(Adventure Adrian and the Kings) The Herald Quest

Chapter Three

THREE

Boy! I was lost.

It turns out that wandering through an endless maze of hallways, in a grand palace without a map, is never a particular good idea. Especially if the minibus that’s meant to take you home leaves in less than ten minutes!

I found myself walking down an empty corridor that I thought looked kind of familiar and I figured might take me back to the exit too. But when I reached the end of the passage it led only to a random circular room. All of the tourists had long gone home and so I was all alone.

The medieval chamber was stunning. A round space with a glorious marble floor and stone walls. Around its curved edges were large tapestries and paintings from about the 14th century. I glanced upwards to the roof that was covered in a stained glass dome at least fifty metres above my head. I span around in search of another exit but there were six different arches that could have led me even further into this labyrinth.

 I took in a deep breath and decided I would have to make a choice about which doorway to take. But just as I was about to choose my route, I suddenly noticed a thudding sound that began to vibrate across the coloured rooftop up above.

I squinted through the sunlight and could just make out the shadow of something darting quickly across the surface of the glass. My heart started to race. Why would somebody be climbing over such an old glass roof in the first place? It could break at any moment!

Whoever it was stopped in the middle and then started to jump up and down repeatedly on one of the glass panes. Each time the mystery figure crashed down once again, the window cracked and split a little bit more.

Everything went quiet for a second. Then with one final stamp, the fragile glass broke and whatever it was fell straight through. I stumbled back out of this thing’s path as it spiralled and plummeted down on to the marble gallery floor.

I remember thinking that whoever had just performed such a stupid stunt would have been seriously injured without a doubt. Judging by the size of the fall and the shattered stone crater on the floor, it should have been dead!

But to my amazement the odd looking character slowly got to its feet. It was then I finally saw that this thing wasn’t actually a person at all. The weird and hunch backed creature struggled awkwardly to flip up from off its back. Using its enormous hands as front legs, the strange being steadied itself and shook the dust from its scaly, pale green skin.

The beast focused on me with its blood red eyes and sniffed the air twice with its pig like snout. The creature seemed to be picking up my scent and when it eventually found the smell it was looking for, it began to hiss violently in my direction.

I was caught off guard. I’d never expected a strange wild animal to fall from the sky and now it was staring at me as if I was its next lunch. The monster slowly pounded forward and lapped up the dribble that was dripping from its lips.

The beast leant back ready to strike and with a grizzly growl it lunged straight for me. It sounds pathetic now but at the time, all I could do was stand there helplessly with my eyes closed and hope the end would be quick and painless. 

But just as the creature pounced, it suddenly froze in midair and was weirdly suspended by a mysterious sharp object that had pierced through its back. I only plucked up the courage to open my eyes slightly but could see the tip of a sword that had shot out the front of its chest.

The monster squirmed around in disbelief for a few seconds and then gargled with pain. It gave out a final yelp before without warning, it exploded in a spray of black slime. I finally opened my eyes fully to see Mr Izanbar standing there and holding a spectacular silver sword!