Sudden Departure

Chapter Twenty-Nine

"Shakety, shakety. Shake, shake. Shake." I sang goofily to myself as I wriggled my numb foot around. It had been resting on the wall for several minutes now and the blood-flow stopped.

"What are yah’ singing there, sweetie?" Shane bounced his comment over his shoulder with a smirk.

I blushed severely and looked down at the floors of The Gateway. Shane laughed and turned back to the panel on the wall. He was fiddling with the panel on next to the mirror and I was leaning against the wall. Whining impatiently.

 "You said this was going to be fun," I whined. I propelled myself off the wall and swung my arms around me. "What are you even doing?!" 

 "Reprogramming the portal, so we don't end up having a picnic in the middle of an old battlefield, what about you?" Shane answered tightly.

 Whoops, time to dial down the obnoxiousness.

 “When I used it, I never had to reprogram it.” 

 Shane's eyebrows shot up. "What do you mean?" 

 I shrugged. "I just jumped. Then I ended up back home, or where I died. I didn't need to set it up so that I went there. It all just panned out for itself.”

 Shane shrugged a little. He turned back to the controls and talked while he worked. "I guess it just takes you where you need to go, sometimes. You're lucky you ended up back home. Maybe it sensed what you needed." 

 I nodded and sank bank onto the wall. How could a piece of machinery have sensed where I needed it to take me? Why hadn’t any of the other Guardians had an experience like mine? Or had they? Of course I would have been the one to get caught.

 After a few minutes, Shane swung the panel shut and patted it. "Alright, we should be good to go." He crossed the room and grabbed my hand. "We're going to have a great time." 

We started off running to the mirror. At the very last second, we rolled off our toes and crashed through the rippling surface. I felt the edges of the mirror lap at the side of my body like a smooth liquid. 

 For a few short moments, a million different colors swirled around me. Gradually, they changed into a bright green and soft blue with random shots of gray and other colors.
All of a sudden, one of the spinning green blobs in front of my face came into focus. It was spiked and decorated with different shades and textures of similar green spikes. Grass! I was speeding head-first for the ground. 

 I quickly braced my head for impact and rolled off of it. I continued to roll and stood up to my feet. I wobbled a little and then got my balance.

 Behind me, Shane toppled from the portal and rolled sloppily onto his back. Since when did I become more graceful than him?

 "Nice landing," he commented with a sheepish smile. His face was forming a small blush, which made him that much more adorable. 

 I laughed and helped him up. "Good one, yourself. To think, I thought you were the most skilled out of all of us. Guardian type people, I mean." There I went, again.

 "You think I'm the most skilled?" 

 "Well, I mean. Yeah? Or no. I guess not anymore." There. I saved myself with a flirty quip. Kind of, that's good. Kind of. 

 He laughed it off. "Alright then, come on." He nodded in the general direction we were going before he placed a hand in the small of my back and pushed me forward.
My stomach churned and sparks flew up my spine. It’s crazy to think that such a simple gesture twisted my insides like that. For a split second, my mind flashed to Cameron. My heart never made that kind of a jolt for him.