Serrated Love's Deceit

Chapter 18: Lost

Stepping outside the portal seems unreal since it has been so long since I have used it. I close the tan door behind me and walk down the stone floor corridor. Different colour doors feel like they are looking at me as I pass. A dark green door with golden light peering from its surrounding cracks. I slowly approach the door and move the golden handle. It swings wide open to a lush, green forest with the sunrays dancing between branches and leaves. The trees are so tall and healthy. I run in and dance on the moss and short grass blades. A nearby bush shakes. I go to assess it and find a short lady with a small round face and dark brown, shaggy hair hiding behind the bush. "What are you doing over there?" I ask. She looks me in the eye and jumps back. She falls on her back to the ground.

"Why do you hide?" I ask. She looks at me bewildered.

"You can talk?" I nod.

"Yes." She pushes herself back to her feet.

"You can't talk too loud he'll hear us." She looks around cautiously.

"Who is he?" She puts a pale finger to her lips and shushes me. I briefly look around and shrug. Why is she hiding and speaking low? There has to be nobody around for miles. A low growl comes from behind me. I turn around and a wrinkly old man in all white with light tan skin, thinning short white hair, a long white beard, and a tall wooden staff walks up to me. I quickly check to see if the lady is still there. She is gone. A firm grip from a rough, big hand yanks me back to face the old man. His eyes look milky hazel. Cataracts cloud his irises. "You belong to me Missy." He says with a raspy voice. I shove him away from me and he stumbles to the ground. I walk behind the bushes and find the lady. She is trembling. "Why are you so afraid of him? He's just an old man." I say.

"Looks can be misleading. He's not just some regular old man. He's a guy that collects wives and enslaves them on a chain on his field. It's not too far from here. I've seen him beat them and his hearing is sharp. He makes them where white dresses and follow him as he treks back and forth to the pond. There's always a wife that goes missing when he returns from the pond. I think he beats one of them to a pulp and drowns them in it every time he goes there." I gasp and the old man yanks my arm again. If only I had a whip with small spikes lining it and a sharp dagger at its tail that I can handle. I'd whip him out of our faces. A black whip with small metal spikes lining it, a grooved handle, and a sharp dagger blade as the end of its tail appears in my hand. The handle is black.

If this thing has a force field and air pressure power, that would be even cooler. I kick him on the ground away from me. "Don't be afraid of him. We can take him down." I say and I walk to a clearing in the forest. She follows me then stands near me as we wait for him to catch up to us. He hobbles out into the clearing from the opposite direction without his staff. "This is not how wives behave. You both will be punished and you'll get back in line." He says. I whip the black whip in a circle in the air. The more it picks up speed, the more the wind whirls around us. I whip him with it and the dagger slices his arm. The long white sleeve of his shirt falls to the ground as crimson slowly drips down his wrinkly, skinny arm. I smirk.

He runs toward us at full speed. Brown leaves and little grass blades kick up behind him. He tackles me to the ground and we wrestle. I think of a curved silver dagger and one appears in my hands. I stab it deep in his abdomen. He grabs my hand that is on the blade's handle and tighten the hold on the handle until my fingers hurt. I knee him in the groin and he lets me go as he groans. I crawl away from him. Then I get a crazy idea. I tell the lady to run on the inside of the perimeter of the clearing. She runs and I twirl the whip so quick through the air a constant whistle rings out from it. Green phantom arms stretch out from my back and lift me up meters above the ground. My eyes glow green. A windy force field appears inside the clearing. As the lady runs along its perimeter, a whirlwind forms around me and follows the direction of the whip. A green force field covers the clearing and makes the air pressure in the phantom dome builds exponentially. Once I could not see beyond the clouds spinning around me, I remove myself from the top of the phantom dome with the help of my phantom arms. Then I seal it off with some phantom goo from my phantom arms.

I push down on my phantom bubble until the pressure explodes out and collapses in on itself. The old man is not on the ground. His body slams to the ground after all the winds dissipates. He twitches his finger but overall he seems to accept his defeat. I walk away from the dirt cloud. "Follow me." I tell the petite lady as I wave my hand. Near a group of trees, I summon my wardrobe and pull its golden handle. "See? You don't have to be afraid of him anymore. He's gone." I say.

"I'm not sure about that."

"He may not be dead but he'll think twice before putting his hand on another lady again." I nod once and walk up to a light blue door. The lady pulls the portal door behind her shut and hesitantly follows me. Through the sky blue door there is lands sitting on the perimeter of a big waterfall in an uneven circle. Different directions have three separate big gates made of varying materials. One gate has a golden lion emblem engraved on its thick golden rod gates. Another gate is made of stone and winged stone gargoyles sit on the posts of it. The last was made of tall, green bushes with a flimsy twine rope and a big silver bell sitting at the center of the knotted rope. The rope seems to be attached to the bushes on either side of it. I look to the fourth side with no gate. It has an open pathway lined by evergreen trees. I cup my chin with my finger. "I wonder which I should explore next." I say aloud. The lady shrugs beside me. I choose the open path. I like freedom and this seems to have the least restrictions. It may be dangerous but I don't do leashes and cages. I smirk and march forward. The lady follows me. "You know you don't have to follow me anymore. You're free to roam as you please. Do you want to walk this path? There are other paths for you to follow." I say. She shakes her head.

"What if the old man shows up again? You can beat him so I'm sticking with you." I shrug.

"Ok."

We reach a prairie with grass that is as tall as my knees. Mountains lay in the surrounding area. The light blue sky is clear without a cloud in sight. We begin our trek up a nearby mountain. Upon our ascension, a group of warriors sit wearily beside some bushes and trees. A pale old man a bit taller than me sits at the center of the group on the patchy grass. He holds a sword in his hand and looks up at me. "We need a place to shelter. We have been banished from the land we come from and have nowhere to go." He says to me. I nod my head. I wonder if I should let them stay in my palatial wardrobe until I find a stable land for them to reside.

"I'll let you all stay in my traveling home if you promise to train me and other soldiers I gather for combat training." I say. He nods his head and looks down. He rubs his short white beard and squints his small brown eyes.

"Deal." I mentally call up my wardrobe and make a shelf on the mountainside a docking point for my wardrobe so that it is physically visible to the warriors. As it opens up, small stone village houses surround a mansion. The mansion has silver and gold weaving across its glass double doors.

At its entrance the door handles are the gold ones I am used to turning when I call upon the wardrobe. It seems my first husband really took his time making this wardrobe for me. Does he love me more than I thought he did? I thought we are just in a business marriage. I didn't think he cared this much for me. Especially since the last time we talked we didn't see eye to eye. Well, he did give me this gift after I had our fourth child. Maybe he was very grateful for me giving birth to our son. I don't know but I don't want to think too deeply on it. He's happy with Cynthia and I need to fix the problem I created on the crescent island.