Reign of Stories - 6

Reign of Stories - 6

The city seemed very gloomy. Every person stared at Matthew, Ralph, Sylvia and Leonardo as if they were everyday people then paid them no second thoughts. Sylvia was the first to crack and she silently sobbed. “I wanna get out of here,” she cried. Her tears were carried with the tide.

Leo stopped suddenly and caught a scent. “Do you smell that?” he muttered. Indeed everyone could but only Matthew and Leo made heads and tails of the situation. “How can we smell it though?” Matthew asked. That’s not possible even in this water surely?”

Leo took off after the scent with the others in chase. They came to a large waterfall leading towards what seemed like a bottomless pit. “What kind of place is this?” Ralph asked. “Honestly if you let your kids wander off they’ll fall off the end of the world!”

“I’m sure you mean the end of the Reign?” a voice mummured.

At this each team member equipped themselves for battle;  Matthew with his staff, Ralph’s new weapon which seemed to be a large golden medical scalpel (he had yet to explain his reasoning to the others for this), Sylvia’s four sharp boomerangs and Leo’s teeth and claws. “Who’s there?” Matthew yelled.

From out of nowhere a man wearing black and white emerged without even storking through the water. He had a gloomy face; it was hard to imagine that he even had a face. “Do not be alarmed. I am not your enemy unless you really want me to be one. However I do have something important to tell you, if you will listen.”

Sylvia lowered her weapons first. “What do you know?”

“I know where you are now and your purpose for being here. It may take time to explain though so please listen to me carefully if you value your Gateway…”

Ralph stared. “Our Gateway? Do you mean…?”

The man put a hand up. “All in good time. Allow Dustin to explain please? You are in the Galaxy of Reigns; a world similar to the Gateway you have been removed from. This world consists of three other worlds called Reigns. Two of these are smaller than the third largest Reign, and you are in one of the smaller Reigns now… the Reign of Reverse. I’m sure you know that this Reign shows the opposite to what Mother Natre intended…”

“As well as this Reign, there are the Reign of Remedy and the Reign of Remembrance. Once there was also the Reign of Stories, but this was rumoured destroyed by what you must stop.”

“I see…” Matthew thought; it was worth asking now that he’d interrupted. “So what are we doing here then?”

“You were brought here for the wrong reasons, for testing and evil. Now that you have escaped though you would be just what we need to help. You see the Reigns are ‘leaking.’ They are emitting radiations of their worlds and infecting other worlds; the Reigns may even be affecting each other. I’m sure you can guess, this infection will pass down to world after world until it reaches the worlds of your Gateway and Earth.”

“So how do we stop this?”

“You must first stay here and find the way to lock the Reigns and thus prevent the leaking. Then you must travel to other Reigns to lock them and prevent further leakage. Bear in mind young Matthew you are the most important of this group right now.”

“H-How do you know my name?” Matthew stuttered. “And why am I important?”

Dustin smirked. “Your name does not matter. Your necklace chain’s magic and the power of your staff do. The powers of each of those are enough to save us, but only if you agree to what I say….”

Dustin turned his back and raised his arms. “Well? Do you trust me?”