James turned away from Oakleaf Gilderwood and began his ascent. The route was not difficult but always trended upwards. James estimated that he had climbed about 2000 vertical feet by the time that light other than the glow of the “Goblins Gold” became noticeable. It was a welcome sight to see natural sunlight after all that time in the depths, and James stepped out of a fissure onto a scree slope of what he hoped was his route home. James’s sight took a few moments to adjust to the new conditions and by the time his eyes worked properly James was greeted with a horrific sight. As far as he could see fearsome Chaotic beasts roamed the jungle-like valley below him. Like a bizarre scene from a horror version of “Jurassic Park”, there were giant beasts, all visibly tainted by Chaos, striding like dinosaurs through the trees. The blue moon Rangnar hung prominently above, in the daytime sky.
“What were Sir Gilderwood’s instructions?” James recalled, “No matter what you see or experience, stay strong and focus your efforts towards reaching the pass.”
“OK. Well, this must have been what he meant. Where is that pass anyway?” James cupped his hands above his eyes to shield himself from the glare, and looked across the valley. Sure enough, between the peaks there was a promising gap. That was his objective.
James scanned for a possible route and was pleased to see a rudimentary pathway worn into the slope of sharp gravel. Someone or something else had travelled this way before. The trail appeared to lead along the slope with minimal loss of elevation around the head of the valley in the direction of the mountain pass. Since none of the crazy beasts of the jungle seemed to be climbing up the scree slope James considered the trail to be doubly desirable. Gilderwood told him to ignore anything he saw, but that would be more easily accomplished without the need to walk amongst the monsters.
James began his traverse estimating that the distance to the pass couldn’t be more than a half mile or so. After about 100 yards a sharp change in wind direction caused him to look out over the valley floor. The blue orb of Ragnar remained in the sky but the entire scene below had changed radically!
The jungle was gone, replaced by a desert landscape. Scrubby bush patches dotted the sand, along with giant cacti and fanciful succulents. James noticed movement in the sand and an eruption of dust and debris. A vastly large worm emerged, extending itself first to the left then to the right, before burrowing back into the sand and slithering off towards the end of the valley floor. A disturbed trench was left in the wake of the giant worm beast.
Another few minutes of walking on the trail brought a sudden darkening to the sky. The sun had set in an instant, revealing a blue black crystal clear sky filled with bright stars. But wait! Many of those ‘stars’ were moving, no swooping back and forth! Circling each other and then emitting pulses of light. Then another and another! An explosion followed. It was a space battle, going on above the mountain!
Still James persevered. These sights were astonishing and part of him wanted to sit back and enjoy the show. Heck, a piece of him wanted to join in and take part in these incredible scenes, but it was time to get home. Past time to get home. He just had to get to that mountain pass.
Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.
Another hundred paces and another change of scenery. All at once the sun returned to the sky, but this time Ragnar was nowhere to be seen. However, a large group of four engined propeller planes lumbered across the sky above the valley bottom, which was now home to a small town. Suddenly several squadrons of single engine fighters swooped down from the direction of the sun, carving trails directly through the middle of the bomber squadrons. Flash! One bomber exploded, then another. It took a minute for the sounds of the explosions to reach James. By that time he was walking again.
A hundred yards further and half way to his objective the scene shifted once more. A huge football stadium filled the valley, full to the brim with cheering crowds. Down on the field James could just make out the players on the field. Monstrous characters, giants, trolls, beasts and other creatures. One looked like an animated tree!
More tramping, and James realised with relief that his trail continued all the way over to the mountain pass. There was another gust of wind, this time cool and moist. James now looked out on to the ocean! As far as his eyes could see James observed endless rolling waves! On those waves were strange sailing ships, and others powered by steam with dirty smoke stacks belching black soot. The sailing ships, with their brightly colored banners and flags had formed a line beside the group of steam powered vessels. Puffs of smoke by the hundreds shot out the sides of the wooden sailing ships. Moments later: Booooom!!!!!! Booommmm!!!! Boommmm!!!!! Rolled over James like a peal of thunder. Impacts registered on the metal steam ships.
James soldiered on, averting his gaze from the ocean below him. “I’m glad that I didn’t try to walk across the bottom of the valley,” commented James. He continued walking. James was close now.
Another change. The valley had reappeared. Below him a ruined castle surrounded by an empty moat dominated the landscape. A dirt road wound up the valley leading to the castle entrance. While he watched a group of adventurers on foot walked up to the rubble of the castle poking and prodding. Obviously investigating. Two appeared to be large fighting men in chainmail. Another looked clerical in nature and two more bore staffs and wore robes. A halfling sized being accompanied the humans. After a few minutes investigating the group seemed to find an entrance to the subterranean remains of the castle and they all encouraged and assisted the halfling to wriggle down into the opening. Perhaps he was their scout?
Just 50 yards to go. Fifty more steps. James was starting to get almost enough elevation to see what was on the other side of the pass. What would he see? James took one last look back into the valley.
Pyramids! Everywhere pyramids. The valley now appeared tropical in climate. A lush stream flowed through the middle with rich looking farms on its banks. The water flowed into a settled area dominated by stepped pyramids constructed of stone. The surrounding habitations seemed complex and densely inhabited. Date palms, rice paddies and banana plantations were all visible.
In the center of the city a new pyramid was being built. The huge stones were obviously being obtained from a quarry on the far side of the valley, from just below where James had entered this strange land. Very odd disc-like craft were hovering over the freshly cut stones. Just then one rose into the air with what must have been a twenty ton rectangular block hanging below the silver disc. Carefully the craft made its way across the floor of the valley to the construction site and with the guidance of men on the ground placed the stone into its assigned place.
“I wonder if that’s how they did it?” commented James.
“Enough of this,” said James. It is time to find out what is on the other side of this mountain!”
With that he turned away from the bizarre valley and took the final few steps over the top of the pass, now able to finally see the other side. What was there?
“Ooops’” he exclaimed as he tripped on a metal bar, scraping his knee.
James dusted himself off, looking out over the fog enshrouded landscape unsure as to what to make of it. Disappointed he looked down and realised that he had tripped over a steel train rail. It was a set of train tracks. James was kneeling on a railroad tie!
“How did that happen?” wondered James. "What are train tracks doing up here in the mountains?”