A Strange Stone
  HornSounder and the two farmers moved toward the black, glassy stone frame. Sounder tried to see through the purplish, swirling haze in the middle of the rectangular frame. Wisps of some kind of energy floated lazily up from the haze and dissipated, like bizarre purple snowflakes floating against gravity. The haunting sound of almost-whispers, almost-voices echoed from the glow within.  
  “I’m telling you, Sounder, I’ve never seen anything like it. Hunh,” said Farmer Stanley. Farmer Jed’s straw hat shook as he nodded his head in agreement.
  “First it stopped being warm,” said Jed, hands shoved in the sleeves of his brown farmer’s coveralls. “Seemed to get almost cold, it did, uh-huhm.”
  They had finally reached the stone frame. The village elders had called it a Nether Portal, and it certainly seemed like a doorway of some kind. But no one had ever had the courage to go through it. They had placed a fence around it long ago, though the gate had a mechanism so involved that none of the villagers seemed to be able to open it. The only one who could was Sounder, the strange, armored albino who lived in the palace on the other side of the Darkwood from Dolphin Cove Village.



  The two farmers waited while Sounder opened the fence gate.
  “You two stay there,” he growled.
  “Fine by us. Hm.”
  Sounder drew his sword and checked his shield. He didn’t like the Portal. It gave him shivers, with the voices and whispers coming from it. Of course, he was no coward. He had fought many of the evil denizens of the night. The rotting, shuffling zombies were not so bad, really. The skeletons that sounded like someone knocking over a marimba were worse, in his opinion. Their bows never seemed to run out of arrows like his did. And the screeching phantoms were annoying, but really, he only saw them if he had gone a long time without sleeping, so quite honestly, it was possible they were just hallucinations from an over-tired mind.
  It was the creepers that he hated with a passion. They were nearly silent and they blended in with the grass of the plains he lived by. Let one get too close and it would blow a hole in the ground and anything else near. He had repaired more damage to structures and buildings than he could remember.



  Inching closer to the portal, he stopped suddenly as his foot came down on something hard. He had been walking on the soft, golden grass path. But under his white boot was a reddish, mottled stone about a meter across, embedded in the ground. From the top of it grew a solitary red and orange mushroom. Looking around, he saw a second stone through the haze of the Nether Portal.




  Stanley babbled something at Sounder and he turned back to look at the two Farmers.
  “You know, you villagers are really hard to understand sometimes,” he replied.
  “Uh huh. Well, you have a strange obsession with torches and lanterns, so I’d say we’re even,” said Jed with a smile as he chewed on a dried stalk of wheat.
  Sounder thought for a moment. “Touché. Alright, let’s get away from this thing.”
  “Huhm, that’s a great idea,” said Stanley.
  “Hey Sounder,” Jed said as they walked back to the village. “When are you going to let me come out and see your fields?”
  “I’m not.”
  “Aw, huhm. How come?”
  “Because you guys never go home when I tell you to. You just wander around and get lost, then night falls. And you know what happens then.”
  “You’re right, uh-huh.”
  “Speaking of, the sun is setting. You should go inside and get some rest.”
  “What’re you gonna do, Sounder?”
  “I was thinking about building you a wall.”
  “We already have a fence.”
  “I didn’t say a fence. I said a wall. Those raids have been getting more common.”
  “Well, I might be wrong,” said Jed, “but it seems to me those raids tend to start when you show up after a being away awhile.”
  “Are you saying you don’t want me around, Jed?”
  Jed looked at him seriously, his long nose shadowed in the failing sun by the brim of his hat.
  “Uhn,” he shook his head, sounding like a buzzer. “I didn’t say that. You’re handy to have around. You’re pretty good with your sword and bow, and even that big pitchfork you have.”
  “It’s a trident.”
  “Yeah, that thing. You’re a decent construction foreman too. Besides, you have the best carrots and potatoes of anyone we know. And pumpkins, and melons, and beetroot,” he continued on dreamily as they reached the Farmers’ Lodge, a large, two-story dormitory made out of dark logs and light birchwood.
  “Good night, guys,” Sounder said with a smile.
  “Good night, Sounder!” they chimed together.
  The sun was almost gone when Sounder leaped onto his fast, agile mount, the dependable ThatsUsinTheOlBean. The black horse sprang immediately into action, easily leaping the fence and galloping across the field toward the deepening shadows of the Darkwood. He cut through the narrow path and heard the mournful groan of a zombie and the harsh hiss of a couple spiders as he sailed past the thick-boled oaks and giant mushrooms. As he burst through the other side, the first thing that always caught his eye was the great spruce and jungle trees sticking up from the tree farm, dominating the landscape.
  Then the palace came into view, a mass of stone brick and towers on a hill, overlooking the farm fields and pens. He caught movement in the grass — low black shapes with glowing red eyes, rustling columns of dry leaves and twigs, the jangle of pale bones and the squelch of decaying flesh. They all locked onto him and began to give chase. He pulled out his sword and crouched low behind his shield as ThatsUsinTheOlBean sped away from the attackers. He heard the thwong of bowstrings but nothing ever hit him because the faithful steed’s velocity carried him past their arrows. By the time Bean leaped over the outer fence of the castle and crossed the shallow moat, he was sitting back up and chewing on a piece of steak, looking forward to his bed.

  The next day, Sounder returned to the village with not only plenty of gray stone bricks and dark oak logs, but also leashes and saddles. There were donkeys in the meadows outside the village this morning, and Sounder really wanted a herd of the sturdy, strong animals. They made excellent beasts of burden, able to carry a huge amount of just about anything Sounder needed.
  The donkeys, he knew, loved the special golden carrots he was able to craft. Before he went to try to tame them, he was digging in a chest of supplies just outside Dolphin Cove Village’s brewery to find the gold nuggets he’d need, when he heard a disturbing sound coming from the area of the portal. It was a strange combination of a pig snort and a growl, but too deep for a normal hog. Sounder lifted his head, holding the gold nuggets, and looked toward the portal. The tusked, evilly grinning face of the strangest creature he had yet seen stared back at him.

  

  Covered in what seemed to be leather and gold armor and carrying a bulging sack, it studied him with pale eyes that seemed to glow a strange purplish color, like the haze of the Nether Portal. Its gaze fell on the gold he held, and immediately it growled in fury and dropped the sack, pulling up a nasty-looking crossbow and loading a black-fletched arrow. In an instant Sounder dropped the gold and whipped out his sword. He leaped onto the mound of grass nearby and then flung himself over the fence guarding the Portal, bringing his sword down as he crashed on top of the strange pig-like man. The creature squealed in pain before pulling up its crossbow and firing at point-blank range. Sounder felt the bolt punch through his armor and into his skin, but he ignored the pain. Behind him he dimly heard the panicking villagers running in all directions and desperately trying to get away from this — well, this whatever-it-was.
  The creature put the crossbow to the ground and began reloading. Sounder swung once, twice and the creature finally fell over into the purple haze of the Portal, fading away into the shimmering glow.
  The entire village was waiting for him on the other side of the fence that surrounded the Portal. Farmers Jed and Stanley, but also Tom, and Joe Bob too. All the Librarians were there - Dolphin Cove Village had a disproportionate amount of books for such a small place. He recognized Pierz, and Loyus, Pao, Flam, Porot, Shar, Loo, Fishensie and his brother Fortch, Unbie and Mendel. The clerics from the brewery - Hayal, Strens and Reg - were there too, as well as the shepherd Woolsey. It had been Dave the Mayor - his robe was brown and he never wanted to trade anything with Sounder - who had rung the village bell.
  On top of it all, standing just outside the fence was the huge, red-eyed guardian of the village, Gol. Gol stood silently, looking at Sounder, as if to say, I’m watching you. Sounder had seen Gol throw a zombie nearly the length of a dormitory. He had no wish to get on the bad side of the vine-covered sentinel of Dolphin Cove.
  “Sounder! Are you OK, huhm?” asked Unbie, wringing his hands in his white robes.
  “I’m fine,” he replied.
  “You should eat. You look pale. Or better yet have a drink of this.” That was Reg the cleric, holding out a flask of some liquid he had concocted. Sounder took the glass bottle and drained it down, feeling it warm his insides. The skin where the creature’s bolt had pierced him seemed to knit back together. It was a strange feeling, but he had gotten used to Reg’s unusual libations.
  “What was it, Sounder? Was it the Oppadayet?”
  “I don’t know, Fortch. Maybe.”
  They had all feared the Oppadayet - the strange, world-altering waves that sometimes rippled through their quiet lives in Dolphin Cove Village. One could never predict what would happen when the Oppadayet struck. Sometimes, they found new ores or materials, or new ways to make things. Sometimes, new creatures began showing up, such as the big yellow and black insects Dave called Beez. Sometimes, like the time several months ago, new enemies fell upon them, as had happened with the violent and malicious Patrols that came near, tearing up crops in his fields and shooting at Sounder with crossbows. When he resisted, they retaliated and came with much larger raids on Dolphin Cove Village.
  Sounder went to where the creature had dropped its heavy sack and opened it. Inside were a number of charcoal-gray skulls, grinning silently and staring at him through empty eye sockets. The skulls repulsed him and seemed to make his entire arm hurt just by holding one.



  “I’ve heard of these things,” Sounder said. “I think we are in trouble.”
  “What do you mean, huhm?” asked Dave.
  “Well, I don’t know what that creature was. But there are only two reasons to gather these skulls: one, you like them for decoration, and two, you want to summon a terrible, evil monster. Thing is, there are nearly twenty skulls here. That could summon at least six of those monsters, and they blow up anything and anyone in their path. Look at the Portal. See the stones changing? Those weren’t there before. I think the whatever is on the other side of that Portal is trying to come through.”
  There were gasps and wringing of hands in robes as they dashed around in a panic for a moment. Slightly annoyed, Sounder walked over and rang the bell.



  “Guys! GUYS! Settle down.” He held up empty hands for calm. “Look, we handled the raids. We’ve handled everything else the Oppadayet has thrown at us. Do you remember the water zombies, those Drowned? And the Raiders? We keep them out pretty well. And Gol even smacks those phantoms around. We’ll get through this. I have a plan.”
  “OK, OK, huhm. Sounder, what are you going to do?”
  “Well, we’re gonna need some help. And more diamonds.”


  The next day, Sounder had companions. Stinger, an ominous warrior in red, bearing every weapon Sounder knew of; Tiger, with a mischievous twinkle in his eye, wearing sleek black and turquoise armor, but no helmet; and Penguin, serious and eager in green and black armor, with unusual green ornaments on his headset that looked like cat’s ears.


  “Alright you three, here’s the deal,” Sounder said, and laid out what they knew. “So, I think we need to go through that portal, and block it from the other side. We can’t let these things summon six Withers over Dolphin Cove. There will be nothing left. But if we block it from the far side, then maybe they won’t get through.”
  “But, Sounder, six Withers would be awesome!” said Stinger, who always enjoyed a good battle.
  “You’ll get plenty of combat, Stinger, just wait. Penguin, do you want to harvest crops, or look for diamonds so that you guys can have decent armor and shields?”
  “I’ll look for diamonds.”
  “OK, then take this - it’s a diamond pickaxe that I enchanted with some books that Fortch, Fish, Unbie, and Mendel traded me. The mine entrance is over there in that stone cliff on the other side of the fields. Get enough diamonds for you three each to have a full set of armor and a diamond sword. Tiger, need you to trade with the villagers to get them to enchant some books. I will harvest crops and supply you with a bunch of emeralds and books, then you talk to the Librarians and start enchanting things. We should all have armor, a shield, a good bow, and a decent sword before we go through that gate. Stinger, since we need some leather for those books, I’ve got a job for you.”
  It took days, but they all worked hard. Stinger came back from his hunts with piles of beef steaks and bags full of leather. Penguin had found so many diamonds they all had full suits of new armor, swords, axes, and pickaxes. Sounder had been spending time at the farm, harvesting crops, shearing sheep, and tending to the cows, chickens, pigs, rabbits, and beehives. He had produced enough commodities to fill the saddle-chests of six donkeys repeatedly, bringing the loads from the farm through the Darkwood to Dolphin Cove Village. And Tiger had been tirelessly enchanting during the day and combating the denizens of the dark every night, working with the Librarians to procure the books necessary for everyone to augment their tools, weapons, and armor.



  Sounder also began preparing raw materials - he crafted bricks out of stone, chopped logs from the tree farm, and formed coal into blocks for easier carrying. When they were all ready with food, tools, weapons, and supplies, they decided: a good night’s rest, and tomorrow was the day.



  “I’ll go first,” Stinger hefted his sword eagerly as they walked toward the Portal early the next morning.
  The flattened grass path had been obscured by strange blue and crimson ground radiating out from the portal, and all around the portal something that looked like giant fungi had arisen as if overnight. They were immense, some of them over twenty meters high, with huge blue or scarlet caps and strange vines creeping down, and twitching at them as they passed as if the vines wanted to strangle them. Even the rough oak of the fence they had built around the Portal had seemed to change to a purplish or turquoise in places.
  “I don’t like this at all,” Sounder said.
  “Don’t worry, Sounder,” said Tiger, following after Stinger. “Maybe there are doggos on the other side.” He flashed an impudent grin and walked into the portal.
  With a last glance at Penguin, Sounder stepped into the swirling purple haze inside the frame of the portal. Immediately the Portal seemed to hum and writhe, and Sounder felt sick. But just as he was about to step out, the entire world seemed to change, slow down and stop spinning. He emerged from the other side to a nightmare world.


Into the Fire
  It was hot. Lava spilled in great columns from bizarre floating islands and cliffs. There were dangerous holes in the ground ending in either lava, or glowing-hot rocks, or worse, some kind of sand that seemed to change and writhe when Sounder looked at it. To his horror, when he stared at the sand, he seemed to see screaming faces in it. The huge crimson fungi grew everywhere, and not far off were the great blue ones in a valley of more of that terrible sand, a dim, hazy place with blue fire burning endlessly.   He heard snorts and grunts, then the squeal of a large animal.
  “Sounder, watch out!” yelled Stinger, running at him with sword flashing.
  Sounder turned just in time to be flung upward by a huge tusked beast. Immediately he spun, leaped and came down on it with an overhead strike just as Stinger and Tiger both arrived swinging as well. The beast was tough, striking out with tusks nearly as long as Sounder’s arms, bashing at their shields and armor until they finally brought it down.
  “What was that?” asked Sounder.
  “I don’t know,” Tiger said, shaken. “But there are more of them, look down there, and through those tree things. They’re all over the place, and they seem to just appear out of thin air.”
  Penguin had arrived and stood looking around with the same expression Sounder had worn when he first came through.
  “Alright, guys, we need to wall this thing up. Penguin and I will build. Stinger, you and Tiger stand guard. I think we’re going to need it. Keep any more of those beasts off us until we have the wall up.”
  They went to work, laying down brick after brick and hanging tough iron doors into the wall. They had moved to the fourth and final side when Stinger called out.
  “We’ve got company! And they look mad!”
  Suddenly the hot, oppressive air was filled with the grunts, snorts, and squeals of what sounded like hundreds of crazed, giant hogs, coming from every direction.
  “Penguin!” Sounder shouted, “we need to finish the wall fast! Get on top of it and build from up there!”
  “Got it!”
  “We’ve got your back!” yelled Stinger, and Tiger silently nodded as he pulled out his diamond sword.
  Through the stems of the giant tree-fungi dozens of pig-like, tusked, almost-human creatures — like the one that had come through the portal and attacked Sounder — streamed toward their shelter. The large, boar-like creatures came also, some barreling toward their wall, others attacking the pig-warriors, turning the entire area into a chaotic melee.





  Penguin and Sounder frantically placed bricks to finish the wall while Stinger and Tiger laid about them with their swords, felling pig-human-creature and hog-boar-creature alike. Stinger reached back and unslung his bow, launching flaming arrows into the hordes descending on their outpost, while Tiger threw fire charges he and some of the clerics had devised, sending the creatures flying when they detonated.
  Penguin and Sounder had the wall completed up to four meters and were starting on a roof when Tiger called out.
  “Sounder! This doesn’t look good!” he gasped in between dodging pig-human-fired crossbow bolts.
  Sounder looked up and saw a group of the pig-human-creatures building a kind of scarecrow out of the creepy writhing sand.
  “Uh oh,” he said. “Penguin! Use the obsidian! Double thick! Tiger, Stinger, you’re gonna need your bows!”
  Just then there was a blood-curdling roar that reverberated off the cliffs and gorges in this strange place, and a massive explosion sent pig-humans and hog-boars rocketing in all directions. A terrifying apparition, like a three-skulled, flying ribcage rose from the crater.



  “What are they doing?!” yelled Sounder in frustration. “That thing will attack everyone, even them!”
  And sure enough, as soon as the creature rose up several meters in the air, it began spewing projectiles at every living thing in the area. Each projectile landed with an explosion, some larger than others. Sounder and Penguin laid down the obsidian bricks, which blunted most of the damage to their structure, while Tiger and Stinger fired arrow after arrow. Many of the pig-human-creatures fired crossbows at the flying horror above as well, and it roared in anger, blasting away at them too.
Sounder had the grim opportunity to see one of the projectiles up close as it sailed past his head - it was a dark gray, evilly grinning skull. The resulting explosion three meters away knocked him back and left him stunned.




 


  Getting back to his feet, he saw some kind of blue field surround the monster, and suddenly their arrows could no longer hit it.
  “Swords out!” he yelled as the thing descended, still laying about with exploding skulls every second or two. The pig-humans drew their own golden swords, and the hog-boars even tried to gore the terrible fiend, but in the end, it had destroyed all of them. Sounder, Penguin, Tiger, and Stinger were all that was left alive in the area. The three-headed abomination turned its baleful gaze on the four warriors bracing themselves for an all-out onslaught on top of the obsidian-covered bunker.
  “Spread out but watch the edge. Wait for it to get close then hit it hard!”
  The creature came to the edge of the bunker, and all four warriors rushed toward it, hitting it simultaneously with their freshly enchanted swords. The creature retaliated vengefully, blasting them all with exploding skulls and lifting off a few meters again. Stinger and Tiger both dealt blow after devastating blow, but it was the quiet Penguin, sprinting across the obsidian and leaping at the monster who finally smashed the dark bones back to dust and sand.



  Sounder stood up and took stock. Everyone had survived the titanic battle, but each of them was seriously wounded. They helped each other into the damaged bunker and after repairing the damage, one by one they transported themselves back to Dolphin Cove Village. The villagers were waiting, and when all four of the warriors came through, they let out a hearty cheer and began to launch fireworks. The Portal had gone back to the way it was, warming the area around it, although, the giant fungi and strange blue and red stones still remained. Reg and the other clerics came by and offered some of Reg and Hayal’s special concoctions which seemed to heal their wounds and make the pain go away.
  “You know,” said Strens thoughtfully, “I’ve heard there are things on the other side of that portal that make brewing much easier.”
  “Oh, yes, we’re dying to go back. It’s a lovely place on the other side, nice and warm, and the locals are really friendly too,” said Sounder sarcastically. He rubbed at some of the char marks on his armor, and looked at Tiger, Stinger, and Penguin, whose armor was still smoking slightly.
  Sounder thanked his companions for their help, and Stinger and Penguin waved their good-byes. Tiger made to leave too, but at the gate he turned, looked seriously at Sounder, then said:

“Dad, do you think next time we could maybe just wear some gold armor to the Nether?”