The three girls looked through the old pieces of history of the antique store. It was being closed due to the fact of faulty health regulations; and a good thing too. Boxes were scattered around the floor filled with ancient books and records. Newspapers that were tied in bundles and rickety technologies that were nowhere near modern littered the dusty floor.
Monica, a girl whose auburn-brunette hair was tied back in a ponytail, was looking through several newspapers from the 80's. She wore a striped t-shirt and skinny jeans.
Brittany was looking through a box of old chains and pieces of fob watches that no longer had a use. Her shoulder length brunette hair kept falling into her face as she looked down into the box. She wore a red button down plaid shirt and skinny jeans as well as her signature converse and Buddy Holly square-glasses. She blew her hair out of her face but to no avail.
Brigid, Monica and Brittany's other friend who was searching through a metal bookcase of large hardcover books, looked up to how ridiculous Brittany was acting. "Brittany, why don't you just tie your hair back?"
"Because, I don't wish to be a conformist." she said to the two giving them a kidding look. Brittany was naturally random at times so the other two didn't take anything she said to heart. "Plus I don't like wearing my hair back."
Monica shrugged, "Well have either of you found anything worth buying yet?" she asked. Brittany shook her head.
"I found something." said Brigid. Brittany got up and walked to Brigid to see what she found.
"What?" Brigid hesitated. It looked like she was pulling a book out from a shadowed corner but really it was a collection of ancient cobwebs.
"Spider webs!" she held out her hand toward Brittany's face that had jumped back into the opposite bookshelf.
"Aah! Spiders! Spiders!" she shouted. Suddenly a semi-large leather back book fell from a top shelf and wacked Brittany in the head causing her to fall in a box of crocheted pillows. Brigid and Monica laughed. Brigid picked up the book that hit Brittany. "Look what I found."
Monica raised an eyebrow. "That looks like Old English."
"But the writing is hard to understand." Brigid said. Brittany dizzily got out of the box with the help of Monica.
"Maybe we should ask Mr. Hansen." suggested Monica. Mr. Hansen was the owner of the shop that was being shut down. He had lived in that house his whole life, but because of the clutter, and his family's concerns, he would be moving into a retirement home.
So they went to the man who had to give up his shop. "Well girls," the older man began; he had almost fluffy gray hair that somehow defied gravity, almost like Einstein's. He wore an old tweed jacket and older style glasses. "If you really want to read that old rubbish, I suppose I could sell you a translator card with It." his eyes swept across the room for the cards and found them in a rusty filing cabinet. His arthritis stricken hands shook as he searched through the crispy papers, and pulled one handing it to Monica. "Is that it?"
Monica read over the paper and handed it back, "That's Greek Mr. Hansen. We need Old English."
"Oh, Old English." he stroked his beard. "Ah, right, right." his shaky hand went back in to the cabinet and took out the right one and handed it to Monica. "How bout' that one."
"Ahem: 'Se catt hæpte ofer se boga.' the cat jumped over the rainbow. Yep, this is the right translator Card." they paid and said goodbye to the unfortunate elder, and went to their usual hang out/ study spot.
They knew of an open field behind a far back cluster of trees a few miles behind their college. They found it one day when they were hiking and Monica had discovered a trail that led to a prairie type setting with tall branchy trees of every fiery hue. They had even managed to tie a large tire swing on one of the sturdy branches.
Brigid was on the swing, Brittany was trying to get a reception from an old 1960's radio she purchased, and Monica was using the translator card on a separate sheet of paper with the strange language. The cover read "Austungry." they thought nothing of it but a poorly written title that rather relating to English, symbolized the combination of Austria and Hungary .
"This page says according to the translator, 'Afen Bealucræft can be used to travel to other universes and you can travel in them.'"
"Like Parallel Universes?" asked Brigid who was wearing a simple red t-shirt and cargo pants with sneakers.
"Yeah, this book talks a lot about portals and black magic."
"Really?" said Brittany putting on her large square glasses and picking up the modern English work Monica was deciphering.
Her eyes skimmed the page as Brigid looked over her shoulder. "I'll say, this seems to be nowhere near the English translation."
"Yeah, look at this- æt infær sum afen eardgeard áscieppan sum swíþ fæstnung dryhtsibb eardgeard; (to enter a different world creates a stronger bond between worlds) what a ridicul-" suddenly the wind picked up, and it abruptly made the trees sway. The leather backed book's ancient pages flapped in its binding.
"What the fuck is going on?" Monica shouted to the others who had trouble hearing her over the wind's din.
"It's Brittany's fault!" Brigid shouted in a mocking tone. Of course she was only joking but they still didn't know what was going on. Monica shook her head as they looked around. The sky grew gray in less than a minute and the bright sun of autumn quickly disappeared.
Brittany looked up and pointed to the sky. "Look!" Almost as if a dome were collapsing, millions of little tiles began to rip apart the fabric of reality around them. Something stranger than that was that the world was reforming into an animated tone. The three juniors looked around themselves as their body features, too, were becoming more defined if being dropped into a Japanese anime or manga. Something began to make them each feel disoriented as the process reached their eyes.
Then the tall wheat field at their feet ebbed away and they dropped into a strange pit, causing them to lose immediate consciousness and fall into the darkness of the magical doorway that would lead to their adventure.
Meanwhile in a neighboring parallel universe, a certain Englishman was chanting the exact same spell at the exact same time. " æt infær sum afen eardgeard áscieppan sum swíþ fæstnung dryhtsibb eardgeard!" he waved his hands over the dim candle light and runes in a meditative state.
Sweat beaded off his distinctive eyebrows as he spoke the last verse correctly. Smoke collected from the corners and the floor boards of the dark room, forming into shapeless levitating mounds.; but as Arthur looked closer, he noticed limbs and heads forming, and as soon as the ominous smoke dissipated, it brought forth three unfamiliar looking and unconscious females that dropped to the floor at a harsh speed.