Saga of a Future King pt 5. (Complete)
Apr 9, 2014 13:24:27 GMT -5
Disgraced Prince Nasu Hattori likes this
Post by Emperor Ninjin Hattori on Apr 9, 2014 13:24:27 GMT -5
A massive axe head bit into a pile of coins and sent festering bits of treasure into the air. The iblisian holding the axe roared with fury at the mudcaked prince who had just barely dodged. A massive toad dragon sat upon his pile of treasures near them and looked on semi-interested at the duo fighting before him.
“Well i must say this is a first. Usually if two are in my cave they team up to fight me, not fight each other!” the beast chuckled to himself and snuggled further into his pile of rotten treasure, keeping one eye on the fight and the other closed, as if he was half asleep. It was bad enough for Ninjin that he had to deal with Bubebolos, a toad dragon of all things. But now Barren Maugh, an apparent supporter of the Universal Church of One, was intent on killing him. That alone wouldn’t be surprising, Maugh wanted Ninjin dead so he could rule the Iblisians, the surprising part was that he was doing it for the church, and wanted it done badly enough to do it in Bubebolos’ cave! The mud that Boglach caked on the prince still hung on him like a sack of bricks. It certainly made dodging more difficult.
Maugh advanced again, snarling. The prince did the one thing he could think of doing. He dove into the plague and pestilence covered treasure. The poisons would have no effect on him, he had trained for this exact reason with Boglach. Maugh’s axe bit into the ground where the prince had been standing, digging a divot into the earth. The vampire hissed and bared his fangs. A small blast of ki shot out from the pile and struck the Iblisian across the face, singeing him. The flesh on the right side of his face burned so that skin that was once pale like the moon became red and blistery.
Such a roar of fury had never been heard inside the cavern of the toad dragon, over countless eons. It took both Bubebolos and Ninjin by surprise. Maugh held out a hand and a red orb grew there, crackling with energy and bubbling like boiling blood. He blasted the pile in front of him. Ninjin had moved to another pile. One would think that blasting his treasure would upset the toad dragon, but Bubebolos simply looked on and yawned as if they were losing his interest fast.
Ninjin dove out of the pile of coins and leapt at the vampire in front of him, landing a wicked blow against Maugh’s face. It stunned the Iblisian for only a moment, staggering him backwards, but he reacted quickly and moved to grab the prince but his hands met only air.
“What the?” he said surprised, his arms hugging around himself with the momentum of his grab, his axe clanged to the ground. Another fist slammed into his back of his head and Ninjin’s leg kicked out the vampire’s. He slammed down onto his back. Maugh’s new roar of fury dwarfed the previous. The unburned half of his face grew as red as the burned half, and he quickly scrambled to his feet. He lifted his axe high and just barely missed the Saiyan crown-prince. Bubebolos turned away and yawned, his attention waning.
“I suppose it was only a matter of time.” The dragon said lazily as the prince dodged another hefted axe blow. “Greed is what brought you here, Greed is why you wish to kill me. Greed is why you now fight each other.”
“Greed is not why I kill this annoying little cur.” Maugh said through gritted teeth amidst another swing. “I kill Ninjin Hattori for Aon, and for the Universal Church of One.” Ninjin lurched forward and struck Maugh across the face, then brought his knee into his midsection and dove back into the pile of treasure. Maugh roared and began firing off blast after blast into the treasure.
“Aon you say…” The dragon said the name as if he was tasting it, moving it about his mouth as if remembering a taste he was familiar with. After a while his eyes grew wide with rage and he spat violently.
“CURSE AON!!!” The dragon roared. This sudden outburst stunned Maugh for a moment. It shocked Ninjin as well, enough for him to poke his head out of his hiding place. Bubebolos turned his massive bulk towards Maugh.
“Aon was one of my greatest enemies before I was cursed to this form. In fact it was he who made me this way all those eons ago. I was a god! But Aon… Aon didn’t like the fact that I was the god of rebirth. He cursed me from my splendid for into… into this! If you serve Aon, you are my mortal enemy.” Seemingly before he even finished his words Bubebolos’ tongue lashed out and caught Maugh’s axe and brought it into his mouth swallowing it whole. Ninjin took the initiative and tackled Maught to the ground. Blow after blow the prince struck against his enemies face until Maugh lay still and the prince’s hands dripped with blood.
With shallow and short panting breaths he stood and faced the toad dragon, who now considered Ninjin with an altogether different look on his massive snout. blood still dripped from the prince’s hands, and he adopted a fighting stance. What was going to occur? Was he now going to have to fight the toad dragon? He squirmed under the beasts gaze. Were they about to fight? Was he prepared for this? The dragon’s power-level was impossible to read.
“Tell me of your rivalry with this church monkey-prince.” The demand took the prince by surprise. Firstly, it wasn’t a question, the dragon gave no room for alternative. Secondly, yes the dragon hated Aon, but was that reason enough to spare Ninjin for even a moment if the two were about to fight?
The toad dragon lifted his head to stare into Ninjin’s eyes. Within them were limitless universes and infinite knowledge. Ninjin quickly looked away. It seemed to be enough for Bubebolos however. The giant creature muttered to himself. Were they going to fight? Ninjin needed the stone of Nurgle to… something about a portal at the back of this dragons cave. Not for the first time the prince wished Liliana was there. She knew much more about these trials than he did.
“I know why you have come Ninjin Hattori.” It hung in the air. Of course Bubebolos knew. He was a dragon, and all the myths Ninjin had ever heard about them said they knew much more than other creatures. The question remained, how did Bubebolos feel about that? In order to get the stone of Nurgle, Bubebolos would have to die. “And though i’ve never done this before, and likely never will again, you may have the stone of Nurgle.” An awkward silence filled the air. This had not been what Ninjin had been expecting at all. The mud-caked warrior was taken aback. The dragon shifted his bulk off of the pile and waddled down towards the prince. Ninjin began to climb the pile towards the divot where the dragon had been resting but Bubebolos stopped him with his tongue. The gesture wasn’t violent, merely one to stop the prince.
“That stone contains nothing more than the next Bubebolos. The stone of Nurgle lies elsewhere.” Ninjin returned to his previous spot and the dragon lumber down to join him.
“The stone of Nurgle lies within my chest. Do not look so shocked little warrior, my motives are entirely out of greed. From what i’ve learned in these brief few moments ot seems Aon has an army of fanatical followers. You too will need an army, and my loathing for Aon far outweighs my loathing for anything and everything else. I do this out of revenge.”
“An army? But i have the Saiyan army…” Ninjin protested, but realized the folly of arguing against trying to get something you want and fell silent. Bubebolos got a momentary look of confusion on his face but shook his head, the timelines in his head were getting crossed.
“And so you shall, but you will need all the allies and help you can get. Take the egg of the new Bubebolos, now that Aon knows where i dwell it is no longer safe here.”
So there was the catch, he was going to be forced to babysit a baby toad dragon. The prince rolled his eyes heavily but nodded. With the crack of a whip the dragon’s tounge whipped out and disappeared into a pile of treasure. It soon pulled out a body covered in a red and gold suit of heavy plate armor. A strong looking sword was clutched in the skeletal remain’s hands.
“Put that on, It will help you in the coming trials.” The irony of the red and gold coloring of the armor was not lost on the prince. The armor did not have a cape.
“Well Nasu…” The prince mumbled, remembering a friend. Quickly he scraped the thick hardened mud plates from his body, it slammed into the earth as it fell. Then he put the armor on. It fit like it was made for him. Lastly he slid the helmet on. Bubebolos looked him over and for once the dragon seemed impressed. Then he began laughing, it was not menacing, but it was certainly mischievious.
“I should have told you that armor is cursed. It will never leave you until the day you die. You are by no means stuck in it however, a simple thought will will it away.” At first Ninjin was horrified, thinking himself tricked by this dragon, but his follow up sentence put the prince at ease, and it was true. A simple thought of the armor being gone left the prince stark naked in Bubebolos’ lair. It was an awkward moment for them both. With another thought the armor reappeared. It was heavy, as heavy as the weights that Ninjin sometimes wore whilst training.
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Finally the prince turned to the sword, looking down at it with disgust.
“No sword? This sword was forged in the fires of--” [/color]
Ninjin held up a hand.
“Save it.”
“But this sword slayed the” “I don’t care.” “It was weilded by Sir --”
“NO SWORDS!!!!” The prince finally roared. The dragon was, to say the least, taken aback.
“Well you at least have to use it to cut out my heart.” It was Ninjin’s turn to be taken aback.
“Oh… Right…”
“Good luck young prince. It will not be easy.” The dragon said ominously. He sighed and laid on his side, exposing his underbelly to the prince so he could cut out the dragon’s heart. then Ninjin did the deed, cutting the dragons heart from his chest. Bubebolos said or did very little during his dying moments, and his last breath seemed to be a contented sigh of peace. When Ninjin was done he was left with a surprisingly white round stone with a hole in the center of it. It was light and just barely filled the palm of his hand. He slipped it into his pocket and climbed the hill to receive the stone he originally thought that was the stone of Nurgle, but was actually the next Bubebolos. He lifted it up and it immediately began glowing with a soft green light. It was warm to the touch.
“Greetings.” The Childlike voice filled his mind.
“Hello?” Ninjin said out loud eliciting a chuckle from inside his mind.
“There is no need to speak aloud Ninjin, we can communicate mind-to-mind. I am Bubebolos, though not as you knew him. We differ through each transformation, though all are dragons” [/i]
“Alright Bub, where to?” This elicited another chuckle from the egg.
“Bub. I rather like that. You may call me Bub.” [/i]
“Heh. Alright Bub, where to?” The prince scanned the cavern. It stretched on and on. “We could just get rich and leave.” He suggested with a shrug.
“The true way brings us to the rear of the cavern. What awaits us there I don’t know…” Trepidation filled his voice. Ninjin could understand that, the creature was just an egg after all.
“Perfect.” the prince said sarcastically. He began trudging down the pile in opposition of the way he came in.
Behind him a pale hand twitched unseen, then tightened around the handle of an axe.
~~~
The cavern of Bubebolos was much vaster and complex then the prince would have first imagined. A skeleton he passed looked very familiar to one he has passed by not too long ago. The prince realized with a frustrated start that it was the same one! Angrily he kicked the thing.
“Lost?” The childlike voice of Bub filled his mind. The voice wasn’t teasing him, it seemed genuinely concerned. Ninjin replied honestly and not without a little bitterness in his voice. Things had been going relatively well up till this point. Sure there was the poison and venom, and the fight with Maugh, and the psychological torture of the jungle... but hell Bubebolos had even given him the stone of Nurgle without having to fight, he hadn’t had to fight anything but Maugh and the dog, and he had gotten all the stronger for it. Being lost in this maze was the last thing the prince needed. In truth he just wanted it over.
“Turn here.” [/b] The voice said. Ninjin turned and stared blankly at the wall in front of him. The dragon was telling him to turn, but there was nowhere to go. In front of him was nothing but the wall of the cavern.
“Theres nothing here but wall!” Ninjin shouted confusedly.
“The stone.” [/b] Bub said as if the answer should have been obvious to the prince. And it really should have. Ninjin grimaced at his stupidity and withdrew the stone from his pocket. He held it up to his eye and suddenly the wall melted away to reveal a doorway. Pulling the stone away and the wall went back to being just that, a wall.
The room was much different than the rest of the cavern. Thick and polished black stone lined the walls and the floor. An empty stone archway stood in the center, with a dias off to the side.
“That’s the gateway.” [/b] Bub said in a voice that sounded awed beyond measure.
“You’ve never seen it?! But you were leading me right here!” The prince asked, surprise evident in his voice. The unborn dragon in the egg shrugged and the weight of the egg shifted slightly in the prince’s hands.
“Never had a reason to.” [/b]
A sign hung above the portal. A message was sprawled out in a red characters that Ninjin couldn’t understand.
“Oh that’s not good.” [/b] Bub said with an imagined short intake of breath. Ninjin held the egg up to his face.
“What’s not good?” Ninjin asked peering into the emerald depths of the egg.
“It says. ‘abandon all hope ye who enter here.’” [/b] The tiny dragon in the egg said ominously. Ninjin walked up to the portal and gulped, inspecting its every inch. It didn’t seem to be working. When peering through, the only thing Ninjin could see on the other side was the other side of the room. There was nothing dark and mysterious about it, other than the stone it was made from.
Ninjin walked up to the portal and bravely stepped through it. Nothing happened. Ninjin bit his lip as he stared at the back of the room.
“I’ll be honest I thought for sure that was going to work.” Ninjin said to the glowing green egg.
“Greetings.” A small and elderly voice rang out. Ninjin turned and his breath caught in his throat. Stretched out before him were rolling green fields. In the distant horizon was a range of mountains. A winding dirt road led down the hill immediately in front of him. It led down to a walled castle town in the distance.
“Neapness welcomes you traveller. Gen Fu, I am.” The small man said. He couldn’t have been taller than two feet tall, and green wrinkled flesh covered his skin. He was an anthropomorphic frog with an incredible beard. A knotted rod of wood that was clearly a walking stick was clutched in his hand. Dull brown robes covered his tiny frame.
Ninjin stepped back through the portal. Nothing happened. Gen Fu looked on amused. Back and forth the prince went, trying to get back, to no avail.
“Not an option, going back. Neapness, your home now is.” The old frog man smiled.
Abandon all hope was right.
“Well i must say this is a first. Usually if two are in my cave they team up to fight me, not fight each other!” the beast chuckled to himself and snuggled further into his pile of rotten treasure, keeping one eye on the fight and the other closed, as if he was half asleep. It was bad enough for Ninjin that he had to deal with Bubebolos, a toad dragon of all things. But now Barren Maugh, an apparent supporter of the Universal Church of One, was intent on killing him. That alone wouldn’t be surprising, Maugh wanted Ninjin dead so he could rule the Iblisians, the surprising part was that he was doing it for the church, and wanted it done badly enough to do it in Bubebolos’ cave! The mud that Boglach caked on the prince still hung on him like a sack of bricks. It certainly made dodging more difficult.
Maugh advanced again, snarling. The prince did the one thing he could think of doing. He dove into the plague and pestilence covered treasure. The poisons would have no effect on him, he had trained for this exact reason with Boglach. Maugh’s axe bit into the ground where the prince had been standing, digging a divot into the earth. The vampire hissed and bared his fangs. A small blast of ki shot out from the pile and struck the Iblisian across the face, singeing him. The flesh on the right side of his face burned so that skin that was once pale like the moon became red and blistery.
Such a roar of fury had never been heard inside the cavern of the toad dragon, over countless eons. It took both Bubebolos and Ninjin by surprise. Maugh held out a hand and a red orb grew there, crackling with energy and bubbling like boiling blood. He blasted the pile in front of him. Ninjin had moved to another pile. One would think that blasting his treasure would upset the toad dragon, but Bubebolos simply looked on and yawned as if they were losing his interest fast.
Ninjin dove out of the pile of coins and leapt at the vampire in front of him, landing a wicked blow against Maugh’s face. It stunned the Iblisian for only a moment, staggering him backwards, but he reacted quickly and moved to grab the prince but his hands met only air.
“What the?” he said surprised, his arms hugging around himself with the momentum of his grab, his axe clanged to the ground. Another fist slammed into his back of his head and Ninjin’s leg kicked out the vampire’s. He slammed down onto his back. Maugh’s new roar of fury dwarfed the previous. The unburned half of his face grew as red as the burned half, and he quickly scrambled to his feet. He lifted his axe high and just barely missed the Saiyan crown-prince. Bubebolos turned away and yawned, his attention waning.
“I suppose it was only a matter of time.” The dragon said lazily as the prince dodged another hefted axe blow. “Greed is what brought you here, Greed is why you wish to kill me. Greed is why you now fight each other.”
“Greed is not why I kill this annoying little cur.” Maugh said through gritted teeth amidst another swing. “I kill Ninjin Hattori for Aon, and for the Universal Church of One.” Ninjin lurched forward and struck Maugh across the face, then brought his knee into his midsection and dove back into the pile of treasure. Maugh roared and began firing off blast after blast into the treasure.
“Aon you say…” The dragon said the name as if he was tasting it, moving it about his mouth as if remembering a taste he was familiar with. After a while his eyes grew wide with rage and he spat violently.
“CURSE AON!!!” The dragon roared. This sudden outburst stunned Maugh for a moment. It shocked Ninjin as well, enough for him to poke his head out of his hiding place. Bubebolos turned his massive bulk towards Maugh.
“Aon was one of my greatest enemies before I was cursed to this form. In fact it was he who made me this way all those eons ago. I was a god! But Aon… Aon didn’t like the fact that I was the god of rebirth. He cursed me from my splendid for into… into this! If you serve Aon, you are my mortal enemy.” Seemingly before he even finished his words Bubebolos’ tongue lashed out and caught Maugh’s axe and brought it into his mouth swallowing it whole. Ninjin took the initiative and tackled Maught to the ground. Blow after blow the prince struck against his enemies face until Maugh lay still and the prince’s hands dripped with blood.
With shallow and short panting breaths he stood and faced the toad dragon, who now considered Ninjin with an altogether different look on his massive snout. blood still dripped from the prince’s hands, and he adopted a fighting stance. What was going to occur? Was he now going to have to fight the toad dragon? He squirmed under the beasts gaze. Were they about to fight? Was he prepared for this? The dragon’s power-level was impossible to read.
“Tell me of your rivalry with this church monkey-prince.” The demand took the prince by surprise. Firstly, it wasn’t a question, the dragon gave no room for alternative. Secondly, yes the dragon hated Aon, but was that reason enough to spare Ninjin for even a moment if the two were about to fight?
The toad dragon lifted his head to stare into Ninjin’s eyes. Within them were limitless universes and infinite knowledge. Ninjin quickly looked away. It seemed to be enough for Bubebolos however. The giant creature muttered to himself. Were they going to fight? Ninjin needed the stone of Nurgle to… something about a portal at the back of this dragons cave. Not for the first time the prince wished Liliana was there. She knew much more about these trials than he did.
“I know why you have come Ninjin Hattori.” It hung in the air. Of course Bubebolos knew. He was a dragon, and all the myths Ninjin had ever heard about them said they knew much more than other creatures. The question remained, how did Bubebolos feel about that? In order to get the stone of Nurgle, Bubebolos would have to die. “And though i’ve never done this before, and likely never will again, you may have the stone of Nurgle.” An awkward silence filled the air. This had not been what Ninjin had been expecting at all. The mud-caked warrior was taken aback. The dragon shifted his bulk off of the pile and waddled down towards the prince. Ninjin began to climb the pile towards the divot where the dragon had been resting but Bubebolos stopped him with his tongue. The gesture wasn’t violent, merely one to stop the prince.
“That stone contains nothing more than the next Bubebolos. The stone of Nurgle lies elsewhere.” Ninjin returned to his previous spot and the dragon lumber down to join him.
“The stone of Nurgle lies within my chest. Do not look so shocked little warrior, my motives are entirely out of greed. From what i’ve learned in these brief few moments ot seems Aon has an army of fanatical followers. You too will need an army, and my loathing for Aon far outweighs my loathing for anything and everything else. I do this out of revenge.”
“An army? But i have the Saiyan army…” Ninjin protested, but realized the folly of arguing against trying to get something you want and fell silent. Bubebolos got a momentary look of confusion on his face but shook his head, the timelines in his head were getting crossed.
“And so you shall, but you will need all the allies and help you can get. Take the egg of the new Bubebolos, now that Aon knows where i dwell it is no longer safe here.”
So there was the catch, he was going to be forced to babysit a baby toad dragon. The prince rolled his eyes heavily but nodded. With the crack of a whip the dragon’s tounge whipped out and disappeared into a pile of treasure. It soon pulled out a body covered in a red and gold suit of heavy plate armor. A strong looking sword was clutched in the skeletal remain’s hands.
“Put that on, It will help you in the coming trials.” The irony of the red and gold coloring of the armor was not lost on the prince. The armor did not have a cape.
“Well Nasu…” The prince mumbled, remembering a friend. Quickly he scraped the thick hardened mud plates from his body, it slammed into the earth as it fell. Then he put the armor on. It fit like it was made for him. Lastly he slid the helmet on. Bubebolos looked him over and for once the dragon seemed impressed. Then he began laughing, it was not menacing, but it was certainly mischievious.
“I should have told you that armor is cursed. It will never leave you until the day you die. You are by no means stuck in it however, a simple thought will will it away.” At first Ninjin was horrified, thinking himself tricked by this dragon, but his follow up sentence put the prince at ease, and it was true. A simple thought of the armor being gone left the prince stark naked in Bubebolos’ lair. It was an awkward moment for them both. With another thought the armor reappeared. It was heavy, as heavy as the weights that Ninjin sometimes wore whilst training.
Finally the prince turned to the sword, looking down at it with disgust.
“No sword? This sword was forged in the fires of--” [/color]
Ninjin held up a hand.
“Save it.”
“But this sword slayed the” “I don’t care.” “It was weilded by Sir --”
“NO SWORDS!!!!” The prince finally roared. The dragon was, to say the least, taken aback.
“Well you at least have to use it to cut out my heart.” It was Ninjin’s turn to be taken aback.
“Oh… Right…”
“Good luck young prince. It will not be easy.” The dragon said ominously. He sighed and laid on his side, exposing his underbelly to the prince so he could cut out the dragon’s heart. then Ninjin did the deed, cutting the dragons heart from his chest. Bubebolos said or did very little during his dying moments, and his last breath seemed to be a contented sigh of peace. When Ninjin was done he was left with a surprisingly white round stone with a hole in the center of it. It was light and just barely filled the palm of his hand. He slipped it into his pocket and climbed the hill to receive the stone he originally thought that was the stone of Nurgle, but was actually the next Bubebolos. He lifted it up and it immediately began glowing with a soft green light. It was warm to the touch.
“Greetings.” The Childlike voice filled his mind.
“Hello?” Ninjin said out loud eliciting a chuckle from inside his mind.
“There is no need to speak aloud Ninjin, we can communicate mind-to-mind. I am Bubebolos, though not as you knew him. We differ through each transformation, though all are dragons” [/i]
“Alright Bub, where to?” This elicited another chuckle from the egg.
“Bub. I rather like that. You may call me Bub.” [/i]
“Heh. Alright Bub, where to?” The prince scanned the cavern. It stretched on and on. “We could just get rich and leave.” He suggested with a shrug.
“The true way brings us to the rear of the cavern. What awaits us there I don’t know…” Trepidation filled his voice. Ninjin could understand that, the creature was just an egg after all.
“Perfect.” the prince said sarcastically. He began trudging down the pile in opposition of the way he came in.
Behind him a pale hand twitched unseen, then tightened around the handle of an axe.
~~~
The cavern of Bubebolos was much vaster and complex then the prince would have first imagined. A skeleton he passed looked very familiar to one he has passed by not too long ago. The prince realized with a frustrated start that it was the same one! Angrily he kicked the thing.
“Lost?” The childlike voice of Bub filled his mind. The voice wasn’t teasing him, it seemed genuinely concerned. Ninjin replied honestly and not without a little bitterness in his voice. Things had been going relatively well up till this point. Sure there was the poison and venom, and the fight with Maugh, and the psychological torture of the jungle... but hell Bubebolos had even given him the stone of Nurgle without having to fight, he hadn’t had to fight anything but Maugh and the dog, and he had gotten all the stronger for it. Being lost in this maze was the last thing the prince needed. In truth he just wanted it over.
“Turn here.” [/b] The voice said. Ninjin turned and stared blankly at the wall in front of him. The dragon was telling him to turn, but there was nowhere to go. In front of him was nothing but the wall of the cavern.
“Theres nothing here but wall!” Ninjin shouted confusedly.
“The stone.” [/b] Bub said as if the answer should have been obvious to the prince. And it really should have. Ninjin grimaced at his stupidity and withdrew the stone from his pocket. He held it up to his eye and suddenly the wall melted away to reveal a doorway. Pulling the stone away and the wall went back to being just that, a wall.
The room was much different than the rest of the cavern. Thick and polished black stone lined the walls and the floor. An empty stone archway stood in the center, with a dias off to the side.
“That’s the gateway.” [/b] Bub said in a voice that sounded awed beyond measure.
“You’ve never seen it?! But you were leading me right here!” The prince asked, surprise evident in his voice. The unborn dragon in the egg shrugged and the weight of the egg shifted slightly in the prince’s hands.
“Never had a reason to.” [/b]
A sign hung above the portal. A message was sprawled out in a red characters that Ninjin couldn’t understand.
“Oh that’s not good.” [/b] Bub said with an imagined short intake of breath. Ninjin held the egg up to his face.
“What’s not good?” Ninjin asked peering into the emerald depths of the egg.
“It says. ‘abandon all hope ye who enter here.’” [/b] The tiny dragon in the egg said ominously. Ninjin walked up to the portal and gulped, inspecting its every inch. It didn’t seem to be working. When peering through, the only thing Ninjin could see on the other side was the other side of the room. There was nothing dark and mysterious about it, other than the stone it was made from.
Ninjin walked up to the portal and bravely stepped through it. Nothing happened. Ninjin bit his lip as he stared at the back of the room.
“I’ll be honest I thought for sure that was going to work.” Ninjin said to the glowing green egg.
“Greetings.” A small and elderly voice rang out. Ninjin turned and his breath caught in his throat. Stretched out before him were rolling green fields. In the distant horizon was a range of mountains. A winding dirt road led down the hill immediately in front of him. It led down to a walled castle town in the distance.
“Neapness welcomes you traveller. Gen Fu, I am.” The small man said. He couldn’t have been taller than two feet tall, and green wrinkled flesh covered his skin. He was an anthropomorphic frog with an incredible beard. A knotted rod of wood that was clearly a walking stick was clutched in his hand. Dull brown robes covered his tiny frame.
Ninjin stepped back through the portal. Nothing happened. Gen Fu looked on amused. Back and forth the prince went, trying to get back, to no avail.
“Not an option, going back. Neapness, your home now is.” The old frog man smiled.
Abandon all hope was right.
