Ch. 11 - Warzone

The first thing Lioness noticed, as she stepped out, was the change in temperature. It was suddenly freezing. Snow crunched under her - sensible, but not winter - shoes, and a flurry of fat snowflakes falling from the sky settled in her hair and on her shoulders.

"F* me," she rubbed her hands up and down her arms, stomping like a spooked filly.

Osprey's surprise flared and was shrugged off, as she adjusted her energy levels to regulate her body temperature. It was the one skill Maddie envied her friend.

"You said there's someone nearby," Tiger hissed, his eyes darting around, trying to penetrate the (now that the shining portal closed) complete darkness of a mountain winter night.

"Over there," Lioness bent her head to the left, just as a flickering light painted a window in the wall of black. "Must have been on his way home."

Tiger shook his head, and motioned towards the light.

“We should follow. Make sure there isn’t a nasty surprise waiting for us. And…” he added after he gave her a once-over. “...get you something to make sure you don’t freeze out here.”

Lioness didn’t even try to protest, just nodded and let the soldier take the lead. As they approached the rough hewn log cabin, they could see a sparsely furnished room through the window.

“Did we portal back in time?” Lioness joked towards Osprey, who just shook her head.

“They did get blasted into last century during the war,” Tiger muttered under his breath, his emotions tight.

Lioness contemplated an apology but there was a more pressing issue.

“Do you think he has a…”

Just then a loud bark sounded around the corner, closing in on them.

“...dog,” she finished, as Tiger once again lifted his weapon, emotions swirling. She caught his arm just as a shepherd mix mutt came into view, stopping in his tracks and barking and growling at the three of them.

The door to the cottage opened soundlessly, spilling light onto the agents.

“Hesht, Reksi!”

The dog fell silent and sat, his head cocked to one side, evidently proud of a job well done, but still ready to charge, if his master changed his mind. Lioness kept her eyes on the animal, while her other senses focused on the owner of the commanding gravelly voice. 

“Çfarë doni ju të tre këtu?” he continued, wary but not threatening.

“Na falni, zotëri. Mirëmbrëma. Vijmë në paqe.” Tiger spoke before either of the women could react. Osprey’s surprise was so strong, Lioness couldn’t help but be amused. There definitely was more to their muscled sec chief than met the eye.

The Albanian dialogue (a bit halting from the agent’s side after the convincing start) continued for a couple minutes. The local stepped aside and motioned them through the door into his abode at one point, to which Tiger shook his head. He pulled out a small stack of Euro notes from his pocket, and offered it to the man, who took it and disappeared inside. When he reappeared a couple minutes later, his hands were full of winter clothing. There was a conspiratorial wink between the two men, as Tiger took the whole pile. He promptly tossed a parka to each of the women, pulling the remaining, thinner, jacket on himself. Something silver glinted on the way into his pocket in a smooth move. 

Lioness snuggled into the well worn fur lining, and gratefully accepted an obviously hand knitted hat and scarf. She buried her hands deep into the pockets to try and melt them out of freeze-induced numbness. Osprey acted way more casually, keeping her hands free and her coat half unbuttoned.

Tiger shook the Albanian’s hand, thanked him profusely, and bade him good night. Reksi the dog was ordered back to his dog house around the corner, the door of the cottage closed and the agents were left alone in the dark again.

“He says he didn’t see anyone. There is no reason for anyone to come here, according to him. But the locals have some interesting ideas” he coughed around the word ‘superstitions’, “about a place a couple clicks north of here. Apparently it used to be the spot of choice for the pagan crowd, until the war and the rebels left some very non-magical presents around there.”

Lioness scrunched up her nose. There was an edge in Tiger’s voice. Danger - another danger - was lurking.

“Would they drag a prisoner several kilometers on foot?” she asked, but Osprey already had the answer.

“No, they wouldn’t. There is another portal. Quiet, hard to detect, obviously relatively short. Might even have been natural at one point.”

“Can you give us a look through first?” Tiger asked, obviously not willing to go through blind this time.

“It’s dark,” Osprey protested.

“The portal glows, and if that’s not enough…” Tiger pulled night vision goggles out of his pocket. “And yes, I’ll let you have a turn with them.”

He added with the air of tried patience. He knew her well enough to tell her eagerness even without empathy.

Lioness stood by as Osprey did whatever checks she deemed necessary and activated the portal. The white light was not bright, and hindered vision from their side more than helped. Emotions would not come through a visual portal, but to her surprise Lioness could feel magic. Not portal magic, just… magic. Judging by Osprey’s surprise, she could feel it too.

“Interesting,” Tiger interrupted her thoughts, looking through his IR set. “There are several heat signatures. One could be a hot spring. The others… are most probably mines. There’s also a very clear blast zone to one side.” 

Osprey extended her palm for the goggles.

“A blast zone?” Lioness asked Tiger as he handed them over. “You mean someone tripped a mine there? But… it must have been hours since they went through, how come you can still tell?”

The soldier shrugged. “Normally it would not be likely, but with magic in the mix, it’s possible.”

Osprey dropped the portal and pushed the goggles up her forehead, not returning them.

“Looked quiet enough to me,” she announced. “And I think I could see the mouth of the portal they left through. It looked almost sloppy compared to the rest, so it’s probably a trap.”

“The superstitions about magic in that place were also right,” Lioness added. “We need to be very careful.”

Tiger frowned. He wouldn’t put it past their enemies to lure them in to blow themselves up.

But they had to have a safe place to step out of their portal on. Especially dragging a captive. One safe spot.

He turned to Osprey, hating what he was about to suggest.

“Maybe we should go ‘downwards’ this time. Can you open your portal directly over the spot where this one ends?”

Osprey focused deeply, her forehead creased with worry. Given the small distance and the strength of connection between the two places, the was almost certain she can use the mouth of the ‘natural’ portal as an anchor point. But.

“I can. But we would land literally on top of each other.”

“Better than landing on a mine,” Tiger growled, ever the optimist. “I’ll go through first. I’ll catch you. Besides, kittens always land on their feet.” He challenged.

Lioness could feel Osprey’s irritation flaring. The portalist shook her head. All of this was a bad idea. Unfortunately, she had no better ones. So, after a moment, she opened a portal on the ground.

“One fall coming right down. It should be about seven feet in the air, so… don’t roll, Tiger.”

The soldier’s mouth jerked into a smirk and back, he swiped the goggles from her head and put them on as he looked at the other woman.

Lioness could feel the magic coming through stronger now. 

Curious. 

There were no emotions though, so she lifted her thumbs and Tiger lowered himself into the opening.

It took a moment for him to call out an all clear, and Lioness followed. He caught her without issue and stood her next to him at the edge of a small clearing in the middle of a coniferous forest on a mountain side. She noticed a good sized branch stuck into the soil nearby that he probably used as a crude mine sweeper. And then her attention turned to a geyser about twenty meters further around the perimeter of the glade by a sheer stone wall. There was a spring of water pouring into a small pond. But where the water went down, magic sprung up. She could feel her magical reserves being replenished to overflowing. Lioness was mesmerized and drawn toward it like a moth to a flame. She almost took a step before Tiger’s hand caught her arm.

“Careful.”

Only now the woman noticed the overhead portal was gone and Osprey was standing on the other side of Tiger, her eyes fixed on the magic source in identical trance she felt a moment ago. She gave her friend an emotional tug to break her out of the reverie.

“Right. Which way, Tiger?”