Free Jack Gregson & the Forgotten Portal by Peter Wilson

the darkness and he could see
the outline of objects around him.
    “Where are we?” he asked.
    “Cortavia. It’s a small planet, no
people.”
    “We’re on a completely different planet?”
asked David excitedly.
    “Technically at the Grotto you were also on
a completely different planet, but yes! Different planet.”
    Jack walked through the area, touching
various objects trying to work out what they were. There was an odd
familiarity about everything, with strange alien touches. The thing
in front of him seemed to be a chair; however how anyone could sit
in it without seriously hurting themselves was beyond him. In front
of that was a table, made strange by the holes and structures built
into its uneven surface.
    “Are we in a living room?” asked Jack.
    “I thought you said nobody lived here,” said
David.
    “They don’t…anymore. Their sun died
centuries ago, making it impossible for life to continue. No doubt
they escaped through the portals and started again on another
planet. Now come,” said Anthrow.
    “Where are we going?” asked Rosie.
    “To another portal. I didn’t choose this
planet for its lively atmosphere. I just needed a safe place for us
to escape to and luckily it happens to have another portal back to
the Grotto not far from here.”
    “But the Horde is there!” David said.
    Through the darkness, Jack saw Anthrow stop
and look at the three of them in turn. “Do you realise that I still
don’t know any of your names?” he said, pausing for a response.
    “There just hasn’t been any time,” Rosie
said before introducing all three of them.
    He continued to stare. “I spent a lot of
time trying to convince you three that I’m trustworthy, and now I
find my self wondering about you three. How can members of the
Gregson family, who now seem to be a target of Theorden, know so
little about…well everything?”
    “It’s our families fault!” David said as he
went on to explain the limited Gregson family history they were
told while growing up, right until the events of that day which had
eventually led them to him. “So you can’t blame us for asking so
many questions.”
    Anthrow thought about it for a time, seemed
about to say something and then shrugged as he walked off,
expecting them to follow.
    “The Grotto isn’t just a big underground
cave on some distant planet. It’s a huge underground cave
that takes up an entire distant planet! A planet three times bigger
than your Earth I might add. There are millions of portals to take
you to millions of places. Some planets have two entrances, while
some have thousands. Yes we’re returning to the Grotto, but to the
other side, far away from where we were.”
    Jack followed in silence as David continued
to ask Anthrow questions. Something was worrying him. The Horde had
been right near the Gregson portal, laying in wait as if expecting
their arrival. Had he and his cousins just walked into a trap? If
they had, what was Theordens plan? Could Anthrow keep them safe?
Questions kept coming to him, ones he had no answers for.
    The Shadow Man concerned him even more. He’d
seen wolves and horses come out of the mist, but a man?
    “Hurry up Jack,” Rosie said from ahead of
him. “Anthrow said it’s too dangerous to return to our portal for a
while. He’s taking us somewhere we can rest for the night.”
    Jack walked faster, at the same time
realising what troubled him most. It wasn’t that the Shadow Man had
looked right at him as if knowing who he was. It was that Jack
couldn’t shake the feeling that somehow he recognised The Shadow
Man too.
     

Chapter Eight
    Gratins
     
    Jack lay awake, staring at the dark sky
above. Anthrow had led them to another portal on Cortavia, taking
them back to the Grotto.
    The four of them had travelled from the
middle of the day to the dead of night within minutes. Anthrow
truly must have taken them to the other side of the Grotto
planet.
    Rosie and David slept beside Jack, exhausted
by the