Vortex : The Dragon Lands

Chapter 2 The Other Earth

Back at the camp Jake broke the silent prayer session, "We're going to need a search party to look for a water source or a river any volunteers? A few people raised their hands including Kara who just got back, she knew her people would need protection. Ok good a party of five should do, and another party to go in the opposite direction so we can cover more ground, be back by sunset if you found anything. Jake still couldn't believe the world came crashing down and they landed in a spot that seemed untouched by humans, that must've been a one in a million chance of happening. Everyone else set up camp and started a fire. They all felt so lucky to escape the chaos back home but now it was time for them to survive. It took a few hours but they managed to make enough tents for everyone. It looked like almost a hundred students made it in their group. There was one duffel bag left full of vodka and whiskey, Tobious got a little too excited, "WOW looks like the professor really did think of everything."

Everyone around him laughed and he decided to have a few drinks with friends, Sam saw him chug the liquor like he was at one of his brothers frat parties, "what a waste," he grabbed the bottle from Tobi's hands "what are you doing? We're gonna need this in case someone gets hurt and we need to sterilize something!"

Tobi became agitated, "Sam, If the professor thought of the same he would've given us pure ethanol, lighten up."

Jake grabbed the bag and the bottle to put inside the secure tent with the rest of the supplies, "I'll be in charge of the supplies and make sure everything is rationed accordingly, until we decide on rotating guards we need to play this smart guys."

Hunter was on the tree tops watching the strange creatures below him argue, with his one good eye. The other had a large scar after many battles with Malefore he was bound to have a few. Astonished at their appearance all wearing practically the same attire with tight pants, buttoned white shirts and red ties he analyzed them further having trouble measuring their intelligence as they began fighting over a mysterious liquid.

"OK, Wait! Now you want to be in charge? I thought you could give two shits since you always ditched class." Tobious was becoming annoyed with Jakes leadership believing he couldn't just control everything everyone did, "You can't just; literally call the shots if you barely cared to show up to lectures in the first place". Violet came in and stood up for her friend Jake, "Hey! Now's not the time to blame or fight guys, we have to stick together if we want to get through this, who the hell knows what part of the world we're in, we need to stay vigilant and look out for each other, got it!" Now, settle down shake hands and swallow your pride before I shove my shoe up both your asses."

Tobious was still angry but did what was best for the group, she was right they couldn't be seen fighting amongst themselves now they were probably the only humans left. Violet and Jake managed the camp while the others were out looking for clean water...

Sam, Kara and some other members walked for several miles before coming to a small waterfall. Extremely lucky they landed in a forest rather than a desert; parched and dehydrated they started drinking like it was liquid gold.

"Don't drink too much guys, we're gonna have to bring heavy loads to the camp and bring others to this spot, pace yourselves." Kara needed to take control, she was assertive and never bs'd coming from a large military family. When both her parents passed in service of their country the government did what was right by sending her to St. Francis where she was a born leader studying politics like her parents following in their footsteps.

"Alright guys I'm going to take a leak behind those bushes, I'll be right back." Cypress said. As Kara began drinking the sweet blissful water, Spyro and Cynder charged out of the woods. "Gah!" Everyone was startled and and froze completely.

Sam spit the water from his mouth in surprise "Woah, Hey, what the hell are you guys!?" Spyro gave them a look and couldn't understand what language the creatures were speaking. Cynder for the first time in her life was shocked to encounter a new species in their realm, "They look like hairless ape's except they have fur on their heads. I've never seen anything like them... Could they be the ones who caused the explosion for Malefor?"

"No way they did it, They don't look corrupted enough, I doubt they had anything to do with it." Spyro answered.

Spyro and Cynder contested back and forth as Dragons and Felines move in from behind them getting closer to pounce, they draw their bows and arrows preparing for the worst. Spyro took a few steps forward and the humans took more steps back, "woah, ok that water is definitely drugged and causing me to hallucinate cause I'm seeing cheetahs on two legs and talking dragons."

Kara had enough of Sam's crap and told him back, "Sam, don't make any sudden movements, they have weapons."

"Well it's either that or the portal really messed up. Speaking of which they probably think we breathe water now, they might think we're their mortal enemies!" Sam trembled. Kara's tone went slow and low "Oh my god Sam please shut the hell up..."

Spyro couldn't understand the creatures but they seemed to have intelligent linguistic conversation between each other. "Maybe they're civilized." Spyro and Sam said in their own tongues.

Sam started to shake in his skinny jeans. Suddenly Kara remembered she had her translator from working with the professor. They worked on several devices to improve human communication and his invention could translate all languages in the blink of sound; she put the transmitter behind her ear next to her neck and hoped it would work. "Can you understand me?" Kara said.

The dragons were stunned, the cheetahs became alarmed and put their bows down, "you can speak our language?" Cynder spoke out to the hairless ape, hearing the terror in her voice, "Of course honey, Are you ok, where did you all come from? Kara began to explain, "We're humans, we went through a vortex our professor made and we needed to escape, now we've no idea where we...".

Before she could further explain, Hunter and his archers snuck up from behind and used his sleeping darts knocking them unconscious. Kara was the last one awake and pulled the dart from her neck , "Oh...Oh no." she turned towards Cypress hiding in the bushes and yelled as she fell, "Cypress, duffel bag Northwest to camp... Ammunition." were her final words before passing out.

Spyro and Cynder are left in utter shock, "What did you do?! Hunter they seemed harmless!" Hunter stood 6 feet tall along with his cheetah friends and grabbed their bodies, the elder's will be in charge of judging them for the damage they caused to our forest." They made their way towards the city preparing for their judgment. Cynder turned to Spyro pondering if it was the right decision to kidnap them, " Did they really do this?" Spyro turned his head and felt as powerless as he felt speechless. "I... I don't know... If they did then they'll have to fight in the arena."

Cypress witnessed everything and with adrenaline pumping through his veins ran all the way back to camp. "Holy Crap!, this is not happening, this is not happening! We're not on earth anymore, Professor what have you done!?"