Flamed

The Portal

Confido autem in virtutibus nostris, nostrae spes, fides nostra. Sicut dii uolent destinatum iter aperiundum est. Cum hoc augurium Asure quod nos perpetuo retineamus magicam, et nostra pura. We chanted with our hands held together in a circle. It was sundown now, the stars began to appear on the sky above us. Our timing for this ritual was precise, exactly at this hour was when the enchantment should work at its best.

"It's time" Lizbeth said slowly, I nodded. "Pervenit ad nos et subvenire nobis invenire praeteritis bestias destinatum iter!" she marked every word precisely. The wind around us blew furiously; not because Ayah. Thunder clouds appeared and it began to rain, the ground rumbled beneath us, ice started spread in the center of us. An oval formed from it looking mirror-like; in the center of the oval a swirl of fire stood. All this composed what we can call portal evasionis; this portal will take us to a safe place. One where we needn't worry of councils making unjust decisions, where we don't have to look out for danger, where we can be the free souls we were meant to be. And over all, where we can harness our magic withoutlimits.

"Okay, we can go" I let go of Lizbeth and Ayah's hands and approached the portal. It look like if I stepped through the fire would welcome me and wrap me in its warmth. I took a deep breath and stepped through; inside it didn't feel warm at all, it felt like I was under water. Slowly making my way forward. The colors dimmed and swirled in all possible shades. I could suddenly make out a white ending, as I got closer I could feel the chilling cold of the light. I reached my hand forward, trying to feel it. And the light seemed to suck me in, then everything went dark.

* * * *

"Paige, wake up. We need to go, wake up!" Brian shook me awake, fear encrusted in his eyes.

"What's wrong? How long was I out?" I said my voice still groggy. I was surrounded by what seemed to be a beach, which I hadn't seen in ages. It was night, and I could hear shouts from afar.

"No time to explain; just come on follow me" he pulled me up and started running down the beach. I started running behind him and I could still hear the shouts from behind me, coming closer.

"Brian where is everybody? What's up with that shouting?" I said breathless.

"Lizbeth and Ayah are waiting for us; and it turns out we landed in the least safe place we could have landed on. The shouts are a campers who were on the each when we arrived, they saw you and all of us appear out of thin air" he panted. "One of them had a riffle he pointed it at us, one thing led to another. And we had to use our powers; you were knocked out clean through all of this by the way"

"Okay so their looking for us? They are human?" I asked.

"I'm pretty sure the shocked faces and the riffle gave them away" he shrugged. "We landed in Sapien country" Sapiens is what we call humans, they are powerless. But seem to believe they are the most powerful species in existence. The government separated our kind from theirs by giving us an entire country. They didn't want anything to do with us so they always omitted the fact we were there. Most sapiens don't even know we exist.

"Not so happy are they?" I joked.

"Through here" he motioned to a gap in the foliage that surrounded the beach. We quickly jogged over to it, the passage seemed to lead nowhere but when my vision adapted to the darkness I could see the passage continued inside a cave only a few meter away.

"Why don't we just fight them? You acting as if we don't have powers" I whispered.

"Because... th- they... they're....I don't know how to explain it" he seemed chilled; dazed.

"They're what? Just say it"

"They morphed, shifted, transformed, turned, whatever you want to call it" the fear laced through his voice. "Into animals"

"They what?! And you failed to mention something so important?!" I started running over my last memories of what happened in the portal. "What the fuck are they?..."

We stopped at the mouth of the cave. "The girls should be in there, I'll come in in a second. I just have to do something first.

He turned to leave, just as I grabbed his arm.

"I'm not leaving you"

"Paige just get inside" he said sternly.

"I am not leaving you alone. Either you take me with you or you come inside with me" With my arms crossed, and my firm stare, he was helpless.

"Okay you left me no choice" he raised his hand and the ground under us rose, pushing me inside the cave and leaving me with no escape.

"Brian, let me out of here!" the cave went dark as soon as the ground finished covering up the entrance. I sighed and held my hand forward as I cradled a flame in it. With the light the flame emitted I was able to see about two feet in front of me.

"No please don't hurt us..." a familiar voice echoed through the cave.

"Lizbeth? ...Where are you?!" I sprinted down the cave with the growing urge to help. The walls besides me sprang to life with fire as I ran. Making my surroundings a living hell.