When we stumbled through the portal on the other side, Avrae was screaming like a big baby. And I would have laughed if not for my fear of him turning me into a pile of ash.
'It's gone.' Violet shrieked, dragging her winter coat out of her bag. She'd barely put the thing on before zipping it up to the top.
She'd been referring to the portal, and I couldn't see any hint of distorted space-time either, nor any sign of a bridge. There would be no turning back now, even if we wanted to.
'It's pretty dark here, isn't it?'
Violet pointed at the sky. 'Because of that.' It seemed the sun was undergoing a total eclipse and looked to have caused everything around us to die. The landscape was a barren wasteland, with miles of rock covered by patches of red sand. The air was even a little thinner than we were used to, but we could still breathe.
'Hey!' Asher yelled.
The Protectors took off abruptly, stopping every few feet as the occasional cracks in the scorched ground bellowed out plumes of yellow steam. The only thing that would draw their attention like this was magic. And this substance looked much like what would be left behind following the opening of a portal.
Being as intuitive as she was, Violet was the first to understand what was happening here. 'Garland warned us, Jake. He told us that some realms might have been annihilated after what Professor Melia had done.'
I couldn't fault her reasoning. 'We got lucky this time, then.'
Asher sighed. 'And we'll have to do it again while hoping for the best.'
'Exactly.'
'They're getting away!' Violet complained, making a futile attempt to chase after the Protectors. We'd assumed they'd stay closeby, but we were wrong.
'We can't catch them; we need another plan.'
I looked at Avrae; he didn't seem to have a care in the world as he stood clawing away at the red soil. 'I've got a plan, Asher, but you're not going to like it.'
'This is a terrible plan!' Violet screamed as she climbed onto the dragon's back last. He wasn't happy about it, and it did take a few more false promises of there being food elsewhere. It was looking less likely that I'd be able to deliver on them, though.
'Avrae, fly lower.' I choked. The air was growing thinner the higher we climbed, and we'd barely left the surface.
'Can anybody see them?' Violet asked.
'I can't see a damn thing.' And neither could Avrae, it seemed. Either the atmosphere had shrunk to nothing but a wafer-thin blanket around Jasper's realm, or he had built it this way on purpose.
'My eyes!' Violet shrieked. The air was rife with something black and corrosive, and the dragon was taking us right through it. Then specks of acidic rain began pelting against us as we flew, and my skin started stinging wherever I couldn't reach to wipe clean. Even Avrae was shuddering under the menacing barrage.
I pulled the hood over my head. 'Everyone, cover-up.'
'I can't!' Avrae groaned.
These specks were growing in size the further we travelled, gradually forming into giant black blobs that seemed to be sticking together and blocking any means of escape.
'Dive.' Avrae did his best to listen to me, but by now, his feet were scraping off the ground. Whatever this stuff was, it seemed to go on forever. 'Damn, this is too much; turn back.'
Avrae didn't need convincing as he banked sharply, almost throwing us off in the process. I should have gotten used to his wreckless flying by now, but who could.
I tilted my head to the side so Violet and Asher could hear me. 'Be on the lookout for any signs... Of well, anything.'
As the air started to clear, Avrae piled on more speed. This time we would try and travel around the strange phenomenon; it wasn't like we could fly up and over as one would do with a storm. The realm's fragile atmosphere made sure of that.
We must have been flitting around in circles because everything seemed to look the same; at least, I thought it did until I felt Asher tap my arm.
'What's that over there?' He asked, pointing at the peculiar structure in the distance.
I grinned with relief; any place would be better than this.
The building looked remarkably new, with towering walls of glistening metal and a roof made up of what appeared to be a vast array of solar panels. As we drew closer, we could see a pair of colossal white swinging gates. They looked to be made from sturdy metal, and they were wide open, revealing a beautiful garden inside. This perfect circular paradise was teeming with all forms of life, from small plants to large animals.
I could already feel Avrae gasping as the excitement took hold. 'Thank you, Jayk. Thank you!' Then he started juddering in an attempt to throw us off. The dragon loved doing that.
As soon as he'd lost his cargo (us puny humans), he charged straight for what we had to assume was the only patch of green on this entire world. Though a dozen feet short of his target, Avrae seemed to recoil as his hefty body ploughed into something invisible, and he collapsed to the ground unconscious.
'There's magic here.' Violet marvelled, running up to take a closer look.
Asher reached out to touch it, not having learned from Avrae's mistake. 'So this is how the place has survived.'
'Are you insane?!' Violet screamed, pushing him back.
'What? We need to get inside, don't we?'
She shook her head. 'Did you not just see what happened to the dragon? Look at him.'
Asher flushed red while cursing under his breath, and Violet suddenly found herself having to swallow her words.
Everywhere we looked, the invisible curtain of this place seemed to roll back, and what was once hidden finally revealed its true identity to us. Instead of a gate, I found myself staring at a high stone wall, one that had been poorly built, using crude slabs. The garden was still there, though. I could catch glimpses of it through the tiny cracks between each lump of stone.
'Whoever created this did so in a hurry, and they knew their stuff,' Violet must have caught my blank expression. 'Mirage magic, its simple to perform, but as we discovered here, it seems to revert to its original state upon contact with a living being.'
A low-pitched groan caught my attention, and I couldn't help but look back at Avrae and wince. The dragon's hind legs were trembling as he struggled to stand up, then he sighed and collapsed on his belly. 'Can we get inside yet, Jayk?'
I smiled while looking straight at Violet. 'How about it?'
'I'm not able to pull magic tricks out of a hat, you know.'
I chuckled. 'Come on; we need to find out how everything here is thriving when the rest of the world seems to be either dead or dying.'
Violet nodded. 'It is inconsistent.'
Asher stepped closer to the wall, narrowing his eyes in concentration. 'We just need to climb over it, right?'
Violet didn't answer as she began to scrutinise each stone in turn until she stopped and bent down to touch a fiery-red inscription. 'There's something carved here.'
As soon as her fingers grazed over the strange lettering, I could hear the loud ringing of bells in the distance. Someone knew that we were here. And suddenly, the ground beneath our feet gave way, and we found ourselves falling into darkness.