Chapter 32: Hidden World
"And then what happened?" I ask urgently.
Miss Hellretour smiles before giving me the answer. "Well, then my child, I was banished to the deepest layer of hell where I stood in front of the Lord of Hell himself without but a lick of my own magic."
I stumble through my words, "Then the king... did that? He was a demon and he-he... I feel like I'm not understanding it. Wasn't this story about how half the people on the planet died?"
Miss Hellretour frowns deeply and turns to each of us Sir Kahlin, Ruby, myself, all of us are shaking our heads in confusion before she finally takes a deep breath and explains, "That is how half the people on this planet died. That's how fucking cool I am, it took that many people just to banish little old me to hell and it still didn't stop my ass from coming back."
I quickly retort, "But how can you know that that's what happened? I mean I feel like you're just making a pretty bold assumption."
She fired back with a note of finality in her voice the last hidden key to the puzzle was unveiled, "As I was falling through the opening ground, the cracks, showing an abyss sinking down into the depths of hell, I saw it burning through the royal carpet on the floor, shredding the banners on the walls, secretly hidden within the glass, the stained glass panes, covering the ceilings, the markings I had been following. Those markings were unlike this one, this was the epicenter of it all. It showed a way for the demon king to emerge onto this world, and so it took very little to simply reverse the spell. The sacrifice of half of our population was merely a variable a form of energy conduit to bridge our realms at once. Why my life could have been that important? Why my banishment meant that much?" And she looks bitterly, chewing her nail, her eyes distant, “I'll never know."
The silence that filled the room so long, so quiet, you could hear a mouse squeaking across the floor. After the moment aches towards eternity, Sir Kahlin awkwardly puts his hand up, patting the shoulder of Miss Hellretour. “We're gonna give those bastards hell. They should have never left you alive.“
Miss Hellretour snaps back, “You're goddamn right.“
Ruby and I are sipping on a nice afternoon tea. The rest of the group having left to do their own various activities. That is when the sky splits apart. First it cracks, the blue shattering like a spider web. Then, pieces begin to fall slamming into the ground around us. Finally, long streaming fingers press their way through the cracks ripping them open into a hole where a large eye now bleeding from the sky looks down on to us.
“Oh my hells, what is that?“ My shocked face turned upward, the blood rushing from it, leaving me with a pale hue. My mouth gaped open. I don't know whether to try to stir my river into a frenzy or to just grab Ruby's hand and run.
That's when I hear this light chuckle that she's trying to hide, a hand wrapped around her mouth, hiding an almost certainly devious smirk. I look to her with an eyebrow raised, confusion settling deep into my bones. My heart doesn't know if it should start racing.
"Girl, what did you do?" I give her a light playful shove. Her hand drops and so does the act. She begins to grab her stomach, laughing harder and harder as each moment passes. It only stops once a single tear rolls down her cheek, which she wipes away.
"I sort of maybe made that be kind of like the alarm for when we get summoned. I figured it would be pretty funny."
I blink slowly glancing upwards where there are now rivers of blood running through each of the cracks. “Ugh, so the prince wants to see us now? I was hoping we would at least get a few more days of leisure.“ I throw my head back and start pouting.
Ruby just shrugs, “At least M.M. got to recover. You know those royal assholes will never give us a day off if they don't have to."
I just groan in response before heading back in to our little house so that I can pack my goodies.
After 30 grueling minutes of packing all of the items that M.M. brought, she apparently thought that she might need an entire alchemy lab, various smoked meats, as well as an entire shelf full of alcohol. We are finally ready to go.
I look over to Ruby, “How do we get out of here?“
She smiles brightly another devious scheme clearly on her mind, “Just raise both of your hands fully upward.“ Everyone does so, then through the cracks that were made earlier in the sky small little ropes with handholds slowly drop down into our palms we each take one and are immediately whisked away zipping through the air at unbelievable speeds.
As we whisk away into the air, I can hear a shout of terror from Sir Kahlin and a scream of glee coming from Ruby, “Wheeeeeee!"
Sir Kahlin professing, "I'm not so good with heights", as tears loosely stream from his eyes.
We jet into the empty blackness left from the cracked sky. Our figures disappearing into the void. But before us, as if through a tunnel, there remains a whiteness, an escape. We all grip onto our handholds tighter, knuckles whitening. But as if from nowhere, a small pink orb glistens to my right, snatching Ruby and I off to it, while the others streamline their way to freedom. I remember her promise of a fun, romantic date and my expectations are set.
As we descend onto the pink orb, I realize that due to its size it must be some type of celestial body. Not quite large enough to be a planet, but still many magnitudes larger than my body. Ruby dives forward without any fear in her heart. I don't feel the same, I have to steel my fear before plummeting through our newfound gravity.
The ground seems to be made of some type of long fur or hair. Pink wisps lick outwards in all directions. I crash into it at a high speed, expecting my body to be broken, but I'm met with the lightest, tenderest hug as pink tufts of fur shoot skyward upon my landing, littering the surroundings with hair balls. I slowly climb outward onto the hair which is surprisingly firm yet malleable I look downwards at my body-shaped imprint that I made on the ground or... the hair?? Honestly not sure which to call it. Glancing over to Ruby I see her laughing and giggling bouncing up and down off the pink fluff.
"How are you doing that?"
Ruby flips through the air before landing flatly upon the tuft that moments ago was basically a spring pad, “You just have to work a bit of your magic into it, upon contact, it's real easy. It completely changes the molecular makeup.“
She grabs a handful of the fluff tearing it from the ground running over to me. She tears it in half extending one half towards me. Her eyes going wide, "Plus, just please taste this. I swear it's not weird". She shoves her fist into her mouth, smacking loudly.
I hesitantly nibble on what she's extended me, and a bright sugary sweetness coats my tongue immediately melting upon it.
Ruby spins around extending her hands, "This is Cotton Candy World!!!".
I resist the unbridled urge to comment on the size of this 'World.' Taking in the raw enthusiasm that radiates off of Ruby, I bolster a grin on my face, asking her, "What else is there to see here?" Grabbing a handful of cotton candy grass and shoving it in my mouth.
"Just wait until you meet the locals."
“No way!! You actually managed to make something… sentient?“
She turns and runs in the opposite direction, leaping and bounding off of the soft cotton candy grass. Soon she's flying hundreds of feet in the air with each step, off into the horizon. It takes everything in me to learn how to catch up, but within a few strides, I'm skipping and soaring through the clouds, which as I pluck off a piece, are also made of cotton candy.
I see that Ruby has stopped on a crystallized mountain of cotton candy. There's a thick blue snow of cotton candy about ankle deep and I land dozens of feet from her, my inability to control my cotton candy movement clearly lacking. I strut up the mountain towards her and see her pointing downwards. I follow her finger to a village. "Oh my hells, I am so excited to see what the hell these locals look like."
Ruby silently hops off the edge of the mountain cliff that we were watching, sliding down the blue snow all the way down to the foot of the village. I follow in stride, but soon trip, causing myself to become a large cotton candy snowball, which also makes it to the foot of the village. Brushing myself off, I get up and push my bangs behind my ear, narrowing my eyes, knitting my eyebrows together, pursing my lips, trying to look as cool as I possibly can. "Exactly like I planned"
Ruby cackles, "I knew this world would be perfect for you."
I walk over to her wrapping her in a tight embrace, before planting a kiss on her lips and looking deeply in her eyes. A flush racing across her cheeks, “Duh.“
She kisses me back, smooching light pecks all over my face, before untangling from me and skipping off into the village where she finds what simply must be the village mayor considering he has a cotton candy crown upon his head. It has red, green, and blue cotton candy jewels placed all upon it Druelling I look over to Ruby "Could I maybe take that from him and eat it?"
She shakes her head, wagging a finger at me, "So naughty, you have to ask him if that's okay".
I turn towards cotton candy mayor, "Can I eat your crown?"
In a jovial and booming voice he bellows, "If you can fetch me the prized sword of cotton candy slain from the very pits of cotton candy volcano". He points behind him and from the horizon a massive steaming volcano rises from the ground. Spewing cotton candy lava and hurtling fiery balls of magma-filled rock through the air.
“Whaaat???? it's like a real legit quest!!“, my eyes having fully lit up, almost sparkling, as they turn towards Ruby. A glimmer of pure joy radiating directly through my soul.
She grins, “I was hoping you'd like it I know you'd always mentioned wanting to be an adventurer. Plus, now you can see just how strong of a wizard I am. I can be very useful in combat." She puts her arm out flexing her bicep.
Oh my gosh. She is so cute