Jack Gregson & the Forgotten Portal (7 page)

“Go on,” Rosie said, urging Jack to
enter.

Jack shrugged and walked through the
doorway. The walls were sandstone, the floor beneath him a grey
brick. As he entered he immediately felt a slight tugging sensation
on his body.

He walked further in and the tug became
stronger, something trying to drag him further down the tunnel into
the darkness. He started to struggle against it, but the more he
fought, the stronger it got. All of a sudden he was propelled
forward, an invisible force pulling him down the long straight
corridor.

Soon he was travelling fast, really fast. He
lifted his feet off the ground and began floating at an impossible
speed as the walls and floor vanished before him.

A ring of white light appeared around Jack
as a silhouette of a door appeared in the distance. He hurtled
towards it unable to slow himself down as he started to fear he
would hit something and be splattered all over the place. Just when
he started to scream for his life, it all stopped.

Jack was standing, the sudden sunlight in
this new place temporarily blinding him. He rubbed his eyes as his
vision started to clear and took in his surroundings.

He stood in a round clearing of short grass
in what appeared to be a forest. A once well-used path trailed out
before him, leading through the beautiful ancient trees that
surrounded the area. The air seemed to glow a brilliant yellow, as
the light sparkled off the damp leaves that were slowly drifting
down from the branches above.

Glancing back, Jack saw a rock wall
stretching up into the sky, a trickle of water flowing down its
rough surface. The open door from where he’d come was built into
the rock, the grey paving within leading back home. He turned again
and started down the path, wondering how long it had been since
another Gregson had walked it. The weeds and undergrowth pushing
through the trails hard soil made him think it had been many
years.

“Bloody hell!” David cried as he appeared at
the door next to Rosie. He was rubbing his eyes as he tried to
adjust to the light. “You think she might have warned us! Maybe
mentioned we’d be travelling a million miles an hour through some
sort of crazy vortex. That was mental!”

“Let’s do it again!” Rosie yelled.

Jack smiled at her as he made his way back.
“It was pretty fun, now that I know I’m still alive.”

“It’s a forest,” David said as he walked
down the path.

“I think Grandma called it a Grotto,
whatever that is,” said Rosie. “It’s beautiful.”

Jack agreed, it was truly the most beautiful
and peaceful place he’d ever been in. Nothing like the cold England
they had been standing in minutes earlier. The climate here was
warm and the air was fresh.

“Look at this!” David yelled from further
down the path. He had walked past the row of trees surrounding the
clearing. “It’s not a forest, we’re in a cave!”

Jack and Rosie rushed down the path after
him, a dense mixture of oak, vines and underbrush on both sides of
them. But after just ten metres it ended and they walked into a
large rocky Grotto, the sky above them a rich blue peaking through
the small holes and gaps in the rocky roof.

“Wow!” Rosie said. “It’s a massive
cavern.”

Jack walked around taking it all in. The
Grotto was massive, with large mossy rocks, worn pathways and old
overgrown plants continuing on as far as they could see. A small
freshwater stream trickled past them, starting at a crack in the
wall and trailing down a corridor out of sight. Within the rock
faces were more pathways leading off into their own miniature
forests embedded in the walls.

He walked to the closest one and continued
up the path, through the trees and into another clearing. Like the
one they had entered, a door was built into the rock face;
identical to the one they’d just walked through. He wondered where
this one led as he put his hand to its wooden surface. Back to
Earth? Another planet? The possibilities were endless and a feeling
of excitement started to build within him. We can go anywhere!
Travel anywhere just by walking through a door!

He grabbed the handle, but then suddenly
thought of his Grandmother and the mission they were on. His
excitement faded. Were they really going to leave this place so
quickly? Would their grandmother ever let them come back?

“Jack?” Rosie asked from the edge of the
trees. “We need the device you have, so we can call Anthrow.”

“I know,” he replied softly as he took his
hand away from the door and walked back towards her. “Where should
we do this?”

“Let’s go back to the main cavern. You know,
it would be quite easy to get lost in this place. These clearings
look exactly the same. I wonder how our family members used to find
their way,” Rosie said.

“Wasn’t Anthrow supposed to be some sort of
expert on them? Maybe there are subtle differences between each one
that we aren’t seeing.” Jack replied.

Rosie shrugged but didn’t reply as they
entered the cavern to find David looking through some trees. “There
are some weird animals in this place,” he said. “I swear I just saw
something that looked halfway between a puppy and a monkey. Truly,
it was walking on two legs, tail wagging and tongue hanging
out.”

“A Moppy?” said Jack.

“No, it was a Punkey!” Rosie countered.

“Seriously? I tell you about a mutant
animal, that probably wants to eat you, and you try to come up with
silly names for it?”

“I doubt something that looks like a puppy
would want to eat me David. I think it sounded cute.”

“Whatever little sister. Where’s the
thing?”

“I’ve got it,” said Jack as he pulled the
metallic cube from his pocket. He looked it over. The two domes
that needed to be pressed were on opposite sides of each other.

He placed his thumb on one and his index
finger on the other and looked at his two cousins. “We ready?”

“Punch it,” David said, sounding a little
nervous.

Jack was nervous too, not knowing what to
expect from Anthrow.

He took a deep breath and squeezed the cube,
the two domes pressing down like buttons.

It immediately went hot, as it began to glow
white in his hand. Soon it was too hot to hold and he let go,
rubbing his fingers. The cube remained floating in the air.

“It’s floating!” David said, once again
stating the obvious to his cousins.

The cube glowed as it started to rotate and
increase in size. Within seconds it was as large as a basketball
and spinning at an incredible speed.

Small sparks of lightning began to spit out
of it as the spinning caused a whoosh of wind blowing the three of
them back.

A portal appeared before them, a face
peering out at them in surprise. It rose into the air as it tilted
itself towards the earth. It began shaking violently as if trying
to dislodge something, until finally a man fell through, clumsily
landing on the ground in a heap before them. The portal instantly
disappeared and the cube shrunk down to its original size as it
dropped to the ground, landing on the man’s head with a solid
thud.

Rosie walked over to him lying on the
ground, rubbing his head. He was skinny, with short black hair and
a big strong chin. He wore brown trousers and a white shirt. A
large coat sat beside him as if he’d grabbed it while being pulled
through the portal.

“Um, Anthrow?” Rosie asked cautiously.

He looked at her and sighed, “Yes I’m
Anthrow. And considering I’ve just been pulled through a portal
without warning, right in the middle of my dinner I might add, I’m
going to assume you’re a Gregson.”

“Do…Does our family usually catch you at
inconvenient times?” Rosie asked confused.

“Is there ever a convenient time to be
yanked through a portal without warning?” he asked, amused by the
question.

“But we were told you gave us the cube, so
that we could contact you,” said Jack.

“Ha! Gave is a strong word. But no matter,
I’m here now.” he said standing up and dusting himself off.

He stood there and looked at the three of
them, a calculating look on his face. Finally he said, “Now tell me
Gregson’s, what could possibly be so important that you would risk
coming here?”

“What do you mean?” asked Jack. “What
risk?”

“What risk? Why the risk of losing your
head. You’re wanted men and women you Gregson’s. Considered
extremely dangerous and wanted dead or alive. Turning three of you
in would make a man very rich,” he said as he pulled a dagger from
a sheath tied to his waist. “So I ask you again, what brings you to
the Grotto?”

Jack looked from the knife to his cousins,
stunned. How were they going to get out of this?

Chapter
Seven

Run!

The Horde rolled along the uneven ground,
the black mist surrounding the edge of rock above the Grotto. A
thin tendril of smoke climbed up in to the sky, slowing growing out
until it resembled the black shadow of a man.

He watched the three children below that had
arrived through a portal. The plan had worked, he thought,
smiling.

Through the mist a thought came to him,
querying his progress. He began to report the news back to his
master when someone appeared in a flash of light, right in front of
the children.

He watched as they talked. All of a sudden
the man below pulled out a knife.

The Shadow Man chuckled as he sunk back into
the black smoke. Perhaps this stranger would do his task for him.
Either way, the Gregson heir would die today and his master’s plans
would start to be realised.

The black mist watched and waited.

***

Jack’s shoved his hand into his pocket and
grabbed the black orb his Grandmother had given him. He held it
high above his head, unsure of his next move.

“We were told you would help us, not hurt
us,” he said to Anthrow.

“What is that?”

“A weapon,” Jack replied, feeling a bit
foolish while trying to sound threatening. He had no idea what
would happen if he threw it on the ground.

“What sort of weapon?” Anthrow pushed. He
didn’t seem concerned at all as he stood before them, knife still
in hand.

Jack looked around. His Grandmother had told
him to throw the orb and run, but right now they were trapped. A
rock face behind them, a man with a knife in front. There wasn’t
anyway to run.

His cousins also had no idea what he was
holding, and he didn’t want to risk something happening to them as
well.

He sighed, and replied “A pixie. A crazy
pixie orb.”

Anthrow dropped his knife to the ground and
put his hands up showing them he was no longer a threat.

“Crazy pixie. You mean Chaos Pixie don’t
you?”

“That’s right, Chaos Pixie.”

“That crazy woman gave you a Chaos Pixie?”
Anthrow said as he gave a nervous laugh. “Look let’s just calm
down. I am a friend of the Gregson’s. Maybe not the evil crazy
ones, but any who know Marion Gregson…”

“Marion is our Grandmother,” Rosie said.

“There you go! I’m here to help you.”

“Then why did you threaten us?” David
demanded. “Jack, get ready to throw that Chaos Pixie Orb right at
his face.”

“No! Marion - your grandmother told you to
contact me, so there must be a message! Let me read it. She trusts
me, let me prove to you I can be trusted.”

Jack didn’t lower his arm but looked over to
Rosie and nodded as she pulled her backpack off. They had decided
to put the note between the pages of the Book so it didn’t get
crumpled.

“Here,” Rosie said as she passed it to
Anthrow, staying as far away from him as possible.

He grabbed it, broke the seal their
Grandmother had placed on it and started reading.

David meanwhile took the opportunity to
crouch down and grab the dropped knife from the ground.

Anthrow’s eyes widened as he read further
down the page. “This is bad.” Looking up at Jack he asked, “Do you
know what this says?”

“That we are calling in your debt, we need
to recover something that was stolen from us,” replied Jack.
“Apparently you’re skilled at this sort of thing.” He kept his
response vague, not knowing what his Grandmother had written and
not yet trusting Anthrow.

“Yes, but do you know who would have
organised the theft of that emerald?”

“Theorden?” David guessed.

“Ha! You say the name so casually. Yes
Theorden!” said Anthrow as he started to pace. “What was Marion
thinking, sending children on a task like this. Theorden!”

“I was also supposed to give you this,” Jack
said, ignoring what he had said as he pulled the red stone necklace
from his pouch and threw it to him. “The person who stole the
emerald tried to hide the theft with that enchanted necklace. It’s
a clue. Grandma said few could have crafted a stone such as this.
If you can find out who made it, we’ll be able to track the
thief.”

Anthrow caught the stone and ran his fingers
over it. He then closed his eyes and whispered something Jack
couldn’t hear as if trying to determine the stones power.

After a minute he opened his eyes and said,
“She’s right, there are only a few people with the skills required
to craft something like this. Okay! I will help you track down the
origin of this stone, but that is all. Now, I have some
conditions.”

“Conditions?” asked Jack.

“Yes conditions. Firstly, please put away
that orb. If you accidently drop that…Just put it away. Secondly my
debt is repaid in full. Full! I get that infernal cube back and I
can finally stop worrying about a Gregson pulling me back into
their crazy shenanigans. You know your family is quite nuts. Even
the nice ones.”

“Anything else?” Jack asked still holding
the orb, not ready to trust Anthrow.

“No that’s it, we best get started. I’d let
to get back home as soon as possible. I did actually have plans
this evening you know.”