Nemaya looked up quickly at the sound of the voice, so caught up in the banter with Rushan that neither had noticed the intrusion. With all said and done the individual did not seem hostile. Although it would not be the first time she’d been caught unawares. Tilting her head to one side studied the male. It was one of the beast-folk and looking at the markings it resembled some kind of cat-like animal.

Biology was not quite her strong suit.

Her talents lay elsewhere and she could not help reminisce about when Rushan had tried to teach her magic. That had been the beginning of a long friendship – granted he’d been younger then. Not that she had been a good pupil and could in fact she could remember his grousing even now – lime it was yesterday, at how bad she had been.

In fact he’d flat out said that she had zero talent for any type of magery, even cantrips were beyond her. She’d been damn good at hitting things, really, really hard. That was [i]her[/i] talent. Beating the ever-living out of people that displeased her, and there had been quite a few of those.

Not that she wantonly killed – only those truly deserving, and [i]there had been far too many of those[/i] she thought ashamedly. As she stared back at the beast man, it was clear that Rushan was somewhat rapt for some reason. He was not a saint by any stretch of the imagination – [i]neither was she[/i], and it was clearly this that he missed the surge of telluric energy pulling her in. Such was the power she heard his screams first, before being covered in gore and viscera. Her head snapped around only to see his lifeless eyes – it was then she took in the surroundings.

It was some kind of green tunnel, the dimensions were truly cyclopean. There was neither end nor origin, neither front nor behind. Almost as if some giant green worm had surfaced and swallowed her whole. At a guess even a thousand of her hand-to-hand would not even reach the other side. Bathed in the glow, was unable to impede her movement, in any way. [i]It felt fast[/i]. But without any means of comparison or of measuring it, she had no way of knowing.

[i]Almost feels better that way[/i].

It almost felt like the explorer in her was trying to take charge again. [i]She hated when that happened![/i] Not that there was anything she could do about it. The tunnel wound left, and then right like an undulating snake and could not help but shiver at the analogy. Her internal clock easily guessed that about ten minutes had passed and still her journey continued – Rushan had drifted too far away and was long dead – [i]poor bastard! Whatever had killed him would pay dearly![/i]

The tunnel narrowed surreptitiously and before she could even act deposited her in a hallway that for all intents reminded her of a castle’s. Rubbing her sore derriere she stood adroitly not even bothering to wipe off the remains of Rushan - her training kicking into overdrive. It was then there was time to survey the surroundings. The brickwork tunnel carried on both front and behind as far as the eye could see, and was fairly sure that it went a good deal beyond even that. The ceiling was over twenty feet in height from which hung circular objects with some kind of luminescent item inside.

Both sides of the walls had little crevices within which were candles – unable to resist watching noticed rather quickly that none of them seemed to burn down. Clearly designed to burn forever, in such situations it was hard to work out if it was magic, some kind of mystech or really advanced technology. On both sides about every twenty or so feet was a glowing portal leading to somewhere else. In the distance there was even one on the ceiling and the floor.

[i]By the Lords of Order this was bizarre![/i]

Having travelled to other worlds before and experiencing the multiverse had been quite a thrill, once. Once the feeling of never getting home had quickly bought an edge of fear, and the chance that she would be stranded another element of loneliness and despair. Luckily, and somehow she’d run into Rushan and before he’d even offered to take her home had proceeded to admonish her like some two year old.

[i]Just where in the hell was she?[/i]