The Light of Roria

Chapter Eighteen

"I'm gonna be sick." Staci covered her mouth before leaning against the store wall.

"Me, too," I answered, taking three steps back. My head was spinning uncontrollably. I was suddenly reminded of my first and last time on merry-go-rounds as a kid. I had really regretted experiencing it only minutes after a chilli dog. With my hand against the wall of a tall building, I began to hum, doing everything I could to focus on anything but puking.

"Oh, that was horrible! What just happened?" Jake cried out, crawling across the paved parking lot.

"I'm sorry. Wind travel can be overwhelming with so many travelers at once." Even Elijah sounded nauseated. He moved toward Staci and me. "Are you both alright?"

"Define—" Staci leaned forward and placed her head between her legs, "alright."

"Yeah, just give me a second," I told him.

Watson began to make several gagging noises before vomiting not far from us.

"That seriously made things worse!" Staci turned away entirely.

"Where are we?" Elijah asked as I began to recover.

"Vale, Oregon," I started out. "I've been here a few times with my old tutor for football games or when we studied the Oregon Trail. We used to stop here at Logan's for snacks or a drink."

With everything finally coming into focus, I watched as the shadow around us began to disappear. We were on the side of the building where one of the largest Oregon Trail murals in town lay. The painting was big enough to cover the entire side of the building. It was one of the first things people would see when crossing the river into Vale.

The farm town was surrounded by hills. One in particular lay close to its border. It was there that a large, white-painted V was placed and could be seen from almost every household in town. It was even smaller than Ontario, with maybe a thousand residents. Most of them had lived in the town for generations and would traditionally pass on farmland and local businesses to their children once old enough.

The parking lot was mostly empty, except for a few trucks parked toward the front of the building. The only four cars parked on the side were currently empty and most likely belonged to employees busy at work inside the town's only grocery store.

Jake finally stood up from the ground. He was shaking his head in disbelief. "Vale!" he yelled, staggering toward the three of us. "How is this possible? How are we even here?"

"Jake, calm down. I'll explain." My stomach was still doing flips, but I knew that if he didn't relax, Jake was going to catch the attention of someone soon.

"Calm down?" he shouted. "Can any of you explain how you are calm in the first place? We just teleported!" He laughed, but not humorously. More like he believed he was on the verge of insanity. "I can't believe those words actually came out of my mouth!"

"We should have left him behind!" Staci finally pushed herself away from the wall. "Before you cause a scene, just stop with all the yelling, OK? Is it gonna change the fact that you've somehow managed to get from Ontario to Vale in just a few seconds?" She stopped momentarily. "Clearly not! So give us a chance to explain before more terrifying pale creatures show up because of you!"

Staci's outburst seemed to grab Jake's attention. I could tell that he hadn't expected her to speak to him that way, but Staci had little patience for others normally, and our situation only made it that much worse.

Consoling him I said, "Jake, I'm so sorry you've been thrown into this as well, but whatever you saw might be really important to us. Moreover, it mean you're a part of this as well. You've seen what those elves did, and I know you're a smart guy, which means I know that you must be able to sense the gravity of the situation here. Once it's safe, I promise I'll explain everything. For now, just trust us. We need to get somewhere safe and we need to do it fast." I pleaded with him, hoping he'd listen. As much as I had doted on Jake all these years, I didn't truly know him. So asking him to trust me was quite preposterous but we were left with no alternative.