. The words ‘I’m sorry’ didn’t feel right in this moment. I knew nothing I said would help.
“It used to be so green… so alive,” he murmured, half to himself. Then he started walking, and I stayed silent as he made it a few steps ahead of me, his boots crunching on the dry soil where I assumed green grass once grew.
He looked up, the only color coming from the sun, which painted the soil and the sky with a tint of red. It reminded me of blood.
“It was so beautiful. A landscape so vivid, so full of color.” He crouched, scooping up a handful of blackened soil.
“Now look at it.” The dust sifted through his fingers, dry and lifeless, and I couldn’t help but squirm at the fact that he was touching the soil.
Soil that was tainted by the darkness. All I could hope for the lost land was that, in time, it would regrow.
But then his words killed the hope as quickly as it arose.
“Theikos is rotting.”
I winced at his disgusted tone, hating seeing him this way. He was a giant of a man, yet I had never seen him look so small, so fragile.
“It will grow again, Aster. Once we get to Atlas, once we stop the one who did this.” I tried to reassure him, hoping my words didn’t sound empty as I feared they might have.
He stood, the look on his face still showing defeat.
“Yes, you're right,” Aster said, dusting off his hands on his pants.
“We must get to him in time. Atlas travelled with an army, which would have slowed him down, and even magic cannot carry that many souls at once.” Well, that was good to know, I guess.
Although if I were honest, I would have also told him that I had no idea what he meant by that statement.
Instead, I favored the obvious question.
“What if he decided to go on ahead on his own, you know, to try and get there quicker?”
“He wouldn’t do that, Alex. He’s not a fool. He doesn’t know what he will be up against, so it would be safer for him to continue to travel with the army. Going off on his own could mean his death, and there would be no chance of stopping the darkness then. There’s too much at stake to risk that.”
I nodded, thankful for the reassurance that Atlas wouldn’t go doing anything stupid.
I started to follow him to… well, I had no clue where.
Which wasn’t surprising considering this was pretty much Aster’s rodeo right now.
Until I could be useful, it felt like I was just along for the ride at this point, but then I wondered…
with so much of a head start, how did we have any hope of reaching Atlas in time.
“So, how do we catch up to him?” I asked, trying to put as much enthusiasm into my question as possible, hoping it would rub off on him. He hesitated, and I narrowed my eyes.
“Please tell me you have a plan.”
He released a sigh and stopped walking. “We will need help, but yes, I have a plan,” he said, with a tight-lipped grin.
“From who?” Skepticism laced my voice, and well, it turned out to be warranted when he didn’t answer right away.
His jaw tightened, and the muscle flickered as if even thinking of the mystery person pained him.
“Someone I used to know,” he said finally, his voice distant like he was reliving a memory. “Someone who I hope is still alive…”
“You’re kidding, right?”
He didn’t answer, he just gave me a dry look before he continued walking, telling me, “Come on, we have to keep moving.”
“What’s the plan then?” I asked after catching him up. His legs were a lot longer than mine, seeing as I was just a little human, after all.
But that was when he came out with words I really didn’t want to hear.
“Just trust me, okay?”
This was Aster. The fun-loving Minotaur that had saved my life and forgiven me after I had broken his trust. The one who loved Atlas like a brother.
So, I knew more than anything that Aster wouldn’t be putting Atlas’s life on the line on a chance, that if this plan he had didn’t work, he would have a backup plan… well, a girl could dream at least.
Man, I really hoped he had a backup plan.
I rolled my eyes and sighed. “Fine. I will trust you.”
I then looked past him, toward the horizon where the land stretched out in folds of greys and reds.
The sun hadn’t moved, and the moon was still disappearing over the horizon.
I knew it was going to take me a while to get used to how time worked here.
It would also take a while to get used to the bland color of the land, trying to picture what it would have looked like as Aster had described it.
“Let’s pick up the pace. We don’t want anyone getting wind of us being here. There could be scouts in the area.”
“Scouts?” I asked, my voice coming out strained as my eyes swept over the land, and we started walking across the plains. As if any minute I expected to see shadows moving, stalking us like prey.
“Don’t worry,” Aster said, patting my back. Even a gentle touch from him had me nearly falling over from the force.
“We should be fine as long as we keep moving. Besides, I’m here. I can go full Minotaur if I need to,” he said with a wink. I knew it was a ploy just to try to put me back at ease.
Although what he said was true. He could go full Minotaur, and it was impressive to say the least. I felt sorry for anything that decided to attack us because I knew they wouldn’t last long against Aster.
“Are you similar to Atlas then?” I asked, only now thinking of the parallels between them.
“In what way?” Aster asked, giving me a side eye like he wasn’t sure where this conversation was going.
“Well, I recall you telling me you’re a Berserker Minotaur. The last of your kind, right?”
He nodded,
“That’s right.”
“You change into a Minotaur when you’re mad. Well, Atlas changed into…” I didn’t know what to call the beast he turned into. Did it even have a name? “Something… when a witch attacked us on the way back from the Rift.”
Aster shook his head.
“Ah, yeah, he mentioned that. The rage of Ares isn’t like my rage.
Atlas would have stayed in that form, causing chaos across the land and destroying everything in his path forever if it hadn’t been for you.
And it was a good job you were there too, what with you being his anchor and all…
” He crossed a large finger across his neck and made a sliiiick noise.
“You’d be as dead as it gets. So would anyone and anything that had crossed his path. ”
“Lovely,” I said, pouting my lips and returning that side eye from earlier.
Aster grinned and then continued. “No, my rage is all to do with what’s going on inside my head and in my environment. If the threat is gone, then I can calm down, and I can do it relatively quickly… after all, I’ve had plenty of practice.”
I still had hundreds of questions running through my head about Atlas, Aster, and The?kós. But I knew they could wait, and they would have to, because my mind was also too filled with worry to start asking questions.
Something that changed after what felt like hours of walking, and one question started to play on my mind.
“So where are we heading exactly?” I said through a yawn.
I was fit, there was no choice in the matter when it came to surviving the Rift, even at the base.
But I hadn’t slept properly since those nights in the hotel, and a lot had happened since then.
I could still feel the latest trauma in my back, niggling at my pain receptors.
But I refused to acknowledge it, just like the tiredness and the ache in my muscles. We had to keep going.
“We’re not too far now,” he replied.
I didn’t know why it was important, but I asked, “How long in Earth time do you think?”
He twisted enough to cast me a sideways glance.
“Why? Got places to be?”
I let out a humorless laugh. “Atlas, he…”
“Needs you, I know,” Aster finished, cutting me off and catching me off guard.
“I wouldn’t go that far,” I said, forcing another small laugh, this time void of sarcasm.
“I would.”
I pulled a face and made a spluttering sound that had Aster smirking before he turned serious, stopping me in my tracks.
“You’re his anchor, Alex… so yeah, he one hundred per cent needs you.
But even if you weren’t his anchor, I have known Atlas a long time, and I have never seen him like this with anyone before.
” He stopped too, nodding his head as he said these words like he was trying to get me to believe every word.
“He’s…” He paused as if he was trying to find the right word for it.
“He’s what?”
“He’s different,” he said, finally making my breath catch in my throat before I pressed for more as my heart hammered in my chest.
It was almost too good to be true, hearing this from his best friend. As if it was only reaffirming what Atlas had told me, but in my hour of doubt, let’s just say it was what I needed to hear.
“In what way?” I asked, lowering my gaze to inspect the soil. The certainty in Aster’s face and voice heated my cheeks.