“Okay, let’s run down the list one more time to make sure we have everything.” Conner wanted to be absolutely positive that they had everything they thought they needed when they ventured through the portal. Traveling into an alien environment without the proper supplies and tools needed to combat any possible problems would be, well, stupid. Furthermore he…

“I told you. We have everything,” Josh yelled impatiently from the other room. “Food, water, blankets, flashlights, clothes, a compass, batteries, radios, digital camera, video camera, and your basic survival junk like matches, knives, rope, first aid and…stuff. You already looked at all of this crap like fifty times. You come look at it yourself.”

Robert picked up a pair of binoculars with a gleam of satisfaction in his face. “Don’t forget the night vision goggles,” he exclaimed.

The three of them carried the rest of the gear into a large barren room and set them down on the cement floor along-side four large backpacks. In the center of the room was a small table on which sat a milky-red basketball sized rock and some protruding wires which ran to a wall socket in a corner of the room. Robert and Conner sat down on the floor beside the stuff to take a break while they waited for Nadia to return from whatever it was she was off doing. She had mentioned she had a few “knick-knacks” to get before meeting them here; although she refused to say just what those knick-knacks were.

Josh entered the room with the last of the equipment. He leaned over and stuffed the last of their equipment into one of four oversized backpacks. He stood over Conner and scoffed. “You wussies tired already? What’s going to happen after we hike all day carrying all of this crap?”

“All day?!” Robert chimed in. “Nobody ever said anything about hiking all day. You know, I have a foot condition that really…”

“We’re not going to hike ALL day,” Conner interjected. “It’s not like we’re in a rush or anything. We’ve all set aside three weeks to explore and we can see as much or as little as we want.” Conner hoped it was more towards the “as much” end of things; but they would just have to see how events played out.

“My father still doesn’t believe that I’m really vacationing in New Zealand for the next three weeks,” Robert said. Robert Woorly was twenty-four years old yet he still went out of his way to get his father’s approval before doing anything. Robert was your typical science geek: five-eleven, thin, glasses, short brown messy hair, brown eyes, and skin so pale you know he hasn’t stepped foot outside in the last six months. It took Conner a full two weeks of constant pestering to finally break Robert down and convince him to go.

“If you’re going to lie you should have made up some place cool like, Tahiti,” Josh said. “Teaching diving lessons on a nude beach on a tropical island for three weeks…now that’s what I’m talkin’ about.” Josh grinned as he nodded his head. Josh Wester was the oldest among them at twenty-six. He was Robert’s opposite: six-two, athletic, strong, spiked dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, and dons the healthy orange glow of a future skin cancer recipient. Josh took no convincing to go. He is always up for an adventure.

“Like you would ever have the money to go to Tahiti,” a soft voice announced from the doorway. There stood Nadia Haford with a small brown travel bag strapped over her shoulder. She was wearing jean shorts, a light green t-shirt, with matching green hiking boots. She was slender, five-six, and with brunette hair that flowed all the way down to her waist. Her piercing blue eyes were now locked on Conner. “And never mind my lateness,” she added tersely.

Oh, he was staring. He quickly looked away and pointed to the backpacks on the floor. “All of our stuff is ready to go when you are,” Conner said.

Nadia turned her gaze to the backpacks and shook her head. “How much stuff did you cram into those things. I can’t carry one of those!”

“Pssh, they’re not that heavy,” Josh said. He demonstrated by heaving one of the backpacks high above his head with one hand. After a moment he quickly reached his other arm through the straps and placed it onto his back. After a deep breathe he added, “See.”

“We’re taking a lot of breaks,” Robert added, concern for the weight of the backpacks clearly showing on his face.

“We’ll take them as needed,” Conner amended. He walked across the room over to the red rock. He hovered his right hand over a small switch that was situated along a wire near the rock. “Everyone ready?”

Robert slowly picked up one of the backpacks off the floor and strapped it over his back. “Maybe we did pack too much…” Robert said, clearly straining under the weight of the pack.

Nadia continued to stare at the two remaining backpacks until Josh walked over and picked up a second one. He strapped one pack over each of his shoulders. “Fine,” Josh said flatly.

Nadia returned her gaze to Conner. “Then we are all ready.”

Conner placed a finger on the switch but hesitated to turn it on. “Then this is it,” he said. He figured some kind of speech might be in order for what they were about to do. But what does one say when they are about to embark on a journey into an unknown and strange land that may be full of…

“What’s the hold up?” Josh interrupted. As strong as he was, it was obvious that even Josh was uncomfortable carrying two of these mammoth backpacks.

“Is the switch broken? You know it was sticking the other day and it got me thinking about if something should happen to it while we’re away that maybe someone should…” Robert began.

“No no no. The switch is fine,” Conner interrupted. Robert worries too much, although his concerns are usually valid. “I just though that maybe, I don’t know. Take a deep breath and really think about what we’re going to be doing. I mean…”

“It’s not like we haven’t gone through before,” Nadia said. “And an empty room doesn’t provide much scenery or fuel for deep contemplation. You might as well throw the switch before Josh keels over.”

“Hey! I can carry these just fine,” Josh protested, sounding slightly winded.

Without further delay Conner flipped the switch towards the label marked “On”. Once in contact with electricity, the red rock began to glow and pulsate between various shades of red. A moment later the faintest twirl of wind was felt throughout the room as a shimmering translucent circle, big enough to fit a car through, formed in the middle of the room. Conner smiled in anticipation of the amazing adventure that lay before them. “Here we go,” he said.

Josh gave quick wave and immediately stepped into the circle and vanished. Robert took a few steps towards the portal and stopped to readjust the backpack he was carrying. “You know, maybe I should look at everything one last time to make sure everything stays working alright because…” Robert began.

Nadia came up behind Robert and gently pushed him into the circle. Before Robert could begin to protest he was already through. She looked to Conner and rolled her eyes before stepping into the circle herself.

Well, now it was his turn. Conner walked over to the remaining backpack on the floor and picked it up. He flung it onto his back while walking over to the room’s heavy metal door. He closed it tight and bolted it shut. None of them wanted to chance a random intruder breaking into the building and discovering their little operation here. It would only take a minute to completely destroy everything they’ve set up. The slightest bit of tampering could leave them stranded. Satisfied that the door was secure, he walked over and stood before the portal. He gave the room one last glance, took a deep breath, and then stepped through the circle.

The trip between worlds was instantaneous. Conner arrived in the middle of a small grassy field. The grass was thick and green but spotty and blemished by patches of weeds and a tiny smooth glowing red stone that barely stuck up out of the dirt. Beyond the field were non-descript large trees creating a canopy over the ground in every direction. It was mid-morning here, mimicking the conditions back home. The sky was clear, the temperature mild, and only the faintest of breezes filled the air. Every so often the sound of a bird chirping could be heard within the forest. There waiting right in front of Conner was Josh, Robert, and Nadia.

“Everything locked down tight?” Robert inquired while holding up the compass towards the still active portal.

“Yep. Everything is good,” Conner replied.

“Everything looks good here too. The compass is pointing directly at the portal as it should,” Robert informed everyone. It was Josh in fact that led to the discovery that a compass points towards the portal. During one of their previous experiments Josh decided to bring a compass with them when they entered the portal. Robert was insistent that the compass would be useless in an alien world but after examining it closer Robert was surprised to see it steadily pointing at the portal no matter where he moved. Further tests showed that any compass within at least fifty miles would always point at an active portal. Fifty miles just happened to be the furthest distance they had tested it. They had no idea how far it went.

”Let’s get going then,” Josh said. “Set up the battery thing so we can take a look around.”

Robert walked over to the red rock that was sticking out of the ground. He then unzipped his backpack and pulled out a car battery with various wires sticking out of the prongs. He set the battery on the ground wrapped the wires around the protruding rock. “The battery is set. Time for the big test…” he said.

They had done this very same test many times in the past to make sure it would work, although before they always had someone back home in case something went wrong. But Conner was confident nothing would go wrong. They had inspected every single detail many times. Everything should be flawless.

“Then here we go…” Conner addressed the group. He pulled a small remote control out of his jeans pockets and held it in his right hand. Before he could give himself time to worry about it, he pressed the only button on the remote. The faint shimmer that hovered a few inches off the ground began to shrink rapidly and in a matter of seconds it was completely gone. The rock on this end ceased to glow. Their doorway between worlds was now closed.

Robert waited a few seconds and then flipped a switch on one of the wires sticking out of the battery. In a moment the red rock began to glow once more and only a few seconds later the shimmering circle reappeared at its original size and location. The battery worked as expected. Robert breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the portal reopen. Robert was “The Tech Guy”. The entire technical workings of the portal were entirely on him. “I feel much better now!” he exclaimed.

Conner smiled and shook his head. Maybe Robert would begin to loosen up a bit knowing that their way home was secure. Well, almost secure. They still had one last thing to do. “For your peace of mind, and well, everyone’s,” Conner said while pointing at the ground a few feet from the rock. They had everything planned out in great detail. They did not want to be stranded here, especially if this place didn’t turn out to be as wonderful as they hoped.

Robert shut off the battery and watched the portal close once more. He unhooked the battery from the rock and carried it over to where Conner was pointing. He bent down and with his hands he brushed aside some of the weeds until a small metal box was revealed. He placed the battery firmly into the metal box and closed it tight. On the top of the box was a combination lock which he closed and then spun around. “Remember…fifteen, thirty-six, eight,” he said.

“Couldn’t you have come up with an easier combination? How am I supposed to remember that?” Josh complained.

“I will remember them,” Nadia spoke faintly. She was standing apart from the group, staring off into the forest.

Robert stood up and with his shoes he slid enough dirt over until the box was obscured from view. He repeated this process covering up the red rock. Everything was now set. Back home Robert had rigged the portal to open for a few seconds once every day at exactly noon. This way they would be able to track the portal’s direction should they get lost and forget where to return. Their adventure could begin.

“So…where’re we going?” Josh asked. This was one aspect they had not come to an agreement on. They had no clue which direction they would head off in once arriving. Conner thought it would be best to just pick whichever direction looked more inviting except that almost every direction looked the same. Robert wanted to use a random number generator. Josh wanted to just spin around and walk in some random direction. Nadia simply didn’t care where they went.

“Before we left my PDA said we should head off towards 314.7 degrees,” Robert suggested.

“What the hell direction is that? North? South? Up?” Josh complained.

Robert groaned. “It’s north-west! Degrees are not that hard to figure out. You simply imagine a circle and then divide it into four parts and then take each part and…”

“Dude, I don’t care!” Josh yelled.

“How about not arguing. Let’s just go…north. That better? Okay, let’s go!” Conner announced quickly.

“What?! Who died and named you direction picking guy?” Josh said.

“North? Since winter is kind of approaching I’m thinking that general direction might not be the best course of action…” Robert chimed in.

“But you’re the one with the random number direction that led Northish!” Conner pointed out.

“I re-evaluated the situation!” Robert replied.

“I say we head south. Warm weather is always a great place to find naked alien chicks,” Josh suggested.

Conner shook his head and walked away from the discussion. At this rate their three weeks will be over before they even took a step. He looked over to where Nadia had been standing and found the spot to be vacant. His eyes quickly looked beyond towards the tree line where he spotted her walking slowly into the forest to the west. Not wanting to lose track of her, Conner quickly paced after her. “Guys!” he called back to Robert and Josh while motioning them with his hands.

“I guess that solves that problem,” Robert said as he quickly ran off to catch up with Conner.

“Why does she get to decide?” Josh asked while bringing up the rear.

Nadia stopped beside a tree and looked up. Conner came up beside her and looked up as well. “What’s up?” he asked.

“I saw something strange, almost glowing. It looked like a small bird, only with a yellow glow.” She pointed high up into the thick canopy above.

“I don’t see any…” Conner began. But suddenly a glow began to appear behind some leaves. A moment later a tiny glowing bird poked its head from behind the leaves and stared at the two of them.

“Hi little guy,” Nadia said as she waved a hand at it. The bird continued to stare.

Then a swift rustle of leaves shook behind them and the bird suddenly leapt off of the tree and flew off towards the west. The source of the commotion soon came up behind them.

“Why’d you guys…” Josh said breathlessly, pausing in-between words, “…run off?”

Robert came up beside Josh and looked off towards where Nadia and Conner had seen the bird go. “Did you see something?” he asked.

“A bird,” Conner said.

“It was beautiful. It had this yellow aura around it bright enough to hide its natural coloring,” Nadia added. She began to walk away, following the path the bird took. “I think we should follow it.”

“Why?” Josh asked. Sweat was dripping off his face as he leaned over against a tree for support.

“It’s probably just startled by our arrival. If anything it wants nothing to do with us,” Robert chimed in matter-of-factly.

Nadia paused a short distance away and turned back to face the others while tapping her foot in the soft soil. “Unless you all have a better idea?”

Conner shrugged and began to follow her. They were no closer to deciding a direction to travel in as they were a few minutes ago. The bird was at least a source of interest as it was a completely foreign species. “I got nothing. Let’s go.”

Josh groaned but refrained from protesting. He began to slowly trudge forward with Robert closely following suit.

***

The four of them followed the bird west for over an hour. Every time it seemed like the bird vanished in the distant brush they would come across it again, sitting on a branch looking back at them. The bird seemed like it was acting with a greater purpose than simply trying to flee.

Nadia, who was several yards ahead of the rest, suddenly came to a halt. Conner walked up beside her and stood in awe. The relatively level forest suddenly went into a steep decline and opened up into a vast valley below them. The forest continued down into the valley and then quickly faded out, being replaced by grassland as far as the eye could see. The faint outline of towering mountains was barely visible in the far distance past the grasslands. A river could be seen flowing into the valley from their side but farther north. The river meandered across the grasslands until it suddenly veered south. Along the river, almost in the very center of the valley, a small plume of smoke could be seen rising from what appeared to be a small village.

“That must be where the bird wants us to go,” Nadia said.

Conner shrugged. “Either way it looks like our little adventure is about to get a whole lot more interesting. That village could very well hold real live aliens. Who knows what…”

“My feet are killing me. Let’s either get walking or sit down,” Josh interrupted.

“It looks to be about a three or four mile walk. Sitting sounds like a good idea,” Robert suggested.

“I suppose I could use a rest as well. I think the bird has flown away now,” Nadia said with a content sigh. She walked over to the closest tree and sat down in the shade.

Josh frowned and dumped the packs onto the ground behind him. He then sat on top of them and groaned. “How are you tired? The only thing you’re carrying is that little bag.”

Nadia didn’t respond and instead pulled a brush out of her travel bag and began running it through her hair.

“So who wants to take a guess at what we’ll find there?” Conner asked.

“Naked alien chicks. Keep the dream alive,” Josh said.

“Judging by the what I could make of the village I would guess that they may be humanoid in nature,” Robert offered.

“Lizard people,” Nadia spoke while continuing to fuss over her hair. Conner couldn’t help but look over at her with a raised eyebrow. She finally smiled for the first time since they had arrived. “Yes?”

“What about you?” Josh asked looking to Conner.

“A little bit of everything,” he said. He honestly didn’t care who or what they found as long as they came away from it with an amazing story to tell. To discover a portal that led to an entirely different world full of strange creatures, that was good enough for him.

***

They resumed their trek after about half an hour and made their way carefully down the steep slope. Robert estimated the valley floor to be about a thousand feet below where they started. Once they reached the bottom the forest began to thin out as they continued on towards the village. By the time the village came into sight the forest had faded away with only a few trees sporadically growing along the way.

The village itself seemed to be medieval in style. The structures varied in material from logs, likely from the nearby forest, to stone and even one structure appeared to be made of a clay and straw mix. A short stone wall separated the outside of the village from the open grasslands. Every few yards a tall wooden post stuck out of the ground and at the top of it was a metallic bowl filled with sticks and other shrubbery. The grass near the village was patchy and noticeably worn. Just off to the right of them there was an opening in the wall and in front of it was a small wooden sign that read “Pentagod Square”.

“Maybe we aren’t the first people to find this place after all,” Robert said shaking his head.

“English. Huh…” Conner mumbled. This was a turn of events he wasn’t expecting. Here they thought they had discovered a brand new world full of strange creatures and endless possibilities only to find that someone beat them to it. Hopefully a resident of the village would be able to shed some light on this world and its relation to their own world.

“It looks like I win. Definitely humanoid,” Robert announced.

“Hey, there could still be naked chicks here,” Josh quickly added.

“I don’t see anyone around, human or otherwise,” Nadia spoke up.

She was right. There were no people around or even noises to indicate people being around. The village certainly couldn’t be abandoned. Smoke could still be seen rising from some location inside the village. If they wanted to find some people, that would be the best place to start.

“Let’s find the source of the smoke,” Conner said.

The four of them slowly entered the village and walked down a dirt path that appeared to take them towards the center. Several smaller dirt paths leading to nearby structures branched off of the larger one they were on. The majority of the windows concealed their insides with thick heavy curtains and the few that were not blanketed were too tinted to get much of a view of anything inside. Several tools were seen dumped on the ground in random positions: a shovel lying next to a freshly dug hole and a hammer-like object next to an incomplete table.

“Look. Footsteps,” Robert suddenly announced. Right in front of them several small animal prints dotted the ground with more branching out in multiple directions. “We aren’t alone,” he added, nervously scanning nearby shrubs and buildings for movement.

“Did we scare them off?” Josh thought out loud.

Conner suddenly came to a halt as they walked into a large clearing in what appeared to be the center of the village. In the center of the clearing was a small bonfire with dozens of small footprints scattered all around. Circling the clearing were five statues, each roughly twelve feet tall. Each statue was colored in silver and bronze and was pointed towards the bonfire in the center of the clearing.

“Ah, sorry!” Robert cried as he suddenly stumbled into Conner from behind. “Why did you sto-”. Robert noticed the statues that circled the clearing and began to gaze at each one in turn.

“Beautiful,” Nadia commented, staring at the closest of the statues. It depicted a young woman with a flowing bronze gown down to the base of the statue. Her skin was the only part in silver on this statue. Her knee length wavy hair, earrings, pendant, and eyes were all in bronze. She was very attractive, as evident by Josh’s long stare of approval.

The next statue was that of an odd looking tree. It had a short spiraled silver trunk that wound its way up until it branched out into a large canopy of bronze leaves that spread out and hung low to the ground. Two large branches stuck out from the middle of the tree and the ends had five long bronze stubs that almost looked like fingers.

The third statue showed a string of wispy bronze spirals that rose up from the base of the statue. At the top the spirals formed into the hollowed shape of a silver colored bird with a long sharp beak and bronze eyes. The bird’s long outstretched wings created a lengthy shadow across the nearby ground.

The fourth statue was a bit of a puzzle. A single silver rod stuck out of the base and rose up until reaching a perfectly formed bronze sphere. The sphere had many curious designs spread out all across its surface but there didn’t seem to be any kind of pattern to it.

There was no mistake as to what the final statue was. If Conner had to dream up the most terrifying creature he could, that would be it. It was an enormous demonic face. Large piercing horns jutted out of its doglike head. Large fangs stuck out of a boney snarling snout that was stretched out as if it was trying to lunge towards the fire. The eyes were emotionless, looking as if they could consume anyone foolish enough to stare for too length a time. The demon had no body. Beyond the head it just faded out quickly into a wisp of spikes and tentacles that seemed to go out in random directions. Two long claws stuck out of the conglomerate that had spikes on the end of each digit. This was a monster nobody would want to face.

“That’s fucked up,” Josh commented now looking at the demon. “These are some twisted people.”

“I don’t know about this place. Maybe we should try to find people somewhere else,” Robert suggested while still glancing around nervously.

“Well, we’ve come this far. I for one am going to see it through,” Conner said. He wanted explanations to a million questions he’s had some they discovered the portal to this world. Whoever started this fire had to be around here somewhere. Perhaps one of these tracks on the ground leads in the direction they ran off in. “We’ll just have to follow the tracks until…”

Suddenly shapes emerged from all around them. Some came behind the statues, some sprung out from some bushes, others appeared from behind corners of nearby buildings and more still could be seen on the rooftops. Dozens of them all sprang out and quickly surrounded the clearing. Some of them looked like midgets with snarled little faces and short stubby limbs. Another midget looked more human and had a long braided bear. On top of the bird statue there was now a flock of birds, no they couldn’t be. They had four hairy legs. Suddenly two more short creatures came up behind the demon. They wore thick black robes that shrouded their entire bodies. Conner quickly turned back to the path with which his friends had entered the clearing and it was now blocked by two people and their horses. Wait, the people and horses were one in the same…

Conner noticed his friends were similarly shocked. None of them could seem to find the words to describe the situation. This land was truly out of this world. All of these strange creatures seemed to have sprung out of some kind of fantasy novel or video game. They were here, right in front of him. Staring at him. Everywhere…

Suddenly the odd little man with the long braided beard slowly stepped forward and brandished a small hand axe. Robert quickly began to step backwards while Nadia inched ever so slightly closer to Conner. Josh immediately dropped one of the backpacks he was carrying and started to rummage through it. The bearded man stopped a few feet from Conner and looked up at him. “Who are you and what God do you worship?” he demanded.

“What is it?” Josh’s voice echoed from further up the mineshaft.

“Come down here. I found something weird,” Conner replied while setting his flashlight down onto the ground so that he could examine what he found. Buried in a pile of rocks and sand was a large shiny red rock. Conner reached out and began to dig out the strange object to get a better look of it. It obviously wasn’t a natural stone. It was just too big and looked perfectly smooth.

“What is it?” Josh repeated himself as he walked up behind Conner.

Conner finished brushing aside the rocks and took a firm grip around the red rock. He leaned back and pulled as hard as he could until the red rock suddenly burst free of the dirt, sending Conner falling backwards and the red rock flying through the air.

“Gotcha!” Josh said as he snatched the rock out of the air with both hands. “Cool rock. I wonder if it’s worth anything.” Josh began to turn the rock every which way to get a better look at each side. It was about the size of a basketball and semi-translucent.

“Guys!” Robert’s voice rang from higher up in the shaft. “I’ve been examining these walls and I believe the structure is extremely unstable. We should consider leaving…like…now.”

“We got our trophy find. I suppose we can go,” Conner said while getting back to his feet.

None of them were expecting to find anything. Robert was roaming the Internet one day when he ran across an article about an abandoned mine in the middle of the desert. Locals in the area had long since claimed that the mine was haunted. The actual mine was on private property but the owner hadn’t set foot on or done anything with the fifty-acre parcel in decades. It sounded like just the adventure they were looking for.

“I think he’s just afraid of the ghosts,” Josh snickered to Conner.

“I heard that!” Robert cried out. “I am definitely NOT afraid of ghosts. No rational thinking person believes in such nonsense.”

Suddenly a loud creaking sound echoed from above them and dust began to fall from the ceiling, filling the air.

“Unstable huh?” Conner said while arcing his flashlight back and forth across the ceiling. “I…uh…think I’ll go with Robert on this one. Let’s get out of here now!” He quickly snatched the red rock out of Josh’s hands and began to jog back up the mineshaft. It only took a fraction of a second for Robert and Josh to follow.

***

“Who are you and what God do you worship?” the dwarf-like fellow repeated, this time a little louder. He took one more step towards Conner while tightening the grip on his axe. His eyes were squinting, darting back and forth between the four of them. Conner was frozen still. He knew he should say something, anything, but he was simply too overwhelmed to vocalize any of his thoughts.

“Not another step!” Josh suddenly cried while quickly standing up from the ground with an object in hand. He pointed the object right towards the dwarf’s face. It was a gun.

Conner momentarily forgot about the dwarf, as he was too busy staring at Josh. He couldn’t believe his eyes. A gun! Was he insane? What the hell was he thinking bringing a gun! “Josh! What the hell are you doing!” he finally cried out.

“Am I the only one that sees an axe?” Josh replied while keeping his eyes on the dwarf. “You guys thought of a lot of things to bring on this trip but I guess I was the only one who thought about our protection.”

Whispers filled the air all around them as the various creatures spoke amongst each other. All eyes were on Josh and the dwarf. The dwarf remained where he was, his eyes squinting at the gun. Josh’s comments were entirely inaccurate. They had brought four tasers that were entirely capable of thwarting a tiny man and his axe.

A loud shuffling sound suddenly came from behind the bronze sphere. A moment later three short ugly green people emerged. One of them held a small dagger. Another a large rock, and a third held a club. They slowly began to spread out, keeping a constant distance of a few yards from Conner and company. Behind them, Conner now noticed the two horse people had crept within a few feet. This situation was going to get out of hand.

“What weapon do you hold in your hand Human,” the dwarf asked. If any of these creatures had any clue what a gun was they would probably not be inching closer and closer. Conner knew even with Josh’s gun this situation would end badly for them. They were vastly outnumbered.

“We’re explorers. Peaceful explorers,” Conner said. Peaceful explorers that carried guns.

“Is that so?” the dwarf replied, refocusing his gaze on Conner. “And your God?”

Conner didn’t know how to answer that. Who knows what kind of religion these creatures believed in. If he misspoke they could all get offended and sacrifice him as part of some kind of crazy ritual. If they were monotheistic he had at least a fifty-fifty chance of choosing correctly but if they were polytheistic he was screwed.

“I’ve been thinking,” Robert suddenly whispered as he leaned in to Conner’s ear. “Pentagod Square. Five gods. Five statues. If a statue accurately represents the God it stands for then maybe we should choose the least threatening of the statues. Even if it’s the wrong choice we may get off easier.”

“That crosses the demon statue off the list,” Conner whispered back. The dwarf was beginning to frown and tap his foot. They had better come up with an answer soon.

“The obvious choice would be the woman statue,” Nadia whispered to both of them. Josh was too far removed to hear their whispers and kept his eyes on the dwarf.

“So what then? We claim to worship the woman. But what if he has a follow up question?” Conner asked. This delay was only going to make the dwarf suspicious which would greatly increase the odds of them being asked more questions. The more Conner thought about it the more he was afraid he was going to over think it. Eventually they were going to be found out and if he’s learned anything from years of watching sitcoms is that it is better to tell the truth from the start and avoid sticky situations in the future.

“Make with an answer Human before I take it from you myself,” the dwarf snarled.

Conner gave one last glance to Robert and Nadia. Both of them simply shrugged. That wasn’t the kind of help he was looking for. He turned to the dwarf and cleared his throat.

“We worship no God,” Conner said.

“Then what business do you have being here?” the dwarf asked.

“Well…you see. We’re explorers. We came here because we saw this village from up in the hills to the east. We were looking forward to meeting its inhabitants.” The dwarf’s face was now expressionless. Conner couldn’t tell if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

“Where are you from?” a calm male voice came from above. Conner looked for the source of the voice and spotted a strange looking man sitting on top of the tree statue. The man had pale skin and seemed to have a hat made out of leaves that dangled down to his shoulders. Below that…

“He’s naked!” Nadia exclaimed, staring up at the man. Indeed, other than the hat of leaves the man had no clothing.

“We come from…far away,” Conner tried to answer. This was another question he didn’t know how to answer. If he started babbling about portals to other worlds these people might think he was crazy. But then again here he was amongst a dwarf, a naked guy, two centaurs, and a host of other strange creatures.

“The four of you teleported into a grassy field up in the hills,” the naked man said.

How did he know that? The four of them had been utilizing the portal for weeks now and they had never seen any kind of sentient life. On several occasions Robert even set up a motion-sensing camera and left it in this world to try to pick up what kinds of life this world may have to offer. But besides some small critters, they had not seen anything.

“The bird saw us,” Nadia said. The naked man smiled. Suddenly the small yellow glowing bird flew out of a nearby tree and landed on the man’s shoulder.

“A bird can’t relay that kind of information!” Robert protested. “There was probably some other person nearby that saw our arrival.” Robert was keeping his eyes to the ground as to avoid eye contact with the naked man.

“Not to interrupt, but are you weirdoes hostile or not?” Josh suddenly demanded as he moved the gun to his other hand. Oh right, the standoff.

“It is we that should be asking that of you,” the dwarf said. Josh never took his eye off of the axe.

“Well…um…like I said earlier we are…” Conner began but was immediately cut off by Nadia who placed a hand over his mouth.

“I believe we all may have gotten off on the wrong foot,” Nadia spoke up to the dwarf as she took a step forward. “If we all properly introduce ourselves I’m sure we will find that there is no need for this confrontation.” She smiled and paused to see what kind of reaction the dwarf would make. She had the sweetest smile Conner had ever seen. If anything could calm the dwarf down then it would be her smile.

“I am Hagan the Protector of the Redsand Dwarves,” the Dwarf announced.

“My name is Nadia Haford,” Nadia replied. “This here is Conner Nolan, Robert Woorly…and the gunslinger here is Josh Wester,” she continued, pointing each of them out in turn. “As my companion said earlier, we are simple explorers. We came through a portal from another world entirely. We mean no one any harm.” Conner figured they probably should have done this from the beginning.

“Josh, put your gun down please,” Nadia said to Josh.

“Hello. Axe!” Josh protested again. Nadia’s smile gave way into a stern stare. If these creatures were going to be hostile then Josh would not be able to stop all of them. “Ugh, fine,” he complained. He slowly lowered his gun and bent down to place it back inside of the backpack. “If we get killed and eaten then it’s your fault!”

The dwarf relaxed and carefully tied the axe to a belt that he was wearing. The other creatures in the area also seemed to relax. A few of them even began to wander off to continue doing whatever it was they were doing before the Humans arrived.

“Now, tell me about this otherworldly portal you speak of,” Hagan inquired.

Suddenly Conner felt a tap on his shoulder. He looked over and saw a nervous Robert shaking his head.

“We can’t give away too much about the portal. It’s bad enough they might know where it is. What if one of them were to dig it up! They could run away with the box and we’d never get home!” Robert whispered. Oops. He had a point. They specifically put the portal stone inside of the lock box to ensure that it wasn’t tampered with. If it was true that the bird saw their arrival then there was a good chance it knew where the box was buried.

“We come from a different world,” Conner began addressing Hagan. He would have to word this very delicately. “In our world we found an artifact deep underground. After we examined the object further we realized it was capable of opening a portal to another world, this one. We then decided to gather some supplies and come here to explore.”

“Are there many Humans in your world?” Hagan asked.

“There are a lot of Humans. Humans are the only sentient race where we come from,” Conner replied. That got him thinking though. Hagan obviously knew what Humans were. Conner wondered how many Humans exist in this world and how they got here. Maybe Humans crossing into this world was a common occurrence. “If I may ask, are there many Humans in this world?”

“Not anymore,” Hagan answered flatly. There was a quiet murmuring in the crowd. Conner didn’t like the sound of that.

“By not anymore you mean…” Robert began but was cut off by Hagan.

“There are a few left. Most reside either in Kasi or in the Sunil Forest,” Hagan clarified. “The Human race has been slowly fading out the past few centuries. It is only a matter of time before they are gone entirely.”

“Unless this portal interferes with the natural order of things,” a raspy voice spoke up. Conner turned to see it was one of the short black robed pair that was standing next to the demon statue. A faint red glow briefly illuminated the face shrouded by the black hood. The being had haunting red eyes, a pale white face, a stubby freckled nose, and a smirk that exposed cracked jagged teeth. “Humans do not belong in this world. There is a reason they are fading away.”

Robert once again began to back up from his spot only this time inching towards the dwarf.

“What do you have against Humans?” Conner demanded, taking a step closer to the ugly man. He did not like being told he did not belong. The fact that there had once been at least a fair amount of Humans here suggest otherwise. This little monster wasn’t going to scare him one bit.

“I have said my peace. Don’t ever say that you haven’t been warned. When you see the darkness, it will already be too late.” Both hooded figures turned around and began to walk away.

“What’s that supposed to mean,” Conner asked Hagan.

Hagan bellowed out in laughter. “Pay no attention to those runts. They come here to gloat and make threats, but they’re cowards.”

“So they’re harmless?” Conner asked. Little robed ugly people were one thing. But he wanted to make sure no demons like that statue were going to become a problem during their visit to this land.

“Anything that worships Darkness is never completely harmless. Just stay out of their way,” Hagan remarked.

“Darkness?” Robert chimed in.

“The God of Darkness,” Hagan replied.

“If you don’t mind…who are these gods? Are they depicted by these statues?” Conner asked.

Hagan turned to face the demonic statue. “Aye. That,” he said as his hand rose to point at it, “is the God of Darkness. Or so the few visual accounts dictate. Any who have stared into the Darkness have either perished or wish they had. Darkness is the purveyor of death and all things foul.”

Hagan turned and pointed at the strange sphere statue. “The sphere of Musing. Musing is the master of the mind, be it pleasant whimsy or fateful deception. Be very mindful of the followers of Musing.”

“The next statue represents the God of Sky. Most winged creatures follow Sky and are often at odds with the worshippers of Earth.” Hagan turned his focus away from the bird-like statue and pointed to the tree statue. “Most notably the ancient clashes between dragons and rocs.”

“The final statue is that of the Goddess of Light. The opposite of Darkness, she represents everything that is good and pure. Those that follow the Light are generally pacifists, about as useful in combat as a dull blade.” Hagan snorted in humor, obviously looking down on those with little combat ability.

“And these Gods...do they actually show themselves? Can you see them?” Conner inquired. The part about actual visual accounts of the God of Darkness had Conner curious? Did these apparent Gods actually communicate to these people or were they just made up in an attempt to explain phenomenon that occurred around them.

“Aye, on rare occasion. Some Gods more than others, most often when a new Avatar is chosen”, Hagan replied.

“Avatar?” Robert jumped in.

“Each God has an Avatar. Avatars are the links to the Gods. They are imbued with certain powers and are charged with carrying out the will of their God. Each God has only one Avatar at a time. It is when a new Avatar is selected that a God will often make a brief appearance”, Hagan explained.