the search, 1

I’ve got a nasty feeling about this trip. The dimensional portal that used to lead to LA (if we use the right incantations, and so on,) misrouted while Marty was bringing the Diran back to Sunnydale.

Those two helped pull the Little Wolf and me out of bad trouble earlier and I don’t particularly want lose them. It’d be a helluva price to pay for being too busy to do my own shopping! They've been gone for a long time. It doesn’t look good. Once the portals start refocusing they can go on doing it for days, or weeks. Marty knew that. He also knew knows that travelers can often get back through after about three weeks – but they haven’t done that.

I hoped that I’d stabilized the Gate I’d used, but it might have skipped dimensions a few times earlier. If it had there wasn’t much chance of getting them back, unless they found their own way home. The odds on that would be about a million to one against. They might not even have a Gate to use.

They could also have been attacked as they came through this one. I’d had an encounter with a local right away. The little creature had two minds in one body. It wasn't easy to use the mojo on him and there was no way that I’d trust him to guide me. He couldn’t even trust himself.

(I ain’t sure what Nixi’s reaction would be to a naked little fellow bopping about asking if she’d seen his “Precious” but it'd probably be something to remember! He hadn’t remembered her at all. I could have picked it up if he had. Honesty’s one of my shticks. I try to be honest with myself, too, though nobody ever quite manages that. This was evidence that the Portal hadn’t sent the people I was looking for to this dimension at all.

On the other hand, I’d driven an off-roader through and smashed down a dead tree when it skidded. That’s quite an entrance, a real showstopper! Marty wouldn’t have been trying to pull in the crowds when he went through if he did and I've seen Nixi being stealthy. She doesn’t use magic but it’s so hard to notice her that she could be upstaged by a butterfly.)

I was talking it through on the recorder as I checked out the transport. I could probably drive the van back but I doubted if it would go far at this end. The upward trail might support it, for a little way, at least until the rocks ruined a tire. I suspected that the path down would get boggier. The van might even sink too far to be driven. That's not good. I can carry things or I can smoke around and check things out. Not both. Without that machine I need backup that I don’t have.

I checked the magic level here. It’s much higher than I’m used to. That’s not always good. Some of my mojo could be over-powerful, but I’d had trouble getting the two-minded creature to sing. Smoking around felt somehow … sticky, but I could do it.

The Portal site gave me a good view of the place and, when I thought about it, I knew where they’d have gone. I’ve known Marty for decades. Anyone would have turned away from the swamp. It stank. I threw a rock onto the unaturally green grass that stretched toward the water. It landed with the suggestion of a splash and I suspected that a living weight would have torn through the slimy stuff to show the bog.

The upward trail was too steep to climb in comfort, and humans usually build in the valleys, near water. The path down was also the easiest route, and that's where they'd have gone. It was the best route, but a thick forest came too close to the trail, in places. I watched that as I headed downhill. There were no mind-fires larger than animal, but as I looked away I thought I saw something big move between the trees. I kept as clear of the woods as I could while I moved on, searching.

I can bring whole cities to ruin. It should be a comfort but that forest gives me the creeps.