Chapter 8: Off We Go

'Here, take this.'

It was nine in the morning. Ben, June and Sammy washed and ate, and farewelled Steven while Ozin waited at the door. He was very mysterious about the journey, not giving any hints or locations. 'Feel your way there,' according to him. Steven wasn't convinced that Ozin could take care of them. After all, he only appeared yesterday and god knows what happened after that. They packed two bags of food and resources, preparing to take a week's trek through the Alps, but Ozin confidently assured them that they'd get there by daybreak. Steven drove them to the very edge of the Alps and made them promise that they would get back home as soon as possible and in one piece. 'We will!' They cried over their shoulders at Steven waving goodbye, and perhaps the final one. Taking a deep breath and not knowing, they ventured into the deeper Alps and the landscapes that they once were familiar with disappeared among the lush forests and the great, snowy mountains.

They walked along the rough paths of the valley and slopes, the sun beaming down with a touch of frost, breaking winds in a silent atmosphere. Casting a shadow along the dull, grey slopes of the mountains crowned in deep, white snow.

Soon it was noon and the sun was over their heads. They were exhausted from walking so they rested a bit. Ben took off a layer of clothing and noticed June was pale – but not from the cold. She was taking long, deep breaths and seemed to frown in pain.

'What's wrong?' asked Ben. June shook her head, 'It's nothing… I just have a cramp from walking.' Ben frowned. That wasn't it. He thought. There's something she isn't telling us because she thinks we might worry. He stayed on watch for a while after that. Meanwhile, Sammy and Ozin were navigating on the map, which was blank except for dotted lines leading to an "X".

'We're currently here,' Ozin pointed at the dot. 'And we need to go here.' he points to the X. 'Is this obvious enough for you?' Sammy, who was confused, nodded.

They climb to the summit of the mountain. 'We need to go South, do you know which direction is South?' Sammy pointed in the sun's direction. 'No – silly – that's up.' Sammy rolled his eyes, unimpressed. 'You know what? Leave the navigating to me.'

'The map is pretty much blank,' said Sammy angrily. 'You're joking, right? How is this thing going to help?' Ozin didn't answer, instead, he plucked a leaf from a nearby tree and blew it. The leaf drifted in the air briefly before exploding into golden particles. The golden particles seemed to have a mind of their own and arranged themselves into a huge, flickering hologram as Sammy watched with his jaws open. The hologram was showing a surreal satellite image of the entire mountain range of the Alps. Then, through some more magic, the map floated and bound with the hologram perfectly, displaying the summit of the mountain that they were currently standing on, and the X positioned at a valley down South, looking just like another. 'That valley is the keyhole to the Alpine Realm.

'Of course, it would be slightly harder to enter now,' he gazed thoughtfully at the thunderstorm forming in the distance.

When they got down from the summit, they found June lying on the ground as Ben cradled her head and blonde hair. She was breathing rapidly and her eyes were tightly shut. One of her hands was clutching at Ben's shoulder and she was shivering. 

'What happened here?' asked Ozin coldly. 'Move, let me see.'

'She said she had a cramp from walking and needed to lie down, but as soon as she did –' Ben couldn't say it. 'Is she going to be okay?'

Osen checked her vitals. 'Fever,' he said, very nervously. 'Psychological trauma. Wait for a second…' He forced himself to turn around to face them. 'The tsunami. Did she get hurt?'

'Her right leg was impaled by a rusted rebar,' replied Sammy tearfully. 'It looked painful.' Ben swallowed and nodded.

'And you didn't amputate it?' demanded Ozin, backing off.

'She already had a tetanus shot, and we thought we didn't need to…' Sammy shook his head, sniffing.

There was a long silence. Ben looked down at her and said nothing, brandishing her hand. The wind roared across the valleys, filled with guilt and sorrow.

'I wish I could,' sighed Ozin. 'I wish I was wrong. I wish it didn't happen. I wish not to see it, I'm going to regret this. I shall.' Slowly, he walked over to June. He took out one hand, and rolled her trouser leg all the way up, exposing her thigh. The faint red marks from almost a year ago had not disappeared. Instead, a bloody mark had appeared where the wound was and was spreading to the rest of her leg like forks of red lightning. 'I knew it,' Ozin swore under his breath. 'It has gone to her… it's beyond fixing now.'

'What has gone to her, and what is beyond fixing? Tell me!' demanded Ben. His cheeks were as red as a tomato.

Osen stared at the wound dreamily. 'Forty thousand years went by a breeze. It seems the curse of Forklör was real after all.' 

Then he stood still, speaking slowly. 'This is beyond my area of expertise. Created by the great King of Nomad, Gorowrath himself. The curse is very uncommon and those who know know little of it. The only thing I can confirm is that staying in the German Realm only makes her condition worse, due to the lack of magical balance – you wouldn't understand. We must get to Alpine right now – the council can check it out and possibly suppress its influence. I'll do everything I can…' Ozin rummaged through a brown sack and took out a vial of what looked like seaweed. He gave it to Ben, 'Press this under her nose for twenty minutes… can you do that?' Ben nodded stiffly and obeyed, but said nothing.

'We must move with haste,' urged Ozin. 'The curse worsens after nightfall. Here, I'll take the supplies, you carry her.'

Ben rolled down her leg sleeve and picked her up from the rock surface. He expected his sore back to give in, but she felt as light as a child. She was sleeping peacefully now, her breathing had stabled down significantly and was steadily blowing down his shoulder.

'When will she wake?' asked Ben, still worried.

'The effect should take a few hours. Don't worry, when she wakes up we would already theoretically have crossed the borders. She won't feel any pain.'

It was early spring, and the days were still relatively short. By five the sun was already losing the last of its orange light and the sky grew dark. Ben felt his legs would give in at any moment. They had been restlessly travelling through the endless peaks of the Alps for the entire afternoon. Thankfully, the valley was finally reached as they took their last few hundred steps in search of searching for a house. Their vision was limited to a few metres in front of them, the increasingly darkened environment was turning the valley into an isolation chamber. Despite all this, they could make out a small wooden hut located on the side of the mountain.

Osen unlocked the front door and stepped in. The wood hut had a simple design: A double-sized bed, a sink, a gas stove, a toilet bowl and a five-layered cupboard filled with random supplies. The room was lit with a single light bulb and a switch, a window and a lookout lounge. They placed June on the bed and decided to take a break and have a little supper before they went through. They had a little Q&A while the food was cooked on the lit stove.

Ben: Where exactly is the portal?

Osen: Behind the mirror by the sink.

Ben asked: How old are you?

Osen: Around 15,000 years old. Honestly, I'm not bothered counting these days.

June was woken up by the laughter and felt great relief that they reached their destination. She wasn't fully unconscious but drifted in and out of it and heard broken parts of what they were saying along the way.

Osen noticed first. 'Oh, you've woken up early. Are you feeling alright?'

June blinked, 'I feel great at the moment. What was that you gave me for medication? It was refreshing.'

'Oh. Straight-up seaweed grown in Atlantis, it's the best treatment for psychoasthma – one of your symptoms. In fact, it works so well that many people think it's a placebo. Lamb pie?' He offered.

'Thanks,' she said softly and ate, savouring every last bite.

'June,' started Ozin. 'Just a light question. When did your symptoms start?'

She paused to think, trying to suppress the traumatic experience popping up in her head and just answer the question. 'About one month after our casts got taken off. It was me who wanted to climb the mountain that day.

'We were about halfway when it happened. I was in pain, my entire life felt like it was being drained and sucked out like a straw.' Sammy shuffled over and hugged her.

'Don't worry about it too much for now,' said Ozin quietly. 'Really, the curse will have little effect once you're in the Alpine Realm.'

'I'm sorry,' June was actually crying now. 'I'm sorry that I have to be such a burden.'

'Don't be,' said Ozin softly. 'Soon it will be clear how important you are, and how dependent the world is on you.'

'Tell us when you're ready,' Ben held her hands. 'And we will go.'

There was silence for a long time. Nothing but the rain pounding outside and the wind whistling away.

'I'm ready,' she said finally. 'Doesn't the curse worsen at night though?'

'I already told you,' Ozin grinned a little. 'It ain't gonna be nighttime where we're going.'

'It wouldn't be?'

'Watch and you'll see.'

Osen twisted the tap clockwise ten times, surprisingly no water came out at all. Then he knocked on the mirror while chanting a weird foreign language. The kids watched in curiosity as the mirror frame vibrated violently, its rim-rattling as the mirror broke into pieces. June screamed. The single light bulb in the room flickered rapidly as the front door swung open, and the furious wind blew at the curtains. Slowly, the remaining frame of the mirror opened like a trapdoor, pushing the sink over like a toy and revealing a giant oval-shaped wormhole that blazed blinding white light. The light bulb switched off as the portal illuminated the entire room continuously with white and cobalt sparks of matter. A large quantum tunnel gradually replaced the light-rimmed portal, held by a blue-black event horizon that constantly sucked in air. In the cabin, everything was vibrating uncontrollably as their feet left the ground and drifted upwards.

'Go through the portal now!' directed Ozin as he levitated towards the end of the tunnel in a swimming motion.

It was easier than they thought it would be. Perhaps it's because they were getting sucked in any way, which they did.

Their vision blurred as they entered the portal, multi-coloured rainbows shot from every direction as blue lightning channelled the borders of the dimensional door. Everything became still as a final flash of blue lightning sent them flying through the air, through the end of a long, eerie darkness.

Another blinding white flash or two later they found themselves back in the cabin. Except, not quite.

'Are we there?' asked June nervously.

'Yes,' announced Ozin excitedly. 'Go on, open the front door. Just like in the movies.'

June slowly twisted the door knob and gasped at what was outside.

They were on the summit of a lush green mountain sitting in the middle of many. In front of them, the sky was bright blue and the sun was gleaming on their faces. Looking beyond the mountains they saw the endless lush of green plains and river, flowing on until it was out of sight. The place looked like a dreamland of a small child. June found that her mood was lifted and she felt refreshed instead of sleepy. It was perfect.

'This is amazing.'

'How did you manage to find this place on behalf of god?'

'It came to us,' answered Ozin.

They walked down the summit via a cobblestone path, strolling through the forest. On a few occasions, June saw a type of bird she'd never seen before, hopping from branch to branch. The stone path seemed to be going down for miles without an end, zig-zagging through the thousand-year-old trees and finally receding to an opening of fields of grass. To their left was the start of a large coverage of forest, to their right was a river glowing slowly forwards, and across the river, they could just barely see the outlines of a small town that was surrounded by a hedge wall just about the height of Ben, with mediaeval style decorations and carved stones topped to finish.

It seemed like hours ago when they first started from the wooden cabin because the once high sun was beginning to set once again for them in the last 24 hours. June would have thought that the nychthemeron was different from dimensions, but Ben knew it from the start.

'Welcome,' said Ozin solemnly. 'To the Alpine Realm.'