By Yaasha Moriah
“Well, Gram, here’s to you.”
Kevin popped the cap off a bottle of beer and tilted the first sip of pleasantly bitter brew onto his tongue. Gram had never cared for alcohol much. That was probably Gramp’s fault—too many bad memories—but Kevin’s after dinner beer tended to accompany reflection.
And tonight was a night for reflection.
Kevin’s fist clenched around Gram’s necklace which, for some inexplicable reason, she had willed to him rather than to one of her granddaughters. True, Gram had worn the necklace ever since he could remember, and it reminded him sharply of her. But, to be frank, it was one of the ugliest necklaces he had ever seen: a rough chunk of purple crystal the size of a golf ball, wrapped in wire, and hung from a thin strip of leather.
Gram had made Kevin’s childhood special, telling him vivid tales of other worlds, of dragons and enchanters and magic stones and ordinary turned extraordinary. Even when he had accepted that grown men didn’t have time for fairy stories, he treasured them in a secret part of his heart.
It was this part of his heart that nearly broke as he watched her decline the last few months after her stroke. That part ached now as he closed his eyes and relived his last memory of her.
“You need the copper!” Gram’s hands pressed Kevin’s, her watery eyes intense. “Once you get it, the people at the gate will instruct you. But there won’t be much time.”
“Are you talking about the people in your assisted living home? Is there something you want me to do for you?”
“No, no!” Her hands fluttered with agitation. “I’m talking about the gate. But it has to be opened from the other side. You just be ready.”
“All right, Gram.” She must be talking about the “pearly gates.” She knew that her time was slipping away fast and she wanted him to be prepared for her departure.
She had said more things like that of late, especially about copper, along with words that Kevin did not recognize.
The inevitable and merciful end arrived. The day after this conversation, Kevin’s father called. Gram had passed away peacefully in her sleep.
Bitterness lingered on Kevin’s tongue. Gram was gone, and all that remained were her stories.
Well, and her necklace.
Kevin turned over the pendant, observing how its violet crystalline surface threw sparks of light against the wall of his apartment.
What was he supposed to do with it? Wear it?
He dropped it around his neck. The crystal’s weight pressed against his chest.
Yep. Ugly. But at least it meant something.
“Well, thanks anyway, Gram. I miss you.” He lifted his beer bottle in a silent salute, took another sip, and set it down onto the table.
Beside it, his phone buzzed twice with an incoming text.
Unknown number: The Gate is open. Prepare for entry.
“Huh?” He picked it up for a closer inspection.
He paused. Blinked. Shook his head. Why was the room warping? He’d only had one beer. And why did the dining room brighten more with each thump of his heart?
He closed his eyes.
“Greetings, stranger!”
His eyes popped open. “What the…?”
Kevin stood in the center of a broad circular pavement of white stone, surrounded by crumbling walls and ivy-wrapped columns—the scorched ruins of some ancient hall. Beyond the walls, waves hissed against a rocky shore. A chill, salty breeze stung his face and neck.
Kevin turned and started. Facing him on the inland side of the pavement stood five strangers: a man with green, scaly skin and glowing golden eyes; a man encased entirely in black armor and bearing an impossibly large battle-ax; a freckled woman with velvety horns sprouting from her auburn hair, and hooves instead of feet; and two tall women with identical facial features, but opposite coloring: one dark as ebony and the other pale as lilies.
Kevin swallowed around the lump of panic in his throat.
“Greetings, stranger,” said the pale woman again. “I am Rhiallyn. and these are my companions. I have summoned you through the Gate, for we have great need of you and your powers.”
“I am… confused,” Kevin said. “I was just having a beer… Wait, where is my beer?”
His phone buzzed again. A message scrolled across the lock screen: 1 Unknown Potion added to inventory.
The icon accompanying this message looked suspiciously like a brown beer bottle.
“What is your name, O Great One?” Rhiallyn asked, the wind lifting her long white hair and ruffling her snowy robes.
“Kevin Heatherstone,” he answered. Narrowing his eyes, he asked, “You said you summoned me?”
“Yes, by your copper,” Rhiallyn gestured to Gram’s necklace, and patted a similar crystal worn around her own neck. “I have its mate.”
“But… it’s not copper.”
“Kah. Portal or gate. Per. Stone. It is from the old Warden language. The last woman we summoned from your world misunderstood as well.”
“The last…?”
“Her name was Ethel, I believe.”
“Ethel!” Old memories returned with new meanings. “Ethel. My Gram. Then all those stories were true? Everything she told me when I was a kid about a magical world?”
“I do not know what you mean by magical,” Rhiallyn said. “But I understand that the rules of our world differs from yours.”
Kevin half-snorted, half-laughed and glanced at Rhiallyn’s unusual companions. “Clearly.”
“Are you ready, O Great One? Our quest is urgent.”
He studied his phone. Bad beer or magical made real. Either way, it was enough to pique Kevin’s curiosity.
He lifted his hands in a gesture of openness. “You know what? Why not? Lead the way!”
That aching part of his heart kindled with a new sensation—the thrill of adventure. He had always believed that fairytales were only for children.
He was glad he had been wrong.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
This story was so Intriguing from beginning to end! I hope there is a sequel coming!!
Oh yay! I’m glad you liked it. Yes, I do have more of Kevin’s adventure. The challenge is writing them as stand-alones, but I’m up for the challenge!
onward! what a cool start into the unknown. give us more, please.
I would LOVE to give you more! :-)
I would love to see what adventures the necklace leads him to… Or hear about his Gram’s adventures. What a cool premise!
Oooh, I SHOULD write about Gram! 🤔
I loved it! The emotion was palpable, and I was thoroughly excited by the possibilities beyond!
Cool! So glad you stopped by to enjoy it. 😄
The last two lines make the story. :)
Apparently I missed this one when it came out, so I came back to read it after the sequel. They’re both soooo much fun! Kind of exactly the kind of story I’m looking for these days.
Please tell me there will be more? Kevin is a wonderful unlikely hero!
The video gamer in me loves the fact that his drink was added to his inventory XD