The horse-drawn carriage trotted along a dirt path as Telio tinkered with his discoveries in the back. He had just found a new river -- or perhaps it was a new part of an old river, he hadn't mapped that out yet -- that held a fine bounty of sapphires beneath the surface. Imagine that, a vein of Sapphires right under their feet, and they wouldn't have even noticed it had the river not carved it's way through the earth. He wondered how many other untapped veins were sleeping beneath Eldan, his kingdom. Well, perhaps they would never know; they couldn't very well tear up the countryside on the off chance that something [i]might[/i] be in the dirt. At least with these gems he could convince his father, the king, that this trip had been worth his time.

Telio had an ambivalent relationship with his father. The king was a good ruler in his own right and Telio was an accomplished young man that any other father would have been proud of, but the two simply didn't see eye to eye. They didn't hate each other, but they felt a sort of mutual pity. Telio felt it was a shame that his father held dominion over all of this land, yet he had never even seen most of it; his father felt it was a shame that he wasted his talents gallivanting around the country side. After all, a man his age should be establishing himself in the court, and settling down with his fiance. But, Telio had little interest in fancy attire and forced courtesy. What interested him now were those tiny blue gems. 

He rolled a sapphire around in his hand, watching as the light disappeared in its dark blue crystalline form. Then, something caught his eye. Could it it just flash? He couldn't tell in this light. "Stop the carriage!" he yelled, and then hopped out onto the road before it even came to a complete stop. It was flashing! It was little more than a dim flicker, but it definitely wasn't a mere trick of the light.

"Is something wrong my lord?" The driver asked, but when he saw that the prince was just playing with their treasure again, he simply let out a sigh and waited for him to finish. Honestly, what was so special about those shiny rocks?

Telio set the sapphire down on the ground, tilting it this way and that, but got nothing more than a dull flicker. "Maybe if I use another one..." He leaped back into the carriage and sprawled the sapphires out on the floor, squinting, looking for any other gem that showed a similar spark of life. Nothing...nothing... "There!" he said, grabbing what had appeared to be the darkest of all he gems. When he set it down beside the other gem, the flickering became more intense. It was frustratingly exhilarating; he felt like he was on the brink of an entirely new field of geology. The gemstones suddenly flared with light and sparks began to crackle around them. Or magic apparently.

Something, he wasn't sure what, was causing the Sapphires to react. Then, after the brightest flash of all, a gaping vortex opened up before him. Was this a pit to hell? No, not with a radiant light like that. In fact, it didn't appear to be dangerous at all... at least no more dangerous than any other door was. He tentatively reached into the vortex with his arm, and pulled it back to inspect it. No harm. Then, a wide grin crossed Telio's face. "Tell my father it may be some time to return," he said to the driver, and then stepped through the portal. 

He was a bit disorientated upon arrival. The place he landed was similar to where he was, but he didn't recognize any of it. He scanned the horizon for any landmark or point of reference that he could discern his position from, but he recognized absolutely nothing. Just how far had that portal taken him. Well, perhaps he could ask that woman that was gawking at him. "I apologize if I've disturbed you," he said, unable to tell if that look on her face was one of confusion or irritation; both would be reasonable given the circumstances. "My name is prince Telio of Eldan." He gave a small bow out of the small bit of courtesy his father had managed to instill in him. "I seem to have gotten lost. Would you mind telling me where I have landed?"