A Fantasy Story - by the Members of the SFFWorld Community

[WHearth]

Limit - 5 sentences per post.

Flames burst forth from the ground as the demon Haganoth roared in pain and anger. Jaren rolled to the side, just in time to avoid being incinerated by one of the explosive infernos. He grabbed his sword from where it lay on the ground, sweat dripping down his forehead.

"Haganoth!" Jaren said. "You've now seen that you are not as invincible as you once believed."

[tmso]

A deep rumble answered the boy. Haganoth stood up on unsteady legs, and Jaren stepped back as the demon reached his full height. It dawned on Jaren that the rumble was the demon laughing. At him.

"Stupid human, when will you learn that I am not so easily defeated?"

[WHearth]

Haganoth stretched forth his hand towards Jaren. Flames burst out of his hand, shooting towards the boy.

Jaren held his sword upright out in front of him. As the flames collided with the it, the sword absorbed them, leaving Jaren untouched behind its protection.

"Now I've got you," Jaren whispered to himself, smiling, and he pointed his sword tip at the demon.

[Sparrow]

The demon seemed to at once shimmer while it's horrible visage flickered like an oil lamp, sputtering for a quick moment, then extinguished. What was left behind in a heap, curled up on the scorched earth, was instantly recognizable to Jaren. It was Aylliah. Jaren's sword clattered to the ground as he rushed to her side. He had not seen his sister for two long years.

[DailyRich]

Jaren knelt next to her, taking her in his arms.

"Fool."

And then it was as if he held all the fires of Vokken's Fury, the leering face of Haganoth shattering the illusion of his sister. The demon laughed, his breath fetid in Jaren's face.

Fool indeed, Jaren thought through the searing pain.

[WHearth]

Then all was blackness.

. . .


Jaren awoke, his entire body throbbing. He could feel heat radiating off of his skin in many places, a sign that the burns he'd suffered had not healed completely yet.

Where am I? he thought to himself.

He was lying on a cold, stone floor, and in the little bit of light in the room, he could just make out the bars of a prison cell.

[Evil Agent]

His mind reeled with a terrible, growing awareness.

I failed.

He slipped back into a dead, black sleep, and his mind waded through dark dreams laced with images of fire and leering demonic faces.

He was eventually awakened by a sharp, biting pain in his right foot. It seemed he had company in his cell . . . and the company was hungry.

[tmso]

"Ketchup!" the beast wailed, "I need some ketchup!"

[WHearth]

Jaren hurriedly pushed himself back, trying to prevent any further biting.

"Don't be scared," the thing said. "I'm not going to hurt you; I just wanted to get your attention. Do you have any ketchup?"

Jaren breathed heavily, but didn't respond. For one thing, he didn't even know what ketchup was.

[Michael V. R.]

The thing seemed to be a rat sized weasel. Its long shiny body caught the sparse starlight from the single bared window.

“What are you?” Jaren took in his surroundings, keeping one eye on the creature.

“I’m a failed warrior in a cause that has recently taken a great interest in you, my friend.”

[tmso]

"Warrior?" He coughed into his hand, and sat up. He noticed the thick stones walls that surrounded them. There was no door. He forgot all about the ketchup and the failed cause.

[Lazers]

The weasel cocks his head to the side, watching Jaren look vainly around the cell.

"Failed Warrior."

Jaren sighs.

"Then we have at least one thing in common."

[DailyRich]

"I take it that's a no on the ketchup then?" the weasel asked glumly.

"I don't even know what that means," Jaren snapped.

"Oh, one of those realities. Let me guess, still riding around on horses waving swords at each other?"

"What are you babbling on about?"

"Good thing you're sitting down," the weasel said, leaning in close, "because your world just got a whole lot more complicated."

[Lazers]

"I'm trapped in a dank stone cell, lit by a single barred window, far to small to get my body through, and without any other obvious way of actually getting in or out. Not to mention I just battled a forsaken demon!" Jaren spits back at the weasel. "And now you think it can get any more complicated?"

[DailyRich]

"Oh, I know it can get more complicated. Two weeks ago I was captaining a void skipper off the Pleiades. Then I got a visit just as confusing as the one I'm giving you now."

The weasel sat back on his haunches and looked Jaren in the eye.

"There are more worlds than this one, and all of them are in danger."