A Dangerous Glimpse: Part 5 (End)

Miss Yarieal sat with steady discomfort atop a soft boulder.  A cloth sat across flattened stone with a mess of different foods.  The people from the city were arranging statues and feeding their magic orbs into them when they weren’t eating.  

The Morfacter with his stylish toga had organized a feast with the hundred or so still active at the old statue ruins.  The guardian with the Parkat head–Baas–had thanked her more than once for convincing people to find him.  Every time, the college student insisted that the Morfacter was responsible, if only to keep from unwanted attention.

The masked woman had been offered a great variety of dishes, be it meats or vegetation, but her refusal to unmask made public dining difficult.  And frankly, she didn’t want to test if she could even safely digest alien cuisine.  The Morfacter insisted that it was safe, and Miss Yarieal was admittedly quite starved.  But she had starved before.  She was promised a portal back to her home.  Once she was back in her apartment, she’d have no reservations against ordering the greasiest mushroom-topped pizza she could get.

The Morfacter was returning now from the dense jungle.  He promised to find the portal and he had only been gone ten minutes.  Baas had made it his duty to keep Miss Yarieal company until then.  The people respected his authority and would not disturb him as a “Telkail”.  He was some lesser god but no one could remember which one: even Baas.

“How far did you search after arriving here?”  The Monfacter sat across from the now statue-less Baas and the masked woman.  

Miss Yarieal stared back before counting on her hands for a moment.  Then she shrugged.  The Monfacter explained, “I think the portal you came through is the one I just located.  It has been open for a day or two.  You must not have noticed it in the dense forest.”

The masked woman turned her head sharply in the toga-wearing man’s direction, then into the jungle he emerged from.  Without so much as a goodbye, she rose up and started for the dark forest.

The Monfacter stalled the masked student with an offended, “Well wait now.”  Miss Yarieal turned sharply once more, staring back at him for elaboration.  The Monfacter continued, “I know you want to go home and you can but what is the hurry?  Is there something time-sensitive you have to return to?”

This somewhat one-sided conversation had become irritating enough that the masked woman answered by simply pointing toward her throat and jaw area.  The Monfacter raised a defeated hand and sighed.  Baas, however, had yet to realize.  The guardian prompted, “She has a brick for talking.  She used it to speak with me.”

“The brick was broken.”

“Oh… well that is no matter.  Just a moment.”

Miss Yarieal hunched like a cornered animal as the Monfacter started to interject but the process was far too easy for Baas for them to stop in time.  With no more than a flick of his wrist, a gust of green and white light flew toward Miss Yarieal.  The masked woman ducked but soon found that the light had stopped some five inches in front of her.  A small screen of light was in front of her now.

Tentatively, the masked student reached out.  As her finger imprinted on the light, it traced a shape.  It took her only a moment to realize its purpose.  She tested a quick word.  Out from the spell came a soft woman’s voice simply saying, “This”.

The Monfacter dared to ask, “Is that your true voice?”  The masked woman shook her head fervently before starting a detailed paragraph with the same level of fervor.  As she worked, a few people came to speak with the guardian.  He quickly sent them away but with no small sense of guilt.  Then the message was finished.

“I thank you for helping me.  I’m glad that I could help you.  I can fix my phone… I hope, back on my world.  I don’t have anything too important to get back to right now.  I just want to go home.  This world is beautiful but I didn’t want to come here.  I have other things on my mind.  I have college classes to attend.”

As if he only heard the last sentence, the Monfacter cheerfully congratulated, “Ah, a student of the arts!  That must be where you learned your special… strengthening magic.  You have a great deal to study then?”

Miss Yarieal’s tightening limbs was noticed by Baas.  He was about to speak but the student went back to writing so he chose to wait.

“I am on break from college for the weekend but yes, I’ll have more later.”

Now Baas found himself needing something answered.  “Will you ever return?  Now that you know of the portals, you should not have much trouble with them.  And we can trade magic.  After all, I–”

The resumed writing silenced him.  “Maybe I’ll come back.  I don’t know.  I don’t think I want to learn other magic, at least not yet.  And you don’t owe me anything.  I really don’t need to be owed anything.”

“So you aren’t learning magic at this college?” prompted the Monfacter.

“No.”

“I see.”  

The short answer spoke volumes and the slightly hurt expression on the toga-wearing man moved the mask woman enough to clarify, “I have… plans, to make special clothing.  Fashion.  It’s something part of my family.  It’s been part of my family for generations.  I learned about it a lot when I lived with them and I’m going to make better clothing than they did before.”

“Just normal clothing?” pressed the Monfacter.  A slight stare from Baas made him add, “Not to judge.  I am sure there is a great variety of attractive clothing one can profit from.  My robes may be enchanted but the threads were carefully crafted.”

“I have heard of special armor made flexible like cloth,” added Baas.

The masked student seemed more invested on the conversation now.  “Sort of.  There will be normal clothing but also some special clothing.  There might be some magic involved if I can make it work.”

“Well,” The Monfacter rose and extended a hand, “you can always come to us for aid in this clothing endeavor.  I am certain your determination will make your family proud.”

The masked woman took the toga-wearing man’s hand and shook firmly.  The light screen dissolved but as their hands parted, Miss Yarieal was determined to rasp out, “They won’t be.”

Both the guardian and the toga-wearing man watched with puzzled faces as the masked student carefully stepped into the thick jungle.  The path had been marked with lanterns now.  Sure enough, she soon found the portal which spewed her into this fantastic land some five hours prior.  It was elevated on the branch of a massive tree.  That explained her fall and sliding.

 

It wasn’t particularly difficult to reach the portal, though once through, the darkness of that sewer tube was all the more unbearable.  The contrasting chill wasn’t pleasant either, but there was the portal still, right behind her.  She resisted the urge and continued out into the moonlight of her city.

Only seconds later, Miss Yarieal heard a familiar voice.  Professor Nowergeen was calling her.  A light shined toward her.  It was nice to hear a familiar voice but the masked woman was immediately sent back into terror when someone completely foreign ran right up and grabbed her by the shoulders.  This olive-skinned man, quite tall and lanky, towered over her with an intense stare.  His eyes glowed gray and he wore nothing but these thick pants with various pouches tied about them.

“The portal’s open then?” the strange man demanded.  His accent sounded like the Aridins’.  Hoping he would release her swiftly, Miss Yarieal nodded shakily.  The man was off without another word into the tunnel just as the professor caught up.  

Even in the darkness with only a phone light on, the professor’s scarring was clear.  His arm was in a cast but here he was.  He quickly explained, “Numbrini is his name.  He followed you here looking for a slime creature.  Quite the resourceful fellow.  He tracked the slime’s scent to your apartment and then found me as I came to visit.”

The two carefully exited the restricted area of the park and walked down the road where the professor had parked.  “The man’s a farmer, of slimes of course.  Our dabbling with the supernatural opened that portal but it closed after he came through.  The poor man thought he’d be stranded here forever.  I imagine you felt the same wherever that was.”

Miss Yarieal slouched in the sedan car seat as her teacher carefully started up the vehicle.  He noticed her exhaustion and added, “I’m sure you have quite the story to tell but I’m also sure you could use a good shower and rest.  I’ll drop you off at your–”

“Pizza,” rasped the student.  

The professor chuckled out a baffled, “What?”

“I’ll… pay for it,” she rasped again.  The professor raised a brow at the request but after a bit of contemplation, he grunted a humored nod.

 

The student didn’t eat in front of the professor.  After picking up two large pies, they hurried off to her apartment.  The professor made sure to stay in his vehicle.  The last thing he needed was anyone getting the wrong idea.  All the same, he did call out as Miss Yarieal neared her complex’s entrance.  “We’re going to have to be–both of us–very careful moving forward, Miss Yarieal.  What we just experienced, you likely more than I, is a dangerous glimpse into a greater reality.  I’m sure we’ll have more encounters after this and we’ll need to be prepared.  And… and for that, I’m sorry that you got dragged into this.  I’ll try not to pull you into more if I can manage it.”

She nodded back but hurried inside afterward.  The warning haunted her to no small degree.  But the fear she felt about those from Aridin interfering with her life was nothing to the dangerous curiosity of people from her world at some new power.  But… then she felt something stuck in her hair.  A couple Parkat feathers.  Somehow, it was a comfort.  After all, it hadn’t been a particularly bad adventure.