Episode 28
Sharp stumbled through the portal entrance with his arms full of maroons. A moment later the portal shifted to a dark landscape covered in a hard rain which came through the portal and wet the lab’s floor. It blew in their faces and covered them with cold spray. Sharp could feel the temperature in the lab start to drop. His virtua display gave him a reading of 47°F in the harsh terrain on the otherside of the door. Inside the lab, the temperature had already dropped five degrees. When a wet object slapped Sharp across the face, he motioned for Cattleya to follow him behind the wormbox.
Sharp couldn’t make out what the objects were in the stark, monochromatic red lighting, but he suspected they were sticks and clumps of leaves. His face still stung from the object that had hit him. He had already scraped it from his face, but in the emergency lighting he couldn’t see much more than a wet glop of plant matter. As the temperature in the lab continued to drop, more clumps of leaves were being driven into the room along with sheets and sheets of water.
Suddenly, a dark, long shape launched over him and slammed into the metal door across from the portal. The dent that it left in the door alarmed Sharp.
If that’s a log, then we don’t just have a winter storm on the other side of the portal. We’ve got a hurricane.
“Wouldn’t it be nice to shut the door on inclement weather?” Cattleya snapped at him.
“I tried that already, princess! It didn’t work!”
“If you are going to speak formally, use my proper title, you impudent bounder!” Cattleya’s teeth were beginning to chatter.
“Oh, I wasn’t speaking formally, my Lady. When we use “princess” sarcastically, it’s spoken with the utmost contempt and disrespect.”
“Y…you cad!”
A cough could be heard over the intercom even through the pandemonium of the hurricane.
“Guys, what are you doing?” Isabelle’s voice projected loudly into the room.
“STAYING DRY!” both Sharp and Cattleya shouted simultaneously. They stared at each other in surprise.
“I swear, you’re worse than cats and dogs,” she muttered under her breath, but it was picked up by the mic.
“More like cows and monkeys,” another voice piped up.
“Julian, you’re not helping,” Isabelle replied. “Sharp, please remember that you are an employee of Bloop, Inc. I expect you to conduct yourself professionally while you are in my department.”
“Conduct myself professionally, right…” Sharp muttered to himself. “Am I getting overtime?” he shouted back. “I’ll conduct myself like a prince if I’m getting paid.” Sharp’s retort caused a clamor of voices in the observation room. He wasn’t the only person hoping to be on the clock still.
Cattleya snorted, then opened her mouth to reply, but their argument was interrupted by the power being restored. All lights came online in the lab and the observation room. Machinery around the room began to boot up, and cheers could be heard over the intercom even above the roar of the storm. The contrast from dim red lights to the over-illumination of modern interiors caused Sharp pain as his eyes struggled to adjust. He recalled Cattleya’s reflective eyes and glanced at her to see how she was handling the brightness.
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
Although her eyes were squinting in pain, he was startled by how lovely she still was. He obviously recognized her beauty before, even in the dim lighting, but this was on a different level. Teal-colored, doe-like eyes with large lashes, good cheekbones, and full lips… He looked away before she noticed that he was gawking. Her face was exotic as he imagined a minotaur’s face might be, but he didn’t expect that he’d find it attractive. She had black-tipped, white horns and cow ears, for crying out loud, he told himself, though the pink inside her ears was. No, he wouldn’t admit it that she was cute. The thought was ridiculous, but then he looked back and noticed how her iridescent hair perfectly matched her eyes. He could also see that her face, neck, and hands were covered in short, white fur.
If she had a brown patch over one of her eyes, she’d be irresistible.
Sharp shook his head to clear his thoughts.
“You’re Japanese!” Her exclamation cleared his thoughts the rest of the way.
“And you’re a minotaur. I thought we went over this already,” Sharp replied.
“No, I mean…never mind what I meant. I didn’t mean to stare. It’s just that my kingdom has not encountered a Japanese traveler in some time. To us, you’re a mythological creature.”
“Wut? You’re the mythological creature!”
Cattleya shook her head, then asked, “Do all Japanese have a shock of white hair as you do?” She lifted her hand to touch his hair, but then stopped herself as a new sound filled the room. From the portal a howling could be heard.
“Oh, great. Now what?”
One lone howl continued. It sounded as if an elephant was mimicking a wolf. Or perhaps it was a very, very large wolf.
Sharp stood up into the rain and held his hand in front of his face as a shield. It would do little against another one of those projectile logs, but it did allow him to examine the portal.
His AR display still gave him environmental stats, but he didn’t need his bots to see the problem. The light from their room broadcast like a beacon into the dark world beyond. The landscape shapes couldn’t be seen anymore because the sheets of rain caught the light and obscured his vision, but whatever was out there could see them just fine. A very large whatever.
“Cattleya! Quick! I need your cricket bat. Quickly! Let’s go!” Sharp grabbed her by the arm roughly and pulled her to her feet. He dragged her towards her pile of belongings.
“Ow!”
“Hurry!”
“Sharp, what do you see? Our system isn’t up and running yet.” Isabelle’s voice was louder
“Yeah, maybe you should do your job!” Syd shouted helpfully.
Sharp ignored both of them and helped Cattleya along. He could see her bat poking out from a pile of dresses and freed it with one hand while pushing Cattleya towards the resource closet with the other.
“Get inside! Something’s coming!”
Cattleya’s eyes opened in panic and darted towards the portal opening. The howling was getting louder. Sharp opened the door and ungently guided her inside.
“But…”
“Hey, think of it as shutting the door on inclement weather,” Sharp said with a sardonic smile.
Her mouth opened in surprise at his remark, those teal eyes looking at him less with panic and more with wonder, but he shut the door and turned away.
Back at the portal, he braced himself for the new guest, Cattleya’s long cricket bat firmly in his grip, his legs spaced for combat.
“What are you going to do?” shouted Kyle over the intercom.
“I dunno. Hit it?”
“Hit what?!” shouted Isabelle.
At that moment, the big whatever slammed into the portal. Sharp saw black green, glistening skin and teeth. Lots and lots of teeth. It was too large to fit through the door, but it reached for him with its appendages—large arms with two elbows and tentacles for fingers.
Sharp knocked them away repeatedly, keeping out of their reach. He thought he had a handle on things until the beast started to grab at him with its long, bright orange tongue.
“A prehensile tongue? Aren’t you a beauty!”
He shouted running commentary in-between loud wet sounds as he smacked the tongue back. He was careful to hit the sides so that it wouldn’t curl around his bat and disarm him. The timer tacked to the door in his virtua display read “30:42”.
“We’re almost at the max window time!” Sharp shouted out to his co-workers in the observation lab.
“Be careful!” shouted Isabelle.
“Will you write me up for violence in the workplace?” he teased.
“Idiot!”
“Well, at least it’s blocking out the rain!” he shouted back, but he was too cocky. The tongue forced him to dodge to the left right into the grip of an arm. It fastened its tentacles around his leg and dragged him towards its open maw.