Portal

The problem with living in the Realm of Fire is that it’s always hot. Well, that used to be the only problem, until the legends started to come true. The legends tell of four Realms, the Realm of Earth, the Realm of Water, the Realm of Fire, and the Realm of Air each thriving independently, until their civilisation begins to fall apart. One will fall to war, another will fall to disease, one’s aristocracy will take over, and the other will resort to slavery. When this happens, an ancient evil will descend on the Realms, destroying them one by one. To prevent this from happening, each Realm must find the chosen Champion by creating the most testing set of trials. The Champion should be able to open a portal to other Realms so they can work together to defeat the evil in each Realm.

When King Adenoid took over the juvara, he began to ‘improve’ the Juvire Kingdom, which consists of three volcanoes, Polyumis, Polyemis and Polyamis. He turned Polyemis and Amis into huge slums while the ‘important ’ juvara lived in comfort on Umis. The juvara are said to be descended from an ancient race called human beings, which is obvious (apparently) because their body shapes are very similar. The female juvara have human bodies with the addition of two long tendril-like muscles that come off the back of their heads with the sole purpose of carrying their eggs easily, commonly known as hair. Juvara are covered in black scales shaped like hexagons to help them resist the heat of their Realm, and in the legends, it’s mentioned that each race possesses scales to help them survive in their Realms.

The King’s son, Prince Vrive, had spent most of his life studying the legends (as the King had instructed him to, since they would almost certainly happen in his lifetime) and recognised that the aristocracy had taken over. He organised a series of games that would test each juvara’s resistance, strength, endurance and intelligence in the most brutal way possible. Each volcano would hold Heats, and the winners of those would compete on Umis for the title of Champion in front of the King and Queen. The King wasn’t happy about this at first, but Vrive convinced him that it wasn’t necessarily a bad thing to hold the Heats, and eventually the King agreed to let them commence.

I groaned as I turned over in bed. I opened my eyes slightly to see my egg across the room, tucked away in its crater. It was beginning to ooze the lava it had picked up from the hibernation grounds now, which meant it was close to hatching. Typical of it to hatch on the week of the Heats. I propped myself up on my elbow to look out of the window and see the sun rising. I groaned again. There was no point falling back asleep again, and it was too early to get up yet. Sighing, I heaved myself out of the bed crater and began to smooth down my scales. In this valley, there are three houses on top of each other, and I live on the middle row. Each house has a door frame and two windows, but although they are literally holes in the wall the houses are still pretty secure. No one has anything worth stealing, and all my valuables are pretty much on display. I moved over to the slabs that were my kitchen and began to prepare my breakfast, a lizard I’d caught yesterday. Bigger ones were up for sale, but they cost a fair amount of trade, which was something I didn’t have. How was I going to raise an egg when I could barely feed myself?

Once I’d finished, I walked over to my egg and gingerly picked it up with my hair. There was a good chance I wouldn’t return here before the Heats, so I found my makeshift attachment piece and put my favourite gemstone into it. I’d found many near the hibernation grounds, but only kept the biggest ones of each. My attachment piece fit around my left hair, so I put it around my wrist for the time being. The valley was strangely quiet, which was understandable since the sun had only just risen. It was cooler than normal, but I could still feel the heat creeping under my scales as I walked down. The house I was heading to was on the top row, but it was still significantly bigger than mine. I poked my head through the window.

‘Tulesk,’ I hissed.

Tulesk sat up wearily on her bed.

‘You can come in Elaya. I’ve been awake for ages.’

I came through the door and placed my egg next to hers. ‘You should have come over,’ I said, turning to look at her. ‘I wouldn’t have minded being woken up, and my sleep was restless anyway.’

She heaved herself out of her crater. ‘You nervous?’

I met her gaze. ‘Of course not.’

‘Hmm. Why have you not been sleeping well then?’

I sighed. ‘Honestly?’

‘Honestly.’

‘I haven’t been promised yet.’ I said quietly.

She laughed. ‘You know why not?’

Because I have no trade to my name, and I live off what I can scavenge.

‘No.’ I lied.

‘Because Elaya,’ she said. ‘They’re all afraid of you. Can you not see it? If someone like Shanzu promised you what would you do?’

Shanzu would not catch my egg. He had promised many juvara, but not caught any. I dreaded to think what would happen if he promised me.

Tulesk sighed. ‘If Shanzu promised you, you’d probably attack him for promising to do something even he knew he couldn’t do. Besides, I don’t think Evir’s promised anyone yet.’

I blinked. ‘He hasn’t? Not even Ine?’

She shook her head. ‘We’ll just have to see what happens today,’ she said nudging me. ‘Have you eaten?’

‘Not really.’

I sat down as she prepared breakfast, thinking about what she’d said. Evir wasn’t just any juvara, he was predicted to win the Heats. Basically, the female juvara produce eggs by themselves, and then a catching ceremony is held for the potential fathers to prove their worth. It’s traditional for the men to promise to catch a certain egg, maybe two, but most of the time they’re dropped they haven’t broken, unless they’re oozing lava, like mine. It’s exceedingly looked down upon to raise a child without a father, but it has been done before. And if Evir caught my egg, well, it’s safe to say that all my troubles would be over. The catching was that morning, and at just after midday the Heats were being held. Our part of the valley was in the afternoon heat, so the results could be passed on to the next stage, where we would compete against the other valleys.

‘Tulesk?’

‘Hmm?’

‘Have you been promised yet?’

‘... Yes.’

‘Who by?’

She turned to face me, two portions in her hands. ‘Savoren.’

I gaped at her. ‘Really? What have you parents said?’

‘They were very pleased for me. They know his parents after all, so they were overjoyed that someone... respectable had promised me.’

We ate in silence. Tulesk’s parents had supported her a lot when she first laid her egg, and mine... well, they both died in a volcanic eruption when I was little. I thought about what would happen if someone caught my egg. I didn’t really like Evir in the sense of how quiet he was, and the number of juvara willing him to catch their eggs was stupid, but at this stage I’d be grateful if anyone caught it. And by that, I thought, I meant someone ‘respectable’.

When we finished, Tulesk broke the silence. ‘You know who’s predicted to make it to Umis from here? Evir, Idra and they even think that Vugal might stand a chance.’

I giggled. Vugal was very clever, and while he might be strong, he lived very close to the heat barrier, the coolest possible place to live.

‘They do know what the Heats are about, right?’ I said, making Tulesk laugh her cold laugh.

‘Look, people are making their way down to the catchings,’ she said, gesturing outside. ‘You might want to put your piece on now, by the way.’

I did so as she went over to her shelves and picked up the piece I’d made her a while ago. ‘Left side, right?’

‘Yes.’

She put it on with a pretty blue gemstone fixed in the middle, and then handed me my egg which I gently put in my hair. I felt the muscles in my left side flex around my piece, but it didn’t bother me because I felt powerful. We began to walk down the valley to the catching grounds with the others, but seeing how many people were going to watch made me feel uneasy.

When we got there, the women were lined up in height order. Tulesk left me to find my place towards the end of the line, as she went somewhere towards the top. I found myself moving up the line; I wasn’t ridiculously short, but I think slightly smaller than the average height. I ended up next to Ine, who was possibly going to have Evir catch her egg. She was extremely pretty, and she wore enough gemstones to look well off, but not spoiled. Her attachment pieces were real, and they made the one I had look evidently sloppy. Wearing gemstones was a type of fashion amongst the juvara, and attachment pieces were permanent and had to be professionally made for them to look good. Mine would stay on, but I’d have to get it attached properly to be safe. If I scraped up the trade, that is.

Most of the valley had turned up to watch, and some had even opened their scales to let the heat in. The catching grounds were near the heat barrier, and the only place past it where water could exist, underground of course. The idea behind the catching were to place an egg on a geyser and wait for it to be set off. The water would fire the egg into the air and then promptly evaporate, leaving the men to catch the egg while being safe from the boiling water. It was quite clever really, and the idea of two juvara bonding over raising an egg was clever too, especially when we figured out that a scale from a male juvara would help the child’s development, and make it genetically his child as well.

I jumped when Ine nudged me because it was time to place the eggs on a geyser. I put mine on a small one that went off relatively frequently and began to wait. The Realm of Fire was mainly black and brown, which makes the juvara blend in easily. As I stared for longer at my egg, I could no longer see the men behind it. The colours began to swirl together as I stared emptily at the eggs. I waited for what seemed like an eternity, although only about two had gone off, according to my ears. And then the geyser went off.

Everything happened very quickly. I jumped as the sight I’d spent so long looking at changed so abruptly, and as my eyes came back into focus, I noticed swift movements behind the geyser. My egg was flung higher into the air, but shortly afterwards the water evaporated. My heart stopped as it plummeted to the ground, and I looked around to see who was trying to catch it. Evir was climbing on nearby rocks to try and grab it, but he was closely followed by Idra who looked like he was prepared to jump for it. Neither of them were very close, but I doubted from their angle they could see its exact location. Evir seemed to notice he was going to have to move to catch it, and jumped off the rock as it sailed through his arms. Idra ran as fast as he could from the top of the rocks, holding out his arms as he jumped off a lower crag, but he knocked it further out of his reach. Blood began to pound in my ears as it dropped further and further towards the ground, faster and faster, until it blocked out everything else. I watched, paralysed, as the last sliver of hope left my body.

Both Evir and Idra had recovered now, and they raced towards the egg, their arms above their heads. Idra jumped again, knocking the egg out of Evir’s reach...

And sending it straight into my arms.