CHAPTER 3

Despite my conviction, my steps slowed just a bit. I tried to tell myself it had more to do with the fact that it was difficult to see and not that I was fearful.

I thought the fog was going to go on forever, and I was never going to be able to find my way out of it. I would be lost in the fog until the end of time, I just knew it. Was this where my brother was? Where he had been for 10 years?

I wrapped my arms around myself to try and press back the tidal wave of horror and sadness at the thought of him being so alone.

Shadows began to materialize in the fog. They were blurry at first, mere wisps, unformed, and fleeting. Then they grew, shaped, and darkened until I could almost see them clearly.

They were people.

People were moving just beyond the curtain. Massive people. Somewhere between six and seven feet tall with a width almost twice the size of an average person. They looked like dark gods, swaying, and shifting. The closer I got, the taller they grew until they threatened to block out the light. In fear, I tried to step back only to find that I was rooted to the ground. I didn’t even know when I had stopped, and now I couldn’t move away or towards them.

Panicking, the fear began to outweigh the hope of finding my brother in this insanity. It was too late. The fog would not let me leave. It closed in on me, closer and closer until a hand burst through the cloud and gripped my shirt, yanking me through the barrier.

The hand was huge and fit the owner of the shadow well. I grabbed at it and found the skin coarse, almost reptilian. The sharp nails tore into my sweater so easily, that I couldn’t help but think of what they could do to my skin. I opened my mouth to scream, but it was stolen from me before even the high squeak came out. The air seemed oddly thin, and I couldn’t get a deep enough breath for more than a small sound. I tried to dig my nails into the hand, hoping it would let me go, but it was useless.

In the space of a heartbeat, the world went from dense, dark fog to a bright and blinding one. The shadow quickly moved to block out the sun as it looked down at me. I was right about the thing being a giant as he stood about a good two feet taller than me. Or maybe that’s how he seemed as he held me off the ground. Of course, I was just assuming he was male. I thought to myself. For all I knew, this person could be a giant… ugly… female! Who was I to judge? I was hysterical, I realize. The shock of going through the Great Oak Archway as well as the lack of oxygen to my brain had sent me off the deep end.

As my vision began to clear, the first thing in my eyesight was a large face. The skin was dark and tanned like a piece of animal hide left out to dry with just a tinge of green around the edges as if he were glowing. Dirt was streaked randomly across the forehead and cheekbones. And if that wasn’t enough to prove this guy needed a bath, the smell of body order and God only knows what else, sure was.

Over one eye were thin lines that looked like a pen drawing or a tattoo. Just three swirly lines accenting one eye and eyebrow: One gold, one red, and one silver. The same configuration swept across the top of his cheek on the opposite side.

His eyes were golden with several odd silver glints in them and narrowed into an odd squint. But I could still see the pupils enough to know immediately that it was not the normal pupil of a normal human. They were elongated narrow slits like a cat with little white flecks dotting the depths of the black areas.

His dark blond hair was twisted and knotted into strange rows that framed his face. It was dirty and scruffy, yet what bothered me the most was the dried red stains that matched the color that stained his normally white leather vest.

He hissed something at me that I assumed was some sort of language. I just shook my head, my fear choking me and making it almost impossible for me to speak. He jerked me closer until his small, sharply pointed nose was touching mine and hissed once more.

“I-I don’t understand,” I forced out through my tight, raw throat.

As soon as the words were out of my mouth, his whole demeanor changed. His eyes widened in surprise, and he pulled away a bit before jerking me close once again and sniffing me from the top of my head to the area around my collar. He started to go lower, but indignation and a sense of self-preservation made me slap him on the top of his head.

“Hey! Don’t do that!” I snapped.

He jerked back again, his face showing a surprise that was mirrored on my own at my strike. He set me down gently and backed away slowly as if he were afraid, I would hit him again.

I turned around to find the portal again, only to watch it slowly collapse on itself, trapping me in this place with this monstrous man. The clearing that the portal had dumped me in was surrounded by trees that were a multitude of greens, reds, and browns. I think there was even a streak of blue in a few of them. However, it was the giant rocks that intertwined with the trees that intrigued me the most. They seemed to have been placed there like guardians and, as I scanned the area again, I found the two oak trees that resembled the ones that I walked through in my world.

My world… my home… my family… were back through the portal.

Except for my brother.