Chapter 2
Chapter Two
Nolen
The dullness of the garden surrounding me was nothing new, but Mom’s scowl definitely was. I’d gone to my parents’ place to tell them about tomorrow, but it was clear my mom already knew. I tried giving her my best smile, but that only seemed to deepen her frown.
Sighing, I figured it would be best to ask and not just assume it was about my trip. “What is it, Mom?”
She smacked my arm. “What is it?! What is it?! Did you, or did you not, sign up for the portal search?!”
I opened my mouth to answer, but my father appeared behind her and shook his head.
His eyes wide and fearful. Mom caught me staring behind her, and she whirled on my father instead, aiming her anger at him.
Letting my shoulders slump a little, I was grateful to get a few seconds to breathe.
Mom could be a scary thing, even if she meant well.
“Darling,” Dad began, but she silenced him with a raised finger.
“He cannot leave us! I forbid it!” she demanded, stomping her foot.
I tried backing out of the room, and almost succeeded, if it hadn’t been for Yaz. “Where’re you goin, big bro?” she asked, sounding all innocent.
Why hadn’t I been an only child?
Mom turned around so fast her hair was flying. “I’m nowhere near done with you yet!”
“I’m doing it, Mom. I’m going through the portal.”
Everyone held their breath, even me. I had to do this. Something inside me urged me to leave this world and travel to the unknown. Like a beacon. It was suffocating fighting against it. I didn’t want to fight it, not anymore.
Mom finally seemed to deflate as she whispered a hollow, “Why?”
Exhaling, I spoke the truth, “Because I need to.”
Dad placed a hand on her shoulder, giving me a nod of understanding. “You’re almost thirty, son. If you feel like this is something you have to do, then we’ll support you.” I could tell Mom was not in agreement on that, but she gave me a tense smile, so I took it as a win.
“Thank you,” I said, feeling a bit lighter. “I came over to tell you before they try to open the portal tomorrow.”
“Already?!” Mom asked, back to being angry.
“Yes. I’m unsure if I will leave tomorrow or not, but I wanted to say goodbye either way.”
It would take me hours to drive to the rulers anyway, so I figured doing a proper farewell would be best. I only lived ten minutes from my parents’ house, but the portal would be opened at the rulers’ castle, meaning I had to travel there before they opened the portal.
Those of us that lived further away were offered temporary housing as we trained for portal travelling.
It didn’t include much in the stepping through a portal part, but mostly how to survive in the wild in different climates.
If things went bad and we got stuck on some alien world, we would need to survive on our own.
All who were qualified to travel through this new portal had to train for years.
I was the leader of my team, and damn proud of it, too.
Our people needed a solution so we could continue to survive now that our world was dying, the magic fading away slowly.
Mom and Dad had never been happy about my career choices, but back when I signed up for portal training, it’d seemed like some farfetched plan that would never happen.
Now, it would, and I understood their worry.
I could admit to myself that even I felt afraid of the unknown, but I was more afraid of staying put, my heart urging me to leave.
“Then let’s eat some food before you go,” Dad said, steering Mom into the kitchen with him.
Astro—our main portal guy—was speaking, but I wasn’t paying him any attention.
We were leaving today! I would finally leave my world behind and travel to another one.
Our overall goal was to find a new world since ours was losing its magic.
Finding a similar world to ours we could relocate to if necessary was our highest priority.
I was proud to be a part of this journey.
When the question “who wants to go today” came, we all hurried to raise our arms. The five rulers laughed at our eagerness and thankfully allowed us all to travel. I was buzzing with excitement and something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Whatever it was, it felt like something inevitable.
I knew making the portal would take a lot of Astro’s energy and magic, so I was relieved to see many had joined him to open it with their magic.
It was Astro who had been tasked with finding a world similar to ours, and after so many portals had shown nothing but disappointment, we all needed this to be it.
Everyone could learn to create portals, but it was hard to maintain control over your magic for long enough to steady it.
Astro was our best portal maker, and surprisingly, he was only in his mid-thirties.
Sometimes you were just born to excel at certain things, and he’d found his calling early on in life, it seemed.
Stepping through the portal was… indescribable.
I felt like the itch under my skin was somewhat sated for once since my teen years.
Like fate was telling me this was my journey.
My calling. I figured I would grow up as a chef since I always found cooking soothing and inspiring.
But at some point growing up, I knew my soul longed for adventure instead.
Cooking would remain a hobby, and I would lie if I hadn’t thought about what I could learn from this new world.
Would they have different animals, vegetables, spices? I couldn’t wait to figure it all out.
Once everyone was through, I stepped forward.
“We’ll travel in pairs. Make sure you’re always connected through your slates.
We meet back here tonight. I’ll call the rulers before we head out to show them this world.
” They nodded but then quickly averted their gazes to the forest that surrounded us.
Using my slate, I called Trise, one of the rulers and projected them in the air above my device, showing a clear view of all five rulers.
“Oh, it’s gorgeous,” Henriette, another ruler said in awe. They were too busy looking at the new world to greet us properly, which I found amusing. It had only been minutes since we stood in the same room as them, but still the rulers usually had a formal way of greeting us.
I figured I might as well answer, being the leader and the one who’d called. “It is. The air is fresh and we find ourselves in a forest. We’ll pair off now and contact you when we’re ready to return home.”
I wasn’t looking forward to returning, already dreading leaving this beautiful world behind.
Even the trees were vibrant in color here, not at all like the dullness of our once vibrant world.
We really needed to fix our magic, and this clear sign of difference was enough proof that our world was dying.
I had never seen our world looking as colorful as this one, but pictures told us that all the color and life was slowly fading from our home.
Trise’s voice interrupted my glum thoughts. “Have fun, and be safe!” she told us before ending the call.
Shaking the souring mood off me, I clapped loudly to get everyone’s attention. “Let’s go explore!”
A week later.
The gazes and whispering were starting to get to me.
I had only worked at this gas station for three days, but I found myself the center of attention yet again.
Why was I the one they stared at? Did they know I came from another world?
Even if my home world was similar to theirs, I could be acting differently, although I tried hard to fit in.
My boss Vincent was a nice guy, a bit of a loner, which I actually preferred, but that also meant I still didn’t have much experience conversing with these people.
My first day here with my team had opened my eyes to how alike our worlds were.
At the same time there were key differences, like clothing.
Plus, they had advertisements for so many things we didn’t even have at home.
Like makeup. We had something similar we used when acting out scenes in movies where one person needed to look older, or hurt with fake blood.
We could do most of it with glamour, though, so it was rarely used.
But here, it was everywhere. Different colored lips than the ones you were born with, something to make your lashes longer, which I still found fascinating.
Was there a reason for it? Would it make you see better?
Protect your eyes better? I had so many questions.
Even with the weirdness of their beauty advertisements, I actually liked it.
People showed so much of their personality even without me talking to them.
I saw a woman wearing a red coat with matching red lips and I knew just by looking at her, that she must be daring and bold, maybe a person who spoke her truth and didn’t hide who she was.
Then there was the guy with tattoos, all colorful and showing a piece of who he was inside.
He was scowling as he looked through the energy drinks we sold, but the colorful images on him showed how much he loved colors and flowers.
“Excuse me!” a lady called from my left.
She stood and pointed to the shelves with chips, or more accurately, the top shelf which she couldn’t reach with her short body.
I put on a smile and came over to help her out.
The whispering customers had gone silent while I moved to help the other lady out, but were soon back to their heated conversation.
I ignored them but the lady I helped shot them dirty looks. “Don’t mind them,” she whispered.
I eyed her curiously. Maybe she could help me understand why I was standing out so much. Deciding to take a chance, I whispered back, “Do you know why they’re whispering about me?”
Her smile widened. “Oh, you obliviously handsome man. Of course, I do. They think you’re handsome.” She started to laugh, but it was a warm and happy laugh.
“Oh,” I said, not really knowing what to say to that. Figuring she wouldn’t mind another question, I asked, “But why do they care enough to whisper about it?”
She just shook her head at me, her smile still firmly in place. Then she patted my shoulder and went to the counter to pay. I was so confused, but I was the only one working at the moment, so I followed behind her and scanned her things.
As soon as the lady left, the women started moving closer to where I stood, putting away our newest order of gummies.
Vincent chose that moment to return from his lunch break, saving me from whatever they wanted with me.
He took over and I left with a grateful smile, even if he had no idea that he’d just saved my sanity.
I would need to tell the others about this, I just hoped they wouldn’t get mad over the fact I was attracting so much attention.