Chapter 2
Portals, Prophecies & Paths Oh My!
The first thing Susan noticed was the feeling in her stomach, no longer the throbbing of hunger or the tight tangled ball of stress it had been all morning, now it felt remarkably like she had reached the high point of a roller-coaster and was about to take the long slope down. This was a ridiculous thing to feel like she thought, as she was doing nothing more than sitting on a box in a basement and with that thought suddenly the basement began to blur. Her stomachs feeling of uneasy it turned out just put it ahead of the game as suddenly the rest of body started to feel equally uneasy, she felt light and heavy all at the same time, her vision got blurrier while her mouth felt dry but mostly she had this overwhelming sense of falling, rapidly falling. It wasn’t wind in your hair, world rushing by, jumping out of a plane falling and it wasn’t slipped on a banana peel, crashing to the ground falling if anything it was like air travel. An overwhelming sense of descending at a massive speed while the world around her stayed static, at least she assumed it was static, by now her vision had blurred to the degree she might as well of had her eyes closed. As the feeling of falling evolved to include the sensations of spinning and nausea soon her body did the only sensible thing it could and Susan blacked out.
With no power ballads to disturb her awake this time Susan had the luxury of coming to naturally, the first thing she noticed was a bright warmth shining down on her and she was a little confused by that as the last she recalled she was inside and the filing room was anything but bright and warm. Suddenly she started to feel incredibly embarrassed, putting two and two together she figured she must of overworked herself and not eaten soon enough and fainted, only to be taken outside for some fresh air. Had David come to check on her she thought, had he been to one to carry her outside, how was she supposed to live that one down? More importantly, how likely is it going to be that not fainting on your first day is on the Happytemp list of policies for their temps? She rubbed her eyes and looked up at the sky, her brain running through all the things she might have to explain to retain her job and any dignity she could from the situation, it was then she noticed something strange, the sun was green. She rubbed her eyes again, did she hit her head, and was this a side effect of the concussion? She looked again and once more the sun was green, a third rubbing then a forth did little to change this further and it was then she realized that not only was this not changing but her assumption that she was outside of her new office was a little far from the truth. She was sat in the middle of a clearing surrounded on one side by huge trees as tall as any building she had ever seen on the other was a sparkling silver lake with a path leading down away from it. It was then she had one final realization, she was not alone.
There was a rock by the lake and sat on the rock was man staring at Susan, he looked about four feet tall, was dressed in ragged, handmade clothes with a dark wispy hair that hung to just below his shoulders. He stared at her intently never shifting his gaze elsewhere and he looked both stunned and excited to see her. Time seemed to stop as they both stared at each other and Susan tried to wrap her brain around what she was seeing. It wasn’t that she had never seen a dwarf before, one had lived up the road from her flat and she had seen him from time to time at the 24 hour garage, but the person she saw now was no dwarf. His proportions were all wrong, he looked like someone had taken a perfectly normal sized person and just shrunk them by a third. He left his rock and started to walk towards her, Susan wanted to scream but she was so caught up in trying to wrap her brain around the green sun, silver lake and whatever this thing walking towards her was, that all she managed was a quiet sound of exasperation. He reached about four feet away from Susan and took an already confusing situation and increased it exponentially as he took one knee and bowed his head. The terror and shock of her situation started to drain away and was replaced with a mix of urges, to flee, to laugh, to try and scream again but the confusion level was now so high that her curiosity boiled over and with all that she could muster of a voice asked
-Why are you bowing?
The creature tilted up his head and looked at her puzzled but remained on one knee. it occurred to her how foolish it was to assume it knew English but as she knew no other languages to try she did the only thing she had ever been shown to do in such a situation and repeated the question back again slowly while miming vague actions that even if you spoke English you wouldn’t associate with the words. She tried this two or three times and was just about to look around for a stick to attempt the weirdest game of Pictionary she had ever been privy to in the dirt when the creature began to speak clearly back at her.
-You are the prophesized one.
Susan let that hang in the air for a moment, ceased looking for a stick and allowed the latest wave of shock to wash over her until once again her curiosities lead the way.
-What do you mean prophesized one?
-You are destined to save the people of this world.
-You’re kidding right?
-So it is spoken so it must be. You are the chosen; you will save all the light can touch from the dark that seeks to hold it.
Another long silence as Susan mulled over what she had just heard. For her weird days usually revolved around bumping into somebody she had kissed while drunk or seeing a big issue seller that resembled a celebrity she had forgotten existed. As weird days go on her list of weirdest days ever the top spot would now probably be held for some time by ‘the day I fell through a portal and was tasked with saving a world by a dwarf’. The creature had risen from its knee but still bowed its head slightly as though it wasn’t allowed to look directly at her. Like most people Susan had from time to time thought about what it might be like to be on the receiving end of celebrity worship like a film star or an heiress, she had never thought it would feel like this. Then again there was a lot about the day that was not as expected.
-I am not your chosen one, I am Susan, I am destined to earn minimum wage and spend it unwisely, I don’t know how to save electricity and you want me to lead some kind of revolution?
-I would ask nothing of you it is not my place to ask.
-So what is it your place to do apart from stare creepily, bow, be cryptic and annoy new arrivals?
-I am Lorne the gatekeeper as my family has been for as long as we have known, we are to guard the gate until the prophesized one frees us from the curse of the dark.
With that Lorne cast his arm towards what until know Susan had noted as a shabby pile of rocks but as she looked closer she could see what was actually a shabby pile of rocks shaped kind of like two pillars, as mystical anomalies that can teleport people to entirely different worlds go it left a lot to be desired in the wow factor department.
-So your family has waited here for what, a dozen lifetimes and I am the only one to walk through this thing?
-No.
-No?
-No you are not the first, you are the fourth.
-The fourth?
-Yes, four others have arrived since my family first started watching the gate.
-So why am I the prophesized one and not one of those four?
-We are still cursed by the dark, if they had been the prophesized one then we would no longer be cursed.
-So what makes you so sure I am the prophesized one?
-You came through the portal, as it was prophesized.
-So did they, did you not think they were the prophesized one?
-Yes we did, but when they did not succeed they were obviously not the prophesized ones.
-So when I fail I will just be crossed of your list?
-You will not fail.
-Oh! What makes me so different from the other four?
-You are the prophesized one.
Susan scanned Lorne’s face for a flicker of any emotion to show he was joking or realized the absurdity of his logic. Instead she was met with possibly the most serious expression she had ever encountered.
-Look last thing I knew
I was eating my lunch in a filing room, now I am God knows where with whatever you are and you are telling me it was because I was pulled through a portal?
-As you were prophesized to be.
-I am dreaming, I have hit my head, or fainted and this is some kind of fever dream.
Susan walked away from Lorne muttering to herself further, she started to pinch herself franticly, bit her lip and kicked a stone. She stared out across the lake and closed her eyes and started counting out loud, when she reached ten her eyes reopened and she looked around hoping to see file boxes and paperwork instead she was greeted with the same silver lake. She dropped to her knees as tears started to run down her cheek, she fought back a lump in her throat and forced herself not make any sound. Trying to compose herself she turned around and sat on the dirt her eyes focusing on the pillars before her. Lorne walked over to her and put a hand on her shoulder to try and offer some comfort, it was not comfort Susan wished to accept and she jerked her shoulder away and shot Lorne the universally accepted look for Don’t Touch Me.
-I assure you, you are awake
-Well you would say that wouldn’t you. This is perfect, just perfect. Six months on my sofa and no portal to the land of arse backwards Oz but one day of temping and poof off I go. I don’t even get the nice shiny shoes just your stupid cryptic prophecy.
-It had to be you, so it was spoken…
Susan cut Lorne off, her voice made it known that the weeping was far behind her and was slowly being replaced with rage…
-Had to be me did it? Funny I don’t remember anyone asking me and I don’t remember applying for it, customer service, admin and telemarketing maybe but I don’t think I put a CV forward to be the savior of the bloody light from the dark. So this is where I say thank you for your consideration and the opportunity but at this time I have accepted work elsewhere.
-I don’t really understand most of what you just said, we must make haste the journey ahead of us is long.
-Shut up, really just shut up, I cannot take any more of this, all I want is to go home, I want back my crappy little life, with my crappy little flat and if being whisked off to the land of no imagination isn’t grounds for dismissal I will even take my crappy little filing job, without prophecy or cryptic midgets can you do that for me?
-I cannot open the gate.
-But you’re the gate keeper!
-Yes but not the gate opener.
-So how do I get the gate open to go home?
-you can’t, it exists solely to bring to our world the prophesized one.
-so it’s a one way gate? Well that’s just brilliant!
- It is quite impressive…
-Not what I meant but it appears I can add sarcasm to the list of things you don’t have here.
-We must leave soon there is not much time.
-I am not going anywhere with you.
-It is said that I must point you on your path, so it is spoken so must it be.
-Yeah well I am going this way, if I see you following me I am going to prophesize that my foot will hit you squarely between the legs before I fill your pockets with rocks and throw you in that lake okay. So why don’t you do me a favor and go dance magic yourself to death!
With that Susan turned and walked down the path leaving Lorne stood there alone. He wanted to follow, more than wanted to it was his familial duty and one he took very seriously, however Susan’s words hung with him. For this new land was a land of magic and mysticism, where whispers become words and words are carried on the wind. It was a land of many prophecies for those that had faith in them as Lorne did. While he was aware that there were many dangers that lay down the path Susan walked and it was his task to steer her through them, he was also very attached to the space between his legs and had no desire to drown. So Susan wandered out of sight, while Lorne stood waiting, watching and working out a way around this latest prophecy.
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