Warp Riders

With a whirr, the Portal opened, and Deikan and Grym tumbled out. The whirling vortex vanished and the portal snapped shut. Deikan got up and cupped his hands to his mouth.
"Pol! POL!"
"It's no use, Deikan," said Grym. "She isn't here. We have to wait for the Portal to reopen."
Deikan scuffed the ground with his foot, and gazed around. This place was certainly different to both Beachworld and Capillata, the world where he had met Pol. There ground was dirt, and huge blue mushrooms grew as tall as palm trees. It was gloomy, and at first Deikan assumed it was nighttime. But when he looked up, he saw thick purple clouds overhead.
"Wow. Ever seen a place like this?"
"Never. The Warp is full of surprises," said Grym.
"Think anyone lives here?"
"We can find out."

There was nothing. No signs of life at all. It seemed to just be a large mushroom forest. Strange creatures snuffled the ground with long snouts, and Deikan could see they were blind. Strange birds pecked at the mushrooms, attempting to pick bits off to eat.
But something seemed wrong. Grym dropped down to all fours, moving more like an animal than a Grendel. He sniffed the ground, scratching the dirt with his claws.
"There was a fire here, very recently," he murmured, and took another deep sniff. "There were at least five Norns, and they were roasting something."
"What?"
Grym sprang up and shook his head. "I only just got here. Expect me to know what every damn animal smells like?"
"Sorry. Do you know where the Norns went?"
"The trees - mushrooms - whatever," muttered Grym, sniffing about. He launched himself at a mushroom and climbed up quickly, his claws leaving huge gashes in the trunk. He scaled the massive fungus faster than Deikan could see.
"Found them!" Grym yelled back from high above. There was a loud thud and Deikan watched as a green blur fell to the ground, leaving a large crater in the dry soil.
"Are you okay?" Deikan asked.
"Oh, I'm fine," said Grym. He held up a piece of torn brown material in one paw. "But I think that one of them should be missing his trousers right about now."
Shortly, a cry of anguish and trouser-loss filtered down from the mushrooms above.

Presently a scruffy Norn swung down from above. He had green and black striped fur, shiny black hair that trailed down his back and a severe lack of trousers. He snatched them from Grym's claws and hurriedly put them back on. Retrousered, he turned to face them, and both Deikan and Grym burst out laughing.
"I'm sorry," chuckled Deikan, "but we can't take you seriously now."
"You speak my language."
"Everyone speaks the same in the warp, fluffball," grumbled Grym, pulling himself from his personal crater. "I grew up on Vulkhanis, and I still speak the same language as both of you."
"Tell me where you are from," the wild Norn demanded Deikan.
"The paradise known as Beachworld. There's sun, sand and surf. Palm trees, too. And coconuts."
"Trees?"
"Thin mushrooms," explained Deikan.
"Ah," muttered the Norn. "What are your names?"
"Yours first," said Grym.
"I am Zet of Clan Ijo, Supreme Guardian of the Sacred Shrine."
"Deikan, and this is Grym," said Deikan, extending a hand and smiling. Zet regarded it quizzically for a while before Deikan withdrew it sheepishly. "What is this shrine you mentioned?"
"It is the Sacred Shrine," said Zet again, surprised at the lack of knowledge shown.
"And..?"
"I'm it's Supreme Guardian."
"Anything else that we don't already know?" Grym barked irritably, his eyes flaring.
"It's, um, over there," Zet said, waving a hand into a dense forest of mushrooms, "and it's very big."
"We had large caverns on Vulkhanis. I doubt it is as large."

It was very big. It looked as if it had been built for something a hundred times bigger than a Grendel, with a sense of grandeur. It looked like nothing either Deikan or Grym had even seen before, with two huge stone carvings resembling elongated Grendels at the entrance. The doors towered like a cliff face, and the top of the Shrine could not bee seen through the hazy purple clouds. Deikan got dizzy just looking at it. He felt like an insect before it.
"How come we didn't see this back there? I mean, it's gigantic!"
"The mist," said Zet, "and the mushrooms. They hide it from the eyes of the N'aglron."
"Do they look like me?" Grym asked.
"Not at all, or else they would not be scared by the dragons at the gate."
Suddenly a thin, piercing scream echoed shrilly from the mushroom forest. Zet growled.
"That... That is a N'aglron."

Walking through the titanic halls of the Shrine, Deikan noticed huge murals depicting Norns and Grendels fighting, sometimes on the same side, other times not. There were huge floating hands, all different colours, strange pale creatures Deikan had never seen before, and several others that look completely odd.
One section of the mural was devoted to a colossal creature with tiny ears and lanky limbs astride an animal, which was rearing up its front legs against a huge dark shadow with eyes like burning coals.
"I take it that is a N'aglron," said Grym. "May I ask what the word means?"
"The ancient translations are vague at best," said Zet, nodding. "But it means 'warp shadow'. We know they are not of this world, and come through the Portal devices. That is why we hid from you."
"And I though Grendels were awful..." Deikan mused. "Are they that bad?"
"A N'aglron can devour a Norn in a matter of moments. They are sucked into its black depths, suffering pain like that of burning alive."
"Ouch," hissed Deikan. "Is there any way to destroy them?"
"There was, once. Magical blades forged of living steel that shone even at night. They could cleave a N'aglron in twain as if it was a mushroom. They are lost, now, scattered throughout the Warp."
"Speaking of the Warp, we must get back to the Portal. It will be able to reopen soon," said Grym. Deikan nodded.
"Very well," said Zet, "I shall take you there myself."

The Portal whirred on and the blue vortex flashed into existence. Zet handed them small bags of food and flasks of water.
"You are braver than I could have known," he said to Deikan, "to scour the Warp for a lost love. I wish you the best luck, but you must leave right now. The open Portal will attract the N'aglron who stay in this world."
"Thank you," said Deikan, and leaped into the open Portal. Grym nodded and followed. Zet sighed and quickly scrambled up a mushroom, leaping from top to top, back to the Shrine. Far behind him, dark shadows clustered around the open Portal, screeching thinly in the gloom.

Chapter 1

Chapter 3