Free Jack Gregson & the Forgotten Portal by Peter Wilson Page B

take in, considering how
little you knew when you woke up this morning.”
    “Yeah,” Jack said and paused. “Anthrow, what
debt do you owe my Grandmother? It must be pretty big for you to
agree to help us.”
    Anthrow took this as an invitation to join
Jack, and sat down beside him, legs crossed, facing the trees.
    “I’ve known the Gregson family a long time,”
he said thoughtfully. “Way back before Theorden and the Horde. Back
then your family was new to the Grotto and the Universe.”
    “It’s rare you know? To find a planet that
no one has heard of before. Millions and millions of portals and
most of them have been mapped or charted. Then all of a sudden, one
day a man interrupts me eating my lunch, saying he’s from Earth and
wants directions. I offered my services as a guide and discovered
he wasn’t even sure where he wanted to go! He just wanted to take a
look around and see ‘what’s what.’ A curious bunch you humans
are.”
    “How old are you Anthrow?” Jack asked,
suddenly realising it was a rude question hastily added, “I mean,
my ancestors. They were travelling the world for hundreds of
years!”
    “I guess I am old, by your standards.”
Anthrow said. “But to my kind…well I’ve still got plenty of time
left.”
    “You’re not human?” Jack asked alarmed.
    Anthrow smiled, “believe it or not, most
people aren’t. At least they’re not on this side of Earth’s portal.
I’m Bathen.”
    “You look human.”
    “To you I do,” he replied without
elaborating. “There are certain similarities between a lot of
people across the Universe. I could come up with over fifty
different planets that you could visit and pass as a native…with a
few cosmetic changes here and there. On the other hand I could come
up with a thousand places where your pink skin and tiny body would
make you a perfect lunchtime snack to the local inhabitants.”
    Jack shivered at the thought of being cooked
for a meal.
    Steering the conversation back to the family
he asked, “So, did you ever meet Theorden?”
    “I met Richard, a long time before people
started calling him Theorden.”
    “What was he like?”
    “Controlling, driven, rude. I could continue
with nasty attributes all night, but I’d find it hard to think a
nice one. He did pay me extra once for guiding him somewhere, but
that was because I didn’t have any change.”
    “You helped him?”
    “These were early days, before he started
murdering people and ruling planets. Sure he was arrogant,
demanding, but so were many of my other clients. I certainly didn’t
know he’d turn into the maniac he is now! It was years later I
learned that Theorden and Richard were one and the same.”
    “What about Maddox? Did you ever hear of
Maddox Gregson?” Jack asked nervously.
    “Your father?” Anthrow asked softly.
    “How do you know that?” Jack asked
surprised. He doubted even David and Rosie knew his fathers name.
He’d only heard him called it once before and that was only when
he’d spied on his grandmother in conversation.
    “I didn’t, not for sure. You just confirmed
it. And now I believe we’re coming back to your original question,
although I’m not sure it’s somewhere you want to go.”
    “What do you mean? Why wouldn’t I want to
know about my own father? What has your debt to my Grandmother got
to do with him?”
    Anthrow didn’t speak for a time. Just as
Jack got impatient and began to ask the question again he said “you
see that animal over there? It’s called a Gratin.”
    “We named it a Punkey.” Jack said, not
knowing what this had to do with their conversation.
    “That is…odd. Anyway when a Gratin is born,
its parents abandon it and leave it in the Grotto to fend for
itself. It has to learn to eat and survive without any help. If it
manages to survive, and doesn’t fall prey to the larger animals, it
grows into an adult. It then has a child of its own, which it also
abandons.”
    “Are you saying my parents