Northern Lands: Bound by fate

Chapter 25

ZANDER

⌘ Asterion, fae realm.

Leander didn't return.

I waited for him as the last person to take the portal, but my efforts were in vain. After a couple of trembling heartbeats in my chest, trying to calm myself down after the rage outburst, I heard his motorcycle starting up in the distance.

I didn't like us being angry at each other, but I also didn't understand why he reacted the way he did. We were close as cousins, and it had been the first time that we flung out this way. Novak was so close to the surface that I couldn't help but worry. His wolf's spirit had been acting strange lately, and I wondered if something happened that had him bothered this way.

Ripping my eyes away from the direction Leander had disappeared to, I focused on the mission and headed towards the portal. Created by the mermaid magic, infusing one of the scales of her tail, Nereida had conjured up a passage to another realm in existence. The arcane magic buzzed and rippled when it appeared.

I had never traveled outside of Earth. Taking the portal to another realm was a first for me and I didn't know what to expect. Nereida gave me an encouraging nod, and I stepped into the oval shaped shimmery vortex. A weird sensation tugged on me. Like an invisible string pulling at my limbs, making my legs move forward on their own accord.

A weightless sensation overcame me, a feeling of walking on air through the darkness that filled the starry tunnel. The seconds it took felt longer as I tried to take in the experience.

A tingling energy criss-crossed over my body, similar to the quantum of the full moon, and through the arcane waves of the portal, I shifted into my wolf. I felt my limbs twist and break, a painless transition over the years.

My paws trembled as they reached the surface. With heavy eyelids and my limbs too weakened to move, I noticed the shift had taken more energy than usual, and I knew I had crossed the portal to Asterion in wolf form. The forced turning was taxing, and I felt like Conan was stronger than my human counterpart in this realm.

My senses heightened, my ears brimming with the sounds around me. My nostrils itched, trying to accustom my sense of smell with all the new impressions in this unknown place.

Conan ~ That was not amusing.

Zander ~ Why have we shifted?

Conan ~ No idea, and I don't think I can shift back. I'm trying, but it won't budge.

Lifting myself from the ground, I began to take in the colorful nature around me. Flowers in different hues blossomed around us in a grassy meadow, the light breeze moving the flexible branches of the willows around the lake we had appeared next to. Clear water thundered down a cascade nearby and brought life to the lake. Fish swam in the clear depths, and the birds sung a springtime tune as they flew from tree to tree.

While Northern Lands had a beautiful winter landscape with the Aurora Borealis lighting up the horizon and great mountain peaks piercing the sky, Asterion was full of blooming nature.

The wind changed, and another scent mixed in with the floral bouquet and pure nature that was Asterion.

Zander ~ What's that?

Conan ~ Blood...

The rusty metallic scent invaded my nostrils. The tinge of decay of the flesh made me wince. Whatever I was smelling had been dead and left to the elements for some days. The same heady scent that enshrouded the mangled remains of Faolan lingered in the air. A mark of the person responsible for such a foul deed.