Through the Portal

They reached the edge of the forest just as the daylight was waning and set up camp in a great, orange field. There was a stream nearby, flowing with the golden water the elves had given them. William vaguely wondered where the water went, since the last stream had been a different color and flavor. However, he didn’t have much time to wonder. As soon as they had set down their bags, Valda pulled out her sword, again.

“Time to practice, more,” she told him. “You can rest after.”

William sighed and bit back an argument, knowing it would do no good. He unsheathed his own blade and took a stance in front of her, acutely aware that Katherine and Tristan were both watching, along with the rest of the group. He hit the ground within a minute, grunting as he was struck down.

“You’re unfocused,” Valda commented. “You need to focus better or you’ll never have any hope of surviving a real fight.

“What did you expect from a human child?” Tristan asked, looking at William, who was pushing himself up off the ground, “Particularly a Dunyan.”

William looked at him, wondering if he had been insulted. “A what?”

Tristan pulled out his own sword and began sharpening it, showing no intention of responding to the question.

“Dunya is what we call your realm,” Katherine replied, on his behalf. “Therefore, people from your world are called Dunyans, just as people from Mirra are called Mirrans.”

William nodded his understanding. “I guess that makes sense.”

“At any rate, I would appreciate it if you would leave my student alone during training,” Valda put in. “Regardless of your distrust of him, he needs to focus.”

“Well, we can’t expect him to do very well with you as his teacher, at any rate,” Tristan replied.

Katherine looked at him and cocked her head. “I trained with her. Are you saying my skills are inadequate?”

He paused, clearly caught off guard. “You have an advantage on him, of course. You are Mirran and a guardian.”

She smiled. “You’re too sweet, Tristan.” She looked back to William and Valda. “At any rate, please continue as though we are not here. William, I assume she’s had you meditate, so remember that training and use it to block out distractions, now, alright?”

He nodded and did his best to take her advice. He closed his eyes, taking a deep breath and clearing his mind. Slowly, he opened them and looked at Valda, finally able to focus only on her. He lifted his sword and set his feet in preparation for her attack. She came at him with a downward thrust, but he raised his sword to block it. She went for the side and he parried. She feigned a jab to his middle and went for his legs, but he focused on her movements and saw it coming. She swung her blade in an arch and he was a second to slow. The blade landed on his shoulder in a diagonal which could easily slit his throat.

She nodded, in approval. “Not bad.” Valda sheathed her sword. “Not nearly good enough to beat me, but not bad.”

William smiled, a little, at the compliment. He was relieved when Tristan didn’t add to the statement. “Are we done?”

“For the night. We’ll go again in the morning. Make sure you meditate before you sleep.”

William nodded and sat down, obediently. He closed his eyes and took deep breaths as he cleared his mind.

Meredith watched him for a moment and whispered to Valda. “Can he still hear us?”

“Yes and no,” the she-elf replied. “He’s still alert. If you tried to attack him, he would react, reflexively. However, if you stay away, he probably won’t really be aware of what you are doing.” Valda shrugged. “That’s assuming he’s doing it properly, of course.”

Meredith nodded her understanding. “I tried meditating before, but I never got the hang of it.”

“It takes practice,” Valda told her. “He picked it up surprisingly quickly, but the Fire Woods are good for that. They have the right energy.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” Meredith yawned. “At any rate, I need to get to sleep. I expect we’ll be walking a lot tomorrow.”

“I’m sure we will exceed your expectations.” Katherine smiled at her and nodded. “Get some rest, now.” She looked over and realized Josie was already asleep, having just collapsed on the ground and closed her eyes. Katherine got up and pulled the blanket out of the child’s bag, covering her up with it.

The twins lay down together, covered themselves in their blankets and closed their eyes, easily falling asleep after the long day of walking.

Meredith followed their lead, getting her blanket out before she lay down and pulled it over herself, feeling more secure with the cover. She stared up at the golden stars in the black sky until her eyes drifted shut and she fell asleep.

Valda lay down and covered herself, but she didn’t fall asleep, immediately, despite closing her eyes. She was alert, listening for any threat that may approach.

Katherine looked to Tristan, who had made no move to lie down. She walked over and sat beside him. “Aren’t you going to sleep?”

“You sleep. I’ll keep watch, for a while,” he replied, not looking at her.

“You know I don’t need much sleep.” She smiled. “I wouldn’t want one of my guards to be tired when we are travelling, after all.”

“I will sleep when you are done,” he promised. She reached out to touch his cheek, but he pushed her hand away. “Your mind tricks may work on the Dunyans, but I will not be so easily fooled.”

She dropped her hand and sighed. “I just want you to be rested. It won’t help anybody if you are not fully alert, tomorrow.”

“I will be,” he assured her. “I just don’t need a guardian forcing me to sleep.”

“Fine.” She sighed. “I’ll sleep, first. Just promise you will go to sleep when I wake up.”

“Very well, my lady.” He never looked at her.

Katherine frowned, but lay down, covering herself and closing her eyes. It never took her long to get to sleep.

Valda listened to the conversation, but gave no indication of being awake. She knew Tristan would be angry if he knew she’d heard. His anger was nothing to fear in her mind, but she had no reason to bring it on, now.

William opened his eyes and was surprised to see that everyone was already sleeping, except Tristan. The elf stared out at the lights, his face illuminated by them. As William looked, he could have sworn there was some sort of sadness in his eyes, the kind someone like him would only allow himself to express when he thought no one was looking. William looked away, not wanting to see. He told himself he had just imagined it. He kept telling himself that as he pulled out his blanket and lay down, forcing himself to go to sleep.

William woke up at first light, having grown accustom to the schedule during his training.

“Good, you’re up,” Valda commented, sitting and watching him, which was a little unnerving to the boy. “Let’s start the day with some push-ups. I think fifty should be good. It will help you wake up.”

Katherine was sitting beside her, but Tristan was still asleep, much to William’s relief. He nodded and obeyed, not wasting any time. By the time the others woke up, he was running drills with his teacher.

Meredith took a seat beside Katherine and watched them. “I haven’t had much of a chance to watch his training, before. It looks pretty impressive.”

Katherine nodded and smiled, glad she was no longer Valda’s student. “He’s improved a lot in the time that I slept.” She looked at Meredith. “I’m sorry we don’t have targets around for you to shoot, currently. Hopefully, your skills won’t be needed until after we reach the palace.”

“After?” Meredith gave her a confused look. “I thought we would be safe once we reached the palace.”

Katherine paused. “Well, the palace is safe, but there is no telling what may happen afterwards.”

Meredith stared at the guardian, a moment longer, then nodded, deciding to accept the answer for the time being. She knew asking for a better explanation would do no good. They would just have to wait until they reached the palace. She grabbed a piece of fruit from her bag and looked back to the dueling pair.

Tristan woke up, last, having been the last to fall asleep the night before. He barely acknowledged the others as he got up and grabbed his own breakfast from his bag. He watched Valda and William, in silence.

William hit the ground with a grunt. As he sat up, he looked over at the elf, who was giving him the same, cold gaze he always wore. William decided the expression he thought he’d seen the night before had to have been his imagination working overtime due to exhaustion.

Valda looked over at Tristan. “Nice of you to wake up. I was beginning to think you might sleep all day.” She looked to William. “You can eat, now. We’ll continue later.”

Tristan ignored her remark and finished his breakfast in silence.

William nodded to Valda and took a seat, rummaging in his bag for his own piece of fruit. He realized he only had a few pieces left and wondered if they would find more food, soon. He pushed the thought aside, remembering that he had decided to trust Katherine’s guidance, even if it had led to him travelling with the world’s rudest elf. “So how big is this field?”

“We should be out of it by the afternoon,” she replied, looking at the group, “We’ll have to be more careful as we go, though. The next land we’ll cross is the Mushroom Garden. It may sound pleasant, but many of the mushrooms are poisonous and some have strange effects, so you will all have to rely on us to help you figure out what you can eat. It might not always taste pleasant, but, at least, there will be plenty of color to see and a clean stream passes all the way through, so we can follow it and not have to worry too much about conserving water.”

He nodded, satisfied with the answer. He wondered how many more lands they would have to cross, but was afraid he might not like that response as much. He just had to hope they would reach the Blue Palace before they all gave up hope. “It will be strange to be eating mushrooms again after we’ve been eating so much fruit.”

She smiled. “You’ll just have to get used to it, I guess.” She stood. “Well, we may as well get going. With any luck, we should be halfway across the garden by the evening.”

The others followed her lead, gathering their satchels and weapons before heading out. As predicted, they reached the Mushroom Garden within a few hours and discovered it was aptly named. The orange grass faded to silver. At first, there were just a few scattered mushrooms, here and there, but, before long, the ground was nearly be covered in them. There were so many different colors, it was hard to believe they were there naturally, hence the reason it was called a garden.

As they sat down for lunch, Katherine turned to them. “Remember: don’t eat anything that Valda, Tristan or I don’t hand to you. You are unfamiliar with this place and I don’t want any of you getting sick, alright?”

The children nodded their agreement, finishing off their fruit as they looked around, uncertainly. Colorful butterflies flitted around, making the whole place seem bright and inviting, despite the stated danger. They decided they were probably going to be okay, as long as they remembered to follow Katherine’s instructions.

William and Valda trained for a little while, then the group started on their way, again, eager to get through the field. He held tight to Josie’s hand, thinking she would be the most likely to eat something she should not, since she was the youngest. A butterfly lit on her nose and the child giggled, scaring the insect off. As the light began to wane, the butterflies started to glow in various colors, illuminating the field, even as the sky turned black and they set up camp.

As promised, they followed the path of a stream that changed colors throughout the day. In the evening, it also started to glow, making the children hesitant to drink from it. Katherine scooped some in her empty water bottle and took a sip. “It’s fine, see?” The elves wasted no time in refilling their bottles and the children, hesitantly, followed suit.

Valda turned to the group as they sat down, together, after a brief sparring session. “So, what is water like where you come from? Does it never glow in Dunya?”

William shook his head. “Water is generally clear, unless there’s something discoloring it.” He took a sip of his water, deciding it tasted like raspberries. He had once heard that the Milky Way tasted like raspberries, so it was the flavor of the universe. He wondered if that were true in Mirra, as well. “Also, water in our world doesn’t have much of a flavor.”

“Well, that doesn’t sound terribly pleasant to drink,” Valda commented.

He shrugged. “A lot of people don’t drink it. They elect drinks filled with sugar, instead.” At her blank look, he explained, “Sugar is a sweet substance that’s rather unhealthy.”

She considered that for a moment. “Dunyans don’t sound very bright, in general.”

William couldn’t help but smile. “You should see our educational system.”

During the conversation, Katherine had been examining the mushrooms and, carefully, picking a few. She handed them out to the group. “These should all be safe to eat.”

William bit into a blue one with red spots. It tasted like cheese and he shook his head, wondering if Mirra could get much stranger. However, he looked at the elves and realized how strange his world would seem to them.

Katherine handed Tristan a mushroom and he gave a polite nod as he accepted it. “Thank you, my lady.”

She nodded in return and continued handing out mushrooms. William watched the elf for a moment, wondering if he was always so formal. It seemed like he went out of his way to keep his distance. William mentally shrugged and continued eating, deciding it wasn’t really any concern of his what Tristan did.

They settled in for the night, making beds for themselves among the mushrooms as they watched the colorful lights of the butterflies passing overhead. The scene was so peaceful, it seemed unlikely that anything bad could happen there, so they were able to sleep fairly easily that night.

The next morning, William got up and went into his exercises under Valda’s instruction. He found it rather difficult to do push-ups when most of the ground was covered in mushrooms, but, as usual, he didn’t dare to complain.

They had breakfast, provided by Katherine, then set off again. When they stopped at midday, she seemed unsatisfied as she looked at the mushrooms. She sighed as she brought some back to the group. “Remember how I told you not everything we ate here would taste good?” She laid some yellow mushrooms with pink spots out for them. “Sorry, but our options are rather limited around here.”

William hesitated to bite into one and did his best not to make a face when he did. It tasted like chalk. “You’re sure these are safe to eat?”

Katherine nodded. “Sorry I couldn’t find anything better.” She took a bite of one, swallowing it, quickly.

The rest of the group started to eat, unhappily. Henry looked around as he chewed and one mushroom caught his eye. It looked just like one he’d had the night before; orange with white spots. It had tasted like vanilla and he decided it would be much better than what he was eating, now. He figured she must have just overlooked it, so he plucked the mushroom and took a bite. Suddenly, the colors of the garden seemed to get brighter and he could have sworn the mushrooms, themselves, were humming. “Well, that’s new.”

Katherine looked at him and snatched the mushroom from his hand. She sighed as she saw what it was. She grabbed his face and forced his mouth open. “You already swallowed.” She shook her head. “I warned you not to eat anything I didn’t tell you to, here.”

The others looked at her and William spoke up, noticing the dazed look in Henry’s eyes. “Is he going to be okay?”

“He’ll be fine,” Katherine assured him. “He just may be a little confused, for a while.”

“You’re pretty,” Henry told her, with a smile. “I really like your nose.” He poked it.

“That’s nice.” She patted his hand and looked at the group. “We’ll have to keep going, but it should wear off in a few hours. I’ll need everyone to keep an eye on him and make sure he doesn’t do anything harmful.”

The others nodded and began packing up. Henry needed some help, since he wasn’t fully aware of their surroundings. He laughed at something a butterfly, apparently, told him and insisted they had a great sense of humor. It took some effort to get him moving, but they finally managed it and started walking. They moved more slowly, though, since they constantly had to stop him from trying to eat mushrooms or chase after butterflies. As one, they realized it was going to be a very long day.