GrimLord watched Scooter lay on the ground for an uncomfortable amount of time. If he weren’t intangible he would have slapped Scooter across the face to rouse him awake.

Scooter’s eyes fluttered open and he began to wail. “I hoped it was just a nightmare. But I’m really here. Darn it all, I’m really here.” He sat up and searched for the sword on the ground next to him.

“No one has yet to complete the quest. But you are different than the rest.” GrimLord leaned in close, and for the first time Scooter saw into his eyes. It was as if peering into the infinite, an endless expanse of stars and galaxies hid behind his semi-transparent pupils. You have the blood inside of you, the makings of something more than the short, harmless man child I see before me. I can smell it.”

Scooter sniffed his armpits discretely wondering just what he was smelling. “So what now,” Scooter said, getting to his feet, dusting off his clothes. “You are imprisoning me here for ten years? Really?”

“It’s more complicated than imprisonment. But ten years is no time at all. It’s put a blink of an eye.”

The pun made Scooter burp. He put his hand over his mouth to prevent it from becoming more than a burp. “I can’t survive ten years in a place like this and I don’t believe I can make that shot if I had a million years.”

“Believe in yourself Warrior Scooter.”

“Can’t you just send me back and find someone else? Or maybe I can kidnap a golf pro? Or kidnap a thousand warriors and just wipe out all the demons and walk to the hole and plug it up?”

“No. It doesn’t work that way. My power is… complicated.”

“Forget ten years, in one hour my quest back home will be pointless.”

“Your friends will barely notice your absence. Time work differently here.”

Scooter paced back and forth vigorously. “Isn’t there anything I can do to make you send me back?” Overhead fire dragons roared and Scooter ducked, hands covering the top of his head.

GrimLord’s eyes narrowed. “I’m sorry, but this quest is too important. If you are worried for you safety here in RavenEye, there is a place I can take you. Come.” GrimLord began to walk without waiting for Scooter to answer.

* * * *

The two lone figures moved across the desolate landscape, weaving a path between the house sized black boulders. The path took them into a valley and then gradually the incline forced sweat from Scooter’s brow. He gripped the sword tightly with two hands, looking at it, occasionally swinging it around to get the feel of it. The rusty metal looked much heavier than it felt in his hands. He had never actually held a real sword before but ten years in RavenEye demanded he learn to use one. And fast.

They arrived at a place where the black boulders became dense as to halt their journey. But GrimLord never slowed as he followed a path he must have walked many times. Indeed, the ground underfoot looked compacted, worn, as if it had been travelled recently.

GrimLord slowed and pointed to the ground.“Careful here,” he said. Scooter spotted the bear-trap like device buried beneath the ash and gave it a wide berth. It looked manmade.

The field of boulders abruptly ended and they stood upon an elevated perch, overlooking a clearing. Ahead were twenty huts or more surrounded by a rickety fence.

“Is that-“

“They call it Haven. I call it the village of failures.” GrimLord turned around to go back the way he came. “I’m sure you’ll have lots to discuss.”

“Aren’t you coming?”

“It’s for the best if I don’t,” GrimLord said, waving Scooter forward. But before he left he made sure to mention that they’d meet again in about ten years.

* * * *

“I could have been neck deep in that speed reading course, but instead I’m here,” he moaned to himself.

He moved along a well worn path across the clearing which lead toward an imposing gate made of unknown materials. Wood didn’t seem plentiful in RavenEye. Finding a normal tree here would be like finding a watermelon on the moon. Massive scratches and gouges on the side of the fence made Scooter wonder what horrors they were trying to keep out. Scooter walked gingerly, hoping to detect hidden traps before they clamped over his bare feet. He assumed the traps were meant to stop future attacks from whatever creatures left the marks on the wall.

The top of each plank in the wall had a sharpened end, perhaps to discourage creatures from trying to climb over. The closer he got to the village the more impressed he became by the scale. It must have taken a long time to make the wall.

Scooter gasped when he spotted a woman’s head stuck at the end of one of the stakes. What ghastly place did GrimLord lead him to? He started to get woozy.

The head moved, its eyes opened wide. “Something approaches,” the head called out.

Scooter stopped and held his sword high.

“I think it might be human,” she shouted.

The head rose above the stake, revealing the full body of a young woman for a moment before she disappeared behind the gate again. With a jarring, metallic crunching sound, the gate opened and the woman ran out. But only so far. “Quick, over here,” the woman called to him, waving her hand urgently for him to join. Or perhaps she was waving away demon mosquitoes. “Come. Here.”

Scooter walked slowly to her, minding his steps among the jagged plants that looked like they were made of metal, watching for hidden bear traps, all the while wishing he would wake from this nightmare.

Impatient, the woman ran to him and pulled him by the arm, urging him to run with her back inside the date. “Where did you come from,” she asked, eyes wide, as she ran.

“I was in the Holo Golf Lounge, trying to get something from the storage cupboard. Next thing I knew, I was here.” She was a fast runner. The gate closed, sealing them inside and he lowered his sword.

“Are you from the OtherSide?” She held her gaze steady, eyes wide and unblinking. “Tell me, are you from the OtherSide?” She shook him lightly.

“I think I can say maybe? I don’t know exactly what you mean.”

She broke away looking around the area. “I didn’t hear the horn. I could not have missed the horn. Unless Barnesworth missed it? That old coot. Dammit.”

“Who are you,” Scooter asked.

“Are you a shapeshifting demon perhaps,” she said, spinning him around and patting him down as if looking for wings and a pointed tail. “It’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“Hey stop! I’m human,” Scooter protested. “I told you, I was in the Holo Golf Lounge and then next thing. Poof! I’m here.”

The woman frowned, her thin eyebrows pinched together. She stood, grabbing Scooter’s hand and pulled him close, her eyes looking skyward towards the massive eyeball sky looking back. “We thank you for this gift, All Seeing One.”

She turned to Scooter again. “We’ve got one,” she screamed out. "Get the preparations ready!"

“Are you planning on eating me,” Scooter asked, pulling away from her.

“Welcome to Haven,” she said. “I’m sorry you’ve come. But come on, let’s meet the others.”