It's heavy. Eiden tried to move. So heavy. Something is on him. His head is aching. Where is he? What happened? Eiden tried to lessen the pain with his magic to think clearly. Something on him was moving. He grunted and pushed the 'heavy something'. Being suffocated while his brain was stabbed by a hot knife was not Eiden's favorite way to die.

The air smelled foul. Like..like death. Shadow dimension. Eiden pushed the heavy thing on him, scrambled to sit up, and tried to open his eyes. Pain was slowly reducing with his calming magic, and he blinked, trying to see in dim light. He heard a groan.

Clade..Cisaa..Noo. Not his friends. They got out. Attack. The guards. The cave. They were in the cave, dimly lit by the torches they left which were almost burned out. There were bodies strewn around him. The groan was coming from the nearest one, Eiden looked closely. Ah. Evan.

Eiden's first thought was to get up and teleport the hell away from everyone. On second thought, he realized he was not going to get up, not until his legs decided they could function. Knowing at least how much energy it took, after the first trip through the portal, he could relax as Evan was not going to attack him for a while. He drank a few gulps of foul-tasting water from his bottle. There were four people including Evan for their team and then him, the opposite team.

Evan groaned and turned around to his back. Eiden was in his line of sight. He took a deep breath and got ready to defend if Evan attacked. His strength slowly returned. But, slower than last time, probably because he was spent after trying to hold onto the shield to close the portal. And then Evan the ignorant sand demon happened.

Evan blinked a few times, and Eiden watched as he tried to guess where this place was. During his observation inquiry, he caught Eiden sitting on the ground.

"What?" his voice came as a raspy croak.

"You really had to break my shield, right?" Eiden wanted to beat the stupidity out of Evan with his bare hands. Evan struggled to get up. Good luck Eiden waited. Finally, realizing it was not that easy, he slowly sat up.

"Where's this place?" Evan asked, trying to wake the person closest to him.

"A cave in a dark pocket dimension. Made to imprison dark creatures called shadows." Eiden watched Evan shake the guard.

"Don't. Let them wake up when they recover. The portal zaps power and strength," he said with a sigh. His legs were feeling better. But, he didn't trust that he was strong enough to attempt teleportation. Teleport where? He was not sure the cove in the other land was safe, with no one to stand guard.

Besides, this place was purified and still contained wards. But, what's now? How can he go home? He sadly looked at the empty mat he was sitting on. All the runic sequences for the portals they used were specially written for one-time use.

The magic would consume the substance, completely removing traces of its existence after activating it and leave an empty mat behind, thus ensuring valuable runic details wouldn't fall into the wrong hands.

Eiden thought it was a brilliant technique. Now, he wasn't very sure. Hey. At least you got a mat. A little voice in his head said.

"Eiden," he was startled and looked at Evan.

"How do you know?" Evan asked.

"Know what?" Eiden was confused. Shadow dimension?

"This place?" Evan gestured around.

"My parents were trapped and were staying here. I came to rescue them. There are wards outside at the entrance. But, I'm not sure whether they work or not." Eiden said, watching a guard whimper and move. They would wake up soon, and he was getting a bit scared now.

"Why not sure?" Evan moved to the guard to check his pulse and breathing. Eiden didn't attempt to go close to anyone

"Father was injured. His front was torn. Didn't get to ask what happened."

Eiden moved back as another guard started to show signs of waking up. Luckily Eiden kept his mailshirt in his pack, however, it was too hot here to wear it. Come to think of it. Eiden gulped. Everyone here was injured, Should he just move somewhere else?

"What's outside?" Evan asked. Why don't you go and see for yourself? Eiden almost growled in anger. He was stranded in this blasted place because of this moron. Eiden took a breath and tried to calm himself down.

"It's the permanent night here. The sky is bright though, with a lot of stars. There are a bunch of boiling water pools outside." With every word he spoke, Eiden started to realize the horror of the situation. The dangers outside.

"Oh, and the bushes have poisonous thorns." Eiden was now on the verge of panic.

He had his friends before. Clade was strong, and Cissa and Nub had super night vision and hearing. Clade was more immune to the whispers. He slept for hours without a disturbance because he trusted them to take care of him when he was vulnerable. Could he sleep when Evan was awake? He didn't even want to stay close when both of them were awake.

"What the hell?" he heard Evan swear.

"Are you making fun of me?" Evan yelled. Eiden flinched. What if shadows make them kill each other? Eiden shook his head.

"Don't..don't go out, it's dangerous. They..they corrupt people," Eiden stammered in a small voice, biting his lips.

He had to get his panic down. No. He was going to find a way out. Probably, his family would open the portal and get him out. He took another long breath and thought about how much food he had in the pack, wondering if Evan and the guys were carrying their emergency packages with them.

"Ah, my head," a guard groaned, and another too made a whimpering sound and moved to sit up. Evan shook the last one, who must have been awake, as he scrambled to sit up.

All five of them stared at each other. Eiden found his mouth was dry. If he's in his best shape, he might try four to one, if that was only guards. Three guards and Evan, are not on his list to try and find out.

"Young master," a guard addressed Evan.

"Where are we?" he asked, looking at feebly burning torches and Eiden sitting a few feet away from them. Nobody answered him.

"You can open the portal again." Evan didn't say that as a question, but rather a statement.

Eiden stared blankly at him. He suddenly found the whole thing to be hilariously absurd. They had been fighting their whole lives, to the end. And now they were both sitting a few feet away from each other and was Evan asking for help?

Eiden laughed. He laughed like a maniac. He spent time running around like a madman to rescue his parents from this. Now he is a sitting duck in the same horrible trap his parents were in. He even has a warded cave. How funny if his parents come here again and they get stuck here and he gets out. An endless loop. He couldn't stop laughing, tears welled in his eyes. He didn't see Evan get closer to him, because his eyes were clouded with tears.

Suddenly he was grabbed from his shoulders and shaken roughly.

"Aww." he tried to push his tormentor away, still laughing.

"Eiden, shut up." Evans's thunderous order did nothing to Eiden. He wiped his tears, still giggling like a little girl.

"How to open the portal?" Eiden looked up to see Evan's enraged face.

"Can't," he gasped and tried to stifle another giggle.

"What do you mean, can't? You opened it once." If it was a usual day at the Palace, a single word of this tone from Evan was enough for Eiden to draw his blade and challenge for a duel to death. Eiden tried to stop the rest of the giggles which had lined up waiting for their turn. He shook his head and smiled at nothing.

"Can't. Don't have the sequence. Had it written down, it's with my friend." He looked at Evan.

"Still no use. Mama got the key," he gestured to the empty hands.

"The door is locked," he chuckled to himself.

"Young master, what's going on?" Someone behind Evan asked, very concerned. Evan turned around to his guards. Eiden only recognized one of them, Jake. He was older than them, a son of one Palace official, who often met in the training arena before Eiden got hurt.

"We are in a dark dimension, the portal transported us here," Evan answered. Eiden listened in silence.

"How can we go out?" Jake asked, looking at Eiden who was now leaning against the cave wall. Wow. It's warm.

"Only that idiot knows," Evan growled.

"I don't know, he's lying," Eiden said indignantly.

Stolen story; please report.

Eiden started to think of a plan, but he was feeling hungry and tired. He used a lot of magic trying to close the portal and keep his guard up. When did he last have a meal? It felt like ages ago and he needed energy if an attack happened. The longer they stayed here, it was going to be more dangerous. He should have a filling meal and rest before anyone goes mad.

Unpacking his emergency satchel, he decided to make a small one-pot meal. If others want, they can cook for themselves. Eiden filled his small camping pot with water and added a slab of dried meat, potato, and some herbs.

"What are you doing?" Evan asked.

"I'm hungry, I had been here for days and just got out before you broke the shield and sent me right back," he complained, looking for a spoon.

He arranged the little camping stove, putting the pot on the stove and letting it magically heat. Soon, it was cooked, and Eiden leaned back on the wall and started eating it.

He saw everyone staring at him like he was not right on the head. He knew since they were new to the dimension, they must be feeling very uneasy due to the presence of dark magic around them. Eiden too was feeling that, yet he knew what to expect, and it prevented his senses from going overdrive.

"Outside is a permanent night." He started to talk in between bites. It was perhaps to ease his thoughts, or he felt pity, he was not sure.

"A few hundred yards away, there's a field with a lot of pools, with boiling water. Something that chases people stays there. If you get pricked by thorns, the only cure is to burn the wounds to remove dark magic.

This is an island and there's another land across the sea, we met a sort of white shadows that tried to kill us," he paused and looked up to see that they were staring at him horrified. He chuckled inwardly. He had a lot of things to tell and scare them.

"I'm not sure the land is still the same outside now. The cliffs there broke and fell on their own. So, I guess it's possible to change outside."

Wow, he must have been really hungry, he thought looking at the empty pot. He cleaned it, cooled them both off, and put them in the satchel. Oh. He remembered that he had taken some notes while learning the sequence for the portal, and after adding a few important points to his notes, he stuffed them in the satchel.

"Eiden," Evan called him. Eiden turned to them, asking why.

"Is there no other way to open the portal?" Did he recognize an anxious note in Evan's voice?

"I don't know," he sighed.

"It was designed to open and close with a key, and a runic sequence. This place was made to contain dark magic because that's very dangerous for people. When I found out my parents were lost here, I searched for a person who could help us to get them out." Eiden looked around him. It was getting darker, the torches were flickering and soon would die.

"He showed the sequence. I didn't learn it. We wrote it on this mat, with self-consuming enchantments, to avoid anyone finding it. And came here as I said, opened the portal and we were leaving," he sighed again.

"I shouted at you not to attack the shield, it was there to close the portal," he said as if he were accusing Evan. But, he was too tired for any argument.

"They might open it back and will try to find us. But, I'm not sure about the time. Time here and time outside are different." Eiden stared at the opposite wall.

He started to feel uneasy now because his initial shock was gone and he was again getting more accustomed to the magical signals outside. He looked at the four men still sitting on the ground, too shocked by the sudden misfortune.

"The shadows can corrupt people, turn us against each other. We need to stick together. Ration your food. I have some notes, I want to read. If you want to go outside, be careful. There's something here that can whisper. It made the two of us almost attack each other and another friend." He fell silent, skimming through his notes.

Eiden read the same line again. It was hard to pay attention to the notes, as his mind was not on it. He couldn't deny that he was scared. Others were now huddled in the corner talking in hushed voices.

He wanted to have a nap, but the doubt of others was overwhelming. Yet, he knew, there was no way he could function without a long nap. Eiden added as much as protective wards on himself and curled up on the mat, tightening the cloak around him.

A rocking boat? Thunder? Why are the people shouting? Another shock and Eiden woke up. He saw Evan, looking terrified, Jake was calling loudly for someone at the cave entrance. There was a rumble and the ground shook. Earthquake. Eiden swore loudly.

"Where are the others?" he yelled at Evan, and at Jake who came with a mirrored expression of Evan's terror on his face.

"They went out to explore, and then the earthquake happened," Jake said.

"We looked out at the entrance, didn't go far. They said they would look around," Evan explained. His usual arrogance wasn't there to be heard.

"What kind of protections do you have?" Eiden asked.

Papa showed him a few wards that might come in handy in the shadow dimension. Eiden took his extra runic stones out and scribbled the two sets on them when another tremor, fortunately, less severe than the first one, happened. It was not safe here. Eiden's senses screamed.

"We need to leave. Last time when we were near cliffs, they broke," Eiden suggested while taking his mail shirt and wearing it over his shirt.

"Where to?" Evan asked.

"I don't know, just outside, I don't know I can teleport to the other land, because it might not exist now. But, this roof can cave in on our heads," he pointed to the roof.

Evan and Jake looked at each other and agreed. They stepped out, and Eiden knew the landscape was showing changes because the fog was thicker and the smell was worse. It was getting hotter.

"Don't get scratched from the bushes, don't separate." Eiden didn't get to continue his lecture as they heard a terrified scream, obviously coming from one of the guards. Jake tried to run.

"No," Eiden grabbed him.

"Together, stay with me," he whispered.

They moved trying to see through the fog, Eiden tried to dissipate it, and both his and Evan's collective efforts worked a bit. They heard footsteps, someone was running towards them. They spotted him before he crashed into them. Jake grabbed him, as he tried to claw his way out. Eiden splashed him with cold water, and the man subdued.

"Hey, Pete. Calm down. Man," Jake held him while Evan patted his back. Eiden sent him calming magic. His breathing eased and the maniac look on his face slowly turned to a normal scared look.

"Pete, what happened? Where's Dora?" Evan asked.

"Th..the man took him," Pete stammered.

"A man? What man?" Eiden asked, he wasn't sure Cissa threw a knife at a man.

"There's one," Pete shivered. They have to get out of here and find that man later.

"Is he dead?" Jake asked. Pete nodded tightly clutching Jake's hands.

"Then nothing to do, let's go." Eiden looked at others, only to see them all nodding.

The fog might be thicker in the hot spring field. It must be the way Pete came. He turned to the other direction, telling others that he didn't know this way, but the other way there were hot water springs.

They felt the ground shake, and the hot ground under their feet even with the shoes. A series of fireworks-like booms disturbed the creepy silence around them. Eiden wondered if there was some fire-breathing creature living here. Then, they felt a hot air stream, earlier the wind was almost negligible, but now it was picking up speed. Eiden felt something soft landing on him. Then around him, like...like snow. He touched it. ASH.

"It's ash," Evan said. Eiden looked around, for fire, but nothing like fire was around. They resumed walking again. Faster.

"Stop," Jake demanded loudly.

"Why?” they stopped.

"I heard something like a huge wave crash," he said.

"We're not that close to the sea." If so, Eiden should have felt that. But, they stood there in silence, then, a sudden crashing sound, only for a moment.

"We have to go, but let's be careful." Eiden urged.

"Oh, the hot pools must be there too." Eiden saw the steam rising beyond the tree line. They sneaked quickly, through trees because the crooked trees looked extremely hostile and the ash covering them made them look ghostly and haunting.

They came to another open field. Different from the beautiful and colorful hot water springs, this place was more brown and barren, with here and there, bubbling pools.

"I think it's.." Eiden stopped. One pool erupted a huge streaming wave of water upwards, which splashed back onto the pool.

"By Azur!" Evan swore, watching another wave shoot from a second pool.

"We can't cross this. It's dangerous." Probably he should teleport them to the flat rocks. Eiden turned around to see the path they took, considering his options.

Suddenly a heavy hand gripped his shoulder, and Eiden heard a muffled scream from Pete.

"Shh, turn around slowly," Evan whispered.

Eiden turned to see first Jake's hand was clamped over Pete's mouth. He followed their line of sight to see a man. Definitely a man. Well, it had been a man. Wet, and dripping water, or was it skin? Naked. The man walked to the hot water pool, stood at the edge, and calmly fell into it face-first.

"Don't you dare to scream," Jake whispered to Pete and removed the hand.

"M..man," he stammered.

"Came from the fog, grabbed Dora, and..and..snapped his neck," Pete said, violently shaking.

"I..I ran."

"Father was injured badly, this man must have come with them, and died here." Eiden took a deep breath and found he was also trembling.

They clutched each other as more tremors of the ground ran underneath, stronger, and heard another boom from the mountain.

"There's a place, flat rocks, I'll teleport us," Eiden didn't want to spend another minute here. They held onto each other and teleported.

"Auch." They landed hard, lost footing, and fell on the rocky surface. Eiden found out why. The rock was extremely slippery as it was covered with ash and mud. Strange. They scrambled to their feet.

"Hey, look," Evan pointed to the mountain.

The funnel-shaped top gleamed red against the dark starry sky. The red hot molten rock dripped down from its top like fiery blood and long devilish red tongues. They saw it splash. Seemed like the mountain was filled with molten rock.

"It's like the fire mountain in the stories. It says the crater was once filled with melted earth," Jake said.

"Oh. My grandfather had told me stories." Eiden remembered it. The fire mountain used to be in between Moonstone and Whitecrest mountains and its fire was extinguished long ago.

“What are we going to do?" Evan asked, eyes still glued to the hypnotic sight of the fiery mountain top far away. Eiden turned to see the ocean, and...

"Pete. Stop. Where are you going?" he called. Pete had wandered away from the group. He turned around.

Crash.

"PETE," they shouted.

The rock. By Azur. The rock beneath Pete broke and he fell in. They couldn't run on the slippery, uneven rock, it was difficult to walk, but, they managed to get closer. It was a deep hollow tunnel down there and no sign of Pete. Extremely hot air with foul smell was rising from it. Eiden conjured a large ball of ice and threw it down the hole.

"Oh, lord!" They all exclaimed in utter fright.

The molten rock. The tunnel was full of that, and they couldn't see it due to the thin crust of black solid around it. Pete must have melted instantly.

“Ah,” Jake grunted and staggered, Evan caught him before falling.

Something fell onto the rock with a faint clink. Cissa's knife... A laughter ran out, and they saw a grotesque figure that looked like a man moving fast towards them.

"Let's get to the other land." Eiden stood up and looked at the other two. Eiden extended his hands for them. He thought of the small campfire he and his friends gathered around, cuddling and laughing, and teleported.