A Mysterious Land

   Lora knew she was moving, and fast. but she didn't know were to. she couldn't breath. she wanted to scream but she couldn't move her mouth. she felt like she was being crushed. she tried to look around but she couldn't. her head felt like it was going to explode. she wanted it to stop.

 

   it felt like forever before she fell gasping for air, on something cold and wet. her skin prickled with the sensation of freezing cold wind. she opened her eyes and looked around. she knelt on the floor of a clearing, covered in white snow. black trees surrounded the clearing encased in a blue ice. a lake sat frozen in the middle of the clearing slightly covered in snow. in some places little clusters of huge black spikes stuck up out of the ground. one tree stuck out of the others, dark black and charred, not covered in ice.

Lora stood up and noticed a hunched figure a few feet from her, a dark red pool surrounding it. it made weird gurgling and coughing noises, and it seemed to be in pain. Lora walked to it cautiously, scared of what it could do to her. as she got closer she recognized it. Derek. he rolled over onto his back and glared at her. as she watched him she realized what was wrong. a dagger stuck out of his lower stomach causing excessive bleeding. Lora knew, even though she was no doctor, that he was going to die.

"Where am I?!" she yelled at him as she knelt down at his side. "what have you done!" she glared at him as he gave an evil bloody grin.

   "you happy now? your home, and lost i might add. now that I'm going to die you will have no idea where to go." he laughed an evil laugh, then started to cough, splattering blood all over his hand.

   'what are you talking about?!" she yelled at him. "you brought me here, you're going to give me a better answer than that!!!!!" and with this she pulled a dagger from his belt and nelt on one knee, pressing it up to his throat. he gurgled a laugh. "or what, you'll kill me? i wish you would, it will put me out of my misery, and i won't have to deal with safields wrath."

she laughed " ill just leave you to suffer then." she went to stand up but he stopped her. "wait, if you want to know so badly, how this for a change of events. this clearing is the same place your father brought you to to get rid of you almost 17 years ago." he gave a bitter look. "you are standing in the exact spot that your dad died on. if you don't believe me move the snow." he looked away coughing.

Lora stood up and brushed away the snow revealing a sheet of blue ice, and beneath that, the face of a gorgeous elven man. his face and arms were scraped and cut, and his purple tunic was shredded. he looked like he was asleep, but Lora knew better. this was her father. the man that died to protect her. 

   Lora stood up, anger boiling inside her. " how could you say that! you monster! you deserve to die! he died for me!" not knowing what she was doing and relying on pure instinct, she grabbed his leg and twisted it painfully until it broke. he screamed out in pain, tears flowing down his cheeks.

i hope you die! unfortunately i won't have the honor of doing the killing!" and with that she whirled around running at full speed, going nowhere in particular, just trying to get away from the blood chilling screams.

                                     * * *

James and Amanda ran down the street towards Lora's house. the both stuck out like a sore thumb in the human word, so they had to leave as soon as possible. as they came up to the house, the nymph, who was working in the garden, stood up and watched them approach. 

"why are y'all here. and why do you look like that! humans are all over the place, someone could see you!"see said grabbing them. she pulled them inside and forced them to sit.

   "something has happened and we need to use the portal." James said.

"there's no portal here, you should be already aware of that, you elf's always have a way of finding them."

thats exactly how we know theres one here, actually you have multiple. so please tell us its important, loras life depend on it" james said getting frustrated. he stood up and passed back and forth.

"What do you mean lora's life could depend on it?!! what have you done to my daughter?!!!!" the elf yelled.

   

  "uh, first off shes not your daughter, your just her protector..."

the elf turned on james, hatred in her eyes "I raised her!!! i'm her mother!! her real mothers dead! and if you have a problem with it, good luck without my help!"

"he didn't mean it like that. im sorry for his disrespect. but we do need your help. lora has been kidnapped by one of safeilds minions. i managed to hit him, so hes probably going to die, but that still leaves her in an unknown world not knowing what to do or where to go." amanda said, standing up.

"Well i wasn't lying when i said there is no portal. you can look all you want. i wish i could help more, but really, i never kept a portal here for fear that lora might find it."

"well it feels like its coming from up stairs, we'll go check it out just in case." then he turned to the stares and gestured for amanda to follow him. they went upstairs to the room that they sensed the portal. when they opened the door they  were shocked. they stood in the doorway of loras perfectly arranged purple room. 

james walked to the closet and looked at amanda, waiting for her approval. she met his eyes and noded. as he opened the door he froze in surprise. when amanda noticed that he didn't walk in, she peered over his shoulder. when she saw what stopped him she let out a gasp. lining each wall of loras huge walk in closet, there was huge stacks of oil pastel art. there was only a little space left for her cloths due to the art. some of the pieces were covered in dust from being stored for a long time. amanda walked over to a stack closer to the door and picked one up. it was a gorgeous white, black and blue piece of a clearing surrounded by black trees. a lake sat in the middle of the clearing with a weeping willow towering over it. a little purple blob was at the tree and a hunched purple figure cowered in front of it. surrounding that figured was about 20 black animals with wings.

" oh my god!" amanda said with a hand to her mouth. " this the clearing that her father died in only moments before his death!"

"and this is las narith." james said holding up a art piece of a frozen city.

"but how?" amanda said looking at the many art pieces of the world that loras never seen or heard of, except when she was only hours old.

"i think i know how," james said holding up another painting of the same clearing as before except the figures and creatures were gone and everything was coated in blue. "i think that Lora was using her gift before she even knew she had it. i believe each one of these pictures is a one way portal to whatever place the picture represents."

amanda looked confused. " wait, even if that was possible, how would we find her? theres got to be a little over 50 oil arts in here, how would we know wich one to use?"

" well if i was derek, and i was to kidnap a person i hate, i would want to hurt them any way i can without touching them, and the only way to do that is to bring her to the place of her fathers death." james said. he lifted the painting of the clearing in blue and brushed his hand over it. suddenly a blue light started to glow, coming from the painting. "ready?" he said right before he stepped into the light and disappeared.

"as ready as ill ever be." amanda mumbled following james into the portal.