~~~Continued from~~~
232 AO, September 4th
The energy of Drako began to course through the Wizard. Eddies and currents of vast power were flowing around me.
I saw a woman with her eyes closed.
For a little while, at least. After a few uncomfortable minutes, she began moving her lips, and manipulating her fingers. Her eyes opened, but they seemed to be focused on nothing in particular as they darted around. Her forehead wrinkled, and she began to sweat.
She was no longer reacting to me, so I lowered my gun.
Suddenly there was a soft breeze. The sun seemed to beat down harder. Statically charged ions and ozone played off of sharp points in Saint Elmo's fire dances. The breeze turned to a wind, and then a gale. Jikana's eyes widened and her arms and hands spread open, each finger pointing to an area in front of her. Her moving lips were filled with a strange non-language, and she began to go pale.
Without warning, space warped. It was as if someone had poked a flexible mirror - the image of Jikana flowed around a point in space, and that point became a greenish blurry sphere, expanding from nothing to 2 meters in diameter within seconds. A soft wind flowed into and out of the spherical hole in space. I could see the warped image of greenery as if through a long mirrored tube. No matter which way I shifted, the exit seemed to remain directly in front of me.
Jikana had sworn to harm no one. I jumped into the portal.
The transition across the portal barrier was... very different. It was as if every cell in my body was being stretched and wrapped through a wringer in a way that I can't adequately describe. Then I was weightless, as if I was back on the shuttle journeying to Drako from Porta. Zero Gee. Most people found the feeling difficult to stomach. I loved it. I was flying through a tunnel.
I looked up, and my brain hurt. Not literally - there was no headache. But I couldn't quite mentally grasp the image of my foot above my head. A part of me wanted to reach out and touch it, but I don't know what I would have done if I felt myself grab my foot through... ugh.. I don't even want to think about it.
Behind me, the entrance closed and winked out of existence. Just then the exit became a sharp cone that looked like it would impale me. Forgetting Jikana's oath, I panicked and stopped myself with an on-board propellant. It was unnecessary. As I neared the exit, my extremities came closer together until I was practically standing on the sides of my own feet. That was weird. I pushed off into the nothingness that was in the direction I had came from, just in time to watch a new portal exit bloom before me.
It was all quite confusing, and I just wanted out of there, so I accelerated toward this new exit, and burst through the barrier wringer into a dark wooded area. I tumbled, my armour absorbing most of the blow, but getting damaged in the process. I planted my feet beneath me like I was taught, and sprang into an upright position, looking back the way I had come. The Portal closed before my eyes, leaving me stranded... wherever or whenever I was.
Jikana could have betrayed me, and I might have no way of retaliating. Nothing left but to find out.
I flipped through the different light frequencies, and found that most had a strong concentration in one particular direction. Magnetometers suggested it was to the West.
~~~To be continued~~~
