“Sophie.” Gabe gasped, then fell silent at the sight of her overwhelming and natural beauty.
Sophie pulled at the flowing scarf and wrapped it around her shoulders.
Once it was secure, she turned back around to look out over the horizon.
She didn’t say a word.
Gabe felt an overwhelming need to be with her, to be at her side.
He began to run towards her.
His feet became heavier with every step.
Gabe pushed harder, his muscles burning.
Looking down, he saw the earth had turned into a thick and heavy clay like mud.
“Sophie,” he cried, reaching out towards her.
She still didn’t turn around.
Gabe went down onto his hands and knees.
He started to crawl towards her through the torturous earth.
The closer he came to Sophie, the darker the skies grew.
Ominous gray clouds billowed together, forming one large mass.
The tree beside Sophie, which had been in bloom with white cherry blossoms, transformed into a dead and decaying shell of its former self.
Just feet away from Sophie, Gabe could see the bottom of her dress had turned into filthy tatters.
The mud reached up her dress in a veining pattern.
Gabe knew he just had to get her to look into his eyes and everything would be alright.
He reached out with a shaking hand to grab hold of her dress and force her to look at him.
His mud covered hand grabbed hold of her calf through the gown.
“Sophie, please,” he pleaded, unsure of what he even wanted from her.
“How could you?” she whispered at last, still not turning to look at him.
Shocked and confused by her words, Gabe’s mouth fell open.
“I don’t understand, Sophie.
How could I what?” Gabe begged for an answer to her vague accusation.
In less than a second, Sophie turned and grabbed the wrist of his hand he had been touching her leg with.
She brought her face within inches of his.
Her face was contorted, twisted with hatred and anger.
“How could you just give me to the demons like that?”
Her eyes flickered red for a moment and then the color covered them.
Gabe’s heart filled up with an overwhelming fear at what he saw.
Sophie tightened her grasp on his wrist, her nails emerging like claws and digging into his flesh.
He stared at her, eyes open wide, unable to speak.
In horror, he watched as her flesh turned gray and began to flake away like ash, revealing a molten colored beast beneath long, sharp fangs.
The dress she had worn burned away along with her flesh.
What stood before him couldn’t be described in any other way but as a monster.
A deafening noise filled his ears.
Gabe clenched his eyes shut and covered his ears in pain.
When he managed to open his eyes again, much to his horror, he saw he was completely surrounded by toads.
The thunderous noise caused his rib cage to rattle within him.
Looking back at the monster that had him in its grasp, Gabe realized it had not been Sophie, but in fact, was Baal.
“She’s ours now!” he moaned, flames flickering and popping around the corners of his mouth.
He then let out a wicked cry and released Gabe’s wrist.
Gabe turned and desperately began clawing at the earth, trying to crawl away from the demon’s grasp.
“Why run, Gabe?
We know where you are.
We have her.
Why not join us?
Otherwise you will never be with her again.” When Baal spoke, the entire earth trembled.
Gabe felt like there was a vice gripping around his heart, squeezing the life from it.
Gabe closed his eyes tight.
His entire body shook, overwhelmed with sadness and fear.
The toads grew louder.
“Gabe!” The familiar voice filled the skies.
“Gabe, come on!
Wake up!”
Uri commanded.
Gabe refused to open his eyes.
Baal had already duped him once by appearing as Sophie, he was not going to fall for any more of his trickery.
Uri pulled Gabe from the Alicorn, repeatedly slapping him in an effort to break the spell.
His awaken spell had not worked.
Uri feared Gabe might be too deep asleep for him to wake him.
“Gabe!” he shouted one last time, shaking his friend wildly.
Gabe gasped, opening his eyes in a panic and flailing his arms in a defensive motion.
“Gabe, it’s me!” Uri said, grabbing hold of his face and forcing him to look into his eyes.
“Look at me.
It’s your friend Uri.
You’re safe.
We’re at Iron Gate.”
Gabe gasped, trying to catch his breath.
He could feel the pressure around his heart releasing.
Realizing it was in fact his trusted friend looking down at him, Gabe let out a sigh of relief.
Leaning forward, he wrapped his arms tightly around him in a brotherly embrace.
Somehow, they had made it.
“Hi, I’m Patina, of course everyone here calls me Tina,” said a frail woman as she walked forward, moving like a gazelle.
She gracefully extended a hand to shake.
Gabe noticed her eyes were over-sized and sunken.
Her nose was extremely thin and her face seemed exaggerated in its length.
There was something he found very haunting about her.
He noticed her skin almost glowed with a hint of blue.
She was so pale.
The stormy clouds overhead made her complexion all the more noticeable.
Her gray robes draped over her thin and extremely long arms.
Gabe couldn’t help but wonder if the rest of her lean, lanky body was as skeleton-like as her hands.
“I’m the head master here at Iron Gate.”
She continued in an eerie tone.
Gabe already knew this.
Michael had prepared them before they left.
Gabe couldn’t imagine this woman being a leader.
She seemed somewhat young, which Gabe knew truly did not indicate anything real about her age.
Michael had insisted they show her the utmost respect.
She was one of the eldest and most powerful Guardians in existence.
Gabe stared at her for a lingering moment.
Her dark raven hair that was slicked and pulled back into a tight ponytail indicated no signs of graying.
Even with the aging tricks of being a Guardian, he couldn’t imagine her being as old as Michael had suggested.
“Hello, ma’am.
I’m Uri, and this is Gabe.” Uri said, patting Gabe heavily on the back, pushing him forward.
“I see,” Tina responded.
“So you are the protector?”
Her words drew out, long and heavy.
“That’s what they keep telling me.” Gabe said smiling, in an attempt to be charming.
After shaking Patina’s hand, he awkwardly slid his hands into his pockets.
“I see.
Well I trust your journey was without incident.” She continued, not waiting for a response.
“My associate, Alfred, will show you to your rooms so you can rest for a bit.” Patina said, turning and motioning to the short stocky man to her left.
“If you don’t mind, ma’am.
We have sick people at home and we would like to get started right away.” Gabe pleaded.
“I do mind, young man.” Patina’s kind and welcoming demeanor quickly changed.
Her body became rigid as she peered at Gabe.
“I am very busy.
With all the things I have to tend to, your ‘investigation’ is not at the top of my priority list.
You will have to excuse me now.”
It was clear Patina was irritated by their presence.
“Of course,” Uri quickly chimed in with damage control.
“We are honored to be your guests.”
Uri walked over to Gabe, taking a tight hold around his elbow and dragging him towards Alfred.
He grumbled under his breath, “Come on, Gabe.
Let's do as we are told.”
Gabe stumbled alongside of Uri silently.
Still feeling haunted by images from his dreams, he was willing to follow along without much protest.
“So that didn’t really take too long.” Gabe said.
“What do you mean?
What didn’t take long?” Uri asked, confused.
“The trip here.
I couldn’t have been asleep but for maybe a matter of minutes.” Gabe replied.
“We were in the air for almost eight hours.”
“That’s impossible.” Gabe argued.
“I remember everything!
It wasn’t that long.
“It felt like less because you were asleep.
Everything in your dreams happens much slower, kind of the best way to travel in my opinion.
I wish I could have been asleep.”
“Why?
Did something happen?”
Gabe asked.
“No, of course not.
I just meant because it was a long and boring trip.”
Uri clarified.
“Yeah.
Well I can tell you, I would much rather have been awake than to have a demon in my head.
It is not something I would recommend.” Gabe added in anguish.
“So they found you?” Uri asked, confirming what Michael and he had expected would happen.
“Baal did.”
“Wait,” Uri stopped and grabbed hold of Gabe’s arm, turning him to face him directly.
“How do you know it was Baal?”
“I have seen Baal before, Uri.
It was him.
Not to mention there were a million toads, so that leaves little doubt.”
“Gabe, this isn’t good.”
Uri said almost sounding panicked.
“Yeah, tell me about it.
He is really messed up.
He was toying with me.
He acted like he was Sophie at first.
Some really jacked up stuff, man.
He kept saying he owned Sophie now and I might as well give up.”
“Don’t you get it?
They didn’t send trackers looking for you.
It was actually Baal who found you.
I think maybe he was trying to get you away from Rampart Manor and the protection of it.
We need to talk to their clerics.
They have to know what we’re up against.
Some minor little protection spells are not going to do it.
They are going to need a lot more to keep Baal away.”
Uri sounded as if he were having the conversation with himself.
“We should also contact Michael.
He really needs to know we arrived safely.” Uri continued.
“Oh yeah, I saw him, too.” Gabe said as he remembered watching his mentor fall.
“What?
Where?
In your dreams?” Uri questioned.
“Yeah, in the beginning.
It was weird.
He had these huge white wings.
Kind of crazy.”
“He was in angel form in your dream?” Uri asked.
“Yeah, I guess.
Why?”
“Did anything else happen in your dream with Michael?”
“Not really.
I guess.
He was falling out of the air while screaming.
Oh yeah, and one of his wings was bloody.”
“Damn it!” Uri shouted.
“We need to call home right away.
Michael could be hurt.”
“What?
No.
It was just a dream.” Gabe insisted.
“You and Michael are connected, Gabe.
You have been since the beach.”
“I don’t understand.
What does that mean?” Gabe asked.
“It means it might not have been just a dream.
You could have been seeing a representation of what was actually happening.”
Uri explained.
“So wait, if that is true, then what Baal said about Sophie being his already might be true as well?”
Gabe asked in a panic.
“Don’t worry, Gabe.
We’ll get her back.”
Uri reaffirmed.