On an evening, loud cheers were audible, and people toasted for they had won the battle against the Orcs. A fire was burning under a cloudless blue night in a tavern in a forest. The Raltova soldiers drank until late in the night. However, not everyone was so keen to celebrate recklessly. A boy of sixteen years old sat on his stool with a bent-over back. Deep in his thoughts. He was fidgeting his fingers. Sweat ran down from his brows over his cheeks onto the floor. One deep breath in and out. He stood up.

‘Everyone!’ he said. ‘Who dares to delve into the matter of this here book? I’ve found it on an Orc shaman’s body. I took it and I am curious. Though I am too scared to look.’

Some people murmured.

‘It might give us,’ he continued, ‘some answers and even solutions to win this war. Win this war for good, maybe. Who will volunteer?’

There was silent rousing at some tables. ‘Do it yourself,’ someone shouted.

‘I-I won’t if someone else is going in my stead.’

‘Do us- and yourself a favour and skedaddle will you?’ the tavern keeper said. ‘No one is willing to touch that cursed book. Even a glimpse of what’s inside could blow us all up. That’s what might happen because none of us know anything about the thing.’

‘But…’ tried the boy.

‘Go away boy.’

‘So, none of you will try it?’

‘No!’ some men replied in unison with annoyance in their tone.

‘Fine, you know what. I’ll try it myself. Here,’ he said while he got the book. He laid it on the table in front of him and opened the broken lock. The book went open.

‘No!’ the tavern keeper tried while he got his hands on the shoulder of the boy.

‘Boy, close the book. Now!’ said the commanding officer. But as soon as the book had opened, a light came from it. It, the boy and the tavern keeper had all disappeared.

‘Gerald?’ a soldier asked.

‘They’re gone,’ the commanding officer said.

‘What happened?’

‘They’ve— They’re in another realm right now.’

The boy and the tavern keeper awoke. They were surrounded by grey forests and purple bonfires. The air was still, and no sound could be heard. As they looked around, they found they were in another place. But where, and how could did they leave it?

‘My… Where are we?’ the tavern keeper asked the boy.

‘I don’t know,’ the boy said. ‘The environment looks all grey and here and there I see a blob of something.’

‘Yes, that’s what I see as well. But how do we— what do we even do now? Should we open the book again, and look? I don’t see anything else that we could do right now,’ the boy said.

‘Y-yes, let’s try that. Because I don’t see anything either. To be frank, I am kind of creeped out by this place. Do it. Open it.’

‘All right, all right.’

The boy tried to open the book but was unable to do so. The lock was repaired, and it needed a key to unlock again. He pried with his small fingers but broke a nail in doing so.

‘Ah!’ the boy cried out.

‘What, what is it?’ the tavern keeper replied while quickly turning towards the boy.

‘I broke a nail.’

‘Ugh, what else is new?’

‘I can’t open the book.’

‘W-what?! Give it here,’ the tavern keeper said while grabbing the book from the boy’s hands. He also tried to pry it open, but it wouldn’t.

‘Just throw it onto the ground?’

‘No, we can’t risk breaking it.’

‘Well then, we’re stranded here I suppose.’

At that moment, in the distance, a green light flickered faintly. The boy narrowed his eyes, and a shape began to form.

‘An Orc! Hurry, get anything that you can use to hit him with,’ the tavern keeper said hastily.

‘I’ve only got the book; do you want me to use it on it?’

‘No, let’s run. Anywhere but here sounds like an improvement.’

So, they ran as fast as they could opposite of the green shape that neared them earlier. The surroundings went from grey to yellowish to orangy. Trees began to change form to other building-like objects. Some objects were completely returning to their original colours. The further they ran, the more the world seemed to return to normal. Once they stumbled over a branch that lay in the path of the forest. From the purple bonfires stretched out a hand of strange shapes. It covered the branch, and it vanished. The boy looked at it and thought of something.

‘Hey, listen, what if we get closer to the purple flames, instead of running alongside them?’

‘What are you on to, boy?’

‘I just saw a branch disappear when a purple shape touched it. What if we could return to the normal world by getting touched by the purple shapes?’

‘What if we don’t and just disappear forever?’ the tavern keep said.

‘What if we don’t?’

‘Okay, running around won’t do at all too. Let’s just get this over with.’

‘Or… We might try to open the book with the purple flame just touching the lock.’

‘No, that doesn’t seem logical.’

‘What about any of this seems logical, tavern keeper?’

‘My name’s Larry. Just so you know.’

‘My name’s John,’ said the boy.

‘Well Larry, let’s try it. What you said. The lock thing.’

They stopped running and carefully neared a purple-coloured bonfire. There the boy tried the lock while the tavern keeper held his hand firmly on the shoulder of the boy. Flash. They disappeared again. They appeared near the tavern, just outside.

‘Yes! Yes!’ the tavern keeper shouted.

‘Finally,’ the boy said.

‘But where is everyone?’