Arestana: The Harry Quest: Arestana Series, #3

By Shawn P. B. Robinson

Liam is lost is a frozen wasteland with nothing but his thin football uniform to keep him warm.

It's the third time he's been pulled into Arestana, and it's by far the most challenging journey he will face. His quest is not only to save the life of his closest friend, but it will lead him into the darkest, most dangerous places in all of Arestana.

Liam knows if he cannot make it to his friend quickly, he might be too late.

"Adventurous, funny, imaginative and suitable to be shared with younger readers and listeners, the Arestana series delivers…" Gail, Goodreads Reviewer.

"Loved it! The Arestana books are just getting better." ENH, Goodreads Reviewer.

"This is such a fun series that is great for any age group who loves action and adventure. I highly recommend this book as well as the entire series." Patricia, Amazon Reviewer.

"Just when a reader believes he knows what will happen next, the plot suddenly twists and he finds himself thinking, "I didn't see that coming"! The non-stop unexpected developments in each chapter make this a "page turner" right to the end of the book." Phyllis, Amazon Reviewer.

"My kids (11 and 13) loved it, they said they couldn't put it down. It's a must buy!" Sarah, Amazon Reviewer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Shawn P. B. Robinson
• Release date: Nov 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9781775190394

Book preview

Prologue

Hector’s hands shook as he picked up the invention.

With a name like Hector the Destroyer, not too many messed with him, but the creature that stood before him was unlike anything he had ever faced.

He took a deep breath before speaking in the hopes that his voice would not betray the fear he felt. The creature was a Squirrel. No one was foolish enough to mess with the Squirrels.

Not only were the Squirrels dangerous creatures, the one that stood before him was Jerry. Jerry was well known as one of the most ruthless, most dangerous and most devious Squirrels around. Jerry was an inventor, and it was said that whenever he designed and built something, destruction was soon to follow.

Here is the amount we agreed upon, Hector said, his voice shaking so much that he struggled to get the words out.

Thank you, my kind sir. It was a pleasure doing business with you, Jerry said cheerfully in reply.

Hector trembled inside. Somehow, Jerry’s politeness made him seem even more dangerous. Hector feared he may not live through the experience.

Well, Master Squirrel, thank you for all you have done. I will enjoy your invention, Hector said as he backed away, bowing with each step.

Master... Squirrel? Jerry asked.

Hector’s heart stopped in his chest. He feared he had misspoken. He wondered if perhaps he had not been respectful enough in the presence of such a mighty creature.

I’m sorry, sir, Hector began. I was unsure as to how to speak in your presence. We do not see many Squirrels in Brelter. We have simply heard of your courage and might in battle, and I wished to show you respect. Please forgive my foolishness.

No, Jerry replied. I kind of like being called, ‘Master.’

Hector quickly responded with, Yes! Of course! You are Master Jerry the Squirrel.

The Squirrel appeared happy with the title, so Hector took the opportunity to take his invention and leave. He didn’t dare stay longer than he needed to. The Squirrels were not to be messed with.

Football

Liam ran for his life . If he couldn’t keep ahead of the footsteps behind him, he wasn’t sure he would live to see tomorrow. He could hear the yelling and screaming of hundreds of people from all around him. His heart was pumping hard, and sweat was pouring down the side of his head.

He glanced over his left shoulder just in time to see movement and dodged to the right. He managed to get over just enough that his attacker missed. He heard him hit the ground... hard. He dodged again just in time to miss being hit by another attacker and wondered how long he could keep this up. The screams and yells only grew louder as he pushed on.

He felt all alone... all alone, except for the group of guys behind him trying to put an end to his life. He wished someone would come to help him, but he was alone.

His legs were growing weak from all the running. He could see the end up ahead, but he wasn’t sure he could make it that far.

He was just about to give up when he heard a new sound behind him. It was kind of a cross between a crunching and squishing sound, mixed with a cry of pain, followed by some heavier footsteps. Liam smiled to himself. He was no longer alone. Harry had caught up.

Now that his friend had arrived, he was sure he could make it. Harry was kind of like a mixture between a bull, a tank and a truck. He just couldn’t be stopped. The coach and the rest of the team loved him, and they kept telling everyone, Just let Harry get the football, and all will be okay. We will win every game.

Unfortunately, Liam had been standing in the wrong place at the wrong time. The quarterback had noticed he was open and sent the football right for him. Liam had grabbed it and ran for the end zone with about four guys on his tail.

By the sounds of things, Harry had taken down two of them, and there were two to go. A third went down with another crunch and squish sound. The fourth one, however, was still on the move.

Liam realized, even if Harry was nearby, this guy could still take him down. Once Liam was down, it would all be over. The other school was in the lead, and there were only seconds left in the game. If they didn’t get this touchdown, they would be done for the season.

The footsteps behind him sped up. Liam didn’t have the energy to keep going much longer. He knew if Harry didn’t take this guy down, he’d be done. He could hear Harry’s footsteps. They were easy to recognize since they were so heavy and loud and usually accompanied by a growl.

The footsteps gaining on Liam were light and fast. The player from the other team was just about upon him. He feared he would not make it.

He still had about twenty yards to go when he saw the other guy. The player from the opposite team was beside him, and Liam expected to go down any second. He was shocked, however, to see the guy keep running right past him.

Liam was never really sure about all the rules of this game, but he was sure it wasn’t a race to the end. The important thing was the football. The guy kept running and outpaced Liam by far when Liam realized what was happening.

The poor guy was running for his life from Harry. Liam knew what that felt like. A large, helmeted shape barreled passed Liam, and he felt sorry for the guy. By this point, the poor guy was crying quite loudly.

Liam looked away at the moment of impact. He had seen that kind of thing before, and it wasn’t pretty. Sometimes arms and legs twisted in unnatural directions.

Harry looked up from the crushed figure he was sitting on and hollered out, You’re in the clear, Ed!

Harry had always called Liam, Ed. Liam wasn’t sure why. Harry never seemed to notice everyone else around calling Liam, Liam. He didn’t even seem to notice when Liam referred to himself as Liam. He would even see Liam’s name written on a piece of paper and just read it as, Ed. Harry was a strange guy.

But Liam’s name wasn’t important at the moment. There was a game to be won. He had only a few more yards to go, and his team would win. Liam would be cheered by all, far and wide. Maybe he’d get his picture in the paper. Maybe the coach wouldn’t yell so much, and maybe the rest of the team wouldn’t ignore him anymore.

He was just about to cross into the end zone when his left foot caught on his right foot. It happened pretty fast. He went down.

As he fell, he found himself twisting and tried his best to toss the ball back in the direction of Harry. He hit hard and felt the wind knocked out of him as the crowd went silent.

Liam looked back at what was happening. Harry stood about five yards from the end zone, not too far behind where Liam was lying. Most of the other team was splattered across the field, groaning and crying out for help after Harry had dealt with them. There were only two left standing. They stood just a little ways off of Harry as he held the football and stared them down.

Did they dare mess with him? Were they foolish enough to think tackling Harry was ever a good idea?

First one, then the other laid down on the ground as if they had been tackled. One even started to groan and complain about his shoulder. The other simply closed his eyes.

Harry turned back to Liam, smiled and walked casually into the end zone as the time ran out. They had won, and the crowd went wild.

The celebration began immediately. After winning this game, they were now one of the top schools. If they could stay on top, they would take the cup.

People ran down onto the field and hugged some players, high-fived others and congratulated the coach. Liam could see a number of guys trying to hoist Harry off the ground to carry him on their shoulders, but they only managed to get one leg off the ground.

As the celebration continued, Liam noticed something a little odd. In the stands sat four rather large men. They had painted their faces and arms and hands—every visible part of themselves—blue. That made sense. Liam’s team was called the Blue Penguins, a name that had never made sense to Liam. A lot of people painted themselves blue for the game. But these guys were also wearing weird hats. They looked like they had a row of spikes sticking out of their heads, arranged from the front to the back. The four men were very large and very angry looking. Normally, after winning a game, all the blue-painted people were happy.

He turned back to the celebration, but couldn’t get the blue guys out of his mind. They were so out of place. Something wasn’t right.

Back in the change room, the team stood around laughing and retelling the highlights of the game. Liam noticed his name never came up, but Harry’s did... continually.

Liam didn’t mind Harry getting all the attention. Harry was a scary guy and quite dangerous if you weren’t a friend, but Harry was his friend. Liam cared about his friends. He liked to see Harry do well, and football seemed to be his thing.

He also didn’t mind that his name didn’t come up often. He dreamed now and then about being the star player, but at the end of the day, Liam liked to be in the background rather than in the spotlight.

They continued to laugh and retell the details of the game when the room went silent. Everyone stared at the doorway.

Liam looked back to see the four blue guys from the stands enter the change room. Now that they were up close, Liam could see they were even bigger than he had thought. They each had to be at least six and a half feet tall. Not one of them looked like he had an ounce of fat on him, but they all had muscles on top of muscles. The spikes, or what Liam could now see were horns, stuck out another foot and a half above their heads in a row from front to back. The horns looked sharp.

The blue beasts weren’t from Earth; that much was clear.

Over the last year, Liam had made two trips to another world named Arestana. In that world, he had battled a dragon, stood face to face with a Kraken, taken on soldiers and defended a kingdom against an army of invaders. These four guys were huge, but Liam had learned a thing or two about courage.

Who are you, and what do you want? Liam hollered out as he stepped into the middle of the room, right in front of the four blue guys.

The largest of the four took another step toward Liam. He spoke in a deep growl as he said, Out of the way, Worm-Boy. You aren’t what we’re after.

Worm-Boy? Liam asked. The only place Liam was ever called, Worm-Boy was Arestana. He realized these four must be from that world! He felt a bit of a thrill. He missed Arestana. It was a terribly annoying world, but he loved it there.

Hey, don’t speak to my friend that way! Harry yelled. Not much scared Harry, not even seven foot tall, horned, blue guys from another world.

As Harry stepped forward, the reaction from the four visitors was remarkable. They all opened their mouths in a gasp and fell to their knees.

It is an honor to meet you, my prince! the large blue guy in front said in a respectful and reverential tone. We have come to return you to your kingdom so one day soon you can take your rightful place as king of your people, the Bodal.

Cool, Harry said. Nothing ever surprised him.

Yes, my prince, it is cool. It is also time. Your people await, the blue guy replied, bowing his head again.

With that, the four Bodal stood up, pushed Liam out of the way and grabbed Harry. The Bodal man who had spoken hoisted Harry up over his shoulder and started to make his way to the back of the change-room. The coach stepped forward to rescue Harry from their grasp, but they easily pushed him aside.

One of the Bodal ran up to a stall door and pushed it open. Liam could see the swirling colors coming from the toilet and knew a portal had opened to Arestana. He ran to the back of the change-room to help Harry any way he could, but before he could get too far, the large Bodal carrying Harry jumped in and was sucked down along with his friend. The other three quickly followed, and the light in the toilet went out. Harry was gone.

The football team stood there in silence for a moment. It had all happened so fast. It had taken just a few seconds from the moment the creatures had stepped into the change room until they and Harry were flushed down the toilet. It took another moment before anyone had quite wrapped their minds around the fact that blue creatures had walked into the change room, called Harry their prince and then jumped into the toilet and disappeared.

As it started to settle in, the coach spoke up. We have to rescue him. Without Harry, we have no chance of winning the final game!

Liam looked with disgust at the coach. Well, we want to rescue him because he’s been taken by blue-horned-creatures from another world, right? Not just because we’ll lose the game, but because we care about Harry, right?

The coach and the rest of the team looked at Liam as though he was speaking nonsense. The coach shook his head in a dismissive manner and then explained his plan.

Liam! You’ve been to another world, right? Arepandy or something like that?

Arestana. Yes, and I think that’s where they took Harry.

Okay, well that settles it, the coach said. You will go and rescue Harry and bring him back to us.

The rest of the team nodded their heads in agreement. A few of them grabbed Liam. They began to drag him back toward the toilets.

No, wait, I don’t think it works like this! Liam said. He was pretty sure he didn’t want them to try to stuff him down a toilet. You have to wait until a portal appears. You can’t just squeeze me down there! He struggled hard to get away.

The coach waved to the team to stop dragging Liam toward the toilet. He stepped close and put his hands on Liam’s shoulders. The coach stared deeply into Liam’s eyes and with a shake in his voice began to give orders. Listen, Liam. Without Harry, the team will not win in the finals. You must get him back. Harry is what is important. Even if you have to sacrifice yourself, get Harry back for us. The coach then turned to the rest of the team. Flush him, boys!

No, wait! Really! You have to wait for a portal to appear! Liam yelled. You can’t just... Liam looked toward the toilet to see that a swirl of colors had appeared. It looked like Arestana wanted him back again. He felt another thrill inside, as he realized he would soon see his friends and go on another quest. This time he needed to rescue Harry from the blue creatures.

When a portal opened up between worlds, the swirl of colors would be the sign that the portal was open. It had happened to him twice before, each time through a toilet. He had never felt it was fair that he had to travel by toilet. It wasn’t the only way to go, but it seemed to be his way. He had come to accept it on a certain level, although it still bothered him.

The rest of the team lifted him right off the ground. One of his teammates mumbled something about going in headfirst. He didn’t like that idea, but again he had resigned himself to this.

They turned him upside down and began to lower him in. He looked down at the swirl of colors and realized his teammates’ aim wasn’t the best. He hit the back of the toilet. They lowered him again, and he hit the wall, then the floor and then the side of the toilet before going in.

Liam was flushed. Again.

Winter

The trip through the portal was always quick. It didn’t hurt, which was odd as Liam considered the fact that no toilet was really big enough to flush a fourteen-year-old down it without squishing him first. It also didn’t leave him wet or stinky. It was just like a strong wind, followed by a rush of movement.

He wasn’t prepared, however, for what happened next. He hit the ground hard and rolled. The ground was cushioned by something soft, white and very cold.

As he rolled to a stop, he slowly stood up and looked around. He had never been in Arestana in the middle of winter before. As far as he could see, the land was covered in snow. It was well up past his knees, and it was very cold. To make matters worse, the wind was blowing so hard it felt like it was cutting right through him.

Liam wrapped his arms around himself. He was still wearing his football clothes, complete with padding and everything, but it offered little protection from the cold. He wished he had his helmet as well. It would at least help to keep the wind off his ears.

He spun around, scanning the horizon for someplace warm. It was getting dark. There was still some light left from the sun off in one direction, but not much. He realized, however, that he didn’t know the time. It could actually be early morning. Maybe the sun was just about to rise.

He realized it didn’t matter what time it was. He needed warmth. He was already shivering, and his toes were starting to go numb.

Off in the direction of the sunset... or sunrise... there was a cliff. Behind him was a steep hill and to the left was a thick forest. The forest led down, and as he strained his eyes in the darkness, he could see it led into a valley in the direction he was facing.

He moved toward the valley and started to walk as fast as he could through the deep snow. As he walked, he made his way toward the trees, hoping that they would offer some protection from the bitter wind.

As he arrived at the forest, he was pleased to find the snow was not as deep along the edge of the trees, and the wind was nowhere near as strong. He could make better time by the trees and walked quickly down toward the valley.

The going was still slow, and as he traveled, he could tell it was definitely turning to night, not early morning. As the sun set, he could feel the temperature drop even more. The darkness began to create an eerie feeling in him as he walked close to the trees of such a dark forest.

He heard a noise in the woods beside him. He didn’t know what would be out in the dark in the middle of winter, but he was pretty sure he didn’t want to find out. There were a lot of nice people in Arestana, but there were some dangerous creatures as well. He hoped he could find a friendly group of people to take him in, warm him up and help him get to Kings-Home, the capital city.

He stared into the shadowy forest for a moment or two before moving on. He was feeling very creeped out. The open area to his right was quite clear and bright in the darkness because of the snow, but the forest to his left was like a wall of black. If it wasn’t for the wind and the snow, he wouldn’t have walked so near the trees.

He stood for another moment staring into the darkness before he remembered how cold he was. It didn’t matter if there were creatures in this forest, if he stopped too long he would freeze. He had to stay on the move.

He made his way farther down the hill. The ground sloped downwards, but in the darkness he could not see far enough to know what was ahead.

Liam started to shiver more than before and knew that he had to find a warm place soon. He started to run, and with the increased speed, he felt himself warm up a little bit, but he also didn’t have the same control in the snow. He fell and got up and started to run again, only making it another five or six steps before falling again. He got to his feet again and looked around. There had to be somewhere he could find some warmth. He needed to get out of the cold soon.

Something caught his eye off in the darkness of the forest, and he turned to look intently into the dark. As he stared, he thought he spotted a flicker of light. He wasn’t sure he had actually seen anything. He feared his mind was playing tricks on him, and he worried that if he stepped into the forest, he would quickly lose his way.

Liam turned and looked out over the open area, covered in cold snow. He couldn’t see far, but he could see far enough to know there wasn’t much within a short distance in that direction. It might be worth risking a trip into the darkness.

He took a step into the forest and saw it again. There was definitely a flicker of light ahead.

Liam made his way through the darkness. He ran into the occasional branch and tripped once or twice over some roots. There was little snow this deep in the woods, but he couldn’t see where he was going. As he stumbled through the dark, his heart jumped as he smelled burning wood.

He picked up his speed and moved as fast as he could through the shadows. There was light up ahead. Not much, but there was some, and there definitely was a fire.

He broke through the trees and stumbled into the edge of a small clearing. There, not more than twenty steps in front of him, was a small cottage.

Liam raced around the side until he found a door. He normally wouldn’t just barge into someone’s home, but he was far too cold to worry about being polite. He wasn’t sure he could stay on his feet much longer.

He grabbed the handle of the door and shoved his way inside. He felt the warmth rush over him and shielded his eyes in the brilliance of the fire.

Someone rushed toward him and pushed the door closed.

Liam? Is that you? a man asked. It’s okay. I’ll get you some warm blankets. The man who spoke sounded familiar. Liam crawled over toward the fire as the man rushed around and then came back to wrap Liam up.

Who are you? Liam said, through chattering teeth.

It’s okay, Liam. I’ll warm you up. It’s me. It’s Harv. I’ll take care of you, young man.

Liam looked up. The light from the fire which had seemed so bright a moment before, wasn’t very bright at all once his eyes had adjusted. He focused in on the man. He could start to make out the face in the light of the fire. It was Harv! He was so glad to not only be warm but to be rescued by someone he knew.

Harv was a strange man. Very strange, as a matter of fact, but he was kind when necessary.

"Let me get you up