Chapter 4

The light had gone out and been replaced with a black so deep it was almost a living thing. Jason had no way of knowing whether his eyes still worked or whether the intense light had blinded him. He could vaguely feel the staff in his left hand and Jenna frantically grabbing his right arm, it was almost as if it was happening to someone else. There was a sense of movement sure enough but he could not longer be sure he was falling. Without any frame of reference he could be falling down or falling up or even flying above some lightless place. How long this lasted he had no way of knowing, but the panic was gradually replaced with a sense impatience. After all even if something really bad were going to happen when this trip ended, it was better then the endless darkness.


Finally it seemed as if his rate of descent (ascent?) was slowing. Light bloomed, sharp and incredibly painful to his eyes. He squeezed them shut, but it did not help much. Red spots danced in before his face even when his eyes were completely closed. After a few seconds he reopened his eyes the barest slit. The first thing he saw was the ground rushing up to meet him. 'Well at least I know we were falling' he thought just before he impacted the ground.


Luckily they were not falling too fast and he landed in thick soft grass. On the downside as he landed the staff smashed into his left shin and then Jenna landed directly on top of him. Jenna was a petite girl but the pack added more then enough weight to blast the air from his lungs and leave Jason dazed. His own pack forced his body to fold around it and ached his back painfully. He focused on just breathing for a while until the pain faded and he could see just how badly he was hurt from the crash. Just as he was starting to recover, he heard an oddly familiar high pitched noise. He listened for a moment before recognizing it.


Jenna was laughing like an idiot.


"Wow what a ride." She gushed in between titters. "I can't believe that. I mean you read about it, you imagine it, but nothing, nothing prepares you for actually doing it. Magic, inter-dimensional travel, we actually did it. We're here, wherever here is. Isn't it great? I mean I told you, didn't I? We're really here! This is amazing!"


That was all a battered and bruised Jason was going to take. "Get...off." He wheezed and tried to sit up.

"What? I can't understand you. You need to talk louder. From the diaphragm Jase."


"Get OFF!" he yelled as loud as he could manage and tried to swat her with his staff. But the leverage was off and all he managed to do was poke the back of her leg.

Jenna glanced down and said, "Opps. I thought the landing was kind of soft. Sorry Jason, I just got a little carried away." It took three tries before she managed to roll off and get to her feet.


Jason just laid there and enjoyed the sensation of his lungs fully inflating. But that novelty wore off and he started to realize just how uncomfortable he was. He tried to stand but he was a turtle on its back. With a supreme effort he managed to roll onto his stomach then use his hands to push himself more or less upright. Enough to get a good look around at least.


They were definitely not home anymore. He knew the land for miles in every direction and there was nothing like this at home. They were standing in a small hollow of packed grass. He could see exactly where they had fallen and at what angle. Beyond that was grass, grass, and more grass. In fact it was all he could see in every direction. They were in the middle of a wide open grassy plain that continued for miles. The grass was high enough that it would tickle Jenna's chin if she walked through it. He took a closer look at the grass, it started as stems around an inch thick that looked coarse and strong. The stems themselves were nearly three feet high and the leaves a couple feet past that. The leaves started yellow near the ground but turned into a deep rich green where the sun would hit them. It was lush and thick, and walking through it would be nearly impossible. The day was warm without being too hot. He estimated it was in the mid 70s, hopefully it was a nice early spring here just like back home and the temperature would stay pleasant.


"Well you are the supposed expert here Jenna, what do we do?" Jason queried as he spun slowly in place.


"We walk. What else can we do? Wherever we are supposed to be, I don't think this is it." She reached out to part the grass and pulled her hand back quickly. "Ouch!" She held her hand up to show a thin line of blood. "These things are sharp!"


"Great so not only is it thick and deep, but apparently the grass is blood thirsty to boot." Jason stated accusingly.


"Oh it's not so bad. We just need to make a trail. I have my trusty sword we just hack our way through." Apparently nothing was going to dampen Jenna's enthusiasm.


"It could work. It will be slow going though and tiring so we'll have to take turns. And you had better wrap your hands and arms up. If this grass is that sharp it will cut you even if it falls on you. The next question is which direction do we go?" Jason turned around again hoping to spot something in the distance.


"Does it really matter? Looks like one way's as good as any other." Jenna said. She undid her pack and started rifling through it looking for gloves.


"Of course it matters. This place could be a thousand miles in one direction and a half mile in another. Plus it would be easy to get turned around, end up going in circles. I mean it's obvious we aren't where the goblins came through, can't even be sure this is the same world." Jason stated trying to be logical.


Jenna stopped going through her pack and looked puzzled. "Why do you say that?"


Jason turned around once more then quit. "Well the goblins were small, but not small enough to pass through this grass without making a trail. And I can't see one anywhere. In fact I don't see anything except a couple birds way up in the sky."


Jenna shaded her eyes and looked up. "Oh yeah I see them. I wonder if they are vultures circling and waiting for us to die."


"Now there is a pleasant thought you could have kept to yourself." Jason paused. "Umm Jenna? What gives?"


"What do you mean?" She asked. She bent down and pulled out a spare t-shirt and began tearing it into strips.

"You usually can't see more then a foot in front of your face without your glasses on. Now you are picking birds out of the sky that even I have to squint to see." Jason had always had nearly perfect vision but Jenna could never see further then her computer screen.


Jenna reached up and touched her face in surprise. "Weird. I don't know. I didn't even think of it. I'm so used to having them on, I didn't even notice it." She paused and her face brightened. "It must be magic. In fact I'm sure of it, I even feel different."


"So there are magical optometrists now?" Jason replied sarcastically.


"Don't make jokes. This is great. I was always worried I would pull a Velma if I ever had to do a real quest. Now I know these things just work themselves out when you start." Jenna was literally hopping around in her excitement like a ten year old at Christmas.


"What is 'pull a Velma'?"


"You know, Velma from Scooby-Doo?" At Jason's nod she continued. "Whenever a bad guy bumped her, she lost her glasses. She would then spend a few minutes just crawling on the floor completely helpless."


"Oh I get it." Jason took a moment to actually look at his friend and did a double take. "Err Jenna did you happen to notice your ears?"


"How could I notice my ears? What about them?" Jenna stopped hopping and looked at him in confusion.


"Well they are looking a little...pointy. In fact your whole face is different somehow." She had always looked a bit like a pixie, but now the freckles were more prevalent but smaller, her eyes had a twinkle that he had never seen before and her hair was not so much frizzy as it was wild and untamed.


Jenna reached up to touch her right ear, confirming the point. Her smile lit up, "Cool!" Her yell was loud enough to startle a flock of birds a hundred feet away into flight. "Did your ears change too?" Jenna reached up and yanked his hair away from his ears. "Guess not, I must be special then. I knew I was supposed to come!"


"Jenna, could you do me a favor and stop pulling on my hair? It kind of hurts." Jason reached up to try and tug her hands away.


Jenna released the death grip and Jason stepped back with a wince. "We still need a direction. I'm glad you don't need your glasses any more, but it does not really change our immediate needs." Jason stated from a safe distance.


"Well since magic obviously works, we should be able to use magic to find our path, right?"


"Maybe, but the problem is we don't have any magic to use. Or training, not even a spell book or a..." He paused. "Or a wizard staff?"


"Jason that's brilliant. If it brought us here, it should know the way to go next. We just have to figure out a way to use it." Jenna was if anything even more excited then before. It was a bit disturbing in truth.


Jason tightened his grip on the staff. He tried pointing it, waving it around, smacking it in the ground and got nothing.


"Maybe it's like a magical compass or a lodestone?" Jenna suggested.


Jason tried to hold the staff loosely in his hand so it could swing. It was hard, the staff was very long and dragon made it top heavy. But eventually he got it balanced in his right hand and as far from his body as possible so it could swing better. The point started to move back and forth at once. It made a slow sweep of the horizon once, twice, and then it stopped dead and quivered almost as if it was trying to move forward of its own volition. Jason was reminded of a leashed dog that had just spotted a squirrel. "Well guess we have a path. What direction is that Jenna?"


Jenna reached behind her and fumbled into a side pocket on her pack before extracting a compass and studying it. She moved her hand back and forth and finally shook her head. "It's no good."


"What do you mean no good?" Jason craned his neck to try and get a look at the compass in her hand.


"The needle just keeps moving back and forth. It never settles on anything. It's like there is no magnetic north. Or maybe there is a magnetic north and south. Who knows? I do know it doesn't work though. Maybe it got broken in the fall. Check yours." Jenna snapped the compass closed and packed it away again.


Jason glanced at the compass on top of the survival knife at his waist. The needle was swinging from N to S and back again, never settling in one place. "No good, it's doing the same thing. Maybe magical fields interfere with magnetic ones. Or maybe this area has a lot of iron or something."


"Maybe, but we have the staff. We can just check it when we stop and make sure we are still heading in the right direction. Do you want to start now, or rest a while first?" The eagerness in Jenna's tone left no doubt about her preference.


"We might as well start. The longer we delay the harder it will be to finally get started." Jason could not match his partner's exuberance at the thought though.


"Ok, I'll go first." She made sure the spare t-shirt was firmly wrapped around her right hand and arm. Then drew the goblin sword and took an experimental swing at the grass. It cut easily through the stalks in front of them. The severed grass fell sideways and was lost in the sea of green. "Piece of cake, follow me."


The going was even slower then Jason had expected. He had to take over for Jenna after less then an hour. The sword felt pretty light to start with, but it got heavy surprisingly quickly. He had always thought himself to be in pretty good shape, but this worked a whole different set of muscles. He lasted longer then Jenna, but his arms and shoulders were screaming by the time he passed the sword back to Jenna two hours later. She tired even quicker this time and he did not fare much better. They took a break after three rotations and they had traveled less then a mile in six hours. If he squinted, Jason could still see exactly where they had started.


They shared a quick snack of dried sausages and crackers washed down with canteen water. Jason checked the staff and confirmed the direction was correct before starting again. Jason took the first turn this time. He tried to swivel his body more and give his arms a break. But the weight of the pack kept throwing his balance off. He gave up the concept after stumbling hard and cutting his chin on a blade of grass. Yet, between the two of them they managed to hack away until the sun started to set and they agreed to stop for the night and make camp. Still no matter where he looked, Jason could not see an end to the sea of grass that had them trapped.


It was such a relief to just get the pack off and stretch his shoulders that Jason volunteered to carve out a hollow spot in the grass. While he was doing that, Jenna worked on digging a fire pit with a small collapsible shovel. When they were done, Jason started breaking off stalks for a fire and Jenna opened a couple of cans of stew and poured them into a cooking pot. The stalks were dry enough at the bottom to burn, but the fire had to be constantly replenished. Jason kept breaking and feeding stalks into the cook fire while Jenna stirred the stew and finally dished out two helpings.


At the first taste, Jason realized just how hungry he was. He burned his mouth several times while he wolfed down his portion. Jenna declined seconds so Jason finished off the rest. It took the edge off his hunger without really sating it. Between the two of them, they got the tent set up and the sleeping bags unrolled quickly. Neither of them had the energy to bother with the air mattresses. The grass made a soft enough bed beneath the tent. Jason barely had the strength to take his shoes off and slide into his sleeping bag before he fell into a deep and thankfully dreamless sleep.


The sun woke Jason way too early the next morning. He glanced over and saw Jenna was still asleep, curled up in a little ball inside her sleeping bag. He debated going back to sleep himself, but he simply could not find a comfortable position. No matter how he lay, his arms and back throbbed too much to sleep. Getting up as quietly as he could manage, he slipped on his shoes and crawled out of the tent. He went a little ways down their back trail and took care of an immediate call of nature before returning to the clearing. He debated food, but decided it would wait until he could relieve some of the pain in his arms.


The day was already quite warm, so he slipped off his t-shirt and began running through the stretching exercises he did for fencing. By the time he finished the half hour routine his muscles felt nicely warm and the pain had faded to a dull ache. It would not last of course. The day's hacking would still be torture, but it was better then nothing.


As he went to go retrieve his t-shirt, he heard a loud wolf whistle. "Hubba-hubba, Jason. Work it for me baby! I'd clap but I don't know if I can move my arms that much." He glanced over to see Jenna sitting in the mouth of the tent with a broad grin on her face.


"Oh ha-ha Jen." Jason replied sourly as he jammed his shirt back over his head. The shirt, not too clean to start with, now smelled distinctly of dirt and sweat. He made a mental note to wash it at the first stream he found. "It wouldn't hurt you to do some stretches. I'm not going to clear the camp by myself."


Grin still firmly in place, "I will if you show me how. Especially if you take your shirt off again." He kicked a broken grass stem at her, and she batted it away easily then winced at the sharp pain in her shoulders.


"Ok I'll walk you through it, but no wise cracks Carrot Top. Remember I still know all your ticklish spots."


Jenna made the universal locking of lips and swallowing the key gesture, and Jason walked her through the exercises. She picked the sequence up quickly, and he sat down to make a little breakfast while she worked out the worst of the kinks. By the time she was done, he had made canned ham and cheese sandwiches and already eaten one and started on the second.


After they finished breaking their fast, Jenna pulled out a small travel toiletry kit. From it she extracted two travel tooth brushes, a couple small bars of soap and a travel sized tube of toothpaste. After washing up and brushing their teeth with a little canteen water, Jason felt surprisingly better. It was amazing how such a simple and familiar act could make the whole day seem easier to deal with.


Next they worked on breaking down the camp site. They took down the tent, buried the fire pit, and repacked the backpacks. Jason checked the staff and it was still pointing in the same direction, so Jason started cutting a path again. They had to switch off every half hour or so, but they still made decent progress. By the time they stopped for lunch and a water break, Jason could finally see a dark line of trees in the distance. They ate quickly and with a renewed sense of vigor. Despite the screaming pain in their arms and shoulders, the sense that this part of the adventure was nearly over drove them until it was nearly too dark to see.


By the time they decided to camp, the grass was already starting to thin and the trees were clearly visible. They ate dinner cold, it was too dark to try and figure out how to do a fire safely. After dinner they spread out the sleeping bags not even bothering to set up the tent. Jenna drifted off immediately, but Jason spent a while looking up at the stars and wondering what tomorrow would bring before finally succumbing to sleep.


Jason dreamed, but it was not the same dream. Oh there was the tunnel, and the black thing in it, but it was not like before. It was flashes in his head like a slide show. He saw other things too. There was an old man's face super-imposed on a young man holding his staff. His parents screaming as their house exploded. Jenna killed over and over again, each time worse then the one before. A dragon, that became a blonde woman, that became a shadow. A city he had never seen burning to the ground. He saw himself, staff in hand falling before the shadow. His school invaded by goblins, the student body being cut to pieces. He saw a mountain explode into a volcano. Over and over, images of death and destruction. It was visions of himself failing and his family and friends paying the price. And through it all was the staff spinning and twirling in his head.

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