POV Shift—————————————————

When I stepped through the eerie pulsating gateway it felt like I was suddenly thrown into a whirlpool. My robe was whipping around and my sense of direction was flipped repeatedly. This continued on for what felt like hours before it suddenly cleared up and I was thrown to the ground. My legs collapsed beneath me and the world was spinning, but I was just slightly aware enough to notice that my two companions were with me. After a while of rolling around in agony, I finally attempted to get up only to regurgitate the extravagant meal that I just consumed. I wiped my face and stumbled some more while trying to straighten up. My two companions seemed to be having the same difficulties but seemed otherwise okay.

I coughed and hacked trying to get the sour taste out of my mouth. That was something I never wanted to experience again. The sound of scurrying barely made it through my ringing ears and clumsily I withdrew my dagger. I turned only to find a small group of elongated rat-like creatures who seemed to be going through the same pain as me. It would have been an amusing sight if I wasn’t so disoriented. I sheathed the dagger before I accidentally tripped and had a whole new problem to worry about. Fox was the second one to get up and spot the rats followed by Bird who looked the unsteadiest on his feet. The rats too soon stopped rolling around in the snow and began chirping to one another. My eyes cleared up enough to observe my environment and I saw that we were in a semi-dense forest of pines. Snow up to my shins coated the ground and judging by the sharp stinging on my exposed face the temperature was way below the stage water freezes.

I didn’t recognize my surroundings but then again I have nothing to base myself on. I took a few shaky steps forward to inspect a nearby tree when a shrill roar caused me to freeze in place. My head whipped around to find the source but besides a ball of rats, nothing changed. Despite that, I knew we couldn’t let our guard down, in normal circumstances it was unlikely for the noise to be something supernatural but I doubt we were just dropped somewhere random. It was very likely we were dropped by a weak point in the veil. I was getting antsy just sitting here though, so I signaled my group to get a move on in a random direction. Strangely several of the elongated rats suddenly spoke,

“Wrong way, wrong way,” they said in unison squeaky voices.

We froze and stared at them in shock, in our confusion and sickness I completely forgot they came from the same meeting we did. Fox side-eyed Bird and me before bending down and asking,

“Why is that?"

“Danger, danger!” They answered.

We all exchanged looks before Fox turned back,

“Then where should we go,” he asked in a slightly strained voice.

“Follow, follow,” they squeaked before taking off down our left.

With no other options, Fox shrugged and began to follow much to the irritation of Bird and me. We don’t know who or what these creatures are and I sure didn’t want to trust them blindly.

“What do you think you’re doing you big sack of rocks,” Bird yelled out after him before grabbing his shoulder, “Are you trying to get yourself killed?”

Fox looked back at the scrawny man before saying, “No, that’s why I’m following them instead of waiting here to die.”

He shrugged off the much weaker man’s hand before continuing on his way. Despite my misgivings, I followed behind the large man, he has always had a better sense of danger than any of us. As I passed by Bird I heard an exasperated sigh follow by the soft crunch of snow underfoot.

We walked for several hours before I noticed that the surrounding trees had bizarre in them. One, in particular, was especially striking, halfway up an especially large pine sat what looked like a menacing eye, slitted like a ravenous cat. As we moved in further the carvings became more numerous, with strange symbols and patterns along with wicked faces. The whole group was nervous but we continued walking at a brisk pace. Abruptly I slammed into Fox causing us both to stumble, and after a few choice words, I saw what happened. In front of the group of panicking rats sat a large area of upturned snow and three sets of footprints. My stomach dropped, we were back where we began. But, things were different the trees looked older and the symbols covered the trees. And right where I inspected one of the trees sat another symbol that especially caught my attention, two triangles sat with tips touching. I don’t know why I focused on that but that’s all I could see.

A rough shake broke me out of my trance and I saw the worried face of Bird and Fox. Before I could even think of what happened I was practically ripped off my feet and shoved in a random direction. I walked without questioning it. After hours upon hours of walking and two more setbacks ornaments began appearing in the trees. The wind was picking up and snow began to fall when we finally decided to rest, we were all tired and needed to rest.

Strangely, as we began to search for a place to stay we stumbled upon a humble cabin. It looked withered and old but still sturdy so we decided it was good of a place as any. After traveling up some sturdy stairs and passing a weathered porch Fox arrived at the door and with a hand shaking with exhaustion he knocked. The sound of his knuckles meeting wood was extraordinarily loud. I hadn’t noticed it before but our surroundings were completely silent. Without input, the door slid open and a chasm of shadows was revealed.