Side Chapter: Lost but not forgotten

The fire of combat engulfed him, adrenaline was running through his veins and his breath was getting shorter and shorter every time he tried to catch a little more oxygen to his tired lungs. Sprinting and taking cover all the while shooting back at the enemy wasn’t easy.
The enemy was making a push and two teams were already making a move towards the objective, his friends were nowhere to be seen and to make matters worse he was short on ammunition. Putting a fresh magazine into his Beryl and adjusting the visor on his helmet he said a few encouraging words to himself and decided to move on to the next building.
Just when he was about to peek through the corner of a wooden structure his helmet got hit and with a soft “plink” he knew it was over, he raised his left hand and yelled “HIT” and fell back to the spawn point of the area.

When Henry was introduced by his friends into playing air-soft, he never believed that he would get really into the game.
At first he was a bit slow catching things up in to the game, but when his group of friends decided to introduce more people into their little fire team, he knew he could perform a better role .
Henry was tall and fast or fast for someone whose height was 6'2 and lived a not so active life when it came to sports, he always looking for that one something in life that would make his daily routine a little more exciting and the idea of playing air-soft seemed to scratch that hitch in his life.
He didn’t come from a rich family, but he was never struggling to get by if you where to ask him he would admit to be a little spoiled even, but his life was a life of comfort never having to deal with economic troubles like most of his friends or being able to go on vacations outside of his country once or twice in recent years, examples like that were the ones that made him look in his groups of friends like a rich kid.

When you ask for a little change in life, sometimes the cold hard reality likes to strike you low, 2 years ago his mother suffered from cancer and went through surgery, doctors were surprised to see some amazing recovery but after a year the disease strikes back with a vengeance and made his life a living hell.
Taking care of his mother while at the same time helping his father wasn’t easy, and when you have to work and study at the same time there is little time for a moment of respite from all of it.
With the passing of his mother Henry felt a moment of relief knowing that she was in a better place but the void that was in his home and that occupied a part of his life was still there bothering him with guilt,

So when his friends decided to try this new sport Henry was a little apprehensive at first, but the rush he got from playing a few rounds was a feeling he didn’t want to let go, from having barely anytime on his life to finding a new hobby to dedicate his time brought the motivation he needed to get out of that spot of despair he found himself into, oh he sucked playing the first couple of times and a little more after that. But after finding new ways to play the game he decided to get serious and bought some specially made gear for himself.
His father never saw really the appeal of the sport but seeing his son motivated like that after going through the stages of grief, he was glad that his son still had that spark of light that made him go forward.

He didn’t take air-soft with the seriousness like some players, Henry always played it cosplaying some character from a video game or some television series but then when a new guy from the group came and said about getting matching uniforms and gear from an antique shop down the street, the group began to assimilate their new identity and became more competitive.
Today was Friday and the protection gear Henry was using was the closest thing one could assimilate to a modern special operator from a military group except for the clothes he was actually wearing, everything was on point even the cheap night vision google that he got for a discount on a gun show, a really old version of the ones that the military use but a real piece none the less. Being the rich kid from the group came with some advantages, he didn’t had the mannerism of a rich asshole but he did liked the idea of flaunting his new purchases to the rest of the team.

Henry was supposed to meet his team on the corner store cafe just a couple of blocks near his house, making a final check on his stuff and putting everything on his bag, he sent a final goodbye and “I love you” to his dad, Henry stepped out of his home.
Putting his head phones and shuffling through his phone while walking trying to get to that one song to listen while he waited for his friends barely watching where he stepped on, suddenly he felt his blood rushing down on his body.
It felt like getting up fast and getting dizzy only ten time stronger.
He felt to his knees and found himself in dark room, after a couple of seconds of him getting to his senses he realized that his hands were on a cobblestone floor, looking around his eyes focused on the barely lighted chamber of a castle with torches hanging on the walls, you don’t have to be a fantasy nerd or have the historical knowledge to figure out that you are in the dungeon of a castle or at the very least on the basement of one.
looking around he saw paintings and furniture being covered with white cloths to avoid the dust, shuffling around with the bigger and closest one he saw a painting of a creature that looked like an albino satyr with armor throwing a pose that resembled a conqueror from the past.

The entire painting described the figure like a bringer of storm against many other creatures that looked like a demonic version of the creatures he knew or at least he could identify easily, Hippogrifs, Dragons, Unicorns, Pegasuses and the likes who looked deformed and evil while the so called savior showed himself like a shield against the monsters.
Henry just stood there looking at this painting for a couple of moments thinking how familiar it was from the old posters of the Great Wars from his world, just like the plain propaganda posters but it wasn’t that what surprised him, it was the idea of him being there in the first place, where was he? what happened to him in the first place? How did he arrived there? questions after questions flooded his mind until he decided to leave the room he was in, since standing there hoping for an answer to his present dilemma wasn’t going to appear just like that.

Moving around slowly He found himself on a huge cellar filled from wall to wall with bottles of wine, huge barrels were sitting in a pile on one corner and some furniture like the one he saw on the storage room was sitting on the other corner of room closest to a double door. Henry was about to call out for help until he heard heavy footsteps coming closer to where he was.
Acting quickly he dove for the furniture and seeing an extra white tarp he threw it on top of him, blending in closer with the rest of the covered furniture in the room.

Two creatures came in looking awfully familiar to the satyr he saw on the painting, they looked around for a couple of seconds and then they sighed, once they felt they were safe, one took a couple of bottles from the cellar and a couple of pint sized cups that were on a shelf while the other one moved a couple of chairs and a small table to the middle of the room. They began to speak in a foreign language that he could not understand at all, he could figure out that they complaining a lot thanks to the gesturing on their bodies but aside from that nothing else. Once the creatures began to drink, Henry decided to slowly move away towards the door leading upstairs hoping that he could find the exit of this place.

Once he was out on the top floor he removed the tarp on his body and began sneaking his way out of the castle, which way? Henry didn’t know he just expected to find a window so he could open to get a view on the outside, after that he could figure something out, so far there were a couple of soldiers moving around the corridors but they were avoidable. The Left hall seemed to guide him even further inside the castle while the Right hall was almost the same with only a difference it had more doors, testing his luck He decided to try out his options on the Right hall.

After 15 minutes of sneaking around he finally decided to enter a room through a large dark oak door, it wasn’t a way out but it lead to a gigantic library, dusty books and shelves covered the entire room, picking one book after the other in order to find a semblance of any language closes to the languages of his world or at least the closest to the languages he knew so far.
Book after book he put them back into their place, finding nothing close to the answers he was looking for, the languages differed from one book to the other , different changes in the writings, like symbols that resemble scratches to geometric forms of writing and so many other examples. He stood there trying to make sense of his situation, he felt he had his answers in front of him but there was no way for him to understand it, the impatience and the danger of it all was stressing him.
Trying not to panic and make his presence known he move around the library checking the corners and when he felt safe he decided to change into his gear, being dressed in his uniform with his kit out in the open gave him some sense of safety, even if it was a false sense of security the idea of just being able to find a shred of comfort from all of it was the best he could do.
After changing into his uniform and loading his beryl and 1911 with BBs he walk around until he stumbled into a shelf that contained maps with a globe showing the terrain of the known world standing in front of the shelf with strange measuring equipment on the table, with determination he searched the globe and removed some of the huge scrolls that contained the maps, that’s when reality hit him hard for the third time on his life.
the globe itself was half covered with detailed terrain on one side describing the names of the continents and countries that made it, the other side was blank like someone decided to make a sculpture and left it unfinished, but the maps where of more help, for starters they had names written in English or what appeared to be a form of crude English, maps of countries with the name of Equestria, Griffonstone and Mount Aris where displayed in front of him, putting two and two together Henry found an inconvenient truth, he was no longer on Earth.

Grabbing three of the maps and saving them on his back bag he moved towards the upper floor of the library, finding a huge window, he looked outside only to find out he was on what looked like a fortress surrounded by walls. he could see battlements and more of the creatures guarding the walls and at the same time he could see a port on the far side down below leading to the open sea. The docks also had warehouses in which flying ships would make a stop to recharge their fuel or bring goods to trade.
On that spot Henry formed a plan, he wanted to get out of wherever he was and moved towards any other place rather than stay here and deal with a race of creatures that he couldn’t communicate or understand them in the first place. The dark armor and gloomy aesthetic of the place gave him an idea of what kind of ruler they had, having a storm raging outside didn’t make this place any more accepting or appealing.
Looking for a way out he scanned with the x4 sights of his air-soft rifle and he found out why the castle looked so empty, standing in a parade formation there were rows upon rows of armored creatures listening to speech of a general or at least what looked like a leader.

Not wanting to overstay his welcome Henry just simply decided to leave the place, going back to the halls, Henry looked for stairs that lead down to the lower floors in order to find a way out. he chose to go down through a spiral stair, after the 5th spin it came at a stop and what Henry expected to find an open hall with a great door leaving outside, he found what looked like the dungeons where prisoners where being kept.
With barely any security guarding the prisoners aside from a lonely guard that was sleeping in the comfort of a wooden chair, Henry moved slowly only to be heard by a creature from the other side of a cell, when he looked to side he saw a Hippogriff with bright colors and sharp talons, the Griff looked at him with an expression of curiosity and surprise. Both stood there not saying anything at all and when Henry was about to leave the Griff spoke.

The Hipogriff voice sounded almost like a whisper “Wait, don’t leave, you look strange but you are not one of the storm king minions, are you? (Henry said nothing but his confused face said a lot) you know part of the remnants of the Storm King's army?”

Apprehensive and not wanting to draw attention Henry realized that maybe this was a good way to find a escape route from this place and having a flying companion seemed like a good idea, “No, never heard of them, I just got here, I’ve been going around in circles trying to leave this place, Do you know the way out?”

With a small smile on his beak the Griff responded “Yeah, I thought so, Yes I know the way out, it’s easy to get out of the castle since most of the guards are out of their posts, usually they are more tight with their security specially since what happened with their last king. I can help you escape but I need your help the guards took my belongings and put them on the storage room on your left, the most important one is a small pendant with a stone on it, I need that pendant”

Thinking for a moment Henry thought of his chances, looking back and forth between the door to the storage and the sleeping guard he moved slowly towards the door, once he was inside the storage looked not that important but what really looked out of place was a couple of crossbows with their bolts and a whole set of golden armor sitting on a table along with the pendant the Griff described previously and a set of saddlebags.
Grabbing the pendant Henry did a double take and grabbed one of the crossbows, the design didn’t looked that complicated to use and after loading it he decided to keep it with him replacing the air-soft Beryl, it was a medieval weapon but a real weapon none the less. Moving towards the Griff Henry held out the pendant, the Griff grabbed it with out a second thought and put it on, with a soft sight he thanked Henry and told him that the keys to the cell were hanging on the other side where the guard was sleeping.

“That’s one of my weapons where did you found it? did they just put everything back there? ah forget it, their negligence work in our favor”
“Yeah there is also a set of armor and I think your saddlebags?”
“Ha idiots, good for us then, get me out of here and once I have my stuff back I’ll fly us out of here, take that crossbow with you I’ll have the other”

Nodding and walking slowly Henry went to the other side of the room to get the keys, he wasn’t completely sure why he decided to put his trust on the Hippogriff but he decided to trust his instinct, so far he found out barely anything about this place but the little thing he saw gave him a bad feeling to it.
The good thing about the keys is that there were only three hanging from a steel loop on the wall, Taking them with him Henry spun around and found that guard was waking up from his sleep, luckily the guard was focused on one direction down the hall and not behind him, seeing nothing out of the ordinary the guard went back to sleep turning himself back snoring even louder.

Making the trip back with his heart beat going through the roof, Henry fiddled with keys until on the second try he managed to open the cell door. Coming out without making a sound the Hippogriff stretched his wings and make a move towards the storage room ” Give 5 minutes please, keep a lookout”.
Henry took a position on the dark corner aiming down the crossbow to anything that came out of the corner, after a moment and some shuffling of metal, the Griff came out fully geared with the other crossbow attached to a small mechanism on his right side.
Giving himself and approval nod he looked at Henry and motion him towards the stairs making small talk while they climbed up, once they went back to the upper floors, the Griff asked Henry where was the library in which he found the maps with the hallways empty they entered the library and made sure they were alone.

”My name is Summer Breeze I am a scout of the kingdom of Mount Aris and Seaquestria, I was on orders from Queen Novo herself to find out what happened to the remnants of the storm king army since there has been rumors of some activities on the borders of our kingdom, may I ask your name, what are you doing here?...” The Griff asked and Henry answered question after question while they both secured the library together.

“My name is Henry I am a Human and like I told you before I just got here, got no idea who the Storm King is or what for that matter neither do I care, I’ve been trying to find a way out as soon as I found myself in this place.” Henry said nearly reaching a point of breaking apart, so far he managed to toughen up to the challenge but rushing through the lair of a tyrant and now helping an agent of a foreign kingdom escape, wasn’t something He would have wished for his weekend to turn up to be. He asked the Griff for some context of the situation of the world.

Summer talked about the storm king and what had he done to the Hippogriffs, their departure from Mount Aris to Seaquestria, The Princess of Equestria and her friends calling for help, and so forth. In the meantime he was ripping the pages of books and throwing them all over the floor, grabbing the oil from other lanterns and staining the ground, he encouraged Henry to do the same and after a couple of minutes of destruction Summer and Henry went to the upper floor of library and prepared themselves.
Opening the windows and throwing a lit lantern in the ground, the library was suddenly engulfed in fire, Summer told Henry to hop on his back and with the human grabbing for his dear life he lifted off the ground with a few flaps and flew out into the raging storm outside.

It took nearly all of his strength to keep himself and the human on the air against the strong winds of the storm, and with the fire consuming that part of the building the alarms went off and the distraction was enough to keep any gaze from looking up to a small figure moving thorough the Cirrus and Cumulus.

Henry inner monologue of flying on the back of a creature that only existed in fantasy or mythology was replaced with the screams of fear once they flew higher and higher towards the belly of a storm, the black clouds looked like they moved like they were being controlled by an unknown source, the lightning didn’t help either since Summer was wearing more metal than him, and asking to a Hippogriff to strip in the middle of the sky wasn’t a good idea at the moment.
It was the most terrifying experience he ever had, like being on a roller coaster with no tracks to guide the cart, gravity was being pulled from one side to the other, but after some maneuvering they managed to escape and the gaze of a morning sun and soft winds was greeting them both.

The feeling of the wind underneath his wings made Summer feel relieved that he was finally out of that place, he explained Henry that he wasn’t a prisoner too long but the idea of never escaping was a fear that he had gripping his mind. They both talked through the flight and Summer agreed to take Henry with him to Mount Aris, Summer knew where to find some warm air currents that will take them faster towards his home.

The short stay on the castle and the flight on the back of Summer put things into perspective, Henry realize that his answers lie elsewhere and that it wasn’t just chance how he got there he felt like a piece of chess being moved around a non existent board and He didn't like that at all , He talked to summer through the whole flight towards Mount Aris asking about the world, it was an informative and serious talk about the geopolitical situation of world so far, that was until Summer asked “Are you perhaps a Soldier? is that the emblem of your regiment?" said the Griff slowly grinning, Henry looked to his side only to figure out that his uniform had 2 patches one was the Foxhound unit from the saga of Metal Gear and the other one bigger and more colorful, It was an anime girl barely naked with a weird expression on her face and the words of wisdom “The louder you scream, the faster we come” the latest addition to his air-soft gear as a joke for the team and now he had to explain what hentai was to a mythological creature, a mouthful of words came out in order to save some face but he failed, Summer laughed out loud.

Author's Note

Here's a new chapter, sorry for the wait.
I'm trying to write more but with writers block and work taking most of my time can barely get some paragraphs out.
Trying to improve my writing and get out more characters.