I groaned as I hit the ground face-first. The portal had me spinning around. It felt like it took me apart and then put me back together. I thought I was going to be sick.
Everything hurt. It hurt as if everything that had been broken previously broke all over again with the addition of the rest of my body. I rolled onto my back, and to my surprise, I saw a dusky pink sky dappled with a white array of stars. Was I home? Maybe it was a dream, and I just rolled off the couch and I was seeing things.
Maybe I had cartoon birds flying around my head.
But then I heard another scream. A scream I knew well. My eyes widened, and I forced myself to awkwardly roll away from the glowing portal. And only a moment later, Amanda popped out of the portal and onto the ground. She groaned too as she held her stomach.
She rolled onto her back also and saw me and my bewildered and tear-stained face. “Kaitlyn? Oh, my goodness, am I dead?” Amanda sat up quickly. “Ah! I died! No!” She started to whine in a depressed way as she muttered to herself. Probably about all her life goals she had that she didn’t get to do.
“We’re not dead, Mandy.” I said as I slowly sat on my knees. The pain from being thrown through what I classified as a real-life portal had subsided, leaving only the original pain from the crash. “I think...”
Amanda at once stopped her frantic pace and turned to me. “Oh! I’m so glad you’re okay!” Amanda’s arms were open wide as she ran straight at me. I screamed and scrambled to move before I was surely crushed, but with all the casts and pain, it was impossible.
“Mandy-. Can’t. Breathe.” I said as she squeezed me. “Oh, right. Sorry.” Amanda let me go with a sheepish smile and helped me stand up. We then both turned back to what sent us here. Wherever here was.
“We need to go back through there. It’ll take us home. And you better not argue.” Amanda warned me. “I didn’t plan to.” I said, even I wanted to go back home, although I was still debating the possibility of our untimely deaths.
We hobbled over to the glowing oval, but just as Amanda went to touch it, it disappeared. Into thin air. All that was left of it was some orange powder that fell when it disappeared.
I moved out of Amanda’s support to bend down and touch the powder, putting some in my pocket. Amanda had gasped at the disappearance, both her hands over her mouth. She subconsciously helped me stand again, still looking longingly at the place the portal had been.
I looked around us but saw no phones in sight; although I had a feeling, they wouldn’t have survived whatever we just went through. “What should we do?” I asked after a few agonizing moments of silence. My voice was high and nervous; I knew this was my fault, and I felt horrible that I dragged Amanda along with me.
Amanda didn’t answer, so I turned my head, searching for the cat-like animal. It led us here; it should be able to lead us back. In the fields, I saw a dark mass moving around and a familiar tail sticking up. It was hard to see, but I could tell it was the animal.
“There! There’s the animal we followed!” Amanda looked over at where I was pointing. “Maybe it can take us home.” I said, and Amanda nodded, desperation in her eyes. We had started to walk when Amanda asked, “What’s that in the sky?”
Despite never really being into Superman and being in an unpleasant situation, the first thing I thought of was It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superman!
I looked up to see a faint, winged shadow growing bigger and bigger as it got closer to us.
We both screamed for what seemed to be the thousandth time today. When we scrambled to run, it’s very sharp claws snatched us up. Before I could tell what the thing was, it dropped us and disappeared from my view. I yelled at the top of my lungs as Amanda and I both started to fall.
But then we landed on something feathery. When we realized that we hadn’t fallen to our deaths, I looked around me. Amanda was behind me, and thankfully, fully intact. “Amanda, your glasses.” She gave me a confused look and touched her face.
“No! Those were like five hundred dollars!” She yelled angrily. I looked to my sides; two big wings were on either side. I could make out some type of blue in the darkness that the oddly colored sky cast. I looked in front of me to see a head. But what I noticed were the two curvy horns that sat in the beast’s head feathers.
“Kait. Don’t you dare.” Amanda said when I tried to touch the horns. I obeyed; I needed to stay on her good side. It may take her a while to forgive me for this. Depending on what happens, of course.
We suddenly dived down at an alarmingly fast rate. I felt Amanda cling onto me for dear life. I clung onto the neck of whatever was taking us wherever we were going.
A warmth started to come off the thing, and we sped up a little. We stopped diving once we were gliding over white trees. And when we reached a big clearing in the white woods, it landed.
“Do you think it’s going to leave us here to die?” Amanda whispered in horror. “No… Look, there’s houses. It’s taken us somewhere. To someone.” I explained.
Amanda squeaked. “How are you being so cool about this?” She asked, and I shrugged in response. “ADHD?” It seemed like the only valid answer. I had read some things about how ADHDers are good in a crisis, but I’ve never really been in one.
Besides the crash… But I wasn’t conscious for most of the crisis part. I had almost forgotten about it and the injuries with all the glowing portals and huge flying things.
The animal let out a low growl, and we both yelped. “Okay… Okay.” I kicked my functioning leg over, and Amanda copied nervously.
“Help me down, please.” Amanda slid down first, almost falling when she landed. She grabbed my hand, and I slid awkwardly down the feathery beast’s side.
We didn’t let go of each other’s hands even after we were both safely on the ground.
It was easier for me to see in this clearing. There were many jars hung up on posts with glowing pink lights that reminded me of fairies.
At first, I thought the animal was a dragon, like a dragon with feathers. But when I took in the whole animal, it was something I had never seen before. And my, oh my, it was gorgeous.
The wings were of indigo blue feathers with black tints on the end of each feather. It had eyes of purple, and the horns were silver. It had two thick, feathered legs with claws on the end. A head sat upon the neck, with a long, dark blue beak. It was about ten times my size.
“Wow…” I reached my hand out to touch it, and it moved its head closer to my hand, like in movies. But right before I could touch it, a girl’s voice yelled, “Hey! Do not touch him!”
I yelped and jumped backwards. But my right leg caused me to trip, and I fell backwards. “Ah!” Amanda grunted as she caught me.
She helped me steady myself, making sure I was okay.
When I looked up, I saw two people. A girl with sun-tan skin, eyes that appeared to be black and staring into my soul, and red hair with black ends stood in front of me. Next to her was an older man. He had grey hair, one pale pink eye, and one shut with a scar along it. The girl was wearing a red shirt and pants, with black armor? on her shoulders, knees, and elbows. The man was wearing a grey robe and had a cane.
“Calm down, Zeva.” The man said, his voice soft and sweet like tree sap.
She grumbled and crossed her arms. “You can morph back, Brax.” The man said to the giant animal.
It rose to its full height and spread its wings. Pop! The animal had disappeared. And in its place was a boy. He had dark purple hair with dark blue tints. Dazzling dark purple eyes. He also had a disgruntled look as he shook out his purple shirt and blue jeans.
A few feathers fell out and landed on the ground. “I hate being a Spurhackle.” He picked one more feather from his neck before turning to me and Amanda.
He looked at Amanda first and seemed to study her like an alien species, like he was confused why she was here. As if we were the weird ones. Then he looked at me.
Our eyes locked; if he was going to stare, I'd stare back. We both looked into each other’s eyes for a long moment, like we were both searching for something. It felt like I'd seen him somewhere. But I couldn’t put my finger on it. Neither of us moved. We just stared.
“Kait… Are you sure we didn’t die?” Amanda asked me, her voice high. The boy and I broke eye contact to look at Amanda.
“I honestly don’t know.” I whispered back, and we all stared at each other for a few awkward moments.
It must have been too much tension for Amanda because she blurted out, “Are you going to kill us?”
The man raised his grey eyebrows. The boy, Brad? Or Brax? Yeah, Brax. Brax looked like she insulted him. The girl, Zeva, looked like she was contemplating the idea.
“What?! No!” Brax yelled. “We could kill the extra one.” Zeva offered, and Amanda and I gasped as a look of horror struck each of our faces.
“We’re not killing anyone.” The man said sternly. “We need to get this on the move. I think it is best to start with introductions.” The old man put both of his palms on the top of his cane. “First, I’m Mr. Yarrowood.” He put a hand on his chest. “This is Brax.” The boy smiled lightly. “And Zeva.” The goth girl glared at me.
“And you are in Zvēru zeme. Also known as the Land of the Beasts to some.” The man finished, a mysterious tone hinting that I should be in awe. But I was simply scared. Scared for Amanda’s life, but I found that I wasn’t really worried about mine. Like I knew nothing bad would happen to me.
I slowly nodded. “Um, I’m Kait. . .lyn, Kaitlyn. And this is Amanda.” My brain seemed to lag on if I should tell them my name or not. “We know who you are. But, Amanda, not so much.” Mr. Yarrowood said.
I crinkled my face up. “Uh, how? That sounds creepy if you don’t know.” Mr. Yarrowood—that is a weird name—smiled innocently, “Ah, yes, I can see that. I will answer that soon.”
“Let’s go to my cabin so we don’t have to stand around in the dark. I made tea.” Mr. Yarrowood turned and started to walk to a cobblestone house that had several stone statues of deformed animals.
“Yeah. We are not going in there.” Amanda said, and I nodded in agreement.
“Don’t you want to know what is happening and why?” I glanced at Amanda, and we had a mental conversation. One on hand, we could find out what’s going on, but on the other, he could be dangerous.
“Will you tell us how to get home?” I asked, and he nodded. “Okay fine.”
“Let’s go.” He said. Amanda helped me walk. Brax kept looking back at me and Amanda, which made me feel weird because I could barely walk.
We reached the cabin, and Brax held the door open for everyone to enter. I had a weird tingling feeling in my stomach, and I didn’t know if that meant this would go horrible or great.
Hopefully, the latter.
---AUTHORS NOTE---
Hello!28Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡiQ4giOp9my
I don't have much to say, so have an amazing day/night/endless abyss!
---AUTHORS NOTE---
ns 18.68.41.179da2
