Knights of the Hollow Moon: Chapter 3 – Some Wicked Dream?

Arriving on the other side, I crash-landed onto wooden floorboards before rolling to a stop beside a wooden desk. My head would have burst open like a watermelon if it wasn’t for my shoulder which took the brunt of the blow.

“Argh, what an idiot, that fucking hurt!” I cursed that weird, robed guy.

It appeared I had landed in a room somewhere. A fire raged in a hearth nearby, providing most of the light in the room. There were a few candles in little holders dotted around the room, but compared to the fireplace they did little.

On either side of the fireplace, there were two weapon racks where polearms and spears had been carefully placed. A large thick cloth was hung between them with a symbol that represented two crescent moons joining together to form a circle in the middle where a sword rested within a heater-shaped shield.

Having been interested in medieval history and studying it as a hobby I knew that was a sigil or coat of arms like those that were used during the Crusades during the Middle Ages.

The final source of light in the room reflected its blue light off the white parts of the cloth. I looked back to see the portal still existed, expelling that blue aura the same way a glowstick would. The reflections from its light were enough for me to notice the architecture of the walls which were constructed from large stones and thick aggregate-filled mortar like the old castles of England.

“It’s great to see that you made it here in one piece… isn’t Blue supposed to be joining us?” Another mature man’s voice spoke from behind the desk.

Who the hell is Blue? And what is it with everyone telling me that I made it here in one piece?

I couldn’t see who was speaking to me, so I pushed myself up whilst still rubbing my hurting shoulder, and noticed it was another old guy sitting in a nicely carved wooden seat. The thing that stood out the most to me was that he was wearing a full set of knight’s armor, minus the helmet which rested upon the edge of the desk.

He kept giving me a strange look while holding a thick cream-colored piece of what looked like paper. His surcoat appeared to have the same coat of arms as the banner above the hearth and it seemed like he was in the middle of something important.

“Are you hard of hearing, lad?” the knight asked.

He seemed to be getting rather agitated from my lack of response from the redness that began to fill his face. I shook my head to say no and was about to respond when I was interrupted by another whooshing sound from the portal.

A pair of feet thudded on the wooden floor as I turned to see that the mysterious guy was standing there.

“There you are, Blue,” the knight said. “It appears the lad is mute, tell me, how is he to be of use to us?”

It suddenly hit me that the robed guy was indeed Blue. It began to make sense now, after all his eyes were blue not to mention the glow of the magic he used.

“There appears to be a problem… he’s not the person we were expecting,” Blue grumbled.

“What? How can this be?” the knight asked in shock. It looked as if his master plan had been ruined.

“Clearly, he used the artifact to get here.” Blue shrugged.

The knight facepalmed and began to fume like a kettle of water. “Lad, do you have any idea what you have done? Tell me, who sent you here?” he asked angrily.

What! Even I don’t know how I got here!

My blood began to boil, and I became almost breathless with agitation. I hated being blamed for things I hadn’t done, and this situation was no different. Ever since waking up, these strange people had done nothing but talk like they were acting out some Shakespeare play.

“Seriously?” I blurted out, “The two of you are here cosplaying some medieval fantasy movie, dragging me through portals, and now telling me it’s all my fault. That's enough of the bullshit now, what do you people want with me?”

The two of them stared at me as if I had tainted their high lord ego. The knight guy’s eyes looked as if they were about to pop out of their sockets, his face became crimson, and he let out a hound’s growl.

It had become clear to me that the façade they had going on wasn’t going to end anytime soon and I started to, once again, question the reality of the situation. I still felt whatever drugs were in that red smoke it induced some ultra-realistic dream. I had seen videos on the internet about some people even having lived entirely different lives whilst high as fuck.

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“This has to be some stupid dream,” I mumbled whilst slapping my head. “The two of you are not real, none of this is real… it’s all a drug-fueled dream.” I then slapped my head a few more times hoping it was wake me up back in the real world.

It seemed like that was the last straw for the knight guy, he scoffed whilst getting up from his seat and without warning, punched me in the gut with all his might. It didn’t help that he was wearing steel gauntlets, the edges dug into my stomach with the impact of a sledgehammer.

The air from my lungs had been forced out as a sharp pain erupted across the entirety of my belly. I was knocked back a few feet, hit the wooden floorboards, and came to a stop at the foot of the portal.

My stomach felt like it had been struck by a cannonball that had been fired at point black range. I curled into a fetal position and gagged for air before a metallic taste filled my mouth.

What an asshole, why’d you do that?

Blue began to laugh as if he found the whole thing to be entertaining.

The knight thudded his feet towards me and kneeled beside me, “If this was a dream like you just said then you have woken up by now, is that not so?” the knight asked. He then turned to Blue and asked, “Is this a dream?”

Blue glanced at the knight, “Not as far as I know… don’t you think that was a little overreaction?”

Overreaction? I feel like I’m about to die!

“It wasn’t that hard, look on the bright side, he won't be acting like an imbecile anymore.” The knight chuckled.

“Tell me, how can someone act when they are dead? Killing him like that isn’t the solution to the problem we have here.”

The knight shrugged. “Then what is?”

“There is no solution like I have explained to you many times, my magic can only get us so far now that a large chunk of it is being tampered with, and the artifact he used”- he pointed at me – “can only be used once before it becomes useless.”

“I’m aware of that, you don’t need to keep repeating yourself… I assume that also means the other powers the artifacts are said to grant the users must be within him?”

“Of course. I don’t know exactly what powers he absorbed, and he didn’t seem to know what he was doing when I found him. My guess is as good as yours at this point. He’s all you’ve got for now, so make sure you take care of him.”

The knight let out a giant sigh of frustration, “Understood, it won't happen again. So, it seems we must convince him to help us then.”

Blue chuckled again, “That’s your problem, I did my part which was to bring him here, the rest is up to you… although I doubt, he will be willing to cooperate since he is dying.”

The knight turned to face me, “Get up already, my grandson would have taken ten of those before going down. You earthlings have become weak… not strong warriors like we were when we had come here.”

Ten hits like that? Is he made of reinforced concrete or something?

My stomach burned as if the gates of hell had been opened there, the only reason I could think of why that was happening was that my stomach must have ruptured during the impact and leaked its acid everywhere. My organs were sizzling, the pain was getting worse each time I moved a little, and it felt like a chronic case of heartburn.

Fuck my life! There’s no chance I’m getting out of this one alive!

Blue huffed, “Don’t forget your origins Grand Marshall Le’Vieux, your people were weak and hungry when I found them on those sinking ships. I brought you here and gave you the seeds of power… I’ll spare you the history lesson. Just don’t forget your purpose here and why you were spared.”

Grand Marshall? Wait… that’s a high-level templar rank.

The thought was quickly pushed away as I squealed like a mouse. My vision had become almost dead with a bright flashing light beginning to appear along with memories of my life… it was as if my life was flashing before my eyes.

Fuck! I’m going to die.

The knight seemed like he was simmering down from his ego trip. “Forgive me, lad, I believe I might have gotten carried away there,” he grumbled while looking at me.

Blue walked towards me. “You’re lucky my magic can heal him. I doubt your apothecaries will be able to create a healing potion in time.”

He pointed the palm of his hand toward me when the same blue treads that had created the portal emerged. They wrapped around my entire body like a cocoon when a tingling sensation began to reverberate everywhere. My organs were pushed back into place and the acid that was burning at them had been recalled back into the recesses of my stomach. It was like I had taken a healing potion from a fantasy video game.

Phew, that was a close call!

“Just don’t think I’ll be doing this again, from here on out you’ll be on your own… so, don’t die, I won't be able to bring you back.” Blue stated before turning to the knight, “The two of you need to talk. Make it quick, I don’t have all day to be wasting around here.”

I pushed myself off the floor and gave the knight a dirty look, even though he was stronger than me he didn’t have the right to punch the shit out of me like that.

A sigh of relief left my lungs as I turned to Blue, “Thanks for that, I thought I was going to die.”

Blue just stood there without a response.

The knight cleared his throat, “Listen carefully, as you heard there is no way back for you. So, you need to decide very carefully what you want to do from this point onwards. You can be left where we found and fend for yourself, or you can help us both with something far greater than you could ever imagine, the choice is yours and we won't force your decision.”

Sure thing, I’ll just offer myself up for you, asshole! I thought. Now, I could have just gone with the first option, but I wasn’t sure what kind of dangers were lurking around where Blue had found me. I wasn’t exactly a fan of the knight after the sucker punch to the gut, however, I knew it would be my best option for long-term survival.

“If I am to cooperate with the two of you, I need your word you’ll help me get back home, oh, and I’ll also need the details of what you need my help for,” I stated.

Le’Vieux turned to Blue, “Can you keep the portal open for a while longer? It’s better if we go through the portal and I explain things to him there.” He then motioned for me to step through the portal. “Oh, and where exactly is the portal on the other side?”

“It’s just before the bridge to Meso,” Blue said pointing at the portal. “Don’t take an epoch… I have other things to do than wait around here.”

I barely caught the last part of what Blue said before the whooshing sound emerged and the freezing feeling bit my skin.