A bright stunning light hurtled out of the portal, at least it did momentarily, for soon it was gone. Ash ran over to Rhett, his mouth still wide open from the shock.
Face to face with Rhett who was breathing quite hardly, he gave him a 'punch - pat' on his shoulder (A mix of a punch and then a pat).
"You're damn crazy m'lord!", Ash exclaimed. It came out as an insult but he didn't intend that way and Rhett too did not take offense.
Haicor was now approaching them now, in slow steps, her face in disbelief.
"Now we enter the portal", she said when finally near.
"And man!, if you know the kind of power you possess, you'll be so shocked. I mean, you're damn lucky!", Ash said.
Rhett simply looked at his face and smiled, looking at Haicor's face too, he pointed to the gleaming portal and said in a hoarse voice:
"Now we enter the damn portal!".
Ash and Haicor nodded in the affirmative and exchanged glances, blank ones by the way, on their lips smiles, smiles that soon would stress into a grin.
Suddenly the wind blew and a fusty wind followed it, swirling under their noses, carrying a peculiar surface, like it was bootlegged.
They, in unison, looked backwards, looking at their surroundings one more time, their smiles now turned to grins.
They returned their gazes to the portal, the edges scintillating with light. Peering through the portal, Rhett could see a bougainvillea. Perhaps it was a tree that looked like a bougainvillea?,he couldn't tell.
Finally, with deep, almost censorious breaths, they took a step forward. Rhett signalled for Haicor to first enter the portal and she instantly complied, leaping into it with ease. Ash knew he was next and without waiting for a signal by Rhett, he too leaped into the portal.
Now, Rhett remained and he gave out a smirk, looking at the sword of the god slayer on the ground far away, coupled with the body of the owner of the sword, his smirk widened.
Speaking to himself: "Well, who knows, perhaps I will slay them all!".
He leapt into the portal, with a certain flair that the blinding lights of the portal seemed to blur. He was in, into the portal and…
…Zilch.
Rhett blinked twice and then opened his eyes to behold a dense cacophony of trees. They were many and looking at them for quite long, he realized that he had been here before. He looked back and much to his expectations, saw that the portal was gone. Taking a step forward to look for his friends, a figure sprouted from the back of the trees.
"Boo!", Haicor said, her hands forward like a cat, as if to scratch his face.
Rhett wasn't scared, he instead gave out a short laugh in a low voice while Haicor giggled.
"Where's Ash?", Rhett asked.
Before Haicor could reply, Ash sprouted from the back of the trees and said in a loud deep, faked voice.
"Boo!".
Rhett reeled forward, Ash had scared him from behind and quite frankly, it worked alright.
Haicor giggled the more.
"You were scared, the mighty king of the dragon slayers!", she said.
Rhett quickly turned backwards and saw Ash, laughing like a hyena.
"Alright, alright", he said. "You scared me alright. That aside, let's continue on the work at hand".
"So we hit the trees right?", Ash asked.
"Yes", came the reply from Rhett. "But she said that we hit it with swords. Currently we have none".
The look on Rhett's face was worried and being silent, he pondered on what to use. Haicor suddenly broke the silence.
"I have a sword up my sleeves", she said with a cute wink. Reaching inside her cloth, she brought out a very small sword, almost like a dagger. It was in a brown sheath which was gorgeously decorated with flower patterns.
"All good!"She said, bringing out of its sheath and handing it to Rhett who smiled.
"You're a very useful companion!", Rhett said as he turned it around in his hands, a smile on his face, nodding his head in satisfaction.
"Quite silk!", he added. "What do you use it for?".
Haicor smiled. "I use it to make the beaks of my bird more blunt".
That made Ash laugh.
"You've had some really weird times", he said.
"It enables inner connection with their spirit, enabling them to be more stable and consistent in flight".
Rhett shrugged, looking at Haicor and then at the sword again.
"Cool I guess", he said.
Walking over to the tree, Rhett hit the little sword by the edges. He paused and waited for an action, even holding his breath and putting the hand he wasn't using to hold the sword on his lips in a 'sshh' sign to Ash and Haicor.
They waited for quite a while, perhaps a minute?, it felt less to Rhett while to Ash, it felt like he had even exceeded it, it felt like a damn hour!.
Rhett released his breath after what felt like quite a while and that seemed to conjure the wind to blow into his face. Biffs of the wind.
"It's not working", Haicor said in a light voice, one that sounded child-like and almost British.
"I mean, Dhamsel isn't here, she said we should hit our swords on the tree and we'll see here right away", Ash said and letting lose his hands in the air, in a shrug like position, he added:
"Where the hell is she now!".
Rhett sighed. "I don't know, maybe in her kingdom?Sweet crap!What do we do now?".
Haicor shrugged. "Perhaps luck has run out".
"Luck can not run out!", Rhett exclaimed fiercely. "Damn, we're so close to help and yet it's far".
Ash sighed and Haicor, looking at him, imitated the expression, shrugging also, her face almost a smile which she greatly avoided because of the situation at hand.
Then suddenly a figure jumps down from a tree and say in a female voice:
"Hey!".
It was Dhamsel!.