Chapter 4

         Their arduous journey lasted two weeks, and by the time they reached the northern hills they were eager for their trek to be at an end. Munt packed as much food as he thought necessary, but he failed to compensate for Dice’s voracious appetite. By the time they began their journey up the hills, food was running short. Munt worried that Sarry would have difficulties traveling the rough terrain, but she kept along without slowing them down. Munt found Dice to be the real hindrance, pleading for several breaks along the way.

         “How far until we get to this castle?” Dice asked as they climbed along.

         “We shouldn’t have to go much farther,” Munt said. He held his hand out to Sarry and helped her step over a jutting pile of rocks. “It’ll be clear sailing once we reach the top.”

         “Great! That means we’re almost there!” Dice shouted and ran off ahead. Munt and Sarry tried to keep up, but Dice’s sudden enthusiasm fueled his legs with uncanny energy. Dice pulled himself up to the tallest hill and stopped. When Munt and Sarry finally caught up with him, they saw the sour disappointment on his face. “Was that some sort of joke? I don’t see any castle!”

         Dice’s words rang truthfully in the air. Below them stretched a field of rising and falling hills among a later of silver fog. The land went on and on, and the ground became more jagged and threatening as it stretched farther past the gentle hills. There were no buildings and no castle in sight.

         “We’re not going down there,” Sarry giggled, “We’d be walking for weeks. Anyway, Sean’s castle isn’t down there.”

         “I thought you guys said it was in the hills,” Dice said, scratching his head, “Then what the hell are we doing here?”

         “We had to travel across the hills to get to our destination. Just watch and wait,” Munt said.

         They all stood and waited -- and waited -- and waited. Dice scratched his chin and turned toward Munt and Sarry, who both gazed off into the cloud-filled sky. Dice threw up his arms and sighed. “This is ridiculous! You’re both crazy! I’m getting out of here!”

         As Dice turned to leave, a beautiful cry shook the air. Dice had never heard anything like it before, and when he turned back to the sky, his jaw fell open in disbelief. A magnificent golden dragon glided through the heavy cover of clouds, flapping its massive wings. Every scale shimmered like little golden flames, and the gusts from its wings pushed them backward. Sarry shielded her eyes and smiled, her pink locks flying behind her like a banner on a ship. The beast lowered onto the hills below, craning its neck down before them.

         “It’s wondrous!” Dice gasped.

         “Her name is Krystana,” Sarry said, stepping toward the golden dragon. Krystana reached out a clawed hand and placed its palm upward onto the hill.

         “Allow me to help you, love,” Munt said, jogging to her side. He held out his hand and gave her a boost onto the dragon’s outreached hand. Before he followed suit, he turned back toward Dice, who continued to stare in wonderment. “Are you coming?”

         Dice could only not and stagger on wobbling legs toward the towering beast. Munt helped Dice up and climbed up after him. They all fit comfortably in Krystana’s palm, and she raised her claw as she gave her wings a mighty flap. After a few powerful thrusts, Krystana returned to the air and flew toward the white blanket overhead.

         “This is unbelievable,” Dice uttered in a gasping breath.

         Layers and wisps of clouds flew by them on all sides as they rose through the air, passengers under Krystana’s grand care. Sarry clutched Munt’s arm, and he brought her close against his side. Dice peered out over the edge of their scaled platform and could not find the ground below through the endless sea of white. Krystana let out a thunderous cry, and Dice nearly stumbled forward with fear.

         “Don’t worry, Dice,” Sarry called to him, “She is only announcing our arrival.”

         “Our arrival where? We have only been going upward!” Dice shouted back, wrapping his arms over his chest to stop from shivering.

         Before Munt or Sarry could answer, Krystana emerged through the clouds and slowed the beating of her wings. Dice’s eyes grew wide as the scene stretching before him.

         “Amazing,” Dice whispered.

         A towering castle stood along the endless ground of white and silver clouds. The walls, constructed from alabaster stone, rose up into another later of cloud, concealing its true height. There was no visible foundation to support the castle, and its front gates dipped just below the fluffy landscape. Krystana lowered herself and placed both her back legs down onto the clouds. Instead of plummeting toward the ground below, the dragon’s claws found holding, pushing the cloudy ground downward like a spring mattress.

         “Why aren’t we falling? These are only clouds!” Dice shouted, visibly shaking with fear.

         “You mustn’t always take things how they should be. Sometimes you must take things as they are,” Munt said.

         Krystana lowered her talon to the ground for them to head toward the castle. Munt climbed down first, landing with a springing bounce. He took Sarry’s hand and helped her down. He turned toward Dice, but Dice remained steadfast.

         “Throw away your doubt! We are safe down here, and you will be, too,” Munt reassured him, holding out his hand.

         Dice swallowed hard and closed his eyes. Letting out a shaky cry, he leapt off the dragon’s hand and landed on his knees beside Munt and Sarry. The clouds beneath him dipped and pushed him upward, thrusting him onto his stomach.

         “See,” Munt said, shaking his head, “I told you you’d be fine.”

         Dice pulled himself to his feet with a bit of difficulty. Sarry covered her mouth to mask her giggling, and a red flush covered Dice’s face.

         “Come on you two,” Munt said, taking a step away toward the castle.

         Sarry continued to giggle at Dice’s uncomfortable, slow pace. As if he were learning to walk again for the first time, Dice stumbled and flailed his arms and legs to keep balance. Munt grabbed hold of his arm on several occasions and held him in place, and a few times Dice nearly pulled Munt over as well. All the while, Sarry bit her lip and tried to avert her eyes.

         Somehow through stumbling feet and waving arms, they made it to the gates of the castle. A gentle breeze blew past their faces, and the doors pushed open toward them. The opening led into a bright and vast hallway decorated with dancing balls of golden light. The shimmers sparkled and reflected off the light blue walls. The floor of the castle appeared similar to the cloudy canopy outside. As they entered, Dice took a reluctant first step, expecting the floor to spring down under him. To his surprise, the floor stood as sturdy as stone and felt smooth--almost slick.

         “You mean to tell me that Sean actually lives in a place like this?” Dice asked. His voice carried down the hall in a drifting echo, heading to who knows where.

         “Yes, both he and Tamara live here. She did most of the decorating,” Munt replied, moving ahead of them down the seemingly unending hall.

         They walked on and on and on with no sign to an end of their journey. Dice marveled at the many moving colors and lights, often nudging Sarry lightly with his elbow to point out something new. She giggled at his child-like amazement; Munt shook his head and hid his own laughter. After what felt like an hour to Dice, they reached the end of the hall. They all stopped and stared ahead of them.

         “There’s no doorway. It just stops!” Dice called. He walked to the solid wall and ran his hands along it. There were no handles, no crevices, and no possible way to move ahead. Dice sighed and slouched down onto the floor. “How are we supposed to meet with them if we can’t even get to them?”

         An echoing buzz and grinding of gears filled the air, lifting from under Dice’s seat. He scrambled to his feet and stared at the floor, unsure of what was happening. Munt and Sarry took a step besides Dice, and the floor beneath their feet rose from the ground and lifted up toward the ceiling. Through the pedestal rose with amazing speed, the ride itself was smooth. It felt as if they were being lifted by a gentle current of air. Dice looked up as the ceiling split open wide enough to allow their circular disk of ground to rise through it. The pedestal slowed and came to a sudden stop, and the force and chattering of their halt nearly sent Dice tumbling over. He stumbled and barely managed to keep himself from smashing face first against the floor.

         They all looked out into a hall as vast as the cloudy reaches outside the castle’s towering walls. The ceiling above them was made from a layer of shifting clouds that shimmered and allowed a growing and fading amount of warm light to fall upon their faces. A carpet of gold ran on in front of them to a set of wide stairs, and at the top sat a gold and red throne fit for the finest and richest of all kinds. Sitting in the padded seat was Sean, and Tamara rested in his lap. They appeared more than comfortable in their own company, but Tamara smiled at their sudden arrival.

         “Welcome to our home, my friends! I hope that your journey was safe and uneventful,” Sean spoke, his words drifting throughout the bright, inviting room.

         “The journey went well. We’re just a bit tired and in need of a warm meal is all,” Munt replied. Standing in the vast hall and surrounded by his friends, he felt much at ease. The thoughts of the monstrous wolves or piercing red eyes disappeared from his mind all at once.

         “Then you are in luck, my friends. We shall be having dinner shortly, and there is plenty for us all,” Sean said with a radiant smile.

         “How is this all possible?” Dice asked, unable to keep his amazement bottled up any longer. His eyes danced around their new surroundings, and he appeared overwhelmed by it all. “You know, how can a castle exist in the sky? You can’t build a home on clouds! They’re just, just . . . clouds!”

         Tamara laughed and slid out of her lover’s arms. She walked down the stairs with a grace and beauty reserved only for goddesses and queens. The wounds she had suffered from the wolf attack had fully healed, but Munt noticed a slight limp in her stride. Aside from her movement, it seemed as if she had never suffered any injuries at all. “My dear Dice, have you always been so reliant on what your eyes tell you?”

         “What do you mean? And how do you know my name?”

         “I think she meant to ask,” Sarry piped in, pausing to gather her words, “Have you ever been up in the clouds before?”

         “Of course not! The way they drift about in the sky, the whole business should not even be possible!” Dice replies, sticking to his argument.

         “Yet here we are,” Tamara said, touching Dice’s arm, “Do you see? Just because you have never witnessed something doesn’t make it impossible.”

         “The magic of reality works in a wondrous way, Dice,” Munt said, “Who’s to say what’s right and wrong? Our world is no more concrete than the clouds beneath this castle.”

         “I guess,” Dice muttered in reply, unsatisfied by the answer to his questions.

         “Come now, let us discuss your business after our meal. I promise that it will not be disrupted like your own dinner plans, Munt,” Sean said. He rose from his eat and led the way across the hall through a side doorway. They walked along a much shorter hall than the first they encountered upon entering and came into a much smaller room suited for eating. A grand wooden table sat in the middle of the room, covered with a royal blue silk covering and surrounded on all sides by a circle of comfy-looking padded chairs. A single table sat against the far wall, filled with platters of foot and drink. All eyes fell on the food, and Sean held out his hand. “Make yourselves a plate and have a seat.”

         After preparing themselves a meal meant for royalty, they ate quietly for several minutes. The only conversation that arose was complimentary comments concerning the quality of the food. Although they were far from danger, a new feeling of unease fell over Munt. His eyes darted around the room, waiting to hear the baying of wolves or see a creeping darkness approach to disturb their quiet moment. Slender fingers tickled his arm, and he nearly jumped out of his chair. Spinning his head around, the first thing he saw were Sarry’s loving violets.

         “Is something bothering you, love?” she whispered.

         “Yes, you’ve barely spoken a word, Munt,” Sean called from his seat at the head of the table. He finished the last morsel from his plate and pushed it away. “Are you still troubled by what happened at your home?”

         “Aren’t you?” Munt blurted out, sounding much more forceful and irritated than he cared to show to his company. He shoved away his own plate and sat forward in his chair. “Some wild creatures attacked us in our home! They hurt Tamara! How can you just sit here and be so damn calm?”

         Sarry squeezed Munt’s arm and pleaded to him with her eyes to calm down. He turned to look at her and noticed Tamara trembling in her seat. When he made eye contact with her, she lowered her head away from him.

         “Munt, I did not mean to sound uncaring. Please, would you follow me for a moment? I have something I want to ask you,” Sean said. He rose from his chair, leaned over his beloved, and placed a tender kiss on her forehead. “Will you show Sarry and Dice to the den when they finish?”

         Tamara nodded and folded her arms over her chest to help stop her own trembling.

         Sean stepped toward a wooden doorframe along the far wall near the table of leftover food and waited for Munt. Munt gazed at Sarry again before standing and slipping away from the table. He joined Sean at the doors, which looked more like a sparkling pool of rippling silver and golden energy. Sean reached a hand in front of him and walked through, causing the colors of the opening to quiver and envelop around his frame. Munt paused for a moment before taking a cautious step forward through the door. The way inside felt like wading through muddy water, but Munt emerged as dry and clean on the other side as he did when first entering the castle.

         Munt gazed about him and found that they stood on a balcony overlooking a landscape of endless clouds. A silver railing held any onlookers back and guarded them from following the beautiful siren song of the view right off the edge. Sean leaned forward over the railing, each tight muscle of his exposed arms braced and holding his frame like support columns. Every aspect of Sean mirrored that of royalty—his dress, his posture, his movements, his speech, his everything. Munt opened his mouth to break the silence, but Sean’s words struck the air first.

         “How long have we known one another, Munt?” He spoke without the slightest movement. Even a sudden gust of wind failed to phase a single strand of black hair that Sean kept together in a tight, single ponytail.

         “For several years, I’d wager,” Munt answered after considering his question. He couldn’t calculate the exact amount of time in his mind, but he knew that it had been quite some time since they first met. “Why do you ask?”

         Sean turned and leaned his lower back against the guard rail. His tanned skin and face shone with a faint radiance of gold, but it paled compared to the glow of his golden pools. His stare seemed to pulse a warm light that could put most people at ease. Their charming effect even extended onto Muntjack. “During those several years, I have learned when something is bothering you or when you are hiding something. What is troubling you so deeply that you refuse to speak with anyone?”

         Munt thought over everything that had happened in such a short time. Between the attacking wolf creatures, the encounters with the dark figure haunting his dreams, and his meeting with the beautiful, amber-haired woman, he struggled to sort out where to even begin. After allowing his thoughts to boil over toward the top of his head, he lowered his eyes and failed to respond.

         “Munt,” Sean said, his voice softening and echoing with deep concern. He stepped toward Munt and clapped his hand on his shoulder, which caused Munt to raise his eyes upward once again to meet Sean’s. “Do you remember the day we met?”

         Munt blinked a few times, taken aback by his friend’s nostalgic fervor. He had to consider his question for several moments to formulate a truthful and complete answer. “I was passing through RhyDin with no clear intentions of staying. I remember staying at The Tavern of Fallen Angels that night. I didn’t have much money on account that I had been traveling for some time and was taking any odd job that I could find. This drunken guy, a burly man with a round belly and unkempt beard, stumbled into my table and spilled his drink all over himself. For some reason, the jerk blamed me for it and grabbed me up out of my seat.”

         “That’s when I stepped in and kindly settled the situation,” Sean jumped in.

         “Kindly settled the situation?” Munt exclaimed, almost breaking into a fit of laughter, “You got up from your table, grabbed the guy by his beard, and dragged him across the establishment through the front door. I even recall you giving him a kick in the ass, but then again you may want to refer to it as a helpful nudge with your boot instead.”

         “No, that was certainly a kick to his obnoxious and rotund ass,” Sean corrected him with a sly grin. Finally, he could no longer keep his laughter bottled up, and his body shook with raucous cries of amusement. He had one of those over-the-top, jovial laughs that others found as contagious as a plague, and Munt lost his fight to ward off the disease. Sean shook his head and smiled as his fit subsided. “The point I’m trying to make is that I took you in and trained you, just as I did with Azure. I’ve always felt that we’ve formed a close friendship with one another. I’m very worried about you lately, and I wish you would . . .”

         Munt stopped listening at some point and thought back to that day again. Sean provided him with enough money to acquire the materials for the house he now lived in and even helped in its construction. He learned how to properly wield a weapon to defend himself from others, and he even tried to find someone to aid him control and understand his magical abilities. Unfortunately, Sean never found anyone that had the knowledge to assist Munt with his innate powers. Either way, Munt always looked up to and appreciated all that Sean ever did for him.

         “Are you listening? Wake up!”

         Munt jumped back to reality as Sean’s hand waved back and forth in front of his face. Sean sighed and folded his arms in front of him.

         “I’ll be fine, Sean,” Munt began, masking his uncertainty with a false smile, “It’s just everything that’s happened. I don’t feel safe in my own house anymore. That’s why Sarry and I traveled here to your palace. We want your help in putting a stop to any other potential attacks.”

         “We will figure out what is behind the attacks of the wolves, but I wouldn’t be so concerned. They are merely animals. They may just be acting out of instinct or for survival.”

         “You don’t understand, Sean. There’s more to it than that.”

         A reverberating cry from the distance broke through their conversation and shook the entire structure of the castle. Like a sudden burst of energy, Krystana broke through the clouds and swooped around the side of the castle besides the balcony. A rush of air like a strong storm nearly blew the two men off the side of the balcony, sending Sean back against the railing and Munt down on all fours.

         “I have not given her leave back down toward the surface. What in the world is she doing?” Sean exclaimed, staggering forward toward the ripping doorway. He stopped and turned back toward Munt, reaching his hand down to help him up. Grabbing hold of his wrist, Munt climbed back to his feet and followed Sean through the moving doorway back into the castle.

         As soon as they returned through the entrance into the dining hall, they surged back toward the direction of the throne room. Upon entering, they stopped dead in their tracks and stared straight ahead at Sarry and Tamara, who both knelt over the crouching form of Azure. He huffed and struggled to catch his breath, and when he heard Munt and Sean enter the room, he moved through the two ladies and grabbed each of them by the arm. Sweat poured down his face, and his eyes darted frantically between the two.

         “She’s gone! Katt’s been kidnapped!”