Portal to A Dark World

Robert smiled as he held the hand of his girlfriend, they'd been together for only a month, but it seemed like a lifetime. "You know, this surprise isn't far away.. Just keep your eyes closed." He said, leading her through the forest to see what he'd found a few weeks ago while mushroom hunting.

A few minutes later, and they were nearly a mile into the woods, and standing before a large warped oak apple tree. It had no fruit on it, but it did have flowers, lots and lots of flowers, all apple blossoms of course. But the center of the tree, over the years had split somehow, and it formed an arch. It looked like something you'd see in a fantasy movie, just unreal. "You can open your eyes now, I hope you like it..." He said, wanting to see the look on her face when she saw it.

Roxie followed Robert through the woods. She enjoyed suprises, especially ones that involved beauty. She had a bandanna over her eyes, and was clinging tightly to her boyfriend to keep from stumbling over the roods and such that littered the forest floor. "You know, this is a rather long walk. Hope this is nice." Roxie said, holding Robert tighter.

When he told her to open her eyes, she pulled the blindfold off, she raised her hand up to her mouth in excitement. She hopped up in the air. "It's so beautiful!" Roxie exclaimed. She wrapped her arms around Robert, who was a little taller than she was. "This is definately worth the trip out her." Roxie kissed Robert before leading him by the hand over to the tree. She went straight for the large arch.

Roxie looked up at the bark around the openning in the tree, rubbing it with her free hand. She brought her hand down, brushing against the side of her skirt. As she stared at the area between the trunks, she noticed that something seemed to be shimmering on the other side. She released Robert's hand, walking towards the openning, wanting to see what it was. As she passed under the trunks, the light suddenly changed from a light afternoon to a dark evening. The trees were all different, too. "What happened? That was weird, wasn't it, Robert?" Roxie turned around, looking for Robert, but didn't see him where he was standing a moment before. "Robert?" She said, confused.

Robert smiled as his girlfriend kissed him, but didn't think to much of it when she left to go check out the tree. he just crouched down for a moment to brush a burr from his shoe. When he looked up though, he didn't see Roxie anywhere. "Sweetie, where are you?" he asked, standing up and looking around, when she didn't answer, he figured she was playing a joke on him. "Oh, I see, wanna play hide and seek then, we'll just see about that then." He said, waling towards the large arch of the tree.

His hand landed on the rough bark of the tree as he braced himself on it for a moment as he looked up at it's beautiful blossoms. They were radiant, just simply beautiful. When the wind would blow a few petals would fall here and there, being carried by the breeze filling the air with both petals and a soft scent.

Robert smiled as he turned his attention back to the ground, looking through the arch. He got an uneasy feeling about it, but he just walked through, figuring that's where Roxie had went. "Maybe she's just on the other side hiding..." He said, walking through it.

In an instant, Robert was swept off of his feet and whooshed through a dark totally black mass, and he came out on his feet at the other side. "What the hell was that!? Roxie, where are you!?" he shouted, now turning around to see what had happened. The tree was gone, leaving him in the middle of a dark forest, of which the trees seemed mostly dead and rotting; their tangled branches scratched at the sky like clawed fingers.

Roxie was horrified when she didn't see the tree. She waited a moment, looking around franticly for something that she knew. When she didn't see anything, she began to move quickly back towards the direction of town. She didn't have any idea what was going on, but she didn't feel safe. Without Robert around, who knew what could happen. As she ran, she was screaming "ROBERT!!!!" at the top of her lungs.

Unfortunately, that wasn't a very good idea. As Roxie rounded a tree, she ran into a large solid wall of muscle. "Oof!" she groaned, stumbling backwards. She found herself staring at a wall of muscle hidden by a red shirt, ripped in several places. Metal plates covered the obviously huge pecs. Before Roxie could even look up into the man's face, she felt a powerful blow hit the back of her head. She fell to the ground, disoriented. Blackness began to eat at the side of her vision, her muscles failing to move. She found her eyes staring up at a large green face, tusks sticking up from behind the lower lip, which was twisted upwards in a sneer. Red eyes were probing her.

" 'EY, Skuz, looky wut came runnin ta me! Itz a prette lil humie!" The big man roared, delight filling her eyes. A giant green fist flew in from outside her vision, knocking the monster dominating her vision in the side of the face, knocking a tooth free. "Gwarg! Shut yer trap, er I'll give ya a gud thumpin! Now git de lil whench an' cum on! Puny humie boyz er still out 'ere, and dere iz a long 'ike back to de fort!" And at that moment, Roxie's mind slipped off into darkness.

Robert couldn't hear anything from where he was, a large group of crows or some black bird flew overhead; cawing and fluttering their wings. The sound was almost deafening. He couldn't even hear himself yelling at the damn things to shut up. He looked down on the ground, hoping to see footprints, but he was not by any means a skilled tracker, he liked to hunt mushrooms, not people or animals.

"Where the hell am I? Where the hell is Roxie?" he asked himself, still using his eyes to search the ground. He then spotted something, something shiny. "Roxie's watch!" he shouted, quickly scooping it up. He cleaned some of the debris off of it, then checked to see if it was still working. Luckily it was. He adjusted the leather band, and slipped it over his left wrist.

Robert decided to walk straight ahead from where he found the watch, hoping to find some other evidence of where Roxie was or had been.He was growing more and more worried as he walked, hearing strange noises, but not seeing the creatures that made them.

That however changed fast when suddenly, from the shadows, a large brownish black wolf, -snarling while bearing it's razor like teeth- appeared.

Robert quickly looked towards the beast, and was stricken with fear. A clod shiver ran down his spine, an icy cold rush seemed to slip through his body. A lump built in his throat as his mouth ran dry. He was trying to swallow, but found himself unable to do so.

The wolf stepped forward, behind it several more wolves, possibly 5 or 6, Robert wasn't exactly counting.

Robert instantly turned and started to run as fast as he could, which was about to prove foolish. The front wolf jumped and its hard front feet slammed into Robert's back, it's claws digging into his flesh, leaving small slashes on his lower back. He was knocked to the ground, his hands now scrambling for anything to defend himself. He reached a large branch and swung it 'round to catch the wolf in the side of the head, sending it rolling off of him with a yelp. Effectively buying himself a little time, Robert jumped to his feet and ran towards a tree, the wolves now fast behind him.

Robert could almost feel the teeth sinking into his legs as he ran, luckily for him, he managed to reach a tree before the wolves could ground him again. He jumped as high as he could, and grabbed a branch of the tree, quickly swinging his legs up to grab onto the tee, one leaping wolf narrowly missing the back of his leg. He managed though, and brought himself upright in the tree, now sitting safely above the beasts on the ground. He sat there in the tree, looking down at the rabid beats as they lunged upwards trying to snap at him still, but they were far from successful.

"You're one lucky bastard Rob... One lucky bastard..." he said his breaths heavy, his lungs burning, his back bleeding. He was quite bushed, but alive.

Glademerrow had been sleeping for quite a while when he felt a significant force being applied to his leg. It felt like some large wildcat had climbed up on one of his branches, and he didn't really care much about that. However, when he felt claws ripping into his bark, Glademerrow stirred. He brought one of his large arms down, this one actually almost long enough to reach is roots when he stood errect, and swiped at the things at his feet. He felt the blow hit a pack of something or other, he didn't care, sending them flying.

At this moment, Glademerrow opened his eyes, looking down on the pack of wolves that had been at his roots. The wolves, not up for a fight against such an large being, fled, as by now they realized that they were barking up the wrong tree if they wanted anything to eat.

It was only now that he noticed that the being on his upper leg was a human. He reached down, plucking him from the branch, holding him up to his face. "Hmmmm...." Glademerrow hummed. He noticed that the human wasn't wearing normal clothes, at least not compared to the humans that lived in this area. Come to think of it, these were much finer than anything he had seen before. Royalty, maybe? No, more likely the portal.

"Goooooddd eeevening, strange fellow. It seems you had a run in with some unplessssaaantt locals. I am Glademerrow. Whooooo might yoooouuuu beeeee?" He said, beginning to walk off deeper into the woods. "I believe that yoouuu need to seeeee Lady Deeeeewwww.... Do not worry, she will heal you good as new. I should warn yooouuuu, howeeevvver, she can be a bother for some...."

The first words from Roberts mouth were "Holy shit, holy shit, a talking tree!" and then he began shaking like a twig in a hurricane. His body was even colder than when the wolves were staring him down.

It took him a second to realize that the tree person wasn't trying to hurt him, but it was still rather intimidating. "I-I'm Robert, I came through some tree, and now I'm here. Wherever here might be... Where am I exactly? And who are you? Oh, Roxie! Have you by any chance seen a woman around here? She was in a short skirt, and... Well, she'd be easy to spot." Robert felt sort of rude for asking so many questions, but he was shocked, scared and worried. He wasn't sure what to do at a time like this. He just wanted to find Roxie and get back home.

Glademerrow wasn't too suprised that this little human was frightened so much. "Sooooo.... Yoooouuuu must have cooooommme throoouuugh the portal. And thiiisss Rooooxxxxxiiiieeee must be aaaasss well...." Glademerrow said, placing Robert on his shoulder. "Noooo.... But yoooouuuu are in the Old Foooorrrrreeeessstttt. It's in the diiiisssttttaaaannnttt pppppaaassssstttt, compared to where yyyyooouuu are from."

Gladmerrow brushed his way through some trees into a largeclearing with a large tree towering in the center, the roots reaching all the way out to the edge of the open area. "Lady Deeewww, are yooouuuu heeeerrrreeee?" he bellowed. A moment later, a small glimmer appeared above one of the lower branches. The glimmer flew over, settling into a hover just in front of the large ent. There was a tiny faerie, a blue petal dress, butterfly wings, long blonde hair.

"Te-he, hey, Glades. Who's the cutey?" the little faerie giggled, winking at Robert. She fluttered over to him, hovering just in front of his face. "This is Rooobbbbeeerrrtttt. He came throoouuuggghhhh the poooorrrrttttallll. He needs his wwwoooouuuunnnnddsss treated." Lady Dew flew around small amounts of a glittering dust sprinking over Robert. As the dust settled on his wounds, they immediately clotted and began to close up. As she finished, she settled on his shoulder, her head right next to his ear. "How's that, cutey?" She said, dreamily.

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"Yah know, dis lil humie es gunna be a gud lil time when we git back ta de fort!" Curtz said, loudly as the two Orcs broke through the trea line, running off into the open field just outside the Big Ol' Wuds, as the orcs called it. Skuz, the bigger of the two orcs, wasn't all that ammused with Curtz' short attention span. He took his fist and rammed it in the back of Curtzs head. He then took his other hand and gripped the little woman by her ass and threw her over her shoulder. "Fergit 'bout de wrench, ya grem'in! Still gotta git te de fort befer anythin' else. Don't wanna git stuck wid a sword, do ya?"

The fort was on a cliff near the forest, though it was placed in a place that would make it very difficult for anyone to come up from the forest or the human town on the other edge of the forest. The two Orcs quickly scaled the rock wall, as it was by far the fastest method to reach it, as the only other practical way up to the fort was through a long pass, which also happened to be well guarded by a particularly nasty group of Orcs, who would have probably taken the girl, if they had seen her.

As the two rushed into the center of the center of the fort, surrounded by huts of many an Orc, Skuz called out. "EY, BOSS! We're back!"

Robert was silent for awhile, just taking in everything the tree had to say, and acknowledging that he was right in thinking they came through a portal. But,, as they went deeper into the forest, Robert grew a little worried about who this Lady Dew was, in here, from the looks of it, it could be anyone or anything.

When they arrived at the place where Lady Dew was, Robert was pleasantly surprised to see that she was only a cute little fairy, and even more happy to know that she healed his wounds so fast. "Thank you, Lady Dew. I'm glad you healed me and all... but.. I need to find my girlfriend. I think somethin' bad has happened to her. I found her watch on the ground."] he said, lifting his wrist up to show the little fairy, not thinking if she'd even know what a watch was.

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Jaramiah watched as they brought in someone knew, expecting to see another poor unfortunate forest dweller, but when he saw the white flesh and strange clothing of a human female, he decided to go over and have a look. "Eay, whut you ave eer? Anover humie? Dis wun looks a bit difernt." He said, his large rough hand moving up to tugg at her skirt a little. "An dis eer clof looks reely difernt..." He said, thinking to himself, and he knew what he had to doo, he'd just have to pick the time to do it.

"Te-he. You're welcome, Cutey." Lady Dew said, hovering over to Robert's shoulder, settling her feet down right next to his neck, her head near his ear. She listened to the strange man's story. "Awe, that's so sad. I wanna help!" She exclaimed, plopping down on his shoulder. "Well, I know that there wad a band of Orcs in the woods tonight, along with some humans. Most likely, she got picked up by one of those. I hope your little girl got picked up by the humans. Orcs are big nasty meanies."

"In eeeiiittthhheeeerrrr eeeevvvvveeeennnntttt, it wooouuulllddddd be uuunnnnwise to travel in the foreeessssttttt this laaaatttteeee at nnnniiiggghhhhttttt. Wwwweeeee shooouuulllldddd wwwwaaaaaiiiittttt uuunnnnttttilllll light to visit the hhhhuuuummmmaaaannnnn town." Glademerrow said. Even he was not fit to fight off some creatures that moved around in the dark forests. "Te-he, that means you get to stay here for the night, Cutey!" Dew cuddled up to Robert's neck. Glademerrow set the two down, allowing them to go wherever they needed to.

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Skuz set Roxie down on the ground before Germuck. "Yea, Curtz over der caught er in de woods. Since de boss ain't 'round, ya got dibs, I fink...." "But I found er, so I shuld get first-" Skuz smacked Curtz again. "You shut dat big yap a urs fer I break it!" Skuz grunted.

Robert was a bit uneasy on the idea of waiting until morning, but they were right. It would be dangerous to venture out into a dark forest, especially one like this. When Glademerrow placed Robert on the ground, he smiled a little. "I never got to thank you for saving me, so now I will. Thanks, big guy." he said, turning to look around the area.

"Well Dew Drop, it doesn't look like I'll be sleeping in any bed of yours, so... I guess I'll just get under that area there, and bed down for the night." he said, walking towards a large tree which had a patch of green moss beside it. He walked over, then sat down on the moss. It was rather comfy, surprisingly soft. He lifted his hand up, and gently lifted Lady Dew into his hand, then sat her down on the moss beside him. He then laid down on the moss, and looked over at her. "Thanks for offering to help me, I really want to find Roxie. It's my fault we got here..." He said, sighing as he thought of his mistake. He closed his eyes, wondering what would happen, what the outcome of it all could be. "Good night Dew, good night Glademerrow." He said, slowly drifting off as he spoke.

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Germuck bruted his way between the two Orcs and the girl then looked at them. "Wif da boss owtm, I'm da wun dat makes da choises. So owt ov my way, fuuls." he said, grabbing the girl roughly by her sides, then tossing her over his shoulder. without another word, he lumbered over to a large wooden door, leading into a room with cages and torture machines. He pulled open the door which creaked and groaned as its heavy body swung open. Germuck took the girl inside the room, then pulled the door shut behind him, barring it with the large wooden plank used to lock it shut.

Germuck then took the girl over to a table and sat down on it, then checked her over with an un-orc-like mannerism about his movements. His actions were very precise, and his face had a look of concern on it. "A, wake up lil humie, I needs tu speek wif ju." He said, being quieter than normal. The girl didn't wake up however, and this prompted him to take his large, dirty, green skinned pointer finger, and poke her in her ribs, trying to stir her from her sleep.

"Noooo prrrrooobbbbllleeemmmm, Rooooobbbbbert." Glademerrow said, turning back to watch the edge of the woods. He had no real reason to return to sleep for at least a week, so he was best suited for guard duty. Besides, he had many things to ponder, such as what he was to do about Robert, Roxie, and so on. He could help Robert find the girl, but if that involved going into Orc territory, it would most likely end with him becoming firewood, not to mention that there was no way he could help Robert fight through the horde alone.

"Te-he, I just think you're so cute, and I wanna make you feel happy. It's SO sweet that you are trying to save this girl." Lady Dew giggled, settling down on Robert's chest. Yes, she had a bed to sleep on, but she didn't like the idea at the moment. It was so lonely most of the time, and aside from a few Ents, the occasional elf, and the very rare human, she didn't talk to many people, and it was even rarer still to have someone come to her through the portal. She settled in for a nice rest.

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Roxie stirred when she was poked. Her head rolled to the side, her eyes openning. Her vision wasn't clear, but as she looked around, she remembered what she saw before she went unconcious. That large green face, and she was immediately alert. Her head shot up, straight into Germuck's face. "OW!" She exclaimed, backing up franticly. "What's going on?! Where am I?!" her eyes focused on the orc in front of her. "You aren't that thing from before, though you look a lot like him!"

Germuck slid his hand over his mouth to avoid howling in pain. He quickly flung his other hand over her mouth and silenced her. He leaned over her and got right down to her ear and whispered in a normal sounding voice. "My name is Germuck, and I'm not here to hurt you, but no one else knows that, so shut your trap and listen to me. If you make one sound or tell someone that I can speak this way, I will cut out your tongue before you say the first words. Got it?" He said, keeping his hand pressed tightly to her mouth.

"Now, you're going to scream in pain, and act like I'm torturing you while I ask you questions after I move my hand. When I'm asked about where you came from, I'm going to say...? I can tell you aren't from around here, that is quite obvious, your clothes aren't the only things that give it away. Your hair, your face, hell, even your scent. If you do exactly as I say, ou'll be fine." He said, now leaning upwards to look down at her. He nodded to her as he lifted his hand away.

"Now ju lil humie wench, where'd ju come frum?!" He shouted, grinding a gear beside her to make the sound of the torture table being used.

Roxie backed up to the edge of the table, still very frightened of the big Orc in front of her. She held one of her hands up to her chest. She was scared out of her mind. All she could manage was a nod to Germuck's first question. As he slowly explained his plan, she began to feel a little more at ease, though still incredibly scared. As her fears lifted slightly, she began to regain her usual defiant air. When he seemed to be done speaking, she whispered "Thank you." To him.

"AAAAHHHH!!!!" Roxie screemed on cue. "I... came through a portal.... I don't even know where I am, you bastard." Roxie said, low.

Germuck looked a bit puzzled when she said she had come through a portal. He'd never heard of such a place. It didn't seem possible, but he knew something was odd. He continued to think, trying to think up a way to save the girl from the misfortune of falling into the hands of the Orcs.

He leaned again and spoke in his normal voice. "No matter what they do, you can't tell them of this portal, ok? You tell them... You're from a nearby village and you are... A princess. That should keep you alive." He whispered, then leaned up again. with another crank of the gear, his voice barked out at her.

"Stop makin' up lyes ju fuul. Noa, whur did ju come frum!? An woo are ju!?" He shouted, making it sound as if he was straining as he did so.