Chapter 2 - Portal
At first, nothing happened. Steve was glancing around the room, waiting for a hidden door to appear, when both of them felt the floor shudder slightly. Sarah let go of the key and shared a glance with her husband. The two of them looked around the room once more. So what was supposed to happen? Maybe a secret panel would appear on one of one of the walls?
“Well, I don’t see…” Sarah suddenly pulled her husband close and pointed to the massive doors. “Honey! Where’s the seam?! There’s supposed to be two doors!!”
The huge doors had merged seamlessly together and the frames had started to glow. The carved relief rippled outward from the castle, as if a stone had been dropped in the middle of a pond.
“Listen! Do you hear that?” Steve motioned for Sarah to be quiet. “The humming is back. It’s stronger, and this time there’s no mystery about where it’s coming from.”
The surface of the doors became increasingly turbulent, and then faded out to reveal a realistic, life-sized scene of an outdoor path winding through a coniferous forest. Pine trees nearly a hundred feet high were visible as far as the eye could see.
Coeur d’Alene’s newest residents reacted with astonishment as wafts of fragrant air flowed through the doorframe on the back of a gentle breeze. The sounds of a distant waterfall could also be heard. Small mammals were seen darting through the treetops at amazing speeds.
Since most people do not normally discover a doorway leading into a forest on the third floor of their house, both husband and wife were naturally left quite speechless. Sarah recovered her composure first.
“Now there’s something you don’t see everyday.”
Steve’s response was a few degrees less than formal. “That is no bullshit, hands down, the freakiest thing I’ve ever seen.” He took several steps toward the “doors” and stopped. “That looks real! It looks like we could stroll right across and be walking on that path!” He grabbed Sarah’s hand and started pulling her towards him.
“Now wait.” Sarah was struggling very hard not to lose her grip on her sanity. “I’ll grant you that it looks very realistic, but there’s no way that we can go strolling through that and find ourselves in that forest. It has to be some type of optical illusion.”
Steve shook his head. “Do you smell that? I can smell pine trees. Flowers. I think I even smell water as well. It sounds like there might be a waterfall or something in the area.”
“Okay, I haven’t figured out how it can smell like there’s a real forest, but I’m working on it! I mean, if that ride at Disneyland can use aromatics, so could this thing.”
“I doubt this is an illusion. Wait a minute. I have an idea.” Steve walked over to the desk and grabbed a piece of paper. He folded it into a pathetic-looking airplane and tossed it through the doorway. The airplane sailed through the air and landed nose first on the path.
“Hah! Did you see that? This is a portal! A portal that will lead us to, ummm, to…” Steve shrugged and hooked a thumb in the direction of the activated portal, “wherever that is.”
Steve took Sarah’s hand again and pulled her up to the threshold of the door.
“Now. You’re telling me that if we walk through that,” he looked pointedly at the portal, “then we won’t end up on that path, but instead we’d end up walking into the master bedroom? No, better yet, since the doors are closed, we’d run into them?”
Sarah was reluctant to abandon her common sense. “There has got to be an explanation for this. This type of thing just doesn’t exist. It has to be an illusion of some type.”
Steve held out his hand. “How certain are you of that?”
Her hand smacked into his. Together, they walked through the door. Through, he noted, but not into.
To Steve, it passed as smoothly as stepping into the outdoors. They stood blinking in the bright sunlight, staring at the scenery before them.
“We’re through! Omigod, we’re in the forest!” Sarah bent down to smell the pretty blue flowers she had noticed from the house. “It’s so beautiful here!”
Steve couldn’t stop grinning. He was going from rock to tree to flower as if verify this wasn’t a figment of his imagination.
“There’s nothing that’s illusory about this place, believe you me!” He took a deep breath. “Smell that air! I wonder where we are. Nowhere near a city, that’s for sure.”
It was at this time that Sarah regained most of her senses.
“Okay, why in the world…” She paused. “No, better yet, how did a magical door get into your grandparents house? Hmmm, let me backtrack a little more. Who made it? Certainly not by us. The Japanese are good, but not that good.” Sarah began to pace.
The light of comprehension finally shone a few rays in Steve’s direction.
“Are you saying that, uh, someone else created those doors? Alright, alright, let’s think about this.” His turn to pace. “You’re right. There’s nobody out there that has successfully teleported something, let alone someone, from point A to point B. This sort of thing is straight out of Star Trek.”
“There’s something else that’s bothering me.” Sarah thought for a moment. “Okay, the creators of those doors are obviously more technologically advanced than we are. By leaps and bounds, I’d say. Who knows where we are now? I mean, there are tons of trees, plants, and flowers around here and I don’t recognize any of them!”
Steve sighed. “Hon, there are thousands of trees and flowers. Can’t be expected to know all of them.”
“True. However, I can usually recognize something. My grandmother ran a floral shop for years, remember? I’ve spent a lot of time with her. Steve, nothing here is familiar. I mean, look at this flower, for example.” Sarah pointed to what looked like a brightly colored rose.
“That’s a pretty rose.”
“It sure is, isn’t it?” Steve nodded, so she continued, kneeling close by the multi-hued flower. “However, this one has at least four different colors in it, maybe more. Look, on this one petal alone you have dark blue, which turns purple, then pink, and then yellow.”
“Looks kinda like a sunset,” Steve commented.
She nodded. “It does. However, roses don’t have that many colors on the same flower. Don’t even think about rolling your eyes at me.”
Steve’s gaze snapped back to neutral.
“Besides, look! It has blue thorns!”
“Flowers and thorns. Not an uncommon match, ya know.”
It was Sarah’s turn to roll her eyes. “Just trust me. This flower isn’t natural.”
They continued exploring the surrounding plant life when a large shadow passed over them, a loud screech shattering the air. Both of them froze instantly.
“What was that? A bird?” Sarah looked up at the trees.
“A bird that big? Did you see the size of that shadow? It was as big as the car!” Steve nervously scanned the immediate vicinity. It was then that he finally looked behind them.
“Houston, we have a problem.”
Sarah detected the note of alarm in his voice. It got her attention. Instantly. “Honey? What’s the matter?”
“The, uhh, there’s…” Steve ran his hands through his hair and cleared his throat. “The portal’s gone.”
“WHAT?!” Sarah spun around and looked behind them. “This is not good. This is SO not good. What do we do?”
Steve noted the panic in his wife’s voice. It spooked him more than he would ever care to admit. Here they were, in an unknown land, with no signs (or sounds) of civilization anywhere in the vicinity. If he were by himself, it would be one thing. But to have Sarah suffer the same fate as he, it was almost unbearable. He had to think of something to do, quickly, before he started showing signs of panicking himself.
“Ummm, maybe the doorway is there, but we just can’t see it.” He grabbed her hand. “Come on.”
They hurried
to the exact spot where they stepped onto the path.
“Alright, one more step and we should be back in the house.” Together, they stepped forward. Unsurprisingly, nothing happened. “Maybe it’s a little farther than I thought. Let’s keep going.”
They continued down the path another twenty paces before Steve stopped and reversed his course, figuring an approach from the south would have better results. No luck. They tried from the east and then the west, still with no luck. They were stranded.
Sarah was furious. “We’re stranded? We’re STRANDED?? This is all your fault!!”
Steve whirled on her. “My fault? I’m not the one who stuck that damn key in and turned it, causing that portal to appear.”
“No, you’re right. YOU are the one that pulled us through without thinking about the consequences. And now look at us. We’re screwed!”
“Hey, wait a minute. I’ve got my cell. I’ll just call someone, like 911, and they can trace the signal.” Steve unclipped his cell. “Problem solved.”
He started punching in numbers when he frowned, spun to the left, then to the right, then started moving aimlessly around. “No freakin’ signal. Must be all the trees. Dammit!”
“Well then, come on. Let’s find a clearing or something.” Sarah started to head north when Steve gently pulled her to a stop. “What’s the matter?”
“That waterfall sounds like it’s coming from the other direction. Let’s go that way.”
“Okay, the waterfall is that way. So?”
“Usually water increases the signal from cell phones. Right?”
Sarah shrugged. “Makes sense.”
For half an hour they traveled south. The trees were just as thick as ever, with no signs of thinning. There were also, Steve noted, no signs of civilization yet (or traces of it). For all he knew, they could be following a deer trail. However, one positive note was that the sound of the waterfall was getting progressively louder.
Sarah’s legs were getting tired. She wasn’t used to this much continuous walking. She was about to suggest they stop to rest when the path took a sharp turn to the left and they found the waterfall. It was, she noted, very pretty. As Steve attempted to get a signal on his cell, she craned her head to look at the top. She estimated it to be at least a hundred feet tall. The falling water had formed a small lake, with the excess water flowing off to the east as a small river.
However, what held her attention at the moment was the pair of griffins that were satisfying their thirst from the pool. Panic spread through her like wildfire. Where was Steve? She scanned the immediate area, but couldn’t see him.
Cra-ack!! The snapping of the twig echoed like a gunshot all throughout the clearing. Sarah groaned. Steve had just announced his presence, existence, and location to every living creature within a two hundred foot radius.
Both griffins jerked their heads up. Steve came out of the trees and stumbled toward the lake, eyes still down as he attempted to get a signal on his cell.
“Steve!!” Sarah hissed.
Steve finally looked up. “What?”
“Don’t move!” Sarah whispered, panic evident in her voice. “Remember that statue in the office? The one with the safe?”
“Yeah, what about it?”
“Look to your right! Just don’t move,” Sarah pleaded, “and don’t panic!”
Don’t move? Don’t panic? What, had a bee landed on him? What did that office safe have to do with anything? Steve glanced to his right. Not more than fifteen feet from him were two sets of avian eyes staring straight at him.
“Awww crap…”
It was hard to say who was more surprised, the griffins or Steve. Normally, prey didn’t come stumbling right up to them. What was wrong with this human? There was no fear! Humans without fear usually meant wizards or sorcerers. It was bad luck to eat a wizard.
Both griffins appeared undecided, and then with a loud squawk, they took to the air and flew away.
“Could it hurt to once, just once, look where the hell you’re going?” Sarah surprised herself into feeling both happy and furious at the same time.
“Those were griffins! Holy crap! Actual live griffins!!” Steve sailed right past fear to land squarely on amazement. “Those are mythological creatures! Half eagle, and half lion!” His smile then melted into a frown.
“Yeah, that’s right, Einstein.” Sarah was still mad. “Griffins, along with multicolored roses. They don’t exist. At least, not in the States. And, if I’m not mistaken, anywhere else. We’re nowhere close to home. I hate to sound like a sci-fi geek, but I think we’re in another reality, or on an entirely different world!”
“Another reality? You mean like a parallel dimension??” His brow furrowed as he frowned harder.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean.” Sarah noted her husband’s skeptical tone and body language. “Come on! You’re more into sci-fi than I am. I would think you’d believe this sort of thing more than I would.”
“Hey, reading about it and experiencing it are two very different things. However…” Steve looked in the direction the griffins flew off. “I better start believing it before I go crazy.”
Steve walked over to the closest rock and sat down. Sarah joined him an instant later.
“Let’s recap, shall we? We discovered a portal in my grandparent’s mansion. A portal that brought us here, to a place where apparently fantasy creatures can and do exist. Where, according to you, (and I do trust you!) the flora is unique and unknown as well.” He looked at Sarah. “I think it’s obvious that my grandparents used the portal. Why else would it be there?”
“Well, if they came here before, then where did they go? They must have known people here, or frequented a known spot.” Sarah looked around. “Let’s keep moving. The last thing I want right now is for something else to come here for a drink.”
They both stood up. “Any ideas on which direction to go?” Steve’s eyes followed the flowing river as it trailed off to the east.
“Let’s follow the river. We’ll have a better chance of finding some people if we stick to the water.” Who knew watching the Discovery Channel would have eventually paid off?
Sarah nodded. Made sense. She looked further downstream. Still no signs of civilization whatsoever. Steve took her hand and together they headed east.
The Prophecy Page 3