My Three Cousins

Chapter Thirty-Eight

The first thing I noticed inside the portal was how loud it was.  The whirring sound I had heard outside the portal was amplified once we were inside of it and was accompanied by the feeling of strong winds hitting my face.  I felt like I had been caught in some kind of air current and was struggling to breathe.  I didn't know if I should fight against the air and try to stay upright or if I should let the wind of the portal take me.  I wished, not for the first time, that I'd been given more information.  Lennox's hand was the only thing keeping me oriented and I squeezed onto it for dear life.

There was no time in the portal, and it felt like we were stuck, unbreathing, in the air current for hours.  Eventually I had to stop fighting to stay upright and my stomach grew nauseous from the air swaying my body around in circles.  I tried to open my eyes to see if it would help but the colorful light around me only momentarily blinded me.  When I squeezed my eyelids shut again the bright colors, I had seen danced behind them, making this whole experience feel like something from a psychedelic rainbow fueled nightmare.

Eventually I heard a scream over the whirring sound and realized it was coming from Lennox.  I tried to turn and look at them, but I couldn't see anything.  Their scream was high pitched and panicked.  I couldn't get my voice to make words and I squeezed even tighter on their hand, reaching out for them with the opposite one but feeling nothing.  "Help," they gasped as if they couldn't breathe.

I wanted to do something but I couldn't fight against the wind anymore.  Their palm was growing sweaty in my own and a large wind jerked me to the right, pulling my hand from theirs.  I reached frantically, trying to find them but it felt like I had been blown too far away.  I tried to swim through the brightly colored air back to them but couldn't even tell if I was making progress against the wind.

Then the colors started to dull and I was able to open my eyes for a second and I saw the shape of their body behind me and I managed to croak out about the wind, "grab hold of me."

With another burst of air I felt their arms grab onto my ankle and squeeze tightly.

Around me the mountain scene I had seen when looking into the portal began to materialize.  It started with mountains off in the distance like the silhouette in a stage set.  Then things came into view more clearly and I saw trees materializing to my right and left.  It felt like I was viewing the world through glasses with the wrong prescription and the fuzziness was making my head pound.

A bright, white light took over my vision and I collided hard with the ground.  I felt Lennox's hand slip off my ankle as we landed.  I gasped for air, but the wind had been knocked out of me.  It took a moment, but I finally managed to struggle to a sitting position.  I was in a wooded area with trees on all sides of me.  It seemed to be mid-day, closer to dusk than it was to morning.

I managed to get to my feet and look for Lennox so we could try to figure out what time we had landed in.  I saw a body stirring on the ground a few feet away, so I walked closer, but it was only when I was over top of them looking down that I realized it wasn't Lennox at all.