The Song of the Titan

Chapter Twenty-Eight

"We don't even know where this thing goes!" He said, shaking his head.

"But, we can't let her escape!" Caleb argued. Without a second thought, he walked through the portal, stepping into it, disappearing with a flash.

"Caleb!" Philip exclaimed in horror, seeing his brother vanish into it. He stepped over to it, cautiously, looking into the glowing portal with a fearful look on his face. Slowly, Philip reached his hand into the portal, seeing it fade into it and slowly he stepped inside. The portal disappeared along with them.

Caleb and Philip stumbled as they fell out of the portal. They screamed as they saw a pool filled with the same liquid underneath of them, the two falling into it with a splash. Caleb and Philip gasped as they quickly surfaced, spitting out some of the water. They noticed that they were in some strange chamber of some sort with giant trees and roots stretching out from the ground. They shivered as they felt a cold air brush against them. There was snow falling through some holes from the ceiling above the cave.

"Where are we?" Caleb whispered.

"Forget about that! How are we going to get back?!" Philip shouted. The two noticed that the portal that they had went through was gone. They were both trapped. Where ever they were...

Caleb and Philip both climbed out of the water, shaking it off and wringing out of their drenched clothes. They noticed a narrow pathway and walked down it, seeing some of the fools blood scattered along the way. Caleb walked over to it and was about touch it, while Philip watched with a scared look on his face. He grabbed Caleb's hand, stopping him.

"Don't touch it! We don't know what it is!" he hissed as he warned him. Then the two heard footsteps retreating not too far off and ran, following after them. Up ahead, Caleb and Philip saw a bright light, seeing that it was the exit to the cave. They ran out only to stop in their tracks at what they saw. They were standing on what appeared to be on top of a mountain in a snowy place with countless of trees that were very different from the one's back on Earth, red in color. It looked like they went on forever. But, what shocked them the most was a giant skeleton with a huge skull, facing them not too far off within the distance.

"I knew it! We're dead! This is a bad place and we're being punished!" Philip exclaimed, hysterically. Caleb rolled his eyes and sighed. Maybe, they were being punished. And he lead his brother right into it. He frowned, looking around for the witch but she was nowhere to be seen. He tapped Philip with his elbow.

"Come on, don't be so dramatic." He tried to calm his brother down. Philip shook his head, wildly. Caleb grabbed his brother as he heard rustling not too far off from the trees. The two jumped as they heard crashing footsteps, coming towards them. Their eyes widen as they saw an large, tall, four legged creature with white fur as it towered over them with a giant mouth, where two small blue eyes stared back at them, full of sharp teeth. The Slitherbeast.

Caleb and Philip screamed as the beast let out a ferocious roar and charged at them. The two quickly dodged it as the creature lunged at them. Caleb gasped as he saw the creature coming towards Philip, who was crawling on the ground, backing away from it.

"Philip!" Caleb cried out. He ran over to the one eyed creature and tried to stab it with his pitchfork. His eyes widened in horror and in shock as he saw his only one way of defense completely bent and destroyed. Caleb froze as he saw the creature turn towards him now. He backed up as it started to advance closer to him.

"Caleb!" Philip called out for him, fearfully.

Suddenly, Caleb heard a loud boom coming from behind him. He yelled as he saw a giant fireball shot past him, hitting the creature. The beast let out a furious howl in pain. It growled angrily before it turned and ran away. Caleb and Philip turned their heads to see that it was the same witch, that they were chasing, who had saved them. Her eyes widen in surprise as well, seeing them.

"Well, well, well, isn't this a surprise. You two bozos actually followed me." She smirked and made a small laugh.

"What did you do?" Caleb asked her. The witch stared at him confused before realizing what he meant. She smiled.

"Oh, you mean this?" she produced a small flame in her hand, showing it two the two brothers. The bright red flame flickered and weaved in the air, beautifully, like smoke. Caleb gasped in amazement, while Philip quickly hid behind a rock, hiding at a safe distance. He looked at his brother and the witch, darting back and forth between the two, with a scared look on his face.

"Caleb..." He whispered to him. But, Caleb didn't hear him and stepped over to her, slowly.

"I guess I should thank you for saving my brother and I," He smiled as he introduced himself and his brother. "My name is Caleb Wittebane and this is my brother, Philip."

"Oh, I guess you should." The witch smiled back. "I am Azura Clawthorne."

"So, where are we?" Caleb asked her. "This doesn't look like home at all."

"That's because it's not. Far from it, actually." she explained to them, smiling. "But, it's still home to me. Welcome to the Boiling Isles!"

Philip stepped out from behind the rock and slowly headed back over to his brother, while keeping his eyes on the witch. The two yelled in surprise as they saw something rustling in the witch's hair, popping out at them. A small yellow cardinal bird, peered at them, before narrowing it's eyes at the other brother, Philip. It chirped angrily and flew over to him and started pecking at him furiously. Caleb tried to swat the bird away from his brother. Azura whistled using her fingers, making the bird stop. It flapped over the brothers before flying back over to her.

"Sorry about that. He's my father's palisman. He doesn't trust me on my own so he sent it to guard me." she told them. Caleb stared at the bird, curiously.

"Palisman?" He questioned. "You mean a familiar?" Azura's eyes widen in surprise before she nodded.

"Sort of. But, he's more than that. He's like a friend, a companion, family. He was made from wood from a palisman tree." she smiled. Caleb's eyes widened a little more, intrigued, until felt his brother tug his arm.

"Caleb, how are we going to get back home?!" he whispered, worried.

"Oh! Why don't I take you to meet my family! They can probably help figure out a way to get you back and in the meantime you guys should check out the isles!" Azura smiled. "The residents and citizens here are friendly, well, most of them! There are some that might try to eat you!" She joked, laughing. Philip narrowed his eyes at her, while Caleb smiled.

"Okay, take us to them." He replied. Philip's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets, looking at his brother in disbelief.

"Caleb, no! We know nothing about her!" He argued. "We can't trust her!"

"But, what if this is the only way?" Caleb told him. "She seems harmless enough."

"Yeah, if I wanted to hurt you, I would've done so by now!" Azura smirked as she remarked. Philip glared at her.

"Come on, it's better than being lost out here in the cold." she told them as she walked away. The two brothers looked at each other, before following behind her.

"Why were you in our world?" Caleb asked her. Azura turned to him.

"You have nice flowers there. The ones here are mostly dried out or hard to find."

Caleb stared at her in surprise as they continued walking. He was conflicted and confused.

Was everything that he has been told a lie?