The Surface ~ Chapter Five

         Raph and Marcelo screamed as they fell through the cold air into the thick vegetation of a forest. Raph grabbed Marcelo by his arm and pulled him at his side. They smashed against a tree, breaking some of its branches, and fell even further, a bunch of bushes breaking their fall.

         “Ouch!” said Marcelo while rubbing his back.

         “That was so scary!” said Raph, shaking his head as if it could shake the scare off.

         “You can let go of my arm now, you know. You’re squeezing it too hard, it hurts,” said Marcelo to his friend, amused.

         “Oh, yeah, sorry,” apologized Raph as he let go of his friend’s arm. “We were lucky we didn’t fall from a higher place, or we would have died.”

“Lucky us…” They stood up, still rubbing their backs, and looked around at the place in which they were standing. It was all so exotic, so new.

         They had seen trees and plants before. Luccia had sections where people cultivated and grew trees for food and the central square itself had some as decoration. However, they had never seen a place with so much vegetation as this one. Trees were abundant, vines grew here and there, bushes were everywhere and grass and weeds covered most of the ground. It was all so green, so beautiful, so…unique. And the animals: rodents, insects and flying critters flying in the blue above. And they could feel a soft breeze, caressing their cheeks, touching their skin, bringing to them sweet aromas and relieving them from any preoccupation, and the immense ball of fire in the middle of the blue, heating their bodies. It was all so wonderful, so amazing and so incredible.

         “The surface…” said Raph slowly. Marcelo raised his gaze at the skies.

         “Yeah…” he said.

         Then, abruptly, Raph felt himself being shoved to the side, and saw Marcelo jumping to the opposite direction. They both fell to the ground several feet away as the place where they were just standing exploded. Raph hid behind some trees, and signaled Marcelo to run at his side. Marcelo cornered the site of the explosion and hid behind a tree beside his friend. The smoke cleared and they saw the barren land that the explosion left, every single thing, from trees to animals, disintegrated into nothing. Both friends looked at the mountain opening from where they had fallen moments before and saw a figure; the red-haired man. Trying to avoid any more clashes, they entered the dense forest in silence, hoping to blend in and lose their pursuer.



         Soon, the heat became unbearable. It was hard enough to traverse the undergrowth of the forest with all the creatures and the insects there, but the high temperature was really becoming the main obstacle. They walked for some time, searching for a place to rest but didn’t find anything. Finally, after walking for some hours, weary and sore, they saw some big temple, and someone walking by. They ran after the person, but Marcelo tripped with a tree’s uncovered root.

         “Ow!” groaned Marcelo softly, as he stood up with Raph’s help. Unfortunately, when they finally got out of the forest into the clearing where the temple was, the person was nowhere in sight.

         “Thank you!” Raph said, tired and irritated.

         “You welcome!” Marcelo said back.

         “Marcelo, we need to rest. We’ve been walking for hours, not counting all we walked and ran in the caves.”

         “Guess you’re right, we almost killed ourselves too.”

         “Let’s try getting inside that castle or whatever it is.”

         “Yeah…” concluded Marcelo.

         They went up the stairs to a beautiful silver door and pushed it, however the door didn’t budge. They tried again, pushing even harder, but the door remained still.

         “Look!” said Raph pointing out to Marcelo something moving in the forest.

         “Oh, no, no, no! How could he be able to track us in these jungle?” said Marcelo preoccupied, pushing hard against a door that might as well could be a wall.

         Then, unexpectedly, the door opened with a click, just in the moment where they stopped pushing against it. They looked at each other, and entered the shrine as fast as possible. The door closed behind them and once inside they sat side by side, leaning on an enormous pillar. Finally, they rested. After everything they’ve been through in the recent hours, this little respite was well deserved. There, they thought about everything that had happened in just a matter of hours. They got lost in the Upjoints, discovered a mad killer, witnessed a massacre, avoided being killed, fell down a mountain, avoided being killed again and traversed an unknown, dangerous jungle. Everything that had happened seemed unbelievable, especially the fact that they were no longer in the Void. They were in the surface now.





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         While walking the unruly ground, he felt sentimental. It had been so many years since he stepped out to the outside, he’d even forgot how harsh the environment could be. The red-haired man walked slowly through the forest, feeling the faint trace of his two next victims using the mysterious majia energy. After walking for several hours, he traced them to what appeared to be a temple. He felt them, but he also felt an enormous source of energy emanating from inside, so strong that gave him goosebumps. He shook in surprise.

         He had heard about this kind of places during his studies: Majia Magnos, places where the majia energy was vastly more concentrated in the air than in other places around it. Without a doubt, this temple was a powerful Majia Magno and he would investigate it after he dealt with the two rats.

         He climbed the stairs to the magnificent silver door, his coat dancing with each step, and checked it. He noticed traces of majia and pushed it using his energy. The door clicked and opened slowly. He entered a grand hall and walked a few steps, examining everything. His senses were blurred; the Majia Magno becoming the only source of energy he could feel and preventing him from pinpointing the two men’s position.

         “I know you are here!” he said, his powerful voice echoing in the empty hall of the shrine. “There’s no use in hiding.”

He looked around.

         “Have it your way!” he said grinning.

         He closed his eyes, taking as much majia energy to his body as he could.

         “I warned you…” he said smiling wide as he opened his eyes.

         “Release!” he screamed and all the energy he focused in his body spread around him, in the form of slashing gusts of wind. Everything on the wind’s path was slashed: the carpets, the walls, the chandeliers, the pillars and even the two boys hiding behind them.